The battalion commander Feng Changzhi's judgment was not wrong, and the gunshots that suddenly rang out from the west outside Xiping Village were the mobile sentinels of the 2nd Battalion who discovered the enemy's attack and fired warning shots, but the sentries were immediately shot and killed by the Japanese soldiers.

This Japanese army was the Tyumen Brigade that had rushed to the aid of the Songjiagou comfort women's secret camp in Xiaoyushu Mountain, and in addition to the captain of the brigade, Tyumen Shaosa, and the riverside staff of the Hagiwara Brigade were commanded by them.

After receiving Kosuke Otsuka's telegram, Kawabe was so angry that the guy from Otsuka did not explain why the troops attacking Kawaguchi Village opened fire in advance without authorization, but only vaguely spoke. At that time, the Tyumen Brigade had already been led by the people of the Wencheng secret service, secretly advanced to a position five or six miles west of Xiping Village, and sent sharp soldiers to prepare to relieve the Eighth Route Army of the mobile outpost set up outside the village.

This field location was far away from Hekou Village, which had already begun, and was even farther away from Xiping Village, so they did not hear the sound of gunfire from Hekou Village. Sensing that the raid plan might fail, the chief of staff of the riverside was angry and immediately gave the order to attack.

Three of the four infantry squadrons of the Tyumen brigade were organized by him into three lines, left, center, and right, and marched in unison to launch a surprise attack on the village of Xiping in front. Machine gun squadrons and artillery squadrons, following the two gaps in the three-way attack formation, are ready to provide fire support to the front. The Tyumen commander personally led the infantry squadron in the middle to direct the attack, and the riverside led the fourth squadron to follow up the raid.

As a result, the top soldiers of one of the squadrons were discovered by the sentries of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army outside the village while marching, and the two sides launched a confrontation of fire. At that time, they were only about two miles away from the outer edge of the village.

Before the gunshots rang out outside the village, Feng Changzhi had already mobilized the cavalry, preparing to let the cavalry company commander Xia Lianshan rush to Hekou Village with a cavalry platoon to find out. And when Xia Lianshan ordered the soldiers of that platoon to prepare their horses, Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the sixth company, was also ordered to urgently urge his subordinates who had just turned off the lights and went to the kang. It turned out later that if these two parts of the army had not been prepared in advance, this cover-up by the Japanese army from outside the village would have been accomplished overnight!

At this time, Feng Changzhi grabbed his pony pistol - the short guns of the battalion and company-level commanders of the whole battalion and company were all taken away by Wu Zijian and handed over to the enemy engineering team for use, and ran out of the gate of the Guandi Temple with his legs, while instructing the instructor Liu Shu to immediately assemble the 7th Company and the recruit company, including another platoon of the cavalry company and the artillery squad to prepare for battle. He ran directly to Wang Shuanglong's 6th Company, completely ignoring that the company was still hurriedly armed, shouted "follow me", and went straight to the west of the village where the gun was fired.

Xiping Village is a large village with more than 600 households and a population of more than 2,000, and the Qinglong River, which flows from Hekou Village, passes through the center of the village, dividing the entire Xiping Village into east and west halves. Therefore, Feng Changzhi at the moment, with the 6th Company that set off in a hurry, needed to run across the frozen Qinglong River to reach the west end of the village.

At the same time, three squadrons of the Japanese Tyumen Brigade, which were divided into three roads, swooped down on the west side of Xiping Village. Fortunately, Feng Changzhi arrived first with less than two platoons of people from the 6th Company, and they quickly poured into the various houses on the western edge of the village, relying on the courtyard walls and other buildings, and established the initial line of defense; Subsequently, Wang Shuanglong took the rest of the four platoons that were slower to prepare, and also rushed to the west of the village one after another.

The darkness of the night made it impossible for both sides to see each other in the air, but the large-scale creaking sound of military cotton shoes trampling on the snow brought by the northwest wind outside the village made the officers and men of the 6th Company, who had just taken up their positions and were still panting, clearly aware that a large group of men and horses were charging towards them.

In several positions, the shouts of the soldiers of the 6th Company sounded one after another, asking for the identity of the other party. But before the shout fell, the Type 38 rifle on the opposite side opened fire in pieces. In this way, of course, the men of the 6th Company did not need to talk nonsense, and the rain of bullets that returned fire immediately poured back.

The fierce battle in Xiping Village broke out.

In Hekou Village, more than ten miles away, Wu Zijian's heart is like a knife.

In the north outside the village, the originally dense gunfire gradually weakened, and Wu Zijian, Xiao Junping, and the deputy company commander of the 5th Company all knew that the fifth platoon, which served as a guard in the direction of Fengdian, was only afraid that there would be more than one bad luck.

The deputy company commander slammed his fist on the kang table with grief and indignation, pulled off his hat from the top of his head to cover his face, and his body shook imperceptibly.

Xiao Junping, who saw this scene, understood that this man was sobbing silently - a whole platoon of elite soldiers! If the deputy company commander was to make his own decisions, he would have to fight desperately to go out of the village to rescue him.

"Deputy battalion commander, you should immediately contact Company Commander Li at the mountain pass fortifications and ask them to prepare to defend to the death, the enemy will attack at night on a large scale, and it will definitely not be good."

When Xiao Junping said this to Wu Zijian, he lowered his voice, and he didn't want to stimulate the grief-stricken deputy commander of the 5th Company on the side.

Wu Zijian is a general who has fought to the death after all, although his mind was chaotic for a while just now, but once he calms down, he can objectively analyze the situation:

He arranged five platoons to serve as a guard on the spot, and then the 5th company launched a siege of the Mongolian cavalry, at least at that time, it was impossible for the fifth platoon to join the war group, because they were at the back of the whole company at that time. And then, the five rows are clearly fired; They fought, which can only indicate one situation, that is, the enemy army has come in the direction of Fengdian again. In other words, in addition to the Mongolian cavalry that was inadvertently bumped into by the 5th Company on the way back, Fengdian also had follow-up enemy troops moving towards here, and the 5th Platoon should have exchanged fire with this enemy force.

Wu Zijian thought bitterly that after he commanded the whole company to withdraw from the battlefield just now, the cavalry of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army who had freed up their hands would undoubtedly turn back to flank the five platoons that were still fighting.

"Herald!" Wu Zijian let out a loud roar violently, startling everyone in the room, at this moment his heart was like pressing a boulder, so uncomfortable that he had to shout to catch his breath: "The commander of the 5th company with three platoons, stubbornly guarding the mountain pass fortifications, without my charge here, I will definitely not be able to take a step forward!" ”

Looking at Wu Zijian, who was as angry as a lion, Xiao Junping certainly understood that he was extremely depressed at the moment, but he still reminded: "Deputy battalion commander, the division commander is on Company Commander Li's side. ”

"I know!"

Wu Zijian couldn't help but roar at his enemy captain. He knew that he shouldn't be angry with him, because although the tactics suggested by Xiao Junping were cold but undoubtedly correct, Wu Zijian just couldn't control himself, he could feel his body trembling excitedly, so he turned his eyes to the communicator standing at the door: "Let Li Tianlin send me the trumpeter, and the deputy company commander of the 8th Company with his platoon will also enter Hekou Village immediately to assist in defense!" ”

Xiao Junping didn't mind Wu Zijian's rudeness, but continued to suggest: "Company Commander Li is the only one left in command, let the deputy company commander of the 5th Company support him." ”

Wu Zijian nodded in agreement.

In this way, Li Tianlin and his deputy company commander commanded three platoons of the 5th Company to defend the mountain pass; Wu Zijian commanded the other two platoons of the 5th Company, as well as the deputy company commander of the 8th Company and his two platoons, to defend Hekou Village. There were two Japanese Type 92 heavy machine guns and two Czech light machine guns; On the side of Hekou Village, there is a Republic of China Type 24 heavy machine gun.

Just as the Captain of the Enemy Engineer had suggested at the beginning, they began to hold out and wait for dawn.

Of course, after returning to Hekou Village, Wu Zijian had already dispatched a cavalry correspondent as soon as possible, Pegasus to report to the battalion headquarters in Xiping. It's just that he would never have thought that his cavalry correspondent had just set off, and Xiping Village, more than ten miles away, would also start.

The Tyumen Infantry Brigade, another brigade of the Sena Division: the Kato Brigade. Therefore, in this offensive operation, they were under the temporary command of the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters as a "guest army". Before leading the Tyumen Brigade on the expedition, the chief of staff of the Hagiwara Brigade, Kawabe, also received instructions from the brigade commander, Major General, that it was necessary to annihilate the Eighth Route Army at the foot of Guanmen Mountain as much as possible, and to ensure that the Tyumen Brigade suffered as few casualties as possible.

Hebian understood that this infantry brigade would take a small train south to Linfen tomorrow, and the division headquarters and Kato brigade headquarters urgently needed the return of the brigade. If tonight's battle had caused too many casualties to the brigade, Lieutenant General Sena would have to give an explanation.

So, before the attack, the chief of staff of the riverside pushed all the first three squadrons of the Tyumen brigade to the front at once. Through intelligence, he had already grasped that the Xiping Village in the night in front of him was a village with a long and narrow distribution of households along the topography of the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, about five or six miles long from east to west, and only three miles wide from north to south. And the Tyumen brigade was facing precisely the wide side of Xiping Village. Intelligence also showed that the Eighth Route Army in the village was between five or six hundred to seven or eight hundred men, and the imperial army had a certain advantage in numbers; As long as the formation is stretched out and the wide flank of Xiping Village is attacked at the same time, the Eighth Route Army, which is in a hurry, will definitely lose sight of one or the other.

Only by flowering quickly and at more points can we reduce the casualties caused by a protracted attack. Therefore, in accordance with this plan, the Tyumen Infantry Brigade launched a full-line attack on Xiping Village.

To be honest, the chief of staff of the riverside did not attach much importance to the combat power of this Eighth Route Army. Since Sena's division invaded Shanxi, there have been very few battles against the Eighth Route Army, and he himself has never even met them. In his opinion, in the sequence of the Central Army in Chongqing, there are ace units of the Zhina army, such as Sun Lianzhong's division who fought hard in the series of battles of Niangziguan. As for the Eighth Road, he equated it with the local warlord forces of the Shanxi Jin Army and other people.

But less than ten minutes after tonight's battle began, the resistance firepower from the Eighth Route Army in the village became tougher and tougher, and two of the three squadrons of the Tyumen Brigade were forced to retreat, including the middle road under the personal command of Tyumen Shaoza! And the reason for the retreat of the other way is that the squadron leader of the road was shot and killed on the spot when he led the team to charge!

Just now, I was fantasizing that I could take the whole village in one fell swoop, but when I received these two reports, I couldn't help but be angry.