The colonel of the Central Army was not alarmed and asked the special service company to immediately count and report the number of Japanese trucks that appeared on the road, which involved the scale of the Japanese troops coming to aid the Japanese army. At the same time, he ordered the commander of the first battalion to prepare for dispatch - the first battalion and the first company with the strongest combat strength were always holding Qin Zhongxiao's hand as the general reserve tonight.

Soon after, the report of the special service company came through the walkie-talkie: there were nine Japanese trucks, and it could be seen from the few of them without canopies that the carriages were crowded with Japanese soldiers.

New reinforcements for an infantry squadron!

Qin Zhongxiao's brain quickly made a judgment. Moreover, none of the nine trucks had any artillery on wheels (field guns, 92 rifles, etc.) in the back, suggesting that the firepower of the new reinforcements may not be as strong as that of the Japanese troops who were stubbornly resisting on the railroad tracks at the moment.

"Deng Shoushan, your company immediately opened fire on the truck team and hit the rear team fiercely!" Qin Zhongxiao personally took the walkie-talkie and decisively gave the order. Deng Shoushan is the deputy company commander of the 391st Regiment's special service company, and at present, the company's commander, Captain Zhao Mu, is still under the orders of the intelligence group of the Shanxi Station of the Military Command in Wencheng, and the special service company is under the full command of Deputy Company Commander Deng.

Except for the company commander who sneaked to Wencheng with five people, the rest of the two platoons of the spy company, which were fully manned, were all dispatched tonight, and they were ambushed near a small hill more than three miles north of the ambush position of the main force of the 391st Regiment. Deputy Company Commander Deng personally led two squads to climb the hill to be responsible for lookout, while the rest of the people lay in ambush under the hill.

When he received the order to open fire from the regimental seat, more than half of the Japanese convoy had already passed the ambush front of the special service company, and Deng Shoushan dropped the walkie-talkie, and Mauser*, who had always carried it in his hand, went towards a Japanese truck at the bottom of the hill without aiming at it.

"Fire! Fire! ”

In a chaotic roar, the soldiers of the special service company on the hill took the lead, and more than a dozen * flew down. The 391st Regiment's Special Service Company has undergone several battle losses, and its individual weapons have changed, with only nearly half of the Special Service Company veterans still holding the traditional two-gun configuration of Bergman* and Mauser*, while the newly recruited soldiers have medium rifles.

But this weapon configuration can still be regarded as powerful, dozens of automatic firearms and synchronous guns are fired together, and the power is very amazing. The drivers of two of the trucks were killed immediately, one collided with the truck in front of him, and the other tilted his head and crashed into the railway embankment next to the road, tilting its body and stopping.

The squadron leader, Lieutenant Ushijima, recently led the team into a temporary barracks in the southern suburbs of Bunjo, and had just completed the task of sweeping several villages along the Qinglong River. Coincidentally, during that sweeping mission, his squadron was also ambushed by the local Eighth Route Army. Just now, Lieutenant Ushijima, who was sitting in the third truck, had heard the sound of firefighting in the night sky on the battlefield ahead, and he knew that it was his deputy captain, Captain Maori, holding on to the railway line; Lieutenant Ushijima, who had already planned to travel some more distance, ordered the convoy to stop, and the troops got out of the car and attacked the battlefield on foot.

And at that moment, gunshots and explosions were heard from the rear of the truck convoy, and Lieutenant Ushijima's scalp tightened: Yaga, is there another ambush?!

After ordering the spy company to open fire, the colonel of the Central Army immediately played the last card in his hand, and the battalion and company ran to the special service company to set up an ambush position, and blocked the new Japanese reinforcements head-on, striving to prevent the reinforcements from meeting with the Japanese troops in the railway line column.

Qin Zhongxiao himself chased after the commander of the artillery company and the Type 92 infantry gun, left the artillery position, and approached the highway and railway line where the fierce battle was raging.

On this side of the artillery position of the 391st Regiment, it is also across the road from Pu Road and the railway line. After the battle to attack the army column just now, the Japanese army quickly jumped down from the column and occupied the side of the road, and set up a heavy machine gun position there, and the two 92 heavy planes continued to roar from then on, forming a direct suppression of the two infantry companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment on this side of the road.

The Japanese soldiers' tactics of rapidly expanding the position area and establishing peripheral support made the colonel of the Central Army both admired and greatly angered, and bitterly blamed himself for failing to take this step into account and laying down a group of troops on the side of the highway in advance, so that the Japanese took the lead. He ran deep and shallow feet on the wasteland to catch up with the commander of the artillery company, and ordered the 92nd Infantry Gun to first knock out the heavy machine gun fire point of the Japanese army on the side of the road.

The short, stubby Type 92 infantry gun, which was pushed forward by its men, gradually came behind the two companies of the 2nd Battalion, which were attacking the railway line columns, and in the night, the officers and men of these two companies were still lying on their stomachs on the wasteland, firing with great strength at the columns ahead. The heavy machine-gun position set up by the Japanese army on the side of the highway swept a dense rain of bullets from the oblique stabs, forming an angle of fire with the fire on the frontal column, which posed a great threat to the second team.

The commander of the artillery company and his subordinates made a visual inspection, and they were about a mile away from the heavy machine gun position on the road that was spraying flames, and the constantly flashing muzzle fireworks of the two heavy machine guns provided a good position in the night. The Type 92 infantry gun gloomily twisted the barrel of the gun, aimed at the heavy machine gun position of the Japanese, and the shell was loaded, and the commander of the artillery company personally corrected it and pulled the first shot.

Rumble!

The shell failed to hit the target, and it was a long time after it swept past the Japanese heavy machine gun positions before a muffled sound was heard. The Japanese-made 92 infantry gun had a maximum range of more than four or five miles, and this gun obviously flew away.

The commander of the artillery company cursed angrily, shouted the order to reload, and at the same time began to hold his breath and shake the wheel handle to adjust the firing range—he did not dare to lower the muzzle of the gun too much for fear of accidentally injuring his own people who were attacking in front of him. The colonel of the Central Army, who was squatting behind the gun emplacement, with an anxious face, was about to move forward to command, and the second gun was fired.

Rumble!

The shells drilled into the ground almost a kilometer away in front of the Japanese heavy machine gun position, and the shrapnel and air waves that burst out after the explosion directly overturned a Type 92 heavy machine gun, and the company flew to the middle of the road with the guns. The adjacent heavy machine gun was also affected, and an ammunition driver was killed instantly when he was hit in the forehead by shrapnel.

The sudden close-range artillery bombardment surprised and delighted the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment, who had been suppressed so badly. Although it was impossible to directly observe the shelling effect with the naked eye in the vast night, the fact that the two 92 heavy planes on the Japanese heavy machine gun position suddenly fell silent was enough to explain everything. Qin Zhongxiao rushed to the side of the commander of the artillery company, excitedly stabbed the opponent in the back, and ordered to immediately adjust the muzzle of the gun to the Japanese army and continue to fire.

The commander of the artillery company was still very clear-headed, and at this time his own gun was already within the range of the Japanese weapons, and he fired two guns in a row, so it was necessary to transfer the gun position first for safety reasons, so as not to be tracked and fired back by the Japanese mortars, grenadiers, and even heavy machine guns.

"Tuanza, you can't stay with me, it's too dangerous!" The commander of the artillery company hurriedly ordered his subordinates to transfer, and shouted at Qin Zhongxiao beside him.

However, at this moment, the colonel of the Central Army did not care about these things at all, and the signal corps of the regimental headquarters stood beside him, so that the regimental adults could grab the microphone of the walkie-talkie on their backs at any time and keep in touch with the various units. At this time, Qin Zhongxiao was talking to the commander of a battalion on the other side of the railway, asking the commander of a battalion to seize the opportunity to withdraw the team with all his might - the Japanese army sent new reinforcements from Wencheng, and the strength of the offensive and defensive sides has changed greatly.

Qin Zhongxiao's retreat plan for the commander of the first battalion was to ask the two companies of the first battalion to run in the direction of the county seat of Lingshi County. There is a gap of almost five miles between the place where the 1st Battalion is attacking the Japanese army column and the north gate of Lingshi County, and this large gap should be a blind spot for the battle at the moment, from where the troops can cross the tracks of the Tongpu Railway and return to the main position east of the railway line and where the headquarters of the 391st Regiment is located. As long as the first battalion can safely withdraw from the opposite side, the three 75 mountain guns of the artillery company will naturally have no scruples about being injured by mistake, and they can confidently and boldly bombard the direction of the Japanese military columns, thus covering the detachment and withdrawal of the whole regiment from the battlefield one after another.

After a while, the commander of the artillery company had already transferred the 92nd infantry gun to a new position, and in accordance with the instructions of the regimental seat, he began to aim at the fire point of the heavy machine gun in the direction of the Japanese army. The approaching attack of the anti-aircraft artillery was vividly compared by later generations to "a bayonet on an infantry cannon", and the striking effect was amazing, and soon they dumbed out a heavy machine gun on the military column. Taking advantage of this precious opportunity, the two companies of the 2nd Battalion lying in front of the 92nd Infantry Gun quickly retreated dozens of feet away, and the advance was basically separated from the damage of the Japanese light weapons.

At this time, Chief of Staff Zhang Hong got in touch with Qin Zhongxiao and informed him that a company of the Second Battalion was still confronting the Japanese garrison at the East Gate of Lingshi County, and asked for instructions on the next course of action. The colonel of the Central Army ordered Zhang Hong to leave two platoons to monitor the East City Gate, and another platoon was immediately dispatched to the railway line in the direction of the northeast corner of the county town to contact the two companies of the first battalion that was about to retreat from that area.

In fact, the chief of staff himself had already felt the ineffective attack from the incessant exchange of fire on the main battlefield, and he was more and more worried about the development of the war situation, not to mention that the Japanese army had come from the road to reinforce it. Now the regimental commander ordered a battalion on the other side of the railroad to withdraw, which was well in his favor.

At present, the colonel of the Central Army is most concerned about the first battalion and one company and the special service company responsible for blocking the Japanese army's road reinforcements, these two companies (of which the special service company is nominally a company, but in fact there are only two platoons of more than 70 people) have no heavy fire support, and in the face of the Japanese reinforcements that are very likely to be an infantry squadron, they do not even have an advantage in the number of opponents.

I can only pray that the main force of the first battalion on the other side of the railway line will be withdrawn safely and smoothly, so that our heavy artillery can play its role as soon as possible!

"In the two directions of the Eighth Route Army's defense, is there any new situation to report?"

When he was in a hurry, Qin Zhongxiao remembered the friendly forces of the joint operation: since the 391st Regiment of the main attack was ready to leave the battlefield, it was necessary to inform the Eighth Route Army in advance.

The operational staff officer of the regimental headquarters who was questioned replied: Since the departure of several communications cavalry sent by the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade from the preset position, there has been no new information about them so far. The colonel of the Central Army instructed the operational staff officer to inform the chief of staff at the east gate of Lingshi County to immediately send people to the position of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade to inform the situation of our unit's imminent evacuation, and to ask the Eighth Route Army to prepare and act on camera.

"Tuanzao, we are fighting with the Japanese here, but the Eighth Route Army is very idle!" The operational staff officer of the other regimental headquarters said a little sourly. Qin Zhongxiao immediately stopped the arguing of his subordinates, and told him that this was the division of labor between the two armies, and that the Eighth Route Army was defending the flank security of our regiment.

"Will there be devils on our flanks?" The reprimanded combat staff officer muttered a little unwillingly, and his heart was still full of contempt for the Eighth Route Army who was sitting and watching the battle.

What he didn't know was that two infantry squadrons of the Japanese Kato Brigade had already rushed to the aid here by train from Linfen. The 5th Company, the most elite company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, is about to face the cruel test of blood and fire.