Worried about being bitten by the devil's plane again, Zhai Jinjie and Song Zhenheng withdrew with a team with heavy casualties to Songjiazhuang in the north of Shenze and hid themselves, preparing to cross the road to Anping at night.

In Songjiazhuang, after the soldiers ate and rested, they left the seriously wounded to the fortress to heal their wounds. Seeing that it was evening, Zhai Jinjie and Song Zhenheng felt that they could go, so they crossed the road with their team, preparing to go to Anping and join the headquarters of the People's Self-Defense Army and the Hebei Guerrilla Army in Anping.

As soon as he crossed the road, he saw the headlights of the devil shining in the distance, and Zhai Jinjie hurriedly ordered the team to hide.

After a short time, the devil convoy came, there were several electric donkeys in front, 7 cars in the back, and when they arrived at Songjiazhuang, the car stopped, and the devils jumped out of the car, holding guns, cats bent on their waists, and touched the village.

Zhai Jinjie and Song Zhenheng were shocked when they saw it, the wounded were all in the village, and the devil suddenly entered the village, not only were all the wounded exposed, but the villagers were afraid that they would also suffer greatly.

Sure enough, gunshots and cries soon rang out from the village.

The soldiers all gathered around and looked at Zhai Jinjie.

Zhai Jinjie picked up a dry grass from the ground, put it in his mouth and chewed it for a long time, and said to Song Zhenheng: "Old Song, you lead the troops to move to Anping, and I will take a squad to shoot the devils cold, lure the devils out, and then withdraw." ”

Song Zhenheng knew that this army was pulled up by Zhai Jinjie, and the losses during the day were so big, and this fight, Zhai Jinjie himself was also more than lucky, so this team would easily collapse. He said: "Lao Zhai, the wounded and villagers must be saved, and the team must be saved." In this way, you leave ten soldiers, plus the cadres of Shenze I bring, and I will be responsible for harassing the enemy, and you will lead the team to move to Anping. Don't worry, I'll retreat in time! ”

Although Zhai Jinjie is the leader of this team, he is not a military cadre, and strictly speaking, he is not very good at operational command. However, he had a high level of education, had organized many large-scale activities, had lived in two Kuomintang prisons, had a lot of experience in struggle, and had a very clear mind, knowing that his troops lacked training, their combat effectiveness was not good, and that after heavy losses during the day, he should be transferred as soon as possible. Otherwise, once bitten by the devil, it will be a total annihilation. Therefore, the attackers must fight quickly and withdraw quickly to ensure safety. However, if the devil is not completely lured away and withdrawn as soon as he is beaten, it is likely to cause the devil to take greater revenge on Songjiazhuang.

Seeing that Song Zhenheng was rushing to stay behind to harass the devil, Zhai Jinjie was moved in his heart and said: "Old Song, don't fight, you have to die together, you have to live together." In this way, we divided the team into three teams, one team stayed here to build a position and prepared to block the attack, and the two teams touched from both sides, one left and one right, killed the sentries guarding the convoy, burned the car, and then hurriedly retreated. The devils will inevitably pursue, and we will stop it here, and then retreat to Anping. What do you think? ”

Song Zhenheng glanced at Songjiazhuang, where the gunshots were constantly sounding and the cries were shaking the sky in the night, and said succinctly: "Okay, just do it!" ”

Zhai Jinjie asked the lightly wounded to retreat to Anping, divided the remaining 120 people into three teams, and led 30 people each to attack the sentries and burn the cars by himself and Zhang Zhenan, and asked Song Zhenheng, He Kunshan, and He Fulin to take the remaining 60 people to build positions on the spot and prepare to block the attack.

On a cold winter night, a few cold stars blinked in the sky, looking at the seven devils swimming and standing guard in front of cars and motorcycles.

Although Zhai Jinjie's team lacks formal training, it is not said that all of them are recruits. Inside were veterans of the Twenty-ninth Army and other [***] troops who were separated when they retreated. These people are still very good at doing such sneak attacks.

The team quietly touched from both sides, and when they reached 60 meters, the devil sentry noticed it, first the sound of chirping and croaking passwords, and then the sound of pulling the bolt of the gun. Zhai Jinjie knew that if he didn't shoot, he would suffer a loss, so he shouted to fight, and the short gun in his hand fired.

The gunfire was loud, and the crisp sound of the Type 38 rifle was intertwined with the dull sound of the old sleeve and singles.

The fighters rushed as they fired, and the experienced fighters threw grenades, rushing forward with the help of the smoke from the grenade explosion. By the time they rushed to the front, only 40 of the 60 men remained, and the seven devil sentries had also been killed by bullets and grenades.

The sound of gunfire alarmed the devils in the village, and there were already devils rushing out of the village.

Zhai Jinjie instructed the soldiers to open the fuel tanks of cars and motorcycles, set fire to the devil's vehicle, and quickly retreated with rifles, grenades, and bullets from the devil's sentry.

This group of devils is the search squadron of the 64th Wing of the Infantry of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Division, they attacked north along the road after capturing Shenze, and did not encounter decent resistance along the way, seeing that it was already dark, the devil officer who led the team asked the troops to find a place to camp, and saw on the map that Songjiazhuang was just on the side of the road, so they decided to rush here to camp, but they did not expect to meet the five detachment fighters in the transfer here.

Hearing the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions, the Devil Squadron Leader didn't care about burning, killing and looting, and immediately gathered the team and rushed out of the village.

At this time, the devils are all well-trained, and they can shoot while running while retreating the shells, and the hit rate is still very high. Fortunately, it was night, which affected the shooting accuracy of the devils, otherwise the soldiers would have suffered greater casualties.

After returning to the position built by Song Zhenheng and them, Zhai Jinjie checked the number of people, went to 60 people, and only 29 came back, and couldn't help but gasp. Looking at the position built by Song Zhenheng and them, they couldn't cry or laugh, the weather was cold, and they didn't have the tools to take advantage of it, they couldn't even dig trenches and foxholes, and the positions were made up and the lines couldn't be lined, and even cadres like Zhai Jinjie who were born as scholars knew that this position was unreliable.

Seeing that the devil had already caught up, Zhai Jinjie handed over the seven 38 rifles and bullets of the newly captured devil to a few veterans with combat experience, and told the soldiers to wait for the devil to come up, concentrate on shooting, and let He Kunshan command 25 soldiers to throw grenades in a concentrated manner, and the devil must be repulsed. Then it can be transferred.

The devils came up, all in groups of three or five, with cats on their waists, lying down and shooting after running a few steps, and the machine gunners followed behind the infantry to provide fire support, and the bullets hit the soldiers so that they could not raise their heads.

Zhai Jinjie hurriedly got up and shouted: "Whoever has good marksmanship, quickly shoot the devil's machine gun!" Before the words fell, a bullet hit him in the shoulder, and Song Zhenheng next to him hurriedly pulled him to the ground, tore a step from his shirt, and bandaged him.

Zhai Jinjie pushed Song Zhenheng away and shouted, "Fight!" Resolutely beat the devil down! ”

At the critical time, it was still those veterans who held their breath and fired seven 38-style concentrated shots, and Leng killed the machine gunners of the three devils.

He Kunshan saw that the devil's machine gun had stopped firing, and the devil's infantry was already approaching, so he hurriedly ordered the soldiers to concentrate on throwing grenades.

The wave of the grenade explosion finally stopped the devil's charge, and the pursuing devil had to retreat. Song Zhenheng simply bandaged Zhai Jinjie with three times and divided five by two, and pulled Zhai Jinjie to retreat with the soldiers.

This night, Zhai Jinjie and Song Zhenheng led the soldiers to fight while retreating, and finally retreated to Anping, and met Ma Youmin's third division in Anping.

After a day and a night of fighting, the 300 soldiers of the fifth detachment led by Zhai Jinjie left only 124 wounded, including the seriously wounded who stayed in Songjiazhuang to recuperate and the lightly wounded who retreated first. The worst thing was that the 120 fighters who stayed behind to block and burn the car only returned 21 in the end.

On this night, just when Liu Yimin ordered the most elite instructors to teach the 1st Brigade, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Brigade, Cavalry Brigade, Artillery Brigade, and heavy machine gun regiment, engineer regiment, and guard regiment directly under the division to advance to the front line of the military attache village and prepare to meet the enemy's 21st Division, just when the Hebei Guerrilla Army and the People's Self-Defense Army in central Hebei Province were fighting with the enemy while concentrating their troops to prepare for a breakthrough, in Xinkou, Shanxi, the atmosphere in the headquarters of the 115th Division of the Eighth Route Army was a little dull.

The name of Xinkou comes from Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, according to the "Yongle Canon": "Liu Bang of the Han Gaozu to Pingcheng, surrounded by the northern army, with Chen Ping's plan to get off, and the division is second to the south of the Hutuo Water Qu, the six armies of Xinqing, raise their mouths and laugh, so it is called Xinkou." ”

The terrain of Xinkou is dangerous, the right supports Wutai Mountain, the left is Evian Mountain, and there is a river valley between the two mountains. In the middle of the valley stands a hill of ten meters, with a semi-permanent fortification. As far as the defense of Taiyuan is concerned, the strategic significance of Xinkou is self-evident. During the Battle of Xinkou, the Second War Zone gathered heavy troops here to fight fiercely against Yuekou, losing one regiment every day, repeatedly fighting with the enemy, and countless soldiers stained Xinkou with blood, making the Fifth Division of Yuekou unable to advance an inch. It's a pity that the Niangzi Pass on the South Road was lost, and Yan Xishan had to order the withdrawal of troops from Xinkou.

After Liu Yimin recaptured Taiyuan, all the areas north of Taiyuan became the base area of the Eighth Route Army, and the west of Tongpu Road, north of Fenli Road, and south of Daqing River became the base area of the 120th Division of Jinsui Military Region in northwest Shanxi; East of Tongpu Road and north of Zhengtai Road became the Beiyue base of the 115th Division of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region.

To tell the truth, full preparations were made before the war as soon as possible, and the Eighth Route Army, including Liu Yimin, who was far away in southern Hebei, did not expect that this time the army would devote all its strength to attack Xinkou. Xiangyue Qingsi, the old fox's strategy of forming the north and the south, really confused our army's sight.

Early this morning, the main force of the 1st Division of the Chinese Army suddenly exerted its strength and attacked and advanced north along the Tongpu Railway. At the same time, the 6th and 20th Divisions of the Chinese Army advanced in parallel in the area west of the Tongpu Railway and east of the Fen River, and the enemy's 8th and 25th Divisions set out from Zhengtai Road to attack and advance in the area east of the Tongpu Railway and west of the Taihang Mountain.

At this time, the combat effectiveness of the Yue army was extremely strong, although Liu Yimin killed the main force of the Fifth Division and the Chahar Dispatch Corps under the city of Taiyuan, which did not mean that the Yue army could not do it, but that the Yue army met Liu Yimin, a traverser, and no matter the thinking, tactical command, or change to the training of the troops, and the use of firepower were far beyond the level of understanding of the Yue army. In this way, if Liu Yimin did not carry out an ambush and sneak attack, he would have set up a posture to fight a positional offensive and defensive battle with the Fifth Division, even if he won, it would never be so easy, and maybe the casualty ratio of the two sides would be very close.

Peng Dehuai and [***] did not think that the Yue army would regain control of the Tongpu Railway, but they definitely did not expect that the Yue army would do this, leaving the [***] heavy army group not to attack, and using all the troops in Shanxi to deal with the 115th Division.

The original concept of the campaign was to use small units to resist attacks and disturbances at every level, concentrate the main forces on concealment and standby, and seize the opportunity to teach the army a hard lesson. I didn't expect the army to become so cunning, and during the day, under the cover of aircraft, the group advanced, and as soon as it was blocked, it dispatched planes to bomb indiscriminately, and when it encountered mines, it set up artillery bombardment and detonated them, and then dispatched a large number of sappers to clear mines; At night, they resolutely set up camp and stood on guard, not to be tempted. As a result, small units have lost their role in interdiction and disturbance, minefields have lost their effectiveness, and night attacks have also lost their effect, and the troops in charge of interdiction and disturbance have suffered heavy losses. In just one day, the enemy's 1st Division advanced 30 kilometers. At this rate, tomorrow the army will advance to Xinkou City.

Mr. Peng looked at the map for a long time, and he was a little impatient, so he threw the pencil on the table and shouted: "Damn, what kind of trick is this devil playing, several divisions and regiments are going hand in hand, and they are impenetrable, and Lao Tzu can't even eat a bite." You have to think about the intentions of the devils and see what they want to do, is it really to open up the Tongpu Railway? In my opinion, tomorrow we have to send our aviation brigade out and blow up the devil plane in Taiyuan first. Otherwise, this battle can't be fought! ”

Nie Rongzhen poured a glass of water, handed it to Mr. Peng, and said, "Old Peng, don't be anxious, drink saliva, there will always be a way." ”

Mr. Peng glanced at Nie Rongzhen, picked up the teacup and drank it to the bottom, put the teacup on the table, and said: "Rongzhen, I'm anxious, that's our base, the people have only been born in a few days, and it's all over." It hurts! ”

At this time, he also turned around from the map, and said in a soft voice: "This time the devil has a great appetite, and it seems that he wants to completely annihilate the main force of my 115th Division." Judging from the position of the devils, it should be a mid-road assault, a roundabout outflank on both flanks, and finally encircling Xinkou and annihilating the main force of our division at Xinkou. The devils have a good calculation, they want to grasp the psychology that we do not want to give up the base area, force our army to defend to the death, and use aircraft and artillery to consume our strength. It's a pity that our army is not the Central Army and the Jin Sui Army, and we are not Yan Xishan, so they can't deal with our army in this way. I think we should report to the Military Commission immediately, our army immediately abandoned the Xinkou line, and rushed before the encirclement of the Yue army, the 115th Division moved eastward into the Taihang Mountain, jumped behind the enemy, and the 120th Division went north into the Hengshan Mountain Range to standby. After the army attacked northward and occupied Xinkou, Wutai, and Yuanping, our army launched an attack on the enemy on Zhengtai Road and forced the enemy to retreat. When the time comes, seize the fighter plane and destroy part of it. At the same time, it is suggested that the Central Military Commission and the General Headquarters order our army's base areas in the central, southeastern, and southwestern Jinxi regions to quickly mobilize and prepare to deal with the enemy's brutal sweep. ”

Chief of Staff Zhou Kun answered: "The Jin Sui Army and the Central Army should also be dispatched to respond to our army's battle." Fu Zuoyi's troops are under the command of our northern front, and they should be allowed to attack and cooperate with our actions. ”

[***] and said slowly: "Yan Xishan and his Jin Sui army can't be counted on, in the future, this Shanxi battlefield, in my mind, Yan Xishan and his Jin Sui army are no longer the main opponents, we will be my main opponents." Shanxi has three main divisions of our army, and they can get strong support from the rear of Shaanxi at any time, and if necessary, let our left-behind troops and the Fifth Army Corps and the Ninth Army Cross the river to support, and the army can not help us. It's a big deal that he comes and I go, he walks and I come, there's nothing. It is said that the army will always divide the troops, and as soon as he divides the troops, our opportunity will come. The key issue now is to find out where the next target of the Yue army will be, whether it is central Jin, southern Jin, or western Jin. I considered that our army would abandon Xinkou, advance north and south with the Reading Division, smash Zhengtai Road, threaten Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang, and the army would inevitably divide its troops to rescue. If he doesn't come to his rescue, we will take advantage of the situation to attack Taiyuan. In short, it is necessary to completely dispel the wishful thinking of the Yue army, so that he cannot fight wherever he wants. What do you think? ”

Mr. Peng pondered for a while, and immediately ordered Zhou Kun to draft a telegram according to [***] and report it to the chairman and Mr. Zhu. Then let [***] order the main force of the 115th Division to immediately move covertly, and order the troops of each army division, local troops, and local cadres to move in separate routes overnight.

Nie Rongzhen proposed that he should wait for the chairman to call back before ordering the transfer, and Mr. Peng said: "Lao Mao's telegram will arrive soon, and he will agree." This idea was consistent with his principles of command, which he had always done during his time in the Soviet zone. ”

Sure enough, the chairman's telegram arrived soon, however, the chairman proposed that it was okay for the main force of the 115th Division to jump to the outer line to fight, but it was necessary to leave the inner line to hold the combat troops, carry out sneak attacks and harassment operations, cover the operational intentions of the main force to the Zhengtai line, and cooperate with local cadres and militia to cover the masses to clear the field and transfer, and resolutely not let the devils succeed in the conspiracy of establishing a puppet regime, forming a puppet army, and holding on for a long time.

At the same time, the chairman pointed out in the telegram that in order to cooperate with the anti-sweeping operations in the northwest of Shanxi, when the situation is critical, the three main divisions of the Reading Brigade that remained in Shaanxi can be ordered to enter the Jinjin operation, return to the formation, and the garrison division can also be ordered to enter the Jinjin operation. Shaanxi's defense is to be undertaken by the security division and the garrison regiments. In the future, the 115th Division will develop to northern Hebei, central Hebei, and eastern Hebei; The 129th Division should develop to southern Hebei and northern Henan, and the 120th Division should concentrate on developing the Jinsui base area and expanding to Inner Mongolia and Chahar; Reading teachers should focus on the development of Jinzhong and Jinxi base areas; The instructors concentrated all their efforts on the development of Shandong and eastern Henan, so that our army's strength could radiate to the entire North China region and then compete with the Central Plains.

After reading the telegram, Mr. Peng said with a smile: "Lao Mao's courage is great, and he can clearly explain the direction of the development of my army by pointing at him." I look at the army in North China, and the good news is almost over, and the next thing is that we keep looking for trouble for them. ”

Several people laughed and busily commanded the troops to start the operation.

(To be continued)