This night once again kept the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters in Bunjo Castle awake all night.

After nightfall, the Takagi Brigade of the Saijo Wing, which attacked Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, had been divided into two routes according to the strong instructions of the brigade headquarters: Captain Takagi Shaoza led two infantry squadrons and a machine gun squadron to attack Xiping Village and strive to achieve complete occupation; Wing Commander Daisa Saijo commanded two other infantry squadrons and artillery squadrons to pursue the Eighth Route Army south, which had been harassing their flanks.

Akira Hagiwara, the brigade commander who was sitting in Bunjo Castle, was now under a lot of pressure.

Just before dinner, Lieutenant General Kiyoshi Kazuki, commander of the First Army, personally called from Taiyuan to inquire about the progress of the Hagiwara Brigade's participation in the Nine-Route Siege Operation. Since Hagiwara Akira had not yet received the latest battle report from Saijo Daisa, he had no choice but to take the telephone receiver and report in a vague and uncertain manner: The attack on the Xu Brigade Detachment of the Eighth Route Army in Guanmen Mountain had been launched, and the attack on the 391st Regiment of the Central Army of the Great Elm Mountain would be launched in the near future.

Even through the airwaves, Hagiwara Akira could feel the dissatisfaction and anxiety in the tone of the commander of the First Army, and Lieutenant General Kazuki unceremoniously pointed out: In the nine-way encirclement battle plan, the attack launched from Tongpu Road was the slowest action! The Sena Division's operation of sending an infantry brigade from Linfen to attack Qinyuan County for 100 miles first encountered setbacks, and the main force of the 84th Division of the Central Army had already blocked the infantry brigade to the east of Qinyuan County, making it difficult to break through.

Hagiwara Akira, of course, understood what Commander Kazuki was referring to: an infantry brigade sent by the Sasaki Wing of the Kato Brigade of the division—it seemed that they were not in a good position. And next, the troops along the Tongpu Road to participate in the nine-way encirclement battle plan are the Saijo Wing under the command of his brigade! The commander of the First Army was undoubtedly harsh on this.

Not long after putting down Taiyuan's phone, the commander of the Sena Division called Hagiwara Akira from Yuncheng and revealed more about the bad battle situation of the Nine-Way Siege Operation.

According to Lieutenant General Sena's report from the headquarters of the First Army, the nine-way encirclement operation against the Taihang Mountains in the southeast of Shanxi Province has so far achieved few victories, and the first division of the Nakajima Division on the Pinghan Road in the east has been stopped along the Zhanghe River; The first part of the Shangang Division on Zhengtai Road in the north was stopped near Heshun County; The Sena Division on Tongpu Road in the west was stopped outside the city of Qinyuan County. Only the first part of the Xiayuan Division on the Tunlin Road in the south achieved a breakthrough through the defense line of the Zhina Army and attacked the areas of Xiangyuan, Qinxian, Wuxiang and Liaoxian.

According to the opinion of the commander of the Sena Division, each of the three divisions that are currently unable to advance has basically reached the end of the crossbow - taking this division as an example, an infantry brigade of the Sasaki Wing of the Kato Brigade sent by the company has engaged in fierce confrontations with the 84th Division of the Central Army of China outside the city of Qinyuan County for several days. The deputy commander of the Sasaki Wing, who commanded the operation, had already reported many difficulties and requested that troops be stationed in place and temporarily form a confrontation with the Shina Army.

In this way, according to the battle plan, the division was divided into three units sent by Tongpulu, the first of which declared a mute, and the second and third were the Saijo Wing of the Hagiwara Brigade, which was attacking Mt. Kanmon and was about to attack Mt. Great Elm. Presumably, this is also the reason why the commander of Xiangyue in Taiyuan City just now urgently called Hagiwara Akira.

Immediately, the commander of the Sena Division also exerted pressure on the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade on the phone, demanding that the Saijo Wing must live up to expectations and make every effort to eliminate the remnants of the Shina Army near Little Elm Mountain.

After answering the phone calls from the two lieutenant generals one after another, fine beads of sweat oozed from Hagiwara's forehead. And this embarrassing and embarrassing scene was seen by his chief of staff, Kawabe Daisa.

"There's no room for manoeuvre, Riverside-kun!" The brigade commander, Major General, shouted at the chief of staff impetuously: "Saijo Shigehei and his Takagi brigade must complete the sweep of the western foot of Guanmen Mountain within 24 hours, and I don't want to see a single soldier of the Eighth Route Army in that area!" ”

Originally, before setting out on the expedition, Kawabe Osa had reached a tacit consensus with the captain of the Saijo Wing, acquiescing to the fact that the wing, which had just suffered heavy losses on the southwestern front of Jin, would "not contribute to the work" and give priority to preserving its own strength in the nine-way encirclement operation of attacking Guanmen Mountain and Great Elm Mountain. But at this point, the chief of staff of the brigade did not dare to continue to make another false shot.

So, just after learning that the Saijo Wing had finally conquered the outer defense line of Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, Major General Hagiwara and Kawabe Osa formulated a new plan on the spot to divide the troops into two ways and pursue and annihilate the Eighth Route Army, and issued it to Saijo Shigehei to implement it immediately - the two did not know that the Eighth Route Army was good at night fighting, nor did they not know that the unfamiliar Saijo Wing would be in a more difficult situation after night, but under the pressure of the commander of the First Army and the commander of the Sena Division, the two of them had no choice.

Next, at the dinner table of the brigade headquarters, the brigade commander and the chief of staff faced a small table of wine and food that was not sumptuous but very exquisite, which could be described as unpleasant and absent-minded -- the clouds of the Second Army's defeat on the Taierzhuang battlefield on the Shandong front had not yet dissipated, and the First Army's nine-way encirclement of the Taihang Mountains in the southeast of Shanxi Province was originally intended to boost morale and raise the flag for the Shandong front, but unexpectedly, the encirclement operation was only ten days before it was blocked, revealing a tiger's head and snake's tail.

"Fortunately, there is the good news that the Xia Yuan Division broke through from the southern front, otherwise the face of our First Army would not be small!" Kawabe Osa slowly chewed the peanuts in his mouth and said without self-deprecation.

However, Major General Hagiwara, who was sitting opposite, pinched his wine cup and shook his head thoughtfully: "The four divisions sent troops to surround them on all sides, but only one of the lower Yuan divisions achieved a breakthrough, which may not be a good thing......

The chief of staff on the riverside was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood the brigade commander's train of thought - the two brigades under the command of the Xia Yuan Division, each sent an infantry wing to attack this time, although they broke into the hinterland of Taihang Mountain in one go, but it was inevitable that they would commit the taboo of being alone and going deep.

However, the battle report shows that the Kashiwazaki Wing of the Nakano Brigade has taken Xiangyuan, Qinxian and Wuxiang counties one after another, and has already defeated the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the main force of the Xu Division there; What's more, they still have the Tomamidi Brigade Gongteng United to deal with the capture of Liao County, so it shouldn't be a big problem! "The chief of staff of the riverside, who had read the battle report, recounted the layout of the two infantry wings of the Xia Yuan Division with his excellent memory.

"Let's not the heart of Taihang Mountain," Hagiwara Akira sighed, and said with a lonely expression: "Let's keep an eye on the Guanmen Mountain and the Great Elm Mountain in front of us - there is a matter of safety in the Little Elm Mountain comfort women's camp, and it also involves the rescue of Warrant Officer Takamatsu of the cavalry wing of the division, even if there is no such nine-way siege operation, they are already within the clearance plan of our brigade - that is our most important business!" ”

Kawabe Daisa's face showed a hint of embarrassment, and he didn't know if the words of the brigade commander, Major General, were mocking himself for being nosy and not keeping his duty: "Uh...... I am stepping up the operation of attacking the Great Elm Mountain, and the Kameda Brigade has basically met the conditions for carrying light weapons to the battle, and it can be transported to the county seat of Fengdian by car from tomorrow——"

When Hagiwara Akira heard this, he suddenly cut off the chief of staff's words: "I have already asked the defenders of Toyoden to temporarily support some of the heavy weapons of the Kameda Brigade, is it necessary to let Kosuke Otsuka come to temporarily command this attack of the Kameda Brigade?" ”

The Kameda Brigade that the two of them referred to was the Second Infantry Brigade of the Saijo Wing that was intensively preparing for battle in the barracks on the western outskirts of Bunjo, and the captain of the group was Kameda Shosa.

This proposal obviously surprised Kawabe Osa, so much so that he looked directly at Hagiwara Akira and did not answer for a while.

Major General Hagiwara further elaborated his reasons: Mount Oelmu, which Kameda Brigade was about to attack, was the place where the 391st Regiment of the Central Army of China was entrenched, and Kosuke Otsuka had repeatedly fought with the 391st Regiment and had a certain amount of experience; Captain Saijo was now commanding Takagi's Brigade to fight at the foot of Kanmon Mountain, and his deputy Wing Commander had died on the front line in the southwest of Jin; And the heavy task of attacking the Central Army of Great Elm Mountain is probably not something that a young man like Captain Kameda can bear.

The brigade commander had already said this, and Kawabe Daisa, who was the chief of staff, realized that there was not much room for rebuttal; But he really hated Kosuke Otsuka's vulgar behavior, and among the two wing captains under the command of the Hagiwara Brigade, he undoubtedly admired the bold and resourceful Shigehei Saijo more. Now he wants to let Kosuke Otsuka command Saijo Shigehei's troops, and he is really unwilling.

The brigade commander, Major General, was completely aware of the unwillingness of the chief of staff on the riverside, but the current military situation was urgent, and he was impatient to let these mundane matters disturb the overall situation of the operation, so he simply turned the tentative solicitation of opinions just now into a direct decision. Kawabe Osa had no choice but to reluctantly accept.

At that time, the shocking news of a sneak attack came from Little Elm Mountain, and Hagiwara Akira and Kawabe suddenly turned their attention to the comfort women's secret camp at Songjiagou Station - they painstakingly and racked their brains to deploy to clear out the remnants of the Chinese army in Guanmen Mountain and Big Elm Mountain, and the main purpose was to protect the safety of Little Elm Mountain; But what I never expected was that before the action of clearing out the enemy army was known, the backyard of Little Elm Mountain caught fire!

Fortunately, it was quickly established that it was not a large-scale military attack, but a brief exchange of fire at one location, and that a small number of attackers were quickly expelled from the Little Elm Hill blockade. After ordering the head of the secret service in Bunjo to rush to investigate the scene, Hagiwara and his chief of staff stayed in the brigade headquarters, anxiously waiting for Kojima Masao's report.

They waited for the last thing they wanted to see!