Age of Rebirth

The pitch-black night covered up everything. The Kwantung Army surrounded by the Ximan Combat Group and hundreds of thousands of troops in the encirclement of Nuluerhu Mountain was not sitting still. After Lieutenant General Tosa concluded the emergency military meeting, all Kwantung Army units , and began to move quietly, the seemingly calm encirclement was like a frozen river, calm on the surface, but a raging undercurrent lurks underneath.

In the dark night, the Kwantung Army troops in the encirclement circle, except for a small number of troops who were about to sacrifice, still stood firm in the field. Except for the independent division troops on the periphery, the main force quietly started to move. Teams of Kwantung Army soldiers quietly and orderly evacuated their positions. The actions of hundreds of thousands of soldiers did not disturb the independent divisions in the periphery, at least for the time being. The quality of the Kwantung Army soldiers can be seen.

In the cave, under the flickering and dim candlelight, Lieutenant General Tosa sat with a solemn face, crossed his knees and closed his eyes, with his hands spread out, palms up, and a command knife wrapped with gold thread across his knees, as if he was carrying out A pious ritual, his face was calm, but his mind was restless.

This is a gamble-style breakout operation. Lieutenant General Tosa, the planner of the operation, can't guarantee that the breakout will be successful, but no matter what, he has to gamble. Major General Akutagawa, the chief of staff of the Third Army, stood there with complicated eyes. On the side, although he did not participate in the military meeting just now, he knew the content of the breakout plan. From the bottom of his heart, he was not optimistic about it. The reason was simple. Lieutenant General Tosa thought of it, but the commander of the independent division couldn't think of it?

Nearly a million independent division troops have tried their best to set up a huge trap, and even spared no effort to drive the Ximan Kwantung Army troops into the mountainous area. They will consider various situations and want to break through. But in the midst of despair, there is a silver lining.Chief of Staff Akutagawa will not raise any objections.

Seeing Lieutenant General Tosa open his eyes, Chief of Staff Akutagawa said: "Commander, there are still more than five hours before the troops break out of the encirclement. Should the headquarters be transferred immediately, rush to the front line, and command nearby?"

Chief of Staff Akutagawa has his own ideas.The cave where the army headquarters is located is more than 20 kilometers away from Qinglonggou. Once the breakthrough is successful, the independent division troops in the periphery will be alarmed, and the whole line will be pressed up immediately.It will be blocked by the independent division, and maybe, if the other troops of the third army break through the siege, but the commander of the army is wiped out by the independent division, that is a big joke, but following the troops is different!

"Mr. Akutagawa, I will not leave. I am here, waiting for the good news of the successful breakthrough. If I fail, this is also the place where I will devote my allegiance to His Majesty the Emperor and the Great Japanese Empire. In this way, you lead the staff of the headquarters, immediately Rush to the direction of Qinglonggou. Take charge of commanding the troops, just leave me a dozen guards!" Lieutenant General Tosa sighed deeply, and calmly ordered.

Isn't this a joke? If the commander of your army doesn't leave, my chief of staff will leave. Even if the breakout is successful, once your Tosa lieutenant general is broken.I, Akutagawa, have no good fruit to eat. The crime of "abandoning the Shangguan and fleeing alone" is enough to make people fall to the point of no return.

Chief of Staff Akutagawa was so angry that his teeth itch.But these words cannot be uttered no matter what, and Lieutenant General Tosa has made up his mind, and it is useless to persuade him, "Commander, the Third Army Command will not leave you. The post is the chief of staff. Commander Where the chief of staff should be, this is common sense!" He said bravely.

Lieutenant General Tosa glanced at his chief of staff appreciatively, nodded and said, "Very well, Akutagawa-kun, it's rare for you to have such an idea, then stay here with me and wait for the good news of the successful breakout! "

"It's over!" Chief of Staff Akutagawa's head hummed, and he swallowed unwillingly. This place is more than 20 kilometers away from the breakout direction, and the mountain road is more than [-] kilometers away, which is enough for himself and this lunatic to fall into the encirclement of the independent division again. !

Qinglonggou is only a big hole in total. After deducting the casualties during the day, there are at least 30 soldiers in the encirclement who have to break out from Qinglonggou. If you are blocked, whether you can escape or not depends on luck, and the distance of more than 20 kilometers obviously does not have the luck to escape. Of course, the premise of all this is based on the successful breakthrough!

Chief of Staff Akutagawa could only scream bad luck in his heart, he had no choice but to stay in the cave with this relentless lunatic commander, begging himself for good luck, right?

Hongshilazi in Nuluer Hushan, where the headquarters of the Ximan theater is located, is getting dark. Sun Zhenbang and Yuan Jinghao are not sleepy at all. Do you know why, for a long time, the two of them didn't say anything, and they seemed to be thinking about something?

Sun Zhenbang walked around the tent for a few times with his hands behind his back, looked at Yuan Jinghao who was touching his chin thoughtfully, and said, "Commander Yuan, I don't know why, but I have a feeling of uneasiness in my heart. What happened?"

Yuan Jinghao's eyes swept over immediately, "Tell me about your feelings!"

"It's too quiet!" Sun Zhenbang stopped and said, "It's abnormally quiet. It stands to reason that our troops stop attacking at night. Isn't it a good opportunity for the Kwantung Army troops in the encirclement to race against time to repair the fortifications? Hundreds of thousands of little devils Let's move together, how big is the movement? But listen, it's still better than his mother's death!"

"I also have the same feeling. Being surrounded by us, being so quiet is unreasonable. If something goes wrong, it must be a demon. But the frontline troops didn't report anything, so they found out that the Kwantung Army was acting abnormally!" Yuan Jinghao said distressedly. .

"No, no matter what bezoar and dog treasure is in the little devil's belly, we have to dig it out! In a word, we can't let the little devil stop!" Sun Zhenbang said, looking at Yuan Jinghao with bright eyes.

"Commander Sun, what are you going to do?" Yuan Jinghao stood up and asked.

"Hit it?" Sun Zhenbang said viciously.

"I thought about it with me. I think it will work. If you hit it, you will understand everything! No matter how bad it is, it will exhaust the physical and mental strength of the soldiers of the Kwantung Army!" Yuan Jinghao of course agreed.

"How do you plan to fight?" Sun Zhenbang asked.

"Pull up the heavy artillery unit from behind immediately. The self-propelled artillery unit and the tank unit approach the positions of the Kwantung Army and launch an all-round bombardment at different levels. It is required to expand the range of the bombardment as much as possible. They fight randomly, and sometimes they can hit the right direction!" Yuan Jinghao obviously had a plan in mind, and replied.

Sun Zhenbang was overjoyed, "It's really you, I think it's okay, let's do it like this, two hours later, there was a sudden shelling, anyway, the shells fell into the encirclement, what happened, it also fell on the little devil's head, by the way, Has the reinforcement of the blocking force in the southern mountainous area been sent out?"

"Three hours ago, I set off. Two brigades were transferred from the left and right wings, and they were under the command of Han Guangqi, the deputy chief of staff of the theater command! However, the heavy equipment belonging to each brigade may not be in place until later. The roads in the mountains , It's really choking!" Yuan Jinghao said.

Sun Zhenbang was obviously very relieved, "That's good. I always feel that the two of us are uneasy. It should be accurate. The little devils in the encirclement will definitely not stand still. The southern mountainous area is the key direction. It is safe to go up with reinforcements." Some!"

Yuan Jinghao suddenly remembered, and said: "Also, I exchanged telegrams with Liu Cuigang and Le Yiqin of the Air Force. The two of them fully supported our troops' actions. The field airports in Shuangtai and other places each have two night flight bomber regiments and one night flight fighter regiment, they can take off at any time, and it takes less than an hour to reach the battlefield above the Nuluerhu mountain area, and they are guaranteed to be on call!"

"Success!" Sun Zhenbang yelled, turned his head, saw Chief of Staff Jing Zhanqi just coming in, and immediately said: "Chief of Staff Jing, you came just in time, and immediately issued an order to the theater command to all artillery units to remove the blocking forces from the southern mountainous area. The artillery of the troops, apart from standing still, all the artillery groups in the other three directions moved forward immediately. Three hours later, they carried out unlimited and non-target shelling towards the Kwantung Army positions in the encirclement. The shelling time was 10 minutes! "

Jing Zhanqi had just entered the tent, and Sun Zhenbang made a crackling call, which made him a little confused, especially when he heard the unrestricted and aimless shelling, which was even more fresh, "Commander Sun, why did you suddenly remember that at night, the Kwantung Army Has the position been bombarded?" He asked strangely, what's the matter, as the chief of staff of the theater, he has to figure out the reason for the shelling, right? It's a dark day, and all the artillery units in the theater have to move forward, which is not an easy matter.

Sun Zhenbang waved his hand and said: "For the specific reason, Commander Yuan will explain it to you in a moment. Also, immediately contact the Air Force Seoul Ground Air Command. After an hour, please dispatch all night flight fleets to attack the Kanto area within the encirclement of Nuluerhu Mountain." Army units, carry out large-scale bombing!"

Jing Zhanqi looked at Yuan Jinghao, Yuan Jinghao smiled, and said, "This is a sudden decision made by Commander Sun and us just now, let's go and give the order immediately, what is the reason, I will talk to you in detail when you come back!"

On the same night, the two commanders of the Independent Division's Ximan theater, based on years of battlefield experience and intuition, made a very correct and important decision. In order to solve the source of inner unease, use all the artillery units in the theater, A large-scale bombardment was carried out on the Kwantung Army in the encirclement, and aviation was also assisted.

After the Battle of Ximan, Sun Zhenbang and Yuan Jinghao stood on the battlefield full of bomb craters, and they were both grateful for the decision they made that night.

As for the reason, it is very simple. The two of them did not know the breakout plan of Lieutenant General Tosa, the commander of the Kwantung Army's Third Army, but as Yuan Jinghao said, "We hit the right one!"

(To be continued)