After the First Company of the 15th Regiment of the Special Operations Brigade blocked the South Gate of Zengcheng, the Japanese soldiers trapped in the city had nowhere to escape.

The most closely watched were the Japanese soldiers of the 12th Field Artillery Regiment, who were the first to receive the notice of withdrawal.

But they were the last to have a chance to escape, mainly because the artillery pieces slowed them down.

By the time Regiment Commander Hiroshi Sakurai got into his tractor to escape, the following Japanese soldiers dared to abandon their artillery pieces and flee, but it was too late.

In any case, Regiment Commander Hiroshi Sakurai of the 12th Field Artillery Regiment still managed to lead more than a hundred Japanese soldiers and two 150mm artillery pieces out of Zengcheng.

After all, it was much better than the result of the 104th Infantry Division losing both artillery regiments in Conghua.

The 21st Army Group received a report from the 108th Infantry Division: Zengcheng was only held for one morning before being retaken by the National Army.

This put the Japanese 21st Army Group in a very difficult position. Their current strength made it impossible to station an entire division in a county town. Being able to station a regiment there was already considered a special emphasis.

Even so, they were still unable to hold Zengcheng. What was to be done next?

Division Commander Seiichi Kunō did not have the usual thought of getting up from where he had fallen after losing Zengcheng.

He only reported the loss of Zengcheng, the loss of five or six thousand Japanese soldiers and countless equipment, all of which needed to be replenished.

As for a counterattack? The 18th Infantry Division did not mention a word.

They were afraid, afraid of the Special Operations Brigade from the bottom of their hearts.

At this time, the Special Operations Brigade was also busy building defense lines in the suburbs of Zengcheng and preparing barracks for the upcoming main force after capturing it.

For Lin Fan, he had already planned the location of the new defense line before occupying Zengcheng.

He knew in his heart: For the time being, the Special Operations Brigade could win in small-scale local battles with the Japanese soldiers. But their strength was still insufficient for a full-scale counterattack.

The first priority after capturing Zengcheng was to guard against a Japanese counterattack, so defensive fortifications were the top priority.

The people around Zengcheng had just been captured by the Japanese soldiers to do hard labor a few days ago, and they had only been home for a few days.

Now that they saw the National Army had fought back, they thought they would be forced by the National Army to repair fortifications again. The village chiefs in each township were ready.

But what they received was a public notice, the Special Operations Brigade announced that Zengcheng had been recovered, and from that day on, Zengcheng could be freely entered and exited. Anyone who wanted to enter the city for business or work could go.

In addition, the Special Operations Brigade was recruiting a group of workers to build a camp in Zengcheng, with food and accommodation provided for one yuan, and without food and accommodation, the wage was one yuan and two jiao.

To do this job, you must be a local of Zengcheng, and the village chief must act as a guarantor.

All the people could understand the first paragraph of this notice: This is a public notice to reassure the people.

The amount of information in the recruitment content in the latter paragraph was too great.

The Special Operations Brigade was actually recruiting workers, not conscripting laborers? Not only the illiterate common people did not understand, but even the village chiefs did not understand.

Chen Xinghai was the village chief of Chen Village. He did not understand the content of the notice, so he invited several people in charge from the surrounding villages to the city and found Lin Fan.

After a few words of greeting.

Chen Xinghai cautiously inquired, "Brigade Commander Lin, your notice says that recruiting workers requires the village chief to act as a guarantor? We can't afford this responsibility!"

Lin Fan said with a smile: "I know that you used to perform corvée labor, but we don't promote that system.

This time, we are going to be stationed here permanently, and we need to build a batch of barracks. That's why we need a group of people to do things, and we are paying the wages at a fair price.

The only purpose of requiring locals and your guarantee is that we only want our own people.

If they are not our own people, we are not at ease, that's all. If we really can't find locals to earn this money, we can only go to Conghua and Fogang to recruit people to do things."