Dingyuan County, the headquarters of the 114th Division of the Army.

At the beginning, the 13th Division was responsible for attacking the Fengyang area (now Bengbu and the surrounding areas), the 9th Division was responsible for attacking Huainan, Shouxian and other places, and the 114th Division's combat mission was to sweep the surrounding areas of Hongze Lake such as Qingmingguang and Xuyi County, ensure the flank of the 13th Division, and wait for an opportunity to attack Huaiyin, Lianshui and other important places in the Soviet Union and China along the canal.

At the same time that the 13th Division had just captured Fengyang, the 114th Division also captured Dingyuan, Mingguang and other counties one after another under the command of division commander Shigeji Suematsu, and the forward troops went straight to Xuyi along the south bank of Hongze Lake.

In the headquarters, the division commander Shigeharu Suematsu and the chief of staff Saburo Isoda were studying the military situation on the front line together, and suddenly, a sound of footsteps sounded outside the headquarters.

Shigeharu Suematsu raised his head when he heard the voice, only to see a communications staff officer striding in hurriedly with a telegram in his hand, and when he came to the front of him, the communications staff officer suddenly closed his feet and saluted and reported to Shigeji Suematsu: "Your Excellency the division commander, the front army headquarters has an urgent telegram. ”

"Huh?! Shigeharu Suematsu was secretly startled, and said coldly: "Read." ”

"The headquarters called, the 13th Division was heavily surrounded by the Chinese Army in Fengyang County, and the commander ordered our division to immediately move closer to Fengyang County to reinforce the 13th Division." The communications staff officer took the message and read it quickly.

"What? The 13th Division was surrounded by the Chinese Army? Shigeji Suematsu and Chief of Staff Saburo Isoda looked at each other and said in disbelief: "How can this be?" When did the fighting power of the people of China become so strong? ”

The communications staff officer shook his head lightly and said, "I don't know this humble position, the order of the headquarters is to let our department move closer to Fengyang County and reinforce the 13th Division." ”

"Yo Xi, immediately send a telegram to the 127 Brigade and order the commander of the Qiushan Brigade to immediately stop advancing towards Xuyi and turn around and move closer to Fengyang County! Rushed to the aid of the 13th Division. Shigeharu Suematsu nodded happily and ordered.

"Hay!" The communications staff officer bowed his head abruptly and turned away.

Seeing the communications staff officer leave, Moji Suematsu said to the chief of staff next to him, Saburo Isata: "Isata-kun, order the 128th Brigade, the 1st [***] Cavalry Team, and the 120th Field Artillery Wing to immediately go north to reinforce the 13th Division. ”

"Hay!" Isoda Saburo also bowed his head sharply in response, and immediately strode away with his saber on his shoulder.

……………………………………………… Fengyang County; The artillery bombardment to save [***] finally began to extend, and the field positions of the 13th Division outside the city were already covered in smoke and fire at this moment.

On the attack position of the First Division, Li Yifeng, the commander of the First Division, put down the binoculars in his hand, suddenly raised a sword of a general captured in the defense of Nanjing, and shouted: "Brothers of the First Division, attack!" Take Fengyang City and annihilate the 13th Division! Rush ah......"

"Rush! Kill! Thousands of officers and men of the First Division, who had been waiting for a long time, suddenly swarmed up, jumped out of the trenches, and launched a charge like a tide towards the position of the Japanese army, which was filled with gunpowder.

At the same time, the Third Division also launched an attack on the devil's position from another direction, and the sound of killing and shouting was deafening around the entire Fengyang City.

The commander of the 13th Division, the commander of the 13th Division, took the chief of staff, Yusaburo and others, hurriedly boarded the city, standing on the top of the city, the state soldiers hurriedly raised their binoculars, and looked around, there were swarming Chinese soldiers everywhere.

"Yaga Yalu!" The state soldiers were shocked in their hearts, and immediately turned their heads and ordered coldly: "Order the 19th Mountain Artillery Wing to immediately open fire to stop the attack of the Chinese people!" ”

"Hay!" An accompanying officer behind him hurriedly bowed his head and turned around to take the order.

After receiving the order from the state soldiers, more than 30 75mm caliber mountain guns of the 19th Mountain Artillery Wing of the Japanese Army, which had remained silent, opened fire one after another.

The quality of the artillery of the "boom, boom, boom......, boom" devil was really not covered, and there was no need for test firing, and the first round of artillery bombardment accurately fell on the road where the officers and men of the first division charged.

The flames flashed, explosions rang out, and dozens of soldiers of the 1st Division who were charging fell in pools of blood.

Li Yifeng, the commander of the first division who was supervising the battle in the rear, put down his binoculars angrily when he saw this, and said hatefully: "Damn, the artillery of the little devil can be regarded as appearing, order the artillery regiment, immediately lock their positions, and bombard Lao Tzu with his son of a bitch!" ”

"Yes!" One of the heralds responded and ran away.

Soon, the two German-style 105mm howitzer battalions of the artillery regiment directly under the 1st Division marked the shooting Zhuyuan and locked the position of the artillery positions of the Japanese army.

"Boom, boom...... Boom, boom, boom, "Dozens of shells came out of their chambers and flew in the direction of the artillery positions with dazzling tail flames.

At the head of the city, the state soldiers and a cadre were alarmed by the sharp whistling, and they raised their heads in surprise to see scarlet fireballs piercing the sky and flying towards Fengyang City.

"Division commander be careful." Several lieutenants thought that the shells were aimed at them, and hurriedly threw the state soldiers to the ground.

"Boom...... Bang! Just as the state soldiers and the others were lying down, a deafening explosion sounded from behind them, and the state soldiers looked back to see that a sky-high fire had been ignited in the direction of the artillery position in the city, and the scarlet fire rose with billowing smoke, reaching into the sky.

The state soldiers got up in a hurry, and said anxiously: "Quick, order the mountain artillery wing to transfer ......"

At this moment, the sharp and piercing sound of shelling sounded in the sky again, and another round of shells fell on the positions of the mountain artillery wing, this time more accurate than the first round, and most of the shells hit the target directly.

Standing at the head of the city, the face of the state soldier turned pale, and he could even vaguely see the parts of his mountain artillery and the severed arms of the artillerymen wrapped in the flames that rose into the sky.

It didn't take long for the shelling of the [***] team to stop, and a devil second lieutenant stumbled over unkempt, and said to the state soldier with a dejected expression: "Report to the general, the mountain artillery wing has been violently shelled by the people, and the artillerymen have been shattered, and all the artillery has been destroyed. ”

For such a result, the state soldiers already knew about it, and with a blue face, he pulled out his official knife and slashed it against the brick wall at the head of the city, and roared angrily: "Baga Yalu, the hateful Zhina, die, die!" ”

Just when the state soldiers were angry, the defending troops of the 13th Division outside the city had already exchanged fire with the attacking troops who rescued [***], and the entire outside the city suddenly shook the sky, and guns and artillery rang out in unison.

The state soldier looked gloomy, and just wanted to turn around and walk down the city with his command knife, when suddenly a sharp-eyed devil officer pointed to the sky in the distance in surprise and said, "Your Excellency General, look!" ”

Hearing this, the state soldiers and others turned their heads one after another, and the chief of staff, Yu Yongzaburo, raised the binoculars and said in surprise: "General, it's our plane, the aviation of the imperial army has arrived!" ”

The state soldier's face improved slightly, and he also raised his binoculars to look.

I saw dozens of planes painted with sun flags flying over the artillery positions of the [***] squadron outside the city, circling and bombing and strafing.

"Yo Xi, long live the Imperial Air Force, they came at the right time to bomb the artillery positions of the Chinese Army! Hahahaha! Seeing this, the state soldiers laughed triumphantly.

……………… The position of the first division.

The roar of the engine suddenly sounded, and Li Yifeng turned his head suddenly, only to see dozens of military planes flying in the sky.

"Damn, order the air defense battalion to prepare immediately!" Li Yifeng calmly ordered that attacking Fengyang City during the day would definitely be hit by the devil's aerial firepower, but fortunately, the artillery regiments directly under each division were equipped with an air defense battalion equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns.

Before the herald could give the order, the devil's group roared in, and dozens of anti-aircraft machine guns and eight 88mm anti-aircraft guns of the third battalion of the artillery regiment, which had been prepared for a long time, opened fire one after another.

Several Japanese bombers that had just lowered their altitude and were about to drop bombs were caught off guard, and their weak fuselage was hit in many places.

The escorting fighters desperately opened fire on the ground in an attempt to suppress China's ground anti-aircraft firepower.

Because they did not expect that the Chinese squadron would have such powerful anti-aircraft firepower, more than a dozen bombers and fighters of the Chinese army were hit by the intensive anti-aircraft fire of the air defense battalion, and most of them were hit with black smoke, and they stumbled before they flew far before they crashed and landed, and several bombers were even killed in volleys.

The rest of the fighters began to retaliate frantically, and the extremely fierce air defense battle began, and from time to time the air defense soldiers were shot and killed under the strafing and bombing of the devil planes, but as soon as their comrades fell, new soldiers would pull over the corpses of their comrades and raise anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns to continue to counterattack.

In Fengyang Gorge, after Qiao Anbang learned that the planes of the Yue army were coming to bomb him, he immediately ordered the three regiments of the armored brigade, which had been on standby, to rush to reinforcements, and the three regiments had two armored vehicle battalions equipped with anti-aircraft machine guns and an 88mm anti-aircraft gun anti-aircraft battalion.

With the addition of the three regiments, the anti-aircraft firepower of the first division was greatly strengthened, and the antiaircraft machine guns of the three regiments were all vehicle-mounted, and they were very mobile, which was more conducive to evading the retaliatory firepower of the Japanese army.

In less than 15 minutes of fierce fighting, most of the dozens of menacing devil planes were lost, and the remaining planes also turned around and fled in a hurry.

The state soldiers, who were watching the battle of the air force at the top of the city, saw that the majestic fighters had crashed and shot down one after another, and they could not close their mouths in horror, and it was not until the last imperial fighters, who had been invincible, fled in a hurry, that he did not react.

"Baga Yalu, how can this be? When did the Chinese Army have such powerful anti-aircraft firepower? This is absolutely not a descendant of the Central Army of China, and it is impossible for the Central Army of China to be equipped with so many anti-aircraft weapons. The state soldiers finally found out that something was wrong, and immediately turned their heads to Tian Yongzaburo and said: "Tian Yongjun, immediately send a telegram to the front army headquarters, asking them to immediately investigate the official number of the Chinese army that surrounded our department." ”

"Hay!" Yuzaburo Tin bowed his head sharply in response, and then turned to leave.

(To be continued)