On the morning of May 22nd.

The Japanese 10th Division, full of hatred, captured Xuzhou from the north, but their wish to avenge their shame once again failed.

At this time, Xuzhou had become an empty city, and not even a single Chinese soldier was seen in the 10th Division.

The 10th Division fought hard for hundreds of miles, but in the end they only got an empty city. Everyone from the division commander Isotani Rensuke to the ordinary soldiers felt as if they had eaten flies.

Just when tens of thousands of little Japanese had nowhere to vent their resentment, the 10th Division received news that fighting was still going on in Xiao County.

"Northern Anhui Independent Brigade!"

Hearing that the 10th Division's number one enemy, the Wanbei Independent Brigade, was trapped in Xiao County, the division commander Isotani Renjie became furious and wanted to fly to Xiao County immediately to fight with the Independent Brigade.

The 10th Division only has more than 10,000 men at the moment, and the large force is responsible for the defense around Xuzhou. In the end, the task of avenging the entire division fell to Chichai Yaezo.

Akashiba Yazozo was the only senior Japanese officer who escaped from Taierzhuang. Not only was this old Japanese soldier not punished, but he was reused by the division commander Isotani Rensuke.

After receiving the order, Chichai Yaezo quickly rushed to Xiao County with a team of imps.

At this time, Xiao County was still in the middle of a bloody battle and was not aware of the coming danger.

However, after noon on the 22nd, the Japanese Ninth Division suddenly slowed down its attack on Xiao County. Except for occasionally firing a few cannons into the city, the infantry stopped attacking the city frantically.

Although I don’t know what the Japs’ purpose was in slowing down their attack, the Northern Anhui Independent Brigade and the 139th Division temporarily got a chance to breathe.

After several days of bloody fighting, the number of combat-ready brothers in the 139th Division was less than 500, and the Northern Anhui Independent Brigade also lost nearly a thousand men.

"Lao Jiang, I think the little devil is trying to hide his sins!" Xie Chengrui said with some worry.

"What the little devil can prepare is nothing more than dirty tricks like poison gas attacks. Just let the brothers be more prepared." Jiang Dong's eyes have already crossed Xiao County. He is currently thinking about the retreat route at night.

"Chief of Staff, a telegram from Chief Li!" the signal soldier handed a telegram to Xie Chengrui.

When he saw the contents of the telegram clearly, the expression on Xie Chenrui's face changed and his breathing became a little faster.

"How do you say..." Jiang Dong asked.

"Huh!" Xie Chengrui exhaled a thick breath, "The Japanese 10th Division occupied Xuzhou this morning. Liu Ruming's 69th Army had withdrawn from Xuzhou City last night. The Japanese army occupied an empty city."

"What!" Jiang Dong's voice suddenly became louder, "Why didn't the 69th Army inform us in advance?"

"I don't know. The senior management department only received the telegram from the 69th Army this morning."

"Damn it!" Jiang Dong was a little angry, "I was here to stop the little devils from the south, but they slipped away without saying a word!"

"They must have maintained radio silence in order to retreat. They dared to report to the superiors only after jumping out of the Japanese encirclement today." Xie Chengrui felt deeply ashamed of this behavior of friendly forces.

"They managed to escape successfully, but they trapped us in a double-sided siege by the Japanese army."

"what should we do?"

Both of them put their heads on the map, "Xuzhou is really close to Xiao County. Our Independent Brigade is the sworn enemy of the Japanese 10th Division. Maybe the Japs are trying their best to get here now." Jiang Dong smiled bitterly.

,

"This may be the reason why the Ninth Division stopped attacking us. These two groups of little devils want to fight a battle of annihilation!"

"Hmph! Idiot's dream."

"Go quickly and call Commander Li and the brothers from the 139th Division. We have to retreat!"

Soon, Li Zhaoli, Deng Zuoyu, County Magistrate Wang Xueqin, Wang Liang, Geng Jixian and the chief officers of the Independence Brigade all arrived.

After Xie Chengrui informed everyone about the situation, everyone's faces became confused and confused, and they began to discuss buzzingly.

After everyone gradually calmed down, Jiang Dong asked first:

"The matter has come to this. We must evacuate Xiao County as soon as possible. What do you think of the evacuation route?"

Li Zhaoying, commander of the 139th Division, was the first to stand up and said:

"Nothing to say, break out immediately. As for the direction of the breakout, I think it must be to the west. The large forces have already retreated into Henan. We only need to tear a hole in the west to join the large forces quickly."

"There is the main force of the Japanese Ninth Division to the west. If we break out to the west, the casualties will be serious!" Xie Chengrui said.

"But there are little devils in the other three directions. We can only take the risk and risk our lives."

After Li Zhaoying finished speaking, he looked at Jiang Dong. His thoughts were everyone's normal thoughts. Jiang Dong was commanding the battles these days, and Li Zhaoying was already convinced of this young officer who was one level younger than him.

Jiang Dong looked at everyone in the Independence Brigade. Wang Laohu, Zhang Shengqing and others also looked at him, but no one expressed an opinion.

"County Magistrate Wang, you three are locals. Please share your opinions."

Wang Xueqin has done a very good job in logistics these days, transporting the wounded and transporting ammunition in an orderly manner, which has helped Jiangdong a lot.

Wang Liang, the instructor of the County Guard Brigade, is also a talented person. He is not only courageous, but also very good at ideological work.

Jiangdong became interested in talents and wanted to recruit these three people. After all, a large number of talents would be needed to establish a base in the future.

Wang Xueqin was a little confused. He had always thought about living and dying with the city. Now he was full of guilt and reluctance. "Commander Jiang, Commander Li, I am good at logistics and civil affairs. I really don't dare to mess with military issues."

explain………"

Wang Liang and Geng Jixian also shook their heads.

Jiang Dong stood up slowly, his tone calm, as if he had already thought about it.

"The west is where our main force is. We can think of going west to join the main force, and even a little devil can guess it. Not to mention that breaking out may cause heavy casualties, I think even if we break out, we may not be able to escape smoothly.

"

Everyone held their breath and waited for Jiang Dong to reveal his plan.

"In addition to the Ninth Division, the Japanese Thirteenth Division heading south is also heading west, and the Japanese Sixteenth and Fourteenth Divisions coming from Hebei are also heading west, with more than 100,000 little devils.

A large force is chasing us. If we break out to the west, we are very likely to encounter a large Japanese force attacking from the north and the south."

"Brother Jiang, just tell us your plan, and we will all listen to you!" Li Zhaoying said impatiently.

The rest of the people in the room had similar expressions.

"East, let's break out toward the east!"

Everyone was dumbfounded. The east side was now all enemy-occupied territory. Jiang Dong continued to say:

"The Japanese army is marching to the west. We can avoid them by going east. Besides, the Japanese 10th Division coming from Xuzhou certainly didn't expect that we would go in the direction of colliding with them. As long as we sent out scouts in advance, we would be able to avoid them."
Chapter completed!