After two days of fierce fighting, part of the frontal position of the Gui army has been broken through. With Li Zongren's consent, Li Pinxian, commander of the corps, urgently ordered Tang Enbo's group army to immediately move south to assist the Gui army in its defense.

Tang Enbo ordered the 13th Army and the 85th Army to attack south immediately, but as soon as Tang entered the front line and had not yet gained a firm foothold, he immediately encountered a large-scale attack by the Japanese 3rd Division.

The 89th and 110th Divisions of the 13th Army of Tang Enbo's 31st Army were attacked head-on by the Japanese army, and Tang immediately held the main position near Gaocheng Town.

As Okamura Ninji expected, Tang Enbo was really enraged by the Japanese attack, and they immediately mobilized the main force of the 13th Army to counterattack on all fronts to assist the Gui army in defense.

The two armies exchanged fierce fire near Gaocheng Town, and the battle in Tangbe was even more fierce because the Gui army was defending and Tangbe was attacking.

The 655th Regiment and 656th Regiment of the 328th Brigade of the 110th Division of the 13th Army of the Tangbu Army began to attack as early as May 2, they killed more than 400 Japanese soldiers through night attacks, and concentrated 8 mortars to bombard, completely annihilated the Japanese army in Sanjiazhai, and successively occupied Qingshuiling, Sanjiazhai and other strongholds.

The Japanese army immediately counterattacked, and the two armies faced each other head-on for dozens of kilometers, and a position was often repeatedly fought several times a day.

The Japanese army fought hard for 5 days, and the Gaocheng position changed hands as many as 6 times.

In the end, with the cooperation of tank troops and the release of poison gas, the Japanese army occupied the first line of Taerwan and Gaocheng.

According to the situation of the Japanese attack, he immediately adjusted the deployment, and ordered the 110th Division, the 89th Division, the 91st Division, and the 193rd Division, to quickly attack the Japanese army that broke into the position of the 31st Group Army from the north and south.

After a day of fierce fighting, the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and more than 800 corpses were left in front of the positions of the 31st Army alone.

Due to the fact that the 1st brigade of the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army on the right flank departed from Xinyang at this time, it was affected by the complex terrain of the Tongbai Mountains and advanced slowly.

Okamura Ninji saw that the main force of Yube had been attracted by the 3rd Division, and he couldn't wait for the right flank outflanking to be completed, so he ordered the 3rd Division to immediately divide its troops and storm the Tianhekou north of Tangbe with a main force of more than 4,000 people, and then vainly tried to go north to occupy Tongbai County and cut off the northward retreat route of Tangbu. Tang Enbo mobilized the 4th Division and the 23rd Division, the main forces of the 85th Army, to intercept them head-on, and the two armies fought fiercely.

The 4th Division of the Tang Department is at the forefront, the division is the main force of the Tang Army, the best equipment, only the troops directly under the division have 82 mortar battalions and 37 tank artillery batteries, 20 mm machine gun companies, etc.

The two armies fought fiercely on the 8th, and both suffered heavy casualties.

The Japanese attack was unfavorable, the two sides gradually stalemate, and the Japanese army was not able to occupy the Tianhe estuary, so it was impossible to occupy Tongbai from here and cut off the northward retreat route of Tangbe.

The Japanese army mobilized more than 30 tanks as the vanguard and stormed the positions of the Central Army. At this time, Yube's 37-mm German-made anti-tank gun exerted its power and destroyed 6 Japanese tanks in a row.

It's just that because there are only a few rebound tank guns in Yube, it is really impossible to deal with Japanese tanks on all fronts.

The officers and men of the 31st Group on other fronts had no choice but to use the old method, using infantry with cluster grenades to form death squads and destroying several Japanese tanks.

But there were still more than 20 Japanese tanks that could not be dealt with, and at this critical moment, the tank battalion that swam forward was killed.

Since the Japanese tanks were scattered to attack, the tank battalions swimming forward were also scattered to destroy the enemy.

In the face of the tall and powerful M2 tank, the Japanese army's bean chariots could only bow to the upper hand, especially the fierce and powerful 12.7 heavy machine guns, which were even more unable to deal with them, and they were beaten to the ground. In the end, the Japanese army was left with only seven or eight tanks and had to "retreat" to the rear.

On the surface, it seems that Yube has already defeated the Japanese army attacking head-on, and the Gui army can barely support it, but the Japanese attack has not achieved much success, in fact, the danger is imminent.

On the battlefield, Han Xing and Tang Enbo finally met.

Han Xing's side is surrounded by Wang Xiu'e, Zhang Xiaosan, Wu Xiaoming, and Li Dazhong, who are really women heroes, men are heroes among people, tall and mighty, short and strong, and all of them don't look like ordinary people.

Tang Enbo was also surrounded by some tiger and wolf soldiers, which were also uniform khaki grass green uniforms, shiny steel helmets, shiny armed belts, and unified automatic rifles on their shoulders.

Of course, Han Xing first gave Tang Enbo a standard military salute, and said sonorously: "Han Xing, commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, is here to report to Commander Tang. ”

Tang Enbo also returned a military salute to Han Xing, saying: "Tang Enbo, commander of the 31st Group Army, warmly welcomes the arrival of Commander Han. ”

Taking the opportunity to salute Tang Enbo, Han Xing carefully observed Tang Enbo's appearance. I saw that Tang Enbo was of medium stature, with a square face, big eyes, double eyelids, thick eyebrows, a square nose and a big mouth, and a tiger appearance.

Tang Enbo's first sentence was: "My equipment is good enough, but I didn't expect that the equipment of your Southern Expeditionary Army is better than mine." First of all, these tanks, I don't have them. Can you lend me a few of these tanks? ”

Han Xing smiled and said, "Commander Tang's family has a big business, and he can still look down on my broken tanks. I also want to borrow some equipment for Commander Tang, but I'm too embarrassed to speak. ”

Tang Enbo looked at the assault rifles in Zhang Xiaosan's hands and said, "I have long asked the chairman of the committee that if our factory makes an assault rifle, we will first equip our 31st Group Army." It's a pity that assault rifles have never been made, and it seems that our factory can only produce some medium-sized guns, grenades and the like, and better guns can't be made! ”

Han Xing also said-for-tat: "At present, Commander Tang's troops are the best-equipped troops in the national army, who is not greedy!" If you hate this and that again, you really don't know how blessed you are. ”

Even said a few words jokingly, and the two sides started the topic.

Tang Enbo said to Han Xing: "Brother, they all say that you are a tactician and strategist, and I feel honored to meet you. Finally, I have the opportunity to ask you for advice! What do you think of the current development of the war situation? ”

Han Xing hurriedly said: "If you say it so suspensefully, brother, I really can't speak!" I just know that the Japanese army has actually deployed two encirclements. ”

Tang Enbo became interested and hurriedly asked: "Which two encirclements, why haven't I heard of them?" Tell me about it? ”

Han Xing said: "The first is a small encirclement, that is, the Japanese 3rd Division is on the left flank along the line of Yingshan, Guangshui, and Xinyang, directly into the Tongbai Mountains, and Jier occupies Miyang. The right flank of the Japanese army started from Zhongxiang and Jingshan, along the line of Changshoudian, Zaoyang, and Tanghe, and rendezvoused with the 3rd Division at Miyang to complete a small encirclement. ”

Tang Enbo snorted: "It's still going to kill them." And what about the big encirclement? ”

Han Xing said: "That is the left flank of the Japanese army, and then extend north to the line of Xinye and Nanyang to complete a greater encirclement." ”

Tang Enbo nodded and said, "In this way, all the troops in our 5th theater have been surrounded by the Japanese army. ”

Han Xing nodded and said: "For now, the left wing of the Japanese army has advanced to the Zaoyang line, or further north to the Tang River, the right wing of the Japanese army has entered the Tongbai Mountains, it is estimated that in one or two days, they will jump over the Tongbai Mountains and enter Miyang to complete the encirclement of us." ”

When Tang Enbo heard these words, he felt that the problem was very serious, and said to Han Xing: "According to what you say, there is no point in defending this high city position any longer. ”

Han Xing asked him rhetorically: "You are the commander of the 31st Group Army, and the lives of so many brothers are in your hands. You tell me? ”

Tang Enbo asked Han Xing again: "Don't say it's the Gaocheng position, it's the Tianhekou position north of the Gaocheng position, is there no need to defend it." ”

"My body has fallen into the well, can my ears still hang?" Han Xing came to another local saying.

Tang Enbo was thinking, frowning for a while, closing his eyes for a while, he felt that the situation was very serious. He said to himself: "The Gaocheng position and the Tianhekou position have sacrificed so many brothers, and they are not willing to give up easily!" ”

At this time, one of Tang Enbo's staff officers brought Li Zongren's order to retreat. The order said that the Gui Army and the Central Army should retreat to the Tongbai Mountains and abandon the defense line on the first line of the Suizao Highway.

The order also said that if this was not possible, the 85th Army of the Gui Army could abandon its retreat to the Tongbai Mountains and retreat to the west of the Tang River and the Baihe River in Henan in the northwest, which had not yet been occupied by the Japanese army, and the 31st Group Army of the Central Army would retreat to Xinye in Henan Province to the west.

Tang Enbo thought of Han Xing's advice and received an order from Li Zongren to retreat. He thought about it repeatedly, and wanted to test Li Zongren, why did he retreat to Tongbai Mountain or Xinye, what was the reason? Isn't it the same as what Han Xing said.

He asked the staff officer to redraft a telegram, which said: "At present, the Tianhekou position is impregnable, and it is contrary to general military common sense to retreat if such a good position is abandoned." Is there any other reason for our great retreat? ”

After the telegram was sent, Li Zongren soon called back, and the telegram said: "The Japanese army is attacking the Tianhekou and trying to outflank the northern retreat route of Tangbu, so Tangbu must retreat. There is no other reason yet. ”

Tang Enbo was a little confused with this telegram, and said to Han Xing: "Just because the Japanese army attacked Tianhekou, it doesn't make sense for us to let the 31st Group Army retreat north!" Commander Li sent a telegram, and he didn't say anything about the Japanese encirclement, I don't know if there was a problem in your words or something in Commander Li's words. ”

When Han Xing saw his words, Tang Enbo didn't believe it, and said again: "Does Commander Tang know that the Japanese army has spent so much brains and made such a big military deployment, what is it for?" ”

Tang Enbo thought for a while, but didn't guess through, he asked Han Xing: "Commander Han, tell me, what is the purpose of Okamura Ningji's operation?" ”