Devil's Army

Soon, the signalman confirmed the command of the headquarters and prepared to recapture Chengde County and Pingquan City.

It is the duty of a soldier to obey orders. The third regiment commander was ready to sacrifice the entire regiment to complete the order issued by the general headquarters. However, he could not implicate the Eighth Route Army's Lubei guerrillas.

The third regiment commander called Captain Pei to the regiment headquarters, told him the current grim reality, and asked them to be prepared to retreat at any time.

Captain Pei was also puzzled and reported the situation to his superiors: more than 30,000 Japanese Fourth Division troops were rushing towards Kuancheng County, while the First Anti-Japanese Army, with less than 10,000 troops, was preparing to recapture Chengde County and Pingquan City.

The telegram was finally delivered to the desk of the 129th Division of the Eighth Route Army.

What surprised Captain Pei was that the telegram sent to him by the Eighth Route Army Headquarters also asked them to assist the First Anti-Japanese Army in preparing to take over Chengde County and Pingquan City.

"Could it be that the 30,000-strong Fourth Division of the Japanese Army are straw soldiers that can withstand a single blow? Why do the Eighth Route Army Headquarters and the Second Front Army Headquarters of the First Anti-Japanese Army have such a surprising unanimous opinion that both asked them to prepare to recapture Chengde County and Pingquan City?" The Third Regiment Commander and Captain Pei were both puzzled.

With the arrival of three regiments of the Fifth Brigade of the First Anti-Japanese Army, the Second Battalion of the Sixth Division of the Japanese Army was quickly driven back to the north side of Wangchanggou.

The Japanese 4th Division, which was supposed to reach the position in one day, walked for three days and didn't even see a shadow of the enemy.

Commander Umezu Michijiro's urging telegrams flew to the 4th Division Headquarters like snowflakes. The commander of the 4th Division of the Japanese Army, Yamashita Tomoyuki, was also very anxious.

The soldiers of the 4th Division, who had no problems when they set out, suddenly fell ill one after another.

The military doctor examined the patient for a long time and found that the patient had vomiting, diarrhea, cold and fever, but the cause could not be found.

Soon, the commander of the regiment discovered something: these soldiers deliberately did not cover themselves with blankets when they slept at night, so as to catch cold and have diarrhea.

While eating, many soldiers added an unknown grass.

The soldiers who were asked answered that this was a kind of grass that increased the body's resistance. However, the commander gradually discovered that many soldiers who ate this grass suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.

The commander of the 8th Regiment of the 4th Division of the Japanese Army contacted the commander of the 9th Regiment that was attacking Hiraizumi City and found that the soldiers on their side had the same situation, but the reasons for their sick leave were slightly different.

Soon, the division commander Yamashita Tomoyuki realized that these soldiers were pretending to be sick, and asked the regiment commander to supervise personally and rush to the battlefield to reinforce them immediately.

Upon receiving the order from Division Commander Tomoyuki Yamashita, the commanders of the 8th and 9th Regiments both took charge of the infirmary, and any soldiers who pretended to be sick were sent to the military court for punishment.

This stopped the soldiers from getting sick, and they slowly arrived at the front lines one after another.

The 8th Regiment of the 4th Division of the Japanese Army was the first to arrive at the Wangchanggou position. Then the artillery launched a frenzied bombing of the Devil's troops' positions.

After the bombing, the soldiers began to attack. But what surprised the commander was that his infantry retreated as soon as the counterattack of the devil troops began.

The regiment commander organized a supervision team in the rear to supervise the infantry to continue the attack.

The Japanese 8th Regiment's infantry had no choice but to launch an attack on the Wangchanggou position.

Suddenly, there was a burst of intensive mortar and gunfire sounds from the Devil's troops' position.

The infantrymen of the 8th Regiment suddenly lay down collectively and stopped attacking.

The commander of the 8th Regiment had no choice but to order the supervision team to shoot at the back of the infantry to urge them to continue the attack.

There was a deafening charge from the 8th Regiment's infantry, and the soldiers were shouting:

“Long live the Emperor!…” But the man just lay there motionless.

The Second Battalion of the Third Regiment, which had taken over the Wangchanggou position defense line again, was also confused by this Japanese army.

Other Japanese troops would have been fierce and fearless in their first attack, but this Japanese army was just making a lot of noise but doing little from beginning to end. The shouts were deafening, but the soldiers just stood there motionless.

The regiment commander was also troubled by these soldiers.

If it was just an individual soldier, he could kill him as a warning to the rest, but these soldiers seemed to have made an agreement and all worked together without putting in any effort.

He couldn't send all these soldiers to the military court, could he? That would leave him without any troops.

The commander of the regiment had no choice but to personally supervise the battle from behind with his command knife.

The infantrymen had no choice but to get up and slowly charge forward, shouting.

No matter how hard the regiment commander shouted, the soldiers could not charge faster.

At this time, the roar of an airplane was heard in the sky.

Planes from the Second Squadron of the First Army were ordered to fly over for support.

As soon as the infantrymen of the Eighth Regiment heard the roar of the planes, they all scattered like birds and beasts and ran into the woods on both sides.