The overnight transfer of the four Chinese women was personally decided by Brigade Commander Major General Akira Hagiwara and Masao Kojima, head of the secret service. As soon as they learned the news of the successful return of the Hirai Temple arrest team, Hagiwara Akira entrusted Masao Kojima to visit the barracks in the southern suburbs of Bunjo. However, he encouraged Hirai Nakasa and Lieutenant Mizukawa.

In his heart, Kojima Masao didn't care about the appearance and body of these Chinese women at all, and the eagerness of the North China Front Command to urge the comfort women had made him take the time to complete the task as the first priority. And after the impostor Nakasa returned last time, he actually caught four prey in one afternoon, which surprised the captain of the island.

The transfer operation began after 12 o'clock in the night, and two trucks drove out of the barracks in the southern suburbs, one after the other, and in order to escort the four comfort women who had just been recruited, Squadron Leader Ushijima personally led an infantry squad to carry it out. As the military police captain of the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp, Hirai Teraichi also returned by car. The truck sped through the night to the West Pass of Little Elm Mountain, and then disappeared into the valley.

At this point, the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp, which had been vacant for a long time, reappeared as a Chinese woman.

A few days later, sitting in the spacious and bright room of the brigade headquarters, Major General Hagiwara Akira happily received Teriichi Hirai, who also brought Lieutenant Mizukawa, the leader of the capture squad, to accept the brigade commander's personal encouragement. Major General Hagiwara asked about some details of the arrest and was satisfied with the aftermath of the capture team.

Hirai and Mizukawa took their leave and immediately began a new arrest operation. Soon after they left, the brigade chief of staff, Kawabe Daisa, and the wing commander, Kosuke Otsuka, rushed to the brigade headquarters one after another—they had come to hold a high-level military meeting at the order of the brigade commander, and a major general and two Osa were gathered in the room, representing the highest command level of the garrison in the Bunjo area.

The core topic of the military meeting was to discuss the recent gains and losses of the Second Army of the North China Front Army in the Xuzhou direction.

The Sena Division was a standing division of the Japanese army, and its internal officer ranks, like other powerful units of the Japanese army, maintained a tradition of frequent strategic and tactical discussions in both peacetime and wartime.

Although the Hagiwara Brigade is currently commanding only one wing and carrying out the task of dividing troops and garrisoning, the main forces of the entire division are fighting on the front line in southern and southwestern Jinjin, and if nothing else, after completing the overall occupation of Shanxi, the forward of the division and regiment will most likely cross the Yellow River and enter Henan for ground operations, and the primary strategic purpose is to control the Longhai Railway and cut off the transportation line of the Chinese Army to support the battlefield of the Battle of Xuzhou.

For this reason, Hagiwara Akira can be said to have always had a fighting spirit, and his eyes were always focused on the battle of his division and his regiment going south to the Tongpu Railway, as well as the outpost battle of the Battle of Xuzhou of the Second Army of the Front Army. The progress of the commander of the Sena Division in Jinnan was too smooth, and the Kato Brigade of the division was almost bloodless and drove straight into the process of fighting with the Central Army of Wei Lihuang of the Shina Army, so the summary of the battle in the direction of Jinnan was really lackluster, and Hagiwara Akira focused his attention on Xuzhou.

In accordance with a series of reports on the battle situation in the direction of the Second Army's attack on Xuzhou recently forwarded by the North China Front Command, Major General Hagiwara ordered his subordinates to compile them into an outline, and today he will work with his chief of staff, wing commander, and several operational staff officers at the brigade headquarters to discuss the conduct of the Battle of Xuzhou so far.

At this moment, Hagiwara Akira had already swept away the pleasant mood when he summoned the captain of the Songjiagou gendarmerie and his subordinates just now, and turned serious, and even looked worried. He went straight to the point and told the participants the reality that the Battle of Xuzhou was in a very difficult situation.

It is not difficult to see from the drawings that the two main divisions of the Second Army of the North China Front, the two advancing detachments sent by the Isogu Division and the Itagaki Division, launched a pincer offensive against the Taierzhuang area on the outskirts of Xuzhou from the northwest and northeast directions, respectively. If you just look at these two huge arrows, it will undoubtedly make people feel that Taierzhuang is in a catastrophe. However, as the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade said at the beginning, in the actual battle, both the Nagase Detachment (the detachment leader was Major General Takehei Nagase) sent by the Isoya Division and the Sakamoto Detachment (the detachment leader was Major General Shun Sakamoto) sent by the Itagaki Division, after attacking all the way to the outskirts of Taierzhuang, they all encountered desperate resistance from the troops of the Fifth Theater of the Shina Army, and the battle situation was stalemate and the progress was slow.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the current situation encountered by the two main divisions of the Second Army is very worthy of our careful study," Hagiwara Akira pointed to the map and said slowly: "The routes traveled by the Nagase detachment and the Sakamoto detachment are both plains in the southern part of Shandong, and the soldiers and horses on both routes are also advancing along the railway line; First of all, this is very close to the combat mode of our division and regiment going south to the Tongpu Railway; Secondly, once our division is ordered to cross the Yellow River and attack Henan, its campaign will be carried out along the Longhai Railway; Therefore, the actual combat encounter of the Second Army in Taierzhuang is of great significance to the future operations of our division and regiment. ”

The chief of staff of the brigade, Kawabe Daisa, has recently been fully immersed in the deployment and coordination of the division's baggage wing to supply the main force of the front line, and at the same time to take into account the overall defense of the Nantongpu railway line and Wencheng, so he has very little time and energy to pay attention to this major battle in the far south of Shandong. However, the wing commander Kosuke Otsuka showed a strong interest, this Dazuo, who had risen rapidly in the battle of Niangzi Pass last year, was obviously bored and tormented by the task of leading a wing to garrison the important place, and he hated that the division commander Lieutenant General Sena would give an order, and he would lead the entire wing to go to Henan.

"General, the commander-in-chief of the Second Group Army of the Zhina Army mentioned in the operational minutes of the Battle of Xuzhou is named Sun Lianzhong, is this Sun Lianzhong the general of the Zhina Army who fought with our division at Niangziguan last year?" Kosuke Otsuka asked with burning eyes.

Hagiwara Akira looked at his co-captain with approving eyes, nodded and replied, "It's that Sun Lianzhong!" Last year in Niangzi Pass, he was also the commander of the 26th Route Army of the Zhina Army, and several division commanders of the army, Zhang Jinzhao and Chi Fengcheng, were very capable of fighting, and they could be called tiger generals who could fight well. Today, Sun Lianzhong has been promoted to commander of the Second Group Army of the Chinese Army, and it is Sun Lianzhong himself who is currently commanding defensive operations in Taierzhuang. ”

"No wonder the two major detachments of the Second Army of our Front Army will be blocked at one strategic point at the same time!" The chief of staff on the side of the river muttered to himself: "It turned out that Sun Lianzhong's troops were carrying out the defense. ”

In last year's Battle of Niangzi Pass, the chief of staff of the river side experienced many bloody battles and was deeply impressed by Sun Lianzhong's 26th Army, which was blocking the Sena Division head-on.

"Yes, Sun Bu can be called one of the few ace troops in the Chinese army, in Niangzi Pass, if there is one more unit like the 26th Army, it is really hard to say whether our division can open this Shanxi gateway on time last year. You must know that at that time, on the Xinkou front line in northern Shanxi, Itagaki Seishiro and the Kwantung Army had already supported to the last moment, and even if our division was delayed for another week to enter Shanxi, the front of Itagaki might be broken through by Yan Xishan and Wei Lihuang's counteroffensive, and the consequences would be unimaginable. ”

The person who said this was the commander of the Hagiwara Akira Brigade, who, like many of the middle and high-ranking officers of the Sena Division, was deeply jealous of the combat effectiveness of Sun Lian Nakabu in the Battle of Niangzi Pass.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, the first co-captain to mention Sun Lianzhong's name, Kosuke Otsuka, was filled with righteous indignation, and shouted arrogantly: "Sun Lianzhong and his subordinates are nothing remarkable, the battle of Niangzi Pass, although they caused a certain delay to my division, but in the end, they were still defeated by us?" ”

Chief of Staff of the riverside, who has always looked down on Kosuke Otsuka, who has always been promoted from the line of fire, couldn't help but gouge out his eyes at the other party, and then said in a very calm tone: "At that time, Sun Lianzhong's department, I'm afraid it didn't just cause a certain delay to my division, right?" I remember that your wing has lost about 1,000 people in a few battles, and you, the wing leader, were also brought up from Shaozuo quickly because of the death of your two predecessors, right? ”

Kosuke Otsuka knew very well what the brigade chief of staff thought of him, but he believed that the brigade commander Major General himself was favored, so he didn't take the cynicism of the chief of staff of the river to heart. Sure enough, as soon as the riverside voice fell, Major General Hagiwara smiled at Kosuke Otsuka: "Dazuo, if it is our brigade that attacks Sun Lianzhong's troops on the outskirts of Taierzhuang at this moment, and your wing is the vanguard, what tactics will you adopt?" ”

The reason why Hagiwara asked such a question was not just out of appreciation for Kosuke Otsuka, but because he considered the future battle layout involving his division and brigade. If the Front Army Headquarters and the First Army Headquarters had ordered the Sena Division to cross the river and enter Henan to fight after the Fengling Crossing had been defeated, the battlefield situation would be somewhat similar to the battlefield in the direction of Xuzhou. As far as combat units are concerned, the two detachments of the Second Army in the direction of Taierzhuang at the moment have slightly fewer troops in each detachment than a brigade, but they have strengthened some special forces units respectively, and this configuration method is very likely to be adopted after its own division and regiment enter Henan to fight.

Kosuke Otsuka was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect the brigade commander Major General to put forward such an idea at all, his rough pig face turned red instantly, and he didn't answer, just stared at the combat situation map in front of him and began to think quickly.

"Chief of Staff, you also think about it. You must know that in the future, the Saijo Wing will definitely be rebuilt in whole or in part, and once our brigade is ordered to drive along the Longhai Railway in Henan, it is very likely that it will also fight against the China Army on the scale of a detachment currently attacking the Taierzhuang front. ”

"General, I've come up with a countermeasure!" Seeing that Hagiwara Akira also asked the chief of staff of the riverside, Kosuke Otsuka immediately responded first: "If the forward of our wing starts to attack the periphery of Taierzhuang, I will carry out a frontal assault with the strength of two brigades to attract the main defensive force of the defenders of the Shina Army; Immediately, with the elite of a brigade, he quickly interspersed with the flank of Taierzhuang and carried out a flank attack on the defenders. ”

The brigade commander of the Japanese army smiled again and silently agreed with the answer of the commander of the wing: they all knew very well that what the Chinese army was most afraid of was the appearance of enemy troops behind the flank of the defensive line, which meant that their originally impregnable defensive line would soon turn into a state of collapse!