The 3rd Mixed Brigade of Benchuan Province, which is now in a difficult situation in the southwestern part of Shanxi, set out from Fenyang and Xiaoyi in central Shanxi more than a month ago and attacked along the Taixi (Taiyuan-Xi County) highway.

The mixed brigades of the Japanese army (author's note: independent mixed brigades are not included) is not a fixed formation, but is usually a temporary combat formation, which is composed of infantry units and special forces units drawn from different adjacent divisions and regiments, with the purpose of one or several campaign objectives.

Major General Motokawa Province was the brigade commander of the Yamaoka Division, and the mixed brigade under his command consisted of two infantry wings from the Yamaoka Division and the Sena Division, and the Yamaoka Division was also equipped with a cavalry squadron, a mountain artillery brigade, an engineer squadron, and a baggage brigade; The headquarters of the First Army of the North China Front specially coordinated an independent mountain artillery brigade to reinforce it.

Since the mixed brigade was formed on the basis of the troops of the Yamaoka Division, and the commander was also from the Yamaoka Division, the Yamaoka Division was responsible for the logistics and supply of the mixed brigade; They set up military stations along the Taiyu Highway and carried out the transportation of baggage by cars and mule and horse teams.

However, after the advance of the mixed brigade captured Xi County, an important town in the southwest of Shanxi Province, Yan Xishan, out of the desire to save face and defend the territory, ordered Wang Jingguo's 19th Army and Chen Changjie's 61st Army to counterattack with all their might, and launched a large-scale guerrilla war against the invading enemy. Although the Jin army was not strong in combat power and its equipment was relatively backward, it took advantage of the geographical advantages of the familiar environment to fight with the elite Japanese mixed brigades; During this period, the attack of the Chen Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division also contributed to the attack, killing and wounding hundreds of Japanese soldiers in the first battle of Wucheng alone.

The Shangang Division belonged to the pack horse division and was relatively good at mountain warfare, but after the battle was in full swing, the mixed brigade successively carried out separate attacks on four or five county towns, and the difficulties they encountered in the heavy mountains and mountains in the southwest of Shanxi Province were still beyond imagination. Especially with the passage of the war, its long supply line began to become the key target of the Jin Army and the Eighth Route Army, and it was gradually cut to pieces, and it has shown a trend of being paralyzed. This is also the reason why the commander of the Motokawa Brigade had to put down his face a few days ago and plead with the commander of the Sena Division for help.

Lieutenant General Sena, who was making smooth progress along the Jinnan Tongpu Railway, and was also in charge of the commander-in-chief of the battlefield in the southwest of Jinjin, knew very well that once the supply line of the three provinces of Honchuan Province was cut off by the Shina Army, the entire mixed brigade would be trapped between the unfamiliar heavy mountains, and even the danger of being gradually eroded and annihilated could not be ruled out. After much deliberation, Lieutenant General Sena gave Akira Hagiwara, who was sitting in Bunjo, an order for his division to find another way to supply Major General Motokawa's mixed brigade.

"General, with all due respect, the current capacity of the Nantongpu railway line is not developed, and if the two armies are replenished from Wencheng at the same time, I am afraid that one will be lost at the expense of the other." Major General Hagiwara, who was sitting in the headquarters of the Bunjo Brigade, held a hissing telephone receiver in his hand and issued a clear warning to his division commander.

"I can't think about it that much!" Lieutenant General Sena looked quite anxious on the phone: "The main force of the division is about to launch the final blow on the defense line of Fenglingdu and Zhongtiao Mountain, which will determine whether the central army of the people of China can be completely expelled from Shanxi; Until then, I don't want to see the division's flank collapse. ”

Hagiwara Akira's heart sank, and the stern tone of the division commander and lieutenant general was extremely rare, which also confirmed the severity of the situation on the battlefield in southwest Shanxi from the side. He knew that there was no room for manoeuvre when it came to supplies.

"I just made a report to General Xiangyue, and he promised that the headquarters of the First Army would coordinate the Shangang Division, and that the material baggage that would be supplied to the Benchuan Mixed Brigade in the future would no longer be sent to Fenyang, but directly to Wencheng, and you would be responsible for organizing the transportation to Linfen. Please, Hagiwara-kun! ”

"Hey!"

Hagiwara's new task was not complicated, originally his supply to the Sena division was carried out along the Tongpu Railway, and what he needed to do in the future was to increase the number of supplies received and the intensity of transshipment; The baggage provided to the mixed brigade will all be unloaded at the Linfen railway station. At the same time, the third province of Benchuan had already received a notice to set up a new military station along the 100-mile-long highway between Puxian and Linfen, and to use a fleet of automobiles to transport these baggage to the combat units of the mixed brigades.

Due to the change of this new supply line to the Tongpu Railway, it avoided the lofty mountains and mountains in the southwest of Shanxi to the greatest extent, and also avoided the Zhina army that frequently haunted the mountains. The only thing that worried the commander of Sena's division was whether the troops of the third province of Motokawa would be able to firmly control the terrain around Puxian; Previous battle reports show that the main force of the Jin army Chen Changjie once took Puxian from the hands of the mixed brigade, and at that time this branch army even advanced to the west bank of the Fen River, directly threatening the Tongpu railway line on the other side of the river. Fortunately, the mixed brigade quickly concentrated a force to drive it away and recover Puxian. At present, the brigade headquarters of the third brigade of Benchuan Province is located in the county seat of Puxian.

Putting down the phone call to the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade, Lieutenant General Sena immediately followed up with another call to the commander of the Kato Brigade who was sitting in Linfen; The latter had originally commanded an infantry wing to garrison the Tongpu Railway between Yuncheng and Wencheng, but now Lieutenant General Sena had also given him a new task, which was to strengthen the vigilance and defense on both sides of the Fen River, and to be on the lookout for Yan Xishan's Jin army crossing the Fen River and attacking Linfen and Tongpu Road.

At the south freight yard of the Bunjo Railway Station, Hagiwara Akira worriedly discussed and analyzed the new information he had just learned about the mixed brigade with his chief of staff, Kawabe Daisa. From the unquestionable attitude of the division commander, they could feel the tremendous pressure from the battlefield in the southwest of Shanxi.

"The reason why General Sena risked moving the headquarters of the division to Yuncheng was to prepare to personally command the last battle against Wei Lihuang's Central Army, and at this moment, there is nothing more important for our division than this battle. The mixed brigade on the flank is very uncompetitive, and it can't grasp the initiative on the battlefield at this critical moment, leaving a hidden danger for the safety of General Sena's flank! ”

Hearing Hagiwara Akira say this, the chief of staff of the river side also lost his temper, and added fuel to the fire and blamed the three ridicules of Honchuan Province, and threatened that if he commanded the operation in the southwest of Jin, he only needed to lead his own brigade of the Saijo Wing, which was enough to completely defeat Yan Xishan's Jin army, including the Eighth Route Army.

Major General Hagiwara did not stop the chief of staff from committing crimes and presumptuousness this time, and from the bottom of his heart, he also questioned the command ability of the brigade commander of the Yamaoka Division: After all, it is a reserve division, and it cannot be compared with the generals of the permanent division who can fight well! Although Hebe Dazuo is only the chief of staff of the brigade, after all, he is a veteran who participated in the bloody battle of Niangzi Pass, and his combat experience is definitely not below the commander of the Honchuan Brigade; If he really commanded a single infantry wing to attack southwest Jinxi, the situation would not necessarily be worse than it is now.

"Forget it, Yan Xishan's side should be handed over to General Benchuan to start and finish, we just need to do our part," Hagiwara Akira sighed: "The commander of the island has always been obsessed with the Communist Eighth Route Army, I think his analysis is very reasonable, if there is no participation of the main force of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division in the southwest battlefield of Shanxi, the Jin Army may not be able to fight such a tough battle." Didn't we ourselves just suffer the loss of the Eighth Route Army on the banks of the Qinglong River! ”

Speaking of the Eighth Route Army, the momentum of the chief of staff on the river side has also decreased significantly, and the last time he personally commanded an infantry brigade of the division and Kato Brigade to carry out a night attack on the camp of the Eighth Route Army in Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain; It must be admitted that it was the most tragic battle that he, the chief of staff, had fought since the Battle of Niangziguan last year; And the opponent of that battle was also Lin Shi from the Eighth Route Army: it is not difficult to explain why a squadron of the Nara Brigade had just been ambushed by the Eighth Route Army and suffered considerable losses.

However, Kawabe Daisa, who had never admitted defeat, also remembered the Eighth Route Army stationed on the "side of the couch", and looked forward to the near future led by himself to compete with this old opponent, and he stubbornly believed that the final victory would definitely belong to himself and the Imperial Army.

Soon after ambushing the Japanese convoy on the banks of the Qinglong River and collecting troops back to Xiping Village, Wu Zijian received good news from the 5th Company of Hekou Village, and Li Tianlin sent two squads of soldiers to Xiping with a Japanese-style mortar and 37 shells.

The mortar and artillery shells were generously gifted from the 391st Regiment of the Central Army of the Great Elm Mountain, and the head of the regiment Qin Zhongxiao sent people to go on the road at night, and they arrived at Li Tianlin's defense area at dawn; The commander of the 5th company immediately escorted the personnel of the 391st Regiment and this batch of equipment to the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion.

Wu Zijian, who was heartbroken by the battle damage on the banks of the Qinglong River, learned that his old friend had fulfilled his promise and sent mortars and shells, and immediately turned his worries into joy, and sent people to call the artillery platoon commander Zhao Yejiao to bring people to "pick up the goods", and at the same time ordered that from the two grenadiers owned by the artillery platoon, a relatively new one was selected and handed over to the 391st Regiment to bring Qin Zhongxiao to his life. It's just that all the shells of the second battalion, including the grenadiers, have been exhausted, and they can only give back the grenadiers of the commander of the Central Army to the brother units of the Central Army.

Zhao Yejiao was so happy that he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He had long heard from the deputy battalion commander about the exchange of artillery equipment between the two armies, and from that time on, he and all the soldiers of the artillery platoon had been looking forward to the arrival of mortars and shells. At this time, the dream came true, and everyone cheered.

Today, the artillery platoon directly under the 2nd Battalion has three mortars, plus a grenadier, and 37 shells are enough for three guns to squander. As for the small * that grenadiers needed, Wu Zijian promised the artillery platoon to capture a batch from the Japanese as soon as possible in the next battle. Zhao Yejiao said half-jokingly and half-seriously: It is better to give the remaining grenadiers to the friendly 391 regiment, on the condition that another batch of mortar shells be exchanged from them!

Zhao Yejiao, who was born as an artillery engineer of the German Armament Division of the Central Army, still likes real caliber guns the most, and he is not only not very good at fiddling with the grenadier that looks more like a burning stick, and the small * that is one size smaller than * on it, but also a little disdainful in his bones.

Wu Zijian understood the thoughts of the artillery platoon commander, and of course he also felt that mortars were more powerful than grenadiers, but the Eighth Route Army, which was accustomed to poverty, was not as powerful as the Central Army, and it had not yet developed to the point where it could pick and choose fat and thin equipment: Yes, it is better than nothing.

"Commander Wu, our Qin regiment wants me to send you a message," the small team of the 391st Regiment who came to deliver the artillery was led by a second lieutenant platoon commander, and when the handover was completed, he quietly said to Wu Zijian: "The operational plan for the joint attack on Tongpu Road has been formulated by our regimental headquarters, and it will be personally carried to your department by Captain Zhu Xingyun, the liaison officer, in the near future. ”

"Good!" Wu Zijian clenched his fists, and also lowered his voice and said: "Please tell Colonel Qin that the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Lin Division has just repelled a group of attacking Japanese troops, and now all of them are waiting for each other, cooperating with friendly troops at any time, and hitting Tongpu Road!" ”