Finally, when the Eighth Route Army's fighters ran out of ammunition and flapped their wings and flew away, the chief of staff pulled Ganji Jutaro up from the ground.

In this air-to-ground attack battle, the troops directly under the 33rd Division and the infantry brigade of the 215th Wing, which operated with the divisional headquarters, suffered heavy casualties, which was tantamount to losing its combat effectiveness.

Standing on the side of the road, looking at the corpses everywhere, listening to the wails of the wounded soldiers, Tataro Gansu no longer had his original composure and elegance, his eyes were full of tears, and the tears kept ticking down. In that way, he is not like a lieutenant general of the army of this empire, but like an old fisherman of Hokkaido who has been stimulated.

The chief of staff was very faithful to his duties, busy directing the soldiers who were lucky enough to survive, and cooperating with the doctors of the health corps and field hospitals to rescue the wounded.

Jutaro Gan was not actually stimulated to the point of insanity, but he couldn't accept the facts in front of him, and he was a little uncomfortable. After all, he is the commander of the lieutenant general's division, and he bears heavy responsibilities, and he knows that the danger is far from being lifted, and now is not the time to be a child, so he must quickly take the troops out of the dangerous area, lest the fighters of the Eighth Route Army make another surprise attack, and the result will be even worse.

Ganji Jutaro couldn't imagine that he was so unlucky, and as soon as he thought of transferring troops and avoiding another surprise attack by the fighters of the Eighth Route Army, the fighters of the Eighth Route Army really came.

It was ten fighters of the Eighth Route Army that were pursuing the army to the east. They searched and pursued eastward, and soon caught up with the Yue Army Brigade in a rubber [***] car, which was the Yue Army sent by Gansu Jutaro to seize the county seat of Pingdu, led by the commander of the 215th Wing.

The garrison division of a brigade of the army, the full strength is 960 people, plus the 215 wing headquarters, less than 1,000 people, and they are all on the road in rubber [***] cars, all exposed to the machine guns of the Eighth Route Army fighters, not even bombs do not need to be dropped, only a wave of machine gun attacks, is driving the rubber [***] car on the main road Zhenghuan's devil infantry brigade is chaotic, not to mention the death and wounding of the devil soldiers, not to mention the pack horses pulling the cart are also killed. The pack horses, which had not been killed, were also startled, and began to pull the broken and unbroken carts down the highway and run through the empty fields.

After the fighter plane of the Eighth Route Army pulled it up, it immediately turned in the air, pounced again, and began to strafe repeatedly, until all the rubber [***] cars that were fleeing in all directions were knocked down, and the devils on the car were dead, and then they were pulled up. By the time of the third dive strafing, it was chasing the little devils who were lucky enough to be alive and firing.

This time, the little devils know what an air-to-ground attack is, what a goshawk and a rabbit are, the ferocity of their planes when they slaughter Chinese civilians, and the helplessness of Chinese soldiers and civilians who are bombed by enemy planes. The clever one lies on the ground and pretends to be a dead dog, trying to dodge the bullets of the machine-gun; The stupid, panicked, and screaming little devils who were running around with their mothers were miserable, and they were often beaten in two by the on-board machine guns of the Eighth Route Army fighters, and the blood soaked the mud on the road and in the fields into black and red.

Seeing that the roads and fields were full of the corpses of people and pack horses, the devil brigade was basically reimbursed, and the ten fighters of the Eighth Route Army swept eastward again and continued to search. However, this time they were disappointed, and until they reached Pingdu County, they did not encounter the formed devil troops again, and the fighters of the Eighth Route Army returned the same way.

This way back, just happened to meet the chief of staff of Gansu Shigetaro commanding the army to rescue the wounded, this is really a coincidence, the pilots of the Eighth Route Army naturally will not let go of this group of two-legged beasts, and another round of air-to-ground attacks began.

This guy is cunning, when the whistling sound of the fighter plane coming over, he first saw it, and immediately fell to the ground, and then pulled out his pistol and shot to warn, and kept shouting to lie down and hide. But his chief of staff and the soldiers who carried the wounded were not so lucky, and once again withstood the baptism of bullets. His chief of staff was the most unlucky, he was shot in the head by an airborne machine gun bullet, and his round bald head turned into a bloody scoop, and blood sprayed out along the bloody scoop.

The fighters of the Eighth Route Army repeatedly strafed and dropped bombs until there were no longer any active Japanese troops on the battlefield, and then they flew southwest.

Gansu Jutaro looked forward to the stars and the moon, and said countless words of blessing Amaterasu and cursing Liu Yimin, and finally sent the fighters of the Eighth Route Army away. This time, Gansu Jutaro no longer wanted to treat the wounded, and he didn't even want those cannons and heavy machine guns, and rushed to Hancun by the Jiaolai River with the little devils who were lucky not to die. He had to hide himself first, and then think about gathering the troops.

To the surprise of Gansu Shigetaro, the Eighth Route Army fighter plane did not come after leaving, but more than half an hour later, a reconnaissance plane appeared in the air. At this time, Gansu Shigetaro was relieved, hurriedly counted the number of people, and ordered the radio station, which was lucky not to be blown up, to contact the troops.

This count of the number of people, Ganji Jutaro was completely crazy. Before the bombing by the fighters of the Eighth Route Army, his 33rd Division was a fully equipped garrison division that had just completed replenishment, with 91 men at the division headquarters, 178 from the divisional communications team, 132 from the weapons service team, 239 from the field hospital, and 48 from the sick horse factory. Now those who fled into Hanzhuang with him, plus himself, are full of more than 1,000 people, which is only equivalent to a brigade. Needless to say, most of the remaining 3,500 people went to the Yasukuni Shrine. There may also be some who are injured and can't keep up.

Tataro looked at the 1,000 dejected soldiers, and his heart was like a knife. He knew that these people were like him, who had escaped bombs and machine-gun bullets by crawling on the ground and covering with corpses, but anyone who dared to shoot in the air or expose their bodies would not be able to escape.

Gansu Shigetaro knew that he could no longer run forward, and with these 1,000 remnants of the defeated general, even if there was air cover, it would be impossible to escape to Pingdu County, let alone Qingdao. The troops are too weak, and if they encounter an Eighth Route Army, they can be wiped out cleanly Now that the Eighth Route Army plane is gone, I am afraid that it will not come in a short time. In any case, we have to gather and reorganize the troops in Hancun, otherwise it will be a dead end.

The 1,000 soldiers who fled with him to Hancun were reorganized into four squadrons, leaving one squadron to guard Hanzhuang, and ordered the remaining three squadrons to return to the Jiaolai River, bring the lightly wounded back for treatment, and deal with the seriously wounded on the spot. Try to find some horses and pack horses that were not killed, and bring back light and heavy machine guns, cannons, and ammunition. There were really no war horses and pack horses, so the cannons were dismantled and buried and could not explode, because the sound of the explosion would attract the Eighth Route Army.

The radio contacted the troops, but the commander of the 215th Wing could not be contacted, and it was estimated that he and the brigade he brought to Pingdu in a rubber [***] car were broken. The Wing Commanders of the 213th and 214th Wings survived, but both reported heavy losses and a halve of their troops. The only one that remained intact was the infantry brigade of the 215th Wing that remained in Qingchi to receive the 213th Wing, and since they were in the town, they were not bombed by the fighters of the Eighth Route Army, so there were no casualties.

Ganji Shigetaro finally grasped a life-saving straw and ordered the infantry brigade to immediately divide into two routes, one way to meet the 213th Wing participating troops, all the way east along the main road, collect the soldiers of the 214th Wing and the 215th Wing to hold the Weihe Bridge, and quickly assemble towards Hancun. The lightly wounded are all brought back, and the seriously injured are dealt with on the spot.

After giving the order, Gansu Shigetaro calmed down, thought about it carefully, and felt that his 33rd Division had completely collapsed, not to mention going to Pingdu City to hold on to and wait for reinforcements, I am afraid that he would not be able to complete the task of retreating to Qingdao to the east. But he was not reconciled, and also dreamed of relying on the cover of aviation and retreating to the east. As a result, Shigetaro sent a telegram to the 12th Army and General Shouichi Terauchi, reporting on the losses and location of the troops, and requesting that the aviation troops be dispatched as soon as possible to cover the retreat of the troops.

Shouichi Terauchi had already gone to the airport to board the plane at this time, so naturally he couldn't receive the telegram. A telegram from the chief of staff of the 12th Army, Kobayashi Asaburo, came very quickly.

At this time, Kobayashi Asaburo had already received an order from General Shouichi Terauchi, and knew the outcome of the main force of the 108th Division, so he immediately ordered the brigade of the 25th Brigade of the 108th Division to stay in Zhoucun to suspend contact with the division headquarters, and quickly command all the army troops and puppet garrisons in Zhoucun, Zhangdian, and Zhangqiu, and retreat to Jinan as quickly as possible.

After receiving a telegram from Lieutenant General Shigetaro of the 33rd Division, the last remaining illusion in Kobayashi Asaburo was completely shattered, and he immediately replied with a telegram ordering the 33rd Division to quickly gather its troops and quickly retreat eastward. He also reported that the fighters that had taken off from the Tianjin, Beiping, and Shijiazhuang airfields had already arrived at the Jinan and Qingdao airfields, and that they would be ready to take off after refueling and reloading to provide air cover for the 33 rd Division.

At the end of the telegram, Kobayashi Asaburo asked Ganji Shigetaro to report in detail on the number and type of planes of the Eighth Route Army, the direction from which they came, and the direction in which they retreated, so as to facilitate the air force to reconnoiter and search, find their old nest, and avenge the Yamato warriors of the 33rd Division.

This task is very willing to be completed, he hates the fighters of the Eighth Route Army too much, and he can't wait for the fighters of the Yue Army to find them immediately, catch up with them and tear them to pieces. Therefore, he not only gave a clear report on the details of the attack and the whereabouts of the fighters of the Eighth Route Army, but also added a lot of words, saying that the Eighth Route Army Air Force must be completely wiped out, otherwise, the Imperial Army may be threatened anytime and anywhere.

After sending the telegram, Gansu Shigetaro seemed to feel that the Eighth Route Army Air Force would soon be destroyed, and his mood was slightly better. Unexpectedly, as soon as he was in a good mood, his stomach growled, and he remembered that he hadn't eaten since five o'clock in the morning! It's a pity that he only wanted to rush to Weicheng to start another meal, and didn't prepare much dry food. When the fighters of the Eighth Route Army bombed just now, they damaged all the baggage trucks and left nothing. You have to hurry up and fill your stomach, otherwise you won't have the strength to march for a while.

During the war, ordinary people lived in fear every day, and they would immediately evacuate and flee for their lives at the slightest disturbance. During the Anti-Japanese War, when the army came, the common people fled for their lives and called "running the old man"; Later, during the War of Liberation, when the Kuomintang troops came, the common people fled for their lives and called "running back", which means hiding from the reactionaries.

Originally, the anti-Japanese activities in Pingdu County were carried out very early, and after the Luzhong Campaign, grassroots political power and militia organizations were established in various localities. It is a pity that not long after the battle of Luzhong, the heavy army group of the Yue army pressed towards Shandong, and frantically retaliated wherever it passed, and the Han and puppet armies intensified their efforts to lead the Yue army to hunt down and kill the anti-Japanese cadres and militia, resulting in heavy losses to the anti-Japanese regime and militia organizations, and most of them retreated to the Daze Mountains and Tianzhu Mountains north of Pingdu. This situation did not change until the Eighth Route Army launched the Cold Gun and Cold Artillery Campaign.

This Han village is located on the side of the highway from Pingdu to Changyi and Weicheng. When the army first came, the common people ran away. Later, when I saw more of the army, some ordinary people became accustomed to it and were reluctant to run away. Today is like this, when the army passed by in the morning, most of the people ran away, but a few old men felt that they had seen the sky and had seen the little book, and they were just like that, and they would not do anything to themselves, so they stayed in their own homes behind closed doors.

After the little devil fled into Han Village, he was frightened and was busy arranging defenses, afraid that the Eighth Route Army would catch up. Seeing that the fighters of the Eighth Route Army flew away, and the ground troops did not catch up, and Gansu Jutaro ordered to solve the problem of eating, the devil soldiers began to plague the people from house to house.

The devil soldiers smashed the door every time, searched out the rations of the common people's homes that they didn't have time to fortify, arrested several old men, and forced them to help the little devils make a fire and cook.

The little devils are now starving to death, and they can't wait for the food to be cooked, so they start to grab around the pots one by one, making a mess. There are also devils who take the sweet potatoes and sorghum nests found from the people's homes and gnaw them directly. After gnawing, take the kettle and pour some cold water to drink, even if you have a big hair in the Five Organs Temple.

Tataro was a lieutenant general who disdained to fight the soldiers for food, and ended up with only a half-baked sorghum paste. He was also extremely hungry, and he didn't care about the demeanor of the lieutenant general and the principal of Toyama School, so he picked up the bowl and drank it all the way. After eating, he didn't even care about the sorghum rice grains sticking to the tip of his nose, patted the shoulders of several old men who helped with the cooking and said a few yo xi, asking the old men to continue cooking, and when the imperial army finished eating, they would be greatly rewarded.

It's a pity that he can't wait to eat any more, the 213th Wing and the 214th Wing, which are retreating, sent an urgent telegram, saying that the Eighth Route Army is catching up, and there are countless tanks, armored vehicles, cars and cavalry, and the tanks of the Imperial Army have been blown up, armored vehicles have been bombed, cars have been blown up, war horses have been blown up, and most of the soldiers have been blown up.

Where does Tataro have troops to support them? At this time, he didn't want to say that he wanted to cry, he wanted to die. Fortunately, he was the commander of the division, and he was also shouldering the heavy responsibility of bringing this team to Qingdao, so he had to endure not crying, and ordered the 213 Wing and the 214 Wing to discard all their baggage, completely lightly equipped, and retreat to Hancun. In the words of Ganji Jutaro, running to Hancun is victory!

The Eighth Route Army caught up, and the three squadrons that went to the Jiaolai River to treat the wounded and rush to transport weapons and ammunition had to be withdrawn immediately, in case they were caught up and eliminated by the Eighth Route Army again, then they had only one way to commit suicide. Tataro ordered the three squadrons to return quickly, and then ordered the radio to send a telegram to Asaburo Kobayashi, telling him that if the air force planes could not catch up again, he and his 33rd Division would have to be shattered.

Ganji Jutaro didn't have the heart to wait for the rice to be cooked, so he called a few old men who helped the imperial army cook, took out a handful of sugar cubes from his pocket, and stuffed them into the hands of the old men, so that he had to watch them eat it, and asked the interpreter to ask if it was sweet.

When the old man nodded and said sweet, Shigetaro smirked and ordered the soldiers to stab them to death with bayonets, on the grounds that the direction of the imperial army's retreat could not be exposed.

Looking at the direction of Pingdu with some regret, Gansu Shigetaro thought to himself that it would be better if he didn't rush to Weicheng in the morning. At this time, as soon as you find that the situation has changed, you can immediately retreat to Qingdao, and if it is not good, you can also hold on to the city and wait for rescue. It's okay to walk slower on the road, so that at least it's closer to Pingdu City, and you can return quickly. He remembered clearly that there were still pseudo-policemen and pseudo-guards in Pingdu City. If you are close to them, you can also order them to go out of the city to meet them.

It's too late to say anything now, there are no more cars, no more carriages, no more war horses, and running on two legs, it is impossible to return to Pingdu City before the Eighth Route Army catches up.

Ganji Jutaro didn't think much about it anymore and ordered the troops to immediately build fortifications in Hancun and prepare to defend them to the death, waiting for the arrival of aviation fighters.

That morning, Liu Yimin was still in Xiong Mi's office.

When the 104th Brigade arrived at the Twenty Lipu Airport, Liu Yimin already knew that the battle with the 108th Division would soon end, and the problem to be considered now was that the 33rd Division could not be completely thrown into the battlefield to flank our army, nor could the 33rd Division escape back to Pingdu County to hold on. Although the 33rd Division was a garrison division with only more than 10,000 men, it was also a complete division with tanks and artillery anyway. Historically, the 33rd Division performed well in the Battle of Shanggao and the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain, especially after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the 33rd Division invaded Burma, not only occupied the residence of the British Governor of Burma, but also broke through the triple defense line of the British and Indian armies, and surrounded 7,000 British troops at Ringanqiang. If it weren't for the timely rescue of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the British would have all become prisoners of the 33rd Division. Since then, the division has been the main division of the Japanese army on the battlefield in Burma.

Although the 33rd Division had a history of being defeated by the 7th Brigade, Liu Yimin knew that it was the 33rd Division's first entry into the battlefield, and the soldiers lacked combat experience. The current 33rd Division is not the 33rd Division at that time, and their combat effectiveness should have been greatly improved in the Jiaodong sweeping operation, at least the original recruits are now veterans.

For such a force, Liu Yimin naturally will not take it lightly. Feng Dafei immediately ordered Feng Dafei to lead all the bombers of the Eighth Route Army Aviation Group to take off urgently, search for the 33rd Division between Weicheng and Pingdu, bomb them, kill and injure the devils as much as possible, consume the combat effectiveness of the 33rd Division, and delay the devils' attack on Fangzi or the speed of retreat to Pingdu.

Commanders must keep the overall situation in mind and must not let go of any link on the battlefield. Otherwise, there will be a big problem. Although Liu Yimin sent a report to Ganji Jutaro in the name of Shimoto Kumaya, falsely claiming that Shimoto Kuami and Suzuki Toshiyuki were injured, and brought the Eighth Route Army that outflanked and sneaked up on Otaka Kamezo, and asked him to rush to Weicheng to command two divisions to fight, such a big bait was not afraid that he would not come. But Liu Yimin also knew that the division commanders of the Yue Army were all lieutenant generals, and they all had rich experience, and they were all important ministers directly under the emperor. These guys are often division commanders today, and tomorrow they will become army commanders, front army commanders, and even senior officers of the War Department and the General Staff Headquarters. This Gansu Shigetaro, who served as the commander of the Ninth Brigade and the principal of two army schools, must be a thoughtful person, and it is inevitable that he will see flaws. In addition, the telegram sent by Naosaburo Gangbe explained that the combat intentions of the Eighth Route Army had been seen, and if this guy reported to the base camp and Terauchi Shouichi again, it is likely that Terauchi Shouichi would be able to determine the truth about the loss of Weicheng and Fangzi from the action of capturing Otaka Kamizo. This kind of thing cannot be concealed for a long time, it is all about leading troops to fight, and no one can be much more shrewd than anyone else, it is just a matter of seeing who has to take the lead and who can take advantage of the time difference. In this case, the elimination of the 33rd Division must be carried out quickly, otherwise it will be very troublesome.

Because of this, when Liu Yimin ordered Li Chang to command the artillery group to carry out a saturation strike on the 104th Brigade, he asked the plateau to quickly end the battle and meet the 33rd Division. But he did not expect that the 33rd Division would come so quickly and soon begin to retreat.

After the occupation of Weicheng, the reconnaissance company of the 1st Brigade and the Cavalry Brigade and the reconnaissance battalion of the division that arrived later sent all the scouts out, and every move of the 108th Division and the 33rd Division fell into the eyes of the scouts.

As soon as he found out that the 33rd Division had arrived at the two wings north and east of Weicheng and was about to retreat, Liu Yimin knew that it must be the army that had determined the fact that the headquarters of the 108th Division had been terminated, and urgently ordered the 33rd Division to retreat. How can this work, can a boiled duck still make it fly?

You can't run away, Liu Yimin is sure of this, the Sixth Brigade and the Eighth Brigade have been outflanked by Pingdu, and the little devil's retreat has been cut off, and it will definitely not be able to run away. The problem is to compete with the devil for time, in case the little devil is allowed to retreat to Pingdu County before teaching the Sixth Brigade to enter Pingdu, it will become a tough battle. The casualties of the battle will be fought, and it will not be easy to fight!

The current situation is that the 1st Brigade and the Cavalry Brigade have not yet finished the annihilation battle against the 104th Brigade, and Liu Yimin has no way to do it. However, he strictly ordered Gao Yuan and Hu Laohu that they did not have to clean up the battlefield after the battle, it didn't matter how many little devils they had, they must turn quickly, teach the 1st Brigade to be in the south, the cavalry brigade to be in the north, and to flank the 33rd Division on both sides, disrupt its structure, divide and encircle, and quickly annihilate the devils with firepower.

(To be continued)