After Liu Yimin arrived in Langfang, he met with Hu Laohu and Bao Wen and inspected the fortifications of various units together.

After reading the fortifications of various troops, Liu Yimin was very satisfied. The soldiers dismantled all the rails and sleepers of the railway, and strengthened the fortifications very strongly. Liu Yimin personally tied up three grenades and detonated them above a bunker, and after inspection, he felt okay. Look at the fortifications in Langfang Town, it has indeed reached the communication of courtyards and courtyards, the connection of households, the combination of light and dark firepower points, the connection of the positive triangle and the inverted triangle, and supplemented by the roof and simple tunnel fortifications, which has become a fortress.

After the inspection, Liu Yimin praised the cavalry brigade for its training and study, especially the engineering operations and position facilities, which fully met the requirements of the training program. When it was over, he said to Hu Laohu: "I am very satisfied with the completion of the fortifications." However, I would like to remind you that the cost of training and equipping a cavalry is much higher than that of infantry, and the advantage of a cavalry brigade lies in mobility, in raiding and harassing the enemy, and in how to harass the enemy, delay the enemy, and tempt the enemy, you can use companies and platoons as units to form mixed combat squads composed of mortars, grenadiers, bazookas, machine guns, rifles, excellent marksmen, and demomen. Now, our air force cannot detect the enemy's large marching troops, which means that the devils have learned well and have begun to go out day and night. In this way, if he sleeps during the day, we will attack him during the day, and if he sleeps at night, we will attack him at night, so that the devil will not eat well and sleep well, and slow down the speed of the march. When they arrived in Langfang, they concentrated the main force, used the fortifications, taught him a hard lesson, and took advantage of the devil's retreat to organize the team to prepare for an encirclement attack, and immediately withdrew. The radio call sign used the call sign of the division headquarters, and sent more telegrams, pretending that the main force was leading the devils by the nose and leading them in the direction of Tianjin. At that time, if the main force of the division has been transferred to its position, then you don't need to go to Jidong anymore, when the devils enter Tianjin, it will be a good opportunity to retreat. At this time, the devils are eager to recover Tianjin, and the armies from all walks of life will inevitably swarm in, so you take the opportunity to change into the devil's military uniform, break away from contact with the enemy, quickly transfer, and catch up with the main force. If the devils come too quickly and the main force of the division is not transferred to its position, you must lead the devils to eastern Hebei, and then quickly break away from contact with the enemy, find a loophole to get out, go to the Lingwu Mountains to fight guerrillas, and find an opportunity to catch up with the main force or build a base on the spot, and absolutely must not let the cavalry brigade fall into the encirclement of the army. ”

Hu Laohu asked if he could let the Second Field Artillery Regiment move with the cavalry, hold on to Langfang for a period of time, and beat the devils.

Liu Yimin shook his head: "The field artillery regiment moves with the cavalry, which will affect the mobile surname of the cavalry brigade. This time, the devil's strength is unprecedentedly strong, and if you don't know it, the cavalry brigade will be dumpled by the devil. Everything is based on the principle that the cavalry brigade can smoothly jump out of the encirclement, and it cannot be lost because of a small one. There are many opportunities to fight devils. What we ask is to continue to grow and develop our team while eliminating the devils, rather than eliminating the devils and fighting ourselves. I only conceded that the cavalry brigade that is good at defense guards the front line of Langfang, in addition to your record of being good at luring the enemy, the main consideration is that the cavalry brigade is mobile and strong, and it can leave at any time. You have to understand what I mean, the central task of the cavalry brigade is to lure the enemy, not to destroy it. Don't turn the battle of luring the enemy and the war of retardation into a positional war or a blocking war of hard attrition. In that case, simply the main force will not leave, and then the Kwantung Army will retreat after it has suffered a heavy blow to the southward group. However, if we really fight like that, we may be able to achieve a temporary victory, but we will not be able to get rid of the enemy's heavy army group, and there will even be great danger. Do you understand? ”

Hu Laohu grinned: "Don't worry, division commander, don't you just let the devil think that the main force of the division is in Tianjin, and you want the devil to encircle Tianjin?" My old Hu is the best at doing this, and I guarantee to let the devils fight in Tianjin, and in eastern Hebei, so as to cover the next combat action of the main force. We immediately formed a number of small units to go out to reconnoiter and harass the enemy, so that they did not dare to advance in great strides, and tried to provide time for the transfer of the main forces as much as possible. ”

Only then did Liu Yimin rest assured, and asked Li Chengyi to hand over the five bazookas, three antiaircraft guns, and light and heavy machine guns that had been brought to strengthen the cavalry brigade's firepower, and told Hu Laohu that it was better to use antiaircraft guns to fight devil tanks horizontally than bazookas, because antiaircraft guns had a long range, and asked him to immediately organize soldiers to test.

After leaving the cavalry brigade, Liu Yimin rushed to Cangxian County to inspect the defense of the Fourth Brigade.

Lei Ming, commander of the Fourth Brigade, and Cheng Cuilin, political commissar of the Fourth Brigade, saw that the division commander came to inspect in person and accompanied Liu Yimin to the front-line position for inspection.

In the middle of winter, the land of North China is cold and silent, although it is a bit exaggerated to describe it as dripping water into ice, but it will not take long for the water to freeze on the ground, that is an absolute fact.

On such a night, the land of ancient Cangxian County was hot. The materials transferred from Tianjin were transported to Cangxian County through trains, teams of cars, and horse-drawn carriages, and then turned to Xianjiao County here. The flow of people, vehicles, lights, torches, horns, the neighing of mules and horses, and the shouts of people constitute a noisy world.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Cheng Cuilin's eyes narrowed into a slit, and said to Liu Yimin: "I didn't expect it to be so spectacular, this Tianjin is really not ordinary wealth, if we win in the future, then I don't know what kind of scene it should be." ”

Liu Yimin smiled: "Old political commissar, I can briefly describe to you, if we win and establish New China." As long as we develop in a down-to-earth manner, each of our provincial capitals will be 100 times more prosperous than the current Tianjin. At that time, on such a night, the streets of this Cangxian County are full of steaming night markets, and people can eat and buy whatever they want. That level of prosperity is not something we can imagine. ”

The thunder was so fascinated that it was about to flow out.

Liu Yimin looked at it and smiled: "Brigadier Lei, look at your image, is it worth it?" ”

Lei Ming took off his hat and scratched his head: "Commander, I think you are painting a big cake for us, and it is fragrant, gluttonous!" ”

Liu Yimin said: "What's this? Think about it, in the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City was several times larger than the current Xi'an, and there were night markets in the East and West markets at night, not only with wine and food, but also with songs and dances in the Western Regions. Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty was also so prosperous, and it was recorded in the books. Now New York in the United States, Paris in France, London in the United Kingdom, and Moscow in the Soviet Union, which one is not more prosperous than Tianjin? When we are victorious, I don't believe that we [***] people are inferior to those ancients and foreigners, and we will definitely build our country into a splendid flower! ”

Cheng Cuilin was leisurely fascinated, and it took a while to retract his thoughts and say: "In order for this day to come early, it's worth dying!" ”

As soon as Liu Yimin heard this, he immediately said: "There is nothing to say about sacrificing for the revolution, the problem is that there are many people who are alive and have a greater effect than they are dead!" Old political commissar, you don't have to be a political commissar in the Fourth Brigade, you go and report to Political Commissar Luo and go to the Political Department as deputy director. This is the political commissar of the Fourth Brigade, and I will send someone again. ”

As soon as Cheng Cuilin heard it, he knew that Liu Yimin cared about him and was afraid that he would be in danger, so he laughed: "What are you afraid of?" I have been revolutionary for so many years, what dangerous situation have I not seen? Don't worry, I won't die so soon, I still want to see what you said about the beautiful life of New China! ”

Lei Ming also said: "Please rest assured, I will protect the political commissar." ”

Liu Yimin said: "As the highest commander on the battlefield, we must pay attention to safety. Because the commander is too important to the morale of the fighters and the development of the battle situation. An army is defeated in a battle, and as long as the backbone is there, it will not take long to recover. If the backbone is gone, it will be rebuilt, and it will also be a new corps, and if you want to restore the combat effectiveness of this army, it will take time and the test of war. ”

Seeing that Cheng Cuilin and Lei Ming were pondering their words, Liu Yimin looked at the fortifications in front of him, and said: "The reason why you are asked to defend Cangxian County this time is that you have taken a fancy to the advantage of the high proportion of the old Red Army of the Fourth Brigade, and such a force cannot be defeated. You have made it clear to me that the first thing you faced was probably the 10th Division, which had strong combat effectiveness and was very ferocious and arrogant, and had not encountered an opponent since entering China. This time, if I want to take a look at the Fourth Brigade of Jiao, which has always wanted to compare with the first, second, and third brigades, whether it can withstand the elite of devils and whether it can gain the upper hand! I just looked at the fortifications and was very satisfied. However, the density of mines should be strengthened, and the anti-artillery holes in the trenches should be further reinforced with steel rails and sleepers on the railways, so that they can really resist the bombardment of the enemy's heavy artillery and aircraft. The antiaircraft guns and antiaircraft machine guns I have brought with you should move your positions in time during air defense, so as not to be bombed by military planes. Of course, it can also be used to fight tanks and armored vehicles flatly, and the effect is absolutely good. After resisting the enemy's attack outside the city, he gradually shrank his position, and finally fought with the enemy in the streets of Cangxian County. Once the transfer of the main forces and materials is completed, it is necessary to quickly transfer while the night is dark, and the enemy must not be allowed to bite the tail. The common people in the county town will start to mobilize and transfer now, and when the battle starts, there cannot be a single ordinary person in the city. Be especially vigilant against the roundabout outflanking of the Japanese army, and not let them cut off your retreat. Commanders at all levels should be reminded to strictly guard their positions, hide in their positions and talk to devils with bullets, and not to charge at the enemy, thus exposing their troops to the enemy's vitality. ”

Lei Ming and Cheng Cuilin are both old Red Army generals who were beaten out of the war, and Liu Yimin's explanation is actually a bit redundant. However, whether it is Liu Yimin, Lei Ming and Cheng Cuilin, no one thinks that this is redundant, before the war, earnestly admonished, in Liu Yimin is not at ease, in Lei Ming and Cheng Cuilin, this is the division commander suffered the troops and personally pointed out.

Since Liu Yimin came to inspect in secret, and there were still many things in Tianjin, Liu Yimin did not go down to the grassroots company to meet with the soldiers, and quietly returned to Tianjin by car overnight.

On 28 December, Chang Qiankun led the Second Air Force to withdraw to Shaanxi in the afternoon after frantically ravaging the enemy's positions in Beipingtong County, Shijiazhuang, and Baoding. The gasoline, aerial bombs, and airport equipment that could not be taken away were all handed over to the instructors and shipped south. Only the anti-aircraft fire positions of the air defense headquarters were left at the Tianjin airfield, which was ready to strike at the enemy planes that came to bomb them.

After the air force retreated, the instructor engineer regiment acted quickly and pulled the model of the aircraft made by the Tianjin enterprise to the airport, camouflaging the illusion that everything was normal at the airport.

At night, the train at the Tianjin terminal did not stop all night, pulling the last supplies and pulling the troops of Li Qing's second echelon south.

Wu Zheng, commander of the instructor's logistics headquarters, ordered that from the 29th, the Tianjin terminal would be closed, and the remaining small amount of materials would be carried by cars, carriages, and manpower, and all the remaining materials would be withdrawn from Tianjin by the night of the 29th.

In the early morning of 29 July, the instructor's guard regiment escorted the overseas Chinese to the airport, railway station, Haihe wharf, commercial area, residential area, and important enterprise factory area in batches to guard against an air raid by the plane.

In fact, Liu Yimin thought too carefully, Tianjin was the rear base of the Yue army, and Terauchi Shouichi was absolutely unwilling to raze Tianjin to the ground, and in addition, it was repeatedly publicized on the radio that the instructor would escort all the overseas Chinese to the commercial area, residential area, and industrial area to be used as meat shields, and Terauchi Shouichi had already informed the air force of the Kwantung Army and the combined fleet air force to first focus on bombing the airfield and destroying the instructor's air power, and then bombing the instructor's military points and positions.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the Kwantung Army Aviation Group dispatched 120 planes to the skies over Tianjin and began a large-scale bombing.

Tianjin Airport was shrouded in artillery fire, and the gasoline drums and explosives bags hidden in the model airplane kept burning and exploding, blowing the model apart, and even the airport tower was blown down.

The newly-born instructor air defense unit was not afraid of a strong enemy and rose up to fight back, and antiaircraft guns and antiaircraft machine guns weaved into a barrage over the airfield to block the attack of enemy planes. Fighter planes were constantly being hit, or exploding in volleys, or staggering to the distant fields with black smoke.

The enemy's fleet is too large. After the enemy thought that the airfield had been blown up, the military aircraft group began to attack the ground anti-aircraft fire positions.

Seeing that the enemy was overwhelming, Li Yimo knew that his air defense forces were at stake for their survival, so he ordered the artillery fire to be highly concentrated, and no longer chased the figure of the enemy plane, but to weave an impermeable fire net over the position to block the attack of the enemy plane.

There were constantly artillery emplacements hit, anti-aircraft machine guns were blown up, fighters were thrown in the air by enemy bombs. The new fighters could no longer stand the bloody scenes, and some began to crawl on the ground and cry bitterly. In the end, it is not known who left the gun position first and fled, anyway, the recruits began to flee, and many of the soldiers who escaped became the targets of the chase and slaughter, and the blood flowed like rivers on the anti-aircraft fire positions. In the end, only the cadres and soldiers of the artillery battalion drawn from the artillery brigade and the third battalion of the guard regiment, which had not yet been rebuilt, were desperately counterattacking on the position.

It may be that they feel that the mission has been completed after bombing the airfield, or it may be that the losses of the forcible attack are too great, or it may be that the plane's ammunition has run out, and the military aircraft group has finally flown away.

(To be continued)