Under the dim starry sky, Shu Tongwen was sweating like rain and was wielding a shovel to dig the soil, and the donkey Erdan used a shovel to load the soil dug by Shu Tongwen into a sandbag, and then to the outer edge of the trench that had been dug and formed.

In the distance, the officers and men of each company and platoon of the 19th Brigade were also nervously building fortifications.

Shu Tongwen was a little tired from digging, so he stopped to catch his breath first, and when he turned his head, he saw that Wang Yidao wielded the wooden hammer extremely skillfully, and the landing point of the hit was also very accurate, so he was a little strange in his heart, and asked: "Yidao, have you been a soldier before?" ”

"Nothing." Wang Yidao shook his head and smashed the wooden hammer raised high, but this time the landing point was a little off, and the wooden hammer slipped off the stake in one fell swoop.

Shu Tongwen was a little surprised, and said: "Looking at you, it seems that you are used to repairing fortifications. ”

Wang Yidao snorted phlegm into the palm of his hand, rubbed it again, and then raised the big wooden air again, and replied: "I used to build a river defense embankment on the Wei River, and I often built pigsties for people in my hometown, so I naturally became proficient in it." After a pause, Wang Yidao specially added, "But I really haven't been a soldier." ”

Shu Tongwen didn't mean to get to the bottom of it, and changed the topic and said, "Where is your hometown?" ”

Wang Yidao was silent for a moment, and then lowered his head and replied, "E's hometown is from Sanyuan County. ”

"Mihara County? I've been there. Shu Tongwen said, "It's really a good place, especially in autumn, when the wheat is ripe, the whole field is golden, and the wind blows a wave of wheat, which is simply beautiful." After a pause, Shu Tongwen said again, "Mr. Yu Youren is from Sanyuan County, and only a fertile soil like Sanyuan can nurture a character like Mr. Youren." ”

"Yu Youren?" Wang Yidao was a little stunned and asked, "I don't know, is it a soldier or an official?" ”

"Mr. Yu Youren is a great educator, good at calligraphy, especially good at Wei monuments and calligraphy" Shu Tongwen soon realized that telling Wang Yidao about these was simply playing the piano to the cow, and then said, "Guanzhong has been popular since ancient times, you are so good at playing the big knife, you should have also been a knife player, right?" ”

Wang Yidao was silent this time, he didn't deny it.

Shu Tongwen glanced at the tie that Wang Yidao put on his waist again, and it seemed that there were faint traces of blood oozing out in the moonlight, this Wang Yidao actually had a special habit of collecting little finger bones, but he didn't know if it was because of Weishenme? But he obviously won't be an ordinary Guanzhong swordsman, he must have a story on him.

After resting for a while, Shu Tongwen felt that he had recovered some of his strength, and was about to continue digging down, when the black blind man over there suddenly ran over and shouted, "Awen, the captain is looking for you, hurry up." ”

Shu Tongwen agreed, handed the shovel in his hand to the donkey Erdan, and then went straight to the headquarters of the 19th Brigade along the traffic trench, but Xu 19 was not in the underground bunker of the headquarters, but stood outside the trench and didn't know what he was thinking, when he heard the footsteps Xu 19 turned around, and Shu Tongwen hurriedly stood up and saluted.

Xu Shijiu returned the salute and said, "Awen, the progress of our fortification work is still too slow. ”

Shu Tongwen followed Xu Nineteen's gaze and saw that under the dim moonlight, the entire wilderness had become a lively construction site, full of officers and soldiers wielding shovels and shovels, and flying dust everywhere.

The style of building fortifications of the 19th Brigade has always been different from that of other national armies, and other national armies generally put their troops from the front to form a chain arrangement, but the 19th Brigade will spread the troops layer by layer to form an echelon arrangement, due to the influence of Xu 19, the style of the 58th Division to repair fortifications has also begun to tend to echelon arrangement.

The chain layout lacks defensive depth, once the enemy breaks through a little bit of the entire defense line will collapse, the defense of Nanjing, the outer defense line of the national army is a typical chain layout, due to the lack of defensive depth, the result is easy to be broken through by the Japanese army, only two days the Japanese army hit the re-outline position, which directly led to Lao Chiang misjudging the situation, issued an order to retreat, and finally caused an irreparable tragedy, 100,000 national troops collapsed without a fight, Zuihou put down his arms to kill the little Japan like a chicken and a sheep, so that people are not choked.

However, there is also a disadvantage of the echelon arrangement, that is, the amount of work in the civil work will be greatly increased.

Although it is said that the soil layer of the eastern Henan Plain is deep and easy to excavate, and it is not like the Songhu area where it is full of mud if it is dug down less than three feet, so the speed of repairing the fortifications is still quite slow, the problem is that the time left for the 19th Brigade is too short, and it is impossible for the small Japanese to give them too much time to prepare, and they should attack tomorrow.

And at the current rate, I am afraid that it will be difficult to complete the fortifications tomorrow morning.

Shu Tongwen looked around again, he knew the defensive deployment of the 74th Army, the 558th Division was centered on Liu Tun and spread out to the north and south, although the 58th Division was on the outside far away from Dangshan, the pressure on it was not necessarily much lighter than the 5th Pei on the inside, the entire 58th Division's defensive line was arc-shaped, and the 19th Brigade was at the farthest end of the entire arc.

Judging from the formation, the possibility of the 19th Brigade being attacked by the Japanese army seems to be the smallest, but in fact it is not.

Feng Shengfa knew that little Japan liked to outflank the flanks, and the more flanks they were, the more important they were, and he arranged the 19th Brigade on the outermost side of the entire defense line, just to protect the flanks of the entire defense line, which was related to the life and death of tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the 58th Division, and Feng Shengfa was really not at ease when such an important task was handed over to other troops.

Xu Shijiu retracted his gaze and said: "According to the current progress, the fortifications may not be completed by dawn tomorrow, so we have to find another way, there seem to be many people in the nearby villages such as Chenzhuang, Gaozhuang, and Mazhuang who have not been evacuated, so you will find a way to recruit these people and ask them to help us repair the fortifications."

Chinese After the Japanese army invaded the eastern Henan Plain, the people of eastern Henan were three times a day, and the people were panicked, but they just packed up their finesse and were ready to hide in the nearby forest at any time, but they never thought of staying away from home.

After the arrival of the national army, the people of the nearby villages returned home one after another.

"Haode, I'll go." Shu Tongwen nodded, turned around and left.

Organizing parades, mobilizing the people and organizing fundraising activities, Shu Tongwen is an expert, he was the backbone of the student union when he was studying at Peking University, and he readily agreed, Zuihou did not disappoint Xu Shijiu, it only took less than two hours, Shu Tongwen mobilized thousands of people.

After mobilizing several nearby villages, Shu Tongwen went to farther villages without stopping.

From midnight, the people of the nearby four miles and eight towns have poured into the positions of the 58th Division and the 5 Pei of the friendly neighbors, and began to help the national army repair the fortifications, at dawn, the fortifications of the 74th Army have been completely formed, and they are the highest standard of war defense fortifications, if there are reinforced concrete, maybe a simple fortress can really be built.

Compared with the Nationalist Army, the Japanese army occupies an overwhelming advantage in aviation and artillery, while the night combat aviation and artillery cannot exert their might and can only rely on infantry to fight with each other.

For example, after the division was defeated yesterday evening, the Japanese 16th Division did not take advantage of the victory to pursue, and as a result, the 74th Army was given time to calmly build fortifications.

Nakajima Jinchaowu, the old devil did not come to Dangshan, the 174th Brigade of the Battle of Fengxian a few days ago fell short, although the old devil escaped, but was still hit by a stray bullet in the root of the thigh, and was injured, plus the old devil is old and weak, and the old injury in the early years also has a tendency to recur, and he went back to Jinan to recuperate after the operation

So, the 16th Division was actually commanded by Major General Tatsumi Kusaba of the commander of the 19th Infantry Brigade.

Kusaba Tatsumi has just turned 50 years old this year, he is in the prime of life, and he can be regarded as a general of the young Zhuang faction in the Japanese army where the phenomenon of seniority is very serious, this old devil graduated from the Army University, and was born in the general's door, he Laozi Kusaba Hikosuke became a major general in the army, if nothing else, Kusaba Tatsumi's achievements will definitely surpass his Laozi.

Years of military career have developed a strict military style of Kusaba Tatsumi, this old devil got up early in the morning, hurriedly ate some breakfast, and then took a few senior generals to the forward observation post to observe the fortifications of the national army at close range.

In the first two years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the division commanders and wing commanders of small Japan were all very fond of going to the front line and directing operations at close range, but after several high-ranking officers were killed by the national army, the Japanese army base camp issued a special order, and the commander of the unit at or above the rank of wing commander was not allowed to leave his post without permission.

The forward observation post of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army is set up on a small earthen bag, there is no mountain in the eastern Henan Plain, there is only such a small earthen bag, standing on the soil bag can see far away, with the help of this forward observation post, the Japanese artillery does not even need to raise the observation balloon to be able to mark the shooting Zhuyuan and guide the artillery to shoot.

However, Kusaba Tatsumi leaned behind the gunner's mirror and immediately looked dumbfounded.

How is this possible? It only took one night for the national army to build a complete chain of fortifications in the empty wilderness? Looking through the field of vision of the artillery mirror, as far as the eye can see, there are a heavy main trenches, foxholes, and a large number of suspected underground shelters in the middle.

"Yagayalu." Kusaba Tatsumi couldn't help but scold, "This group of groundhogs." ”

Major General Hirata Kenyoshi, the brigade commander of the 1st Field Heavy Artillery Brigade who came with him, also saw this scene through the telescope, but the old devil didn't pay much attention to it, and while adjusting the focus of the telescope to look farther away, he said to Kusaba Tatsumi: "Kusada-san, you don't have to worry too much, what kind of fortifications can be built in one night?" Our heavy artillery brigade could destroy the fortifications of the Chinese army with only one salvo of artillery fire. ”

It is not for nothing that Kenyoshi Hirata is so arrogant, his field heavy artillery brigade is under the jurisdiction of the field heavy artillery U two wings, each wing is equipped with 36 Umm caliber field heavy howitzers, in addition, there is also an independent field heavy artillery brigade directly under the Second Army, equipped with 150mm caliber heavy howitzers.

Kusaba Tatsumi frowned and didn't speak, but this old devil was not as optimistic as Hirata Kenyoshi, he had already figured out that the national army on the other side was the army that attacked Fengxian three days ago, and if he hadn't returned to the division urgently with the grassland detachment at that time, the division headquarters of the 16th Division was likely to be given a pot by the 74th Army, if this situation really happened, the 16th Division would be revoked by the base camp.