As soon as there was a move on the side of the Eighth Theater, the Japanese army got the news, and this was not because the Eighth Theater did not do a good job in secrecy measures, but because there were other reasons. This time, the Eighth Theater of Operations moved so big that it almost poured out, and it was not easy to conceal the movement of more than 500,000 troops.

In addition, in the past two years, Saibei Province has recruited refugees and other poor people to come to the Saibei region to solve the problem of population shortage in the Saibei region, so it is inevitable that the Japanese spies will be mixed in, although the internal security work of the Eighth War Zone has been done very well, and the results are obvious to all, in the past two years, a total of 1,624 espionage cases have been cracked, an average of more than 2 per day, and 4,583 Japanese spies and puppet traitors have been arrested, except for a small number of people who were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment, and all others were sentenced to death. Despite this, there are still quite a few eyeliners of the Japanese army in the entire province of Saibei.

Another reason is that Chen Feng did not think about the issue of secrecy from beginning to end, and instead of issuing a gag order, he hyped up this war in the newspapers and magazines. Therefore, not long after General Binshan Yuan received a telegram from the intelligence department, the news of the Eighth Theater's use of troops in North China was published in the Saibei Daily, the Saibei Military Daily, the Saibei Economic Daily, and other newspapers and magazines sponsored by the Saibei Provincial Government.

After receiving the news, Binshan Yuan did not dare to slack off, he knew very well the strength of this branch army, and it was precisely because of this that the original order of the empire to transfer him back to China was temporarily canceled, because His Royal Highness the Prince of Xianyuan Palace did not like Tada Jun very much, and did not recognize Tada Jun's ability, so he ordered him to stay in North China for a period of time for the time being.

He had personally experienced the formidable combat power of the Eighth War Zone, and at this time, Chen Feng suddenly announced that he would send troops to North China. Its intentions are very clear to General Binshan Yuan, since this general dares to say this, then he will definitely not release empty artillery, he will definitely send troops, and he is very confident that he will defeat the front army, otherwise he will not publicize it like this.

Senior General Binshan Yuan hurriedly convened a military meeting of the commanders of the North China Front Army and the divisions and regiments directly under the North China Front to discuss countermeasures.

After discussions at the top level of the North China Front, it was judged that there might be several directions for the offensive in the Eighth Theater of China, and the first and most likely direction of attack was the Zhang (Jiakou) Xuan (Hua) line, because it was the closest to the Pingjin area. Once they defeated the defenders on the line of Xiayuan, Zhulu, and Changping. You can directly attack the city of Beiping, which is the fastest way to attack the front army.

Secondly, there is the Jing (Le) Xin (Kou) line, because the people of China have occupied Yanmen Pass and Ningwu Pass, they have taken the initiative in strategy. Advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended. Plus the assistance of the 2nd Arichina War Zone. It is likely that the Eighth Theater of Operations in China will join forces with the Second Theater of Operations in China to launch a siege of the First Army in Shanxi.

Again the first line of Rehe. Where is connected to the east of Hebei, once the hands of the people of the North China, soon the entire passage inside and outside the Guanna may be cut off by the people of China. What's more. There are quite a few powerful troops in the eastern Hebei region, and there are even divisional and brigade level troops. Although the imperial army encircled and suppressed many times, it had little effect, but lost many troops.

Now the imperial army's control over the eastern Hebei region is gradually weakening, even the heavily garrisoned county is not very safe, and even Binshan Yuan believes that as long as the people of China are willing, some not very important county towns can be captured at any time. With the assistance of these troops, it was not very difficult for the Eighth Theater of Operations to capture eastern Hebei.

At the same time, Bin Shan Yuan urgently sent a telegram to the country, requesting that the base camp immediately load and transfer the newly formed troops to North China, in case of a strategic crisis of the kind that had arisen before, and for this reason the North China Front's operational plan to seize Henan was forced to run aground.

On the night of November 28, 1939, a reconnaissance company of the 52nd Group Army of the Eighth Theater went to Gujiaying Town, Xiahuayuan, to rescue more than 40 women captured by the Japanese army.

The reconnaissance company of the 52nd Group Army is an elite trained according to the training method of the special warfare team, and the weapons and equipment are also extremely sophisticated, far from being comparable to the current Japanese army, therefore, although the Japanese army has 2.5 times the strength of them, but in order to protect the rescued women, this reconnaissance company will not retreat, and it will fight to the death with the Japanese army several times its size.

Seeing that the attack could not be carried out for a long time, the Japanese army sent an infantry squadron and an artillery squad to reinforce it, so far the Japanese army's strength in Gujiaying Town has reached more than 700 people in three infantry squadrons and one artillery squadron. At this time, the reconnaissance company of the 52nd Army had already suffered one-third casualties, and in order to complete the rescue mission, the reconnaissance company still gritted its teeth and persevered.

At ten o'clock in the evening, an infantry battalion of the 3rd Brigade of the 52nd Group Army finally arrived at the battlefield, but the situation on the battlefield made Li Fuquan, the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the 3rd Brigade of the Special Task Force, extremely angry, and there were less than 50 people left in a fully equipped reconnaissance company, most of whom were wounded, but to Li Fuquan's relief, the more than 40 women who were rescued were intact.

The furious Li Fuquan ordered the troops to immediately enter the battle, and together with the reconnaissance company, they stormed the three infantry squadrons of the Japanese army, and the battle lasted until half past eleven, and most of the three infantry brigades of the Japanese army were killed and wounded, and they were almost completely annihilated, but after all, the town of Gujiaying was close to the lower garden, so the Japanese reinforcements soon arrived again, and the reinforcements of the Japanese army this time were full of an infantry wing and a tank squadron.

The Japanese army originally planned to annihilate the China in Gujiaying Town in one fell swoop. At the same time as the Japanese reinforcements arrived, the 3rd Brigade and the first regiment of the special task force also arrived, and then the reinforcements from both sides immediately entered the battle, so far the total number of Chinese and Japanese troops on the front line of Gujiaying Town has reached more than 8,000 people.

With the escalation of the war, both Xu Hu and Lieutenant General Suematsu Shigera, the commander of the 114th Division of the Japanese Gujiaying front, understood that the powder keg had been ignited, and no matter who could prevent the outbreak of the war, understanding this, Xu Hu and Lieutenant General Suematsu Shigerachi immediately adjusted their strategies and tactics and increased troops to Gujiaying Town.

On the morning of November 29th, China gathered in Gujiaying Town. The total strength of the army has reached about 12,000 people in one brigade and two other regiments, and the Japanese side has not shown any weakness, two mixed brigades and two field infantry wings, and the total strength is not at all less than that of the 52nd Group Army.

The battle on the front line also entered a white heat, the reconnaissance company that was the first to enter the battle and the 2nd battalion of the 1st regiment of the 3rd Special Task Brigade were all killed and wounded, and they were withdrawn by Liu Li, the former enemy commander of Gujiaying Town. At noon on the 29th, the two sides even engaged in a tragic air battle over the battlefield, with the Japanese army dispatching a total of 12 Type 95 fighters and 12 Type 97 fighters, while the 52nd Group Army dispatched 11 Iraq-15 fighters and 20 Iraq-16 fighters.

In this battle, 12 fighters were shot down in the eighth theater of operations, and another 9 fighters were damaged, and the Japanese did not take much advantage, 9 of the 24 fighters were shot down and 11 were damaged, and the two sides can be said to have lost both.

Lower Garden. The regimental headquarters of the 114th Division of the Japanese Army.

"Nani, is the supreme commander of the army on the other side of China a woman?" Lieutenant General Shigeru Suematsu, commander of the 114th Division, asked incredulously.

"Hay, it's true."

"Matsudaira Shaozo, have you checked the number of the army on the other side?" Shigeru Suematsu asked again.

"Your Excellency, the commander of the reporting division, it has been found out that it is a newly established mixed brigade in China, numbered the Third Special Brigade, which was upgraded from the local security forces." Matsudaira replied respectfully.

"Has your intelligence department checked the deployment of troops and firepower?"

"Humble and incompetent, now I only know that the third brigade of the special task force has two infantry regiments and some directly subordinate troops, and I also know that the commander of the infantry brigade is a woman named Liu Li, but the specific strength and firepower are not clear. But what is certain is that this Chinese army has artillery, and the number will not be less than one artillery brigade, according to the situation on the battlefield today, it is equipped with 75mm mountain artillery and field artillery of the same caliber, and there is no heavy artillery. ”

"Yaga!"

"Hay!" Matsudaira Shaozo bowed his head in response.

"Baga, it's not that you, the people of China are too arrogant, and they actually sent a woman to fight against General Ben, hum!" Lieutenant General Shigeru Suematsu said angrily.

"Hay!"

"Pass my order: the artillery wing will go to Gujiaying Town immediately, and order the 127th Infantry Brigade and the 65th Infantry Wing to bypass Gujiaying Town to attack the flank of the Chinese army, the 102nd Wing and the 115th and 150th Infantry Wings will all press on me, I want to see what this Zhina woman uses to block my 114th Division." Lieutenant General Shigecha Suematsu said loudly.

"Hay!"

Gujiaying Town North. Brigade Headquarters of the 3rd Brigade of Special Task Forces.

Liu Li asked with a heavy heart: "Lao Chen, have the casualties of the troops been counted?" ”

Chen Youliang, deputy brigade commander of the 3rd Brigade of the Special Task Force, frowned and said: "It has been counted, our army lost 827 people in half a day and one night, of which 411 were killed in battle, and the casualties were very large!" ”

"The casualties are a bit big, we lost nearly two battalions of troops on the first day of the war, and there will be more big battles in the future, no, we must change our tactics!" Liu Li said. (To be continued......)