Chapter 65: Yamamoto's Thoughtful Thought
"Specifically!" Yoshio Shinozuka's face sank. It seemed that he attached great importance to this issue and this small force that could almost wipe out Yamamoto's special forces.
"Yes, General!"
Yamamoto Kazuki handed the information in his hand to Shinozuka Yoshio, and then slowly told him the information one by one.
"General, ever since that defeat, I have been searching for any clues that I can pay attention to and should pay attention to!"
He pointed to the stack of documents he had just handed over to Shinozuka Yoshio and said, "The first document is the battle report submitted by the remnants of the Sakata Regiment in Cangyunling. Their enemy in that battle was the New 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army, whose commander was Li Yunlong.
In that battle, the New 1st Regiment launched a counterattack against our army, and the commander of the regiment, Sakata, and the officers of the command center were killed by the enemy artillery bombardment. "
Shinozuka Yoshio nodded, motioning for him to continue.
Yamamoto continued, “All along, when our army faced the Central Army and the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army, one regiment could defeat two of their divisions.
Not to mention the poor Eighth Route Army, whose soldiers couldn't even have a gun each.
Then how did they manage to counterattack the Sakata Regiment?
And they also captured the headquarters of Lieutenant Commander Sakata?"
After a pause, he continued, “After the Sakata Regiment was defeated and retreated, there were still more than 2,500 people left, and the number of casualties was only 800.
The reason they were defeated was that their command center was attacked, all high-level commanders were killed, and their command system was cut off.
As a result, even though they still had the possibility of counterattacking, they lost their ability to organize because their command center was cut off.
Since this battle, I have suspected that there are special forces in the Eighth Route Army."
Shinozuka Yoshio started to take it seriously: "What's the basis for that?"
Yamamoto explained seriously: "Special forces were a combat concept first proposed by the Germans, but it was not yet mature.
I think it is very similar to the ancient ninja or assassin, hiding their bodies and sneaking into the enemy's center, looking for their leader, and killing them with one blow.
That’s how Captain Sakata was shot…”
Yamamoto paused, then took out another report from the document in front of Shinozuka Yoshio: “This investigation report was made by the remaining soldiers of the Sakata Regiment in that battle.
They all said that whenever they were blocking the Eighth Route Army's New 1st Regiment from breaking out at their heavy machine gun positions, a grenade fired from a grenade launcher would fly in from a distance and destroy their heavy machine gun positions.
There were also some powerful firepower points, and even some light machine guns were frequently bombarded by grenades fired by the enemy's grenade launchers.
That mysterious bombing unit, like a sharp knife, cut a path through the encirclement of the Sakata Regiment, allowing the New 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army to break out.
After hearing this, Shinozuka Yoshio raised a question: "The enemy's artillery units can also do it!"
"Then we can look at this report."
Yamamoto picked up another report: "This one is about a village called Zhangzhuang, which is the home of a maintenance chairman.
The chairman of the maintenance association was named Zhang Renyi. He had a son who worked as a translator in Taiyuan and was a top student at Waseda University.
However, shortly after the Battle of Cangyunling, his home was captured. The Zhang family had rifles and machine guns, but no signs of exchange of fire were found at the scene, and Zhang Renyi's home was emptied.
Just over ten days ago, Zhang Renyi's son Zhang Tao, who worked as a translator in Taiyuan, disappeared, and Colonel Kameda and his guards who were traveling with him died in battle.
According to the confession of the brothel girl we captured later, there were only two people who captured Zhang Tao and killed Colonel Kameda and his two attendant guards.
Later, the brothel woman was knocked unconscious, but the other party did not notice it. Then there was another witness on the opposite side who described to us the appearance of the two people who took Zhang Tao away.
They are very tall. Both of them are very tall and strong. Zhang Tao is like a baby in his hands.
I suspect he is a warrior who has been trained since childhood to have extraordinary strength.
Later I checked Taiyuan's city defenses, and found that no one from such a high level entered or left that day.
In addition, a three-wheeled motorcycle and two barrels of oil were lost from the city defense camp that day.
However, there was no record of any tricycles leaving the city that day.
Later, I found signs of climbing ropes on the city walls.”
Shinozuka Yoshio took a breath and said, "You mean, the other party climbed down the city wall with a tricycle?
Yamamoto-kun, is this possible?"
"possible!"
Yamamoto was certain: “I found the wheel tracks of a motorcycle not far from the climbing trace.
Although I don’t want to believe it, they did take one of our three-wheeled motorcycles and lowered it from the city wall and rode away.”
Shinozuka Yoshio realized what Yamamoto wanted to say: "You mean, they have extraordinary strength.
He has the ability to ignore the city’s defenses and enter and exit Taiyuan City with ease.
Have a heart that does not implicate the innocent.
Most importantly they know how to ride a motorcycle?
Moreover, a three-wheeled motorcycle can carry no more than four people. Excluding Zhang Tao who was abducted, this small group that entered and exited Taiyuan City calmly did not exceed three people!"
Yamamoto nodded: "Yes, General! From all indications, these should be the elite of their special forces!
So, I am very worried that they will have ideas about the headquarters in Taiyuan!"
Shinozuka Yoshio nodded: "You have thought it through very well, but is there any way to deal with it?"
After all, no one wants to have their head chopped off while they are sleeping.
"Only special forces can deal with special forces!" This , but he had not finished speaking.
“We currently have more intelligence than this.
General, please read the report below and look at the map."
Yamamoto drew a circle on the map and looked at Shinozuka Yoshio:
"General, after Zhangzhuang, the artillery towers and grain collection teams in that area were often attacked."
Yoshio Shinozuka knew he hadn't finished yet, so he nodded for him to continue.
Yamamoto continued: "Those artillery towers, bunkers or grain collection teams that were attacked all had one characteristic.
All the grain-collecting teams were attacked in a very short time, and the imperial army soldiers had no time to react, which means that they were all killed before they had time to react.
There were only the enemy's bullets on the ground or on the corpses, but there was not even a bullet shell from our army at the scene.
The same is true for the artillery towers. Many soldiers died at the firing line. Usually, once the enemy enters the artillery tower, they are no longer able to fight back. "
Shinozuka Yoshio understood: "You mean, the enemy's attack speed can kill them before all the soldiers can react?
You mean, they have very good sharpshooters who can suppress the firepower inside the turret from the front of the firing hole?
Are you saying this is the enemy's special forces?"
Yamamoto nodded: "Yes, General!"
Yoshio Shinozuka has always believed in Yamamoto's judgment and believed that the unit that attacked Yamamoto was the enemy's special forces, but there has been no actual data to support this conclusion.
Finally confirmed today.
He asked seriously: "So, can you find their trace?"
"That problem has been solved, General!"
He pulled out the map and drew a half circle on it: “They thought that when they attacked the artillery towers or the grain collection teams, they could move 50 or even 80 kilometers away from their nests and draw our attention elsewhere.
However, their experience was still relatively immature, and they habitually set their targets on artillery towers and grain-collecting teams 50 to 80 km away from their own bases.
After going around half a circle like this, I marked this half circle on the map and came to the conclusion that the center point of this half circle was the enemy’s base.”
"So we sent out scouts in this direction. After several twists and turns, we finally got the news. We got the exact information about this unit!"
