The platoon of the 5th Company is said to have built a defensive line, but in the tundra wasteland of the same flat river, the so-called defensive line is more like a straggler line: more than 40 people are basically squatting horizontally in the unobstructed place, every three or five feet, guarding the direction of Fengdian in the north, but more people always look back and watch the main force and the Mongolian army cavalry fight.

Until someone suddenly shouted: "What person? Hold it! Don't stand still and shoot again! ”

This is a soldier who accidentally spotted a large figure running from the direction of Fengdian, and in a hurry, he stood up straight, and raised the alarm with the medium rifle in his hand. Suddenly, the other fighters in the platoon turned their attention and opened their eyes wide to see what was happening on the other side.

The running figures suddenly stopped, and in the darkness of the night, they made an urgent motion to lie down.

This is the infantry squad personally led by Captain Nara Shaosa, who has just abandoned the car and ran forward to the sound of the firefight. Nara Shaosa did not expect that someone would set up a defense line here, and of course it was not clear whether the other party who spoke Chinese to ask questions was friend or foe; However, Shao Zuo knew very well that a considerable number of people in the Mongolian Cavalry Regiment knew Japanese, so he asked the squad leader next to him to shout:

"Is it the Mongolian Frontier Army Cavalry Regiment? Where is your head Du Dongqiang? ”

Until this moment, the Japanese still thought that it was the rear team of the Mongolian cavalry that had just been asked the first question.

As soon as these Japanese words sounded, the Eighth Route Army immediately understood, and without waiting for the platoon commander to give an order, dozens of rifles were fired one after another. And the gunfire and bullet rain also made Nara Shaozo and his team instantly figure out the identity of the other side, and the Taisho 11 machine gun and 38 rifle quickly launched a counterattack.

Compared with the Eighth Route Army and the Mongolian Xinjiang Army, which were fighting in a pot of porridge in the distance, although the two sides here were clearly distinguished, they did not know each other. A platoon of the Eighth Route Army, which had set up a defensive line here on the orders of the deputy battalion commander, would certainly not allow the Japanese troops on the opposite side to break through; Nara Shaoza was worried about the ambush in his own side who were unfamiliar with the terrain in the dark night, so soon after the exchange of fire, he ordered to fight and retreat, striving to get out of the battlefield first, and then decide after figuring out the terrain and the location of the Mongolian army.

Two or three miles behind the Nara Shaoza forward squad was the Japanese truck team that had turned off the fire. Kosuke Otsuka, who was sitting in the cab of a truck, opened the window to listen to the sound of the firefight in front of him, and at the same time asked the signal corps to use walkie-talkies to contact Du Dongqiang's troops and inquire about the specific battle situation. Da Zuo already had a premonition that the battle that took place before the stipulated ten o'clock was unlikely to be initiated by the cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army.

There was no response from Du Dongqiang, and Otsuka Kosuke did not know that the entire cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army had fallen into a panicked melee, and there was no time to report to the rear. However, the striker led by Nara replied with a walkie-talkie, saying that before reaching the battlefield, he suddenly encountered a fire blockade, and it was possible that it was the Shina army.

Wing Commander Dazuo couldn't help but be surprised: Before arriving at the battlefield, he was blocked by the Chinese army, could it be that the Chinese had surrounded the cavalry of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army?! What is this Du Dongqiang doing? How could the Chinese army be prepared for a sneak attack on their own side in advance?

As soon as the encounter outside Hekou Village began, the remaining troops in the village suddenly became nervous. Since Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin came out with the 5th Company, there were only Xiao Junping's enemy engineering team and a platoon of the 8th Company temporarily transferred from Guanmen Mountain in the village—another platoon of the 8th Company, under the leadership of the deputy company commander, took over the Guanmen Mountain Pass adjacent to Hekou Village.

Xiao Junping had been lying in his clothes tonight, and he had a very bad premonition, worried that the deputy battalion commander and the 5th company of the lone brigade would be exposed and suffer losses in the mountains heavily defended by the Japanese.

But what the enemy engineer captain did not expect was that Wu Zijian and the 5th Company were safe and sound in the mountains, but after walking out of the mountains, they inadvertently bumped into the cavalry of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army who were preparing to attack Hekou Village.

The platoon, which was temporarily transferred from the 8th Company, was already familiar with the fortifications of Hekou Village in advance. Since the last time a cavalry battalion of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army suddenly attacked, Wu Zijian and the officers and men of the whole company made a detailed summary of the battle, and built comprehensive fortifications in response to the defensive weaknesses exposed in Hekou Village; These fortifications are skillfully combined with the houses, courtyard walls and agricultural facilities in the village, which can be described as civilian and civil; A defensive network that looks ordinary on the outside but is actually very tight.

At this time, Xiao Junping, together with the three platoon commanders of the 8th Company, urgently commanded the members of the enemy engineering team and the soldiers of the whole platoon, and separately occupied various key points in the village at the head of the village, in the middle of the village. Xiao Junping also immediately sent three members of the enemy team to reconnoiter in the direction of the exchange of fire north of the village, and he knew that there were five mobile posts set up day and night in that direction; He hoped that the Sentinel would be the first to come back and report what had happened in that direction.

Sure enough, a sentry came back panting and rushing back - tonight, a total of four sentries were distributed on the light and dark sentry posts about three miles away from Hekou Village, and the cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army from Fengdian actually stopped and stopped nearly two miles away from those posts, so the sentries did not detect them. When Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin accidentally bumped into the cavalry and opened fire decisively, the sentries heard the sound and touched it to observe, and one of the sentries found that one of the belligerents was their own 5th company, so they hurriedly ran to the village to report the news.

"Cavalry? How is it cavalry again?! Xiao Junping, who received the report, looked at the sentry who was bent over and panting in disbelief: "Or the Mongol cavalry from last time?" ”

The sentry explained: I can't see clearly in the night, I don't know if it's a Mongol, but the 5th company is fighting against the cavalry, and there are a lot of them, and there are war horses scurrying around everywhere.

Xiao Junping couldn't figure out for a while how this cavalry got involved with the deputy battalion commander: was it to lure the enemy back from deep in, or was it that the march was exposed and chased here?

"I don't think it's like luring the enemy to go deeper," after all, the commander of the third platoon of the 8th Company is also a veteran of the war, and he has more combat experience than the enemy engineer captain who came from intelligence: "If the deputy battalion commander takes the initiative to set up a lure and lure the enemy's cavalry to the base area, then he will definitely send someone back to inform us in advance!" ”

A sentence woke up Xiao Junping - this should be hunted down or encountered!

"Third platoon commander, you command the whole platoon to defend strictly in the village, and immediately send people to the fortifications on the other side of the mountain pass, and inform you that the deputy company commander of the 8th Company will hold the position and not attack without authorization until the enemy situation is known!"

Xiao Junping gave an order, and at the same time ordered a few more enemy engineers, led by the sentry, to the battlefield to find out, the most important thing at the moment is to contact the deputy battalion commander or the commander of the 5th company.

When the battle came to this, Wu Zijian, who had experienced a hundred battles, was also a little at a loss. The night was vast, and apart from the deafening sound of gunfire and the terrifying shouting of people and the neighing of horses, he, the commander, could not figure out how many enemies there were and what they were distributed. He used five platoons to launch a surprise attack on the cavalry, but now these five platoons were also completely on their own, and the soldiers around him who could see and mobilize were not more than ten at most!

Where is Li Tianlin? Where is the deputy company commander?

The sound of the rifles was noisy, and the only thing that could be distinguished was the sound of machine guns: the two Czechs on their side had been roaring intermittently; Later, a crooked response was heard, which was undoubtedly a Japanese light machine gun carried by the Mongol cavalry.

Of course, Wu Zijian didn't know that the platoon he had left behind in the direction of Fengdian had already had a brief exchange of fire with the Japanese reinforcements who rushed up, but fortunately, the other party was only a striker, and he shrank back after a little contact.

Just when the deputy battalion commander was so anxious that his head was sweating, Xiao Junping, who was limping, led the enemy workers and found him under the guidance of the soldiers of the 5th Company. He was in a hurry to fire and strike first, so he didn't bother to send someone back to Hekou Village to report the news, and Wu Zijian was overjoyed to see that the captain of the enemy engineer he relied on the most arrived in time.

The two briefly talked about the situation, Xiao Junping judged that the enemy's cavalry was more than hundreds of people, and he suggested that he should immediately break away from the enemy army, withdraw to Hekou Village and Shankou fortifications, rely on the geographical advantage to stabilize the position first, and wait until dawn to see the situation clearly.

This suggestion is exactly what Wu Zijian wants, because at the moment the enemy's situation is unclear and our army cannot effectively command, if we continue to fight like this, there will be many dangers that are difficult to predict.

"Ignition! Immediately light a fire at the head of the village! ”

The Eighth Route Army (Red Army) has always been good at night battles, and the Second Battalion has set up many signal methods for night operations in the past operations and training. Soon, Wu Zijian asked a platoon commander around him to lead people back to Hekou Village, and lit three piles of flames in the direction of due north at the head of the village, and the three tall fires showed a regular triangle, one in front and two in the back. This is to inform our troops on the battlefield to concentrate in the direction of the fire. The 5th Company also had a trumpeter, but he should have followed Li Tianlin's actions at this time, and Wu Zijian couldn't be contacted.

Xiao Junping, who had already returned to the village first, found another flare gun and fired a flare next to the fire. In the dark night, red and green signal flares soared into the air, dazzling. For a time, both the Eighth Route Army and the Mongolian Xinjiang Army saw it, and more commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army immediately discovered the triangular fire in the distance under the guidance of the signal flare!

They began to fight and retreat.

Once the target is determined, the situation on the battlefield becomes clear. The five platoons of the 5th Company shouted and shouted to each other to shrink their formations, and as they contracted, they marched in the direction of the fire. The cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army, which did not know why, was still running around in a mess, and from time to time a cavalry company with men and horses was shot by bullets. The retreating Eighth Route Army became more and more neat in formation, and its firepower became more and more concentrated.

Wu Zijian did not forget to send someone to the rear line of defense to inform the guard platoon, they were too far away from the village, and I was afraid that they would not be able to see the fire. However, the two soldiers who went to inform them had just found the opponent's defense line, and a dense stream of bullets flew from the direction of Fengdian.

This is the Japanese army of the Nara Brigade that has just retreated, and launched a formal attack here, and the wing commander Kosuke Otsuka personally supervised the battle in the back, and the Japanese soldiers of the two squadrons, under the opening of several light machine guns, swarmed murderously.