If you go straight from the front line to Shuanggou and Dadian, it is nearly 110 kilometers, and if you take a detour, it will be even farther. The Southern Expeditionary Army had such an advantage, taking a helicopter away. If you had walked, you would have gotten there, and the cucumbers and vegetables would have been cold.

Han Xing transferred a helicopter formation, which is still the old rule, Han Xing and the guard battalion will take the helicopter to go to the front station first, and the follow-up troops will be transported under the command of Liu Zhiyuan.

The helicopter formation was marching westward in the vast night, and Han Xing glanced at the indicator light on the helicopter, which was still red on the left and green on the right and white on the tail. Just behind Zhang Fei's helicopter, the colored lights of the helicopter formed a neat long snake formation, heading towards the west, advancing in an orderly manner.

Han Xing recalled the overall battle situation in the past few days.

Just when the 3rd Engineer Wing staggered and barely broke through, the main force of the 3rd Division retreated to the Zaoyang area, preparing to attack Yichang southward, but was cut off by the 33rd Group Army of the Nationalist Army under the command of Zhang Zizhong.

Just as the 3rd Division was preparing to attack with all its strength and open the way for the attack, the 29th Brigade led by Major General Oshirodo Sanji of the division was suddenly surrounded by the 13th Army of the 31st Group Army in the area of Shuanggou and Dadian northeast of Fancheng, while the 85th Army was ordered to flank the 40th Division.

The ammunition supply carried by the 3rd Division was almost depleted in the previous attack. This time, it was surrounded by the heavy troops of the 13th Army, which was naturally anxious and quite embarrassed.

The target of the helicopter is the area of Shuanggou and Dadian in the northeast of Fancheng, and the helicopter has such an advantage, it does not need to turn in the air, and can move forward in a straight line. Just before the helicopter drove to Shuanggou and Dadian, suddenly there was a fierce sound of gunfire and the fire of bullets, shells, and grenades from below.

Zhang Fei asked Han Xing: "There is a fierce battle below, what should we do?" ”

Han Xing asked Zhang Fei: "Did you go to Shuanggou and Dadian?" If not, where has this been? ”

Zhang Fei replied: "According to the flight map, it is not the area of Shuanggou and Dadian that we are going to reach at all, but the area of Huyang Town in Tanghe County, Henan. What are we going to do? Or continue to fly to Shuanggou and Dadian? ”

Han Xing thought for a while and said, "Since we are here to fight, we finally caught the fighter, so don't care where it is, let's go down first." What about Zhang Zuogan? ”

Director Zhang agreed: "Yes." "He's standing by.

Han Xing said to him: "Quickly ask what place is below, what troops are fighting, and who are fighting?" ”

After a while, Zhang Zuogan came to report and said: "Report to Commander Han, this is the troops of Shi Jue, the 4th Division of the 85th Army of the 31st Group Army, they were ordered to flank the Japanese of the 40th Division, and suddenly encountered the enemy in Wangzhuang, Huyang Town, about a brigade. They were attacking the enemy. ”

Han Xing thought about it, and said to Zhang Xiaosan, but also to himself: "What are we doing here?" It's here to fight devils. Although the target is Shuanggou and Dadian, since there is an enemy here, what are we going to do there? Even when you get there, you don't know what the situation is, maybe the fighter plane has been lost a long time ago. We're here to fight devils. ”

Zhang Xiaosan has always been superstitious about Han Xing, the general situation is that Han Xing says one, he doesn't say two, Han Xing says beating dogs, he doesn't dare to scold chickens. At this time, he also echoed Han Xing and said, "Yes, Commander Han, we will fight devils in Huyang Town, Tanghe County." Shuanggou is so far away, even if you run there, maybe the devil has already been destroyed. It's called chopping grass and beating rabbits -- piggybacking on them. ”

Han Xing's determination was made, so he said to Zhang Zuogan: "Director Zhang, quickly contact Shi Jue or his subordinates, please give us instructions on the direction of landing." ”

Zhang Zuogan quickly contacted him.

After a while, three fires lit up below.

The helicopter quickly circled and descended, getting closer and closer to the ground. The huge fan of the propeller fanned the three fires on the ground, but it was only because of the distance that they did not extinguish the fires.

Zhang Fei's helicopters began to land one by one, and these 12 helicopters also occupied a large area, because this was a plain area, otherwise, it could only land the next helicopter or a few helicopters, and the others could only hover in the air.

Surrounded by the guard battalion, Han Xing stepped off the helicopter majestically.

At this time, an officer of the national army ran over, and when he saw Han Xing, his expression was very excited, and he stammered a little: "Report to Commander Han Xing, I am the 31st Regiment of the 4th Division of the 85th Army of the 11st Group Army, and the regiment commander Wan Zhairen." May I ask Commander Han Xing, what kind of plane is this, why didn't you even use the airfield, and just got down. ”

Han Xing also returned a military salute to him, and politely replied: "I am Han Xing, the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and I have come to participate in the battle to eliminate the devils. ”

It seems that Wan Zhairen's attention has not yet focused on eliminating the devils, he is still engrossed in watching these planes, and asks: "How many people can it carry at one time, how far can it fly, and what weapons are on the planes?" ”

It seems that he is an airplane blind, but Han Xing didn't have so much time to talk about these technical issues, so he quickly changed the topic and said, "Commander Wan, can we have time to talk about these issues in the future!" I need to know exactly what the enemy is doing now, so we can go into battle! ”

However, Commander Wan is also quite interesting, as if he is far more interested in the novelty of these planes than in fighting devils. He smiled and said to Han Xing, "Commander Han, don't you explain these things clearly. I'm in a panic! Originally, I thought that our 31st Group Army was good enough, but I didn't expect that you were better than us, flying such a plane to fight devils, cow-"

Han Xing looked at the 11th regiment, which was also refreshing, and each regiment had 3 infantry battalions under its jurisdiction. The infantry battalion has 3 infantry companies, 1 light machine gun company, and 9 light machine guns. In addition, the regiment has 1 heavy machine gun company with 6 heavy machine guns, 1 mortar platoon with 2 82-mm mortars.

Individual equipment is also quite majestic, infantry standard field equipment, including German or imitation German (domestic formal rifle) 1924 style 7.92mm rifle, German M35 steel helmet, leather backpack, a horseshoe-shaped military blanket, rain cloth, iron lunch box, water bottle, dry food bag, bayonet, two sets of triple leather bullet box.

If you look at Tang Enbo's troops, and then look at the local miscellaneous troops, it will be much more pitiful, the military uniforms are miscellaneous, the infantry is made in Hanyang, and there are not a few light machine guns in a company, let alone mortars with heavy machine guns.

The worst was the Sichuan army, wearing straw sandals and carrying old rifles, the muzzle of which was so old that the bullets flew out and rolled sideways, and no one could say where it could go. There were not enough grenades, not to mention heavy machine guns and mortars, not to mention heavy artillery.

As for why the same national army has such a far difference in equipment. Han Xing thinks that this is all caused by historical reasons. Chiang Kai-shek, who claimed to be an orthodox nationalist soldier, first came up to unite with the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, fought with the old warlords, and later occupied half of the country, and then turned against the Communist Party and did not recognize people, starting a civil war, and at the same time fighting with local warlords.

After decades of civil war, countless soldiers and civilians were killed, and they finally gained the upper hand and grasped nearly all of China's political, economic, cultural, and military power. In their eyes, they are the masters of China, they are the orthodoxy of China, and other regimes and armed forces should be eliminated.

With the help of Germany's advanced military, Chiang Kai-shek first equipped 10 German armor divisions, and also prepared to equip 10 more German armor divisions. These equipment were armed according to the standard equipment of Germany, the most advanced military power at that time.

The gunfire of the July 7 Incident shattered the good dream of Chiang Kai-shek and his ilk to be arbitrary, and they had no choice but to unite the armed forces of the whole of China to deal with the Japanese army. When it comes to equipment, of course, you have to keep the best equipment to yourself. When it comes to the local miscellaneous army and XXX troops, he doesn't care, this is called fending for himself, using the power of the Japanese to defeat these troops, saving himself later.

That is why there is such a big gap in the armament of various units.

Weapons, while not the decisive factor in winning or losing a war, are an important factor. Let's ask, the Sichuan Army with grenades in hand, the Northwest Army with big blades in hand, and a considerable part of the Central Army with German armament divisions are all fighting against the Japanese army that is one level higher. The outcome of this war can be quickly guessed by the reader.

Han Xing's helicopter formation called Zhang Fei quickly returned and airlifted all the troops to Huyang Town. And together with the head of Wan Zhairen, he went to the front line to check the situation, and asked how he found the enemy by the way on the way.

It turned out that the 85th Division of the 4th Army was ordered to attack and advance in the direction of Zaoyang.

On May 14, Han Shengtao, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Regiment of the 4th Division of the 85th Army, led the Jianbing Battalion to Huyang Town, Tanghe County, north of Zaoyang, Hubei Province, and camped in Henan, and quickly dispatched a vigilant force to pay attention to the enemy situation in the Zaoyang area.

At about 11 o'clock that night, the people of Wangzhuang, about 3 miles north of Huyang Town, fled to Huyang Town one after another, panicking that 4 or 500 Japanese soldiers had entered Wangzhuang and were cooking, as well as artillery and Yanmar.

Han Shengtao was taken aback when he heard this, he had just come from Wangzhuang in the evening, why didn't he find out about the enemy. A platoon commander was immediately sent to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and each company (3 infantry companies, 1 machine gun company) was ordered to prepare for battle.

Soon, fierce gunfire was heard from Wangzhuang, and the Japanese sentries also spotted our scouts, and a fierce battle ensued.

Soon the scouts came and reported: "There are indeed hundreds of enemy troops in Wangzhuang, and the noise of men and horses is very loud. It is really impossible to judge how many people and what kind of troops. ”

Han Shengtao immediately concluded that it might be a Japanese brigade passing by temporarily, and immediately reported the situation to the regiment commander Wan Zhairen.