Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 141 Strategic Contraction
It wasn't just Qingyun Town in Wang Gensheng's territory that suffered; this major battle, triggered by Li Yunlong, not only greatly dampened the Japanese army's morale.

This also made it clear to everyone that the Japanese are now all bark and no bite.

The Japanese also realized through this support battle that although they seemed to have occupied many important strongholds, these important locations had actually become cages that restricted them.

Therefore, after this battle, the Japanese, having suffered heavy losses, finally decided to withdraw from most of the less important locations, retaining only a few key ones.

And so, the Japanese troops stationed at the key location, the important transportation town of Daguzhen, retreated in disgrace.

However, what was unexpected was that just as the Japanese were withdrawing from Daguzhen, Chu Yunfei directly sent troops to occupy Daguzhen.

Meanwhile, in the command room of the 358th Regiment, the regimental staff officer, Fang Ligong, looked at Chu Yunfei with admiration and said:

"Commander, I understand now. The Battle of Heyanggou has just ended, and you immediately ordered the 1st Infantry Battalion and the Artillery Battalion to advance to Daguzhen. This is to embed a thorn in Li Yunlong's territory, and it is also a necessary preparation to gain a favorable situation for our army in the future!"

Chu Yunfei responded with a smile:
"A man who does not plan for the future will have trouble in the present! We need to broaden our horizons. Since the next war is inevitable, why don't we prepare now?"

Clearly, Chu Yunfei's words indicated that the Japanese were no longer the main threat, since the battle had revealed the true strength and weaknesses of the Japanese forces.

Moreover, Chu Yunfei also learned that the Japanese were already preoccupied with their own problems, since their main base was being bombed on a large scale by American bombers!

Moreover, the feud between Chu Yunfei and the Eighth Route Army has a long history. Not to mention the distant past, during the War of Resistance Against Japan, when one of Chu Yunfei's battalions rebelled, Li Yunlong led troops to help and quietly seized the equipment of one battalion, nearly two thousand men. What is this if not a great humiliation!
Chu Yunfei was already suffering enough from the betrayal of his subordinates, but Li Yunlong was going to rub salt into his wounds.

However, Fang Ligong offered a warning regarding Chu Yunfei's actions:

"Li Yunlong will be furious this time; he won't let us encroach on his territory!"

Just as Fang Ligong finished speaking, a soldier reported that Xing Zhiguo, the deputy commander of the Independent Regiment, had arrived.

Xing Zhiguo entered the command room and saluted Chu Yunfei. After Chu Yunfei returned the salute, he asked:

"Deputy Regiment Commander Xing wants to see me!"

Xing Zhiguo responded with a smile:

"On behalf of the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment, I have come to express my gratitude to you. We owe our attack on the county town to your assistance!"

To Xing Zhiguo's perfunctory thanks, Chu Yunfei responded with a forced smile:

"Go tell Li Yunlong that I owed him a favor last time, and I've repaid him this time. Our debts are now even. However, he still owes me something, and I hope he can repay it!"

It's clear that Chu Yunfei is still holding a grudge about Li Yunlong taking away his battalion's equipment last time!
Xing Zhiguo, feigning ignorance, asked:

"Please enlighten us, Commander Chu, what has our Commander Li owed you?" However, Chu Yunfei did not mention the First Battalion's matter, but instead said:

"This time I mobilized a reinforced regiment to hold off the Japanese for two days, directly supporting your military operation to attack the county town. Shouldn't Li Yunlong contribute some military funds?"

After hearing this, Xing Zhiguo smiled first, and then said:
"This is probably the reason why Commander Chu sent troops to occupy Daguzhen!"

However, Chu Yunfei had already prepared his response and immediately retorted:

"The army of the Hua Kingdom can be stationed anywhere on its own territory. Doesn't your army do the same?"

Upon hearing this, Xing Zhiguo also spoke:
"Commander Chu, isn't your army afraid of being accused of creating friction by doing this?"

"People's mouths are two separate things, and I can't control what they say. If your army has any thoughts, you can go to the Second War Zone and meet with the Long March Command. As long as the order is given to the 358th Regiment to withdraw from its post, I am willing to take the blame for any friction!"

Xing Zhiguo had nothing to say about Chu Yunfei's explanation, so he immediately went back and told Li Yunlong what had happened, which made Li Yunlong furious!

Of course, Wang Gensheng was unaware of the friction between Chu Yunfei and Li Yunlong, as he was currently recruiting militia in his territory!
Although Wang Gensheng's base was very close to Taiyuan, he did not develop a base or militia after entering Majia Village. This was not only because he had no time to train the newly formed cavalry regiment, but more importantly, because Wang Gensheng was afraid that if he went too far, it would attract the Japanese troops from Taiyuan County.

But things are different now. Wang Gensheng's special cavalry regiment has completed its training, and Taiyuan has even been raided by Wang Gensheng once. So they no longer care about a regiment of Japanese soldiers in Taiyuan.

Indeed, since the last deployment to support Ping'an County, although Kong Jie's New Second Regiment suffered considerable losses, the Japanese suffered even greater losses. After all, one was ambushed and blocked, while the other was physically attacked, so naturally the Japanese actually suffered greater losses.

When the Japanese troops supporting Taiyuan withdrew to Taiyuan, only one regiment of Japanese soldiers remained. Most of the regiment had already died in Kong Jie's territory.

Of course, none of these are very important. What is more important is that the Japanese troops in the retreating regiment were also running out of ammunition.

However, when they wanted to replenish their ammunition, they discovered that Wang Gensheng had already looted all the ammunition in Taiyuan City, so there was no ammunition left to replenish!

And more importantly, Wang Gensheng is now guarding the Zhengtai Railway, squatting down to resupply the trains!
As long as they dare to seek supplies, it's tantamount to sending supplies to Wang Gensheng. To be honest, Wang Gensheng even had the idea of ​​directly taking Taiyuan City by force.

It should be noted that with the current combat strength of Wang Gensheng's Special Cavalry Regiment, it is not impossible for them to take Taiyuan City by force. However, this would definitely result in significant casualties, since apart from Wang Gensheng and Duan Peng, the bulletproof equipment of the remaining soldiers can only protect the head and chest, and cannot protect the limbs.

It should be noted that although no one died in the last attack on the Taiyuan Cavalry Regiment, many had their legs or arms blown off by grenades.

Wang Gensheng naturally wouldn't allow these wounded and disabled people to remain in the cavalry regiment.

Although this may seem ruthless, Wang Gensheng had no choice but to do it in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the special cavalry regiment.

Moreover, Wang Gensheng arranged a good place for them, which was to make them instructors for militia training, responsible for discovering good talents among the militia, so that the cavalry regiment could be replenished with soldiers.

(End of this chapter)