Just when Yang Bangzi scolded the confused commander of the third battalion, the soldiers of the cavalry company and the reconnaissance company had already hurried to the black kiln ditch.

From the map, the road that winds from the mountains of Shahe and Xingshutai leads southwest into the large hilly area with ravines and ravines, and the place names of Loess Ridge and Sigezhuang are basically heard of by every Japanese army fighting in the North China battlefield. Not far from Si Gezhuang, a high platform rises abruptly on the edge of the ravines and hills in the southeast, which is the mountain on the edge of Heiyaogou Village.

This is the north gate of the big basin that enters the center of Yinfang Town, after passing the high platform of Heiyaogou, all the way downhill, you can reach Beitan Village in the north of Yinfang Town, ten miles away, the undulating mounds and gravel hills basically can't stop the chariots and horses.

The black kiln ditch was guarded by the Yilai guerrilla brigade, and they received a report from the militia that had broken through from Shahe, so they sent a messenger to Yinfang Town to report the enemy situation, and as soon as the people were sent away, two horseback troops of the 20th Regiment came up, and the reconnaissance company was also a unit specially approved by Yang Bangzi to be equipped with horses, in fact, it was used as cavalry!

The company commander of the cavalry company can't command the reconnaissance company, don't look at it is directly under the regimental headquarters, in addition to the fact that the reconnaissance company has more combat missions than the cavalry company, the company commander of the reconnaissance company is also the same level of the cavalry company can't be compared, he doesn't look small in the eyes of Yang Stick, the weight is not small, it is the shovel monkey like a thin monkey!

At the time of the mock combat meeting, two company commanders attended the meeting attended by cadres at and above the battalion level, one was the company commander of the artillery company, and the other was the shovel monkey.

Therefore, in the defensive battle of Heiyaogou, the shovel monkey is the commander of the battlefield. These more than 400 people, together with more than 100 local guerrillas. They all have to be commanded by him.

The terrain of the black kiln ditch is very suitable for fighting defensive battles. It is not difficult at all, after the road comes from the hilly area to the north, it winds into the lower part of the high platform on the east side of the black kiln ditch, and extends along the edge of the high ground for fifteen or sixteen miles, before entering the basin and going downhill.

Therefore, as long as the bayonet that starts to climb from the side of Xiliushui Village is controlled, this high platform is a natural fortress, and it is no exaggeration to say that a heavy machine gun is installed on the platform. You can't even run a mouse on the road that comes up from the west water!

But the information I got was from a convoy sent by the Japanese army, and the shovel monkey and the cavalry company commander and others had all heard of it, but they had never seen it, and when the troops were training, they had all seen the general appearance of the tank drawn on the ground by the instructor, and the real guys didn't know what the road looked like.

This Japanese combat convoy was a search team directly under the 6th Tank Brigade of the 3rd Tank Division, and the leader was Fukushima Shizaburo Nakasa. He did not bring all the strength of the search team directly under the brigade and regiment, but only about half of the troops, including a mixed squadron of Type 95 light tanks and Type 97 medium tanks. A motorized infantry squadron and a rearmament squadron, the search team headquarters and the maintenance team and baggage team were also mixed.

June 1941. Yamashita led a Japanese army inspection delegation to Europe to inspect the operations and battlefield conditions of the German and Italian armies in Europe. The German motorized infantry, armored group, and bomber group worked together to impress the members of the Japanese delegation. After returning to Japan, the delegation immediately put forward a proposal to concentrate on the use of tanks and form an independent army.

Soon, the Japanese army fought with Britain and the United States in Malaya, the Philippines, and Burma, and the Japanese army also used chariot units.

On June 24, 1942, the Japanese army headquarters ordered the formation of a mecha army, with Yoshida Tokushi as the commander, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tank divisions and the tank teaching brigade under its command. Among them, the 1st and 2nd Tank Divisions and the Tank Teaching Brigade are all subordinate to the Kwantung Army combat sequence, except for the 3rd Tank Division, which is assigned to the Chinese Dispatch Army.

The 3rd Tank Division of the Japanese Army was formed in Baotou, Inner Mongolia on December 14, 1942 (Showa 17), and its predecessor was the cavalry group of the Japanese Army in Mongolia.

After the division was established, it was equipped and trained in Baotou, and the training was completed in the autumn of 1943. Hideo Yamaji succeeded Kazusei Nishihara as the commander of the division.

This time, a mixed tank mobile team was dispatched to cooperate with Kuroda Daisa's military operations, which also meant to test the effectiveness of the training.

Fukushima Nakasa brought a total of 10 Type 95 light tanks, four Type 97 medium tanks, three Type 94 37-mm rapid-fire anti-tank guns, nine armored tracked vehicles, and 12 military trucks, of which the maintenance team and the motorized infantry squadron were all fully manned, with 100 men with nine light machine guns and 150 men with 37 mm anti-tank guns and two heavy machine guns.

Although only more than half of the search team's troops participated in Kuroda's battle sequence, this convoy was unmatched by any Japanese infantry field unit in terms of firepower configuration and mobility, and the firepower configuration of a brigade of Kuroda's cavalry wing was inferior to that of this convoy.

When the troops stationed in Mongolia received the order from the North China Front that they should send a tank brigade to support the sweeping operations in northwest Hebei, they thought that there was no need to send a fully loaded tank brigade on the Tuba Road, which could not guarantee even one person and one gun, so they asked the Sixth Tank Brigade to send a half-formed search team.

The self-confidence of the Japanese army is not without reason, a Type 95 light tank is a Type 94 37 mm tank gun, the ammunition base is 120 rounds, and the auxiliary weapon is two imitation Czech-made Type 97 7.7 mm heavy machine guns, which can fire automatically in bursts, with 1.5 times the scope, one of which is a front machine gun, and the other is a machine gun behind the turret, carrying a total of 3,000 rounds.

The main armament of the 97 modified medium tank is a Type 97 57 mm short-barreled gun, which carries 120 rounds of ammunition (80 grenades and 40 armor-piercing shells). The secondary armament is two Type 97 7.7 mm heavy machine guns with a capacity of 4,035 rounds, one of which is a front-mounted machine gun and the other is mounted on the rear of the turret to the right.

Fourteen tanks is fourteen guns and twenty-eight heavy machine guns! There are also rapid-fire guns and heavy machine guns of motorized infantry squadrons, nine machine guns of the maintenance team, and only more than 400 people operate these weapons, how can this kind of fire intensity infantry units be compared? That's it, Fukushima Nakasa hasn't brought the artillery squadron of the search team yet!

And the troops of the 11th Division of the Eighth Route Army, which is about to fight against this convoy, also have more than 400 people, with more than 300 long and short guns, and as many as five types of guns! There are three 60 small cannons, each shell does not exceed ten rounds, one heavy machine gun, six light machine guns, and four grenadiers, this firepower is really quite good in the Eighth Route Army!

But if you want to compete with the devil's chariot team, it is to compare the bicycle and the Ferrari! Even if your bike is a BMW bike that costs more than $10,000, it's still pedaled! Don't forget, one salvo of all the devil's artillery is seventeen shells! The twenty-eight heavy machine guns on the tank alone can crumble the bunker built by the big bluestone wall when they shoot at close range!

However, more than half of the tankmen and motorized infantry in this convoy have never participated in actual combat, and most of the tanks and crews were replenished after the Battle of Normenhan, so training and actual combat are two different things! This is also the reason why the 3rd Tank Division sent a search team to deal with the 8th Road, which they considered to be vulnerable, and used absolute superior firepower to gain actual combat experience in mobile warfare.

And the cavalry company and reconnaissance company commanded by the shovel monkey against them are not to say that they have experienced a hundred battles, at least they are all veterans who have participated in the big and small battles of the 11th Division! Especially the reconnaissance company, in addition to the tanks that have not dealt with devils, what kind of devils they have not beaten!

Just when the tracks of the chariot team ran over the dirt street of Si Gezhuang and raised the loess dust in the sky, the shovel monkey was leading the soldiers to strengthen the position, and the soldiers pushed the stones that were pried down one by one to the edge of the platform, like a thick gable, which was the main position on the platform on the east side of the black kiln ditch, and the shovel monkey of the cavalry company did not let them in the main position, but put them in the fork of the ravine on the west side of the black kiln ditch.

Shovel monkeys, this will be upset! The Luoyang shovel that had followed him for many years and was specially shaped by his master for him, when he was prying the stone, he unexpectedly broke it from the position of the middle sleeve! (To be continued......)