On October 15, Dingxian County, Hebei Province fell.

In order to prevent the Chinese army from destroying the roads and bridges along the way, the arrogant Japanese army completely disregarded the disconnection with the main force, and under the command of Major General Zhengsan on the riverside, gathered more than 3,000 troops to form a temporary advance detachment, and rushed to Xinle County, Hebei Province by night.

Kawabe Shozo, this guy himself is a relation, he has served in the local education director department for a long time, and finally took the path of Kazuki Kiyoji (then director of education), and was promoted to the director of the department in March 1936, so he was promoted to major general, and in April of that year, he became the commander of the infantry brigade of the Chinese garrison army.

After that, this guy actively planned and participated in the "77 Incident" and was one of the pioneers of the Japanese invasion of North China, but because of the provocation of a full-scale war between China and Japan, many moderate upper-level people had a bad opinion of him, so he was transferred to the Japanese General Staff in North China.

However, Kawabe Shozo's ambitions are high, and he is not willing to be the deputy chief of staff of a major general, he wants to be the commander of a brigade, a division, a general, or a marshal, so he ignored the dangers of the battlefield and volunteered to be the captain of the advance detachment, and he wanted to prove his ability with his outstanding martial arts.

In the early morning of October 16, the 141st Division (Shang Zhen's starting unit) stationed in Xinle, as well as Bao Gang's independent 46th Brigade, rose up to resist the night attack of the invading Japanese army.

Relying on the Dasha River, the railway bridge, the railway station, and the city wall of the county seat, our army fought a bloody battle with the Japanese army.

As a result of nearly 30 sorties of bombing by enemy planes, our troops suffered heavy losses in personnel and weaponry, and about 10 75-mm mountain guns were blown up.

However, the losses of the riverside detachment were not small, and finally with five or six hundred casualties, they attacked the city wall of Xinle County, but fortunately, the railway bridge had been blown up in advance, so that the enemy's heavy equipment, in a short time, could not provide fire support for the infantry, resulting in little progress of the Japanese army.

In the early morning of October 17, the Japanese army took five squads as the vanguard, and fought with our army to fight for Xinlecheng District, and at the same time raised forward reconnaissance balloons to provide correction information for their artillery.

At about 11 o'clock, the Japanese artillery launched a fierce attack, most of the fortifications of our army were blown up, and the soldiers had to use the ruins and reeds as shelters, and continued to hold on to fight with the enemy, until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Xinle Railway Station officially fell, and the county town of Xinle was already in danger at this time.

On 18 October, the Japanese launched an all-out offensive.

Under the cover of seven or eight tanks and armored vehicles, nearly 1,000 Japanese troops rushed towards our position, and our army had to retreat while fighting.

The injured and the people were immediately sent by train to Yuanshi County to settle down.

In the early morning of October 19, a number of Japanese detachments with radio stations secretly crossed the Cihe River and touched the surroundings of Zhengding County, and after being violently attacked by the 122nd Division, almost all the troops were annihilated, but the "Zhengding-Shijiazhuang Defense Battle" also officially began.

Fortunately, the enemy was also stunned, and he couldn't figure out the reality of Zhengding County's defense for a while, so he had to temporarily rest and wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements and their heavy equipment.

On the morning of October 20, with the support of the 8th Independent Mountain Artillery Wing of the Japanese Army, the riverside detachment, which had been replenished by troops, crossed the Dasha River and the Cihe River in three ways.

The focus of the Japanese attack was the Xin'an Railway Station, 10 kilometers north of Zhengding City, and the crossing sites of the two rivers.

Fortunately, Zhengzo by the river is still sober and knows to take precautions.

This guy divided the 3,000 Japanese troops under his command into four groups of men and horses, and attacked Anxia Village (five kilometers north of Zhengding City), Niujiazhuang (six kilometers northeast of the city), Xiaolinji (three kilometers east of the city), and Zhuhe Village (four kilometers east of the city), forming a semi-encircled attack formation, and surrounded Zhengding County.

Occasionally, when encountering a small group of guerrillas, the Japanese army did not bother to pay attention to it, and those who could be cleaned up immediately were cleaned up, and those who could not be cleaned up were bypassed, and Zhengding County was their ultimate goal.

When the Japanese soldiers approached the Zhengding city, it was already very late, and the Zhengding city wall was relatively complete, it looked majestic and majestic, even if the defenders were not strong enough and the morale was not good, the Japanese army did not dare to attack easily for a while, so they had to send a number of small troops at night to strive to seize the key points around the county as soon as possible.

Major General Hebian believes that even if he cannot capture the county seat of Zhengding in time, it is necessary to find out the reality of the county.

Of course, if the enemy runs away on his own, then it is better.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Since nightfall, most of the officers and men of the 122nd Division have also formed a company-platoon level special force in a timely manner, and they have also begun to counter-infiltrate and counter-penetrate the Japanese army's large and small positions, as well as various key points in the rear.

Fortunately, the anti-interspersed Sichuan army never stepped into the last defensive line of the Japanese army, so the overnight attack was disturbed, although the losses of both the enemy and us were very heavy, but the overall situation, but not much change, the Japanese army has surrounded Zhengding County, just wait for the dawn to launch a general attack.

Kawabe Shozo was a little uneasy, he always felt that something was wrong.

Since the "77 Incident", it seems to be the first time that it has been counter-interspersed by the Chinese army.

For the sake of his own safety, Major General Kawabe sent a telegram to the headquarters in Baoding overnight "requesting operational guidance (Japanese version of requesting reinforcements)", hoping that the follow-up main force would be able to speed up the speed.

However, the performance of this guy in the past few days is indeed too conspicuous, and the commander of the First Army of the Japanese Army, Kazuki Kiyoji, thinks that he is a rare general, and after a little praise in the telegram, he ordered the reinforcements stranded near Dingxian County to rush to the area of Xinle County as soon as possible to reinforce this guy.

It's a pity that there are policies and countermeasures.

The troops stranded in Dingxian were the 6th Division of the Japanese Army, not to mention the heavy losses during the battle in Baoding, and the greedy Kawabe Shozo brought with him more than 1,000 mobile troops of the division.

Inoki Dazuo is also a tragedy, this guy ancestor is a horse breeder in Hokkaido, to his father's generation only went to the Kyushu area to mine, the family is poor for eight lifetimes, as soon as he entered the North China Plain, that mind has long been spent, long wanted to go to the neighborhood to rob money, play with the flower girl.

This guy has now received a secret order from the division commander, "as soon as possible, support friendly troops", how to do it as soon as possible, that is particular, for example, because the sky is too dark, causing the night march to get lost, and for example, they were suddenly sniped by the Chinese army, they had to "clear on the spot" and so on.

What is the sniper method? That's a technical job.

For example, if you want to deviate a little from the Pinghan Railway, find a relatively wealthy village, and then send someone to shoot into the sky, saying that there are resistance elements here, everyone will rush up, and after a period of burning, killing and looting, they will kill them one by one, and finally lie to the Japanese army headquarters about the military situation, saying that they have annihilated thousands of enemy troops.

In the early morning of October 21, after a burst of rapid artillery fire covered, the Japanese army, fed up with the night attack, immediately divided its troops into three routes, from the east, west, and north directions, and launched an attack on Zhengding County at the same time, and the North Gate Railway Station was the main attack point of the Japanese army, concentrating nearly 2,000 troops.

The east gate and the west gate are the second attack points of the Japanese army, each with two infantry squadrons, plus the strength of the north gate, the entire advance detachment is almost out of the nest, and the feeling is the third place by the river, playing "a wave of flow".

The Japanese troops on attack were not ordinary Japanese troops, but mobile troops drawn from the elite of the 6th and 14th Divisions, as well as the Chinese garrison troops, which were not only well-equipped, but also all veterans.

Of course, if the combat exploits of the advance detachment had been very prominent, it was entirely possible that it would have been reorganized into a three-unit Category B division. (Category A Division has jurisdiction over four infantry wings)

Not to mention the fierce attack of the Japanese army outside the north gate, a group of Japanese troops bent over, stepping on the shell point of the shell forward, even the Japanese army outside the west gate and the east gate, although there were only four or five hundred people, but also played the offensive momentum of thousands of people, from the beginning of the shelling, has not stopped the pig assault, let the machine guns on the city tower spray wildly, and the repeated explosions of grenades, still attacked the foot of the city wall.

The Japanese troops on the front line were overjoyed, thinking that Zhengding County was within reach.

When the blasting operation was about to be carried out, the hidden bunkers near the city wall suddenly opened the holes one by one, and the sound of tearing the tarpaulin came out one after another, and the Czech light machine guns on the castle tower were also overwhelmed by the rapid sound of German 98K rifle fire, the sound of M2 heavy machine guns, and the autumn sound of mortars.

The Japanese army's pig assault and blasting operations were suppressed one by one, and the only 60 mortars in the distance were also knocked out by the Type 72 infantry guns.

Four or five kilometers away from the city wall, the headquarters of the Japanese detachment was busy, and they were still immersed in joy, thinking that the city of Zhengding was about to be broken, and they were about to go to camp in the city for the night.

When the Chinese defenders began to counterattack, Zhengzo Riverside, who was closing his eyes and recuperating, suddenly opened his eyes, especially when he heard the sound of tearing the tarpaulin, he was suddenly frightened and shouted, "Germany's G34 general-purpose machine gun? That's impossible. Aren't all the German mechanics in China in Shanghai? ”

Yes, the G34 general-purpose machine gun, which is the standard equipment of the German armor division in China, was later called "Hitler's sickle" by the British and American allies, and it is recorded that during the Normandy landings in 1944, an ordinary German soldier used it to shoot more than 1,000 Allied soldiers in just half a day.

It can be seen how sharp the machine gun is.

As long as there is a G34 machine gun, and the ammunition is relatively sufficient, there is no fear of any "pig rush" tactics, it is said that even the Central Teaching Corps, as well as the 88th Division, 87th Division and other model German armor divisions, have not been equipped much, because this thing is too bullet-intensive, with the economic strength of Huaxia simply can't afford to play it, I didn't expect to encounter nearly 100 G34 machine guns in the small Zhengding County.

The pale-faced Major General Hebian hurriedly gave the order to retreat, and then tried not to let himself faint, but he had regretted it ten thousand times in his heart, this time he rushed to attack Zhengding County, it was really a big mistake, and the only hope was that the enemy was distressed by the bullets and stopped shooting.

It's a pity that the G34 thing was just beaten, and it lasted for half an hour, and it didn't stop, so that all the Japanese troops collapsed at the same time, and Liu Yun himself also collapsed.

This guy is through the scanning function of the brain, quietly peeking at the Zhengding battlefield by the Hutuo River, if according to the current way of playing, needless to say, all the bullets must be exhausted, and the machine guns must all be scrapped, what a group of losers, transport weapons from western Sichuan, do you know that there is difficulty.

However, standing on the south bank of the Hutuo River and observing the battle situation in Zhengding with binoculars, there were also commanders such as Wu Peifu and Li Jiayu.

These generals cherish their lives very much, and they are all dressed in the clothes of ordinary soldiers, for fear of being targeted by the Japanese traitors, and even more afraid that the Japanese devils who are besieging the city will suddenly go crazy, and if they fire a few Type 92 shells to this side, everyone will have to finish playing.

However, the people who post comments and watch the excitement are not young and old.

Especially Wu Peifu, an old general, he also stood and spoke without back pain, and when he saw the decline of the Japanese army, he said with some regret, "If there is an army at this time, starting from Gaocheng in the lower reaches of the Hutuo River, it will be able to reach Xinle in about half a day, and this group of Japanese troops will not escape the fate of being completely annihilated."

This comment was posted well, but it reminded Commander Liu.

The Western Sichuan Independent Brigade has six mechanized infantry battalions, and the soldiers can take a car or tank from Zhao County or Luancheng County, pass through Gaocheng County on the Hutuo River, and go straight to Xinle County, and the speed of the car must be many times stronger than that of ordinary infantry.

Fortunately, it was wartime, and the general might not be able to travel without weapons, but he had to bring a telegraph or telephone.

Liu Yun immediately sent a report to Guo Qixun, hoping that he could immediately lead his troops to attack Xinle County.