Tonight, in this three-sided ambush battle led by the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army on the Zhaojiacun defense line, it was the second battalion of the 570th Regiment that was placed in the left flank position, which was personally commanded by the regimental chief of staff.

At the moment when the order to open fire was given, the regimental chief of staff's body even trembled a little - in his memory, the 12th Brigade of the Independent Brigade had never won many encounters with the Japanese army since the Spring Festival this year, and they had always ended in a one-touch collapse.

But this opportunity in front of him was really too rare: the Japanese troops, including the truck team and the 92nd infantry guns, retreated almost unsuspectingly towards the preset position of the 2nd Battalion of the 570th Regiment. The attention of the Japanese was all on the other side of the Qinglong River and the village of Zhaojia in front of them, apparently unexpectedly that behind them there was an entire battalion of Jin officers and soldiers in ambush.

It is a shame to say that the three-sided ambush posture put on tonight, the so-called "position" of the second battalion of the 570 regiment, is so sloppy that it can no longer be scribbled. Compared with the inherent defense system of Zhaojia Village on the front and the natural barrier on the other side of the Qinglong River, the place where the second battalion lay in ambush was on the flat and unobstructed wasteland. Due to the urgency of the incident, they did not have time to dig trenches with shovels and pickaxes, but only temporarily transported a batch of "bunkers" from Zhaojia Village with mules and horses, and hastily laid them on the defensive line.

The rain of bullets was suddenly shot from behind these weak bunkers.

Thankfully, the pursuers, led by the Japanese Wing Commander Shigehei Saijo, were the first to be shelled from the central position of Zhaojiacun, and then the ground attack and defense were launched on the banks of the Qinglong River in the right flank position. The 2nd Battalion of the 570th Regiment, which was the left flank position, always held back.

To a considerable extent, this created a false impression for the Japanese wing commander, who mistakenly believed that the direction of the Tongpu railway behind him was safe, so he commanded the troops to begin to slowly retreat in this direction.

As a result, they received the heaviest blow since the night pursuit.

In this way, the three-sided ambush operation was launched in an all-round way.

The officers and men of the Saijo Wing were worthy of being the elite of the permanent divisions, and after the initial panic, they quickly made adjustments. The convoy of trucks was the first to turn around, accelerate towards the north from which they came, and leave the battlefield. Shigehei Saijo urgently deployed an entire infantry squadron to deal with the attack from behind.

When the * that flew out of Zhaojia Village exploded in the camp again, the captain of the Saijo Wing clearly realized that he had really entered a pocket formation arranged by the other side: this was undoubtedly one of the ambush tactics used by the Chinese army. It's just that this pocket formation did not tie up the mouth of the pocket tightly - it is obvious that the Chinese army fired at its own side from three directions, south, east and west, but only did not appear in the attack due north.

Since the retreat was still there, the Japanese did not show constant panic. More than a dozen trucks were the first to flee the strike range, and the infantry squadron not only withstood the surprise attack that had just come from behind, but also quickly organized a charge, because the squadron leader found that the ambush positions of the Chinese army lacked a strong barrier. The second battalion of the 570th Regiment of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army could not withstand the fierce attack of the Japanese, and after resisting for a while, the position was frustrated, and then the whole line began to retreat.

The Japanese even captured several wounded captives, and from the mouths of these captives, they learned important information such as the number of the other party's troops and the name of the place, Zhaojia Village.

"Da Zuo, I didn't expect that we would actually pursue the defense area of Yan Xishan's Jin army!" The staff officers of the wing headquarters exclaimed.

The Saijo Wing had been thrown into the southwestern Jin battlefield since February this year, and directly engaged in a tug-of-war with the main force of the Jin army in the Taiyue Mountains with Yan Xishan. Not long ago, after returning to the command of the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters in Wencheng, on the Tongpu Railway Line, they were told there that the Shina Army active in this area was the remnants of the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army, and there was no mention of the Jin Army. Therefore, the sudden appearance of the Jin army prisoners tonight suddenly shocked many people.

After all, Shigehei Saijo was still scheming, and he asked the staff officer of the wing headquarters to add the new coordinates of Zhaojia Village to the map, and calculated that this area was only a dozen kilometers away from the Ewhapo they had occupied before. Therefore, what they touched at the moment should only be the front line of the defense area of a nearby Jin army.

What's more, the battlefield in front of you, which seems to be full of pocket formations, seems to be more symbolic: especially the most threatening wide front, except for the sparsely launched *, no large number of enemy troops have been found to run over.

After regaining his position, the commander of the Japanese wing ordered to call the Wencheng Brigade Headquarters to report the latest battle situation here.

However, the reply from the brigade headquarters made it extremely clear that Shigehei Saijo should not fall in love with the battle, and immediately withdraw the troops and shrink to the first line of defense in Ewhapo.

Under the hazy moonlight, seeing that the Japanese troops in the ambush area began to retreat to the north, there was jubilation on the central position of Zhaojia Village. Tian Mingda, the commander of the 570 Regiment, who commanded at the front, took off his military hat and scolded excitedly. He immediately sent a message to the reserve positions sitting behind the central position, informing the deputy brigade commander that he had led his troops to heroically repel the Japanese troops. Of course, the fact that the left flank position set up by another battalion under his command was broken by the Japanese was ignored for the time being—he knew that his chief of staff was busy gathering the rout of the second battalion.

After receiving the report, the deputy brigade commander, who had been worried, naturally smiled. The good news soon spread to Pingquan County, where the headquarters of the 12th Independent Brigade was located, and sent a sense of relief to Major General Zheng Yuan, the brigade commander who couldn't sleep at night.

But tonight, the only non-Jin army unit in this ambush circle: the first battalion and cavalry company of the Guanmenshan detachment of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, the mood at this moment is very different from that of the friendly troops.

In the right-flank position on the bank of the Qinglong River, Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the first battalion, and Xia Lianshan, the commander of the cavalry company, also noticed the orderly retreat of the Japanese army. And when they found that the Jin army, whether it was the central position or the left flank position, did not organize a pursuit, the two of them invariably expressed anxiety: if they could not eat or severely damage the Japanese army in the ambush circle, once they shrank back to the area of Xiping Village, the detachment leader Wu Zijian, their situation would be even more critical!

Xia Lianshan advocated immediately sending people to the central position to communicate the situation, and asked to cover up the retreating Japanese troops on three sides. Wang Shuanglong, who was not from Shanxi, did not have such a special good impression of the Jin army, and his intuition told him that once the Japanese retreated, the Jin army on the central and left flank positions would only be unable to defend and enjoy the fruits of victory.

The cavalry company commander was in a hurry, seeing that the Japanese army was getting out of the ambush circle step by step, and the fighter plane was fleeting: "Dalong, then don't care about the movements of the Jin army, let's chase and kill it ourselves!" ”

Wang Shuanglong was not in a hurry, but at this time he had another worry - tonight's ambush battle was commanded by the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, and the Eighth Route Army was only fighting together as a guest army. Now that there is no movement in the central position, it may be very inappropriate for our own side, which is in the right flank position, to attack on its own without receiving military orders.

However, if you sit back and watch like this, once you let go of the Japanese army in front of you, the Jin army will naturally be carefree, but the fierce battle in the Xiping Village base will make matters worse!

"Sir Wang, the devil has been beaten away, what are you going to do next?"

Suddenly, a woman with Mauser * in her hand appeared next to the battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army and asked a question excitedly. Stunned, Wang Shuanglong recalled that when he led a battalion to fight and retreat here along the east bank of the Qinglong River, Xia Lianshan, who rushed to meet him, once told him: A team of men and horses from the big boss of the Black Stone Cliff of Guanmen Mountain was helping his side to deploy defense in the preset position. It's just that until now, he hasn't figured out how this female bandit leader and her subordinates suddenly appeared on this battlefield.

Liu Wumei's mood at the moment is also very comfortable. On this night, she first retreated from the lustful Jin army commander, and after inadvertently getting involved in this ambush battle, she witnessed the retreat of the Japanese soldiers almost bloodlessly. Luck was surprisingly good.

Seeing that the battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army who was asked by herself did not answer, the female bandit leader turned to the cavalry company commander who was close at hand, trying to find out the next move of the Eighth Route Army from the other party.

Now Liu Wumei has learned that there is a fierce battle going on in Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, which means that it has become difficult to return to the Black Rock Cliff Cottage from the mountain pass in that area - it seems that the Japanese are not good at coming this night - but even so, she and her men prefer to follow the Eighth Route Army in the direction of Xiping Village rather than turn south and enter Guanmen Mountain from the mountain pass near Maicun at the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain. She knew that it was very likely that the people of the Jin army were still waiting for her, and Tian Mingda, who was in the seat of the dignified national legion, was undoubtedly annoyed and angry if he couldn't hunt for herself tonight, and he would never let her go easily.

What's more, among the Eighth Route Army that fought with the Japanese in Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, there is also his own righteous brother Wei Xin! So the female bandit leader made up her mind.

Seeing Liu Wumei's sudden appearance, Xia Lianshan, the cavalry company commander who was in a dilemma, couldn't help but perk up - this female bandit leader was carrying more than 50 people at the moment, dozens of rifles and a light machine gun, which was definitely a fighting force that should not be underestimated; What's more, this bandit force is not subordinate to the Eighth Route Army, so it does not need to accept the unified command from the central position of the Jin army tonight.

"Dalong, time is pressing, we can't wait stupidly in the position and let the little devils withdraw, I suggest that you lead a battalion to continue to stay, and at the same time step up contact with the central position of the Jin army. I led the cavalry company and the men and horses of the Black Rock Cliff Cottage to immediately go north along the Qinglong River, blocking the retreating Japanese troops along the way, and approaching Xiping Village. ”

Listening to what the cavalry company commander said, Wang Shuanglong also suddenly became enlightened, this is indeed a good move! It's just that the female bandit leader in front of her and her minions are willing to accept the unified command of the Eighth Route Army and go to the dangerous battlefield again?

Unexpectedly, before Wang Shuanglong could reply, Liu Wumei on the side almost jumped up with joy and shouted in response:

"Good, good! We listened to Chief Xia, so we followed his cavalry to Xiping Village! ”