In the wasteland where the fighting was fought for most of the night, the sound of guns and cannons was gone, but the choking smell of gunpowder was still strong, reminding people of what a fierce battle had just been experienced here.

The supreme commanders of the two armies in the joint operation, Qin Zhongxiao, commander of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, and Wu Zijian, deputy commander of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, did not reunite until this time from the beginning of the war.

Unable to believe and feel uneasy, both of them had previously ordered their subordinates to send scout teams to reconnoiter around to ensure that the sudden withdrawal of the Japanese army was not a conspiracy.

"Brother Wu, what kind of fame is the devil doing? I was ready for the net to break, but they suddenly closed the net! ”

As soon as he saw Wu Zijian's face, the colonel of the Central Army immediately laughed and said, full of excitement in his bold tone.

Wu Zijian also felt that this escape from death was incomprehensible, but after all, it was better to escape alive than to really die with the Japanese army in this wilderness.

"Brother Qin, no matter what, you can't stay here for a long time," Wu Zijian looked extremely cautious: "For the sake of safety, your army should still quickly assemble, enter my Xiping Village base area for a short rest, and then transfer to Guanmen Mountain to return to the camp." ”

It was still dark, and the men of the 391st Regiment lit a few torches to illuminate the post-war meeting between the commanders of the two armies. In the firelight, Qin Zhongxiao looked calm, and stretched his right hand towards the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army opposite:

"Brother Wu, at this point, there shouldn't be any need for my regiment to go back to Guanmen Mountain, right?"

Of course, Wu Zijian understood the meaning of the other party's words. The 391st Regiment dispatched the main force this time, especially the artillery company, three 75-caliber heavy guns and one 92-step gun, if you really want to go through the mountain road of Guanmen Mountain to the Great Elm Mountain, it will undoubtedly be difficult. This decision was made in the past, forced by the severe enemy situation, and now that the Japanese army is retreating like a tide, the colonel of the Central Army must want to follow the route he came, from the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, through the outside of Fengdian City, and take a relatively flat wasteland path back to the Great Elm Mountain.

"Brother Qin, it's better to be careful, even if you want to return from the same way, it shouldn't be now, my 7th company commander just found out that the Japanese puppet army's brigade trucks and cavalry galloped in the direction of Fengdian County, and it should be the Japanese reinforcements who came from Fengdian tonight. They will definitely have to get to Fengdian before you, and if they set up an ambush in that area, your army's return journey will be dangerous. ”

Zhang Hong, the chief of staff of the regiment beside Qin Zhongxiao, although he was reluctant to interact too much with the Eighth Route Army, after listening to Wu Zijian's words, he immediately agreed, proposing that the sky was about to become brighter, and the 391st Regiment might as well rest in Xiping Village for a day, and then adopt the method of silent march when night fell, quietly pass under Fengdian City, and return to Big Elm Mountain.

"What is this? When Lao Tzu set off, he was to sneak out in concealment, so he chose to go outside Fengdian City after the dark; Now that the devil has been beaten away, will the class teacher still be like a shrunken turtle when he returns to the camp, walking day and night? The colonel of the Central Army glared at his chief of staff.

Wu Zijian smiled slightly-it's really hard to say whether this devil was beaten away or not. Although he thought so much in his heart, he still had to save face for Qin Zhongxiao:

"Brother Qin, let's not shrink our heads to turtles, but you and I have been fighting fiercely with the Japanese for most of the night, and people are sleepy and tired, so it is very necessary to go to Xiping Village to rest and recuperate. As for when your army will return to the camp, it will not be too late to discuss it after the army has rested. ”

Seeing that the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army was extremely sincere in his willingness to be the host, and the troops really needed to breathe and refuel, Qin Zhongxiao got off the donkey and began to march towards Xiping Village with Wu Zijian.

The two Supreme Commanders of the Allied Forces, considering that Xiping Village had a limited reception capacity, and that Hekou Village, a dozen miles north of Xiping Village, was located in the forward area closest to the Japanese troops at Fengdian and Xiaoyushu Mountain, and that they should send a strong part of it in case the Japanese army returned in case the enemy situation was still unclear. For this reason, the two separately ordered the special service company of the 391st Regiment and the 7th company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade to immediately set off for Hekou Village to rest and recuperate while deploying defenses.

The colonel of the Central Army was invited by Wu Zijian to his battalion headquarters, and this was the second time he came here this night. The Eighth Route Army and the people of Xiping Village, who were under the leadership of the Field Mobilization Committee, held a sumptuous breakfast for the friendly troops on the scale of a regular meal.

Before breakfast time was over, the scout teams sent out before returned one after another, bringing news that all confirmed the fact that the Japanese army had completely retreated.

At the same time, a special piece of information reported attracted the attention of Wu Zijian and Qin Zhongxiao, and when cleaning the battlefield, the third company of the first battalion of the 391st Regiment found several Japanese corpses.

The colonel of the Central Army, who was familiar with the sequence of the Japanese garrisons along the Nantongpu Road, could not help but be taken aback when he heard the news: The Kato Brigade and its division headquarters were now all gathered in the area from Linfen to Yuncheng, preparing for a decisive battle with the Wei Lihuang Central Army that had retreated to Zhongtiao Mountain.

This also solved the mystery of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army encountering a brigade of Japanese trucks on the way to retreat, and those trucks should have delivered reinforcements from the Kato Brigade. God has eyes, let them touch the muzzle of the artillery platoon of the Eighth Route Army, and suffer heavy losses.

However, until this moment, the two armies engaged in joint operations still did not understand what caused the main force of the Japanese army, which had already opened the encirclement network, to suddenly take the initiative to escape. Wu Zijian only relied on the experience of the last anti-night raid in the base area to deduce that there might have been battles on other important strongholds deployed by the Japanese army, forcing his main force to give up painfully.

"Remember, Brother Qin? The last time the Japanese puppet army in Fengdian County attacked our Hekou Village base area at night, you learned that Hou Qin led the main force of the 391st Regiment to besiege Fengdian, and the result was that the Otsuka United, which had already occupied the battlefield advantage, suddenly and hurriedly withdrew. What a trick to surround Wei and save Zhao! Wu Zijian said, and the wine glass in his hand was raised to the colonel of the Central Army to show his respect.

Qin Zhongxiao smiled, first drank the wine in one gulp, and then replied: "This time it shouldn't be different, right?" The main forces of your and our armies were all dispatched, and they were all mixed up on the main battlefield, where are the extra troops to encircle Wei and save Zhao? One company of my third battalion attacked Fengdian County at night, but they were all new recruits, and they did not have heavy weapons to attack the city, so the Japanese troops guarding Fengdian were not moved at all, let alone involve the main force of the Japanese army to come back to help. ”

Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade, sat with him, and nodded frequently after listening to Qin Zhongxiao's analysis: "That's right, the devil sent several reinforcements tonight, and even sent troops from the direction of Linfen. When it comes to the bun in your mouth, how can you not eat it? ”

Wu Zijian looked at his right-hand man who was holding a hot meat bun to his mouth, and teased angrily and funny: I think you look like a meat bun! Everyone at the table burst into laughter.

The chief of staff of the Central Army was the most cool-headed, and at this time he reminded everyone that Linfen was hundreds of miles away from Lingshi County, and the two armies of the joint operation started the battle at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, but in the second half of the night, the first part of the Kato Brigade in Linfen appeared on the battlefield, which shows how powerful the Japanese army's mobile projection capability is to use the Tongpu Road (including railways and highways) to quickly transport troops. In this regard, both the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army should arouse a high degree of vigilance in future defense and operations. This time, the desperate situation of the coalition forces, no matter what the cause, should be an accident, and it must not be derived from a fluke mentality.

After the morning, the battle damage statistics of the various units of the two armies were also reported one after another, and the troops that had been evacuated to Hekou Village were transmitted through walkie-talkies of the first battalion of the 391st Regiment. In this battle, the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army suffered the heaviest losses, Wei Xin's 7th company, they relied on simple fortifications in the plain area to resist the fierce attack of a large number of Japanese puppet troops dispatched by the Japanese army from Fengdian County, and after the position was broken through, they always surrounded and chased after the enemy army, and the whole company suffered three-quarters of casualties.

The main battle loss of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army was the fourth company of the second battalion, which was in the front to intercept the Japanese puppet reinforcements, and was attacked by the Japanese reinforcements in the direction of the side, and was killed and wounded all over the field by the enemy, including the company commander, and more than 70 people, including the company commander, were all martyred. The commander of the fourth company was also the highest-ranking commander killed in this joint operation.

In addition, other units of the two armies also suffered casualties of varying degrees, and the consumption of weapons and munitions was also considerable; Fortunately, a batch of guns and ammunition of the Japanese puppet army were also captured on the battlefield, which was supplemented by chat.

Qin Zhongxiao focused on reviewing the mistakes of the 391st Regiment Artillery Company, and pointed out that if the large-caliber heavy artillery of the artillery company was effective in the final attack on the Japanese army, the troops besieging the city and fighting after the break would have retreated to the direction of Guanmen Mountain much more smoothly, and then the battle losses of the troops blocking the enemy's reinforcements would be reduced. It is also very likely that the reinforcements of the Japanese Kato Brigade who came from a hundred miles away will not be useful.

Speaking of this, Qin Zhongxiao praised the outstanding performance of the artillery platoon of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, which gave full play to the mortars it had and defeated the truck fleet of Japanese reinforcements in one fell swoop.

The colonel of the Central Army did not protect his shortcomings and praised the friendly troops unsparingly, which made the commanders of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade who were present admired, and of course, the officers of the Central Army headed by Zhang Hong, chief of staff of the 391 Regiment, could not help but feel a little ashamed and embarrassed.

The whole day passed in the hustle and bustle of leisure after the war. In the end, after the reconnaissance team surveyed the situation in the area of Fengdian County, it was confirmed that there was nothing to do, and the 391st Regiment set off again at night, passing outside Fengdian City quietly and quietly, and returned to Big Elm Mountain.

The two armies in the joint operation unanimously agreed that although the initiative to attack the Nantongpu Road did not fully achieve the objectives of the campaign, it damaged the Tongpu Railway and the telecommunications equipment along the route to varying degrees, cut off the rear supply lines of the Sena Division of the Japanese Army for at least a short period of time, and mobilized and annihilated the Japanese puppet armies on all sides. It will definitely cause a shock in the vast number of Jin*, which will be of great benefit to the situation of the anti-Japanese war in the entire Shanxi.

The two armies agreed to continue to maintain close contact, strictly monitor the movements of the Japanese puppet army in the vicinity, and be vigilant against enemy forces to sweep and retaliate. At the same time, we will step up the reorganization and expansion of the army in order to wait for the resumption of joint operations in the later stage.