On the highway from Xiangxian County to Changzhi, more than 3,000 commanders and fighters of the 386 Brigade Guard Battalion of the Eighth Route Army and the 772nd Regiment were carrying more than 5,000 puppet prisoners of war to the south.

Although the Eighth Route Army was very strictly guarded, there were still puppet prisoners of war who secretly ran away from time to time.

Fortunately, Wang Yan had expected this, so the escaped puppet prisoners of war not only failed to provide effective information to the Japanese army, but made the Japanese command even more confused.

Until now, the Japanese command has not figured out where the main forces of the 386 Brigade are.

Commander Cheng caught up with Deputy Brigade Commander Han and asked: "Deputy Brigade Commander, Tunliu County is less than ten miles ahead, should we fight Tunliu County first, or directly fight Changzhi?" ”

Deputy Brigade Commander Han said: "Have you contacted the underground party organization in the city?" ”

"Got in touch." Regiment Commander Cheng nodded and said, "There was originally a military police squadron of the Japanese army in Tunliu County, and then a battalion of the puppet army, but yesterday most of the troops were transferred to Lu'an and Changzhi, so now there is only one military police squad of the Japanese army left in Tunliu City, plus a company of the puppet army. ”

"Deputy Brigade Commander, Tunliu has such a small number of troops."

"Our 772nd Regiment can be defeated with a single charge."

"It's just fat to the mouth, and it's a pity not to eat it."

Deputy Brigade Commander Han shook his head and said: "No, our main task is to mobilize the 37th Division of the Japanese Army, and the sooner we move, the more beneficial it will be for us. ”

"Order the troops to bypass Tunliu County and go directly to Changzhi, and fight Changzhi directly!"

"Yes!" Commander Cheng agreed and said, "Communicator, pass on my orders!" ”

The order of Deputy Brigade Commander Han was quickly conveyed.

……

Taiyuan, the headquarters of the First Army of the Japanese Army in Shanxi.

It was already past one o'clock in the morning, but the lights were still bright in the war room of the headquarters.

Yoshio Shinozuka, Takayoshi Tanaka, and Norio Nozawa and more than a dozen staff officers have not yet left work, and they are all eagerly waiting for news from the front.

The Telecommunications Division's radio stations were all on.

Even the high-power walkie-talkie is on.

The sound of sending and receiving reports has never stopped.

The operators listened to the signal with headphones on and recorded the dots and strokes.

Once it is written, it is immediately forwarded to the translator, who translates it into text against the codebook.

Eventually, telegrams full of text were collected in front of the case of Norio Nozawa, an intelligence staff officer.

When he flipped through one of the telegrams, Nozawa's face suddenly changed, and then he took the telegram, stood up and walked into the war room.

"General! The Changzhi gendarmerie is in an emergency! ”

Noruo Nozawa walked up to Yoshio Shinozuka.

Yoshio Shinozuka didn't stretch out his hand to take it, but waved his hand and said, "Read." ”

Nozawa Kio unfolded the telegram and read aloud: "Headquarters: At 0:03 in the night, Changzhi Beiguan was shelled by the Chinese army, and the artillery fire of the Chinese army was very intensive, and its artillery should be 75mm caliber mountain guns and 70mm caliber 92 infantry guns, and the number should be between 10 and 20 guns!" ”

Including Takayoshi Tanaka, everyone's eyes looked at Yoshio Shinozuka.

The southbound detachment of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army has such a powerful artillery, which should undoubtedly be the main force.

Yoshio Shinozuka also thought so, and immediately shouted: "Order, the 37th Division will immediately go south and rush to the aid of Changzhi!" ”

"Hello!" Nozawa was stunned, hurriedly returned to the telecommunications section, drafted the telegram first, and then ordered the telegraph operator to convert it into dot marks and send it to the 37th Division in Saigo Prefecture.

……

Xixiang County.

The commander of the 37th Division, Yuichiro No, and the chief of staff, Hiromasa Hamada, stood on the tower of Dongguan Castle.

While enjoying the night view, the two old devils were also discussing the whereabouts of the main force of the 386 Brigade.

"Hamada-kun, in which direction do you think the main force of the 386 Brigade will be?" Yuichiro Nozo said.

"Division commander, I don't think it's the 386 main force in either direction, or both."

"What does that mean?" Yuichiro Nozo said confusedly, "Why can't I understand?" ”

"What I mean is that the 386 Brigade is simply divided into two, and the strength of the south and north should be about the same."

"This is also the consistent practice of the Eighth Route Army, because no matter which way is eaten, the other can survive."

"And being able to retain half of the troops in such an unprecedented sweep is enough for the Communist Eighth Route Army to be called a victory."

"There's something different about you." Noyuichiro said again, "So, what is the purpose of the 386 Brigade that has spent so much effort and captured so many prisoners of war of the Imperial Army?" ”

Hamada Hiroshi: "It's nothing more than confusing the public, let's guess which direction the main force of the 386 Brigade is, so as to ignore the fact that in fact, which direction is not the main force of the 386, and then dare not divide the troops into two ways to pursue!" ”

After saying this, Hamada Hiroshi continued: "Division commander, please forgive me for being blunt, I'm afraid we have missed the opportunity to wipe out the 386 Brigade!" Now, whether it is going south or north, it can only wipe out half of its troops. ”

"Hamada-kun, this is just your guess." Noyuichiro said with a smile, "I think that the main force of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army should have gone south to Changzhi." ”

As soon as the words fell, a communications staff officer hurriedly ran up to the city pass.

"Division Commander!" The communications staff officer paused, "The headquarters sent an urgent telegram, ordering our division to immediately go south and rush to the aid of Changzhi!" ”

"Hamada-kun, it seems that His Excellency the Commander's judgment is in line with mine." Noyuichiro smiled, and then shouted, "Order, all infantry wings and brigades directly under each division and regiment immediately go south to Changzhi!" ”

"Hello!" Hiroshi Hamada and communications staff officer Huo Ran paused.

……

At this time, it was in the north of Changzhi County.

The battle has entered a white-hot phase.

A charge of the 772nd Regiment had just been broken up by the Japanese.

"Captain!" The commander of the 1st Battalion, who was in charge of the main attack, said with a dark face, "The devil's machine gun fire is too intensive, can you let the artillery cover Beicheng Pass again?" ”

Commander Cheng said with annoyance: "If I had known, I should have asked for 2 rapid-fire guns!" ”

"yes." The commander of the 1st battalion said, "If there were 2 rapid-fire guns, Beicheng Pass would have been taken long ago!" ”

Regiment Commander Cheng turned his head and said to Deputy Brigade Commander Han: "Deputy Brigade Commander, the devils in Beichengguan are too cunning, they actually hollowed out the city wall from the middle and built it into a heavy machine gun fortification, and our mountain artillery can't hit them at all." ”

"Otherwise, in a different direction, we will fight the East Gate City Pass or the South Gate City Pass instead?"

"Nope." Deputy Brigade Commander Han categorically refused, "There is no turning back when I open the bow, and now I can only fight hard, otherwise if we change, Yoshio Shinozuka will definitely be suspicious." ”

"It shouldn't be." Captain Cheng said, "The old devil is not that smart. ”

"Yoshio Shinozuka, this old devil is smarter than you think, otherwise he can become the commander of the First Army stationed in Shanxi?" Deputy Brigade Commander Han snorted and said, "Order the artillery to shoot another half of the base number of shells." ”

"Deputy Brigade Commander, this is too wasteful." Head Cheng said distressedly.