For this surprise attack, the enemy engineering department in the base area used the deepest hidden inner line, as well as several underground personnel, to kidnap the captain of the Imperial Allied Army.

This was crucial to the success of the attack, and in the end, it was the weakness of the Eighth Route Army, which was able to open the city gates, which not only reduced a large number of casualties, but also caused the enemy in the city to temporarily fall into confusion, and made the enemy's possible counterattack ineffective.

The sound of continuous explosions echoed over the county seat, the blazing white light illuminated the dark clouds in the sky, huge waves of air swept through the streets and alleys, the dust burst down, the doors and windows shook, and the earth shook again and again.

Inside the devil's command post, it was already a busy scene. The sudden attack caught the devil commander Kato off guard. When the phone rings non-stop and reports are received from everywhere, I can't help but be a little scrambled.

"When did the Eighth Route Army have the strength to attack the county seat?" Kato, the commander of the garrison, stood next to the telephone, his hand shook, the microphone slipped off the table, and he turned his head as if it was Matsumoto, the captain of the special service, and seemed to be muttering to himself.

"No way, in the Chinese army, although they are strong and cunning, they will never have the ability to attack the fortified city, and they will never make a risky attempt." Matsumoto first flatly denied it, and then said thoughtfully: "Unless ......"

"Unless what?" Kato asked, his eyes wide, a sense of foreboding in his heart.

"Unless they have the means to take control of the gates." When Matsumoto said this, he felt extremely frightened in his heart, got up and strode out of the house, listened to the sound of gunfire everywhere, his face changed greatly, and hurried back.

"How? What judgment do you draw. Kato saw that Matsumoto's face was anxious, and hurriedly asked.

"Judging by the sound of gunfire, the south gate should have been lost, and the enemy is approaching step by step from that direction." Matsumoto said anxiously: "There is the Imperial Alliance Army in charge of guarding, the people of China are unreliable, they betrayed us." Please give the order immediately for the Imperial Army in the city to counterattack, and also contact the outlying strongholds for immediate reinforcements. ”

Yes? Kato was stunned for a moment, and immediately picked up the phone and began to give orders, but by this time, the troops in many places could not be contacted.

Under the guidance of local guerrillas and underground personnel, the main attack regiment climbed over walls, crossed alleys, and opened fire in small groups and in many directions, causing great confusion among the enemy.

Moreover, they play to their strengths, maneuver and maneuver, burrow around like fish, and let go of their hands and feet to deal with the enemy.

The walls of the road spewed tongues of fire, the streets and alleys shone with the light of explosions, and the courtyards echoed with the sound of fighting and killing.

The assault group was responsible for the attack, while the rest of the main assault regiment was steadily advancing, and the battle for street by street gradually compressed the enemy's space.

The enemy was deployed on the ramparts, there were no strong pillboxes in the city, and the sandbags at the main street entrances were of limited use.

Therefore, once the fortress was breached, the sudden change of circumstances made the enemy's mind unable to turn around, and the temporary deployment could not keep up with it for a while, and all the rules and regulations were completely chaotic.

Matsumoto and Kato made another mistake in a panic, similar to how the Soviet Union reacted after a surprise attack by Germany.

Characteristic of the initial phase of the war, the Soviet command made an erroneous calculation.

At that time, it was proposed to rely on the stubborn defense of field fortifications on the state border, not to allow the enemy to invade Russian territory, to ensure the time for mobilization, and then to repel the enemy's attack with a powerful counter-assault, and to transfer the war to the enemy's territory.

Such an operational order did not take into account the issue of strategic defensive operations at all, ruling out the possibility of a massive enemy breakthrough to the hinterland.

Ming Dalin even regarded defense in depth as a retreat, and constantly ordered the front-line troops to counterattack, counterattack, and counterattack.

This led to the successive engagements of the corps and gave the enemy the opportunity to break each of the corps.

Matsumoto and Kato did not anticipate the nature of the Eighth Route Army's sudden attack, let alone that the Eighth Route Army could quietly concentrate such a large force and plunge into battle with a strong dense group.

They were only anxious to drive out the Eighth Route Army that had rushed into the city, but they did not expect that the counterattack of the Japanese troops who received the order would not concentrate all their efforts, but would be thrown in batches.

What's more, the Eighth Route Army interspersed operations in the city with squads, and also contained a lot of enemy troops. Abandoned the door and did not receive an order, and held on to it and faced the danger of being attacked by the enemy.

The county trembled under artillery fire, endured the baptism of blood and fire, and witnessed the fall of the invaders.

About a small squad of "Imperial Army" soldiers, under the command of the captain's twisted face and loud roar, fiercely counterattacked the Eighth Route Army, and they frantically howled slogans such as "Long live His Majesty the Emperor", even ignoring the fierce strafing of machine guns!

Relying on their numerical superiority, the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army stubbornly blocked the enemy's counterattack with machine guns, rifles, short guns, and grenades.

The front of the street became a death zone, the corpses of the enemy and the enemy pillowed each other, the ground was covered with mutilated blades, stained blood, and all around was the sharp cries, suppressed moans, and the fierce battle was gradually pushed to a climax.

Another group of Imperial Allied troops, under the command of several Japanese officers, rushed to help in the battle, and while they ordered to concentrate their firepower to suppress our army, they drove the Imperial Allied army to rush up, trying to break through the right side, suppress the left side, and promote the disintegration of our army's defense.

The gunfire was loud, and a platoon of the Eighth Route Army rushed to reinforce it, and quickly covered the attack, and after a burst of shooting, it took advantage of the momentum to pounce on it, stirring up the Imperial Alliance Army and forcing them to start a white-knuckle fight.

The Imperial Alliance, which had a weak will to fight, was taken by surprise and was in an uproar, screaming and retreating again and again.

"Brothers, I'm Captain Liang." The squadron leader of the Imperial Alliance Army hissed and shouted behind the battle: "The Chinese do not fight the Chinese, I order everyone anyway, kill a devil and reward twenty oceans, don't sell your life to the devil." ”

"Thousands of the Eighth Route Army have entered the city, brothers don't resist." Another Imperial Concordant captive then shouted.

………………

Gradually, the driven Imperial Allied Army gradually became disobedient, they either lay on the ground and pretended to be dead, or stared at the "Imperial Army" soldiers around them with ill intentions, and some of the brave ones reflexively scuffled with the "Imperial Army" soldiers.

Seeing that the enemy's formation was already confused, the Eighth Route Army sounded the charge horn again, and the shock troops once again violently charged the enemy's formation.

The Devil Commander brandished his sword and stabilized the ranks with hoarse shouts and curses.

Suddenly, a dense burst of fire came from behind, and several soldiers fell to the ground, and he was almost hit.

Looking back, there were more than a dozen figures flashing at the entrance of an alley behind the side, leaning on the premises and shooting in this direction, making contact gestures.

It seems that it is another small detachment of the Eighth Route Army that came to reinforce it. Obviously, the Eighth Route Army launched an outflanking operation, and they fell into the encirclement.

Actually, he miscalculated, this was not a reinforcement, but an assault group heard the gunshots, rushed to join in the fun, and stabbed the Japanese in the back.

The assault team's attacks made the enemy suspicious, forcing the already wavering Japanese officers to make up their minds and lead the remnants to retreat, intending to wait for reinforcements to arrive before launching a counterattack.

Taking advantage of the enemy's retreat, the Eighth Route Army slaughtered for a while, and abandoned the next batch of enemy corpses in the area of the street.

After repelling the enemy's counterattacks three times before and after, the troops coming from afar were already tired, so they immediately seized the time to quickly deal with the aftermath, wrapped up the wounded and collected the corpses, reorganized the organization, deployed defenses, and prepared to continue the attack in depth.

At this point in the battle, the Eighth Route Army had an increasingly obvious advantage, surpassing the enemy not only in numbers, but also in organization and firepower.

Inspired by the shouts of Captain Liang and his subordinates, the Imperial Association Army was already disheartened and had no fighting spirit.

The Japanese army was trapped in street fighting, and there was no longer the prestige of the field war. The Eighth Route Army had firmly occupied a large part of the city, and the balance of victory had tilted in favor of the Eighth Route Army.

Commander Zheng consulted with several staff officers, prepared to overcome fatigue and take a more fierce offensive, and organized several lines of elite armed forces to attack the enemy's weak parts, and won the victory in one fell swoop.

As a result, the momentum of the feint attack force decreased, and a sharp knife company that was familiar with the terrain and good at street fighting was withdrawn, ready to go straight to the heart of the devil - the command headquarters.

The situation of the battle in the castle was unclear, and there was no way to decide on countermeasures, and Kato and Matsumoto and other devil officers silently faced each other, and the atmosphere was as tense and depressing.

Until now, neither Kato nor Matsumoto thought that the county seat would be lost. This erroneous and persistent persistence will eventually destroy their only hope.

To put it mildly, they are sitting here and waiting to die, listening to the noose of the Eighth Route Army tightening more and more. But the pride of their hearts made them unaware of it.

Kato, who had never smoked, reached out to a devil staff officer and asked for a cigarette, but waved his hand to refuse his ignition, put the cigarette under his nose, sniffed it vigorously, and smiled for a while, obviously intended to dilute the dull atmosphere, but it made people feel the bitterness hidden in it.

He patted his forehead lightly and said, "Although the offensive of the Eighth Route Army is sudden and fierce, I think that with the tenacity of the imperial army, they will definitely be counterattacked. Even if the counterattack fails, by the time dawn comes, reinforcements from the various strongholds outside the city should arrive. Misfortune and blessing rely on, and blessing and misfortune lurk. Maybe this time it will be able to hit the old opponent of the Eighth Route Army hard and make them collapse. ”

Matsumoto was a little moved, blinked for a while, and said, "Judging from the current situation, local contingency measures can no longer fundamentally reverse the overall situation, and we must wait for changes in external conditions." We need to hold back the besieging enemy and use space to gain time. Fighting is like a game of chess, and it is often won by risk. Success or failure often depends on the correctness or error of command, rather than on the strength or strength of the moment. I think that if necessary, we can give up the hold on to the city gate and save the army for the long term. ”

"Matsumoto-kun, I agree with you, but it's a bit too early to give up the city gate, let's ......"

Before Kato's words could be finished, several grenade explosions rang out in the front yard, followed by a burst of gunshots like beans, mixed with panicked exclamations.

One of the guards rushed over, shouting as he ran: "The enemy is in!" ”

It was like a thunderbolt hitting the top of his head, and everyone present was stunned, but Kato was calmer and the first to react, shouting: "Don't panic, be calm, this is a small group of armed forces taking advantage of the gap to sneak attack, and organize the guards to counterattack him." ”

Kato was right, what came here was a dozen or so members of an assault group, who were interspersed in the middle of the enemy group, carrying out the task of mobile warfare.

It first attacked a group of enemies who were running to reinforce the front line, and then quickly broke free from the enemy's pinning down and made a detour back to the vicinity of the enemy's headquarters.

The enemy's headquarters was surrounded by sentry posts, officers came and went, and antennas were set up on the roofs, so that anyone could tell that this was an important sector of the enemy.

The assault team plunged into a secluded alley, climbed over several courtyard walls, carved through several walls, evaded the enemy's alert, and approached the house from the side covertly, suddenly appeared in front of the enemy, and killed and wounded the unsuspecting enemy in large numbers with heavy fire.

Kato, who has been in battle for a long time, once went deep into the front line of the bullet rain and experienced all kinds of dangers, but it was the first time that the enemy had entered the command headquarters. Bullets from the outside pierced through the window and hit the wall, filling the house with dust and dust, choking him and coughing.

Matsumoto lay on the ground and hurriedly made a phone call, ordering the nearest troops to quickly come in for reinforcements, and then crouched down by the door and looked out.

The fierce exchange of fire continued, the fire of the assault group was extremely fierce, and the terrain of the Japanese Guards was unfavorable, although they resisted stubbornly, the casualties continued to increase.

Dense gunfire rang out outside, and a team of devils rushed to reinforce and engage fire with the assault team, and the devil guards also took advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack.

Several grenades came in through the window and exploded in the house, one after the other, and the smoke and dust were filled.

The smoke cleared, the gunfire gradually stopped, and the assault team, under the cover of smoke and dust, moved back the same way.

The devils in the house suffered heavy casualties, Matsumoto's head was cut off in half by shrapnel, blood and brains flowed all over the ground, and he lay on the ground miserably.

Kato's shoulder was wounded, and a piece of flesh was shaved off his forehead, and the injury was not very serious. He looked at the staff officers and guards who fell beside him, and his heart couldn't help but feel a sourness, and a string of hot tears welled up.

Then, the two devils came almost on their heels and reported to Kato the current battle situation: the first line of Yuehai Restaurant was lost, the imperial army suffered heavy losses, and the Eighth Route Army was attacking more fiercely.

Hold on to change, or break through? Kato frowned, just for a moment to shake off the idea of breaking through.

Losing the county seat, even if you escape with your life, you will be sent to a military court, which is a shame that a samurai can never bear.

The serious situation no longer allows for any hesitation, and continuing the current situation can only allow the Eighth Route Army to break through.

Kato made up his mind, stared at the staff officer with bloodshot eyes and said, "Give orders to the defenders everywhere, abandon the defense, and assemble all to the central barracks, and the headquarters will be transferred immediately." ”

……………

The enemy in the city was ordered to abandon the defenses in all directions and retreat into the fortified central barracks.

The forces of the Eighth Route Army have all entered the city and surrounded the central barracks. At the same time, the Eighth Route Army closed the city gates and fought against the enemy troops who had rushed to reinforce the strongholds outside the city.

Since there were not many enemies in the strongholds outside the city, they came in batches and were repulsed and defeated one after another.

At this point, the enemy in the county has become a turtle in the urn, and the trapped beast is still fighting; It is also unlikely that the enemy outside the city will want to rush in.