The machine gun squadron of the Tyumen Infantry Brigade pushed all 12 92 heavy machines to the forefront of the skirmishers.

At the time of the firing, these heavy machine guns were less than 100 feet away from the western defense line of the Eighth Route Army Village in Xiping Village.

The shooters and ammunition men of the heavy machine guns, as well as the soldiers responsible for carrying the guns forward, are all stooping and squatting; At the same time, the Japanese soldiers, who were closely behind the heavy machine guns, straightened their bodies and picked up the 38 big cover in their hands and fired in the direction of the machine gun sweep.

The commanders and fighters of the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division were subjected to such a violent and dense rain of bullets. Wang Shuanglong judged from the direction of the gun fired on the opposite side that the Japanese army had entered his own firing range, and immediately gave the order to open fire.

The firepower of the 6th Company was very weak compared to the firepower of the Japanese army at this moment: two Czech light machine guns and less than 200 rifles engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese on the narrow defensive line. Everyone had the mentality of fighting to the death, and desperately returned fire at the rain of bullets on the opposite side.

Hearing the collective roar of the 92 heavy machine guns, Feng Changzhi, who was still in the Guanmen Mountain Pass in the east of the village, immediately realized that the enemy's new offensive had intensified. At this time, he did not know that the Japanese army had changed the feint attack on the west of the village to a focused attack; Now, the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion is all in the west of the village; At the head of the village to the north are two platoons of the 7th Company, and the company commander Wei Xin is in charge of commanding; The two platoons at the end of the village on the south side lost more than half of them in the fierce battle just now, and the deputy company commander died, and now the instructor of the 7th Company brought a platoon to supplement it; In Feng Changzhi's hands, there was only less than one platoon of reserves left.

Liu Shu urged the battalion commander to hurry to the front line to command the operation, and he presided over the retreat in this area of the mountain pass. Just as Zhang Xiu took a few people to carry the files and files of the Xiping Village Movement Committee and related items, and saw Feng Changzhi, Zhang Xiu hurriedly inquired about the battle situation in front, Feng Changzhi told her that the 6th and 7th companies would do their best to resist, but the evacuation speed behind should be accelerated, and the things that were not necessary to take away should be left alone.

When Feng Changzhi said this to Zhang Xiu, he was actually telling the instructors on the side -- what the second battalion commander still remembers vividly is that on the eve of the Long March, when the Red Army broke through from the Jiangxi Soviet District, it was the central organs that were reluctant to discard a large number of jars and jars, which caused the entire unit to move sluggishly and caused tragic casualties to the combat units that were responsible for blocking the blockade.

But the instructor apparently did not hear the battalion commander's words, for he was shouting loudly to be careful about a wheelbarrow that had just passed by, and which was loaded with something that apparently seemed to him to be valuable. Feng Changzhi didn't have the heart to check what was on the wheelbarrow, he turned around and was about to rush to the west of the village, but Zhang Xiu suddenly grabbed him, and the beautiful female clerk glanced at the instructor who was furious next to him imperceptibly, and then asked Feng Changzhi:

"Battalion commander, I heard that the Hekou Village side has exchanged fire with the enemy tonight, is the situation critical?"

The night was thick, Feng Changzhi couldn't see a wisp of crimson on Zhang Xiu's face, and the second battalion commander didn't know this female soldier's feelings for the new enemy engineer captain like Wu Zijian, so he said casually: "It's hard to say, the commander of the Xia company has passed over with cavalry support, and there is no news yet." ”

With that, Feng Changzhi waved his hand to the more than two dozen soldiers around him and took the lead in running to the west of the village.

Zhang Xiu looked at the direction where the battalion commander ran away in a trance, as if he wanted to shout something again, but he opened his mouth and didn't shout.

"Xiao Zhang, what are you doing in a daze?" After the instructor reprimanded the few people who had just pushed the wheelbarrow, he turned around and found the female clerk: "Hurry up and transport it to the mountain pass; How many of the things in the moving committee have not yet been shipped? ”

"I've packed all the important things, and I don't want the rest, right?" Zhang Xiu remembered Feng Changzhi's instructions just now.

Liu Shu roared again: "Why not? Those are all the valuable experience and testimony of the Second Battalion and the Movement Committee in opening up revolutionary base areas. You and I have to protect them with all our might! ”

Zhang Xiu panicked, she asked the soldiers to continue to carry in the direction of the mountain pass, and she turned around and ran to the village office where the moving committee worked. Liu Shu shouted behind her: Find a few more soldiers and fellow villagers to help, how much can you take alone?!

The gunfire in the west of the village became more and more intense and approaching, which aroused the vigilance of Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th company guarding the head of the village: listening to the momentum of the devil's heavy machine gun, it was very amazing, there should be no less than seven or eight guns, and the sound of rifles was also very dense; On the other hand, outside the village, there was no sign of the enemy's attack—the cross-sweeping of the two crooked handles just now clearly frightened the enemy troops who tried to touch it.

"Company commander, the devil seems to have turned around and attacked the king company commander and them."

A platoon commander beside Wei Xin said that his ears were also listening sideways to the movement in the west of the village. They all heard it, and in the roar of the Type 92 heavy machine gun, the Czech-style crisp scream was not to be outdone, but they also knew that the 6th Company only had two Czech-type guns, but it had a long line of defense.

"The ammunition sent by the battalion headquarters just now, is there more than six or five bullets?"

Wei Xin asked his subordinates that their two platoons had less than ten Type 38 rifles.

"Not much,* all of them are packed with a washbasin, and it's only half a basin, and all of them are for the comrades who take the 38 big covers."

Wei Xin pondered for a moment, and then decisively ordered: leave a crooked machine gun at the head of the village, fill the bucket with six*, and carry a batch* to the west of the village to support immediately.

When a soldier heard this, he became anxious: "Company commander, what should I do if the devil wants to touch it again?" We were ordered to defend the head of the village, and if we lost our positions, the battalion commander and instructor would not spare us! ”

Wei Xin shouted angrily: "Less nonsense, carry out the order!" The west of the village is a long front, once it is stabbed by the devil, how strong and useful is the head of the village to defend? ”

The crooked machine-gun shooter who was named, along with the second-in-commander, immediately began to pack up his things and get up. Wei Xin sent another squad leader to lead five soldiers to protect the two of them, and at the same time told the deputy shooter: When you arrive at the position of the 6th company, immediately find someone with a 38 big cover in your hand to ask for *, ask for more, and ensure that this machine gun can continue to fire.

The crooked handle machine gun (that is, the Taisho Type 11) and the Type 38 rifle are both 65 bullets, but they need to be filled with six* in the machine gun cartridge (each * has five bullets, which is the amount of the 38 type rifle pressed at one time), and this kind of machine gun with a strange loading has already made the shooters of the 7th Company very troubled. How did they know that the gun was being gradually abandoned by the Japanese army precisely because of its many shortcomings, and the stock of firearms was used to arm the traitor troops - these two crooked guns were exactly what Wu Zijian and they had seized from the puppet Mongolian cavalry regiment.

At the same time that Wei Xin mobilized his light machine gun to support the 6th Company, Feng Changzhi, the commander of the second battalion, had already rushed to the position west of the village with more than 20 people and immediately entered the battle.

He quickly found Wang Shuanglong, who was shouting and fighting. In less than ten minutes after the start of the battle, the commanders and fighters of the 6th Company had another batch of casualties, and the enemy from the opposite side had extremely fierce firepower.

"Ssangyong, what's going on? Why do I think the little devil on the other side has increased his troops? ”

Feng Changzhi also shouted at the commander of the 6th company while shooting, and he was holding a pony pistol in his hand.

"That's right, battalion commander! The little devils have increased their troops to me, and they have pushed the heavy machine guns up! Listen, there are 92 Heavy Machinery calling everywhere! ”

"It can't be fought like this, it seems that the enemy can't attack the head and tail of the village, and he is going to break through from the center! You resist me, I'll send troops over! ”

Before Feng Changzhi could finish speaking, he saw a small group of soldiers of the 7th Company running up with a cat, one of them was the machine gunner of the 7th Company, holding the heavy crooked handle with difficulty in his arms.

"Report to the battalion commander, Company Commander Wei ordered us to support Company Commander Wang!"

Before Feng Changzhi could praise him, Wang Shuanglong had already grinned widely, and excitedly kicked the deputy shooter's buttocks: "Good boy, Lao Wei is a friend enough, and he has brought all the machine guns to Lao Tzu, okay, hurry up!" ”

The crooked shooters set up their guns and explained that they needed to provide a three-eight big cover*. Wang Shuanglong didn't understand for a while, many of his subordinates used the 38 big cover, but they had never dealt with this kind of Japanese strange machine gun, but the situation was urgent, Wang Shuanglong stopped asking, and called a squad leader to ask him to do what the machine gunners of the 7th Company requested.

Feng Changzhi had already given an order to a soldier who had arrived in the 7th Company, asking him to return to the village immediately, and let Wei Xin organize two more squads of people to immediately reinforce the west of the village. After the explanation, he himself ran to the end of the village in person.

Feng Changzhi's purpose in personally going to the end of the village was not only to transfer reinforcements, but also to first check and consolidate the position at the end of the village - there had just been broken through by a sneak attack by devils, and it had already broken through, but fortunately it was blocked resolutely and timely; Now the instructor of the 7th Company is in charge of command, and he really can't rest assured.

But what the commander of the second battalion did not expect was that not long after he left, a forward force of the Japanese army broke through a position in the west of the village: behind a long courtyard wall that was half-collapsed by artillery shells, five soldiers of the 6th company who defended the defense were killed and wounded one after another, and the firepower basically stagnated.

These seven or eight Japanese soldiers were very careful, and after falling behind in the control compound, they did not rush to charge into the village, but relied on the reverse concealment, held firm, and sent people back to report the news, so as to summon more soldiers to gather here.

A platoon commander of the 6th Company squatted on a large grinding disc near the lost compound, put his rifle on the rock, and fired calmly one shot after another. At this time, he suddenly realized that there seemed to be no movement for a long time in the courtyard on the left side where the soldiers had been firing; The platoon commander secretly screamed that it was not good, and stepped down from the millstone in one step, ready to jump into the courtyard to see what was going on.

"Smack!"

A bullet flew almost against the platoon commander's ear, the platoon commander was startled, and hurriedly lay down, at this time, he heard the low roar of Japanese vaguely coming out of the courtyard, and the platoon commander suddenly understood that it was the Japanese soldiers in the courtyard: Could it be that the soldiers behind the courtyard wall were all sacrificed!?

At this moment, the screams of the soldiers of the 6th Company, apparently, sounded in the courtyard - it was a soldier of the 6th Company who had just been stunned by the attacking Japanese army*, and woke up after a short coma, only to hear the person talking in a whisper next to him actually speaking Japanese.

"The devil is here, the devil is here!"

The warrior shouted desperately, trying to report to his comrades on the left and right. However, several bayonets from Type 38 rifles soon stabbed him in the chest.

But this made the platoon commander of the Eighth Route Army outside the courtyard clear that the courtyard had been occupied by the Japanese army, and he decisively found one* and threw it into the courtyard without exerting too much force. In the explosion of *, the platoon commander retreated in the direction he came, shouting that he wanted to come immediately and recapture the lost courtyard!