Section 143 Counterattack on Gao'an XXXIX

Noda Gojo sat on horseback and bowed his head silently, looking preoccupied, and on the wide road, a long line of two long columns was rushing towards Oshiro. Each of them had a serious look on their faces, clearly not confident about the battle that was coming. It is no wonder that not long after the news of the total annihilation of the 1st Brigade came back, this frightening and disturbing news had not yet been digested, and they left their fortified positions and rushed to a strange place to participate in the battle, how could they have confidence?

The horses galloped in the middle of the road, and the cavalrymen on the horses were panting and sweating profusely, and the high-speed gallop not only exhausted the horses, but also exhausted their physical strength. As soon as he saw the captain of the group and the chief of staff of the wing, the scout immediately perked up, and then drove his horse and rushed over, and said hurriedly: "Your Excellency, the third brigade is fighting fiercely with the enemy in the area of Gulou. ”

Noda Gojo couldn't help but perk up when he heard this, he glanced at the chief of staff, and when he saw that he didn't speak, he opened his mouth to the scout and asked, "Have you seen Captain Kada?" What is the situation on the battlefield? ”

The scout shook his head and said: "The battle in the area of Gulou is fierce, the enemy has cut off the road to Dacheng, we can't pass, the news is from the scouts of the third brigade, they have attacked several times in a row, but because of the ambush, the loss is relatively large, the enemy occupies the high ground of Gulou, and it is equipped with artillery, from the current situation, if there are no reinforcements, I am afraid that I will not be able to take the enemy for a while." ”

The chief of staff of the wing interjected at this time and asked: "What kind of ambush did the third brigade have, and the news that came to the wing headquarters before, didn't it say that Captain Jiatian had discovered the enemy in advance?" ”

The scout immediately responded: "It is said that the main infantry squadron was too aggressive during the attack, and as a result, the enemy made a counterattack, not only lost several lines of defense in front of it in the first battle, but also lost dozens of people, and because of this, the third brigade has now changed its mind and is storming the Gulou Heights." ”

The chief of staff immediately scolded: "Are these squadron commanders idiots? A frontal assault can still be ambushed, don't they have long heads? He doesn't even know the basic command of frontal combat, how did Kada Yong choose his subordinates? ”

At this time, Noda Gojo couldn't help coughing lightly and interrupted the meaningless roar of the chief of staff and said: "Let's hurry up and rush to the front line, before leaving, Tsuda-kun has repeatedly explained that he must fight quickly and bring the third brigade back to Xiangfuguan in the shortest possible time, if the Chazishan defense line is broken through before we return, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

This is obviously to the point, the reason why the chief of staff refuses to stay in Xiangfuguan is that he is worried about such a terrible situation, and now when he heard Noda Gojo say this, he immediately nodded with a cold snort.

Just when they were about to speed up and rush to flank the enemy, the second horseman galloped from a distance behind them, the sound of the hurried horses' hooves was unusually harsh, and the hoarse shouts of the knights on the horse made people involuntarily look back, "Xiangfu looks at the emergency military situation......

Everyone's faces changed instantly, and even the advancing team involuntarily paused, trying to figure out what was going on.

Noda Gojo and the chief of staff turned their horses to meet them, when the three words "auspicious charm" came into their ears, they were like enchanted, and they could no longer maintain calm, at this time, everything was secondary, in front of the auspicious charm, everything seemed insignificant.

"Your Excellency, Xiangfu Temple has been attacked by enemy troops!" The scout was obviously in a hurry, and the frightened expressions of the two clearly fell into Noda Gojo's eyes.

In fact, not only these two scouts, but also the soldiers of the second brigade who heard the news on the side were also dumbfounded, unable to believe such a situation. The chief of staff of the wing froze even more in despair, trembling all over, unable to speak, but fortunately no one paid attention to him at this time, so that he would not be embarrassed and thrown home. To say that people who can be military commanders in the Japanese army are outstanding, in this case, Noda Gojo calmed down, from an ordinary second lieutenant officer to today's status step by step, rich experience and gradually cultivated a shocking temperament, making him particularly eye-catching in this situation, and his calm expression is particularly eye-catching in this situation.

"Don't rush, talk slowly, what's going on." Noda Gojo scolded with a calm face, not only did the two scouts shudder before quickly calming down, but even the others on the side, after seeing the captain's expression, seemed to have found the backbone of the heart, and gradually regained their calm.

"Report to Your Excellency, not long after you left the Xiangfu Temple, an enemy army came out from the direction of Niubei Mountain and rushed straight to the Xiangfu Temple, and after we detected the enemy army, we divided it into two, one part rushed back to the Xiangfu Temple to report, and the other rushed to report to Your Excellency." The Scout took a deep breath and gave a detailed account of what he had discovered.

Noda Wuzhang couldn't help but sigh helplessly, very disappointed with the current situation. When he left the Xiangfu Temple earlier, the scout was severely hit, and he sensed that something was not good, however, the current situation was already like this, and with the Xiangfu Temple and the Great City being divided in two, it was very necessary to open the passage between the two places as soon as possible. It's just that they didn't expect that the enemy army was far more cunning than they imagined, and judging from the current situation, the enemy army had been waiting for them to attack for a long time, just waiting for this opportunity to attack Xiangfuguan. Thinking of the third brigade being blocked by the sudden appearance of the enemy army, the purpose of the enemy's series of actions is clear.

After pondering for a while, Noda Gojo slowly asked, "How many people should there be in the enemy army, and has the firepower been detected?" ”

His unhurried tone brought everyone back to calm, and in this way, their heads also reacted quickly, and there was almost no pause, and one of the scouts replied: "The situation was very urgent at that time, and the enemy scouts were robbing and killing our scouts everywhere, so it was not too real, but it should be estimated that the enemy's strength was at least one infantry regiment." ”

"Infantry regiment? How could there be so many enemy troops crossing the river? "The chief of staff, who came back to his senses, was very skeptical of the scout's words, if the enemy army attacking Xiangfuguan had an infantry regiment as exaggerated, plus Gulouling blocked the enemy army of the third brigade, wouldn't the enemy army crossing the river in the early morning have as many as an infantry brigade? With such a huge team, the enemy army was sent across the river like this? Are they not afraid of being surrounded and annihilated?

Noda Gojo didn't have too many doubts, after all, the first brigade was completely wiped out in a short period of time, just by virtue of this, the strength of the enemy army will not be weak, now it seems that the previous judgment must be wrong, the enemy army crossing the river is not a feint attack at all, but the real main force of the enemy, from the other direction to capture Xiangfuguan and besiege the 102nd Brigade in the Gao'an line, is the main purpose of the enemy.

At this moment, another wave of two scouts arrived, they observed around the Xiangfu Temple for a while, until the enemy launched an attack on the Xiangfu Temple, did not arrive, these two scouts brought the latest battle situation, the enemy's artillery unit joined the attack, the Xiangfu Temple was bombarded by the enemy's artillery fire, and there was not enough time to deal with it, the outer defense line in the northeast direction had been completely lost, and the enemy army had broken through to the center of the Xiangfu Temple, judging from the situation before they arrived, It is very likely that the enemy has already reached the wing headquarters.

The chief of staff of the wing who heard the news couldn't help it, but at this moment he already knew that when it came to fighting, there was still a big gap between himself as the chief of staff and Noda Gojo. So, he also asked quite self-awarely: "Noda-kun, judging from the current situation, I'm afraid we won't be able to support the third brigade, anyway, Kada-kun at least still has the initiative on the battlefield, even if he can't break through the enemy's defensive line, at least he can withdraw to the defense of Oshiro." Xiangfuguan is different, Tsuda-kun only has some troops directly under the wing left, and the only thing he can count on is the machine gun squadron, but their number is too small, and they can't hold out for long at all, once Xiangfuguan makes a mistake, the 102nd Brigade will be finished. ”

Noda Gojo's thoughts were actually exactly the same as the chief of staff, he was worried about the safety of Xiangfuguan when he set off, and now that something really happened, what is the point of defeating the enemy army in Gulouling in this case? Therefore, as soon as the chief of staff finished speaking, he waved his hand without hesitation and said: "Turn around, immediately return to the auspicious charm view, abandon the baggage, everyone travel lightly, and kill the auspicious charm in the shortest possible time." ”

After yelling, he pulled over a few scouts on the side and advised: "You immediately rush to the front line of Gulouling, no matter what method you use, you must find Captain Jiatian and report the situation here in detail, as for how Captain Jiatian will choose next, you don't need to care, everything is subject to Captain Jiatian's arrangement." ”

After finishing speaking, Noda Wuzhang galloped away without hesitation, the situation of Xiangfuguan was too urgent and critical, and at this moment he couldn't wait to put on his wings and fly back! Now he could only pray, and he could only hope that His Excellency the Wing Commander would be mighty and still hold his position, otherwise there would be no hope at all if they wanted to attack the position occupied by an infantry regiment of the enemy with their present strength.

At the same time that the 2nd Brigade of the Japanese Army received the news and quickly returned to the defense, Xiaoshan*, who was bravely charging, suddenly shouted excitedly: "Brothers, kill! The devil's defense line has been broken! ”

When the officers and men of the 302nd Regiment heard this, their morale was greatly boosted, and they immediately let out bursts of cheers in unison, and the shouts of killing were earth-shattering for a while.