On November 10, after the Japanese 21st Division and the 114th Division increased their troops in southern Hebei, under the order of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the Shandong Military Region gathered 3 divisions and 4 brigades plus 12 independent regiments to launch a surprise attack on Zaozhuang, an important town in southern LunanZaozhuang was declared lost, more than half of the defenders' infantry brigade was killed or wounded, and a puppet infantry regiment was completely annihilated, and the losses were not small.

In the next two or three days, the various units of the Eighth Route Army made frequent attacks, successively occupying Cangshan County, Fengcheng, Xinshan and other places, which had seriously threatened the security of Xuzhou, an important military town, Jining, the center of water transportation and navigation, and Linyi.

However, just when the Eighth Route Army was preparing to make persistent efforts to open up the safe passage between Luxi and Lunan as soon as possible, two Japanese divisions suddenly appeared in front of them, and quickly counterattacked the Eighth Route Army.

These two divisions were not troops under the jurisdiction of the Twelfth Army stationed in Shandong, but two divisions directly under the jurisdiction of the North China Front Headquarters of the Japanese Army.

At the same time, after receiving reinforcements from the 21st Division and the 114th Division of the 12th Army, the Japanese army in southern Hebei quickly launched a counterattack against Chen Feng's troops. The two sides fought extremely fiercely.

On November 13, Hu Tiesheng's troops came to Nangong City and confronted the Japanese 21st Division and more than 8,000 puppet troops in Nangong County. In the early morning of the next day, the offensive and defensive battle of Nangong began, and the two sides had the most tragic fighting at the beginning of the battle, and even a two-hour artillery battle broke out between the two sides.

Originally, each division would have an artillery wing and a horse-pulling division, and the artillery wing under its jurisdiction would be equipped with 36 field guns and 12 120mm howitzers. In the case of an independent field artillery wing, it is thirty-six 120mm howitzers and twelve 75mm field guns), and if it is an independent field heavy artillery wing. It will be equipped with twenty-four 150mm heavy howitzers, while the field heavy artillery wing will be equipped with sixteen 100mm cannons.

After reinforcement, the Japanese army equipped each division in North China with a reinforced artillery wing. Each wing has five artillery brigades. Each artillery brigade is armed with 12-18 mountain guns, field guns, howitzers or cannons. Take the Japanese 21st Division, which confronted Hu Tiesheng's division, for example, which now has a reinforced artillery wing under its jurisdiction, equipped with a total of 24 75mm mountain guns and 36 120mm howitzers. In terms of the quantity and quality of artillery, it was not much worse than an artillery brigade under Chen Feng's department.

Therefore, at the beginning of the war, the two sides engaged in a tragic artillery battle, hoping to use the power of artillery to defeat the other side, but both underestimated the combat effectiveness of the other side. After the artillery battle, the reinforced artillery wing of the Japanese lost more than 420 men, and another 22 artillery pieces were destroyed. Chen Feng's troops also suffered extremely heavy losses, with 385 casualties and 21 artillery pieces destroyed.

At the same time, Liu Li's division was blocked by the Japanese mixed sixth brigade and the third tank division in Hengshui, and the two sides were originally inseparable, but the sudden reinforcement of the Japanese 114th Division in Hengshui, the number of Japanese puppet troops near Hengshui has far exceeded Liu Li's division.

On November 14, under the cover of the Third Division, the Japanese army divided its troops into three ways to flank Liu Li's headquarters, and in desperation, Xu Fufu had to order Liu Li's troops to retreat, and at the same time, ask for help from the Eighth Theater Command.

Chen Feng did not expect that the Japanese army would play such a hand, at that time he thought that with the containment of the Northern Route Army, the Japanese army in Shandong should not reinforce southern Hebei, and at the same time, in order to ensure the safety of Shandong, it is likely that the troops in southern Hebei will be withdrawn to Shandong.

But apparently there were masters in the Japanese army, and they actually came up with a clever plan to get rid of the shell of the peach dynasty Li Zhuangjin cicada. The two recruit divisions stationed in the Pingjin area were secretly transferred to Shandong, and the two major field divisions in Shandong suddenly sent troops to southern Hebei. not only led the Eighth Route Army out, but also caught himself off guard.

More importantly, the Eighth Route Army, which was completely exposed, had fallen into a bitter battle at this time, and the Japanese Twelfth Army Headquarters in Shandong dispatched two brigades to cooperate with the 36th and 37th Divisions to fight, and the warlord and traitor Ma Liang in Shandong also gathered more than 40,000 people in six divisions to participate in the attack.

Don't look at those big and small traitors who don't dare to fight with Chen Feng's subordinates, and every time they meet, they either surrender directly or abandon their guns and flee. But they don't have so many concerns about the Eighth Route Army, it is their instinct to bully the soft and fear the hard, and in the battle of Luxi and Lunan, Ma Liang's puppet army gave the Eighth Route Army great pressure.

Chen Feng admitted that he was indeed a little overconfident this time, and was calculated by the Japanese army, but the Japanese army only took back the initiative in the war that was lost at the beginning, which was nothing. Chen Feng immediately ordered the 40th Group Army stationed in Datong to send one division and one artillery brigade south to reinforce Liu Li, and at the same time ordered Xu Fufu's troops to crush the Japanese 32nd Division in front of him as soon as possible.

Among the Japanese forces in southern Hebei, only the main force of the 32nd Division under the command of Lieutenant General Kimura Hyotaro was now the weakest, and it was the best to break through there. Moreover, the strength of Xu Fufu's department is not weak, as long as he strengthens a little air reinforcement, he will definitely be able to break through the resistance of Kimura's department in a short time.

On November 15, with the cooperation of the Northern Air Force, Xu Fufu's department launched an attack on Gaoyi County again, and this time Xu Fufu received Chen Feng's death order, so the battle between the two sides fell into a white-hot battle at the beginning of the battle.

At the headquarters of the 32nd Division of the Japanese Army in Xingtai, Hyotaro Kimura looked angry and held a telephone microphone, and had just received news that the arsenal of the 32nd Division had been bombed by fighter planes of the Chinese people, more than half of the ammunition storage had been destroyed, and a large number of soldiers had been killed or wounded.

What is even more dangerous is that after this period of fighting, the 32nd Division suffered extremely heavy losses. The 32nd Division was originally a three-unit second-class division, and in addition, it was heavily damaged by the Eighth Theater during the Second Battle of Taiyuan.

In the past few days of fighting with Xu Fufu's department, the Japanese army felt a lot of pressure, and in the face of the fierce artillery fire of Chen Feng's department, the Japanese army's proud bushido spirit didn't care about it, and the cannonballs would not be smashed on your head just because you had the bushido spirit. To be able to hold on for such a long time, Kimura Hyotaro is also reluctant.

Now that the soldiers have suffered heavy losses and the arsenal has been destroyed, Kimura Hyotaro deeply feels the crisis. Thinking of the familiar names on the secret archives of the Imperial Army, Kimura Hyotaro couldn't help but shudder, according to the statistics of the Imperial Military Intelligence Department, from Showa 12 to the present, the Imperial Japanese Army has lost 19 generals in the hands of this hateful Shina general, including famous generals like Abe Norihide.

Kimura Hyotaro was afraid, really scared, if the front army did not send reinforcements as soon as possible, he might not be able to support it on his side, for this reason, Kimura Hyotaro could not care about being reserved, and immediately sent a report to the North China Front Army Headquarters asking for reinforcements, especially air reinforcements, no matter what, to suppress the air raids of the Shina Air Force.

After receiving the telegram from Lieutenant General Kimura Hyotaro, Tada Jun and Lieutenant General Okabe Naosaburo immediately discussed the matter, and unanimously decided to immediately send aviation troops to reinforce the Gaoyi front, because they knew very well that the imperial army on the Gaoyi front was not strong in combat, but it was the elite troops of the Shina people who attacked them, and there were also a large number of chariot troops and aviation units.

Gaoyi is the gateway to Xingtai, and if Gaoyi is lost, Xingtai will be in danger. With the speed of the mechanized troops of the Zhina people, it will not take half a day to reach Xingtai, and the main force of the imperial army has already suffered heavy losses in Gaoyi, so it still has the strength to defend Xingtai. The most important thing is that Xingtai is very close to Handan, and Xingtai can't keep it if it loses Handan. The two important cities of Xingtai and Handan are the center of gravity in southern Hebei, and if they fall into the hands of the Chinese people, then it will be equivalent to the loss of southern Hebei. Therefore, no matter what, you can't ignore the life or death of Kimura's department.

In view of the critical situation on the front line, Tada Jun immediately made a decision and ordered 108 fighters of the 10th, 11th, and 18th independent flight squadrons of the Third Flight Group of the North China Front Army to take off urgently and rush to southern Hebei to reinforce the Kimura headquarters.

Since it was not clear whether the new fighters of the Empire's new equipment were the opponents of the new fighters of the Shina people, Tada Jun did not order the bomber group to follow, but only sent three fighter squadrons to test it. At the same time, Tada Jun gave a clear instruction to Lieutenant General Toshitoshi Kinoshita of the Flying Group that if the latest new fighters of the empire could not be notified of the new fighters of the people, they should be asked to return to the ship immediately and not to entangle with the Shina people.

Regarding the strength of China's northern air force, Lieutenant General Kinoshita Toshita said that the last time the flight unit of the Central China Front and his flight unit were dealt a devastating blow, the white fighters equipped by the Chinese people directly shot down hundreds of their fighters one by one, and that tragic scene Lieutenant General Kinoshita will never forget.

It has always been the air warriors of the Great Japanese Empire who are constantly chasing and killing the fighters of the Shina Air Force, but that time he saw another kind of air battle, the Imperial Air Force warriors became weak chickens, and the Air Force of the Shina people turned out to be eagles. (To be continued......)