After falling into silence again, the chief of staff, Kawabe Daisa, cautiously asked: "The Second Army is in the direction of Xuzhou, and the progress should not be too smooth, right?" ”

The Second Army he was referring to, that is, the Second Army of the North China Front, was commanded by Lieutenant General Nishio Shouzo, who was currently under the jurisdiction of the Itagaki Division and the Isogu Division, and was attacking Xuzhou in the south. The two divisions each previously formed a mixed detachment: the Sakamoto detachment and the Seya detachment, which took the lead as the vanguard. Recent battle reports show that when the above two detachments launched a pincer offensive in the direction of Xuzhou, they encountered stubborn resistance from the troops of the Fifth Theater of the Zhina Army along the way, and the pace of attack appeared to be sluggish.

Hagiwara Akira looked at his chief of staff and nodded slowly: "Major General Seya (author's note: Kei Seya, commander of the 33rd Brigade of the Isoya Division of the Second Army of the North China Front) is on the Jinpu railway line, and he will pull out the key points of Teng County and annihilate an entire division of the Sichuan Army of the China Army, which should be the last beautiful move so far; The two detachments were now in a bitter battle near Taierzhuang, and the commander of the Itagaki Division himself went into battle and moved his headquarters to the front; The Fifth Theater of the Chinese Army is defending Taierzhuang at all costs. ”

"General Itagaki," a strange expression appeared on the face of the chief of staff on the riverside: "Fate always seems to be not good, last year in the Battle of Xinkou in northern Shanxi, he had no way to take the Shanxi Zhina Army, if it wasn't for our division to attack the rear of the Zhina Army from the flank, it is really hard to say whether the Xinkou defense line can finally break through." In less than half a year, he met Li Zongren, a famous general of the Zhina Army, I don't know what the chances of winning this time are? ”

The head of the Kojima secret service, who had rarely spoken, suddenly interjected dryly: Lieutenant General Itagaki still has a very strong intelligence and reconnaissance ability.

Riverside Dazuo snorted and laughed: "That's right, that's right, when he was still the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, he had already traveled the whole of Shanxi, and the mountains and rivers in the land of Sanjin should all be put into his mind, but in front of the Xinkou defense line, it was still-"

With a snap, Hagiwara slapped the table in front of him lightly, and at the same time shot his gaze at the chief of staff of the riverside, who immediately closed his mouth in amusement. In the Japanese Army, Seishiro Itagaki's ability to command and fight has always been controversial, but the brigade commander, Major General, did not want his subordinates to discuss the commander.

"General Itagaki led his troops not to go through the Yanmen Pass last year and unexpectedly inserted the tactics of the Pingxing Pass is very classic and worthy of learning from the entire army;" Major General Hagiwara said carefully: "Li Zongren, who encountered this time, is also quite capable among the generals of the Chinese Army, and his command ability should be above Wei Lihuang. ”

The telephone rang suddenly and rapidly, ending the discussion about Seishiro Itagaki in the headquarters, and the call was from the Hagiwara Brigade and Regiment Headquarters, and the brigade commander Major General himself was asked to answer the call, but the telecommunications staff officer of the brigade headquarters only said one sentence on the phone: Major General Suzuki, senior staff officer of the Front Army Headquarters, had just sent a secret telegram.

Putting down the phone, Hagiwara Akira immediately turned his head to look at Masao Kojima, who was not far from him, and clearly heard the words of the telecommunications staff officer in the microphone.

The two tacitly exchanged glances, and they both knew that Suzuki Gaoshen of the front army had sent a secret telegram at this moment, and there could only be one content: urging the "Wind Plan" to step up its implementation. Obviously, the war in the direction of Xuzhou is tight, and the desire of the warriors of the Imperial Army for comfort women is increasing day by day.

Although the chief of staff of Kawabe, who also heard the content of the call, was one of those who knew about the "Wind Project", he had just been implicitly admonished by the brigade commander himself, so he continued to shut up in a humorous manner, and got up to see off Hagiwara and Kojima Masao, who were worried about going out.

The contents of the secret telegram sent by Major General Suzuki, senior staff officer of the North China Front Command, did not surprise the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade and the head of the Kojima Agency, and it was still asking and urging the process of secretly forcibly recruiting comfort women.

And in the face of the Hirai Temple Ichi arrest team that was about to collapse at the touch of a button last time, the two commanders and deployers of the "Wind Plan" also felt a headache. A few days ago, Major General Commander of the brigade personally ordered the mobilization of more than a dozen veterans with extensive experience in battle from the combat unit and allocated them to Hirai Temple Ichi Nakasa to enrich his arrest team, which of course made the captain of the gendarmerie very happy, but neither Hagiwara Akira himself nor Kojima Masao were happy: It is an indisputable fact that the "wind plan," which was regarded as the highest top secret by both the imperial base camp and the North China Front Headquarters, was being involved in more and more people in the know. This should not bode well.

However, looking at the telegram sent by Major General Suzuki (which is not the first), it is clear that both Hagiwara Akira and Masao Kojima have lost their patience, and between the urgent urging of Kamimine and the absolute secrecy of the operation, as soldiers of the Imperial Army, they have no choice but to deal with satisfying the former.

"That infantry squadron of the Nara Brigade is going to be dispatched today," Major General Hagiwara gave an order within the brigade headquarters: "According to the preset route, carry out a surprise sweep of those villages!" ”

The preset route he talked about was the village where a small number of the Eighth Route Army were stationed in the detailed investigation report sent by the Wencheng secret service after the last time the Hirai Si 1 arrest team encountered the 1st Division of the Eighth Route Army of the Chinese Army. The brigade commander, Major General General, had already made up his mind to use troops in the above-mentioned villages for a short period of time and to quickly drive away the remnants of the Shina Army there, so as to ensure that the Hirai Temple Capture Squad would not be confronted when it set out again.

In the early afternoon, in the makeshift barracks on the southern outskirts of Bunjo, a squadron of trucks rushed out, and a squadron of the Nara Infantry Brigade of the Otsuka Wing dispatched three squads, led by members of the plainclothes team of the Bunjo secret service, and went straight to several villages along the west bank of the Qinglong River. The first goal is Ewhapo.

Almost at the same time as the truck convoy roared away, Hirai Teraichi took Lieutenant Mizukawa, the leader of the arrest team, and the arrest team members of the two detachments, and quietly rushed to the direction along the Nantongpu Railway in the direction of the Nantongpu Railway by civilian vehicles such as horse-drawn carriages, ox carts, and donkey carts.

This is the two-pronged plan that Akira Hagiwara and Masao Kojima decided on the impropose. Dispatch troops all the way to sweep and cover people's eyes; The other side began to arrest women in China. ，

Hirai Temple, who received the order, was initially skeptical of the dispatch in the early afternoon of the day, believing that the arrest team should still be dispatched at dawn every day to be more concealed and safe. However, his questioning was categorically rejected by the head of the secret service, who said that this was an order personally issued by the brigade commander, Major General himself, and that there was no room for maneuver and that it must be carried out to the letter.

The captain of the Songjiagou military police, who was apprehensive but helpless, had no choice but to gather his subordinates and set off nervously with great dissatisfaction with the cold-speaking head of the secret service. They were well aware that the route of the expedition was parallel to the sweeping squadron of the Nara Infantry Brigade: one was advancing south along the banks of the Qinglong River, and the other was advancing south along the Tongpu railway line. Hopefully, the Sweep Squadron will be able to drive out the small units of the Shina Army, or at least scare them away, so that the last time they collided head-on with the cavalry of the Shina Army at Ewhappo will not happen again.

Wu Zijian, the deputy commander of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Lin Division, who had just returned to Xiping Village from Hekou Village, had not yet received an urgent military situation from Lihuapu: a Japanese automobile team, numbering hundreds of people, had just raided the village, and now it should be looting in the village!

Gallop came back to report that it was one of the two cavalrymen left by Xia Lianshan there, and there was also one cavalry and three infantry in Lihuapu Village, and there were more than 20 people in the village guard team composed of young and strong villagers. At the time of the incident, they were outnumbered, and they had decided to temporarily withdraw to the outside of the village to monitor the enemy's situation and wait for further instructions from the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion.

The situation came very suddenly, and Wu Zijian immediately summoned Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the 6th Company, Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th Company, and Xia Lianshan, the commander of the cavalry company, to discuss countermeasures. Xia Lianshan knew more about Ewhapo because he had just traveled back and forth with the work team, and judged on the spot that this was the Japanese army's dispatch of troops in retaliation for the last attack on Ewhapo by their plainclothes in Ewhapo.

"Deputy battalion commander, we should do something!" The cavalry company commander shouted excitedly: "Ewhapo was originally a small village with nothing to do, and it was because we had an exchange of fire with the plainclothes spies of the Japanese army there that we caused this murderous disaster, and our Eighth Route Army can't sit idly by!" ”

When Wang Shuanglong and Wei Xin heard this, they also geared up and asked for troops to be sent immediately.

Wu Zijian's mood seemed relatively calm: on the eve of the upcoming attack on the Nantongpu Railway with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, he must be cautious in the use of troops. Moreover, this Japanese army is fierce, and the troops that can move on trucks must be the elite of the Sena Division, and they must not be wasted.

But as Xia Lianshan said, the catastrophe of the small Lihuapu is obviously related to the actions of the Eighth Route Army; And last time, under the propaganda and encouragement of Zhang Xiu and other team members, the village has set up a village protection team to accept the leadership of the Eighth Route Army, and even some people came to Xiping Village with the army to become recruits of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Forest Division. All these have determined that in today's sudden situation, we cannot sit idly by.

The deputy commander of the second battalion immediately ordered Xia Lianshan to lead 20 cavalry to set off immediately and approach Lihuapu, first, to meet the comrades-in-arms and village guards who had retreated outside the village, and second, to further investigate the situation, and then immediately pass on the latest information to the rear team. The whole of the 7th Company then marched along the banks of the Qinglong River in two ways, with two platoons on each road, led by the company commander and the company instructor respectively; Wu Zijian personally followed one of the actions.

"Release the carrier pigeons, inform the 391st Regiment, and our unit will temporarily go to Ewhapo to fight the Japanese army!"

Wu Zijian gave orders to the correspondent while deploying. The matter was in a hurry, and he felt that it was necessary to inform the friendly forces, in case the battle situation expanded and Qin Zhongxiao was caught off guard!