When the mercenary troops under the command of Yan Wudao wantonly slaughtered the Japanese search team on both flanks and rear roads of the Japanese army, the Japanese army, which had already left Taunggyi, ran into the defensive line of the Burmese guerrillas regardless of it. It's not that the Japanese army can't survive, but their supplies can't keep up, and the 30,000 Japanese army's food stock is only enough for them to cook rice soup for another two days.

This has always been the specialty of the Japanese field troops, but unfortunately they are now in northern Burma, and there are no Burmese villages, and they can find very little food. The commander of the 18th Division, Mutaguchi Ryoya, was a little sorry for the materials that were thrown by the 18th Division in the Philippine port at this time, if it weren't for the lack of damn troop carriers, the materials left in the Philippines would be enough for his 18th Division to supply for 2 months.

"The commander of the division, the commander of the 55th Division, Takeuchi Hiroshi, asked when we will attack the resistance army in front?" Mutaguchi's personal lieutenant brought a plate of boiled meat and a bowl of broth, a soup made from the flesh of a tired mule and horse, which was enjoyed only by senior officers, and officers below the rank of Shozo and the soldiers could only satisfy their hunger with rice soup.

"Yaga, this damn Takeuchi Kuan can only take advantage of following behind our 18th Division, if it weren't for the food that the Burmese might have in their hands, I would never let the 18th Division take on the task of the main attack" Mutaguchi Ryoya also bit the piece of meat and cursed the commander of the 55th Division, Takeuchi Kan. If it weren't for the delay of the 55th Division's delay in crossing the Xidang River, his 18th Division might have been killed long ago when Lashio cut off the back road of the thunder, and there would still be a shortage of food for the troops as it is now.

The 18th Division, "Boom" and "Boom", began to attack, and the loose defensive line of the Burmese guerrillas was obscured by drifting smoke, where two units using the same weapons collided. The Japanese machine guns roared and extinguished the flames of the Burmese guerrillas one by one, and the individual quality of the soldiers on both sides was fully revealed at this time, and the Burmese guerrillas looked like a rabble in the eyes of the Japanese army, at most slightly better than the farmers with hoes, and compared with the heroic soldiers of the Japanese Empire, they were not even qualified to carry shoes.

Indeed, after only a few rounds of mortar and machine gun fire from the frontal attacking 18th Division, the Burmese guerrillas who were fighting against them abandoned their positions and fled, and the weapons and ammunition they discarded were everywhere, and the entire battlefield was full of Japanese soldiers pursuing the Burmese guerrillas. "Chase them all and kill them all," the officers in command of the battlefield howled like beasts, holding their command knives high and leading their soldiers to chase down the black-clad Burmese who had scattered and fled.

"Hmph, it's really vulnerable" Mu Taguchi Lian, who had a full stomach, also washed his oily hands nonchalantly, everything that happened on the battlefield was obviously already within his expectations, if he hadn't thought about rushing to Lashio earlier, he might have saved even those rounds of mortars just now. Just some Burmese natives who had just thrown their hoes, Mutaguchi also believed that the soldiers of the 18th Division could solve them with only bayonets.

"Boom", "boom", "boom", "da" in front of the position suddenly heard the sound of dense gunfire, all the way to the Burmese defeated troops of the troops of the 18th Division retreated like a tide, the Burmese laid an ambush in front, a large amount of machine gun fire is not bolt-action rifles can compete, in the face of a large number of machine gun fire and mortar attack, they can only choose to retreat.

"Baga, don't retreat, attack, organize an attack immediately" Mutaguchi Ryoya waved his command knife and slashed a retreating soldier with his own hands, and the blood dripping into the soil along the command knife shocked the retreating 18th Division soldiers, under the command of several junior officers, the regrouped 18th Division soldiers attacked the Burmese guerrilla defense line again, but this time their attack was much more cautious.

As time passed, the 18th Division broke through several Burmese guerrilla defense lines in a row, but the Burmese in black seemed to be unable to kill, you never knew if there would be a Burmese defense line behind after breaking through the defense line in front of you, and the soldiers of the 18th Division were almost numb. The gunfire has not stopped since lunch, and the troops of the 18th Division have been killed and wounded one after another, and the corpses of the Burmese are everywhere, roughly as many as a thousand.

"These are all weapons and ammunition produced by our empire" Looking at the weapons and ammunition collected, Mutaguchi Ryoya's face was a little ugly, he even saw the words "The Sixth Division's Victory" on the butt of one of the 38 rifles just now, and there is no need to guess that the weapons used by these Burmese are from the Sixth Division, which has been completely wiped out. Arming the Burmese natives with weapons and ammunition captured from the imperial army to fight against the imperial army, Thunder is really calculating, and Mutaguchi also knows Thunder a little deeper, and it seems that the commander of Thunder is also a person who will do anything to win.

The 10-kilometer pursuit battle took the 18th Division a full 2 hours, and including Mu Taguchi Lian, he didn't expect these Burmese natives dressed in black and barefoot to be so difficult. More than 1,600 Burmese were killed and captured, and the 18th Division only paid the price of 300 casualties.

Having killed 1,600 Burmese guerrillas, Mutaguchi Lian did not get the food he wanted, but fortunately there were only 50 kilometers left in Lashio, and Mutaguchi Lian also planned to march overnight tonight to reach Lashio before dawn tomorrow. Mutaguchi Lian was also a very strong person, and his order was no less than the emperor's will in the 18th Division, so after the order to march continuously, the 18th Division did not fall up and down abnormally. As for the 55th Division on the flank, Mutaguchi Lian didn't bother to care at all, whoever arrived in Lashio first would be the first to supply on the spot, and those who arrived in Lashio later would have to eat leftovers.

Night began to fall, the hungry Japanese troops lit torches and hurried away, and the baggage wing that arrived in advance used the remaining grain to make some rice balls, and the soldiers of the 18th Division who were marching continuously could only nibble on the rice balls that had been cold while marching. Although each person only has a rice ball the size of a baby's fist and a few wild vegetables, they are good compared to their comrades who have lost their lives in Burma and have died in battle.

At 4 a.m., when the 18th Division arrived at Lashio, which was only 10 highways away, the triumphant Mutaguchi Lian also received a telegram from the headquarters of the Burmese Dispatch Army. The 22nd Division and the 56th Division stationed on the front line of Taungoo had confirmed that they had been defeated by the Thunder, and the news that the two divisions had been routed by the Thunder was confirmed by the defeated troops who had fled back to Yangon, and the Thunder troops that had taken Tangoo had moved eastward to Moltke and blockaded the banks of the Siddang and Salween rivers, and the rear roads of the 18th and 55th Divisions had been cut off.

The sudden battle report made Mutaguchi Ren also shocked, and the advancing 18th Division also stopped, and Mutaguchi Ren also got together with Takeuchi Kan, the commander of the 55th Division, who also received the Toyo battle report, to discuss the matter. The order of the 18th Division and the 55th Division was to take Moltke's surprise attack on Lashio via Taunggyi, so as to cut off the back road of the Thunder and use the superiority of large forces to block the Thunder in Burma and annihilate it completely. But now that Lashio is in sight, the 18th Division and the 55th Division have become the lone army that was cut off by the thunder first, and if the Burmese army cannot go north to provide support for them, they can only fight to the death with the thunder.

Faced with such an unfavorable situation, the officers of the 18th Division and the 55th Division scolded the damned Burmese Dispatch Army Command, including the 6th Division, Thunder had already defeated three Imperial Divisions. At present, they are hungry and do not think that they will be the ones to defeat the Thunder, especially now that the Thunder's forces are all concentrated in northern Burma, once they attack Lashio, the Thunder will be flanked in front of and behind the troops in Mandalay and Wan Town, and they will inevitably end up being defeated like the 22nd Division and the 56th Division.

"What should I do?" The officers who were summoned to the meeting focused their eyes on Mutaguchi Ryoya and Takeuchi Kan, the back road was no longer guaranteed, and the front road was hopeless, and the 18th and 55th divisions were now in a dilemma, and whether to advance or retreat required the two division commanders to make an idea. Mutaguchi was also a crazy man, and according to his idea, he continued to attack Lashio as usual, and if the Thunder drew troops from Mandalay and Wan Town to attack them back and forth, he would simply continue north into China and occupy a dangerous enemy to confront the Thunder.

Takeuchi did not approve of his idea, according to Takeuchi's idea, the troops would now immediately turn east and enter Thailand to avoid a head-on collision with the thunder. The 30,000 men of the 18th Division and the 55th Division only had one day's rations, and once they encountered a situation in Lashio, the 30,000 men would probably not even have the strength to flee for their lives, let alone deal with the thunderous encirclement.

In the end, Takeuchi was temporarily convinced, and the two divisions temporarily joined forces in one place, and the grain found after concentrating their forces to break through Lashio was divided into two parts. The 18th Division marched north to Wan Town, and the 55th Division was temporarily stationed in Lashio, and once Mandalay's Thunder Force attacked, the 55th Division could move south to the Thai-Burmese border. In addition to saving its life, the 55th Division led the Thunder troops from Mandalay to the Thai-Burmese border to clear the threat behind the 18th Division going north.