As soon as the Kawaguchi detachment was dispatched, the independent regiment on the battlefield west of the town immediately discovered it, and when it switched from attacking on the spot to defending, it planned to leave one battalion to block the attack, and the other two battalions quickly withdrew from the battlefield.

But since Heiji Kawaguchi has decided to go out and fight the independent regiment, how can he let Xu Rui get his wish?

Heiji Kawaguchi immediately ordered the 1st Infantry Brigade of the 101st Infantry Wing, which rushed to the Zhenxi battlefield first, desperately pressed up from the front and bit the Dameishan Independent Regiment.

The 2nd Battalion of the Independent Regiment was responsible for the blockade, and the combat effectiveness of the 2nd Battalion was actually the strongest among the three infantry battalions of the Independent Regiment, at least at this stage, but because it was hastily transferred from attack to defense, it was too late to build fortifications, so it could not stop the onslaught of the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army at all.

After only five or six minutes of the exchange of fire, the defense line of the 2nd Battalion was already in a precarious position.

Seeing this, Xu Rui had no choice but to order the 1st Battalion, which had left the battlefield, to turn around and return, build a second line of defense behind the 2nd Battalion, and then order the 3rd Battalion to build a third line of defense behind the 1st Battalion, and then order the 2nd Battalion to retreat.

But as a result, the retreat of the Separate Regiment immediately slowed down.

Heiji Kawaguchi, an old devil, also had a keen sense of smell on the battlefield, and when he saw an opportunity, he immediately ordered the 4th Infantry Brigade and the 6th Infantry Brigade of the 149th Infantry Wing to make a big detour from the north and south flanks, preparing to take advantage of the slow retreat of the Independent Regiment to complete the encirclement of the Independent Regiment on all sides.

The 4th Infantry Brigade and the 6th Infantry Brigade quickly attacked, watching the two torch dragons separate from the brigade and intercept the independent regiment from the left and right flanks respectively, and Kawaguchi Heiji finally had a smile on his face.

Kawaguchi Heiji bent down and got into the command car, and then said to Nagajin Tatsuya, who followed him into the car: "Nagajin-san, the 4th and 6th Infantry Brigades have already made a detour from both flanks, and if the independent regiment does not want to be surrounded by us on the plain, I am afraid there is only one way to go." ”

"Stride back, or rather, run away!" Yongjinda also said, "In this way, the Dameishan Independent Regiment will completely herd the sheep, this retreat, don't think about organizing a decent defense, in the next two hours, if there is no suitable terrain or no reinforcements arrive, the Dameishan Independent Regiment will be over!" ”

"Reinforcements? The strength of the Dameishan Independent Regiment has been fully used, where are there any reinforcements? Heiji Kawaguchi shook his head, and then said, "As for the right terrain, hehe, Eijin-san, come and see." ”

As he spoke, Heiji Kawaguchi had already spread out the map, and ordered his orderly to turn on the flashlight to illuminate the map.

Nagajin Tatsuya leaned his head over and followed the direction of Kawaguchi Heiji's right index finger, but saw a river, the Mei River!

"Meihe?!" Yongjin Da was also stunned for a moment, then reacted immediately, and said happily, "Right now, it is the rainy season in East China, and the water of the Meihe River has also risen a lot. ”

"To be more precise, Mustang Beach!" Heiji Kawaguchi further said, "According to the direction of the Dameishan Independent Regiment's current retreat, they will definitely retreat to Yema Beach in the end, there is no bridge to cross the river near Yema Tan, and if the Dameishan Independent Regiment wants to cross the river, it can only turn upstream or downstream." ”

Yongjin Tatsuya said: "But no matter whether they go upstream or downstream, they will inevitably follow the 4th Infantry Brigade or the 6th Infantry Brigade that detoured from the north and south flanks to collide with each other, as long as the 4th Infantry Brigade or the 6th Infantry Brigade entangle the Dameishan Independent Regiment for ten minutes to half an hour, the main force of the detachment will be able to catch up with the Dameishan Independent Regiment and completely wipe them out on the east bank of the Meihe River." ”

"There may be twists and turns in the process, but the result is basically the result." Heiji Kawaguchi said proudly.

Yongjin Da also said happily: "The victory came too suddenly, less than an hour ago, we were still struggling with how to deal with the Dameishan Independent Regiment, but in the blink of an eye, the opportunity to completely annihilate the Dameishan Independent Regiment has been placed in front of us, and we can't believe that this is true." ”

Heiji Kawaguchi smiled slightly, stopped talking, and began to close his eyes and recuperate.

As Heiji Kawaguchi expected, there were indeed some twists and turns in the pursuit.

After chasing about five miles to the west, a large cornfield lay in front, after seeing this cornfield, the Dameishan Independent Regiment of Zhengcang Empress withdrew immediately like a drowning person suddenly touched the straw, and grabbed it tightly, and the Dameishan Independent Regiment did not hesitate for a moment, and rushed into the cornfield in a swarm.

At this time, the corn in the cornfield had grown to the height of more than one person, and more than 1,000 people from the Dameishan Independent Regiment disappeared after entering the cornfield, and the thousands of people disappeared without a trace.

When the Japanese forward brigade chased to the edge of the cornfield, they did not dare to pursue it any further, and immediately reported it to Heiji Kawaguchi.

"What I just said, there will definitely be twists and turns in the process, no, there will be twists and turns immediately, but if Xu Rui thinks that he can save the Dameishan Independent Regiment with this cornfield, he is too naïve!" Heiji Kawaguchi smiled and instructed Eijin Tatsuya, "Eijin-san, order the 4th and 6th Infantry Brigades not to stop, let them continue to pursue in the established direction, and then order the artillery wing, using sulfur bombs, to burn the cornfield for me!" ”

Kawaguchi Heiji's order was quickly conveyed, and the 36 75mm caliber field howitzers of the field artillery wing were quickly lined up on the main road, and because it was a range of shooting, there was no need for precise adjustment at all, but with experience, the devil artillery began to shell the cornfields with a radius of more than a kilometer.

In an instant, rows of brimstone bombs were whistling into the air and falling towards the cornfields.

At this time, the corn in the corn field is still green seedlings, and it will not burn under normal circumstances, but if it encounters incendiary bombs such as ****** or sulfur bombs, it will still burn, and once the fire spreads, the burning of green seedlings will not necessarily be much worse than the dry corn stalks.

Hundreds of brimstone bombs fell, and the entire cornfield began to burn.

Kawaguchi Heiji got out of the car and looked at the fire that had become a prairie fire, Kawaguchi Heiji turned his head and said to Yongjin Tatsuya proudly: "Yongjin-san, such a big fire, unless the Shina army becomes a rat and hides underground......"

Speaking of this, Heiji Kawaguchi suddenly paused, and the smile on his face also froze in an instant, broken!

Yongjin Da also had a sharp beat in his heart, and said, "Your Excellency, there will be no tunnels in the cornfield, right?" ”

Kawaguchi Heiji didn't say anything, but the expression on his face was a little gloomy, if there is really a tunnel in the cornfield, then the Dameishan Independent Regiment will definitely hide in the tunnel, and the Kawaguchi detachment's outpouring out of the nest this time is probably going to be in vain, thinking of this, Kawaguchi Heiji's heart immediately hanged, damn it, it won't be so unlucky, right?

However, no matter how worried Heiji Kawaguchi was, the only thing he could do at this time was to wait.

Fortunately, Heiji Kawaguchi did not wait long, and after about half an hour, just before the fire in the cornfield completely formed a prairie fire, a scout hurriedly came to report that the rout of the Dameishan Independent Regiment had appeared from the west side of the cornfield, and was now fleeing in confusion along the original direction.

Heiji Kawaguchi asked urgently, "How many people are there in the Shina army that escaped from the cornfield?" ”

The scout immediately replied: "About fifteen hundred people, at least three battalions." ”

"Then it won't be wrong, it seems that the Chinese army didn't dig tunnels in the cornfields, haha!" Kawaguchi Heiji was overjoyed when he heard this, and said, "I'll just say, Xu Rui is not a clever Zhuge Liang, how could he have expected that there would be a battle tonight, how could he dig a tunnel in the cornfield in advance?" But I'm too worried! ”

"Yongjin-san, it's time for us to continue the pursuit!" After saying that, Heiji Kawaguchi bent down again and got back into the armored car.

After a while, the main force of the Kawaguchi detachment began to move forward again, but due to the blockage of the fire, it could only go around the sides of the cornfield, so there was a slight delay, but it didn't matter, because the 4th and 6th infantry brigades had already detoured from the north and south flanks, and had blocked the retreat of the Dameishan Independent Regiment.

After that, the Kawaguchi detachment never encountered major twists and turns.

The only twist and turn may be that when approaching Mustang Beach, the Kawaguchi detachment suddenly stepped on a large number of traps.

But it is the kind of real trap, the independent regiment dug a lot of big pits, in addition to the sharp wooden stakes buried in the pit, but also filled with human and animal feces, many devils fell into the trap, not only by the sharp stakes stabbed, but also let the human and animal feces in the trap stain the wounds, in the words of the military doctor, these wounded officers and soldiers are afraid to die more than half.

Surrounded by Tatsuya Nagajin and a dozen guards, Heiji Kawaguchi appeared in front of one of the traps.

Standing next to the trap, Heiji Kawaguchi covered his nose with his hands, and could not prevent the stench of the Chinese man from getting into his nose, and Heiji Kawaguchi couldn't help cursing in his heart: The damned Chinese must have dug out all the manure in the dung pit, otherwise how could it be so smelly?

It's just that the Chinese think that these traps alone can stop the Japanese army, but they are too naïve.

Soon, a communications corpsman ran back to report that the Dameishan Independent Regiment had rushed into Yema Beach, the 1st Infantry Brigade had also chased into Yema Beach, and the 4th Infantry Brigade and the 6th Infantry Brigade had also controlled the north and south exits of the river bay.

After receiving the report, Kawaguchi Heiji proudly said to Yongjin Tatsuya: "Yongjin-san, the Dameishan Independent Regiment is already in a catastrophe, you can now draft a good report to the front army headquarters, hehe." ”

Yongjin Da also smiled: "I'm afraid that the humble post will also congratulate His Excellency the commander, because the base camp has issued the fourth ******, and the new fifteen divisions are about to be organized into an army, which also means that the empire will need fifteen division commanders. ”

Kawaguchi Heiji burst out laughing when he heard this.