Bright Sword's Bloody War of Resistance

Chapter 865: The Second Fall

After daybreak, the residents and merchants in the city, who had been keeping their doors and windows shut, suddenly discovered that the Eighth Route Army had entered the city at some point. Zhou Weihan also rushed over from Yucheng after hearing the news.

After entering the city, there were few ordinary people on the streets, and the officers and soldiers of the 16th Regiment of the 10th Brigade were conducting propaganda and appeasement.

"Fellow villagers and merchants in Shangqiu, we are troops from the Eighth Route Army's Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region. We have now recovered Shangqiu. Please stay at home for the time being and don't walk around the streets!"

The original Japanese military headquarters in the city had changed its owner. The Japs' plaster flag was replaced with the flag of the Eighth Route Army. The bodies of many Japanese soldiers including Araki Sadahiro were finally buried by the Eighth Route Army.

"Comrade **, this is Comrade Feng Yuzhang from the Shangqiu Prefectural Committee!" Zhao Bingzhang introduced.

"Mr. Zhou, I've heard of your name for a long time. Today I finally meet you in person. Thank you for your strong support before!" Feng Yuzhang said excitedly while holding Zhou Weihan's hand.

Seeing this, Zhou Weihan said, "Comrade Yuzhang is being too formal. We are family and should not have different opinions!"

Shangqiu was right under the nose of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area. Originally, it had no affiliation with the Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area, but later it came under the vertical leadership of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Branch, and the ties between the two sides continued to deepen.

Staff from the Shangqiu Prefectural Committee went to the base area one after another for further study, and the base area also continuously sent personnel to strengthen the strength of the Shangqiu Prefectural Committee, so they can be said to be true insiders.

"What's the situation in the city?" Zhou Weihan asked.

Zhao Bingzhang replied: "The 16th Regiment of the 10th Brigade will enter Shangqiu City and be responsible for the security of the city. Comrade Li Yunlong ordered other troops to repair a temporary passage south of Shangqiu!"

"According to the orders issued before, after our troops entered the city, we appeased the people while, with the cooperation of the comrades of the prefectural committee, confiscated the Japanese and puppet assets in the city!"

"The enemy retreated very quickly, so they didn't take many things with them. The people from the Shangqiu puppet government were blocked in the city by our army because they were not notified in advance!"

Zhou Weihan nodded to show that he understood. He agreed to allow the Japanese and puppet troops in the city to withdraw, but he did not agree to allow people other than the military to leave, so many traitor leaders who served the Japanese were abandoned.

The Japanese had been operating in Shangqiu for quite some time. Not to mention the floating wealth they did not take away, even the mechanical equipment they left behind was a considerable asset. All of these things had to be taken to the northern Anhui base along with the people of Shangqiu.

"We have to act quickly, the enemy won't give us too much time!" Zhou Weihan said finally.

Kuroshima Morita led his troops to run westward for more than 20 miles, and just ran out of Shangqiu's territory, then he ordered the troops to stop advancing. This was not to let the troops rest, but to clean up the remnants of Araki Sadahiro's forces.

Sun Liangcheng was terrified. He originally thought that this guy was easy to fool, but he didn't expect that Kuroshima Morita would be ruthless when killing his own people. Two major officers and thirteen lieutenants were killed one after another.

"Mr. Sun, the danger is not over yet. We may be attacked by the Eighth Route Army again along the way, so we must keep sending telegrams to the division headquarters requesting reinforcements!" said Kuroshima Morita.

Sun Liangcheng's face darkened when he heard this. It was a distance of 300 miles from Shangqiu to Kaifeng, and there were traces of the Eighth Route Army all along the way. Even if the road was unobstructed, it would still take four or five days to get there on foot.

  He knew in his heart that Kuroshima Morita must be planning something bad again. If he could "break out" from Shangqiu City which was heavily surrounded by the Eighth Route Army, why would he care about the Eighth Route Army troops along the way?

After the 35th Division received the telegram for help, the division commander Iida Taijiro was originally prepared to deal with it perfunctorily as usual, but when he heard that more than 10,000 people had successfully broken out of Shangqiu, he was shocked. "What? How is it possible? Shangqiu is so close to the Eighth Route Army base. The ones surrounding Shangqiu must be the main force of the Eighth Route Army. How could they have successfully broken out!"

The adjutant explained: "The Chief of Staff of the 4th Independent Infantry Brigade, Kuroshima Morita, mentioned that the brigade commander, Araki Sadahiro, died in battle. Before he died, he ordered his troops to break out as quickly as possible. Perhaps it was because the Eighth Route Army was lax and the desperate army would win!"

"Your courage is commendable. Do you think we should send reinforcements?" asked Yasujiro Iida.

"Your Excellency, the Division Commander, the Eighth Route Army has captured Yangwu and cut off the connection between Kaifeng and Xinxiang and the Third and Fifth Armies on the Daoqing Railway. Our division is now isolated and helpless!"

"If we can send a troop to fight against Kuroshima Morita's troops from the east and west, we will surely be able to resolve the crisis in Lanfeng, Minquan and other places. With the combined efforts of the three parties, we may be able to inflict heavy damage on the Eighth Route Army!"

The adjutant has been following Iida Taijiro for a long time and can be regarded as a worm in his stomach. When the leader asks you a question, just follow his instructions.

These words made Yasujiro Iida, who had originally planned to hold out in Kaifeng, become restless, so he sent a telegram to Kuroshima Morita.

Kuroshima Morita didn't expect the reply to the telegram for help to be so quick. After reading the content of the telegram, he couldn't help but sneer: "Gather the defeated soldiers along the way and attack Minquan?"

In just the 20-odd li journey from Shangqiu, the Japanese army did not suffer many casualties except for a dozen officers who were killed. On the contrary, many puppet troops fled.

A group of puppet soldiers under Sun Liangcheng, one of whom named Chen Fusheng took the lead in killing the Japanese who were planted in the team, and then about twenty people left the team and ran away.

When the other puppet soldiers saw this, they neither reported it nor tried to stop it. Even the other Japanese in the team did not dare to speak out at the time.

The telegram was quickly forwarded to Zhou Weihan intact. Iida Taijiro would never have imagined that the contact between Kuroshima Morita and the Eighth Route Army would become more frequent.

Zhou Weihan did not unilaterally believe the information sent by Kuroshima Morita, but asked the Kaifeng underground intelligence station to keep an eye on the movements of the Japanese army at all times, at least to know the approximate time of the Japanese army's deployment.

"Two undermanned infantry battalions, one mountain artillery battalion, and more than 6,000 men in the pseudo-Second Army. With just this little force, they want to inflict heavy damage on our army. Iida Taijiro is really too contemptuous!"

"Notify Ding Wei and Wang Yigong that the 15th Brigade and the troops of the Northern Henan Military Sub-district must be prepared to meet the enemy. We cannot let this group of Japanese and puppet troops slip back to Kaifeng!"

The Japanese army obviously did not learn their lesson. In order to lure out the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng, Zhou Weihan used numerous strategies. The first time, the 14th Brigade successfully annihilated a reinforcement unit from Kaifeng in Yangwu. However, before their wound had healed, the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng sent out another reinforcement unit.

Time passed quickly and it was the next day. In order to allow the two Japanese armies to join forces, the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng gave Kuroshima Morita's troops one more day of marching time.

After learning that Kuroshima Morita's troops had arrived in Minquan, the Japanese and puppet troops in Kaifeng quickly assembled and headed towards Lanfeng in trucks.

However, after this group of Japanese and puppet troops arrived in Lanfeng, they found that they could not contact Kuroshima Morita's troops, and what greeted them was the violent storm of the Eighth Route Army.