Zaozhuang, Japanese Army Headquarters.

Lieutenant Colonel Ohta was sweating profusely like an ant on a hot pot. He kept pacing in the headquarters with his hands behind his back, and occasionally looked at the sky outside.

"Has any news come back from the troops who went to support the military column?" he asked the adjutant anxiously.

"Reporting to Your Majesty Lieutenant Colonel, the radio station has been calling, but there is no response." The adjutant has also been busy all night. At this moment, his hair is messy and his head is sweating profusely. "The messenger sent out has not returned yet. The specific situation is unknown."

"Hoo ho ho..." Ota took a few deep breaths to calm down his emotions, "Continue to call on the radio, and at the same time send a group of messengers out to make sure we find out what happened."

"Hi Yi! I'll make arrangements right away." The adjutant bowed and went to carry out the order.

Ohta walked to the window. The eastern horizon was already turning white, and the sky was slowly getting brighter.

"This difficult night is finally over!" he murmured to himself.

In the past night, first a military column was attacked by unknown armed forces, then there was no news as soon as the reinforcements left, and just now there was news that the southern railway bridge was blown up.

At first he thought it was just some stupid things, but the development of things gradually went beyond Ohta's expectation, and even made him feel inadequate.

The loss of arms and supplies on the military trains is not a big problem, and this loss will not affect the empire's war situation.

but,

In addition to arms and supplies, this military train also carried nearly a thousand Japanese women, and there were hundreds of Japanese people inside. If anything happened to these women, Ohta would be in catastrophe.

The breach of the Huayuankou embankment hindered the imperial army's attack. The morale and morale of the frontline troops were at an unprecedented low, and they were all waiting for these women to come to express their condolences.

In addition, it is not easy to collect nearly a thousand women, and it is a direct order from the headquarters. If something happens in Zaozhuang, the headquarters will never let this little lieutenant go.

"Alas... Where did it come from? That person made trouble at this time." He sighed for a while.

The adjutant had already sent out the messengers, walked to Ota's side and asked:

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant Colonel, do you want to report the attack on the military column to the Jinan headquarters?"

Ohta had previously thought that it was just a small group of troops robbing the train. He thought that after rescuing the military train, he would report it to the headquarters. By then, he would definitely not make the general angry.

But the current situation was far beyond his expectation. Not only was the military column unable to be rescued, but no news came back from the two groups of reinforcements sent out. It was most likely that the situation was in danger.

"Well..." Ohta had no other choice. In order to avoid a worse situation, he had to report the truth to the Jinan headquarters and request reinforcements.

"Okay, send a report to Jinan immediately to state our situation here and request tactical guidance." His tone sounded a bit low.

After sending this telegram, no matter whether he finally gets the comfort woman back or not, he will bear the responsibility for not taking strict precautions.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!"

The crow of roosters in the city reached the command headquarters from afar, which gave the depressed Ohta some hope.

As long as the night passes, the attacker will no longer be able to hide his whereabouts. Sooner or later, he will be able to uncover these evildoers.

"Taijun...Taijun..." A cautious voice came from the door.

Ohta couldn't help but pinch his forehead. He really didn't want to hear this person's voice at the moment.

The visitor was the leader of the puppet army, named Yang Guiling. He was good at groveling and flattery. He always tried every means to please Ota, just like his godson.

Ohta is now worried about the situation on the front line and really doesn't want to see that servile face.

But he thought about it and called Yang Guiling in.

There are currently only 500 imperial soldiers in Zaozhuang, 1/3 of whom are communications, logistics and railway troops. Ohta has very few capable soldiers.

Although the combat effectiveness of the pseudo-legion was scum, he had to rely on these scum at the moment.

"Taijun..." Yang Guiling is 1.75 meters tall, but every time he bends down very deeply in front of Taijun, trying to be slightly lower than Taijun's father's chin, he pretends to ask with a smile:

"Has Tubal Road been repulsed? Do you need me to bring my brothers to help?"

"Yang Sang, the Imperial Army will keep this in mind. The situation on the front line is currently unknown, but I believe news of victory is already on the way." Ohta encouraged with a forced smile,

"Your people just need to maintain law and order in the city. Don't let restless people take the opportunity to cause trouble. If necessary, I will give you orders directly."

"Hi...Hi...Hi..." Yang Guiling nodded and agreed, "Don't worry, Taijun, as long as I, Yang Guiling, are here, there will be no chaos in Zaozhuang."

"Bang bang bang bang..."

"Boom boom boom..."

Ohta wanted to give him a few more words of encouragement, but suddenly there was a fierce exchange of fire outside.

He stood up from the chair and asked, "What's going on? Where are you shooting?"

The personnel in the headquarters were in chaos, and the adjutant ran out in a hurry with a few people.

"Taijun, the gunfire came from the direction of the train station." Yang Guiling's face was full of shock and fear.

"Tubalu...couldn't it be Tubalu attacking the train station?" His voice was trembling, and his body instinctively shrank into a ball.

"Shut up!" If this waste hadn't been useful, Ohta would have wanted to give him a bullet.

"Go back immediately to assemble your troops and prepare to assist the Imperial Army in attacking. No matter what team attacks the train station, the Imperial Army will make sure they never come back."

The look of indignation was no longer there, and Yang Guiling showed a look of embarrassment on his face, "Taijun, my elite soldiers and generals were sent out last night. Now there are only some old and weak people in the camp. I'm afraid they won't be useful. It's not that I'm afraid of the soil.

Eighth Route Army, but they are afraid that their trash will cause chaos to the imperial army."

Ota looked anxiously in the direction of the train station. Yang Guiling's words made him furious. He stared with bloodshot eyes and said:

"Go back immediately to gather troops to join the battle. If anyone dares to desert, the imperial army will kill you before attacking Tubal Road. If you dare to run away, no one in the family will survive."

"Hi...Hi...Hi..." Yang Guiling did not dare to say any more.

"roll roll roll……"

Four or five minutes later, the adjutant who went out to check the situation came back in a hurry.

"Your Excellency, Lieutenant Colonel, that man's large force is attacking the train station. It is not the Tubal Road we thought, but the regular army of the Kuomintang."

"Nani!" Ota was completely confused. When did a national army appear around Zaozhuang? Could it be that it fell from the sky?

"It must be the regular army, because their firepower is even stronger than the imperial army." The adjutant gasped.

"Boom boom boom..."

As if to verify the adjutant's words, violent explosions continued to come in, making Ota's heart sink to the bottom little by little.

"Quickly, hand over the defense of the city to the puppet troops, and all the imperial soldiers will immediately go to support the train station."

He shouted to the telegraph operator again:

"Send a report to the Jinan headquarters to request tactical guidance, saying that the national army is attacking Zaozhuang."

"Hiyi!"

The atmosphere in the headquarters suddenly became extremely tense.

.

.

There are not many Japanese troops stationed in Zaozhuang, but hundreds of them were wiped out by the Independent Brigade last night.

The city was now empty of troops, and the defensive forces at the train station and foreign bank were even weaker. It only took the First Regiment and the Second Regiment 20 minutes to capture the two locations, and the casualties of the troops were minimal.

After occupying these two positions, the Japanese and puppet troops in the city launched several attacks in an attempt to retake the positions, but were driven back by the superior firepower of the brothers.

If Jiang Dong had not given the order earlier, Zhang Shengqing and He Dingyuan would have even wanted to lead their troops to capture Zaozhuang City. In their opinion, it would not take much effort to capture the entire city.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the Independence Brigade had firmly controlled the train station and the foreign store. After the Japanese troops in the city discovered the disparity in the strength of the enemy and ours, they gave up continuing to kill the Independence Brigade and instead defended various streets and important buildings, waiting.

Reinforcements.

Jiang Dong followed the logistics team and when he went to the train station, he specially brought the logistics directors Wang Xueqin and Li Zhaoli with him.

More than a hundred brothers from the 139th Division who had withdrawn from Xiao County have officially joined the Independence Brigade. Although Li Zhaoying did not express his position clearly, he was also trying his best to help the Independence Brigade.

Jiangdong handed over the engineering battalion and prisoner of war camp to Li Zhaoying. The latter had commanded tens of thousands of troops, and Jiangdong felt relieved with the two battalions in his hands.

The traces of fighting in the train station were not very obvious, which shows that the Japanese troops were thin and their resistance was weak.

Dozens of puppet prisoners were kneeling beside the platform. When Jiang Dong and other officers came over, they all lowered their heads and did not dare to say anything.

"Brigadier, you are here!" Zhang Shengqing ran over with a smile on his face.

"Haha... It looks like we have captured a lot, right?" Jiang Dong smiled and joked, "I brought Director Wang and Mr. Li here. They will not be happy if there are less seizures."

Wang Xueqin and Li Zhaoying also looked at Zhang Shengqing with a smile.

Zhang Shengqing said to the three people:

"Don't worry, the little devil's warehouse is right next to the train station. The things in it are enough to equip a division of ours."

Wang Xueqin and Li Zhaoying's eyes widened. They did not expect that a small Zaozhuang train station could have the equipment of a division.

The Japanese army had previously arrogantly wanted to capture Henan in one fell swoop. In order to ensure continuous logistical supplies, they had stockpiled a large amount of supplies at stations along the line a month ago.

However, the little devils did not expect that a flood would completely ruin their offensive plan. This resulted in the accumulated materials not having time to be transported to the front line, and now they would all be owned by the independent brigade.

"Let's go, let's take a look. Seeing is believing." Wang Xueqin urged.

The Japanese army built three large warehouses next to Zaozhuang Railway Station. Each warehouse stocked a large amount of materials, including food, military uniforms, quilts, and weapons.

Looking at the three warehouses, Wang Xueqin and Li Zhaoying looked very excited and couldn't wait to call someone to move the supplies.
To be continued...