For these mountain passes at the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain, when Qin Zhongxiao led the 391st Regiment to garrison Fengdian County, he personally went to inspect them, and also listened to the locals inside and outside the county. Therefore, it is quite familiar.

The southernmost mountain pass at the eastern foothills, called Qingshikou by the people, is the only shortcut entrance to Wencheng in Fengdian, and has long been tightly sealed by the Japanese army; Entering from Qingshikou is a mountain road that crosses the entire Little Elm Mountain, and the exit at the end of the road is already facing the eastern suburbs of Wencheng.

However, in addition to the largest mountain pass at Qingshikou, the rest of the small mountain passes at the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain face the city wall of Fengdian County, and the people are still free to enter and exit - there are generally two types of people entering and exiting the mountain passes, one is the aborigines of Xiaoyushu Mountain, and the other is passers-by who go into the mountains to hunt or gather - occasionally small Japanese puppet troops patrol near the various mountain passes, but they have never done anything to block the mountain passes.

So on this night, after learning that the Japanese puppet army in the county town suddenly rushed out uncharacteristically and blocked all the large and small mountain passes at the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain in a short period of time, Qin Zhongxiao, a colonel of the Central Army, concluded that Bacheng was in trouble with his reconnaissance team of the spy company! As a result, there is now this high-speed battle out of the mountains; Qin Zhongxiao personally commanded the most elite first battalion, drove away the Japanese puppet army with lightning speed, and captured two mountain passes.

The three teams that searched for Zhao Mutou's reconnaissance team rushed into Little Elm Mountain almost as soon as the first battalion occupied the mountain pass. Seeing that they were swallowed up by the night inside the mountain pass in the blink of an eye, the battalion commander Li Jiayu ordered to immediately rely on the terrain near the mountain pass to build improvised fortifications—they must rivet here until the brothers in the mountain escaped smoothly and safely.

The geographical structure of Little Elm Mountain presents a trend of high in the north and low in the south, with four sides from east to west, north and south, and the mountain passes are all concentrated in the southeast foot (near Fengdian County) and the southwest foot (near Wencheng) with relatively low terrain. Taking the two mountain passes occupied by the first battalion of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army at this moment as an example, one mountain pass is almost parallel to the northwest corner of the city wall of Fengdian County, and the other is less than two miles away from each other to the north. And to the north, there are all steep cliffs as high as more than ten zhang or even dozens of zhang, and it is completely impossible to enter and exit the Little Elm Mountain from such a cliff and manpower.

This is also the reason why Qin Zhongxiao ordered the artillery company to bombard the north city wall of Fengdian with all its strength - to prevent the Japanese puppet army from attacking these two mountain passes occupied by their own side with fire from the city wall in that area.

The striking effect of the artillery battery was quite good. Three large-caliber mountain cannons were lowered and fired directly at the tall city wall three miles in front of them, and their heads were already impeccable; Although the caliber of the 92 infantry gun was slightly smaller, the explosive power of the shells was equally amazing. After five volleys, all 20 shells hit the target: one city wall was destroyed, the underside of the north city gate tower was badly damaged, and many large holes were blown out of the city wall.

Of course, the shelling did not cause heavy casualties on the part of the enemy personnel, because the colonel of the Central Army, in order to prevent the shells from entering the city in the dark and accidentally injuring the civilian population, strictly ordered the artillery company not to raise the muzzles before the battle, so the shells did not aim at the battlements above the city wall, and the Japanese troops hiding behind the battlements escaped.

However, this sudden infantry and artillery attack still stunned the deployment of the Japanese puppet army in Fengdian, not only the troops who went out of the city to block the mountain pass retreated in panic, but the defenders who remained in the county town were also in chaos.

The commander of the Otsuka Wing, Kosuke Otsuka, originally assigned Nomura Shaosa, the captain of the First Infantry Brigade, to lead two infantry squadrons and the Mongolian Cavalry Regiment out of the city tonight, but later he was really relieved - the brigade commander, Major General, called from Wencheng with great vigour, asking the Fengdian garrison to spare no effort to surround the Shina people who had broken into the military blockade area of Little Elm Mountain, indicating that the situation had reached an extremely serious point - so Otsuka himself later went out of the city in person, rushed to the team blocking the Little Elm Mountain Pass and supervised the deployment. However, he never expected that less than ten minutes after he arrived at the blockade line, he was attacked by sudden and fierce fire from behind.

The sound of heavy artillery bombardment in the north of the county made the Japanese wing commander in the western suburbs of the city feel bad, so that he immediately judged that the Chinese army was launching a heavy attack on Fengdian County.

"Open the west city gate, and all the infantry squadrons will retreat into the city!" On the walkie-talkie, Kosuke Otsuka gave an order to the defenders of the castle, and at the same time asked the two infantry squadrons brought by Nomura Shosa to immediately retreat to the castle.

"Dazuo, what should I do with the cavalry of the Mongolian Army? Will you also withdraw into the city? Nomura saw the Mongolian cavalry shouting in the night, and asked his wing commander loudly.

"Order them to turn south, cover the troops of the Saijo Wing, and retreat to assemble near Qingshikou!"

Otsuka Yasuke roared viciously—the Mongol cavalry under Tokuoh and Li Shouxin often thought of retreating and saving their lives whenever the battle ended—the troops of the Saijo Wing he mentioned were the two infantry squadrons that had just arrived on a truck along the road in the small elm mountain to the western outskirts of the town of Toyodian, and the commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Saijo Wing was Kameda Shaosa. Shortly after they jumped out of the truck, they were marching in formation to assemble and distribute the formations that would enter the various passes of Little Elm Mountain. As a result, the oncoming cavalry retreated in a chaotic manner, and the Mongolian cavalry officer in charge of liaison informed Kameda of the urgent enemy situation ahead in fluent Japanese. In a hurry, the two infantry squadrons under Kameda had no choice but to stagger back towards the area of Qingshikou that they had just passed.

It wasn't until he rushed into the city from the west gate and urgently deployed reinforcements on all four walls of the city that Kosuke Otsuka, the commander of the Japanese army, who had taken a breather, gradually figured out what was wrong: the reports of the garrison troops came one after another, showing that there was no sign of the attack of the Zhina army in the direction of the four cities, including the northern city, which was hit by heavy artillery first, and the rapid artillery fire had subsided for a long time, and its infantry had not organized a follow-up attack.

Kosuke Otsuka, who rushed all the way back to the headquarters in the former county government, wiped the hot sweat on his forehead, stared at the communication soldier in the room suspiciously, and then picked up the phone and called the garrison commander of Shijo. After putting down the phone for a long time, Wing Captain Dazuo suddenly realized - I'm afraid I've been fooled! The Chinese army, which made such a big move outside the city, did not intend to capture the county seat, but made a subjective mistake from the beginning, so that it hurriedly shrank its troops back into the city for defense.

So, what exactly does this large group of Chinese troops that are menacing in the middle of the night want to do? As soon as this question was formed in his mind, Kosuke Otsuka suddenly realized: although the enemy's artillery fire hit the county town, the place where the infantry charge was launched was in the mountain pass at the eastern foot of Little Elm Mountain! Damn it, didn't you just go out of the city to deploy the blockade of those mountain passes?!

In an instant, the hot sweat on the Japanese wing commander turned into a cold sweat - the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade repeatedly ordered the defenders of Fengdian to seal the mountain pass at the eastern foot of Little Elm Mountain, but he was retreated by a blow and gave up the mountain pass!

Now it is almost certain that this Chinese army is here to meet the accomplices who have just broken into the military blockade area at Little Elm Mountain, and the occupation of the mountain pass is their real goal, and the use of heavy artillery to bombard the county town is nothing more than a feint attack from the east to the west!

Kosuke Otsuka gritted his teeth and roared, and ordered the regrouping of the two squadrons of the 1st Infantry Brigade, still led by Captain Nomura, to immediately reopen the West City Gate and attack and advance to the mountain passes at the eastern foot of the Little Elm Mountain opposite the western city wall, and be sure to regain control of all the mountain passes within half an hour!

"Wait!" As soon as the order was issued, the Japanese wing commander paused again: "Order the cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army to immediately return along the original route and attack in advance!" ”

His purpose in doing so was also obvious, that is, to let the Mongol cavalry take the lead and charge the mountain passes occupied by the Chinese army, with Nomura's two infantry squadrons following the cavalry to carry out a second wave of attacks.

At this time, a lieutenant staff officer at the wing headquarters proposed that the two infantry squadrons leaving the city could be considered to be divided into two routes, one still going out of the west gate, and the other going out of the north gate, and from the other side to flank the Chinese army occupying the mountain pass.

When Wing Commander Dazuo heard this, he almost slapped the staff officer in the face: There is a heavy artillery of the Zhina Army outside the north city, and the few rounds of shelling just now are almost about to beat the city wall into a honeycomb.

Before the words fell, the telephone in the headquarters rang violently, and Major General Hagiwara, the brigade commander sitting in Bunjo, gave Kosuke Otsuka a violent training on the phone - it turned out that the captain of the Saijo Wing, who was rushing from Bunjo to the outside of Toyodian Castle, Kameda Shaosa, was unable to lead the team to reach and enter the mountain pass at the eastern foot of the Little Elm Mountain, and sent a telegram to the Hagiwara Brigade Headquarters on the spot, saying that the Otsuka Wing had been attacked by the Shina Army and had lost all the mountain passes.

Kosuke Otsuka, who was holding the telephone receiver, couldn't help but sweat on his head again, and accompanied the brigade commander Major General on the phone, explaining that his subordinates were not afraid of the enemy like tigers, but fell into the trick of the Chinese army's feint attack before they urgently withdrew their troops, and then he promised to recapture the lost mountain pass in the shortest possible time, Yunyun. Wing Captain Dazuo, who finally put down the phone, immediately roared at the people around him like thunder. In addition to urging the infantry to attack out of the city, he also ordered all the infantry guns and mortars in the city to be transferred to the western city wall, and if the ground attack in front was unfavorable, he would launch an artillery attack: it would rather burn the jade and stones, and completely drive away the Chinese army that occupied the mountain pass!

He knew that doing so would pose a great risk to the city's defenses, but the situation had reached such a point that it was undoubtedly crucial to let the Chinese army attack the city from other directions, and to ensure that all the mountain passes at the eastern foot of the Little Elm Mountains were sealed first.

Also, the bastard captain under Shigehei Saijo actually accused himself of his black state to the Wenjo Brigade Headquarters without first communicating with him. Okay, then simply bring in these two infantry squadrons of the Saijo Wing and take turns to participate in the offensive to capture the mountain pass! Nominally, Shigetei's troops were sent into Little Elm Mountain to carry out a search, but since the military situation had changed and the brigade commander, Major General, had sternly ordered "the mountain pass to be blocked at all costs", then this brother army from afar should not hide in the blue stone pass to wait for work!

Thinking of this, Kosuke Otsuka ordered to immediately prepare his horse and go out of the south gate to the bluestone mouth where the team led by Saijo Wing Kameda Shaosa is currently camping, which is the closest to the south gate. He wants to take over the command of this guest army as the captain of the wing.

A quarter of an hour later, the battle for the mountain pass at the eastern foot of Little Elm Mountain broke out again!