Bright Sword's Bloody War of Resistance

Chapter 867: A Call from Yan Laoxi

"According to the reports from the participating units, more than 35000 rifles of various types, 892 light machine guns, 272 heavy machine guns, 17 mountain guns, 23 infantry guns, and 77 mortars were seized,"

"More than 9000 Japanese soldiers and 25000 puppet soldiers were captured!"

Yang Bo was holding a report in his hand, which listed the results of the battle. Although Zhou Weihan had not been to the battlefield in person, and had not even personally reviewed the data on the report, he could judge some of the situations just by listening to it.

First, the number of Japanese and puppet troops inferred from the number of seized weapons and equipment was not much different from the number of Japanese and puppet troops who actually participated in the battle. This shows that the decline in the combat effectiveness of the Japanese and puppet troops quickly led to a one-sided situation on the battlefield.

The battle ended so quickly that the enemy had no time to destroy their weapons and equipment, or more likely, they were not prepared to destroy them.

Secondly, the ratio of light and heavy machine guns has been significantly reduced, indicating that the level of weapons and equipment of the Japanese and puppet troops is declining and no longer at the level of the previous regular organization.

The various types of weapons and equipment equipped by a regular army have been specially studied, especially the ratio of rifles and light and heavy machine guns.

Of course, there must be something fishy going on here. Although the Eighth Route Army stipulated that battlefield spoils must be publicized, regimental-level combat units have greater autonomy, especially in wartime, and it is impossible for them to be so stubborn as to just sit and watch.

Zhou Weihan knew without a doubt that, except for several brigades of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Column, the other core regiments that participated in the battle must have replenished a batch of weapons and equipment in advance before reporting, which resulted in a decrease in the reported number.

The above speculation only applies to the 35th Division of the Japanese and puppet troops. Because it was close to the Hebei-Shandong-Henan base area, it suffered heavy losses many times, resulting in too rapid replacement of its personnel and weapons and equipment.

"Call back each brigade and regiment and ask them to replenish and replace their weapons and equipment from the captured weapons. The 13th Brigade and the 16th Brigade will each select weapons and equipment from three core regiments to replenish the local armed forces in northern Anhui and eastern Henan. The rest will be submitted to the military region for unified deployment!"

"While the various units were resting, they identified the captured Japanese and puppet troops on the spot, and then sent them to the farms in the northern Anhui base area for transformation!"

The battle with the 28th Army Group allowed the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region to raise basic regiments at one time, and the weapons and equipment obtained from the battle with the th Division of the Japanese and puppet troops were enough to allow these basic regiments to replace their old weapons, and even to form a dozen more basic regiments.

On the other hand, although the fighting along the Longhai Railway had ceased, under the unified command of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters, wars broke out in other places as well.

The Jinsui Military Region sent two brigades to advance towards Sui'nan and Sui'dong, and the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region dispatched six regiments to move south to the Ping-Han Line again, heading straight for Shimen.

The 4st Column of Taiyue approached the Japanese troops in Linfen and the southern section of the Tongpu Railway, the 5th Brigade of the 6nd Column of Taibei attacked Shimen, and the th and th Brigades were responsible for containing the Japanese troops from Shimen to Xingtai.

The 10th Brigade of the 11th Column of Southern Hebei attacked Shimen, the 12th and th Brigades were responsible for destroying the Japanese troops along the Shide Railway, and the troops under the Tainan Military Region tied down the Japanese troops in Handan along one route and attacked Anyang on the other.

After the first phase of fighting, the troops of the Shandong Military Region took a brief rest and then concentrated their superior forces to advance from central and southern Shandong to Binhai and Jiaodong.

On the other hand, the troops of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region have temporarily stopped their operations, and the troops of the former Luxi Military Region are also resting.

In this way, not only can the Japanese troops in various places be greatly tied down, but it is also hoped that by creating momentum, the Kwantung Army's troops moving south will be dispersed.

At the Eighth Route Army headquarters, the general received a rare telegram from Yan Laoxi.

In the past two years, the main force of the Shanxi Suiyuan Army has been hiding in a corner of western Shanxi, and has not made much movement. Not to mention in the whole country, even in Shanxi, it has little presence. Of course, there are two exceptions that were originally affiliated with the Shanxi Suiyuan Army. One is Chu Yunfei's 358th Regiment, which broke away from the Shanxi Suiyuan Army and joined the Central Army, and made quite a stir.

The other is Fu Yishen's 35th Army in Suiyuan. Although it did not openly separate from the Jinsui Army, due to its long-term independent development, there were signs within the Jinsui Army that it would obey orders but not announcements.

The two were not at the same level in terms of strength, but Chu Yunfei's blatant withdrawal was regarded as a betrayal by Yan Laoxi, so he began to intensify the internal integration of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

"Boss, guess who sent the telegram in my hand?" Chief of Staff Teng joked.

The boss's tense face suddenly showed interest: "Is it a telegram from one of our people?"

"No, there must be a reason why I asked you this!"

"Since they are not our own, is it Chiang Kai-shek in Shancheng? Or the First War Zone of the Nationalist Army?" The general looked at Chief of Staff Teng and shook his head repeatedly, and finally narrowed his eyes: "It can't be the Japanese?"

"It's Mr. Yan. You didn't expect that!" Chief of Staff Teng said as he handed over the telegram in his hand.

"What? What does he mean by sending a telegram?" The boss was a little puzzled, but after reading it, he chuckled: "The sun really rises from the west. He actually wants to take the initiative to attack the Japanese?"

Chief of Staff Teng said, "I also think this is a rare thing. Yan Laoxi has always been wavering. He had previously negotiated with the commander of the Japanese First Army, Iwamatsu Yoshio, in an attempt to restore his rule in Shanxi. Now he has done this again. Who knows what he is up to?"

After all, Chief of Staff Teng was the later headquarters and had never dealt with Yan Laoxi. However, the boss knew Yan Laoxi's mind: "He has always been a careful and careful person and never does a business that loses money!"

"We previously negotiated with the Nationalist government and agreed that our army would expand northward, but the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army was left out of the matter. I'm afraid Yan Laoxi has long had complaints. How could he be willing to let Shanxi become our army's territory in legal terms!"

"Chiang Kai-shek had bad intentions. He deliberately abandoned the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army because he wanted to use Shanxi to cause another dispute between our army and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, so that both sides could consume each other!"

The boss shook his head and said, "Logically speaking, whichever county town the Eighth Route Army has recaptured would be the Eighth Route Army's territory. Even if the Nationalist government is reluctant, it has to admit that the regime is reasonable and legal. But would Yan Xiren agree to the Eighth Route Army's rampant growth in Shanxi?"

He, Chiang Kai-shek, admitted it. What does it have to do with me, Yan Xi? I was not involved in the negotiations at that time.

Previously, the Japanese army was the only dominant force in Shanxi, and Yan Xizhi was powerless. Now the Japanese army has shown signs of decline, and the content of the April 3 Agreement will inevitably make it impossible for the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army and the Eighth Route Army to coexist peacefully.

"How do we reply? Yan Laoxi said in the telegram that he would cooperate with our army's actions!"

The boss said: "We can't interfere with the military operations of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, let alone change Yan Laoxi's decision, but it is a good thing that the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army wants to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army!"

"I can say that the headquarters strongly supports the military operations of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, but our combat deployment has already been finalized. If the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army wants to cooperate, please consider it carefully!"

(End of this chapter)