Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 249 Jin-Sui Army Participates in the War

The Japanese troops of the 21st Brigade and the puppet troops left behind joined in.

The pressure on the Eighth Route Army naturally increased significantly.

But the Eighth Route Army's resistance remained extremely tenacious.

This mainly comes from the continuous supply of weapons and ammunition from the arsenal. Although the quantity is not large, the purpose is very critical.

386th Brigade Headquarters

"Brigade Commander, these Japanese devils are going all out. It seems that the problem lies with Li Yunlong's attempt to contain them," the deputy brigade commander said to the brigade commander.

If things don't go wrong on Li Yunlong's side, the Japanese won't dare to use their full strength easily.

"What's the rush!" The brigade commander was very calm. "Li Yunlong is planning to bring in the Jin-Sui Army. Once the Jin-Sui Army is brought in, won't the Japanese, who are putting all their strength into this, have to take a break?"

Don't be fooled by how fierce the Japanese are now; it's only temporary.

"Hmm." The deputy brigade commander nodded and said, "As long as the Jin-Sui Army comes in, the Japanese mopping-up troops might immediately stop their mopping-up operations and go back."

"Pass down the order: the troops should not engage in direct combat with the Japanese and their traitors. When the time is right, they can retreat and give them some territory," the brigade commander ordered.

As long as the Jin-Sui Army joins in, even if the Japanese mopping-up troops want to leave, the territory they vacated will be returned to them.

"Yes, sir." The deputy brigade commander went to relay the order.

The brigade commander cursed, "Li Yunlong, you son of a bitch, you better make a scene! If you don't throw the whole of Shanxi Province into chaos, don't you dare come back to see me!"

……

358th Regiment of Jin-Sui Army

"Commander, something terrible has happened!"

Chief of Staff Fang Ligong rushed to Regiment Commander Chu Yunfei in a panic, his tone grave and tense: "I just intercepted important intelligence from the Japanese side. Li Yunlong and his men are trapped by the Yoshino Regiment."

Is Li Yunlong trapped by the Yoshino Brigade?
Upon hearing this, Chu Yunfei naturally didn't believe it and questioned, "Li Yunlong and his men's current firepower is probably not something that a mere Japanese regiment can contain, is it?"

They received ample artillery replenishment from the Yanzhen Arsenal, and the 29th Brigade was routed by them.

What can the Yoshino Brigade possibly do to Li Yunlong and his men?
What a joke!
The Yoshino Brigade was lucky not to be trapped by Li Yunlong when they encountered him.

But Fang Ligong's next words made Chu Yunfei lose his composure. Fang Ligong said, "Under normal circumstances, the Yoshino Regiment would definitely not be a match for Li Yunlong and his men. But that wasn't just a single regiment of the Yoshino Regiment. Instead, Yoshio Shinozuka transferred troops from various parts of the rear to supplement the Yoshino Regiment. Now the Yoshino Regiment has a total strength of 10,000 men. In addition, the Yoshino Regiment also used poison gas."

"What?! The Yoshino Regiment has 10,000 men, and they even used poison gas!" Chu Yunfei was instantly shocked upon hearing this. "Did these Japanese really use poison gas?"

Chu Yunfei had experienced firsthand how powerful the Japanese poison gas bombs were.

Previously, the 358th Regiment had an encounter with the Sakata Brigade, which resulted in 300 casualties within an hour.

Besides the fact that the old Japanese commander Sakata was very good at commanding, another reason was that Sakata used poison gas at the time.

Chu Yunfei's troops had no protective equipment and had no choice but to retreat quickly.

Now, with the Yoshino Brigade having tens of thousands of troops, plus the support of poison gas, it's understandable that Li Yunlong and his men are no match for them.

"Yes," Fang Ligong said anxiously. "The intelligence also said that Li Yunlong and his men have attempted to break out multiple times, but they have all been suppressed by the Yoshino Regiment. Commander, Li Yunlong and his men need to maintain a certain speed behind enemy lines. They certainly don't have much food and water. The Japanese are now surrounding them without attacking; they definitely want to starve them to death. Deputy Factory Director Yan is in their hands now. I'm afraid we can't just sit idly by."

boom!
Chu Yunfei slammed his fist on the table: "In the end, my prediction came true. Deputy Factory Director Yan has once again been used as bait by Li Yunlong."

Fang Ligong asked suspiciously, "Commander, are you saying that this was Li Yunlong's doing? His goal is to get our Jin-Sui Army to join the war?"

“Li Yunlong is such a shrewd man. He clearly knew that the Japanese had poison gas bombs, but instead of taking the time to escape, he was surrounded by the Japanese. This is unreasonable in itself,” Chu Yunfei cursed. “His intention is definitely the same as last time: to use Deputy Factory Director Yan to drag our Jin-Sui Army into this mess.”

Fang Ligong jumped up and said, "Commander, how about we deliberately delay this for a bit?"

"Delay? What do you mean?" Chu Yunfei didn't quite understand the meaning behind Fang Ligong's words.

Fang Ligong gritted his teeth and said, "That bastard Li Yunlong is risking our Deputy Factory Director Yan's life! This is outrageous! Let's stall for time, weaken their fighting capacity, and then we'll..."

Fang Ligong's words were solemnly interrupted by Chu Yunfei: "Brother Ligong, what you're saying is extremely dangerous. You must understand, Deputy Factory Director Yan is currently in Li Yunlong's hands. Who knows if the Japanese will throw a few more poison gas bombs at them, or even if Deputy Factory Director Yan has been injured by the poison gas bombs? That's still unknown. If you delay to make the Eighth Route Army pay the price, and Deputy Factory Director Yan ends up in grave danger, can you bear that responsibility?" "Then, then, wouldn't that be letting Li Yunlong off easy?" Fang Ligong stammered.

It seems like Li Yunlong has us completely under his control.

"Brother Ligong, let's think long-term," Chu Yunfei said. "The Kumamoto Division is aggressively encircling and suppressing the Eighth Route Army's base area. It won't be over anytime soon. We've sent troops to rescue Deputy Factory Director Yan. The Japanese are vulnerable in the rear. Maybe we can take advantage of the situation to help him out."

“That makes some sense,” Fang Ligong nodded. “Last time we took down the Japanese encirclement and suppression forces and gained merit. If we can take advantage of the Japanese rear being undefended this time and make another profit, it doesn’t seem like we’ll lose out.”

"So, let's hurry up and report to our superiors so they can make a quick decision and we can prepare to send troops," Chu Yunfei said decisively.

"Yes, Commander!" Fang Ligong hurriedly went to report.

Chu Yunfei's gaze fell on the map.

He was thinking about how to take advantage of the situation to help him out.

Not long after, or rather, before Chu Yunfei had figured out how to get him out of trouble, Fang Ligong rushed back and said to Chu Yunfei, "Commander, the higher-ups have just issued an emergency order, instructing our 358th Regiment to quickly launch an attack and rescue Deputy Factory Director Yan."

Clearly, Chu Yunfei's superiors had also received the intelligence, and even before the 358th Regiment.

Upon hearing this, Chu Yunfei nodded immediately without hesitation: "Since it is an order from above, then carry it out immediately. Except for those who stay behind to guard the base, everyone else from the 358th Regiment, come with me."

"Yes."

In this way, most of the Jin-Sui Army's forces were quickly deployed.

With the 358th Regiment as the vanguard, they advanced towards the rear of the Japanese forces.

Because the Japanese planes were still unable to take off, the sandstorm did not stop.

In addition, Li Yunlong and his men had already cleared the obstacles from the road.

Therefore, the Jin-Sui Army was like a ghost town!
They quickly advanced towards the back of the Yoshino team.

The news quickly reached Yoshio Shinozuka.

Yoshio Shinotsuka was both annoyed and puzzled: "Baka! What on earth is going on? Why is that cowardly Jin-Sui Army getting involved again, just like last time? With them doing this, won't the Yoshino Regiment's efforts be in vain?!"

Miyano Michiichi, who had already returned, said to Shinotsuka Yoshio, "On the surface, the Jin-Sui Army and the Eighth Route Army are on good terms, but in reality, the Jin-Sui Army would rather the Eighth Route Army fend for itself. Now, the Jin-Sui Army has once again sent a large number of troops to rescue the Eighth Route Army. I think there must be a reason why the Jin-Sui Army had no choice but to send troops."

"Chief of Staff Miyano, the reason why the Jin-Sui Army had to send troops is no longer important." Yoshio Shinotsuka shook his head and said solemnly, "What is important is that the Yoshino Regiment finally managed to trap this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers. We can't let the Jin-Sui Army rescue them. Otherwise, Commander Kumamoto will have another worry about his rear."

The cherry blossom tree is still alive, we must bring back the five truckloads of tungsten ore, and we must also take over the Eighth Route Army's headquarters and arsenal.

We can't let the Kumamoto Division Commander have any worries!

“Then we’ll have to draw troops from the rear again and quickly intercept the Jin-Sui Army,” said Miyano Michiichi. “The Jin-Sui Army always wins when they have the upper hand. Even if we intercept them forcefully, they still have a chance…”

Before Miyano Michiichi could finish speaking, he changed the subject, saying, "I'm still worried. We don't know why the Jin-Sui Army sent troops to rescue the Eighth Route Army. If that's the reason, forcing the Jin-Sui Army not to retreat and to fight us head-on, that would be very troublesome, unless..."

“Unless what?” Yoshio Shinotsuka asked.

“Unless we send another brigade from the Kumamoto Division,” Miyano Michiichi said, “we can have them join forces with our newly deployed troops to attack the Jin-Sui Army from both sides and see if we can suppress them.”

"The Kumamoto Division Commander finally managed to sweep through the enemy lines with all his might, and now he's scrambling to spare another brigade. Won't this just create another stalemate with the Eighth Route Army?" Yoshio Shinotsuka pointed, then, remembering something, added, "We still have some poison gas grenades on hand. Should we use them...?"

“Commander, we don’t have many poison gas shells. Using them all wouldn’t be very effective, since the Jin-Sui Army has too many troops,” Miyano Michiichi shook his head. “Let’s use these poison gas shells for defense. To be honest, the current situation is very pessimistic. If the Jin-Sui Army fails to stop them and rescues these Eighth Route Army soldiers, and then the two of them join forces to attack our rear area near Taiyuan, that’s no joke. At that time, we will need poison gas shells, and it would be best to communicate with Commander Okamura again to see if we can get a few more.”

"Damn it! This perfectly good situation has become so troublesome because of the Jin-Sui Army's involvement!" Yoshio Shinotsuka cursed. "Once we deal with this crisis and the Eighth Route Army, I'll make sure the Jin-Sui Army tastes my power!"

Following that, Yoshio Shinotsuka took Michiichi Miyano's advice.

Immediately draw troops from the rear of Taiyuan again, and have the Kumamoto Division Commander send a brigade to cooperate, to attack the Jin-Sui Army from both the front and rear, preventing them from getting close to the Yoshino Regiment.

Finally, Yoshio Shinozuka personally called Okamura to see if he could get some more biological weapons.

(End of this chapter)