The battle of Pingtou Bridge began in the evening. After the Japanese army repaired on the spot for half a day, the vanguard of the 16th Division began to advance to the line of Pingtou Bridge.

On this side of the Pingtou Bridge, the officers and soldiers whose legs were frozen and numb had been waiting for this group of Japanese soldiers for a day. As the leading Japanese trucks entered the Pingtou Bridge, the silence of the night was broken by the sound of gunfire.

Sun Yuanliang, who had been observing the front-line lookout for a long time, immediately issued an order to prepare for battle when he saw that the enemy was preparing to march, and the troops that had been ambushed in advance began to prepare for battle. At the same time, the headquarters of the 88th Division sent a combat request to the group army headquarters, and the group army headquarters immediately gave feedback to the air force and other units that had gone to support.

At Suzhou Airport, with the sound of high-pitched sirens, the pilots rushed from their quarters to the runway. Immediately after that, under the command of the tower, fighter planes and dive bombers rose off from the runway one after another.

And on the Pingtou Bridge front, the battle has already begun!

The main force of the 88th Division, which had been ambushed in advance, first used tanks and light artillery to bombard the Japanese vanguard, and the dense artillery fire fell into the Japanese positions like rain, and some shells directly hit the Japanese trucks, blowing them to pieces.

After a short period of artillery fire, when the Japanese were confused, the armored forces of the 88th Division began to surround from all sides with a large number of infantry.

Before the war, Sun Yuanliang arranged the operational goal in accordance with the Ministry of National Defense's requirement of "annihilating the enemy's living forces to the greatest extent" in the war against Japan, and the operational goal was to "not seek to eat too much, but only to eat, and concentrate superior forces to annihilate the enemy." Therefore, Sun Yuanliang did not intend to get involved with the main force of the 16 th Division in this battle.

Before the war, the operational staff officer suggested to Sun Yuanliang that he could set up an ambush at Pingtou Bridge, and then send troops to attack the main force of the 16th Division. However, this opinion was directly denied by Sun Yuanliang.

He smiled and said to the combat staff officer; "Now the 16th Division is like a strong man, we can't fight him hard, and sending the main force to engage in a head-on confrontation with their main force will not only not inflict heavy damage on the enemy, but may also incur our casualties. Therefore, in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of National Defense, we 'concentrated superior forces to annihilate the geothermal heat', and I ate him one brigade after another, just like cutting off his fingers little by little. ”

"But we are going to defend the Pingtou Bridge......" The operational staff officer wanted to persuade him again, but Sun Yuanliang did not give him this opportunity.

He called the herald to convey his battle orders to the next level.

The operational staff officer did not understand it at the time, but he would understand the essence of this kind of operation after the end of this round of battles.

As the reconnaissance had been made in advance, this time it was an infantry brigade under the 19th Infantry Brigade of the 16th Division, and there was no doubt that this was a formidable force, and they were able to quickly jump out of their trucks when attacked, babbling to find cover and form a temporary defensive position.

But no matter how strong the brigade is, it is a brigade after all, and without the cover of too many heavy weapons and equipment, they obviously have no power to fight back in the face of the siege of an integrated division of the 88th Division like a hungry wolf.

Clusters of armor rushing from several directions slaughtered the Japanese like tigers descending from the mountains. The rapid mobility of the armored cluster was shown to the best possible at this moment, the large-caliber machine guns on the tanks and armored vehicles began to fire within the firing range, the shell casings fell into the receiving slot like rice, the dense rain of bullets tore through the enemy's defensive lines, and the charging troops quickly entered the enemy's hinterland. After the armored cluster rushed into the enemy position, the officers and men wearing steel helmets and holding bayonets quickly jumped out of the car and ended the lives of the Japanese soldiers in front of them with bayonets and bullets.

After more than an hour of fighting, the captain of the Japanese brigade still did not give the order to retreat. He did this not because of arrogance and ignorance, but because behind his brigade was the Japanese 16th Division, and the 16th Division was surrounded by the heavy group of troops of the Shanghai Dispatch Army, although he did not know the size of the Chinese army opposite, but even if he encountered a strong group army, they were not afraid, because the troops that followed them could quickly gather to support them.

However, this judgment cost the captain and hundreds of his samurai to their deaths.

After the shelling, the Chinese army came up with their usual killer tactic - an armored cluster attack. Unlike previous attacks, the Chinese troops in this attack came from three directions, and it seemed that they were going to encircle and eat them.

The 19th Brigade did not panic after receiving the report of the attack at the front, and the brigade commander, Major General Kusaba Tatsuya, tapped the map on the table and smiled contemptuously: "Sure enough, the Shina army will set up an ambush here, but don't worry, let the wing immediately send reinforcements." ”

"Hayi!" The herald immediately went down to deliver the order.

However, at this moment, there was a hysterical scream in the sky, and the brigade commander Kusaba Tatsumi had already glanced at the other officers, and he frowned and asked with some concern: "Is it an air raid?" ”

The officer in the tent did not dare to slack off, he had always thought that the Sino-Japanese combat sky was a factor that did not need to be worried, but recently he did not know what was going on, as if he had heard that the Chinese army had mobilized a large number of pilots and fighters to deploy on the front line in Suzhou, and was also equipped with a new type of dive bomber. These guys have made them suffer a lot, and they have also learned about the attacks of the Chinese Air Force, and those dive bombers that scream are like a nightmare.

Kusaba had already walked out quickly, and the others followed. He held the telescope and prepared to observe, but as soon as he stepped out of the tent, he didn't need a telescope at all, and he could see dozens of goshawk-like planes flying in the reddish sky to the west.

"Not good!" Almost at the same time as he exclaimed, the dive bombers that made strange noises began to bomb the position of the 19th Brigade Brigade and Regiment Command Post in turn.

Heavyweight* and * exploded in the Japanese army, and the large-caliber cannons rained down on the unsuspecting Japanese officers and soldiers on the ground and their thin-pickup trucks and tanks, and several guards desperately threw the brigade commander to the ground and blocked the shrapnel of the air raid for him with their bodies.

Kusaba Tatsumi had saved his life, but the other officers and men were not so lucky, because the air defense measures of the 19th Brigade were very poor at the temporary camp on the march, and the anti-aircraft guns were barely erected, and this wave of air raids allowed the brigade command post to reimburse at least one-third of the commanding officers. And the troops gathered around the command post became the key targets of the dive bomber group.

When the bombing was coming, many Japanese soldiers who were embarrassed and angry simply raised their rifles and fired uselessly at the planes, and because the deployment of anti-aircraft weapons was slow, they had to shout at the airplanes to come to support.

In the rear of the marching ranks, the headquarters of the 16th Division, upon learning of the attack on the troops at the front, immediately requested that aviation be sent to support. The Japanese air force stationed a large number of fighters on the east side of the road, and the Kunshan airfield, which was closest to the battlefield, immediately took off to support, and the Japanese soldiers on the ground cursed the air force, and the air force cursed the Chinese air force on the planes, but soon they had no time to curse, and these planes encountered a group of fighter planes rushing towards them before they arrived at the battlefield.

Dozens of blitzkrieg planes, under the leadership of ace pilot Gao Zhihang, encountered the Japanese air force group unexpectedly, and the two sides were intertwined in the setting sun, and the roar of fighter planes and gunfire continued to resound in the air.

Because of the onslaught of the Chinese Air Force, the 19th Brigade was naturally unable to provide support to the troops attacked in front. At this time, the first part of the 88th Division immediately cut off the connection between the infantry brigade in front and the rear, and soon the armored clusters of the 88th Division began to surround this brigade from all sides, and after more than an hour of fighting, the Japanese brigade was successfully annihilated.

It was already dark when the battle ended, and Sun Yuanliang laughed after observing the battle process: "Haha, just fight like this!" The troops were assembled to prevent the Japanese counterattack, and we continued to be stationed. ”

When the 88th Division was blocking the Japanese army on the Pingtou Bridge, the battlefields in North China and Northeast China also began to be lively. In accordance with the arrangements of the Central Special Executive Committee and the Ministry of National Defense, Xue Boling led the reorganized First Group Army into the North China Theater and accepted the command of Liu Jian, commander of the North China Theater.

The troops of the North China Theater were reorganized and organized into the First Army Group. And the Japanese army Okamura Ninji also adjusted the subordinate Japanese troops. He took the reorganized Fifth Division, which was well-equipped and combat-ready, as the main force of the corps' advance. The Fifth Division really lived up to expectations, and after landing from Qingdao, the division marched all the way, successively conquering several cities, and defeating more than a dozen divisions under Liu Jian along the way.

The vanguard of the 5th Division was the 21st Brigade, which had always been arrogant and domineering, and after attacking Jinan, the division immediately turned to Puyang, which was originally an unwise choice, because the terrain was complicated, and it would also affect the plan to advance north and join the division in the south.

But Okamura Ninji did not think so, he knew that there was an important oil field in Puyang, and the occupation of Puyang would not only cut off some of China's oil supply, but also provide a good oil supply for the Japanese army.

Okamura made some minor changes to the battle plan, that is, to mobilize some troops to attack the Puyang front. He reported this plan to the Tokyo base camp, which approved the plan, so attacking westward was an important direction for the 5th Division.

On the other hand, Puyang is like this, how not to lose, the loss of Puyang means that half of the tanks and cars of the Chinese army cannot be started, so the Ministry of Defense strictly ordered to defend it!

A big war has begun!