"Baga, immediately send a telegram to the army aviation and ask for fire support." Norihide Abe yelled loudly.

"Hail"

It's no wonder that Abe Norihide is so angry, the artillery brigade that Gaine just destroyed is the only artillery unit in his hands, and the biggest loss of the Chahar Dispatch Corps in the Battle of Tianzhen is artillery, and a sneak attack by the three battalions of the 1st Security Regiment caused the Japanese army to lose two artillery brigades.

After the war, although the Chahar Corps was quickly replenished, the artillery was only replenished with four artillery squadrons due to the lack of gunners and equipment, barely enough to make up a reinforced brigade. In view of the strangeness of the Xinghe County Security Corps, Hideki Tojo handed over 70% of the artillery in his hands to Abe Norihide, but he didn't expect that this was the second day of the war, and the artillery in his hand was wiped out by the Shina army, how to fight the next battle.

He can see clearly the small county town not far away, although the city wall is not very tall, but he can see that the city fortifications of the county town have just been overhauled, and the outside of the city is densely packed with underground pillboxes, if there is no artillery fire support, taking this small county town will definitely pay a heavy price.

As a senior officer in the Chahar Dispatch Corps, he knew a lot about the corps. Although the Chahar Corps claims to be 100,000 elite soldiers, in fact there are only three infantry brigades plus two detachments of elite infantry, plus the troops directly under the corps headquarters, the total strength is less than 45,000. The rest are all Imperial Allied troops that don't have much combat effectiveness.

Moreover, in the previous battles, the number of casualties of the Chahar Corps exceeded 12,000, and now the number of combatable troops does not exceed 33,000. Although some supplements were received a few days ago, it was not the elite of the Kwantung Army that came in to replenish them, but the supplementary troops transferred from the North China Front, and their quality was far lower than the original soldiers of the Chahar Dispatch Corps.

As a result, if one of the two armies attacking Tianzhen and Xinghe suffered heavy losses, it would inevitably affect the next battle, and even if Tianzhen or Xinghe were really defeated, the troops were likely to stagnate due to lack of troops.

In fact, the Japanese army air force had already sent an air squadron with a total of 8 aircraft to help in the battle. However, because Chen Feng ordered his soldiers to set fire a large number of undried branches and crop stalks in the city, the entire city and the surrounding areas were shrouded in billowing smoke, and even if the Japanese pilots pulled the fighters to the lowest level, they still could not see the targets on the ground clearly, so they had no choice but to return home.

Both sides of the battle on September 24 were very restrained, and with the exception of the angry Abe Norihide, who felt sorry for the half-crippled artillery brigade, the troops at the front were satisfied with the battle on the 24th. In the eyes of the Japanese soldiers, the commander did not drive them to attack the strange county town of China, nor did he fight with the equally strange army, this was a victory, at least their lives were lucky to survive for another day.

For the soldiers of the 222nd Division, one more day of delay for other units would give them one more day of preparation. Because the division has an order, the latest anti-aircraft machine guns cannot be exposed for the time being, so they can only use local methods to deal with the little devil's chariots and planes, and in the face of the little devil's attack, the troops still have certain casualties, so they are also happy that the little devil has some restraint.

In the city defense headquarters, Chen Feng was lying on the map analyzing the battle. A huge map was laid flat on the desk, with two rulers and a triangular ruler next to it, while Chen Feng held a sharpened pencil in his hand and kept drawing on the map.

"Report to the division, Andre has come to report that the cavalry group has arrived in Zhangbei and can launch an attack on Zhangbei County at any time." The operator reported loudly.

"Have you inquired about the situation in Zhangbei City, how many defenders are there in the city, are they little devils or puppet soldiers?" Chen Feng raised his head and asked.

"Report division, Brigadier Andrei didn't say this"

"Then you should quickly ask, only by knowing yourself and knowing your opponent can you survive a hundred battles, and it is easy to suffer a big loss if you don't understand the situation of your opponent." Chen Feng said with a frown.

"Yes, I'll ask."

Soon Andre had a reply, and the operator got up and saluted Chen Feng and said: "Report to the division, Brigadier Andre called back and said that there are more than 800 Japanese puppet troops stationed in Zhangbei City, of which there is only one squadron of the Japanese army, and the rest are all puppet troops. Secondly, they also received information that not only did the city stock up on a large number of weapons and equipment, but also built a new concentration camp with a large number of prisoners, and Brigadier Andrei asked what to do. ”

Chen Feng thought for a while and said: "Send a report to Andre, let him act according to the original plan, and take the initiative to attack the Japanese puppet army in Zhangbei County tomorrow morning, but pay attention to proportion, not only to hurt the little devils, but also not to eliminate them, forcing them to ask for help from the old devil Abe Guixiu." ”

"By the way, by the way, have the other troops arrived at the predetermined position?"

"Report to the division, half an hour ago the 222nd Brigade called and said that the main force of their brigade had arrived at Daqinggou and was building fortifications. Commander Wang Hansheng and the rest of the troops had already concealed themselves in the Ertaizi area, and as long as the order of the division seat was issued, they could rush to the outside of Xinghe City within two hours. ”

"Is there any news from the 223 Brigade and the Garrison Brigade?"

"Yes, the 223 Brigade has also rushed to the Great Black Mountain, and its actions are very covert and have not attracted the attention of the little devils. In addition, the two dogs besieging Daqingshan also withdrew, leaving not a single soldier. Brigade Commander Xu called and told the division that the garrison brigade had entered the predetermined attack position and could join the battlefield at any time. ”

"Okay, send a telegram to Li Yifeng, Wang Hansheng, and Xu Hu, and let them continue to be covert and standby, and then send a telegram to Li Wensheng, ordering them to step up the construction of fortifications with the main force of the 222 Brigade, and the little devils will be able to rush to Daqinggou at noon tomorrow at the most, I need them to be able to fight quickly, and then quickly return to Xinghe, plug the gap in the north, and let Abe Guixiu's old bastard completely become a turtle bastard in the urn." Chen Feng ordered.

Chen Feng is confident here, but Li Fuying is panicked here. The Japanese army's two-day attack had already cost the 399th Regiment defending the city dearly, and now there were less than 1,000 men left in one regiment, and more importantly, the troops were running out of ammunition.

After reporting to the headquarters of the Seventh Army and the headquarters of the commander of the second war zone, Fu Zuoyi received an order to defend Tianzhen at the latest, no less than three days at the latest, and Hu reinforcements must arrive in three days.

For reinforcements, Li Fuying actually didn't have more hopes, on the one hand, he knew the current battle situation very well, there were not many troops available in the hands of Chief Yan, even if there were reinforcements, there would not be more than one division, plus his half-crippled army, at best, it was only twenty or thirty thousand people.

But there are fifty or sixty thousand little devils attacking the front line of Tianzhen, not to mention a division, even if a group army comes, it may not be able to fight, so what he wants to see most now is Chief Yan's retreat order.

The 61st Army had already suffered a great loss of vitality in the last battle, and after another equally tragic battle, Li Fuying thought that he would not be able to hold on. Even if the most stubborn ones really persisted, it's really hard to say how many percent of the troops will be left, and the best result will not exceed thirty percent.

Last time, fortunately, the security regiment that suddenly appeared was contained, and the Japanese army was severely damaged, which gave Tianzhen a chance, otherwise the last time alone would be enough for the 61st Army to drink a pot. This time, I heard that the little devil divided 20,000 troops to attack Xinghe, and I thought that the little friend himself would not be able to protect himself, I am afraid that he will not have the time or energy to take care of himself, thinking of this, Li Fuying couldn't help but feel depressed.

On September 25, just after dawn, a low engine sound suddenly broke the silence of the early morning, and then more than 30 planes suddenly broke out of the clouds and launched a fierce bombardment of the county town of Xinghe below.

As soon as the piercing air defense sirens of "Ula" and "Ula" sounded, the shells had already fallen.

"Boom", "boom", "boom", a violent explosion resounded throughout the county.

The violent air wave tore over more than half of the roof tiles on the roof of the city defense headquarters, and the glass on the windows was shattered to the ground, killing and wounding two soldiers standing guard.

The bombing lasted for nearly half an hour, and only when the city was full of fire and billowing smoke enveloped the city again, did the Japanese planes swagger away from the sky over Xinghe.

Chen Feng didn't expect the little devil to come to attack in the early hours of the morning, so he was not well prepared, and after a bombardment, most of the city was destroyed. Some military industrial facilities were also damaged, and there were also some casualties. Fortunately, Chen Feng had always been worried about the bombing of Japanese planes, so he built a large number of air-raid shelters in the city early, and most of the soldiers rested in the air-raid shelters at night, so the number of casualties was not large.

However, Chen Feng's command headquarters suffered a lot of losses, a shell fell in the courtyard, one guard was killed and one was wounded, and many maps, weapons and equipment and important documents in the headquarters were also damaged.