The phone at the arsenal was not connected, and Mizuno Nobu suddenly realized that something was wrong, and immediately led the 1st Infantry Brigade to attack.

However, as soon as the army left the city, it was stubbornly resisted by the Eighth Route Army and the cavalry battalion of the Baoshan Brigade, and the Eighth Route Army reversed the style of guerrilla warfare in peacetime.

The distance from the county seat of Zou County to the arsenal in the south of the city is only two kilometers, but the army fought for more than two hours!

By the time the Yue army finally defeated the Eighth Route Army and rushed to the arsenal, the entire arsenal had already been emptied by the Chinese, and apart from the abandoned corpses of the Yue army, the Chinese did not even leave a single bullet for Yue himself! While leading his troops in pursuit, Mizuno Shin sent an urgent telegram to the Jinan General Army Headquarters, requesting air reconnaissance support from the aviation regiment.

Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo, commander of the Second Army, was really shocked and angry after receiving the telegram, and immediately sent an urgent report to the North China Front Army Headquarters, requesting air support, and at the same time urgently ordered the 108th Division stationed on the outskirts of Jinan to go south to participate in the sweep of the remnants of the Baoshan Brigade.

Nishio Shouzo has been very disappointed with Suzuki's leadership, this guy has an army of 20,000 in his hands, and he has been unable to exterminate hundreds of remnants of the Baoshan Brigade for so long, and what is even more intolerable is that he was actually taken to the Zou County Arsenal by the Baoshan Brigade in turn, and if it goes on like this, the situation in Lunan is really going to be completely out of control.

…………

Twenty miles northwest of Zou County, Nishan Mountain.

In the wooded valley, more than 600 people and horses from the cavalry battalion directly under the Baoshan Brigade, the special operations brigade, and the 1st Brigade of the Lunan Guerrilla Detachment of the Eighth Route Army are resting here.

This time, he took the Zou County Arsenal, and the capture was unprecedented.

Peng Mingzhi secretly counted four Type 92 infantry guns, six 81mm mortars, more than 20 grenadiers, eight Type 92 heavy machine guns, more than 40 crooked light machine guns, more than 3,000 Type 38 rifles, melon grenades, and tens of thousands of explosives packs.

There are millions of shells of various calibers and all kinds of machine bullets, and [***] this time it is really a fortune.

After eight o'clock in the morning, a huge roar suddenly sounded in the sky, and the devil plane from North China arrived.

Yue Weihan hurriedly ordered the mule and horse convoy to enter the dense forest to hide, but under the dive-strafing and bombing of the military planes, a lot of mule and horse carts were still lost, and weapons and ammunition were also lost, but fortunately, there were no casualties.

Seeing the Chinese leading mules and horses and pushing wheelbarrows into the depths of the dense forest, the fighters and bombers in the sky suddenly lost their targets, and after a few rounds of random swooping and strafing, they returned.

After ten o'clock in the morning, the bayonet battalion and artillery battalion that had withdrawn from Jining also arrived.

At the same time, there were also the pursuers of the Yue Army, who were eager to atone for their crimes, and did not wait for the convergence of the various armies, so he chased after the 1st Infantry Brigade, and this old devil relied on the field elite transferred from the 1st Division of the 1st Infantry Brigade to chase the Chinese into the Nishan Mountains.

Yue Weihan immediately convened a military meeting of officers above the company level.

Peng Mingzhi, commander of the Lunan Guerrilla Detachment of the Eighth Route Army, and Lu Han, captain of the 1st Brigade, were also invited.

Each battalion and company first reported casualties: zero casualties in the special operations brigade; The bayonet battalion suffered more than eighty casualties, but most of them were surrendered, and only two veterans were slightly wounded; Six people in the artillery battalion were slightly injured, and they were injured in a fall on the way in; The casualties of the cavalry battalion were the heaviest, with 78 casualties, of which 67 were killed, and what especially distressed Yue Weihan was that these 78 people were not only veterans of a hundred battles, but also the elite of the veterans!

However, there is always a gain in everything, and although the cavalry battalion suffered heavy losses, it also received 76 real military horses!

With this batch of high-quality Oriental military horses, the cavalry battalion can be expanded from three cavalry companies to four, the source of troops is not a problem at all, there are no less than 100 large and small leaders with outstanding marksmanship and riding skills in the Yanzi army, and a little training is a fierce cavalry, so that the combat effectiveness of the cavalry battalion will not only not decrease, but even greatly enhanced!

In addition, more than 1,600 troops of the bayonet battalion have been fully integrated into the Baoshan brigade.

Especially seeing that [***] so easily wiped out the arsenal of the Yue army in Zou County, and played tens of thousands of army rounds, these surrendered troops worshiped Yue Weihan as the god of war, and after a few more victories, these surrendered troops can almost become an army, of course, it cannot be compared with the veterans of a hundred battles in the Baoshan Brigade.

The casualties of the Eighth Route Army were extremely heavy this time, in order to block the Zou County army and win time for the fortress households to carry the munitions, the more than 500 veterans of the 1st Brigade were completely risking their lives to carry the machine guns and cannons of the little devils, and after more than two hours of fierce fighting, the more than 500 old Red Army soldiers of the 1st Brigade finally died with less than 200 people left, which made Peng Mingzhi tremble in distress.

The more than 300 old Red Army soldiers who died in the battle were all from 25,000 in the snow-capped mountains and meadows, and they were all elites who could not be changed!

Yue Weihan patted Peng Mingzhi on the shoulder and said, "Commander Peng, except for the ninety-two rifle gun and mortar, the remaining weapons and ammunition are divided equally between you and me, half of each, how about it?" ”

"That's what you said!" Peng Mingzhi's eyes lit up when he heard this.

If the Eighth Route Army really could get half of the spoils, it would be an unprecedented bumper harvest!

The reason why the Eighth Route Army was scolded as "guerrilla but not attacking", the reason why it could not organize a decent big battle, and why it did not dare to attack the county town and the slightly larger devil stronghold, was it not because of the lack of weapons and ammunition? This time, if we can really get half of the weapons and ammunition captured from the Zou County Arsenal, the strength of the Lunan guerrilla detachment will be greatly enhanced!

"That's right, I said that." Yue Weihan smiled and nodded, and then said, "But before dividing the spoils, we have to solve the little devils outside the mountain first, and it's not a matter to let the little devils behind our buttocks, in case we attract the devil's heavy army group, then it will be a big trouble, what do you say, Commander Peng?" ”

"I'm still the same." Peng Mingzhi said, "Fighting devils, our Eighth Route Army has nothing to say." ”

"Okay." Yue Weihan nodded heavily, and then said to the commanders of each battalion and company, "All battalions and companies are stepping up their replenishment of ammunition and preparing for battle. ”

…………

Mountainous periphery.

The 10th Infantry Brigade of the 10th Brigade Regiment has already driven to the foot of Mantis Mountain.

Major General Mizuno Shin put down his binoculars, turned around and shouted, "Map! ”

A combat staff officer had already opened the map package and took out the military map.

The chief of staff of the brigade, Heishiro Katamura, quickly found the location from the map, and said to Major General Mizuno Shin: "General, where we are now, Mantis Mountain, and further on is North Crouching Tiger Mountain, where the mountains are high and dense, the terrain is complex, and it is extremely easy to be ambushed, so I suggest not to enter." ”

Mizuno frowned unconsciously, and reason told him that Katamura Shaosa's suggestion was correct.

Yue Weihan is indeed a dangerous opponent, and the Baoshan Brigade is a very difficult army to deal with, there are too many famous generals and ace troops of the empire planted under the Baoshan Brigade, they not only dare to fight field battles with the imperial army, but even dare to attack the main cities heavily garrisoned by the imperial army, which is much more dangerous than the Tuba Road in the Baoqinggu Mountains!

However, as a proud imperial samurai, Mizuno Shin could not let the Takuyama Brigade slip away from him.

At the same time, Mizuno's confidence is also somewhat lucky, the current Baoshan Brigade is not in its heyday after all, after all, there are only a few hundred remnants of Yue Weihan's defeated generals, and he has just experienced the battle of Jining and Zou County, long-distance running, and overnight battles, at this time he must have been exhausted, to paraphrase a Chinese idiom, now should be the end of the strong crossbow, right?

The strength of the two sides was almost the same, but Mizuno was confident in the combat effectiveness of the 1st Infantry Brigade.

After all, the 1st Infantry Brigade is a field unit transferred from the 1st Division, and it is a real field elite, if it is the Baoshan Brigade in its heyday, the 1st Infantry Brigade may not be able to take any advantage, but the Baoshan Brigade is only a few hundred remnants of the defeated army at this time, how can it be the opponent of the 1st Infantry Brigade?

Although the Baoshan Brigade had just obtained a large amount of equipment from the Zou County Arsenal, Mizuno did not think that the Chinese would be able to exert the true power of these equipment, especially the 92 infantry guns, the 81mm mortars and grenadiers, and how could the Chinese have just obtained these equipment to exert their full power?

In Mizuno's view, no matter how you look at it, there is no possibility of defeat for the imperial army.

At that moment, Mizuno Shin did not hesitate to order the pursuit, and more than 1,100 people of the 1st Infantry Brigade immediately plunged into the mountains.

Mizuno Shin did not know that the veterans of the Baoshan Brigade were no strangers to the construction of weapons, and that the regiments, battalions, and companies of the Baoshan Brigade were equipped with a large amount of construction equipment, and Niu Dagen's artillery battalion was all about Type 92 infantry guns and mortars.

Major General Mizunobu's miscalculation finally brought disaster to the 1st Infantry Brigade!

Less than 10 kilometers into the mountainous area, the army was harassed by the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army, and although the old devils of the 1st Infantry Brigade were all field elites transferred from the 1st Division, they were not very good at jungle warfare, and they could not bargain at all in the face of the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army, which were tactically flexible and had extremely strong individual combat effectiveness.

Realizing that the outlook was not optimistic, Major General Mizuno immediately ordered the downsizing of his forces and prepared to retreat.

However, Major General Mizuno Nobu only thought that it was too late to retreat at this time, and as soon as the army contracted, the remnants of the Baoshan Brigade, which had disappeared, suddenly appeared from all directions, and Major General Mizuno Nobu hurriedly ordered the troops to seize two small hills nearby, and while stepping up the construction of field fortifications and preparing to hold on, he urgently telegraphed the headquarters of the General Army and asked for support.

(To be continued)