"Baga, cunning Eighth Route Army....I must break all of you into pieces to avenge the broken imperial warriors. "Under the constant reminders of the chief of staff, the commander, General Okamura Ninji, finally reacted from his shock. Facing the combat sand table in front of him, he said loudly and angrily... Looking at the group of operational staff officers led by the chief of staff, standing in front of them one after another in the midst of their constant scolding, motionless, Senior General Okamura Ninji slowly breathed a sigh of relief after a few minutes of calmness, and his expression slowly relaxed. A pair of eyes stared closely at the huge combat sand table in front of him, and began to issue new combat orders..."Chief of Staff, you immediately call back to the two division commanders and ask them to sort out the troops immediately." Then, he led all the troops to quickly withdraw from the range of Baoding and Shanyin, and withdrew from the control of the Eighth Route Army's Reading Division. This time, the troops lost more than 60,000 people, and our remaining troops were no longer capable of competing with the Reading Division of the Eighth Route Army alone. In order to preserve the limited strength of the Imperial Army and prevent it from being counter-encircled by the Reading Division, the two troops must retreat immediately as soon as they receive the telegram, and they must do it quickly, otherwise military law will be involved. "Commander General Okamura Ninji ordered with a serious face..."Hi, Your Excellency Commander, I'll send a report right away..."The Chief of Staff quickly left the war room.

Receiving a telegram personally signed by His Excellency the Commander, the commanders of the two divisions immediately summoned all the remaining military commanders of the entire unit after a night of melee and began to hold a pre-war meeting to prepare for the retreat... The final result was not surprising, and the two troops, under the command of their respective division commanders, were ready to retreat less than half an hour after receiving the telegram.

At this moment, the remaining 18,000 people of the 108th Division stationed around Baoding City, as well as the 20,000 troops of the Imperial Cooperative Army, were all ready to go, standing neatly outside their camp, ready to set off. And the temporary military director of this unit, the commander of the 108th Division. Accompanied by a group of officers, he stood less than 100 meters away from Baoding City, silently looking at the county town in front of him, which had become a ruin and buried more than 30,000 imperial soldiers

"Your Excellency the division commander, the troops are all ready, and they can go, do you immediately order the avant-garde wing to set off first?" Looking at the division commander in front of him, who was silent and seemed to be in deep thought, the chief of staff hurriedly reminded in a low voice.

"Warriors, you are all heroes of the Empire. Please come here and rest in peace, I believe that we will fight back and avenge you..."The division commander did not answer the words of the chief of staff, but unexpectedly knelt in front of the ruins, drew his command knife, and said loudly to the grave where the entire 30,000 troops were buried... Finally, after three minutes of silence, the division commander rose from the ground. A face also changed from sadness just now, to stern at this moment, and ordered to the chief of staff beside him: "Order the avant-garde wing to set off immediately and open a safe passage for the troops to retreat." Now our army has less than 40,000 troops left, and to a certain extent, it is no longer the opponent of the Reading Division of the Eighth Route Army. And the Eighth Route Army will not give up the opportunity to strike at us. Therefore, we must ensure that the retreat of our division and regiment is absolutely safe. ”

With the issuance of the division order. An infantry wing, almost four thousand little devils, quickly walked out of the barracks and began to retreat. However, just when an infantry brigade serving as a spearhead, nearly a thousand little devils had just walked less than five hundred meters. A violent explosion sounded at the location of the Elite Brigade ... As the smoke from the explosion slowly dissipated, more than a dozen imperial soldiers were already lying on the ground, their lives and deaths uncertain.

However, the sound of the explosion did not seem to dampen the determination of these little devils to retreat. Just after nearly a thousand little devils learned that they had been attacked by landmines. Without any hesitation, he immediately bypassed the explosion point and began to continue a new march. Because these little devils all know that in this vacancy when the troops have suffered heavy losses, the longer they stay here, the greater the danger of the troops, and if they are unlucky, they may never be able to go back. After all, the records of the Eighth Route Army's Reading Force Division are placed there, and every record has to make these, the little devils who have always thought they are invincible, feel a trace of jealousy.

It's a pity that just after the little devil bypassed the corpses of a dozen or so companions, and walked less than ten meters again, an explosion sounded. And this time the mine exploded, it was not as simple as just one. Rather, it was a chain of mines arranged by his teammates with a full five mines. Its purpose was to kill and injure a large number of marching troops.

Under the blow of a mine at an interval of five meters, a section of marching columns that were at the front of the entire unit, almost thirty meters, was immediately covered with dust and gunpowder smoke from the explosion of the mines... As the smoke cleared, there was hardly a single soldier standing in the thirty-meter-long marching column, among more than a hundred little devils. Nearly a hundred soldiers, except for some of the lucky ones, lay on the ground and let out bursts of wails, the rest were motionless

"Yaga, what the hell is going on, when did so many mines appear in front. Why didn't there be any mines on this road when I marched yesterday..."I saw that in just a few minutes, I directly lost nearly 100 of my subordinates. No matter how calm the captain of the Elite Brigade was, he was shocked by the huge casualties that his brigade had never had, and couldn't help but curse loudly..."Captain, if nothing else, it must be the mine that the Eighth Route Army took the opportunity to lay when we fell into a melee last night. However, the time of the Eighth Route Army was limited after all. Therefore, I think that as long as we don't take the road, the Eighth Route Army will have no way to take us..."The deputy chief of staff reminded in a low voice.

"Yo Xi, order the troops to continue the march from both sides of the road at once. In a word, we must open a safe retreat for the main force behind us in the shortest possible time..."The captain then ordered.

After receiving the order, the little devils who marched in four directions immediately divided into two routes, walked into the bushes on both sides of the road, and began to continue the march..."Boom, boom..."Just when these little devils thought that nothing would happen again, another continuous explosion sounded....Dozens of devils, under the blow of the thunder arranged by the special combat team members in the grass, once again fell in a pool of blood, turning into soft corpses or seriously wounded... The roads were impassable, the meadows were impassable, plus the losses of almost a squadron of the Imperial Army. The captain of the avant-garde brigade, who was forced to be helpless, had no choice but to come to the rear wing captain with a hint of panic, report the situation he had encountered, and ask the engineer unit for support..."Baga, the cunning Eighth Route Army, it seems that they have been planning for a long time. In such a short period of time, so many mines were laid on our way back. The order was that the engineering squadron under which the wing belonged immediately cooperated with the elite brigade to open the passage for the retreat of the troops. "After hearing the report of the captain of the avant-garde brigade. Looking at the tens of thousands of troops behind him, the wing commander couldn't help but start to gather, and immediately sent out an engineer squadron attached to the wing.

"Hi, thank you for your support. I think that with the support of the engineers, we will be able to open a safe passage for the main force in the shortest possible time..."The captain replied happily, and with the engineer squadron, more than 100 soldiers, carrying the equipment needed for mine detection, he quickly ran towards his own advanced brigade.

In less than a few minutes, there were more than a dozen sappers, holding the equipment needed for mine detection, and slowly walked along the road. A dozen or so sappers, lined up in two rows, began to carefully demine the road under the command of a commander. However, to the surprise of these little devil sappers, in the bushes a few hundred meters away, there were several snipers of the special operations team in ambush, looking at them without blinking..."Bang bang bang..." A sparse burst of gunfire suddenly reached the ears of these little devil sappers from different directions. Out of their usual training, just when these sappers heard the gunshots and were about to lie on the ground to hide, several hot bullets had quickly shot into their bodies.

"Ahh Baga, there is an ambush...."Several screams rang out, and the six sappers who walked in the front fell heavily in a pool of blood in the stunned eyes of everyone. The six sappers in the second row quickly lay on the ground at the first time. At the same time, I felt lucky that I was lucky enough to avoid the bullets of the Eighth Route Army, and I felt lucky and excited after the catastrophe..."Baga, there is a sharpshooter of the Eighth Route Army who is a reader. Order all the machine gunners to immediately suppress the surname shot, and be sure to suppress the sharpshooters of the Eighth Route Army. The engineering troops, in order to continue demining, must open a safe passage for the main forces in the shortest possible time. His Excellency the Division Commander is watching us from behind, if we can't complete the task, we will all die..." While maneuvering, the captain immediately ordered the soldiers behind him.

Suddenly, several light and heavy machine guns, in the command of the team leader, immediately pointed at the place where the gunfire had just been heard, highlighting the dense rain of bullets... However, at this moment, several snipers lying behind the bushes, having fired a bullet in the chamber, had already shifted their positions in the shortest possible time ... The army's intensive strafing was only a waste of its limited ammunition, and it did not have any lethal effect on its own enemies... Under the cover of machine guns, coupled with the strict orders of the captain behind him. The six little devil sappers who had just dodged the bullet had to get up from the ground, pick up their talking equipment, and start to continue their work... However, the good times did not last long, although this time the six sappers were not attacked again by the sharpshooters of the opposite special operations group. However, they stepped on a land mine created by the base... Because the raw material of the land mine is only ordinary ceramics. Therefore, the talking equipment in the hands of the little devil did not play any role. Just as the mine detector had just probed and one of the little devil's feet stepped on the ground that he thought was safe, a violent explosion sounded among the six sappers... An orange fireball rose from the ground, loaded with a full kilogram of explosives and a ceramic mine composed of a large amount of gravel, and exploded at the feet of the little devil... Under the violent explosion of a kilogram of explosives and the flying rubble, the six sappers all fell in a pool of blood in just a moment. The situation is particularly tragic, especially the little devil who is located directly above the mine, in addition to his legs being blown off, his entire body is almost covered with gravel, which can be said to be blurred with flesh and blood, and it is miserable..."Baga, what's going on, the sappers are doing something or something, haven't they already probed the mines, why is there an explosion..."Looking at the tragic scene in front of him, the captain asked loudly to the leader of the engineer squadron beside him... Listening to the captain's questioning, Engineer Squadron Zhang did not answer immediately, but squatted next to a corpse and began to examine the wound. Soon, a piece of ceramic fragment was pulled from the corpse by the engineer squadron Zhang. Seeing the fragments in his hand, the squadron leader could only shake his head speechlessly, and replied to the captain in front of him: "Your Excellency, the mine shell of the Eighth Route Army is made of ceramics, and our mine detector cannot detect his existence at all. So, judging by the current situation, we can only abandon mine detectors and use manual demining methods..."

"Nani, make mines out of ceramics. Eight Grid Tooth Road, the Eighth Route Army is really very cunning. In that case, then I leave it to you, and I must open a safe passage for the troops in the shortest possible time...."The captain replied with a frown.

"Hey, Your Excellency Captain, I will immediately arrange for the troops to carry out manual demining, please rest assured, Your Excellency the Captain..." As he spoke, more than a dozen little devil sappers took mine detection rods one by one, walked out of the queue, came to the explosion point, and began to carry out manual demining.

Ten minutes passed quickly, and there was no more sound of mine explosions on the road. However, what made the captain feel depressed was that in these ten minutes, the engineer brigade cleared several sections of mines. However, the progress of the entire army was very slow, and it only advanced a distance of less than thirty meters..."Baga, the speed of such a march is really too slow. If we follow such a rate of demining, it is simply impossible for us to withdraw from Baoding in a short period of time. Bage Yalu, you continue to organize the troops to clear mines, I will report to His Excellency the Wing Commander immediately, we must come up with a reasonable solution to solve the difficulties encountered by our army..."Watching the slow progress of the troops, the team leader said with a frown.

Just as someone was about to be sent to ask why the pace of advance of the troops was so slow, the wing commander of the avant-garde wing. After receiving the report from the captain of the Spearhead Brigade, at the same time, he frowned and began to think about possible countermeasures. However, it is a great pity that several officers of the wing command have been thinking for five minutes and still have not thought of any solution.

The wing commander, who was forced to be helpless, had no choice but to report this important situation to the ears of the division commander who was feeling a trace of doubt in the rear, hoping that the division commander in front of him could come up with a proper solution.

"Baga, the cunning Eighth Route Army. I really didn't expect that the Eighth Route Army would lay so many mines around us in such a short period of time. Chief of Staff, what do you think we should do now. The purpose of the Eighth Route Army in doing this is very simple, that is, to trap our army here, and when we run out of ammunition and food, gather the main force to attack us, and then destroy us in one fell swoop..."The division commander scolded loudly, and then looked at the chief of staff behind him..."Hi, Your Excellency the division commander. It is not possible for the Reader to lay mines everywhere around us. According to my estimates, our army's camp is a radius of more than 10 kilometers, and if we want to be densely covered with mines and completely surround us, we need at least 100,000 mines. And it is absolutely impossible for a reader to complete this almost impossible task in a few hours. The chief of staff replied in a whisper.

"Yo Si, very good. So, Chief of Staff, where do you think the Eighth Route Army did not lay mines? The division commander nodded approvingly and continued to ask.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, I think that all around us, all the places where the march can take place, are heavily mined by the Reading Division of the Eighth Route Army. Except for one place, and that is the abundance of mountains and forests around us. Because the area covered by the mountains and forests is particularly large, the Eighth Route Army is simply defenseless...."After half a minute of thinking, the chief of staff replied affirmatively.

"Yo Xi, Chief of Staff, I agree with your analysis. I believe that the Eighth Route Army did not have that much ability, and it was also densely covered with mines in the vast surrounding mountains and forests. Even my excellent Imperial Army soldiers are not up to the mark, let alone the Eighth Route Army Reading Strength Division. Chief of Staff, I now order that the avant-garde wing immediately reorganize its retreat plan and find a safe passage for the main forces of the division and regiment in the surrounding dense forests. The division commander nodded and ordered affirmatively.

Immediately, the avant-garde wing, which had already left the camp, began to assemble at the command of the wing commander. In less than ten minutes, the top soldier brigade, which had just lost an entire squadron, came to the gate at the sound of the wing commander's order...

(To be continued)