Receiving two farewell telegrams from his subordinates in succession was undoubtedly a fatal blow to Itagaki as the commander of the Shanxi Dispatch Army. In the face of www.biquge.info Eighth Route Army, which began to encircle it, Itagaki finally made the decision to disperse and break through.

Even in Itagaki's view, separating the already small number of troops would give the Eighth Route Army more opportunities. However, he also understood that the 116th Division finally made the decision to disperse and break through the encirclement, hoping that some troops would escape smoothly.

That's right! In Itagaki's view, at the moment they are not breaking through but fleeing. If they continue to break through in groups, they won't be able to escape at all. On the contrary, if you disperse and break out, there may always be some people who can escape.

As long as the 116th Division and his Itagaki Division can successfully escape to Hebei, then there is still hope for the two divisions to be rebuilt. If both divisions are completely annihilated, perhaps their divisions will also be removed from the War Department!

In order to avoid the encirclement and interception of the Eighth Route Army, Itagaki also abandoned some heavy weapons when he ordered the troops to break through. The troops who broke through gave up their cars except for food and ammunition.

Even in order to divert the attention of the Eighth Route Army, Itagaki used an infantry brigade as an inducement to drive a car loaded with many sick numbers all the way to the direction of Hebei, while the rest of the troops marched separately one after another.

When the breakout order was deployed, Itagaki also said seriously: "Gentlemen, we have lost this time. Next, we can only do everything possible to break through and hope that we can all reach the territory of Hebei alive.

In this breakout battle, I don't give specific orders, and it's up to you to decide how to fight and how to go. But I have only one request for you, that is, when you break through the siege, you can't lose the honor of our Imperial Japanese Army! ”

'Defend to the death! ’

All the commanders who participated in the meeting knew that Itagaki, the commander of the division, would also follow the infantry brigade that acted as a lure. In Itagaki's view, his temptation might have caused the Eighth Route Army to divert more attention to him.

In this way, those small units that gradually break away from the larger army may have more opportunities to break out. Even at the meeting, Itagaki said that if there was no hope of breaking through, he could choose to go into the mountains to fight guerrillas.

By fighting to feed the war, they can be bandits in Shanxi, and they can also break through when the time is right. Of course, there is also a way, that is, when there is a chance to fight, they will hold the local people hostage as meat shields.

Even if Itagaki knew this way of fighting, it would completely anger the Eighth Route Army that received Shanxi one after another. But in Itagaki's opinion, now that they can't even save their lives, how can they care about civilians or not!

With the troops brought out of Jinzhong City by Itagaki and turned to the relatively remote surrounding mountains to break through. In the face of Itagaki's way of secretly reducing troops, the saber special combat team that followed naturally saw it clearly.

Receiving the telegram from the Saber Special Operations Team, He Zhengdao's expression was also a little cold: "Itagaki is really not an ordinary cunning old devil, using himself as a temptation, but constantly increasing and reducing personnel in an attempt to confuse our attention.

However, Itagaki's move is indeed a bit poisonous, and we will really fall into a passive situation if we are not careful. The entry of these thousands of outlaws into our base areas will really cause a lot of damage, especially in our guerrilla areas.

On my orders, the reconnaissance brigade was stationed in battalion and company units to the guerrilla units in the surrounding area. The guerrilla units were ordered to intensify their vigilance in the villages. Checkpoints were mostly set up at the entrance of the village to guard against sneak attacks by small Japanese troops.

At the same time, the 1st Cavalry Division was ordered to station in the liaison points of the guerrillas with the cavalry battalions as units. Once the guerrillas are found to be giving warnings, they must rush to reinforcements as quickly as possible to completely annihilate these little devil troops who have fled to the base area.

The Changzhi Independent Brigade went to Songta to set up a blocking position, and the 1st Infantry Division accelerated its speed to pursue the fleeing Japanese army. When the battle comes to this point, you can't let the old devil Itagaki slip away no matter what.

There was also an order that needed to be communicated to the guerrillas and militia in all localities, and strangers who entered the village during this period were to be strictly interrogated. Try to relocate people from small villages to some large villages for a short period of time.

If there are no large villages nearby, the people will be transferred to the guerrilla garrison for temporary residence, and the people will be allowed to return after the battle. Guerrilla units and reconnaissance detachments in various localities must do a good job in intelligence reconnaissance and follow-up work. ”

Listening to the series of orders spoken by He Zhengdao, Chief of Staff Ye Jianying thought for a while and said, "Commander, are you worried that the little devil will jump over the wall in a hurry and take our villagers as hostages when the time comes?" ”

It's not a worry, it's something that is likely to happen. In the past, little devils went to the countryside to sweep, and this kind of thing was not less. Now that they are cornered, it is very likely that Bengali will vent their anger on the people.

Itagaki is an old devil, he knows very well that we also have weaknesses. In the past, most of our battles were fought around the city. Now that these devils are all scattered and break through, it means that they have lost their restraint.

If you really let these little devils enter the village, you don't need to imagine that the people of those villages will become the objects of the little devils' anger. To this end, we have a lot of troops to strengthen the guerrilla and militia units in the surrounding areas.

From now on, the whole of Shanxi will be our base area, and it is necessary for us to let the people know that our Eighth Route Army is the army that is the master of their own affairs. If something unfortunate happens, we can't escape the blame! ’

In He Zhengdao's view, the little devils who often implement the 'three-light policy' in Huaxia are themselves a group of people who are mentally abnormal. At the moment, they all know that they are at the end of the road, and it is quite possible that they will do something even crazier.

In order to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening, He Zhengdao could only disperse the most elite reconnaissance brigades and distribute them to various guerrilla areas. And the cavalry division, which marched faster, was undoubtedly the best mobile force in He Zhengdao's hands at present.

As for the Itagaki Brigade that acted as a deterrent, why not let He Zhengdao let him go a little longer. According to the monitoring of the Saber Special Combat Team, this brigade does not have much combat effectiveness at all, and it is really easy to clean it up.

At this moment, the Eighth Route Army, which took Changzhi and Yangquan, has basically controlled all the transportation arteries leading to Hebei. If the little devil wants to escape into the area controlled by the Japanese army in North China, he can only choose to take mountain roads or stealth in disguise.

Otherwise, the garrison troops stationed on the main communication routes, as well as the militia teams and guerrilla units that have been formed one after another in various places, will make these little devils who are scattered with the main force drink a pot!

As He Zhengdao adjusted the combat deployment, Itagaki acted as a lure to command thousands of Japanese troops to keep up with thousands of wounded soldiers, and found that his team did not seem to have received too many attacks. This situation surprised Itagaki very much.

In a temporary rest mountain, Itagaki also said unexpectedly: "Is there any situation with our scattered troops?" It's been more than a day, how did we go so smoothly? ”

Before, they wanted to go to Shouyang, but the Eighth Route Army's blockades one after another, making Itagaki miserable. This time, I hoped to see the Eighth Route Army come to block it, but I found that they were walking very smoothly, and there were even few cold guns and cold guns.

But the more this happened, the more Itagaki felt empty. even faintly felt that around his troops, he was afraid that there were a lot of eyes hiding from them. It's just that these tiger eyes haven't appeared for the time being.

In the face of Itagaki's inquiry, the chief of staff of the division said a little helplessly: "Division commander, the troops we scattered out have not sent back much news now. These troops are currently marching, and they all choose some relatively remote places to walk.

On the whole, they saw quite a few deserted villages on the way to the secret march. Some of the reconnaissance teams sent out also didn't bring back much useful information. The people around here seem to have taken refuge in! ”

'Yaga! It seems that we did not hide the matter of secretly dividing our troops from the Eighth Route Army. If nothing else, there are reconnaissance units of the Eighth Route Army lurking and tracking near us. Our every move cannot be concealed from the Eighth Route Army.

Next, we march in the evening, and you draw a squadron of elite from the infantry brigade. Let them lurk on our march and see if they can catch those scouts of the Eighth Route Army, and be sure to defeat them.

Otherwise, we don't have much hope of breaking through. By the way, I think the weather should improve tomorrow, so you can send a telegram to the front army later, hoping that they will provide air support.

If feasible, send more fighter jets to provide air support to our troops. In addition, it was suggested that the front army could launch an air attack on Taiyuan City. If possible, completely raze Taiyuan City to the ground! ’

Listening to such murderous words, the chief of staff of the division also knew that the intention of Itagaki was to provoke the Eighth Route Army. But the question is, whether the front military will approve Itagaki at this moment is really worth scrutinizing.

With the 116th Division fully taking over Yangquan, the Eighth Route Army, which originally made the Japanese army in Hebei nervous, also seemed to have deliberately shrunk the defensive line. This contraction made the garrisons of all cities in Hebei breathe a sigh of relief.

If at this time, the North China Front Army made another bombing that stimulated the Eighth Route Army, God knows what kind of retaliation the Eighth Route Army would launch. Most importantly, the North China Front is now at a critical juncture of changing its commanders.

The defeat in the Shanxi battle completely lost the hope of staying in office. Although the new commander has not yet been announced, Tada Jun has been strictly ordered by the military department to return to China to take over the review.

Tada Jun, who has been in office for less than a year, has become the third commander of the front army to be ordered in danger but finally investigated and examined, after Terauchi Shouichi and Sugiyama Moto. Such a speed of change also caused confusion in the change of command of the North China Front.

At this time, it is really worth thinking about whether the North China Front, which is bent on seeking stability, will risk the possibility of provoking the wrath of the Eighth Route Army to produce retaliatory air raids for the sake of these remaining troops in Shanxi.

Perhaps this idea is a bit embarrassing, but judging from the current situation, the North China Front really hopes to maintain a state of stable confrontation with the Eighth Route Army. If you really want to burn the flames of war into Hebei, that's the real big thing! (To be continued.) )