88 Division Command.

After a night's march, the 88th Division had left the war zone, Gui Yongqing had run farther, and the 27th Army had reached the vicinity of Kaifeng.

"Division commander, the 524th regiment is calling."

"524 regiment, aren't they nearby?"

Long Muhan took the telegram, which was sent by Xiao Zhan to the division headquarters, hoping that the main force would hide on the spot.

Long Muhan patted the telegram and asked, "What's going on?" ”

The deputy chief of staff beside him replied: "Last night the troops retreated in a hurry and did not have time to report to the division commander. The 524th Regiment did not all evacuate, leaving behind an elite unit of more than 200 people, led by Xiao Zhan. At around ten o'clock last night, the field hospital was robbed of a cart of medical supplies by Xiao Zhan when they were retreating, so it seems that they were going to defend Lanfeng. ”

Long Muhan leaked out of anger, and said angrily: "Disobeying orders on the battlefield, robbing strategic materials, did Xiao Zhan take me, the division commander, in his eyes!" ”

The deputy chief of staff said: "The division commander calms his anger first, in fact, this is not a bad thing. We evacuated Lanfeng without authorization, and the superiors were very angry, and now that our troops continue to defend to the death, it really came to that moment when Gui Yongqing was blocking in front of us, and Xiao Zhan was in the back, we had a statement. ”

The "rhetoric" on the battlefield is very learned. If the rhetoric is good, you can be promoted and rich, and you can avoid disaster and avoid responsibility; If the rhetoric is not good, the small one will lose his office, and the big one will lose his life. For example: "repeated defeats", "repeated defeats".

Evacuated Lan Fenglong Mu Han has been uneasy in his heart, and the source of his uneasiness is Xiao Zhan's last sentence, about "Journey to the West". Gui Yongqing is very tough in the background, and it is inevitable that he will not be pushed out as a scapegoat when he is held accountable.

Thinking of this, Long Muhan regained his composure a little and said, "You go on." ”

The deputy staff officer continued: "It is said that Xiao Zhan is brave and unstrategic, but I don't think so, he is wise and foolish. Yesterday at the headquarters, I kept observing this person, and it seemed to be nonsense, but in fact he was attentive, and we were all led away by the nose by this person. What kind of person is Regiment Leader Wu, he is a battle-hardened veteran, how can he let Xiao Zhan be so nonsense. ”

As he spoke, the deputy chief of staff looked at the telegram on the table and said, "If I guessed correctly, yesterday's clear code was Xiao Zhan's masterpiece, now let's hide it on the spot, I can probably guess a thing or two." ”

"What's the point?"

"The way of reality and fiction. We evacuated overnight, and it was impossible for the Japanese to know, but now that it was almost dawn, the Japanese would soon find out where we were. We are hiding in the spot, and the Japanese army does not know the whereabouts of the 88th Division at this time, which will have a great psychological impact on them. When the time comes, Xiao Zhan will make good use of this condition, and the Japanese army will suffer a big loss. ”

The deputy chief of staff finally said: "Helping Xiao Zhan is also helping ourselves. The commander-in-chief will not leave Lan Feng alone, it will take time for the 71st Army to assemble and deploy, and Xiao Zhan only needs to hold on for one day. When the time comes, Xiao Zhan will naturally become a hero, we just need to say that Xiao Zhan's stay is the order of the division headquarters, so that we are not only innocent but meritorious. ”

The deputy chief of staff's words reassured Long Muhan, and then he sent two telegrams, one for Xiao Zhan and one for the group army headquarters.

The content of the telegram sent to Xiao Zhan was that Xiao Zhan was ordered to defend Lanfeng for one day, hold on to and wait for reinforcements, and the main force of the division would hide on the spot. This telegram can be used as evidence that Long Mu Han ordered Xiao to fight to the death to defend Lanfeng.

The other was for Xue Yue, explaining the reason for evacuating Lanfeng. Gui Yongqing's troops evacuated Lanfeng without authorization, and the 88th Division suffered heavy casualties after three days of hard fighting and urgently needed to rest, that is, it temporarily withdrew from Lanfeng to avoid its edge, leaving an elite unit to defend Lanfeng. When the enemy fell into a bitter battle in Lanfeng, the 88th Division was ready to attack, waved its division to counterattack, and regained the important area from the new.

After Xue Yue got this message, he understood the true intention of Ming Code last night, but he was skeptical of Long Muhan's explanation. Immediately, Xue Yue also issued two telegram orders.

The first way: order the 88th Division to rest in concealment, reorganize into the 71st Army under the command of Song Xilian, and cooperate with the 71st Army to counterattack Lanfeng on the 25th;

The second way: the 27th Army of Gui Yongqing was ordered to immediately return to Lanfeng, and it was necessary to launch an attack on the enemy forces in Lanfeng and Luowangzhai on the 25th. If there is a delay, military justice will be conducted!

On May 24, the 2nd Wing of the 14th Division of the Japanese Army arrived in Lanfeng as scheduled. Due to Tu Feiyuan's concerns, the 2nd Wing did not arrive in the surrounding area until 8 a.m.

Lanfeng is the only way for the 14th Division to survive, and if it does not take Lanfeng, the 14th Division will be wiped out. Since the outbreak of war, it has never been the case that a division or regiment has been completely annihilated, and it would be a great shame to be completely annihilated here, and the political impact is very far-reaching.

As the captain of the wing, Ishiguro Sadazo felt pressure, and Xiao Zhan's clear code and Tu Feiyuan's advice made him feel pressured. If you are not afraid that the enemy is strong, you are afraid that you will not see the enemy.

Zhangzhai, northeast district of Lanfeng, here is the road to Lanfeng.

The area was flat and the Nationalist army built fortifications here. Machine guns and mortar bunkers were built behind the positions, and trenches were dug outside the bunkers, which together with light and heavy weapons on the commanding heights in the village formed a network of crossfire.

In order to be cautious, Ishiguro Sadazo personally came to the front line to command, and when he picked up the telescope to observe the enemy position, he found that it was empty.

"Is it true that the enemy has withdrawn completely?"

Ishiguro put down the binoculars and muttered to himself. Even he couldn't believe that this could be true, and who would be stupid enough to give up such a good strategic place.

Here, Xiao Zhan's clear code yesterday had a certain effect, which psychologically called the "suggestion effect". Believe it or not, that hint will linger in your mind and affect your judgment.

Since the whereabouts of the 88th Division were unknown, Ishiguro did not dare to be careless, so he sent a small team to test and tell the soldiers to be extra careful.

It didn't take long for a squad of more than fifty devils to advance towards the position. In a group of five, in a toothed triangle formation, only the cover of the machine gun crew was missing.

It didn't take long for the spearhead to come to the position, which was indeed empty, and then the flag soldiers sent the information back to the rear.

Ishiguro Sadazo immediately ordered the forward troops to search the village, and the next two teams followed as backup. In the event of a battle in the village, the follow-up troops immediately attacked the village.

The team in front of them walked in the direction of the village after receiving the order, and the vigilance was not as high as before, and the formation of the team was somewhat messy.

At this time, a false signal was generated in the minds of these devil soldiers, and the enemy abandoned this outlying position. Until the signal was confirmed that they had entered the village, no enemy was found on the outskirts of the village.

The flag signal was released again, and the follow-up troops quickened their pace and entered the positions and trenches, while the devils in the village continued to search.

The big stone in Ishiguro's heart was finally put down, and it seemed that the Chinese army had really given up on Lanfeng. The left and right flanks were reconnoitred and did not find any signs of Chinese troops.

"Stupid Shina soldiers." Ishiguro Sadazo let out a long-lost smile, and gently shook his hand and ordered, "Order the troops to march towards Lanfeng." ”

As soon as the words fell.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ”

“……”

Suddenly, there was a loud thunderous noise from the forward position, and a series of explosions occurred in three trenches. Flames suddenly rolled out on the battlefield, and nearly 100 devils were completely drowned in the flames.

Just now, when the devil completely entered the trench, the sappers hidden in the shadows pressed the blasting device together, so it had this effect.

The explosion had just stopped, and the more than thirty devils in the village were still in a state of confusion, not knowing whether to continue the search or choose to retreat.

And at this moment, the village was filled with murderous voices and gunfire. The Chinese army, which was nearly ten times larger than the devils, suddenly came out, and the soldiers were all murderous, which caused a great psychological shock to these devil soldiers.

In terms of morale, troops, and location, Xiao Zhan's team has the absolute upper hand. Before those devils could react, the Chinese army was already killing them from all directions.

"Brothers, kill! Quick! ”

"Dadada" "......"

Rows of submachine gun bullets poured down on the devils, and the devil soldiers fell in rows as they retreated. In the face of such overwhelming strength, they had no choice but to retreat, but even if they retreated, they could not escape the fate of being completely annihilated.

More than a dozen devils withdrew from the village, but machine guns had been set up on the commanding heights on the outskirts of the village. In the open space thirty meters between the village and the position, those devils were shot in the back and died in shame.

In this battle, Xiao Zhan used almost all his troops, and the defense of this village was a company configuration. Xiao Zhan just wants to tell the enemy: an empty city is not empty. Creates the illusion that there are sufficient troops.

"It's cool! Company Commander Xiao really has a set, and he deserves to be the hero of the 88th Division. ”

Xiao Zhan was leading people to clean up the battlefield, and Zhao Guangfu rushed to Xiao Zhan.

Xiao Zhan said: "Fire first and then soldiers, I definitely don't need soldiers to kill the enemy, soldiers' lives are very precious." ”

Zhao Guangfu admired Xiao Zhan's tactics, and admired his affection and righteousness even more, so he sighed: "I was right to stay." ”

Xiao Zhan saw that the soldiers were almost cleaned up, and he said: "The devils will attack soon, and this village has no value of defending." To carry out the second plan, I have to destroy one more squadron of devils before leaving. ”