People in the Republic of China era began to rise from industry.

Yamagata's tone was very serious, and his dissatisfaction was evident in his words.

He agreed with the brigade commander Suzuki's view.

The current location is really dangerous.

Once a conflict breaks out with the Chinese army, neither the soldiers' physical strength and morale, nor their ammunition reserves or even material reserves will be sufficient to support them until they receive aid or retreat to Manchuria.

Although he had sworn to be loyal to His Majesty.

But if you can live, why seek death?

Seeing the serious expressions on their faces, Tsuji Masanobu laughed: "General, Lord Yamagata."

"You two may not know, but I once participated in an expedition to Northwest China."

"We have also passed through this area of ​​Iraq."

"Because this is the largest town in the area of ​​more than 100 kilometers, the herders who make a living by grazing in the surrounding area are relatively concentrated."

“It’s far from the scattered nomadic tribes we encountered along the way.”

“The wealthy among them each have dozens or even nearly a hundred cattle and sheep.”

"And these can be used as our military rations."

As he spoke, Tsuji Masanobu looked at Suzuki, who was frowning, and smiled, "General, you previously instructed our soldiers to strictly abide by military discipline, not to disturb these herders, and to try to avoid disputes with the local garrison."

"I agree with that."

"But now, we urgently need to replenish our supplies."

"Without sufficient supplies, it will be impossible to complete the latest orders from headquarters."

“Raiding these herders is the best solution I can think of, so please make the decision.”

Having said that, Tsuji Masanobu confidently shut his mouth.

He had suggested long ago that they plunder some villages and towns along the way to replenish their supplies.

Unfortunately, Suzuki, that coward, never agreed.

They were always worried about provoking an attack from the Chinese army.

But now, the predicament is completely in front of him... He has no choice.

Silence fell over the extremely cold tent.

Only the howling wind could be heard constantly coming in from outside.

Both Yamagata and Suzuki frowned and remained silent.

After a long pause, Yamagata spoke first: "Your Excellency, Captain Tsujimasa's suggestion is indeed the best solution at present."

"Moreover, by collecting some cattle and sheep, we can drive them to travel with us, which will not take up extra transport capacity."

He analyzed for a moment, then paused and said, "Moreover, the Yimeng is still some distance from Shaanxi Province. Even if the news of our levy on the herdsmen reaches Shaanxi Province, as long as we speed up our march, they won't be able to harass us."

"In this way, conflict can be avoided."

As soon as he finished speaking, Tsuji Masanobu couldn't help but say, "Chief of Staff Yamagata, as long as we deal with those herders or order them to drive our cattle and sheep, there's no need to worry about the news leaking out."

Then he looked at Suzuki and said, "If you agree, I am willing to lead the cavalry battalion to gather enough supplies in the shortest possible time!"

"I can even assure you that we will handle this matter thoroughly!"

Suzuki, who had been squinting, looked at him, his eyes suddenly turning incredibly sinister: "Tsuji Masashi, then do as you wish."

"But please remember your words, make sure to clean it up completely!"

"Hi Yi!"

……

The next day, at the crack of dawn, the cavalry battalion, having rested and recharged, set out.

The machine gun squad continued to lead the way.

The two cavalry squadrons, totaling nearly three hundred men, spread out a search line of nearly forty kilometers, five kilometers apart, and began their search westward.

Before their departure, Masanobu Tsuji gave a speech to all the company commanders.

Except for the herders who were responsible for driving the cattle and sheep, all the others were killed, leaving no survivors.

Yamagata added that knives should be used instead of guns whenever possible, to which Tsuji Masanobu scoffed...

Following Sun Zhongneng's orders, the small squads that dispersed to seek opportunities for harassment from both flanks ran into the Japanese cavalry squads under these circumstances.

The first battle ended in victory for Sun Zhongneng's men.

The Japanese had a professional cavalry unit, with a squad consisting of about forty men.

Compared to Sun Zhongneng's hastily assembled harassment squad of four combat groups, they had an advantage in troop strength.

However, the only weapons available to him were a rifle and a saber.

This was quite poor equipment for a harassment squad that carried grenade launchers, automatic rifles, and light machine guns.

As soon as the two sides met, the well-trained harassment squad quickly organized a defense.

When the Japanese cavalry squad charged forward with roars, they were met with a hail of bullets.

Not only was the charging formation completely broken, but the casualties were also extremely heavy.

Seeing the situation was not good, the squad leader, frightened by the enemy's firepower, immediately ordered a retreat.

Then they were pursued and killed, with very few survivors.

One battle after another.

Three shows were performed consecutively at different locations.

This unintentional encounter between the two sides has temporarily come to an end with the Japanese cavalry suffering no victories.

As for the other Japanese cavalry squads, they were very fortunate not to encounter Sun Zhongneng's raiding squads and continued their plundering missions...

Sun Zhongneng received news of his first encounter with the Japanese cavalry an hour later.

His first reaction was surprise that the Japanese sentry posts were placed so far away.

In this way, the effectiveness of their harassment strategy will be greatly reduced.

However, it still managed to slow down the march of the Japanese army.

However, after making ample preparations, Sun Zhongneng already had higher goals.

Although there wasn't enough intelligence to support them, it was still possible to deduce that the Japanese army, which had come from afar, certainly didn't have a lot of supplies.

In addition, the continuous marching led to a decline in combat effectiveness.

If this is combined with a large number of harassments to continuously undermine the morale of the Japanese army, it is not impossible that, over a long period of time, the army would become demoralized and lose all fighting spirit.

In particular, Lin Yi has already helped solve his logistical problems.

The Japanese army had no reinforcements.

Sun Zhongneng was very confident that if he could keep the Japanese tied down in this narrow grassland area and gradually weaken them, he could eventually win a brilliant victory with fewer troops, or even annihilate them completely.

But now, the harassment squad that was originally supposed to move right behind the Japanese has been exposed, which makes things a bit tricky.

This alerted the Japanese; if the harassment squad continued its plan to attack from behind, they feared they would suffer heavy casualties as well.

He was still unsure whether to quickly adjust his strategy when gunshots rang out outside the tent.

A moment later, a staff officer ran in: "Commander-in-Chief, Japanese cavalry have appeared!"

Sun Zhongneng raised an eyebrow: "How many people?"

"Forty or fifty."

"...Damn it, capture a few alive!"

His temporary command post was set up in a nomadic herder's tent.

There weren't many people around him. Besides the twenty-odd people in his command post, there were two cavalry communications squads and the command post guard platoon.

The total number of people is over seventy.

But the equipment consisted mainly of mechanical devices and automatic rifles.

Taking down a cavalry squad of forty or fifty men shouldn't be a problem.