Okamura Ninji met Tadajun's inquiring gaze, and immediately understood his intentions, thought for a while, and said bitterly: "General, please forgive me for being blunt, according to the intelligence transmitted back by our reconnaissance plane, the Chinese army has two ways just by detouring to Beiping.

Among them, the road from Bazhou City is huge, with at least tens of thousands of troops, and a large number of tanks and armored vehicles, which are fully mechanized elite troops.

Even if we transfer all the 30,000 imperial army reinforcements in Bazhou, we may not be able to block the enemy's attack from two roundabout assault forces.

Not to mention 20,000 horses. You must know that the disparity between the strength of the enemy and us is very great now, the enemy is an elite armored mechanized unit that has been in battle for a long time, and our 30,000 reinforcements are a new army that has just been formed in the homeland for a short time, and has not yet undergone the baptism of war.

Combat effectiveness, combat experience is far from the opponent of the Chinese Dragon's Tooth Column. ”

When Tada Jun heard this, he was furious, and the anger that had been slightly suppressed just now burst out again, and he roared angrily: "Then tell me, what should I do now?" ”

Okamura Ninji lowered his head and fell into silence for a long time, and finally raised his head again, met Tada Jun's almost murderous gaze, and said word by word: "My suggestion, immediately order all the troops on the front line to alternately cover and retreat to Tianjin, abandon Beiping City, if even Tianjin can't stand it, then completely abandon the entire Pingjin and North China, and withdraw to Guanwai." ”

"Nani?" Tada Jun laughed angrily, opened his eyes angrily and said, "You want me to give up Beiping?" And even the whole of North China, without fighting the Chinese army? ”

As he spoke, Tada Jun also turned his head to look at his chief of staff, Mamoru Iizawa, and said, "Iizawa-kun, do you think we can give up Beiping City just now?" ”

Without waiting for Iizawa Mamoru to speak, Okamura Ninji spoke again: "General, the situation is pressing, now it's not whether we can give up Beiping, but we have to give up."

The reason is very simple, since we know that Beiping is no longer defensible, it is better to give up decisively in order to preserve as much of our army's vital strength as possible! Shrinking our forces to the vicinity of Tianjin, where close to the sea, the Imperial Navy fleet anchored in the dock of Tianjin Wei Port can provide us with the most direct and convenient naval artillery fire and air support for the Navy's carrier-based aircraft group. We can turn Tianjin into a coastal fortress like an iron barrel.

We can also use the Tianjin Fortress as a testing ground to let the newly formed army take turns to conduct actual combat training, so as to improve the combat experience and strength of the newly formed army units, and when the opportunity is ripe, we can join forces with the Kwantung Army to enter the pass from Rehe and launch a counteroffensive against Beiping. ”

Iizawa Mamoru also nodded in agreement, and then persuaded Tada Jun: "Your Excellency, I think that Okamura-kun's plan is the most suitable at the moment, and we can retreat calmly and orderly in advance before the Chinese army attacks outside the city of Beiping, and reduce losses as much as possible."

Moreover, he believes that the responsibility for the loss of Beiping does not lie entirely with our North China Imperial Army, we have invested all the troops that can be invested, hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, hundreds of thousands of imperial troops are fighting bloody battles with the Chinese army on the front line.

However, the Marine Roundabout Force sent by the Navy Fleet did not even have any news, and it was their inaction that led to the defeat of this life-and-death battle for the North China Imperial Army. Therefore, Your Excellency, you need not be too remorseful and worried. ”

Several other high-ranking officers and staff officers of the devil who were present also thought that what Okamura Ninji and Iizawa Mamoru said was reasonable, so they all had the courage to echo and lobby Tadajun.

Seeing that everyone agreed to retreat and had no intention of holding on, Tada Jun was not only angry, but also a little exhausted.

So, with a cold snort, he turned around and left.

Mamoru Iizawa and Okamura Ninji glanced at each other, hurriedly shouted out to His Excellency the Commander, and chased out.

In the end, Tada Jun still agreed to the plan of abandoning Beiping on his own initiative, shrinking his forces and retreating to Tianjin, and building Tianjin into a seaside fortress.

Subsequently, Okamura Ningji immediately made corresponding operational arrangements, and the 30,000 army troops rushing to the aid of Bazhou immediately stopped advancing, turned around and returned to Tianjin, and built defensive lines along the Ziya River, Duliu River and other rivers in Xiqing, Beichen and other places on the outskirts of Tianjin.

Ready to meet the Japanese soldiers and civilians withdrawn from Beiping at any time, the Bazhou defenders defended to the death to buy time for the evacuation of Beiping.

The land-based air force stationed in Beiping immediately took off and carried out an air attack on the mechanized roundabout troops of the Longya Column that were coming from Bazhou and were advancing parallel to the north, and the air raids damaged the roads and bridges along the way, delaying their march.

Buy time for the evacuation of Japanese troops and expatriates in Beiping.

As for the Tianjin garrison in the Jinghai area, they must continue to hold on to buy time for Tianjin's ring line.

After abandoning Beiping, the Japanese army will build a defensive line in Langfang and Tianjin to block the northward movement of the Longya Column.

If Langfang is lost, then the Japanese army will continue to rely on this line of defense, and at all costs, keep the life passage from the land to the outside of the pass.

The Japanese army carried out a large-scale evacuation operation in Beiping, and naturally it was impossible to hide the reconnaissance of the Longyingwei agents, who had been focusing on the development of the Pingjin area for two or three years.

After Wan Hu got the exact news, he immediately secretly sent an urgent telegram to Qiao Youhua's command to inform him of the situation.

In this matter, Qiao Youhua has already joined Zheng Yunshan's guard regiment and is returning to the front line in Bazhou along the road.

After learning this information, Qiao Youhua immediately responded, and instructed the signal soldiers: "Send a telegram to Liu Jianhua immediately, order him to lead his troops to speed up, and be sure to rush to Beiping City before dawn tomorrow, no, order them to divert to Langfang, directly capture Langfang, and cut off the road of retreating from Beiping to the east of Tianjin."

Then, send another telegram to the 1st Division, ordering its detour troops to speed up, and before dark, they must rush to Beiping to prevent the Japanese troops from calmly retreating! ”

After Liu Jianhua and others received the order, they led their subordinates to speed up, but the troops in Bazhou took a detour along the way, and then in the process of rerouting to Langfang, they encountered an air attack by a group of Japanese fighters.

The tank and armored brigade and other units did their best to defend the aircraft, fought in a maneuver with the enemy planes for more than half an hour, shot down three enemy planes at a small cost of casualties, and successfully repelled the air attack of the enemy plane group.

Subsequently, the whole army rushed to Langfang at full speed.