Captain Zhu Xingyun, commander of the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment, has repeatedly dealt with the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army as a liaison officer, and is particularly familiar with the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade. At this moment, when his subordinates converged with the platoon of the 5th Company, Zhu Xingyun quickly figured out why the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade appeared here, and reported to his chief of staff, Zhang Hong.

Only then did Zhang Hong suddenly realize that the artillery sound he heard just now was not caused by the Japanese, but the artillery platoon of the Eighth Route Army, a so-called artillery platoon, which had fired the artillery so vigorously! - He also had no way of knowing where a long line of Japanese trucks had come from, but the three companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment were fighting separately from the Japanese troops in front of him, and it was obvious that they had arrived here in those trucks. The mortars of the Eighth Route Army accidentally knocked out their car, which was very good.

"The Japanese have retreated!"

The officers and men of Zhu Xingyun's Sixth Company suddenly shouted and shouted, and the Japanese soldiers, who were resisted by them and friendly forces, actually began to take the initiative to retreat. And just before, the regimental staff officer next to Zhang Hong had just fired a second signal flare vertically into the sky.

A squadron of the Japanese army, which was retreating on its own initiative, carried out the order of Kikuchi Shaosa. Shao Zuo, who was blocked in the dark, could not judge the number of frontal Chinese troops, and mistook the signal flares fired by the 391st Regiment for some kind of attack or even encirclement.

Finding that the Japanese army on the opposite side began to retreat, the Eighth Route Army, which was struggling and about to be exhausted, and the ranks of the Central Army were somewhat surprised, but the opportunity on the battlefield was fleeting, and the platoon commander of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade was originally sent to monitor this battlefield temporarily, but was almost eaten by the fierce Japanese army, taking advantage of this opportunity, he immediately proposed to the friendly company commander Zhu that the headquarters would return to the battlefield two miles away to meet with another platoon of the 5th Company and the artillery platoon of the battalion headquarters.

Zhang Hong, chief of staff who learned of the Eighth Route Army's intentions, snorted in his nose and was noncommittal: Although tonight is a joint operation between the two armies, he has no right to command the Eighth Route Army after all. At present, his first task is to receive the main force of the 2nd Battalion of the regiment to break through here; And the retreat of the Japanese on the opposite side also just gave him room to squeeze forward.

"Company Commander Zhu, don't leave a chance for the devil to breathe, the whole company immediately rushed forward and approached Camp Commander Chen!" Zhang Hong resolutely gave the order, and at the same time turned to the staff officer beside him and shouted: "Keep firing signal flares!" ”

Major Chen Hao, commander of the second battalion of the 391st Regiment, kept his eyes on the direction where the signal flares rose one after another, and urged the fourth company to make a desperate assault. However, the Japanese army in front of him was a whole infantry squadron, and the fourth company was seriously wounded by this Japanese army just now, so it repeatedly attacked several times, and was suppressed by the opponent's powerful firepower and forced to retreat. Chen Hao learned on the walkie-talkie that Chief of Staff Zhang brought the sixth company of his second battalion, so that at present, the three companies of the second battalion were divided into three pieces by the Japanese puppet army in this area: the position set up by the fifth company was in the center, the fourth company led by him in the north, and the sixth company led by the chief of staff and Zhu Xingyun in the south.

Chen Hao's eyes could even see the tongue of fire sprayed by the Makqin heavy machine gun on the position of the Fifth Company, and the distance between the Fourth Company and the Fifth Company was about half a mile away; And the place where the flare rose was the position of the sixth company, about two or three miles away from him. However, these two distances just can't be broken by him.

The automobile team, which was reluctantly abandoned by Kikuchi Shaoza, was at this time under continuous attack by another platoon of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army.

After the shelling of Japanese trucks commanded by Zhao Yejiao stopped, the deputy commander of the 5th Company rushed up with this platoon. Surprisingly, however, the dozens of Japanese soldiers guarding the trucks were unusually tenacious, most of them concentrating around the destroyed and still intact trucks, struggling to hold back the Eighth Route Army as they tried to get up. The charge launched by the deputy commander of the 5th Company was entirely in the unobstructed wilderness, and the Japanese had trucks as temporary bunker fortifications. The veterans of the Standing Division of the Sena Division were very capable of fighting individually, and their guns were also extremely accurate, and for a time, the soldiers of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, who were the attacking side, suffered a lot of losses.

Just as they were in a hurry, the roar of guns and cannons gradually came from the direction behind them, and they were getting closer and closer to them - it should be the deputy battalion commander Wu Zijian and the company commander Li Tianlin who had withdrawn!

The brain of the deputy commander of the 5th Company suddenly "buzzed", and a cold sweat slipped down his forehead: the main force was about to arrive, and the front of the retreat route was still blocked by Japanese trucks and guards, and it would be quite dangerous to go on like this. He immediately ordered the attack to be stopped, and then ran to the side of the artillery platoon position behind, and asked Zhao Yejiao to fire again to quickly deal with the enemy in front of him.

At the end of the battle, the artillery platoon commander of the Eighth Route Army felt that he could already die down, and in front of him was the Xiping Village base area. With such an idea, Zhao Yejiao began to care about the ammunition stock at hand again, and the arrogance of firing more than a dozen shells in one breath just now no longer existed. So as soon as he heard that there was still going to be artillery, he hesitated, and asked the deputy commander of the 5th company instead: Why can't you even get a few devils' cars!? The deputy company commander was displeased, and he had a heart attack and was afraid of losing the opportunity, so he had to persuade the other party patiently.

After such a delay, Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin's team was one step closer to here, and the top soldiers sent by the main force of the 5th Company in front had already arrived. The sound of gunfire in the fierce exchange of fire was even clear, and the deputy company commander couldn't help but be anxious, and desperately ordered Zhao Yejiao to open fire immediately.

Despite his reluctance and dissatisfaction with the deputy company commander's attitude of overstepping his command, the artillery platoon commander weighed his priorities and ordered the three mortars to fire a round of shells according to the firing range just now. At this moment, another platoon of the 5th Company also ran back from the flank battlefield and reported the battle situation of the friendly Zhu Xingyun Company in that area. The deputy company commander didn't bother to pay attention to the Central Army, and seeing that Zhao Yejiao fired a second round of shells, he gave an order, and the two platoons rushed towards the Japanese truck formation again.

These two rounds of shelling hit two Japanese trucks one after another, and completely blew up a truck that had been half crippled into the sky. The Japanese soldiers guarding the trucks finally couldn't hold on, and the surviving car soldiers began to start their cars and drive away from the dangerous area. The two platoons of the Eighth Route Army rushed to the occasion and finally opened the passage ahead.

The roar of mortar shells, combined with the explosion and burning of the truck that had been hit, created a loud noise and skyrocketing fire, which attracted the attention of Kosuke Otsuka, the commander of the Japanese wing, who was ten miles away.

The Fengdian reinforcements, led by Otsuka, who were also carried by the convoy, had just completely gotten rid of the entanglement of the Eighth Route Army and rushed to the new battlefield in front of them at full speed. Under the dazzling headlights of the car, the figure of the Mongolian cavalry is clear at a glance.

Du Dongqiang, the commander of the cavalry regiment, immediately reported the battle situation to the commander of the wing, Dazuo, claiming that the Chinese army had set up another defensive line here, and there were heavy machine guns to suppress the formation, and the cavalry regiment could not succeed in repeated attacks. As soon as the words fell, the squadron leader under Otsuka's subordinates, who had arrived here early to join the battle, also led his troops to come closer after seeing the car lights.

Previously, Kosuke Otsuka received the latest call from the headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade in Bunjo, informing him that the main force of the Shina Army near the railway line had fled eastward, and the imperial army reinforcements sent by Bunjo were pursuing and covering up; At the same time, the reinforcements sent by Linfen had broken away from the railway line and wedged into the retreat route of the Chinese army; Major General Hagiwara asked Kosuke Otsuka to lead Toyoden reinforcements to make an all-out assault to intercept the Shina Army, and to keep abreast of the battle situation at any time, and to instigate and command all units to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Shina Army.

Of course, the commander of the Japanese wing, who had high hopes, did not know at this time that half of the men and horses of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, including heavy artillery, had already withdrawn into Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain—at that time, he was being entangled by the 7th and 6th Companies of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army not far from Hekou Village—he had a brief meeting with his two squadron leaders and the commander of the cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Frontier Army, and they judged that the main force of the Chinese Army should be nearby and had not yet fled, and decided to immediately launch a general attack on the enemy in front of them.

"Du, your cavalry regiment will immediately turn around, search and attack in the direction it came, and strictly prevent the remnants of the Zhina Army, which were left behind by our army, from catching up and entangled!" The commander of the Japanese army arranged a new task for the weak Mongolian Xinjiang Army, and asked them to deal with the stubborn Eighth Route Army just now, so as to relieve the worries of the imperial army.

Just now, on the way to here, Otsuka suddenly received an urgent call from the county seat of Fengdian, and Nomura Shaosa, who was guarding the county seat, reported that an unknown number of Shina troops had appeared in the area around the east gate of the county town and opened fire on the defenders of the castle. Wing Captain Dazuo not only secretly showed up, but also called back to tell Nomura to ignore it and defend the city firmly - this is obviously another trick that the people of Zhi Na are good at encircling Wei to save Zhao! Tonight, the Chinese army has attacked the Nantongpu railway line in a big way, and it is obvious that the main force is out, and the enemy who appears under Fengdian City at this moment is at best a small force of harassing nature, and it is impossible to pose a threat to the fortified Fengdian City. The last time he led his team to attack Hekou Village at night, he had been in the wrong hands of the Chinese army, and this time, he would not let the other party succeed again no matter what.

After sending Du Dongqiang and his cavalry away, Otsuka Kosuke ordered his two infantry squadrons to immediately launch a general attack: in the flank and rear direction of the opposite Shina Army's position, there was obviously an imperial army fighting, and Otsuka analyzed that the division was either the team of Maori Captain sent by Wencheng, or the Linfen reinforcements had arrived. In short, the battlefield in front of you should be the best place to encircle and annihilate the main force of the China Army.

Wing Commander Osa pulled out his command knife, and the general attack began!