Zhongshao Creek, like North and South Zhaoxi, all originates from East Tianmu Mountain.

In early December, it is already the middle of winter, the water volume of Zhongshao River is significantly reduced, but because it is located in the combination of mountains and hills, the mountain is undulating, the deepest part of the river is about five or six meters, the narrowest part of the river surface is about more than 30 meters, the water flow is turbulent, the rocks in the river are polished extremely smooth by the rushing river water, the fallen leaves on both sides of the river are lifted, and the rushing river water rolls up, and rushes to the downstream of the river rapidly.

At half past eleven o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese Second Division arrived on the north bank of Zhongshao Creek, and the Fourth Infantry Wing, which was the vanguard, came to a halt. Since the only road bridge was damaged by the new 2nd Division, and not even a single pier remained, the 2nd Engineer Regiment began to busily unload supplies from mule-horse carts and build pontoon bridges.

In the dense forest under Hualingwu on the south bank of Zhongshao River, the ground is covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, and the mountains and fields are bleak.

Luo Changling, commander of the artillery regiment of the New Second Division, picked up the dry grass and carefully checked the progress of the Japanese army with a telescope. At this time, there was a faint sound around him, Luo Changling put down the binoculars, turned his head and saw that Zhou Zhiping, a staff officer of the machine gun regiment, had crawled over.

Zhou Zhiping saw the Japanese sappers who were building a pontoon bridge, and asked anxiously: "Regiment commander, the Japanese army is building a bridge, should we bombard his mother a few times and kill the little devil sappers?" ”

"Don't worry, let's wait and see," Luo Changling replied in a low voice.

"But ......"

Zhou Zhiping frowned, and said a little anxiously: "Tuanzao, Chief of Staff Zhang asked us to stop the second division of the Japanese army...... After two consecutive battles, the vanguard of the Japanese 7th Division has been disabled, and now the greatest threat to Lin'an has become Okamura Ninji's 2nd Division. We-"

"Okay, don't talk about it, I know what to do," Luo Changling said a little impatiently.

Zhou Zhiping wanted to speak and stopped, and looked at the head of the regiment with blazing eyes.

After receiving that the Second Division led by Okamura Ningji was preparing to invade Lin'an by copying the rear road of the new Second Division, Zhang Dongning sent Luo Changling and Zhou Zhiping to lead the second and third battalions of infantry artillery and mortar battalions under the command of the artillery regiment, as well as an antiaircraft artillery company formed by millimeter Erly anti-aircraft guns drawn from various artillery battalions, to come to Zhongshaoxi to block the Japanese army.

In order to cooperate with the actions of the artillery regiment, Zhang Dongning specially dispatched two regiments of the Maoliangwu militia to fight together.

Seeing that Zhou Zhiping couldn't hold it back, Luo Changling coughed lightly and explained in a low voice: "Zhiping, the division seat said that the fighter plane is fleeting, and we, as front-line commanders, need to respond to the situation on the spot." ”

Luo Changling turned his head sideways, pointed to the river in front of him and continued: "You see, from the south of Deqing County to the Zhongshao River in front of you, the rivers along the way are criss-crossed, and the simple roads that shuttle through the mountainous and hilly areas are rugged. ”

"The Japanese sappers have just begun to build pontoon bridges, and if we fire now, we can destroy the 180 men near the riverbank, but it will make the opponent more vigilant. On the other hand, if we wait for the Japanese pontoon bridge to be built and send a unit to cross the river and then shell it, combined with the mines we have planted on the south bank, the effect will be very different...

"A multi-pronged approach, in addition to eliminating the vitality of the Japanese army, can also allow the turbulent river to wash away the blown up pontoon bridge, and then the Japanese army wants to build a pontoon bridge, and there will not be much material available."

Listening to Luo Changling's analysis, Zhou Zhiping blushed, he hadn't thought about it so much before: "Tuanzuo said that I was in a hurry."

"Shizao often tells us that each battlefield has differences in environment, terrain, etc., and we must analyze the specific situation on a case-by-case basis before we can adopt appropriate methods."

After Luo Changling finished speaking, Zhou Zhiping, who was transferred from the Eighteenth Army, slowly reminisced, and raised the binoculars to observe carefully

The Japanese sappers moved quickly, and it took less than two hours to build three pontoon bridges over Zhongshao Creek.

Although the pontoon bridge was rudimentary, it was unusually sturdy, and it didn't take much effort for a tried mule to pull a cart and cross the bridge. Seeing that there were no problems, a brigade of the 4th Wing of the 2nd Division began to cross the river.

Luo Changling saw that the time was ripe and waved his hand behind him. The gunners, who had been hiding in the grass, removed the dead grass and branches from their bodies and pushed out the infantry guns and mortars hidden in the caves.

Seeing the officers and soldiers under his command rushing towards the south bank with loud shouts, preparing to occupy the Hualingwu and Hanling line on the opposite bank, and completely open the passage to Lin'an, Okamura Ningji breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhongshaoxi is located in the north of Lin'an and Yuhang, advancing from Hanling to the southwest, and can be directly inserted into Lin'an within one day. It can be said that Zhongshaoxi is the most important barrier for the Second Division to attack Lin'an and encircle the new Second Division. Now that this barrier is about to be conquered, how can it not make Okamura feel lighter?

"Boom-"

A violent explosion sounded around the Japanese soldiers crossing the river, and the thick smoke of gunpowder enveloped the Japanese soldiers, and from time to time there were terrible screams.

Okamura Ninji's heart sank, and he quickly grabbed the binoculars, only to see the continuous burst of firelight and the severed hands and feet of the ghost soldiers and the pools of blood dripping in the smoke of gunpowder.

The Japanese soldiers who were crossing the river were stunned by the violent explosion ahead. The situation now is that stepping on the opposite shore of the land will be plunged into a terrible minefield, and without sappers to clear the mines, advancing means death.

In this case, most of the devil soldiers chose to retreat in embarrassment, colliding with the Japanese troops who were surging behind them, and many devils were squeezed into Zhongshao Creek. The turbulent waves hit and rushed the devil soldiers who fell into the river to the lower reaches of the river, and many people hit the rocks in the water without having time to snort in the rapids with a drop of dozens of meters in the Baishitang and Zhoujiatou lines, and they died.

"Knock-"

A fierce artillery bombardment sounded, and the shells that rained down quickly covered the three pontoon bridges, and with each explosion, a column of water exploded in the Zhongshao Creek, drenching the devil soldiers crowded on the bridge with cold river water all over their heads.

"Baga, where is the shelling?"

Seeing this scene, Okamura Ningji's eyes were red, although the mines caused great casualties to the Japanese army, it was only a one-time thing. However, the artillery was able to inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese in the second division's subsequent river crossing operation

Another round of shells exploded one after another around the Japanese troops crossing the river, stumps and broken arms flew sideways, blood flowed, staining the clear water of Zhongshao River red, and the corpses of many devils rushed down the river with the turbulent water.

"This is the sound of Type 92 infantry guns and mortars"

Okamura Ningji, who calmed down, quickly made a judgment, but in the next second, he was like a mad lion, roaring at Chief of Staff Tamura beside him:

"Where did these people come from, and why do they have so many artillery?"

Chief of Staff Tamura lowered his head and did not speak, feeling very aggrieved. Wu Ming is scheming, how do I know where he transferred the troops from?

Although Okamura Ninji had expected that the new 2nd Division would block the south bank of Zhongshao Creek, he was not too worried - even if the other side sent more infantry, Okamura Ninji was not afraid, but he never expected that the other side would send artillery into the battle.

At this time, Okamura Ninji also complained to himself.

If all the planes had not been sent to the south to bomb the Hangzhou-Huizhou Highway, it would not have been difficult to cross the river now as long as there were five or six fighters covering the Zhongshaoxi side.

Due to the uneven mountain road, in order to ensure the rapid march of the 2nd Division, Okamura Ninji threw all the heavy weapons to the baggage wing behind the palace. Now in the face of the suppression of the artillery of the new Second Division, the Second Division has no way at all, and the Zhongshaoxi in front of it is like a moat for the Second Division.

"General, the artillery position of Shina is located halfway up the hill at Hualingwu on the opposite bank," said Chief of Staff Tamura, who put down his binoculars and pointed into the distance.

Okamura Ninji picked up the binoculars and found the artillery position of the New Second Division in the direction of Tamurahara Iosa's finger. After only one glance, Gangcun's heart was cold.

There are not many places suitable for crossing the river in this section of Zhongshao River, there is a cliff at 300 meters upstream, forming a waterfall, the drop of more than 100 rivers downstream increases sharply, only a section of Hualingwu is relatively gentle, the simple road connecting Deqing County to Yuhang and Lin'an is built here.

The artillery positions chosen by the Chinese army were just right, the range of infantry guns and mortars was just enough to cover the entire river section, and at the same time, the range of the Japanese heavy machine guns on the north bank was not enough, and it could not pose any threat to the artillery positions of the Chinese army on the opposite hill.

The first wave of devil soldiers crossing the river was defeated, and the brigade of 1,100 men returned to the north bank with less than 700 men left, and the three pontoon bridges were sunk by heavy artillery fire, and the sappers could not salvage them, and the floating wooden blocks drifted downstream.

"General, what now?" Chief of Staff Tamura looked at Ninji Okamura.

Okamura Ninji had a gloomy face, didn't speak right away, gasped for breath, and forcibly calmed himself down. After thinking about it for a long time, Okamura Ningji looked at Tamura: "When will the baggage wing team arrive at Zhongshaoxi at the earliest?" ”

Chief of Staff Tamura pondered for a moment and replied, "It will take two days at the earliest, you know that the road is too difficult to walk."

"Order the baggage wing to speed up the march" Okamura Ninji waved his hand vigorously and gave the order to Chief of Staff Tamura.

Tamura hesitated a little: "In terms of time, I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up."

"How do you know if you can't do it without trying?"

Okamura Ninji helped his glasses and said resolutely: "Order the flight brigade in Wuxing to focus the attack on Zhongshaoxi"

"Then the main force of the new Second Division is ......," Chief of Staff Tamura hesitated even more.

During this period, the Japanese flying team took turns bombing the westbound crowd on the Hangzhou-Huizhou Highway, seriously slowing down the march of the new Second Division.

Okamura sighed.

Japan has a small territory and extremely scarce resources, and the planes it manufactures are far from meeting the needs of the front.

"Okay, Chief of Staff, give the order, as long as we can pass through Zhongshao Creek smoothly, Lin'an City is in front of us" Okamura Ninji finally made up his mind:

"In addition, the main force of the Fourth Division landed on the front line of Zhuantang last night, and informed Lieutenant General Matsui to immediately dispatch the elite from Changxin (the town to be surrendered in later generations) to bypass Wuchao Mountain and penetrate directly into Xianlin and Yuhang, and the Seventh Division and the Eighteenth Division stepped up their march to form a favorable situation of encirclement."

"Hay—"

The chief of staff nodded yes.

The battle has developed so far, and it can only be arranged in this way.