Chengde.

Chengde is located in the transition zone between North China and Northeast China, close to Beijing and Tianjin, backed by Mengliao, and adjacent to the coastal cities of Qinhuangdao and Tangshan, as well as Zhangjiakou City.

The geographical location of Chengde is more important, and it is one of the places where the little devil Kwantung Army may pass through when it goes south.

If the little devil Kwantung Army goes south to support the North China Front, there may be two routes.

The first route is to enter North China through Jinzhou and Qinhuangdao Shanhaiguan, which is commonly known as customs entry. This route may be the route that the little devil is most likely to take.

On the second route, the little devil may also make a detour to Chengde and go straight to Beiping. Although most of the areas that this route passes through are mountainous and the roads are relatively rough, it is not excluded that little devils will also take this route.

Therefore, Zhang Yunfei believes that Chengde must be recovered, and heavy troops must be stationed. Garrisoning Chengde, on the one hand, can besiege Beiping, because Chengde is closer to Beiping, and on the other hand, it can prevent the little devil Kwantung Army from going south.

The task of recovering Chengde and garrisoning Chengde is now to be undertaken by the 4th Column.

At present, most of the troops of the 4th Column have already entered the attack position, and they will only wait for the order of the commander of the 4th Column to launch an attack.

The main task of the 4th column is to recover Chengde, and then it will be nailed to Chengde like a nail, and control several small counties around Chengde to prevent the little devil Kwantung Army from moving south.

Chengde is surrounded by mountains, and the little devils' troops have built some lookout posts and strongholds on the surrounding mountains, and the little devils have set up checkpoints on several main roads to enter Chengde.

Chengde belongs to the hinterland of the occupied area, and it is not far from Beiping and Qinhuangdao, so the little devils do not have many troops in Chengde, about a reinforced brigade and a regiment of puppet troops.

The 4th Column has tens of thousands of people, equipped with a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, off-road vehicles, and heavy artillery.

At nine o'clock in the morning, with the order of Luo Jihua, the commander of the 4th Column, the tank regiment and the mechanized infantry regiment took the lead and advanced to Chengde from the south and north along the road, followed by several infantry regiments.

Only a small half of the troops in the 4th column were dispatched to recover Chengde this time, and most of the troops served as reserves, and a few regiments were sent to recover several small county towns near Chengde that were already empty.

Nearly a hundred combat vehicles of the tank regiment rumbled along the road, the platoon grew into a long line, pulled into a line of two or three kilometers, and kicked up large clouds of dust, and behind the tank regiment, there were two infantry regiments, running to follow.

There are still three or four kilometers away from Chengde, and in front of the highway, there is a checkpoint built by a little devil, and the tank driver with the number '0261' at the front of the tank regiment has seen this little devil checkpoint from a distance.

The tank driver immediately reported to his regiment commander into the microphone, "Regiment commander, there is a little devil checkpoint five hundred meters ahead, please instruct." ”

All tanks, armored vehicles, and off-road vehicles of the 36 th Group Army are equipped with inter-vehicle radio communication systems, and communication is very convenient.

"Just hit it!" The calm and powerful voice of the commander of the tank regiment immediately came from the headphones.

There were several Type 39 tanks in front, and when they heard that there was a little devil in front of them, everyone immediately looked forward.

I saw that on the road ahead, there were about a dozen little devils and dozens of puppet soldiers, the little devils were on the highway with a barricade, and on both sides of the road, some sandbags were piled up, and two or three crooked machine guns were erected.

On both sides of the highway, two strongholds more than ten meters high were built about a few dozen meters away, and there were also many little devils and puppet soldiers on the top of the watchtowers of the strongholds, and there were also many shooting holes on the walls of the watchtowers.

It seems that the little devils occupied Chengde for nearly two years, or built a lot of fortifications, although there are not many little devils, but the fortifications are still quite a lot, just a checkpoint on the highway, and actually built a strong stronghold on both sides of the highway.

Chengde has beautiful scenery and used to be a royal summer resort, so after the little devils occupied Beiping and Chengde, some generals of the North China Front Army often came to Chengde for summer vacation and leisure play.

Therefore, for safety, the little devils have built a lot of strongholds around Chengde, especially the roads into Chengde, and several checkpoints have been built.

Now, nearly 100 tanks and armored vehicles of the tank regiment are rumbling along the road, and the movement is not small, and the little devils and puppet soldiers have found tanks on the road in the distance.

At present, the tank regiment of each column is composed as follows:

11 Type 39 tanks per tank company and 46 tanks per tank battalion (2 at the battalion headquarters). Two tank battalions totaled 92 Type 39 main battle tanks.

In addition to the two tank battalions, there is also a mixed battalion, which has two tank companies with 22 Type 39 main battle tanks, two infantry companies with 22 Type 39 armored personnel carriers, and three Type 39 armored personnel carriers at the battalion headquarters.

The tank regiment also has a regimental headquarters, which has 3 Type 39 tanks, 3 armored command vehicles, and 3 Type 39 armored personnel carriers.

The regiment has a total of 117 Type 39 main battle tanks, 53 Type 39 armored personnel carriers, and 3 armored command vehicles.

Of course, because the number of Type 39 armored personnel carriers and Type 39 tanks of the entire 36th Army was limited, except for the 1st column, the tanks and armored vehicles of the rest of the columns were not fully equipped, and most of the tank regiments were only equipped with nearly half of the Type 39 tanks and 20 or 30 armored personnel carriers.

For example, the tank regiment of the 4th Column still has only one tank battalion and one mixed battalion, and one tank battalion is missing.

However, at present, the scale of the tank factories and armored vehicle factories of the 36th Group Army has been expanded several times, and the output of tanks and armored vehicles exceeds 100 units every month.

The little devils and puppet soldiers in the distance found so many tanks and armored vehicles coming, and they seemed to be jumping for a while, and many little devils began to hurriedly enter the combat position, ready to counterattack.

The little devil's communication soldier hurriedly picked up the phone and called the little devil's command in Chengde City to report the situation here.

And those puppet troops, about a company of puppet troops, saw so many chariots coming murderously, these puppet troops looked trembling, obviously frightened.

Many puppet troops actually hid, or lay on the ground with their buttocks, or hid behind sandbags, with no intention of fighting back, ready to wait and see the situation to surrender, these puppet troops already knew that the tanks on the opposite side should be the 36th Group Army.

The little devils next to them were so angry when they saw the performance of these puppet armies, but at this time, the little devils were too busy to take care of themselves, and they had no time to take care of these puppet armies.

Seeing that the little devils were ready to shoot back, and at this time, several tanks in front of them were only two or three hundred meters away from the little devils, and the little devils had already entered the range of the tank's main gun.

Several tanks began to fire.

The tank at the front, numbered '0261', aimed at the machine gun position built by a small devil with sandbags in front of it is a shot.

With a loud bang, the little devil's machine gun position flew into the sky, and the crooked machine gun was also blown up, flying high and falling far away on the side of the road.

A dozen puppet soldiers not far from this machine gun position were lying on the ground, and the powerful cannon of this tank just now blew up grains of sand in the sky, raising the body of these dozen puppet soldiers.

Among these grains of sand, there are also some stumps and broken arms of little devils, among which there is a little devil's arm, which happened to fall in front of a puppet army, and the puppet army saw such a bloody broken arm, and immediately rolled his eyes and fainted with fright.

The rest of the dozen or so puppet soldiers, seeing that the tanks of the 36th Group Army were so powerful, sent one of the little devils' machine-gun positions into the sky with just one shot, and these puppet soldiers turned pale, and they had already given up the idea of resisting in their hearts.

The two little devil strongholds next to them saw the tanks of the 36th Group Army firing their guns, and immediately began to return fire, and the crooked sub-machine guns, Type 92 heavy machine guns, Type 38 rifles, and even grenadiers and mortars began to fire.

The little devil's counterattack was very fierce, but this time it was the tank regiment of the 36th Army that he encountered, and the little devil's counterattack, although the tanks and armored vehicles of the tank regiment clanged, but the effect was not great.

The tanks in front of the tank regiment team, seeing the little devil fighting back violently, everyone sneered in their hearts, and thought in their hearts, the little devil is really looking for death.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

There were several more cannons, and the little devil checkpoint on the highway completely flew into the sky, the little devils were killed one after another, and a small number of puppet troops were also affected, and the rest of the puppet army, seeing that the highway was not safe, screamed in horror and began to run to both sides of the highway.

Knocking over the checkpoints on the Little Devil Highway, next, the Little Devil stronghold next to the highway became the focus of shelling, and the two watchtowers in the Little Devil stronghold are now also shooting fiercely at the tank regiment.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Several tanks took turns firing their guns, and the two watchtowers of the little devils collapsed, kicking up dust in the sky, and the little devils inside were either killed or buried alive.

In just a few minutes, this level of the little devil was successfully solved, and dozens of little devils were killed.

The puppet army of that company was also killed by more than a dozen people, and the rest of the puppet army dropped their weapons, raised their hands high, and stood on both sides of the road to surrender.

The soldiers of the tank regiment ignored the more than 100 surrendered puppet troops, but drove the tanks along the road to Chengde, and these puppet troops naturally had the soldiers of the infantry regiment who followed behind.

(To be continued)