Devil's Army

Since Sasaki's troops had been completely wiped out, there was no point in Baron blocking the reinforcements from Fengtian.

Baron ordered the first company of the third battalion to escort the more than one hundred puppet soldiers back to the airport that was being built in the tribe.

Except for a few officers who were hard to get rid of, most of the puppet soldiers were from poor families. After a period of education, some of the puppet soldiers who were undergoing reeducation through labor at the airport joined the First Anti-Japanese Army with the new recruits and also participated in the three-way encirclement and suppression against Musashi Nobuyoshi.

The first and second battalions stopped digging fortifications and cleaned up the battlefield, and transported all the supplies of the Japanese transport team back to the tribe via the main road.

Sakamoto, the division commander, was also surprised to hear the news from Commander Musashi that Lieutenant Colonel Sasaki's army, who came from Fengtian via Xiaonan Town, had been completely wiped out. Commander Musashi had only his own army left in his three-pronged campaign to suppress the demon army.

However, his army was the main force, with more troops than the other two combined. Moreover, he had just blasted through the road and was preparing to launch a full-scale attack on the fortifications.

He knew that the Devil's Army also had about 20,000 troops. In order to increase the chance of winning, he proposed to Commander Musashi to continue sending troops to attack Aozuikou to tie down part of the Devil's Army.

But Commander Musashi refused. It was not that he did not want to send troops, but that he had no troops to send.

He told the division commander Sakamoto that the fighting in Chahar was intense and most of his troops had been transferred to Chahar. He had no more troops to send, otherwise he would not have arranged more than a thousand Japanese puppet troops to escort this batch of important supplies. Whether to fight or retreat was up to him.

Instead of continuing the attack, Division Commander Sakamoto convened a combat meeting to discuss the next course of action with several regiment commanders, battalion commanders and staff officers.

The vast majority of Japanese officers attending the meeting agreed to continue attacking the Devil's Army. They believed that they had just opened up this road, and withdrawing troops before the actual battle would greatly boost the morale of the Devil's Army.

They attacked the devil troops with all their strength, and it would be best if they could capture Tiaobinshan County. Even if they could not capture Tiaobinshan County, they would at least dampen the devil troops' spirit and make them dare not easily offend Rehe.

The next morning, the division commander Sakamoto ordered a Japanese captain to lead the Japanese army to launch a full-scale attack. Japanese tanks covered the infantry and rushed out of the path and rushed towards the fortifications.

However, what surprised Division Commander Sakamoto was that the devilish troops at the alley fortifications did not put up as fierce a resistance as last time. Instead, after a brief resistance, they retreated alternately from both sides of the fortifications.

The last time the Imperial soldiers were ambushed by the Devil's troops between the two fortifications, and more than a thousand Imperial soldiers were lost, was still fresh in their memory. Division Commander Sakamoto did not dare to move forward rashly.

At this time, the 150th Brigade sent a mm howitzer and a Feilong.

Wu Lang knew that the 150th Brigade had taken away two mm howitzers, so why did they only bring one? But he knew Mei Lang's character. He thought: the other howitzer must have had an accident, so he didn't ask any more questions.

Most of the staff officers around Division Commander Sakamoto had experienced the previous battle and knew about the battle in which more than a thousand imperial soldiers were killed between two fortifications.

They proposed to first investigate both sides of the fortifications to see if there were any ambushes of the Devil's troops. It would be best if they could investigate the Devil's troops' heavy artillery positions, and then destroy the Devil's heavy artillery positions in one fell swoop. Their troops could then march straight in and capture Tiaobinshan County.

In fact, the 3rd Regiment did not set up ambushes on either side of the two fortifications. The 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade and the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Brigade resisted the Japanese at the outpost in front of Rehe for a day and two nights, suffering heavy casualties and unable to encircle and annihilate the Japanese between the two fortifications. The rest of the troops were sent to destroy the Sasaki Division.

He withdrew the soldiers from the first fortification because that fortification had been bombarded repeatedly by the Japanese mortars, and many parts had collapsed, and could not withstand the Japanese tanks, artillery and infantry charges. If they wanted to resist, they would definitely have to send in several companies.

He withdrew the soldiers in this fortification, on the one hand to confuse the Japanese, and on the other hand he planned to use heavy howitzers to bombard the Japanese between the two fortifications to destroy the Japanese's manpower to the maximum extent.

At this time, a hot air balloon rose above the Japanese position.

Wu Lang received a report from the sentry and watched the slowly rising hot air balloon through the LR-4 telescope and came up with an idea.

He quickly called a regiment commander and arranged for the soldiers to take some ropes and tie some small trees in the woods on both sides of the two fortifications. They would pull the ropes from time to time, but the frequency should not be too high to create the illusion of an ambush.

The hot air balloon flew over the two fortifications, and a scout on the balloon operated the balloon to fly to both sides of the two fortifications. Another scout carefully observed the small forest below the hot air balloon with a telescope.

The soldiers in the woods on both sides of the fortifications pulled the rope from time to time to create the illusion that there were people under the woods.

Soon, Division Commander Sakamoto received a report from the scouts on the hot air balloon: there were ambushes of the devil troops on both sides of the two fortifications, and the number of ambushes was unknown.

Division Commander Sakamoto was very happy that he did not fall for the trick of the Devil's Army this time. He ordered one artillery position to aim at the small woods on both sides of the middle of the second fortification, and another artillery position to load shells and prepare to bombard the heavy artillery of the Devil's Army.

Everything is ready, just waiting for the order from Division Commander Sakamoto.