At this moment, on the battlefield of the battle in this dark wasteland before dawn, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army and the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, which were jointly fighting, were ignorant of the sudden battle that broke out in the county seat of Huoxian County, dozens of miles away, and the emergency adjustments made by the headquarters of the Sena Division of the Japanese Army.

The Japanese reinforcements that were originally pursuing and intercepting from the east and west had already put pressure on the Kuomintang and Communist forces in general retreat, and the Japanese reinforcements from Linfen, which suddenly penetrated and wedged into the center of the coalition forces in one fell swoop, broke the overall formation of the coalition retreat.

The colonel of the Central Army, who retreated first into Xiping Village in the rear, quickly turned back and rescued after realizing that something was wrong, which alleviated the precarious battlefield situation to a certain extent; Taking advantage of the short-term panic of the Japanese army, Major Li Jiayu, the commander of the 1st Battalion, broke through the opponent's camp with all his might, and the forward successfully joined the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion, which was on the verge of despair.

Chen Hao, the commander of the second battalion, who personally commanded the bloody battle of the fourth company, always followed the instructions of Zhang Hong, chief of staff of the regiment, on the walkie-talkie, aiming at the direction of the signal flare in the air, and making every effort to break through, which was almost his only hope. But in front of him was a complete infantry squadron of the Japanese army from Linfen, and with only half a company of troops at hand, this kind of breakthrough was like hitting a stone wall with his body, except for hitting the wall again and again, with little effect.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Chief of Staff Zhang Hong personally commanded Zhu Xingyun's 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion to simultaneously flank the Japanese squadron from Linfen, I am afraid that Major Chen Hao and the 4th Company would have been completely lost by the enemy's counter-charge. What's more, the Japanese wing commander Kosuke Otsuka later launched a flank offensive against the main force of the second battalion, which was almost a fatal offensive.

At the moment of life and death, Major Li Jiayu's battalion miraculously hit Chen Hao's side; Looking at the old guys who had been fighting side by side all year round, he suddenly looked like a divine soldier descending from the sky, and the commander of the second battalion of the Central Army, who was already almost desperate, sat on the ground, and his face blackened by the war showed a look that wanted to laugh and cry.

The news of the difficult convergence of the main forces of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 391st Regiment was immediately reported to Zhang Hong, chief of staff of the regiment. Zhang Hong, who was overjoyed, couldn't believe this miracle, and after a while, he shouted at the staff officer who was still persistently firing signal flares not far away.

At this moment, Deputy Battalion Commander Liu of the First Battalion hurriedly rushed to Zhang Hong's side with the Third Company of the First Battalion:

"Report to the Chief of Staff, I was ordered to come and take over your positions and troops!"

At the same time as Deputy Battalion Commander Liu of the 1st Battalion, a squad from the special service company of the regiment headquarters arrived, and they followed the order of the regiment commander Qin Zhongxiao to pick up the chief of staff and immediately return to the regimental commander.

After briefly asking the reason, Zhang Hong was ready to get up, and before leaving, he gave an explanation to Deputy Battalion Commander Liu: directly opposite them was the temporary position of a strong Japanese enemy, and diagonally opposite was the position that the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment had always been trapped in; At the other end of the two positions of the enemy and us is the main force of the 1st Battalion and the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion, which have just successfully joined the division.

Given that the main force of Li Jiayu's 1st battalion had opened a new passage, the retreat there would be transferred to the implementation of the passage; Therefore, the regimental chief of staff assigned to Deputy Battalion Commander Liu to be responsible for two operations: the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion replaced the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion, and continued to flank the temporary position of the Japanese army in front of it, so that the enemy on the position did not dare to let go and oppress the troops of the 1st Battalion and 2nd Battalion of the Division; The 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion began to attack the position of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion that was besieged with all its might, and the Brother Company broke through here.

After the deployment was completed, Zhang Hong hurriedly left with several staff officers, guards, and walkie-talkies that the regiment seat was looking forward to, under the protection and guidance of a squad of the spy company. Soon, he connected with Deng Shoushan, the deputy commander of the spy company who was anxiously waiting in front.

Surprisingly, when Deng Shoushan saw the arrival of the chief of staff, he hurriedly pulled him aside with a nervous expression, and whispered: Chief Li of the Eighth Route Army was angry and reprimanded the 391st Regiment for ignoring the overall situation of the joint operation and drawing salaries from the bottom of the kettle!

Zhang Hong was stunned for a moment, and patiently listened to the deputy commander of the spy company explain a few words, and then understood what was going on.

The commander of the Eighth Route Army mentioned by Deng Shoushan is Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade.

The 5th Company commanded by Li Tianlin had been taking turns with the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 391st Regiment to cover when it began to retreat from the Tongpu Railway Line. However, just now, Deng Shoushan, who had just arrived at the battlefield, conveyed the latest order of regiment commander Qin Zhongxiao to Deputy Battalion Commander Liu, asking him to lead the third company of the first battalion to move to the position of the regimental chief of staff and take over the command of the chief of staff there.

At that time, Deputy Battalion Commander Liu of the 1st Battalion of the 391st Regiment was preparing to build temporary fortifications on the spot to take over the main force of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, which was about to retreat; Moreover, Wu Zijian, deputy commander of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade, was also present with a platoon of troops. Suddenly hearing the order delivered by Deng Shoushan, the two deputy battalion commanders of the Kuomintang and the Communist Army felt hesitant for a while: The Japanese army pursued from the Tongpu railway line was very strong, and at this time, the 391st Regiment withdrew the broken strength of a company, leaving only an infantry company of friendly troops and a cavalry company, can it withstand the frantic pursuit of the Japanese army? !

Because the colonel of the Central Army no longer had a walkie-talkie at hand, Wu Zijian's willingness to try to communicate with him could not be realized, and in the end, the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army took the initiative to persuade and asked the deputy battalion commander of the Central Army to immediately lead the third company to carry out the order of his regiment commander. Here, he and the main force of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade and the cavalry company were about to retreat alone.

However, when Li Tianlin led the main force of the 5th Company (a total of four platoons) and retreated to Wu Zijian's preset position under the guidance of the Xia Lianshan Cavalry Company, the commander of the 5th Company, who discovered this scene, was furious.

The position constructed under the command of Wu Zijian was centered on a Makqin heavy machine gun, and the strength of a platoon was horizontally laid out horizontally-this was the fifth platoon of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade, and its 6th platoon had just escorted the mortar platoon directly under the battalion headquarters to Xiping Village--Seeing this, Li Tianlin shouted at Wu Zijian while hurriedly commanding the main force of the 5th Company with the Makqin heavy machine gun position as the core, and each was in place:

"Deputy battalion commander, what do you mean by the 391st regiment? At this juncture, the troops were transferred away, let us use them as cannon fodder?! The Central Army is too fucking a bully! ”

In the dark night, Li Tianlin did not notice that the deputy company commander of the special service company of the 391st Regiment was nearby, and Wu Zijian hurriedly spoke out to stop his subordinates from speaking freely, but these whining words had all been heard by Deng Shoushan.

Deng Shoushan, who was in an embarrassed mood, had no choice but to continue to hide aside and ignore it. Before preparing to return to the battlefield from Xiping Village just now, Qin Zhongxiao, the regimental seat, gave the task to the special agent company: to monitor the main battlefield and support the operation of rescuing Chen Hao's second battalion.

However, both Qin Tuanzuo himself and Deng Shoushan ignored a problem at that time: the third company commanded by Deputy Commander Liu of the 1st Battalion of the 391st Regiment was originally breaking off with the Eighth Route Army, and now suddenly pulling this company away, it is tantamount to throwing the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army alone to the Japanese army who are desperately chasing! It's no wonder that the friendly commander Li was furious.

After listening to the whispered explanation of the deputy company commander of the special service company, the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment couldn't help but feel a wave of displeasure in his heart: After all, the Eighth Route Army was born as a bandit, and he only cared about his own territory and survival! He originally planned to have a brief meeting with Deputy Battalion Commander Wu of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade out of etiquette considerations, but after listening to Deng Shoushan's words, he simply gave up this idea.

"Shoushan, don't pay attention to the nonsense of the Eighth Route Army! After they carry out the decision, it is stipulated in the joint operation plan, and military discipline must be strict when fighting in large forces! Zhang Hong looked at the busy temporary position of the Eighth Route Army out of the corner of his eyes, and said to the deputy commander of the special service company in a resolute tone: "Your special service company is now on guard against the south direction, there was a large group of devils from here to the south before, I estimate that they are going to rescue the attacked truck team, once they free their hands, it is very likely to make a comeback towards you." ”

"I see, Chief of Staff, I'll be pinned here to monitor the south and protect the rear flanks of our troops and the flanks of our allies!"

Zhang Hong was still dissatisfied with Deng Shoushan's answer, so he lowered his voice and advised: The main thing is to protect the rear wing of our army, and as for the flank safety of the Eighth Route Army, they are responsible for themselves! Once Deputy Battalion Commander Liu's 1st Battalion 3rd Company and Zhu Xingyun's 2nd Battalion 6th Company complete their set tasks, you will quickly evacuate this place with them.

After the explanation, the chief of staff and his entourage, under the guidance and cover of a squad sent by Deng Shoushan, took the walkie-talkie of the regiment headquarters and rushed towards the current position of the commander of the 391st regiment.

Seeing that Zhang Hong and his entourage were missing, the deputy company commander of the special service company of the Central Army breathed a sigh of relief and immediately ordered a platoon to set up a skirmish line to the south to monitor whether there were Japanese troops in that direction, while the second platoon stood by. Immediately afterwards, Deng Shoushan took two entourages and went down to the defensive position of the Eighth Route Army in three steps and two steps.

As a grassroots officer of the National Army, the deputy company commander of the special service company did not have too much awareness of the Communist-led Eighth Route Army in his mind like the chief of staff of the regiment; And just now, Deng Shoushan also heard from the mouth of Deputy Commander Liu of the First Battalion that the second battalion of the Xu Brigade in front of him fought after the break, and it is not too much to describe it with praise. Now that Chief of Staff Zhang Hong has left, he Deng can "be outside the country and the king's order will not be affected" and help the broken troops of the Eighth Route Army at an appropriate time.

Wu Zijian, who was intensively deploying the depth of defense, could not help but be greatly moved when he saw the deputy company commander of the friendly army's spy company coming and listening to his explanation. He knew that the spy company was well-equipped and had strong individual firepower, and if he could get their help in defending against the Japanese pursuers, he would have a better chance of winning.

"Deputy battalion commander, something is wrong! Why haven't the Japanese caught up yet? The one who shouted loudly and ran towards Wu Zijian and Deng Shoushan was still Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company: "The devil can't be playing any tricks, right?" ”

Before the words fell, a rapid sound of horses' hooves also came from far and near, it was the cavalry company of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade arrived; The cavalry company commander Xia Lianshan rode straight to the horse:

"Deputy battalion commander, Tianlin, the devil's pursuit force has stopped!"

The cavalry company continued to attack from the flanks of the Japanese pursuers during the previous battle, so they were able to clearly witness the sudden halt of the advance of the Japanese soldiers, who had been in hot pursuit.

The commanders of the two armies present at the joint operation looked at each other for a moment after hearing this, and could not understand the enemy's true intention to terminate the pursuit.

At this moment, of course, they would not know about the urgent retreat order from the Japanese Sena Division Headquarters. And the Japanese Captain Maori who received this order, although he was ready to lead his troops to withdraw to the Tongpu railway line as ordered, before withdrawing, he would command hundreds of elite Japanese troops under his command to launch a final crazy blow against the temporary position of the Eighth Route Army blocking the front!