At the same time that Qiao Youhua returned to the base area, the provincial capital of Suiyuan was returned to Suicheng, and more than 20,000 soldiers of the Longya Column and more than 5,000 guerrillas and militia of the Eighth Route Army who came from all over the country had joined forces to remove and occupy all the Japanese puppet army strongholds outside Suicheng.

Thousands of Japanese puppet troops have been wiped out, and now it is time to besiege Guisui City Defense and fight the last battle.

Located three kilometers northeast of Guisui City, there is a small village, which is defended by the three layers of armed dragontooth officers and soldiers at this time.

Because the former enemy headquarters of the siege troops was located here, in a deserted earthen walled courtyard, Zhou Dasheng, deputy commander of the Second Division, Zhao Youde, deputy commander of the Third Division, Li Yunlong, Ma Shoutian, Ma Yiming, and others were gathering together, and in front of them was a map of Guisui City that the local anti-Japanese guerrillas had painstakingly obtained.

Zhao Youde pointed to the map and said to Li Yunlong, Zhou Dasheng and others: "Comrades, let's discuss how to attack Guisui City, according to the information we currently have, the total number of Japanese troops in Guisui City should not exceed 8,000 people, including some old, weak, sick and disabled garrisons.

In addition, there are at least more than 5,000 puppet troops, but these puppet armies are cavalry, with backward equipment and insufficient training. Therefore, what we really need to face is 8,000 devils. ”

"Is there a map of the Japanese troops in the city?" Li Yunlong asked.

Ma Yiming shook his head and said: "Not yet, I heard from the people of the local army that because the devils imposed martial law in the whole city in advance, they blocked the four gates and strengthened patrols, and the scouts they sent in advance failed to withdraw in time."

Moreover, the deployment of the devil's troops must have changed in the past two days when we cleared the perimeter, so we don't know the situation in the city for the time being. ”

"Don't the scouts in the city have a radio?" Zhou Dasheng asked.

Ma Yiming shook his head and said: "No, let alone the scouts who entered the city, the entire local troops of our army in Suiyuan do not have radio stations, compared with the regular troops in Shanxi and our dragon tooth column, they are strictly lacking in radio talents, so even if the radio station is occasionally captured, it will not be used, let alone brought into the city." ”

"I don't know what the situation is in the city now, if you rashly attack, I'm afraid you will have to pay a lot of casualties, if you can have a map of the Japanese troops in the city, it should be much easier to break through this city." Zhao Youde said with a slight frown.

Suddenly, Li Yunlong spoke: "We may be able to send a telegram to the commander and the chief of staff of the left, asking them to send a telegram to the head of the headquarters, and ask them to coordinate the activation of our underground party's liaison system, and see if there are any intelligence personnel of our army's underground party in Guisui City. ”

Zhou Dasheng and Zhao Youde's eyes lit up when they heard this, it was not that they didn't think of the intelligence personnel, but the Dragon Shadow Guard of the Dragon Tooth Column currently covers the central area of North China, mainly in Hebei and Pingjin, and the infiltration of the northwest provinces is still in a blank state.

There are no agents of Long Yingwei in Guisui City, but as an underground party led by the Communist Party, it has long formed a complete underground intelligence network, which can basically be said to be located in every corner of the country.

So, both nodded happily in agreement.

…………

Li Yunlong's telegram was sent to Qiao Youhua and General Zuo Quan a few minutes later, and at this time, Zuo Quan had already reported Qiao Youhua's idea to the Yan'an Party Central Committee and the Eighth Route Army Headquarters.

was patiently waiting for the response of the Party Central Committee and the heads of the headquarters, so when Liu Ruhan came to report to them with a telegram, both of them thought that the heads of the headquarters had called back so quickly.

"Commander, Zhao Youde, Zhou Dasheng, Li Yunlong and others jointly called." Liu Ruhan met Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan's eager gazes, and stood up and saluted.

Although it wasn't a call back from the headquarters, he was a little disappointed, but it was only a flash, and Qiao Youhua asked, "What's wrong?" Is the Western Expeditionary Force in trouble? ”

Liu Ruhan said: "It's not troublesome, commander, chief of staff, let's see for yourself." After speaking, she stepped forward and handed the message to Qiao Youhua.

Qiao Youhua took the telegram and glanced at it, and forwarded it to Zuo Quan next to him, and after Zuo Quan took the telegram and read it, Qiao Youhua asked, "Chief of Staff, what do you think?" ”

"No problem, this matter, I'll send a message to our Zhou Gong to ask for it, and I guarantee that it's okay." General Zuo Quan was confident.

Qiao Youhua put his mind at ease and said: "That's good, in this way, my western expeditionary troops will be able to sacrifice many fewer soldiers." ”

Zuo Quan nodded and said to Liu Ruhan: "Director Liu, let's go, I'll go to the confidential room with you and personally send a message to the chiefs of Yan'an." ”

"Yes! Heads! Liu Ruhan happily stepped forward and turned around to take the lead.

…………

Finally, under the coordination of the Party Central Committee, the troops of the Western Expedition on the front line finally got in touch with the underground party intelligence officers of our army lurking in Guisui City, and they learned the details of the deployment of the Japanese army through the guò intelligence officers.

It was found that the Japanese army had the most defensive strength in the north of the city, and the defensive strength in the southwest of the city was the weakest, so Zhou Dasheng, Zhao Youde, Li Yunlong and others decided after discussion.

Under the command of Zhou and Zhao, Ma Yiming led two regiments to serve as the main frontal attack, storming the north of the city, and Ma Shoutian led his troops to storm the east of the city to attract the main force of the Japanese army.

The militia units were responsible for attacking Simon,

Li Yunlong led his two regiments to ambush in the southwest of the city, and waited until the evening to suddenly launch a night attack, taking advantage of the situation to break through the Japanese city defense, and then meet other siege troops to enter the city and recover Guisui.

After the plan was arranged, Ma Shoutian and Ma Yiming each led two regiments of regular troops to attack the Japanese army from the north and east of the city respectively.

The Japanese army was really equipped with heavy defense in this area, and the siege troops were stubbornly repelled by the Japanese army after repeated charges, and the two sides fought fiercely for a long time, and there was no winner or loser.

Outside the West Gate, the attack force composed of local guerrilla troops was also inseparable from the puppet army defending the city and some Japanese troops, although its own casualties were not large, but it was unable to enter the city.

The fierce offensive and defensive battle lasted until five o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun gradually began to set in the west, and the siege troops retreated like a tide, and the Japanese forward commanders, who had already invested almost all the reserves in the city into the east and north gates, could not help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

At this moment, Li Yunlong led more than 3,000 fresh troops who had been recuperating for a long time to suddenly launch an attack from the southeast of the city.

Gui Sui's recovery is only in sight.