Bright Sword: Japs, times have changed

The two Japanese brigades were the 7th Brigade and the 9th Brigade.

After Yamamoto Ikki retreated to the county town, he didn't even have time to take off his equipment. He ran all the way to the gendarmerie and called Shinozuka Yoshio in person.

On the phone, Yamamoto Ikki said a lot of exaggerated things in order to get revenge. The most important thing was to show that the size of the Eighth Route Army team in Heiyunzhai had reached the division level, and there was more than one howitzer regiment.

Yoshio Shinozuka didn't think much about it. In his impression, Yamamoto Ikki never exaggerates, so he thought it was true.

So after hanging up the phone, he sent telegrams to the commanders of the two brigades respectively, ordering them to launch an encirclement and suppression operation against Heiyun Village immediately, and issued a death order that they were not allowed to return to Taiyuan Headquarters until the Eighth Route Army troops in Heiyun Village were eliminated.

After receiving the order, the commander of the Japanese 7th Brigade discussed it with the commander of the 9th Brigade. Although both were dissatisfied with Yoshio Shinozuka's order, they had no choice.

The two men made a plan and decided to redistribute the existing Japanese troops from the two counties and form them as a vanguard force.

Their main task was to find out the location of the Eighth Route Army's positions so that they could launch precise strikes against them.

To put it nicely, it was a test; to put it bluntly, it was to use them to consume the Eighth Route Army's ammunition.

After the order was issued, the Japanese from the two counties formed a team within one day and set out towards Heiyun Village in a mighty manner.

The Japanese soldier leading the team was named Watanabe Kawashita, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was temporarily promoted to the commander of the mixed regiment.

Having learned from the lessons of the previous failure, Watanabe Kawashita did not rush into the battlefield blindly. Instead, he sent a small team to conduct disguised reconnaissance in a safe enough place.

In order to attack the armed forces in various places, the Japanese trained a professional disguised team. They were not only proficient in local dialects, but also had the same height as the locals.

They put on ordinary people's clothes and blend into the crowd, making it impossible to tell their true identity.

The team's first task was to understand the surrounding terrain and be careful not to be ambushed during the march.

There is a narrow pass on the road between the county seat and Xiaowangzhuang, with open areas on both ends, so the locals call it Hulukou.

The two sides of Hulukou are not very high, and it is about 180 meters away from the entrance, making it a very good ambush location.

The disguised reconnaissance team returned to report the intelligence at Hulukou: "Your Excellency, the Hulukou position ahead has no ambush found, and the road has been checked and there are no mines. You can proceed with confidence!"

"Yoshi!"

Watanabe Kawashita waved his hand and said, "Keep going!"

With the reconnaissance troops leading the way, Watanabe Kawashita felt more at ease and the team advanced much faster.

When the team reached the edge of the last shelling, Watanabe Kawashita stopped moving forward.

There were still traces of the bombardment on the ground, with steel helmets and destroyed Type 38 rifles everywhere.

The huge crater gave him a great visual impact. After just a few glances, a sense of fear enveloped his whole body.

The traces left by the 150mm howitzer will take a long time to be erased by the power of nature alone.

The soil had the help of organic fertilizer, but in such a short time, only a few scattered weeds had grown.

He couldn't imagine the battle scene at that time, swallowed hard, and sent out an infantry company as the vanguard.

It seemed absolutely not convincing enough, so Watanabe Kawahara's company sent out an infantry battalion to take the lead.

the other side.

The deployment of Xiaowangzhuang had been completed long ago. This time, there were not only howitzers, but Lin Qiang also temporarily placed two DShK anti-aircraft machine guns for air defense.

The anti-aircraft weapons in the rear base are also ready. As long as the Japanese bombers dare to come, they will never return!

There was only one regiment of Japanese soldiers coming, and with the combat effectiveness of the independent battalion, there was no chance for others to intervene in this matter.

Even Chu Yunfei, who always liked to help out, chose to stand by and watch this time.

He liked watching plays, especially the one-sided massacre of the Japanese devils. Every time he watched it, he felt it was more exciting than doing it himself.

There was only one person who couldn't wait to join the war, and that was the commander of the independent regiment, Li Yunlong.

The New Second Regiment gained a great advantage in the last battle, and Lin Qiang's team was expanded into an independent battalion and was no longer under his jurisdiction.

This was nothing. What he didn't expect was that the brigade commander personally ordered that he was not allowed to target the independent battalion.

This made Li Yunlong even more jealous of Kong Jie's taking advantage of the situation. Not only did he not gain any benefits from the battle, but he also lost a lot of good things in vain.

Independent regiment headquarters.

This was the fourth time Li Yunlong had called the brigade commander, but only the first call was connected. When the brigade commander heard his request, he hung up the phone directly and never answered it again.

"climb!"

Li Yunlong put down the receiver angrily, sat on the kang with a stern face and said nothing.

Political Commissar Zhao Gang hesitated to speak. Given his role, he should say something. After getting along with Li Yunlong for a long time, he knew clearly that if he opened his mouth now, he would be scolded by Li Yunlong.

He wouldn't seek trouble.

Seeing Zhao Gang turning around to leave, Li Yunlong stopped him and said, "Old Zhao, why haven't you said a word today?"

Hearing this, Zhao Gang turned around with a dark face and said, "You kid are just waiting for me to speak so that you can vent your anger on me? Don't I understand you?"

"You want to take it out on me? Dream on!"

"Who do you think our Lao Li is?"

Li Yunlong said indignantly: "I'm just angry. What a shameless brigade commander! Why wouldn't he allow our independent regiment to participate in the battle?"

"That's a whole regiment of Japs, armed with heavy weapons. They're definitely stronger than the Sakata regiment. Lin Qiang only has a battalion of troops. He has howitzers, but they'll run out of ammunition eventually, right?"

"After all, they are the soldiers I, Old Li, led. We can't just stand by and watch them die, right?"

Li Yunlong talked a lot, and even the political commissar Zhao Gang laughed.

If an ordinary team faced a regiment of Japanese soldiers, they would be in great danger. However, since they were facing Lin Qiang's independent battalion, the Japanese soldiers would be in great danger.

Zhao Gang scoffed unabashedly, "Who doesn't know what you, Li Yunlong, are thinking? To put it nicely, you're going there to reinforce us. To put it bluntly, you're just going there to take advantage!"

"Everyone has witnessed the combat effectiveness of the independent battalion. Do you think the brigade commander doesn't know what you are planning? In my opinion, the brigade commander is right. If you go, Lin Qiang might suffer some losses again."

Lin Qiang was unhappy with this and cursed, "Old Zhao, why are you acting like an ungrateful person? You're eating our Independent Regiment's rice, but why are you speaking for that brat Lin Qiang?"

"You're right. Old Li is just greedy and wants to take advantage of the situation. But I'm so shameless, isn't it for our independent regiment? If it weren't for me, would we be using all the Type 38 rifles now?"

"Let's not talk about anything else, just take food as an example. Tell me honestly, Old Zhao, if it weren't for Old Li's thick skin, would you be able to eat white flour buns right now?"

These words left Zhao Gang speechless, and this was indeed the fact.

Seeing that Zhao Gang did not refute him, Li Yunlong knew that his goal had been achieved. He changed his face and said, "So, you are the political commissar of our independent regiment. No matter what, you have to fight in the same trench with us."

"Well, you'll cover at the regimental headquarters. If the brigade commander asks, just say I, Li Yunlong, went to inspect the defense zone."

"How about it?"

Now Li Yunlong has a way to deal with Zhao Gang. He knows that intellectuals are stubborn and he cannot argue with them. Instead, he has to use moral blackmail.

The effect is surprisingly good.

Zhao Gang thought for a moment and nodded.

"Lao Li, you have to be careful. I have my head on your belt!"