Not to mention that Li Dingguo and Wu Yongjiang are busy calculating Asada Fujiro Dazuo, and now the entire eastern Hebei region is surging.

In accordance with the decision of the central authorities and the instructions of Comrade [***], Commander Nie Rongzhen of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region transferred a part of his troops from the First Army Sub-Division, which had a relatively large number of backbone personnel and relatively strong combat effectiveness, and Comrade Deng Hua was responsible for forming the Deng Hua Detachment, which decided to march into eastern Hebei. After receiving the task, Comrade Deng Hua set out from Laiyuan on 20 February 1938 in accordance with the deployment of the Military Region, and gradually opened up Pingxi, Fangshan, Zhuoxian, Laishui, Liangxiang (now Fangshan), Changping, Wanping (now Fengtai District, Yanjing City) and other places, established anti-Japanese political power in some counties, organized local armed forces, expanded troops, and established advance bases for advancing into eastern Hebei.

In March l938, under the leadership of Comrade Zhou Wenbin (a Korean), secretary of the Tangshan Working Committee, more than 35,000 miners in the Kailuan Coal Mine demanded higher wages in order to maintain a minimum living conditions, and launched a huge strike struggle against British imperialism and the mine police security team they supported. Dozens of large guns were captured during the battle. After more than 50 days of struggle, at the cost of dozens of workers' casualties, the victory of the strike was finally achieved.

In May 1938, the Central Committee and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters transferred the Song Shilun detachment operating in the northwest of Shanxi Province to Pingxi and merged it with the Deng Hua detachment to form the fourth column of the Eighth Route Army. At this point, the preparations for the armed resistance of the people of eastern Hebei have basically been completed. During this period, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee sent Comrade Li Chuli to Fuping and Pingxi twice to report to Commander Nie Rongzhen on the preparations for eastern Hebei, and to agree with Comrade Deng Hua on the plan for the eastward advance of the Eighth Route Army and the relevant matters related to the uprising in eastern Hebei.

So far, under the active planning and leadership of the Central Committee, the Northern Bureau, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, and after a year of various preparations, the situation before the uprising has been very good, the people's enthusiasm for the war of resistance is very high, and the conditions for the uprising have reached maturity.

However, at a crucial stage in the preparation of the uprising, Han Yunhua, the commander of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, made a big disturbance in eastern Hebei, which caused the uprising to take an unpredictable turn. Before that, only Han Yunhua and Shen Yuquan knew about this matter, and the others, including the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, did not know that the Inner Mongolia Military Region still had such a unit in eastern Hebei.

In view of the seriousness of the matter, the military action of the Inner Mongolia Military Region may cause the uprising to develop in an unpredictable direction, and Song Shilun and Deng Hua, as well as Li Yunchang, secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, jointly reported to the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army on the situation in eastern Hebei.

In order to solve the adverse effects caused by the Inner Mongolia Military Region, the General Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army specially sent 1,200 people led by Zuo Quan, deputy chief of general staff, to the 1st Battalion of the Special Service Regiment of the General Headquarters as the backbone of the battle to command the overall situation of the resistance in eastern Hebei.

History has played a big joke here, the original vigorous and vigorous people's uprising in eastern Hebei was finally suppressed by the army, although the scale of the uprising was unprecedentedly large, and the results were extremely brilliant, but the ending was also tragic enough. Now the deputy chief of staff of Zuo, who has always commanded the battle in the Jin-Cha-Ji area, arrived in eastern Hebei with the elite troops of the Eighth Route Army, and the arrival of Zuo Quan also made a new change in the great uprising of the people in eastern Hebei. Originally, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army was going to communicate with Han Yunhua about the situation in eastern Hebei, but at that time, a large number of victims entered Chahar, and there were troops outside the Inner Mongolia Military Region, and the contradictions brought about by the large influx of disaster victims also began to become prominent.

In other words, up to now, Song Shilun, Deng Hua and others did not know about the existence of Li Dingguo and others, and Li Dingguo did not plan to contact the local Eighth Route Army now, so the two sides could not cooperate with each other to fight until now.

The fourth column is now moving very much in eastern Hebei, which has attracted the attention of Yin Rugeng and the Yue army, so during this time, the fourth column has also become low-key, and the war has become less. However, the actions of Li Dingguo and others almost ruined the hidden plan of the Fourth Column, and if it were not for Wu Yongjiang, who was behind the black pot, then the Yue Army would definitely target the guerrillas of the Eighth Route Army until it was confronted with the Fourth Column.

Although this incident was a little new because of the appearance of Wu Yongjiang, it did not affect the actions of the Fourth Column. However, because the extermination of the Yue army in Zunhua City was really bizarre, it not only attracted the attention of the North China Front of the Yue Army, but also attracted the close attention of Zuo Quan, Song Shilun and others.

Asada Fujiro Dazuo's attack was destined to end in tragedy, and after resting for one night in the county seat of Qianxi County, Asada Fujiro Dazuo left a large number of war supplies brought by him in the county seat, and then led the troops towards Phoenix Mountain with a murderous spirit. But what is different from the previous is that on the ordinary country road leading to Phoenix Mountain, which has already passed through his subordinates three times, the troops led by Asada Fujiro Dazuo were stubbornly blocked by the "Phoenix Mountain" bandits, and what surprised Asada Fujiro Dasa was that there were snipers in this branch of the China bandits who could only flee in the past, and his three captains, nine squadron leaders and an artillery squadron were caught off guard, and eleven officers were killed in an instant. Even his chief of staff, Okubo Harato Shaosa, was not spared, and his chain of command was almost destroyed by the Shina army before he reached Phoenix Mountain, much to the annoyance of the always conceited Asada Fujiro Osa.

After the firing line promoted a number of combat backbones to temporary officers, Asada Fujiro Daisa ordered the troops to move on, but the morale of the soldiers was severely damaged. When he came, he was majestic, and before he arrived, he became a "little **". In desperation, Asada Fujiro Osaku had no choice but to order the troops to temporarily slaughter the two Shina villages, so that the troops could "comfort" the Shina farmers and peasant women in the villages, and restore their morale to the extreme.

After recovering their morale a little, the troops continued to advance, the cold guns and cold artillery continued, and the large-scale resistance of the Shina troops also continued, and what frightened Asada Fujiro Dazuo the most was that in a place only more than ten kilometers away from Phoenix Mountain, Asada Fujiro Dazuo saw from the high-powered military telescope that at a distance of less than five kilometers, the Shina troops had actually built three lines of defense, and the position was built very reasonably, and it was not at all like a bandit army could build it. Seeing these lines of defense, Asada Fujiro Dazuo had a bad premonition in his heart for no reason.

But the arrow is on the line, and it has to be sent. Although Asada Fujiro Dasa was a little worried in his heart, but it was only a little, in his heart he still had the honor of being a soldier of the Imperial Army, and he would not admit that Shina would be able to defeat his wing with the same strength. Even if such a force exists, it will definitely not appear in North China, which has long been digested by the empire, especially in eastern Hebei.

The battle was fierce, and more than 3,000 troops carried out a non-stop attack on the defensive line defended by the Chinese [***] team. The field troops of the Chinese army continuously launched a group charge against the position with the squadron as a unit, and the position of the artillery squadron of the Chinese army was directly set up in the forward position, and the artillery shells bombarded the position of the Chinese [***] team as if they did not want money, and the violent explosion shrouded the position of the [***] team in a burst of fire.

But to the surprise of Asada Fujiro Osa, even with such a fierce attack, the opposing Shina troops were still holding on, and the Yamato warriors' charges were mercilessly beaten down, and the casualties of the troops were rising in a straight line.

However, worse news began to come one after another, first of all, the county seat of Qianxi was destroyed, all the defenders were broken, and all the war supplies temporarily placed in the county town of Qianxi were looted. The second is that the 25 cars that transported the wounded to Qianxi County were robbed, and all the light and serious wounded were brutally killed, and on the road leading to Qianxi County, the corpses were hung naked in front of the two villages that he slaughtered, which was obviously in retaliation for their slaughter of the village.

In just one day, Asada Fujiro Daisa was horrified to find that there were less than 2,000 men left in his complete wing, and the losses were more than 1,300 men, accounting for 40% of his total strength, and the casualties were not unheavy.

Although Asada Fujiro Osaku also knew that the casualties of the enemy on the opposite side would definitely not be less, or even more than them, after all, after half a day of fighting, Asada Fujiro Osaku also found that the opposite side of the Shina unit did not have a decent artillery unit, and only a dozen small-caliber mortars were left, and these mortars had almost no attack power under the suppression of the Type 92 infantry guns of the wing artillery squadron. Thinking about it this way, the casualties of the Chinese army will certainly not be less.

But now Asada Fujiro Dazuo didn't dare to continue to stay in Phoenix Mountain, there were not many Shina troops on the opposite side, and there were also an unknown number of Shina troops behind him, if the two armies successively attacked his troops, it would be a big trouble. As a middle and high-level military commander, Asada Fujiro Dazuo still knows a lot of things, he knows that there are really not many troops in eastern Hebei now, and those who are strong in combat are all transferred to Chahar to attack the hateful Han Yunhua, and there are less than two integrated wings and a small number of imperial troops in the entire eastern Hebei region. If his troops are besieged here, and there are really no troops to reinforce them for a while, then one can imagine what will happen to them.

Once the idea of retreat was generated, it was like taking root in the heart of Asada Fujiro Osa, and looking at the junior officers whose eyes were full of fear, Asada Fujiro Osaku had no choice but to give the order to retreat.

(To be continued)