On March 11, Lieutenant General Toji Yasui ordered a garrison brigade stationed in Chengde and two puppet infantry regiments to reinforce the Hanjiadian position. At the same time, the two wings of the Fourth Division stationed in Qinhuangdao, the Tangshan Garrison Wing, the First Group, the First Group, the First Group, the Third Group, and the First Brigade of the Military Police Corps were ordered to form a westward group army, with Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada, commander of the Fourth Division, as the commander.

As a matter of fact, as early as a week ago, Lieutenant General Toji Yasui ordered the Eighth Wing and the 37th Wing of the Fourth Brigade of the Fourth Division to move westward to Qian'an, and at the same time, the Yue Army in eastern Hebei also moved its positions to the west, ranging from tens to hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, in just one day, Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada gathered more than 23,000 people in his headquarters.

Since the distance between Qian'an and the front line of Hanjiadian was not short, Lieutenant General Yasui Toji first ordered the Westward Advance Group Army to take a special military train to Chengde, and then set out from Chengde and made a detour to Fengning to attack Guyuan, the logistics base of the 77th Division. Shigeru Sawada still acted quickly, and although he was the commander of the Fourth Division, he did not fall into the vices of the Fourth Division. Although the Fourth Division has His Royal Highness the Prince as a backer, and does not take him, the commander of the lieutenant general, the division commander in his eyes at all, this lieutenant general with bad eyes is still very majestic, and the ordinary puppet army still has to look up to him.

Although Sawada Shigeru was very dissatisfied with the Osaka vendors under his command, he also knew that he would not stay in the Fourth Division for long, so he should endure it. Otherwise, which of His Highnesses started the fire was not something that a small lieutenant general division commander could bear.

On March 12, when the battle on the front line of Hanjiadian was in full swing, the army led by Sawada Shigeru suddenly appeared in Luanping County, and it could reach Guyuan County on the 14th at the latest. When the information reached the front line of Hanjiadian, Master Chen was not surprised and overjoyed, and ordered the Eighth Brigade, the Mechanized Brigade, and the Artillery Brigade, which had been hidden for more than ten days, to work.

This period of lurking can suffocate Li Dayong and others, thinking about the fact that other people's troops are enjoying fighting on the front line, but they can only nest in the ravines and ravines with such an elite army, and the uncomfortable strength in their hearts is like being scratched by a cat. Although he also knew that if the mechanized brigade did not have a large strategic target to strike, it would only be able to startle the snake, but it was one thing to know, and it was another thing to know what to do. finally got out of it, how could Li Dayong be polite, and immediately asked the guard battalion to notify Wan Guoquan, Yang Guohua, Liu Wenhua and others to hold a meeting.

There were only four people sitting in a small cave, in addition to Li Dayong, the commander of the Eighth Brigade, there were Yang Guohua, the political commissar of the Eighth Brigade, Wan Guoquan, the commander of the mechanized brigade, and Liu Wenhua, the commander of the artillery brigade.

"Lao Wan, Lao Yang, Lao Liu, just now Master Chen sent a telegram saying that a large army of the Yue army is rushing to Fengning, this army has a large number of people, about more than 20,000 people, the puppet army occupies four layers, and the rest are devils, and the terrain is also very suitable for our mechanized brigade operations, so I think we can't miss this opportunity, and Master Chen also ordered our department to quickly attack, completely annihilate this army division, and then march into the hinterland of eastern Hebei." Li Dayong, as the commander of this army, informed everyone of Commander Chen's orders, which were necessary before the start of each combat meeting.

"Lao Li, the second division of the main force of the Yue army is now fighting in Hanjiadian with the 77th Division of Reading Li, so I judge that this time the partial division will definitely be the fourth division of the Yue army and the troops of the Han Dynasty to annihilate Qi Xieyuan, both of which are soft persimmons, easy to pinch. But how to fight has to be considered in the long run, we must surround this army of devils in the first round of strikes, and we must not let him escape. Wan Guoquan opened his mouth and analyzed.

Li Dayong understood that what Wan Guoquan said was the truth, so he thought for a while and said: "The army must not know about our existence now, otherwise he would not dare to send this army to take risks." Now that the enemy is in the open and we are in the dark, it is not impossible to annihilate this army. What's more, now the puppet army in eastern Hebei is only tens of thousands of troops, Master Chen has already contained part of the main force of the army on the northern front, and the rest is only three or two kittens, and the total strength of the conservative and deliberate army will not exceed 10,000, you must know that as long as we completely annihilate this puppet army, the entire eastern Hebei region will lose its defensive capability in a short period of time, and under the blow of mechanized armored forces, there is no army in eastern Hebei that can still stop the pace of our army. I think it's best for us to take Fengning down first, Fengning now only has two infantry squadrons and a pseudo-legion, we only need two infantry battalions to take it, don't send many people this time, anyway, our main purpose is to lure the enemy deeper, and it is not beautiful if there are more people going. ”

"Lao Li, do you mean to say that taking Fengning induces the large army of the Yue army to come to the rescue? And then gather and annihilate this army? Yang Guohua asked, although as a political commissar, Yang Guohua's main job is to engage in political work, but unlike Wang Yuanhua, Yang Ruihua's military literacy is also very good, and he is also Li Dayong's good helper in marching and fighting.

"That's it, as long as we take Fengning with a small number of troops, the large army of the Yue army will definitely come to recover Fengning, and as long as they arrive here, our mechanized troops will quickly defeat it, and then divide and surround it, gather and annihilate it." Li Dayong pointed to a small place on the map and said confidently.

Wan Guoquan thought for a while and said: "Huma Battalion, well, this place I have been to, it is a vast plain area, which is very suitable for the assault of mechanized troops, the army of more than 20,000 troops, plus the baggage of each army, the entire march length may reach dozens of miles, but as long as we are fast enough, the three mechanized regiments will attack vertically from three sides, and then the defenseless army is likely to be crushed at the first time, and then the infantry unit of the Eighth Brigade will cover up from behind, how can the army be invincible." ”

After the battle plan was finalized, it was easy to say that more than 1,500 people from the first regiment and the second battalion suddenly launched a surprise attack on the defenders of Fengning that night, and the battle lasted only one hour, and the two infantry squadrons of the army stationed in Fengning were quickly defeated, but fortunately, the Dubai Eighth Brigade did not mean to completely annihilate these two infantry squadrons, so these two infantry squadrons escaped a large part. But the pseudo-legion was not so lucky, and all the people from the regiment commander Wang Er Mazi and then were captured.

As soon as the leader of the devil's squadron who led the team counted the number of people, he found that there were more than 120 people left, and the two garrison squadrons of more than 400 people were disabled in less than an hour.

The squadron leader did not dare to conceal it, and immediately led his troops to flee eastward, and this matter must be reported to the headquarters as soon as possible, otherwise the imperial troops will definitely suffer a big loss. But it's a pity that the radio station of the squadron headquarters remained in Fengning City and was not taken away. Now even if they want to report to the headquarters, it is impossible, as long as they flee to the east, they can contact the Shangchengde headquarters at the front stronghold.

Lieutenant General Yasui Toji was also surprised when he received the telegram from the remnants of Fengning, but when he thought that there were only more than 1,000 troops attacking the defenders of Fengning, he was relieved. The purpose of Sawada Shigeru's westward advance is to flank the Shina troops from both sides of the flank, and if it is taken by surprise, it will not be much of a problem to completely annihilate this branch of the troops, but it doesn't matter if it is discovered, as long as the hateful 77th Division of the blocking force is defeated, the crisis of Hanjiadian can be solved.

Immediately, Lieutenant General Yasui Toji ordered Sawada Shigeru's troops to make a quick attack to defeat Fengning's Shina troops and recover Fengning Castle. Then attack according to the predetermined plan, be sure to take Guyuan City within three days, otherwise there will be unpredictable big trouble in Hanjiadian.

Lieutenant General Shigeru Sawada did not dare to slack off and quickly assembled his troops and marched towards Fengning. Originally, he thought that the hateful China army would rely on the favorable terrain in the mountains to block the westward advance group and regain Fengning, but until the mouth of Montenegro did not encounter a branch of the China army, the scene was very unusual.

However, Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru thought that he would reach the area of Huma Camp as soon as he crossed this mountainous area, where the terrain was flat and open, which was very suitable for large-scale marches, and it was really annoying enough for more than 20,000 people to march on a small road like this. When a truck breaks down, the whole army has to stop marching, and if it is ambushed or disturbed by the Chinese troops, the speed of the troops will be greatly slowed down. As long as you go to the open flax camp, even if you come to the tens of thousands of Natu Eight Road, Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru will not pay attention to it. The troops he led this time had one and a half artillery wings alone, and they were all equipped with 75mm caliber mountain artillery and field artillery, although they were not as powerful as heavy artillery brigades, but having said that, heavy artillery brigades were powerful, but they were also subject to many restrictions.

You must know that the smallest caliber of the heavy artillery brigade is also a 150mm cannon, and the most is a 240mm heavy surname howitzer. Not even in a sturdy and heavy fortification, where it can knock people to death without killing them. But the weight of heavy artillery is also extremely staggering, a heavy howitzer of 240 caliber weighs more than 30 tons, and the average military heavy truck cannot pull it. Moreover, as far as China's highway conditions are concerned, there is basically no room for the survival of the heavy artillery regiment, so in the eyes of Lieutenant General Sawada Shigeru, the heavy artillery regiment is a chicken rib, and it is a pity to abandon it if it is tasteless, and it is not as good as the 75 mountain artillery field artillery or even the Type 92 infantry gun.

As long as he reaches the plain area, the huge artillery force in his hand can play a role, and if the Chinese troops do not have the artillery force to compete with them, then the only thing left is to be beaten passively. It was not early to see that it was already dark, it would be dark in three hours at most, and marching in the dark was an extremely dangerous thing. Sawada Shigeru said to the chief of staff, Miyamoto Daisa, who was sitting in front: "Miyamoto-kun, pass on my order, the whole army will speed up, and we will camp at the flax camp tonight." ”

"Hay!"

(To be continued)