At the same time, the Battle of Shimen also began.

The rumbling sound of artillery from the east gate and the south gate did not close his eyes in the middle of the night, and Kawagishi Bunzaburo, who was lying on the marching bed in the office of the division headquarters, woke up from his light sleep.

Born in 1882, Kawagishi Fumizaburo is also 55 years old this year, and even in the future, he has passed middle age and is about to enter the year of the sixtieth birthday, and the front line has been fighting for several days without progress, and an infantry brigade and reinforcements from almost an infantry wing have lost contact for a whole day, which makes this even more exhausted.

The Japanese lieutenant general, who only slept for less than five hours, had two big eye circles under his eyes and was almost comparable to Xiong Si, of course, in addition to the dark circles under his eyes, there were two big eye bags that were too obvious.

Quickly got up and walked to the window, looking at the fire exploding in the twilight in the distance outside the window and the increasingly clear sound of artillery, the already ugly face of the Japanese lieutenant general was even more like eating a piece of Xiang, and the smell was so bad that people couldn't bear to look at it directly.

"Yaga! What's going on? Signal troops, speed call and ask the defenders of the southeast gate, how many enemy troops are there? Kawagishi Bunzaburo was a lieutenant general in the army, and he quickly came to his senses from his anger and shock and ordered loudly to the guards outside the door.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, both the East Gate and the South Gate have reported by telephone that they have encountered enemy artillery attacks, and it seems that they are Chinese regular troops, with no less than two infantry regiments." Kimura Hisazo, chief of staff of the 20th Division, who had also been guarding the staff office next door, walked into Kawagishi Fumizaburo's office and reported with a solemn face.

"Two infantry regiments?" Kawagishi Bunzaburo's face became even more ugly, and he looked at the large map of Jindong and Shanxi hanging on the wall, and was silent for a full minute, and his face suddenly showed a look of surprise: "Kimura-kun, has there been a telegram from Jingcheng County from last night until now?" ”

"At about one o'clock in the morning, Harada-kun sent a telegram to the division headquarters, I think your Excellency the division commander has already fallen asleep, so I didn't bring it to you for approval." Kimura Kuzo nodded hurriedly.

But his face was a little confused, his Excellency the division commander did not care about the Chinese who were attacking the city, but thought of Jingxian 60 kilometers away, is this sleep to sleep the brain confused?

"Bring it to me." Kawagishi Bunzaburo's eyes kept staring at the location of Jingcheng County, and he didn't look back, and said eagerly.

"Please allow me to send sharp soldiers to the area around Qiqian Village, Shiyu Town, to reconnoiter the movements of the troops led by the last Yuejun。。。。。。" After silently reading the content of the message, Kawagishi Fumizaburo sat down on the chair with a puff on his face: "It's not good, the county seat of Jingcheng has been lost." ”

"Why did the division commander say this?" Kimura Hisazo couldn't help but be surprised.

The role of Jingcheng County in the frontline is self-evident, once lost, it is not only a matter of material loss, but also a problem of the rear road of nearly 20,000 troops. However, are the Chinese so sure that they can withstand the bombardment of more than 10,000 infantry and 48 artillery pieces by relying on a small county town?

"Shinichi Harada has always been cautious, and with his personality, even if he wants to send a sharp soldier to the mountains, it will be in the early morning, not at night. It is absolutely impossible for him to send a telegram in the early morning to request a military order, he is a general of the rank of a big Zuo, so he needs to report these small things to the division and regiment headquarters, which is an attempt by the Chinese to conceal their strategy to capture Jingxian County. Kawagishi Bunzaburo's face became more and more desolate, "Besides, if it weren't for the road leading from Jingxian County to Shimen, how did the Chinese bring a division of troops to Shimen through the defense line of more than 20,000 troops of our 20th Division?" Unless they all have wings. Jingcheng County must have fallen. ”

"Hiss~~~ If Jingxian County falls, it will not be surprising that the Chinese will appear here." Kimura Hizo's face was also full of shock, and his hand slid on the map, "The division commander said that the Chinese want to sneak attack our troops from Jingxi to Shimen overnight, the number of people must not be too many, at most one infantry division, and one infantry division in China has four infantry regiments or three infantry regiments, and now there are two infantry regiments attacking the south gate of the east gate, and there must be two infantry regiments hidden in the other two directions, this is preparing to sneak attack our division headquarters when the strength of our division headquarters is empty!" Your Excellency, Division Commander, we should immediately ask for help from the Beiping Front Headquarters. ”

"The appetite of the Chinese is really not small." Kawagishi Bunzaburo didn't seem to hear his request as the chief of staff, stared at the map, and muttered to himself: "Besiege an infantry brigade of my 20th Division in the mountains, and even call on the elite air force to ambush and defeat our imperial fighter formation, so as to lure a defender of Jingcheng County to go to reinforcements, and use the terrain familiarity or use local guides to send a large army to sneak to Jingcheng County, if I guess correctly, there must be their internal response in Jingcheng County, Otherwise, Shinichi Harada would not have lost the county seat without even having time to send a telegram asking for help. Then, this army continued to move northward, until it reached the headquarters of our Shimen Division. He even used our army's telegram code to send a telegram to confuse our division and regimental headquarters. One day and one night at a time, one ring after another was seamless, and it actually played with all the generals of our 20th Division. Wonderful! It's really wonderful, I didn't expect the commander of China's Jindong Theater to be such an eloquent figure, I really underestimated him before. ”

If Liu Lang had heard the analysis of the Japanese lieutenant general here, he would definitely have given him a "encouraging" applause. This person is also strong enough, and from the sound of cannons at the east gate and south gate, he deduced 70% of Liu Lang's battle plan based on the association of yesterday's battle.

However, he still made the old mistake of pride, and until now, he did not think that his heavily surrounded infantry brigade and 3,000 reinforcements would be annihilated, at most he thought that he was only pinned down. This flaw, however, was fatal, causing him to misestimate the strength of his opponents.

Moreover, he also misestimated his opponent, the great commander of the Jindong Theater he knew was still in a sweet sleep at this time, and he didn't know anything about the battles under his command that lasted day and night. By the time he knew, the whole battle was already over.

"However, the Chinese are too arrogant to think that one infantry division can capture my Shimen? It's a joke, I'm Kawagishi Bunzaburo not Shinichi Harada. A hint of blush welled up on Kawagishi Bunzaburo's somewhat defeated old face, "Order the four-gate defense area, once a Chinese appear within 200 meters of the defense area in the city, shoot and kill as soon as possible, and at the same time order the patrol, all Chinese are not allowed to go out of the house, and there must be no gathering of more than four people, otherwise, there will be no killing." ”

"Hey!" Kimura Kuzo hurriedly bowed down, and then asked tentatively, "Shouldn't I inform the 39th Infantry Brigade that can be contacted?" Suspend the offensive against the enemy and withdraw part of the troops back to the division headquarters? ”

"No need, I think the telegram from the 39th Brigade will be sent soon, and the Chinese will definitely launch an offensive against them and drag them down." Kawagishi Bunzaburo couldn't see the expression on his face, and said coldly. "There are not enough troops to hold back the two main infantry brigades of my 20th Division, how dare they send an infantry division to Shimen from afar?"

As soon as the Japanese lieutenant general finished speaking, a Japanese communications lieutenant hurriedly handed over a telegram to Kimura Kuzo.

"Sure enough, the commander of the Takagi Yoshito Brigade called that about 400 Chinese pretended to be our heavy troops to enter the defense line of our brigade headquarters and the 26th Artillery Wing, and were discovered by our imperial warriors, and are now fighting fiercely." Kimura Kuzo reported to Kawagishi Bunzaburo.

"Order Yoshito Takagi to hold the defensive line with the strength of an infantry brigade plus the original garrison squadron of the 26th Artillery Wing, and the 77th Wing and the 78th Wing to hold the field fortifications and wait for the next military order of the division headquarters." Kawagishi Bunzaburo commanded sharply. "At the same time, send a telegram to the army headquarters in Beiping that our Shimen is under attack by the defending Chinese troops far beyond our divisional headquarters, and request the assistance of the air wing to repel it after dawn, and at the same time ask them to reconnoiter the mountainous area on the right flank of Niangziguan and assist them to return to Jingcheng. Also, the garrison squadron was ordered to extract 4 infantry guns and 200 rounds of artillery shells from the baggage warehouses of the 108th Division. Artillery, drawn from the baggage troops. ”

"Hey!" Kimura Kuzo nodded heavily and bowed away.

Yoshito Takagi played a word game to cover up the fact that the Chinese had actually entered the defensive line, and Kawagishi Bunzaburo also came out like this, and did not say that Jingxian County was lost.

In the final analysis, since entering North China, Lian Zhan Lianjie has cultivated them to be too proud and cannot accept the fact that they were defeated by the Chinese with stratagem.

It's like a gambler who loses a game at the table and dreams that the next hand will be back, and no one knows that they have lost.

The two fatal mistakes made by the Major General and the Lieutenant General almost at the same time caused the somewhat quick-witted Japanese lieutenant general to lose the opportunity to save the last elite of the 20th Division. If he ordered the 39th Infantry Brigade to retreat with all its might at this time, the more than 4,000 men and horses led by General Guangfu would not be able to stop the 5,000 elite Japanese infantry who wanted to escape.

Of course, this is also an order that 99 percent of the generals cannot give. Because no one was willing to drop 48 cannons.

The only chance for the 39th Infantry Brigade to survive was to move closer to the 26th Artillery Wing when Zhang Ruhao and the future general had not yet broken through the defensive line of the 26th Artillery Wing, and then rely on the 26th Artillery Wing to establish a blocking position. The 48 cannons are firmly protected, the infantry protects the artillery, the artillery protects the infantry, in the face of this big hedgehog with thorns, even if the 100,000 troops on the Jindong front line attack with all their might, before breaking through the Japanese infantry defense line, the damage caused by the 48 cannons can make any general cry, and it is very likely that the final result will be more than worth the loss.

Moreover, they only need to hold on to the 108th and 109th divisions on the southern front to support even one infantry brigade to complete the victorious escape.

It's a pity, not to mention that Kawagishi Bunzaburo doesn't have this prediction of the battlefield situation, looking at the entire sequence of Japanese generals, no one has the ability to judge this situation in such a short time. This was the conclusion reached by the Japanese War Ministry after the war. Because in the end, they didn't know that Yoshito Takagi's stupid telegram was ambiguous. Yoshito Takagi didn't wait for the day to correct his mistakes.

In the words of the Japanese army experts, this battle fought under the command of the famous general of the Chinese 18th Group Army was bound to lose if any Japanese division came to it.

Whether it is China or Japan, as long as the experts form a group, it is basically a brick family.

This time, except for the dozen or so high-ranking red generals who knew Liu Lang's role in it, Lang Tuanzao hid well in front of all outsiders, and he no longer made himself as brilliant and eye-catching as the Battle of the Great Wall.

Riding a white horse and dancing a silver spear on the battlefield is certainly handsome, but the one who dies the fastest is also the most handsome. Otherwise, in the historical romance, Xiao Luo Cheng and Yang Zaixing ended in tragedy?

The Great Patriotic War had just begun, and although Liu Lang was not afraid of sacrificing his life for the country, he still wanted to live a little longer after all. My wife has not yet completed a round house after marrying, and my parents have not fulfilled their filial piety, so how can I say that I have to live a few more years, right?