Liang Jian: Lao Li, I'm really not a military expert

After Shinozuka Yoshio finished talking to General Tada Shun, he did not immediately arrange for someone to reinforce Ono's squadron, but instead called Yamamoto Ikki to come see him. After receiving the order, Yamamoto Ikki rushed directly from the training ground to the Taiyuan headquarters without delay.

While Shinozuka Yoshio was deep in thought, he heard Yamamoto Ikki's report: "General, Yamamoto is here to report!"

Shinozuka Yoshio woke up from his thoughts and said, "Come in!"

"General, what can I do for you?"

Shinozuka Yoshio smiled and replied: "Please sit down, I have something to ask and I want to hear your opinion!"

Yamamoto Ikki sat opposite Shinozuka Yoshio and listened quietly. He replied seriously: "General, please speak. I am willing to serve you!"

Shinozuka Yoshio signaled Yamamoto Ikki not to be so nervous, and said in a serious tone: "I just received an order from General Tada. He asked me to change the previous mopping-up plan and encircle the troops towards the Lion King Ridge area. This will seriously disrupt the current combat deployment and may cause the Eighth Route Army in the encirclement to break out."

"I raised my objection to the general, but he rejected it directly. The reason was that Ono's squadron discovered the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Lion King Ridge, but this contradicted our previous speculation."

"According to my judgment, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army has jumped out of our first and second encirclements and is attacking the third encirclement. However, the location of Lion King Ridge is within the second encirclement, which is seriously inconsistent with our intelligence. But the general did not listen to my explanation and asked me to follow the order of the North China Front Army Headquarters. This makes me very distressed. I want to hear Mr. Yamamoto's opinion!"

Sanshan Ben Yimu thought seriously for a while before answering: "General, please forgive me for being frank. Since the failure of the last Yangcun attack, I have discovered that there is a problem with our intelligence work. Our previous understanding of the officers at all levels of the Eighth Route Army was very shallow, which caused our combat plans to have loopholes every time, resulting in the failure of our mopping-up plan!"

"Since 38, the imperial army has conducted dozens of sweeps, but the Eighth Route Army's strength has not weakened, but has continued to grow. The previous Hundred Regiments Campaign is a good proof of this. Now the Eighth Route Army is no longer a minor problem, but a major problem that seriously threatens the security of our occupied areas."

"I am sure that the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army has now escaped our three blockades. This is my battlefield intuition. General Tada must have received false intelligence. I have carefully studied the equipment of the main force of the Eighth Route Army. They have never equipped a main force regiment with a large number of automatic weapons. I suspect that this is a special operations team of less than a hundred people. They should be carrying out a very important mission!"

Yamamoto Ikki's analysis aroused Shinozuka Yoshio's interest. He asked curiously, "Yamamoto-kun, what kind of important mission do you think this special operations team is carrying out?"

Yamamoto Ikki shook his head and replied uncertainly: "General, I can't accurately guess what mission they are carrying out, but judging from the combat effectiveness of this unit, they should be important figures in escorting the Eighth Route Army. This person should be of a very high rank and is likely to be one of their senior commanders!"

"I suggest that the General send out my special forces. I will personally investigate the matter. You can continue to act according to the previous deployment and ignore General Tada's orders. The Chinese have an old saying that when a general is away from home, he will not be granted orders from the king!"

Shinozuka Yoshio did not make a decision directly. He thought quietly for three minutes and gave an order: "Mr. Yamamoto, take your special forces to Lion King Ridge and find out the purpose of this small team. I cannot disobey the order of the general. I will let the troops in the first blockade line support you, and the second and third blockade lines will maintain their current deployments unchanged!"

"Mr. Yamamoto, the previous attack on the Eighth Route Army headquarters in Daxia Bay failed, causing your special forces team to be criticized. This time I will give you another chance to prove to the world the value of special operations."

"Hi! Thank you for your cultivation, General. I will definitely not let you down!"

Under the command of Yoshio Shinozuka, the Japanese troops within the first blockade line began to gather towards the direction of Lion King Ridge. Li Yunlong and Lin Zhenhua did not know that a large Japanese force of five or six thousand people was rushing towards their area.

Taiyuan Airport also received an order to send fighters and bombers to the Shiwangling area the next day to conduct reconnaissance and bombing operations.

Lion King Ridge blocking position.

Lin Zhenhua saw through the telescope that the Japanese soldiers were bending over and approaching the blocking position little by little as it was just getting dark. The distance between the two sides was about 500 meters.

"Turn off the safety. It will be completely dark in 20 minutes at most. The Japanese will only attack once. The Japanese will suffer more in a night battle and cannot take advantage of their firepower. As long as we can hold out until it is completely dark, we can retreat calmly!"

Lin Zhenhua encouraged the soldiers and estimated the distance between the two sides. While he was talking, the Japanese had already run twenty or thirty meters. Their mobility was really not slow.

"Li Sanwa, you must destroy the enemy's artillery as soon as possible. This is the biggest threat to us. Whether we can return alive depends entirely on you. Don't let your comrades down!"

Li Sanwa immediately assured in a low voice: "Captain, I have found the position of the Japanese artillery. I will immediately launch a saturation bombardment on the Japanese artillery and use up all our shells in the shortest possible time. I promise that I will not let a single shell from the Japanese fall on the heads of our comrades!"

Lin Zhenhua was a little hesitant about Li Sanwa's assurance. He felt that it was better to trust himself at this time. After all, he was a protagonist after all. No matter how bad he was, he still had the aura of a protagonist. Maybe he would be lucky enough to destroy the Japanese headquarters with one shot.

"Li Sanwa, I'm still a little worried. At this point, I don't intend to hide it. Today, I'll let you see how powerful the Northwest Artillery God is! We'll each have a mortar, and then we'll see who can kill more Japanese devils!"

Li Sanwa replied with a bitter face: "Captain, I have never seen you or fired a few shells. When did you get the nickname of Northwest Artillery God? Why haven't I heard of it?"

Lin Zhenhua pretended to be full of confidence and boasted: "Li Sanwa, you haven't seen my true strength in firing artillery. Today I will let you see how powerful I am as a master gunner. With this mortar, I can fire 13 rounds in a minute. If the shells can keep up, I may be able to fire 15 rounds. Today I will let you see what extreme artillery fire is."