More than ten minutes later, Wu Ming and Zhao Youde successively led three regiments of tens of thousands of troops to arrive, although sixty or seventy percent of them were newly recruited puppet army recruits.

However, the momentum still looks very magnificent, especially with more than 3,000 elite veterans of Dragon Tooth as the backbone, leading this group of recruits.

They can basically be put into battle, and the puppet army is more powerful than before, when the puppet army was driven by the Japanese devils to attack the dragon tooth column.

The reason is very simple, after joining the Dragon Tooth Column, they are no longer traitors and traitors who are spurned by others, and they are no longer humiliated and inferior Imperial Cooperative Army, but they are all anti-Japanese soldiers like the veterans of the Dragon Tooth Column.

The most important thing is that their military salary treatment is much better than before, before they helped the devils fight the Chinese, and now they are incarnated as anti-Japanese heroes to fight devils, and the change of ideology, coupled with other objective reasons, makes their combat strength stronger than before.

Of course, because they had just joined the Dragon's Tooth Column, the time was still relatively short, and Qiao Youhua and Guo Meng had not yet had time to equip them with British and German-style weapons.

They are still equipped with Japanese-style weapons captured by the Dragon's Tooth Column before, otherwise, their combat power will be stronger.

After a large number of infantry forces arrived, Qiao Youhua immediately ordered the attack.

The artillery battalion opened fire first, taking the west gate of Hengshui as the main breakthrough, and the artillery fire soon enveloped the entire west gate of Hengshui and the nearby city wall.

Amid the rumbling of artillery, an attacking force with the guard battalion as the main force quickly took position, and the 37mm combat defense guns equipped with the artillery battalion once again exerted great power.

Shooting directly and two shots in a row, the city gate of the West Gate, which had been strengthened by the devils, was completely shattered, and some of the devil soldiers in the city gate were overturned to the ground by the aftermath of the explosion and were killed on the spot.

The artillery units directly under the Third Regiment also opened artillery bombardment on Hengshui City from other directions, clearing the obstacles for the next infantry attack as much as possible.

After the shelling lasted for about half an hour, the entire city was already filled with gunsmoke and fires, and Qiao Youhua instructed him.

Zheng Yunshan personally led more than 2,000 attack troops, mainly the guard battalion, and launched a charge towards the west gate.

Although the devils risked being covered by the dragon's tooth artillery fire, they hastily built an improvised fortification inside the blasted city gate.

However, it was no longer possible to stop the attack of the Dragon's Tooth Column, and the powerful automatic fire of the guard battalion and the timely anti-artillery fire support of the artillery battalion easily suppressed and disintegrated the brick defense line hastily built by the little devils.

A large number of devils fell under the assault fire of the Dragon's Tooth Column, and thousands of Dragon's Tooth warriors took advantage of the situation to pour into the city gate. The officers and men of the other three regiments outside the city also tried their best to fire at the Japanese troops at the head of the city, suppressing them with firepower, and cooperating with the guard battalion to attack the city.

In other directions, attacks were also launched, but because the equipment and personnel could not be compared with Ximen, the attacks in several other directions were not as smooth as those of the guard battalion.

Not to mention anything else, the 37mm battle defense gun, which is an advanced German-style artillery that can shoot at direct aims, is not equipped with other units of the Third Regiment.

In addition, the resistance of the Japanese army was also very stubborn, and the fierce battle soon entered a white-hot stalemate.

But fortunately, Qiao Youhua did not expect to really break through the Japanese defense line in other directions, the main forces were at the West Gate, and the attack force combining the guard battalion and the artillery battalion destroyed the Japanese city defense with lightning speed.

Constantly attack deeper into the city and expand the occupied area.

No matter how stubborn the resistance of the Japanese army was, it was flesh and blood after all, and under the cover of the rain of steel bullets, the casualties were extremely heavy, and it was powerless to resist the attack of this elite army with advanced equipment and strong combat power.

The battle began early in the morning and lasted until ten o'clock in the morning, and the area captured by the Dragon Tooth Guard Battalion at the West Gate became larger and larger, during which the devils, who were unwilling to fail, organized several counterattacks, but they were all repelled by the powerful Dragon Tooth Guard Battalion.

With the smooth attack of the West Gate, the overall defense line of the Japanese army in Hengshui City has collapsed, and the Japanese troops at the south gate and the north gate were forced to abandon the city defense and retreat into the city.

The rest of the 3rd Regiment was able to enter the city from the north and south gates, and joined forces with the attacking troops at the west gate to continue the onslaught against the Japanese army.

So far, the Dragon's Tooth Column has captured more than one-third of the area of Hengshui County, four gates have broken through three gates, and only the east gate is still under the control of the Japanese army.

…………

Command of the North China Front.

An urgent telegram from Sakai Tatsuzo, Sugiyama Moto, they had already received, and the chief of staff, Kawabe Shozo, said to him: "Your Excellency, the Chinese army is advancing rapidly, and within one night due to the surrender of the Imperial Allied Army, they have successively captured Luancheng, Jinju, and Xinji.

Just now, Sakai Rizo sent another latest telegram, the Hengshui defenders have been forced to take the initiative to abandon the north gate and the south gate, and now retreat to the central area of the city, continue to hold on, the troops have suffered heavy casualties, only the east gate is still under the control of the imperial army! The onslaught of the Chinese army is still continuing, the living space of the imperial army is gradually being compressed and eroded, and the situation has reached a very critical moment. ”

Sugiyama Yuan frowned and said, "Hebe-kun, then how do you think we should deal with it?" Reinforcements will definitely not be drawn out for the time being, unless the garrisons of the imperial army stationed in Tianjin and Beiping are transferred, but I am afraid that it will be too late in time. ”

Hebe Zhengsan also frowned, and said with a solemn face: "I didn't expect that the Longya Column still had the strength to counterattack, and the most hateful thing was that the tens of thousands of Emperor's Cooperative Army of the Eastern Route Army surrendered in battle!" This led Sakai Risanshobu to fall into the current predicament.

Before formulating a response plan, we believe that we must first accurately determine what the true intention of the Dragon's Tooth Column is in this counteroffensive.

Is it to avenge being surrounded and suppressed by the imperial army? Or do you want to take the opportunity to reclaim Hengshui and its surrounding towns?

If it was just for revenge, then they should retreat on their own after capturing Hengshui and other places, in this case, we can immediately telegraph Sakai Ritsuzo and ask him to dispatch the garrisons of Anping and Raoyang to quickly go south to meet him, and he will lead the Hengshui garrison to break through immediately.

Take the initiative to give up Hengshui and other places to save the precious vitality of the imperial army! Waiting for the comeback!

I'm afraid, Qiao Youhua has other conspiracies! ”

Sugiyama was a little old after all, he couldn't keep up with Kawabe Shozo's train of thought, and asked with some confusion: "Kawabe-kun, Qiao Youhua's conspiracy?" What does that mean? ”

Kawabe Shozo patiently explained: "Since the Battle of Nanjing, Qiao Youhua's actions have often been unexpected, if his counteroffensive this time is just as I just judged, it is just a simple revenge, as far as possible to destroy the living force of the imperial army, it is not terrible."

I am afraid that he will not be here, and he has other plans, which will cause greater losses to the imperial army.

Because, according to common sense, this encirclement and suppression campaign ended because we took the initiative to retreat, and there was no winner or loser, it was a defeat for both sides, and the dragon tooth column should take the opportunity to recover its vitality, but Qiao Youhua chose to take the initiative to attack and launch a counterattack against us at this time, which is really a bit abnormal! ”