Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Chapter 159 Chapter 158, Some Retreat, Some Defend
The mountainous area, with its complex terrain, is the most suitable place for guerrilla warfare. If the vegetation in this mountainous area is more lush, it will be even more perfect!

Now, the area where the guerrillas are located has a lot of vegetation and complex terrain, which is a good place to fight guerrilla warfare. Of course, there is a mountain road that runs roughly east-west, connecting Shimen, Jiuguan, and Jingxing in the east, which is also a transportation route that the devils want to control.

Now, Fukawa Kodai stood in front of the crater caused by the double-explosive mine, holding a telescope and looking at the surrounding mountains. He was torn between his own thoughts and his own thoughts, and for a moment he didn't know what to do. After pondering for a long time, he waved his hand and called the signalman over: "You, send a telegram to the brigade headquarters and report the situation!"

"At 1: p.m. today, my unit and Ishihara's unit sent out troops to complete the winter food collection mission... Captain Ishihara has died for his country, and my unit was blocked by the main force of the Eighth Route Army, about a regiment of troops, east of Weijia Village... My unit is in a fierce battle, and I request tactical guidance! Okay, send this content to the battalion headquarters! You, first send the dead soldiers back to the base..."

A telegram was quickly transmitted to the headquarters of the 11th Battalion of the 5th Independent Mixed Division via radio waves. After reading the contents of the telegram, Captain Qingshui pondered for a moment, lowered his head, and looked at the military map. On the map at this time, the Zhoujia Village stronghold and the surrounding kilometers were marked as part of the occupied area.

At this time, he drew the sign representing the Eighth Route Army in the east of Weijia Village, indicating that this was the area where the Eighth Route Army was active. Then, he looked at the Baicun stronghold west of Ping'an County and the Huangcun stronghold to the south. Then he looked along the road south of the Huangcun stronghold until he stopped at Liao County.

After looking at the whole route, he turned around and looked at the map of North China behind him. Looking at the densely packed town signs on it, and then looking at the dividing line representing the Japanese-occupied area, the captain finally sighed.

"Damn... The Empire has occupied such a large area of ​​land in North China, but until now, except for the towns around the railways and highways, the rest of the country is not controlled by the Empire's army!" After saying that, he sat down again, picked up the other two telegrams on the desk, and read them again.

The two telegrams were sent from the Huangcun stronghold and the Baicun stronghold. The Baicun telegram reported that when they were looking for the main force of the Eighth Route Army to the west, they encountered resistance from two regiments of the Eighth Route Army and were fighting hard. They were afraid that they could not hold on. The report from the Huangcun stronghold was that the Pingliao Highway, 2 kilometers south of Huangcun, was extensively damaged, and the length extended to the south for a full 10 kilometers.

The 10-kilometer-long road was dug up everywhere and there were countless pits. The team guarding the road was also attacked and lost dozens of soldiers.

After carefully summarizing these reports, Captain Qingshui rubbed his brows and made a judgment: the Eighth Route Army mobilized at least 1 troops to fight in just a few days. Not to mention anything else, just destroying 10 kilometers of road overnight is not something that one or two regiments can do.

"So, just a small test, and they mobilized an entire division of the Eighth Route Army? Then, where did the Eighth Route Army active in the southern Hebei region come from? It seems that next year's offensive plan needs to be more fully prepared!" Captain Qingshui muttered to himself in confusion and made the latest decision.

On a hilltop 20 kilometers west of the Baicun stronghold, the Japanese captain Nakamori, who was occupying the hilltop, twisted his neck with a headache when he saw the Eighth Route Army gathering at the foot of the mountain. Then he pointed his command knife and said, "Shoot. We must not let the Eighth Route Army occupy this place..."

"Captain... a telegram from the battalion headquarters, the captain ordered us to retreat immediately, retreat to the Baicun stronghold, and strengthen the defense of the stronghold!" The Japanese signalman brought the order. "Retreat?" Looking at the figures running around on the surrounding hills, Captain Nakamori gladly accepted the order from his captain, organized the team and headed east back to Baicun.

"The Japanese are retreating? Then let them retreat! Let the people and militiamen have a rest and stop bluffing!" Seeing the Japanese retreating, Captain Qin sighed and said.

"Captain, this time we suffer from a lack of ammunition! Look, these are the weapons and ammunition we seized from the Japanese who were killed in the minefield we set up before. It's a pity that we don't have much heavy firepower and our ability to attack is not good enough!" Political Commissar Lai saw that his old partner was somewhat unwilling to accept this, but there was nothing he could do given the strength he had.

"Well, I wonder how Xiao Guo is doing? Nothing can happen to the guerrillas!" Captain Qin changed the subject and asked about the situation of the guerrillas in the east.

"The intelligence has been delivered, but the signalman hasn't come back yet, so we don't know the specific situation! However, the guerrillas are well-equipped and have more than 100 personnel, so it's easy to transfer them! If things really don't work, they can move south to find the main force of the 772nd Regiment. What's more, we have our most elite 1st Company to help, so there won't be any problems." Political Commissar Lai comforted.

"I hope everything is okay! If the guerrillas are okay, we must strengthen our communications. At least we have to connect the telephone lines! Isn't it just a few dozen miles away? The surrounding enemy telephone lines are all ours!"

While the two leaders of the Qinlai Detachment were discussing things here, the Japanese had already left the battle and quickly returned to Baicun. At the same time, the Japanese in the Baicun stronghold received a mobilization order, asking them to get ready and wait for the Zhongsen Squadron to return to Baicun. They immediately set out eastward to the Zhoujia Village stronghold.

As for the Huangcun stronghold, because it was guarding the highway, Captain Qingshui's task was to leave a squadron to guard it, and the squadron that went out for the mopping-up operation would head south and become a road protection team.

Then, at the Zhoucun stronghold, since there was no way to make a direct call to Buchuan, a telegram was sent to him, asking him to stay on the spot, complete the guard work, and wait for the next instructions.

The orders of the Qingshui Battalion were quickly transmitted through radio waves. The Japanese deployed the existing forces, but there were no extra reinforcements to send to them. The 5th Independent Mixed Brigade had 1 infantry battalions, 5 artillery team, the medical team of the brigade headquarters, and other teams. However, they had to guard the counties from Yangquan to Liaoxian, and there was exactly one battalion for each county.

The Qingshui Battalion stationed in Ping'an County had less than 1000 soldiers, and they had to take care of the county town and the surrounding strongholds. It was already very difficult to send some soldiers out to collect food. Where would they send more soldiers? Was the county town still needed? What if the Eighth Route Army was mobilizing its main force to go out?
(End of this chapter)