"Chirp, chirp, chirp...Boom! Boom! Boom..." Masaharu Honma's judgment was right. Their unit had just emerged from the gap in the encirclement, and the position they were in just now was shelled by the National Defense Forces.

.

Looking at the soaring artillery fire on the position, Maeda's face turned pale. If they had been slower to withdraw for ten minutes, they would have been struggling under the artillery fire of the National Defense Forces.

Masaharu Honma's judgment was correct, but there were also mistakes. For example, he did not expect that his retreat had been discovered by the fighter planes of the National Defense Force, and the ground troops were constantly gathering towards their position.

After only withdrawing less than three kilometers, they had already encountered at least five waves of interceptions by the National Defense Forces. At first, there were three or four hundred people, and then gradually increased to seven or eight hundred people. Even the most recent interception saw about a thousand people.

of troops.

And these troops fought very treacherously. They did not resist the Japanese attack. Instead, they constantly harassed, blocked, and delayed the Japanese attack.

"How many casualties are there?!" Masaharu Honma was now covered in smoke. She had just occupied a position but did not see any enemy corpses.

Masaharu Honma did not dare to let his troops pursue him. Once he chose to pursue these troops on impulse, he would probably fall into the enemy's encirclement.

There were gunshots everywhere now, and no one could tell where there would be an ambush. In order to withdraw safely, Masaharu Honma could only keep the troops looking in the direction of Dongying.

Now everything is in chaos, and Masaharu Honma's two divisions can't communicate with each other at all. The troops he can gather and control are only the one regiment he has now.

But it is extremely difficult to rush out with just this one regiment. For example, now, Masaharu Honma's regiment has only rushed out about three kilometers and has already lost more than 500 people.

If the fight continues like this, it won't take long for the entire regiment to be completely lost in the battle. This is before encountering a large force of the National Defense Force.

"Maeda, you lead the troops and charge forward directly! Don't worry about anything. I will handle the wounded and broken Imperial warriors. As many as we can charge out..."

After a long time, the pale-faced Honma Masaharu gritted her teeth and said fiercely: "I will lead the people to break up the rear! As long as you rush to Dongying City, you will be safe..."

"No! Your Excellency, Commander, you will lead us to rush out. I will stop the rear! This is..."

Maeda couldn't help being shocked when he heard the words. He immediately tried to stop him. However, Honma Masaharu raised his hand to stop Maeda. He saw Honma Masaharu glance at the Japanese soldiers who were resting silently and said.

"We don't have many choices now. If we can evacuate, it will be considered a victory." Masaharu Honma looked at the silent Japanese soldiers and said, "Just take as much as you can! It's better than being stuck here..."

"After all, I am the commander of the Fourteenth Army, and I should be responsible for this matter. So, Maeda! Just obey the order..." As he said that, Masaharu Honma's tone became a little desperate: "I only hope.

After I die in battle, my family members in the empire will be treated well..."

Maeda didn't say much when he heard this. He just bowed silently to Masaharu Honma and said: "Your Excellency, I now begin to think that General Yamamoto's view is right. We should not choose to go to war with China..."

Maeda surprisingly did not refer to China as "China", but chose to directly call it "China". This is extremely rare for a senior Japanese Army officer.

Since Japan continued to gain war dividends and began to expand its ambitions before World War I, the trend in the military department was destined that they would despise China and try every means to annex China.

"Maeda...Actually, what you said is what I want to say..." Masaharu Honma sighed and said: "We chose them as our enemies, which is extremely wrong...but we have to stop this kind of mistake.

"

Masaharu Honma looked at Maeda and said: "Asia is only that big, but China is really too big. History has proven countless times that once this country becomes a stable political power, the whole of Asia and even the Middle East will be shrouded in his shadow.

Down……"

With that said, Masaharu Honma stood up and turned her gaze towards the darkening night. That direction was towards China.

"Although we don't want to admit it, in fact our Empire of Japan is still only a second-class power among other countries. In terms of resources, industrial capabilities and diplomacy, we are still often restricted by Europe and the United States."

"If we want to get rid of such an embarrassing status, then we can only expand and become a first-class power! But this road is not easy to follow. We need a lot of resources, manpower, and material resources to support the competition between us and them."

Speaking, Masaharu Honma sighed and said: "China is the biggest difficulty that lies before us. Even if we don't want to admit it, once China is stabilized, the Japanese Empire will lose its influence in Asia and even the world.

The force... they are too huge and too powerful..."

"Your Excellency, Commander, I think your view is wrong." Maeda frowned and said, "If China is really so powerful, then why did they lose to us in the Sino-Japanese War?!

A semi-colony, a country where warlords fight?! If they are really so powerful, they shouldn’t be like this.”

Masaharu Honma is known as the "Poet General" in the Japanese Army. He has his own research on painting, history and literature. When he heard Maeda's words, he couldn't help but smile sarcastically.

"Maeda... do you think that the war between our Empire of Japan and China only started in modern times?! Let me tell you, in fact, we have never stopped fighting China since the Sui Dynasty. From the Tang Dynasty until the Ming Dynasty

, Qing Dynasty, and even now during the Republic of China and the coalition government, we have tried to defeat China and gain the right to speak in Asia."

After a pause, Masaharu Honma sighed: "But except for the late Qing Dynasty when we succeeded, we have not succeeded at other times. In the Tang Dynasty, Onimuro Fukunobu assisted Goguryeo in trying to stop the Tang Dynasty's attack. But we

It failed. And it was a disastrous defeat. In the next ten years, we took a defensive position and built a large number of beacon towers in western Honshu and northern Kyushu. We deployed heavy troops to defend ourselves lest the Tang Dynasty invade our homeland..."

"During the Ming Dynasty, we also tried to attack mainland China. We once carried out some tentative attacks in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and what is now North Korea. But we can check the results from history..."

Masaharu Honma smiled bitterly and said: "We failed. Qi Jiguang and the others wiped out all our probing troops, while Li Rusong repelled 150,000 of us in North Korea."

Speaking, Masaharu Honma sighed and said: "Obviously we had occupied the entire North Korea at that time. If Wanli hadn't sent troops, North Korea would have belonged to us. It's a pity that they used more than 50,000 people and more than 100,000 soldiers.

If North Korea threatens to join the army, he will use the elite troops mobilized by His Excellency Toyotomi Hideyoshi to repel North Korea..."

Masaharu Honma did not say the rest, but Maeda also knew it. But many Chinese people themselves did not know it. The most scolded Yuan Shikai had defeated the Japanese army in North Korea and directly defeated the Japanese army who tried to launch a coup to occupy North Korea.

"Chirp, chirp, chirp...Boom! Boom! Boom..." A burst of artillery fire drowned out the conversation between the two, and all the resting Japanese soldiers stood up very quickly and grabbed the weapons at hand.

Honma Masaharu and Maeda suddenly rushed forward. They raised their telescopes and began to observe. They saw about a large group of Japanese troops appearing in the telescopes. They were being attacked by the National Defense Forces on their positions.

Japanese corpses were scattered all over the position, and the entire position looked shaky. Masaharu Honma put down the telescope with a gloomy expression, and ordered to the adjutant beside him: "Rush over immediately. Help them repel the National Defense Forces!"

"Hai!!" the adjutant responded. Within ten minutes or so, the Japanese troops below were ready and then rushed towards the Japanese positions ahead.

This Japanese position was surrounded by the National Defense Forces, and the temporary fortifications on the position had been bombarded several times by artillery fire. Even the soil of the entire position was warmed by the bullets.

"Assault!!" Following a strange cry from Masaharu Honma and the brigade under his command, a large group of Japanese soldiers rushed towards the position of the National Defense Forces.

In this attack, the Japanese army unexpectedly successfully broke into the National Defense Forces' positions. They broke into the positions of the Japanese troops in the positions without any obstacles.

"Hahaha... these gangsters are finally in trouble! Tighten the encirclement immediately and don't let them escape again! If you try to escape again, I will pinch you all to death!" Gu Liangmin laughed. He just said

It can be seen that this unit should be the main force of the Japanese army.

It is a pity that at that time, the 188th Army was busy cutting up the Japanese Long Snake Formation and also needed to encircle and annihilate it. There was really not enough troops to take care of this 3,000-man regiment.

Although Gu Liangmin squeezed more than a thousand people out to block the attack in sections, they still stood out for more than three kilometers before Honma Masaharu and the others. The route chosen by Honma Masaharu was very tricky, and there was basically no way to encircle this regiment. Unless the troops were strong

It is possible to be at least twice as high as them.

It happened that a nearby Japanese army of more than 1,000 people was surrounded. So Gu Liangmin ordered them to surround and release the Japanese army to join Honma Masaharu and others.

At the same time, he ordered two nearby troops that had completed the annihilation mission to move over and completely surround Honma Masaharu and the others. Sure enough, Honma Masaharu jumped directly into the trap without much hesitation.

"Which regiment are you from?! Who is the captain?!" After rushing into the position, Maeda immediately shouted to the Japanese soldiers on the position.

But before anyone had time to answer him, the position was shelled again.

Maeda and others had to immediately hide in a temporary shell hole to avoid the artillery shells fired by the National Defense Forces. They did not notice that while they were avoiding the shells, groups of National Defense Force soldiers had already entered a newly established position.

Masaharu Honma and others have been surrounded...

At this time, a Japanese convoy was marching vigilantly in a mountain col more than ten kilometers outside Fenshan City. People had been sent to check the cliff, but no one was found hiding on it.

Sentries were set up all around to escort the convoy as it moved slowly.

Although Yu Aoki, the captain of the escort convoy, looked very wary, he actually felt much more relaxed. This place was extremely close to Fenshan.

You only need to leave this mountain col and walk for about half an hour to reach Fenshan. After looking at the sky, you can reach Fenshan before it gets completely dark.

Once it gets dark, it will be extremely dangerous for the convoy whether it is marching or stationed. Otherwise, Aoki would not risk passing through this cliff and choose this shortcut.

Finally about to finish, Aoki took a deep breath and ordered: "Everyone, pay attention, now is the most critical time. As long as we pass this cliff, we can reach Fenshan smoothly! I have already contacted Fenshan.

We have been contacted. As long as we deliver these shells, we have the right to stay in the comfort station all night! Just us!"

"Hai!! Thank you, Captain!" bursts of cheers rang out from the Japanese convoy. Unlike other Japanese troops, they stayed in the warehouse and did not have many opportunities to go to the comfort station.

Many times, they only had the opportunity to go there during their vacation rotation. But now, they only need to arrive at Fenshan and there will be a comfort station completely belonging to them.

Then these Japanese soldiers suddenly howled like wild beasts.

"Comfort station?! Go to hell..." In the distant dense forest, Lao Si vaguely heard the howls of the Japanese soldiers. He smiled coldly and pressed the button on his hand...

"Boom!!..." Just when these Japanese soldiers were extremely excited and proud, a huge roar caused the mountain col where they were located to shake suddenly!

The violent explosion even shattered a lot of glass in Fenshan City. The drivers of the Japanese convoy in the mountain col reflexively stepped on the brakes, and the entire convoy stopped immediately.

But before they could figure out the situation, they were horrified to see large amounts of mud and rocks rolling down the cliffs on both sides! These mud and rocks were trying to hit the convoy. Many Japanese soldiers even screamed.

He was buried alive or crushed to death before he could send it out in time.

"Boom..." Aoki was lucky, or unlucky, not to be buried alive or crushed to death by the mud and rocks. He was desperately pushed to the roof of the car by his adjutant, and he was extremely lucky to escape this disaster.

But compared to this kind of luck, Aoki would rather be buried alive or stoned to death! Because he saw with his own eyes that his army of more than a thousand people was completely wiped out without a single battle.

Those soldiers who were guarding on the cliff probably had no bones left. After such a violent explosion, Aoki didn't think anyone could survive.

The Japanese soldiers below were even more miserable. They were buried alive directly, buried alive after being smashed to death, or their lower bodies were smashed and crushed by huge rocks, and they were screaming...

The entire valley became a purgatory in an instant, a purgatory for the Japanese army.

It's over! Aoki's heart is almost blank now. All he thinks of are these two words. Almost all the convoy is buried in this mountain col.

Almost all the escorting motorcycle teams were buried. Except for Aoki, there were only less than twenty living people here. There were also a few Japanese soldiers who kept screaming.

"Whoosh...poof!" A flying knife flew out of nowhere and pierced Aoki's hand. Aoki rolled out of the car, but was immediately grabbed by two men who appeared from nowhere.

The joints of the arms, knees and jaw were removed.

Aoki was completely unable to move at this time. He watched in horror as those men emerged from nowhere and struck down all the Japanese soldiers who were alive or seemingly alive.

Their movements were crisp and agile, like old gangsters. Every time they struck with a knife, they slit the throat directly and quickly. Some of them directly stabbed the vulnerable part of the back of the head with a diamond-shaped military thorn.
To be continued...