At half past eight in the morning, the puppet army outside Shimen City, under the command of the devil, once again launched an attack on the defense line of the dragon's tooth column.

The sound of gunfire, artillery and explosions, shouts and killings, converged again, boiling into the sky, the entire stone gate was shrouded in war and gunsmoke, and in the fierce battle, two devils were constantly shot one after another and fell to the ground, dying.

Under the resolute resistance of the dragon's tooth column, the puppet army's attacks ended in failure again and again, and the entire battlefield was covered with blood and corpses.

After a long attack, the devils called in air force fighters to bomb the Shimen defense line of the Dragon's Tooth Column, and the guard battalion and each regiment used general-purpose machine guns to form an anti-aircraft fire network and fought fiercely with the Japanese planes.

In the end, the devil plane was forced to drop a few bombs indiscriminately, and then began to return home, without causing much substantial damage to the Dragon's Tooth Column at all.

On the side of Xinle County, after receiving a strict order from Sugiyama Moto, Kawayasu was forced to change his original tactics, first ordering the 30,000 puppet troops who had been stationed in Xinle to march in the Cihe area north of Xianglingshou.

At the same time, organize manpower and material resources, directly build a pontoon bridge on the Shahe River, and transport the follow-up 780,000 puppet troops to cross the river, intending to attack in the direction of Lingshou with all their forces, once breaking through the resistance of Lingshou County.

The Western Route Army on the side of the Chuankang Curtain could divide its troops into two routes, one way along the railway line to flank Shimen, and the Eastern Route Army to capture Shimen, and all the way across the Hutuo River, directly approaching Pingyang County, the base camp of the Dragon's Tooth Column.

Seeing that the Japanese puppet army took the risk of adjusting its tactics and began to prepare for the attack, Jiang Haidong, the commander of the first regiment, also immediately made adjustments, and he first withdrew to Lingshou County with the more than 600 attacking troops.

After all, in the case of 60,000 or 70,000 puppet troops crossing the river regardless of one qiē, his more than 600 elite veterans will not play any role in blocking the attack, and if they take the risk of blocking the attack, they will also become vulnerable because of the disparity in strength.

Fortunately, he withdrew to Lingshou County and made plans again.

Since the first regiment had to take into account the defense of the Hutuo River and prevent the Japanese puppet army from attacking by water, on the whole, the tasks of the first regiment were much more difficult than those of the second and third regiments.

The second and third regiments still joined forces to fight side by side, and other directly subordinate units of the column responded to assist, while the first regiment did not, and the only thing they relied on was a few rivers in the defense area, which could be used as a barrier.

After withdrawing to Lingshou County, Qiao Youhua immediately summoned his officers and issued them a new combat instruction, that is, at any cost, relying on all the dangers in the defense area, to resist the Japanese puppet army step by step.

As a last resort, do not retreat to defend Lingshou County.

In addition, the militia and the people helped them patrol and guard the front line of the Hutuo River, and mobilized the strength of the whole regiment as much as possible to block the puppet army from moving south.

The situation on the battlefield on the Western Front suddenly became bad, and at the same time, Qiao Youhua also led the cavalry battalion to the outside of Hengshui City after a rapid march in the middle of the night.

Qiao Youhua decided to fight Hengshui again, the reason why he did not take Jinzhou, Xinji and other places that were closer as the target of the attack, but instead worked far away and rushed to Hengshui overnight.

That's because Jinju and other places are too close to the main force of the Japanese puppet army, and once they can't be captured in time, the main force of the Japanese puppet army is likely to come back immediately, and judging by the size of the city and the time when the Japanese puppet army arrived at Shimen.

At present, their logistical baggage should be Hengshui.

Everyone understands that modern warfare is all about money, and fighting is about consumption, and without military supplies, the troops that can fight will turn from tigers to sheep.

Qiao Youhua took advantage of the rest time of the troops and quietly came to Hengshui City with Liu Jianhua to reconnoiter the enemy's situation.

It was noon, the sun was shining, squatting in the fields outside the city, Qiao Youhua and Liu Jianhua could clearly see that the sun flag with devils on the head of the city was fluttering in the wind.

There were about dozens of Japanese puppet soldiers standing guard on the city gate, and after observing for a while, they found that every ten minutes, there would be two patrols formed by the Japanese puppet army, from the left and right directions, along the city wall.

The two patrols would pass by at the city gate, and the time was just right.

After looking at it for a while, Liu Jianhua put away the binoculars and whispered to Qiao Youhua: "Commander, it seems that the devil has left a lot of troops stationed in Hengshui, and his vigilance is quite high. We don't know the specific situation in the city, do you want to wait for the evening to send a few good men into the city line to investigate, and then do it? ”

Qiao Youhua just wanted to nod his head in agreement, but suddenly, there was a slight sound of footsteps behind him, and the two turned around and saw the deputy battalion commander Zhao Tiezhu walking over in the sorghum field.

Report to the two of them: "Commander, battalion commander, I just received an urgent telegram from Political Commissar Guo, the Japanese puppet army on the West Road suddenly moved south, and is currently storming a regiment of defense line.

The enemy's strength is nearly 100,000, and the various units of the first regiment are stubbornly resisting under the leadership of Commander Jiang, and the defense line has not yet been broken through by the Japanese puppet army.

However, Commander Jiang still hoped that if possible, the column headquarters could send troops to reinforce them. ”

Qiao Youhua's face sank when he heard this, he knew Jiang Haidong's character, if it wasn't for the fact that the situation was very critical, he would definitely not open his mouth to ask for help.

If you think about it carefully, it is no wonder, after all, one of his regiments has to face more than 100,000 puppet troops, and due to the terrain and the constraints of the task of covering the main operation of the column, they cannot maneuver and fight, so they can only rely on the existing defensive fortifications in the defense area to carry out passive defense.

Because, if a regiment also transfers troops to fight guerrillas and fight a sports war with the devil puppet army, then the entire base camp and the flank of Shimen will be opened, and at that time, Qiao Youhua can only give up Shimen, and even Luquan and Zhengding will retreat to the location of the arsenal, Pingyang County.

After thinking about it, Qiao Youhua said: "By the way, call back to Political Commissar Guo and ask her to immediately send the arsenal garrison brigade to Lingshou to rush to help the first regiment fight." ”

"We don't wait, time waits for no one, we must do our best to defeat the Japanese puppet army on the East Road. Immediately notify all companies and platoons to assemble and prepare to attack Hengshui County. ”

"Yes!" Liu Jianhua and Zhao Tiezhu knew that the matter was urgent, so they immediately stepped forward and responded in unison, and then each took the order.

Ten minutes later, the various units of the cavalry battalion, which were hiding in the woods far outside the city to rest, received an order, quickly assembled, and were ready for battle.

The gunners brought out of the artillery battalion were also assembling the four Type 92 infantry guns, and other cavalrymen from artillery came to help them, carrying shells, etc.

After another while, the four Type 92 infantry guns were assembled, Qiao Youhua personally went into battle, led the artillerymen to push the cannons, and slowly touched the south gate of Hengshui, in order to achieve the suddenness of the shelling, they did not take the road, but passed through the dense sorghum fields, intending to suddenly open the cannons, bombard the city gate, and then the cavalry attacked, and entered the charge with lightning speed.