Knowing that the Shina Army had an abnormal buildup in the eastern suburbs of Bunjo, Kosuke Otsuka was in the walkie-talkie and restrained his striker Nara Shaosa not to act rashly, and immediately stepped up to urge the Aikawa Brigade around him to quickly follow up.

Soon after they left Little Elm Mountain, they saw the battlefield ahead. Since it is an open field, the situation on the battlefield is immediately clear.

On the very front, there are two trenches dug by the Jin army at some point, the shallow ones, which can barely cover the bodies of the soldiers lying down, and from the binoculars, there are about six or seven hundred people lying in the trenches. It was undoubtedly them who had exchanged fire with the two squadrons of Nara Shosa; Behind these two simple fortifications, there is a large area of sparsely scattered residential houses in the eastern suburbs of Wencheng, and the Jin army is also assembled in the residential area, which appears and disappears from time to time, and the number of people is difficult to estimate.

On the uncovered wilderness on both sides, there was a team of Jin troops, which were spread out in several straggler lines, forming a left-right angle with the Jin army in the front trench.

Otsuka was also surprised, not that the Jin army had lined up such a large formation to meet him, but that from the enemies on both flanks, there were no decent heavy weapons in the column - mortars, heavy machine guns, etc. - and even light machine guns did not seem to be many.

The veteran captain of the Japanese army knew very well what it would mean if one of the two sides lined up against each other on such an open terrain if one of them did not have heavy weapons! Didn't the commander of the Chinese people even understand the basic tactics and tactics of the infantry drill codex? He glanced at Captain Nara, who had just come to report to him and couldn't help but be eager to try: as soon as this guy discovered this flaw in the two flanks of the army, he immediately called for artillery support, and he was a competent army officer.

"Order the Aikawa Brigade and the Fukuda Brigade," Otsuka began to order the combat staff officers around him, the opportunity is rare, and the Shina Army will never be allowed to retreat again: "Immediately concentrate all infantry artillery and mortars to the front!" ”

Each infantry brigade of the Sena Division had an artillery squad equipped with two Type 92 infantry guns; In addition, each infantry squadron is equipped with two Type 97 mortars. Otsuka's order was equivalent to concentrating four 92 infantry guns and twelve mortars at once (the Aikawa Brigade and the Fukuda Brigade, a total of six squadrons came this time, leaving one squadron each stationed in Fengdian). He split these cannons in two, quickly placed them on the left and right flanks of the troops, and at the sound of an order, he bombarded the Jin army columns in the wilderness on both sides.

The two groups of Jin troops that were shelled were the third battalion of the 570th Regiment and the second battalion of the 569th Regiment. One of them was sent by Tian Mingda to the flank of the trench position to attack the Japanese forward, and the other was sent by Brigade Commander Zheng Yuan to the city to aid Tian Mingda; Counting Tian Mingda's battalion lying in the trench in front at the moment, these three battalions inadvertently formed a horn in the eyes of the Japanese army, and indeed once deterred the arrogance of its forwards.

However, it was not until the shells of the devils fell in pieces into the unsheltered queue that the two battalions on both flanks realized the mistake and the disaster, and they had nowhere to hide, and in a short time they were bombarded with dead and wounded, and fled in terror in the direction they had just come.

Tian Mingda, who was in command on the roof, had already breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking that he could stabilize his position, but unexpectedly, the Japanese troops who arrived later did not say a word, and set up artillery to fight. He watched as his third battalion and the battalion sent by the brigade commander were blown up, and before he could think of the situation that the frontal line was about to face, he shuddered to find that a dense rain of bullets had begun to crash into the trenches.

Tian Mingda looked at it for a while, and then realized that it was the Japanese army's grenadier barrel that was wielding. The small * fired from the grenadiers did not have the same great lethality as the guns on the two wings, but because they were very dense, they also caused great panic among the soldiers in the trenches. The commander of the 570th regiment didn't know that it was the Otsuka Wing on the opposite side that concentrated all the grenadiers and fired at him, and what he didn't know was that the Japanese army usually launched a charge from the infantry after the grenadier detachment fired a wave of firepower!

Tian Mingda, who had never fought with the Japanese army, of course could not make a correct response at this moment, he ordered the second battalion in the trench to retreat quickly instead of waiting in place to meet the Japanese charge, as a result, the people of the second battalion just began to get up and run towards the houses on this side, when they were attacked by a more dense rain of bullets, which were two squadrons of the Japanese Nara Brigade dozens of feet away, and the rifle bullets fired while rushing forward. Countless people were shot in the second battalion of the 570th Regiment, and the defensive line built by the trench fortifications collapsed in an instant.

Tian Mingda's face turned pale, and his legs on the ladder began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Get me down," he shouted hysterically to the guards below, "Withdraw, withdraw!" ”

After Zheng Yuan urgently sent a battalion to support Tian Mingda's flank, he still felt uneasy, so he took a cadre from the brigade headquarters and others to the city wall of Dongcheng and watched the battle in person.

However, when he came to the city wall and began to look, the battlefield situation in the eastern suburbs presented in his field of vision made the brigade commander of the 12th Brigade of the Independent Brigade dizzy! He could barely believe his eyes—

A large number of Japanese soldiers had already jumped in front of the trench fortifications in front of them, killing the soldiers of the 570th Regiment who remained near the trenches, some shooting, others rushing forward and stabbing with bayonets. Behind the trench, in the residential area of the eastern suburbs where Tian Mingda's regimental headquarters was located, the evacuated and fleeing men and horses were running in a disorderly manner. In the farther away in the empty wilderness, only discarded corpses dressed in Jin army uniforms could be seen, but the figures of the living were missing.

Less than half an hour after the start of the war, the outer defenses had already collapsed! Zheng Yuan felt as if a sledgehammer was pounding on his chest, almost making him unable to breathe. He had imagined countless times the scene of a face-to-face confrontation with the legendary Japanese army, but the current tragic scene was something he had never imagined.

"Where is the second battalion?! Second battalion! ”

The commander of the 12th Brigade also shouted hysterically, the second battalion he was talking about was the second battalion of the 569th regiment, the battalion that he had just released from the city. For now, he had to make sure that battalion could shrink and build a defense on the outskirts of Nancheng to defend the Tongpu railway line! Tian Mingda's regiment has obviously collapsed, and the huge Wencheng can't hold it at all by counting on the 569 regiment to defend it, so he can only consider retreating, and the retreat has to rely on the train, and the troops directly under his brigade headquarters and the first battalion of the 569 regiment are always on standby at the railway station. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure that the railway line to the south was not cut off by the Japanese army.

The people guarding the city saw the scene of the second battalion of the 569th Regiment being defeated by the Japanese infantry fire just now, and reported to the brigade commander at this moment, Zheng Yuan immediately ordered the people who followed him to call the regimental headquarters of the 569th Regiment, and immediately organized a company to go out of the south gate to meet the second battalion, and organize the southern suburbs defense line on the spot, and not to take half a step back! Then he said to the adjutant:

"The emergency telegram to the headquarters of the Second War Zone said that Wencheng was heavily attacked by the Japanese army, and our brigade suffered heavy losses, and asked to retreat to Lingshi County!"

Lingshi County, located on the Tongpu Railway Line fifty miles south of Wencheng, is currently stationed there by the 17th Army of the Central Army under the jurisdiction of the Second World War Zone. Zheng Yuan knew in his heart that if the Japanese army continued to move south along Tongpu Road after occupying Wencheng, then Lingshi County, which had no danger to defend, would also not be a place to stay for a long time. However, on the Tongpu Road, if you cross the Lingshi and go one or two hundred miles to the south, it will be Linfen, where Hongdong County and the Governor's Department of the Second War Zone are located - if the Governor's Department does not send reinforcements to Wencheng, will it not send reinforcements to Lingshi? Don't you want Hongdong County and the base camp either?

Zheng Yuan didn't want to think about it anymore, and he didn't plan to wait for the call back from the Chief's Department before leaving: the battle situation deteriorated so quickly that it was completely unexpected.

Kosuke Otsuka watched with satisfaction the effect of the artillery strike, and when the Nara brigade easily rushed into the trench position of the Shina army, he couldn't help but shake his head: the Shina army in front of him, from the commander to the soldiers, had no tactical literacy at all. With such a fragile strength, it is really not worthy of fighting the Imperial Army.

Osa even began to miss the 391st Regiment of the Central Army that fought with him for two days and one night in Fengdian (after occupying Fengdian, he finally figured out the number of the other party), that army, the commander of that army, was his opponent for Kosuke Otsuka.

The battle outside the city quickly subsided after a storm-like attack. The Chinese army, which was still putting on its horns just now, escaped in a blink of an eye, and he only invested two infantry squadrons, Otsuka smacked his lips with some unsatisfactory intentions. Nara Shaozo has already come to repay the merits, and this guy played well today.

Otsuka did not bring troops into the dwellings under the city, but set up a table on the wilderness, spread out the map of Wencheng assigned to him by the brigade headquarters, and laid out the next siege plan in front of several captains and deputy captains.

Originally, Wencheng only had three city walls in the southeast and north, and the city wall in the west was opened up in many sections when the Tongpu Railway was built, which was equivalent to existing in name only. The main railroad track of Tongpu Road is paved along the city wall to the west of Wencheng, and Wencheng, as a large station of Tongpu Road, not only built a railway station in the west, but also built two freight yards and turnouts in the north and south.

This means that as long as you bypass the three walls and come to the Wencheng Railway Station, you can enter the Wencheng City without much effort.

This is also the intention of Kosuke Otsuka who never understood why the brigade commander sent him to attack Fengdian first and then capture Wencheng from Fengdian. Obviously, it is much simpler to take the Wencheng station by train from Junling, and then enter the city from the station.

His captains were extremely excited, and they were still quite jealous when they first saw the tall and sturdy east wall of Wencheng, but the co-captain did not reveal the mystery until this time, which made them feel a false alarm and then greatly cheered up: it became easy to enter the city in an instant, and this prosperous railway station would obviously bring them more happiness and enjoyment than Fengdian.

They and their soldiers can't wait!