The snow on the hill had already melted in the hot air, and the damp trees on the mountain had been dried and a raging fire had been ignited.

The three companies of the first battalion led by Mu Recall have been killed or wounded by one-third under the enemy's fierce artillery fire, and the officers and men of the machine-gun company of the regiment have also suffered heavy losses; the position is full of burning flames, broken stones, overturned trees, and the corpses of brothers killed in battle, and more than half of the platoon commanders and sergeants of the four companies have been killed or wounded, but the remaining 300 warriors have always stuck to the low slope of Taoyuan Mountain at a height of more than 60 meters, and have bravely resisted the enemy by taking advantage of the favorable terrain they occupy.

The engineer company led by Wang Donghan, instructor of the third battalion, more than 120 heavy logistics officers and men of the regimental headquarters, and the regimental mortar company led by Lieutenant Shi Junren occupied the dangerous high ground of Hutaling, skillfully used the fault grooves naturally formed by the stone mountain, and the mortars' good mobility and curved shooting skills, fought with tact, tenacity, flexibility, and changeability, and exchanged the lowest casualties for killing more than 700 enemy soldiers and crushing the enemy's five charges.

The 200 elite soldiers of the newly formed mountain company led by the battalion commander Xia Jianqin retreated to the rear of the position, formed a mobile force with rapid action and strong combat effectiveness, and immediately reinforced which side was urgent, repelled the enemy's frantic attacks again and again, and made great contributions to smashing the enemy's encirclement attempts.

In the six-and-a-half-hour battle, the third division of the Zhejiang army fired nearly 1,000 shells at the two revolutionary army positions guarding the choke point south of Longyou City, launched seven charges and paid the price of more than 1,800 casualties, and several heavy losses to the defenders still could not overcome these two blocking positions that echoed each other from east to west. By the time the generals under his command commanded hundreds of officers and men to rush to the cold artillery firing point in the rear, the sneak attackers were long gone, leaving only the traces left by the two mortar firing mounts.

After more than 40 minutes of tossing and turning, the revolutionary army, which had been holding the high ground with nearly half of the dead and wounded, took advantage of this opportunity to complete the replenishment of ammunition, and the fire point that had disappeared reappeared, and the three battalions of the revolutionary army led by Yang Bin and Chen Zhibiao, who had set up machine guns and were waiting for reinforcements, completed the rescue mission and rushed to the rescue. Hu Jialin, deputy of the battalion, handed over the task of guarding the bridge to the commander of the 21st Division, who had successfully withdrawn from the rear, and led more than 80 fresh soldiers of the guard company to ride on war horses and gallop to the aid of the model battalion in Longyou City.

As soon as the reinforcements arrived, the officers and men of the first battalion on the position were in high spirits, and Xia Jian, who had suffered heavy losses in his brothers, had red eyes, and in a fit of rage, he immediately led the 142 surviving brothers of the mountain company to bypass the rear side of the Taoyuan Mountain position in the west, and within an hour and a half, they crossed the Tianjingridge swamp, crossed the snow-covered slippery and bumpy gray mountain pass, and made a total of 13 kilometers around a large arc, and finally came to the south side of Jiankengyuan Village behind the enemy's artillery position.

Xia Jian signaled everyone to stop advancing, led the two company commanders to climb the red clay hill in front, and took out the binoculars to prostrate and observe. On the right front, more than 30 carts transporting ammunition hurried into the artillery position 1.4 kilometers ahead, and more than 300 enemy artillery and a company or so of vigilant infantry all laid down their weapons and ran quickly to the carts, carrying boxes of heavy shells with all hands and feet, and 24 swarthy artillery pieces stretched out diagonally from their straight gun bodies and pointed in the direction of due north.

Xia Jian, who was drenched, gasped and scolded the company commander Zhen Yunsong and the deputy company commander Zhong Da beside him: "What the dog said? If the enemy were to fire all these hundreds of shells at our blocking positions to the north, how many brothers would be dead on the hill or with their hands and legs broken? I call him uncle! Yun Song, go down at once and tell the brothers to prepare for a surprise attack! ”

"Yes!"

Zhen Yunsong, who was thin and agile, quickly slid down the mud gang.

Xia Jian pointed to the river bay more than 600 meters to the southeast and whispered: "Zhong Da, you see that the wooden bridge is not ...... Right! It is estimated that it is twenty-five meters long, it looks very strong, the defenders on the bridge are only seven people, counting the most invisible squad, you lead the four rows of brothers with a few explosives bags, bypass the two houses in the south, and then throw grenades and then rush onto the bridge, slaughter all the defenders for Lao Tzu, and then place explosives to blow up the wooden bridge, and return here to occupy the high ground after the task is completed, covering our retreat. ”

"Understood!"

"Well, take advantage of the favorable opportunity for the enemy to unload ammunition, and we will act immediately!"

Fifteen minutes later, there was a grenade explosion from the south, and Xia Jian, who had already sneaked into place, knew that Zhong Da had launched an attack, so he jumped up and shouted loudly: "Brothers, kill-"

"Kill—"

The rain of bullets fired from more than 80 flower machine guns and 12 light machine guns in their hands knocked down the unsuspecting enemy troops who were busy carrying artillery shells in the blink of an eye, and rushed to a distance of 50 meters. The enemy who reacted quickly ran forward desperately, and those who reacted slowly were either split by grenades or were beaten into blood gourds by the rain of bullets.

The vast majority of the enemy who did not climb the north bank became the live targets of the officers and men of the mountain company who chased after them, and one after another were shot in the cold and clear water, and the blood plasma that bubbled up stained the stream red.

"Boom-"

The earth-shattering explosion came from a kilometer away in the south, and Xia Jian knew that Zhong Da had succeeded in blowing up the bridge, so he immediately issued a loud order: "A platoon listens to the order: tie six grenades together, stuff them into the root of the bolt in the breech of the artillery, and blow them up to Lao Tzu one by one!" The rest of the platoons immediately cleaned up the battlefield and brought back all the weapons and valuable things to Lao Tzu, and all the actions had to be completed within ten minutes! ”

"Yes—"

The battle suddenly became busy, the brothers took up their long guns, drew their short guns, picked up long and short guns and sabers and hung them on their bodies, skillfully and quickly turned over the corpses, and when they encountered the undead strugglers, they raised their hands to the head and shot them, and then searched the corpses for all valuable items such as oceans and watches and immediately turned to the next one.

As soon as the ten minutes came, Xia Jian's loud voice sounded again, and the brothers in each platoon left the artillery position one after another, and the brothers in the first platoon quickly pulled the grenade lead and turned around and flew away for more than ten meters and quickly lay down, and one after another violent explosions shook the surrounding streams, and the surrounding trees fell into snowflakes, and the twenty-four artillery pieces were all scrap steel in the blink of an eye.

Xia Jian did not hesitate to lead the brothers who were full of long and short guns and light machine guns to retreat quickly, and successfully evacuated the battlefield and returned along the same road before the enemy reinforcements arrived.

In addition, the commander of the rear artillery array was seriously injured by the attacking leader, and the officers and men of the whole division were frightened and frightened, leaving behind more than 1,000 corpses and hundreds of seriously wounded and quickly withdrawing to Jinhua, and the encirclement and annihilation plan painstakingly designed by Meng Zhaoyue, commander of the Zhejiang army, was aborted.

At the same time, the battlefield of Longyou City entered a white-hot stage, the three main regiments of the Second Division paid a heavy price of more than 6,000 officers and soldiers, and finally all withdrew to the west of the Wenchang Bridge, and the more than 16,000 enemy troops in the surging pursuit were blocked by a fire network composed of more than a dozen heavy machine guns on the east line of the bridge, and more than 2,000 enemy troops in the south were blocked by Yin Jinan's model battalion and the reinforced Hu Jialin Division, and the mortar shells and machine gun bullets fired by both sides destroyed all the houses on both sides of the river, and the raging flames burned more and more vigorously under the blowing of the cold wind. It has swept half of the county.

Liu Zhi, who had retreated to the west of the city to fight the iron post, squatted in front of a bloody stretcher, and clutched the cold right hand of Guo Jun, the commander of the sixth regiment on the stretcher, and cried out in pain.

Guo Jun, who was shot in the waist and had his internal organs shattered, opened his eyes with difficulty, looking at Liu Zhi who was full of gunpowder smoke and Xu Tingyao who was wrapped in his head, his chapped lips squirmed slightly, his body stiffened suddenly, and he let out a long breath and then closed his eyes.

Seeing that the remnants of the Second Division were about to break out of the encirclement, the enemy suddenly intensified their attacks, and the dense sound of guns and artillery and earth-shattering shouts once again shook the earth and resounded throughout the four fields.

An Yi, who was carrying a rifle, came to Liu Zhi's side again from the southern front position, and shouted to Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao, who were full of grief: "Division, chief of staff, please immediately lead your troops to retreat to the Hutaling position, the first battalion of our regiment has repelled the enemy who was outflanked behind us, the brothers of the third battalion have arrived with reinforcements, and they are ready to take up the Hutaling position, and the brothers of the fourth and sixth regiments are rapidly moving closer to the position of the third battalion of our regiment, so withdraw quickly!" If the division headquarters is not withdrawn, my model battalion will be wiped out! ”

Liu Zhi turned his head to look at the west side where the smoke of gunpowder was filled and the guns were rumbling, and he shook his head frequently: "Li Yannian of the Fifth Regiment, they are still fighting to the death at the Wenchang Bridge!" ”

"Master, my subordinates will lead people over for reinforcements, and Li Yannian is also my senior brother!"

An Yi stomped his feet fiercely, turned to Gu Lao Er behind him and ordered loudly: "Tiger head, tell Hu Zi and Ji Nan to hold on for another fifteen minutes, then cover in sections, and retreat to the west in turn, you go back to concentrate the brothers who can still run in the guard company, and rush to Wenchang Qiaotou to meet Lao Tzu!" ”

"Yes!"

Gu Lao Er glared at Liu Zhi fiercely, turned around and rushed into the smoke.

"Lao Li, take your brothers to choose their own combat position, and shoot me immediately when you see the enemy as an officer! Remember, whatever the outcome, give me a retreat to the rear as soon as the ten minutes are up! ”

An Yi gritted his teeth and ordered Li Fuqiang behind him, a face full of gunpowder smoke was slightly deformed due to pain, and it was only now that he gave combat orders to a few snipers who had been trained with great difficulty, one can imagine how reluctant and distressed An Yi was.

Li Fuqiang nodded calmly, and made a departure gesture to the eight subordinates behind him, and the elite of the eight elites automatically formed a team of two, silently burrowing into the smoke of gunpowder.

Li Fuqiang, who was carrying a rifle, walked up to An Yi, smiled slightly and whispered, "Boss, I'm in a group with you." ”

An Yi nodded, walked in front of Liu Zhi and Xu Tingyao, and whispered: "Division, chief of staff, don't worry, I will definitely bring back the brothers who are alive in the fifth regiment, you go quickly, otherwise my subordinates will be distracted and won't be able to let go!" ”

Liu Zhi grabbed An Yi's shoulder: "Xiao Yi, no matter what, you must come back alive!" ”

"Yes!"

An Yi turned to the chief of the intelligence section and whispered, "Senior brother, the division seat and the chief of staff have been handed over to you, go quickly!" ”

"Xiao Yi, take care!"

Ying Rongguang gritted his teeth and nodded.

An Yi nodded heavily and turned around and left, leading Shen Fengdao and Li Fuqiang to rush to the east in the midst of the artillery fire, Gu Lao Er led more than 100 ragged and bloodstained guards and brothers to rush out of the gunsmoke, and when they saw An Yi's back, they immediately chased after him.

(To be continued)