On the narrow defense line of Xiping Village, there are two heavy machine guns hidden at this moment, one of which is the original equipment, and the other is the imitation of the Makqin type of the people, which is a gift from the 391st Regiment of the Central Army; When I first took it, there was a fault, but it was repaired by Wu Zijian himself.

After the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade was reorganized into the Guanmenshan Detachment of the Xu Brigade, these two heavy machine guns were directly under the jurisdiction of the detachment headquarters, and Wu Zijian planned to get two more in the future, so that a heavy machine gun company would be established like the 391st Regiment.

In today's defensive battle, these two heavy machine guns were all put into the forefront, and they were very secretly placed in two civilian houses, so they were safe and sound in the first few rounds of Japanese artillery fire. When a large number of babbling and screaming devils charged over, two heavy machine guns suddenly fired one after the other.

The Japanese soldiers who were running in the forefront were instantly knocked down, and those who followed behind fell down or knelt down one after another, raised their guns and began to return fire.

Takagi Shaosa, the commander of the Japanese army who commanded the attack, was shocked to find that there were heavy machine guns on the position of the Eighth Route Army, and he was anxious for a while, and at first he wanted to order the rushing team to withdraw first, but when he found that they had stopped charging and began firing at the same place, he changed his mind and turned back to the artillery position to seek support.

Wing Commander Saijo Osa saw the position more clearly, and he immediately ordered the squadron leader of the artillery squadron to capture the two heavy machine gun fire points of the Eighth Route Army and destroy them as soon as possible.

In his repeated encounters with the Japanese army, Wu Zijian had already learned how powerful the other side was at using artillery fire (including grenadiers) to eliminate the machine gun positions and fortifications of the national army, so he prepared a number of bunkers for the two heavy machine guns today, and the soldiers of each squad were always hidden nearby, and after firing for a while, they quickly helped carry the heavy machine guns and move their positions to avoid the tracking and attack of the Japanese artillery.

This trick really worked, and the bulky Makqin was always able to get out of the original firing point as quickly as possible under the joint efforts of many people, and once he reached the new cover, he could open fire immediately. During the transfer of heavy machine guns, several other Czech light machine guns erected on the narrow line of defense began to take cover.

Since the beginning of the ground offensive, the Japanese 92 Infantry Guns have never been able to accurately hit the heavy machine guns with long legs on the opposite side, on the contrary, the artillery positions have even been strafed, and at least six or seven artillerymen have been killed and wounded - the firing distance of Makqin is several thousand meters, and the Japanese artillery position is only more than two miles from the front line of Xiping Village, which is completely within the range of this deadly heavy machine gun.

The commander of the Japanese wing, who was standing not far behind the artillery position, felt that something was wrong - although this formidable Eighth Route Army had lost artillery support, it had finally missed the existence of their heavy machine guns. If we continue to attack like this, I am afraid that the casualties will exceed expectations.

Shigehei Saijo decisively gave the order to retreat. A yellow figure of Japanese soldiers began to squirm cautiously to the rear. The first attack, just halfway.

"The artillery squadron shifted its position back and left the range of the heavy machine guns of the Eighth Route Army!" With the order of the Japanese wing commander, the seven 92 infantry guns also began to slowly retreat.

As a result, the commanders and fighters of the Eighth Route Army on the defense line of Xiping Village saw a large number of Japanese troops carrying infantry artillery with wheels and retreating in an orderly manner.

"The devil has withdrawn, the little devil has withdrawn!" The narrow line of defense resounded with cheers one after another. In particular, the soldiers from the third battalion and the eighth company, many of whom had never fought the Japanese army head-on, were inevitably full of excitement at this moment.

Seeing this scene, the commander of the Xu Brigade hurriedly ordered everyone to maintain emotional stability and not to expose their bodies too much to bunkers and fortifications:

"The Japanese also have heavy machine guns, and the range is not closer than our Makqin, so hurry up and hide them for me!"

"Detachment leader, the little devils don't seem to be beaten much, and a machine gun suddenly knocked them back!"

There were still fighters in the mood shouting with great interest. Wu Zijian replied in a stern tone:

"Don't rejoice too soon! The Japanese are much tougher to deal with than you might think! The tough battle is still to come! ”

After that, the detachment commander sent someone to order Qi Biao, deputy commander of the third battalion, and Wei Xin, commander of the second battalion, to supervise and inspect the defense line at the north and south entrances of the village—in those two directions, the 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion and the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion each assigned a small force to defend it. Although the Japanese attacked from a wide frontal attack due west this time, the defense at the north and south ends could not be compromised.

At present, Xiping Village, which has been attacked by the Japanese army, is not clear whether there is an enemy situation in Hekou Village, and the two sides have agreed to exchange battle conditions at any time. Wu Zijian had just sent two soldiers to Hekou Village on horseback to report the news.

After all this deployment, the commander of the Eighth Route Army re-picked up the binoculars and observed the retreating Japanese brigade. At this moment, they had retreated more than a mile, and the 92 infantry guns with wheels had retreated farther away and began to set up positions again. Wu Zijian understood that the devil was frightened by Makqin on his side just now, and this retreat was obviously widening the distance from being strafed:

"Hurry up and repair the fortifications and bunkers, and if you don't have time to repair them, find a new hiding point, a new round of shelling will come soon!"

Less than a minute after this order was given, sure enough, the fire began again from the new artillery positions of the Japanese army, and the longer distance did not affect the play of the Type 92 infantry guns, and the shells whistled in, once again blowing up the forward defense line of Xiping Village to the ground, and the smoke and dust covered the sun. Those veterans of the Eighth Route Army who had combat experience realized at this time that in addition to the original 92 infantry guns, this time the Japanese army also added mortars - shells with sharp whistles fell from the sky one by one.

The casualties intensified in an instant.

"Grandma's little devil! is so arrogant with a cannon, doesn't this make it clear that he is bullying! Qi Biao, the deputy commander of the third battalion, was so angry that he took off his hat and threw it to the ground, revealing a green-skinned bald head, jumping and roaring in the thick gunsmoke.

On the other side, Wei Xin, the commander of the second battalion, who was far more experienced than Qi Biao in fighting against Japan and had fought in the defensive battle of Xiping Village, was much more old and calm; while ordering his subordinates to rescue the wounded, he stepped up his efforts to urge the rest of the officers and soldiers to strengthen concealment, and did not have to consider the monitoring of the front before the devil's artillery fire stopped, and made every effort to survive and prevent bombing.

The shelling lasted more than 10 minutes before it was terminated. Silence ensued, and the commanders patiently observed the effects of artillery fire with binoculars on the Japanese positions, and the two infantry squadrons were mobilized again.

"Dazuo, the Eighth Road on the opposite side has been transferring their heavy machine guns, is the infantry squadron only making a feint before completely knocking out those two heavy machine guns?"

The Japanese army captain Takagi Shaosa suggested worriedly. In this open and flat wasteland, the infantry charged forward with the muzzles of the Maxim heavy machine guns, and the result was nothing less than a massacre.

Wing Commander Shigehei Saijo thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement, and he ordered an infantry squadron to be dispatched instead, widening the distance of individual soldiers to launch a feint charge, with the aim of luring the heavy machine guns on the Eighth Route Army's position to open fire.

"Concentrate all grenadier detachments, follow up behind the feint troops, and make every effort to capture the Makqin of the Eighth Route Army, and destroy it cleanly and completely!"

Ten minutes later, the smoke and dust rising from the front of Xiping Village in the distance settled again, and Takagi Shaosa pulled out his command knife and slashed forward, and the attack began again.

At the same time, in the area of Lihuapu in the lower reaches of the Qinglong River, the elite first battalion of the Guanmenshan Detachment of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army was running with all its strength in the direction of the Tongpu Railway. On their right flank, the rumbling of artillery was non-stop, and all the officers and men, including Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the first battalion, knew that it was the Japanese army shelling the Xiping Village base area, and their task of desperately rushing forward was to prepare to go around the flank and rear direction of the Japanese army and launch an attack.

Xia Lianshan's cavalry company, which had galloped out ahead of the 1st Battalion, had to find a suitable sortie position for a surprise attack in advance—it was best to spot the Japanese troop trucks.

The cavalry followed the sound of the cannon fire, quickly and covertly searching. In the end, Xia Lianshan was the first to discover the Japanese army stationed in the wilderness in the telescope. Fortunately, there are two or three small woods not far away at this moment, and with a wave of Xia Lianshan's hand, more than sixty horsemen and horses all ran into the woods to hide.

The commander of the cavalry company leaned his mount under a tall poplar tree, stood on the saddle and held the trunk of the tree, and held up his binoculars to carefully scan the Japanese camp. No one looked over the woods—the devils' attention was due east, and that direction was, of course, Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain.

He continued to move the telescope to the rear of the Japanese brigade, and as a result, he found the figure of the truck team he wanted. There seemed to be more than a dozen of those trucks, about half a mile away from the Japanese troops, and the front of the trucks were all facing the direction of Tongpu Road.

"Hurry up and go back the same way to report to Battalion Commander Wang, and bring the main force of the first battalion here!"

Xia Lianshan hurriedly arranged for a cavalryman to run back to report the news, and he continued to observe: this forest was less than two miles away from the Japanese camp in front, and the infantry charged on foot, and it would not take a few minutes to reach the range of rifles, which was undoubtedly an ideal angle for flank assault.

Suddenly, the artillery positions in the Japanese camp stopped firing, and after a while, almost one or two hundred Japanese soldiers left the main position and moved forward - it should be the size of an infantry squadron! The cavalry company commander of the Eighth Route Army judged, and at the same time looked forward to Wang Shuanglong's arrival more and more anxiously.

Thankfully, the first battalion arrived panting, and they were concentrated behind these woods, while the first battalion commander rushed to Xia Lianshan's side with the deputy battalion commander and several company commanders.

They collectively observed the terrain and the Japanese camp, and Wang Shuanglong waved his hand:

"Lianshan, the devil car team in the rear will be handed over to your cavalry company to deal with, and I will take a battalion and directly cover the past from here!"