Zhang Zijian knew that there were no other covering troops around him, and that he could not even know the outside information, and these non-combatants had nowhere to move. When the enemy's situation is unknown, he rashly transfers, and if he doesn't do it, he takes the initiative to send the Japanese puppet army to the door.

At present, he is undertaking the task of covering so many key people, even if he wants to cooperate with the main force, there is no way. What the two people who are basically helpless at the moment can do now is to stay up a little bit. And hold on here as much as possible, contain the enemy in front of you, and unable to go south to reinforce their main force, so as to reduce the burden of the main force as much as possible.

While Zhang Zijian's side was already preparing for the last fight, Li Ziyuan, who was going north to reinforce the Jiuding Mountains, encountered the enemy's main force that was also moving south at the northwest of the Jiuding Mountains for fifteen miles. The first to start was the search company of the puppet 38th Division, the vanguard of the Japanese puppet army that went south, and the second battalion and the third company that encountered a search team of the Japanese army.

After the encounter between the vanguard units of the two armies, they were extremely red-eyed, and they fought together without saying a word. First the rifle was added *, and then the light and heavy machine guns were added to the battlefield. And as the main forces of both sides arrived one after another, more troops were involved. On the small battlefield of Luofengling, the sound of dense guns and cannons became a ball.

Li Ziyuan, who commanded the follow-up troops to arrive, saw that it had already started. Without saying a word, he commanded all the troops to be put into the battlefield at the first time. But despite the fact that all but one company was put in reserve, all living forces were thrown in. But in the early days of the battle, Li Ziyuan adopted a tactic of focusing on defense.

After counterattacking the vanguard of the Japanese puppet army and covering the vanguard, Li Ziyuan did not advance but retreated, and used two companies to cover the main force to seize the main peak of Luofengling and several surrounding hilltop positions. After seizing the position of the main peak of Luofengling, Li Ziyuan immediately organized a defense on the spot.

The transition between attack and defense was completed at the fastest speed, forming a blocking position with the main peak of Luofengling as the core, several surrounding mountains as the flank cover, and the entire shooting boundary as a cross. This is not because Li Ziyuan is a little psychologically timid in the face of superior enemy forces, but a tactical application he adopts to retreat as advance.

Li Ziyuan's idea was very simple, that is, to take advantage of the abundant ammunition at hand, and the overall situation of the Luofengling Mountain, although it is not high, but the large and small rain fissures around its main peak cross and crisscross, and adopt the method of retreating as advance, first weaken the offensive momentum of the Japanese puppet army in front of him, and disperse the Japanese puppet army forces in a group, looking for fighters in the defensive battle.

With such terrain and the fact that the forces at hand can only form a shallow and deep situation, Li Ziyuan is not able to do it, and the Japanese puppet army is so real, he only thinks of attacking from the front, and he can't think of outflanking from his flank. Even if the puppet army tactics are dull, they just start from the front.

But the Japanese army's tactics have always focused on flank detours, and they will not be moved at all in the face of their current situation? As long as the Japanese puppet army divides its troops to assault, then he will have the opportunity to bite them. Even if you can't let them break their muscles and bones, at least bite off a piece of their bloody flesh.

Li Ziyuan knew very well that the tactic he was adopting now was not an ordinary risk. Whether it is a front or a flank, as long as one direction is broken through, the direct forces will be in danger of being divided. But in the current battle situation, if Li Ziyuan doesn't want to be beaten passively, he can only take this risk.

The combat effectiveness of the current puppet army is not weak, not to mention the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army. His own strength is even more disadvantaged, and if he fights hard to the death, he will not succeed in fighting the tiger but will be injured by the tiger. In this case, if you don't want to fight to the death, you can only find a way to do it tactically. It's a tough fight, that's for sure.

But Li Ziyuan didn't want to pay the price, but he could only be beaten passively. Therefore, Li Ziyuan made up his mind to take this risk. Anyway, there is no way out for me, since I have to fight no matter what, then make my price more worthwhile.

And the Japanese puppet army opposite him, after finding that he finally encountered the Eighth Route Army, did not hesitate to come up and put in all his vital forces, and directly launched an attack under the cover of artillery fire. After Li Ziyuan switched to defense, he did not expect the eight-way force in front of him, and the Japanese puppet army, which switched between attack and defense so quickly, obviously had no intention of giving up.

After discovering the main force of Li Ziyuan in front of the Japanese puppet army, the Japanese puppet army immediately adopted the tactics of frontal assault of the puppet army and outflanking the Japanese army from the flank. Trying to use his superior forces to surround the two battalions of Li Ziyuan's headquarters in one fell swoop when the two armies met, this is called the area around the hill of Luofengling.

Faced with the idea of the Japanese puppet army trying to encircle him in person, Li Ziyuan not only controlled the position of the main peak of Luofengling with the strength of two companies, but delayed the attack momentum of the frontal puppet army. At the same time, concentrate all the heavy firepower and hit the two Japanese infantry squadrons that detoured to their flanks first. The tactics adopted by Li Ziyuan are a copy of the previous tactics of fighting the pseudo-50th Division.

The reason is very simple, in the joint operations of the Japanese puppet army, the Japanese army has always played the role of the backbone and supervising the war. Defeat the Japanese army that played a decisive role in supervising the battle first, and even if the remaining puppet army is tenacious, it will not go all out on the battlefield because of its own rear problems.

So, Li Ziyuan came with an old bottle of new wine. The old tactics were used on the new battlefield, first dealing with the Japanese army and then finding a way to deal with the puppet army. In Li Ziyuan's view, as long as the Japanese army is defeated, relatively speaking, the remaining puppet army, no matter how well equipped they are, but their will to fight is far less tenacious than the Japanese army, it will be much easier to solve.

Although Luofengling is both in area and altitude, it is more conducive to the side of the Japanese puppet army with superior strength and firepower. But once Li Ziyuan made up his mind, he would never look back. The life-and-death struggle on the battlefield has never had any way back for a soldier.

With the arrival of Li Ziyuan and the main force of the Japanese puppet army in front of him one after another, and completed all the deployment, Luofengling, a hill with a small area and shallow depth, became a battlefield of fighting in an instant. The Japanese planes in the sky continued to bomb and strafe Li Ziyuan's deep position.

The artillery fire of the Japanese puppet army also continued to spray tongues of fire towards the position of Li Ziyuan's department. The two armies followed the direction of the mountain, constantly fighting back and forth. In the mountains around Luofengling, the dense sound of guns and cannons resounded to the sky. Even Zhang Zijian, who was fifteen miles away from here, heard it clearly.

After the battle began, Li Ziyuan placed his headquarters less than 200 meters away from the front line. His binoculars have been carefully observing the battle situation. Because of the flanking attack of the Japanese puppet army's ground-to-air firepower, Li Ziyuan and He Sanliang's command positions were arranged separately. In order to prevent the command post from being discovered by the enemy, it will cause a disruption in command.

In this battle, Li Ziyuan said that he made all the preparations as much as possible. However, the situation and difficulties he faced were still far beyond his imagination. The two regiments of the puppet 38th Division, which launched an attack from the front, worked far harder than he imagined. It was the charge of the whole company and the whole company under the cover of artillery fire, and this kind of fighting was the first time Li Ziyuan had seen it in the puppet army.

With the puppet 50th Division before, after all, night battles, sneak attack battles, and ambush battles were the main ones, and this kind of hard-fought defensive warfare was the first time Li Ziyuan had contact with this Wang puppet Second Front Army. At this time, Li Ziyuan felt that this puppet army could be so valued by the Japanese army, and they still had their capital.

The three mountain guns and two mortars attached to it, with the cooperation of the two 105 heavy mountain guns of the Japanese army, smashed the dense shells into the front-line position of Li Ziyuan's department. The improvised fortifications of the front-line position of Li Ziyuan's headquarters were blown into ruins. Light and heavy machine guns are not stingy with bullets at all, covering the continuous attack and advance of the attacking puppet army.

Li Ziyuan, who was holding a telescope on the side, frowned. After putting down the binoculars, I felt that the Japanese army on the flanks was obviously not as moving as Li Ziyuan on this side. Picking up the field phone and facing the right flank 300 meters away, He Sanliang, who was actually in charge of commanding and blocking the Japanese army, said: "Old He, how is the progress of the Japanese army over there?" ”

After receiving Li Ziyuan's call, He Sanliang, who also put down the telescope in his hand, said: "Commander, these devils are very cunning. It's just a constant tentative offensive with squads, no more than two squads. Its brigade of men and horses simply did not move. They are obviously waiting for the puppet army, and after depleting our vitality to a certain extent, they are launching a full-scale attack. ”

"Commander, do you want He Huizhang to fire at him and drive them out of our firepower, so that we can focus our attention on the side of the puppet army on the front? These devils are very cunning, and now looking at their actions, they are clearly planning to come up and pick up peaches. ”

Regarding He Sanliang's request, Li Ziyuan pondered for a while and said: "Lao He, we have been fighting with devils for so long, no matter what kind of devils it is, have you ever seen a devil who cowers on the battlefield?" The devil's current move is not really to attack. And to test the weakness of our defensive line, I plan to give us a fatal blow. ”

"The infantry tactics of the devils, your brother is not unaware. Let's fire now, except for wasting the shells that we have run out of shells and have no place to replenish, it is difficult to cause too much damage to the devils. On the contrary, under the superior ground-to-air firepower of the devils, our own artillery positions were exposed. ”

"Lao He, you must first calm down, you must be steady and don't make up your mind hastily. As long as the devils don't launch a full-line attack, don't pay too much attention to their small-scale tentative offensives. But there is one thing, you must not let the devil plant a nail in your forward position. No, push the forward positions of the troops. ”

Hearing Li Ziyuan's words, He Sanliang said with some hesitation: "Now the distance between us and their spearheads is less than a hundred meters. The head of the regiment, pushing forward, isn't it sending the devil to the door? And the devil's two 92 infantry guns are staring at me. ”

Regarding He Sanliang's concerns, Li Ziyuan said categorically: "If you beat it, you will beat it." The devil's infantry artillery is staring at your machine-gun fire, but can they hit the ground? Forgot the way to work in the earth? Use earthwork to push your forward positions and squeeze out their nails even if they can't be knocked out. ”

"Otherwise, once you let them gain a foothold in your forward positions, not only will they shorten their attack range, but they will also easily pose a deadly threat to your forward positions. The melee tactics of the devils are too much of a threat to us. If you can't get rid of them, you will find a way to squeeze them out. As long as they don't attack with all their might, find a way to widen their attack range. ”

He also told He Huizhang and Zhou Tong that they should also calm down for Lao Tzu. Without my orders here, even if the Japanese puppet army tore through our defensive line, they would never be allowed to fire a single shell at me. But as soon as I gave the order, their mountain artillery and mortars had to give me the first hit. ”