Pan Mingming, commander of the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade, is the youngest battalion-level cadre among the instructors. In the battle of Tianshui, the 14-year-old Red Army cavalry company commander Pan Mingliang, a person with a submachine gun galloped on horseback, killed 24 enemies, made great contributions, and won the title of special hero. When the cavalry regiment was expanded into a cavalry division, he became a battalion commander, and he was not yet 15 years old at the time. Because he was too young, Liu Yimin felt that being promoted too quickly was not conducive to his growth, so when the cavalry battalion of the 4th Independent Division was established, he transferred him from the cavalry division and served as the commander of the cavalry battalion of the 4th Independent Division. After the reorganization of the Eighth Route Army, the Fourth Division was organized into the Seventh Brigade, and Pan Mingliang became the commander of the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade.

After receiving the task of blocking the puppet army in Weixian County, the 18-year-old cavalry battalion commander Pan Mingliang led the troops to bomb the railway and ambush the puppet army. Later, after receiving the order to stop the attack and let the enemy stride forward, Pan Mingliang took the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade to the right side of the puppet army, stared at the movements of the puppet army, and followed the puppet army to the Weihe River.

At this time, Pan Mingliang felt that his task was about to be completed, so he ordered the troops to rest in concealment on the east bank of the Wei River, and reported to the division headquarters the position of the puppet army and his own position. Unexpectedly, the task of this report was immediately down, and the division commander ordered the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade to immediately seize the Weihe highway bridge and railway bridge, resolutely block the retreat of the puppet army, and be sure to hold out until the cavalry brigade arrived.

After so many years of fighting, the red imp not only grew in height and age, but also greatly improved his combat experience and command ability. As soon as he saw the division commander's order, Pan Mingliang immediately realized that he had undertaken the most arduous task of sealing the mouth, and he wanted to block the retreat of the 17,000 puppet army with one battalion, and this battle was about to be fought.

At this time, it was said that the puppet army had all crossed the Wei River and was advancing in the direction of Fangzi.

When Pan Mingliang led the cavalry battalion to the Weihe Highway Bridge, he didn't find the devil defenders, and after a little thought, he knew that the puppet army would never think that they would defeat the battle, and such an important place would not send troops to guard. This made Pan Mingliang a little distracted, and muttered: "It turns out that this is the devil's garbage army, and this battle is boring." ”

Muttering and muttering, Pan Mingliang knew that there were so many people in the puppet army, they really wanted to rush over, and they couldn't stop it with one battalion alone, time waited for no one, they had to hurry up to repair the fortifications, and the devil might turn around and retreat immediately.

At this time, the best way is to blow up the Weihe highway bridge and railway bridge, but the division headquarters did not order the bridge to be blown up, and Pan Mingliang did not dare to blow it up, because although the puppet army from Qingdao has a large number of people, its combat effectiveness may not even be comparable to that of a wing of the Eighth Division, as long as the main force of our army arrives, it is estimated that the enemy will be defeated soon, and it will be a bit of a waste to blow up the Weihe bridge.

Pan Mingliang blocked and monitored the enemy all the way, and knew the enemy's equipment and troops. He knew that it was night at this time, there was no interference from enemy planes, and the puppet army had no tanks and armored vehicles, at best cavalry, cars, carriages and motorcycles. The highway bridge must be the key target of the devils, and only after the highway bridge is hit, the puppet army will choose the railway bridge to pass, and it can only pass the infantry and cavalry, and it is impossible for a car to pass the railway bridge. Therefore, he asked the second company with a platoon of the fire support company to occupy the railway bridge, and he took the first company, the third company, and the two platoons of the fire support company to set up positions at the east end of the Weihe highway bridge, set up light and heavy machine guns, mortars, and grenadiers, and then divided the remaining explosive packs and mines into two parts, and buried them on the road at the west bridgehead of the highway bridge and the railway bridge respectively.

After arranging the position, Pan Mingliang ordered the two platoons of the fire support company to hold the east bridgehead position, and sent another squad to guard the war horses, and he took two companies to ambush at the west end of the bridge, preparing to surprise the devils at the west end of the bridge, and then retreat to the east position of the bridge to hold on.

As soon as it was arranged, the scouts reported that the vanguard of the devils had come up.

Pan Mingliang saw that the first to come up was a squadron of devil cavalry, probably ordered to come to seize the highway bridge, flashlight, the horse ran fast, and used the flashlight to shine around while galloping.

Pan Mingliang knew that the little devil was about to step on the mine, but there were few devils, and at this time, stepping on the mine would affect the power of the mine explosion, so he immediately ordered the first and third companies to open fire to repel the attack of the devil's cavalry, attract the devil's brigade to come for reinforcements, and expand the results of the explosion of mines and explosives packets.

The light machine guns, submachine guns, and Bayi automatic rifles sounded like beans, accompanied by a neat row of guns in the middle, and the devil cavalry squadron was stunned at once, and the people in front of the company rolled down with the horses, and the ones behind rushed forward with their usual surnames to face the rain of bullets and trample on the corpses of their companions, and kept rolling to the ground, until the devil at the back reacted, controlled the war horse, turned the horse's head and ran back, and this small ambush war was over.

They are all cavalry, the devil's sabers and cavalry soldiers like it, and the devil's infantry did not come up for the time being, Pan Mingliang left five minutes for the soldiers to clean up the battlefield, and then withdrew to the east position of the bridge with the troops, reported the battle situation to the division headquarters, and let the first company enter the blocking position, and the third company was a reserve, waiting for the devil to attack.

Hearing the sound of gunshots, not only Zhang Zongyuan was shocked, but Oshima Dazuo was also surprised, fortunately, judging from the gunshots, there were not many Eighth Route soldiers, and there were no heavy weapons. With any luck, the cavalry search squadron can take them out. In the worst case, the cavalry search squadron can also attack on the spot, wait for the large forces to go up, and crush them.

Just as he was about to order the troops to run forward and reinforce the search squadron, the gunfire stopped, and in a few moments, more than thirty cavalrymen ran back. As soon as he saw Oshima Osa, the squad leader hurriedly rolled off the saddle and reported that he had been ambushed by the road bridge, and the search squadron ran back to these thirty people.

Oshima Osa's brain exploded with a bang, and in just a few minutes of gunfire, a cavalry search squadron was basically reimbursed, purely for the work of a rice bucket!

After pulling the squad leader and slapping him in the face, Oshima Dazuo's mind was a little clear, regretting that he was just thinking about reinforcing Weixian, why didn't he think about what to do if the reinforcement failed, and he didn't even leave troops to guard such important points as the Weihe Highway Bridge and Railway Bridge, which simply failed the education of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School.

Well, now that the Eighth Route Army has seized the highway bridge, presumably the railway bridge has also been occupied by them. The small units of the Eighth Route Army were not attacking, but blocking. Why are they blocking here? Thinking about it, there is only one possibility, that is, the Eighth Route Army is to rely on the Weihe River to block the retreat of the imperial army and buy time for their main force to arrive, and there is only one purpose, that is, to leave all the 5,000 imperial troops and the Shandong Autonomous Alliance Army here. This dirt road appetite is a bit too big!

As soon as the thinking was clear, Oshima Dazuo understood that the top priority was to compete with the Eighth Route Army for time, and it was necessary to recapture the Weixian Highway Bridge and open the eastward return passage before their large army arrived. Otherwise, I am afraid that I and my 5,000 soldiers will be shattered on this fertile Changwei Plain.

Oshima Osa called a few captains, touched the mustache, and swept the grim eyes on the faces of several people, before imitating the tone of the troop commander and said: "Gentlemen, the reason why I ordered the troops to stop advancing and retreat quickly is because we have received an order from His Excellency Lieutenant General Tsukihiko of Higashijuernomiya, the commander of the Second Army, to stop our advance immediately, return to Qingdao as quickly as possible, and strictly guard against an ambush on the Tuba Road. In my judgment, the Eighth Division must have been thwarted in its attack and returned to Jinan. In this case, our army will become a lone army, and it may be caught up and surrounded by the main force of the Eighth Road at any time. ”

If you want to go on, I heard a captain exclaim, as soon as Oshima Dazuo turned around, he saw that the direction of Fangzi in the west was suddenly brightly lit, and there were long and fast-moving torches in the south and north, needless to say, it was the main force of the Eighth Route Army that came to outflank him, and in order to grab time, they didn't even hide the whereabouts of the troops, and went directly to the road with torches.

Oshima Osa was no longer verbose, and immediately ordered the artillery team to cover with fire, the first garrison brigade immediately captured the highway bridge, the second garrison brigade and the fifth garrison brigade were the second echelon, the third garrison brigade was the third echelon, and the fourth brigade quickly captured the railway bridge.

After completing the deployment, Oshima Daisa sent a herald to inform Zhang Zongyuan that he would immediately gather his troops and retreat with the imperial army, and after crossing the highway bridge, leave a regiment to defend the highway bridge, block the Eighth Road, and cover the retreat of the large army.

After giving the order, Oshima Osa personally went to the artillery team and personally directed the artillery to start the attack.

The test of teaching the cavalry battalion of the 7th Brigade has arrived.

The target of the devil's shelling was the Qiaotou area west of the Weihe Highway Bridge, because the cavalry search squadron identified the Eighth Route Army as ambushing here.

This Qingdao garrison is actually a local garrison unit of the Chinese army, which is mainly responsible for public security and garrison tasks in Qingdao. Qingdao is a port city with a fleet of Japanese troops and marines. Needless to say, the fleet undertook the task of naval operations and blockade from Qinhuangdao in the north to Lianyungang in the south. Since the Chinese navy has completely lost its combat effectiveness, the only ships that are there have long been withdrawn to the Yangtze River waterway to block the Yangtze River waterway. Therefore, all the fleets of the army stationed in Qingdao transported the Sixth Division to Lianyungang, which now only has the Qingdao garrison and the marines. Needless to say, the Marine Corps has a very clear mission, which is to undertake the task of guarding the ports in the Ludong region and cooperating with the fleet. The Qingdao garrison was a newly formed unit and was generally not used for field combat. Therefore, although the Qingdao garrison is an establishment of six brigades, its firepower is far behind, not to mention that it cannot be compared with the field brigade of the Yue Army, even with the mixed brigade of the reading force, there is only one squadron-sized artillery team, that is, more than 120 people, and four infantry guns. That's it, Oshima Dazuo is already a treasure, counting on using these four infantry guns to bombard the positions of the Eighth Route Army and cover the troops to break through.

When the devil artillery began to bombard, the soldiers of the 1st Garrison Brigade, led by officers, began to move towards the road bridge. As soon as the cannon stopped, the devils unfolded their battle formation and launched an attack.

Pan Mingming, who was hidden in the position at the east end of the highway bridge, saw that the little devil only had four infantry guns, and his heart was relaxed. You must know that since the beginning of the 18th Red Regiment, the instructor has paid special attention to artillery construction, from the initial mortar company to the current artillery brigade, the infantry support firepower has been very strong. In particular, after the instructor delegated all the 60 mortars of the artillery brigade to the troops, all companies had mortars, especially those main infantry battalions, which not only had mortars and rocket launchers, but also infantry guns and grenadiers of devils. Of course, cavalry units pay attention to mobility, and cavalry battalions generally do not have infantry artillery, but mortars, grenadiers, and bazookas are just as many. Just now, when Pan Mingliang was arranging his position, he concentrated the three mortars of the fire support company, the four mortars of the first and third companies, and the grenadiers, and handed them over to the unified command of the fire support company.

Seeing that the devils had arrived at the minefield, Pan Mingliang gently pulled the company commander who was crawling beside him, and the company commander waved his hand down, and the soldiers pressed the detonator, and there was a loud bang, and the explosive bags and mines all exploded, and all the devils who entered the minefield were wrapped in smoke and dust.

Seeing the corpse of the devil flying up and falling from the smoke and dust from the bright light of the explosion, Pan Mingliang was so excited that he wanted to shout. After the excitement, there was a burst of frustration, because all the way to block and attack, there were too few mines and explosives bags left, and the casualties caused to the devils were limited. If there is this opportunity when I first set off, I am afraid that this devil brigade will not be able to die, and there will not be much left.

After the frustration, Pan Mingliang quietly ordered the mortars and grenadiers of the fire support company to lock on to the devil's artillery position, and as long as it entered the range of artillery fire, he would give him a five-round salvo, striving to destroy the devil's artillery in one fell swoop, so that the devil could not rely on the cannon to get away with it.

The explosion of mines and explosives bags made the captain of the 1st Garrison Brigade who led the attack tremble, and it was this explosion that made one of his squadrons go to the arms of Amaterasu. Fortunately, after the explosion, the Eighth Route Army did not take advantage of the situation to attack, and it was quiet on the bridge, as if the Eighth Route Army had withdrawn.

The captain of the devil brigade was also very cautious, adding up the heavy machine gun and the only few grenadiers, and fired at the bridge to reconnoitre, and then ordered the remaining three squadrons to quickly occupy the bridge in three waves.

Oshima Osaku was very cooperative, and seeing that there was no Eighth Route Army in the place where the shelling just now, he ordered the artillery team to fire artillery on the opposite bank to see if there was any Eighth Route Army, and also took advantage of the situation to cover the charge of the troops.

Unexpectedly, Oshima Osa's miscalculation this time, he had just given the order to open artillery, and the sound of artillery also sounded on the other side of the Weihe River, and the mortar shells of the Eighth Route Army drew an arc in the air and fell towards the devil artillery position.

Oshima Osa was so frightened that he rolled around and rolled out of the artillery position. Looking back, the artillery positions had been flooded with dust from the explosion of mortar shells, and the artillerymen had also escaped, and the four cannons did not know whether they had been blown up or not, and one was not pulled out anyway.

At this moment, Oshima Osa's murderous surname was completely aroused, he tore open the buttons of his clothes, held a command knife, and ordered all the heavy machine guns and grenadiers of the major teams to be concentrated, cover the east end of the bridge, cover the infantry charge, block it with corpses, and also block the gun holes and muzzles of the Tuba Road, and kill a bloody road.

Don't say it, Oshima Dasa's trick really fucking works, although the devil is a garrison with poor firepower, but after all, it is a brigade-sized unit, although there are fewer artillery, light and heavy machine guns and grenadiers, but when concentrated, there are much more than the cavalry battalions of the Seventh Brigade, and the soldiers who are pressed can't raise their heads when they crawl in the bunker.

Seeing that the devil infantry had rushed onto the bridge, screaming and rushing towards the east end of the bridge, Pan Mingliang realized that he had underestimated the devils, and these guys were still very fierce when they were really desperate.

Gritting his teeth, Pan Mingliang ordered mortars, grenadiers, and heavy machine guns to all open fire to attack the firing points of the army, and ordered a series of fires to resolutely eliminate the devils on the Weihe highway bridge, and never let the devils rush across the bridge to meet our army in short arms.

As soon as the Eighth Route Army opened fire on the blocking position, the devils on the bridge were miserable. With such a narrow bridge, the devil has nowhere to hide, so he can only be the target of the Eighth Route Army. But the cavalry battalion was not having a good time, and the soldiers could be hit if they raised their heads a little.

Desperately fighting, it was not easy to repel the devil's first attack, Pan Mingliang checked, he was distressed and shed tears, just this time to repel the devil's attack, a company sacrificed more than 40 soldiers, the only thing to be pleased with is to knock out the devil's infantry artillery position, the mortar range is far from the grenadier The advantage of the grenadier is also shown, and the devil's grenadier and heavy machine gun positions at the west bridgehead have been knocked out one after another.

Glancing at the corpses of the devils on the bridge, and then at the torches coming in the distance, Pan Mingliang ordered the mortars to continue the shelling, and named the heavy machine gun positions and grenadier positions of the devils one by one, covering the troops to complete the blocking task.

After thinking about the fact that the responsibility of this blocking mission is too great, sacrifice is a trivial matter, and it is a big crime to let go of the devil, Pan Mingliang ordered the radio to send a report to the division headquarters to teach the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade to urgently need reinforcements.

As soon as the order was given, the devil's second attack began.

At a glance, Pan Mingliang knew that the devil was going to fight hard this time, and immediately ordered the three companies that served as reserves to enter the battle, and all light and heavy machine guns, grenadiers, and bazookas were used to block the bridge, leaving only mortars to deal with the devil's firepower points.

This time, the little devil became extremely cunning, using the devil's corpse as a cover, shooting and advancing at the same time. The soldiers in front were killed, and those behind immediately fell down, and directly shot at the corpses of their comrades, and the shooting accuracy immediately improved.

The most terrible thing is that after our army stopped shelling the position of the devil artillery, the devil artillery actually found an intact infantry gun from the position, and began to use this gun to shell the mortar position of the fire support company, and changed the position with two guns, so that the mortar of the fire support company had no choice but to keep moving the position. In this way, the suppression of the positions of the devil's heavy machine guns and grenadiers was reduced, and the heavy machine guns, which were numerous in number of devils, began to exert their power again.

The two sides fought on this small Weihe highway bridge.

Pan Mingliang had the intention to send back the second company guarding the railway bridge, but he couldn't bring it back, and gunshots rang out at the railway bridge.

Seeing that the 1st Garrison Brigade, which had suffered heavy losses, had advanced to the bridgehead, Oshima Osa felt that he could rush over with more strength at this time, and immediately ordered the 2nd Garrison Brigade and the 5th Garrison Brigade of the second echelon to enter the battle and assist the 1st Garrison Brigade to level the position of the Eighth Route Army in one fell swoop.

Oshima Osa had just finished giving the order, and the 2nd Garrison Brigade and the 5th Garrison Brigade were about to rush to the bridge, when there was a thunderbolt on a sunny day, and a group of shells flew from the direction of Fangzi, dragging their bright tails, arcing in the air, and falling around the Weihe Highway Bridge. The team that the devils had just assembled was immediately scattered, not to mention the dead, and the living were busy looking for craters and jumping in to avoid the shelling.

At this time, Oshima Osa completely understood where the Eighth Division had gone, and he also understood that his last chance might soon be lost.

Sure enough, as soon as the shelling ended, the ground on the south side of the west bank of the Weihe River began to shake. Oshima Dazuo saw that the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army had come up, and looking at the formation, he was afraid that there was a brigade of cavalry, and the long cavalry stragglers were rushing towards the Qingdao garrison like a tide.

Oshima Osa was terrified, he knew that if he encountered cavalry on this plain, not to mention that he couldn't rush through the highway bridge in a hurry, even if he rushed over, he couldn't escape the cavalry's pursuit. As a result, he could no longer care about attacking the positions of the Eighth Route Army on the other side of the Wei River, and gave an order that he made the biggest mistake in his life: the troops immediately turned around, moved closer to the Shandong Autonomous Coalition Army, and stood on the spot for reinforcements.

When Hu Laohu led the cavalry brigade to the Weihe Highway Bridge, the main force of the Devil Qingdao garrison had already withdrawn and fled westward in the vast night. Looking at the dense corpses of devils on the main road and on the bridge, Hu Laohu ordered the Third Regiment to send two battalions to strengthen the garrison of the railway bridge and the highway bridge, rescue the wounded of the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade, and said to Pan Mingliang, "Liangzi, uncle will avenge you", then turned over and led the main force to pursue the devil.

After Liu Yimin rushed to Fangzi to join Zeng Zhongsheng, Li Chang commanded the artillery brigade to complete the turn. Liu Yimin was worried that the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade was too thin and that they would not be able to hold their positions, so he ordered Li Chang to command the artillery group to open artillery to disperse the devils and relieve Pan Mingming's pressure.

At the end of May, the sky is full of stars and visibility is high. The fierce battle between the cavalry battalion of the Seventh Brigade and the devil's artillery was tantamount to marking the direction and coordinates of the artillery target for Li Chang. Therefore, by the time Pan Mingming's telegram for help arrived, Li Chang had already commanded the artillery in place.

This time, for fear of accidental injury, Li Chang personally went into battle, calculated the distance of the artillery bombardment, shouted a series of artillery parameters in his mouth, and commanded the artillery group to open artillery to intercept the devil attack troops. It was not until he saw the torches of the cavalry brigade reaching the Wei River from a distance that Li Chang ordered to stop the shelling and turned to the puppet army to open fire.

(To be continued)