“Sir, Commander, please ask the division commander for tactical guidance!”

Major Nakano suggested to Colonel Sawada that the remnants of the 62nd Regiment were surrounded by the guerrilla column and could be wiped out at any time, but Colonel Sawada still couldn’t bring himself to ask for help from the division headquarters.

Colonel Sawada was in a state of confusion. He had never thought that one day he would be in a desperate situation. After a long while, he sighed and said:
“Mr. Nakano, it’s too late. Send a farewell message to the division commander!”

“Hey, farewell to electricity? Has it really come to this?”

Nakano still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, but Sawada, who was very experienced in the battlefield, saw it very clearly and snorted coldly:

“Can’t you see that the Chinese deliberately paused their attack? Their purpose is to use us as bait and surround us to attack our reinforcements!
Do you really think the Imperial Army can’t see it?”

When Nakano thought about it carefully, he realized that this was indeed the case. He was even horrified to discover that the Chinese siege of Jinan was probably also about this intention.

When he expressed his guess, Colonel Sawada suddenly realized and said decisively:
“It’s too late to figure it out now. Destroy the military flag immediately and prepare for a fight to the death with the Chinese!”

After seeing the true intention of the guerrilla column, Colonel Sawada did not place his hopes on rescue, but instead threw away his hopes, thinking of fighting to the death like a trapped beast.

The guerrilla column continued to besiege the 62nd Regiment for a day, and when they saw that the Japanese were no longer fooled, they launched a general attack;

During this period, with the assistance of thousands of fellow villagers, the troops besieging the Japanese received a large number of reinforcements and a large number of artillery shells, which greatly enhanced the troops’ offensive power.

Following the order from the front-line headquarters, hundreds of cannons from the two artillery battalions fired fiercely at the Japanese, who were blown away in large numbers;
The temporary field fortifications were also flattened by artillery fire. The morale of the Japanese soldiers reached a freezing point. They already felt that death was beckoning to them.

As soon as the artillery fire extended, thousands of guerrilla column soldiers rushed out from the fortifications on all sides and rushed towards the already broken defenders’ positions;
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Colonel Sawada ordered the remaining Japanese soldiers to launch a counterattack against the attacking guerrillas.

The two torrents soon collided with each other, and a large number of soldiers from both sides fell down. Soon the shit-yellow torrent was submerged by the khaki color. The two sides were not competing on the same level at all.

Colonel Sawada rushed to the front with his command knife held high. After killing a guerrilla, he was stabbed by several bayonets and fell unwillingly in a foreign land.
The fate of the other devils was not much better. They all followed Sawada to report to Aunt Amaterasu, so they could keep her company.

“Victory, we won!”

The cheers resounded through the sky, and the sound made Lieutenant General Iida in Jinan feel terrified for no reason, and he cursed:
“Bakayaluo, a bunch of rubbish! Order the 21st Division to rescue the 62nd Regiment at all costs—”

Chief of Staff Major General Kobayashi said with a look of despair:
“After sending his farewell message, Mr. Sawada ordered the destruction of the military flag. He judged that this was a conspiracy by the Chinese to surround and attack the reinforcements, and decided to be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor and not let the Chinese conspiracy succeed.”

Commander Iida could naturally see the intention, he just didn’t want to let an entire regiment be wiped out by the guerrilla column;
This not only meant that the security war ended in failure, but also announced the end of his future in the army.

The first fire he made as a new official was backfired. The cruel reality made him afraid to face it. On the contrary, Major General Kobayashi was much more rational and persuaded him with a dark face:
“Your Excellency, Commander, since the purpose of this security rectification campaign has been achieved and the guerrilla column is besieging Jinan;
To ensure the safety of Jinan, I suggest that we stop while we are ahead, end the security battle as soon as possible, and order all units to rush back to provide assistance. “

“Bakayaro, this is not a job for a samurai!”

Lieutenant General Iida cursed angrily, but finally agreed to Major General Kobayashi’s plan and ended the security crackdown on the guerrilla base.

At the guerrilla column headquarters, Yue Qianli said domineeringly after learning that the Japanese had begun to withdraw:
“The old devil Iida has a nice idea. My base is not a place where they can come and go as they please.

Order all units to pursue the devils with all their might, and make them suffer at least a loss if they don’t die!”

Naturally, the others had no objections. It was time to show the guerrilla column’s muscles to the Japanese so that they would not always think of harming the base.

In the southwest of Shandong, at Dongxi Ridge, after several days of fierce fighting, the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade had suffered nearly half its casualties, while the defenders’ positions remained unshakable;
After dealing with the Japanese surprise force that was making a flanking move, Yue Wanli led the most powerful First Battalion to reinforce and appeared on the Japanese’s flank.

The raid on the military factory by Nobuyuki’s advance team, which had been holding back until then, was also repelled. The garrison battalion took advantage of their rest and almost wiped out the group of devils. Only Nobuyuki Ishida escaped with a dozen remnants.

At the 10th Brigade Field Command, Major General Mizuno Nobuyuki had received the order from the headquarters and was convening a meeting of several battalion commanders. Lieutenant Colonel Yamashita, the chief of staff, first read out the order and conveyed the latest battlefield report from the headquarters.

Some things were kept hidden and not known to the people below, but Lieutenant Colonel Yamashita’s classmates at the headquarters revealed some information to him. The demise of the 62nd Infantry Regiment made the atmosphere in the meeting place very depressing, and no one took the initiative to speak.

Seeing that the other devils were unwilling to take the initiative to withdraw their troops, Major General Mizuno had no choice but to say with a dark face:
“Gentlemen, due to the intelligence department’s mistake, the commander misjudged the strength of the guerrilla column and fell into Yue Qianli’s conspiracy;
Now thousands of guerrillas are besieging Jinan, and the city of Jinan is in danger. His Excellency the Commander has ordered our troops to immediately end the attack on the guerrilla arsenal and return to support Jinan.

After several days of fierce fighting, the Imperial Army wiped out thousands of guerrillas, but also suffered heavy casualties.
The Noguchi Battalion responsible for the flank attack was outnumbered and had all served His Majesty faithfully, leaving our flank open. If we retreat hastily, we will surely be besieged by the Chinese and suffer huge losses, so we must leave a part behind to stop the pursuers.”

After Major General Mizuno finished speaking, he looked around at the Japanese soldiers. The others lowered their heads because they were in danger of death if they stayed behind to fight the enemy.
Captain Tanabe Takuma of the 41st Battalion saw that the other devils had become cowards, which made him feel ashamed. He stood up and said:
“General, Tanabe is willing to lead his troops to cover the rear of the main force, so that the Chinese can see the bravery of the Imperial Army.”

Major General Mizuno finally showed a satisfied smile on his face and praised:
“Yoshi, Mr. Tanabe is indeed the most loyal and brave warrior of His Majesty. With you leading the 41st Battalion to cover the rear, it would be good if the guerrillas did not pursue us. If they dare to pursue us, they will surely be beaten to a bloody pulp.
The safety of Jinan City depends entirely on Tanabe-kun, please!”

After Major General Mizuno finished speaking, he bowed to him in a hypocritical manner, which was tantamount to an early funeral for Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe.

The other Japanese soldiers also stood up in unison to pay their respects to Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe and confirmed the matter. As the saying goes, a scapegoat would rather die than let his friend die. It was not easy to find a scapegoat at this time.

Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe looked at the others with disdain. Since he had chosen to be the last one to leave, he could not fall down, so he also saluted the devils in return.

After the biggest problem is solved, the rest will be easy to solve. It is just a question of who retreats first and who retreats last, as well as the marching formation and direction.

Everything was kept simple, and escaping was not that important. After the meeting, the Japanese began to retreat as planned;

Deng Zhuxiu was waiting for the Japanese to retreat. As soon as the Japanese moved, he immediately ordered Yue Wanli to cut off from the flank, while the main second and third battalions pursued from the front.

After receiving the order, Yue Wanli immediately led the First Battalion to carry out a tactical cutting mission from the flank, charging with a sharp arrow formation, stabbing into the waist of the Japanese like a butcher knife, and cutting off the fleeing Japanese in half with an unstoppable offensive;

When the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade was retreating, its camp was originally very neat, but it was immediately thrown into chaos by the attack from the flank by the st Battalion, and the orderly retreat turned into a panicked escape.

As the charge horns sounded on the front of Dongxi, the Japanese were thrown into complete chaos and fled for their lives.

“Warriors, the time has come to serve His Majesty the Emperor. You must hold on!”

Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe tried his best to control his troops to block the main force of the guerrillas who were chasing them head-on, but Yue Wanli’s First Battalion on the flank completed the cutting mission, cutting the Japanese in half, and then cooperated with the main force to retain more than 1 Japanese including Tanabe’s Battalion.

Major General Mizuno no longer had the will to rescue the besieged Japanese soldiers, and he led the remaining 1600 men to flee the battlefield without stopping, and headed towards Jinan at full speed, as if he was afraid of enemies everywhere.

As the main force of the Japanese army withdrew from the battlefield, Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe and others who were surrounded were completely in a desperate situation. They were surrounded and attacked by more than 3 guerrillas, their morale was low, and they had no ability to fight back.

The main force of the Ludongnan Military Sub-district, with the cooperation of local troops, made every effort to wipe out the remaining Japanese troops. It took only half a day to completely wipe out the Japanese troops in the encirclement.
1157 people including Lieutenant Colonel Tanabe were killed, no prisoners and no wounded were taken. Our side suffered more than 300 casualties, and achieved a complete victory in the Dongxiling blocking battle.

The victory report was quickly reported to the column headquarters by the detachment, and Yue Qianli praised:
“Old Deng did a great job this time. He used a military sub-district to fight against four infantry battalions and one artillery battalion of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade, and wiped out a total of 4 enemies.

More than 20 artillery pieces and more than 2 guns were destroyed or seized, and ammunition and supplies were piled up like mountains.

At the same time, they also assisted the military sub-district guard brigade in annihilating the Japanese special forces and crushing the Japanese’s attempt to attack the military factory. They deserve the most credit.”

Although the main forces of the 62rd and th detachments annihilated the nd Regiment and other units also achieved brilliant results, everyone had no objection to giving the credit to the Southwest Shandong Military Sub-district. It was their desperate fighting in Cao County that laid the foundation for victory in other battlefields.

Chen Zhongyuan also interrupted and said:

“Old Yue, the Southwest Shandong Military Sub-district deserves the credit for this time, but among all the divisions in the military sub-district, Yue Wanli’s First Battalion performed the best. I suggest that he be awarded a great merit.”

After listening to this, Yue Qianli smiled and said:
“I can only say that this kid’s performance is OK, average. Of course, this is the credit of all the soldiers. I will give the First Battalion of the Southwest Shandong Military Sub-district a collective merit, and Yue Wanli will give him a verbal praise.”

After listening to it, everyone expressed their agreement. Whatever Lao Yue said was the final decision, and the atmosphere was very good.

Good news came one after another from the front line. The Japanese troops that had penetrated deep into the base area to sweep the area fled in a panic. The guerrilla columns and troops from various military regions chased the Japanese troops, inflicting heavy casualties on them and wiping out more than 2 enemies.

At this point, the 12th Army’s security battle against the base ended in a disastrous defeat, with more than 7 casualties. The loss of equipment and supplies was a number that made Iida feel painful.

(End of this chapter)