Han Xing also heard that Wang Yaowu paid for the purchase of large tracts of land in Jiangxi, Guangxi and other places, and donated them to the 74th Army as farms for veterans and disabled soldiers. When these soldiers were old and disabled, they all had a place to eat. For the dependents of the 74th Army in the rear, Wang Yaowu paid half of the military salaries to the officers and soldiers to support their lives.

Moreover, every time an officer or soldier gets married or a funeral, the army pays for it. The military is also responsible for the schooling of military children. Therefore, the officers and men of the 74th basically have no worries when they go to the battlefield, and even if they die, they know that their families are responsible, so they dare to work hard.

Han Xing silently thought that the reason why the 74 th Army has become such a formidable situation today is inseparable from its combat tradition, combat capability, troop equipment, personnel system, and logistics management. Among these big dye vats of the Kuomintang army, it can be said that it is one of the few branches that stand out!

After Han Xing said goodbye to Wang Yaowu, he was going to lead a unit to attack the enemy in the north, which was also the 33rd Division of the Japanese army.

Han Xing, Liu Zhiyuan, and Hou Dashan discussed in this way, and the large troops of the Southern Expeditionary Army stayed in Shanggao to prepare for the war urgently, which was the main battlefield. Han Xing led Zhang Xiaosan's guard battalion with a radio station to the front line of Miling to participate in the battle to support Li Jue.

The 107th Division of Li Jue's 70th Army is located in Xiangfu, Gao'an, Dingjia, and Wangjiawei, and one is located in the Songhu Street and Zhentou areas south of the Jinjiang River; The 9th Reserve Division is located in the southwest of Fengxin County, along the Li and Wuqiao River; The 9th Division is located in the areas of Guxian, Cheping, Huibu, Zhacun, Zhuxi, Luofang, Yecheng, and Shangfu Town, west of Fengxin.

The 70th Army belongs to Xue Yue's 9th Theater and is a powerful force under Luo Zhuoying of the 19th Group Army. The army belonged to the Central Army, formerly known as Tang Shengzhi's Hunan Army. After years of conquest, there are still some officers and veterans from Hunan who serve, so there is a strong atmosphere of the Hunan army.

As we all know, the Hunan army has very strong combat effectiveness, especially being able to fight tough battles, so the combat effectiveness of the 70th Army is not bad, and it belongs to the middle and upper reaches of the national army.

Han Xing and Li Jue, the commander of the 70th Army, were also not born, and it was during the First Battle of Changsha that the Southern Expeditionary Army assaulted the flank camp of Changsha. In the Battle of Yingtian, Xu Da's air force and Mao Yingchu's squadron united to fight the air brigade of Osazu Osa, the Japanese air force brigade.

After the victory in the air battle, an air attack was launched against the Japanese troops who attacked the camp. The little devil didn't eat vegetables, and the victory in the defensive battle of Yingtian was a lot of color.

The enemy forces on the north route are the 14th and 215th Infantry Wings of the 33rd Division and the 33rd Wing of the Independent Engineer Corps, with a strength of about 10,000 people. On March 15, they attacked the Fengxin, Yanli, and Wuqiaohe areas in the southwest direction from Anyi, and then continued to advance to Cunqianwei and Huchengwei, encircling and annihilating the 70th Army in the area, and cooperating with the 34th Division on the left flank to capture Shanggao.

After learning that the Japanese army was fiercely killed, Li Jue was ordered to leave one division to fight on the first line of Fengxin, and the other division to retreat south to the Shanggao area of the second line, preparing to fight the final battle with the Japanese army with the 74th Army.

The Nationalist troops who stayed in Fengxin knew that the Japanese army was strong and gave the Japanese army a certain amount of casualties, so they took the initiative to abandon Fengxin after avoiding being surrounded by the Japanese army. As a result, the 33rd Division successfully occupied Fengxin on the 15th, and on the 16th, it advanced to the vicinity of Coffin Hill and Cheping.

The 70th Army used the first and second line positions to resist steadily, and the 33rd Division struggled to attack, with certain casualties on both sides.

In the current Miling Village, Wangjiawei Township, Gao'an County, a little north, there is a place called Miling. The west side of this place is full of mountains, and on the east side is a valley road from northeast to southwest, and if the little devil attacks high, this is the enemy's only way. The first battalion of the 107th Regiment of the 320th Division of the 70th Army was stationed on this mountain, and the battalion commander of the major was Zou Jiyan.

Further east of this valley road, there is a mountain, headed by a mountain called Qiuling. The second battalion of the 320th Regiment was stationed on the mountain, and the battalion commander was Wang Xueqin.

These two mountains were like a gate, tightly locking a valley road for the 33rd Division's march to the upper level.

At this time, Han Xing led the guard battalion of the Southern Expeditionary Army to the foot of Miling Mountain and found the battalion commander Zou Jiyan. The two met and saluted each other first. Han Xing said: "I am Han Xing of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and I specially led the guard battalion to support the defensive battle of Miling. ”

Zou Jiyan was also overjoyed when he saw Han Xing, and hurriedly saluted and said: "I am Zou Jiyan, the commander of the first battalion of the 107th Regiment of the 320th Division of the 70th Army. Commander Han, we have known each other for a long time, in the first battle of Yingtian, your Southern Expeditionary Army fought hard! I've been looking forward to you coming for a long time, but I didn't expect to meet the Southern Expeditionary Army again today. ”

The two of them held hands and talked for a while, and Zou Jiyan said to Han Xing: "Commander Han, please guide our fortifications first, right?" ”

Under Zou Jiyan's introduction, Han Xing first took a look at the fortifications of Miling.

On the way of the Japanese army, a large number of grenades, explosives bags were planted in the first battalion. The rings of these grenades are pulled out, and the rings are secretly tied to a place, and as long as the little devil messes up, he must have touched these rings, and then the grenades explode. As for the explosive pack, it is controlled by nearby fighters, and once the enemy passes by, the explosive bag can be pulled and severely damage the enemy.

At that time, the 70th Army lacked mines, so it had to use these soil methods instead of mines.

Zou Jiyan pulled Han Xing up the mountain, and right on the mountain, the first battalion set up heavy machine gun positions and anti-aircraft machine gun positions according to the terrain on the mountain, and then the infantry fortifications.

Han Xing nodded approvingly, this Zou Jiyan is also smart, and he actually arranged air defense fortifications. If you can't deal with the enemy's air raids, let the little devils' planes bombard indiscriminately overhead, which will seriously destroy our troops and hit our morale.

The anti-aircraft armament of the 1st battalion was three MG-08 Maxim heavy machine guns, which had an effective range of 2000 meters and a maximum range of 3500 meters, and the bullet was 7.92x57 mm Mauser bullets.

Han Xing said to him: "Battalion Commander Zou, how about our Southern Expeditionary Army establish an air defense position again, and use it as horns with you to form a cross-fire point. ”

Zou Jiyan said loudly: "That's good! I know that the 12.7 mm heavy machine gun of your Southern Expeditionary Army is more powerful than the Maxim heavy machine gun, and the bullets are much larger. ”

Han Xing immediately asked Zhang Xiaosan to arrange the heavy machine gun positions of the Southern Expeditionary Army, which could not only support the ground, but also strike at the enemy's air power.

In order to strengthen the combat firepower of the front-line troops, Han Xing had already arranged for a company to be equipped with three 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, and a guard battalion was nine 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. If these nine heavy machine guns are fired together, they can form a salvo of four or five thousand rounds of bullets in one minute.

That's a rain of bullets in the sky!

Han Xing and Zou Jiyan discussed and said, "Battalion Commander Zou, our Southern Expeditionary Army is not here to visit the battle, but to fight. Look where we've arranged! ”

There is also a reason why Han Xing said this, the best terrain, one is Miling, and the other is Qiuling, which are occupied by the first and second battalions of the 320th Regiment, and if Han Xing's southern expeditionary army occupies a remote hill, it may have no battle to fight. Rather than that, it is better to squeeze together with a battalion, because this rice ridge is the only way for the 33rd Division.

Zou Jiyan is also quite good at talking: "I see that your Southern Expeditionary Army is here to watch the battle, our battalion can't fight anymore, you go up again." ”

"That's good," Han Xing said to Zhang Xiaosan, "the team will immediately take cover behind Miling, and hurry to dig anti-aircraft fortifications so as not to be injured by the enemy's aviation." ”

Han Xing knew that behind the mountain, he was basically not afraid of the enemy's artillery fire, let alone the enemy's tanks, and as for the enemy's air raids, it was difficult to say. The top priority at the moment is to guard against enemy air raids.

"Yes!" Zhang Xiaosan agreed, and immediately led the officers and men of the whole battalion behind Miling, and urgently built air defense fortifications in full swing.

Seeing the guard battalion digging air defense fortifications in the back, Han Xing and Zou Jiyan talked off topic again. Han Xing said: "Battalion Commander Zou, you say that this 33rd Division is not stupid, it is not enough for them to occupy such a large territory, they do not defend such a large area of territory, but come here to grab territory with us." Isn't he afraid that the rear will be empty and our nest will be raided at once? ”

"Who said it wasn't," Zou Jiyan also said, "I heard this time that the 33rd Division was almost out of the nest, and only one wing was left in the rear." A wing guarding such a large area, how can it be law-abiding! ”

Han Xing said: "Your national army, don't you take advantage of the situation to copy his nest!" ”

"I can't spare him," Zou Jiyan said, "I heard that the local national army guerrillas have already taken advantage of the emptiness behind the little devils to attack them everywhere." ”

While he was talking, the air raid sirens sounded, and about 10 planes of the devils, a whole squadron, flew towards this side. Han Xingxin said, it has been arranged a long time ago, how can Xu Da's air force allow you to do anything wrong, they have been waiting for you for a long time!

Han Xing shouted at Zhang Zuogan: "Director Zhang! ”

Zhang Zuogan, the chief of operations, had been on standby for a long time, and when he heard Han Xing's call, he immediately ran forward, saluted, and said to Han Xing, "What instructions does Commander Han have?" ”

Han Xing said to him: "Tell Xu Da and tell him to strike hard at these Japanese air forces, and don't be polite." ”

Zhang Zuogan agreed, and hurriedly used the radio to contact him.

What Han Xing said was actually nonsense, Xu Da's air force had long noticed the air raid of the enemy on the front line of Miling, and had long been ready for battle. Han Xing's words were just for Zou Jiyan, and it also gave him a glimpse of the majesty of the Southern Expeditionary Air Force.

Han Xing took the telescope and observed, the weather was good, and in the distance, the enemy looked like a mixed formation, with 6 Zero planes and 6 96-1 fighters. Han Xing said to Zou Jiyan, who was also observing with a telescope: "It seems that the little devil's aviation is also constantly being updated, why can't I see the 95-1 biplane." ”

It seems that Zou Jiyan also knows a little about airplanes, and said: "Biplanes should have been eliminated a long time ago, with high resistance and slow flight, they may never be seen again in the future." ”