"What?" Shunroku Hata, Toranosuke Hashimoto and others heard this, and the military's faces changed greatly.

"What do you say? Guanjiabao was captured by the Chinese people? Hata Junrokuchi grabbed the placket of the communication soldier and roared in disbelief: "What the hell is going on? How did the people of Liaohe Bridge pass through? ”

"General, the people of China did not cross the river from the Liao River Bridge, they probably crossed the Liao River from other places." The Signal Soldier replied with a bowed head.

"Bagaya Road." Hatajun Liuyi pushed the communication soldiers away, and said angrily: "Guanjiabao's must be recaptured, and the people of China must not be allowed to destroy the Liaohe Bridge." ”

"Hata Junjun, now that Guanjiabao has been captured by the Chinese people, I am afraid that the Liaohe Bridge will be difficult to preserve." Toranosuke Hashimoto said with a solemn face.

As soon as Hashimoto Toranosuke spoke, another communication soldier hurriedly rushed in, and before he could salute, he said: "Report to Your Excellency the General, the Liaohe Bridge in Guanjiabao has been blasted and blown up by the Chinese army. ”

Shunroku Hata's face was gloomy and terrifying, and the corners of his mouth twitched a few times involuntarily.

Hashimoto Toranosuke suggested: "Toshi-kun Hashita, the top priority at the moment is to recapture Guanjiabao from the forces of the Xinmin Organization and rush to repair the Liaohe Bridge. ”

"Order the commander of the Xinmin garrison to immediately mobilize troops, recapture Guanjiabao at all costs, and open up the connection between Xinmin and Shenyang." Shunroku Hata gritted his teeth.

"General, not only do you have to send troops from the new people to counterattack, but it's best to send another force from Shenyang, so that the attack on both sides can be effective!" Noda Bugu suggested.

………………………… Tieling.

"Commander, Li Zhenyuan called, Guanjiabao has been taken, and the Liaohe Bridge has also been blown up." Li Guocai saluted Zhang Xinghan with a telegram in his hand.

"Well, very good, reply to Li Zhenyuan, hold Guanjiabao at all costs, and at the same time, send another telegram to Wang Yizhe, ordering him to immediately launch an attack on Xinmin City, and the air force will fully cooperate with their actions." Zhang Xinghan nodded happily and commanded.

"Yes, Commander!" Li Guocai stepped forward.

After Li Guocai left, Zhang Xinghan said to Liu Jianguo, Zhao Zhenfan and Du Ting: "You immediately command the 2nd, 2nd and 10th divisions to launch a fierce attack on the Shenyang military defense line to contain the Shenyang army and cooperate with the Western Route Army to attack Xinmin."

The 4th Division of Reading Power was responsible for the Beida Battalion, and the 2nd and 10th Divisions bypassed the Beida Battalion respectively and were responsible for launching an attack on the east of Shenyang and the west of the city! ”

"Yes!" The three of them answered at the same time, and then each took the order.

………………………… Zhangwu County, the headquarters of the Northeast New Army West Route Army.

A communications staff officer saluted Wang Yizhe and Gao Chu with a telegram in his hand: "Commander-in-Chief Zhang is in a hurry! ”

"Read!" Wang Yizhe raised his hand and gestured.

"Now the strategic point of Xinmin and Shenyang, Guanjiabao, has been cut off by our army, and the Liaohe Bridge has been destroyed, and the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the enemy of Xinmin has appeared, so all units of the Western Route Army are specially ordered to immediately attack Xinmin City, and all the troops here must be annihilated, so that no one of them can slip through the net, and the air force will do its best to provide air support for you! Zhang Xinghan, commander-in-chief of the Northeast New Army, January 23, 22nd year of the Republic of China. The communications staff officer quickly read.

Wang Yizhe and Gao Chu, the commander of the 9th Division, glanced at each other, and said with their foreheads: "Call back to the commander-in-chief, and we will resolutely carry out the orders of the headquarters." ”

The communications staff officer saluted, turned and took the order.

After the communications staff officer left, Wang Yizhe and Gao Chu looked at each other and nodded, and immediately picked up the phone to contact the regiments at the front.

"I'm Wang Yizhe, attack immediately."

In the early morning of the same day, a heavy artillery brigade of the Western Route Army and two artillery regiments directly under the artillery regiment of two divisions, a total of four artillery regiments, and nearly 200 howitzers began to fire fiercely at the field defensive positions of the Xinmin defenders.

Not long after, dozens of bombers of the flight divisions that had taken off from Tongliao, Changchun, and Jilin arrived one after another under the cover of 20 battles.

In cooperation with the ground artillery units, they carried out a fierce bombardment of the positions of the Yue army outside Xinmin City.

The entire Xinmin City was suddenly plunged into a sea of fire.

At the same time, on the plain northeast of Xinmin City, two tank divisions of the Northeast New Army were engaged in a fierce exchange of fire with nearly 10,000 troops.

These more than 10,000 soldiers were drawn from Xinmin City in order to recapture Guanjiabao.

However, they had just left the city when they were discovered by the scouts of the armored group army, and Li Zhenyuan immediately commanded 600 tanks and armored vehicles of two tank divisions to give full play to their mobile and assault capabilities.

Attacking head-on, he launched a surprise charge against the Yue army.

With an area of more than 2,000 meters wide covered by 600 tanks, and thousands of vehicle-mounted machine guns firing more than hundreds of thousands of bullets per minute, one can imagine how dense and terrifying such fire is.

The 400 tank guns inflicted extremely heavy casualties on the devil's counteroffensive troops.

As the ground strategic mobile unit of the Northeast New Army, the combat effectiveness of the armored group army is beyond doubt, and they have interpreted their value with their performance.

What is even more proof of their combat effectiveness.

In less than an hour after the two sides fought, the three full-fledged Yue troops suffered heavy casualties and were all routed.

Li Zhenyuan led the armored troops to take advantage of the situation to pursue outside the east and north gates of Xinmin before stopping.

Along the way, the devils were killed and wounded, and the corpses were all over the field.

In such an open field, the Japanese army, which lacked a large number of effective anti-tank weapons, was a lamb to the slaughter in front of 600 tanks and armored vehicles, and was powerless to fight back.

In particular, the two sides are still in a state of encounter.

The Xinmin army lost thousands of troops, but it did not even see the shadow of Guanjiabao, and the defensive front was attacked by the Northeast New Army as never before.

The positions were repeatedly plowed several times by shells and aerial bombs, and the vast number of carefully built permanent fortifications were almost completely destroyed.

Especially after the conventional artillery bombardment and bombardment, Wang Yizhe ordered the artillery units to be replaced with incendiary bombs, which caused extremely heavy casualties to the devils.

On the first day alone, the Xinmin army suffered more than 10,000 casualties.

It was not without reason that the troops of the counteroffensive that were the first to go out of the city were met head-on by two tank divisions and were almost completely annihilated.

Under the combined attack of the aviation and ground artillery fire of the Northeast New Army, a large number of fortifications were completely destroyed.

After losing the cover of the fortifications, the casualty rate of the Japanese army increased sharply under the subsequent bombing and incendiary bombs of the Northeast New Army.

In the final analysis, Shenyang and Xinmin are not dangerous places in the mountains, and it is impossible for the army to build tunnel fortifications like the PLA did in Shangganling, as the army is firmly located in the Songliao Plain.

It is even more unlikely that the battle between Shenyang and Xinmin will turn into Saipan.

After all, the plain area is a plain area, and no matter how strong the fortifications of the Chinese army are, it is impossible to withstand the destruction and bombardment of tens of thousands of tons of aerial bombs and artillery shells.

Moreover, he also lacks air supremacy over Saipan.

Having lost a large number of fortifications, the army's outer defense line was already in danger under the constant air raids and bombardment of the air force and artillery.

By the evening of the same day, the commander of the Xinmin garrison, the current commander of the 6th Division, Kohei Kashii, and his staff officers had already begun to discuss abandoning their positions outside the city and holding on to the city walls to fight street battles with the Northeast New Army.

After all, the losses of continuing to hold on to the outside of the city were too great, there was no air supremacy, no strong fortifications, and the imperial army was almost a live target for the artillery and air force of the Northeast New Army.

However, Shunroku Hata and Toranosuke Hashimoto, who were in Shenyang, strongly disagreed with their abandonment of their field positions outside the city.

Because they also knew that once the defense line outside the city was abandoned, the imperial army in the battle of Xinmin City would completely fall into a passive situation.

Therefore, while strictly ordering Kohei Kashii to continue to insist, Shunroku Hata took advantage of the fact that the threat of the air force of the Northeast New Army no longer existed at night, mobilized heavy troops from Fushun, Sujiatun and the lighthouse and began to cross the river overnight to counterattack the fort.

In an attempt to reopen the connection between the Shenyang army and Xinmin City, as long as the two places are connected, the army can continue to hold on.

Shenyang and Xinmin are cold, once Xinmin is lost, then Shenyang will not last long.

That night, on the frontal battlefield between Shenyang and Xinmin, the fighting of the Northeast New Army, which had lasted for a day, had just stopped.

On the defensive position of the Northeast New Army on the bank of the Liao River in Guanjiabao, 3,000 officers and men had just had dinner and were standing on the position.

During the day, there was a tank division in front of them, and the air force threatened the other side of the Liao River, so the army could not come at all, and the officers and men of this infantry regiment had nothing to fight at all, and they had already rested well for a day.

This will restore the physical strength and spirit of the officers and men to their best condition.

On the surface of the river, the cool breeze was blowing, and the people who blew couldn't help but shiver.

This infantry regiment belongs to the 10th Division of the Northeast New Army, numbered the First Regiment, and the commander of the regiment is a veteran brought out by the commander of the 10th Division, Gao Chu, from the old 3rd Battalion, named Ge Quanwu.

Since there were two tank divisions deployed on the periphery in the southwest, the main defensive direction of Ge Quanwu's regiment was on the other side of the Liao River.

He deployed a battalion along the bank of the river, and all the machine gun and artillery units directly under the regiment were assigned to the first battalion to defend the river, while the cavalry reconnaissance company was responsible for constant patrols and guards along the riverbank.

The second battalion was deployed for defense facing southwest, while the third battalion was retained as a reserve.

The width of the Liao River is 100 to 200 meters, and the narrowness is only a few tens of meters.

At the Liaohe Bridge in Guanjiabao, the river is about 70 meters wide.

The forward position of Ge Quanwu's regiment was less than 200 meters away from the river bank, which could ensure that the river bank and the river surface were within the effective coverage range of their light and heavy firepower.

With such a close distance, if the army crossed the river on the other side of the river, it would naturally be impossible to hide the guard post of Ge Quanwu's regiment.

However, it was obvious that the army would not be so stupid, so they crossed the river on the other side of Guanjiabao.

They crossed the river at the upstream section, three kilometres north of Guanjiapu.

However, as soon as the army had crossed and was less than a brigade, it was discovered by two cavalrymen of the reconnaissance company who were patrolling.

The cavalry opened fire as they quickly fired signal flares into the night sky.

(To be continued)