GBP Chapter 416 Sir, Chief of Staff, please approve our New Year's Eve raid tonight!
Chapter 416 Sir, Chief of Staff, please approve our New Year's Eve raid tonight!
In the temporary headquarters of Kuroki Brigade in Ping'an County, the lights were on. While Li Yunlong and others were celebrating the New Year, Kuroki Taro and others were drinking to drown their sorrows. They had originally planned to launch a night attack today, but they were stopped by Chief of Staff Ippei Mitsui. The night attack was forced to end, and everyone was full of resentment.
Chief of Staff Ippei Mitsui looked at the gloomy expressions of the crowd, but he was not moved at all. Instead, he happily ate, drank, and sang songs from his hometown, with an intoxicated expression on his face.
Kuroki Taro and the others did not dare to disturb him and could only continue drinking. Finally, Mitsui Taro could not help but asked in pain: "Uncle, why don't you agree that we launch a night attack? Tonight is the best opportunity. The Chinese are celebrating the Spring Festival. Tonight is the time when their defense is the most relaxed. As long as we launch a surprise attack, we will definitely succeed!"
Mitsui Ippei stopped humming and replied unhappily, "We have carried out the New Year's Eve raid many times before. Except for the first one which achieved good results, the remaining ones all resulted in heavy casualties. These are all well documented."
"You young people just can't keep your cool. Don't you think about the weather? In such a cold day, if the imperial warriors are sent on a long-distance raid, there will be a large number of non-combat casualties. Haven't you considered this? Although we now have warm clothes, which are much better than hundreds of years ago, fighting in winter is still difficult."
"Hirata Kojiro, I remember you suffered a great loss because of this before. The independent regiment used ice water to build an ice wall. I remember it was you who reported this matter. Is this true?"
Hirata Kojiro knew he couldn't escape, and he admitted with fear: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, I have encountered such a situation twice, and I finally paid a huge price to retreat!"
Yamamoto Ikki also said, "Mr. Chief of Staff, our enemy Li Yunlong is as cunning as a fox. He is good at taking risks when fighting. He also has a very big weakness, which is his strong desire for revenge. As long as we can make Li Yunlong suffer a great loss, he will definitely find a way to retaliate. We just need to set a trap, wait for him to fall into the trap, and then strangle him to death!"
Mitsui Ippei did not respond. He picked up the wine glass on the table, drank the sake in it, and said with a melancholy tone: "The Empire's southward plan is progressing very smoothly. A large amount of resources have been withdrawn. The only thing we can rely on now is the colonial army. The headquarters has agreed to allocate us three colonial divisions to supplement the strength of our 12th Army. Now there are only three divisions left in the 12th Army, with a total of people, including the garrison troops in various places."
"We are seriously short of troops and have to rely on puppet troops to maintain law and order in the occupied areas. If the troops heading south hadn't helped us carry out a large-scale mopping-up operation, the 12th Army would have been in a very bad situation. Fortunately, we killed the enemy's main force and drove them to the border between the two provinces. It is impossible for them to break through our blockade in a short period of time. The only ones we really need to deal with are Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment and Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment."
"Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment has been growing very fast these days. The number of personnel has expanded to 4200. This is not the limit of its strength. It is still in the process of urgent expansion. It is expected that in two months, the total strength will reach more than 6000, which is equivalent to the strength of a brigade!"
"At that time, we only need to send out a company of troops to eliminate the 358th Regiment. What really makes me feel a huge threat is Li Yunlong's independent regiment, whose strength is growing rapidly. According to the intelligence I just got, Li Yunlong has troops, and this is just the regular army. If we count the militia garrison under his command, the total force will reach , which is equivalent to three Chinese regular divisions. Its strength is indeed not to be underestimated."
"If we want to get rid of Li Yunlong's independent regiment, we have to mobilize the forces of two divisions. Only in this way can we ensure that there will be no mistakes. Li Yunlong is now fighting alone and cannot get any help from the outside world. Even Chu Yunfei has received the order to retreat and is expected to leave the northwest region of Shanxi in two months. This is indeed good news for us!"
"Your Excellency Chief of Staff, the independent regiment's military production capacity is terrifying. They have also opened up air transportation lines and purchased much-needed rubber and other materials from the outside world. This poses a great threat to us. I think we need to send out fighter jets to destroy their air transportation lines. Only in this way can we weaken their military production capacity. Your Excellency Chief of Staff, please give the order!" Colonel Kurofuji made a serious request.
Mitsui calmed down and replied in a leisurely tone: "Kurofuji, it's not that I don't want to take care of some things, nor is it that the commander doesn't want to do it, but the fuel and ammunition supplies promised to us by the headquarters have not been delivered at all. Our fuel and bomb reserves are already exhausted. The last time they were promised to send fuel and ammunition, they only delivered 1/10 of the promised amount. This is why the bomber group stopped bombing."
"Li Yunlong's independent regiment has fighter planes. If we bomb the independent regiment's base at this time, it is very likely to lead to the same retaliation. In order to ensure the safety of the airspace around Taiyuan, the commander has to suspend the bombing operation. We can only wait until the next batch of fuel and ammunition arrives before we start a new bombing and interception operation. As for now, we can only watch."
"But the Commander is not idle either. He has asked Dr. Yano to deploy new weapons. The 358th Regiment has been hit, and the operation against the Independent Regiment has also begun. The outcome will be known in half a month at most!"
"Now your main task is to defend Ping'an County and rebuild this important material transfer station. I have arranged for troops from surrounding counties to send a large number of manpower here. Even if we have to brave the severe cold, we must repair Ping'an County and prepare in advance for the future arrival of the army!"
"As for the series of night raids during the Spring Festival, give up all of them. It will not have much effect if you do it at this time. On the contrary, it will arouse the hostility of the Chinese people, which is very detrimental to our rule."
Mitsui Ippei's last warning made everyone present silent, even Mitsui Taro was no exception. Today, his uncle was different from the kind face he had in the past. He put away his little thoughts and played the role of a transparent man. He spent the New Year's Eve of 1941 in peace and stability. Time officially entered 1942, and the most difficult stalemate officially began.
Liehu Village in the mountainous area of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan is the headquarters of the 386th Brigade.
"Brigade Commander, we still can't get in touch with Li Yunlong, Ding Wei, and Kong Jie. Most of the intelligence network we built before was destroyed by the Japanese, and it has not been rebuilt yet. It is estimated that it will take another half a year to fully deploy it." The chief of staff reported with concern.
The brigade commander put down the telegram in his hand, adjusted his glasses, and replied with melancholy: "We just celebrated New Year's Eve yesterday, and today is the Lunar New Year. We have lost contact with the independent regiment for more than half a year. Li Yunlong didn't even know to send someone to find out the news, at least to let me know their current situation."
"Brigade Commander, Li Yunlong is a brave and careful guy, and he is also a lucky guy, otherwise how could he have picked up the college students? I don't think we need to worry about him. Li Yunlong is more clever than a monkey when he is covered with fur, and the Japanese will never be able to catch him. However, the losses of the independent regiment will not be small. They have been surrounded by heavy Japanese troops. Even if they can break out, I am afraid that most of their wealth will be lost. Maybe they are fighting guerrilla warfare in the mountains now!"
The brigade commander had the same opinion. In fact, what he was most worried about was the arsenal. The simple arsenal that he had built with the help of Lin Zhenhua was afraid that it would fall into the hands of the Japanese again. This made the brigade commander very angry, and he made up his mind to establish a base as soon as possible, and find ways to defend it to create favorable conditions for the development of the arsenal.
"Chief of Staff, if you want to develop the military industry, you must have a stable environment. College students have established arsenals twice, but each time they didn't last long and we had to give up. I have been thinking about this problem these days and I feel that this is not going to work. We can't rely on captured wars, we must find a way to produce on our own."
"The headquarters has been safely evacuated. The boss and his men withdrew to the Taihang Mountains with more than 300 workers and two machine tools from the Shuiyaozi Arsenal. However, due to the long distance between us, we cannot get any material assistance from the headquarters. Our brigade is in a very dangerous situation. We have fought more than 30 battles in the past two months, and we have not had a single day of peace. The troops have suffered serious casualties. If this continues, some troops will lose their whips. I have decided to continue to retreat. What we need to do now is to preserve our strength, and we should not confront the devils head-on."
"We will first conquer a piece of territory, rest for half a year, and then fight back again. The international situation has changed, and the Japanese have begun a large-scale southward movement. This is good news for us. As long as we get through the current difficult period, we should soon see the light of day!"
Zhaojiayuyu is the location of the independent regiment’s headquarters.
At six o'clock in the morning, Li Yunlong arranged for the artillery battalion to fire 16 rounds of artillery shells in a row, all of which were heavy artillery, just to hear the sound. The people in the base were not afraid after hearing it. From three or four o'clock in the morning, the crackling sound of firecrackers never stopped. Every household started making dumplings and happily celebrated the New Year at home.