With the orders of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the leaders of Yan'an, the anti-Japanese armed forces of the Eighth Route Army in various parts of Shanxi, Chahar and Hebei are rushing north by different routes and rushing to the Tianjin battlefield to support the Dragon Tooth Column to recover Tianjin.

On the traffic artery of Jingcheng Pass, it has naturally become the only way for tens of thousands of Eighth Route Army troops in northern and eastern Jin to go north.

At this time, on the official road in the Guannai, a team of about 3,000 people was lining up like a long queue along the official road.

They all wore gray-blue military uniforms, military hats, old cloth shoes or straw sandals, and carried various Japanese-style and imitation weapons, but these officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army all had resolute faces, full of confidence and vigor, in one sentence, that is, high morale.

Three years have passed since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the situation of the War of Resistance in North China has undergone an earth-shaking reversal, and the Eighth Route Army has grown from more than 30,000 people in the first three divisions to hundreds of thousands of regular troops and hundreds of thousands of militia.

This does not include the Dragon's Tooth Column, which has repeatedly created miracles and made great achievements, and the New Fourth Army, which is active in the south of the Yangtze River and in the Lianghuai region.

The provinces of Jincha, Hebei, Lusui and other provinces in North China have basically all been recovered, especially Pingjin, the two most important strategic places in North China, have now been recaptured, and the battle of Tianjin has been started by the soldiers of the Longya Column.

As long as Tianjin is recovered, the whole of North China can basically be said to be completely recovered, and then you can cross the Yellow River eastward, march into Shandong, and recover the Jiaodong Peninsula.

Therefore, stimulated by the joy of victory and fruitful results, all the officers and men of the Eighth Route Army were excited, and their morale was like a rainbow.

"Hurry, hurry, speed up, comrades, the brother troops of the Dragon's Tooth Column are fighting a bloody battle with the Japanese invaders at the front of Tianjin! They need our support urgently, and the sooner we arrive, the fewer casualties they will have. On a large rock next to the official road, an officer of the Eighth Route Army waved his arm to urge the passing soldiers.

Not far from him, several male and female literary and artistic soldiers holding allegro and other objects also appeared at the right time, standing behind the officer, singing military songs, in order to encourage the soldiers on the long march and cheer them on.

Under the double encouragement of the chiefs and the literary and artistic soldiers, the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army, who were already working very hard because of the long distance, gritted their teeth and persevered, and insisted on increasing the speed of the march.

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In front of a Japanese defense line about 10 kilometers west of Tianjin, about 10 kilometers away from the city, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and from time to time there were still flames raging in the wind, and some of the grass and tree stumps that had been blown up were mercilessly burned and burned.

This defense line of the devil was built on a hilly plateau, just holding a major road from Wuqing Town to the east of Tianjin.

Because the fortifications of the devil were built on the hilly heights of slightly higher terrain, and the location was very appropriate, so when the tank armored brigade of the Longya Column advanced from Langfang and launched an attack on it, it was in the back attack.

Therefore, due to the terrain, the combat strength of Liu Jianhua's tank armored brigade has been weakened to a certain extent.

The devil can clearly see every move of the armored unit of the dragon tooth tank, so as to call the air or naval artillery group to carry out accurate firepower strikes, causing great losses to the attacking side.

The first attack failed, and the tank armored brigade put in several No. 4 tank combat vehicles were all covered by the devil's naval artillery fire and were destroyed, and the tank armored brigade was shaken a lot, but more soldiers were still indignant, and asked the brigade commander Liu Jianhua, deputy brigade commander Zhou Qing and others to go out to avenge the sacrifice of their comrades.

Fortunately, Qiao Youhua's latest instructions were conveyed in time, and Liu Jianhua, Zhou Qing and others adhered to the principle of resolutely obeying the orders of the headquarters, vetoed the subordinates' request for battle, and ordered the troops to stand by and wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements.

Therefore, this somewhat messy battlefield was quiet for a moment, and on the hilly heights guarded by a few devils, some devil observation posts were hiding in camouflage, always observing and monitoring the movements of the dragon's tooth column in front of the position.

On the side of the tank armored brigade, in order to prevent the counterattack of the devils, Liu Jianhua and Zhou Qing deployed a tank battalion to stand by at any time, and the armored soldiers of the rest of the regiments and battalions were idle, and Liu Jianhua ordered them to dig and build fortifications on the spot.

When Qiao Youhua personally led the 1st Division Tank Regiment and the 1st Division Corps to arrive, the tank armored brigade had already built a position.

Knowing that Qiao Youhua personally led reinforcements to arrive, Liu Jianhua, Zhou Qing and others immediately walked out of the temporary command post to greet them.

When the two sides met, Liu Erren hurriedly took the lead and saluted: "Commander, you are here." ”

Qiao Youhua saluted in return, waved his hand and said, "Let your cooking class get me something to eat, I'm hungry when I came on a hurried march this way." ”

Zhou Qing immediately turned his head to an accompanying adjutant behind him and ordered: "Go, let the cooking team cook some noodles and send them to the command post immediately, quickly!" ”

The accompanying lieutenant saluted in response, turned and led the way away.

Qiao Youhua then asked, "How is it, has there been any change in the hostile situation here?" ”

Liu Jianhua hurriedly replied: "Since receiving your order, we have stopped the attack and have been closely monitoring the movements of the Japanese army, and have not found any major abnormalities!" The little devils don't have many defensive forces in front of us, and the real threat is their naval artillery groups and aerial fighters.

It is less than twenty or thirty kilometers away from the port of Tianjin, and it is completely within the fire coverage of the enemy's naval warship and gun group, and its fighters and bombers can arrive in just a few minutes.

It can be said that the attack on our side has not yet been fully launched, and the enemy's covering fire and air fighters have arrived, and this is a completely asymmetrical battle! It is not the devil infantry defense units that are in front of us that are really fighting us, but their powerful navy and air force. ”

Qiao Youhua nodded and said, "I know what you said, so I urgently ordered you to suspend the attack and stand by in place." ”

"I don't know, does the commander have any good countermeasures?" Liu Jianhua asked while inviting Qiao Youhua to the command post.

"I can't talk about a good way, but it is a way that there is no way, that is, to adopt the method of earthwork to keep approaching the enemy's position, and wait until it has advanced to a suitable position, and then attack on all fronts and take the enemy's position in one fell swoop." Qiao Youhua said his plan.

When Liu Jianhua heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he glanced at the deputy brigade commander Zhou Qing and said: "This method is good, we can let the infantry dig in front, and the tank artillery can hide outside the fire coverage of the enemy's naval guns, and provide them with fire support at any time, so that on the way we advance, once the devils leave the position and launch a counterattack against us, we can give them a head-on attack to ensure the smooth progress of the infantry's excavation, so that we can approach the enemy's position in more than ten hours at most." ”