The Chief of Staff subconsciously turned his attention to the brigade commander.

Major General Honda also looked at the Chief of Staff at this moment. The two people's eyes collided in the air, and both saw shock and incomprehension in each other's eyes.

Before the sweeping raid, the intelligence department had already figured out the overall strength of the national rescue army. Logically, they had no troops to siege the second route of sweeping troops.

But the report just now by his subordinates must have not been fabricated, so where did the troops attacking them come from?

There is also the siege battle last night, and the combat style is almost exactly the same as that of the National Salvation Army. If it weren't for the main force of the National Salvation Army being surrounded by the sweeping troops in their defense zone, Honda would definitely think that the National Salvation Army had run out of the defense zone.

Since the siege troops are not the national rescue army, who are they?

Until now, the intelligence agencies have not found the answer, and Major General Honda has no clue.

After a minute of silence, Major General Honda seemed to have thought of something and turned his eyes to Nakazo, who was suffering from all over his body!

"You just said that when dawn was approaching, the National Savior Army attacking you had increased significantly and its firepower became stronger! They came with new reinforcements!"

Nakasa replied: "Yes, sir!"

"The National Salvation Army that attacked our country in the second half of the night had about one strengthening battalion. After five or six in the morning, the troops that attacked our country had significantly changed. Their offensive was stronger and sharper than the troops that attacked our country in the second half of the night. The combat power seemed to be much stronger and the firepower was very strong!"

"Where is probably where we meet them!" Major General Honda continued to ask.

"The distance between the two is about twenty kilometers!" Nakazuo replied.

"That's right!" After hearing this, the brigade commander was more sure of his judgment.

Then he looked at the Chief of Staff and analyzed: "We broke through the county town in the early morning, and then pacified the city and were captured by the enemy."

"The siege troops entered the county town and temporarily gathered to evacuate the county town. It took one or two hours, and then marched for more than 20 kilometers and took another three or four hours, which happened to be from five to six in the morning!"

The chief of staff understood and shouted in shock: "Sir, you mean that the troops attacking the county town have divided some forces to reinforce the National Rescue Army, and joined forces with the National Rescue Army there to attack our second sweeping force!"

Major General Honda nodded: "The time is right and the location is right. Apart from them, there is no second force that can reinforce the National Rescue Army!"

The Chief of Staff found this idea too terrible.

A unit first attacked the city, then quickly escaped from the battle and marched for 20 kilometers to fight aid. The combat time was also arranged so well. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as seamless.

And fighting like this is a huge test for a unit.

Whether it is the siege battle in the first half of the night or the long-distance raid in the back 20 kilometers and attacking reinforcements, it will take a lot of energy to the soldiers. Ordinary troops will definitely not be able to withstand such high-intensity combat.

Thinking of this, the Chief of Staff became even more afraid of the troops that attacked and pacified last night.

But there is a problem he still can't figure it out.

The National Salvation Army, which was attacking the second sweeping troops, suffered more than half of the casualties a few days ago. Before the siege troops arrived, where did the reinforcement battalion on the battlefield come from?

As soon as he mentioned this question, Major General Honda explained: "Don't forget that there is a new recruit battalion in the National Salvation Army?"

"There are more than 1,000 new recruits in this new recruits, and most of them have been trained for more than two months. The National Salvation Army can completely divide them into four main battalions before the war, and replenish combat troops at any time to ensure that the combat troops are in full force."

"This is why the mopping force killed a large number of national rescue troops during the attack, but the number of national rescue troops blocking them did not decrease!"

After saying that, Honda ordered Nakasa: "Take the troops down to rest immediately, hurry up, eat and sleep, we may set off at any time!"

As soon as Nakasa left, a trace of worry flashed across Honda's serious face.

The Chief of Staff's face was also full of concern. According to the analysis just now, the enemy who attacked the county town last night was very powerful.

After attacking the second line of sweeping troops, they will definitely return to the county town. Maybe the national rescue troops there will also go to the county town.

Then the enemies in the city will be powerful, and they will only be strong and not weak in terms of military strength or combat power.

On the other hand, the first line of sweeping troops was almost destroyed, and the second line of sweeping troops suffered more than half of the casualties. If the third line of sweeping troops also had some accidents on the way back to the county town, the return troops would not only lack the strength to retake the county town, but they might even have the problem of self-protection.

Major General Honda should consider the same issues as the Chief of Staff.

The more I thought about it, the more worried the face became. Finally, I stared at the Chief of Staff’s order: “Continue to send people to the three or four groups of sweeping troops. I want to figure out their situation as soon as possible, and then decide the next action plan for the troops.”

The Chief of Staff heard the implicit meaning in the brigade commander's words.

If there was no accident in the three or four sweeping troops, there were nearly two thousand people and the artillery troops were still there, then the troops would still have hope of successfully regaining the county town.

If the two sweeping troops also had an accident on the way back to the aid, the troops would definitely have no hope of retaking the county town.

Everyone must leave here as soon as possible, leave to pacify, and do not give the national rescue army a chance to surround and destroy everyone.

After hearing the order, the Chief of Staff did not say a word of nonsense, turned around and went to make arrangements!

After finally staying until three o'clock in the afternoon, the shadow of the troops finally appeared outside the forest.

Their current situation is even worse than the second route of sweeping troops.

Although there were three mountain cannons and six large supplies in the team pulled by mules and horses, the entire team was very short, and with the wounded, the total number was no more than 600 people.

If it weren't for seeing it with your own eyes, Major General Honda would never believe that this was the sweeping force he sent out.

Facing the commander who had no wound on his body, Honda showed no mercy this time and started scolding: "Bageyalu, how did you be a commander? Nearly two thousand troops beat me like this in one night. Why are you back doing?"

Nakasa lowered his head and let the brigade commander's spitting Xingzi spray on his face, unable to say a word of rebuttal.

It is indeed his responsibility to fight like this, and it is not small.

Compared with the commander of the second-road sweeping force, he was too indecisive, which was also the most fatal factor in the defeat of the army.

After the brigade commander was tired of scolding and was almost venting his anger, the Chief of Staff dared to speak out: "Sir, please calm down, let's ask clearly the situation first. I believe that there must be a reason why the troops have suffered such great losses!"

Nakazo looked at the Chief of Staff with great gratitude and quickly seized the opportunity to report: "General, there are indeed reasons for the troops to fight like this. The low-ranking position will not shirk responsibility, but there are reasons for the intelligence department."

"In the intelligence, it says that the National Salvation Army we attacked had only one reinforcement battalion, with a total strength of no more than one thousand. By the time of attack, they had a maximum of five hundred people, but last night there were at least one thousand people in the National Salvation Army, as well as cavalry units and mountain artillery participating in the battle."

"We were not prepared for this and were caught off guard, with heavy casualties."

"Cavals and mountain artillery troops..."

Hearing these words, the brigade commander and the chief of staff were shocked in the eyes of each other.

Aren’t the artillery battalions and cavalry directly under the National Salvation Army attacking the first sweeping troops? Why did they suddenly run to the third sweeping troops?

The two battlefields are separated by thirty or forty kilometers, and the cavalry is fast, so it is possible to marche and kill them all the way.

The mountain cannons are so heavy that they must be pulled by mules and horses to march. It is good to walk five kilometers in an hour. It is absolutely impossible to cross thirty or forty kilometers in just one or two hours, and suddenly appear on the battlefield of the third-way sweeping troops.

But the subordinates will definitely not lie to them, which means they are really attacked by a large number of mountain artillery guns.

This is strange. Could it be that the artillery battalion of the National Saving Army had its wings and flew directly to the battlefield!

The answer is very simple: In addition to being pulled by mules and horses, mountain cannons can also be pulled by cars.

After receiving the order to reinforce other battlefields, Chief of Staff Chen Zhengyu immediately thought of the car transport team of the baggage company, only they could send the troops to dozens of kilometers away in a short time.

A car was equipped with two mountain cannons and ten gunners, and took two hours to send the gun battalion to the battlefield 35 kilometers away.

Major General Honda had no picture of car transporting mountain cannons in his mind.

When he was on the front line, his division was a pack horse-made division. The baggage, ammunition, artillery and artillery in the team were transported by pack horses and mules and horses. The entire division rarely saw cars.

Only when transporting cannons, howitzers, and large-caliber mountain cannons will cars be dispatched.

Even the Japanese army with a complete logistics system did not use cars to transport mountain artillery.

The national rescue army, which relies on the seized logistics supply, certainly did not have cars, let alone dispatch cars to transport mountains and fields.

The Chief of Staff was shocked and found it incredible. Like the brigade commander, he couldn't understand how those mountain cannons moved back and forth between the two battlefields.

He thought about whether the National Salvation Army had equipped more than 30 mountain artillery pieces, divided them into two, and participated in two battles at the same time.

But this idea was quickly rejected by the Chief of Staff himself.

Although the Imperial Army and the National Salvation Army fought many battles and the scale of the battles became larger and larger, there were not thirty mountain artillery pieces that the Imperial Army lost in each major battle.

Although the National Salvation Army has its own arsenal, its strength is limited and it has not yet reached the point where it produces its own mountain cannons.

Therefore, all the mountain cannons equipped by the National Salvation Army were captured, and it was impossible to exceed thirty, and it was likely that there were not even twenty.

The two of them were puzzled, and the more they thought about it, the deeper they frowned. At this moment, a second lieutenant rushed towards them with panic on his face.

Before he could stand firm, he was anxious to report: "Sir, the fourth line of sweeping troops are finished... they are all killed in battle, and there is not a single living soldier!"

"Nani?" The brigade commander was shocked.

I didn't think about the question just now. I grabbed the collar of the lieutenant and retorted with disbelief: "How is this possible? Where did the National Salvation Army come from to siege our sweeping troops? You must have read it wrong?"

The second lieutenant gasped and reported: "There was found the battlefield where the National Salvation Army ambushed them. The entire road was filled with imperial army corpses, no less than 1,500."

"In order to come back and report as soon as possible to prevent any national rescue troops from targeting us, everyone briefly confirmed the identity of the body and came back!"
Chapter completed!