The headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade of the Japanese Army in Bunjo, which had not slept all night, finally survived until dawn. The brigade commander, Major General Hagiwara Akira, stood in front of the window of the three-story building with a blank expression, staring numbly at the streets and alleys of Wencheng in the morning light.

It's over -- this operation, which has been launched since yesterday afternoon, to attack the Guanmen Mountain and the Great Elm Mountain Zhina Army Defense Area, as part of the "Nine-Way Siege of Taihang Mountain" campaign of the First Army of the North China Front, ended without a hitch.

It seems a bit too much to say that it ended without a problem: after all, Xiping Village, the base of the Eighth Route Army at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, was completely captured by the mixed forces of the Saijo Wing and the Otsuka Wing, and all the enemy troops there were driven into the Guanmen Mountain. However, apart from this victory, the rest of the battlefields in which the two wings under the brigade commanded did not achieve commendable results. To make matters worse, the military blockade area of Xiaoyushushan was attacked by unknown militants at night, and the incident occurred only a few hundred meters away from the comfort women's camp at Songjiagou Station.

Just now, the chief of staff of the brigade and regiment, Kawabe Daisa, sorted out all the battle reports sent at night, and all the participating units clearly affirmed that they had completely disengaged from the Chinese army!

-- Two infantry squadrons and one machine gun squadron of the Takagi Brigade of the Saijo Wing, in coordination with the three infantry squadrons of the Nara Brigade of the Otsuka Wing, jointly seized the defense area of the Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army in Xiping Village, at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain;

-- Two infantry squadrons and one artillery squadron of the Takagi Brigade of the Saijo Wing, with an additional brigade and regimental automatic vehicle squadron, pursued the main force of the Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army, and attacked the line of Zhaojia Village along the farthest along the lower reaches of the Qinglong River, but was blocked by the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, and took the initiative to shrink its forces and retreat to Lihuapu Village;

-- Three infantry squadrons of the Nomura Brigade of the Otsuka Wing, two infantry squadrons of the Kameda Brigade of the Saijo Wing, and one artillery squadron of the Independent Mountain Artillery Squadron of the additional brigade and regiment, successively exchanged fire with the main force of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army of the Shina Army at the mountain pass at the eastern foot of the Little Elm Mountain and the Junfeng Highway and defeated it;

-- An infantry squadron of the Kameda Brigade of the Saijo Wing, with an automatic vehicle squadron attached to the brigade and regimental station, outflanked the Junfeng Highway along the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain, but when the troops arrived, the main force of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army of the Shina Army had already withdrawn into the Great Elm Mountain;

-- The Aikawa Brigade of the Otsuka Wing is responsible for guarding the military blockade area of Xiaoyushu Mountain, and after being attacked by unknown armed forces tonight, in addition to holding on to the original defense area, the brigade also sent an infantry squadron into the Xiaoyushu Mountain outside the military blockade area to carry out tracking and searching, but did not find anything.

The strength of an entire brigade and regiment has been almost fully engaged in combat since yesterday afternoon, and the results achieved in the end can be described as minimal. There was almost no total annihilation of any of the main forces of the Zhina Army that often entered and exited the Great Elm Mountain and Guanmen Mountain.

At the same time, two small-scale operations instigated by Masao Kojima, the head of the Wencheng secret service: a plainclothes squad mixed into the Guanmen Mountains with the Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army to search for the captured officers and soldiers of the division's cavalry wing, but no news has come so far. Another Hirai advance team infiltrated the villages of the lower reaches of the Qinglong River to capture the women of China, but was attacked several times by unknown forces, and finally only one woman was captured. What is worrying is that another captured female woman of China took advantage of the chaos to escape and her whereabouts are unknown!

The chief of staff of the brigade and the head of the Bunjo secret service were sent back to sleep by Major General Hagiwara - the major military operation has ended, and it is an indisputable fact that the stricken Shina Army has completely retreated. At present, the forward units have received orders to deploy their defenses in place and rest for six hours, and as for how to deal with the aftermath, they will wait for the later part of the day to issue instructions.

The battle report to be submitted to Lieutenant General Kiyoshi Kazuki, commander of the First Army in Taiyuan, is also under consideration, and the draft of the telegram has just been sent to the division headquarters in Yuncheng ahead of schedule for the discretion of the commander of the Sena Division.

It should be said that, on the surface, the First Army of the North China Front used the forces of the Fourth Master Regiment to "encircle Taihang Mountain on the Nine Roads," and the Sena Division had already completed the campaign that the headquarters should have undertaken by the Hagiwara Brigade. In this regard, the commander of the Sena Division could have given an account to the commander of the First Army.

However, it is the greatest regret that the Hagiwara Brigade was unable to form an annihilating blow to the various units of the Shina Army entrenched in the security zone despite the heavy attack of the brigade.

The most sensitive area of the Songjiagou comfort women's camp in Xiaoyushu Mountain was attacked by unknown armed forces at night; At the same time, during the overnight operation to capture the Shina woman, the Hirai Advance Team made another major mistake, and one of the arrested Shina women actually escaped from the hands of the advance team members and her whereabouts are unknown. What kind of threatening impact these two events will have on the implementation of the top-secret Wind Project in the future remains to be further assessed.

In a telegram sent to Lieutenant General Sena of the headquarters of the Yuncheng Division, the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade intended to inform him of the attack near the secret camp of the comfort women and the escape of the women of Shina in the line of fire. His original intention was not to report to Lieutenant General Kazuki, commander of the First Army, two emergencies that might endanger the "Wind Plan", but he still had to wait for his division commander's opinion on this.

Stopping his thoughts, Hagiwara Akira, who was standing in front of the window, let out a long breath, twisted his neck a few times, and turned his head to order a telecommunications staff officer: as soon as the division commander of Yuncheng replied, notify him immediately—now, he also had to go and make up for sleep.

This morning in the Great Elm Mountain is filled with the fragrance of birds and flowers in late spring, and the atmosphere here is more like an undisturbed paradise than the smoke of beacon fires that permeate the mountain all night.

Major Wang Suihua, head of the second intelligence group of the Shanxi Station of the Military Command, had learned that the main force of the 391st Regiment, personally led by regiment commander Qin Zhongxiao, was marching in the middle of the Great Elm Mountain and making a detour to the garrison here. At this moment, this female major of the military commander, who did not wear a military uniform, was slowly wandering in the courtyard of the 391st Regiment Headquarters in Xiaozhai Village, with a pair of bloodshot eyes, looking at a mountain road in the distance from time to time - that is the only way to Xiaozhai.

On this past night, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army can be described as elite: first, an infantry company was sent to Xiping Village, at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, to support the friendly Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army there to fight against the Japanese sweeping operation; Then, in order to respond to the reconnaissance team of the regimental headquarters special service company that was intercepted by the Japanese army, Qin Zhongxiao ordered the first battalion, the second battalion and the mountain artillery company to make a large-scale move, feint to attack Fengdian County on the one hand, and attack and occupy various mountain passes at the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain on the other, and finally successfully covered the special service company commander Zhao Mutou and his party to get out of trouble; And before the main force of the Japanese army attacked from the north and south, it withdrew from the mountain pass at the west foot of the Great Elm Mountain next to the Junfeng Highway.

Although the communication was intermittent, the radio carried by the regimental headquarters of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army was always able to maintain contact with the left-behind radio station in Xiaozhai Village in Dayushu Mountain, which also enabled the female major of the military commander who was forced to stay at the regiment headquarters to wait for news, and was able to control the news of the battle outside the mountain at the first time. Knowing that the whole regiment had safely withdrawn into the Great Elm Mountain—despite being cut off by the Japanese and having to make a detour from the farther end—Wang Suihua's hanging heart finally calmed down: the rumbling artillery outside the mountain at night did not seem to have stopped, indicating the intensity of the exchange of fire between the two armies. This battle can be said to be purely for the sake of the military command of Shanxi Station, or simply for her Wang Suihua herself. If the 391st Regiment suffered heavy battle losses, the female major of the military commander would not be able to do peace of mind in any case.

However, now this beautiful woman has learned that most of the main force of the whole regiment is safe and is turning into the rugged mountain road. Her mind then turned to the aspect of the reconnaissance of Little Elm Mountain organized by the special agent company of the regiment headquarters: Zhao Mutou of the ghosts and ghosts, will there be any major discoveries on this trip? At the very least, their reconnaissance operations attracted a large-scale counterattack by the Japanese army at night, which may confirm from the side that the actions of the special service company triggered the sensitive nerves of the Japanese - the secret hidden in the Little Elm Mountain may not be far from the day when the cup will be revealed!

To Wang Suihua's surprise and emotion, the front team of the 391st Regiment that first appeared on the mountain road at the far end was the reconnaissance team led by Zhao Mutou, the commander of the spy company, who entered Little Elm Mountain to attack! Seeing the familiar, swaying figure like a bamboo pole, the female major of the military commander, who had always been quiet, actually trotted out of the courtyard gate and met Zhao Mutou and his party halfway:

"Company Commander Zhao, you have worked hard!"

Even though she was not wearing a military uniform, Wang Suihua still stood upright in the middle of the rules and gave a military salute to the commander of the special service company of the Central Army. This abnormal action startled Zhao Mutou - in the past when they were lurking together in Wencheng, this female major of the military commander has always been cold and majestic, and she always has an unsmiling attitude towards herself and the male lieutenant Li Yan.

"Report to Major Wang, Zhao Mutou, commander of the 391st Regiment Special Service Company, and lead his troops to complete the reconnaissance!"

Confused for a moment, Zhao Mutou still reacted in a timely manner.

"Brothers, have worked hard, hurry up and take a break to rest, don't be in a hurry to report, and wait for you Qin Tuanzuo and Chief of Staff Zhang to return together, and then choose a time to hold a meeting."

Saying that there was no hurry, Wang Suihua was actually boiling in her heart, and she really wanted to hear the relevant information from the mouth of this tall captain immediately.

At this time, the spy company commander's tired face, which was originally stained with black smoke, still bloomed with a smug smile, and he told the female major of the military commander: There is indeed a Japanese cat hidden in Little Elm Mountain!

Wang Suihua was excited in her heart, and couldn't help but stretch out a hand to grab Zhao Mutou's right arm, and walked towards the regiment together: "Okay, good, it's good to have a discovery!" You go wash your face and eat something first, I'll wait for you in Colonel Qin's war room!" ”

Being held by the arm of a beautiful female soldier, Zhao Mutou was a little dizzy for a while, and half of his body was almost numb. The subordinates of his spy company who followed behind, looking at the backs of the two, were even more stunned and envious.