The cavalry battalion and an infantry battalion of the Wumu Army marched towards Jingshan, and made a feint around the periphery of the devil overnight, while the other troops did not move.

The devil was tossed all night by the elusive attack. When it was almost dawn, Wu Mujun was still tossing, but this time it was a real thing, 6 flat-fire guns bombarded the firepower exposed last night, and then the 149th Division attacked the city. After entering the city, they also remembered Liu Qinghe's words, and only took medicine and equipment from the rear hospital of the devils, and did not kill the wounded soldiers.

Since Li Zongren regarded Liu Qinghe's troops as a unit in the sequence, Liu Qinghe also received a battle report sent to the division-level troops.

It is said that a large number of devils set off from Zhongxiang, so there may be a place for a large army of devils to stay there, and it should be more fertile.

Indeed, the 13th Division of the Devils set out from Zhongxiang, and Zhongxiang had a large number of troops left behind and followed: liaison offices, military stations, hospitals, gun depots, ammunition depots, munitions depots, baggage wings, garrison troops, repair shops, and sick horse farms......

The special battalion had already reported all kinds of information about Zhong Xiang to Liu Qinghe, which made Liu Qinghe also hesitate: As the old nest of devils, the peripheral positions, fortifications, and warning points are arranged in all aspects, and the vigilance is extremely high, and there are 5 or 6,000 troops of all kinds, which is difficult to fight!

Wang Juxu had known about Zhong Xiang's situation for a long time. Previously, the Fifth Theater Commander's Department ordered him to attack and harass Zhong Xiang, he didn't dare to think about it, it wasn't that he just wanted to blindly preserve his strength, although he was afraid that the vitality of the troops would be greatly damaged and the capital would be lost, but he was also a soldier, and he also had the best achievements, but using a tattered group army to attack a division and regiment-level base heavily guarded by devils was tantamount to suicide! Now it's different, with Liu Qinghe and such a tiger and wolf army taking the lead, Wang Zhuxu thinks that it is difficult to make meritorious contributions!

Therefore, Wang Juxu moved the headquarters to a later position of Liu Qinghe's brigade headquarters, personally came to Liu Qinghe's place to "inspect", brought Liu Qinghe a large amount of intelligence, maps, and staff officers, and discussed with Liu Qinghe to attack Zhongxiang.

Liu Qinghe knew Wang Zhuxu's intentions, Liu Qinghe had seen too much in this situation, these ** officials and masters all wanted others to work hard and make meritorious contributions themselves. Fortunately, Wang Zhuxu just wanted to get a little light, not to be greedy for other people's military exploits, and he had the sincerity to cooperate.

Wang Zhuxu was indeed sincere, and planned to mobilize all the troops to cooperate with Liu Qinghe to take Zhong Xiang. Liu Qinghe doesn't think so, attacking thousands of devils who are waiting for work, it's not easy to talk about, it's better to hit wherever it is, if it's easy, take Zhong Xiang, and if it's not easy, get a little cheap and leave! This idea is very much to the taste of Wang Zhuxu.

Liu Qinghe and Wang Juxu agreed that Liu Qinghe would be responsible for controlling the degree of attack and taking on the task of attacking the core area of the devils, and Wang Juxu's troops would be responsible for attacking the periphery, depending on the advance and retreat of Liu Qinghe's troops, the depth of the attack would be controlled, the control area would give priority to plundering materials, and the remaining materials would be burned during the retreat.

Wang Zhuxu had no doubt and let Liu Qinghe call the shots. A few collaborations have added the equipment of 4 regiments (miscellaneous regiment standard), although it costs a little money, but it is both meritorious and valuables, and compared with the money spent, it still takes a big advantage, these boys can really fight!

At this time, the battle report of the Fifth Theater showed that the main force of the 13th Division of the Devil had broken through the defense line of the 33rd Army and attacked in the direction of Zaoyang, and "the main forces of the 33rd and Second Army pursued the Japanese army and ambushed it." In other words, Liu Qinghe's troops and the 29th Group Army had time to hit Zhong Xiang hard and get a vote fiercely.

Liu Qinghe led his troops to take advantage of the advantage of rapid mobility to leave the mountainous area and make a detour back to the south of Zhongxiang, where Wang Juxu's 29th Army was responsible for outflanking the east and north.

Soldiers are fast. Liu Qinghe rushed directly from the south of Zhongxiang and immediately launched a fire strike, with three 75mm mountain guns and nine 90mm mortars firing at the same time. It is true that these artillery fires are not too strong, but when used in local concentrations, the effect is still shocking, plus the cavalry assault under the cover of artillery fire, quickly break through the defensive positions of the devils.

This is also due to the fact that the devil thinks that the south of Zhong Xiang is the rear, and the arrangements are all non-important units such as the rear hospital, the sick horse farm, and the repair shop, so the garrison situation is relatively weak.

After breaking through the outer defense line of the devils, the cavalry battalion no longer attacked in depth, because street fighting in the city was not suitable for cavalry combat. The cavalry attacked the city and quickly spread out to the two flanks, one used javelin thunder to attack the fortifications of the city, tore through the second line of defense, covering the infantry battalion to attack the city, one cleaned up the outer devil troops, and the other occupied the hospital, the sick horse farm, and the repair shop, plundering supplies.

The 3rd Infantry Battalion attacked the city, and after opening the fortifications, it quickly launched an attack on various targets, and at the same time covered the anti-tank battalion to occupy the commanding heights of the city wall.

Wu Mu's army tore through the devil's defense line from the south and advanced in depth, and the devil hurriedly transferred troops from other sides to reinforce, and the defense system was completely disrupted. The ** troops that were waiting to move immediately went into the attack, seized the peripheral positions on the east and north sides of the devil, and attacked the city.

Helplessly, the heavy firepower is insufficient, and it is scattered configuration, and it is impossible to open the fortifications in the city for a long time. Liu Qinghe had already expected that he sent a special battalion to meet other aspects, one of the special battalions climbed to the roof of the house, used light machine guns and Qiguang submachine guns to clear the fire points on the roof of the devil's house, and the other used javelin flying thunder to take the lead in the assault and advance, and finally attacked the other two city gates, and used meteor flying thunder to blow up the city gate and other city fortifications, and broke through the devil's city fortifications with both inside and outside. Street battles began in Zhongxiang City.

Just when there was a fierce battle in Zhongxiang City, Liu Qinghe still had arrangements outside the city.

Zhongxiang is backed by the Xiang River to the west, and part of the base of the devil's military station, gun depot, ammunition depot, and munitions depot are all located on the wharf to facilitate transportation. Therefore, Liu Qinghe mobilized all the engineer battalions, the first artillery unit that had completed the task, the flying thunder company of the anti-tank battalion, the heavy shotgun company, and the guard company of the police battalion to launch an all-out attack on the Xianghe wharf when Zhongxiang City was in chaos.

For safety reasons, the devils did not deploy heavy firepower in the material distribution center. Therefore, the Wu Mu army relied on strong melee firepower to quickly attack the dock.

The 29th Group Army also took a fancy to this piece of fat for a long time, and sent elite troops to prepare to fish in troubled waters to get a vote, and they launched an attack from the north before the Wumu Army, but there was no progress due to insufficient combat effectiveness. After the Wumu army succeeded in attacking, they took advantage of the situation and entered the dock.

The devil lost the dock and sent a baggage wing to snatch it with all its might, trying to keep these important strategic materials, and the Wu Mu Army and the 29th Army worked together to resist the devil's counterattack while freeing up manpower to transfer materials.

A large number of materials can be loaded on the ship, and those that cannot be loaded are directly thrown into the Xianghe River, let them go downstream, and be salvaged and received by the Wumu Army Heavy Battalion downstream.

The devil lost Zhongxiang's important place, and hurriedly dispatched two brigades from different directions to reinforce, but was stopped by the 29th Group Army, which did not have enough money.

Wang Juxu ordered reinforcements while ordering the troops to clear the devils in the city, but was stopped by Liu Qinghe: It's okay to send reinforcements, but you can't clear the devils in the city!

Wang was so happy, he didn't expect that the Wu Mu army, which was so capable of conquest and was accustomed to war, would be so unreliable, how could he occupy Zhongxiang if he didn't purge the devils?

Liu Qinghe was serious at this time: "Commander-in-Chief Wang, I dare to say that as long as we clear the devils in the city, the devil planes will immediately bomb indiscriminately, how long can we occupy Zhongxiang and hold it?" As long as we fight with the devils, there will be no plane bombing, and we can evacuate a large number of supplies! ”

"However, occupying Zhongxiang is a great achievement! It's a pity! Wang Zhuxu saw that the situation had the upper hand, and his greed quickly swelled.

"Great merit is also indispensable, you report it now, saying that you have occupied Zhongxiang and are purging the remnants of the enemy! Anyway, we have already attacked Zhongxiang, so we don't lie about the results! Also, order the troops, bomb the devils in the city to several concentrated areas, besiege them, and attack them without destroying them! ”

"Clever! That's brilliant! Wang Juxu understood and praised again and again.

Just when the 29th Group Army completed the task of the Military Commission to "use the 29th Group Army to conduct guerrilla operations in Dahongshan and flank the Japanese troops on the two routes of Jingzhong and Xianghua", other units and devil units also completed their strategic deployments one after another.

The devil's troops broke through the ** multi-way defense line and formed an encirclement of Zaoyang; ** Each unit also formed a huge encirclement of the devil in the tail attack and side attack.

In 4 days, Liu Qinghe's troops traveled more than 500 miles, fought three times, fought nearly 100 times, captured countless times, and were extremely tired, so he went to the hinterland of the 29th Group Army with Wang Zhuxu to rest and recuperate, and by the way, he divided the results.

In this attack, Zhong Xiang captured a lot, dozens of trucks and hundreds of tons of oil; More than a dozen mountain artillery pieces, field artillery, more than a dozen infantry guns, mortars, light and heavy machine guns, grenadiers, rifles, pistols, grenades, explosives, and a large amount of food and ammunition greatly increased the strength of the 29th Group Army...... Of course, he also drained Wang Zhuxu's pockets and paid Liu Qinghe 600,000 oceans.

Liu Qinghe captured a lot in this battle, and the losses were not small: more than 200 people were killed, more than 300 were seriously wounded, and more than 500 were lightly wounded, with a total of more than 1,200 casualties.

Liu Qinghe learned a lesson and never fought a war of attrition in the future, but Wang Zhuxu actually supplemented Liu Qinghe with more than 400 capable veterans and grassroots officers, saying that he would follow Liu Qinghe for three months of "further study" and accept all the light and serious wounded of Wu Mu's army.

Liu Qinghe also supplemented three 75mm mountain guns to strengthen the firepower of the artillery battalion; 2 anti-aircraft guns were replenished to the anti-tank battalion; A batch of war horses was replenished to the cavalry battalion; A number of pack horses, horses, and carts were replenished to the baggage battalion; A company of the baggage battalion was sent with a batch of important supplies to escort back to the Xishan base area together with the new recruits; A large amount of meat, eggs, vegetable oil, and brown sugar were also replenished, and the soldiers of the Wu Mu Army could not leave meat and eggs, and good food was as important as ammunition.

At that time, it was raining heavily, and Liu Qinghe ordered the troops to rest and recuperate by the way, and at the same time to add supplementary troops, strengthen training, and overhaul vehicles.

Liu Qinghe received another telegram from the Fifth Theater Commander's Department: Zaoyang has been lost, but our army has formed an encirclement of the Japanese army, and quickly turned to Xianghua Road, waiting for the opportunity to deal a major blow to the mobile troops such as the war vehicles, automobiles, and cavalry of the Japanese Invaders!

Liu Qinghe only smiled bitterly: It is best to use the slippery road in the rain to fight the mechanized troops of the devils, but he is also a mechanized troops, and it is also difficult to march and fight under the condition of slippery roads in rainy days! However, the only way to obey orders under the tent is to obey!

Liu Qinghe led his troops to Xianghua Road, but he didn't know which unit to contact and cooperate with, and which unit to command, so he just marched along the muddy road.

Halfway through, I received an urgent call from the Commander's Department of the Fifth Theater: The Yicheng front is in danger, and the 33rd Group Army in the direction of Yicheng is rushing to help, and 100,000 are urgent!

Seeing the urgency of the telegram, Liu Qinghe realized the seriousness of the situation and ordered the troops to rush in the direction of Yicheng: the cavalry battalion, the artillery battalion, and the anti-tank battalion alternately covered and advanced at full speed, with the engineer battalion fully cooperating; The infantry battalion marched sharply and followed; The special service battalion covers the baggage battalion, the health team, and the air defense battalion to follow up; The police battalion marched in front of the infantry battalion with the brigade headquarters!

Along the way, there were battles everywhere, Liu Qinghe relied on powerful firepower and mechanized equipment, and never entangled all the way to attack and advance, hurrying and hurrying still failed to save the 33rd Army's defense line was broken through, so he had to collect the troops on the spot, contain the rout, consolidate the existing positions, and prevent the devils from expanding the breakthrough, helplessly watching the southern front troops be broken through by the devils in many places.

When Liu Qinghe brought follow-up troops to catch up, the southern front was still fighting fiercely, and the various units of the 33rd Group Army were still resisting, attacking, and counterattacking. Liu Qinghe's mobile brigade became the only formed unit on the entire southern front.

Late at night, Liu Qinghe heard the news of the death of General Zhang Zizhong, commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, on the devil's radio. Then, he received a telegram from the Fifth Theater Commander's Department and Feng Zhi'an, deputy commander-in-chief of the 33rd Group Army, saying that the main force of the devils had assembled in the direction of Zaoyang, and that he should make every effort to pursue it, so as to boost the morale of the 33rd Group Army and gain time to rectify the 33rd Group Army. At the same time, please assist the 33rd Army in regaining the sacred body of General Zhang Zizhong.

Liu Qinghe knew that General Zhang Zizhong and General Feng Zhi'an were both veterans of the 29th Army's fight against devils in the "77 Incident", and the 33rd Group Army was also the old team of the 29th Route Army, and it was the vanguard and banner of the anti-Japanese resistance, so Liu Qinghe decided to preserve the honor of the 29th Route Army's heroic resistance no matter what! At this time, Liu Qinghe had long forgotten his precept of "never fighting a war of attrition again" and organized officers to draw up a battle plan overnight.

Early the next morning, two reconnaissance companies sent by Ji Xingwen of the 37th Division and He Jifeng of the 179th Division reported to Liu Qinghe and went to the Japanese-occupied area to retrieve the body of General Zhang Zizhong. Liu Qinghe ordered the special battalion to cooperate with the operation, but was rejected by the officers and soldiers of the 33rd Group, claiming that the body of his old commander must be welcomed back by himself, and he borrowed the honor of the old commander and the 29th Route Army in the hands of outsiders!

Liu Qinghe deeply admired the two reconnaissance companies, and equipped them with a reserve of 50 Qiguang submachine guns, 10 Type 96 light machine guns, 3 heavy shotguns, 4 binoculars, 4 watches, 100 anti-Japanese enhancement pills for each soldier, 2 catties of dried meat, and 5 catties of dry combat rations.

Liu Qinghe, who was full of enthusiasm, shouted to the officers: "They are generous to death, look at us below!" ”

Liu Qinghe's troops rushed down in the direction of Zaoyang in three directions: the middle cavalry battalion, the artillery battalion, the first infantry battalion, the brigade headquarters, and the baggage battalion; the second battalion of the left infantry, the anti-tank battalion; three battalions of infantry and a special battalion on the right; The health team and the police battalion followed suit.

With the rapid advance of the troops, Liu Qinghe's troops snowballed and grew bigger. It turned out that the stragglers of the defeated 33rd Army joined one after another, following Liu Qinghe and continuing to fight, in order to avenge the shame.

Liu Qinghe saw that these hot-blooded men were desperate to rush and kill, and distributed the weapons and ammunition captured all the way, while temporarily organizing these unformed troops, so the speed of the troops also slowed down.

When he arrived in Zaoyang, the devil had already launched an attack on the ** main force in the north, which made Liu Qinghe miss with a heavy punch, but it also gave Liu Qinghe time to reorganize the troops.

Liu Qinghe ordered: The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Infantry Battalions, with the assistance of the artillery battalion and cavalry battalion, attacked the rear military stations, hospitals, transport teams, and supply depots of the devils, plundered supplies, and built positions with air defense battalions, anti-tank battalions, engineer battalions, baggage battalions, special service battalions, and police battalions.

Due to the continuous fighting of the devils and the great loss of materials, the troops in charge of looting did not gain much, only a few hundred broken guns and not much ammunition. Instead, he looted a lot of medicines and captured a few devils.

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