Section 91 Chase and fight

Zhidushu retreated all the way under the escort of the guards, and only when he was about to arrive at Hualin Village did he suddenly come back to his senses, thinking about this defeat, he was ashamed and indignant, and he wanted to judge himself on the spot to apologize. However, the subsequent dissuasion of the officers still played a role, and at the moment, personal life and death are small, and whether the 33rd Division can successfully escape from the encirclement of the enemy is the most important thing. Although the 1st Brigade suffered a defeat, after all, its strength still existed, and the most important thing was to block the enemy's attack at the moment and buy time for the retreat of the other divisions and regiments.

Zhidushu came back to his senses, and people who are not even afraid of death, once they want to open it, they are still very strong when they exert their energy. While directing his officers to gather the remnants of the army and arrange the defensive line, he sent people to report the situation here to the wing headquarters and ask for reinforcements, and judging from the previous combat process, it is impossible to just count on their brigade to block the enemy troops killed in the direction of Wuqiao, this is not a question of whether they dare to fight, but if they withdraw again and again, they will be attacked by the enemy to the rest of the division, and they are more likely to be divided and outflanked by the enemy.

As soon as he received the news of Zhidushu, he rushed to reinforcements with the second brigade without saying a word. However, when he heard that Zhidu Shu had finished reporting the previous battle, he couldn't help but have a blue face and a gloomy and terrifying expression. After three defeats in one day, the wing lost nearly half of its troops, and according to such damage, in fact, the entire 215th wing could no longer continue to fight. But at this time, they couldn't withdraw if they wanted to, and it was a critical moment for the 213 Wing to retreat, and they needed to ensure the stability of this line in order to wait for the arrival of the 213 Wing and the Artillery Wing. Once this place is lost, it will not be long before these two wings will be surrounded by enemy forces, and even the engineer wing and the baggage wing to the south will be difficult to withdraw. How dare he have the slightest slackness, he can only grit his teeth and command the second brigade to the forefront, no matter how big the loss is, he will wait until those troops have withdrawn from here.

At the same time, the battle on the front line of Caterpillar Hill in the north also reached a critical moment, and the 214th Wing, after being reinforced by a part of the artillery, began to storm the positions of the 72nd Army on this line. Although the 72nd Army had the absolute upper hand in terms of strength, they encountered the same trouble as the 215th Wing at Hengling. The artillery units continued to bombard everywhere, making their rough fortifications difficult to resist, and a large number of soldiers died tragically under the fragments and shock waves of the shells, and countless soldiers were shocked and bled and lost their combat ability in a short time.

In this case, the infantry of the 214th Wing launched a charge assault, and most of the soldiers of the national army, who had lost most of their troops, could only continue to increase their troops on the mountain, almost filling this hole with human lives.

The situation on both sides was reported to Sakurai at the same time, which made him finally breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, I was also distressed about the loss of the 215th Wing, who would have thought that the loss of coming back from a round of killing in Shangfu was almost negligible, and that there would be so many troops lost in Wuqiao? What exactly does the enemy army mean, how can the encircled troops be vulnerable, and why are the troops that suddenly appeared here in Wuqiao so powerful? Thinking of this, he couldn't help but think of the 34th Division in the middle and thought of Oga Shigeru, I don't know what is going on with them at the moment?

I inquired about the chief of staff Kinoshita next to him, and the news he got also made Shai Shengsan feel a lot more relieved, the troops in the middle of the road attacked smoothly, and they were approaching Shanggao, although the enemy army resisted very tenaciously, but they still retreated step by step in front of their powerful attack power, according to this situation, there will be another day or two This battle can be over. Thinking that although his division did not achieve any brilliant results on the right flank of the battlefield, after all, it had also contained the strength of at least three armies of the enemy army and achieved the expected results, the only worry in Sakurai's heart had disappeared, which strengthened his thoughts, and he ordered the 214th Wing to speed up the attack, and on the other hand, he ordered the 213th Wing and the Engineer Wing and other troops to speed up their retreat and strive to reach Fengxin before dawn. After this battle is over, take the 33rd Division to North China, and it is time for you to return to your homeland!

Half an hour later, the 214th Wing was the first to receive good news, the forward troops had successfully taken Caterpillar Mountain, and the enemy had retreated to Huibu. Sakurai Province immediately ordered Hamada Wing, the commander of the 214th Wing, to garrison the position, stop the pursuit, and not to make another mistake of making a big mistake due to a small loss, which would lead to a fall short.

Hamada was a typical Japanese army officer, full of war fanaticism in his bones, and even more disdain for the national army. The 214th Wing did not take on the important task until this moment, and he was still quite dissatisfied with it, after taking Caterpillar Mountain, according to his idea, he wanted to take advantage of the situation to take the port and then compete with the enemy, after receiving the order of the division commander, he couldn't help but sneer and said to his subordinates on the side, "The division commander's heart has flown back to Japan, and he can smell the rotten breath in the order at any time when he fights behind a person who is not on the battlefield." An unmotivated commander will never be able to command his troops to win a big battle! ”

Although his words were full of disdain and dissatisfaction, Hamada finally chose to obey the orders of the division headquarters because he always adhered to the creed of a soldier. It is also the most important point, that is, obey the order, no matter whether the order is right or wrong, as long as it is an order issued by the superior, as a soldier, he must obey unconditionally, even if this order is to send them to death, he will never disobey.

After conquering Caterpillar Mountain, it echoes with Lintouling in the northeast, in fact, it completely cuts off the road from Huibu to Fengxin, and the actual effect is no worse than taking Huibu, but this approach is slightly more conservative.

Now that the road to Bongshin has been opened, the matter that Sakurai has been hanging on his mind has finally been resolved, which makes him happy. As long as you deal with the pursuers in the back again, then everything will be fine. When it comes to the pursuers, the biggest headache at the moment is the enemy troops on the Wuqiao side. This force that came out of nowhere, won three games in a row in one day, and the 215 Wing, which was originally strong, was like losing its soul in the face of this force. If it were normal, Sakurai would definitely try to lure and annihilate this enemy army, but in this situation, the timing was obviously not right, and he could only seek to temporarily block the enemy's retreat. After a while, he finally made up his mind, the 215th Wing has lost half of its troops, although it can no longer support it, and the retreat channel has been opened, so let them evacuate here first, as for the matter of staying behind after the break, it shouldn't be a big problem for the 213th Wing to take over.

After receiving the order, he couldn't help but be very happy, and after handing over to the defenders on the front line of Hualinzhai, he soon set off on the road and retreated to the direction of Fengxin, and finally didn't have to face that frightening army anymore, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

At this moment, the Independent Regiment had also followed the footsteps of the retreating Japanese troops to the mountains around Hualinzhai, and the previous attack was so easy that it was greatly unexpected by the officers and men of the Independent Regiment. After a long time, they realized that the enemy army on the opposite side should not be the veterans of those A divisions that they had already encountered, otherwise, even if they had the upper hand in an all-round way, even if the enemy army was defeated, they would fight to the death, and if they were all gone, they would still be defeated and flee. This also shows that the Japanese army's troops have greatly regressed compared with the previous few years, and not to mention anything else, the difference in the quality of the soldiers alone has greatly narrowed the gap between the two armies.

This kind of discovery has made them more confident and more sharp and flexible in fighting. Their sharp offensive continued to the front line of Hualinzhai, after the retreat of the 215th Wing, the Japanese troops of the 213th Wing tasted the taste of fighting with the soldiers of the Independent Regiment, under the cover of night, the soldiers of the two armies continued to attack and defend, and the cold guns and sneak attacks, for a time it was difficult to solve, and the artillery units that had previously shown their majesty were also attacking from time to time, using intensive artillery fire to form a wave of suppression. On the one hand, the Japanese army built some fortifications here, on the other hand, the Japanese artillery wing left half of its troops here to assist in the defense, and an artillery attack easily suppressed the attack of the grenadiers.

However, the darkness provided convenience for the officers and men of the Independent Regiment, and they also constantly threatened the Japanese defense line by taking advantage of the characteristics of flexibility and lightness.

After learning about the battle situation here, Sakurai also settled down, and after learning that the enemy army on the front line of Wuqiao had been blocked, he finally commanded the troops to retreat with peace of mind, and now there are heavy troops deployed everywhere, and the threat around him has been reduced to the lightest, and the overall situation has been decided.

Around midnight, news came from the side of the 215th Wing that the forward troops of the 215th Wing had arrived at the front line of Yamaguchi Village between Huibu and Fengxin, and everything was normal. The follow-up unit of the 215th Wing is arriving, and he will arrange for some people to stay behind to meet him, and the forward troops will continue to rush to the front line of Fengxin. If no unexpected situation happens, the large army can withdraw to the Fengxin area before dawn.

After thinking about it for a while, Sakurai decided that the division headquarters would also set off immediately. At this time, except for half of the 213 Wing and the Artillery Wing still blocking the enemy in the Hualinzhai area, the rest of the troops have begun to retreat towards Fengxin, the battle has come to an end, and there is basically no need to worry about it anymore. Therefore, after Sakurai handed over the follow-up matters to Hamada, the commander of the 214th Wing, he withdrew with the large army.