Chapter 186 Captain Yu Still Doesn't Know

At this time, Captain Yu didn't know that the enemy plane he was chasing was actually the bomber piloted by the Japanese squadron leader.

Captain Yu was simply fulfilling his duty as a pilot, not allowing a single Japanese plane to escape back.

Although his fighter plane was faster than the Japanese bomber, the nearly ten-kilometer distance still required time to close.

At this moment, he heard news from his comrades in the headset, all reporting the good news of shooting down one or two enemy planes.

By this time, no one had yet calculated exactly how many Japanese planes the entire squadron had shot down.

Captain Yu could only order: "Two planes as a group, provide mutual cover and search in all directions for a hundred kilometers."

He himself kept his eyes on the fleeing enemy plane in front, the only one left.

Squadron Leader Gafu Ryo Tai didn't know if he had fled too far or if the rest of his squadron had been killed, but his headset was now completely silent.

He usually loved this kind of quiet, but today it was what he feared the most.

His fear didn't last long. Squadron Leader Gafu Ryo Tai, who had quickly discarded his headset, felt the plane shaking, a tremor that seemed to come from deep within the aircraft.

He knew: the plane was under attack, and continuing like this would only lead to death.

Squadron Leader Gafu Ryo Tai immediately nosedived towards the ground, wanting to make an emergency landing, but the fighter plane chasing behind clearly had no intention of letting him go.

It continued to pursue, firing relentlessly. When Squadron Leader Gafu Ryo Tai felt the entire plane losing power, he knew it was over.

In this situation, he couldn't even manage to level the plane; it continued to accelerate towards the ground.

The law of gravitational acceleration acted on his plane, making it impossible to even attempt a parachute jump.

"Boom!" Captain Yu Zhengyang watched the ball of fire erupt on the ground, confirming that the Japanese on the plane were dead. Only then did he turn around and begin searching the surrounding airspace.

At this time, Sishui, Pingyi, and Fei County had organized tens of thousands of people to search the ground for the wreckage of Japanese planes.

These plane wrecks could all be recycled. For the Lunan Detachment, all steel on the battlefield could be recovered and reused.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto, who was still closely following Saburo Hoshino's regiment in their attempt to break through towards Tushan Town, had no idea that the air support he was hoping for would never come.

His regimental headquarters was preceded by the battalions of Fujita Daigo and Yataya Naoya, while the rear was guarded by troops drawn from the left and right flanks of the entire regiment.

These Japanese no longer cared about the dense machine-gun fire from the planes overhead. They braved the rain of bullets and once again charged towards the defenses of the Seventh and Eighth Regiments.

Dongyang Hua and the twenty pilots of the ground-attack planes also saw the Japanese's intentions and immediately intensified their attacks on them.

Company Commander Suto Uemon charged at the front of the entire formation. Today's situation was very different from usual.

In the past, it wasn't necessary for Japanese like him to lead the charge. But now, things were different: the entire regiment had reached a critical moment of life and death. If commanders like them didn't lead from the front, no Japanese would be willing to stand up and charge forward.

His actions once again illustrated the battlefield principle that the less afraid of death you are, the less likely you are to die.

Company Commander Suto Uemon charged at the very front of the entire formation, and the dense bullets fired by the oncoming planes swept past him.

He was not harmed in the slightest. One couldn't say this wasn't a miracle. With the company commander leading the charge, the entire company, and even the entire battalion of Japanese, followed suit and charged forward.

Although he wasn't hit by machine-gun bullets, it didn't mean that the Japanese charging behind him weren't being hit.

Row after row of Japanese charging behind Company Commander Suto Uemon fell, never to rise again.

Battalion Commander Fujita Daigo watched his men fall one after another. The rate of attrition in the entire battalion completely exceeded his expectations.

His battalion had been charging until now, and its losses had long exceeded half its strength. The few remaining Japanese at this time finally saw the line blocking the road ahead.

That long trench stretched out there, unmoving. The Japanese could see the soldiers inside the trench, even from five hundred meters away.

No matter what lay ahead, Fujita Daigo had no choice at this point. He could only urge the entire battalion forward.

Following closely behind his battalion was the Yataya Naoya Battalion. This battalion's casualties were no less than Fujita Daigo's battalion.

They also didn't dare to hesitate in the slightest. In this situation, any hesitation would cause the entire offensive to collapse.

The entire regiment wouldn't have a second chance to organize such a large-scale breakout.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto had already received a report from the rear guard: the Asaji Kotaro and Fukuda Kinokosuke Battalions, which he had left behind to hold off the pursuers, had been completely annihilated.

The pursuing troops were already sweeping in, and even the defenses on the left and right flanks were collapsing steadily.

Of course, he knew that the already precarious defenses on the left and right flanks would definitely be unable to hold after some of their troops had been drawn away.

The reason he had drawn those troops away in the first place was because he thought there was only one chance to break out, and he wanted to take as many Japanese with him as possible.

Plans never kept up with reality. Regimental Commander Manda Yuto never expected that the rearguard Japanese would be so lacking in combat power, letting the pursuers catch up as if they had completely given up resisting.

What could he do now? Regimental Commander Manda Yuto could only order all the breakout forces to accelerate their charge forward.

At the same time, he ordered the leading Fujita Daigo Battalion to summon up their courage and take down all the Lunan Detachment defenses blocking their way forward in one fell swoop.

They had to break through in one go because the pursuing troops were not giving the Independent Mixed 17th Brigade much time.

He had now left all the Japanese he had just drawn back, preparing to take with him, in place, ordering them to establish defenses on the spot to snipe the pursuers.

This batch of recalled Japanese numbered nearly six hundred, and they were now considered the regiment's most complete force.

Company Commander Odagiri Hideki and Company Commander Aso Shintaro were finally ordered by Regimental Commander Manda Yuto to stay behind as the rearguard.

Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota still had a very good impression of the two company commanders. After accepting the regimental commander's order, he issued a new order: "Company Commander Odagiri Hideki and Company Commander Aso Shintaro will immediately transfer command to their deputy company commanders.

The two of them will follow my battalion headquarters and break through towards Tushan Town together."

When the Japanese of the Odagiri Hideki Company and the Aso Shintaro Company were drawn out from the left and right flank defenses, they were all very excited: they finally had a chance to survive.

At this time, they looked back at the defenses they had just held, which had already been occupied by Lunan Detachment soldiers.

Anyone could guess that if they hadn't retreated, they would have been stiff corpses by now.

It was precisely this thought that made them very dissatisfied with Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota's blatant favoritism in wanting to take the two company commanders with him.

Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita of the Odagiri Hideki Company certainly didn't want to die here. He wanted to survive with the battalion commander.

In this situation, not objecting meant death, while objecting might lead to death! Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita shouted, "Battalion Commander Kunihara! Company Commander Odagiri Hideki is in perfect health. I must refuse to accept the heavy responsibility of commanding the entire company. The Japanese of the entire company will not agree to accept my command."

These Japanese in the entire company had long been on the verge of exploding, but they hadn't found a breakthrough point. At this time, they were ignited by Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita, and all the Japanese shouted, "We only accept Company Commander Odagiri Hideki's command. We will follow Company Commander Odagiri Hideki."

Deputy Company Commander Takeda Tomoya of the Aso Shintaro Company added, "The Japanese of the Aso Company will closely follow Company Commander Aso Shintaro and will not accept my command. I am also willing to closely follow Company Commander Aso Shintaro."

The Japanese of the Aso Company immediately became excited: "We will always follow Company Commander Aso. We don't recognize any other Japanese."

Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota certainly knew that this was the two deputy company commanders' dissatisfaction with him. His dissatisfaction with these two deputy company commanders had reached an extreme point.

He had never imagined that there would be such troublemakers in his team, and he hadn't discovered it before.

Enraged, Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota felt that his face had been damaged. He immediately drew his pistol and fired at Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita.

"Bang!" A clear gunshot rang out, so shocking among this group of Japanese.

Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita hadn't expected Battalion Commander Kunihara to kill him so decisively.

"Bang!" With an expression of disbelief on his face, Deputy Company Commander Kudani Keita's body fell heavily to the ground.

Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota, with a ferocious expression, ordered Deputy Company Commander Takeda Tomoya, "Now, will you lead the two companies as the rearguard, or will you follow in his footsteps?"

Deputy Company Commander Takeda Tomoya's eyes turned red, and he tightly gripped the command sword in his hand: "You appoint relatives and confidants, and at this time, you still want to keep the company commanders by your side, abandoning the entire team..."

"Bang!" Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota was too lazy to listen to him talk more and simply shot him again.

He pointed his pistol at the Japanese of the two companies: "Who else? Who else?" Company Commander Aso Shintaro and Company Commander Odagiri Hideki quickly stood by the battalion commander's side, protecting him.

This action made Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota very moved: "This isn't in vain that I wholeheartedly wanted to take these two Japanese with me. Of course, I have to take such loyal dogs with me.

When new recruits are replenished after the breakout, these two dogs can protect me while leading the team."

Company Commander Odagiri Hideki watched his Japanese soldiers gripping their rifles tightly, already pointing their guns at the Japanese in the battalion headquarters. This was about to become a civil war.

He quickly roared, "You're rebelling! How dare you point your guns at the battalion commander! Aren't you afraid of becoming a traitor like Kudani?"

Company Commander Odagiri Hideki, who originally thought he could suppress his squad, never expected that when he stood in front of the battalion commander, opposing the entire company, the team would no longer listen to him.

"Bang!" A gunshot rang out from among the Japanese of Odagiri Hideki's company.

Company Commander Odagiri Hideki, who hadn't even seen who fired the shot, clutched his chest in disbelief and slowly fell.

He never thought he would die at the hands of the Japanese in his own company.

The sudden gunshot and the sudden fall of Company Commander Odagiri Hideki triggered the dozen or so Japanese in the already tense Battalion Commander Kunihara's headquarters.

They immediately opened fire on the Odagiri Hideki Company and the Aso Shintaro Company: "Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The Japanese of the two companies hadn't even figured out who the murderer was when they were indiscriminately massacred. Now, they had no choice but to fight back.

Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota never expected that things would turn out like this. The Japanese under his command would be so disobedient. He ordered them to defend their positions, but these Japanese not only disobeyed orders but even dared to attack their superiors.

He angrily ordered loudly, "Shoot them!" The rear guard was not just the Kunihara Shota Battalion.

There were other battalions retreating nearby that were assigned to the rearguard force. These Japanese suddenly discovered that two teams of Japanese had started a civil war, attacking each other.

This made their defense line completely ineffective. Some smart Japanese understood that this defense line couldn't be established at all and immediately turned around and fled, desperately rushing towards Tushan Town. As long as they ran fast enough, they could still catch up with the main force of the entire regiment not far ahead.

The Japanese of the Kunihara Shota Battalion were ultimately small in number. After being counterattacked by the ordinary Japanese of the two companies, Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota and Company Commander Aso Shintaro were killed in the infighting. After all the Japanese in the battalion headquarters were killed.

The surviving Japanese, who had fortunately gained the upper hand in the conflict, couldn't care about anything else. They had already seen the pursuing troops less than two hundred meters away.

These Japanese took off their legs and chased after the main force in front.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto, who was running forward, suddenly discovered that there were Japanese running faster than him, and not just one or two.

But rather, teams of Japanese constantly surpassed the Japanese of the regimental headquarters. He was surprised and wanted to stop some Japanese to ask questions.

But none of the Japanese were willing to stop. It was his guards who rushed over and forcibly stopped several Japanese and brought them over.

"Which unit are you from?" Regimental Commander Manda Yuto asked.

"We are from the Kunihara Shota Battalion!" a Japanese said.

"Weren't you left behind as the rearguard?" At this time, Regimental Commander Manda Yuto only felt a chill all over his body.

The Japanese no longer spoke. His expression was somewhat tragic, somewhat angry, and somewhat unwilling.

They had dared to resist Battalion Commander Kunihara Shota just now because they were influenced by the deputy battalion commander, and also because the Japanese of the Kunihara Battalion Headquarters had fired first. That was why these grassroots Japanese dared to fight back.

Now, to let them fire on the regimental commander, these Japanese didn't dare at all. First of all, their numbers were only a few now, and they were no match for the guards around the regimental commander at all.

Secondly, the fear deeply buried in their bones also prevented them from firing.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto seemed to understand something. He sighed and let the guards release these Japanese.

When he set off again, he also started to run: now was not the time to maintain his composure.

The rearguard force was gone. At this time, whoever could outrun the other Japanese had the greatest chance of surviving.

At this time, no Japanese would yield to Regimental Commander Manda Yuto. The Japanese of the entire regiment were rushing forward, especially the Fujita Daigo Battalion and the Yataya Naoya Battalion.

These two battalions had become the lifeline of the entire Manda Yuto Regiment. If they could break through the defense line in front, some Japanese in the entire regiment might survive.

If they couldn't break through the defense line in front, the entire regiment would die here!

With a determination to die, these Japanese of the two battalions had been charging through the aircraft strafing.

This time, when it charged to a position two hundred meters in front of the Seventh Regiment's defense line, there were still planes strafing overhead.

Company Commander Suto Uemon had been leading the team to charge to a position less than fifty meters away from the Seventh Regiment's defense line when the strafing from overhead finally stopped.

Captain Dongyang Hua and the pilots of these ground attack planes were afraid of accidentally injuring the soldiers of the Seventh Regiment, so they stopped.

Regimental Commander Gu Xiuming saw that the Japanese had been completely surrounded in an area less than a thousand meters east-west and less than two thousand meters north-south, so he ordered the Lunan Detachment Air Force to retreat.

Captain Dongyang Hua led the team back to Tushan Town and strafed the Japanese of the Xuzhou Task Force twice before returning to Fei County Airport under Lin Fan's orders.

Seventh Regiment Commander Song An had been waiting in the trenches with his team. He knew that his regiment's combat power was definitely not as good as the previous infantry regiments.

Therefore, he dug the trenches particularly well and also prepared three lines of defense. Directional mines had been buried in front of each line of defense.

The Japanese's third attack came again. In their previous two attacks, very few Japanese had charged within a hundred meters.

The Seventh Regiment didn't even use the prepared traps and directly eliminated the Japanese with guns, bullets, and rocket launchers.

This time was different. Despite the full-force sniping of the ground attack planes, hundreds of Japanese still charged within fifty meters, and even more Japanese charged within two hundred meters.

The Japanese who were desperately trying to escape didn't care whether there was a mountain of knives or a sea of fire or an endless abyss in front of them. They only wanted to run faster and rush to the front of the team.

Company Commander Suto Uemon pointed his command sword at the trenches thirty meters away and issued the final order: "Charge!"

As soon as his order was issued, a series of explosions rang out.

Regimental Commander Song Guoan finally ordered the directional mines in front of this defense line to be detonated.

From twenty meters to two hundred meters in front of the position, there were flashes of light from the directional mines exploding everywhere.

Countless flashes of light flickered. The vision in front of the Seventh Regiment's position was already hazy with smoke, but now it was even worse.

Huge columns of smoke rose into the sky. Countless Japanese in the explosion area were killed and wounded, but that wasn't the end!

The Seventh Regiment's machine guns and heavy machine guns swept toward the smoke-filled battlefield. At this time, there was no precise aiming, only sweeping toward the direction from which the Japanese were charging.

Since entering Xuzhou, Regimental Commander Manda Yuto had been living comfortably, neglecting training, and had fallen behind in the previous running race.

This allowed him to stand behind and personally watch how the last hope of the entire regiment fell into the boundless smoke.

The machine gun strafing after the explosion caused two more guards to fall beside him.

The two strafing them were no longer the planes overhead. At this time, the planes had left, but 90% of his regiment was also gone.

Smoke filled the road ahead, and the fog was heavy! What to do? Go in or not?

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto looked back at the Lunan Detachment soldiers chasing up not far away. At this time, he was very clear: the force surrounding the entire Manda Regiment was definitely more than 10,000.

In that case, the Lunan Detachment soldiers guarding Tushan Town would not exceed 10,000, but Sanbao Jirou was afraid of fighting and did not advance.

The 30,000 Japanese of the entire Xuzhou Task Force dared not take a step toward Xuzhou.

It was too late to think about these things now. He ordered the telegraph operator beside him: "Send a telegram to the North China Front Army Headquarters: The Independent 17th Infantry Brigade encountered an attack by 10,000 Lunan Detachment troops 20 miles south of Tushan Town.

The entire brigade is working together with one heart and mind, fighting tenaciously. At this time, only 300 brave soldiers remain, continuing to break out.

Telegram from Brigade Commander Manda Yuto!"

After watching the telegraph operator send the telegram, he ordered it to smash the radio and burn the codebook.

Then, Regimental Commander Manda Yuto personally sent off the telegraph operator and code clerk, these few Japanese.

He would rather these Japanese die in his hands than have them live in the Lunan Detachment's ranks.

After doing all this, Regimental Commander Manda Yuto led the last organized hundreds of Japanese in the entire regiment into the battlefield that had just been ravaged by directional mines.

As soon as he rushed in, he was immediately frightened by the scene inside. He had seen many Japanese corpses on the ground on the way to escape today.

It was the first time he had seen this kind of scene: many of the Japanese who had just charged were lying on the ground, their bodies stacked up.

There were also many Japanese who were not completely dead, but were pressed down by the corpses of the Japanese above and were unable to push them away, just struggling, moaning, and wailing as if they were being built into a human wall.

When these Japanese saw a team of uninjured Japanese suddenly rushing in, they immediately began to call out.

They hoped that Regimental Commander Manda could lead these newly arrived reinforcements to drag them out of the wall of corpses.

What disappointed these Japanese was that Regimental Commander Manda Yuto had no time to pay attention to them at this time. He had delayed a lot of time when he sent the last telegram, and the pursuers behind were less than 500 meters away.

He couldn't afford to delay any longer. Regimental Commander Manda Yuto led this team of Japanese, braving the rain of bullets coming from the position ahead, and continued to charge forward.

What surprised them was that among the Japanese lying on the ground, although there were wounded soldiers and corpses, there were also Japanese who were completely uninjured.

So these Japanese dragged up the Japanese lying on the ground pretending to be dead, or shot them in the head to force them to stand up and continue charging.

The smoke after the explosion finally gradually dissipated in the autumn evening wind, and the situation on the battlefield could be vaguely seen.

Seventh Regiment Commander Song Guoan watched as a team of Japanese was actually charging toward his defense line in the battlefield.

There were quite a few of these Japanese, a full two or three hundred!

"Fire! Everyone, fire!" Just now he had only let the machine guns and heavy machine guns of the entire regiment strafe the Japanese in the smoke, which was completely a matter of luck at that time.

Now that the smoke had dissipated a lot, and the Japanese figures could be vaguely seen, more than a thousand people in the entire regiment all fired at these hundreds of Japanese.

"Rocket launchers, mortars, and infantry artillery fire on the Japanese!" Regimental Commander Song's second order also came down.

Regimental Commander Gu Xiuming was able to see the situation on the entire battlefield more clearly in the distance. He ordered into the walkie-talkie, "Eighth Regiment! Immediately cooperate with the Seventh Regiment and launch an attack on the Japanese.

On the entire battlefield, there are only three hundred Japanese in front of the Seventh Regiment's position who are still stubbornly resisting."

Eighth Regiment Commander Zhang Xirou heard the order and immediately led the entire Eighth Regiment from the second line of defense and rushed toward the first line of defense.

Regimental Commander Song Guoan felt relieved when he heard that there were only a few hundred Japanese left in front of him.

His regiment could defeat these few hundred Japanese even in a bayonet charge.

At this time, he was not arrogant. He still ordered the entire regiment to continue to suppress the Japanese charge with powerful firepower according to the previous tactics.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto never expected that the firepower on the opposite defense line was no weaker than the strafing from the planes.

It was even more powerful. The ground attack planes only had machine guns, and their greatest advantage when they attacked the Japanese was not their geographical advantage.

But rather, they were strafing from a high position in the air, making it impossible for the Japanese on the ground to hide, especially in an ambush in an open field like today.

The Japanese didn't even have trenches or fortifications, so they could only helplessly endure all the machine gun strafing.

The Seventh Regiment now had all kinds of artillery firing on the Japanese, which meant that the closer Regimental Commander Manda Yuto got to the position, the more casualties he would suffer.

In this situation, Regimental Commander Manda Yuto no longer had any illusions about being able to reach Tushan Town alive.

At this time, he only wanted to die on the battlefield like a warrior. He hoped that the Lunan Detachment could consider his position and his last stand and spread his story.

He was clearly thinking too much. Lin Fan had long issued orders to all officers and soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade: The Japanese in front of us are just a group of beasts. All their struggles and resistance are just bestial reactions.

Even if we surround mice in a trap, they will still use their last lives to make the most violent struggles and resistance.

Therefore, we don't need to be surprised by any actions the Japanese take, nor do we need to discuss them. We just need to eliminate them.

We must always remember: only dead Japanese are good Japanese!

The last stand of a warrior that Regimental Commander Manda Yuto was preparing to perform in front of the Seventh Regiment was not appreciated at all.

Regimental Commander Song Guoan and Regimental Commander Zhang Xirou only paid attention to the Japanese charge. With an additional infantry regiment joining the first line of defense.

The firepower was even more fierce. Most of the Japanese who were still charging to their deaths had fallen. More than a hundred Japanese were still charging through the rain of bullets to a position less than fifty meters away from the position.

Regimental Commander Manda Yuto was tightly surrounded by his guards in the middle. They continued to charge, and the distance of a few tens of meters could be reached quickly.

Regimental Commander Song saw that the Japanese had charged to a position of thirty meters and ordered, "Hand grenades!"

Dozens of hand grenades were thrown out, and another series of violent explosions rang out, causing most of the charging Japanese to fall again.

Less than ten Japanese were left in the entire Manda Regiment. They mustered their last courage and charged forward, shouting.

A wave of bullets sweeping over caused these Japanese to fall together. Seventh Regiment Commander Song Guoan and Eighth Regiment Commander Zhang Xirou ordered the entire regiment to move out and clean up the battlefield.

At the same time, they reported to Regimental Commander Gu Xiuming: "The Seventh and Eighth Regiments have eliminated all the Japanese who charged up and are cleaning up the battlefield."

The entire battlefield was silent again. The First Regiment, the Second Regiment, and the Juxian Security First and Second Regiments all joined the ranks of cleaning up the battlefield.

When Lin Fan received Gu Xiuming's report that the entire Manda Yuto Regiment had been annihilated, he ordered Regimental Commander Gu to clean up the battlefield and rest in place.

He did not order them to immediately return to Tushan Town to participate in the siege of the Xuzhou Task Force. Regimental Commander Gu Xiuming's regiment had been marching continuously since last night, and had traveled a very long distance. The soldiers were able to persevere at this time because of their high training intensity.

But this didn't mean that the soldiers were tireless. There was no such thing as a tireless team. Lin Fan was certainly clear about this, so he ordered the several regiments led by Gu Xiuming to rest in place.

As for the Japanese surrounded here in Tushan Town, they were driven back during the breakout in the afternoon and were strafed twice by ground attack planes. They had now completely lost their morale.

Lin Fan had already ordered the various regiments in Tushan Town to shrink the encirclement by three kilometers.

The current scene was that the Lunan Detachment soldiers outside Tushan Town could already see Tushan Town, which had become a ruin.

At the same time, the Japanese of the Xuzhou Task Force in the town could also clearly see the soldiers surrounding them not far away.

The Japanese heavy weapons were all lost during the attack a few nights ago. Although some were replenished later, the artillery had never been replenished.

They could see the Lunan Detachment surrounding Tushan Town like an iron bucket, impenetrable, but they could only watch helplessly, completely unable to do anything.

The Lunan Detachment could see the Japanese bombing with mortars and infantry artillery. Faced with these bombings, the Japanese could only endure silently.

After the first round of aircraft strafing, Commander Sanbao Jirou immediately ordered the Japanese to rescue the wounded again. They had just settled more than a thousand wounded soldiers.

And they were strafed again by ground attack planes. This time, many more Japanese were injured. Fortunately, Captain Dongyang Hua and his men were running low on fuel, and the setting sun in the sky was slowly setting.

This strafing only went back and forth twice before Captain Dongyang Hua led the air squadron back to Fei County Airport.

Leaving behind a field of wounded soldiers, letting the Japanese slowly clean up!

The planes left, and there was no artillery fire outside. Commander Sanbao Jirou, Brigade Commander Saito Taio, Brigade Commander Momotai Takafumi, and Brigade Commander Suzuki Goro, these senior commanders of the Xuzhou Task Force, walked in the ruined Tushan Town in the setting sun.

Looking at the rubble and the severed limbs of the Japanese that could be seen everywhere, as well as the pools of blood that could be seen everywhere on the ground, the entire Tushan Town was covered in blood red in the afterglow of the setting sun.

When these four Japanese looked out, it was a sea of blood red, a blood-red road, blood-red broken walls, blood-red corpses, and blood-red Japanese.

In the eyes of the Japanese of the Xuzhou Task Force, these four Japanese were also blood red, resembling blood-red demons.

The entire task force was now facing a situation that even the Japanese in the supply teams were clear about: there was no hope of breaking out, only waiting to die.

In fact, they felt that there was still a way out: surrender!

This idea still had some market among the Japanese battalion commanders and company commanders. Among the grassroots squad leaders, they were all in the die-hard faction. These low-level commanders firmly believed in the Japanese propaganda.

Only those at the level of battalion commander and above understood some of the inside story. The more they understood, the more they wanted to survive.

Commander Sanbao Jirou, with three brigade commanders, came out of the headquarters, not to see the blood-red sunset, but to show his face in front of the Japanese who were still lucky enough to be alive, to let them know that the commander and brigade commanders were still with them.

The four commanders also went to the wounded soldiers' camp to perform a scene of comforting the Japanese, but there were too many wounded soldiers and not enough medicine. Most of the wounded soldiers could only be bandaged hastily.

Even so, the Japanese were very excited to see Commander Sanbao Jirou come to comfort them in person. Some Japanese seemed to not feel the pain in their wounds when they saw so many officers.

Some Japanese made even louder moans of pain when they saw so many officers. A crying child gets milk, and a moaning Japanese gets medicine. This makes sense.

These few Japanese who moaned loudly under the personal attention of Commander Sanbao Jirou finally got medicine.

Facing the eager eyes of the Japanese, Commander Sanbao Jirou said loudly: "I guarantee in the name of the commander that you will get enough medicine tonight, or at the latest tomorrow morning."

The commander's words won cheers and applause from all the Japanese in the wounded soldiers' camp.

Coming out of the wounded soldiers' camp, Commander Sanbao Jirou was preparing to take advantage of this peaceful moment to inspect the outermost defense lines of Tushan Town and boost morale.

When the Lunan Detachment not far away discovered them, many shells bombarded the wounded soldiers' camp.

At this time, the Lunan Detachment was no longer bombarding with rocket artillery, but with mortars, infantry artillery, 150mm howitzers, and 120mm cannon.

Commander Sanbao Jirou and his group of Japanese fled in a panic, leaving the wounded soldiers in the wounded soldiers' camp to endure wave after wave of artillery bombardment.

This bombardment saved the Xuzhou Task Force a lot of medicine. The ten-minute bombardment turned the entire wounded soldiers' camp upside down. Thousands of Japanese wounded soldiers died in this bombardment.

Lin Fan solved the problem that was bothering Commander Sanbao Jirou in one go. The wounded soldiers' camp no longer needed medicine, they only needed urns for ashes.

The North China Front Army Headquarters received the last telegram sent by Regimental Commander Manda Yuto. The content of the telegram was really heartbreaking.

Commander Terauchi Hisaichi didn't understand at all. The Independent Mixed 17th Infantry Brigade, which had set out from Xuzhou in the morning, had eight battalions of nearly 10,000 elite Japanese troops.

How could it have been completely destroyed in one day, especially when he saw that it was the Lunan Detachment with more than 10,000 Japanese troops that had besieged Manda Yuto's regiment?

A nameless rage rose in his heart: What was the Xuzhou Task Force doing? The Lunan Detachment, which had a total of only 20,000 troops, had already sent more than 10,000 soldiers to besiege the Independent Mixed 10th Infantry Brigade.

The Xuzhou Task Force, with a force of 30,000, didn't dare to fight against the Lunan Detachment, which had only a few thousand soldiers left?

Even at this time, he still didn't suspect that the intelligence he had received from Wuhan was false. This was only because the traitor who had sent the intelligence had too special a status.

Neither that traitor nor Commander Terauchi Hisaichi dared to believe that anyone would dare to use fake telegrams to deceive the high command.

In the current situation, Manda Yuto's regiment was definitely finished. The Lunan Detachment, with more than 10,000 troops, would definitely not let go of the Manda Yuto regiment, which only had 300 Japanese soldiers left.

From the perspective of the North China Front Army Headquarters at this time, of course, whoever died had reason. Regimental Commander Manda Yuto had already used his life to accuse the Xuzhou Task Force. This was much more convincing than the several telegrams sent by Commander Sanbao Jirou.

Manda Yuto's death was death. A dead regimental commander was not as useful as a living Japanese soldier.

But the death of Manda Yuto's regiment made the North China Front Army Headquarters very distressed: the current situation was extremely unfavorable for Xuzhou. There were only puppet troops guarding the entire city of Xuzhou.

The Japanese, who had always been wary of the puppet troops, certainly didn't want to allow this situation to occur, but this time there was a reason!

If it hadn't known that the Lunan Detachment only had 20,000 troops and had surrounded the Xuzhou Task Force of 30,000 elite troops in Tushan, sending Manda Yuto's regiment of nearly 10,000 elite troops to attack could have defeated the Lunan Detachment in one fell swoop. This plan seemed so perfect now.

But somehow, it had gone awry, been deformed, and something had gone wrong in the process of execution.

The situation in Xuzhou suddenly changed. Even if Yuan Lesheng didn't have any other ideas, he would not be able to defend the city of Xuzhou with a puppet army.

The Battle of Wuhan, the fierce battle on both sides of the Yangtze River, really couldn't spare a Japanese force to go to Xuzhou to assist in the defense.

What should be done in the current situation? A staff officer pointed to the railway line from Xuzhou to Jinan and said, "Why not shrink the railway line and transfer all the Japanese soldiers stationed on the railway to Xuzhou!"

Hearing this staff officer's suggestion, Terauchi Hisaichi almost vomited blood. If this was really done, the National Revolutionary Army guerrilla forces, the various militias, and the Lunan Detachment along the Jinan-Xuzhou railway line would probably immediately occupy all the county towns along the railway line.

Xuzhou would become an empty city, which was an even more undesirable situation for him.

What to do?