The Sulu Theater Command, hidden in the mountainous area of Lunan, was heavily guarded, and the sound of the ticking radio and the staff officers who were in and out in a hurry made the war room look extremely busy.

The Sulu Theater is in the occupied area, and the enemy situation is even more complicated, not only the occupation troops dominated by the devil and puppet army, but also the spontaneously organized anti-war teams with thousands of small troops.

These small units have more than 1,000 people and as few as 35 people, and they are not only difficult to manage, but also have very complicated relations with each other.

Moreover, in addition to these anti-Japanese forces, various Taoist forces and local gang forces have also developed and grown, grabbing territory, and internal friction and fighting occur every day.

Although the Sulu Theater Command nominally leads all the armed resistance in the region, in reality there are not many troops under its control.

The only regular troops that Commander Yu Xuezhong could really manage were the 51st Army and the 57th Army, and both of them had already been transferred north to fight in Shandong.

The largest number of troops stranded in Jiangsu are the 89th Army of Provincial Chairman Han Deqin and Li Mingyang's Sulu Guerrilla Corps, as well as the Marine Police Force and the Sixth Independent Brigade.

Although the Chongqing Military Commission has drawn up a winter offensive operational plan this time, it has been carried out positively and negatively by various theaters and units when it comes down to the localities.

So many troops in the Sulu Theater have been fighting for so long, and the combat troops in Shandong have only recovered some remote towns, and even many of them have contracted their defenses and voluntarily given up.

In Jiangsu, only Huaiyin was recovered, and some larger cities such as Yancheng and Dongtai were still firmly controlled by the Japanese puppet army.

Fighting in the cold winter months, the cold and exhaustion eroded the combat effectiveness of the troops, and the troops that were already short of materials were seriously reduced due to typhoid fever and battle losses, and the troops attacking Yancheng, Baoying and other places had stopped attacking and were preparing to evacuate.

After all, if this battle continues like this, I am afraid that the army itself will collapse before the devil is eliminated.

Many of the current units are not the elite who were trained for a period of time in the early days of the war, especially the guerrilla units in the occupied areas, and many of them are new recruits.

These recruits were coaxed and deceived by various troops, and many of them were even captured.

In peacetime, being a soldier is to eat imperial food, and in wartime, being a soldier is cannon fodder, and in the case of weak propaganda, many people are not willing to send their families to serve as soldiers.

Even if there are those refugees who can't survive and voluntarily join the army to serve the country, the purpose is to get military pay and support their families.

At present, many troops owe military salaries, and even if they do, they do not dare to pay them, because once they are paid, most of the troops will be deserters with their salaries, just like many people who change jobs after being paid year-end bonuses, officers and soldiers do not have much sense of belonging to the troops, and many people join the army just to eat food and get military salaries.

"The troops of Yancheng have retreated, and they are no longer able to launch a new offensive unless they get a large supply ......"

"Baoying's troops were attacked by devils at night, suffered heavy losses, and now they have been dispersed, and the news was sent by the hidden agents of the military command."

"Nantong and Dongtai are still fighting, but the situation is not optimistic, and typhoid fever has seriously reduced personnel......"

The war room of the Sulu Theater Command has lost the joyful atmosphere that prevailed at the beginning of the war, but has become lifeless.

There are many factors influencing it, and the offensive in all battlefields across the country is not optimistic, except for some areas where victory is still being won, most of the attacks have failed for various reasons, and the troops are retreating or being pursued by devils.

The winter offensive on the battlefield across the country has begun to decline, and in addition to the tenacity of the devils, the intrigues between the various units are also an important factor, and they all want to preserve their strength, and they don't want to fight with the devils to the death.

The Sulu theater is similar, and many places are still fighting, but a discerning person can see at a glance that the failure of the attack is only a matter of time, and he is still holding on, that is because the devil reinforcements have not yet arrived, and with a fluke mentality, he wants to wait for the surrounded devils to hold on.

Is it true that the devil can't hold on? The answer is, of course, no, the devil soldiers are well fed, and there is a silhouette of the puppet army, although they were caught off guard at first, but now they have stabilized their positions, and even have begun to counterattack on the local battlefield.

In the face of the erosive war, although the Chinese army is still holding on, once the devil comes to his senses and dispatches elite troops into the Sulu theater, then all the offensive will be melted.

At that time, it will not be a question of besieging the devils, but a question of how to survive in response to the heavy encirclement and suppression of the devils.

This is also the reason why, although the current fighting of the various units is not very ideal, the theater command has not forced them to fight to the death.

They want to persist in the war of resistance behind enemy lines for a long time, if they are fighting to exhaust the troops now, then how to face the heavy encirclement and suppression of the devils next?

"Now that the troops have run out of ammunition, they are no longer capable of continuing to fight, sir, you see?"

Hearing the staff officer's report, Commander Yu Xuezhong, who was full of haggardness, felt a deep sense of powerlessness: "Let the troops without ammunition leave the battlefield in an orderly manner...... However, it is necessary to keep it secret and not to affect the operation of troops who still have ammunition. ”

Ammunition has always been an important constraint for the Chinese army, and when the heavy military groups on the frontal battlefield confront the devils, the ammunition often raised is only enough for about a month of fighting.

If the battle cannot be ended within a month, no matter whether it is won or lost, then the Chinese army will have to take the initiative to leave the battlefield, because if it continues to fight, it will have to fight with flesh and blood and devils.

In many cases, even if the battle is won in the early stage, the fiasco in the later stage is because the ammunition is exhausted, and he is no longer able to fight with the devil, so that he will be crushed for thousands of miles.

But these Chinese soldiers who fought bloodily had bitter words, and after every defeat, they would be subjected to groundless accusations and abuse, saying that they were incompetent, but they were indeed defeated, and even explanations were so pale and powerless.

In the face of the grim situation of the battlefields in the Sulu theater, instead of continuing to fight the devils to the death, it is better to withdraw as soon as possible while there is still strength.

Otherwise, once the devils recover, then the troops who have been fighting hard for so long and have no ammunition will face another massacre, and now it is important to save the troops, and as for the battle plan given to them by the Military Commission, it can only end without a problem, and they are very helpless.

"Great victory! What a victory! ”

Just as the staff officers in the war room were preparing to make a retreat plan in their hearts, cheers came from outside.

A communications staff officer burst into the war room like a wind, holding up a newly transcribed telegram in his hand and shouting: "Great victory! Great victory! Gaoyou is recovered! ”

It was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, a stone stirred up a thousand waves, and after the entire lifeless war room was stunned for a moment, these senior staff officers and staff members surrounded it one after another, and they no longer cared about the majestic image.

At such a moment, winning such a great victory is undoubtedly a shot of stimulant for the theater command that has lost confidence.

"Great victory, Nantong is restored!"

Before everyone could recover from the shock of Gao You's recovery, another staff officer rushed in.