The tank column that was marching on the iron bridge was completely annihilated. A squadron of infantry also met Hades in the explosion, and the stumps were thrown into the air, and the sky was covered with blood.

Four 105 howitzers began to bombard, in the fastest time to shoot out all the remaining shells, the Japanese troops on the opposite bank were assembled was devastated, more than 100 people were killed immediately, the Japanese artillery immediately returned fire, the artillery position on the north bank was in a sea of fire, all four guns were scrapped.

The infantry squadron that had crossed the bridge earlier was bombarded by mortars, and the lightly armed infantry had no cover, and in an instant they suffered more than half of the casualties, and the tanks rumbled up in the smoke, crushing the dead Japanese soldiers into pulp.

The bridge broke, and the Japanese troops on the south bank could not cross the river, so they had to retreat temporarily, and the heavy artillery roared again.

As the battle entered its second phase, the citizens of Beitai sensed danger approaching the citizens of Beitai, and many fled with their children and daughters to Nantai, where it was rumored that there were ships to Wuhan.

The city hall did not prevent the people from fleeing, because fierce resistance would trigger the massacre of the city by the Japanese army, and there was no need to pull everyone on their backs.

Of course, there are still many young people who resolutely stay and join the army in the line of fire, and there are tens of thousands of sets of military uniforms and thousands of rifles stored in the warehouse of the Beitai City Hall, which are just used to arm them.

Xia Jingqi in the refugee camp also mixed a khaki military uniform, a canvas belt and a 38 big cover, because he was literate and could fiddle with firearms, and became the squad leader of the militia group, with twelve soldiers under his command.

These twelve soldiers are all brothers he brought from Henan.

……

At dawn, on the river bank outside Nantai City, Ding Meng Xianguo of the county security regiment rubbed his sleepy eyes and squatted in the grass to, yesterday he came to inspect the peak, and rewarded a meal of braised elbows.

Suddenly, there was a sudden sound on the misty river, Meng Xianguo pulled out the leaves and looked at it, he was so frightened that he sat on the ground, and almost sat back the he had just pulled out, and the Japanese son crossed the river!

He hurriedly lifted his pants, tied them haphazardly, and ran back to the position with his Hanyang Zao, shaking the captain awake: "Captain, the devil is up!" ”

The captain was from a Lian family, and a carp jumped up and pulled out the box cannon: "Where, where?" ”

"On the river, I'm coming in a rubber boat."

"Brothers, copy the guys!" The captain woke up the sleeping regiments, and everyone carried their guns into the preset position.

On the open river, dozens of rubber boats are driving over, and the devil soldiers are lying densely on the boat, and the matte 90 iron cap is like the shell of a feces shell mantis.

"Hold steady." The captain whispered.

In the early years, Nantai County was a place full of bandits, and there were many people who could use guns, and in terms of quality, the militia was stronger than some regular troops of the national army.

Seeing that the ghost soldiers had entered the effective firing range, the captain gave an order: "Fight!" ”

More than 100 long and short guns opened fire at the same time, and the water column in the river was everywhere, and the devils saw that the sneak attack could not succeed, so they changed to a strong attack, and beat the son crookedly, but there was no cover in the river, it was purely a gun target, and they were beaten hard by the militia group, and suffered heavy losses, so they had to retreat to the south bank.

The security regiment won a big victory, everyone cheered, and the captain said: "The little devil will definitely have to come again, we people may not be able to hold it, Meng Xianguo, you hurry up to Beitai to report the news, and let Commander-in-Chief Chen send reinforcements to us." ”

Meng Xianguo rode a mule and rushed to Beitai, the distance between South and North Thailand is eighty miles, if Little Japan crosses the river here and threatens the back road of Beitai, Commander-in-Chief Chen will be blinded.

After walking for more than ten miles, suddenly a carriage came from the opposite side, and there were more than a dozen soldiers in khaki uniforms sitting on the car, and the first man called out to him: "Brother, which part?" ”

Meng Xianguo said: "Those of the Nantai Security Corps, go to the city to report the news." ”

"What kind of letter, is it that little Japan has crossed the river?"

"yes, we beat you back."

"Don't go, we're reinforcements." The man's accent was familiar, like a native of his hometown.

"Just a few of you, I'm afraid I won't be hit." Meng Xianguo looked at the dozen or so soldiers suspiciously, all of them with big shoulders and round waists, like practicing a family, but after all, the number of people was too small.

The man said: "Don't look at the lack of people, we have heavy weapons." Lifting the tarpaulin on the car, a Maxim heavy machine gun was revealed.

Meng Xianguo said: "It's not a matter of even a heavy machine gun, no, I still have to go into the city." ”

There was a guy in the car who quietly pulled a dagger out of his boot.

The man at the head smiled: "Brother, do you know the southeast and northwest when you go into the city?" Commander-in-Chief Chen is so busy, how can I see you, besides, the little devils in Beitai are in a hurry, and Nantai is just a feint here, a feint, understand, one class of us is enough. ”

Meng Xianguo thought about it, so he said, "Okay, let's go back together." ”

The man smiled: "You lead the way." ”

After walking for half an hour, he returned to the position, and the person who came took out his certificate and claimed that he was the captain and company commander of the North Thai Civil Defense Regiment and had come to guide the defense affairs of the South Thai River.

The captain did not suspect that he was deceitful, and invited him into the tent to discuss the enemy's strategy, and after a while, the captain sent someone out to give an order for everyone to assemble.

Brother No. 120 of the security regiment dragged his feet and came, standing in four rows, giggling and fighting, Meng Xianguo was also in the queue, looking around, and suddenly found that the group of people from the city unknowingly occupied the favorable terrain, and the machine gun seemed to be aimed at this side.

He suddenly thought of the Journey to the West story he had heard, where the little demon who patrolled the mountains met the goblin pretended to be Sun Wukong......

Suddenly, the heavy machine guns went off, and the regiments fell like wheat harvesting, and some tried to resist, but they were knocked down by the hand-held machine guns of the khaki uniforms, and more than 60 of the 100 people were put down on the spot, and the remaining 30 people fled in a hurry, and the people from the city took rifles behind them and killed them one by one in the field like targets.

Xia Jingqi wiped the bloody dagger on his sleeve, walked out of the tent, and said dissatisfiedly: "Slippery, hurry up and send a signal." ”

Behind him, the captain was dumbfounded, with a cigarette in his mouth, just now he took the opportunity to light a cigarette, Xia Jingqi stabbed him to death.

A red signal flare rose into the sky, and the Japanese troops on the opposite bank forced their way across the Huai River again, but this time they did not encounter any resistance and successfully set foot on the north bank.

Xia Jingqi and the others had a white towel wrapped around their left arm, standing on the side of the road and nodding their heads, the imperial soldiers passed in line, and they didn't look at them, a guy wearing a captain's badge came over and stretched out his hand very politely: "Xia Sang, you have worked hard, and you have a lot of credit." ”

"Where, my work is not hard, it is my duty to serve the imperial army." Xia Jingqi smiled humbly.

The Japanese army drove to Beitai, and it was getting dark, Meng Xianguo crawled out of the pile of corpses and stumbled home.

……

The news of the breakthrough of the Huaijiang Nantai section reached the headquarters, Chen Zikun was not surprised, the Huaijiang River is so long, the Japanese will always find a place to cross the river, but they chose to cross the river in the west of Beitai, which is equivalent to cutting off the retreat, the Japanese have always done a good job in terms of tactics, this time it was their own carelessness.

However, there was still a chance to make amends, and Chen Zikun immediately ordered the convoy to attack and drive the landing enemy into the water, and fifteen Christie tanks quickly attacked under the cover of armored vehicles, and engaged the enemy in a fierce battle in the southwest of North Thailand.

Although the troops who crossed the river were lightly armed, their style was extremely tenacious, and they fought against the tanks of the North Thai Army with flesh and blood, and the follow-up troops continued to arrive, and the advantage gradually increased, and the tank troops received an order to retreat, leaving four tanks destroyed by suicide blasting and going back.

The hasty retreat was due to the fact that the Japanese army landed in the east again, and the Japanese engineers erected a pontoon bridge over the narrow water east of Beitai, and the cavalry, infantry and artillery continuously crossed the Huai River, and the natural advantage no longer existed.

But at this time, it is too early to say defeat, Jiangbei is a very large area, accounting for one-fifth of the area of Jiangdong Province, although the Huaijiang River was broken through, but the main force of Beitai is still alive, and the fierce battle is still to come.

After the Japanese army crossed the Huai River, it seemed that they were not so impatient, and did not attack immediately, but continued to transport troops across the river and deploy calmly.

His Excellency Shunroku Hatata, commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, personally wrote a letter and sent it to Chen Zikun, urging him to put the people of Northern Thailand first and choose to cooperate with the Japanese Empire.

Chan replied with a letter persuading Shunroku Hata to surrender so as not to end up dying in a foreign land.

It is said that after reading the letter, Shunroku Hata praised Chen Zikun as a gentleman, and immediately ordered a general attack.

The defense of North Thailand officially began, three days later the Japanese army completed the encirclement of North Thailand, began artillery bombardment, infantry attack in turn, for the Japanese army these means, the defender has already seen on the Songhu battlefield, China and Japan are very familiar with each other, the battle is particularly fierce.

The airport is the only channel between North Thailand and the outside world, so Chen Zikun sent heavy troops to guard, and the Japanese army also took this as the focus of the attack, the two sides tug-of-war back and forth, and almost all the tanks of the Jiangdong Army were lost here, and finally the 88 anti-aircraft guns imported from Germany were flattened as cannons, so the Japanese army was repelled and the airport was held.

"Huaijiang Bao" is still insisting on printing, the materials in the city are getting less and less, and even the white newspapers and ink are not enough, not that the storage is not enough, but the Japanese artillery fire is fierce, and many materials are burned, and this is also related to the large infiltration of Japanese spies, and every night, spies will fire signal flares into the sky to guide the Japanese army to carry out precision bombing of grain depots, barracks, and positions.

The police station was busy arresting spies all day long, and everyone felt suspicious, shooting dozens of them every day, and still flying signal flares all over the sky at night.

Wang Degui couldn't help but sigh: "There are not many others in these years, and there is no shortage of traitors." ”

Nguyen Minh Chuan, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, came to the city hall to interview Commander-in-Chief Chen, and after chatting for a while, he asked: "We have been friends for more than ten years, how long can you hold on if you give me an accurate word?" ”

Chen Zikun said: "If there is enough ammunition, ordnance, gasoline, and food, you can hold it for three months to half a year." ”

Ruan Mingchuan said: "There is no help when the ammunition is exhausted, isn't it just to sit and wait for death, I think it is better to break through as soon as possible." ”

Chen Zikun said: "It's too early to break through, I just have to fight until the last moment, I want the Japanese to know how difficult it is for them to gnaw down a city, if China has 300 North Tai, they will never be able to conquer China." ”

Ruan Mingchuan said: "Okay, I will sacrifice my life to accompany the gentleman, you stick to it for a day, and my Huaijiang newspaper will be published for a day, by the way, the lady and the children are okay?" ”

Chen Zikun said: "It's all good, but I'm in the air-raid shelter all day long, I can't see the sun, and I'm complaining." ”