The Japanese patrol team first spotted movement on the lake. Although Ye Zhao didn't use a flashlight or anything to borrow light, the sound on the water was unavoidable. The Gao family and the Dong family are both old fishermen on Panyang Lake, and they are very familiar with the waterways of Panyang Lake, and they can effortlessly identify the direction even at night. After receiving the order from the rice fields, the Japanese patrol team paid special attention to the movement on Panyang Lake, and when they heard the sound of water, they opened fire. As soon as the gunshots rang out, Ye Zhao knew that his own side had been exposed. Exposed but not afraid, Feng Xuehai and the intelligence they sent in the afternoon said that the Japanese army in Matouwan was only a squadron. The devil of a squadron, the heavy weapons are only two mortars, nearly ten light and heavy machine guns, and the heavy firepower ratio of the 36th Brigade is not at the same level at all, so Ye Zhao is not worried at all.

"Shoot back!" He said calmly, on the three slightly more spacious fishing boats at the front, the three general-purpose machine guns set up in the bow of the ship fired at the same time, and where the bullets rained, the devils on the shore fell down one after another, and some devils shouted: "Enemy attack, enemy attack, quickly notify Your Excellency the squadron leader!" The patrol immediately organized resistance, but as Ye Zhao had predicted, their resistance was weak because the heavy firepower was not superior.

Ye Zhao and the others heard the gunshots on the shore and sped up their journey, and when there was a shootout in their area, Feng Xuehai's scouts breathed a sigh of relief. When the main force arrives, their task will be completed, and now, as long as they can delay it as much as possible, after the large force comes ashore, it will be the end of this squadron of devils.

Gunfire rang out from the lake, and the gunfire was so dense that the rice fields were terrified to hear it. He thought that the Cadet Army would launch a sneak attack, but he didn't expect it to come so quickly. He calculated the time, the soldiers sent to report the news must not have been able to reach the camp in Xingzi County, then, if he gave up resistance, the student army took advantage of the situation to cover the past, and the camp would be attacked. "I don't know how many people have come to Lu Dao, if it is only one or two regiments, even if it is a surprise attack, with the strength of our army in Xingzi County, it can resist, but if a brigade comes, then-" He didn't dare to think about it, and decided to check it out for himself first. He ordered a squad to continue to fight with Feng Xuehai and them, and he led people back, and then abandoned the station, and directly led the remaining soldiers and horses in the station to the lake where the guns rang out.

On the same night, at about seven o'clock, in the direction of Xiaogushan, the battle report from the cotton quilt attack of Zhongdao Jingcun came to the second ear of Yamada Castle, after the 112th Division lost another brigade and was still unable to attack the first-line position of Xiaogushan, he immediately gave up the three-sided battle plan, but removed some baffles from the military card, and prepared to follow the 106th Division, relying on the baffles to carry out a strong attack on Xiaogushan.

Okamura Ninji's order to Yamada was that he must take Xiaogushan before dark and command Penglangji, but now that it is dark, the 112th Division is still difficult to advance under Xiaogushan, Yamada feels that he has no face, and after being reprimanded by Okamura Ningji, he held back his anger, and finally vented it to Takahashi, the commander of the Japanese wing who commanded the operation on the front line.

"Takahashi-kun, there is a limit to my patience, now I will allocate you another brigade, if you can't occupy Xiaogushan before nine o'clock, then please cut yourself!"

The worst thing is that whenever the cannon sounds, the people on the opposite side of the student army position seem to be dead, but as soon as the cannon stops, when they give the order to charge, those people have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The battle lasted for more than six hours, but fortunately, a large group of imperial troops fell in front of the first line of the Cadet Army. Takahashi adopted a more old-fashioned and conservative tactics, originally wanting to use the advantage of time and strength to consume the ammunition of the defenders on the mountain, but won without a fight, but so far, the defenders on the mountain seemed to have endless ammunition, and maintained intensive firepower from beginning to end, and resisted the tide of attack of the imperial army. Before the in-depth contact with the Cadet Army, all the devil officers were almost a virtue, believing that compared with the Cadet Army, the Imperial Army was superior in terms of the quality of soldiers and weapons, and after fighting and even suffering losses, they found that the weapons and equipment of the enemy on the opposite side were actually more advanced and better than those of the Imperial Army. And when they have to admit it, they have a limited number of means at their disposal.

The method that Yamada learned from Nakajima to counteract the superiority of the Cadet Army's weapons did not fall into Takahashi's eyes. After fighting with the Xuebing Army for a long time, Takahashi became more and more frightened and frightened. The fighting will and tactical literacy of the cadets far exceeded the Chinese troops he encountered when he entered China. Of course, it's no surprise that all of this can be learned through training. What made him feel uneasy was the strange stance and marksmanship of the trainees, and this embodiment of combat consciousness was often the most deadly. Many times, in what he thought was a very safe position, but suddenly a gunshot rang out, and the soldier standing in that position was shot in the vital part. The strange existence of the spearmen made the soldiers involved in the attack often not dare to face the front on the way to attack, but to look left and right, which affected the speed of the troops' advance. The thickness of the military card baffle can play a certain defensive role, but if the soldiers really want to obtain absolute security, they must completely shrink behind the baffle. This makes the soldiers' vision even narrower, and then the discovery of those students who are standing in strange positions will naturally be worse. Takahashi was worried that even if the soldiers would be able to rush to the defenders' positions thanks to the defense of the barriers, it would be difficult for a few people to arrive because of the presence of the strange gunners.

The terrain of Xiaogu Mountain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there is only one way that can be used for frontal attack, with a maximum of three or five people at a time. And if a dense tandem formation is adopted, then the opposing mortar and howitzer are given the opportunity to play. Even, as long as the opponent throws a grenade accurately, he can blow up a large area. Yamada suddenly gave Takahashi a death order, and Takahashi hated it in his heart, but he could only accept it unconditionally.

Takahashi didn't want to die, at least not in this kind of wretched battle. Dozens of baffles were quickly delivered, and he did not immediately go into battle after the baffles were delivered, but organized several staff officers to plan carefully. Eventually, at dinner, he happened to see an armored vehicle at the division headquarters, and he came up with the idea of building a movable vehicle out of a baffle. Takahashi's movable chariot required a total of eight baffles, of which two were each for the front, up, left, and right, and only the rear was empty; Four soldiers in front, three on the left and three on the right, and two light machine gunners in the middle. The ten soldiers on the left and right of the front are only responsible for the advance of the shutters, while the two Light Machine Gunners hold the machine guns between the two front shutters, and they are also the only fire output of the moving vehicle as it advances.

It is very convenient to set up a movable vehicle, and the most important thing is the link between the two baffles and the opening between the two front ones. After the baffle was linked, Takahashi personally commanded and put it into actual combat.

In the battle of more than six hours, the 307th Regiment also suffered certain casualties, but compared with the number of devils they annihilated, this casualty was really nothing, so although the Japanese troops at the foot of the mountain were still dense, the soldiers were not nervous.

The soldiers had no fear and were able to maintain a relaxed attitude, but the regiment commander Lian Changjiang and the chief of staff Geng Shu did not dare to be idle. After the war has been going on for so long, what worries them most is the supply of ammunition. At the beginning of the 307th Regiment's ascent to the mountain, Xiang Zhengyong, the commander of the 9th Brigade, took precautions and asked the logistics office to pre-allocate 15 bases of ammunition to Lian Changjiang. Fifteen bases of ammunition are enough for them for half a year in peacetime, but now in this situation, only six hours have passed, and ten bases of ammunition are gone. Lian Jiang Zhilu said that the reason why the regiment held Xiaogushan with small casualties was because of the abundance of ammunition. What they have achieved now is not that the 307th Regiment is more capable of fighting, but because they can unscrupulously give full play to their superiority in weapons and firepower. When he discussed this matter with Geng Shu, he said: "I originally thought that the little devil would take a detour if he couldn't take Xiaogushan, or at least he would choose to besiege and not attack it wisely, but now it seems that we miscalculated." The little devil's posture is not willing to take down the little lonely mountain! ”

Geng Shu nodded: "The firepower output must be controlled, if we still play like before, at most tomorrow morning, our ammunition will be used up." I said, if you take advantage of the night to make a surprise attack, we can't use the bullets of the little devils, and it would be good to have more grenades. ”

"No, there are too many little devils, I think I'd better think of other ways!"

"What's the best way to do it?"

"Stones, there are stones on the small lonely mountain, how about trying to get two trebuchets? It doesn't have to be complicated, as long as you can play the role of a surprise soldier at a critical time. ”

"Well, that's a good idea. There is only one route for the Japanese army to attack on a large scale, and this trebuchet is used well, which is a good obstacle for the little devils! ”

Lian Changjiang and Geng Shu's original intention of coming up with the trebuchet tactic was just to alleviate the ammunition crisis, and to their surprise, their tactics happened to be the nemesis of Takahashi's "movable chariot" tactics.

There are stones and shared trees on Xiaogu Mountain, and even Changjiang personally led people to do it, but it took more than an hour to set up two catapults at the bend of the mountain road behind the first position. The two catapults require five people to operate each and are capable of throwing about 50 kilograms of stones. Fifty kilograms of stone is not very dangerous in normal times, but when accelerated by trebuchets and the natural terrain (condescending), it can play a role that should not be underestimated.

The battle between the movable chariot and the ancient trebuchet began with the exhaustion of the commanders of both sides.