In the mind of the colonel of the Central Army, he has a solid memory of the road from Junling to Fengdian at his feet, every key node; Especially the mountain pass at the western foot of the Great Elm Mountain, which is only five or six miles away from the county seat of Fengdian. He now has only one purpose, which is to lead all his troops to quickly assault the area of the mountain pass, set up a defensive line to gain a firm foothold, and let the heavy equipment carried by the machine gun company move into the mountain pass; From there, I went to the small village regiment headquarters in the depths of the Great Elm Mountain, and it was much closer. If it was inevitable that there would be a head-to-head confrontation with the Japanese army's Otsuka Wing today, Qin Zhongxiao would also secretly hope that his battalion would be able to fight again after his battalion occupied the area around the mountain pass. In short, there are not many heavy weapons that have just been excavated, and there are not many that can be used immediately, and what is urgently needed now is to transport them back safely.

However, when the commander of his first battalion sent back the information that he had encountered the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army brigade and had a fierce battle, Qin Zhongxiao felt a little bad. There is no doubt that the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army came prepared, and the small group that was initially defeated was only their sharp soldiers.

He glanced at his chief of staff, Zhang Hong, who was of course more anxious than him: "Tuanza, now it seems that my analysis is correct. It is very likely that the puppet Mongolian army will follow the main force of the Otsuka United, and we should not risk fighting any further! ”

Qin Zhongxiao was silent, but ordered his subordinates to open the military map, pointing to the location of the exchange of fire between the first battalion and the main force of the puppet Mongolian army at this time, which should be about ten miles away from the mountain pass that was scheduled to arrive. If they could not quickly break through to the area around the mountain pass, the exhausted army of the 391st Regiment would have to fight it on the road as soon as the heavy Japanese troops really caught up from behind.

"Wait for the battle report of the battalion!" Qin Zhongxiao hesitated, but he still couldn't make up his mind to turn back immediately, and it was really a loss to go back at this time: "The report of the first battalion commander only mentioned the increase in the number of cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, but there was no sign of the arrival of the Japanese army. If it was only the puppet Mongolian army that stood in the way, the first battalion would still have the strength to break through them. I'm going to transfer the mountain artillery to him next, and if it doesn't work, I'll open fire! ”

At the same time, their eyes looked at a large group of officers and soldiers who were squatting at the base of the mountain, nervously assembling the Krupp mountain cannon, not far from the mountain artillery, two Min-24 heavy machine guns, which had been sorted out and maintained outside the city of Junling, were also placed on the side of the road, ready to be put into actual combat.

"Tuanza, if we just confront the Japanese in the front, it's not terrible," Zhang Hong continued to persuade urgently: "Otsuka United, it's not like we haven't fought with them face-to-face. The problem is that once we are unable to hold on to the Japanese troops in front, we must consider the safety of the rear flank, and the second battalion behind the palace is facing not only the direction of Junling, but also the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain! If the Japanese army in Wencheng heard the news and outflanked this road from the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain, it would be equivalent to completely sealing our rear wing. At that time, seven or eight hundred people with heavy equipment will be trapped on this road and suffer from the enemy, and the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

As he spoke, the chief of staff also gestured with his finger to the map, and the location of the highway, the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain, and Wencheng and Fengdian was vividly visible; The eyes of the colonel of the Central Army were rolling with Zhang Hong's fingers, and his brain was also spinning rapidly. He thought that what the chief of staff said was not impossible, and once the Japanese troops in Wencheng got the news and rushed to reinforcements, it would only take an hour or two to take a car to the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain. The position of the 391st Regiment is now, there are craggy mountains on the left and right sides, if the front and back are firmly blocked by the Japanese army, they will really become a rat in the bellows!

"So I suggest that we turn around now and rush back to the pass at the northern foot of the Great Elm Mountain before the Japanese reinforcements in Wencheng are in place. From there, it was hard to go back to the regimental headquarters, but it was always much less dangerous. Zhang Hong finally concluded.

The colonel of the Central Army stared at the map, thought for a while, raised his head and instructed his chief of staff: "You go to the second battalion immediately, and prepare for us to turn around and return, once the execution begins, the rear team will change to the front team, and march to the northern foot of the big elm tree with all our might." However, without my confirmed order, you can only direct the formation of defensive lines in that area, and do not act rashly. Zhang Hong swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and wanted to say something more unwillingly, but Qin Zhongxiao's expression had clearly told him that there was no room for change. He understood that this was a last ditch effort that Danza wanted to make a last-ditch effort in front of him, striving to be able to quickly break through to the predetermined mountain pass. Thinking of this, Zhang Hong had no choice but to sigh, turned his head and took the people around him, and ran towards the second battalion as the rear wing.

At this moment, the battle of the first battalion has reached a fever pitch.

A considerable part of the highway leading from Junling to Fengdian is sandwiched between the two large and small elm mountains in the east and west; The highway is dirty, the widest road surface is about three zhang, and the narrowest is only less than two zhang. On both sides of the highway is a wasteland overgrown with weeds.

The area of the wasteland varies from wide to narrow, and where it is narrow, it is not long to walk down the road to the roots of the Great Elm Mountain or the Little Elm Mountain; The wide place can walk dozens or even hundreds of zhang. At present, the section of the highway that is used as a battlefield is relatively narrow, and the width of the highway is close to three zhang, but the wasteland on both sides of the road is very close to the roots of the two large and small elm mountains. The cavalry battalion of the puppet Mongolian army was in the middle of the road and on both sides of the road, setting up three lines of defense, and dozens of men and horses followed their regiment commander Du Dongqiang, standing at the back of the defense line.

The battle lasted for more than ten minutes, and the three lines of defense of the puppet Mongolian army were almost mixed into the last one. But it was this line of defense that managed to hold up because their two crooked light machine guns played an important role: they were placed on either side of the road, one on a small mound, the other behind a strange rock. The two machine guns were fired in a cross-cutting manner, which was very effective in controlling the road surface directly in front of the firing range and the wasteland on both sides.

The attack of the 1st Battalion of the 391st Regiment was intercepted precisely under the fire of these two crooked light machine guns, and not only suffered casualties, but also forced to retreat the offensive front a few feet back. After the two sides formed a stalemate and confrontation, the commander of the first battalion quickly transferred the Czech machine guns of the whole battalion from behind, in an attempt to launch a fire counterattack with the crooked handles of the puppet Mongolian troops on the opposite side. Unfortunately, however, the machine guns of the first battalion could hardly find favorable terrain support, while the machine guns of the puppet Mongolian army hid behind mounds and strange rocks respectively, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack.

At first, the three lines of defense of the puppet Mongolian army, which were violently attacked by the 391st Regiment, had become collapsed. However, when these two crooked light machine guns exerted effective fire support, the chaotic formation of the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army gradually regained its composure, and under the personal command of the battalion commander and regiment commander Du Dongqiang, they lay down or looked for concealment one after another, and launched a confrontation with the opposite side, thus forming a mixed position with two machine guns as the main fire point and more than 100 mounted guns. For a time, it was difficult for even elite officers and soldiers of the Central Committee to find effective means of breakthrough.

Du Dongqiang, the commander of the cavalry regiment, while commanding his subordinates to fight back desperately, cheered everyone up and shouted: "The imperial army reinforcements sent by Otsuka Dazuo will leave the city immediately!" Brethren, hold on! ”

The commander of the first battalion of the 391st Regiment did not expect that this traitor cavalry, which had been routed at the touch of a button before, would fight so tenaciously today, especially the crossfire network formed by the two machine guns, which has reached a fairly professional military level.

When he was anxious and helpless, the colonel of the Central Army personally rushed over, and he dragged the battalion commander aside and viciously reprimanded: Why the hell can't even a group of traitors clean up!? However, when Qin Zhong followed the instructions of the first battalion commander and saw the situation on the battlefield clearly, he also felt that it was tricky - it was really necessary to mobilize artillery to come up!

It didn't take long for the machine gun company to push the Krupp mountain gun up, and when it reached the point where there was a clear firing range, it didn't move forward too much. The commander of the machine gun company personally commanded and launched intense preparations, and with the three test shots at the head of Junling City in the morning, the commander of the machine gun company was already confident, and at this moment, facing the positions of the puppet Mongolian army on the road and in the wilderness, he sorted out the task given to him by the regiment: first knock out the two machine gun fire points of the other side, and then focus on the bombardment of the puppet Mongolian troops lying in ambush on both sides of the road. As long as the machine gun is knocked out, the opponent's defensive formation will collapse in an instant.

The shelling went well. The first shot hit the machine-gun position on the mound, and directly blew up the mound and the crooked machine gun together. The second shot failed to hit the target accurately and hit the vicinity of the rock, but the huge blast of the shell knocked over both the crooked machine gun and the shooter. In less than a minute, two machine-gun positions were destroyed. When the third shell smashed into the camp of the puppet Mongolian army on the side of the road, just as the colonel of the Central Army had expected, the enemy completely collapsed, got up and turned around, and fled in the direction of Fengdian.

The commander of the first battalion shouted excitedly and ordered the whole battalion to immediately start a pursuit. Qin Zhongxiao instructed him not to pause, and to attack forward with all his strength until he occupied the mountain pass, and then fortified it on the spot.

At the same time, he also instructed the commander of the machine gun company to direct the Krupp mountain gun to follow the rear of the first battalion and move forward. A platoon was set aside by the first battalion to escort it. The order of the colonel of the Central Army was that as long as there was a target in front that hindered the attack of the first battalion, it could open artillery bombardment on its own to ensure the implementation of the infantry attack. Of course, it is necessary to save artillery shells, and try not to bombard the road surface of the road, so that other heavy weapons, equipment, and personnel behind can smoothly advance along the road.

After arranging all this, Qin Zhongxiao excitedly contacted the chief of staff who had reached the command of the second battalion, informing him that a breakthrough had been opened in the front, and that the second battalion would follow up in the direction of the main force. At the same time, pay close attention to the presence of enemy troops in the rear. After receiving the report, Zhang Hong was still worried, and he never believed that behind the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army, it would be empty.

Sure enough, nothing happened to the rear flank of the 391st regiment; And in front of the road, there was a real Japanese army, which was a squadron of the 1st Brigade of the Otsuka Wing, carrying 92 infantry guns and mortars, and appeared violently.