"Before firing, dismount, leave a few men behind to guard the horses, and the rest attack on foot! After the battle, I will leave the battlefield immediately, and I will be brought back with a complete group of men and horses! ”

This is the cavalry company's detailed instructions to the company commander before the departure of the cavalry company.

Although Xia Lianshan's cavalry company was trained far away in the Xiping battalion headquarters, Wu Zijian still mastered the training process of the cavalry, and he knew very well that the soldiers of the cavalry company had not yet reached the tactical level of marching on horseback to fight—slashing with sabers, shooting with rifles, etc.; What's more, the puppet Mongolian army on the opposite side is quite exquisite. The deputy commander of the second battalion could not let his cavalry touch the strengths of the enemy army with their shortcomings. Therefore, this time he ordered Xia Lianshan to lead the cavalry to attack, he just wanted to give full play to the characteristics of their rapid movement and quickly go to the flank of the puppet Mongolian army.

Xia Lianshan was very familiar with the terrain after going out from the end of the village, and in the night, he first led the cavalry to run south for about a mile, and then suddenly turned to the direction of Tongpu Road and ran out for another mile or so, crossed the frozen Qinglong River, and then turned Ma Shoule to the north, and the cavalry company commander knew that at this moment his team was already on the flank of the puppet Mongolian army attacking Hekou Village. He instructed the cavalrymen to rein in the reins and let the horses trot forward less than half a mile, and then dismounted.

They bent their waists and cautiously groped forward, and gradually, the north wind heard a clear movement of horses neighing and shouting, and everyone understood that they were not far from the brigade of puppet Mongolian cavalry standing outside Hekou Village.

Xia Lianshan was preparing to suddenly launch a flank attack when the enemy's cavalry launched another offensive against Hekou Village and the village was focused on the front. He passed the order to his subordinates: the night was dark and the wind was high, there was no need to aim,* first skimmed in the general direction of the sound of the men and horses, and then fired a salvo of guns.

But he did not convey the order of the deputy battalion commander Wu Zijian to leave the battlefield immediately after the fight.

In the village just now, Xia Lianshan had already felt the seriousness of the enemy situation from the battles that had taken place in two places, and the deputy battalion commander led people to rush left and right, and the situation was obviously very passive. Therefore, he was ready to use this counterattack of the cavalry company to hit the enemy as hard as possible and reduce the pressure on the defense of the estuary village.

Du Dongqiang did not expect that the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army would unknowingly go around the right flank of his team. Captain Otsuka asked the cavalry regiment to charge repeatedly, but he didn't add a single soldier to himself - didn't he fucking want the Mongolian Xinjiang cavalry to be cannon fodder for the imperial army brigade! Now, his two cavalry battalions were all in battle, and they were put at the forefront to storm the villages of the Eighth Route Army; If the impact continues like this, I am afraid that before dawn, the men and horses of my regiment will not survive half of it.

Du Dongqiang decided to discount the execution of the order of the captain of the imperial army: he could neither stand still (that would not be the case if the enraged captain would be punished on the spot), nor could he just charge stupidly. The dark night helped a lot, anyway, the Japanese who were hiding behind to supervise the battle couldn't see how many troops they had invested, he only had to send a small number of sharp soldiers to charge forward, in exchange for the guns and artillery on the opposite side of the eight roads to return fire, more of the main force remained in his hands, waving his flag and shouting in the back, and the momentum definitely gave people a feeling of going all out to attack.

After coming up with this method, the commander of the cavalry of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army breathed a big sigh of relief, and suddenly felt a lot more relaxed. He ordered the battalion commander to stand beside him, and sent a company of men and horses to divide into two teams; The front team took the lead in attacking, and when the Eighth Route Army in the opposite village began to return fire, the front team immediately opened fire, and at the same time turned the horse's head and retreated to the left and right, while the rear team stepped forward from the middle lane at this time, repeating the attack method of the front team just now. In this way, the two teams frequently swapped advances and retreats, forming a reciprocating cycle of horse racing; However, they did not approach the village too close to reduce casualties.

I have to admit that the horse running formation of the commander of the cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army was quite clever, not only deceived the Japanese wing commander who was desperately urging him to attack, but even confused the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side.

But Xia Lianshan, who led people to hide on the flanks, gradually realized that something was wrong. Although it was impossible to see the situation of the puppet Mongolian army not far away, judging from the sound, these traitor cavalry should be riding horses to launch a new offensive, and gunshots were also heard from the direction of Hekou Village, obviously, it was Deputy Battalion Commander Wu Zijian who was directing the blockade. However, the sound of horses' hooves in front of Xia Lianshan seemed to be spinning again and again: horses kept running down, and horses kept running up. And there was always a large group of men and horses, standing behind them and not moving, but their mouths were exaggeratedly shouting, and some of them even fired guns into the sky.

Xia Lianshan, who was puzzled, suddenly realized something, suddenly his heart beat faster, and secretly shouted badly: The puppet Mongolian army is taking a form of feint, constantly contacting and breaking away from the front of the defender's position, so as to lure the Eighth Route Army to open fire and consume the ammunition of the Eighth Route Army!

Of course, Xia Lianshan couldn't imagine that the cavalry commander of the puppet Mongolian army was actually playing bluff, and this bluff was not played for the Eighth Route Army, but for his imperial army boss.

Xia Lianshan, who was anxious, immediately sent an order to his soldiers to prepare for battle - the feint attack of the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army has been going on for a while, and they can't be allowed to spend so much time!

Under normal circumstances, Xia Lianshan's ambush army should have raided the puppet Mongolian army standing behind, because the cavalry in front of them was constantly exhausted, and their physical strength and energy had been greatly consumed. But as soon as he thought that Wu Zijian might have been tricked, Xia Lianshan's mind was hot, and he gave the order to fight on the spot. As a result, the cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army threw a batch of * at the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, which instantly blew up the front team of the puppet Mongolian army that was "acting", and then the pony gun began to shoot sharply.

Du Dongqiang was frightened by this sudden blow, and listening to the dense gunfire, he thought for a moment that he was besieged by the Eighth Route Army, and hurriedly ordered to retreat.

The cavalry, who had been attacked by the raid, rushed in the direction of the head of the village in order to escape the blow of the raid fire. Xia Lianshan simply did not stop doing anything, and ordered the whole company to turn around and pursue the rear of the puppet Mongolian army. Unexpectedly, the opponent's machine gun suddenly rang out - this is a machine gun company directly under the jurisdiction of Du Dongqiang's regimental headquarters, which has several Taisho 11 light machine guns, which are usually used to open the road or break the back - The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who were buried in pursuit were caught off guard and were knocked down a small piece at once. Xia Lianshan hurriedly restrained the soldiers to stop and lie on the spot, and after this delay, Du Dongqiang commanded the cavalry to open the distance.

The frightened commander of the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, seeing that the attacker did not catch up, and recalling that the attacker's firepower did not seem to be very strong, ordered to turn the horse's head and line up. Because of the defeat here and the escape to Wencheng, Du Dongqiang was even personally reprimanded by Major General Hagiwara Akira Brigade Commander that day, and Captain Otsuka scolded him afterwards; Therefore, he knew that he could not be defeated again, and he did not want or dare to retreat: Kosuke Otsuka was staring at it from a distance of less than a few miles!

"Machine guns, they don't have machine guns!" Du Dongqiang pondered: "The firepower of the Eighth Road is not good, let me use a machine gun to shoot back!" ”

This machine gun company under the direct jurisdiction of Du Dongqiang's regimental headquarters was not equipped with heavy machine guns like the cavalry group of the Japanese Kwantung Army that trained and armed them, but all Japanese-style light machine guns, commonly known as crooked handles. At this moment, all these machine guns were placed in front, strafing and advancing in the direction that the attacker had just fired.

This time, Xia Lianshan's sixty pony guns could not resist, and the rain of locust-like bullets made it difficult for them to move an inch, even if the opponent's shooters were indiscriminately strafing in the dark, they still caused them a lot of casualties. At this moment, the cavalry company commander of the Eighth Route Army realized that he should have taken advantage of the defenselessness just now to attack the puppet Mongolian army standing behind, but at this time it was too late to regret it, and Xia Lianshan, who realized that something was wrong, immediately ordered him to retreat and retreat towards the place where his horses stopped.

Du Dongqiang felt the retreat of the other party, and became more and more sure that this was not a large army, and the part of the fleeing men and horses that was attacked by the flank at this time also regrouped, so Du Dongqiang temporarily gave up the attack on Hekou Village, and wanted to first defeat this enemy army with all his might.

Xia Lianshan stumbled back to the horses and turned over on their horses. Looking back behind him, the puppet Mongolian army was not resolutely pursuing, and the pace of the machine guns moving forward was very slow, as if they were still apprehensive about the attack just now. Some of the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army who rode on their horses began to shoot at the machine gun position of the puppet Mongolian army with their guns in one hand, and a few unconvinced soldiers drew their sabers and asked the company commander to lead them to kill them back.

Xia Lianshan's mind has become calm and sober, and he knows that the number of cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army is several times more than that of his own cavalry company, not to mention that the other party is from the Mongolian steppe and fights on horseback all year round, which is by no means comparable to the cavalry that he has just formed.

"Withdraw! All retreat towards the end of the village! ”

The coming day is long, and when Lao Tzu's cavalry is trained, sooner or later, one day, I will have to fight with you traitors on horseback!

The commander of the cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army thought angrily as he turned his horse's head and urged the team to the south. He still had to retreat along the route he had come, retreating south first and then turning back, so as not to directly lead the cavalry of the puppet Mongol army to the position at the end of the village.

In his hurry, Xia Lianshan did not count the number of people, and when he found that several horses had no owners, the cavalry company had already begun to run. Only then did Xia Lianshan realize that when he was fired back by the machine gun of the puppet Mongolian army just now, there must have been soldiers who were wounded and left behind or even died! At that time, I could not see this in the night, and now it is impossible to return to rescue or take the body away.

The cavalry company commander felt a tingling in his heart, but the rain of bullets from the crooked machine guns behind him was getting closer and closer, so he had to grit his teeth and urge the horse to follow the team.

Xia Lianshan's mind was full of what happened to his abandoned comrades, but he ignored another, more serious situation. In his cavalry company, there were more than a dozen officers and soldiers of the cavalry regiment of the puppet Mongolian army who had been captured in the last battle of Hekou Village, and one of them was still the deputy battalion commander. They had all been recruited or coerced into the Eighth Route Army, and they were all incorporated into the newly formed cavalry company as training instructors, but some people had been planning to escape, and the deputy battalion commander was one of them.

Tonight, when the cavalry company was pulled out of the Xiping battalion headquarters, everyone didn't know that the enemy was actually a puppet Mongolian army in the battle that was about to rush to Hekou Village to participate. When they learned of this situation, several old units of the puppet Mongolian army, headed by the deputy battalion commander, moved to flee to the old troops. After all, their homeland is in Suiyuan and Chahar (the territory of the puppet Mongolian military government), and they are not willing to leave their homeland like this.

In the end, with the hectic nature of the troops and the darkness of the night, the deputy battalion commander of the puppet Mongolian army and the other two old cavalry units of the puppet Mongolian army successfully escaped.

This sudden occurrence will bring huge variables to the next battles of Xiping and Hekou Village.