The artillery shells and grenades of the Independent Regiment were "chemically" transformed by the Shuijiaozi Arsenal.

The so-called "chemical" modification means that the fuse is first removed, then a part of the explosives are taken out, replaced with chili flour, and then the fuse is put back on, which becomes a chemical bomb.

Such a chemical bomb not only has the lethality of a high-explosive grenade, but also has the chemical attack characteristics of chili pepper noodles, which is even more powerful than tear gas in a sense.

Several rows of "pepper chemical bombs" were shot down,

The entire Cao family base was filled with spicy air.

Not only the devils in the foxholes outside, but also the devils hiding in the pillboxes and turrets began to cough violently.

Taking advantage of the precious gap when the devil puppet army coughed so much that his waist couldn't straighten up and his eyes couldn't open, Xu Yougeng decisively led the guard company to charge.

The target was Bunker No. 1 on the outskirts of the colony.

In addition to a cannon tower in the center, there are three two-story bunkers on the periphery of the Cao Jiaji stronghold, and the stars are guarding the cannon tower in the middle.

There are still a small number of devils who stubbornly fire back.

There was a devil machine gunner whose eyes were red with smoke, but he put his shoulder against the crooked sub-machine gun and fired wildly.

However, the continuity of firepower of the crooked handle is far inferior to that of its improved crutche, and the firepower will freeze from time to time.

Moreover, the soldiers of the guard company were also fully prepared, especially the commandos who rushed to the front, and each of them put a five-millimeter-thick steel plate on their chests to make improvised brand body armor.

The bullets clanged against the steel plates.

But the steel plate can only protect the torso, not the limbs and head.

The soldier who rushed ahead suddenly slipped and fell to the ground.

A bullet had just been fired through the shooting hole on the third floor of the cannon tower and pierced the soldier's head, and the soldier did not move after he fell to the ground.

That's how cruel war is.

Life and death are only in the blink of an eye!

The warriors behind did not stop in the slightest and continued to rush forward.

After sacrificing three fighters in a row, the last commando finally rushed to the front of Bunker No. 1.

Immediately, the commando threw a bundle of more than a dozen grenades from the shooting hole in his hand, and pulled the fuse with his hand.

But the devils in the bunker quickly pushed the grenade out of the firing hole again.

Seeing this, the commando quickly picked it up again and stuffed it through the shooting hole.

But it was jammed halfway through, but it was resisted by the devils inside, and at this time, the cluster grenade exploded with a bang.

The bunker was blown apart in an instant.

The commandos also died heroically on the spot.

"Iron Bull!" Xu Yougeng roared angrily, and then shouted with another wave of the shell gun, "Second team, up!" ”

Then another assault team jumped up from the trench that the militia had just cleared, and the first three were used as meat shields to cover the last member of the team to rush forward.

The last member of the team did not carry a rifle,

But with a bundle of grenades in his arms.

Due to the lack of anti-aircraft artillery firepower, the Eighth Route Army did not have many means of attacking fortifications.

In addition to digging tunnels to carry out blasting, the only way to use cluster grenades to blast closer, if there is enough time, of course, you can dig tunnels slowly, but now in order to grab time, you can only fill with human lives!

Even if the equipment of the independent regiment is relatively good, it can only be filled with human lives.

After paying three more casualties, the last commando finally approached the stronghold's artillery tower.

Crawling under a shooting hole, the last commando did not hesitate at all, pulling the fuse of the cluster grenade and stuffing it through the shooting hole.

In order to prevent the devil puppet army inside from throwing the cluster grenade out of other shooting holes, this commando did not let go and retreat at the first time after stuffing the cluster grenade into the shooting hole, but kept holding on to it.

The screams of the devils and puppet soldiers sounded in the turret.

And then sure enough, there were devils and puppet armies snatching grenades.

The commandos clutched the grenades and didn't let go.

Immediately, his left arm was numb, and he could no longer feel his fingers.

The commando snorted bitterly, knowing that his left hand had been cut off by the devil with a saber, but even so, he still used his only remaining right hand to clutch the cluster grenade and refused to let go.

Immediately afterwards, his right forearm became numb and he lost all sensation.

The commando looked miserable, and his hands were cut off by the devil.

It was at this time that the cluster grenade finally exploded with a bang.

More than a dozen grenades exploded at the same time, creating a powerful shock wave that tore the turret apart, which was not very strong, and the commandos hanging on the shooting holes were also completely torn apart.

"Kill!" Xu Yougeng roared, jumped up from the trench and rushed forward.

Behind Xu Yougeng, more than 100 soldiers of the guard company rushed up like a tide.

The devil puppet army hiding in the cannon tower was either blown up or buried alive, but the remaining two pillboxes and the devil puppet army in the outer foxhole were not affected.

The puppet army has been completely defeated.

"I surrender! Eighth Master, I surrender! ”

A puppet army took the lead in kneeling on the ground and surrendered with their guns raised.

Then the surviving puppet army knelt on the ground.

It's just a mess of food, and you can fight hard with the Eighth Route Army?

The remaining 20 or so devils still tried to resist stubbornly, and rushed out of the trenches and pillboxes with good bayonets in their hands, and started hand-to-hand white-knuckle combat with the Eighth Route Army.

In the sound of bayonet striking, devils kept falling to the ground.

The devil has met an opponent this time, and the soldiers of the guard company of the independent regiment are not only excellent in assassination skills, but also strong and strong, which is completely different from the Central Army, Jin Sui Army and Sichuan Army that the devil encountered before.

The brutal white-knuckle battle soon ended, and the little devils were all stabbed to death.

Li Yunlong didn't even catch one, so angry that he jumped to his feet and scolded.

"Xu Yougeng, why are you so fast?"

"That's no way, the little devil doesn't carry the beating."

"Look for it again, maybe there's still something alive."

"Commander, there is one."

"Damn, leave it to Lao Tzu."

……

Shu Maeda, who was asleep, was awakened by a faint explosion.

When he first woke up, Maeda Shu thought he was dreaming, and after being stunned for a while, he lay back on the couch.

However, in the next second, another explosion came, and this time the explosion was clearer than just now, it was obviously not a dream.

Yaga!

Where did the explosion come from?

Maeda Shu cursed and quickly got up in his clothes.

When Maeda Shu walked into the war room in full dress, he saw that several staff officers on duty were already busy with dogs, and the chief of staff, Yunori Kimura, was in the telecommunications office to answer the phone.

"Maxi Maxi, this is the brigade headquarters."

"Nani? More than a dozen strongholds around your mulberry palms were attacked at the same time? ”

"What do you say? More than a dozen strongholds around your Niangziguan train station were also attacked? And two of the strongholds have lost contact? ”

"Maxi Maxi ......"

The four telephones of the Office of Telecommunications rang incessantly.

And it just hung up and it rang again, and it kept ringing.

Maeda Shu didn't come forward to help, but his face was a little gloomy.

The old devil can be said to have experienced a hundred battles, and he has already smelled the breath of war from the air.

It wasn't until several staff officers from the communications office got up and arrived that Isamu Kimura finally freed himself from the endless ringing of the phone and walked up to Maeda Shu with a black face.

"Brigade commander, the situation is not right."

Kimura Yong said: "Sangzhang, Shishi, Niangziguan, and Lujiazhuang strongholds report that the second-level strongholds on their periphery were attacked by Tubalu at the same time!" ”

"Several secondary positions have lost contact."

"If nothing else, the phone line should have been cut."

"Brigade commander, this is likely to be a wave of large-scale offensives organized by the Eighth Route Army."

Maeda Hidedao: "Kimura-kun, it's not possible, but sure, this must be a wave of large-scale offensives carefully organized by the Eighth Route Army against the strongholds along the Zhengtai Railway!" ”

Kimura Yumi: "Did you order the Yamazaki Brigade and the Okazo Brigade to go to reinforcements?" ”

Maeda said: "How many second-level strongholds have been attacked so far? ”

"About forty." Kimura replied, "However, the calls from the communications office have not stopped, and I estimate that more secondary strongholds will be attacked in the future." ”

As soon as the words fell, a communications staff officer ran over.

"Brigade Commander!" The communications staff officer reported at the beginning, "Dozens of second-level strongholds on the periphery of the first-level strongholds such as Shanghu, Mashou, Langyu, Yanzigou, and Qinquan Station have been attacked in an all-out manner. ”

"Nani?" Isamu Kimura lost his voice and said, "Have they all been attacked?" ”

"Hello." The communications staff officer paused, "The nine first-level strongholds west of Niangzi Pass have all called, saying that all the second-level strongholds on their periphery have been attacked!" ”

"Yaga." Isamu Kimura roared with a dark face, "How can this be saved?" ”

Maeda Shu said: "There is no need to save it, immediately issue an order to all the first-level strongholds west of Niangzi Pass, and ask them to withdraw all the garrisons of the second-level strongholds on the periphery!" ”

"Inform the 8th Brigade of our situation again."

"If nothing else, the stronghold east of Niangzi Pass must also be within the attack range of the Eighth Route Army, so let the 8th Brigade quickly withdraw the troops from the outlying strongholds!"

The old devil's sense of smell is still very keen.

He already had a premonition that the Eighth Route Army was about to launch a major offensive.

At this time, the first thing to do is to shrink the strength and stick to a few dozen large strongholds, otherwise, the defenders who are stationed in more than a hundred second-level strongholds on the periphery will be easily broken by each one.

"Hello!" Isamu Kimura personally went to deliver the order.

Maeda Xiu said to the communications staff officer standing in front of him: "Immediately report to the headquarters of the 1st Army that all the second-level strongholds along Zhengtai Road have been attacked by the Eighth Route Army!" ”

Communications Staff: "Haiy! ”

……

An hour later, Taiyuan.

Takayoshi Tanaka, chief of staff of the 1st Army of the Japanese Army stationed in Shanxi, walked quickly into the operations hall of the headquarters, and saw several combat staff officers of the combat section planting small blue flags on the sand table.

Take a closer look at the sand table,

Good guys, almost the entire sandbox is filled with small blue flags!

This means that the whole of Shanxi is fighting everywhere, and it is getting bigger!

"Chief of Staff!" Takashi Sakamoto, the head of the Operations Division, said with a slight pause, "An hour ago, that is, around 0:00, more than 200 second-level strongholds along the Zhengtai Railway, Tongpu Railway, and Baijin Railway were attacked at the same time! And this time it's not like the previous harassing attacks. ”

"What do you mean?"

Takayoshi Tanaka said, "You can be clear. ”

"Hello!" Sakamoto said, "The Eighth Route Army is menacing, and it seems that it is preparing to break through more than 200 second-level strongholds along Zhengtai Road, Tongpu Road and Baijin Road in one fell swoop. ”

"Nani?" Takayoshi Tanaka was shocked when he heard this.

Prior to this, although the Eighth Route Army had posed a threat to the Japanese army in North China, most of the time it still only dared to ambush the Japanese army's baggage transport troops, at most it was to pull out a few second-level strongholds, fight the Japanese army head-on, or launch an attack on hundreds of targets at the same time as now, which was extremely rare.

"When did the Eighth Route Army become so powerful?"

"Is it capable of attacking hundreds of targets?"

As he spoke, hurried footsteps sounded outside the battle hall.

Looking back, I saw Yoshio Shinozuka walking in with a black face.

Behind Yoshio Shinozuka, followed by Kazuki Yamamoto, who also had a straight face.

"Your Excellency, Commander!" Takayoshi Tanaka and the others hurriedly gathered their feet and stood up and paused again.

Yoshio Shinozuka waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "Tanaka-kun, what's the situation now?" ”

Tanaka Takayoshi said with a dark face: "About an hour ago, the 3rd Brigade, the 4th Brigade and the 36th Division reported to the headquarters at the same time that more than 200 second-level strongholds along Tongpu Road, Zhengtai Road and Baijin Road were attacked by the Eighth Route Army at the same time, and it was not an assault attack, but a frontal attack!" ”

"Now there are wars everywhere in Shanxi."

"Nani!" Yoshio Shinozuka was stunned when he heard this.

Yamamoto Kazuki also roared in disbelief: "Is the Eighth Route Army going to commit suicide? ”

Yoshio Shinozuka and Kazuki Yamamoto's first reaction was shock and disbelief.

Since they first entered the Shanxi battlefield and fought the Eighth Route Army for the first time in 37, the Eighth Route Army's combat methods have hardly changed, and they are all baggage troops ambushing them.

The Eighth Route Army never launched a frontal offensive.

In addition to ambushes or sneak attacks, it is to fight a few turrets.

It was not until the end of last year that there was a record of the Eighth Route Army attacking a first-class stronghold and succeeding, that is, the 386th Brigade Independent Regiment broke through the Huting stronghold and completely annihilated the defenders.

Therefore, Yoshio Shinozuka and Kazuki Yamamoto couldn't imagine that the Eighth Route Army would launch an attack on more than 200 second-level strongholds along Zhengtai Road, Tongpu Road and Baijin Road at the same time! Crazy?

But after the shock, the two felt deep jealousy.

Yoshio Shinozuka sighed: "Has the Eighth Route Army grown to such an extent? ”

"The Eighth Route Army already has such organizational capabilities?" Kazuki Yamamoto's focus is on another level, "The timing is also excellent! Just when our 1st Army was at its emptiest! ”

Takayoshi Tanaka asked, "Your Excellency Commander, did you order the 9th Brigade to divide up its forces?" ”

"Nope." Yoshio Shinozuka waved his hand and said, "Before figuring out the exact intentions of the Eighth Route Army, the 9th Brigade must not act rashly, as the saying goes, it is better to be still than to move, or wait for the Eighth Route Army to make the carriages and horses clear first, and it is not too late for us to respond, no matter what, the Imperial Army firmly controls the three railway lines and can achieve rapid mobility." ”

Takayoshi Tanaka asked, "What about the more than two hundred second-level strongholds on the periphery?" ”

"The garrisons of all second-level strongholds are withdrawn to the first-level strongholds of the center." Yoshio Shinozuka said, "It doesn't matter if you can't retreat, if you lose thousands of Imperial Army and Imperial Alliance Army soldiers, you can exchange for a decisive battle with the Eighth Route Army, which is undoubtedly very worthwhile for our 1st Army." ”

"A decisive battle?" Takayoshi Tanaka was stunned when he heard this.

"Tanaka-kun, don't you think this is an opportunity?"

Kazuki Yamamoto interjected: "What has been bothering the 1st Army the most? ”

"Of course, it's the endless attack of the Eighth Route Army." Takayoshi Tanaka said, "They are like pesky flies, and when they are driven away, they will fly away, and if you don't pay attention, they will fly back and bite you." ”

Yamamoto Kazuki said: "But now, the flies have grown fangs and are about to face the imperial army head-on!" Isn't this a God-given opportunity for the Imperial Army to annihilate the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop? ”

"Soga!" Takayoshi Tanaka suddenly realized.

"Command." Yoshio Shinozuka said in a deep voice, "The 3rd Brigade, the 4th Brigade, and the 8th Brigade immediately investigate the strength and unit number of the Eighth Route Army in the region. ”

"The combat squad began to draw up a plan for a counterattack."

"The Intelligence Division immediately launched an investigation into the Jin Sui Army and the Central Army,"

"Determine whether this large-scale offensive of the Eighth Route Army will be carried out alone, or will it be linked with the Jin Sui Army and the Central Army? If possible, the Jin Sui army and the central army can be given an appropriate release of goodwill. ”

"Hello!" Several section chiefs paused at the same time and hurried away.

I have to say that Yoshio Shinozuka, an old devil, is still a bit powerful.

The old devil is already preparing for a rainy day, in order to draw troops from the Jinnan front line to return to help.

Because Lu'an, Fenyang, and Linfen in southern Jinnan are stationed with three divisions of the 1st Army!

If we can reach some tacit understanding with the Central Army retreating in Zhongtiao Mountain and the Jin Sui Army retreating to the southern section of Luliang Mountain, at least three infantry wings can be sent back to help!

That's pretty much the strength of a field division.

This is already a means at the political level, not a purely military means, in a sense, Yoshio Shinozuka already has a certain strategic pattern.

……

The Japanese army had perfect means of communication and could grasp the information of the front line in a timely manner.

The means of communication of the Eighth Route Army were far behind, and the brigade headquarters and above could barely realize wireless station communications, and below the regimental level, they could basically only rely on cavalry communications.

So what the front line is like now, the Eighth Route Army does not know, the 129th Division does not know, and the 386th Brigade does not know.

The brigade commander and chief of staff could only stay at the brigade headquarters, waiting for the cavalry correspondents of the 772nd Regiment, the Independent Regiment, the New 1st Regiment, and the New 2nd Regiment to come and report the news.

In order to reduce the workload of the cavalry communicators, the brigade commander had moved his brigade headquarters forward to Baijia Village.

After the Japanese army abandoned the Huting stronghold, the area around Baijia Village was incorporated into the base area, and the former chairman of the puppet government was also tried and executed.

However, even if the brigade headquarters was moved forward to Baijia Village, it was more than ten kilometers away from the front line.

Counting the time spent on the battle, and the time spent on the road by the cavalry communicators, the brigade commander estimated that the news would not be transmitted until after four o'clock in the morning at the earliest.

Even if it's a small base,

It's not that easy to take down.

(End of chapter)