Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"In short, the plan remains the same. We'll set off tonight. To be on the safe side, it's best if we proceed in batches to reach the designated location."

"I will arrange for an advance scout to avoid any potential ambushes," Li Jin brought the topic back.

Just to be on the safe side, it's still necessary to send someone to scout ahead. Li Jin wasn't comfortable with others going to scout ahead, so he thought it would be better to send the special operations regiment, or even better, the reconnaissance battalion.

In this way, if anything happens, the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion can also escape unscathed.

"No problem." Everyone nodded in agreement. They had no objections, and Mu Jin was now their commander, albeit temporarily.

However, it must be said that Mu Jin's arrangement was relatively safe. At least for Chu Yunfei, if he sent his men to scout ahead, they probably wouldn't find anything wrong, and they might even fall into the enemy's trap.

Therefore, it would be better to have Mu Jin send someone to scout ahead.

.........

Around 3:30 p.m., on the other side, the Japanese brigade commander arrived at the headquarters of the New First Regiment with his men.

After the advance team searched the village, it was found to be deserted and abandoned. However, it was clear from the village's condition that the villagers had not been gone for long, at most about a week.

"Brigade Commander, we still haven't found the New First Regiment. They probably don't intend to engage us in direct combat," the Japanese regimental commander said.

Along the way, apart from the advance troops being attacked by the enemy, they did not encounter any further attacks, and the villages they passed through were mostly deserted.

"This is a bit troublesome," the Japanese brigade commander suddenly said.

"Trouble?! What does the brigade commander mean?!" The Japanese regimental commander was somewhat confused about what the brigade commander meant by "trouble." Did he think they couldn't catch up with the New 1st Regiment and annihilate the enemy?!

"Almost all the villages we passed were deserted, which means that the New First Regiment has sent all the nearby villagers to a safe place."

The problem is, those villagers actually agreed to leave the village. You have to understand, the Chinese people value their livelihood above all else.
It's clearly impossible to get them to leave the village with just a few words. The villagers from one or two villages might agree, but the villages they've passed through are mostly empty.

This is somewhat frightening. It means they are very popular with the people, so they will obediently leave, which is not a good thing for us. The Japanese brigade commander shook his head as he finished speaking, and his expression became serious.

He had never taken the enemy seriously, thinking that although they were resisting them, they were not united enough. But today's situation made him feel a deep sense of crisis.

It was somewhat frightening that these villagers would leave the village so obediently.

"What exactly did the Eighth Route Army do for those villagers?! Why did they obediently choose to leave?!" The Japanese regimental commander also realized what was happening and said.

"I don't know. All I know is that the situation is becoming increasingly troublesome for the Empire. If these Chinese are determined to resist the Empire's rule, the consequences will be unimaginable!" the Japanese brigade commander said slowly.

The Empire least wanted to see the Chinese people united in their resistance, because that would mean that conquering China would be an almost impossible task.

Could it really be as that book says, that the empire will be completely bogged down in China, and ultimately fail because it can't sustain the consumption of resources?!
The Japanese brigade commander was somewhat frightened, worried that the empire's great cause might come to an end.

"Brigade Commander, it's just that the people here are more united right now. Actually, they're not united enough in other places. Otherwise, where would we have gotten so many puppet troops?" the Japanese regimental commander said, feeling that the brigade commander was overthinking things.

Things didn't get out of control; at least they managed to recruit collaborators, which proves they weren't united enough.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be an easy task for the empire to manage so many conquered counties without the help of the puppet army.

"Perhaps," the Japanese brigade commander sighed.

"Brigade Commander, what should we do next?! Should we temporarily retreat to the county town?! Or continue pursuing the enemy?!" the Japanese regimental commander asked.

They haven't been able to engage with the New First Regiment yet, and the New First Regiment clearly doesn't want to fight them either.

"Continue the pursuit. We can now basically determine that the Northeast Army is no longer here, so we can proceed to encircle and annihilate the enemy without any worries!" said the Japanese brigade commander.

He didn't believe that the New First Regiment could hide forever and not be found. As long as they had the opportunity, he was confident that he could wipe out the New First Regiment.

"Yes, sir!" The Japanese regimental commander nodded.

"Brigade Commander, we've found a large empty warehouse at the end of the village," a Japanese sergeant said as he ran over.

"Damn it, what's the point of talking about such a trivial matter? There are no supplies available," the Japanese regimental commander said irritably.

He thought there were supplies, but it turned out to be empty.

"Is that empty warehouse very big?!" the Japanese brigade commander asked.

"Yes, I estimate that if there are supplies piled up inside, it wouldn't be much less than what we have for one of our regiments," the Japanese sergeant nodded and said.

To be honest, he really didn't expect that the enemy would build such a large warehouse, especially since it was built by the Eighth Route Army. This showed that they did indeed have so many supplies that needed to be stored.

"What?! Do they really have that many supplies?!" The Japanese regimental commander frowned, thinking that the Eighth Route Army shouldn't have built such a large warehouse.

"There's nothing strange about that. After all, they've cooperated with that Northeast Army many times, and the supplies they've captured, even if they only get a small portion of, are still a huge amount. It's much more than this in total."
"I estimate they also handed over a lot of supplies, otherwise the warehouse would have been even larger." The Japanese brigade commander didn't seem to see any problem.

It was expected that the new regiment would have a lot of supplies.

.........

After the Japanese soldiers entered the village, Blind Cheng was also watching from a mountain about three or four miles east of the village with binoculars.

"Commander, this is the headquarters of the New First Regiment. If the Japanese burn it down, Li Yunlong will probably cause us trouble," said the battalion commander beside him. "Of course, that guy will definitely be cursing and swearing. So, we need to fire a few shots at the Japanese to lure them over," Cheng the Blind said, taking out his walkie-talkie to contact the political commissar and instructing them to set up artillery positions and prepare to bombard the Japanese.

Of course, he also reminded everyone not to let the shells fall into the village, lest they blow up the houses, and that they would have to help repair the damaged houses.

As soon as the political commissar's prepared voice came through the walkie-talkie, Blind Cheng ordered his men to fire without the slightest hesitation.

Bang bang bang…

Several muffled thuds came from the direction of the artillery positions, and shells drew parabolic arcs in the air as they fell toward the Japanese soldiers gathered outside the village.

"Take cover! Spread out, everyone spread out!!" The veteran Japanese soldiers knew there was artillery fire as soon as they heard the sound, and immediately shouted loudly.

In an instant, the Japanese soldiers scattered, but many still didn't have time to escape.

Boom boom boom......

The shells fell with a huge explosion, blowing many Japanese soldiers away. Those closest to the shells were instantly blown to pieces, while some had their arms or legs blown off. The lucky ones were only injured by shrapnel and were not in mortal danger.

The sudden bombardment startled the Japanese brigade commander, and they quickly took cover in the house. The huge explosion shook the dust off the house.

"Brigade Commander, judging from the sound, the enemy seems to be firing from the east, and the artillery is landing where the soldiers are gathered." The Japanese regimental commander concluded after analysis.

"Damn it! They really have been watching us all along! Engage the enemy immediately! Don't let them escape!" The Japanese brigade commander roared, issuing orders.
"Brigade Commander, let's not rush. The enemy might be deliberately provoking us into pursuit. It would be bad if they ambushed us halfway. Let's send the vanguard to pursue them, and we'll follow behind," the Japanese regimental commander hurriedly advised.

Although he was also very angry, he still felt that he should not act rashly, lest he fall into the enemy's trap.

Moreover, although the new regiment is weaker than them, they can still fight them if they are ambushed, and they might even suffer heavy losses. So, we should be careful.

"Yoshi, you're right. The New First Regiment is just trying to provoke us. Without the help of that Northeast Army, this is the only way they can resort to." The Japanese brigade commander sneered.

The bombardment soon stopped, and the Japanese brigade commander left the village, ordering the puppet army battalion commander to lead a pursuit.

"Sir, where are we supposed to chase them?!" The puppet army captain said with a troubled expression. He was reluctant to chase them, worried that they might be ambushed.

"Baka! Do you intend to disobey orders?! If you don't want this battalion commander position, there are plenty of others who can take it." The Japanese regimental commander's face darkened as he spoke slowly, his eyes filled with murderous intent!
"I'll take men and chase after them right away!" The puppet army captain broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly ordered his men to set off. He could sense that if he didn't agree, he might not just lose his captainship, but go to hell.

"How dare you speak like that? The puppet troops are also working for the Empire!" the Japanese brigade commander shouted.

"Yes, brigade commander is right," the Japanese regimental commander quickly replied.

"Let's go. After this mission is completed, I will reward you with five thousand silver dollars so you can go out and have fun." The Japanese brigade commander looked at the puppet army captain with a smile.

"Don't worry, sir, I will definitely complete the mission!" The puppet army captain's eyes lit up when he heard there were five thousand silver dollars. He could hide quite a bit of it; it was a windfall.

He then immediately led his men to give chase.

"Brigade Commander, why are you rewarding them?! These men, though they have some fighting ability, sometimes need to be disciplined, otherwise they'll never know their own limitations," said the Japanese regimental commander. He felt that these puppet troops were already honored to serve the Empire.

"If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it. You can't just want it to run fast but starve it, can you?! Otherwise, it will go on strike, and even if it wants to work, it won't be able to."
"These puppet troops, no matter what, are serving the empire. They should be given some benefits, otherwise how can we get them to risk their lives?" the Japanese brigade commander lectured.

Although he looked down on the puppet army to some extent, the empire would indeed be unable to manage so many counties without their help.

If they actually manage to take over the territory in the future, they will still need the puppet army to help manage it, otherwise it will be very troublesome, as they don't have that many people.

"Understood." The Japanese regimental commander nodded, then said, "Brigade commander, we can now be fairly certain that the Northeast Army unit is no longer here. Shouldn't we report this?"

Their attack on the New First Regiment's garrison was precisely to determine whether the Northeast Army was there. Now that they've arrived at the New First Regiment's headquarters, there's still no trace of the Northeast Army, so they're clearly not there.

"Okay, go send a telegram to the division commander. I'm going to check on the casualties caused by this enemy attack." After saying that, the Japanese brigade commander left.

The Japanese regimental commander then summoned a telegraph operator, relayed the report, and instructed the operator to send a telegram to Taiyuan.

"Brigade Commander, the enemy's bombing just now cost us 38 soldiers our lives, 15 were seriously wounded, and 24 were slightly wounded!" A Japanese lieutenant colonel reported the casualty figures to the Japanese brigade commander.

"What?! We've suffered so many casualties in just this one round of bombing?!" The Japanese brigade commander frowned. He thought there would be at most a dozen or twenty casualties, but he didn't expect that more than twenty people had died.

"It was only because the veterans gave us an early warning that the casualties could have been much greater," the Japanese lieutenant colonel said.

The enemy's shells were fired right in the direction of the crowd; if the soldiers hadn't scattered quickly, even more people would have died.

"Damn it, that damned new 1st Regiment has caused us to lose so many soldiers again!" The Japanese brigade commander cursed, furious.

Since they launched their offensive, they haven't been able to engage the New First Regiment. Instead, the New First Regiment attacked them twice, resulting in the deaths of over two hundred of their soldiers. This loss is indeed significant.

"Get the wounded out of here and get them treated as soon as possible. Don't let anything happen to them," the Japanese brigade commander ordered. These soldiers couldn't afford any more accidents.

"Yes, sir!" The Japanese lieutenant colonel nodded in response and immediately arranged for men to carry the wounded soldier away!

"By the way, have the puppet troops suffered any casualties?!" the Japanese brigade commander asked.

"They're fine over there. The enemy shells were clearly aimed at us," the Japanese lieutenant colonel said. All the enemy shells landed in their direction; the puppet troops were only startled by the explosions, and there were no casualties. (End of Chapter)