Devil's Army

Things turned out just as Deputy Brigade Commander Dai had expected. The retreating Japanese troops were unwilling to accept defeat.

Before the defensive fortifications of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Brigade were completed, Division Commander Ichiro Nanada arranged a reconnaissance team to investigate the strength of the Hutuo River Devil Forces.

This Japanese reconnaissance team had just entered the grove, but before reaching the north bank of the Hutuo River, they were discovered by the sentry of the first battalion commander of the second brigade.

Afterwards, a battalion commander arranged his troops to encircle the Japanese reconnaissance team on three sides and completely wiped out the team.

Division Commander Ichiro Nanada waited for a whole day but did not receive any report from the reconnaissance team. He thought they were attacked by the devil troops on the north bank of the Hutuo River and all of them were killed.

The next day, two more scouts were sent to gather information.

The two Japanese scouts were dressed like ordinary people from central Hebei and walked slowly towards the Hutuo River railway bridge.

The sentry found that although there was nothing wrong with the way the two civilians were dressed and walked, it seemed that their eyes were wandering, as if they were gathering some intelligence.

A sentry from the second group who had learned a few words of Japanese suddenly shouted in Japanese from the woods:

"Help, help..."

The two old men stopped and looked towards the grove where the sound came from.

After a while, the two old men walked into the grove.

Soon, they found a man dressed as an ordinary citizen lying under a tree.

The two civilians quickly ran to the man under the tree. Before they could ask any questions, several guns were pointed at them from all around.

The two Japanese scouts were taken by the sentries to the temporary command post of the battalion behind the fortifications.

The sentry, who knew a little Japanese, interrogated the two Japanese scouts with the battalion commander. However, the two scouts were stubborn and remained deaf and dumb despite the constant torture of the soldiers from the Second Brigade.

Deputy Brigade Commander Dai arranged for a platoon leader who had previously interrogated Japanese scouts with special forces members to participate in the interrogation.

The platoon leader used the tortures that the special forces used to interrogate the Japanese scouts one by one, and finally one of the scouts could not bear it anymore and agreed to cooperate.

斥候交待他们日军101师团剩下的士兵大约有400多人撤到深泽县，他们36师团和20师团剩下的士兵大约有6000多人撤到了藁城县。

At present, there are nearly 7000 garrison troops, puppet troops and their forces in Gaocheng County.

The soldier asked the scout:

"What is your mission this time?"

"Find out about your artillery positions and garrison positions. Prepare to call in the aviation force to bomb your artillery positions, and then seize the Hutuo River railway bridge. Then take over Jinzhou City."

Upon hearing this, Deputy Brigade Commander Dai immediately ordered the artillery unit to retreat into the woods and hide. All units were ordered to strengthen patrols and prohibit strangers from approaching the garrison.

Considering that there were nearly 7000 Japanese soldiers lingering under his nose, Deputy Brigade Commander Dai decided to capture Shenze County and move the defense line further north. However, the railway bridge over the Hutuo River was relatively narrow, and there was a railway track passing through the middle. The trucks towing the artillery could not pass through the bridge.

With the support of artillery, attacking the Japanese county town will be twice as effective with half the effort.

Deputy Brigade Commander Dai ordered the commander of the first regiment to arrange soldiers to build a pontoon bridge immediately. After the artillery unit crossed the Hutuo River, it immediately launched an attack on Shenze County and Gao County.

During this period, villagers gradually crossed the river from the Hutuo River Railway Bridge.

One group of brothers chopping wood caught the soldiers' attention.

His eldest brother was a mute, and his younger brother told the soldiers that they lived in Jinzhou Village on the south bank of the Hutuo River, the fourth house from the well at the entrance of the village.

The old man was very familiar with Jinzhou Village, so the soldiers let them go.

Before the wooden bridge was built, two Type 95 fighters and two Type 98 heavy bombers of the Japanese army flew over.

They flew over first and wanted to bomb the original artillery position of the Second Brigade, but Deputy Brigade Commander Dai had already ordered the artillery troops to move, and they did not find the artillery position of the Second Brigade.

Then the Japanese bombers and fighter planes began bombing and strafing the First Army troops on both sides of the Hutuo River.

The soldiers of the First Army quickly ran into the surrounding woods.

The wooden bridge that was about to be completed was also collapsed by Japanese bombers.

By the time the First Army's fighter planes arrived, the Japanese planes had already fled.

The First Army's planes then fiercely strafed the Japanese troops on the Gaoxian city wall, and returned only after they had used up all the machine gun shells they were carrying.

The target of the Japanese bombing this time was very clear, which was their artillery positions and wooden bridges. Someone must have leaked the news to the Japanese. But today, so many people came from the north bank of the Hutuo River. Who was the Japanese scout?

Since there was no way to identify, Deputy Brigade Commander Dai decided to completely block both sides of the Hutuo River railway bridge and the wooden bridge.

People who want to cross the Hutuo River should look for shallows to cross the river.

This caused a lot of trouble for some civilians crossing the river, and they complained constantly. However, for the safety of the troops, Deputy Brigade Commander Dai did not give in.