Zheng Yunshan nodded and said, "Yes, I understand my humble position, but Commander, our side is temporarily retreating, what about the other brigades?" ”

Qiao Youhua strategized and said very firmly: "Our side is attacking rapidly, and the devils in North China will definitely send reinforcements to Baoding first, and other directions should not be able to get reinforcements for the time being."

Therefore, by the way, send a telegram to the other brigades and regiments, and tell them to rest assured and boldly continue to attack and advance, and strive to recover Hengshui and Dezhou and its surroundings, as many towns and counties as possible! Expand the depth of the outer defense zone for our base areas. ”

Zheng Yunshan nodded again and took the order to leave.

Soon, the troops received Qiao Youhua's order, began to change the front team to the rear team, and turned around and returned to Ranzhuang.

…………

In Xushui County, more than 30 miles north of Baoding, the Japanese puppet army that had withdrawn from Baoding City had just arrived here, and Major General Yamamura Kiichi ordered his officers to take a large number of puppet troops to repair fortifications around the county seat.

While sending people to monitor the situation in the direction of Baoding, a devil scout soon sent back the news that the dragon tooth column had turned around and left.

After hearing this, Yamamura Kiichi was very surprised and said, "Nani? The Chinese army did not take advantage of the situation to seize Baoding, but retreated? ”

Receiving the nod of confirmation from his adjutant, Yamamura Kiichi was still not at ease, and ordered the scouts to continue to investigate, strictly monitor, and confirm.

In the end, the news I got was that Qiao Youhua really led the army to withdraw to Ranzhuang, and his intentions were unknown.

Yamamura Muyi couldn't guess Qiao Youhua's true intentions, so he could only report the news to the front army headquarters in Beiping, and at the same time secretly breathed a sigh of relief, no matter what, the Dragon Tooth Column did not continue to go north, which was a good thing for him and his troops.

At least they're safe for the time being.

…………

Beiping City, the headquarters of the North China Front of the Japanese invasion of China.

After Sugiyama Motoyama and Kawabe Shozo got the report from Yamamura Kiichi, they also gathered together in great surprise, holding the telegram, the two of them read it one after another, and they both frowned and said: "Strange, such a good opportunity, Qiao Youhua and his troops, why don't they take the opportunity to capture Baoding?" ”

"It's strange, could it be a conspiracy? Otherwise, how could they turn a blind eye to Baoding, which is such an important strategic place. Sugiyama Moto, after listening to Kawabe Shozo's words, analyzed.

Hebian Zhengsan frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Could it be because they know that we have given up Baoding City and feel that Baoding has no value to capture, so they retreated." ”

"That's not right, they can take advantage of the situation to cross Baoding and continue to pursue the mountain village and Muyi." Sugiyama objected.

"Perhaps, they know that the reinforcements composed of our 1st Division and the 26th Division are not far from Baoding, in order to avoid encountering our reinforcements, so they retreated in advance and took precautions." The river is three roads.

Sugiyama Yuan felt that what Kawabe Shozo said made sense, so he said: "No matter what, now that Baoding is safe, it has not fallen into the hands of the Chinese army such as the Dragon Tooth Column, and our North China Front Army will have less embarrassment on its face, and wait for the first place." After the reinforcements of the 26th Division arrived, we could switch from defense to attack. ”

"Before that, we have to be vigilant and send scout infantry and reconnaissance planes to closely monitor the whereabouts of this Dragon's Tooth Column." Kawabe Shozo reminded.

"Well, that makes sense." Sugiyama nodded happily, his mood was already much better than before, after all, the situation would not deteriorate, which was good news for the commander of this front army. ”

…………

Not long after Qiao Youhua led the assault troops to retreat to Ranzhuang Town, he happened to meet the follow-up reinforcements led by Ma Yunlong, Zhao Tiezhu, Liu Yidao and others.

In addition to the air defense regiment and the rest of the tank regiment, Liu Yidao was also ordered to bring one of his regiments, so that the strength in Qiao Youhua's hands broke through the mark of more than 5,000 people at this time, approaching 6,000 people.

"Commander, why are you back again?" Zhao Tiezhu, Ma Yunlong, Liu Yidao and others were very surprised and stepped forward to ask.

After Qiao Youhua explained the reason, everyone nodded in understanding, and Qiao Youhua instructed them again: "Don't be idle, immediately lead your subordinates, clean up the battlefield, collect the corpses, repair the fortifications, and take Ranzhuang Town as the center, and do your best to repair a complete fortification."

"Yes!" The three of them agreed with a bang, and immediately each took orders to take people away.

Qiao Youhua said to Zheng Yunshan and Liu Jianhua: "You two go to the woods on the east and west sides outside the town, lurk in the sorghum fields, and arrange concealment, especially our anti-aircraft guns and tanks, do a good job of concealment, and never let the devils see the clues." ”

The railway line of Ranzhuang Town runs through the whole territory from north to south, so there are sorghum fields and forests about a few hundred meters away from the east and west sides of the town, which can hide tanks and anti-aircraft guns.

Qiao Youhua decided to use Ranzhuang Town to fight devil reinforcements in an ambush, and then make the next step.

Zheng Yunshan and Liu Jianhua are both smart people, they have been following Qiao Youhua for so long, combined with their understanding of the surrounding terrain, they also understood Qiao Youhua's intentions, and immediately agreed in unison, and then turned around and left.

…………

It didn't take long for the soldiers of various departments to be busy in Ranzhuang Town, deploying an ambush circle, and several reconnaissance planes of the devils flew over from a high altitude in the distance.

Ma Yunlong, the commander of the air defense regiment in charge of commanding the anti-aircraft guns, hurriedly ran to Qiao Youhua and asked, "Commander, the devil reconnaissance plane is infested, do you want to give them some color to see?" ”

At this time, Qiao Youhua was standing in a fortification on the north side of the town, holding a telescope to observe the devil reconnaissance plane that was constantly hovering in the air for a while, and said: "No need, they are flying very high, I think they found us in Ranzhuang Town, and they didn't dare to lower their flight altitude. ”

Ma Yunlong said a little unwillingly: "Then you can't just let the little devil's plane snoop and reconnoiter above our heads, right?" ”

Qiao Youhua thought about it, came up with a plan, and then said: "Yunlong, you go and inform Jianhua to transfer four tank trucks, and then add a batch of military trucks, and borrow a batch of artillery from Liu Yidao's regiment to worry about the back of the military trucks."

Form a mixed convoy and drive south from Ranzhuang Town, in addition, let Liu Yidao organize a battalion of troops, follow behind this mixed convoy, and make the illusion of retreating south!

It lasted every two hours, and then asked Zheng Yunshan to dispatch a group of elite guard battalions and cavalry battalions, quietly leave Ranzhuang Town and go north, and implement a complete blockade of all the Japanese puppet army scout infantry cavalry within a radius of ten miles, and once discovered, they will be intercepted and killed at any cost! ”

After listening to Qiao Youhua's arrangement, Ma Yunlong nodded a little incomprehensibly, digested it for a while, and then turned around and left as ordered.

…………

"Nani, the Dragon's Tooth Column is constantly retreating south from Ranzhuang Town?" After listening to the information transmitted back by the air force reconnaissance plane, Sugiyama Yuan said with a surprised face: "Is the news confirmed?" Is there any news from the scouts sent out on the ground? ”

Kawabe Shozo shook his head and said, "For the time being, I can't get confirmation from the ground scouts, because Major Yamamura Kiichi called to say that the scouts he sent were blocked and intercepted by the scouts of the Shina Army, and there is no definite news about Ranzhuang Town so far." ”

"There's something strange about this, it can't be a conspiracy, right?" Sugiyama said worriedly.

"It's not easy to judge the lowly position, and at the same time of the conspiracy, it is not ruled out that it is Qiao Youhua's suspicious plan, and he deliberately sent a small elite force to blockade the area around Ranzhuang and intercept the imperial army and the imperial army scouts.

Let the imperial army not be able to figure out the truth and truth, so as to calmly evacuate Ranzhuang Town, in any case, the reinforcements will still have a few hours to meet with the mountain village Muichi, and when the time comes, let them join forces and advance southward in a big way, and there will be nothing to hide from the conspiracy and tricks.

After all, the 1st Division and the 26th Division are both elite imperial armies with strong strength and combat power, and as long as powerful armored units are sent to conduct reconnaissance, the enemy's blockade will be invalid. ”

"Well, with the strength of the Dragon's Tooth Column, they are attacking on all fronts in other places, and with their current strength, it is impossible to have the strength to ambush in Ranzhuang Town, tens of thousands of imperial army reinforcements!" Sugiyama Mototo, thinking that there were tens of thousands of reinforcements in the 1st Division alone, comforted himself.

Hebian nodded his head at three, didn't say anything more, there are still a few hours to figure out what Qiao Youhua is doing, before that, it is not easy to judge.

However, as long as Baoding is held and the defense is continued to turn south into an offensive, the situation will slowly develop in the direction favorable to the imperial army as reinforcements from various units continue to arrive, which is a happy and gratifying fact.

While Qiao Youhua was still preparing to ambush the Japanese army in Ranzhuang Town, Jiang Haidong led the main force of the First Brigade to capture Anguo, Boye, Anping, and Raoyang counties in succession.

The soldiers approached Wuqiang County in the north of Hengshui, and echoing it, Wu Ming's 3rd Brigade also successively captured Wuji, Shenze, Jincheng, Xinji, Shenzhou and other counties, and the soldiers approached the west gate of Hengshui.

Ma Biao's Second Brigade also made rapid progress, successively capturing six or seven county towns in the northwest and due west defense lines of Texas, and the reason why it was able to capture so many places in a few hours was entirely because the devils had already shrunk their forces.

The counties and towns around these big cities in Hengshui and Dezhou are all puppet soldiers, and they are all old and weak soldiers with inferior weapons, few ammunition, and poor personnel.

The brigades of the Dragon's Tooth Column attacked at the same time, and the target of the attack was not a single county town, but basically one company or two companies, so that they were in charge of a single town as the target of the attack.

The puppet army in the above-mentioned area has not yet been attacked, and as soon as they heard some rumors, they were so frightened that they almost peed their pants, and when the various units of the Dragon's Tooth Column rushed to the outside of the town where they were stationed, they took the initiative to raise the white flag and surrender before they had time to attack.

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