Songhu: Never Give Up

"Old Yue, judging from the latest report on the battle situation, Commander Xue is making good progress. In the east, south, and north, more than a dozen troops of the East Henan Corps have closed the encirclement.

Kenji Doihara's several detachments are holding on, and in three days at most, the end of the 14th Division will come."

Chief of Staff Chen Zhongyuan was obviously much more optimistic. Logically, Yue Qianli should also be optimistic. After all, he had now blocked the big loophole of Lanfeng City, and Xue Boling had an additional 27th Army to play. Unfortunately, he was not confident about the two big runaways.

This is like trying to catch fish with a giant net that is about to have two holes pop up in it at any time. It would be a miracle if you could catch any fish.
But these two runners are still in high positions and have power. Gui has someone in the court to protect him, so even Old Xue can't deal with him;

Huang Jie was a man with a successful career, so he could run away whenever he wanted. Commander Xue had no deterrent effect on him.

What he had to do now was to find a way to lure Kenji Doihara into a decisive battle and consume his tens of thousands of old Japanese soldiers. This was why he showed weakness in the outer positions, so that Kenji Doihara could see the hope of capturing Lanfeng City.

“Old Chen, after the 14th Division was reinforced with a heavy artillery brigade, its attack power was too strong;
Now they are divided into several groups. Once they gather into one, no army can withstand their full-strength attack, including our guerrilla column.

Therefore, our best strategy now is to let the devils see hope, so that they will withdraw troops to attack Lanfeng City;
Although the first division lost more than 1 people, it also consumed 3 Japanese soldiers. If this kind of attrition war happens twice more, the attack power of the 14th Division will be greatly reduced, and then other armies will be able to stop them. "

Chen Zhongyuan suddenly realized:
"Old Yue, I understand. You are trying to use Lanfeng City to drain the 14th Division's blood. If that's the case, you should replenish the 1st Battalion. Only in this way can we stop the Japanese."

Yue Qianli shook his head and said:

"We can't fight on the outer positions anymore. If we continue, we'll scare Kenji Doihara away. This old devil is very cunning.
We should continue to show weakness and send a telegram to Chief Xue to complain, saying that we have suffered thousands of casualties in the peripheral battles and we can no longer bear it, and request to withdraw the remaining troops back to Lanfeng City;

Then they vowed to live and die with Lanfeng City. Although the guerrilla column suffered heavy losses, it still had the strength to fight.

We can shout slogans louder to let old devil Kenji Doihara feel that we are not confident enough. He is an intelligence officer and this telegram cannot be hidden from him. "

"Also, immediately telegraph the first and second teams to withdraw to Lanfeng City in a high-profile manner, hide some of their forces on the way, and pretend to have suffered heavy losses..."

Seeing that Lao Yue was playing tricks on him again, Chen Zhongyuan very cooperatively moved his head closer. The two of them whispered for a long time, and Lao Chen nodded repeatedly after listening to them, almost saying "Oh!"

At the East Henan Corps Headquarters, Old Xue was originally in a good mood, but a telegram from Yue Qianli ruined everything and he started cursing on the spot:
"This Yue Qianli, I was praising him, but his true colors showed up in such a short time.

Is it his guerrilla column that is in trouble?

Thousands of casualties have already caused him to start complaining. He abandoned the outer positions without permission. I will file a complaint with the Military Commission!"

Chief of Staff Wu quickly tried to smooth things over:

"Commander-in-chief, I heard that his First and Second Detachments fought against eight infantry battalions of the Japanese (the other three were held by the Second Detachment), a heavy artillery regiment, and a large number of planes and tanks, and more than half of them were killed or wounded;

The outer positions were not worth defending, so they gave up their positions on their own initiative. In addition, they annihilated a heavy artillery battalion of the Japanese, killing more than 3 Japanese soldiers—"

"Chief of Staff Wu, stop pleading for Yue Qianli. Tell the guerrilla column not to complain to me. He must defend Lanfeng City for me, otherwise he will be subject to military law!" The two men shouted at the top of their voices, not noticing that Colonel Ding Shiyang, the staff officer of the headquarters, had an unusual look in his eyes and his ears were erected high.

"Commander-in-chief, Yue Qianli has used up most of his ammunition, especially the artillery shells. They are almost out of stock. Do you want to replenish them?"

Xue Boling became even angrier after hearing this, and shouted to Chief of Staff Wu:
"You retreated without permission and you still have the nerve to ask me for ammunition. I don't have any - I'm even poorer than him. Just give him 10 rounds of ammunition!"

"Commander-in-chief, aren't 10 rounds of ammunition too few? Each person has less than 10 rounds. I'm afraid this kid won't take Lanfeng City seriously, and it will be troublesome if he gives up..."

Ding Shiyang heard the entire conversation between the two, but he couldn't see the expressions of Xue Boling and Chief of Staff Wu, and there was a different look in their eyes.

Naturally, they didn't know who the traitor was. The spy chief Kenji Doihara was very good at obtaining intelligence. He didn't expect that the hidden man he casually buried more than ten years ago would enter an important department. He was in control of the affairs of the Henan East Corps.

Naturally, Yue Qianli asked them to help perform this party in order to show weakness and lure the 14th Division to attack Lanfeng City. It was in the interests of the Henan East Corps to continue bleeding the Japanese in defense.

At the 14th Division Headquarters, Kenji Doihara remained calm, as if everything was under his control.

Chief of Staff Tadayoshi Sano was not so calm. The unsuccessful war made him anxious about the future of the 14th Division, especially the attack of the Banxi Regiment on Lanfeng City. He couldn't help but express his concerns:
"Your Excellency, the division commander, the guerrilla column's combat effectiveness is stronger than we thought. Mr. Banxi's suggestion is not unreasonable. We still have time to break out now."

Kenji Doihara is still solving the endgame by himself. This is his hobby. When he can't find an opponent, he would rather play with his left hand and right hand.
He was a very conceited person. In his opinion, there were not many people who were worthy of playing chess with him, including a few of his classmates in the Army Academy, Okamura Yasuji and Itagaki Seishirō. The others were all inferior.

"Mr. Sano, the hundreds of thousands of men under Xue Boling are nothing to worry about. A small Yudong cannot contain me, and it is not Mr. Banxi's turn to teach me how to fight!"

Sano Tadayoshi was so frightened that he bowed quickly and said:
"Your Excellency, the division commander, we are naturally not as far-sighted as you are. We just don't know how to break the impasse, and we are a little anxious."

Doihara Kenji waved his hand and said:

"Wait until I finish this game of chess."

Colonel Sano bowed deeply, then stood silently by the side while Kenji Doihara continued playing chess;

He looks so confident that those who don't know him would think he is the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang. It seems that all the Japanese like this.

It was unknown how much time had passed before Kenji Doihara's confidential staff quietly walked in and handed him a special telegram;
He placed it casually on the chessboard, and lightly tapped a white piece in his left hand onto the chessboard. Colonel Sano was pleasantly surprised to find that Bai Dalong, who had been on the verge of death, came back to life in an instant.

Black lost the whole game because he failed to slay the dragon, so he had to resign and admit defeat, which was undoubtedly a good omen.
Kenji Doihara also showed a confident smile on his face. He took the telegram again, took out a special code book from his body and began to decipher it.

Colonel Sano looks at his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, and he doesn't look at what he shouldn't look at.

As the message was fully translated, Doihara Kenji's smile widened, and he said majestically:
"Sano-kun, record the message!" (End of this chapter)