Before the start of this round of sudden artillery fire by the Japanese army, Feng Changzhi, the commander of the second battalion in Xiping Village, had just made a new plan to meet the battle.

According to the Pegasus report from Wu Zijian, a correspondent in Hekou Village, Feng Changzhi already knew that the enemy situation there was also very serious, so he immediately made a decision and sent Xia Lianshan to lead the cavalry company to rush to the aid - under the training of the captured and surrendered puppet Mongolian cavalry officers and soldiers, the cavalry company of the second battalion has begun to have combat effectiveness, although it is not yet proficient in fighting on horseback, but the riding skills have passed; There were two platoons in the whole company, totaling 70 people, each with a 38-type cavalry gun (pony gun), a saber, and a war horse, and they were absolutely well-equipped.

Feng Changzhi originally planned to send two more platoons from the 7th Company to Hekou Village in addition to the cavalry company, but instructor Liu Shu insisted on opposing it. Liu Shu believes that the enemy situation on the side of Hekou Village and Xiping Village is not clear, but there are battalion headquarters on the Xiping side, as well as non-combat units including the battalion health team, the Xiping Village Field Mobilization Committee, and baggage, and if the situation is critical, they obviously need more troops to cover; On the other hand, there are only 5 companies of elite companies led by Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin in Hekou Village, and it is relatively easy to advance and retreat. What's more, the Hongxing Gorge in Guanmen Mountain is also closer to Hekou Village, and Lu Dajiang's 8th Company can come forward to support at any time.

The commander of the 2nd Battalion was unwilling to argue with the instructor at the current critical moment of the great enemy, so he nodded and agreed not to send the two platoons of the 7th Company away. But Xia Lianshan led the entire cavalry company and immediately set off to Hekou Village. Feng Changzhi asked the cavalry company commander to tell Wu Zijian: If Hekou Village does not defend, or retreat to Guanmen Mountain nearby, or move closer to Xiping, everything will be decided by the deputy battalion commander.

Before the sound of the cavalry's hooves was far away, Zhao Yejiao, the leader of the artillery squad, sent someone to ask the battalion commander for instructions on the next battle plan. Feng Changzhi excitedly patted the shoulder of the artillery squad soldier and said repeatedly:

"Well played, well played! Thanks to your continuous artillery firing at critical moments, the urgent need for the defense line in the west of the village was solved. ”

However, how and where the artillery hit next made it difficult for the commander of the second battalion. He didn't know much about artillery tactics, and just now he completely instinctively asked Zhao Yejiao to bombard the rear of the charging Japanese army. At this moment, looking at the west of the village, which was already solemn but still dark, Feng Changzhi didn't know how to explain for a while. In fact, even Zhao Yejiao himself didn't know how much damage the Japanese army had been caused by the bombardment just now: it was too dark.

Liu Shu suddenly interjected, he signaled the soldiers of the artillery squad to retreat first, and then put his head close to Feng Changzhi's head, and said in a low voice: "Battalion commander, I suggest that the evacuation plan be deployed in advance, I have a very bad premonition, the enemy is rushing to destroy our base area this time, and it is difficult to force it to withdraw its troops if it does not achieve its goal." ”

The commander of the second battalion looked directly into the eyes of the instructor who was close at hand, and at this point, he almost felt the same way as Liu Shu: "What do you mean, let the non-combatants evacuate first?" Then the only way to go into the mountains is to go into the mountains. ”

Xiping Village, like Hekou Village, is located at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, and is backed by a mountain pass that is open to Guanmen Mountain, and this mountain pass is two or three times wider than the mountain pass next to Hekou Village. There are dozens of houses scattered around the mountain pass.

"Yes, you have to go into the mountains!" Liu Shu made up his mind: "If Xiping can be defended, they will pull it out of the mountain again, at most it will be a toss; However, once the 6th and 7th companies cannot withstand the enemy and let these non-combat units temporarily withdraw, I am afraid it will be too late. ”

Feng Changzhi thought that the instructor was reasonable, so he simply handed over the task of directing the evacuation to him - at present, as the top military commander of the second battalion, Feng Changzhi's most important thing is how to command and fight this battle of life and death.

Liu Shu immediately went to execute. Feng Changzhi specially handed over a platoon of the 7th Company and the instructor to him, asking the instructor to take him with him and never leave. The recruit company, which had already been assembled, assisted the battalion headquarters, the health team, and the village mobilization committee in carrying the baggage and moving it to the Guanmen Mountain.

At this moment, the Japanese artillery began to bombard Xiping Village indiscriminately.

Feng Changzhi did not expect that the enemy would switch to artillery fire so quickly after the sneak attack failed. In the blink of an eye, many shells fell in the village; The soldier of the artillery squad who was still stranded by Feng Changzhi's side was one of the two gunners assigned to the second battalion by the Lin Division, and at this time, he pulled the battalion commander to lie on the spot, shouting into his ear amid the roar: "Battalion commander, the little devil is also a mortar, and it sounds like there are a lot of doors!" ”

Feng Changzhi grabbed the arm of this artillery squad soldier and shouted:

"Go back immediately and tell your squad leader, hit me hard at the place outside the village where he thinks there is an enemy, don't spare the shells, tonight is a decisive battle for us! When the cannonballs ran out, they ran into the mountain pass with the cannon, and they must not drop the cannon, which the deputy battalion commander desperately snatched from the devil! ”

The artillerymen heard the battalion commander's order clearly, got up and turned around and ran in the direction of the artillery squad's house.

Seeing this artillery soldier running away, Feng Changzhi suddenly called a soldier beside him, asking him to inform the instructor who was directing the evacuation that at least one squad of soldiers should go to the artillery squad to stand by, and if necessary, this squad must cover the safe withdrawal of the artillery squad.

Altars and jars can't be dropped, and cannons can't be dropped!

After the arrangement, the commander of the second battalion took the last remaining platoon of the 7th Company and nervously squatted on the bank of the frozen Qinglong River, this platoon was his general reserve; Now, he can no longer rush back to the forward position in the west of the village, and it is unknown what kind of offensive he will launch after the artillery attack of the Japanese outside the village, and he has to stay in this place that is almost the most central part of the village, and control the overall battlefield situation.

The shelling intensified.

Two spies of the Wencheng secret service led a squadron of Japanese troops to a long distance south of Xiping Village, and then, through the woods on both sides of the Qinglong River, quietly touched the end of Xiping Village.

On the orders of Masao Kojima, the head of the Wencheng secret service, these two spies had already disguised themselves as Chinese civilians many times before and entered the area of Xiping Village to reconnoitre, so they were not unfamiliar with the terrain here. The Japanese troops were coming from the south, and the northwesterly wind in the night masked their movements. What's more, now there is a fierce artillery battle inside and outside Xiping Village, and from here, it sounds like explosions in the village are coming and going; And apparently outside the west of the village, there were also shells exploding from time to time; Undoubtedly, it was the artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army that was organizing a return fire.

At the urging of the squadron leader of the Japanese army, they quickened their pace. Soon, with the memory of a few visits, the two spies felt that they should have approached the end of the village, and they motioned for the rear team to stop, and a few houses and courtyards could be vaguely seen more than ten zhang away in front of them, and they listened carefully.

The shelling outside the village, at this very moment, stopped. But soon, dense gunfire resounded in the direction west of the village, among which the sound of the 92 heavy machine gun was particularly clear. The Japanese troops who had touched the end of the village understood that the ground feint due west had begun. They waited for nearly two more minutes, and with a wave of his hand, more than 100 Japanese soldiers who were lying in ambush in the forest jumped up and rushed to the end of the village.

The Eighth Route Army, which defended the area at the end of the village, was the two platoons of the 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion that had just arrived in place, led by the deputy commander of the 7th Company, and entered the houses at the end of the village and deployed under the courtyard walls. However, there was a dead silence outside the end of the village, but the gunfire in the west of the village was as fierce as bursting beans, and people's attention could not help but be drawn to it.

"There is a situation!"

"Not good!"

"Who? Stand still and shoot! ”

Suddenly, one of the warriors at the end of the village felt a large group of black shadows pounce on them from outside, and immediately issued an alarm and warning, but almost at the same moment, the black shadows had reached in front of them; Rushing closer, the thirty-eight bayonets flashing with cold light suddenly became clear.

Devil! The devil is coming!! The warriors let out a roar of rage.

A hand-to-hand hand-to-hand combat broke out without warning.

At the forefront was the first squad of the Japanese squadron, running in the dark, almost directly into the arms of a group of soldiers of the Eighth Route Army; Both sides shouted and roared in the language of their own countries, and the sounds of bayonets and bayonets, bayonets and guns, mingled.

The deputy company commander of the 7th Company was a veteran of the Lin Division who had fought in the Battle of Pingxingguan, and in a panicked situation, he was still able to quickly command a platoon arranged in depth to pounce on it. The deputy company commander knew very well that there was no way to retreat behind him, and that this Japanese army was fierce and unknown in number, and he had to resist them with all his strength at the end of the village; Otherwise, once they are allowed to break into the village, the entire defense area of the second battalion will inevitably be in chaos.

"Hurry up and report to the battalion commander and instructor!"

The deputy company commander shouted orders to the soldiers around him while entering the battle group, and someone said yes, turned around and ran to the village.

The two platoons of the 7th Company, with a total of eighty or ninety men, finally fought to force the vanguard of the Japanese army to start retreating, but the retreat lasted only a few seconds, and more Japanese soldiers rushed up from behind, and the two sides launched a more chaotic and fierce hand-to-hand combat.

The Tyumen Brigade came from the Kato Brigade of the Sena Division, and belonged to the elite units of the division, and many Japanese soldiers of this squadron had been fighting continuously in Hebei since the Lugou Bridge Incident, and their shooting skills and white-knuckle combat skills were first-class in the army. The 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division of the Eighth Route Army is not the main force of the 2nd Battalion in terms of overall combat effectiveness, compared with Li Tianlin's 5th Company and Wang Shuanglong's 6th Company, the number of veterans in the Red Army era accounts for less than half of the whole company; The fighters were not very capable of fighting alone, and used a variety of rifles, some of which did not even match bayonets.

What was even more fatal was the numerical superiority of the Japanese squadron: 1670 men, 890 against the 890 men of the Eighth Route Army.

All of this determined this skirmish-style hand-to-hand combat, and the scales gradually tipped in favor of the Japanese army. More and more soldiers of the 7th Company were killed or wounded under the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers, and in a desperate situation, some soldiers even began to shoot at all figures in the dark.

The deputy commander of the 7th Company realized that something was wrong, and he brandished the bayonet-mounted Hanyangzao and fought with all his might, while letting out a hoarse roar to boost the morale of his subordinates. A Japanese soldier jumped to his side, his back was diagonally facing him, and he stabbed a soldier of the Eighth Route Army, and the deputy commander of the 7th Company shouted, and stabbed the bayonet into the back of the Japanese soldier's heart with a spear, but he was too strong to pull out the bayonet; At this moment, a 38 rifle* slammed into the back of his head, and the deputy company commander's eyes turned black and he fell heavily on the hard frozen ground.

The defense line at the end of the village collapsed, and hundreds of Japanese soldiers poured into Xiping Village.