Chapter 1047: Battle of Zichuan

After Li Wen led the 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Division and the 10,000th Route Regular Army to encircle Zichuan County, he was worried that the Japanese troops in the Weifang area would come to reinforce along the Jiaoji Railway, so he asked Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan for 20,000 reinforcements.

The strength of his troops increased to more than 35,000 people, and at this time, the Japanese troops in Zichuan County were mainly the 8th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army that came out of Jinan and swept along the Jiaoji Railway, plus the garrison brigade in the original Zichuan County.

The total number of Japanese troops was 5,000 to 6,000, the puppet army had several hundred, and the total strength of the Japanese puppet army was about 6,000 people.

If the Japanese army dares to flee out of the city and flee to Jinan, it will be attacked head-on by the main force of the hundreds of thousands of dragon tooth columns that have already recovered Jinan, especially the tank armored troops, who only need a cluster assault to make the Japanese army in Zichuan unable to eat and walk.

The 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Division, which was relatively well-equipped, was deployed by him in a dangerous place along the railway line southeast of Zichuan, intending to ambush the Japanese troops who might be coming from Weifang.

As mentioned earlier, in addition to being the political commissar and chief of staff of the Third Division, Li Wen also served as the commander of the 3rd Main Infantry Regiment, so he personally commanded this ambush force.

However, after two or three days of ambush, until Jinan was recovered by the 3rd and 2nd Divisions, Li Wen and his ambush troops could not wait for reinforcements from the Japanese army, so that the plan to encircle the point and send reinforcements failed.

Just when Li Wen was full of ambition and hesitated whether to withdraw the ambush troops and concentrate his forces to deal with the Japanese puppet army in Zichuan County first, a signal soldier suddenly walked into the temporary command post and saluted him: "Regiment commander, the headquarters is in an emergency. ”

Hearing this, Li Wen immediately stood up, stretched out his hand to take the telegram, and after taking a look at it, he immediately said to another orderly: "Pass my order, the whole regiment will immediately assemble, cancel the ambush plan, return to Zichuan County, and then order the besieging troops to immediately attack, and at all costs, completely annihilate all the Japanese puppet troops in Zichuan City as soon as possible." ”

"Yes!" The orderly stood up in response, and hurriedly ran to lead the order to leave.

Soon, under the leadership of Li Wen, more than 3,000 elites of the 3rd Regiment of the 3rd Division canceled the ambush and returned to Zichuan County, and before they arrived at Zichuan County, more than 30,000 besieging troops of the Eighth Route Regular Army had launched a fierce attack on the Japanese puppet army in accordance with Li Wen's orders.

However, the 30,000 regular army lacked a complete artillery unit like the main force of the Dragon's Tooth Column, and its natural ability to attack the fortified positions was relatively weak.

Fortunately, Li Wen led more than 3,000 elite troops to the battlefield in time, and they immediately joined the attack at the south gate, this regiment was equipped with a Type 92 artillery battalion, plus the 60mm mortars equipped by the besieging troops, and finally formed an overwhelming fire suppression of the Japanese troops on the city.

Although the caliber of the Type 92 infantry gun was only 70 mm, it was not a problem to deal with the low city wall of Zichuan County, and in order to ensure that the Japanese army's city defense at the south gate could be broken in one fell swoop, Li Wen later transferred all the mortars equipped with the other 20,000 regular troops to the south gate.

Concentrate all the artillery fire towards the south gate of Zichuan garrisoned by the Japanese army to launch an artillery bombardment, under a fierce artillery bombardment, the devils on the head of the city were blown to the flesh and blood, dead and wounded, a large number of dragon tooth infantry and the regular army of the Eighth Route Army immediately launched an attack, swarmed up, the soldiers were not afraid of death, went forward one after another, and finally eliminated the stubborn devil remnants on the head of the city one by one, and climbed the head of the south city gate before the arrival of the Japanese reinforcements.

Immediately, the attacking troops continued to attack the city, and returned the attack in two directions, along the city wall in the east and west directions, and the Japanese defense soon collapsed due to the loss of the south gate.

The battle immediately turned into a tragic street battle, and the Japanese army knew that in the case of the loss of Jinan, it was impossible for Weifang and other places to have reinforcements to meet them, so the devils who felt that there was no hope of breaking through the siege were determined to fight the Eighth Route Army to the end.

Fortunately, Li Wen's unit had an absolute superiority in troops, coupled with the secret assistance of the people in the city, after half a day of fierce fighting, finally annihilated the main force of the Japanese army one after another, occupied most of the urban areas in Zichuan City, and compressed the Japanese army to the central area of the county where its command hub was located.

At the critical moment, Li Wen personally arrived at the front line and called on all the officers and men of the army to continue to fight hard and clear all the remnants of the Japanese puppet army in the city as soon as possible, so as to clear the way for the main force to advance eastward into the Jiaodong Peninsula.

The troops then attacked again, and all the officers and men went forward one after another, bravely marched forward, and waged a desperate struggle against the remnants of the Japanese invaders, every street, every alley, and even every house became the target of their desperate struggle with the Japanese invaders, and both sides fought desperately to the death, staining the battlefield with blood, and the casualties were rising.

When the final battle ended, the regular army of the 30,000 Eighth Route Army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and Li Wen's 3rd main regiment also paid hundreds of casualties, but after a bloody battle, the combat effectiveness of the 30,000 Eighth Route Army would have a great transformation.

After all, they succeeded in recapturing a city defended by five or six thousand puppet troops without tanks, heavy artillery, or even absolute superior firepower. Everyone knows that attacking fortified cities is completely different from field sports warfare and guerrilla warfare.

The former is a combat mode that truly tests a unit's overall combat capability, equipped firepower, and the coordination ability of various units, and is not something that any unit can fight.

Therefore, it is worth paying such casualties in the end.

The elite troops that have always been elite are not the elite that terrified the enemy at the beginning of their formation, and the real prestige is won by the soldiers who fought the enemy on the battlefield.

Behind this, hundreds or even tens of thousands of soldiers have gone forward and paved with their blood and lives, so this is just the path that these regular armies of the Eighth Route that have been expanded from local guerrillas, armed engineering teams and other local armed forces have truly become elite divisions.

The leaders of the Party Central Committee and the General Headquarters are eloquent and strategic, and they know that the Dragon's Tooth Column is well-equipped and has strong combat effectiveness, so while sending troops to reinforce the Dragon's Tooth Column to fight in North China, they also want these newly formed Eighth Route Regular Army to go north to fight side by side with the Dragon's Tooth Column, fight more tough battles, win battles, and sharpen all the commanders and fighters as soon as possible, so as to grow from a newly-formed unit to an elite division that can stand the test and fight tough battles as soon as possible.

After successfully eliminating all the Japanese puppet troops in Zichuan City and recovering Zichuan County, Li Wen immediately followed the instructions of Qiao Youhua and Zuo Quan, leaving some men and horses to garrison Zichuan County, cleaning the battlefield, taking care of the wounded, taking care of prisoners and other matters, and personally led more than 20,000 main forces to continue to march eastward along the Jiaoji Railway.

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