Taiyuan, headquarters of the 1st Army.

Okamura Ninji got up early in the morning and was practicing his sword in the courtyard.

Accompanying Okamura Ninji in sword training was his lieutenant Machida Ichi.

The two of them were wearing protective gear and holding wooden swords, and they were going around in circles like two roosters.

Suddenly, Okamura Ninji let out a loud shout, and then stabbed with a sword, but Machida easily dodged it with just a sideways turn, and immediately lightning out of the knife, putting the wooden knife on Okamura Ninji's neck.

"Looks like I'm really getting old." Okamura Ninji sighed lightly and took off his mask.

Machida took off his mask and said, "Your Excellency the General is not old, he was just distracted just now. ”

"Machida-kun, don't comfort me." Okamura Ninji smiled self-deprecatingly, and said, "No one is old, I'm almost sixty years old." ”

While he was talking, there were three end spirits who walked in quickly.

After the three of the last seigies, he was followed by Yasushi Inoue.

"Your Excellency, General." Yousujing said in a deep voice, "Something happened." ”

Okamura Ninji's heart jumped suddenly when he heard this, and what he was most afraid of hearing were these three words.

However, the old devil's face was silent at all, and he said in a deep voice: "There is a last gentleman, you say slowly, what's wrong?" ”

"At about four o'clock in the morning today, the camp of the 1st Division was suddenly attacked by artillery fire from the 386th Brigade, and the 386th Brigade mobilized at least 30 mountain artillery!" ”

"What did you say?" Okamura Ninji changed color, "How is this possible?" ”

Machida also couldn't help but question: "Night operations, neither the distance nor the direction can be determined, how does the artillery achieve accurate shelling?" Mess around? ”

"Nope." Arisue Seizan shook his head and said, "They have an observer hand to correct and guide in real time. ”

"Observe the hand to correct the guidance instantly?" Okamura Ninji's face instantly fell, "Didn't the 1st Division send patrols to the periphery?" Didn't set up a sentry post on the perimeter? ”

"Yes." "The 1st Division has sent dozens of patrols to patrol the three-kilometer area outside the camp 24 hours a day, and the lurking post has been sent to five kilometers away, but it ......"

"But what?" Okamura Ninji's face became more and more ugly, and he said in a deep voice, "Say, don't swallow it." ”

Yusue Seizan sighed and said, "But it is still not enough to stop the artillery observers of the 386th Brigade, because the fact is that the artillery of the 386th Brigade accurately hit the camp of the 1st Division, first destroyed the car team of the Rapid Strike Brigade with a rapid fire, and then carried out precision strikes on the three artillery positions of the 1st Division. ”

"Yaga Yaru!" Okamura Ningji gritted his teeth and said, "The 386th Brigade is really unguardable!" ”

"yes." Yusue Jingsan said with a wry smile, "The 1st Division has sent the patrol team to three kilometers away, and the lurking post has been placed five kilometers away, and the vigilance measures have almost been taken to the extreme, but they still can't stop their night attacks. ”

Okamura asked again: "What about the losses of the 1st Division?" ”

"I don't know yet." Inoue Yasushi shook his head and said, "Because the shelling of the 386th Brigade has not yet ended." ”

Arisue Seizan then said: "At least before reporting to the headquarters, the artillery bombardment of the 386th Brigade has not ended. ”

"What? The shelling of the 386th Brigade is not over yet? Okamura Ningji's face just looked a little better, and when he heard this, he immediately collapsed again, and said angrily, "What is this idiot Nakasawa Sanfu doing?" It's almost five o'clock in the morning, so he can't have done nothing in this hour, right? ”

"Not really." "Although the Rapid Strike Brigade was heavily damaged in the first round of artillery bombardment of the 386th Brigade, the 1st Division still sent the 2nd Cavalry Brigade for the first time, and from the perspective of time, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade should have destroyed the artillery of the 386th Brigade, but there is no news yet." ”

"That's pretty much it." Okamura Ninji breathed a sigh of relief.

At this time, the orderly handed the wet towel to Okamura Ninji.

Okamura Ninji took the wet towel and wiped his face, but the next second......

Hearing the sound of the horn, the wet towel in Okamura Ninji's hand actually fell to the ground without warning.

Machida Ichi, Inoue Yasushi and Sue Seizo are a little confused, what's the situation? Your Excellency General can't be physically ill due to overwork, right?

"Not good!" Okamura Ninji suddenly shouted, "There is Sue-kun, hurry up and ......"

"Hello!" Yusue Jingsan stepped forward and responded, "What do you have to say, Your Excellency, General?" ”

But in the next second, Okamura Ninji sighed again and said, "Forget it, it's too late." ”

Now there are the three people who are the last essence and the others are even more inexplicable, what happened to Your Excellency the General?

At that moment, there was a third word: "Your Excellency General, you are fine, right?" ”

"I'm fine." Okamura Ninji waved his hand and said, "But there is something wrong with the 2nd Cavalry Brigade." ”

"The 2nd Cavalry Brigade?" Yousue Jingsan also reacted at this time, and changed his color, "Your Excellency the general is saying that the 386th Brigade will use artillery as bait and set a trap to ambush the 2nd Cavalry Brigade?" ”

Okamura Ningji said dejectedly: "The 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army has always been cunning, and every time they fight, they almost calculate to the extreme, do you think they would not think that the 1st Division would send the 2nd Cavalry Brigade to counterattack after being shelled?" And if you think about it, do you think they will take advantage of such a great opportunity? ”

Before the words could be spoken, a communications staff officer hurried over.

"Your Excellency, General." The communications staff officer immediately reported, "I just received an urgent telegram from the 1st Division, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade was ambushed by the 386th Brigade on the way to attack the artillery position of the Eighth Route Army, and most of the more than 4,500 cavalry of the three cavalry wings were martyred, and less than 500 cavalry were left to escape and break through by luck. ”

Hearing this, Okamura Ninji's thin figure couldn't help but stumble, and he almost fell to the ground, and it was over.

"Your Excellency, General!" There was Sue Seizo and Machida Ichi hurriedly took a step forward, and one left and one right hugged Okamura Ninji.

"It's okay, I'm fine." Okamura Ninji broke free from the support of the two and said, "Order the 3rd Flying Division to immediately dispatch all attack aircraft to launch a devastating bombardment of the artillery and infantry of the Eighth Route Army that participated in yesterday's night attack, and under no circumstances can the artillery units and heavy machine gun units of the 386th Brigade be allowed to escape back!" ”

Okamura Ninji's reaction was still very fast, and he grabbed the key point at once.

"Hello." Inoue Yasushi slammed his head and turned to leave.

……

The artillery position of the Eighth Route Army in the northwest of Shanxi and the northwest of Lao County.

Three artillery battalions and 36 mountain guns continued to fire.

Firing for a long time will cause the barrel to become red and hot, and if it is replaced by the usual one, the artillery who loves the cannon will definitely suspend the shelling and wait for the barrel to cool down before firing the cannon.

But now it's completely irrelevant.

Seeing that the barrel of the gun was red, he directly poured a pot of cold water on it.

As soon as it was poured with cold water, the barrel immediately emitted green smoke, but the temperature immediately dropped, so that it would not cause the bore to explode, but the barrel must have been wasted.

So there were constantly artillerymen kneeling down and pleading.

"Battalion commander, take a break, or you'll blow up!"

"Battalion commander, you can't pour cold water, otherwise the gun barrel will be wasted!"

"Battalion commander, you can't the cannon to death like this, you can't!"

In the face of the artilleryman's plea, Tu Feng, Liu Manquan and Lou Daqiang were dripping blood in their hearts, but they still had to put on a cold expression on their faces and sternly refused.

"No, this is a death order from the commander!"

"Don't stop until the shells are finished!"

"Don't worry about the barrel being scrapped, I'll get you a new one!"

This is just talking nonsense with open eyes, and it is impossible to change the barrel with a new one.

Because Tu Feng and the three of them knew the inside story, the artillery regiment ceased to exist after this battle, and their three battalion commanders and more than 1,000 artillery soldiers could only fight back to the infantry.

At the insistence of the three battalion commanders, the shelling never stopped.

At a certain moment, the walkie-talkie indicator light on Wei Xilai's back lit up.

Wang Ye hurriedly picked up the flashlight and asked directly, "Is the monk you?" ”

This time he only brought three walkie-talkies, one of which had been brought back by Li Yunlong, and only the two walkie-talkies in his and Wei Dayong's hands were left here.

"Captain, it's me." Wei Dayong gasped and said, "The devil is here!" ”

"Okay, I got it." Wang Ye snorted, and said, "You don't use it here, go back to Jiugong Town directly." ”

Wei Dayong answered, hung up the phone, Wang Ye hung up the phone, and then jumped up and shouted: "Lao Tu, Lao Lou and Lao Liu, when the time comes, prepare to retreat!" Hurry up! ”

Tu Feng, Liu Manquan and Lou Daqiang followed and ordered loudly.

"It's all there, retreat! Forget the cannon, retreat, retreat! ”

More than 1,000 artillery soldiers quickly withdrew from the position, and Wang Ye entered the position with the Wolf Warrior Brigade.

The tricky mines modified by shells have been prepared a long time ago, and the wolf warrior brigade only needs to be arranged, and in less than five minutes, Wang Ye took the wolf warrior brigade to arrange a series of tricky mines.

As long as one of the mines is triggered, it can trigger a series of explosions, and then trigger the detonation of artillery shells, blowing up the devils who entered the position and 36 75 mountain guns into slag.

Not long after Wang Ye and the others evacuated, a team of Japanese soldiers arrived.

An hour after the attack, the infantry of the 1st Division finally arrived, but unfortunately, only a trapped artillery position awaited them.

Not long after the devil infantry entered the artillery position, a violent explosion occurred.

The explosion produced a huge shock wave that traveled down the ground for several kilometers.

When Wang Ye and the members of the Wolf Warrior Brigade looked back, they saw that a huge mushroom cloud had slowly risen from the direction where the artillery position was located.

"Cannon! Oh my cannon! ”

Tu Feng sat down on the ground and cried.

Many artillerymen also held their heads in their hands and cried, these artillerymen were really distressed.

For the Eighth Route Army, the cannon is really a treasure, but now that their treasure has been destroyed, it was still destroyed by their own hands, which makes it even more distressing.

"Let's go!" Wang Ye knew that the matter was not over yet.

The devil suffered such a big loss this time, and he will definitely retaliate wildly next.

If nothing else, in addition to the infantry, aviation will definitely be sent to hunt them down.

There is a good saying, the more you are afraid of something, the more something will come, Wang Ye was worried that the devils would send aviation troops to chase and kill them, and as a result, a buzzing roar sounded in the southeast sky.

When I looked up, I saw more than a dozen black spots emerging from the clouds.

"Disperse!" Wang Ye shouted loudly, "Spread out and break through separately!" ”

Tu Feng didn't cry at this time, jumped up and shouted: "Break through separately in a platoon!" Spread out! ”

Liu Manquan and Lou Daqiang also issued orders at the same time, and the three artillery battalions were soon dispersed in platoons, and more than 1,000 artillery soldiers and dozens of wolf warriors followed the wild boars and fled frantically in all directions.

But soon a dozen Devil fighters flew in and began to dive and strafe wildly.

It was not only the artillery and the wolf brigade that were dive-fired by the devil aviation, but also the improvised heavy machine gun regiment did not go too far, after all, it was only less than half an hour, and the roads were muddy and difficult to walk, and they would only walk three kilometers out of the sky, and the devil aviation found it after a little search in the air.

And a dozen fighters are just the beginning.

A dozen fighters followed, followed by a larger number of bombers.

In the end, more than 50 bombers and fighters with more than 50 fighters swarmed in, and launched a mad dog bite at the improvised heavy machine gun regiment of the Northwest Column and the evacuated artillery.

Along the way, fighters and mules and horses were constantly swept down, and heavy machine guns were constantly blown up.

This is the cruel fact that there is a huge gap in strength between the Chinese and Japanese armies.

Even Wang Ye's wolf warrior brigade could only flee in embarrassment at this time.

……

The 1st Division, on its part, was already treating the wounded and counting the battle damage.

Almost as soon as the shelling on the side of the Eighth Route Army stopped, Mitsuo Nakazawa personally led Takahashi Mitsuzo and other officers into the artillery position of the bombed heavy artillery brigade.

At the position of the heavy artillery brigade, Mitsuo Nakazawa met the disgraced Yujiro Watanabe.

As the brigade commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery, Yujiro Watanabe had to be with his troops, so he had been sticking to the artillery position for the hour just now.

The old devil Watanabe is really fateful, and the heavy shelling for such a long time has not killed him.

"Nakazawa-kun." Mitsuo Nakazawa asked with a dark face, "Is the loss of the 3rd Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery large?" ”

Yujiro Watanabe paused: "I don't know what the situation is on the side of the 7th Field Heavy Artillery Wing, but 28 heavy guns on the side of the 1st Field Heavy Artillery Wing have been damaged to varying degrees and have basically lost their combat effectiveness. ”

"What? Out of a total of 36 heavy guns, 28 were damaged? Nakazawa said, "How did you do it?" Didn't you tell you that you want to increase the interval between artillery positions? ”

"Our artillery positions are already well spaced apart." Yujiro Watanabe said helplessly, "But the problem is that the intensity of the artillery bombardment of the 386th Brigade is too great, and in the hour just now, the artillery of the 386th Brigade fired at least more than 7,000 shells at the position of our 1st Heavy Artillery Wing!" ”

"What?" Mitsuo Nakazawa changed his color and said, "More than 7,000 shells? How can it be! ”

"yes, that's not possible!" Takahashi Mitsuzo also said, "Whether it is the 41-type 75 mountain gun or the 94-type 75 mountain gun, the normal rate of fire can only reach 4 to 6 rounds per minute, and although the rapid fire can reach more than 12 rounds per minute, the duration is very short, and the barrel will be red and explode in a few minutes!" ”

After a pause, Takahashi Manzo said again: "According to my observation, the artillery of the Eighth Route Army that shelled the barracks of our 1st Division last night had about 30 75 mountain guns, calculated according to 6 rounds per minute, 30 guns were only 10,000 rounds an hour, and the artillery of the Eighth Route Army shelled three artillery positions of the Imperial Army, so the artillery shells that fell on the positions of the 7th Wing of the Field Heavy Artillery were about 3,000 rounds at most, where did at least 7,000 shells come from?" ”

Yujiro Watanabe shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Takahashi-kun, you have ignored another possibility. ”

"I overlooked another possibility?" Takahashi Mitsuzo frowned, "What is possible?" ”

Yujiro Watanabe said: "If the artillery of the 386th Brigade carries out suicide shelling and does not care about the damage to the barrel at all, you can cool the barrel with cold water, and you can continue to fire rapidly for more than an hour!" ”

"What? Suicide shelling! Takahashi was dumbfounded, because it was possible.

"Yaga Yaru!" Mitsuo Nakazawa said with a dark face, "So it seems that this is a suicide attack!" ”

Speaking of this, Nakazawa Sanfu said again: "With 30 41-type or 94-type 75 mountain guns, in exchange for a field heavy artillery brigade of the imperial army, basically lost its combat effectiveness, no matter how you calculate the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, it is a big profit, oh no, no, no, it is not just a field heavy artillery brigade, but also a cavalry brigade!" ”

A few old devils were talking, and the battle losses of the other two artillery positions were also counted and reported.

The 7th Field Heavy Artillery Wing had 6 heavy guns left, and the 1st Field Artillery Wing and the Mounted Artillery Wing were in a better situation, adding up to 13 guns, but all 75-caliber guns.

After listening to the report, Mitsuo Nakazawa's face turned green.

That is to say, the 1st Division now has only 14 150mm caliber field guns and 13 75mm caliber field guns, that is, two artillery brigades, and one wing cannot be put together.

The only good news is that most of the cannon damage is not serious and can still be repaired.

But it will take time to repair the artillery, and this sweeping operation will not be able to catch up anyway.

This is undoubtedly out-and-out bad news for the current sweeping operation, because in the following sweeping operation, the artillery support that the 1st Division can obtain will be greatly weakened.

At this time, the 1st Division had no advantage over the other four divisions.

Nakazawa Sanfu originally wanted to break through Laoxian before the other four divisions, but in this case, their 1st Division would first break through the defense line of Yeboar Gully, and then take the lead in capturing Laoxian, and the first merit would not be able to run.

Even if the losses of their 1st Division were greater, Okamura Ninji would have to admit it.

But now, with the 3rd Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery and the 1st Wing of the Field Artillery being severely damaged, it will be more difficult for the 1st Division to seize Laoxian in front of the other four divisions.

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