Previously, Wu Zijian had sent two platoons to guard in the direction of the Xiaoyushu Mountain Pass, monitoring and beware of Japanese reinforcements coming there; Only then can you clean up the battlefield with confidence. Now I see the brothers of the national army at the head of Fengdian City greeting and contacting, which is exactly what the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army wants.

Chen Xuanzhu, the deputy captain of the enemy engineering team who walked to the city, and his subordinates were all dressed in civilian clothes, which made the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment at the head of the city a little puzzled.

"Brother, which part are you from?"

"We are the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division," Chen Xuanzhu shouted with his neck tilted, "which part are you from?" ”

The regimental chief of staff replied to Chen Xuanzhu and ordered his subordinates to open the city gate, because he saw that the soldiers of the platoon of the 6th Company of his second battalion had already run back from outside the city--when the 6th Company was attacked by the Japanese troops in the direction of Little Elm Hill just now, the chief of staff did not bring this platoon into the city, but asked them to withdraw to the east, so as to find an opportunity to flank the Japanese troops outside the city.

Wu Zijian saw that the defenders had opened the city gate, and an officer with a soldier-like appearance was going out of the city to talk to the deputy captain of his enemy engineering team, and he was hesitating whether to take the initiative to go over to meet, but he saw that Chen Xuanzhu had already led the officer and a group of subordinates to his side, so he also left the soldiers who were happily studying the captured weapons and greeted them.

The two sides came together, and Wu Zijian saw clearly the rank on the other party's shoulder, which was a major.

"Major Chief of Staff of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, Zhang Hong!"

"Deputy Battalion Commander of the Second Battalion of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division, Wu Zijian!"

The two men exchanged military salutes—this was the first time the military commanders of the two armies had met, and they had to deal with each other as many times as the grass beneath their feet for the long years that followed.

The reputation of the Eighth Route Army comes more from last year's War of Resistance in Northern Shanxi, while the 391st Regiment of the Central Army arrived in Shanxi in a hurry after the end of a series of battles in Northern Shanxi to participate in the Battle of Xinkou and the Battle of Taiyuan. Therefore, whether it is the great name of the Lin Division or the great exploits of the 391st Regiment, at this time, in the consciousness of their respective officers, they all seem to be secluded. Fortunately, at present, the two sides still have a common goal, that is, the Japanese puppet army in Fengdian County.

"Thank you to the friendly forces for driving away the Japanese invaders and relieving our city." The words of the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment came from the heart, he was bombarded by the artillery fire of the Japanese squadron at the head of the city just now, if it weren't for the enemy's mortars that were not suitable for hitting targets nested in the door hole, I was afraid that the city gate would have been blown open long ago.

"Thanks for what! Resisting Japan and fighting devils is the unshirkable task of our Eighth Route Army. Wu Zijian said with a smile to the major of the Central Army in front of him, who was higher than himself; He once heard Xiao Junping, who was born in the Jin Army, say that the defenders of Fengdian are the 391st Regiment of the Central Army.

"Why did your ministry suddenly appear outside Fengdian City?" Zhang Hong asked carelessly: "Could it be that the main force of the 115th Division has arrived in this area?" ”

Wu Zijian hesitated for a moment - do you want to tell the truth to the people of the Central Army?

"Well, since Deputy Battalion Commander Wu has something unspeakable, I didn't ask."

Listening to the regimental chief of staff of the Central Army opposite, Wu Zijian made up his mind:

"There is nothing difficult to hide, everyone is an anti-Japanese friendly army, and they should be open and honest with each other. We are a main battalion under the Lin Division, which arrived near Guanmen Mountain a while ago, and now we are establishing a base in that area. Just got the information, the main force of the Japanese puppet army stationed in Fengdian has been pulled, so let's take a look. ”

"Come and see?" The chief of staff of the 391st Regiment couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Deputy Battalion Commander Wu said it so easily! Your army looks at it like this, but it can run away from almost a squadron of devils! ”

Seeing that the other party's attitude was not unfriendly, Wu Zijian was also infected, and laughed.

"My intelligence shows that the 391st Regiment was originally stationed in Fengdian, congratulations to your army for recovering the lost territory from the Japanese invaders!" Wu Zijian sincerely congratulated Zhang Hong.

Zhang Hong returned the salute while drawing a gourd, and looked back at Wangfengdian City: "It's still a little too early to say that it will be recovered, my regiment commander is leading the main force to attack the Japanese army in the city, and it will probably take a while to see it." ”

"Do you need our Lin Shi to help?" Wu Zijian followed with a big grin.

This made the regimental chief of staff of the Central Army feel a little unhappy - although it was this Eighth Route Army that relieved his own predicament in the city just now, how can it be said that Lao Tzu is also the Central Army and is the descendant of Chairman Jiang, and the Eighth Route Army is just a rebel army recruited by the Nationalist Government, where is your turn to support here! The deputy battalion commander in front of him, who did not hold a military rank, did not even wear a pistol, and he actually carried a short and thick rifle on his shoulder - he recognized it, it was the 38-type cavalry rifle that the Japanese puppet army cavalry was accustomed to.

At this time, the communication soldier of the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment, who was carrying a walkie-talkie, ran over to report: The general attack has begun, and the Japanese army is opening the north gate to escape.

Zhang Hong proudly glanced at the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army who was carrying a spear: "It's not your army's master; Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, the mountains don't turn around, we will have a period later! ”

Wu Zijian didn't pay attention to the words of the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment for a while, but his eyes stared directly at the communication soldier - good guy, this is a walkie-talkie, right? In the end, it's the Central Army, what a fucking magnanimity!

It wasn't until Zhang Hong and his entourage turned around and hurriedly walked towards the south gate that Wu Zijian came back to his senses, and he also figured out the sarcasm in the words of the regiment's chief of staff just now.

"Huh? This major, what a god! ”

The deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army nailed a sentence to the back of the other party and his party with annoyance.

But his unhappiness was immediately eliminated by the capture of the battlefield he turned to see, mortars, heavy machine guns, grenadiers, and a lot of three-eight covers; There are more urgently needed shells, heavy machine gun bullets - this vote is a catch!

"Isn't it just multiple walkie-talkies, what's the big deal!" Wu Zijian said to himself loudly: "The second battalion will get him two sooner or later!" ”

After clearing the battlefield, they retreated. Before leaving, Wu Zijian did not forget to look back at Fengdian County, where the city gate was closed again, and the blue sky and red flags on the city were quite conspicuous.

Fengdian returned to the national army, and the Eighth Route Army's base in Guanmen Mountain was also relieved of a sharp sword hanging over its head, which is a good thing. Wu Zijian thought.

The telegrams from the attack on Toyoden and the eventual loss of Toyoden flew into the headquarters of the Japanese Hagiwara Brigade in Bunjo like snowflakes, and the chief of staff of the brigade who remained behind was in a hurry to dispatch the few troops available to reinforce Toyoden, and on the other hand, he urgently telegraphed the commander of the Hagiwara Akira Brigade and the headquarters of Sena Division.

The headquarters of the Sena Division was the first to receive an urgent telegram. The commander of the division, Lieutenant General Masaki Sena, had just led the Kato Brigade and the artillery, cavalry, engineers, baggage corps, and railway troops directly under the division to capture Huo County south of Han Xinling, and its vanguard had already attacked and advanced in the direction of Hongdong County along the Nantongpu Road. Wencheng's call startled the Japanese lieutenant general, and his first thought was the safety of the Songjiagou comfort women's camp.

Knowing that the Shina army only attacked and occupied Fengdian County, and did not launch an attack on the neighboring Xiaoyushu Mountain Pass, Sena Masaki breathed a sigh of relief - Hagiwara Akira was escorting the comfort women out of Hebei at this critical juncture, and at this critical juncture, the Songjiagou secret camp must not make any mistakes. It seems that the comfort women's camp is still very tightly hidden, and the Chinese army did not suspect that they were there.

After a lot of twists and turns, the commander of the Sena Division on the same Pu Road finally used the radio to get in touch with the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade on the Shotai Road.

Hagiwara Akira reported that the cavalry that opened the way for the military columns along the Zhengtai Road were harassed from time to time by small groups of armed forces of the Shina Army, which affected the speed of the military columns. At present, the military train has entered the deep mountains of Taihang Mountain and stopped at Baiyangshu, a small station on the bank of the Taohe River, and is getting closer and closer to the destination Niangzi Pass. The headquarters of the North China Front Army called many times to inquire about the direction of the military train, and said that the first section of the Railway Corps Wing directly under the Front Army had arrived at Niangzi Pass under the heavy escort to welcome the arrival of the comfort women's military column.

The head of the Sena Division received this message and was very relieved: It is finally about to be handed over! As long as the comfort women are put into the hands of the front army, half of the heavy responsibility of their own division will be relieved!

He called back to explain to Hagiwara Akira the situation of the attack on Fengdian and the retreat of Deputy Wing Captain Aso to Junling, and asked the brigade commander to complete the handover and immediately return to help. Prior to this, the division decided to temporarily transfer two squadrons of infantry from the Kato Brigade to the Bunjo Railway Station to take over the defense, and then the Aikawa Infantry Brigade of the Otsuka Wing of Bunjo Wing sent two squadrons to the Little Elm Mountain to strengthen the defense of the two mountain passes. Fengdian County will wait for Hagiwara Akira to return with his troops, and then try to recover.

Lieutenant General Sena only sent two infantry squadrons, which was also really helpless. At present, the battle on the Nantongpu Road is advancing, and it is about to attack Linfen, where the commander's headquarters of the second theater of the Chinese Army is located; Directly in front of the division, the people of China still had the strength of about four or five corps, and they were all the Central Army under the command of Wei Lihuang. According to the deployment of General Terauchi Shouichi, commander of the North China Front, the first goal of his division is to advance all the way to the junction of Shanxi and Henan, and realize the opening of the Tongpu Railway to traffic. Then, depending on the development of the war situation in Xuzhou, it was decided whether to send troops into Henan and cut off the Longhai railway line of the Chinese people.

Such an arduous task falls on the more than 10,000 people along the railway line -- 7,000 infantry men of the Kato Brigade and 3,000 people of the artillery, cavalry, and engineer wings directly under the division and regiment -- the division commander and lieutenant general really cannot come up with more troops to return to the aid of Fengdian County. Sitting in the box of the southbound Tongpu Road military column, Sena Masaki's eyes were a little dull, and he was praying, praying for the safety of the Songjiagou secret camp.

After Hagiwara received the telegram from the division commander, his heart also began to feel uneasy, and he summoned the co-captain of the military column, Kosuke Otsuka, to discuss countermeasures together - the head of the secret service, Masao Kojima, got off the bus in Taiyuan, and he wanted to go to the original office to pick up a batch of important items.

When Kosuke Otsuka learned that it was the 391st Regiment of the Central Army that attacked and occupied Fengdian, he immediately roared in a low voice, and he said to his brigade commander: When the wing captured Fengdian, it seemed that it was a mistake to not drive out this Chinese army!

Hagiwara Akira suddenly had an epiphany at this moment: the so-called "Fu Zuoyi 35th Army" that attacked the north gate of Fengdian last time should be this 391st Regiment, and the methods used twice are so similar!

Let the tiger return to the mountain, raise the tiger and leave it behind! The brigade commander remembered two Chinese idioms. And the captain of the wing couldn't wait to grow wings and fly back immediately, and teach this gang of defeated subordinates a hard lesson, they actually took advantage of the absence of the main force of the wing to sneak attack and seize the city, which is really despicable!

"It seems that General Sena also has no troops to draw," Hagiwara Akira sighed, "Otherwise, we won't be urged to return to the starry night after handing over the comfort women." ”

"General, I heard that the front army later promised to send an elite army from Hebei into the southern part of Shanxi to fight in order to coordinate the attack of the commander of the Sena Division in Tongpu Road, is there any whereabouts of this matter?" Kosuke Otsuka looked at the worried brigade commander and asked.

Hagiwara Akira glanced at his subordinates with a little appreciation, this guy is not completely clueless: "Well, you can still remember this road of elite soldiers - that's right, this is what General Terauchi later promised to our division, and it has been put into practice, the Xia Yuan Division of the First Army formed a detachment, starting from Handan, Hebei, and entering Shanxi along the road from Handan to Changzhi, and they are currently marching hand in hand with General Sena to sweep southern Jin. Dazuo, what can you learn from this incident? ”

Kosuke Otsuka was stunned when asked, and he didn't see anything else except that he felt that the strength of the troops that had advanced into Jinnan had increased. Hagiwara shook his head in disappointment, and he walked to a large table that had been set up improvised in the military compartment, on which was a map spread out:

"This detachment of the Xia Yuan Division, reinforced by an infantry wing, with part of the artillery, cavalry and independent machine gun brigades, is not weak. The position of their attack is on the front line of Licheng, Lucheng and Changzhi in Shanxi," the major general of the brigade tapped his finger on the map of the above-mentioned location: "And this line is located in the broad front of the key defense area of our brigade and regiment!" ”

Kosuke Otsuka understood: "That is to say, this westward detachment of the Xia Yuan Division has swept away the hidden dangers that exist in our front. ”

"That's right!" Hagiwara Akira said a little viciously: "The Shina Army took advantage of my opening to attack Fengdian and directly threaten the back door of the Songjiagou comfort women's camp, which is intolerable!" However, the westward advance detachment of the Xia Yuan Division has now completely cut off the contact between the Zhina Army in southern Jinnan and the three points and one line of Wencheng, Songjiagou, and Fengdian, and the Zhina Army that attacked Fengdian can only be an isolated force. Next, we're going to eliminate it without mercy! ”