Devil's Army

Wu Lang is now the commander-in-chief of the North China Theater of the First Anti-Japanese Army and has no time to take care of the Second Brigade. The command of the Second Brigade is actually in the hands of Deputy Brigade Commander Dai Ansheng.

He sat together with Brigade Commander Du of the 11th Brigade and complained.

"Brother Dai, this battle made me fully understand the feeling of a brigade being transformed into a regiment. It was heartbreaking!"

"Don't think that our brigade has more than 1000 people than yours. This is the second time I have seen more than 6000 brothers around me sacrificed! This is the second time I have been passively promoted from brigade commander to regiment commander!"

The two men talked about the sacrifice of their own soldiers, and they were both very sad. They could only drink water to relieve their sorrow.

At this time, the guard came over to report: Japanese troops appeared to the west of Tangxia Village.

"How many Japanese troops are there?" asked Brigade Commander Dai.

"About a squadron of troops."

"It seems that our Tangxia Village logistics base has not been exposed yet. These devils may be here to look for the Japanese squad that was eliminated by the Fifth Brigade Commander last time." Brigade Commander Dai said.

"If the tiger doesn't show its might, he will think we are sick cats. I will lead my men to kill them all."

"Commander Du, we must annihilate them all. No one can be left alive to report back."

"Japanese soldiers often disappear in this direction, which will definitely arouse their suspicion. It seems that there will be a major battle in Tangxia Village sooner or later."

"It's better to play late than early. We all have to rest for a while."

Brigade Commander Du also nodded in agreement, and went out to ask the Second Regiment Commander to lead the soldiers of the First and Second Regiments to annihilate all the Japanese troops in this squadron.

The second regiment commander was very puzzled. There were only more than 100 Japanese soldiers, so did he have to mobilize more than 1000 people from his two regiments to annihilate them?

Brigade Commander Du told the Second Regiment Commander that the west of Tangxia Village was covered with high mountains and dense forests, and the terrain was complex. If we did not first enclose this area and let a Japanese soldier escape, it would expose the situation of our Tangxia Village logistics base.

It was only then that the Second Regiment Commander realized that Brigade Commander Du was not worried that they could not defeat the more than 100 Japanese soldiers, but was afraid that one of them would escape from their encirclement.

The second regiment commander, led by his guards, arrived at the woods more than ten miles west of Tangxia Village where the Japanese were discovered. (In order to ensure the safety of the Tangxia Village logistics base, the fifth brigade commander deployed secret sentries more than 20 miles away on three sides of Tangxia Village.)

The second regiment commander saw through the telescope that the Japanese soldiers were very cautious, searching the bushes in front and on both sides with their guns. If they saw any movement, they would stop and hide behind the trees.

The commander of the second regiment ordered the soldiers of the first regiment to surround this group of Japanese troops from both wings, leaving a company of soldiers to block them in the front, and he led the rest of the troops to outflank this group of Japanese troops from behind.

The encirclement of the Japanese infantry squadron was initially formed, and the second regiment commander ordered the encirclement to be gradually tightened.

The Japanese squadron leader suddenly sensed the danger, clenched his fist and stopped the soldiers from advancing.

Japanese soldiers hid behind trees and observed the situation around them.

The soldiers of the First Army also stopped tightening the encirclement and stood still, staring at this squadron of Japanese troops.

The Japanese squadron leader observed for a while and found nothing unusual, so he ordered the Japanese army to continue searching and moving forward.

The Japanese squadron arrived in front of the First Army Company responsible for blocking the enemy, and the company commander suddenly opened fire.

The Japanese soldiers walking in front were unable to dodge and were shot and fell to the ground one after another.

After the company commander fired, the soldiers of the First Army on both sides and behind also fired in succession.

Gunshots rang out from all sides of the infantry squadron, and the Japanese infantry squadron was caught in a situation where they were surrounded by enemies.

In less than half an hour, all the Japanese troops in this infantry squadron were wiped out.

The second regiment commander ordered the soldiers to pick up the shells on the ground and remove the traces of the battle. They also dug a big pit and buried the bodies of the Japanese soldiers in the woods. Then they went back to report to the brigade commander Du.

The disappearance of this Japanese infantry squadron once again aroused the vigilance of the Japanese troops in Tangshan.

Last time, an infantry squad also disappeared in this direction, indicating that a Chinese army was active in this direction. But was it the Nanjing government army, the Eighth Route Army, or some other local army? The Japanese army in Tangshan had no information about this and had no way of knowing.

At that time, Tangshan was garrisoned by the 2rd Battalion of the nd Regiment of the Japanese North China Garrison Army.

The battalion commander, Major Michihiko Miyazawa, had also thought about launching a large-scale cleanup in this direction.

However, the area in this direction was quite large with high mountains and dense forests, and he suffered from insufficient military force.

The main force of the Japanese army was fighting the Battle of Xuzhou with the Nanjing government and encircling the Tangshan base of the devil troops, and had no extra troops to support him.

Since Major Miyazawa Michihiko didn't know that Tangxia Village, more than 20 miles away, was the logistics supply base of the First Anti-Japanese Army, he simply attributed the disappearance of their imperial soldiers to an attack by local armed forces. Commander-in-Chief Terauchi Juichi did not take it very seriously.

Because at that time in the Japanese-occupied areas, various armed guerrillas of the Communist Party's Eighth Route Army emerged one after another, constantly attacking their strongholds, transportation lines and small troops, and he could not take care of them at all.

After the Japanese troops retreated, Captain Xu and his men, together with the logistics personnel and the guard troops of Xiaoguanzhuang Airport, renovated the Xiaoguanzhuang Airport.

The runway at Xiaoguanzhuang Airport had been bombed by the Japanese army and was full of potholes, making it impossible to land planes. Their planes were temporarily parked at the temporary airport in Tangxia Village.

At this time, two ordinary people broke into Xiaoguanzhuang Airport and said they had important matters to discuss with the chief here.