The Japanese soldiers on duty on the city wall of Lingxian County discovered the abnormal movement outside the city in the second half of the night. At that time, Qin Zhongxiao, who was digging for munitions, lit torches and lanterns to check the mountain cannons and heavy machine guns that had just been dug out of the soil.

The Japanese soldiers who discovered the situation were located in the southeast corner of the Junling City Wall, and according to the deployment, only a few Japanese soldiers were on duty at night alternately. Since there has been no hostility for a month, their night duty and patrol have mostly become routine and perfunctory. So, usually their vigilance is not very high, until this time, a guy suddenly saw a shadowy light outside the city.

The Japanese soldiers stationed in Junling County were an infantry squad, led by a second lieutenant squad leader. According to the normal configuration of the Japanese army, the second lieutenant squad leader did not have a telescope in his hand, but they had captured some in the past in the confrontation with the Chinese army, and now in the hands of this second lieutenant, there was a Zeiss mirror. When he learned that the sentry in the southeast corner of the city wall had noticed an unusual but dim light outside the city, the second lieutenant got up from the hot bed and hurried up to the wall with a telescope.

At that time, the officers and men of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, two miles away, had already excitedly seized a mountain cannon from the soil, and were continuing to collect heavy machine guns and other munitions, and the number of torches and lanterns that had been lit gradually increased. The Japanese lieutenant on the city wall saw this scene through a telescope; He was astonished to find that almost all of them, who were hundreds of people, were armed even though they were not wearing military uniforms.

Later, the second lieutenant spotted in his telescope a line of skirmishers that was closer than the crowd of lights and lights, and the nearest person was only a few hundred meters from his city! These men were also dressed in civilian clothes, but they carried unmistakable military rifles in their hands.

Cold sweat broke out on the head of the Japanese lieutenant. This is a lower-level officer who followed the Shangang Division from Hebei to Shanxi, and his combat experience is quite rich; He could see the shape of the mountain cannon that the gang had dug out of the earth, but he couldn't figure out why such an astonishing heavy weapon was buried there. He couldn't tell if the next motives of these diggers would pose a threat to the county.

But he knew one thing very well, the number of people outside the city, coupled with the heavy weapons being excavated, if the other party launched an attack on Junling County on the spot, an infantry squad at hand would be absolutely powerless to resist. Although the city wall is tall, the people on the other side have cannons in their hands after all, and they are like heavy mountain cannons! He decided to report it immediately.

All four wings under the Yamaoka Division are now divided into four: one wing cooperated with the troops of the Sena Division to attack Yan Xishan in the southwest of Jin; The other two wings were attacking Fu Zuoyi's 35th Army in western Shanxi and the He Division of the Eighth Route Army in northwest Shanxi; And the one responsible for staying in the Jinzhong area is the last wing left.

Even in this last wing, the center of gravity of their defense was concentrated in Taiyuan; As for the counties around Taiyuan, only one infantry squad was deployed in each place. At present, the infantry squad leader in Junling County has to report to the top of his wing headquarters in Taiyuan.

The captain of this wing in Taiyuan received a long-distance call from Junling late at night, and learned that at this moment, there was a group of hundreds of people outside Junling City, armed with heavy weapons, and their intentions were unknown. In addition to being shocked, the wing commander really couldn't come up with a specific response plan; He had no choice but to instruct his squad leader on the phone to closely monitor and defend the county seat, and then report if the enemy launched a siege.

Of course, the wing commander himself did not dare to slack off, and immediately reported this sudden military situation to the Benchuan Brigade and Regiment Headquarters. The headquarters of the Benchuan Brigade and the brigade commander, Major General, are not in Taiyuan City at the moment, but in Yuci County, southeast of Taiyuan, and focus on commanding and defending the Zhengtai Railway.

Major General Motokawa, the brigade commander who received the report, was silent for a long time after putting down the phone. He, the brigade commander, now only has one wing of troops left at hand, but they are all entrenched in various strategic points in Jinzhong, and there is no decent mobile force to deploy at all-Junling? It is the county seat on Tongpu Road, and it is still quite far away from Taiyuan, where it is threatened, let him go, if he can hold it, he can only choose to give up for the time being, and wait for the main force of the division to return from the sweep in western and northwest Shanxi, and then make a decision. The commander of the Benchuan Brigade, who was helpless, thought helplessly.

However, after the situation was reported to the division headquarters, there was a slight change. The chief of staff of the Shangang Division Headquarters in Taiyuan City, considering that Junling County is a key point on the Tongpu Railway, especially that Junling is Wencheng further south, and Wencheng is now the rear of the Sena Division to fight southward, so he must not lose; Consideration must be given to the possibility that this unidentified Chinese armed force will invade Wencheng along Dong Po Road. Therefore, the headquarters of the Yamaoka Division called the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters in Bunjo overnight to report the situation and remind it to strengthen vigilance.

"Fire!"

The colonel of the Central Army gave an order, and the mountain cannon placed in the wilderness flashed with firelight, and let out an angry roar, and a cannonball hit the wall of the Junling Tomb in the morning light, and suddenly the bricks and stones flew sideways, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled.

At this time, around this old-fashioned Krupp mountain gun, only the two platoons of soldiers from the first battalion that Qin Zhongxiao asked to stay behind were left, as well as more than a dozen people from the machine gun company who specialized in operating this mountain gun. Prior to this, Chief of Staff Zhang Hong had already led the rest of the brigade, loaded with excavated heavy machine guns, their equipment and ammunition, and left in a hurry. As the chief of staff pleaded before leaving, Qin Zhongxiao left only three shells; The company commander of the machine gun company personally operated the cannon and hit the city wall with the first shot.

The range of the Krupp mountain cannon can reach a distance of up to four kilometers, and the position of the cannon at this time is only about a kilometer away from the wall of the monarch's tomb. The first shot was a little low, hitting directly into the center of the city wall, and the threat was not great; In the second gun, the company commander of the machine gun company adjusted the firing range, and a guy bombarded the city, blowing up both battlements. In Qin Zhongxiao's binoculars, he clearly saw that there were Japanese soldiers scurrying around.

The soldiers of the battalion and the two platoons scattered on either side of the mountain artillery let out bursts of cheers. Immediately afterwards, the third cannon fired, and in order to show off his marksmanship, the commander of the machine gun company deliberately aimed at a sun flag at the corner of the city wall.

Well played! Qin Zhongxiao couldn't help but shout good, and stepped forward and patted the shoulder of the commander of the machine gun company: "After I go back, I will give you a meritorious service to the machine gun company!" Grandma's, if it weren't for the chief of staff to stop me, I really wanted to take advantage of the situation and take a battalion to attack Junling City! ”

"Tuanza, let's withdraw! This is not a place to stay for long. "The deputy commander of the first battalion was deliberately left by the chief of staff to command the two platoons, and the only task that Zhang Hong gave him was to drag the regimental seat to withdraw immediately after the artillery was fired. Of course, Qin Zhongxiao knew that he couldn't fall in love with war, he looked at the already empty Junling City with regret, and said, "Lao Tzu will fight back sooner or later", and then ordered a retreat.

In fact, the few Japanese soldiers at the head of Junling City, under the leadership of the second lieutenant squad leader, have been closely watching this mysterious armed force under the city. At dawn, when they found that the group of men and horses were loading things one after another and began to withdraw, they gasped a little; But they soon found to their horror that the cannon had been pushed behind a low stone hill, its swarthy muzzle aimed at their city.

Before these Japanese soldiers could make further judgments, the mountain cannon fired, and two shells accurately hit the city, at least two Japanese soldiers were killed on the spot by the bombing, and the rest hurriedly fled to a relatively safe place at the head of the city. The captain of the second lieutenant squad hurriedly connected the phone call from Taiyuan City and informed their co-captain that the people of the branch had opened up the city with artillery!

However, the subsequent developments greatly surprised all the Japanese, and after firing three shells, the Shina people who opened the cannon began to disassemble the mountain cannon, and the mountain cannon was quickly disassembled into several parts and loaded onto the mules and horses that transported them. The group, like the previous brigade, turned and walked away. The frightened Japanese soldiers at the head of Junling City followed their backs far away with binoculars and found that they were running directly to the road from Junling to Fengdian.

After the successive pieces of information were transmitted back to Taiyuan, they were quickly sent to Wencheng. The Japanese commanders from two different divisions nervously exchanged and analyzed information, and finally determined that this mysterious Shina army had no intention of using further troops against Junling and Wencheng on the Tongpu Railway. But if they go along the road from Junling to Fengdian, then the possibility of them attacking Fengdian is greatly increased.

In this way, the information was passed to the table of the captain of the Otsuka co-captain who was sitting in the county seat of Fengdian. When he received the first information, Kosuke Otsuka was confused, and he really couldn't think of where such a group of civilian forces, which were described as wearing no military uniforms, but carrying a large number of light weapons and heavy weapons that had just been excavated, came from. According to the situation around Fengdian that he currently has in his grasp, except for the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, there are no other large armed forces in this area. This puzzled him.

And this group of bold Shina forces actually shelled the county seat of Junling during the day, which made Otsuka Kosuke even more angry. In the end, when the news came that this group of armed forces had left King's Landing and rushed to the road leading to Fengdian, the Japanese wing commander couldn't help but lift his spirits, and he thought: No matter what his origins are, since the other party is coming to Fengdian, he will give him a head-on blow.

As early as when he had just received the first piece of information, Kosuke Otsuka had already mobilized the people of the Mongolian Cavalry Regiment and asked them to prepare for the patrol overnight. The cavalry is fast, and since the other party does not wear military uniforms, it may be a militia group, and its combat effectiveness will not be very strong. Otsuka planned to let Du Dongqiang's Mongolian cavalry regiment rush up first to find out.

Because the brigade headquarters of Bunjo only reminded Otsuka to pay attention to the safety of Toyodian Castle while transmitting information to him, but did not give the order to attack, Otsuka Kosuke did not plan to send his 1st Infantry Brigade out of the city to meet the enemy for the time being.

In the faintly lit morning, Yasuke Otsuka watched Du Dongqiang lead a battalion of cavalry, rushed out of the north gate, and galloped in the direction of King's Landing. At that moment, he was still thinking that this Mongolian cavalry had never earned face for himself, and what they might encounter today was neither the Central Army nor the Eighth Route Army of the Zhina, but just a group of civilian armed forces, and the Mongolian cavalry should be able to deal with them.

Perhaps it was in response to the old Chinese saying that the road is narrow, and the captain of the Japanese army did not expect that the Mongolian cavalry under his command was about to encounter not the civilian armed forces of the Zhina, but the 391st Regiment of the Central Army hidden in the big elm mountain on the east side of Fengdian, which gave him a headache.

They turned over the fire.