The second charge launched by the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army still looked quite reckless. Kosuke Otsuka, the wing commander of the Japanese army, had not been able to witness the general appearance of the Eighth Route Army's blocking position until then, and in the dark night, he did not bother to run to the front line to observe.

"Du, your cavalry should be dispersed, and the charge should be fast;" Otsuka, who was sitting in the cab of the truck, commanded Du Dongqiang arrogantly through the rolled open window: "You know, this is the plain, unless there is a strong fortress, nothing can block the impact of a large number of cavalry!" ”

Du Dongqiang, who was on horseback, nodded submissively, and said cautiously: "Dazuo, the position of the Eighth Route Army has heavy machine guns, and although the plain area is conducive to cavalry charges, but heavy machine gun bullets are strafing, and my people can easily become live targets...... ”

"Stop talking nonsense! I will organize artillery fire to cover the rear, and the whole cavalry regiment will charge at once! Kosuke Otsuka began to roar again, and in order to strengthen his tone, his outstretched arm outside the car window hammered the door hard at the same time, and it sounded.

The cavalry commander did not dare to rub it any longer, so he had to turn his horse's head and recruit several battalion and company commanders under him. In the end, they decided to attack from the left and right, with the first battalion starting from the left and the second battalion charging from the right after attracting the opposing Eighth Route Army to open fire. This tactic was learned by the puppet Mongolian army when they were trained by the cavalry group of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Suiyuan, and if used properly, it could cause the attacked enemy troops to take care of one thing and lose the other.

The horses' hooves sounded fiercely, and the attack began.

On the blocking position of the Eighth Route Army, he quickly noticed the charge of the puppet Mongolian army, and the group of galloping cavalry was obviously biased to the right, and Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th company guarding the center of the arc position, ran in that direction with his legs, and when he was about to run into place, the sound of horses' hooves in the thick night was quite close, and the bullets from the mounted guns on horseback were also whizzing over.

"Fire! Fire! Machine gun fire! ”

Wei Xin shouted eagerly, the light machine gun erected at this end of the arc position was the Czech type, originally according to the configuration of cross-fire, its muzzle was diagonally facing the front, but at this moment, a large force of cavalry rushed directly in front of it, and the machine gun shooter was a little stunned for a while, until he heard the roar of the company commander, he hurriedly turned the muzzle of the gun like a dream, and pulled the trigger towards the earth-shaking sound of horses' hooves in the front.

The rifles in the vicinity of the Czech style were also fired, and the battle began in a corner of the arc.

At this moment, Wei Xin didn't pay attention to why the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army appeared on this side, he took it for granted that it might be the night that caused the cavalry to be unable to see the direction of advance. The deputy company commander of the 7th Company was in charge of the command on this side, and Wei Xin whispered a few words in his ear, then turned around and ran back, preparing to coordinate the heavy machine guns in the central position to fire support in this direction.

However, before he could run back to the fortifications of the Min's Type 24 heavy machine gun, the sound of horses' hooves sounded in front of him, and he was also surrounded by a rain of flying locusts. The commander of the 7th company tightened his scalp, and instantly understood the trick of the puppet Mongolian cavalry: damn it! This is obviously trying to break it apart, this gang of traitor cavalry still has this hand!

"Company commander, the enemy cavalry is attacking from both ends! Which one?! ”

It was the heavy machine gun's co-shooter who was shouting at him, and now this Min-24 heavy machine gun was lying alone in the middle, in a dilemma. Wei Xin was also unable to make a decision for a moment, he listened intently for a moment, trying to distinguish which side had more cavalry; At this moment, the Taisho 11 machine gun on the left side of the arc position opened fire suddenly, which prompted the commander of the 7th Company to make up his mind: I had received a report just now, and there were not many bullets left in the crooked handle, so I should help them first-

"Hit the cavalry on the left flank, quick!"

As soon as Wei Xin's words fell, the sub-shooters and ammunition men had already begun to move the heavy machine gun hand and foot together, this Min 24 style was actually a Chinese imitation of the German Makqin, the gun body was huge and heavy, and the standard configuration group of operating a machine gun was as many as four people. Wei Xin couldn't wait for them, and immediately ran towards the left flank of the arc position—there was an instructor who was not very experienced in combat, and the commander of the 7th company was a little uneasy.

The heavy machine guns finally fired, and the bullets swept diagonally from the central position of the Eighth Route Army, forming a new crossfire network with the crooked light machine guns on the left flank, causing a lot of casualties to the puppet Mongolian cavalry that poured up from that direction. At the same time, the right flank position, dominated by Czech light machine guns, also struggled to withstand the cavalry charge. For a time, the roar of machine guns and the neighing of war horses in this wilderness, mixed with the sound of rifle fire and explosions, strongly shook the night sky and the earth.

The captain of the Japanese wing, who was outside the battlefield, also clearly felt this shock, and his stubby brows furrowed tightly. Kosuke Otsuka, who had a long experience of fighting in China, quickly distinguished the types of light and heavy machine guns of the Shina Army, and roughly deduced the number of troops of the other side.

That's not a good sign!

First of all, it further confirmed the judgment it had just reported to the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters: this Eighth Route Army that appeared in the wilderness in the middle of the night was no accident, and they had built a blocking position in advance, which should be directly related to the China Army that was attacking Lingshi County and the Tongpu Railway.

Secondly, the continuous fierce exchange of fire from the battlefield indicated that the charge of the Mongolian Frontier Army's cavalry regiment had been frustrated, and his plan to hope that the cavalry group would break through the opponent's defense line in one fell swoop was about to fail. Next, it was necessary to concentrate artillery fire and strike at the positions of the Chinese army.

"Is the mortar emplacement erected?" Kosuke Otsuka jumped out of the car and asked his subordinates. At this moment, all the trucks carrying the entire infantry squadron arrived after them, and they were getting out of the vehicles and gathering in small groups.

Knowing that the two mortars of the artillery squad had been erected on the outer edge of the battlefield, Wing Commander Dazuo gave another order to concentrate all the grenadiers of the squadron and move closer to the mortar gun positions to build a fire strike position. The Japanese grenadier tactical unit consisted of detachments, and each infantry squad was assigned to a grenadier detachment, each with three grenadier canisters; This gives each infantry squadron nine grenadiers, which can be called powerful.

"Inform the Mongol cavalry to withdraw first, and after the fire attack is over, then continue to storm the positions of the Chinese army." Kosuke Otsuka said to the infantry squadron leader who leaned close to him: "You take a small team and immediately enter the mortar position to monitor the movement on the opposite side, protect the artillerymen and grenadiers, and strictly prevent the counter-charge of the Shina army." ”

"Dazuo, is the opposite branch of the Chinese army the Eighth Road? Is it the group of eight roads at the foot of Guanmen Mountain? The infantry squadron leader asked cautiously. He once followed Kosuke Otsuka in the bloody battle of the night attack on Kawaguchi Village, when his deputy squadron leader and a squad leader were killed in the battle, which still makes him jealous.

"What do you mean by that, you ask? Were you scared by the Eighth Route Army? Don't forget your status as a soldier of the Imperial Army! ”

The angry Otsuka suppressed his voice and whispered to the squadron leader in front of him, if he wasn't afraid of affecting the morale of the Lin, he would have slapped him a long time ago. The squadron leader, who had been reprimanded, hurriedly ran to assemble the team.

Wing Commander Osa, who was about to raise his voice and say a few more words to the squadron leader, suddenly ran up to inform him that the brigade headquarters of Wencheng called back, cautiously agreeing with the judgment just submitted by Kosuke Otsuka, and determined that the Eighth Route Army here was most likely cooperating with the China Army on the Tongpu railway line; The brigade headquarters maintained the original order, and your unit made every effort to break through the blocking position of the Eighth Route Army, and quickly approached the Tongpu railway line, so as to realize the encirclement of the Zhina Army (suspected to be the 391st Regiment of the Central Army) as soon as possible. When necessary, a unit of troops may continue to be drawn from the Fengdian garrison to carry out combat missions.

"Shoot now!"

Kosuke Otsuka waved the message in his hand and roared impatiently. Listening to the tone of the brigade headquarters, the main forces of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army should all be gathered in the area of the Tongpu Line now, and they must not miss this good opportunity to encircle and annihilate them! And the top priority at the moment is to rush over the blocking position of the Eighth Route Army in front as soon as possible!

Mortars and grenadiers fired almost at the same time!

When the second charge of the cavalry in front could not withstand the rain of light and heavy machine guns on the position of the Eighth Route Army and began to retreat, the two mortars of the Japanese army had quietly set up on the wasteland behind the cavalry. Soon, three grenadier detachments also touched up according to the instructions of the wing commander Dazuo and spread out their formation to the left and right of the artillerymen.

The night also blurred the firing range of the Japanese, and they could barely estimate with their naked eyes and hearing that the firepower position they had established should be about four or five hundred meters away from the blocking position of the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side, and this distance was within the striking range of mortars and grenadiers.

The retreat order was given to the cavalry of the Mongolian army, in fact, before this, they had already shown the appearance of retreating, and as soon as the Japanese order arrived, they retreated like a mountain, turned their horses' heads in a disorder, and ran back in one breath.

Kosuke Otsuka, who had just stepped forward to command, happened to see this unbearable scene, but he didn't care about cursing and reprimanding, and ordered a staff officer around him to quickly go and find the cavalry commander Du Dongqiang here and deploy the next charge.

The positions of the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side gradually stopped firing. The captain of the Japanese army walked to the gun position and asked the captain of his artillery squad if he had locked on the fire point of the heavy machine gun of the Eighth Route Army.

"Dazuo, it's too dark to aim as accurately as during the day, so I can only approximate it." The captain of the artillery squad replied with some embarrassment.

"Then do not hesitate to shell and continue to fight, and the grenadier detachments are the same, firing intensively!" Kosuke Otsuka stared at the night directly ahead and gave the order viciously.

* With a sharp whistle and a sudden piercing of the quiet night sky, the commanders and fighters of the 7th Company of the Eighth Route Army failed to respond in time. Two shells fell one after the other, one swept over their heads and smashed more than a dozen feet behind them, while the other exploded at the front of the position, knocking down two fighters.

"Lie down! Take cover! ”

The company commander Wei Xin shouted sharply, and before the words fell, some small * attacked, and at least two of them landed near the position and exploded.

Mortars and grenadiers! After the commander of the 7th company quickly made a judgment, his heart couldn't help but sink: The cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army that had just retreated should not have these two kinds of equipment, and it was the Japanese who came up!

Everything finally fulfilled the pre-war prediction of Deputy Battalion Commander Wu Zijian and Colonel Qin of the Central Army, and the Japanese puppet army in Fengdian County really went out to rescue Lingshi County on the Tongpu Railway Line.

At this time, Wei Xin began to be glad that the 7th Company had spent a lot of effort to build this temporary position, and he also understood the deputy battalion commander's intention of telling him not to underestimate the enemy - this would really be a difficult and cruel resistance battle!

Overhead, shells and small * flew down one after another, but the hit rate was average. Wei Xin knew very well that it was the thick night that helped him a lot, if the Japanese had a clear vision, the temporary defense line built on the plain under their feet would probably have been blown up long ago.

"The heavy machine gun position is immediately transferred, more than ten steps away from the existing position!"

The commander of the 7th company decisively gave the order, and he had heard the deputy battalion commander say more than once that the Japanese grenadiers were specialized in targeting the heavy machine guns of the national army, and the strike effect was amazing. Just now, the 24th type of people had been firing diagonally at the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, and it was necessary to beware of being targeted by the Japanese grenadiers.

After a few minutes, the air finally fell silent again, and the Japanese shelling ended. But soon, the sound of horses' hooves sounded from the front of the two wings of the arc position of the Eighth Route Army, and it was obvious that the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army had made a comeback.

And this time, in the empty central area, a large area of Japanese infantry appeared gloomy figures.