Rise from the sword

Chapter 403 The situation is not good
When the shelling happened, Yoshimoto Zhenichi had already woken up, and was planning the second important task of the commander of the First Army in the headquarters-persuading Yan Xishan's Jinsui Army to surrender.

As far as the Japanese army is concerned, Shanxi has two major problems.

The first and biggest trouble is the Eighth Route Army.

According to the statistical data of the Imperial Headquarters, in the entire North China region, that is, the area occupied by the North China Front Army, the empire as a whole is losing money, and the power invested is far greater than the gains, and this loss is getting bigger and bigger.

The root cause is the Eighth Route Army entrenched in the mountains and forests of the imperial-occupied area.

They destroyed lines of communication, destroyed factories, destroyed mines, and gathered only those people to resist the rule of the empire, causing the empire to spend a lot of energy to maintain law and order in North China.

The existence of this group of people made the base camp's plan to build North China into a "military station base" to transfuse the empire with no progress. Instead, it became a bleeding point for the empire, constantly devouring the empire's resources.

If the Eighth Route Army is not resolved, then the North China region occupied by the empire at a huge cost is meaningless, and even a waste of the empire's strength.

The most important and priority task for him as the commander of the First Army is to solve the Eighth Route Army, ensure the development of important resources in the imperial occupied areas, and the safety of important communication lines and cities.

The second problem is Yan Xishan's Jinsui Army crouching on the edge of Shanxi.

This threat is not great.

Its commander, Yan Xishan, has an ambiguous attitude towards the empire, and rarely initiates wars. However, the Jinsui Army has so many troops there, has occupied a lot of territory, and has also contained many forces of the empire. It is always a threat, and it is also Trouble that needs to be resolved ASAP.

Immediately, Yoshimoto Zhenichi rushed to the airport, accompanied by his guards.

The commander of the First Army is located inside Shanxi City, four kilometers away from the airport, and the shelling has lasted for more than 20 minutes when he arrived.

"what's the situation?"

As soon as he arrived at the airport, Gibbon howled crazily.

The airfield was shelled, which made him very angry, very angry.

He made progress in persuading Yan Laoxi to surrender, but the other party obviously hesitated, and even some areas made progress, and some middle and low-level officers of the Jinsui Army were also moved. If they worked harder, they might succeed.

Even if Yan Xishan does not join the empire, but can maintain a nonchalant attitude, or take a step back, it will help him to draw strength to deal with the Eighth Route Army, but now that the Airfield of the First Army is being bombarded again, with Yan Xishan's speculative personality, he must show his face .

The hard work of the previous month was in vain.

"Report to the general that the airport has encountered long-range enemy shelling, and the First Army's flying brigade has suffered heavy losses."

The brigade guarding the airport rushed to report.

Gibbon, who was already in an extremely bad mood, was so angry at the captain's nonsense report that he almost got angry and died on the spot.

"idiot····."

When he is blind?
The airport was shelled and he couldn't see it?
Can't he hear the explosion?
The thick smoke of burning and explosions, the sound of explosions one after another, as well as the wreckage of planes all over the airport, the bombed warehouses, and the heavy losses are already in front of us?

Need you to remind me of a nonsense?

"waste."

Immediately, Gibbon slapped the captain of the airport defense team on the face, and the captain who was caught off guard fell to the ground with a 'slap'.

Fortunately, Yamamoto spoke at this time, otherwise Gibbon might go up and kick him twice:

"General."

Yamamoto is close to the airport, so he has already figured out the situation:

"The enemy bombarded the airport at a distance of eight to ten kilometers from the airport. The exact location is still unclear. They used 75-caliber mountain artillery. Suzuki Dazuo has personally led troops to encircle and suppress the enemy."

"The rest of the force has also moved out to outflank the attackers."

In charge of defending Taiyuan is the No.80 Wing, the leader of the Wing Suzuki Kenji.

Yamamoto's words made Yoshimoto's complexion recover a bit. He ignored the captain of the airport garrison who was still lying on the ground with bleeding from the corner of his mouth, and turned his head to look at the airport where shells were still falling, with a gloomy tone:

"It is imperative to eliminate the attackers and destroy their cannons."

"In addition, we will make every effort to organize troops to rescue supplies."

Things have happened, and Gibbon is no longer incompetent and furious. The most important thing now is to reduce the loss of the flying brigade. The flying brigade is very important in his battle plan, and the second is to destroy the enemy's artillery.

Since he dared to send mountain artillery troops to attack his airport, then leave all the cannons behind.

"Hi."

Yamamoto bowed his head.

At this time, the sky was completely lit up, and Gibbon looked at the airport, looking at the shells that were still falling, and his brows frowned even deeper.

Due to the lack of a flat site and troublesome construction, many warehouses of the First Army were built directly near the airport, storing a lot of supplies, including fuel oil and bombs, which also aggravated the enemy's shelling damage. Many warehouses were hit, and some It was directly detonated.

Suddenly, a major caught Gibbon's attention. Amidst the gunpowder, this major was commanding rescue supplies at the edge of the airport. Under his command, brave imperial warriors rushed into the airport where shells were still falling, and joined forces from some damaged warehouses. Barrels of gasoline and bombs were rescued.

Even, a plane was towed from the airport with a truck.

"Who is this Major?"

asked Gibbon suddenly.

······
"Quick, quick, move quickly."

On the edge of the airport, suppressing the fear in his heart, Ito danced and directed his subordinates to rush into the warehouse to rescue the supplies.

Under his command, the devils of the Ito Squadron rushed into the warehouse one after another in units of units, and transported gasoline barrels, bombs, and aircraft parts out.

However, also under his command and even cover, there is a small group of devils who are organizing the storage of the transported materials and moving them to a safe area. What no one noticed is that some of the materials disappeared silently during the transportation.

Although the shelling was still going on at this time, shells kept falling at the airport in the distance, and the gunpowder smoke rising all around made Ito's situation seem very dangerous.

But Ito is not stupid, nor is he dazzled by interests.

Instead, he is smart.

He had been observing the situation at the airport since the first shell fell, and within a short period of time, he discovered that the enemy's shelling was very precise and organized.

The shell clusters bombard the airport in turn, and after destroying one area, they will move to another area without repeating the bombardment.

At this moment, he was at the location of the first round of bombardment, and the shells would hardly fall on this side, so the security was very high. Although it was not absolutely safe, if you want to do business and make money, you must take some risks.

"you··"

The sharp-eyed Ito found that one plane was almost intact, but it was far away and close to the shelling position at this time, and immediately attracted a few diehards from his brigade.

That is to say, a fool who has been thoroughly brainwashed by Bushido, an idiot who only wants to be loyal to the emperor.

"Drive the truck and get that plane out."

Finally, Ito added a sentence as usual:

"That is the property of the empire, the property of His Majesty the Locust. The imperial army needs that plane for the jihad."

"Hi."

"Long live His Majesty the Locust."

The word locust and empire made the devils' eyes completely red. They drove a truck and rushed towards the distant plane screaming.

Looking at the group of idiots rushing towards the plane, Ito smiled mockingly.

He needs some results, some results of salvaging the empire's property, to avoid being suspected and to cover up his secret reselling of the empire's property.

Ten minutes later, the shelling disappeared, and the airport returned to calm, except for burning warehouses and occasional explosions.

"Pity···"

Ito was a little unsure.

······
afternoon.

"Nani? Didn't catch the enemy?"

In the command room near the airport, Yoshimoto Sadaichi's eyes widened.

At this point the damage report has come out.

A little smaller than the previous two losses.

Nearly half of the planes were lost, and half of the planes were directly blown up and scrapped, and some of them needed major repairs before they could be used. Only ten planes were slightly injured and could be used with a little repair.

Moreover, the rest of the materials are similar, more than half of the fuel and explosives are lost, and nearly half of the airport equipment is also lost. It will take at least three months to recover.

During this period, the Flying Group of the First Army almost lost its attack capability.

He thought that he could catch the enemy's artillery, which would not be a bad loss.

After all, the artillery unit went deep into the bombardment of the airport, which was almost a suicide attack, and now he was actually told that the enemy artillery who attacked the airport escaped?
It is much easier to replenish the imperial aircraft than the enemy's artillery.

"Hi."

The captain of the [-]th Infantry Regiment who came to report, Suzuki Kenji bowed his head, his face full of shame:
"The enemy's shelling position is nine kilometers away from the airport in a straight line, and landmines are also prepared on the road. When I led people to the enemy's shelling position, the enemy had already retreated."

"And the enemy's position selection is also very clever, and it is relatively far away from other brigades."

"I sent people to chase along the mountain road for [-] kilometers, but I didn't catch up. The enemy fled along the mountain road into the deep mountains."

"Na... Ni"

Gibbon's complexion turned dark, and the corners of his eyes twitched.
Mountainous terrain, terrain where cavalry cannot walk, light infantry did not catch up with artillery?

"Baga, a bunch of trash."

He immediately rushed forward and slapped him. Fortunately, Suzuki Kenji was prepared and accepted the slap abruptly.

"Hi."

Suzuki Kenji bowed his head, his face becoming more and more ashamed.

He was a light infantry soldier, chasing the enemy with mountain cannons on the mountain road, but he didn't catch up, which was a great shame.

But he was also extremely depressed, and he couldn't understand it.

Marching at full speed, he arrived at the enemy's shelling position four or ten minutes after the enemy's shelling stopped, and then decisively pursued along the mountain road. .

Although the enemy has set up traps such as mines to delay the pursuit, it shouldn't be.

With a mountain cannon, how can you run faster than light infantry on the mountain road?It's okay if you don't catch up. After chasing for a full [-] kilometers, you can only see the footprints left by the enemy, but you can't even see the back.

He also sent someone to look for it, and the enemy did not abandon or hide the cannon, indicating that they retreated with the cannon.

"General."

Yamamoto interrupted suddenly:
"It's not Suzuki's fault that the artillerymen failed to catch up with the enemy."

"According to the information I have, it can be confirmed that the enemy has a kind of excellent animal power mule and horse, which is very mobile in the mountains, and the camel transportation capacity is more than twice that of the imperial mule and horse. This kind of animal power is combined with a light mountain cannon. It's not normal."

"However, I haven't investigated the specific data of this kind of mule."

"double?"

Yoshimoto looked at Kazuki Yamamoto with a rare serious expression on his face.

He has seen information about this kind of mules and horses from the information provided by Yamamoto before. The navy gold was robbed, and the military column was robbed more than a year ago, and the machinery and equipment were robbed by the Eighth Route Army. They all used this kind of mule and horse transportation. .

At that time, he didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was a bit exaggerated, but in front of the actual example, he couldn't help but pay attention to it.

Judging from the bombardment encountered at the airport in the morning, the enemy must have used six artillery pieces with a caliber of 75. From the range of [-] kilometers, it is speculated that there is a high probability that they are Boss Fushan cannons.

He knows the data of this kind of mountain cannon very well. The single-door camel has a load capacity of 120 kilograms. After disassembly, the weight of a single part is between [-] and [-] kilograms, and the maximum range is [-] kilometers.

Judging from the fact that the enemy's shelling position is [-] kilometers away from the airport, and the largest shell lands at [-] kilometers, its barrel is [-] times longer than the national government's diameter. The longer the barrel, the heavier the weight.

That is to say, the enemy camels transported six heavy objects weighing more than [-] kilograms, and each piece weighed more than [-] kilograms. The speed of marching on the mountain surpassed that of light infantry, and their endurance was durable, and they could march more than [-] kilometers in a hurry.

In an instant, Gibbon realized the horror of this kind of "mule and horse".

Once equipped with this kind of mule and horse, the mobility of mountain troops will be directly improved several times, and the combat effectiveness will also be improved several times.

A team equipped with this kind of mule and horse is almost equal to a team equipped with ordinary mules and horses. The difference between the animal-powered mule and horse unit and the mechanized unit is almost equal to the plain terrain.

He felt something was wrong.

This Shanxi is almost full of mountains.

Doesn't that mean that once the enemy finds a loophole in the empire's defense system, they can launch long-range bombardment anytime and anywhere?Just leave after the fight, but he can't catch up even if he wants to?

"However, there are not many such mules and horses in the Eighth Route Army."

Yamamoto continued:

"Only Li Yunlong's troops are equipped on a large scale. It can be confirmed that it was Li Yunlong who shelled the airport this time."

"Li Yunlong!"

Gibbon breathed a sigh of relief.

The number is not large, that is to say, there is only a local threat, no overall threat, and little threat to the overall situation.

Although the seven main divisions of the 27 divisions of the Chinese Expeditionary Army have been transferred away, the empire still has an absolute advantage and is invincible on the frontal battlefield. This will not affect the overall situation.

"Hurry up and repair the airport."

After that, Yoshimoto looked at Yamamoto:
"Strengthen the vigilance around Taiyuan to prevent the enemy from attacking again."

"In addition, find a way to investigate the source of this mule and horse. The empire also needs this kind of animal power."

"Yamamoto-kun, you are in charge."

If this Li Yunlong bombarded the airport and other important facilities every now and then, and the mysterious Chen Fan provided the shells, Gibbon felt that he really couldn't bear it.

"Hi."

Yamamoto bowed his head.

After Yamamoto left, Yoshimoto took out a map of Shanxi, found the boundary between Pan County and Ping'an County where Li Yunlong was located, and snorted coldly:
"Li Yunlong."

"Hmph, then I'll take you first."

　It was sent first, and I have to go to work overtime, so I won’t change it.

　　There is a chapter at noon tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)