The movement of the Kwantung Army was soon noticed by the underground party comrades in the northeast, and when the news reached Yan'an, it was judged that the little devil was in a hurry to jump off the wall, and the Kwantung Army was going to enter the customs. That night, the news was sent to Han Yunhua through the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and Han Yunhua suddenly felt pressured. Fighting against a North China Front alone is already Han Yunhua's limit, and now with the main division of the Kwantung Army, this is not something that Han Yunhua can contend with.

Han Yunhua knew that this was really a big game, in history, except for sending a Chahar to send a corps to the pass at the beginning of the war, the Kwantung Army rarely sent troops to fight in the pass, although several troops were also transferred to the south in the later stage of the war, but that was 42 years later. Han Yunhua knew that he had changed history again, but this time it was a great disadvantage to China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which made Han Yunhua very worried.

But the matter has come to this point, it is useless to worry, Han Yunhua can only hope that Shen Yuquan and the others will take action next, if they do a good job there, then the crisis in Jidong can be alleviated to a certain extent. If the chain is dropped at this critical time, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Now that things have reached this point, it is no longer beyond Han Yunhua's control, so Han Yunhua sent a telegram to the left deputy chief of staff, suggesting that the rebel troops in eastern Hebei should prepare to withdraw westward, and if the Kwantung Army enters the pass in a big way, then the troops will withdraw westward to the Chahar and Suiyuan areas, so as to preserve their vitality.

Although Deputy Chief of Staff Left was a little reluctant, out of trust in Han Yunhua and his personal cautious character, in the end Deputy Chief of Staff Left still decided to make preparations for the westward retreat for the time being.

1938 is a turbulent year, this year from the Chinese Lunar New Year has not been calm for a day, in the northern region of the Chinese National Government organized a number of battles, although the results are not very satisfactory, but Taierzhuang and other battles still played the prestige of the squadron. The Eighth Route Army, led by the Eighth Route Army in the Saibei region, fought intermittently with the North China Front for seven months, and more than half of the two provinces in the Saibei region were recovered, which made the Japanese imperialists see that China's defense forces were not as cowardly as they imagined.

It was also in this year that Han Yunhua, an ordinary Chinese name, entered the eyes of the Japanese high-level, and in a telegram sent by Major General Yanagi Shengjun to China, he claimed that the officers of the Eighth Route Army in China could be worth three integrated divisions and regiments, and they were the most important rivals of the empire in the north of China. Included in the same level as Han Yunhua is the Fu Zuoyi Department of the Second Theater, which is a report and suggestion given by Liu Shengjun to the base camp of the Japanese army from the perspective of a special operations expert. At the same time, Yanagi also made it clear in the telegram: "The South Korean Department of the Eighth Route Army does have a special forces establishment, and the number is quite large, and it is not inferior to the Empire, so we should be more vigilant, and the Imperial Army should increase the permanent special operations force in its establishment to deal with the special operations ...... of the South Korean Army."

However, Yanagi's telegram, which was of great military value, was glamorously ignored by the Japanese high-level, and in the eyes of the base camp, it was just an excuse for Yanagi to increase the number of special forces trained and increase the training funds of the empire. The combat effectiveness of the special forces is indeed very exciting, but its cost is also extremely expensive, and the resources required to train a special combat team of only 300 people are enough to train an integrated division. Moreover, the weapons and equipment required by the fighters of the special operations unit are all on the left side of the current requirements in Japan, so Yanagi's report has not been taken seriously by the country. It was not until more than 30 years after the end of the war that Japan's demilitarization of the whole people was carried out with the permission of the Japanese authorities and made public, and then people discovered the military value of this telegram, if Japan had vigorously trained special operations forces at that time, it would not have been beaten by Han Yunhua's special forces in the later stage of the war, so that the overall erosion could not be controlled, if the Japanese army base camp adopted Yanagi Shengjun's opinion at that time, then the Asian theater of World War II would have ended in another way.

After Shen Yuquan and others met in Zhangbei County, they immediately led the troops to complete the encirclement of the defenders of Zhangbei County, leaving part of the troops to attack Zhangbei County, Shen Yuquan led the main force of the army south to Zhangjiakou, and met with the main force of the Shanxia Brigade that went north to reinforce Zhangbei in the Shanfangbao area, and after eight hours of hard fighting, finally defeated the Yamashita Brigade at 6 o'clock in the morning of July 25, forcing Yamashita Fengwen to use only more than 30 combat vehicles and more than a dozen planes to come to respond. ,

Because the soldiers were very tired, and the enemy had the cooperation of aircraft and chariot troops, Shen Yuquan had no choice but to watch the rout of the Japanese army flee back to Zhangjiakou, and even the defenders of Wanquan County also fled with the rout, and Shen Yuquan's troops took Wanquan County bloodlessly.

Shen Yuquan and Yang Chengwu knew that the situation on Han Yunhua's side was critical, so they didn't care about letting the troops rest and recuperate, and all the wounded were left to completely recuperate, while the other troops continued to pursue the enemy, striving to capture Zhangjiakou before July 31 and threaten Beiping, the enemy's ruling center in North China.

In order to support the operations of Han Yunhua's department, Shen Yuquan transferred all the main forces of the Saibei Army Division, and even the remnants of Yang Ruihua's department were also transferred for most of them, and now there are less than 10,000 troops left in various counties and major cities in Chahar, and the rest are concentrated in Shen Yuquan's hands. So now Shen Yuquan has a total of nearly 50,000 troops in his hands, which is only a lot more than the troops in Han Yunhua's hands.

However, neither Shen Yuquan nor Yang Chengwu had any confidence in the troops in their hands, although it sounded a bit scary to say that there were more than 50,000 troops, but in fact, no one knew how much combat strength there was.

When Han Yunhua attacked eastern Hebei, he should have left more than 58,000 regular troops for Shen Yuquan and others, as well as a large number of local garrisons. However, the vicious battle of more than 20 days almost wiped out Han Yunhua's old bottom, and the troops on the battlefield were all replaced. Although there is no statistics on the specific casualties, it can be seen from the vast majority of unfamiliar faces in the queue that the Inner Mongolia Military Region has suffered a major injury this time.

At present, these 50,000 or so people have been temporarily reorganized from the upgrading and expansion of the guerrillas and the prisoners of the guards and then on the battlefield; these people not only have extremely poor fighting qualities, but they have always been very weak in fighting, and their loyalty to the party and the people is also very worrying. But there is not much left of the original old foundation, if this decision is not made, then Shen Yuquan will have no soldiers in his hands, and Han Yunhua and the others will be in danger.

Han Yunhua had already informed Shen Yuquan and the others of the news of the Kwantung Army's entry into the customs, and now that time was pressing, Shen Yuquan couldn't take care of it so much. Although the Eighth Route Army had clear regulations on prisoners, stipulating that as long as they were unwilling to join the Eighth Route Army, then each unit should be given sufficient travel expenses to be repatriated to their hometowns, and no compulsory detention and compulsory conscription were allowed. However, due to the urgency of the situation and the fact that he had stayed in the Inner Mongolia Military Region for a long time, Shen Yuquan was more or less influenced by Han Yunhua, and he did not have the same caution as before. Therefore, Shen Yuquan is ruthless, all the captured puppet soldiers, whether they want to or not, must be incorporated into the Eighth Route Army, even if they want to leave, they have to finish the battle, and the premise is that you must live.

Although Shen Yuquan and others also understand that doing so will leave a lot of hidden dangers, the consequences of not doing so are equally serious, so they fight hard. They themselves knew the current state of their troops, but Yamashita Fengwen didn't know, he only saw that the black pressure was all the Eighth Route Army.

Although Yamashita Fengwen didn't know where so many Chinese troops came from, he knew that his crippled brigade would not be able to hold Zhangjiakou at all. Compared with Yang Chengwu and Yang Ruihua, although the losses of Yamashita Fengwen's department were not so heavy, the two infantry wings of the entire brigade, one was completely annihilated by the assault brigade, and the other was disabled by Shen Yuquan led by 50,000 troops, and the entire brigade can now only move only a dissatisfied engineer company and cavalry brigade, as well as several guard squadrons, gendarmerie teams, and the Imperial Association Army Garrison Regiment.

Yamashita Fengwen knew that the day before yesterday, Guisui and Baotou were all lost, thinking that it should be the work of this army that suddenly appeared, and people can even take a big city like Guisui, and this small Zhangjiakou where they are stationed must be no problem. Although Zhangjiakou is not inferior to Guisui as the capital city of Chahar in terms of level, Guisui is the largest and most famous city in the northern part of the country, and as the holy city of the Mongolian people, Guisui is far from being comparable to Zhangjiakou in terms of military value and political value.

But Zhangjiakou, as the gateway to Beiping, really can't afford to lose, even if he knows that he can't hold it, but Yamashita Fengwen doesn't dare to retreat, otherwise not only will his military uniform be stripped off, but even he himself will be sent to a military court and sentenced to death for treason.

Yamashita did not dare to take this risk, so he had to send a report to General Terauchi Shouichi and ask for support. At this time, Yamashita Fengwen didn't care about any face, asking for help was asking for help, and there was no need to cover it up with any combat guidance at all. A naked telegram asking for help appeared on the desk of General Terauchi Shouichi, giving Terauchi Shouichi, who was already overstretched, a big problem. ,

General Terauchi Shouichi is now numb, he can't figure it out, the situation has reversed almost overnight, how can the originally good situation become so bad. Now that the base camp has decided to send the Kwantung Army into the customs to fight, the combat effectiveness of the Kwantung Army, General Terauchi Shouichi is still very recognized, this elite army built by the whole country of the Japanese Empire does have its own uniqueness, and its combat effectiveness is also a well-deserved first in Japan. In general, ordinary soldiers transferred from the Kwantung Army will be immediately promoted to low-level non-commissioned officers such as military officers or squad leaders when they arrive in other units, and junior officers such as second lieutenants and lieutenants will also be promoted to one rank. The arrival of the Kwantung Army gave Terauchi Shouichi the hope of victory, but at this time, something like this happened, and General Terauchi Shouichi felt that he was on the verge of collapse.

But Terauchi Shouichi did not dare to ignore the crisis in Zhangjiakou, so it is very likely that the provincial capital city of Zhangjiakou (the capital of Chahar Province) will also fall into the hands of the cunning Shina people, and in the eyes of Terauchi Shou, the Shina people have done a lot of such things. Moreover, Zhangjiakou is the gateway to Beiping, and after taking Zhangjiakou, the Chinese army will definitely not give up this opportunity to attack Beiping, and the North China Front will be more passive at that time.

Terauchi Shouichi thought about it for half an hour, and finally could only grit his teeth and decided to transfer an infantry wing from the already small defenders in Beiping to urgently support Yamashita Fengwen, and at the same time ordered the 26th Division to quickly return to Zhangjiakou, the 21st Division left an infantry brigade to garrison Zunhua, and the rest quickly returned to Beiping. The Sixth Division maintained appropriate military pressure and confronted Han Yunhua's troops, and wanted to drag Han Yunhua's troops to the maximum extent possible and wait for the Kwantung Army to enter the pass, but Terauchi Shouichi also ordered Gu Shoufu to strictly prohibit him from leading his troops to go deep alone, because they were not facing an ordinary army.

General Terauchi Shouichi's abacus crackled, but Han Yunhua was not stupid, the 26th Division wanted to retreat, how could Han Yunhua do what he wanted. Han Yunhua ordered several other regiments of the First Supplementary Corps to urgently assemble and rush to Fengning to support the First Regiment, and Han Yunhua's task to the First Supplementary Corps was to hold on to the 26th Division and not let it retreat calmly within three days.

The Second Assault Brigade also received Han Yunhua's order, and Han Yunhua ordered their brigade to cooperate with the artillery units and some of the insurrectionary troops to quickly attack Zunhua, and it must not be allowed to withdraw to Beiping, at least not to let the 21st Division return to Beiping now, so that Terauchi Shouichi would have no worries, and he could calmly command the troops to encircle and suppress the Eighth Route Army and the rebel troops in eastern Hebei.

As for Gu Shoufu's Sixth Division, Han Yunhua is still very worried, since the Sixth Division was transferred to Chahar, every battle with the devil in the Inner Mongolia Military Region has been a desperate struggle with all his strength. And the seized materials are also much less than before, it can be said that the arrival of the Sixth Division made Han Yunhua have scruples.

The combat effectiveness of the Sixth Division is indeed very strong, and this unit can be said to be a standard product of the Japanese imperialist bushido spirit, and the soldiers are all iron-blooded warriors who have been selected by thousands of people, although these soldiers who have been trained by Japanese militarism are inflexible and relatively rigid. However, in any respect, it cannot be denied that the combat effectiveness of these people is indeed stronger than that of most Chinese troops, including the ordinary troops under the jurisdiction of the Inner Mongolia Military Region.

However, Han Yunhua judged that the Sixth Division would not force Han Yunhua's troops too much at this time, and if Han Yunhua concentrated all his troops to deal with the Sixth Division, it would definitely be a disaster for the Sixth Division. If someone said this three months ago, Gu Shoufu would not hesitate to incite his big mouth, and now, after more than three months of fighting with Han Yunhua's department, Gu Shoufu has a new assessment of the combat effectiveness of the squadron. At the very least, the Eighth Route Army is no longer a farmer carrying a rudimentary primitive weapon in the eyes of Gu Shoufu.

Shouichi in the temple is bitter now, he used to be afraid that Han Yunhua's department would escape, but now Han Yunhua's department is pressing too hard, which makes him feel like a man on his back.

The offensive on Shen Yuquan's side was very fierce, and the Zhangjiakou city wall was originally not strong and tall, and it quickly collapsed under the bombardment of the field heavy artillery of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, and Shen Yuquan commanded the troops to launch thirteen charges against Zhangjiakou in one day. The counterattack of the Yamashita Brigade was also very tenacious, although the number was small, but Zhangjiakou was originally an important town of Chahar, and the Japanese army stockpiled a large number of weapons and ammunition in Zhangjiakou. In order to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the troops, Yamashita Fengwen equipped almost half of the munitions in the arsenal in Zhangjiakou City to the troops. At this time, a squadron of the Yamashita Brigade was equipped with more than 30 heavy machine guns alone, which was higher than the configuration of the two battalions of Han Yunhua's department. ,

The battle was fierce, and Shen Yuquan knew that if the pressure was not enough, Han Yunhua's side would be in danger. Therefore, the attack of the troops of the Inner Mongolia Military Region was fierce, and the city wall of Zhangjiakou changed hands several times. However, Yamashita Fengwen also knew that once Zhangjiakou was lost, not only would no one in their brigade survive, but even their old boss, General Terauchi Shouichi, would be dismissed and return to China. Therefore, the security of Zhangjiakou City cannot be compromised, although the troops of the Inner Mongolia Military Region have captured the city wall several times, but they have all been recaptured by the troops of the Fengwen organization under the mountain.

The scene of bayonet fighting was rare in this battle, but in the battle of Zhangjiakou, fighting bayonets became commonplace, and the corpses of soldiers on both sides spread a thick layer under the city walls, and blood stained the whole earth. Stumps and stumps can be found everywhere on the battlefield. The firepower of the brigade under the mountain was stronger than Shen Yuquan had ever seen, and after fighting with the devils for such a long time, he had never seen more than 300 light and heavy machine guns placed on the nearly one-kilometer-long city wall. Although this number is inconspicuous, you must know that in 38 years, a first-class division of the Japanese army was equipped with only more than 290 light and heavy machine guns.

The fierceness of the battle has far exceeded everyone's expectations, and even Yang Chengwu and Yang Ruihua, two people who have experienced the tragic battle, feel palpitations, which is simply using human lives to smash the fortified city of Zhangjiakou. Basically, rushing up to a battalion, it has become a luxury to have a company of fighters survive. In one day's attack, the troops led by Shen Yuquan suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and the vast majority of them were absolute losses.

Of course, the losses of the Yamashita Brigade were also very heavy, originally the Yamashita Brigade was a disabled brigade, when Shen Yuquan and others besieged the city, Yamashita Fengwen had a total of more than 4,400 people in his hands, two infantry brigades, a cavalry wing, an artillery brigade, and a chariot brigade. Yamashita Fengwen knew that the troops in his hands could not block the attack of the Eighth Route Army, so he ordered all the Japanese in Zhangjiakou City to assemble at the garrison headquarters to form a Japanese overseas Chinese city protection brigade, and in just two hours, Yamashita Fengwen formed two 1,200-strong overseas Chinese city protection brigades, temporarily increasing the number of troops in his hands to nearly 7,000 people.