The sparse morning star blinked its eyes, the distant villages and houses were floating and sinking in the mist, and in the faint moonlight, a force of five or six hundred men was rapidly inserting in several columns, and the ranks were full of heavy breathing.

Battalion Commander Wang looked up at the night sky, the sky was about to dawn, and the troops had been running for half the night, already showing fatigue. However, he was relieved that the troops had successfully crossed the line of Dawangzhuang and were advancing towards the enemy's front.

Although the overall battle was huge, the people's armed forces still could not withstand the fierce combat mission alone, otherwise they would inevitably suffer heavy casualties, which was also what Regiment Commander Zheng did not want to see.

After all, the squadrons, militias, and even guerrillas are the reserves of the regular army, and they exist as a supplement to the regular army.

The situation on the battlefield changed rapidly, although the county town was successfully broken, but the enemy's main force of sweeping outside still had nearly 1,000, as well as artillery, in the field battle, Commander Zheng and Battalion Commander Wang did not think that the Eighth Route Army could easily win.

It is necessary to defeat the enemy, but also to maintain strength, so that it can sweep through the occupied area.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity, if we can eliminate the way of sweeping the enemy in a divided way, the enemy will no longer be able to piece together mobile forces to compete with the Eighth Route Army in the whole county.

Holding on to each stronghold can only be broken by the Eighth Route Army one by one, and the best choice is to shrink the whole line and defend the county. In the meantime, the entire vast countryside will be owned by the Eighth Route Army.

Thinking of this, Camp Commander Wang felt his blood boiling, and nervousness and excitement surged into his heart at the same time.

As a vanguard force, it is at this time to preemptively block the enemy's retreat, determine the overall situation in the first battle, and as a soldier, bloody frontier, eliminate Japanese invaders, and make meritorious contributions.

The moon had finished its journey in the sky and was disappearing towards the side of the mountain, and in the slowly whitening firmament, the stars disappeared. A mountain of red clouds cast a blood-red light on the awakened earth.

"Damn the Shina people." Yamamoto stopped and cursed hatefully.

The road was like a valley washed by a flash torrent, crisscrossed with ditches, and when you looked up, you could see that the half-man-high green gauze tent was blocking everything, and maybe there was a black hole in the muzzle of a gun aimed at them.

He ordered a company of Imperial Allies to go ahead and search and advance along the green gauze tents on both sides of the road. The devil walked at the back of the line, always on the lookout for sudden attacks.

The commander's orders to speed up the march kept coming from behind, which made Yamamoto's mood become irritable, and he kept losing his temper at the devil and the Imperial Army, making his subordinates simply at a loss.

After about five or six miles, there was a big ditch at the bend of the road, and the Imperial Cooperative Army that was searching in front passed by, and the devil came to the edge of the ditch.

The ditch was dug relatively wide, and it was inconvenient to overtake, some devils tried to jump over, and some devils walked around the road, and the formation suddenly became chaotic.

At this time, the roar of a row of guns suddenly sounded in the green gauze tent on the left side of the road, and the devils were caught off guard and were immediately knocked down. The devils screamed and fell to the ground, panicked and fought back.

Yamamoto lay on the ground and observed for a while, then ordered the devils to attack, and searched the crops for a while, where there was no one there, and only the green gauze tent in the distance was seen rattling and shaking.

The enemy did not know the enemy's situation, so he had to sweep up the machine guns for a while, and then turned back to report to Yamamoto.

Yamamoto waved his hand angrily and ordered the team to move on.

As soon as they walked out of the distance, gunshots and explosions sounded in front of them, and the wounded devils and the Imperial Allies screamed bitterly, and the team fell into chaos again.

"Calm down." Fujisawa rode up and shouted angrily.

The panicked devils and the Imperial Cooperative Army all stood straight and stiff in place and did not dare to move, Fujisawa glanced at the Devil and the Imperial Cooperative Army with a solemn gaze, and said sharply: "This is the harassment and containment of a small group of enemies, they dare not openly engage the Imperial Army, don't answer them, move forward quickly." ”

The devil and the Imperial Association army hurriedly straightened out their formation and continued to hurry.

Fujisawa stood on the side of the road for a moment, scanning the troops passing in front of him, a worried look on his face.

What does this mean by the fact that these small groups of the enemy are constantly delaying the advance of their troops, and is there a deeper military deployment of the enemy? But all this has to be confirmed by intelligence.

The roar of mines and the sound of cold guns were still scattered from time to time ahead, and the devils and the Imperial Alliance army searched and advanced along the main road, with the scorching sun on their heads and the bumpy road under their feet, and they had to be on guard against attacks from all directions at all times. Tired, thirsty and hungry, he walked for nearly two hours before he advanced less than ten miles.

Fujisawa rode along the bumpy march with the procession, looking at his watch from time to time, urging his troops to pick up speed.

The Oriental Horse walked one foot deep and one foot shallow on the potholed road, and the tomp made him extremely uncomfortable. He looked at the long road ahead, and then at the soldiers who were hobbling forward, and his heart was like a fire in oil.

"Urgent telegram." A devil officer arrived on horseback and presented Fujisawa with a telegram.

Fujisawa took the telegram and a flurry of unbelievable words wedged into his eyes, "...... The bandit army that attacked the county town suddenly has no known whereabouts, or it is possible that it will turn into the bandit area and intercept your troops, so please be cautious and careful......"

Fujisawa was taken aback and angrily threw away the telegram. The devil officer stood straight, peeking at the stone bridge with trepidation, waiting for his rage to vent.

Fujisawa's frowning brows slowly relaxed, his face turned calm, and he said in a calm tone as if nothing had happened: "Order the troops to stop advancing, keep a close watch on the enemy, inform the officers, and assemble here immediately." ”

Waiting for the devil officer to leave, Fujisawa's eyebrows that had just been stretched were gathered again, and he secretly complained in his heart.

Things are really getting worse and worse, and although the enemies trailing behind them seem to be mostly vassals of the Eighth Route Army, there is also a certain threat in the end.

If the Eighth Route Army, the brigade that attacked the county seat, was really coming head-on, the situation would be really dangerous under the front and rear attacks. The task of the moment is to join up with another friendly army, which has a large number of troops, and not only is it not afraid of the enemy's coming, but it is possible to inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

But in order to accelerate forward, it is necessary to take care of the comprehensiveness, that is, it is necessary to arrange the forward and flank, as well as the protection of the back. If you stop and go like this, you will obviously fall for the enemy's tricks.

Time did not allow him to think too much, and the devil and the officers of the Imperial Allied Army had already arrived, standing straight, waiting for his decision and instructions.

Fujisawa looked at his watch, glanced at his subordinates majestically, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the enemy did not dare to engage the imperial army, and adopted the tactics of harassment and sectional blockade to delay the advance of our army. If we continue to entangle ourselves in this way, we will fall for their tricks and sabotage our plans. I ordered: the vanguard troops concentrated their firepower and opened a passage, and the Imperial Allied Army was responsible for the security of the two flanks and covered the rapid advance of the troops. You must be determined not to stop, never to resist, and to move forward quickly regardless of casualties. ”

"Hello!" The officers took the order and left one after another, returning to their respective units, delivering orders and reorganizing their ranks.

Suddenly, fierce gunfire erupted on the ground.

Yamamoto commanded the Japanese devils, concentrated light and heavy machine guns, grenadiers and other weapons, and opened fire together, the bullets rained down, the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and large swaths of crops near the main road were broken and fell in the explosion.

The devils and the Imperial Alliance army behind braved the smoke and flames, running upside down and swarming forward.

The devils placed the Imperial Allied Army on both sides, acting as a "meat screen" to block the attack, and they ran in the middle to force the Imperial Allied Army to advance.

Some of the wounded soldiers of the Imperial Association Army were lying on the ground screaming and crawling all over the ground, the seriously injured were either lying down waiting to die, or were killed on the spot by the devils, and the lightly injured struggled to follow the advance in order to save their lives.

……………

Hetangzhuang is a village of about 300 households, the village is close to the east side of the main road, there is a large interconnected lotus pond, half-moon shape around the village. The embankment in front of the pond is towering, becoming a natural barrier.

Company Commander Chiang led his troops to this place and immediately organized a tense deployment.

Now that the enemy has seen through the segmented blockade, changed his tactics, and attacked with brute force regardless of casualties, they must also adopt corresponding tactics.

Company Commander Chiang was ready to rely on the existing favorable terrain to launch a frontal blockade, not to completely block the enemy, but to better accomplish the task of containing and delaying.

Company Commander Chiang arranged for a platoon of soldiers to build improvised bunkers on the embankment of Lotus Pond, set up machine guns along the embankment, and tightly sealed the road. Another platoon of fighters entered the village, preparing to engage in street battles with the enemy on the basis of houses and walls.

A small group of guerrillas who followed the main force continued to retreat along the main road, planted more mines, and then dispersed into green gauze tents around the main road, and attacked the enemy with cameras.

The sound of gunfire is getting closer and closer, and the devils and the Imperial Allied Army who are hurrying away are falling into people's field of vision more and more clearly.

Fujisawa repeatedly urged the troops to speed up, and he was very proud of the countermeasures he had taken, and he paid a certain number of casualties as soon as possible, but after all, the troops advanced a long distance.

Moreover, most of the casualties were the Imperial Allied Army that acted as a "meat screen", and it did not have much impact on the Imperial Army. As long as he has these hundreds of Imperial Army soldiers in his hands, even if the Imperial Alliance Army is all over, he is still confident that he will join up with his allies and break the enemy's various tricks.

Yamamoto commanded his troops to rush closer and closer, and Kawatangso, which was not far ahead, came into his sight. He raised his binoculars and looked at it for a while, and the topography of the village alerted him.

Will the enemy take advantage of this favorable terrain to make a frontal attack, and if so, the village in front is an ideal position.

Thinking of this, he ordered his troops to slow down and ordered a squad to go and search the village.

The team leader led the devils to search vigilantly, and did not find any movement along the way.

He looked up from a short distance from the village, and saw that the streets of the village were empty, there was not a single figure in sight, and the inhabitants fled away, and for a moment there was no sign of anything unusual.

The squad leader ordered the troops to fire a few shots into the village, but nothing unusual was found. He waved his hand, and the search team continued forward.

Suddenly, with a few sharp whistles, a gun with a pole and a black hole appeared from behind the lotus pond embankment, and bombarded the enemy fiercely, knocking down a lot of devils.

The squad leader reacted very quickly, as soon as he heard the sound, he immediately instinctively fell to the ground, and as soon as he lay down, several bullets swept over his head with a scream, and he quickly retreated with the troops and the wounded.

Fujisawa was surprised by the fierce gunfire, and after hearing Yamamoto's report, he realized that it seemed that the Eighth Route Army was going to launch a large-scale frontal blockade here.

Now that the enemy has set up a position, it is probably no longer possible to continue to use the method of courageous advance, and it is bound to pay a heavy number of casualties.

He quickly thought about it for a while, and decided to take advantage of this opportunity to deal a severe blow to the enemy who was blocking, weaken their strength, and destroy their sharpness, so that they would no longer dare to easily carry out large-scale containment, so that the troops could advance relatively smoothly.

After a short period of adjustment, the devil and the Imperial Association launched an attack on Hetangzhuang under the cover of artillery fire.

Machine guns and rifles roared, and when they got closer, grenades exploded, repelling two enemy attacks in a row.

Oshima gathered the officers, reprimanded them, and ordered Yamamoto to lead his troops to launch a fierce attack, crushing the enemy in the shortest possible time at all costs, and clearing the way to advance. He also ordered all light and heavy firepower to be brought in and bombarded intensively.

The shells landed on the embankment, kicking up smoke and dust that soared into the sky, shrapnel flew sideways, sand and soil splashed everywhere, and the hot air flow and gunpowder smoke choked people to breathe.

The heavy artillery fire tore through the breaches and opened the gaps, overturning bunkers one by one.

Seeing that the enemy had brought in all the artillery fire and that the casualties of the troops continued to increase, the company commander immediately ordered the troops guarding the embankment to quickly retreat, retreat into the village, and move from the back of the village, leaving only a few troops in the village.

After occupying the embankment, the enemy concentrated its firepower on bombarding the village, in a vain attempt to capture the village in one fell swoop with its fierce firepower and the prestige of its first success.

The troops who remained in the village took advantage of the cover of their houses and walls, and as soon as the enemy approached, they hit them with bullets and grenades, and the enemy rushed in several times, but they were all knocked out.

At this time, a fierce burst of gunfire rang out outside the village, and the guerrillas hidden in the green gauze tent intensified their containment and harassment.

The sudden attack threw the enemy's flanks and rearguard forces into disarray, and Fujisawa sent his men and horses to counterattack while directing the main forces, taking advantage of the cover of artillery fire, to pounce on the village.

At this time, Company Commander Jiang adjusted the deployment again, leaving a small number of men and horses to disperse the battle in the village. The rest of the troops withdrew from the rear of the village with the wounded and advanced to the meeting point with the main force.

Fujisawa stood at the entrance of the village, a little dazed, and the Eighth Route Army's flickering and scattered style of play made him very troubled.

After spending a lot of ammunition and paying for casualties, he finally rushed into the village, hoping to force the enemy into a decisive battle and deal them a fatal blow, but he didn't know that the enemy had come to zero again in the blink of an eye.

The enemy is familiar with the terrain and hides in various places and corners, carrying out skillful and stubborn resistance.

The sound of gunfire, gunfire, and grenade explosions in the village was incessant, which made Fujisawa almost crazy, and he howled loudly: "Set fire, set fire to me, drive the enemies out of me, I will fight them, a decisive battle." ”

……………