Chapter 117: Light Rain

Lingcun supported the Songshan line with a brigade, and the brigade did not hesitate to threaten the two divisions of the 86th Army, and continued to attack the last line of defense of Tianjiazhai, located on the narrow road between Makou Lake and Huangni Lake.

Li Yannian had the fortress of Tianjiazhen behind him, which was the last line of defense to contain the Japanese Third Fleet, and he did not dare to press on it with heavy troops, so he only added an artillery battalion to support on the basis of the original 342 regiment and 51 regiment.

Two regiments and one artillery battalion, but only 6,000 people, and the Imamura detachment is full of three wings, plus more than 10,000 people in logistics support.

Due to the terrain and weather, the 86th Army and the 26th Army could only contain the Japanese troops in the area of Camel Mountain and Xiangshan, and these Japanese troops combined were only two brigades. In the direction of attacking Tianjiazhen, the Japanese army was far stronger than Li Yannian's troops in terms of strength and firepower.

After the rain, the Japanese army attacked Tianjia Town in a big way, Bai Chongxi couldn't wait for detailed planning, and ordered the 86th Army to attack the line of Xiangshan and Camel Mountain.

"Battalion commander, the military headquarters called, ordering our battalion to cooperate with the artillery battalion of the military headquarters, and the 363rd Regiment to attack Xiangshan, in order to respond to our division's attack on Camel Mountain."

Zhang Ziwen looked at the map again, the two heights were connected by the 361st, 362nd, and 615th regiments respectively to prevent Guangji from coming to help, and the 613 westward advance cooperated with the 26th Army to ensure the safety of the west, and only attacked with two regiments. According to the reconnaissance of the special service company, there are two squadrons in each of Xiangshan Camel Mountain. Seeing that Camel Mountain was unharmed, Shibata led a rapid-fire artillery squadron and an infantry squadron to cooperate with Tanaka's brigade to attack the area around Shaziyuan, in an attempt to open the back road of the Imamura detachment.

The Tanaka Brigade, the captain of which is Tanaka Junyoshi, displays a saber named Sukehiro in the memorial hall today, and this knife slaughtered more than 300 Chinese people in Nanjing.

"Ordered, the spy company set off first, went to Xiangshan, monitored the movement of the Japanese army on the front line of the sand wall, and an hour later the whole battalion set off and called all the company commanders over."

The sudden order interrupted the arrangement of the third battalion to attack the Songshan Heights, and if the Songshan Heights were not taken, it would always be a threat, and Zhang Ziwen had no way to fight for it, because the order of the military headquarters specifically stated that it was an order from the headquarters of the Fourth Corps, and he could only accept it.

"Xiaobao, send a telegram to the division headquarters, let them guard against the Japanese army on the Songshan Heights, and I don't know how many reinforcements have come from Songshan during the heavy rain."

The successive heavy rains made the road connecting Guangji and Tianjia Town muddy, and the independent battalion had to take more difficult mountain roads to guard against Japanese aircraft.

"Ah~"

This is the third brother who slipped into the river, and when the heavy rain receded, the torrent continued, and he could only watch as the fallen brother was mercilessly swallowed by the torrent.

"All of them are for Lao Tzu to watch the road carefully, don't go slowly."

Zhang Ziwen was very powerless, and in the face of the changeable nature and ordinary Japanese aircraft, he had no power to fight back.

The team marched hard, Zhang Ziwen's feet were also slippery again and again, the soles of the cloth shoes were already full of mud, and he had to stop after walking for a while and deduct the mud from the soles.

When Zhang Ziwen stopped deducting the mud, he saw the machine gun platoon carrying the heavy machine gun and walking forward, without fear of falling, and there were not many mud stains on his body. Looking down in curiosity, the brothers saw that the straw sandals were under their feet, but the straw sandals were different from the usual ones.

"Vigorously, come over to me."

The machine guns were in the center, and they waited vigorously for a while before they arrived with the brothers behind them, but they were also wearing cloth shoes and there were not many mud stains on their bodies.

"What is the task of the battalion commander."

Zhang Ziwen waited for Dali to approach before he took a closer look, and the cloth shoes he was wearing tied a few straw ropes to the shoes.

"Explain to me what's going on."

"Battalion commander, you're talking about shoes, we're not making up for new recruits, we're all wearing straw sandals, my squad leader saw that the road was muddy, so he put on straw sandals, we didn't tie them with straw ropes, and they were also non-slip, but I didn't steal supplies."

"Okay, let's get it for me, besides, you dare to steal it if you have the guts?"

Dali Lian said that he didn't dare, no one in the independent battalion dared to do this, Ma Xiaobao and Rao Xiangyun were double-tested, brothers, I all know that as long as you stab the battalion headquarters, even the company commander will be finished.

Vigorously asked the brother to tie two straw ropes to Zhang Ziwen's shoes, Zhang Ziwen stood up and tried it, originally thought that he would rest his feet, but he didn't expect that there was no discomfort at all.

The straw rope goes directly into the mud because of the loose soil, which increases the anti-slip function and does not affect the comfort of the shoes. After Zhang Ziwen walked for a while, he ordered the whole battalion to be put on it, and the marching speed of the independent battalion was suddenly improved.

Zhang Ziwen remembered that the recruits had told him about the advantages of straw sandals, which seemed to be more advantageous in the mountains. So, he came up with an idea, cloth shoes in winter, straw shoes in spring, summer and autumn, depending on the weather, depending on the terrain. One person and two shoes, most of the recruits will tie straw shoes, and they don't need money, the grass is everywhere, and it is light and will not increase the load.

"Brother Wen, Xiangshan is in front, and the spy company told us that Xiangshan has no movement, and it will take about half an hour to arrive."

Wangshan ran a dead horse, not to mention a person, you can see Xiangshan from afar, but it took another fifty minutes to arrive, and half an hour of the spy company, ordinary brothers can't do it.

"Report!"

Zhang Zhang ran over when he saw the marching procession, and now the independent battalion had begun to advance covertly, and the light rain from the sky became the best cover.

"Has the 363rd Regiment arrived?"

As soon as the light rain fell, it seemed that the heavy rain was expected to come later, and it was better to take advantage of the heavy rain to avoid guarding against the Japanese planes, although it was hard, but it was better than being bombed by the Japanese planes.

"The 363rd Regiment has arrived on all sides, cutting off the connection between Xiangshan and the Japanese troops who broke through to the flank of Songshan."

Zhang Ziwen was stunned by Zhang Li's words, the 363rd Regiment was even faster than the Independent Battalion?

"Did you tell me when to attack?"

"The 363 liaison came and told us that .ne is attacking from the east and letting go of the north."

Zhang Ziwen carefully looked at the topography of Xiangshan, extending to the east and west, the north and south sides are natural barriers, the angle of the mountain is as high as 45 degrees, it is about to catch up with Dingshan, and it is not feasible to attack from the back.

"The spy company sent two groups to the south to reconnoiter to prevent enemy support from the south, and the remaining teams infiltrated Xiangshan to find out the situation, and the whole battalion drove to the east of Xiangshan."

Zhang Ziwen took the radio squad to the 363rd Regiment, and Ma Xiaobao led the troops to make a detour to the east of Xiangshan.

When Zhang Ziwen arrived at the 363rd Regiment, the 363rd Regiment was beginning to mobilize troops, and Zhang Ziwen directly found Wei Xiling, the commander of the 363rd Regiment.

"Report!"

Facing Wei Xiling, who was higher in rank and rank than himself, Zhang Ziwen saluted honestly.

"You are Zhang Ziwen? Sure enough, you are a hero out of a young man, and Lao Wanke often mentions you to me. ”

Wei Xiling, with the rank of colonel, graduated from Guizhou Chongwu Military Academy and Wan Shijiong is an alumnus, although the 121st Division does not get along with the 103rd Division, but it does not erase the alumni relationship.

"Captain Wei praised it, I came here this time to coordinate the attack time."

Zhang Ziwen saw that Wei Xiling had a good relationship with Wan Shijiong, so he went straight to the point and threw away the draft he had made.

"I was about to inform you, and you came to see ...... here."

The 363rd Regiment attacked with two battalions, one battalion protected the reserve, and the regimental headquarters was placed in the south, and the remote movement time was one hour. Zhang Ziwen calculated that his independent battalion had already moved far into place, and he could attack just waiting for the artillery battalion to come.

"Commander Wei, how about starting the attack at half past eleven? In an hour and a half, the artillery battalion should also arrive. ”

Wei Xiling nodded, Zhang Ziwen immediately went to the military headquarters to inquire about the movement of the artillery battalion, and learned that the artillery battalion had a radio station, so he directly called the artillery battalion, and the artillery battalion could arrive in half an hour by calling back. Zhang Ziwen led people to the independent camp with peace of mind, leaving Wei Xiling alone to be surprised.