The main task of this unit is to lead reconnaissance and test the main force of the Japanese army, Tian Miao did not intend to fight hard with the Japanese army from the beginning, and commanded the troops to retreat north along the north-south avenue, and at the same time reported the news of the Japanese attack to the headquarters of the East Road Column through the radio station of the communication vehicle.

Soon, the command called back, it was an order.

This order was very simple, Tian Miao had to lead the armored reconnaissance detachment to retreat north immediately and join the main force, for a very simple reason, because at the same time that Tian Miao's armored reconnaissance detachment was attacked by the Japanese army, the flank troops of the East Road Column also encountered a Japanese army, and it was also rushed from the western hilly area, and the attack was also on the armored detachment marching south along the road.

There are all kinds of indications that the 30,000 troops of the Japanese army who disappeared did not cross the Great Dividing Range, they hid in the deep mountains and dense forests of the Great Dividing Range, waiting for the East Route Column to move south, and then invited them to attack.

The actions of the leading detachment had already exposed the Japanese troops, and it was indeed possible to retreat.

Tian Miao had no choice but to continue to retreat north, considering that the fuel was running out, he could only send another telegram to the headquarters, ask for logistical support, and at the same time gather troops, quickly formulated a corresponding battle plan, mixed infantry and cavalry with armored vehicles, and tried to withdraw to the north through this avenue.

The retreat was a difficult one, as the road was close to the edge of the hills, the Japanese occupied the heights, bombarded the road with mountain artillery, blocked the return of the Chinese armored forces, and sent infantry to carry out a frontal assault, and Tian Miao had to place the infantry and cavalry on the right flank of the armored combat units. Relying on the thin armor of armored vehicles to protect the infantry from assaulting north.

"Smack! Syllable! ”

"Tart tart hee, tart goo

"Boom! Rumble! ”

"Tart tart goo,, tart goo"

"Boom! Rumble! ”

The sound of gunfire and artillery is intertwined, the warhead and shrapnel tear the air, there is a piercing howl, the smoke on both sides of the road is filled, and the dust is flying, although the shrapnel of the mountain artillery cannot penetrate the armored car, but it is a serious threat to the infantry, relying on the firepower of the armored car, it is difficult to suppress the Japanese artillery fire.

Tian Miao stood on the right pedal of an armored car, holding a pistol in his right hand, grasping the door with his left hand, and commanding the battle with a hoarse voice.

"Aim for the mountain artillery! Aim for the mountain artillery! "The machine gun! That machine gun, kill me! ”

Due to the limitation of means of communication, the only thing Tian Miao can directly command now is this armored car equipped with a millimeter short-barreled tank gun, and as for the other armored vehicles, they can only fight on their own. Since the side of the road is a drainage ditch, armored cars cannot rampage like tanks, and the armor is too thin to attack the Japanese positions at all, and the only thing that can be relied on is relatively fast, hoping to break out of the Japanese army's fire circle as soon as possible, and break through to the north before the Japanese army blocks the road for the troops.

As for the trucks that were originally loaded with infantry, they were not as tenacious as the armored cars, and soon, several trucks that were walking behind were hit by mountain guns, and the fire was raging, and the black smoke rushed into the sky, and the drivers had to abandon the trucks, pick up their rifles or submachine guns, join the ranks of the infantry, and advance north along the gutters.

"When! when".

There were two crisp crashing sounds, and two more rifle bullets hit the armored car that Tian Miao was riding, but because the distance was too far to penetrate the thin side armor, the bullet was bounced away, but there were still two shallow craters left on the side of the hull.

Fortunately, the hills were only on the west side of the road, and on the east side of the road, there was a wilderness of a flat river, unsheltered, and the Japanese army could only lie in ambush on the west side, unable to flank the Chinese troops from the east, Tian Miao could stand on the pedal of the armored car and calmly command the battle.

However, the good luck of this armored car did not last long, a few minutes later, a mountain artillery shell exploded at a very close distance, shrapnel flew in all directions, Tian Miao only felt a cold right arm, a piece of shrapnel hit his right arm, the right hand holding the gun was loosened, the pistol fell to the ground, Tian Miao's head was also dizzy, almost fell out of the car.

But this is just the beginning, just when Tian Miao gasped and desperately grabbed the door with his left hand, the right front wheel of the armored car suddenly sank, and then, the whole body tilted to the right, and began to skid, straight to the drainage ditch on the right side of the road, in the exclamation of the infantry, the armored car finally fell into the drainage ditch, and the violent impact immediately made Tian Miao, who was already groggy fly out, planted heavily on the ground, and passed out.

I don't know how long it took for Tian Miao to wake up, and the first thing he saw clearly was a staff officer's face, which was also dripping with blood, but he couldn't tell whose blood it was.

"Battalion commander! Battalion commander! ”

The staff officer shouted loudly, and when he saw Tian Miao open his eyes, he raised his hand and pointed to the side, saying something in his mouth, but Tian Miao couldn't even understand a word.

Tian Miao stretched out his hand, grabbed the staff officer's arm, and shouted, "What did you say?"

The staff officer moved his arm back and continued to shout at Tian Miao

"Battalion commander! Battalion commander! The Japanese army in front has planted mines, and the Japanese army has already made a detour to the north, so we can't rush through."

"Landmines? Why didn't we blow it up when we came? ”

Tian Miao suddenly came to his senses, grabbed the staff officer's shoulder, struggled to his feet, looked north, and saw several pillars of black smoke rising into the air in the distance, several armored cars lying crooked under the black smoke, and they were burning, and the nearby infantry were crawling in the drainage ditch on the side of the road, shooting with rifles and submachine guns to the west.

"That's not a crushing mine, it could be a wire detonation! We didn't show up when we came, and now the Japanese army has detonated it, obviously trying to cut off our retreat. Battalion commander, battalion commander, it seems that the Japanese army is very well prepared this time. ”

The staff officer shouted loudly, and pressed Tian Miao's shoulders and pushed him back into the gutter.

There was a huge pain in his right arm, Tian Miao turned his head to look, and saw that his right shoulder had been wrapped in a bandage, and the blood had dyed the bandage red, judging from the intensity of the pain, the shrapnel must have injured the bone, and the head also hurt badly, and when he reached out and touched it, his head was also wrapped in a bandage.

"How many armored vehicles did we lose?. Tian Miao asked the staff officer.

"Fifteen vehicles were lost, most of the wheels were destroyed by shells and could not move. We could only blow up the motive, but the machine guns on the car were all unloaded! The communication vehicle was not destroyed, and the radio was also able to use the staff officer replied.

"Bring me the map!"

Tian Miao carefully observed the Japanese positions in the west, and then asked the staff officer for the not very accurate map, and soon found a village on the map, which was a large village. And it's in the plains to the east.

"How far is this from us?" Tian Miao pointed to the map and asked the staff officer.

The staff officer hesitated for a moment and said, "According to the error estimate, it may be between five and six kilometers

Tian Miao turned her head to look east, but she couldn't see anything, the sky was very cloudy, and visibility was very affected.

"Withdraw! Evacuate to the village! The infantry withdrew first, the armored vehicles followed behind to cover, and the cavalry took the lead in reconnaissance. In addition, the command was informed by radio of our location

Tian Miao immediately changed his original plan, he understood that this was not only an encounter, but also an ambush battle, the Japanese army was hiding in the hilly area, just waiting for them to come, and then ambushed them, judging from the ambush location, the Japanese army was carefully planned, and deliberately chose the road at the foot of the mountain. Just waiting for the armored troops to come.

The armored car was not withdrawn, on both sides of the road were drainage ditches more than half a person deep, although it was not very wide, but it was not difficult to trap the wheels, after Tian Miao gave the order to retreat to the east, the soldiers had to remove the doors from the armored car and put it on the drainage ditch so that the car could drive over it.

After the remaining 20 or so armored vehicles left the road, the infantry quickly withdrew from the road, and the armored vehicles continued to use machine guns and artillery to pour fire on the Japanese positions in the west to cover the retreat of the infantry.

Tian Miao took the staff officer, jumped out of the drainage ditch on the side of the road, ran to the east with his waist bent, the bullets around him were whistling, from time to time the infantry was shot and fell, and the wounded were more and more, even Tian Miao, the wounded, had to act as an ambulance, carrying a seriously wounded man on his shoulder, and retreating to the east with difficulty.

Behind are armored cars, they retreated to the east of the wilderness after the infantry withdrew from the road, the front of the car to the east, but the turret was all pointing to the west, continuing to cover the infantry retreat with machine guns and artillery, and on the west side, on the other side of the avenue, the Japanese troops in khaki uniforms also followed closely, although some of the troops immediately charged to the east under the command of the officer, but in the armored fire of the squadron ** desperately suffered heavy casualties, so soon, most of the Japanese troops changed their strategy, just followed the ** far away Behind the team, they also crossed the road and advanced eastward.

Commanding the troops to fight and retreat, Tian Miao soon became exhausted and had to hand over the wounded to others and retreat east on foot, but he didn't go far and fell headlong again, not waking up.

By the time Tian Miao woke up again, it was already very dark, and he was now lying in a house with several officers and staff officers standing beside him. The map is being studied.

Seeing that Tian Miao had woken up, a staff officer walked up to him and helped him up from the gun.

"Battalion commander, it's about to get dark, the Japanese army is likely to attack at night, and we must be ready to break through

"Breakout? We're surrounded?. Tian Miao was stunned.

"After retreating into the village, the Japanese army followed, and surrounded the village from the flank, fortunately the village has a wall, probably the villagers built it to defend against bandits, relying on the wall, we have repelled several Japanese attacks, if we can hold out until the evening, the breakthrough is our best choice

"How many more do we have now? How many armored vehicles? There is no shame on the radio."

Tian Miao asked the staff officer, but did not wait for the other party to answer. I heard a few cannon shots.

"The offensive has started again!"

The officer shouted, most of them set up their houses and went to their positions to direct the battle, and only the staff officer remained. "Four

Tian Miao sat on the kang, took out the wall watch and looked at it, it was still an hour before it got dark, considering that it was cloudy now, maybe it was darker earlier.

"Boom! Boom".

Two cannons rang out, and the ground shook violently twice, and dust fell from the roof.

"Heavy artillery?.

Tian Miao jumped from the cannon, and the staff officer who stayed in the house was also very surprised, the reason why they were able to hold out in this village for two hours was that in addition to the fact that the village was walled, the lack of heavy firepower of the Japanese attacking troops was also an important reason, and in the previous attacks, the Japanese support firepower was only stopped. artillery, but now, the Japanese are apparently pulling in heavy artillery.

The village couldn't hold it, Tian Miao sighed, and then gave an order to the staff officer.

"Pass the order, once the Japanese break through the defensive line, immediately blow up all armored vehicles and destroy documents."

"Yes!"

The staff officer hurried out of the house and went to convey the battalion commander's orders to the officers.

"Boom! Rumble! ”

Two more cannons rang out, and the shells landed very close, and seeing that the house was crumbling, Tian Miao hurriedly left the dilapidated house and walked outside.

The sky was still overcast, as if a storm was coming, Tian Miao turned his head to look in the direction where the cannon fire had come, but he could see nothing but the dilapidated houses.

There was not a single civilian to be seen in the village, and apparently the inhabitants had run out when news of the war came, and judging by the few newer Japanese-style buildings, it was clear that there were also Japanese expatriates living here, although they had now fled.

"If it rains, the ground is muddy, and it will be difficult for the armored car to maneuver quickly."

Looking at the dark and dreary sky, Tian Miao suddenly remembered his leading reconnaissance mission this time, he had only completed half of this task, and tried to find out where the Japanese army was, but he could not complete the retreat mission.

Since the retreat mission can no longer be carried out, then, change the task to containment, so as to drag the Japanese army here and wait for the main force to arrive.

"Boom! Boom".

Two shells fell into the village, black smoke rose into the sky, a violent explosion was deafening, and a powerful shock wave leveled two streets in an instant, judging by the sound of explosions and the density of shelling, the Japanese only had these two heavy guns, but this was enough, in the absence of tracked armored vehicles, the armored forces could not have made an impact on the enemy artillery positions.

Tian Miao just found a bomb crater to hide, he heard the sound of the house collapsing, just now the house where he was hiding was collapsed by a shell, a burst of dust in front of him, and when the vision was a little clearer, Tian Miao saw the chaotic scene in the village, many soldiers were busy looking for shelter everywhere, an armored car was also crashing everywhere like a headless fly, some infantry shrank on the ground because of extreme fear, as for the weapons in their hands have long been gone, and the war horses that have lost control are also neighing and galloping everywhere.

"Those stupid people in the Air Force drew a wrong map, causing us to be shot here, and when Lao Tzu gets out alive, Lao Tzu must write a report to his superiors!"

Tian Miao was prostrate in the crater, complaining angrily about the Air Force Mapping Group, but soon, his mind returned to the battlefield, and as a front-line commander, he must now lead by example and command his subordinates to resist.

"Stand up! Go back to your posts! Even if you die, you have to die a heroic death! If you don't want to die, hurry back to your respective posts and pick up your rifle to fight the enemy! Only those who are willing to live can live."

So, with two cannon shots every few minutes, there was a surprising scene in the village, where a Chinese battalion commander with a bandage on his shoulders and head brandished in his left hand waved a slender bamboo pole and walked around the chaotic village with a bamboo pole, whipping the reluctant soldiers who were lying in the craters and cellars back to their positions.

In this way, the fighting continued in the village until late at night, and although the armored reconnaissance force eventually abandoned the breakthrough operation, they finally held the village, and when the next day, a rescue force of twenty tanks and more armored vehicles and infantry arrived in the village, and the armored reconnaissance detachment trapped in the village was less than 200 men, and at that time, they were still guarding several cellars, and their supreme commander was still poisoning the seedlings.

What are the beliefs that underpin them? Guts? Assertive? The driving force of a strong country? Or is it just to survive?

No one can say clearly, but one thing is certain, through this battle, the Chinese armored forces fully demonstrated their will to fight, and it has been proven that even without armored combat vehicles, armored troops are capable of fighting tenaciously.

This armored unit of the Eastern Route Column was also awarded the honorary title by the General Staff: "Iron Army." The village was renamed "Tiejunzhuang" after the war. "To commemorate the warriors who gave their lives for their country, and their immortal exploits that will last forever.