Lieutenant General Sena, who was in charge of the headquarters of the Yuncheng Division in southern Jinnan, immediately reported to Commander Kazuki Seiji of the First Army in Taiyuan on the actions of the Hagiwara Brigade under his command to organize troops to attack the Guanmen Mountain and the Great Elm Mountain Shina Army, and gave a detailed explanation of the plan for the Saijo Wing to be transferred to fight in the southwest of Shanxi.

Lieutenant General Kiyoji Kazuki did not dispute this, because the commander of the First Army himself was deeply disappointed by the actions of the Honchuan Mixed Brigade to encircle and suppress the Jin army in Yan Xishan, coupled with the operations in the area of Guanmen Mountain and Da Yushu Mountain, and related to the Imperial Army's top-secret "wind plan" to forcibly recruit comfort women—in this case, it was necessary to temporarily weaken the use of troops in the remote southwest of Jin, and concentrate on first clearing the law and order around the comfort women's secret camp in Little Elm Mountain.

At the same time, Lieutenant General Sena requested that in view of the time required for the transfer of the Saijo Wing from the southwest of Shanxi, and the request of the Front Army and the First Army Headquarters that the joint offensive of the Four Masters Regiment be launched on 4 April, the attack on Guanmen Mountain and the Great Elm Mountain needed to be appropriately postponed. This was also approved by the commander of the First Army.

The relevant information was quickly delivered by the Sena Division Headquarters to the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters in Bunjo. Hagiwara Akira was excited by Kamimine's full support for his headquarters, but he also felt the weight of the pressure: from the Front Army to the First Army, and then to the division and regiment headquarters, a pair of eyes were now beginning to focus on him, and if he lost this battle again, I am afraid that it would be difficult for him to explain to the high-ranking commanders.

- Either complete their merits in one battle, or wait to receive a severe punishment from the highest command of the Front! Akira Hagiwara, who rose to the position of major general as today's brigade commander step by step, knew that the moment to decide his fate was approaching again.

He first sent a telegram to the Saijo Wing, who were in a bitter battle in the southwest of Jin. Wing Commander Shigeo Saijo replied to the telegram claiming that he had received a dispatch telegram from Major General Motokawa Province, commander of the mixed brigade, and the Sena Division Headquarters, and that the Wing Headquarters had immediately begun to implement the deployment. However, a difficult problem before us is that in the previous offensive and suppression operations, the entire wing was forced to disperse into branch units with infantry brigades or even infantry squadrons as combat units, and it was widely in and out of the combat area within a radius of several hundred miles, and it was very difficult to communicate and liaise, and it was very difficult to quickly assemble in a short period of time. At present, the headquarters of the wing is located in the county seat of Puxian, and the main force of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division of the Zhina Army occupies Wucheng, which is dozens of miles away, forming a confrontation and tug-of-war with the imperial army.

The commander of the Hagiwara Brigade, who received this long telegram, couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat: he was mentally prepared enough for the predicament that the Honkawa Mixed Brigade fell into in the southwest of Jinxi, but to his great surprise, the Saijo Wing was so fragmented and divided into parts! This may confirm from one side that Yan Xishan's Jin army and the Eighth Route Army's forest division were widely and rampant in that area.

However, the time left for himself was also imminent, and Hagiwara immediately sent two telegrams in succession, urging Shigeo Saijo to gather his troops at all costs, withdraw along Puxian to the direction of Tumen, and finally board the car to transport troops in Linfen.

As for the harsh reality that after the withdrawal of the Saijo Wing as a whole, the mixed brigade of the third province of Honkawa will exist in name only, it is not something that Hagiwara needs to bother to consider. The actual battle showed that the melee situation in the southwest of Shanxi was far from being able to be pacified by a hastily formed mixed brigade - there was the last corner of Yan Xishan, the king of Shanxi, in his hometown, and he must defend it desperately; Coupled with the assistance of the main force of the Lin Division, which was strong in combat power of the Eighth Route Army, General Benchuan's troops were finally able to retreat in their entirety, even if it was a blessing in misfortune.

"General, how are Shigeo's troops suffering from battle losses?"

Chief of Staff Kawabe Osa, who was also coordinating the deployment at the brigade headquarters, asked with great concern.

Major General Hagiwara sighed heavily, his expression becoming solemn. According to the report of the Saijo Wing, the division has repeatedly exchanged fire with the Jin Army and the Eighth Route Army of the China Army for more than a month, and the battle situation is very fierce; Many important places have been locked in repeated battles. So far, more than 600 officers and men of the wing have been killed or missing, more than 400 have been wounded, and 27 have been killed or injured at the squad leader level or above. The losses are not insignificant.

When the chief of staff of the riverside heard this, he immediately became anxious, such a high proportion of battle losses, after the wing withdrew from the southwest of Shanxi, an infantry brigade would be assigned to garrison the four counties and towns along the Tongpu Road south of Linfen, so how much could the total strength of the army finally return to Wencheng and participate in the attack on Guanmen Mountain and Da Yushu Mountain? !

Major General Brigade Commander walked to the huge military map hanging on the wall, and his eyes swept over Hongdong, Huoxian, Hanxinling, and Lingshi County, which were the garrison places that the division commander and Lieutenant General had just ordered to change the defense of the brigade and take over:

"General Sena was well aware of the predicament of the Saijo Wing, and had already applied to the Front Army in advance for the transfer of a supplementary infantry brigade from Hebei to Wencheng. It is currently in shipment. ”

"Replenishment Brigade again?" The chief of staff by the river shook his head with narrowed eyes. After the experience gained over the past six months since the start of the war, the combat effectiveness of the supplementary brigades is really worrisome, and the vacancies in the number of troops of each division and regiment they fill often mean a decline in the quality of troops.

In the early days of the war of aggression against China, the so-called supplementary infantry brigade of the Japanese Army could achieve a sufficient number of soldiers, but each supplementary brigade had only the captain and deputy captain of the squadron and the captain of each squadron and squad, who were veterans who had participated in front-line operations, and the rest were reserve recruits. In battle, once the above-mentioned captains at all levels are killed, the teams under their command are often in a state of chaos without a leader, and their combat effectiveness drops instantly. This is precisely the situation that makes a senior commander like Kawabe Osa extremely dissatisfied and powerless.

However, in the face of this seemingly thorny problem, the brigade commander Hagiwara Akira had already found a solution, and he ordered his chief of staff to send the brigade directly to Lingshi County and other four garrisons along the Tongpu Railway Line once he received the supplementary infantry brigade from Hebei at the Wencheng Railway Station:

"I have no experience in field warfare, and there should be no big problem to hide behind the strong walls of the county town to defend."

"The general is clever, really clever!" Kawabe Daisa sincerely praised his top boss, and the anxious look on his face turned into a smile. In this way, the elite of the Saijo Wing could be freed up and used for the operation of the Kanmon Mountain and the Great Elm Mountain Shina Army.

"There is also an latest situation, a few days ago in the night raid on the Huoxian county town of the Chinese army, has been confirmed as the Central Army 17th Army 84th Division, the department is currently in Qinyuan County, southern Jinnan, there was no big move before, this time suddenly took advantage of my Lingshi County when it was attacked, sent troops out to a hundred miles away Tongpu Road to attack and disturb, very strange. The division and regimental headquarters preliminarily judged that the 84th Division of the 17th Army might be under the command of the Wei Lihuang Department of the Second War Zone of the China Army. ”

Hebian Dazuo's expression instantly became serious again: If this judgment of the division headquarters is true, it should also mean that the attack of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army on Lingshi County also belongs to the overall combat series under the coordinated command of the Second World War Zone of the China Army!

Hagiwara nodded, indicating that he did not rule out this possibility. Therefore, it is even more important to exterminate the remnants of the Central Army in the Great Elm Mountain as soon as possible (of course, including the remnants of the Eighth Route Army who are in cahoots with them). Otherwise, this Chinese army, which is close to the comfort women camp in Little Elm Mountain, will threaten the security of this area at any time.

"In this way, the 12th Independent Brigade of the Jin Army entrenched in Pingquan County is also worth paying attention to," the chief of staff of the riverside pointed to the Pingquan point on the map and said: "Although the 12th Independent Brigade is a defeated army that has been defeated by the Otsuka Wing, the sudden emergence of the 84th Division of the 17th Army of the Central Army in Qinyuan County will make them feel relied on." If these two forces join forces, they will definitely be more numerically than the Zhina Army of Great Elm Mountain and Guanmen Mountain. I'm afraid the trouble it will bring to the imperial army will not be small. ”

The brigade commander, Major General, said that his chief of staff was distraught, at least for the time being, he had no intention or obligation to take care of the Jin army and the central army in the two county towns in central and southern Jin. The enemies of Great Elm Mountain and Guanmen Mountain alone are enough for him to deal with!

"You will be stationed at the railway station from now on," the brigade commander, Major General, instructed his chief of staff, "to concentrate on waiting for reinforcements from both the north and south, and to report to me at any time on the arrival of the supplementary brigade and the Saijo Wing." ”

"Hey!"

Hagiwara Akira has already made a plan, and let the two wings under the brigade divide their troops to attack and start a crusade competition:

- After the Saijo Wing was rebuilt, it was assembled in Lingshi County, and the wing commander Shigeo Saijo led two brigades to attack the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division under the Guanmen Mountain (at this time, the Japanese army did not know that the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade had been reorganized into the Xu Brigade Guanmen Mountain Dispatch Detachment);

-- The Otsuka Wing currently has a Nomura Brigade to garrison Toyoden, and at that time, the Nara Brigade stationed in the eastern suburbs of Bunjo will be transferred to Fengdian to assemble, and the Wing Commander Kosuke Otsuka will lead it to attack the 391st Regiment of the Central Army at the Great Elm Mountain.

Whether it is the commander of the wing, Saijo and Otsuka, or the soldiers of the two wings, they are all elite divisions and regiments that can fight well. Brigade commander Akira Hagiwara looked conceited and was confident that he would win a complete victory in this attack.

It is worth mentioning that through this fishing in troubled waters in the night battle with Pulu, the Pingjing Advance Team unexpectedly harvested five women from China, further enriching the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp. The matter had been reported to the commander of the Sena Division, and the general's warm encouragement had been received - with the repeated urging of Major General Suzuki of the Front Army Headquarters, the urgency of secretly forcibly recruiting comfort women was no less than that of the troops' advance and suppression—in fact, this whimsical stroke of genius really worked. If this kind of covert capture of the women of Shina under the cover of war has always worked, it may be used as the main means for the Hirai Advance Team to carry out the "Wind Plan" in the future!