Chapter Forty-Eight: A Turning of the Tide of Battle
Gui Yongqing found out that it was not good, and hurriedly ordered his troops to meet the battle! However, the devil's attack power or deadly strength this time is really terrifying!
In the face of the rain of bullets from our army's counterattack, all the devils went crazy. The devil's tanks and armored vehicles rushed forward frantically with full horsepower, allowing the 27th Army's anti-aircraft artillery to blow up one after another.
In the past, when this happens, the devils will retreat, but this time they will not retreat. The chariot that was hit lay down on the spot, and the unhit continued to spray tongues of fire and rushed forward! The planes in the sky covered the devil chariots, and the infantry followed the tanks and armored vehicles without their lives.
Many devils wrapped a strip of white cloth around their heads, brandished knives and guns, and rushed forward with a scream. Let the accomplices around them be knocked down piece by piece, and they won't even stop a step.
The devil's planes and artillery kept bombing, and our army didn't have time to gather too many troops in a hurry. The devil looked at the air and rushed through the connection between the two armies of our army. This time, it's a good thing, seeing that the devil who has hope of escaping is like a flood that has been resolved, and it will pour out along the opening!
Although the officers and men of the 27th Army made great efforts to intercept them, the devil's desire to escape was too strong. Thousands of devils are desperately rushing in one direction, and you can't stop it at all! Gui Yongqing took a look, yes, this time I should be unlucky! Seeing that the hard block can't be stopped, then simply go to the front and find a spacious place to fight with the devil in a dignified manner. Commander Gui ordered the troops to immediately pull out the camp and move to the Yangguji and Hongmiao areas.
Gui Yongqing is also confused, if you want to find another place to fight with the devil, you should explain it clearly to your generals, this one is not, he directly gave the order to transfer the position!
When is this? In front of the two armies, the enemy has already broken through the positions of our troops! At this time, if you give the order to transfer the position, what will it look like in the ears of the officers and soldiers below? Wouldn't that be an order to withdraw troops after defeat? When the officers and soldiers heard this, oh, we can't beat the devils, and the commander wants to withdraw the troops? Then withdraw!
One pass ten, ten pass hundreds, pass the wrong word by mistake, spread the wrong word with falsehood, and finally a good transfer order becomes a withdrawal order! However, one thing is not bad, although the troops were withdrawn, the troops of the 27th Army did not evolve from retreat to rout like many armies in history, they still lined up in a step-by-step line to advance towards the Yangguji and Hongmiao areas!
Although the team has not dispersed, the morale of the army has been lost! The officers and men of the 27th Army no longer felt that they were an elite division. This unit discarded all kinds of equipment and materials along the way, and by the time they arrived at Yangguji, the artillery battalion and baggage battalion of the 27th Army had completely fallen behind the large army.
Gui Yongqing sent troops to pick it up again, but the artillery battalion lost all the heavy artillery, and the baggage battalion lost half of the grain and grass materials. Fortunately, the tank battalion did not lose the tank, which allowed the 27th Army to not completely lose its long-range strike capability.
The transfer to Yangguji and Hongmiao was the collective action of the entire 27th Army. Although Hu Fei's cavalry brigade is not yet an official subordinate unit of the 27th Army, it is true that they are now subordinate to the 27th Army. The 27th Army was transferred, and of course Hu Fei and his cavalry brigade had to be transferred with it.
When an army marches, there is a vanguard in front of the road and a broken rear guard in the back. Gui Yongqing did not leave any guards in this transfer. What Commander Gui means is that whichever army goes to the end, which unit will serve as the rearguard, won't it! At present, Hu Fei's cavalry brigade is at the end, and they will naturally become the rear guard of the whole army.
Hu Fei, who doesn't guard any defender, doesn't care. He's here to beat the devil, it doesn't matter if he's in front or behind, as long as the devil provokes the head, just beat it!
What Hu Fei didn't expect was that he could also get benefits in the end! Following the footsteps of the 27th Army, I found a water-cooled heavy machine gun on the side of the road as I walked. Walking and walking, I found a radio station, picked it up and turned on the power to check, and it was still usable!
Along the way, I don't know how many machine guns, small cannons, and radio stations I picked up, and I even picked up boxes of grenades. As for military uniforms, steel helmets, leather boots, belts, and the like, there are countless more. Hu Fei has few people, and he can't take it when there are too many things, so he simply picks up the front and throws the back, like a bear breaking a stick, picking it up and throwing it at the same time. The only regret is that I never picked up the warhorse.
Hu Fei's cavalry brigade originally had three cavalry companies and five or six hundred war horses. A battle to defend Lanfeng was fought, and all the horses of the cavalry brigade plus one piece were not even fifty. Fortunately, the spotted horse caught up with him halfway, which made Hu Fei feel a little comforted.
After joining up with the large forces of the 27th Army, most of the surviving officers and men of the 88th Division returned to their original units. Wang Jichang, commander of the anti-aircraft artillery company, returned to the 88th Division with the last 20 or so artillerymen, but Xing Baoshan, a sharpshooter, stayed in Hu Fei's troops.
The 14th Division of Tufeiyuan was surrounded, and the Japanese troops were panicked from top to bottom. Lieutenant General Nishio Toshizo, commander of the North China Dispatch Army, urgently dispatched troops from the 10th and 16th Divisions to meet the situation. When the troops of the 16th Division of the Japanese Invaders were directed towards Shangqiu, Huang Jie, who was ordered to defend Shangqiu, knew that he was invincible, and abandoned the city and fled to Kaifeng with his Eighth Army without firing a shot.
The 16th Devil's Division occupied Shangqiu bloodlessly, so that our troops who were trying to encircle and annihilate the 14th Division were threatened by Yan zhòng.
Cheng Qian, commander of the First Theater of Operations, immediately adjusted his deployment, reassigned tasks to the various armies participating in the battle, and continued to besiege Tufeiyuan.
Gui Yongqing is good at this, if you can't beat it, you can run, you let us come, we will come. The chairman scolded Gui Yongqing on the phone, and the learned commander Gui led his 27th Army to turn around and join the siege of Tufeiyuan again.
The unlucky Tu Feiyuan Division was surrounded again halfway through the run!
Nishio Shouzao took a look, but Tu Feiyuan still hadn't been rescued! The anxious old devil strictly ordered the 10th and 16th divisions to immediately speed up the pace of the attack. The 10th Division of the Japanese Army captured Wuyang and Bozhou, and the 16th Division advanced to the east of Qixian.
At this point in the war, Cheng Qian, chairman of the committee and commander of the theater, and Xue Yue, the former commander of the enemy, all saw that with the current ability of the national army, they could not defeat the three divisions of the devil at all! What to do? Fall back!
Hu Zongnan's 17th Army Corps moved to Bishui and Gongxian; Song Xilian's 71st Army moved to Mi County; Li Hansoul's 64th Army was transferred to Yuxian and Jiaxian; Huang Jie's Eighth Army moved to Xiangcheng and Yexian; Gui Yongqing's 27th Army moved to Luoyang; Yu Jishi's 74th Army moved to Miyang.
Subsequently, Xue Yue ordered: All covering troops must respond to the battle calmly, resist hard, delay the enemy, and truly cover the safety of the transfer of our main force. However, the retreat of the main army made the troops behind the break discouraged, and the Japanese army began to rout as soon as they first engaged. On June 4, the Japanese army occupied Lanfeng again, and Kaifeng was lost on the 6th.