The bombing lasted for a long time.

The sky in southern Hebei was covered with thick smoke, and groups of planes drilled through the smoke, and when they found villages or people on the ground, they immediately swooped down and bombed and strafed wildly.

Enemy planes flew away wave after wave, bombing continuously, and southern Hebei was crying!

Li Yimo, commander of the air defense brigade, commanded the first air defense regiment to move positions several times and ambush the plane. In the end, the army seemed to have known that Nangong City was an important base of our army and had powerful anti-aircraft firepower, so they concentrated all their fighters to search around Nangong City in an attempt to find the teaching regiment that had engaged in several ambushes and retaliate.

At half past four in the afternoon, Li Yimo led the first air defense regiment to re-move to the preset air defense position near the north gate of Nangong City.

Originally, by this time of the battle, the soldiers were already exhausted, but seeing the planes raging in the skies over southern Hebei, the fighters had to cheer up and deal with the enemy planes.

At this time, the sun was about to set, and the smoke over Nangong City was gradually thinning, and Li Yimo finally felt relieved for a while: "The day of suffering is finally coming to an end." ”

Li Yimo was about to order the first air defense regiment to withdraw from its position, when a plane burst out of the smoke and swept past the north gate of Nangong. Li Yimo said in a bad heart, the devil found the position of the first air defense regiment, and hurriedly ordered to prepare for battle.

In a short time, the four planes swept from the Nankong City to the north gate, and after arriving at the position of the First Air Defense Regiment, they opened fire on the position of the First Air Defense Regiment, and the machine artillery shells caused dust on the position.

After a day of fighting, the 1st Air Defense Regiment can already be said to have been reborn from the ashes. Seeing the enemy planes attacking from behind, the anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns in Triangle Town immediately turned to meet the enemy planes. Instead of passing or pulling up head-on, as is normal, the cunning enemy aircraft passed through the two wings of the air defense position.

Li Yimo saw the enemy plane escape, and secretly said in his heart that a vicious battle was coming!

Sure enough, a large number of planes of the Chinese army surrounded them from all directions, and they concentrated bombs over the first air defense regiment.

Although the altitude of the planes is very high, and the hit rate of bombs dropped is generally very low, the number of planes of the army is large, and there are always bombs that fall on the positions of the first regiment of air defense, throwing the unfortunate soldiers high.

Li Yimo was a veteran of the Red Army who participated in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and he had extremely rich combat experience, and he knew that the result of such a continuation would inevitably be that the first air defense regiment would suffer heavy losses, and even the entire regiment would be killed.

At this time, the fighter planes of the Chinese army, relying on their dexterity and speed, seized the opportunity of the air defense regiment to concentrate their firepower against the high-altitude bombers, lowered their altitude, and began to sneak attack the positions of the air defense regiment.

When they arrived at the air defense position, they used airborne machine guns and machine guns to fire wildly, and some soldiers were constantly shot. Seeing that the situation was critical, Li Yimo hurriedly ordered an air defense fire group to intercept enemy planes flying from front, a fire group to intercept enemy planes flying from behind, and an air defense fire group to deal with enemy planes at high altitude.

Bullets rained down and blood flowed all over the ground.

There were incessant planes being smoking, blazing, and exploding, and anti-aircraft artillery and anti-aircraft machine-gun positions were destroyed. Since the bombing of southern Hebei by the Japanese army, the most brutal air defense battle was finally staged near the north gate of Nangong City when it was approaching dark.

One of the planes, which was hit in the wing as it swept past the anti-aircraft position, staggered and fled north. Naturally, the dragon and tiger baby in the awl part of the triangular formation would not let it go, and commanded the anti-aircraft machine gun to shoot over, tearing the enemy plane apart.

Long Huwa didn't have time to catch her breath, and the military plane pounced head-on, knocking down the two fighters of the anti-aircraft machine gun squad in a pool of blood, and the two anti-aircraft machine guns were also destroyed.

The dragon and tiger gnawed out half of their teeth, and ordered to concentrate their firepower to intercept the enemy plane.

At this time, the machine was also completely crazy, and while carrying out concentrated retaliation against the air defense group, it began to bombard Nangong City indiscriminately and indiscriminately, and bombs fell from the sky, turning the beautiful and peaceful Nangong County into a sea of fire.

Li Yimo's eyes were red, and he kept waving the flag, commanding the troops to fight back bravely.

Three planes crashed straight into the fire circle of the first air defense regiment and exploded on the position, turning the positions of the two antiaircraft artillery batteries into hell on earth.

At a time when the anti-aircraft fire of the first anti-aircraft regiment was weakening, the bombers of the Chinese army also lowered their altitude, and the hit rate of the bombs dropped also increased, and bombs continued to explode on their positions. The casualties of the 1st regiment of air defense increased sharply.

Seeing that the opportunity was great and that it was impossible for an air defense regiment to block the enemy's attack by himself, Li Yimo hurriedly ordered the firing of smoke bombs to cover the retreat of the troops. As soon as the order was given, a vicious bomb fell beside Li Yimo, and with a loud bang, Li Yimo and his guard Xiaohu were all abandoned high.

Smoke bombs were fired, the sky over the positions of the first air defense regiment was covered with smoke screens, and the devil planes finally stopped bombing and retreated.

The soldiers of the 1st Air Defense Regiment finally found Li Yimo's arms and legs that had been blown away, connected them with the body, parked them on the position, and then lined up to salute the brigade commander.

It was already completely dark, and the people hidden in the Nangong tunnels all came out and were busy putting out the fire and saving people.

Upon learning that Li Yimo, the commander of the air defense brigade, had been martyred, Wu Zheng, Yuan Guoping, and Tang Xingying, who were left behind in Nangong, all rushed to the position of the first air defense regiment. The tragic situation in front of her made Tang Xingying's spirit collapse all of a sudden, and she sobbed in a low voice while cleaning up the bodies of her comrades.

Wu Zheng walked to Li Yimo's body, saluted, and said, "Lao Li, I'll carry you home", and bent down to carry Li Yimo.

Yan Yaohui, the commander of the 1st Air Defense Regiment, hurriedly stepped forward to grab Wu Zheng and whispered to him that his arms, legs and body were separated and could not be carried.

Yuan Guoping hurriedly stepped forward, lifted the stretcher with Wu Zheng, and walked towards the division headquarters in the city. Behind them, there was a long procession of stretchers for martyrs and cries along the way.

In the evening, the general situation of casualties and property damage in various places was reported. The large-scale bombing killed 5,642 innocent civilians, injured 12,000 people, and destroyed 200,000 houses. All units of our army lost 1,300 people and 3,200 were wounded in the air raids. Among them, 420 people were killed in the air defense battle at the north gate of Nangong alone, and Li Yimo, the commander of the air defense brigade, was martyred.

In the evening, the South Hebei Radio Station, which had resumed broadcasting, broadcast to the whole world the news of the bombing of southern Hebei and the massacre of civilians, an open letter from Li Chengyi, head of the instructor's guard regiment, to Shouichi Terauchi, a lecturer of the Eighth Route Army, and Chen Dayong, commander of the South Hebei Military Region, who was the instructor of the Eighth Route Army, called on the people of southern Hebei to unite to repel the air raid by the Yukou, and broadcast the good news that our army had completely annihilated the main force of the enemy's 21st Division, that Yuli had been mixed into the Fourth Brigade, and that Lieutenant General Washizu Songping and Major General Kawamura Dong had been killed. At the same time, the news of Li Yimo, commander of the Air Defense Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, who was martyred in commanding air defense operations, was also broadcast.

After receiving the report of Li Yimo's sacrifice, Liu Yimin paused for a moment, feeling as if he had been kicked hard in the heart, and sat on the ground with his buttocks, and his black jewel-like eyes became gloomy, as if he was going to eat people.

Luo Ronghuan's face sank like water, and he sat alone on a cold stone, letting tears flow slowly down his cheeks.

Li Yimo's sacrifice was the heaviest loss of the instructor since the formation of the army in Xiangjiang, and it was also the highest-ranking general who had sacrificed since the Eighth Route Army set out on the expedition.

Cai Zhong and Zeng Zhongsheng, who commanded the operation of the Western Front Group, sent a secret telegram to Liu Yimin, intending to concentrate their forces tonight to assault the army between Deshi Wire and Delu and Hengshui, resolutely strike at the enemy's arrogance, and avenge the southern Hebei [***] and Comrade Li Yimo.

Wu Zheng sent a secret telegram to Liu Yimin, planning to execute all those who were brought back from Tianjin tonight to pay tribute to Comrade Li Yimo.

Hong Chaoyuan, who remained in Linqing, sent a telegram saying that Liaocheng had been successfully recovered, and that all the captured spies and Han Annihilation had been shot on the spot. He asked Liu Yimin to approve the movement of the Fifth Brigade to the Jinpu Line and choose an opportunity to attack the enemy.

Chen Dayong, commander of the Southern Hebei Military Region and commander of the 7th Jiao Brigade, sent a telegram that was very straightforward, asking the division commander for approval to allow the 7 Jiao Brigade to concentrate the main force, and the county brigades and militia should cooperate to attack the Pinghan Railway.

The leaders of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, cavalry, and artillery brigades who followed Liu Yimin's action all rushed to the division headquarters on horseback. However, as soon as they arrived at the division headquarters and saw the appearance of the division commander and political commissar, several brigade leaders all sat on the side and smoked cigarettes.

When he learned the news of Li Yimo's sacrifice, he was having dinner, and after reading the telegram, he waved his hand and knocked all the rice bowls on the table to the ground, which frightened the children into crying. He Zizhen knew that a great misfortune must have happened, so she hurriedly walked out with the child in her arms.

Standing in front of the window, he lit a cigarette, took a puff, and let the telegram in his hand flutter and tremble, and the image of the brave and loyal young man in the ranks of the Autumn Harvest Uprising kept shaking in front of his eyes. Thinking of the most difficult time in Jinggang Mountain, Li Yimo was hungry for three days and three nights, and he insisted on carrying a load of grain to the mountain, [***] felt that the corners of his eyes were moist.

After about half an hour, [***]'s mood returned to calm, and the secretary brought pen and ink and inscribed the four sentences "Heroes of the Red Army, Pioneers of the Anti-Japanese War, Models of the Times, and National Elites". After writing, he confessed to Ye Jianying: "A public memorial will be held in Xi'an for Comrade Li Yimo and General Fan Zhuxian. Send a report to Liu Yimin, and the gentleman will take revenge, ten years is not too late. For generals, it is most taboo to be impetuous and impulsive. In the battle of a large army, the first priority is strategic layout, and we must be cautious and cautious, and we must not be swayed by hatred and taken advantage of by the enemy. ”

At this time, Liu Yimin had already woken up from shock, sadness, and hatred, and knew that if a major counterattack was launched against the Yue army at this time, it would inevitably lead to greater retaliation by the Yue army, and all the heavy army groups of the Yue army would be attracted to southern Hebei. In a situation where the issue of air supremacy cannot be solved, it is absolutely irresponsible to take a mentor to confront the heavy army group of the Chinese army, and the martyrs will certainly not forgive themselves if they know it underground.

After calming down a little, Liu Yimin walked to Luo Ronghuan's side, helped him up, and said in a low voice: "Political commissar, we have to hold a cadre meeting, carefully study and judge the current situation, and see how we can better avenge Comrade Li Yimo and Southern Hebei." ”

(To be continued)