The night was as dark as ink, and Cao Xinglong was rushing west along the Longhai Railway with the 1st Regiment Guard Company.

After the breakthrough of Xuzhou, the Baoshan Brigade was divided, the three infantry battalions under the 1st Regiment of the Baoshan Brigade all read the action, the regimental deputy Huang Baocheng acted with the 1st Battalion, and the regiment commander Cao Xinglong acted with the guard company.

Of course, the General Staff only gave an approximate route, and the route had to be determined according to the war situation.

The time is also relatively sufficient, as long as you can rush to Feixiang before the end of August to return to the construction, the task will be completed.

When he was marching, Zeng Laoliu, the commander of the guard company, suddenly chased after him, panting and said, "Tuanzao, the little devil has caught up!" ”

Cao Xinglong suddenly turned his head and said murderously: "How many troops?" ”

Zeng Lao Liu took a breath and said in a hurried tone: "Two and a half squads, six side three-wheelers, six crooked handles, two grenadiers, no heavy machine guns and mortars. ”

In an instant, a trace of cold murderous intent bloomed at the corner of Cao Xinglong's mouth.

The little devil is really tired and crooked, and the infantry of two and a half squads dares to pursue his guard company at night?

In terms of the quality of individual soldiers, the Baoshan Brigade is almost on par with the 17 permanent divisions and regiments of the Chinese Army; In terms of heavy firepower, the Baoshan Brigade can't catch up with the Yue Army; But in terms of light firepower, the Baoshan Brigade is not inferior to the Yue Army, and the Czech-style and Makqin surnames can and have dense firepower, and even better than the Yue Army.

Take Cao Xinglong's guard company as an example, with a strength of 180 people, which is basically the same as an infantry squadron of the Yue Army.

An infantry squadron of the army has three infantry squadrons, six crooked handles, three grenadiers, no heavy machine guns, no infantry guns or mortars, and in the battle sequence of the army, only the infantry brigade is equipped with an artillery squadron and a heavy machine gun squadron, the reading detachment or division is equipped with an artillery wing, and the front army is equipped with a heavy artillery brigade.

Cao Xinglong's guard company has three infantry platoons and one heavy machine gun platoon, with six Czech-style, two Makqin, plus three grenadiers.

Therefore, in terms of firepower allocation, Cao Xinglong's guard company was far superior to an infantry squadron of the Yue Army.

If the army did not have tanks, artillery, and aviation to fight together, with the combat effectiveness and firepower of the guard company, and the night operation, it would be easy to annihilate an infantry squadron of the army!

The commander of the guard company, Zeng Laoliu, gasped and asked, "Tuanzao, to fight or not to fight?" ”

"Hit! Of course, we have to fight, and we have to be neat and neat, and completely annihilate this group of little devils in the shortest possible time, otherwise they will attract the devil's motorized infantry brigade, and then there will be big trouble! Cao Xinglong coldly ordered, "The first platoon will arrange minefields, the second platoon and the third platoon will arrange pocket formations, and the heavy machine gun platoon will step up to build fire points and prepare for an ambush!" ”

"Yes!" Zeng Laoliu, the commander of the guard company, and the four platoon commanders agreed to the promise and immediately took the order.

…………

On the road from Xuzhou to Zaozhuang, Li Yulong's bayonet battalion was marching rapidly.

When Yue Weihan sent troops to pick him up and return to the city, there were only 208 people left in the battalion from the battalion commander Li Yulong, and now although the staffing of more than 600 people has been restored, the quality of the soldiers has decreased slightly compared with the original.

"Camp, the devil's motorized infantry brigade has caught up!" Guard platoon commander Zheng Baoguang caught up with Li Yulongdao.

Zheng Baoguang has returned from injury, in order to save Ye Xiaoxian from abdominal trauma that day, the injury looks quite scary, but it is not too serious, the wound will be recuperated for seven days after stitching, and the recovery is almost complete, in his own words, except for two more scars on the abdomen, it is basically the same as before.

"Lao Tzu saw it." Li Yulong said angrily.

Li Yulong has indeed seen it, there is a long line of headlights on the road behind, not to mention more than a dozen large trucks, according to the calculation of 30 troops transported by each truck, it is almost half an infantry brigade, not to mention that there are several armored cars in the middle of the queue, these Iron King Eight are not easy to deal with, and the firepower of one Iron King Eight is about to catch up with a heavy machine gun squadron!

"Camp, let's take the path." Ye Xiaoxian, deputy of the guard platoon, said anxiously, "If we march along the highway again, the little devil's motorized infantry brigade will catch up with us sooner or later, and then there will be a big trouble!" ”

"You kid knows a fart!" Li Yulong said coldly, "Copy the path and copy the path, is that what the master should do?" ”

Deng Baoguang, the commander of the guard platoon, also reprimanded Ye Xiaoxian: "Deputy Ye Platoon, our bayonet battalion is the iron fist of the Baoshan Brigade, and it is a hard bone!" So we can't just think about breaking through by ourselves, we have to share the pressure for other battalions, and if we attract the devil's motorized infantry brigade here, they can't chase them, understand? ”

"Camp, I see!" Ye Xiaoxian suddenly stood up and said solemnly, "There are some responsibilities that we must bear!" ”

Li Yulong patted Ye Xiaoxian's shoulder, and immediately suddenly ordered: "Pass my order, all companies will step up the construction of fortifications, arrange minefields, and kill these dog-called Oriental devils!" ”

"Yes!" The commanders of each company responded violently and immediately received the order.

…………

Yue Weihan and Liu Yi personally led the cavalry battalion, artillery battalion, and the team directly under the brigade headquarters to advance along the east bank of the canal in the direction of Jining.

Since ancient times, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is a strategic communication line connecting the north and south of China, until the opening of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, the strategic position of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has declined slightly, but it is only a slight decline, therefore, it is very dangerous to move north along the canal, and it is easy to be surrounded and annihilated by the army to mobilize heavy troops along the canal.

The reason why Yue Weihan took the risk and chose the canal route was mainly for two purposes.

The first is, of course, to attract the attention of the Yue army to himself and cover the smooth breakthrough of the rest of the divisions.

The second is to come to the Cao Gang, the Cao Gang was born from the canal, but now it has evolved into another gang organization, this organization is the famous "Green Gang", the big men in Shanghai Huang Jinrong and Zhang Xiaolin are the disciples of the Qing Gang, and the more famous Du Yuesheng is the disciple of the Wuzi generation.

Most of the existing Qinggang disciples are mainly "big", "tong", "enlightened" and "jue".

Yue Weihan knew very well in his heart that even if everything was as he wished, the Baoshan Brigade would eventually recover the entire southern Hebei Province, and it would definitely not be able to hold it for a long time, because no matter whether the Battle of Wuhan was won or lost, the Yue Army would eventually give up the frontal attack and start a large-scale public order and rectification battle against the occupied areas, and even if the Nationalist Political Axe won the Battle of Wuhan, it would not be possible to turn into a counteroffensive in a short period of time, which was determined by the comprehensive national strength and heavy industry base of China and the two countries.

During World War II, the reason why the Soviet Union was able to quickly turn into a counteroffensive after the Battle of Stalingrad was because the Soviet Union had a complete and huge heavy industry system, and its comprehensive national strength was the second in the world, so it had the ability to quickly turn into a counteroffensive.

Therefore, no matter what the final result of the Battle of Wuhan is, it is impossible for the Baoshan Brigade to hold southern Hebei for a long time!

After all, the Baoshan Brigade has only one brigade of troops, and it is still a tree without roots and water without a source, and it is impossible to fight head-on with the more than 300,000 elites under the jurisdiction of the North China Front Army.

Once the Baoshan Brigade really enters the mountain, then the smuggling channel with the outside world will become extremely important!

It is foreseeable that after abandoning Xuzhou, Chairman Jiang and Yue Weihan will completely turn against each other, and it is basically impossible to receive military salaries and military supplies from the national political axe in the future.

At that time, the Baoshan Brigade will only have to raise its own food and military supplies.

Therefore, Yue Weihan wanted to meet the Qinggang by the way, especially the Qinggang disciples in Shandong and Hebei, if he could have a good relationship with the Qinggang disciples of the two provinces, it would be possible for the Baoshan Brigade to establish a smuggling channel from Taihang Mountain to Shanghai in the future, and at that time, a large number of supplies and arms to aid China could be continuously imported into Taihang Mountain through this smuggling channel.

"Brigade, why hasn't the little devil moved?" Liu Yi rode his horse to catch up with Yue Weihan and asked.

Last time, Liu Fengsheng brought back more than 800 horses, and 300 pack horses were given to the artillery battalion and the directly subordinate team to carry equipment, and Liu Fengsheng selected 240 good horses from them to form three cavalry companies, but the remaining 200 or so horses were distributed to each regiment and the commander of each battalion as mounts, and basically all officers above the company commander could get one.

Of course, the commanders of these mounts, regiments and battalions rarely had the opportunity to ride, and they were basically all wounded and sick.

Yue Weihan stopped, looked up at the dark night sky, and said, "The calmer the wind and waves are now, the stronger the storm will be!" With such a big goal as ours, it is absolutely impossible to hide from the devil's eyes, and if I guess correctly, it should be followed by a certain special combat team of the devil. ”

When Liu Tiezhu heard this, he immediately stepped forward and said, "Luzao, I'll take someone to kill them!" ”

As early as the eve of the breakout, Yue Weihan had already ordered the various special operations teams that were operating separately to assemble at the designated place to stand by, and the special operations teams had already joined Yue Weihan and them.

"Nope." Yue Weihan raised his hand coldly and said, "There's no need for that." ”

There is really no need for that, not to mention whether Liu Tiezhu's special operations team can completely annihilate the special combat team of the Yue Army that is tracking behind, even if it can completely annihilate the opponent, the special operations team itself will inevitably have casualties, Yue Weihan doesn't want the special operations team to make any mistakes, not to mention, Yue Weihan didn't want to hide his whereabouts in the first place.

As the brigade commander of the Baoshan Brigade, there are some responsibilities that Yue Weihan must bear!

(To be continued)