Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

While Lowe was arranging the battle deployment, Guo Liandong was doing the same thing.

"There are not many devils this time, only 15, but there are more than 300 puppet troops. So we don't need to hit too hard this time, just play it steady and steady! Then I'll tell you a key point, the devils brought two-step radios, the kind that can be used for communication at any time. We urgently need such radios now! So, snipers from each platoon, assemble them and deal with these dozen devils!"

"Attention snipers, while sniping the enemy, try to ensure that the bullet does not hit the radio. This is a precious treasure, more valuable than the enemy's life!"

"This is the first step of the battle later. The second step is to gather our precision shooters and focus their main shooting targets on the puppet soldiers in front of the devils! They will also shoot when the snipers shoot, but the snipers will shoot at the devils and the precision shooters will shoot at the puppet soldiers. Don't do any cross-splitting!"

"With the help of the precision shooter and the sniper, the radio station can be saved, and some of the Japanese and puppet troops can be eliminated! Then here comes the key point... Find the two best gunners in the artillery platoons, and have them personally control the bombing points 40 meters in front and 40 meters behind the Japanese. The purpose of the bombing is to prevent the puppet troops from getting close to the radio station."

"Then, the remaining 60 mortars will extend the bombing to both sides from these two explosion points. At the same time, all combat units close to the river valley will open fire at the puppet troops. The battle must be ended in a short time!" Guo Liandong's arrangements were very clear, and he arranged who should do what.

However, things often don't develop according to one's own script. First of all, the distance from Guxian to Goukou is 30 miles. Even if the Japanese and puppet troops they targeted ran, it would take two hours to get there. Now, more than 40 minutes have passed since the Japanese set out from Guxian, which has long exceeded the time that Inoue Taro can bear.

Of course, things would not develop according to Inoue's idea, because just when he was getting impatient and was about to lead the large troops to Shikisho, the brigade headquarters forwarded a telegram from the military: Wait on the spot, reconnaissance planes will conduct aerial reconnaissance at Yuncheng Airport, and make any decision after the situation is confirmed.

Therefore, Inoue's transfer plan had to be temporarily terminated, and he had to wait for at least an hour.

One hour, that is the time it takes for the reconnaissance plane from Yuncheng Airport to take off, fly over 170 kilometers to Shili Township, conduct reconnaissance, observation, return, and issue a reconnaissance report. And this one hour is really not equal for Inoue! He has an intuition, a feeling like being in the forest and being stared at by a tiger, with a feeling of oppression and danger.

However, he was just a small captain, and he had no way to resist the orders of the military! Although the Japanese had a tradition of overcoming the superiors, you had to see who it was! Although Inoue was also a person of aristocratic status, he could not be compared with those people from the great aristocrats! And those who overcame the superiors at most only targeted their superiors or skipped one level.

And him? Above the battalion commander is the regiment, above the regiment is the brigade, above the brigade is the division, and above the division is the army... In terms of military rank, he is a major, and above him are lieutenant colonel, colonel, major general, and lieutenant general. Without a strong background, he still has to follow orders honestly! Although there are many famous examples of great victories achieved by overcoming superiors, Inoue is definitely not one of them! For example, Itagaki Seishirō, it is said that he led the 5th Division to fight the Taiyuan Campaign. Originally, Itagaki Seishirō was overcoming superiors, disobeying orders, and stubbornly leading half of the division to suddenly launch an attack.

But who can blame Itagaki for his strong background? His grandfather was in the Shinto cult that encouraged hara-kiri suicide, and he held a very important position! Therefore, even if Itagaki led his troops to advance recklessly and disrupted the front army's battle plan, the front army had to change the plan and transfer troops from the Kwantung Army to him to cooperate with his battle.

For example, when taking Taiyuan City, other divisions had to wait around for the Fifth Division to enter the city first. This was a huge honor! The Fifth Division also had a standoff with the Navy in Qingdao, and in the end they had to occupy half of the city, and both sides were punished. If you don't have any background and connections, don't get involved, otherwise you will easily get yourself killed in advance!
Therefore, even though Inoue was very dissatisfied with the military's slow response, he had to hold his nose and stay in Gu County. However, he was not stupid. While staying, he did not forget to arrange for people to build a defense line around Gu County, so that there would be time and space to respond in case of emergencies.

To the north of Gu County, on Songshuling, Luo Wei and his men let the puppet army pass and head north, but they waited for a long time for Inoue's team to make the next move, so Luo Wei and his more than 100 men could only wait.

However, while waiting, Lowe felt that he could not just sit there and wait, so he ordered his men to dig individual pits and machine gun positions near the valley on the east side of Songshuling, at an angle that the Japanese in Guxian could not observe.

The straight-line distance from here to the mountain road at the foot of the mountain is between 300 and 400 meters. Digging in some locations where it is difficult to find traces when observing from the bottom of the mountain, it is completely possible to place light machine guns here.

At the same time, the comrades of the assault team also quietly went down the mountain and found a suitable fighting position for themselves at a suitable distance. After finding the right position, the comrades waved their engineer shovels and dug some individual pits for themselves as cover for the next battle. As for whether the Japanese would find out? As long as the camouflage is good enough, it can still deceive the eyes of the Japanese at a distance of 150 meters.

For example, during the ambush at Shentouling, the comrades hid in the trenches beside the road, and the Japanese urinated on them, but they didn't notice that there was someone under them. Of course, the Japanese who urinated were later beaten up.

In short, everyone was preparing for the battle, and there was no specific combat target. They were all guessing a direction and then making corresponding arrangements. After all, the Japanese were waiting for reconnaissance planes to investigate and waiting for orders from their superiors, while the Eighth Route Army was waiting for the Japanese to react before responding.

At some point, the roar of an airplane was heard in the sky. Two of the latest Type 98 reconnaissance planes flew from Yuncheng, then flew north along the Guxian River Valley, passed Guxian, and continued to fly towards Shili Township. The reconnaissance planes flew very fast, of course not very fast, but much faster than a person walking!
Therefore, the observer on the plane saw the puppet army on the march, and then found the convoy that was bombed and parked south of the ditch mouth, and found that it was still smoking. The Japanese planes circled here, and one of the planes even observed at a low altitude, and then continued to fly north to the direction of Shili Township. (End of this chapter)