The 109th Division took over from the Yangquan, Yuxian, and Binh Dinh areas, and was a wing of the 108th Division of the Japanese Army.

Yangquan is a town in the northern part of Binh Dinh County. However, due to the production of coal and iron, Shanxi's largest Northwest Industrial Company and Baojin Coal Company have branches in Yangquan, and have relatively advanced coal mines, power plants, iron factories and other enterprises.

Mr. Sun Yat-sen said in the "Strategy for the Founding of the People's Republic of China" that the iron of Taihang is made of the coal of Yangquan, which means that the resource advantages of Yangquan are used to develop the coal and iron and steel industries needed for China's rejuvenation.

Mr. Sun Yat-sen once went to Shanxi to meet Yan Xishan and entrusted him with important tasks.

Yan Xishan is indeed a good hand in developing the economy and ensuring people's livelihood. Under his vigorous promotion, Yangquan's coal industry and iron-making industry developed relatively rapidly, and the coal and iron produced not only met the needs of Shanxi's guns and cannons, but also exported to other places, driving the economy.

There are coal mines, iron factories, and power plants, and there must be a large number of workers, and Yangquan is located on the most convenient Zhengtai line in Jin, with convenient transportation, and the town of Yangquan has the foundation of a modern city, which is more modern than the county seat of Pingding.

After the Japanese army occupied Yangquan, it took Yangquan as a strategic support point to control this area, and it has always been heavily defended.

Because the 109th Division and the 20th Division had to act as the main force and the vanguard of the pacification operation, the Japanese First Army transferred a wing from the 108th Division to garrison Yangquan and took over the defense of the 109th Division in the Houyangquan, Pingding, and Yuxian areas.

The 108th Division was formed by the reservists of the 8th Division in Hongsaki, and after arriving at the battlefield of invasion of China, it undertook the attack and advance along both sides of the Pinghan Road, and successively captured Shijiazhuang and Handan, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

This unit has not yet suffered a heavy blow from the Chinese army, and it knows nothing about the tactics of the Eighth Route Army, and it is very arrogant!

It is also strange to say that because the Taohe Railway Bridge was blown up and the Zhengtai Railway was not opened to traffic, the little devils in Yangquan did not know any news about the capture of Shouyang by the independent battalion. After all, Shouyang belongs to the defense area of the 109th Division and is not under the control of the 108th Division.

After Xiao Siming captured Shouyang County, he immediately ordered the three combat companies to act separately and sweep the stronghold of the Japanese puppet army in Shouyang, and the task given to the second company was to attack eastward along the Zhengtai Railway after capturing Qinquan Town in Shouyang, reoccupy the stone measuring station, and control the Jiujie area.

Cao Ming'an, the commander of the second company, led his troops to the east along Zhengtai Road after taking the devil's stronghold in Qinquan Town, and when he arrived at the outskirts of the Jiujie area, he found that the situation had changed.

The Japanese army is organizing forces to repair the Taohe Bridge, the construction site is brightly lit, and the stone measuring station not far from the Taohe Bridge is also brightly lit. It seems that the little devil has learned the lesson of the Eighth Route Army's sneak attack on the stone measuring station, and he is very vigilant, and he also rushed to repair the fortifications of Straw Hat Mountain, and is ready for a lasting defense.

In this case, if the stone station is attacked strongly, the troops will suffer heavy casualties, and it is impossible to succeed in one blow, which is inconsistent with Xiao Siming's intention to conceal our army and capture Shouyang County!

Cao Mingan immediately made a report to Xiao Siming through the radio and asked for instructions!

After receiving the report, Xiao Siming only scolded the little devil twice hatefully, and then called back and ordered the second company to withdraw to Qinquan Town to conceal the defense, mobilize the masses, and expand the troops.

In this way, the little devils rushed to repair the Taohe Bridge in the Jiujie area, which is 10 kilometers away from Qinquan Town in a straight line, and the Second Company of the Independent Battalion quietly mobilized the masses and expanded the troops in Qinquan.

After hearing the news of the Eighth Route Army's capture of Shouyang County on the radio, the Japanese army in Yangquan woke up from a dream and learned that a tiger came down the mountain next to the couch!

Without waiting for the order of the First Army to be issued, the Japanese troops stationed in Yangquan mobilized troops to urgently reinforce the stone measuring station, for fear that the Eighth Route Army would repeat its old tricks and capture the stone measuring station again and destroy the Taohe Bridge that was being repaired again!

After receiving the order from the headquarters of the First Army to send a small force to carry out a tentative attack on the territory of Shouyang, the Japanese troops assembled at the stone measuring station acted first!

The order of the First Army Headquarters was to make a tentative attack by small units, and at the same time send small units and plainclothes personnel of the garrison to infiltrate and counterattack Shouyang. Needless to say, the reason is that I am afraid of suffering a big loss at the hands of the Eighth Route Army again!

Since the troops of the 108th Division had not suffered losses at the hands of the Eighth Route Army, they did not know the strength of the Eighth Route Army, and thought that retaking Shouyang was as simple as capturing Handan, so they actually had the intention of grabbing merit!

The devil who quickly reinforced the Shishi Station from Yangquan was an infantry brigade, and the captain was called Toyokawa Toshio, with the rank of captain.

During the battle on Pinghan Road, Captain Toshio Toyokawa led his brigade, which once pursued the retreating national * army non-stop, and was almost invincible! Therefore, in his consciousness, the Chinese army is vulnerable, and his brigade can attack a division of the Chinese army!

Therefore, the arrogant devil captain Toyokawa Toshio did not follow the orders of the First Army Headquarters, and instead of using the cover of night to send a small force to act quietly, he launched a small force and multiple batches of exploratory and reconnaissance attacks in the direction of Qinquan Town, but left the devils who were originally stationed at the Shishi Measuring Station to deploy on the spot, and personally led the main force of the brigade, starting with three motorcycles, two tanks, and two armored vehicles, along the road on the side of the Zhengtai Railway, and pounced on Qinquan Town with murderous spirit.

Captain Toshio Toyokawa, the captain of the devil brigade, must have known that Qinquan Town had fallen into the hands of the Eighth Route Army, because the news broadcast on the radio made it clear that the Eighth Route Army captured Shouyang County, completely annihilated the Japanese army brigade stationed in Shouyang and the Shouyang County pseudo-garrison, and destroyed more than a dozen Japanese strongholds. The Japanese puppet army stronghold in Qinquan Town must also be among them!

The abacus of Captain Toshio Toyokawa, the captain of the devil brigade, was to recapture Qinquan Town first, and then attack the county seat along the railway and highway.

As for whether the Eighth Route Army that captured Shouyang was really strong, Captain Toshio Toyokawa also considered it, but he was not afraid in his heart! Because he has pursued the Central Army, he knows the elite combat effectiveness of the Central Army. And the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which occupied Shouyang City, belongs to the newly reorganized miscellaneous army in the Chinese army sequence, I am afraid that it does not even have a mountain artillery, and its combat effectiveness cannot be compared with the Central Army, not at the same level!

Toshio Toyokawa, the captain of the devil brigade that even the Central Army has pursued, naturally will not take the Eighth Route Army into account!

Captain Toshio Toyokawa also knew that the Eighth Route Army was good at ambush warfare, and the Itagaki Division, the 20th Division, and the 109th Division had all suffered great losses at the hands of the Eighth Route Army. But he felt that this was Zhengtai Road, the main road from Yangquan to Shouyang and Taiyuan, and the possibility of the Eighth Route Army ambushing here was very small!

The most important thing is that Captain Toshio Toyokawa believes that the stone measuring station is only 10 kilometers away from Qinquan Town, and the car is coming in an instant, and the Eighth Route Army wants to ambush him, and it is impossible to carry it out in such a short distance. Because I want to eat him a brigade, without the strength of a division, don't even think about it! In such a short distance, if the Eighth Route Army deploys the strength of a division, the movement will be too big, and the garrison of the stone measuring station cannot be ignorant!

At this point, Captain Toshio Toyokawa, the captain of the devil brigade, judged correctly!

If it is really the whole division of the 115th Division here, and the troops are stationed and camped, it will not be able to accommodate ten or eight villages, and the Japanese army will always get a little news.

Toyokawa Toshio is not a reckless man, he takes the speed of the noble soldier in the art of war.

The Central News Agency announced the news of the Eighth Route Army's capture of Shouyang at 8 p.m., and according to the habit of sending telegrams to various units, it was common to send telegrams to report victory as soon as the battle ended, or even to send telegrams to report victory before the battle was completely over. Captain Toshio Toyokawa judged that the Eighth Route Army should have just captured Shouyang County, and it was also the county seat that was captured at about 7 o'clock at the earliest. Moreover, with the combat effectiveness and tenacious combat style of the Japanese army, the battle in Shouyang at this time must not be completely over, and there must be remnants of the defenders still fighting with the Eighth Route Army!

Toshio Toyokawa, the captain of the devil's brigade, did not have in his mind the concept that the Eighth Route Army could use the Gaoping dual-purpose cannon to attack strongholds and attack the city wall, because it was an anti-aircraft gun, which was used for air defense, how could it be used for attacking turrets, pillboxes, and city gates in ground operations?

This is not to blame the captain of the devil brigade Toshio Toyokawa, the Japanese army did not report the specific losses caused by the destruction of Taiyuan Airport by the Eighth Route Army, how could Toyokawa Toshio know that the Eighth Route Army captured the weapons and equipment of an entire air defense brigade from Taiyuan Airport? Taking a step back, the vast majority of the soldiers of the Chinese army are illiterate,

Even if Toyokawa Toshio knew that the Eighth Route Army had captured the Japanese army's Gaoping dual-purpose cannon and rapid-fire gun, he was not afraid, because whether the Eighth Route Army would use it or not was a different matter!

And so it is!

In the Pingxingguan ambush, the Eighth Route Army captured ten grenadiers, all of which remained in the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, but the soldiers could not use them and could only be placed in warehouses. Until a Japanese prisoner was captured, after education and transformation, this Japanese prisoner taught the Eighth Route Army to use grenadiers. Later, not only all units of the Eighth Route Army would use grenadiers, but the Huangyadong Arsenal also copied grenadiers!

The reason why the cadres and soldiers of the independent battalion would use the weapons of the Japanese army when they got them was mainly because of Xiao Siming's inadvertent pondering, drumming, and allocation at the critical moment. Otherwise, at this time, who in the Eighth Route Army would know how to use the Japanese army's high-level dual-purpose guns to fight pillboxes and turrets? That's just as unthinkable!

It was in such a state of mind that the captain of the Japanese army, Toshio Toyokawa, led his infantry brigade to kill Qinquan Town on Zhengtai Road!

At night, tanks and armored vehicles drive on mountain roads, and the lights are exceptionally bright!

Xu Chaoqian, the leader of the second squad of the reconnaissance platoon of the independent battalion, held a telephone and climbed on a small hill in front of Xiaozhuang Village at the junction of Shouyang and Pingding on Zhengtai Road.

It's less than four kilometres from the station!

After a while, Xu Chaoqian shook the phone, picked up the receiver, and reported in a low voice: "The devils of the stone measuring station are dispatched, and there are a total of twelve headlights, judging that they are twelve motor vehicles!" (To be continued.) )