More than 1,200 officers and soldiers of the second division of the division and more than 4,000 officers and soldiers of the Qili Brigade of the Zhejiang army fought fiercely in the streets for three and a half hours, and after repeated battles, the strength was greatly damaged, and they were forced to retreat from the Dongdi Temple in the southeast of Longyou Town step by step to the Longzhou Tower in the northeast of the city, and the only remaining more than 480 soldiers stuck to the Wenchang Bridgehead, the only one bridge in the town. In order to protect the last passage and let the main forces on the east bank of the Lingshan River escape, they fought hard to the death.

Two shells roared, one shell blew off the top of the Wenchang Pagoda on the west bank of the river, and the flying shrapnel and broken stones covered the earth in all directions, and the other shell blew up the tall laurel tree in the Wenchang temple courtyard to break the branches, and the broken knots flew one after another, and a two-meter-long stump that shot flew towards the temple gate with a whistling sound, and actually pierced the chest of a warrant officer guarding the gate with a gun in an instant, and nailed it into the thick vermilion temple door again with a "tom".

The gun-wielding warrant officer who was nailed to the door looked down in astonishment at the long broken branch that suddenly appeared on his chest, as if he couldn't believe it was true, and in the blink of an eye, blood and broken lung pieces gushed out of his mouth, and the machine gun in his hand "snapped" and fell on the flat blue brick floor, his head tilted, and his eyes were open in disbelief and never moved again.

Liu Zhi in the main hall of the temple quickly squatted up from the big table, took off his military hat, shook off the dust and rubble fragments on his body, carefully pulled out the map full of dust and debris on the table, and shook it twice and spread it on the messy table again: "How is the battle situation ahead?" ”

The whistling of artillery shells, explosions, and the sound of machine guns echoing everywhere continued, and the explosion of grenades seemed to be getting closer and closer, and Colonel Chen, an operational staff officer, hurriedly stepped forward and replied:

"The casualties are extremely heavy, the position of the fourth regiment has changed hands several times, has been lost, is slowly leaning towards the Wenchang bridgehead on the east bank in the resistance, the fifth regiment in the south of the bridgehead 200 meters of the line using the ruins of the house to build a position is quite stable, located three kilometers to the east of the sixth regiment lost half of the battle, once again fell into the enemy's superior forces encirclement, the division headquarters engineer battalion Cai Guangqing battalion commander has led his troops to rush to the aid of the sixth regiment, hoping to relieve the siege for the brothers of the sixth regiment, to meet the left flank position of the fifth regiment."

Chief of Staff Xu Tingyao, whose left arm was bloodied, rushed into the temple gate under the escort of more than a dozen guards, and came to Liu Zhi in front of him in front of him in spite of the bleeding wound and reported loudly:

"The model battalion lost one-third of the battle, and finally broke the resistance of the enemy's two regiments, desperately opened the passage between the Qujiang River and the north of the city, and took this opportunity to quickly order the entire line to retreat!"

"I want to withdraw too, but I can't do it at all! The 6th Regiment that had retreated all the way from the southwest of Youbu was once again divided and surrounded by the enemy, and the 4th Regiment that had just broken out of the encirclement was approaching the 5th Regiment at the bridgehead on the east bank...... By the way, what is An Yi doing? Liu Zhi raised his head and looked at Xu Tingyao, who was being bandaged.

Xu Tingyao wiped away the blood that overflowed from the wound on the left side of her face that was cut by shrapnel, and said with a painful face:

Meng Zhaoyue's more than 7,000 soldiers of the Third Division of Reading Li were divided into two routes, storming the two positions of Taoyuan Mountain and Hutaling, six kilometers behind us, and launched a non-stop attack on the two positions held by the Reading Regiment with the support of artillery and mortars.

Brother Jingfu, if An Yi hadn't foreseen this battle, he led his troops to rush to the aid before receiving our orders, and promptly sent his first battalion, regimental machine gun company, and mortar company to occupy these two heights at full speed, blocking the enemy's more than 7,000 people on the flank and unable to move forward...... This is a tragic lesson, you and I never expected that Meng Zhaoyue and Lu Xiangting would set such a big trap, starting from Jiangshan and Changshan to resist step by step, showing weakness again and again, but secretly mobilizing more than 40,000 troops to lead me into the urn to encircle, and it is as many as two layers of encirclement......"

"It is reported that the engineer battalion supporting the 6th Regiment has also been surrounded by enemy troops." The operational staff officer rushed through the gate and interrupted Xu Tingyao's words and reported loudly.

Liu Zhi shook his head painfully, turned to Staff Officer Chen and ordered loudly: "Pass my order, the special service company will immediately rush to the aid of the Sixth Regiment, and bring the Sixth Regiment and the engineer battalion back to me at all costs!" ”

"Yes!"

"Staff Officer Xu—"

Liu Zhi turned to the left and ordered loudly: "You immediately organize the officers and soldiers of the communications and logistics departments of the division headquarters, bring my guards together, and quickly support the ongoing street battles of the pistol company of our division headquarters and the various units of the baggage team, no matter what, you must resist the enemy's attack to the death, and ensure that the retreat of all units of our army is safe and sound!" ”

Staff Officer Xu was very anxious: "Master, you won't have a ...... here as soon as we leave."

"Execute the order!" Liu Zhi roared coldly.

"Yes......"

Liu Zhi lowered his head again, looked at the position on the north bank across the river on the map, and sighed in a low voice:

"I don't know if the third brother (serious character) and Brother Cixiu (Chen Chengzi) can get out of danger, just across the river, they are in danger with each other, and they can't help each other while they see it."

Xu Tingyao gently pushed away the doctor who was wrapping the wound on his arm, signaled that the wound on his face was not a big problem, leaned over and stared at the map for a while, and couldn't help but sigh:

"The only bridge connecting the two sides of the strait is Anrenwei, which is 16.5 kilometers behind each other, even if either side of the north and south sides escapes, it is beyond the reach of the other side to help! I don't know what happened to them, judging by the sound of artillery and firefights, they are also caught in a bitter battle......"

"Report to the division: An Yi, the commander of the Reading Regiment, led more than 200 brothers to break through the left flank of the enemy army in the south at the risk of death, and successfully rushed into the model battalion to block the position for reinforcements, and ordered the signal corps to come and report, asking the division to lead the troops to retreat as soon as possible, they have built a solid defensive position on the front line of Hutaling, which is 4.5 kilometers to the west, and Regiment Commander An said that as long as they withdraw there, they can immediately rely on the fortifications to block it with all their might, so as to completely jump out of the enemy's layers of encirclement."

Lao Dong, a communications staff officer at the division headquarters, was covered in gunsmoke and his face was covered with carbon black, and the clothes on his shoulders had been torn open by bullets, revealing white and fluffy cotton.

Liu Zhi's spirits were lifted: "Okay! With An Yi personally leading 200 fresh troops to join the model battalion, I finally relieved my biggest worry...... You immediately go and inform Regiment Commander An, do everything in your power to block the enemy's attack, and I will personally lead the regiments to retreat as soon as possible!" ”

"Yes!"

Lao Dong saluted and ran out of the gate quickly, just arrived in the courtyard when a cannonball suddenly flew, the deafening explosion passed, billowing smoke evaporated, the yard was a mess and empty, where is there still half of Lao Dong's figure...... On the battlefield on the north bank, on the 60-meter-high Baishigang mountainside position, Yang Bin took the phone handed by Zhan Huanqi, the commander of the communication company, and loudly reported the shooting of Zhu Yuan to the artillery battalion position of the 21st Division 1.8 kilometers behind him, and after repeating it twice, Yang Bin put down the phone and praised Zhan Huanqi loudly behind him:

"Well done Company Commander Zhan! Not only did he break through the enemy's blockade at the risk of death to connect with the forward headquarters and rear artillery positions of friendly troops, but he also connected to the temporary command post of Deputy Hu Ying at the Anren Bridgehead four kilometers later, ensuring the contact between various departments of our army. ”

Zhan Huanqi grinned: "This is the duty of the subordinates, if it is okay, the subordinates have to leave, the Xia Jian battalion on the south bank is fighting very hard, I have to rush back and be on standby at any time, if necessary, my communication company will also be put into battle." ”

"Go, by the way, help me call the battalion commander Chen Zhibiao under the mountain." Yang Bin raised the telescope again after instructing.

The commander of the 21st Division and his generals were in great distress, and were suppressed by the enemy's dense rain of bullets between two low hills on the bank of the southwest river, and within a range of several kilometers in front of them, the artillery roared and thick smoke billowed out, and it was not easy for the headquarters to withstand the enemy's five group charges under the enemy's superior forces and intensive artillery fire. The fierce fighting has been fought from the morning to the present, and the officers and men under his command have reached the point of exhaustion and ammunition and food, and if they cannot break through the encirclement of the enemy again, the consequences will be unbearable.

Chen Cheng on the side watched his three regiments being compressed by 20,000 enemy troops from the east and north directions on the four-square-kilometer riverbank, unable to do anything, seeing that the ammunition of each unit was exhausted, and without the cover of artillery fire, it was impossible to break through the powerful firepower network formed by the enemy's thick encirclement.

Just when Chen Cheng was so anxious that he was determined to give it a go, the communications staff officer handed over the phone that had just been erected along the water's edge traction line for less than half an hour.

Chen Cheng took the phone and pressed it close to his ear and asked loudly, hearing a series of suggestions made by Yang Bin's familiar voice, Chen Cheng was ecstatic, and he put down the phone before he had time to thank him, and leaned forward to report to Cheng Cheng quickly.

The two discussed for a while, and Chen Cheng issued an order loudly: "The spy company is ready to charge!" Immediately send people to sneak along the river embankment to inform the regiments in front, and as soon as the cannon sounds, they will quickly retreat to the area along the river bank, and all officers and men must cross the line of Baishigang, two kilometers behind, within 30 minutes, and then build a position to launch a blockade! ”

Five minutes later, the scream of a cannonball sounded violently, and it landed accurately on the enemy's encircled position in the northwest corner, blasting the unprepared enemy position into a cloud of earth and rocks, and thick smoke billowed from it. Before the enemy could raise his head, six mortar shells accurately hit the junction of the enemy's two blocking regiments, and two rounds of shelling blew a 100-meter-long hole in the thick encirclement.

Before the smoke of gunpowder was over, an overwhelming field of artillery shells flew again, blowing up the enemy troops who were rapidly rushing to the gap, and the stumps flew sideways, and the dust flying all over the sky had not yet fallen, and six mortar shells fell again on the starting point of reinforcements on the north side of the enemy army, and the enemy formation was suddenly in chaos, and the three-sided encirclement offensive that was originally as tight as an iron barrel was loosened as a whole under the sudden blows of a burst of artillery shells.

"Kill—"

Chen Zhibiao, commander of the third battalion, led more than 300 officers and men under his command to step on the landing point of the artillery shells and enter the northwest enemy position.

More than 180 officers and men of the Special Service Company of the 21 st Division jumped out of the position with machine guns and shell guns in unison, and launched a fierce charge against the enemy with Chen Zhibiao's 300 brothers in the south and north.

The pressure of the three main regiments in the encirclement suddenly decreased, and they took cover alternately under the shouts of the various officers, quickly retreated, and soon crossed the gap of more than 200 meters that had been blown up by the artillery, and under the cover of the extended artillery fire, they rushed like a tide to the Baishigang position in the west.

Chen Zhibiao, who succeeded in the assault, shouted to the brothers to take the corpses of their companions and quickly retreat with the strong support of the six mortars of the headquarters.

At this point, after six hours of hard fighting, more than 11,000 soldiers of the 21st Division who were trapped on the north bank finally escaped under the sacrifice of the brothers of the 3rd Battalion of the An Yi Reading Regiment, and in one fell swoop tore apart the huge trap painstakingly laid by the enemy.

The officers and soldiers of the An Yi Reading Force Regiment once again underwent the test of blood and fire in adversity, and all the officers and soldiers of this young but extremely tenacious iron-blooded team, together with their soul An Yi, entered their own nirvana and another sublimation process.

(To be continued)