"General."

Yang Spring.

Inside the newly built Underground Command.

Shinji Kosa was dressed in a brand-new major general's uniform, with a katana hanging from his waist, sitting on his lap, his face solemn and his expression calm, and in front of him, a staff officer was reporting the situation:

"Five days ago, a large number of Eighth Route troops assembled near Yangquan, and a large number of heavy-duty trucks loaded with supplies were found in Xiyang, Hexian, and Jing counties, as well as a large number of tanks and heavy artillery."

"Although there is a lack of specific information, after front-line reconnaissance and with the information provided by the intelligence department, it can be deduced that there are more than 35,000 people, more than 100 tanks, and more than 300 new heavy artillery pieces on the eight routes surrounding Yangquan."

"In addition, the passage to Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang was also cut off by the Eighth Route Armored Army."

The staff officer's voice fell, and the faces of several devil officers in the headquarters changed, with obvious despair in their eyes.

The gap is too big.

The total strength of Yangquan was only 15,000 people, while the Eighth Route Army outside the city was conservatively estimated to be 35,000, more than twice as much.

That's it.

With a two-to-one force ratio, it can still fight, and the Imperial Army of the Great Japanese Empire is not afraid of any enemy, and this gap in strength can be made up for by the spirit of bushido, and the elite grassroots officers of the empire can make up for it with command.

But the bigger problem is that the firepower gap is too large.

Big enough to make everyone desperate.

The enemy has more than 100 tanks and more than 300 new heavy guns.

The new heavy artillery of the independent regiment exposed in the battle of the Mongolian army, at this time the devil has already understood its power, the firing range is as high as 18 kilometers, and the shells weigh more than 20 kilograms, which is a proper heavy artillery.

And Yangquan, an entire army division of 15,000 people, has only 15 75 mountain guns, five anti-tank guns, and even 37-caliber old-fashioned anti-aircraft guns, which cannot penetrate the tanks of the independent regiment at all.

Such a huge gap in firepower and equipment cannot be bridged by courage and tactics.

According to the experience of the battle in Ping'an County, the light infantry firepower of the Independent Regiment was also clearly superior, and the Imperial Army had to pay at least 200 samurai to kill each tank, while Yangquan had only 15,000 men.

Not to mention that the enemy still has planes.

But before they could speak and express their despair at the situation, a violent explosion was heard outside, and the lights above them began to shake.

The faces of the devils in the headquarters changed.

At the beginning of construction, the headquarters gave strict consideration to security issues.

The Yangquan Headquarters is located six meters and five meters underground, with several layers of civil structures and a layer of cinder concrete, which can resist the bombardment of the Imperial 240 heavy artillery, but even so, the devils inside clearly feel the obvious vibration, and even some are unstable on their feet.

It can be seen that the number of artillery pieces of the eight roads that opened fire at this time was definitely far more than 300.

It can also be seen that the strength of the Eighth Route Army attacking Yangquan this time is very strong.

"Got it."

Shinji Kosa nodded, letting the dust and dirt fall on him, his face expressionless the whole time.

At the end of the battle of Ping'an County, he had already fallen into the encirclement of the independent regiment and was ready to break jade, but at the last moment of the battle, he was led by a small team of Yamamoto agents to break through.

Luckily survived.

In that battle, the First Army lost tens of thousands of soldiers and lost a lot of territory, but he, like Yamamoto, was only said by the base camp without any substantive punishment, but was rewarded for fuel and food.

After that, he returned to Yangquan and was in charge of Yangquan's defense.

It seems to confirm the old saying, if you don't die in a disaster, you will have a blessing.

After several months of frantic replenishment, Yangquan now has a total of more than 15,000 imperial troops, newly organized into a C division.

At first, the base camp was going to parachute a division commander. However, after the Heian Campaign, the amount of heavy oil and grain provided by the First Army for the country did not decrease but increased, and he made great contributions, and after the operation of Yamamoto, Okamura, and Yoshio Shinozuka, Kosa was directly promoted to the division commander of the new division.

If it weren't for the seniority, maybe the lieutenant general would have brought all the epaulettes.

Based on the combat experience of Ping'an County, Shinji Kosa carried out a drastic transformation of Yangquan, comprehensively strengthened the fortifications, and focused on strengthening the troops' ability to resist heavy artillery fire, and in the absence of materials, the main fortifications still made it possible to resist the bombardment of 240 heavy mortars head-on.

Of course, anti-tank capabilities have also been strengthened.

Because of the lack of equipment, the lack of materials, the lack of time, and the lack of manpower, the actual results were not satisfactory, or rather, far from the extent that Kosa Shinji wanted.

But he can't help it, it's difficult for a good woman to cook without rice.

Therefore, he will definitely lose this battle.

From the very beginning, Shinji Kosa was clear about this reality.

But the base camp didn't know what it was thinking, and strictly forbade any troops of the First Army to retreat, and even a steady stream of new recruits came over, so Jia Zuo also understood that in this battle, they all had to be broken.

No.

Based on the experience of the Battle of Ping'an County, Kosa understood it more thoroughly.

To be more precise, the vast majority of the imperial samurai were broken, and these officers could secretly break through.

The idea of the base camp, as well as the idea of the locust, is actually very simple, that is, to use the First Army, with a large number of inferior recruits, to consume the strength of the independent regiment and use it to delay the progress of the Eighth Route Army.

And, vaguely, he also grasped an interesting point.

The more pieces of jade there were for the Imperial soldiers, the more fuel and food the Independent Regiment seemed to give.

"Gentlemen."

Thinking of this, he drew his katana and said in a fierce tone:

"The time has come to be loyal to the empire and the locusts."

"Long live the Great Japanese Empire, long live Your Majesty the Locust."

"Hey!"

Jia Zuo's voice fell, and a group of devil officers in the headquarters bowed their heads in unison, and their tone was fanatical:

"Long live the Great Japanese Empire, Your Majesty the Locust is on board."

The middle and low-level officers who can be sent to the First Army to form a new division may not have enough command ability and experience, but the spirit of bushido and the determination to be loyal to the Heavenly Locust Jade are absolutely full.

In the midst of a frenzied howl, in a continuous rain of artillery fire, Shinji Kosa led a group of officers to the outside of the headquarters and towards the front line.

······

At the same time.

South.

Song County.

Outside the camp of the Independent Regiment.

"Let's go."

Kong Jie nodded at Song Yun beside him.

"Let's go."

After receiving the order, Song Yun waved his hand and set off with three newly formed infantry battalions formed by the soldiers of the former national government.

Although it was only a few days, the three battalions were already reborn by this time.

As the saying goes, people rely on clothing, and this sentence is not wrong in the army.

Unified military uniforms, unified helmets, unified new semi-automatic weapons, unified machine guns, the whole has a trace of majestic momentum, which is completely different from the previous miscellaneous divisions.

"Captain, let's..."

Beside Kong Jie, a staff officer looked at the three regiments that had left and couldn't help but ask.

Without waiting for the staff officer to finish speaking, Kong Jie glanced at the new staff officer and said with a smile:

"Worried about them leaving with someone?"

The staff officer nodded.

This group of preserved recruits has only been in the army for less than a week, and although they have been trained in the ideology of the troops in the past few days, the time is too short, and the three battalion commanders are all the same people, so it is difficult to guarantee that they will not leave the unit.

"You can rest assured of this."

Kong Jie's tone was confident.

The new staff officer has such worries and lacks a deep understanding of the troops, which he can understand.

This is absolutely not going to happen, though.

Not to mention that the three battalion commanders who came over are all officers who really want to fight devils, even if the three of them want to leave with the troops, they don't have the ability.

The Independent Regiment now controls the logistical supply of this force.

Unless, there is someone who can provide the same level of treatment as the independent regiment, or even higher.

Moreover, although the 5,000-strong recruits who had been trained by him in more than 50 Ping'an County officer training classes were trained in the company and platoon grass-roots officers, although the time was short, he also had a certain degree of control over the troops, and he could be immediately notified by radio if there was any disturbance.

Looking at the confident tone of his regiment commander, the new staff officer also nodded, and his heart was no longer worried.

"Let's go, too."

Then Kong Jie set off with the remaining two battalions, the mountain artillery company, and a recruit battalion, leaving only the main battalion to guard the airfield and base area.

Before leaving, Kong Jie said to the troops left behind:

"Get the word out."

In order to gain a foothold as soon as possible and to expand the base area as soon as possible, he needed some propaganda means to enhance the confidence of the people in the vicinity of Songxian County in the troops.

For this reason, he would even rather kill a little less devil.

Anyway, there is still a long time in the tank business, and it is not too late to wait for the first army to be completely annihilated, and then slowly clean up these devils. And the better the development of Songxian County, the more devils can be eliminated in the future.

In the Changheng area, there are many devils.

·····

Seventy kilometers to the southwest.

There are three small county towns here, and there was originally only one devil brigade stationed.

But in recent days, more than 10,000 devils have come here one after another to station, but after this group of devils came here, they were very peaceful, and they did not sweep or clear their hometowns, but were stationed quietly.

At this time.

In the county seat, at the Provisional Headquarters of the Japanese Army, a major general looked at the map of Songxian County on the table, his brows furrowed.

On the orders of General Isamu Yokoyama, he led the 69th Division and an infantry wing to destroy the guerrilla airfield here, avoid the Battle of Changheng where the Eighth Route Air Force would support it, and prevent the Eighth Route from expanding its base area.

This is no longer the case.

After Ping'an County, the strength of the Eighth Road is well known, and this devil major general is naturally not a fool, and it is very clear that the enemy in front of him is very difficult to deal with.

Although he has an advantage in numbers, not long after the formation of his 69th Division, the remaining wing is also a C-level unit, with poor combat effectiveness and few veterans, and according to intelligence, although the Eighth Route Army has only more than 5,000 people, its firepower is several times that of his, and it even has air force support.

Not to mention.

The information in his hand was already half a month ago.

According to the combat experience of the Eighth Route in the past year, in half a month, the Eighth Route troops detected by the empire need to be increased by two-thirds, and it is still the lowest, and the recruitment speed of the opponent's troops is too fast.

If it really starts, he has absolutely no chance of winning.

Attacking the airfield is definitely about delivering food to someone else. The intelligence is very clear, the airfield of the Eighth Road has concrete fortifications, a large number of anti-aircraft guns, and long-range heavy artillery, while he only has a few mountain guns.

"General."

Just then, a staff officer ran in:

"Songxian news."

"Read!"

The devil major general suddenly looked solemn.

"In the surrounding area of Songxian County, the Eighth Route Army is conducting large-scale propaganda, and the Eighth Route Army will dispatch 10,000 troops to launch a sweep against us."

The staff officer's words immediately stunned Major General Devil.

He paused for a long time before he said:

"Sweep us?"

For a long time, it was the imperial army that launched a war and swept the Eighth Route base area and launched an attack, and this Eighth Route swept the Imperial Army, which made it difficult for him to accept and adapt for a while.

"Hey."

The staff officer bowed his head and said:

"Their people are generally propagandized in various villages."

"Got it."

Taking a few deep breaths, the Major General nodded and regained his composure.

After experiencing the initial shock and incredulity, he regained his composure, thought about it carefully, and found that with the current comparison of the strength of the two sides, this matter was actually not strange to him, and even normal.

Whoever is strong will attack.

The reason why he couldn't adapt was because he hadn't really recognized the reality yet, and he was still immersed in the memories of the imperial army's dominance.

"Propaganda..."

In the end, the devil major general sighed faintly:

"Hey..."

As a person who has undergone formal military education and finally been promoted to general, he can understand the purpose of the other side's hand.

Through the propaganda of combat operations, the local people's understanding of the strength of the Eighth Route Force will be enhanced, and people's confidence in the Eighth Route Force will be increased, so as to rapidly expand the troops and base areas.

The way to deal with it is actually quite simple.

All you have to do is defeat the 'Sweep' of the Eight Ways.

But the problem is that it's really hard for him to do it now, and it can even be said that he can't do it.

If he had a division under his command, then he still had a chance of winning, and the elite soldiers could make up for the lack of firepower to a certain extent, but at this time he only had a division of the C division in his hands, all of which were straw bales.

There is no chance of winning.

"Prepare to transfer."

Glancing at the fortifications outside the county, Major General Devil sighed faintly.

He knows it.

The enemy is armed with 105 mountain guns, equipped with armor-piercing shells, which can shoot directly, and according to the intelligence of the First Army, the Mongolian army, its power can easily destroy the county city walls, and can destroy standard fortifications and bunkers.

There were also 120 heavy mortars, which the field fortifications could not hold at all.

Plus there is also aircraft air support.

Slipped away.

Just as the devil slipped away.

Kong Jie took two independent regimental main battalions, an artillery company, and a recruit battalion, including some with a total of 7,500 people, and Song Yun with three battalions, totaling 5,100 people, drove towards the devil's station.

Along the way, Song Yun and the other two battalion commanders were exclaiming:

"I'm good, this equipment is too good."

'Yes, a battalion of 1,800 men has 120 machine guns, 12 82 mortars, 12 60 mortars, and four Type 92 infantry guns. ’

And the shells, each of which had at least one hundred and sixty shells. ’

"Good boy!"

Even though it had been several days, everyone was still horrified.

At this moment, their firepower configuration is not comparable to the original Central Army German Armament Division.

"It is said that if we pass the assessment, then..."

As he spoke, the battalion commander smacked his mouth and didn't speak.

But the other two battalion commanders knew what he was going to say, and they were also in anticipation.

At this time, all three positions were acting battalion commanders, in fact, company commanders, but as long as they passed the assessment of the independent regiment, the level of education, the level of command, the level of ideology, etc.

Well, their battalion will become the main battalion of the independent regiment.

At that time, the number of people will not change, but the armament will be reborn, equipped with 120 heavy mortars, equipped with large mules with three times the transport capacity of ordinary mules, equipped with recoilless guns.

While a few people were talking incredulously, fifteen 'bomb trucks' loaded with bombs passed by at low altitude in the sky.