On the afternoon of 13 July, the Japanese army was approaching the outer edge of the Rehe Mountains. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the south of the Rehe Mountains, in the bushes south of Lijiayu, some people are paying close attention to the path below the hillside. It is very close to Shanhaiguan, almost the periphery of the Rehe Mountains.

These people are a platoon monitoring post led by Li Wei, deputy commander of the 3rd Company of the 2nd Battalion, the 1st Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the Beidi Volunteer Army.

Suddenly, platoon commander Lin Xu said, "Deputy Company Commander Li, there is a situation. Just now, it was found that there was a reflection of metal, presumably the reflection of the bayonet. ”

When Deputy Company Commander Li heard the news, he hurriedly rushed to Lin Xu's side: "That position?" ”

Lin Xu pointed to a mountain col in the distance and said, "It's in that position, there seems to be a bend." ”

Deputy Company Commander Li took the glasses, carefully observed and searched, and sure enough, he quickly discovered the situation.

"Well, there is about a squad of devils, presumably a search team, this is the outpost of the devils. Immediately reported to the regimental headquarters, and the vanguard of the devil soldiers was found in the direction of Li Jiayu. Deputy Company Commander Li observed in order to arrange Lin Xu and immediately sent the information to the regiment headquarters.

"Yes, Deputy Company Commander Li, immediately ask the operator to send back the message."

Almost all the passages in the Rehe Mountains are not only observation posts, and the route of the Kwantung Army's march was discovered in time, and Li Wei and they have been wandering around here during this time and are very familiar with the terrain here.

Although Li Wei's task was only to monitor in order to discover the path of the Kwantung Army into the mountains. However, the opponent is only a small team of troops, and it is not too late to fight a small ambush battle.

When Lin Xu walked over, Li Wei had already made a decision and said, "Platoon Commander Lin, I see that the distance behind us is very steep, and it is very difficult for the little devil to travel, where are I going to fight a small ambush battle, what do you think?" ”

"Deputy Company Commander Li, I'm in favor of ambushing the enemy at that position, we can easily get out."

"Okay, let's confirm the strength of the devil again, and then retreat to ambush. The large forces of the Kwantung Army will not be too far away, and no matter what the outcome of this battle is, they will leave after the battle, and they must not be greedy for merit. ”

Until the follow-up army of the Kwantung Army was discovered, Li Wei waved his hand, and Lin Xu quietly withdrew with his subordinates and arranged an ambush position.

Yes, this enemy force is the 1st Mixed Brigade of the Kwantung Army, and this route is their main target.

The roads in the mountains are narrow and easy to be ambushed, and the search team plays a role in finding the target in time to prevent the main army from being ambushed.

By this time, the search party was already a little tired.

The Kwantung Army squad is similar to the Northland Volunteer Platoon, but the number is larger, which is equivalent to a reinforced platoon

A squad of the Kwantung Army was organized into three squads and a grenadier squad equipped with three grenadiers, with a total of 54 people.

Each squad consisted of 13 people, including the squad leader, 4 machine gun shooters and 8 riflemen. a light machine gun with four men (commander, shooter, two secondary shooters with ammunition), who were armed with self-defense pistols and sometimes carried rifles in battle (except machine gun shooters); The remaining eight riflemen, each with a single-shot rifle.

In terms of firepower, a squad of the Kwantung Army was more powerful than the firepower of a platoon of the garrison brigade of the Volunteer Army.

The mountain road is not easy to walk, they have been traveling for half a day, and they have not even found a ghost shadow until now, so the spirit at the beginning is long gone, and they slowly walk on the mountain road.

Turning around a bend in the mountain road, the road here is more difficult, that is, the road is narrow and the slope is steep.

The devil soldiers were just panting, and they couldn't find the ambush soldiers hiding on the high slope.

In the dense bushes, Deputy Company Commander Li closely caught up with the devil soldiers, and saw that most of the devils entered the ambush range, it seemed that this was the perfect time, Deputy Company Commander Li immediately made a decision and shouted: "Fight!" "And the first to shoot bullets.

With the order of Deputy Company Commander Li, intensive shooting suddenly sounded on the high slope, and light machine guns and rifles were fired at the devil soldiers on the march at the same time.

Because the distance is too close, and it is condescending, the lethality is very large, and the devil soldiers who walked in front were the most unlucky, and more than a dozen fell in an uproar.

The devil soldiers were well-trained, and when the guns rang out, they knew that the situation was not good, and quickly took concealment measures to reduce casualties.

However, this time the ambush battle was very short, and when the remaining devil soldiers hid their bodies and prepared to counterattack, to their surprise, the gunfire stopped, and the valley was silent.

There is no doubt that Deputy Company Commander Li, who set up an ambush, left with his troops.

They were just a surveillance post, and they figured out the route of the devil, and they completed the task, and this ambush was just a piggyback.

If you are greedy for merit and are entangled by the Japanese army, it will not be good.

Therefore, when Deputy Company Commander Li saw that the Japanese soldiers were looking for a place to hide, he waved his hand very decisively and ordered the troops to withdraw, and the platoon of soldiers of the Northland Volunteer Army quickly disappeared into the dense forest.

The search team of the Kwantung Army was still slowly climbing up the hillside, cautiously searching for targets, but they did not know that the other party had already gone away.

Not long after the gunfire passed, the follow-up units of the Kwantung Army quickly followed and arrived at the place of operation.

"Report Fujita Shaosa, the search team was suddenly ambushed, but when the search team was about to fight back, the other party withdrew."

Fujita Shaoza was in a hurry, panting, and asked, "Eight grids, how many troops does the other side have?" ”

"According to the observation of firepower, there were not many troops in ambush, it is estimated that there were forty or fifty people."

Fujita Shaosa pursed his chin and thought for a while, and ordered: "Stop searching, the search team is expanding here, expand the search area, and don't miss a place where you can." ”

"Hey, the search team is now searching."

Fujita Shaosa had to be cautious, the opponent they faced was Fengtian, and before the Kwantung Army marched this time, he had already issued an order not to allow the army to have any rash behavior, so as not to be exploited by the other party.

After a long time here, it is estimated that today's march will end here, because the time is approaching dusk.

With the sound of this burst of gunfire, the Rehe battlefield kicked off.

Not only this battlefield, but also on a mountain road near Suizhong, at dusk, a small encounter broke out, and the search vanguard team of the 3rd Mixed Brigade of the Kwantung Army made contact with the forward troops of the 2nd Brigade of the Northland Volunteer Army.

The battles were all about the same size and short-lived.

In the eastern battlefield, north of Mukden, the two first-class divisions of the Kwantung Army advanced in the shape of pincers, with one brigade in the center and one division following the forward army, pointing directly in the direction of Zhengjiatun in the north.

More than 100,000 troops rolled forward, and the momentum was fierce, but the speed of the march was very slow.

Why did the Kwantung Army put on such a posture to attack on the battlefield of the Eastern Front, and there is indeed a lot of work in it.

The Kwantung Army attacked to the north, and the front was all no-man's land, first, the Kwantung Army could not find out the situation in front, and second, the logistics supply was relatively difficult, and the more it went north, the more difficult it became.

In order to solve this problem, the two first-class divisions seem to attack separately, but in fact, they still have to join forces in the end.

The logistical supply in the middle, taking into account the left and right divisions, relatively speaking, the logistical supply pressure is greatly reduced.

Besides, the Kwantung Army was deeply afraid of Feng Tian's cunning, and it was impossible for the two first-class divisions to be separated too far, giving Feng Tian a chance to destroy them.

Strategically speaking, the Kwantung Army's first-class divisions and regiments were heavily assembled in Mukden, while on the Rehe and Western Fronts, the two brigades of the vanguard army chose two routes into the mountains near Shanhaiguan to advance northward.

In the east, only one brigade and regiment's vanguard unit, Chen Bing, was outside the mountain, and so far there was no movement.

Obviously, the soldiers and horses on this road in the east of Rehe belonged to the feint attack force, just to attract the attention of the Northland Volunteers and distract the Northland Volunteers.

Yes, from a geographical analysis, the area of Rehe is large enough, and although the Kwantung Army is strong, it is impossible to fully blossom.

If you attack from the east of Rehe, you need to cross mountains and mountains, and if you want to enter the depth of the defense area of the Beidi Volunteers, the road is long.

The Kwantung Army Command is not stupid, and it will not do things that are close and far.

In the west, if you choose a passage to enter Rehe, as long as you defeat the blocking forces in front of you and open a gap, the Kwantung Army can directly approach important cities such as Chengde and Zhangjiakou and penetrate directly into the interior of the Beidi Volunteer Army's defense area.

From a strategic point of view, the advantages and disadvantages of the two northward routes in the east and west are clear at a glance.

But it is not known why there was no army offensive on the central line of Rehe, whether it was the lack of troops of the Kwantung Army, or whether there were other strategies.

There is no doubt that the command of the Kwantung Army must have thought about it and will not take such a strategy for no reason.

Yes, tactically the Kwantung Army has long thought about it.

The main direction of attack was the western part of Rehe, and the eastern part was a feint.

Since the opponent was Fengtian, the Kwantung Army was very cautious.

The lesson of the past is very profound, the Kwantung Army will never rush forward in this operation, and in the selection of the two offensive routes in the west, it is very close to each other, which is conducive to the two armies advancing northward to take care of each other.

In the early days of the war, it was necessary to fight a dozen to see, observe and make a decision.

Therefore, the heavy forces of the entire Kwantung Army were behind and did not all press on. In both offensive postures in the western part of Rehe, one brigade acted as the vanguard, followed by one division and one division outside the mountain. In other words, there are a total of four divisions and two brigades on the West Road, and the strength is very strong.

According to the battle plan, if the western battlefield goes well, the follow-up army will naturally advance with heavy troops.

If the Northland Volunteers are resolute in defense and there is no other conspiracy, the Kwantung Army will, according to the situation on the battlefield, send a part of the army from the center to outflank the rear of the Northland Volunteers on the east and west flanks to carry out annihilation.

Just as Feng Tian expected at the beginning, the Kwantung Army was indeed good at interspersed tactics, and there was no war yet, and this plan had been pre-set.

The Kwantung Army was lined up on a long front of more than 300 kilometers in the southern part of the Northern Defense Zone, and this in itself had already committed a taboo.

Among them, what calculations the Kwantung Army has, Fengtian is not clear for the time being.

But there is one thing, if Feng Tian believes that the Kwantung Army will go to war on all fronts, he is a fool.

The top priority of Fengtian is to find out the military intentions of the Kwantung Army, and the key is where the Kwantung Army wants to carry out a breakthrough.

And Rehe is the focus of Fengtian's attention, because the geographical location of Rehe is for both parties. are very important. (To be continued.) )