Canteen System Assistance Notes

ah???

Amid the roar of "rain" and "hail", the "detachment" of the Eighth Route Army on the northern line was like an iron wall, advancing forward in a strict and orderly manner with the attack cycles of "fighting for the commanding heights on the hilltop", "establishing artillery suppression areas", "infantry covering engineers repairing the railway" and "tank and infantry coordinated attack".

Although the total number of these troops is not enough to fight a thorough annihilation battle, their armed configuration has basically not been reduced, so it is still no problem to defeat these two divisions.

The 64th Division, fighting relentlessly on the front lines, held out for about three days before being crushed by the steamroller-like attack. Only the division headquarters, the search regiment, and a few battalions managed to escape. The 4th Division, however, possessing sophisticated tactics and agile thinking, retreated decisively, gathering up the defeated troops and resisting them one by one while preparing to advance along the chain of Ming and Qing dynasty fortresses: Zhangyuan, Xuanhua, and Xiahuayuan.

Along the way, the losses suffered by the troops were surprisingly acceptable.

After all, the Osaka people obviously had more and more rational thoughts than other Japanese troops about fighting an enemy that was obviously stronger than themselves. During this period of continuous retreat, the 4th Division headquarters kept trying to call the superior troops, and finally, after spending a lot of effort, they used their old relationship from previous service in central China to contact General Hata Shunroku, the commander of the China Expeditionary Army.

The general told them more information:

The two armies sent from Central China to reinforce North China were still unable to advance north of Xuzhou! The 12th Army of Shandong Province in North China was forced out of Quancheng by the Communist Army and was pursued by the Communist Army all the way, suffering heavy losses!

The 12th Army encountered the Communist Army's "unbreakable fortress" east of Weishan Lake, and suffered heavy losses but still found it difficult to break through!

Your unit is in a critical situation. You must make an immediate decision and abandon all your baggage and move forward!

At the same time, the command from the headquarters, forwarded by the Kwantung Army, was also passed to the 4th Division:

"The current war situation is critical. The Yodo (4th Division) and the Zhe (64th Division) should immediately return to Peking along the railway line to support the retreat of the Yu Bing Corps (14th Division of the Kwantung Army) and other units... Once all units have reunited, the Zhe Bing Corps should temporarily assume command."

At this time, the vanguard of the 4th Division, accompanied by messengers from the Guanting Garrison, arrived at the busy division headquarters and delivered the most shocking intelligence on the battlefield:

At Badaling, a key pass on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, where the 4th and 64th Divisions had to pass before returning to Peking, the red flag of the Communist Army had been raised. The 106th Division, which was supposed to be stationed there, had long since disappeared!

"—You bastards! Kind words can't persuade a damned ghost, and mercy without salvation is the only way to destroy others!"

Commander Yang Yuan of the 4th Division returned to division headquarters, cursing profusely. Just moments earlier, he had personally tried to persuade Commander Tanaka Nobuo of the 64th Division to understand the current situation and follow his lead. However, Tanaka still wanted to follow the orders from headquarters, attacking Badaling and then entering the North China Plain to support the retreat of the Kwantung Army's 14th Division.

"The Communist Army behind us is just a small detachment, which is already difficult for our two divisions to deal with. But the Zhao Corps has the main force of the Communist Army behind it. After we take Badaling, how can we resist them? Isn't this order just asking us to die?

"...These Utsunomiya idiots, why are all they think about is dying in glory?"

"Perhaps the Teru Corps and the Tsu Corps are both from Utsunomiya, and they want to look after each other..."

"That's not how you get attention!"

Kaiyuan Liu interrupted his adjutant and decisively slashed down.

"It's decided! Our plan remains unchanged. Immediately issue the order. The troops must abandon their artillery and baggage immediately, carry as much food and water as possible, and prepare for a mountain march. This team will become the vanguard, and the front and rear teams will follow immediately! Immediately march northeast of Xuanhua, towards Chicheng, and begin a transition to Luanping!"

"And then……"

He lowered his voice and beckoned his adjutant over. "Take the direct guards and find another squadron! Go to the headquarters of the vassal corps and give them a good 'persuasion' to get them to join us! If that doesn't work, take their color guard squadron with you!"

"...Headquarters knows nothing about the front line. Staying here to fight would be courting death! Are we going to die in vain against this invincible enemy?... We will not obey such a foolish order!"

Hearing the shouts of the Osaka staff around him, Kaiyuan Liuyi touched his chin and added a final sentence.

"Forget it. Before you leave, send a message to headquarters. Tell them that our troops were ordered by Commander Okamura to defend the Zhangyuan line. Since that order is now unsuccessful, we will resolutely advance along the flanks and conduct intensive reconnaissance... The Corps' radio station, which has been busy transmitting, was attacked by Communist light bombers today, causing damage and making it difficult to communicate. From now on, we will be temporarily handling the communications..."

"that's all!

Chapter 823: North China Hydrangea Gland, Inertia Reduction (Part 2)

“Woo woo woo… bang bang!”

The faint sound of shells piercing the air echoed, like the sly laughter of the Black and White Impermanence. It was a salvo of six 100mm mortar shells. Under normal circumstances, any Japanese soldiers who heard it would have dug a pit and hidden in it, or scattered to minimize casualties. But now, the soldiers of the Japanese 12th Army, after glancing up at the sun, rose to their feet and rushed towards the predicted impact zone, like river fish attracted by bait.

The next second, the shells exploded in the air, sending a shower of paper and small packages cascading down. The soldiers below looked up, jostling each other. A few sergeants weakly shouted a few words and slapped their hands, but were quickly drowned out by the increasing flow of people.

Crowds of people crossed the ridiculous interception line and rushed to the area where the propaganda materials were dropped: some picked up scattered cigarettes and stuffed them into their pockets, then rushed to the side with their heads in their hands to light their cigarettes with matches; some fought with their close comrades for a few small packages of mint candies; some people, despite being beaten by others' fists and leather boots, poured fruit powder with the smell of gunpowder and sulfur into their mouths, and then were choked and coughed violently, so that their dry lips were bleeding.

Those who couldn't grab anything could only hold the fragrant flyers and swallow non-existent saliva.

An officer raised his pistol and wanted to fire to maintain discipline, but the gun jammed at this moment.

“Crack!” “Crack!”

The fight finally stopped, but not because of the crisp sound of a hammer breaking - on the other side, next to the well being dug, a corpse fell headfirst into the well and collapsed after a reflex twitch.

There was no water in the well, or even, in this rocky mountain, the mere presence of moisture in a well only a meter or two deep was a miracle. However, for someone whose throat was already burning with thirst, this was probably enough to tempt him to leap into the well for water.

The stunned crowd looked at the unfortunate man with a broken neck, then looked at the rows of dead bodies lying by the river at the foot of the mountain. In the end, apart from a sigh, nothing was left.

When the troops directly under the North China Army and the subordinate troops of the 7th Army were close to destruction and defeat, the 12th Army, which disobeyed orders and "moved alone", did not gain much benefit from its bold and decisive actions. Instead, it "enjoyed" an even more painful fate.

Under the meticulous "exploitation" of the 101st, the Japanese "Jin" Corps, which once dominated the entire Shandong Province, had been beaten to a pulp in the hardened reinforced concrete trench network. Four divisions and as many as 90,000 troops were gradually consumed on the road of escape, where death was accompanied at every step. In the end, only more than 50,000 people were left.

Meanwhile, the New Fourth Army's Subei and Lunan Corps, led by Chen Shijun and Su Zhiyu, had been conducting a highly flexible and proactive defense around Zaozhuang and Taijiazhuang, against the two divisions of the Japanese Central China Army that were reinforcing northward. Under the command of Su Zhiyu, known as the "tactical kaleidoscope," the New Fourth Army, which was not particularly superior in terms of manpower and equipment, even took the initiative to attack, defeating the Wuhe and Songfeng Corps (75th and 76th Divisions) from Central China and the Corps (21st Division) originally in Xuzhou, and even annihilating a Japanese regiment in an organized manner. Throughout the campaign, these three divisions were more than 100 kilometers away from the North China Army awaiting rescue.

There was no hope of advancing, the retreat was also cut off, and there was a flank attack from the west... Lieutenant General Kita Seiichi, who wanted to cross the mountains and continue to advance through Jiehe Town, was forced to flee in a hurry to the east. He soon discovered that the Eighth Route Army had also prepared a considerable blocking position and reserve forces in Jiehe Town.

After leaving nearly five thousand bodies in vain, the 12th Army, missing the "more than" in its "more than fifty thousand" plan, ultimately failed to break through the defenses forged of steel and will. Under the threat of the slowly approaching Lu Province Field Army, they ultimately had no choice but to brave relentless airstrikes and ascend the hilly terrain centered on Mount Yi, using their remaining equipment, materials, and firepower to construct a barely manageable gourd-shaped circular position.

However, the Communist army's fierce offensive did not come immediately.

Jiejia Mountain, Tangwang Mountain, Xiaoya Mountain, Yashan, and Yishan.

There were five such peaks around Yishan in southern Shandong, including the mountain itself. Jiejiashan and Tangwangshan were both occupied by the Eighth Route Army due to their location. The Japanese, on the other hand, occupied Da Yashan, Xiao Yashan, and Yishan, offering a desperate resistance.

These mountains are mostly made of stone, with a thin soil layer and a steep slope, making it inconvenient to attack directly. It was for this reason that the Japanese army set up a radio station after climbing the mountain and asked for help from the Central China Chinese Army Headquarters.

However, Lieutenant General Kita, who was so anxious that he lost his mind, did not think of the experience of Ma Miu in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at this time.

After simple preparations for the attack, Peng Mingzhi, who had already learned about the situation on the front line, first surveyed the battlefield and determined that in the 5km*3km area held by the Japanese army, except for some mountain streams, there was only one small river, Beilong Creek, north of Mount Yishan. He immediately sent the engineers with the team to the upper reaches of Beilong Creek northeast of Mount Yishan, and used equipment to build a dam to cut off the Beilong Creek, which was already in the dry season.

Afterward, artillery units set up artillery fire on the perimeter, completely blocking the Japanese troops, who had lost all their field artillery. Any Japanese troops descending the mountain to fetch water were subjected to relentless artillery fire, even at night. Regular and irregular flares lit the night, covering the few possible routes down the mountain. "Snipers," armed with both muskets and cannons, targeted any individual Japanese soldier attempting to break through or fetch water, unleashing a truly spectacular display of sniper fire.

Finally, after estimating that the Japanese troops on the mountain had basically exhausted their water reserves and were running low on food, Peng Mingzhi called in his most capable propaganda officers, radio technicians, and mortar teams, who began broadcasting messages of persuasion to surrender to the mountain at regular intervals and firing propaganda bombs with mortars.

This is a very common psychological warfare tactic, but...

What if the loudspeaker broadcasts could accurately point out that at a certain Japanese position, officers had beaten soldiers and taken their water bottles, and that veterans had bullied new recruits and snatched food; pointed out that the rations, which were already dwindling daily, were being exploited and withheld by the squadron leaders and team leaders; and told the ordinary soldiers how many people had sacrificed their lives in a certain place, but that more than half of the water they had obtained was taken away by senior officers like Kita Makoto, and even used for bathing?

What if the propaganda materials distributed were cigarettes and candies that the Japanese army should have been issued, with the fruit powder inside, although delicious, but it had to be soaked in water? And what if those leaflets printed with "A Letter to Japanese Soldiers" were also attached with some high-tech food flavorings from the future that could emit the aroma of fruit, barbecue and alcohol?

What if the Japanese military police, numbering only a hundred or so, were still stubbornly adhering to the so-called "surrendering to the enemy is a disgrace, and accepting enemy supplies is equivalent to surrendering" and even forcibly confiscating cigarettes, candies, and even scented leaflets from the soldiers?

One day, two days, three days, four days... After receiving the report from 101 about the good situation of the Taijiazhuang blocking battle, the comrades of the Shandong Provincial Field Army and local troops who were resting on the spot maintained a blockade outside the encirclement for nearly 10 days, and then slowly reorganized the offensive and advanced towards the mountainous area where the last 30,000 Japanese troops were entrenched.

During these ten days, the Japanese army tried to break out many times, tried to feign surrender, and tried to disperse and infiltrate, but they were all repelled by the well-rested military and civilians of Shandong Province. Apart from leaving more corpses beside the remaining puddle of Beilong Creek, there was no progress.

As the call sign of the North China Army Command disappeared, Iimura Jo and Okamura Yasuji were killed, and the headquarters also sent a telegram ordering the Central China Army to hold Xuzhou and not continue north to "increase casualties", leaving only the 21st Division in Xuzhou with no choice but to retreat. Even the lowest-level soldiers of the Japanese army knew that their defeat was inevitable and there was absolutely no possibility of escape.

In front of them were the Eighth Route Army soldiers who were making pancakes, steaming buns, cooking, and munching on meat buns. They were also seeing ideological propaganda that constantly guided and even forced them to think about their future and mission. They were also seeing officers who were still "maintaining their decency" and non-commissioned officers who were continuing to bully and oppress them.

Even those scented leaflets were enough to hook the soul and make people unbearable. Sporadically, when the time came to the end of March and the beginning of April 1943, some people began to surrender at night on the positions of the 12th Army. Later, these people increased, and finally there were even several Japanese troops who killed their own squad leaders and surrendered en masse.

When the final offensive was launched, the Shandong Provincial People's Liberation Army, which was slightly lacking in equipment, captured Xiaoyashan, Yashan and Yishan at a very small cost. At that time, the organized and large-scale Japanese troops had already put away their guns and artillery, and most of them lay on the ground, not even having the strength to raise their hands to surrender. These Japanese troops who surrendered voluntarily or not numbered nearly 30,000, almost covering all the remaining organized units of the 12th Army.

The rest of those who launched the Banzai charge, committed suicide by disembowelment, or killed themselves with grenades, were eventually like insects crushed by the rolling wheels, and the imperceptible undercurrent in the waves was blown away by the wind.

Chapter 824: War Magnitude Lv.9

(4K Battle Results Chapter)

The spring of 1943 was a time destined to leave a key mark in the history of this time and space.

The Battle of North China, which lasted for about a month and a half and spanned thousands of miles from north to south and east to west, began on February 26, 1943 and ended around April 10. It finally came to an end.

The red forces that originated in the south of the Yangtze River and trekked to northern Shaanxi continued to develop. With the power of two victories in the battles of western Inner Mongolia and Shanxi Province, they attacked from northern Henan, went out of Taihang, and fought in Qi and Lu. Finally, in this decisive battle, they defeated the North China Army, which had suffered years of losses, bloodshed and defeats, and almost wiped out the North China Army. They also succeeded (regrettably) in killing General Okamura Yasuji, the supreme commander of the Japanese North China Army, and successfully "beheaded" this heinous fascist demon. They avenged the people who died in a series of tragedies including the "Liujiadian Village Massacre", and also allowed this land of China, which had suffered deep suffering, to pay an incomplete debt for those tragedies that could never be written.

After finally destroying most of the combat forces of the North China Army, the Seventh Army, and the 12th Army, the Eighth Route Army followed closely in the footsteps of the Japanese army and continued to pursue northward along the railway, successively conquering Tianjin, Beijing and other places along the way, and returning this political center of northern China since the Ming Dynasty to the hands of the people.

Due to certain reasons that could not be made public in this time and space, only a small number of historical sites in Peiping were destroyed; and although a part of the Japanese 85th Division guarding Tianjin was not large in number, it also caused some damage before our troops in Bohai and Jidong entered the city, resulting in the burning of some factories - although this is not as good as a peaceful takeover with complete surrender, it can be regarded as a pretty good ending.

Finally, because the North China Army was defeated too quickly and too miserably, the Kwantung Army, which had been sending a large number of "Iron-Blooded Loyal Emperor and Anti-Communist National Volunteer Combat Teams" composed of the "New Imperial Subjects" on the peninsula to support it, finally gave up playing the staring game with the Soviet Army on the other side of the strait. It sent the 24th, 25th and 57th Divisions to the Liaodong Corridor and Yixian, Chifeng and other places to block the Eighth Route Army's way forward, and began to launch limited counterattacks to accommodate the defeated soldiers.

At this point, although the North China Army and the New Fourth Army's Northern Jiangsu and Southern Shandong Campaign Corps, which had wiped out the entire 12th Army, were no longer able to continue moving south, and therefore could not continue to cross Zaozhuang to attack Xuzhou; the Eighth Route Army in Shandong Province was also unable to continue attacking the fortress city of Jiaoao, which was reinforced by the Kwantung Army, resulting in a troublesome "Japanese-occupied area" remaining in this liberated area, the Eighth Route Army was still able to occupy a vast area from Jieshi Island in the north to Taijiazhuangji in the south, and from Yantai and Weihai in Jiaodong in the east, truly and thoroughly connecting the North China Liberated Area that was originally divided by transportation routes and large cities.

In this battle, the heroic Eighth Route Army troops at all levels, with their perseverance, courage and wisdom, achieved what can be considered the best record in the history of World War II.

During the Battle of the Pinghan Line, the Eighth Route Army Field Corps and its accompanying field armies, commanded by former Anti-Japanese United Army commanders Yang Jisheng and Wei Zhengmin, and Liu Xingchang, a highly-skilled graduate who had studied in the Soviet Union, served as the "engine" of the entire campaign. Like a steamroller crushing asphalt, they fought relentlessly from south to north, repeatedly smashing the Japanese army's so-called "last line of defense," shattering the sharpest points of their might, and creating numerous opportunities for friendly forces to encircle and annihilate the enemy in front of them.

The combination of Liu Mingzhao and Zhang Hao, along with Nie Yunzhen, who coordinated north-south coordination, orchestrated two successful "out-of-mountain" campaigns in Handan and Shimen. The Eighth Route Army troops charging out from Jingxing and Dikouxing not only directly defeated the reinforced four-unit 110th Division but also successfully formed a double encirclement, effectively "packing" the Japanese reinforcements heading south for a decisive battle with the main Eighth Route Army force into two separate "meal boxes," ultimately devouring the soldiers themselves.

Finally, this unit continued to advance northward and fought a final decisive battle with the Japanese army that was at a loss as to where to go at Qingyuan. In the continuous pursuit, the last few Japanese troops were devoured and turned into ghosts who didn't know whether they could return to Sanzu River.

在这个过程中，八路军连战连捷，先后消灭了华北军36师团、50师团(前独混1)，110师团、57师团(前独混8)，歼灭了关东军派遣入关增援的28师团和14师团，以及新组建没多久的82、83、80、87师团这四个“英字辈”。

The only exception was the 106th Division, which was defeated in the first phase of the battle and moved to Peiping with only one regiment and the division headquarters.

After being crippled, this unit was stuffed with a large number of "volunteer troops" by General Okamura Yasuji, who then replaced the 80th Division in the defense of Peking. Finally, undercover agent Shotaro Ozaki forged orders to remove the unit from the pass and defensive positions. While this cleared the way for our army to enter Peking, it also allowed the remnants of this unit to be met by the Kwantung Army and escape with ease. Upon arriving in Chengde, they discovered no "Kwantung Army reinforcements" and only saw the puppet Manchukuo police Isshintai. They immediately announced the establishment of a defense headquarters in Luanping, handed the task to the puppet Manchukuo police, and fled.

Even after arriving in Luanping, they still had time to find an excuse to dismantle the Lahailing Railway, thus completely ensuring their safety for the time being.

But even so, on the Pinghan Line, the main corps of the Eighth Route Army still achieved a total of nearly 17.3 enemy troops killed, surpassing the previous Shanxi Province Campaign in which "the Japanese invaders were chased across a land half as large as Germany" and eliminated a large number of Japanese troops.

On the Jinpu Line and Shandong Province battlefield, 101, who likes garlic peas, and Luo Shenzhen and Li Tianyou formed the "commander combination" of this time and space, and jointly commanded the Shandong Province battle as the "second battlefield".

At the beginning of the battle, they systematically eliminated the remaining Japanese troops entrenched in Weihai and Yantai. Following the central battle arrangements, they surrounded and annihilated the Japanese 32nd Division around Jining and Yanzhou, and successfully isolated the Japanese 12th Army and its remnants in Quancheng.

However, just when the 101st Army decided to continue to encircle and isolate the Japanese strongholds in Tai'an, Liaocheng and Dezhou except Quancheng, and to eliminate the Japanese troops one by one in the manner of "appetizer first, then main course", the Japanese 12th Army's suicidal and "rebellious" solo action made the 101st Army's original plan of offensive battle, which was expected to lose at least 8 people, go to waste.

Of course, 101 really enjoyed this kind of "soaking in the hot springs." On the day he got the news, he even drank a glass of happy water for the first time. He said to Li Tianyou, who was working overtime to revise the plan, "I was worried that this banquet was too big and we would be stuffed. But who knew that old devil Kita Seiichi would serve the dishes one by one himself, and even peeled and removed the shells for us to eat. He really deserves a big medal."

This situation where the enemy has no rear and must attack and advance within our controlled area, and also break through the highly fortified defenses, is practically tailor-made for mobile warfare and so-called "gradual attrition warfare"!

While friendly forces were able to hold off the reinforcements, and even the reinforcements had little resolute will to fight, the 12th Army Headquarters, totaling 9 people, and its subordinate 66th Division (formerly the 17th Independent Mixed Division), 59th Division (formerly the 10th Independent Mixed Division), 55th Division (formerly the 6th Independent Mixed Division), and 22nd Division, which carried 14 days of food and ammunition, suffered continuous losses during the long journey and pressure, exhausted all their physical strength and fighting spirit, and lost a large amount of logistics and heavy weapons in the continuous air strikes, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness.

In this situation, even the so-called "Showa Superman" would not have much fighting ability.

After their last desperate stand, the remaining Japanese troops, who had been hungry and without water for several days, offered no resistance at all and were all annihilated or captured by the 101st at a relatively small cost.

They destroyed 11.2 Japanese troops without suffering heavy casualties. This was a very good result for the Shandong Field Army, which was relatively weaker in equipment than the main corps.

Of course, in addition to these, there are some relatively smaller secondary battlefields that also perform well.

South of the battlefield, the New Fourth Army's Subei and Lunan Corps, commanded by Chen and Su, took on the rather unwelcome task of "blocking reinforcements" while their comrades were feasting. Even with this mission, the New Fourth Army's officers and soldiers not only diligently and meticulously completed it, but also proactively added to their workload.

They conducted thorough and careful reconnaissance and guided the bomber units to drop glide-guided bombs at night, destroying the large ammunition depot at Jiuli Mountain in Xuzhou, greatly reducing the ability of the Japanese troops in central China to reinforce northward, and creating a brilliant achievement in special operations.

Su Zhiyu, who was good at flexible and mobile operations, also played the tactic of "offensive defense" in the blocking battle. After finding an opportunity, the New Fourth Army and the Lunan Eighth Route Army combat troops used dense firepower to create a gap in the Japanese line, boldly carried out infiltration and encirclement, and surrounded part of the 21st Division that had advanced too fast, successfully achieving the result of annihilating an entire regiment and eliminating about 3500 Japanese troops.

However, upon seeing this situation, the 75th and 76th Divisions, arriving from central China to reinforce, began to slack off on the battlefield with the tacit approval of their superiors, adopting a daily routine of clocking in, attacking on time, and leaving on time. While this completely thwarted their attempts to rescue the 12th Army, it also established a tight defense, preventing Chen and Su from finding any opportunities to attack, ultimately limiting their final enemy kill count to just over 6000. This was truly a shame.

In the northernmost part of the battlefield, the same "regret" also surrounded the "Two Yangs" Yang Nengjun and Yang Chengwu.

Compared with the New Fourth Army, which was far away from the rear industrial base, although the troops they had were a detachment, they still had various heavy firepower and rare things such as "Valentine" and Bren armored vehicles that made the friendly forces jealous. They originally thought that although they were not the main attackers, they could still fight a very beautiful annihilation battle.

However, not long after the troops broke through Zhangyuan, the enemy's retreat was cut off. The enemy's superior command was very "cooperative" with our army and asked the 64th Division (formerly the 15th Independent Mixed Division) and the 4th Division to break through the encirclement. At this time, the Japanese army, which was still rushing towards death, suddenly made a 180-degree turn - not only did they decisively abandon the supplies and heavy firepower that hindered the march, they also turned around and plunged into the sparsely populated Dama Mountains, rushing all the way towards Akagi.

This caught the "Two Yangs" who were originally ready to fight off guard, and they could only speed up the attack.

However, heavy artillery like the "Hail" and 155mm howitzers were extremely slow to move away from the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. 107mm mountain rockets like the "Sudden Rain" faced limited ammunition supplies. Valentine tanks were also slow as turtles in off-road conditions, making them completely inadequate for the task of pursuing the enemy. The Eighth Route Army soldiers, despite their utmost effort and light equipment, ultimately only managed to kill around 5 to 6 men from the 64th and 4th Divisions. Combined with the results of previous attacks on Zhangyuan and other locations, this totaled only around 1 enemy casualties.

However, in places where the Eighth Route Army found it difficult to investigate and verify, the losses suffered by the Japanese army were far more than this.

In this time and space, based on postwar revisits, explorations, and investigations of Japanese archives, it was discovered that in the mountains of northern Yanbei in late March, temperatures could sometimes drop to -10 degrees Celsius when the wind blew. Because the terrain was dry and rugged, the Japanese army not only faced the threat of low temperatures, but also faced difficulties with difficult mountain roads, poor logistics, attacks from wild animals, and a lack of access to drinking water.

However, because the 106th Division had already abandoned Chengde and, when fleeing to Luanping, it issued a signal and dismantled the Lahailing Railway on the pretext that Luanping was under attack, the 64th Division and the 4th Division were unable to seek refuge in Chengde via Chicheng as planned, and had to continue north and east, trekking towards Weichang outside the mountains.

In the end, although these two unlucky guys finally climbed out of the Dama Mountains after going through numerous hardships (equivalent to going to the Wild Man Mountains again), and were rescued by the Kwantung Army in the Weichang area, they suffered a total of nearly 7000 non-combat casualties, and many squadrons and companies were reduced to only one in ten. The remaining soldiers also suffered from frostbite, disability, malnutrition and other diseases, and were almost completely disabled.

Their casualties were so severe that when the infrastructure was built here after the founding of this country, the domestic construction team was able to dig up many remains of Japanese soldiers and found some artillery, ammunition and other things that had been pushed into the valley.

However, although the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, all the regimental flags of the two divisions escaped safely to the Northeast, which is one of the few "bright spots" in the Japanese army's internal report.

Chapter 825: "Northern Branch" Operation Reaction

(Japanese political detours warning)

Quiet and silent, as if nothing had happened... This is the current situation in mainland Japan after the so-called "North China Operation".

In April 1943, newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun, as well as radio stations controlled by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, were still reporting things like "The heroic and invincible Imperial Army defeated the stupid, hypocritical and cowardly Communist troops on the battlefield in northern China and won a great victory, killing a total of 4 enemies." The "National Spiritual Awakening Week" activities held as usual in villages and towns across Japan still included a victory celebration segment.

The masses, their faces slightly troubled, donned their clothes and, following the lead of the Daisei Yokusankai officials, chanted "Han sei" (Long live the Imperial Army), celebrating the Imperial Army's victory, the will of the Empire, and the warriors who embodied the Empire's core character, their heroic sacrifices. Those with a bit of common sense would have remarked that they hadn't heard of any further advances, suggesting that the Imperial Army had indeed achieved another great victory.

These people will then be inexplicably bullied at the speed of light until they promise to stop engaging in such worthless delusions.

However, even the average housewife would be puzzled as to why this battle report lacks any mention of those who sacrificed their lives for the Empire. Did no one lose their lives in this battle?

How can they organize memorial services and memorial services?

Of course, if this question were answered by the time traveler Xiao Liu, he would probably pretend to slap his head and say: That must be because the North China Army has been completely wiped out, so the North China Army did not report any losses; and since no one reported losses, it must be that the North China Army "did not suffer a single casualty" in this battle!

Ha, that's certainly not the case.

Although reducing losses and exaggerating battle results are effective tactics used by the armies of many countries, this time the Japanese Army Headquarters was really "wrongly blamed."