January 27, the twenty-seventh day of the lunar calendar.

Just when Ma Zheng's department was preparing for the New Year, the intelligence department once again reported an urgent military situation. It is said that the Japanese army in Fengzhen City opened again, and the whole army went north, and stationed in Hongshaba in the afternoon.

At the same time, there are a large number of military trains entering and leaving the Hongshaba Railway Station today, because the Japanese army blocked the vicinity of the railway station, intelligence personnel cannot get close, so it is not known what exactly is loaded on the military column.

However, the intelligence officers waited for more than two hours north of Hongshaba and did not see the train heading north, indicating that the terminal of the military train was Hongshaba, so they judged that the train should be loaded with munitions and materials.

Through the analysis of intelligence, Xu Yinglongjue's Japanese army is likely to use Hongshaba as a logistics base for this operation, after all, Hongshaba is only less than 50 kilometers away from Yama Mountain, and it only takes three and a half hours for Japanese cars to make a round trip. Moreover, there is a railway connection between Hongshaba and Datong, which is very convenient for reinforcements and materials.

Moreover, Ma Zheng judged that the Japanese attack was likely to start in this day or two, and immediately issued an order in accordance with the battle plan. It was still the same as last time, only a small part of the troops were left on the mountain to defend the mountain, and the rest of the troops all jumped out of the line and waited for the opportunity to fight.

This time, there were three squadrons of troops left behind in Hades, and Huang Sicheng commanded the first brigade to serve as the first brigade. In addition to defending the mountain, their task was to convince the Japanese army that the main force of the anti-Japanese guerrilla detachment in Chanan was still on Yama Mountain.

The other troops were immediately dispatched to destroy all the roads leading to Hades, and at the same time to build simple fortifications on the roads that the Japanese army had to pass, relying on the favorable terrain to block the enemy's attack. This task was handed over to the second brigade to complete, and Wang Hansen was in command.

Ma Zheng himself led the rest of the troops to make a detour near Hongshaba, waiting for an opportunity to seize this logistics base of the Japanese army, cutting off the little devil's food and grass.

Hongshaba Town, the temporary headquarters of the 1st Brigade of the Japanese Army.

All the first-class officers of the 1st Brigade and the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade have arrived, and they are waiting for the most important person, the brigade commander, Major General Hoji Sakai.

After a "stampede" of footsteps, the guards were heard shouting: "Your Excellency the brigade commander has arrived!" ”

All the officers immediately stood up and greeted Lord Sakai in a standard military posture.

Sakai Hoji walked in with a serious face, and then said in a deep voice, "Gentlemen, please take a seat!" ”

After everyone sat down, Sakai Hoji said in a deep voice: "The county seat of Toyojin was breached twice, and the Takeda Brigade was completely annihilated, which is an unprecedented defeat for all the imperial troops who entered China, and this is not only a shame for our first brigade, but also a shame for the Imperial Japanese Army. Your Excellency the Commander ordered us to completely annihilate that hateful branch of the Eight Roads of China, and wash away the shame of the Imperial Army with the heads and blood of the enemy, do you understand? ”

"Hay!" All the officers shouted at the same time.

"Yo Xi, now make tactical arrangements, Miyamoto-kun, inform you of the enemy's situation!" Sakai Hoji said in a deep voice.

"Hai," said a Nakasa officer sitting at the head of Sakai's pickaxe, in a deep voice.

"According to the intelligence, the Eighth Road of the Zhinatu on the Hades Mountain is the first part of the 120th Division Teaching Regiment, which was heavily damaged by our army two months ago and was almost completely wiped out. Later, the department was strengthened by encircling and suppressing nearby bandits, and in just two months, it grew to at least 3,000 people, and later obtained a large number of weapons and equipment after the first attack on Fengzhen County, which made this remnant of the Eighth Route Army recover its vitality and have the strength to annihilate the Takeda Brigade. ”

After briefly explaining the situation of Ma Zheng's headquarters, Miyamoto Nakasa continued: "Combined with the information collected by the headquarters, we judge that there are at least more than 2,000 combatable troops in this branch of the Eighth Road, and they also have a large number of automatic weapons, including 50 heavy machine guns and 100 light machine guns, and even no less than 20 artillery pieces, which are not inferior to us in terms of the sophistication of weapons and equipment. ”

After Miyamoto Nakasa finished speaking, Sakai Hoji said loudly: "Although the weapons and equipment and strength of the Dirt Eight Roads are not worse than those of the Imperial Army, their soldiers are basically composed of bandits, and their combat effectiveness will not be too strong, so there is almost no suspense about the outcome of this battle, and now the only thing we are worried about is whether those Dirt Eight Roads will take the opportunity to escape!" ”

As soon as Sakai Hoji's words fell, the young young man who was sitting under Miyamoto Nakasa got up and said: "Your Excellency, Brigade Commander, the people of China have robbed the imperial army of so much material, and they will not have time to transfer it for a while, so it is humbly judged that they will not escape, but will rely on the easy to defend and difficult terrain of Hades Mountain to resist stubbornly. ”

"Yo Xi!"

After motioning for Shaozo to sit down, Sakai Hoji said in a deep voice: "Yamada-kun's judgment is very reasonable, so this time we are going to smash the turtle shell of Hades Mountain and completely wipe out the dirt eight roads inside!" Command! ”

Hearing the word order, all the Japanese officers hurriedly stood up and waited for the brigade commander to give the final battle order.

Sakai Hoji was very satisfied with the reaction of the officers, and immediately said loudly: "Order the 2nd Infantry Brigade and the Engineer Squadron to be the vanguard troops, and start early tomorrow morning and march towards Hades Mountain." The 3rd Infantry Brigade, the 1st Independent Field Artillery Brigade and the Brigade Headquarters marched as the second echelon, the two armies were ten kilometers apart, and the 4th Infantry Squadron stayed behind in Hongshaba Town! ”

"Hay!"

"Gentlemen, can you just watch this battle before the snow, please!" Sakai Hoji bowed and said.

"The Great Japanese Imperial Army is onboard (long live)!"

"His Majesty the Emperor is onboard!"

On the morning of the 28th, the Second Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army, which had had breakfast, set out from Hongshaba Town on time, and more than 1,200 troops of the whole army drove to Hades Mountain. But what they didn't expect was that the journey of suffering had just begun.

Less than five kilometres out of the town of Hongshaba, the troops were attacked by two landmines that killed two soldiers and wounded three.

The captain of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade is Jiro Kawabe, 48 years old. Unlike Sadao Takeda, who died in battle, this person did not go to military school, but climbed all the way up from an ordinary soldier, which is extremely rare in the Japanese army, which pays attention to seniority.

Seeing that the troops were attacked, the cautious riverside Shaozo immediately ordered the troops to stop their advance, and at the same time sent sappers to clear the mines.

It is a pity that as soon as the sappers had cleared a few mines, they heard a few rapid gunshots, and more than a dozen sappers who were clearing mines were sniped by the snipers of the Eighth Route Army hiding in the shadows. And Hebe Shaozo himself was almost wounded by the sniper of the Eighth Route Army, if it weren't for the adjutant who heard the gunfire and pushed him off his horse, he should have become a pile of broken corpses like those sappers now.

In order to achieve the best sniper effect, and also to train the soldiers, Ma Zheng deliberately handed over Tie Niu's special combat team to Wang Hansen's command temporarily. It's a pity that the special combat team has not yet formed a complete combat effectiveness, and there is no professional sniper rifle, and the sniper rifle used by the sniper is modified by Ma Zheng with the 38 big cover, and the effect is not very good, otherwise the basket just now can kill the riverside Shaozuo.

Kawabe Shaosa, who was almost sniped, was furious and immediately ordered the artillery squadron to open fire immediately and carry out all-round shelling in the direction where the bullets were flying.

This was just the beginning, along the way, the mines and snipers of the Eighth Route Army were everywhere, and the bullets were even more bizarre, each containing blood, and basically a Japanese soldier was killed as soon as the gun rang out.

In addition, he was ambushed and shelled by the Eighth Route Army from time to time, and he only walked less than ten kilometers after leaving the city for more than three hours, and even was caught up by the large troops behind. The most important thing is that after this blow, the morale of the troops led by Kawabe Shaosa was seriously damaged. All the soldiers panicked, completely losing their previous high morale.