After cleaning up the battlefield, Zhang Wei met the commander of the third battalion, who first expressed his gratitude to Zhang Wei, and then took people to clean up the corpses on the street.

There are more than 30 corpses of the national army on the street, in this battle, the third battalion suffered more than 60 casualties, and when they withdrew into the city, there were only 200 people left, and now they can barely form a company's strength.

Returning to his own defense area, Zhang Wei felt that he still had to go to the command post of the 23rd Regiment, although he repelled the Japanese attack, but it was not a matter at all to go on like this.

When Zhang Wei walked to the command post, the county government building as the command post had been knocked off a corner by a shell, and the bodies of the soldiers who were killed were piled aside, Zhang Wei hurriedly ran in, Chen Chunyi couldn't die, and the dead troops were completely messed up, and went upstairs, Zhang Wei saw that Chen Chunyi was still alive, and the second battalion commander was on the side, Zhang Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Chunyi's arm was hit by shrapnel, and the oozing blood stained the military uniform red, Chen Chunyi's mood did not look high, although he repelled the Japanese attack, but this did not seem to change his mood in any way.

"Zhang Wei, you're here, take a look." Chen Chunyi asked the major regiment next to him to hand Zhang Wei a telegram, and Zhang Wei was also shocked after reading it.

After the battle in the vicinity of Lincheng, the Japanese army and the national army did not have large-scale combat operations, the two sides transferred troops and sharpened their swords, only in the area of Yixian and the troops of the 4th Division were fighting, and the troops of the 4th Division on the periphery suffered many casualties and had begun to retreat, this telegram was to order Chen Chun's regiment to retreat and break through the encirclement quickly.

The telegram also mentioned the battle in other directions, because of the arrival of Zhang Wei, Yixian held on for a whole day, and now it was getting late, it was this day, giving Tang Enbo time to transfer troops, and the other new force of the 20th Army Corps, the 52nd Army, was about to arrive at the battlefield, and its vanguard, Zheng Dongguo's second division, was attacking the area around Lincheng.

On the other hand, the Sakamoto detachment in the direction of Linyi was also not having a good time - it was blocked by the defenders' 3rd Army Corps and the 59th Army, and it was difficult to move an inch, so it had to ask for help from the Seya detachment in the direction of Lincheng.

The detachment commander Kei Seya decided to send an infantry brigade of the reinforced 63rd Wing to attack and advance to Taierzhuang, and the main force and the rest of the 63rd Wing converged and concentrated near Lincheng to start a big battle with the 20th Army Corps.

Division Commander Chen Daqing's order to the 23rd Regiment was to quickly break away from contact with the Japanese army and break through and retreat in the direction of Qingshan.

"Zhang Wei, prepare to retreat"

"Yes, Captain."

"The regiment is attached, notify the battalions and companies in the following cities to break through at night."

Chen Chunyi first issued an assembly order, and the troops quickly assembled in the neighborhood near the city gate, and then issued an order to break out.

The organizational ability of the national army was not as good as that of the Japanese army, and it took a long time to assemble the chaotic team, because it was a breakthrough, and it had to be lightly armed, and all mortars and redundant heavy machine guns had to be blown up.

Dong Erli's was no exception, under the "complaining gaze" of the owners of these weapons, "all the mortars and heavy machine guns were gathered together, and when they broke through, they would be blown up with grenades."

"The order of breakthrough is as follows, the second battalion is the first, the independent company of Zhang Wei's friendly army is in the center, the third battalion is followed and carries the regimental headquarters to break through, and the remnants of the first battalion are merged into the third battalion." Chen Chunyi's arrangement was quite authentic, he didn't let himself be sent to death, and he also took the regiment headquarters to escort him behind.

"The assembly place is the Qingshan area, there are already troops of our division there, prepare to break through."

More than a dozen soldiers of the special service platoon threw stringed grenades into the mortar shell pile, on which were mortars and heavy machine guns, and after a loud bang, all became parts, and the troops of the second battalion began to drill out of the city gates and feel outside the city.

Dong Erli looked at the pile of scrap iron, as if his feet were filled with lead, Zhang Wei smiled: "You kid hurry up and break through, stand out, I'll give you two mortars and let you be the platoon commander." ”

"Alas, our mortar squad has to be an infantry squad again." Dong Erli said helplessly, but still took a step.

The Japanese troops outside the city suffered equally heavy losses after fighting inside and outside the city, and the strength of a brigade was reduced to less than two infantry squadrons, a mountain artillery squadron, and an infantry artillery squadron.

The loud sound of the defenders bombing the equipment just now also woke them up, and the Japanese soldiers on alert woke up the resting Japanese soldiers, staring at the city gate, and in order to be safe, they also brought in mountain artillery.

The principle of the 23rd regiment to break through is that if you can't fight, you can't fight, everyone is trotting in a low profile, and the 2nd Kung Fu Battalion, which the Japanese observed, has already protruded a whole platoon, but unfortunately, the defenders' training in night battles is not enough, and the bayonet covers and sundries bags are not fixed, and there are bursts of noise.

"Someone!"

The Japanese troops who reacted began to use their vitality to intercept the officers and soldiers of the 23rd Regiment who broke through, and a squad of the 2nd Battalion exposed to the fire point was strafed, and the whole squad was killed. Zhang Wei ran wildly after him, and fired a shot in the general direction without looking, in this case, he should not stop.

"Let's go! Walk! Don't look back, run away. ”

Boom, the mountain artillery shells hit me, and several soldiers of the regimental headquarters were lifted away, and after falling to the ground, they were not short of breath, and they howled unwillingly on the ground, and no one cared about them.

Tracer bullets flew up, 92 machine gun bullets swept across, 38 rifles and crooked handles plugged leaks, and more than 1,000 officers and men struggled to survive in the fire net.

The officers and men of the independent company were fortunate that the area between the rear of the second battalion and the regimental headquarters was very narrow, and the weaker the fire surface of the early arrivals, the more survived. Zhang Wei could still hear Hao Zhong and He Kun's rough voices, and he couldn't help but worry that the regimental headquarters and the troops of the third battalion would be at the end, plus the radio station and a large number of non-combat soldiers, he didn't know if he could avoid this catastrophe.

Ask for more blessings

The losses of the Japanese during the day were equally large, so they chose only blocking fire and did not volley or pursue

In the boundless darkness, thousands of Chinese soldiers disappeared at the end of the night.

Zhang Wei didn't know how far he ran, he just felt that there were fewer and fewer people around him, Qingshan, running to Qingshan, running wherever he went, there was a way to live.

The next day, early in the morning. Zhang Wei was lying on the ground, surrounded by the officers and soldiers of the 23rd Regiment who rushed out, the independent company was very lucky, and basically rushed out, only Xu Yi's platoon lost half of the troops, and everyone was lying on the ground, almost collapsed after running all night. The people of the 23rd regiment were blown away, that is, they were dispersed, and so far, there has been no news from the regimental headquarters.

They were met by troops of the 4th Brigade of the 10th Division, and under their response and cover, the troops withdrew to the vicinity of the mountains of Castle Mountains, occupying favorable terrain. And enjoyed a rare meal.

"Company commander, how many more can you say those people can escape?" He Kun said.

"I don't know, I hope there's nothing wrong with Head Chen."

Zhang Wei counted, not counting his own people, there were about five or six hundred soldiers of the 23rd Regiment who ran out, that is to say, there were the same number of people who did not know their whereabouts, in addition to those who were killed last night, there should be more than two hundred people, and the whereabouts of the regiment headquarters were very dangerous.

Zhang Wei: Their location is on the periphery of Qingshan, in fact, in the past few days, the 4th Division has really fought fiercely with the Japanese army, and only the 23rd Regiment has been there. Chen Daqing once again issued a primary order, the purpose of this order was very simple, first, to search for the remnants of the officers and soldiers of the 23rd Regiment and the regimental headquarters, and second, to test the movements of the Japanese army. The troops that attacked, mainly the 10th Brigade and the 20th Regiment, Zhang Wei, also offered to participate in the battle.