Qin Zhongxiao once again convened a meeting of the officers of the 391st Regiment to discuss the plan of pulling out the troops to fight on the Tongpu railway line.

After returning from the excavation of heavy weapons outside Junling City, the mountain artillery company and heavy machine gun company of the 391st Regiment were established as soon as possible. The mountain artillery company has two imitation German-made Krupp mountain guns and one Japanese-made 41-type mountain gun, both with a caliber of 75; Needless to say, some local warlords of the Nationalist Army have this equipment, and the Japanese 41 style should have been captured by Liu Maoen's 15th Army from the Japanese army during the Battle of Xinkou.

In the past, the 391st Regiment had two artillery companies under the direct jurisdiction of the regimental headquarters, one was a mortar company and the other was a war defense artillery company, but all its equipment was lost in the Battle of Xinkou and the later field battle outside Taiyuan City. This time, the artillery company was reinstated, and it was equipped with three newly captured 75 mountain guns, plus a Japanese 92 infantry gun captured in the battle to recover Fengdian, with a caliber of 70; The overall firepower of one artillery battery far exceeded that of the original two artillery batteries.

The heavy machine gun company is also absolutely worthy of its name, except for one of the five civilian 24-type heavy machine guns seized outside Junling City, which is seriously damaged and cannot be repaired, the remaining four can meet the standard of immediate combat after maintenance and repair; In addition to the two Type 92 heavy machine guns captured by the Japanese army before, the total number of six heavy machine guns has completely restored the size of the former establishment.

In addition, a Type 94 mortar and five grenadiers were also captured by the Japanese army in Fengdian, and Qin Zhongxiao assigned them to six companies of the first and second battalions in order as the exclusive reinforcement firepower of the company.

After this adjustment, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army has even surpassed its appearance when it first arrived in Shanxi last year, and has become more powerful in terms of firepower configuration. This is also where Qin Zhongxiao's confidence lies in daring to consider pulling his troops to fight on the Tongpu railway line in the plains.

Of course, his confidence also comes from the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division, if the main force of the 391st Regiment jumps to the outside line to fight, then on its flank, the strategy of the second battalion of the Lin Division's Xu Brigade is obviously indispensable. In addition, the liaison officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Lin Division has just sent the good news that the latest contact with the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army has been established.

Recently, with the help of the spies sent out and the report of the military command intelligence group from Wencheng, the colonel of the Central Army has a relatively accurate grasp of the Japanese garrison along the Tongpu railway south of Junling:

Wencheng, stationed the brigade headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade of the Sena Division of the Japanese Army, was responsible for the garrison of the city was an independent infantry brigade transferred from Hebei, plus a cavalry squadron directly under the jurisdiction of the division; In addition, an infantry brigade of the Otsuka Wing of the Hagiwara Brigade was stationed outside Bunjo Castle, which was supposed to be a mobile unit.

From Wencheng to the south, the railway line is Lingshi, Han Xinling, Huoxian, Zhaocheng, Hongdong and other counties and towns, until the former location of the second theater of the national army Commander's Department in Linfen, Qin Zhongxiao's current intelligence stops at Linfen. What he had in his hands was that after the Kato Brigade of the Sena Division of the Japanese Army and the Special Forces Wing directly under the division, after all the above-mentioned prefectures and towns were captured, only small units were stationed in each place, and the main purpose was to control the railway line stations.

"Obviously, the Sena division is still concentrating on using the main force to storm southward, with the aim of driving Wei Lihuang's central army across the Yellow River in one go, but in this way, the empty rear flank of the division has been exposed, and it is obviously negligent in guarding against it!"

At the regimental headquarters in Xiaozhai, the officers of the 391st Regiment gathered around the huge sand table and listened to the group seat talking eloquently.

"It's just the main force of the division with only 10,000 people, why do you dare to attack all the way south without any scruples, but you don't care about the safety of your own flank?"

Qin Zhongxiao's eyes scorched at his subordinates and questioned.

No one answered him for a moment. After a while, the commander of the first battalion stared at the Tongpu railway line on the sand table, and said in a whisper: "Their battle line is too long!" Starting from Wencheng to Yuncheng, which has just been occupied, the railway in between is more than 300 miles, how did the supply of tens of thousands of people be realized? Just those little trains the size of matchboxes?! ”

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong interjected expressionlessly: "The divisions and regiments of the Japanese army are fighting, and the baggage wing directly under it is responsible for establishing supply lines, the brigade is the military station, the wing is the big baggage, and the brigade is the small baggage; The ring is set and the structure is tight; Even in mountainous areas and water network areas where transportation is not convenient, it can be guaranteed in time, not to mention plains and railway lines like Jinnan. ”

"They still have a fleet of cars! Dozens of large trucks can be lined up. Zhu Xingyun, the commander of the sixth company of the second battalion on the side, interjected. Zhu Xingyun once served as a liaison officer between the 391st Regiment and the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, and heard Li Tianlin, the main company commander of the other party, talk about this.

"Effective supply is only one thing!" Qin Zhongxiao was not satisfied with his subordinates who had deviated from the topic, and raised his voice and said: "What we have to pay attention to is the emptiness of the rear flank defense line of the Sena Division, and their baggage wing has the ability to continuously replenish grain, grass and ammunition to the front line, but this cannot hide the fact that the flank of the entire division has been completely exposed. ”

The commander of the first battalion became excited, pointed at the Tongpu railway he had just looked at with his short and thick fingers, and shouted: "Ah, my regimental seat! I'll just say, the more than 300-mile-long railway line, there are no decent troops guarding the counties and towns along the line, this is not the same as showing the backbone for us to fight! ”

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong frowned, and said almost to himself: We have all seen it so clearly, the Sena Division will not be aware of this?

"Good question!" Qin Zhongxiao decisively picked up the words of Chief of Staff Zhang Hong: "As a standing division of the Japanese army, the Sena Division is extremely experienced in combat, and it is impossible not to realize the danger that its flank has been completely exposed. According to my analysis, there are two reasons that prompt them to take risks: first, I have always emphasized that they are seriously under-manned, and in order to achieve a decisive victory at the front quickly, they openly disregard the safety of their rear flanks; Second, the Japanese army has always been arrogant, they may think that in the area of Jinzhong and the south of Jinzhong, that is, along the Nantongpu Road, there is no longer the presence and resistance of the Chinese army, so they are confident and bold to advance at full speed. ”

"Tuanzuo, what do you mean, are we going to the Tongpu railway line to capture the county towns along the line?" It was the commander of the 2nd Battalion who asked the question.

"Why not?!" The colonel of the Central Army patted the corner of the sand table in front of him: "When this batch of mountain artillery and heavy machine guns was captured, Lao Tzu wanted to take advantage of the situation to take Junling County. Now that our mountain artillery company and heavy machine gun company have been rebuilt, even if we have a face-to-face confrontation with the main force of the Sena Division, we may not be able to defeat these grandsons! ”

The officers and men of the 391st Regiment who participated in the Battle of Xinkou last year were not psychologically afraid of the so-called "invincible imperial army"; in the days and nights of the bloody battle of Xinkou, they also witnessed the combat performance of the elite Japanese army, including the Kwantung Army and the Itagaki Division, and the two sides won and lost each other, at least in the eyes of the people of the 391st Regiment, the strength was not superior; If it weren't for the Japanese troops who were later rushed to reinforce the back road, the ultimate outcome of the First Battle of Xinkou would have been unpredictable.

"With all due respect," Chief of Staff Zhang Hong looked at Qin Zhongxiao with a pair of eyes: "Suppose we suddenly attack and unexpectedly take down a certain county town on the Tongpu railway line, then what should we do?" Do you keep it by it? ”

Qin Zhongxiao didn't answer for a while, and the other officers were also silent, at this moment everyone obviously realized that with the current strength of the 391st Regiment, it was completely possible to lay down a county town with an empty garrison, but once the Japanese army gathered heavy troops to besiege it, it would definitely not be able to hold the county seat of Nuoda - this is the case in Fengdian in the mountains, and if it goes to the county town along the Tongpu Railway in the plain area, there is no need to repeat it.

Zhang Hong, who has always advocated the use of old soldiers, struck while the iron was hot and continued to say aggressively: "If you can't defend it, you can only abandon the city when the Japanese army counterattacks; In Fengdian, we can also immediately hide into the Great Elm Mountain, but along the Tongpu Railway is a flat river, once the city is abandoned, in case we can't outpace the Japanese mobile troop deployment, the main force of our regiment will face the dangerous situation of being surrounded by heavy Japanese troops in the plain area where there is no danger to defend! ”

The entire regimental headquarters fell silent, and the words of the chief of staff hit the soft underbelly of the 391st regiment heavily: the march dispatch only relied on two legs, and it could never outrun the Japanese train and car wheels.

Qin Zhongxiao, of course, refused to admit defeat, in fact, the idea of taking down a county town was just his temporary straightforwardness, in his long-planned battle plan, the purpose of attacking the Tongpu railway line was not to simply seize the cities along the line, but to cut off the supply line of the Japanese Sena Division, and to support and respond to the main force of the Central Army in the Second Theater from the flank and rear directions to respond to the commander Wei Lihuang of the Jinnan Front. Since he already knew that the strength of Lai Se's famous division was insufficient and the division was reckless, with Qin Zhongxiao's character, there was no reason to be a turtle with a shrunken head in the center of the mountain.

"The Chief of Staff is right, I will not be stupid enough to use an incomplete regiment to defend the towns of the railroad line, that is not in my plan; However, the words of the chief of staff reminded me that once the main force is mobilized to the Tongpu railway line, it is necessary to make a cover deployment for the retreat. If we keep saying that the rear wing of the Sena division is completely exposed, then we can't do the same stupid thing ourselves. Therefore, I decided to use troops to fight together with the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division, and the main force of the battalion will be responsible for ensuring the safety of our flanks and rear! ”

The colonel of the Central Army waved his arm vigorously, and his tone was impassioned. Several battalion and company commanders were encouraged, and the atmosphere became lively again, and the second battalion commander suddenly said: Didn't you say that the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army was also in contact with the Eighth Route Army? Do you want to pull them out and do it together?!