At 8 o'clock in the evening, Major General Honda was so tired that he was no longer as simple as having dark circles.

I didn't sleep all night last night, and today I spent the day in pain again. I couldn't even open my eyes when I was having supper.

Because I haven't had a long rest, my eyes have turned red and my face is full of fatigue. I can fall asleep after lying down.

But he dared not sleep. Before his opponent's conspiracy was exposed, any accident could make him lose all his money and pay a heavy price.

The strong pressure forced him to force himself to be energetic and insisted on staying in the war room and waiting for news.

"General, our enemy has taken action!" The Chief of Staff hurried in and was eager to report before he even walked to Honda.

"Tell me clearly who our enemy is and how did they take action?" The tired Honda suddenly felt energetic and grabbed the chief of staff's collar and asked.

The Chief of Staff quickly replied: "It's not clear who the opponent is, but a large number of reconnaissance troops suddenly appeared outside the city."

"I was ordered to inspect the city defense forces. As soon as I arrived at the city defense position, I received a report from the North Gate garrison. From half an hour ago, some reconnaissance troops appeared one after another outside the city because they were too far away from the city wall, so we could not judge the other party's identity."

"Before I came here, I specifically contacted the city defense forces in the other three directions, and they also found the enemy moving figures outside the city!"

"I think your judgment is correct. The ultimate goal of the enemy attacking our attacking troops is likely to be us!"

"There are still one thousand troops left in the city. As long as the enemy attacks us exceeds three thousand and equipped with a certain number of artillery, the city will be pacified."

After listening to the report, Honda showed a sudden enlightenment expression: "Don't think about it, the ones who attacked our attacking troops must be the National Salvation Army. Only they have the strength to eat more than a thousand of us in a short period of time."

"We will almost consume the troops we left behind to Pingding City and then attack and pacify them, completely cut off the ammunition supply of the front-line sweeping troops, force them to withdraw, and end this big sweep..."

The Chief of Staff had doubts about the analysis of the brigade commander for the first time and frowned and raised objections: "General, the enemy's attack on the sanction of the county was definitely to rescue the National Savior Army, but Bei Zhi felt that the culprit who ate more than a thousand of us last night was not necessarily the National Savior Army. Their main force was attacked by our four-way sweeping troops. They were unable to take care of themselves and could not draw any extra troops to attack the county?"

Major General Honda doesn't think so, and thought for a while and asked back: "Chief of Staff, do you think we really have fully understood the National Salvation Army?"

"This..." The Chief of Staff was speechless when asked.

This does not mean that he does not believe in the intelligence departments under the brigade, but because the Imperial Army has suffered too much on this issue.

Every time they swept the National Salvation Army, the Imperial Army that participated in the swept would feel that they knew their opponents very well, and then gathered at least twice the force to siege them.

As a result, the National Salvation Army will always emerge at a critical moment with one or two teams that the intelligence department does not know about, staring at the weakness of the Imperial Army and attacking fiercely, and finally turning defeat into victory.

The hidden killer weapon of the National Salvation Army can escape the eyes of the previous intelligence department, and it will definitely also escape the eyes of the current intelligence department.

Although the head of the intelligence department has been changed, the intelligence officer is still the original person, and he has changed the soup or the medicine. No one can guarantee whether they have really figured out all the troops of the National Rescue Army.

The intelligence officer heard that the brigade commander was suspicious of his investigation results of the National Salvation Army, and immediately stood up and promised: "General, I dare to issue a military order to you in this matter."

"After several months of hard work, our intelligence personnel are not only spread throughout the National Rescue Military Defense Zone, but also many people have also sneaked into the main force of the National Rescue Military and local governments."

"If the National Salvation Army hides a secret force, it will definitely not be able to hide it from its own people's eyes."

"There are people with low positions directly under the National Salvation Army. The Package Company is responsible for transporting ammunition supplies to each battalion and company, and transporting them once every half month."

"If the National Salvation Army really had a secret force, it would be impossible for them to not eat or consume weapons and ammunition, but the logistics company had not sent them any ammunition supplies."

"The National Salvation Army also has low-ranking people. If they really have secret troops, the regiment headquarters will definitely find some clues, but our intelligence personnel did not find any information."

"Based on this point, Beizhi firmly believes that the National Salvation Army has only four main battalions, one artillery battalion, one spy company, one cavalry company, one guard company, one reconnaissance company, one baggage company, one engineer company, and one new battalion with a total force of more than 1,500 people!"

"The combat troops are about 4,000, equipped with more than 30 artillery pieces of various caliber and more than 20 heavy machine guns,"

"Reducing heavy artillery support and air support, their overall combat effectiveness is similar to that of an infantry corps of the Imperial Army."

The Chief of Staff did not have any confidence to respond to the brigade commander's reaction. After hearing the military order issued by the intelligence officer, his back was even more straighter than before, and immediately responded: "General, I believe in all the investigation results of the intelligence department regarding the National Salvation Army."

"I thought so. Last night we lost more than 1,300 people, including two cavalry squadrons. We could wipe out so many of our troops in one battle, and we didn't even have a chance to escape. I think the opponent's troops have at least 2,000 people and are equipped with a large number of light and heavy machine guns. Otherwise, they would not be able to eat our two cavalry squadrons in a short period of time!"

Seeing Major General Honda nodding in approval, the Chief of Staff continued to analyze.

"If these more than 2,000 people were really secret troops formed by the National Salvation Army, they would never have escaped the eyes of our intelligence system."

"Not to mention anything else, the two thousand troops consume 4,000 kilograms of food every day, and 120,000 kilograms a month."

"If a unit wants to develop combat effectiveness, it will have to go through three months of training at least, so they will consume nearly 400,000 kilograms of food."

"No matter how capable the National Salvation Army is, it is impossible for the transportation of so much food to be silently carried out."

"Since the intelligence department has not discovered it, the troops that attacked us last night definitely did not belong to the National Salvation Army!"

The brigade commander Major General Honda was almost convinced, and his expression was very complicated. I don’t know whether to believe in his own judgment or the Chief of Staff and his analysis.

But it was an indisputable fact that the enemy ate more than a thousand people in the county last night, and no one could deny it.

Not to mention the guerrillas left behind, even if the main forces of the guerrillas are all in the base areas, they cannot do this, so there must be third-party troops participating in the battle last night.

If you understand the identity of this army, all problems will be solved.

If you don’t understand it, these questions will always be hidden in his mind.

Thinking of this, Major General Honda immediately stared at the Chief of Staff and asked: "Since you all think the enemy who attacked us last night was not the National Salvation Army, who do you think they are?"

The chief of staff shook his head: "I don't know... Maybe they were the guerrillas who sneaked into our transportation team yesterday. They used some conspiracy to kill more than a thousand of us, and then bluffed and attacked and pacified us, forcing us to transfer troops from the front line to the county town, and then rescued the national rescue army."

"Bluff?" Hearing these four words, Major General Honda immediately frowned and fell into deep thought, neither approving nor opposing.

After thinking for two minutes, his eyes lit up and shouted, "This possibility is not ruled out."

"Before the start of the sweeping, I studied every battle between the Imperial Army and the National Salvation Army. If I remember correctly, they did have two battles that disrupted our arrangements through bluffs, and then turned defeat into victory, and repelled our heavy army sweeping!"

Speaking of this, the brigade commander seemed to have thought of a way to defeat the enemy, and his face suddenly became very serious. He stared at the Chief of Staff and began to give orders.

"Order the city defense forces to strengthen their vigilance. If any enemy dares to approach the city wall, they will directly use firepower to repel them."

"Although we have not had many troops stationed in the county, we have pacified and reserved the front line for one month, and the arsenal has many weapons in addition to ammunition, so there are many light and heavy machine guns that the troops can use."

"Just just in case, Chief of Staff, you immediately transfer eight heavy machine guns and sixteen light machine guns from the arsenal, and add the city defense forces in four directions."

"Send a telegram to the frontline sweeping troops to prepare for returning to the county town at any time."

"But before receiving the telegram from the front enemy command, the sweeping troops cannot act rashly."

"Let's keep waiting!"

"Several scouts cannot serve as a basis for us to judge the enemy's attack on us in reality."

"When the enemy actually launches an attack, we will know whether they are bluffing or really wanting to eat us."

The Chief of Staff strongly agrees with the brigade commander's response strategy.

As long as you have troops in your hands and don’t act rashly, no matter what the enemy takes, the brigade commander can stand invincible.

On a small pile of soil one kilometer east of Pingding City, the National Guard Company was using sandbags to build a command center, and was very busy.

At nine o'clock, an underground command center was built one and a half years old.

Zhou Cheng stood at the observation port and could clearly see the torch burning on the city.

Because of the emergence of reconnaissance troops outside the city, there were obviously much more Japanese and puppet troops on the city than they were more than an hour ago.

There were several more light and heavy machine guns, which were mounted behind battlements by the Japanese army, and sandbags were piled around them as bunkers to protect the safety of the machine gunners.

Five or six Japanese and puppet troops were patrols walking around on torches, throwing one or two torches out of the city from time to time, making sure no one was sneaking close to the city wall.

The reactions of the Japanese and puppet troops were all expected by Zhou Cheng. After reading them, the expression on his face was calm and there was no change at all.

The guard company commander Liang Hongjiang, who was standing beside him, was sweating profusely.

"The regiment commander, although there are only more than 200 Japanese and puppet troops standing in front of us, they are equipped with at least four heavy machine guns and ten light machine guns. When we attack later, these machine guns will definitely cause us a lot of casualties!"

"And I see the posture of the Japanese and puppet troops, and it seems that they are still sending machine guns to the top of the city. At that time, our offensive pressure will definitely be greater!"

Zhou Cheng didn't care at all: "What are you afraid of? No matter how good the equipment is, it is a pile of scrap iron without anyone operating it. It will not work. As long as we find a way to kill all the Japanese and puppet troops on the city, to be precise, they will kill all the Japanese on the city, and no matter how strong the city defense is, it will be destroyed without attacking!"
Chapter completed!