Until June 23.

The Japanese army's tentative iron rolling sweeping tactics ended in a crushing failure, and the sweeping troops of all sides finally broke out of the quagmire and retracted back to the heavily defended county towns and towns under the pursuit of the Eighth Route Army.

The Japanese suffered heavy losses this time.

In the field observation group, more than 100 officers, including Major General Hattori Naotomi, were all wiped out.

Shortly after the Japanese sweeping forces withdrew to the county seat.

The Japanese intelligence department finally confirmed that when the Yamamoto special forces attacked Chenjiayu, they were covered by the fire of the Eighth Route Army, and all of them were killed.

Upon learning of the death of Aisho Yamamoto, Yoshio Shinozuka closed his eyes with some sadness.

What then poured out of his heart was the undying anger of the troops of the Eighth Route Army, especially the independent regiment of the Eighth Route Army.

In addition, the Independent Regiment took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Japanese army was sweeping the Taihang base area, infiltrated and infiltrated the major counties and villages of the Japanese army, and successfully beheaded more than 200 officers.

The well-guarded county towns and villages still could not protect the lives of the officers of the Japanese puppet army.

This infiltration of the independent regiment made the officers of the Japanese puppet army in the surrounding counties, villages and towns panic.

The scythe of death seemed to hang over their heads at all times.

It's like you could cut it down at any time.

The beheading operation of the independent regiment this time, in terms of the target of each beheading, is fundamentally unacceptable.

Sometimes it was only targeted at some officers at the grassroots level of the Japanese puppet army.

However, a series of vicious effects brought about by the success of the beheading operation were unexpected by the Japanese army.

Because of the beheading of the security officers of the Japanese puppet army in the surrounding counties, villages and towns by the assault company.

As a result, there was a sudden lack of grassroots security officers in many surrounding counties, villages and towns.

Subsequently, the public order in the counties, villages, and towns that were leaderless began to appear in considerable turmoil.

The anti-Japanese sentiment of the people in many counties, villages and towns was high.

Some bold people even privately put up some anti-Japanese propaganda leaflets in the streets and alleys.

The Japanese puppet army had a headache, but they couldn't find the initiator, so they could only send soldiers to scrape off those dog skin plasters on the streets every day.

……

Taiyuan City.

At the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army in Shanxi, Yoshio Shinozuka held a military meeting of officers of the First Army.

The theme of the meeting revolved around "Changes in the strength of the Eighth Route Army in the Taihang Base Area" and "How to sweep the Eighth Route Army Base Area in the future?" and so on.

Not long ago, the commander of the Ninth Brigade, who participated in the Iron Barrel Sweep, was the first to speak:

"Your Excellency Commander, the Eighth Route Army troops in the Taihang Base Area have quietly developed a lot in terms of equipment."

"In this iron sweeping sweep, our army seriously underestimated the sophistication of the Eighth Route Army due to insufficient intelligence collection, and the troops suffered great losses."

"I thought that the changes in the equipment of the Eighth Route Army would no longer be the same as in our intelligence collection in the past, with backward equipment and scarce ammunition. The follow-up sweep should adjust the offensive strategy of our army accordingly. ”

"And collect effective and accurate information about the Eighth Route Army in advance."

"If we don't have this information, we will probably suffer a big loss if we fight them in the areas that the Eighth Route Army is best at and are familiar with."

The commander of the Fourth Brigade on the side said with deep sympathy: "Your Excellency Commander, I think even more that if we are not fully prepared and determined to fight a decisive battle, we must not rashly enter the base area of the Eighth Route Army. ”

"Today, the troops of the Eighth Route Army in the Taihang area are far from the team called Huazi in our impression."

"It's not like the time when we can bring a few artillery pieces and send a brigade at random to beat them all over the mountain!"

The two brigade commanders spoke one after another, what a negative emotion!

The pride that used to permeate the faces of the so-called imperial warriors is now gone.

There were quite a few devil officers who silently lowered their heads and acquiesced to the words of the commanders of the 4th and 9th brigades.

Yoshio Shinozuka suppressed his anger and unwillingness in his heart, but the truth was just as the two brigade commanders in front of him said.

Chief of Staff Kitagawa Bushi said: "General, the national army once proposed that if you go outside, you must first settle inside. At present, when we are facing the troops of the Eighth Route Army, we also have such a meaning. ”

"With the development of equipment and the enhancement of the strength of the Eighth Route Army, we really cannot rashly sweep the base areas of the Eighth Route Army. We must strictly control the areas under our control, guard against the continued expansion of the Eighth Route Army's base areas, and in addition, rectify law and order and accumulate strength. ”

"After internal stability and sufficient strength accumulation, we will use a decisive sweep to wipe out the living forces of the Eighth Route Army on all sides in one fell swoop."

Yoshio Shinozuka listened and nodded slowly, and this is the only way for now.

This iron sweeping was accompanied by the death of the observation group and the special team, as well as the security officers in the city.

Yoshio Shinozuka's First Army, on the one hand, had to continue to maintain law and order in the occupied areas.

On the one hand, we must also be wary of the Jin Sui Army and the Central Army that may be fought back at any time.

For the time being, there is no longer enough strength to deal with the troops of the Eighth Route Army.

As the commanders of the two previous devil brigades said, I am afraid that the first army will switch from offensive to defensive next.

The Japanese army was unable to sweep the base areas of the Eighth Route Army.

The counties, villages and towns under its control will be strictly controlled.

In addition, the Japanese army has set off a plan to encroach on the villages of the Eighth Route Army in the past few months.

Because the Eighth Route Behind the Enemy Lines is everywhere.

Because the Eighth Route Army practiced seven points of politics and three points of military.

In addition, the troops of the Eighth Route Army won many victories in military operations, which led to a high anti-Japanese sentiment.

The puppet army and traitors attached to the Japanese army were two-headed factions who easily defected, often inconsistent with each other, and worked for the Eighth Route Army in private.

……

After the Eighth Route Army's series of targeted anti-encroachment campaigns, the encroachment plan set off by the Japanese army was basically declared bankrupt.

At the meeting, Yoshio Shinozuka said helplessly:

In order to reduce the losses of troops in the encroachment plan, the encroachment plan will be suspended, and the counties, villages and towns that the empire has already occupied will be stabilized to ensure law and order.

As for the sweeping of the base areas of the Eighth Route Army and the encroachment campaign on the villages, they were converted into the last fig leaf - from time to time to gather some troops to carry out some township clean-up campaigns!

Then Yoshio Shinozuka and a group of officers discussed, preparing to transfer a new batch of security officers.

In order to replace the vacancy of public security positions in the county because of the beheading operation of the Eighth Route Army.

Of course, it takes time to replace this.

At the end of the meeting, an officer said:

"Your Excellency Commander, the Eighth Route Army used a small force to take advantage of our army's sweep this time and suddenly infiltrated the county, villages and towns, causing a large number of casualties among our security officers."

"This infiltration tactic of the Eighth Route Army's small elite troops should be taken seriously by us!"

"yes—"

The other devil officers chimed in.

Soon after, the commander of the North China Dispatch Army General Headquarters, Okamura Ninji, also told Yoshio Shinozuka in the phone call:

"This kind of sneak attack by small combat units used by the enemy army should be taken seriously by us, and we should guard against it and counterattack it."

"The county seat and important villages and towns belong to our imperial forces, and only those barren mountainous areas are where the rats hide."

"If the team of the Eighth Route can sneak into the county seat at any time, this will be a huge provocation and impact on our public security, and it will only make our soldiers and civilians feel panic and uneasy."

"I remember that your First Army has a special forces under its jurisdiction, and it is especially good at carrying out various infiltration, decapitation, and sneak attack missions in the form of small forces."

"This will be an effective means to target a sneak attack by a small group of troops of the Eighth Route Army."

Finally, Okamura Ninji said that Yoshio Shinozuka has experience in forming a special team.

These experiences should be passed on to the various units of the North China Front, so that these units can try to form small elite combat units similar to special forces to deal with the guerrilla operations of the Eighth Route Army.

Yoshio Shinozuka, who hung up the phone, was silent for a long time,

The chief of staff on the side, Kitagawa Ayumi, can best understand the commander's mixed psychology at the moment.

"If Yamamoto-kun is still alive and knows this order from His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, he will definitely be very happy!"

Beichuan didn't know what to say, so he had to comfort him like this.

Yoshio Shinozuka laughed at himself: "With Yamamoto-kun's pride, if you know that there is this scene in front of you, I'm afraid you won't be able to sit still anymore." ”

"He worked hard to do all this during his lifetime, and wanted to popularize the special tactics of the special forces throughout the army, and even innovate the old army combat tactics of our army."

"But how could he have expected that the goal he had tried to achieve countless times during his lifetime would be achieved after his death!"

"What's even more ironic is that our army began to pay attention to the tactics of small combat units, and even set up combat teams similar to special forces in various armies, because of a series of decapitation operations by the troops of the Eighth Route Army."

"Kitagawa Army, is this really the twilight of my Great Japanese Empire approaching?"

Kitagawa Ayumi was speechless.

As a result, if Yamamoto under the Nine Springs learned about it, he would be so angry that he would jump around.

When the Japanese army in North China finally began to pay attention to such a small combat force as the special forces.

As the founder of Japan's special operations theory, he Yamamoto has long been cold.

How ironic......

7017k