Chapter 1462: East Does Not Move, West Moves (Part 1)

The heavily guarded Jiangxia City had been searched for nearly a month, and almost the entire Jiangxia City was dug three feet deep, but the real culprit could not be found.

Even Yokoyama Isamu was desperate, and could only report the results of the two spies he had seized and the several military intelligence stations he had destroyed to the Expeditionary Force Headquarters.

As for whether the Expeditionary Force Headquarters believed that the few living "green onions" were the murderers of Tanabe Moritake and Fujii Yoji, it was none of Yokoyama Isamu's business.

On the Chinese side, the 70th Army was implicated because the major general of the 33rd Independent Brigade was involved in collusion with the enemy. The army commander and the division commander were transferred back to Yamashiro to report on their duties, and they did not return from Yamashiro until two months later.

The 70th Army was also transferred from the Fifth War Zone and assigned to the First War Zone in September of that year.

However, the First War Zone did not receive any reinforcements, and the total force decreased from 250,000 to 220,000.

Everything was normal for the Four-Line Regiment, as if the turmoil on June 21 had no impact on them. The only difference was that the Military Control Commission had a tighter surveillance of the surrounding areas of the Four-Line Regiment.

Only a few people could see clearly that the secret attack on Tang Dao on June 11, led and initiated by the Japanese army, ultimately resulted in a four-loss game.

The Japanese lost more than 200 well-trained elite soldiers and theoretical and practical experts in special operations, and also lost two high-ranking generals. In addition, Jiangxia, a major city in central China, was in chaos for more than a month, causing many battle plans to be delayed or even terminated.

He was the player who lost the most on this "mahjong table", and almost lost his pants.

In the mountain city, an infantry army of the Central Army was driven out of the Fifth War Zone, and the control over the Fifth War Zone was further weakened. General Li's control over the army belonging to the entire war zone was greatly strengthened, which was obviously not the result he wanted to see.

As for the Fifth War Zone, it actually didn't get any advantage. An elite infantry army was transferred away, but there was no new troops to supplement it. If the 11th Army went all out to attack western Hubei, the Fifth War Zone might have no choice but to retreat to the mountainous area to hold on.

And what about the Four-Line Regiment? In fact, it didn't become the final winner.

From June to December 1942, the Japanese army launched two attacks on the Fifth War Zone, but the Four-Line Regiment, an infantry regiment directly under the war zone headquarters, was always placed in the war zone reserve.

In other words, the Four-Line Regiment was idle.

It was not until a long time later that Tang Dao was about to lead his troops to leave the Fifth War Zone. At the private banquet specially held by General Li to see Tang Dao off, this person told the real reason.

In mid-July 1941, when General Li returned to Shancheng to attend a military meeting, he personally talked to General Li.

Although it was not said so clearly, the subtext was very simple. If the Fifth War Zone reused the Four-Line Regiment, the little Zhuge of the Guangxi clique would leave the position of deputy chief to serve as the commander of the Tenth War Zone.

Although the deputy chief is only a deputy, he can make national strategic decisions and is one of the top few people in the Military Commission.

The commander of the 10th War Zone seems to be in charge of the defense of Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, with more than 200,000 heavy troops under his command, but compared with the deputy chief, his power is not just a little bit less.

In order to maintain the status of the Guangxi clique, General Li had to succumb and put the extremely powerful Four Lines Regiment on the shelf.

Faced with this result, Tang Dao could only smile bitterly.

In fact, after finally finding the major general who surrendered to the enemy hidden in the 70th Army, the four people in the Four Lines Regiment headquarters also had disputes in the meeting on how to deal with this matter.

Ye Chenghuan and Zhuang Shisan felt that Tang Dao's bloody revenge was too radical, and if it was not done well, the whole regiment would be doomed.

But Leng Feng stood firmly on Tang Dao's side. He believed that if he did not even avenge his brothers, he would be a traitor to his brothers. In the future, the cohesion within the Four Lines Regiment would be greatly reduced, and it would be impossible for the Four Lines Regiment to maintain the combat effectiveness it once had.

It was still Tang Dao who made the final decision.

What he considered was not only the unity within the Four-Line Regiment, but also the external pressure from the mountain city.

Tang Dao knew very well that blindly giving in would never settle the matter, but would only make the opponent push forward.

If he did not show his sharpest sword to draw a bottom line for his opponent, the opponent would frequently test him, and sooner or later he would use military orders to transfer him from the Four-Line Regiment, further disintegrate the Four-Line Regiment, and finally send the completely disintegrated Four-Line Regiment to the most dangerous battlefield.

Perhaps within a year or two, all these officers and soldiers who fought for the country would become part of the huge number of casualties.

Tang Dao had actually tried his best to restrain himself. He only chose to kill the businessman who actually participated in the Japanese attack and the major general of the 33rd Brigade.

If it were not for preventing the situation from escalating, at least two senior generals of the 70th Army and all those who knew about it but did not report it would be on the death list.

But that man made his choice after all!

"I have always had a question. If the Military Control Commission insisted on taking Leng Feng away that night, what would you do?" At the end of the banquet, General Li suddenly asked.

"They can't take him away!" Tang Dao grinned slightly.

General Li was slightly stunned, took a deep breath and asked again in a deep voice: "Why do you trust me so much?"

That day, after he received the news that the major general commander of the 33rd Independent Brigade was attacked and killed, and the major general inspector of the Military Control Commission came to report to him in person, he felt that Tang Dao was going crazy after experiencing countless storms.

Although the world is in a mess, many people solve problems by taking some unsightly means in private, but those who put it on the table at least still pretend to abide by the rules.

Tang Dao acted like a man in the underworld. If you kill my people, I must kill them back.

He could endure this for the sake of Tang Dao and the Four-Line Regiment's ability to fight, but the man in Shancheng would never endure it.

General Li had even made the decision to abandon the Four-Line Regiment at that moment.

But Tang Dao sent him a telegram: "Please give me 2 hours!"

Thinking of the young and high-spirited army colonel he met in Xuzhou in the past, General Li pondered for a moment and finally called the chief of staff of the theater.

If it weren't for anything else, just for Tang Dao's glorious military exploits over the years, he gave him these two hours.

As a result, 2 hours later, the situation changed, and the Military Control Commission actually received a telegram from Shancheng and withdrew.

However, he could not figure out that he and Tang Dao did not have a deep friendship, and Tang Dao belonged to the Sichuan Army. At the most critical moment, he would never stand with his Gui faction, and there was no problem of winning him over to his faction. Why did Tang Dao conclude that he could give him two hours?

"Although you are a politician, you are not a pure politician. Deep down, you are a real Chinese." Tang Dao looked at the old man who had been wandering overseas for ten years but finally chose to return to his hometown, and gave a seemingly ambiguous answer.

In the eyes of politicians, there is only interest, and only Chinese people will take the military exploits of fighting against Japan to heart.

General Li's eyes flashed, and he smiled at Tang Dao who did not give a clear answer.

From this point of view, the two are actually the same kind of people.

However, this does not affect General Li's choice to give up Tang Dao and the Four-Line Regiment for the sake of factional interests.

Because of the different positions and heights, each person has different responsibilities. Tang Dao has thousands of officers and soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment following him, and General Li also has hundreds of thousands of troops of the Guangxi Clique to advance and retreat with him.

The old and the young understand this very well, so they can be frank and not shy about it.

The Four-Line Regiment was artificially idle and could only be trained in the garrison, but the Ji'nan Guard Regiment far away in North China has been thriving in the past six months.

Although the Four-Line Regiment was close to the Four-Line Regiment, Lei Xiong, the head of the Security Regiment, was a member of the Imperial Guard. Suppressing a group of people and pulling in a group of people was a common means of checks and balances used by political masters.

The Four-Line Regiment was suppressed, and the Security Regiment naturally used the means of winning over. Wang Da, the commissioner of the Ji'nan Administrative Office, basically did not ask about military power except for administrative affairs, and all were handled by Lei Xiong alone.

In mid-July 1942, the Japanese North China Front Army finally began to deal with the great calamity of Zhongtiao Mountain, which lay across the Yellow River, and mobilized 7 divisions and nearly 200,000 troops to attack the Chinese defense zone in Zhongtiao Mountain.

Except for the fourth and fifth armies of the four major Chinese garrison armies, whose defense lines were not broken because Tang Dao issued several warnings to them to raise their vigilance, the other two armies were broken by the Japanese army in several lines of defense within a week, and tens of thousands of troops were scattered or captured by the Japanese army. The originally connected Zhongtiao Mountain defense line was cut into three sections by the Japanese army.

Even the two armies that were still defending the defense line were in turmoil. Even Commander Zhao of the 38th Army began to consider a plan to retreat to Wangwu Mountain.

Once surrounded, this level of battle would not be as simple as the 8,000 casualties on Falui Ridge, but the life and death of nearly 30,000 people of two infantry divisions and an independent brigade.

Every family in Huxian County was hanging white silk, and he could not watch the same thing happen again in that small county town.

The battle situation was so bad that even Commander Wei, who flew from the mountain city to the war zone by plane, felt powerless to save the situation.

Just when the remaining 160,000 Chinese troops were in turmoil, an army was dispatched from Wangwu Mountain, abandoning the Japanese front-line troops 20 miles away, and rushed straight to Yuncheng.

It was a lightly armed force carrying only small-caliber artillery. Although the officers and soldiers wore camouflage hats made of branches, they were wearing gray uniforms and should belong to the 80th Army.

Lieutenant General Ando Nijuzo, the commander of the Japanese frontline, did not take the thousands of troops rushing towards his logistics base seriously. He ordered the garrison in Yuncheng to strictly guard the city, and ordered an infantry regiment to pursue the unit.

A Chinese army that was at most an infantry brigade was sent an infantry regiment to deal with them, which was the greatest respect for the new chief of staff of the North China Front Army.

Then, this infantry regiment was pitted alive by its own front army chief of staff.

The Chinese army rushing to Yuncheng not only ambushed the more than 3,000 Japanese troops chasing them on the spot, but also used mortars like raindrops to tell the Japanese who said that small-caliber artillery is lightly equipped?

Why, a 150-caliber mortar that can be carried around by a packhorse is not as large as your 75-caliber mountain gun?

When the shameless Lei Xiong entered the Wangwu Mountain battlefield a week ago, he ordered all the soldiers to change into the uniforms of the 80th Army Group. In order to confuse the Japanese spies, he even stole the number of the 772nd Regiment of the 386th Brigade.

This time, the entire regiment was dispatched and most of the troops of the original Sihang Regiment’s garrison battalion were transferred. The security regiment has more than 6,000 soldiers. Whether in terms of equipment or personnel combat effectiveness, it is far superior to the ordinary Japanese infantry regiment. This force is twice as much, and the Japanese infantry regiment was caught off guard and was beaten badly.

It only took half a day for the colonel commander of the infantry regiment to send a telegram of death, which directly shocked Lieutenant General Anda Nijusan, who was still busy commanding a decisive battle with the Chinese army, so much that his eyes almost fell to the ground.

If the reconnaissance planes had not confirmed that the Chinese army that was so desperate would never exceed 5,000 people, he would have even thought that a Chinese infantry army had appeared in the rear. Otherwise, who could have surrounded and annihilated his infantry regiment in less than 4 hours?

"Baga! Order the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade to pursue the invading enemy and make sure to kill them all!" Lieutenant General Anda 23 relied on his large number of soldiers and generals to call for troops again.

If one infantry regiment is not enough, then another one!

An independent mixed brigade has 2 infantry regiments, an independent cavalry regiment, an artillery regiment, and an engineering regiment, with a total strength of nearly 8,000 people.

The Chinese are definitely not good enough!

There is actually nothing wrong with this thinking. No matter how strong the security regiment is, it may be a bit difficult to face the attack of an independent mixed brigade.

After receiving the news that a mixed brigade was chasing aggressively, Lei Xiong immediately ordered the entire army to continue to advance towards Yuncheng with all his strength.

However, after approaching the direction of Yuncheng, the Japanese army ignored the nearby Japanese logistics base camp and turned a corner 15 miles away from Yuncheng and rushed towards Linfen.

This is the rhythm of running!

How could the Japanese army watch a Chinese army that defeated one of their infantry regiments run away so openly? Under the guidance of the reconnaissance aircraft, 8,000 Japanese soldiers also ran for their lives.

Swinging two short legs, they ran with a momentum like a tiger swallowing thousands of miles. If the momentum can determine the victory on the battlefield, then the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade must have won.

They really caught up with the Chinese army that was still fleeing northward on the third day. If they were assisted by an infantry regiment stationed in Linfen, they could easily wipe out this exhausted Chinese light-armed force.

Major General Motomasa, the commander of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, sent a tactical guidance telegram to Anda Nijisan.

Anda 23 was a little hesitant at first. Linfen is the second largest city in Shanxi Province. Its geographical location is extremely important. Although it is too far away from Zhongtiao Mountain and is not suitable for a logistics base, it is an important material transfer base and the command center of the southeastern battlefield of Shanxi.

Because the front line urgently needs troops, there is only one infantry regiment stationed in Linfen at this time, which is already very weak. If reinforcements are sent to support the 2nd Mixed Brigade, wouldn’t there be only a thousand people defending the city?

But in the end, considering that they are fighting a decisive battle with the main force of Zhongtiao Mountain in China, the main force of the Second Theater of War in China is all tied down, and the main force of the 80th Army is also active in southern Hebei, northern Hebei and Shandong. In the incident in the first half of the year, they almost broke up with the Shancheng government and could not support Shancheng. There is almost no threat to Linfen.

After thinking it over again and again, Anda 23 finally agreed with the suggestion of Major General Ben Zhengduocai.

So, Linfen City sent out two infantry battalions, one on the left and one on the right, like the two big claws of a crab, to clamp the "fresh meat" of the Guard Regiment.

Once they are caught, they will lose little, but they will be dead.

However, when the two infantry battalions were less than 10 kilometers away from the battlefield, an urgent report suddenly came from Linfen.

"A Chinese army with a strength of about thousands of people is rushing towards Linfen from Taiyue Mountain!"

Making a feint to the east and attacking the west? Encircling Wei to save Zhao?

These may be the two thoughts that came to the mind of Major General Motomasa at that time.

But no matter which one, it was extremely embarrassing for the Japanese army at that time.

Although this side can steadily eat up this part of the Chinese army that has begun to defend on the spot, there are only a thousand people facing thousands of Chinese on the other side. If they are not careful, they will lose Linfen City.

But as the saying goes: Hesitation will lead to defeat! Major General Motomasa decided to concentrate his forces to eat up this part of the Chinese army first, and then send troops to rescue Linfen. Maybe he could block thousands of Chinese under the city of Linfen and add more results.

Ando Nijuzo, who was influenced by the decisiveness of Major General Duocai, also agreed to this battle plan after hesitating for a long time.

Of course, the premise of this battle plan is that the army coming out of Taiyue Mountain can only belong to the 80th Army entrenched there. As we all know, the troops of the 80th Army in southeastern Shanxi are mainly lightly armed, and they can barely fight guerrilla warfare. This kind of battle against a big city is the first time since the Imperial Army occupied North China.

There is a 90% chance that it is a bluff. Even if the remaining 10% comes true, they don’t think that the Chinese can conquer Linfen, which is defended by thousands of people, without heavy artillery.

Then, half a day after the garrison regiment and nearly 10,000 Japanese troops started fighting, Linfen sent another urgent report.

"The Chinese side used 150-caliber heavy mortars, 75-caliber mountain artillery and no less than 16 70mm infantry guns, and the city defense is in danger!"

The Japanese generals and officers were collectively stunned!

Is this still the 80th Army in their impression?

That was the real 772nd Regiment. Wang Xiaoqiang had deployed all his forces this time. The already strong 772nd Regiment now had 32 infantry companies, with 4,800 infantrymen alone. If artillery, baggage soldiers, civilian laborers, etc. were included, the total number of the entire regiment would exceed 7,500.

The Japanese army of an infantry battalion was already panicking because of the huge crowd of infantrymen. When more than 20 cannons roared, they were so scared that even their hair stood up.