"Boom!"

With the sound of a violent explosion, the bodies of seven or eight soldiers who were on guard in a dark fort outside Xinghe County, as well as a dozen soldiers in the trenches on both sides, flew into the air almost simultaneously, and their lives were abruptly stopped before they landed.

After Tian Liuwa in the command post heard the explosion, her face turned pale in an instant.

The largest caliber gun he had ever seen before was the 100-millimeter howitzer controlled by Zang Hao.

However, the power of the shell bombing just now was more than twice as powerful as that of a 100-millimeter howitzer shell.

In a clearing nine kilometers away from Xinghe County, Haruto Sakamoto, the commander of the 1st Wing of the Tanaka Brigade, had a hideous and cruel smile on his face.

More than a hundred meters behind him, three heavy guns of 150 mm caliber were lined up.

These three heavy guns were not the oldest Meiji Type 38 150mm cannon in Japan, and even the Japanese Army Department did not know that there were several heavy guns of this style in the Kwantung Army.

It has a longer range and more power than the Meiji Type 38 150mm cannon, completely crushing the former.

The main purpose of Sakamoto to start the battle in this way was to first break the morale of the independent battalion defense troops, and at the same time destroy the fortifications as much as possible, so as to reduce the number of casualties among his own soldiers in the following battle.

Responsible for assisting Tian Liuwa in the defense of Xinghe County was the 110th Brigade of the 37th Division, and the brigade commander Wang Zhibang.

At that time, Wang Zhibang was inspecting the fortifications outside the city, and after the first explosion, two explosions were heard in succession.

One of the shells landed less than 100 meters away from the trench where Wang Zhibang was, and the scorching air wave swept overhead, and the dust and gravel that kicked up instantly made Wang Zhibang's upright military uniform embarrassed.

"Little devil, this is fucking crazy! Herald! Everyone immediately hid in the trenches, and no one was allowed to probe him! ”

After the air wave, Wang Zhibang returned to Xinghe City under the escort of more than a dozen guards.

As soon as he saw Tian Liuwa, Wang Zhibang said loudly with a dark face:

"Now it's time for your battalion commander to change his tactics, right? The devil even moved out the heavy artillery, maybe it should be a plane next, right? If we keep it like this, we'll just fucking wait for the fun to be over! ”

Tian Liuwa was not in a hurry or annoyed when she heard this, but just smiled faintly:

"Brigade Commander Wang, don't be angry, I believe that our battalion commander already knows the situation in front of us now, and there will be new orders coming soon, so let's wait patiently for a while.

Also, didn't you notice that the devil's cannonballs seemed to be intentionally going outside the city? If they really wanted to attack with artillery fire, wouldn't it be better to attack the city directly?

In my opinion, they are trying to scare us, force us to go out of the city to meet the attack, and at the same time they want to suppress our morale; If we go out of the city now, it will be just the devil's intention, and people must have opened their pockets and waited for us to pass!

If I'm not mistaken, such an artillery attack by the devils will not last long, and the number of artillery pieces and shells will be very limited.

Otherwise, there is no need to fight this battle at all, and it will be covered by artillery fire and flattened this Xinghe County, so we still need to fight? ”

Wang Zhibang squinted at Tian Liuwa, walked to a chair and sat down angrily, and did not speak again.

He could naturally see that the devil was tempting and seducing, but this would cause unnecessary casualties.

Those are all fresh lives, Wang Zhibang can't bear to let them sacrifice in vain, and he didn't even see the shadow of the enemy until he died.

Liu Cheng learned about the situation in Xinghe County at the first time, but he did not make any adjustments because of this.

However, he sent someone to inform Zhou Zuopeng as soon as possible, asking him and the provisional second division to advance in the direction of Xinghe County in a fan shape at the same time, and when they were at an angle of 80 degrees to Liangcheng, they immediately stopped building bunkers and fortifications and waited for orders.

When he spoke, Liu Cheng had a joy on his face that could not be concealed, and Zhao Dengyu, the commander of the 109th Brigade, frowned.

After Liu Cheng sent the heralds, Zhao Dengyu immediately got up from the chair, walked up to Liu Cheng and asked in a deep voice:

"Battalion Commander Liu, can you be frank about your intentions in this move? You must know that your deployment like this will directly lead to huge pressure on Xinghe County, and there will inevitably be heavy casualties! ”

Liu Cheng looked directly into Zhao Dengyu's eyes, and said:

"Brigade Commander Zhao, it's not that I don't believe you, but this battle is of great significance, and there is no room for mistakes, so I hope Brigade Commander Zhao understands."

Indeed, although Song Zheyuan was very generous, Liu Cheng still didn't dare to fully believe him, let alone the people under him?

Zhang Zizhong, commander of the 37th Division, and Liu Cheng knew that there was a word difference between him and Zhang Zhizhong, the commander of the Fifth Army, who was a bald descendant; The ability may not be as good, but the determination to resist Japan is the same.

But Wang Zhibang and Zhao Dengyu, the two brigade commanders, Liu Cheng didn't know about it, and he hadn't even heard of Wang Zhibang's name; Zhao Dengyu only left the name of the heroic sacrifice, and the others are unknown.

This time, Liu Cheng's battle plan and all arrangements were biased, and flexibility accounted for most of the time.

The intentions of the deployments that have been made are also unclear, and some details need to be further adjusted.

In this case, he had to make sure that no one knew the detailed plan, otherwise failure would be inevitable if the news leaked out.

The current independent battalion could not withstand defeat, and its combat effectiveness and firepower configuration were far inferior to the Japanese army, so Liu Cheng had to make surprise moves to win.

Every battle plan must be kept strictly confidential before it is implemented.

Regarding the explanation given by Liu Cheng, Zhao Dengyu obviously couldn't accept it.

However, in the face of such a firepower attack from the enemy, he had no better way to deal with it, so he could only temporarily let Liu Cheng "mess around".

At this time, among everyone, including Song Zheyuan, the only one who has absolute confidence in Liu Cheng is Tian Haoyuan.

Looking at Song Zheyuan, who was walking around the house and uncertain, Tian Haoyuan comforted with a smile:

"Song Zxi doesn't need to worry about this, the Japanese are indeed deterring, and his subordinates have the same judgment as Battalion Commander Liu."

"I also know that the devils are scaring people, but who knows what their next plan will be? Now a wing and a regiment of puppet troops are pressed in front of Xinghe County, in case Xinghe is lost, the door of our Chahar will be open to the little devils!

If Liu Cheng and Zhou Zuopeng were finally defeated, they would lose nothing more than one army and more than 10,000 lives; But what about the people of the three counties and three banners? How many lives is that? Have you thought about it?!

Moreover, once the little devils come in, how easy is it to get them to withdraw their troops?! ”

Tian Haoyuan slowly put away his smile when he heard this, and said:

"What you said is true, but please rest assured, your subordinates firmly believe that we will win this battle in the end!"