Chapter 42: The Main Force of the Group
But Maeda Tsuyoshi quickly thought of something else.
They cannot take away so much horse meat, and the Eighth Route Army is even less likely to take it away, at least not in a short period of time, so there is no need to send anyone to guard here.
Otherwise, send a small number of troops to guard the city.
They will be eaten by this damn group of Eighth Route Army again.
At that moment, Maeda Gang asked Ge Fugui: "Ge Sang, which big village is the closest to here?"
"The nearest big village?" Ge Fugui replied, "It must be Baijia Village."
"Baijia Village? Yoshi, the good people of Baijia Village are great." Maeda Tsuyoshi nodded happily and said, "Order, everyone immediately search in the direction of Baijia Village!"
Maeda Tsuyoshi's intention was very simple.
Just go to Baijia Village and borrow dozens of trucks.
Then the more than ninety war horses were transported back to the stronghold.
A Japanese squad leader worriedly advised: "Captain, there is only one infantry squad, one heavy machine gun unit and one artillery unit in the Huting stronghold now. It is very easy to be attacked by the Eighth Route Army. Why don't you take the main force of the squadron back first? Let our squad escort these horses?"
"No." Maeda Tsuyoshi waved his hand and said, "It's too dangerous to leave only one team of you."
Maeda Tsuyoshi would never forget that Kameda's squad and Sato's squad were both defeated by the Eighth Route Army.
As the Japanese army moved, the Eighth Route Army, which had just stopped its operations, immediately came up again and fired at the marching formations of the Japanese and puppet troops from all directions.
Japanese and puppet troops were shot from time to time.
This greatly affected the marching speed of the Japanese and puppet troops.
However, Maeda Tsuyoshi was very determined. Even if he suffered some casualties, he refused to split his forces or pursue the enemy rashly. At most, he would set up machine guns on both sides of the road and carry out fire counterattack.
The next step is to drive the puppet troops to the two wings to serve as human shields.
Ge Fugui and the puppet army were angry but dared not say anything.
…
The independent regiment responded quickly.
In just half an hour, more than a thousand officers and soldiers of the regiment received ammunition and dry food. Then, under the leadership of the regiment commander Li Yunlong and deputy regiment commander Kong Jie, they marched rapidly towards the Huting stronghold at the speed of a forced march.
After the main force of the regiment left, only some staff members, grooms and cooks from the regiment were left in Yang Village.
Zhao Gang couldn't help but feel a little worried. The independent regiment was responsible for the flank security of the headquarters. Now the main force of the regiment had gone out to attack the Huting stronghold. What if the Japanese suddenly attacked?
However, no matter how worried he was, Zhao Gang did not report it to the brigade headquarters immediately.
Because he knew very well that if he reported it to the brigade headquarters now, the brigade commander would definitely stop it.
So no matter what, we should wait until the independent regiment is almost gone before reporting. By that time , the matter will be done and the brigade commander will not be able to stop it even if he wants to.
Let’s talk about Li Yunlong later.
While running forward, he called Sun Desheng to his side.
"Sun Desheng, let me ask you, what was the situation at that time?"
Although Li Yunlong trusted Wang Ye very much, as the head of the regiment, he had to find out the whole situation.
Sun Desheng then recounted the whole story of how they ambushed the enemy cavalry squadron in the valley, wiped out the enemy cavalry squadron, and then cleaned up the battlefield, and how he had an argument with Wei Dayong and other Wolf Warriors.
"I understand." Li Yunlong understood it immediately.
Sun Desheng still didn't understand, and asked curiously: "Captain, what do you understand?"
Li Yunlong said: "Xiao Wang asked you to disassemble the horse carcass to tell the devils that we plan to eat horse meat. What will the devils do after knowing this?"
Sun Desheng said: "That must be stopped."
"Yes, the Japs will definitely stop us." Li Yunlong said, "How can we stop them?"
Sun Desheng said, "It's such a simple matter. Can't we just transport the horse carcass back to the Huting stronghold?"
"That's the problem." Li Yunlong laughed and said, "These are not a dozen horses, but more than ninety. The Japanese war horses are fat and strong, and each one weighs about 800 kilograms on average."
"More than ninety horses weigh almost eighty thousand pounds!"
"Even if we use a large truck, it would take about eighty trucks!"
"Then the question is, how long will it take to mobilize so many trucks, load the horse meat, and then transport it back to the base? Captain Sun, how long do you think it will take? Will half a day be enough?"
Sun Desheng scratched his head and said, "Half a day? That may not be enough."
Unless you have three to five hundred mules and horses, don't even think about pulling it all away at once.
"It's definitely not enough." Li Yunlong said, "Unless there are enough mules and horses in Huting, it will take a long time just to borrow a cart from the nearby village! Even if Huting has enough mules and horses, half a day is not enough to transport more than 80,000 kilograms of horse meat back to Huting."
"By that time, our independent regiment will have arrived long ago!"
"This way, the Japanese will be blocked in the wild by us, and there is no need to attack them anymore, haha!"
Speaking of this, Li Yunlong added: "If the Japanese rely on the fortifications of the Huting stronghold to hold on, we really have no way to deal with them. But if it is a field battle, a mere squadron is not enough for our independent regiment to fill the gap. More importantly, without the main force of the Japanese, the Huting stronghold will become an empty city and can be easily captured, hahahaha."
As he spoke, Li Yunlong laughed triumphantly, as if the Huting stronghold had been captured by the Independent Regiment.
Sun Desheng thought for a moment and advised: "Captain, the attacking Japanese puppet troops total four to five hundred people, and our independent regiment has only a two to one advantage over them."
"Captain Sun, you are wrong. It is five to one."
Li Yunlong said: "Only those 200 or so devils have some fighting power. As for the more than 300 puppet troops, they are just food for the dead. Our independent regiment can defeat them with just one charge."
As he spoke, Li Yunlong had a new idea in his mind.
Li Yunlong said, "Xiao Zhang, go and invite Deputy Head Kong over."
"Yes!" Xiao Zhang agreed and immediately quickened his pace towards the front camp.
After a while, Li Yunlong saw Kong Jie standing by the mountain road waiting and asked, "Old Li, are you looking for me?"
"Old Kong, the situation has been clarified." Li Yunlong said, "Xiao Wang has seized a fleeting and precious opportunity. Today we must not only eat up the main force of the Japanese attacking, but also take down the Huting stronghold. So, I will lead the main force of the regiment to deal with the main force of the Japanese, and you will lead the first battalion to attack the Huting stronghold."
Kong Jie said, "Since the Huting stronghold is empty, why don't I take the second battalion there?"
The independent regiment has three main battalions, and the second battalion originally had only one company left.
After the addition of new recruits, the Second Battalion restored its structure of three companies, but due to the small number of veterans, its combat effectiveness was obviously inferior to that of the First and Third Battalions.
"No." Li Yunlong waved his hand and said, "No matter how empty the Huting stronghold is, it is still a solid stronghold. The combat effectiveness of the Second Battalion is still a little lacking. We must take the First Battalion and bring the three grenade launchers with us."
"Alright." Kong Jie agreed, "I will take over the Huting stronghold as soon as possible."
What he meant was that once the Huting stronghold was captured, he would come to support.
Li Yunlong thought to himself, it is still unclear who will complete the task first.
…
Tiger Bay.
The soldiers of the 1st Platoon of Cavalry had retreated ten miles away and were waiting for the main force of the regiment halfway.
However, the fourteen war wolves of the Wolf Warrior Squad were still roaming in the ice and snow, constantly attacking the marching Japanese and puppet troops.
As expected, the Japs had borrowed a lot of carts from Baijia Village, and even dozens of mules and horses. They were now heading towards Laohuwan under the escort of the Japanese and puppet troops.
And it’s not far from Tiger Bay.
Although the Wolf Warriors didn't want to see this scene, they didn't have much else to do.
Because the Japanese machine guns are really not vegetarian. The standard range of the Japanese Type 96 light machine gun is 1,500 meters, and the maximum range is over 3,000 meters. The ballistic dispersion area within 600 meters is very small. The Type 92 heavy machine gun is even more powerful. It can hit whatever it points to within 1,000 meters.
As long as the War Wolves approached within a thousand meters, they would be immediately strafed by the Japanese. At this distance, not to mention Wei Dayong and his men, even Wang Ye could only stare blankly.
Another attempt failed, and Wang Xikui turned back in disgrace.
"Xizi, what do you think?" Wei Dayong said with a smile, "I said you couldn't find an opportunity, right?"
Wang Xikui snorted and said, "The damn Japanese are so damn generous. They produce bullets for light and heavy machine guns as if they were free. They produce them to death! It's really infuriating."
"When will our independent group be able to live like this?"
"So, don't waste your energy." Wei Dayong sneered, "It's better to save some energy."
"You are the only one who talks too much nonsense." Wang Ye walked over and kicked Wei Dayong in the butt.
If it were someone else, Wei Dayong would definitely get furious and jump up to fight.
But after being kicked by Wang Ye, Wei Dayong just grinned, as if he was honored.
Wang Ye took out his pocket watch and looked at it again. This pocket watch was seized from the last attack on Wanjia Town. He saw that the clock hand was pointing to 2:30 in the afternoon. It had been more than five hours since Sun Desheng went back to report the news.
It is about seventy miles from Laohuwan to Yangcun, and it would take Sun Desheng no more than forty minutes to ride back on a fast horse.
It would take at most half an hour for the whole regiment to gather and collect ammunition and dry food. The forced march of 70 miles on the mountain road would take about four hours. Judging from the time, the main force of the independent regiment should be almost there.
