In Wencheng after midnight, the headquarters of the Japanese Hagiwara Brigade was brightly lit, and everyone was paying attention to the battle situation on the front line of Lingshi dozens of miles away. The two support armies of the Nara Brigade sent from Bunjo one after another sent back reports of ambushes, which made the atmosphere in the headquarters more and more tense and solemn.

According to the reports from the front, the place where the two support armies were ambushed on the railway and on the highway was still five or six miles away from the county town of Lingshi, and the ambushed Zhina army was large in number and had strong firepower, and it was by no means an ordinary harassing obstruction; Soon after the attack, the commander of the 1st Support Army and the deputy commander of the Nara Brigade, Captain Mori, made a judgment that the attack on the county town of Lingshi by the Shina Army was a feint and that its real purpose was to besiege the city and send reinforcements. The second reinforcement, which had rushed from the direction of the road, was also strongly resisted, which seemed to confirm the judgment of the Maori captain.

The street outside the window of the small building of the headquarters was empty under the dim street lamp, and the brigade commander Shao, who was standing by the window, had a gloomy face, and his eyes flashed with annoyance and anxiety. The railway line in the plain area suddenly poured out a huge number of heavy troops of the Chinese army, which was not only incredible, but also infuriating, and everyone from the garrisons in various places to the secret services were unaware of it in advance, and it was all derelict in their duties!

The head of the secret service, Masao Kojima, was woken up as soon as he went to bed, and now he was standing in the headquarters of Akira Hagiwara, and by his side was the chief of staff of the brigade and regiment Osa, who had hurried back from the train station. The two of them looked at the brigade commander and major general who was standing silently in front of the window, and no one dared to speak.

"Captain Otsuka's men, where are you going down now?"

After a long time, Hagiwara turned around from the window, and suddenly said this. A combat staff officer, who had been standing at the door, immediately answered the question with sincere fear, and then ran out. Since the order to dispatch to Kosuke Otsuka in Toyodian County by phone, there has been no news from them so far. The two support armies sent from Bunjo had already exchanged fire with the Shina army, and what Major General Hagiwara hoped most at the moment was that this support army from Otsuka could rush to the battlefield as soon as possible and form a flanking attack on the Shina army.

The spies that Kojima Masao sent to the banks of the Qinglong River not long ago have all returned to Wencheng, and this reconnaissance, mainly aimed at the Eighth Route Army, did not bring back too valuable information. At this time, a large number of Chinese troops appeared on the railway line in the area of Lingshi County, attacking the county seat and attacking the military columns, which made him, the head of the secret service, like a thorn in his back.

"General, if this branch of the army is indeed the 391st Regiment of the Central Army as we judged, then according to the previous intelligence, the remnants of the regiment should not exceed a thousand people," the chief of staff who spoke, Hebe Dazuo: "Even if they are out tonight, our army has already had three infantry squadrons in various ways rushing to support, as well as the cavalry of the Mongolian Frontier Army, which is enough to reach the scale of encircling and annihilating it in terms of strength." What's more, two squadrons of the Kato Brigade stationed in Linfen are approaching along the railway line. So please don't worry about it, general, we can take this opportunity to annihilate the 391st Regiment in one fell swoop! ”

Hagiwara Akira still sank like water, and he didn't say anything, he agreed with what the chief of staff said, but what really made him anxious was not the grasp of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army tonight - less than a few dozen miles away from the comfort women's camp in Little Elm Mountain, the heavy troops of the Shina Army could suddenly assemble and launch a large-scale operation without warning, and this was where the brigade commander Major General was terrified. If the target of the enemy army is not the railway line but the Little Elm Mountain, I am afraid that the comfort women camp at this moment is no longer guaranteed! Now, Hagiwara Akira has a trace of remorse for the building behind the Songjiagou Railway Station that simulates a comfort place: after all, the color of the military prostitutes in the army is too obvious!

Finding that the eyes of the brigade commander and major general began to stare directly at him, Kojima Masao felt a little hairy in his heart, he did not know that the general's heart was worried about the comfort women's secret camp at this time, so he hurriedly started a self-examination of the intelligence reconnaissance dereliction of duty of the Shina Army. However, before the head of the secret service could finish the review, the operational staff officer just now hurriedly ran in and reported with a slightly frightened face: Captain Otsuka has just called, and they have encountered a blockade from the Eighth Route Army near Hekou Village in Guanmenshan, and the other party has built a temporary position in the wilderness, and the resistance is very tenacious!

There was a sudden stir in the headquarters, and everyone's hearts sank again: the appearance of a blocking position in the wilderness in the middle of the night was by no means a temporary set up in a short period of time, and it should have been prepared in advance. The identity of the blocking force turned out to be the Eighth Route Army, which also shows that it is very likely that the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army jointly planned tonight's operation!

The three Japanese chieftains immediately gathered in front of a small sand table. The marked scope of this small sand table is the towns, villages, railways, highways, mountains, and rivers within a radius of several tens of miles, centered on the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp in Xiaoyushu Mountain. The chief of staff of the riverside immediately used a small pennant attached to the sand table to mark the location reported by Kosuke Otsuka that he was blocked by the Eighth Route Army.

"What do you think? Is there some connection between the bizarre appearance of the Eighth Route Army and the battle near the railway line in Lingshi County at this moment? Hagiwara asked his chief of staff, and deliberately used the word "bizarre" to describe the Eighth Route Army.

Hebe Dasa groaned and did not respond immediately, he was still putting forward the inference that the overall combat strength of the Chinese Army would not exceed 1,000 people, but in the blink of an eye, the Eighth Route Army actually appeared in the battle sequence tonight, which made the chief of staff of the brigade both shocked and embarrassed.

After Kojima Masao became the head of the Bunjo secret service, he once personally led his subordinates to survey the terrain around the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, and he was familiar with the situation near Hekou Village; According to the battle site just reported by Wing Commander Kosuke Otsuka, it is definitely a wasteland wilderness with a flat river, and there is no blocking position. This can only show one point: the Eighth Route Army built a position there in advance, and the purpose was to intercept the imperial army troops coming out of front of Fengdian County!

"General, this should be a joint operation, the people of China calculated that the garrison of Fengdian County would send reinforcements to the Tongpu Railway Line, and sent the Eighth Route Army to build a position on the road it must pass through to block it;" Kojima Masao explained in a rather hurried tone: "The blocking site is not far from Hekou Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, and it must have been done by the Eighth Route Army entrenched there. ”

The brigade commander, Major General, listened to the speech of the commander of the island organ, but his eyes never left the sand table in front of him, and his eyes scanned back and forth between the northern foot of the small elm mountain and the western foot of the Guanmen Mountain piled up on the sand table.

The chief of staff of the riverside reacted immediately, strongly agreeing with Masao Kojima's point of view. This was obviously a major move carefully planned and deployed by the local remnants of the Chinese Army, and the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army had a division of labor among each other, and they had both offensive and defensive capabilities. Its tactical purpose should be to sabotage the transportation and communication facilities along the Tongpu Railway and to wait for an opportunity to lure and annihilate part of the living forces of the imperial army.

"Is that all?" After listening to the analysis of the two subordinates, Hagiwara Akira's brows were still tightly locked, and he continued to ask word by word: "The target of the Shina army is only the Tongpu railway line?" Is it possible to threaten Little Elm Mountain at the same time? As he spoke, his finger poked the location of the Eighth Route Army's blockade that the chief of staff had just marked with a small flag by the riverside, and not far from the small flag was the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain.

There was a sudden silence in the room. The direction of the brigade commander, Major General, was of course clear about the connotation of the island and the riverside, and no one dared to judge it lightly for a while.

After a while, the chief of staff cautiously replied, believing that although the Eighth Route Army's blocking point was very close to Little Elm Mountain, it should still be regarded as an act of protecting the safety of the rear flank of the Tongpu Railway combat troops; In addition, there is currently a complete infantry brigade and attached mountain artillery stationed in the Little Elm Mountain, and even if the Chinese army attacks there, it is difficult to shake its defensive line without a certain scale of troops and firepower. And for now, at least, there have been no reports of attacks on the defenders of Little Elm Hill.

After another long time, the brigade commander, Major General, finally raised his head, shifted his gaze from the sand table to the faces of the two subordinates, and nodded slowly:

"You convinced me, it seems that I was overthinking, and that "Wind Project" made me a little nervous and suspicious. Since the Zhina army is only aiming at the Tongpu railway, let's concentrate our forces and gather them next to the railway line! ”

"Rest assured, General! The 391st Regiment of the Central Army of the Chinese Army and the Eighth Route Army at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, in the past, relied on the deep mountains and dense forests behind them, and once they encountered a frontal attack by the imperial army, they fled into the deep mountains; But tonight they had the audacity to jump into the plains, completely exposed to the attack of the Imperial Army, and there was no reason for them to escape again. Masao Kojima was the first to take a stand, but when he spoke, his eyes frequently glanced at the riverside Osa on the side, after all, the head of the secret service is not in charge of military combat operations.

Ignoring Kojima's gaze, Kawabe redirected a few points on the sand table, stating that the most important thing at the moment was whether Kosuke Otsuka's men and horses could quickly break through the Eighth Route Army's resistance, as long as they achieved a breakthrough and outflanked the Shina Army near the railway line in time, the battle would have a chance of victory.

Hagiwara Akira slapped the corner of the sand table hard, and shouted angrily: "The remnants of the Eighth Route Army at the foot of Guanmen Mountain have been greatly injured after the last night attack, and now they dare to use the so-called blocking position in the wilderness to challenge the imperial army. Order Otsuka, bombard with artillery, charge with cavalry, and be sure to break through the position of the Eighth Route Army within half an hour! ”

The chief of staff of the river immediately ran out and laid it out. Hagiwara Akira walked to his desk, dialed the phone number of the Xiangchuan Brigade Headquarters in Songjiagou in Little Elm Mountain, and personally told the captain of the brigade, Aikawa Shaoza, to strengthen the vigilance in an all-round way.

"General," Seeing that the brigade commander, Major General Shogun, put down the microphone, Kojima Masao suddenly said, "Do you want to notify Hirai Nakasa at the same time and let his gendarmerie be dispatched overnight?" It's a good time to fish in troubled waters. ”

Hagiwara was stunned, staring at the head of the secret service suspiciously, not understanding the other party's intentions for a while. Masao Kojima explained unhurriedly: If the gendarmerie of Hirai Teraichi was dispatched at this time to attack the homes of the people of China along the railway line and arrest the women of China, the flames of war would play a good role in covering up his actions, and even if the families of the people who lost the women became public afterwards, they would most likely blame it on the warring war, and would not suspect the true intentions of the gendarmerie.

The eyes of the commander of the Japanese brigade lit up, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: Very good, winning in danger is the best policy, and the gendarmerie will be dispatched immediately!