Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 199 Brigade Commander: You're absolutely not qualified!
"Report! Artillery battalion, prepare for attack!"

"Report! Commandos, prepare for attack!"

"Report, demolition team, prepare for attack!"

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After each unit finished reporting on their preparations, He Ping glanced at his pocket watch and gave the order:
"Give me the order to attack!"

After the order was given, the artillery units of the vanguard launched the first attack!

The shells were accurately fired at Jining, including four mountain guns, which were towed by tractors from the advance troops to enhance their firepower.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the assault team advanced towards Jining and captured the outer perimeter of the city.

Inside the city, the puppet army commander felt extremely nervous after hearing the bugle call of the Eighth Route Army's attack.

"Get ready to attack! Get ready to attack!"

"Baka! Why aren't you climbing the city walls and attacking yet?!"

"Organize a defense immediately!"

A Japanese soldier saw the puppet army commander leading dozens of puppet soldiers gathered together, and quickly walked over and angrily cursed.

"Attack!" the puppet army commander shouted suddenly as he saw the Japanese soldiers approaching.

"Nani?"

At the foot of the city wall, the puppet troops suddenly opened fire. The Japanese soldier had no time to dodge and was immediately riddled with bullets.

When the remaining Japanese soldiers saw that the puppet troops had rebelled, they immediately turned their machine guns around to try to suppress the rebellious puppet troops.

However, the Japanese troops defending this position consisted of only a small squad of thirteen men, which was no match for the dozens of puppet troops who had been prepared in advance.

"Brothers, kill the Japanese devils! If we kill them, we can live!"

The puppet army commander shouted loudly to boost the morale of his troops.

If we don't fight desperately to kill these Japanese soldiers now, they will have no chance of survival once the Japanese soldiers realize what's happening.

Even a rabbit will bite when cornered, let alone a person. Under the threat of death, the puppet troops unleashed an unprecedented fighting spirit.

A dozen or so Japanese soldiers were overwhelmed and killed by dozens of puppet troops in close combat!

"Open the city gates and welcome the army into the city!"

After wiping out the Japanese squad, the puppet army commander shouted loudly.

The city gates were opened, and a squad of the assault team successfully entered Jining as a scout.

Upon entering Jining, the puppet troops stood in a row, weapons piled up to one side, shouting "Uprising! Uprising!"

After confirming that the puppet troops had indeed surrendered, the main force of the assault team entered Jining and, guided by the puppet troops, attacked the scattered Japanese soldiers in the city.

A company of Japanese soldiers, if they were gathered together, could fight the assault team soldiers for a while.

However, once dispersed, their strength and firepower could not be concentrated, and they could only be defeated one by one by the assault team soldiers.

The battle ended very quickly, even faster than the battle for Xinghe, that small county town.

As a secondary hub of the Ping-Sui Railway, Jining should not have been so easily captured.

A large battalion of Japanese soldiers plus more than 2,000 puppet troops could normally hold out for at least six hours.

However, after the main force of the Japanese army in Jining was wiped out in the field battle, the remaining Japanese soldiers could barely suppress the puppet troops, so how could they possibly defend Jining when the puppet troops surrendered?

After capturing Jining, He Ping ordered his troops to clear out all the strongholds and watchtowers around Jining.

The main force was deployed to Jining to garrison the transportation hubs and take over the equipment left behind by the Japanese soldiers in the city, as well as the weapons and equipment of the puppet troops.

The only pity is that the Japanese knew that Jining could not be defended, so they destroyed most of Jining's supplies in advance.

The battle to capture Jining, a secondary transportation hub, yielded few supplies.

"It's a pity that the Japanese devils were so evil; they actually destroyed all our supplies!"

He Ping sighed with regret.

"That's right, those Japanese devils are too evil. They destroyed all the supplies in Jining. These were supplies they plundered from our people!"

The other cadres chimed in.

"Sigh, let's call headquarters and report the situation," He Ping said.

Inside the command post, Chen Ming received a telegram from the advance team, and he was not surprised at all.

After a battalion of Japanese soldiers in Jining was caught up and wiped out by the advance troops, Jining was basically in the hands of the Independent Detachment.

A company of Japanese soldiers could not possibly hold Jining when the puppet troops had no will to fight and had even turned against them.

"Where are the Japanese devils located now?" Chen Ming asked.

"The vanguard of the Japanese army has reached Huai'an, with a force of about 12,000 men. The troops in Huai'an have already retreated and are now blocking the Japanese advance in stages," Chief of Staff Wang Dafei said.

"Did the Japanese divide their forces at Tianzhen and advance towards Datong along Yanggao?" Chen Ming continued to ask.

"Not yet. The Japanese are probably worried that if they split their forces, we can gather our strength to ambush and wipe out their scattered troops," Wang Dafei continued.

"Yes, continue to keep a close eye on the Japanese movements. As long as they don't split their forces to go to Datong and affect our transport of supplies, we'll continue to lead them in circles."

"Send a message to He Ping: there's no need to stay in Jining. Continue moving westward toward Guihua and force the Japanese to keep chasing us."

"Main force, begin to conceal your movements and make the Japanese lose track of our troops' whereabouts," Chen Ming ordered.

"Yes."

Chen Ming felt a little regretful after learning that the Japanese had not divided their forces.

The vanguard of the Japanese army numbered only 12,000. If they were to divide their forces in Datong, Chen Ming could immediately turn around and cooperate with the troops in Datong to launch an encirclement and annihilation campaign.

More than 12,000 Japanese soldiers were a huge number for the Independent Detachment, and it would be very difficult to wipe them out.

If we split up, the pressure will be reduced significantly, and the workload won't be as heavy.

The Japanese are now very clear about their objective: they will not touch Datong until reinforcements arrive.

Datong has been captured by the independent detachment for two days now, and there's so much that can be done in two days.

The important supplies that were to be transported have definitely been taken away, and Datong has become a ghost town. This is the consensus among the Japanese officers.

If we go to Datong now, we'll get nothing but driving away the Eighth Route Army.

Rather than taking back an empty city, it would be better to drive out the main force of the Independent Detachment first.

To avoid being captured by Guihua, Baotou was caught in a pincer movement between the main force of the Independent Detachment and the Northern Route Army.

If Guihua and Baotou were to fall, the defensive line built by the Japanese troops stationed in Mongolia, based in Guihua, Datong, and Wucheng, would completely collapse.

The situation in the Mengjiang region is in complete disarray, and rebuilding it in the short term is simply impossible.

Therefore, the opinions of the Japanese North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters are now very consistent.

First, resolve the crisis of the Northern Route Army and the Independent Detachment attacking Baotou and Guihua from one side to the other, and prevent the fall of Guihua and Baotou. Then, take charge of Datong.

To resolve this crisis, the most urgent task is to keep chasing the main force of the Independent Detachment, preventing it from having enough time to attack Guihua and support the Northern Route Army.

While the independent detachment was engaged in fierce fighting in the Yanbei region, the brigade commander was not idle either.

Besides diverting troops to contain Japanese reinforcements and delay their arrival, the brigade commander mobilized the main force, led by Kong Jie's unit, to launch a night attack on the Jingxing mining area.

The brigade commander's military talent goes without saying; he was the kind of guy who got the Japanese to paint armored vehicles with the words "Special Attack on the Brigade Commander's Troops" on them!
While holding back the Japanese troops, the brigade commander secretly transferred most of the main force back to Jingxing right under the noses of the Japanese.

Taking advantage of the Japanese soldiers' carelessness, they immediately launched a fierce attack on the Jingxing mining area!
The Japanese troops in the mining area were caught off guard, and their outer defenses were breached as soon as the battle began.

Kong Jie's troops, led by his men, engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese soldiers in the mining area.

Compared to the power of artillery fire, bayonet fighting was the most direct way to break down the Japanese counterattack.

A commander's style can influence his troops. For example, the soldiers of He Jianxin's Independent Detachment are definitely not as good as Kong Jie's troops in terms of bayonet fighting skills.

Kong Jie was used to being poor. In the past, his troops often had to fight the Japanese with a broadsword after firing a few shots.

Even Kong Jie himself would carry a large sword and participate in close combat, and the commanders and soldiers below him did the same, developing a very high level of close combat skills.

After Kong Jie's assault team of several hundred men rushed into the mining area, they fought the Japanese soldiers directly with bayonets and broadswords.

The Japanese soldiers were repeatedly stabbed and hacked to the ground, finding themselves at a disadvantage in what they considered their proudest close-quarters combat.

Hundreds of soldiers, armed with bayonets, fought their way through the mine.

"Come on, grandpa hasn't killed enough yet, you little devils, come and die!"

"My broadsword is thirsty!"

Amidst the corpses scattered on the ground, the warriors were covered in blood, resembling demons emerging from hell.

The remaining Japanese soldiers, seeing the severed limbs and remains scattered all over the ground, began to consider retreating.

The Japanese soldiers in the mining area were no better than those in the field army; their fighting spirit and combat effectiveness were far inferior.

Moreover, 42 years have passed, and the number of elite Japanese troops has greatly decreased, while their combat effectiveness has declined further.

Faced with increasingly formidable soldiers, the Japanese garrison in the mining area was driven back in defeat and was quickly overrun into the core area.

"Quickly, keep pushing forward and coordinate with the main force in combat."

"Taking over the mining area will be our greatest achievement. Let the other units see the strength of our independent detachment!"

The commando captain, wielding a large, blood-soaked sword, shouted loudly.

After penetrating the core area of ​​the mining region, Kong Jie's main force also stormed in, advancing the battle line wave after wave and gradually compressing the Japanese's operational space.

The mine's defenders retreated, attempting to hold out to the death with their last line of defense.

But the assault team didn't give the Japanese any chance at all, and directly pursued them, getting entangled with them.

After becoming entangled, the Japanese soldiers dared not fire, fearing they would injure their own soldiers. They were forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the elite assault team, and were subsequently wiped out one by one by the main force that arrived later.

The puppet troops were in complete disarray and had no will to resist; they simply raised their hands in surrender.

"Surrender and you will not be killed! Prisoners of war will be treated well!"

The soldiers rushed into the position and easily captured a large number of puppet troops.

With the overall situation settled and the main force bringing the situation under control, the mining area was gradually brought under control.

After the battle, the brigade commander laughed heartily in the command post.

"Well done! You've captured the Jingxing mining area and dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese. Now, let's see how they continue production without the mines."

"Order the troops to immediately clean up the battlefield, rescue the miners, and relocate the resources within the mining area," the brigade commander ordered.

Not long after the brigade commander captured the Jingxing mining area, Chen Ming also received the news.

A telegram was sent from Chen Ming's command post to the brigade commander's command post.

"Report, telegram from the Independent Detachment," a communications officer reported to the brigade commander.

The brigade commander took the telegram and began to read it.

The telegram was brief, with Chen Ming giving a rough report on the Independent Detachment's attack on Wucheng after capturing Datong, and the subsequent series of battles.

There's not much to say about this; the brigade commander knows what he's doing.

However, when he saw what happened next, the brigade commander's smile froze on his face.

The telegram began with Chen Ming congratulating the brigade commander on capturing the mining area, eliminating a large number of Japanese soldiers, and rescuing a large number of miners.

It dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Japanese and shattered their attempt to sustain the war through war.

The key is the last sentence, which Chen Ming wrote: "Brigade Commander, I congratulate you on making a fortune!"

After reading the telegram, the brigade commander could no longer contain himself.

"Great, I'm always the one congratulating him on getting rich, but this time he's congratulating me on getting rich."

"I haven't even thought about the spoils he captured in Datong yet, but that kid Chen Ming is already eyeing my mining machines as soon as I captured the mining area and seized some equipment."

The brigade commander said this from inside the command post.

"Hahaha."

Everyone in the command post burst into laughter.

It's very rare for a brigade commander to be congratulated on his wealth, especially by his subordinates.

"Alright, move all the mining machines out of the mine. Chen Ming wants them, so I'll give them to him."

"But don't blame me for being ruthless when it comes to the supplies in Datong."

The brigade commander spoke.

The independent detachment operated in the Jinbei region, which was rich in mineral resources, and these mining machines enabled Chen Ming to play a greater role.

The brigade commander knew this well; even if Chen Ming didn't congratulate him on his fortune, he would still transfer these machines to Chen Ming later.

The telegram Chen Ming sent wishing him good fortune was just a joke, and the brigade commander didn't take it seriously.

Of course, this is only true for Chen Ming. If it were Li Yunlong, the brigade commander would say: You are not qualified at all!

Inside the headquarters of the North China Expeditionary Army.

Gangcun's expression darkened further; he had just received news that the Jingxing mining area had been captured by the Eighth Route Army.

"Damn it, it's the 386th Brigade again! The 386th Brigade has become a major threat to the Empire!"

The Jingxing mining area was an important coking coal production area for the Japanese outside Shimen, and it had great strategic significance.

Now, right under their noses, the Eighth Route Army has captured it!
This means that after losing the mining areas outside Datong, the Japanese have lost another important mining area.

For the Japanese, who were attempting to sustain their war effort through war, this was a heavy blow.

Okamura couldn't understand why the large-scale crackdown, which had been planned for months and initially seemed to be going well, had deteriorated to its current state.

If they had simply followed the established procedures and searched the encirclement, they could have swept through the area as they had done before and severely damaged the Eighth Route Army's Hebei-Central Base Area.

But now, the great sweep is over, Datong is lost, Jining is lost, the Datong mining area is gone, and the Jingxing mining area is gone too.

The sweeping troops were rushing around trying to put out fires, and the strategic intent of the large-scale sweep had already failed.

"Phew, phew, it's all thanks to the independent detachments. If it weren't for them, the situation wouldn't have deteriorated to this point."

Gangcun was trembling with rage, his hatred for the Independent Detachment reaching its peak.

(End of this chapter)