It wasn't until after dinner that the 1st Infantry Brigade of the Saijo Wing finally stormed the village of Saiping.

Wing Commander Saijo Osa, who commanded the operation, was always very depressed, and the operation, which was carried out in the afternoon, was not smooth from the beginning. On the defensive position of the Eighth Route Army, two heavy machine guns have been firing out of nowhere. In the telescope, Shigehei Saijo captured the scene of the heavy machine gun being carried by several people and quickly transferred; However, when the 92-step guns of the artillery squadron, as well as a large number of mortars and grenadiers, began to follow the trail, they were often a few steps behind!

How would the commander of the Japanese army know that the commander of the Eighth Route Army, who personally commanded the two Makqin heavy machine guns on the opposite side, had never seen and felt the power of the Japanese artillery fire to eliminate the national army's heavy machine guns in the past, so he had already prepared dozens of fortifications for Makqin in Xiping Village, and because of the long range of the heavy machine guns, many of the fortifications were not even in the forward position in the west of the village, but were located in places with a high field of vision in the village.

This almost made Shigehei Saijo feel like he was "living a ghost". The two heavy machine guns were not in love with the battle, and they were immediately transferred after firing at a new fortification for a maximum of half a minute. On a few occasions, the shells and grenadiers had almost knocked him out of tow, but it wasn't long before Maxim came out of nowhere and continued to shoot non-stop.

Outside the village of Xiping is a flat wilderness, the infantry of the Saijo Wing from the main formation, to attack the narrow defense line of Xiping village on foot, almost rushed through an open terrain more than a mile away, in such an unobstructed wilderness, the defenders on the opposite side have the characteristics of the "Reaper harvester" (author's note: the Maxim heavy machine gun, which debuted in World War I, was given the title of "Reaper Reaper" for its great lethality).

The Saijo Wing, which had just returned from the treacherous mountain battlefield in the southwest of Shanxi, had to put on its clothes again and hurriedly go into battle in order to participate in the nine-way encirclement operation deployed by the headquarters of the First Army, and for this reason, the three infantry brigades with serious casualties were forced to temporarily compress into two, so whether it was Wing Commander Saijo Osa or Captain Takagi Shaosa of the First Brigade, the desire and fighting spirit to fight were not very strong. When the heavy machine guns on the positions of the Eighth Route Army posed a threat to the charging soldiers, both commanders made the decision to temporarily shrink and avoid their edge.

The commanders pinned their hopes on artillery strikes.

But then, more unexpected things happened one after another-

Less than an hour into the battle, there was a sudden upheaval in the rear of the camp: a cavalry of the Eighth Route Army burst into the vicinity of the truck convoy with a whirlwind speed, and tried to destroy many of the trucks by throwing*. After stubborn resistance, they quickly withdrew.

According to the officers and men who witnessed it, the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army was less than 100 horsemen, and the horsemanship was quite skillful, and the bombing action was completely completed on the back of a galloping horse, and nearly half of them were accurately thrown into the body of the truck and its vicinity, causing partial or complete damage to at least five trucks.

Saijo Shigehei, who was furious, was considering whether to organize one or two squads to chase after this bold Shina cavalry by car; Suddenly, the flanks of their own camp burst into fire, and in a small forest about two miles to the south, a large number of infantry rushed out densely, and several light machine guns in the front had already rained bullets into their own camp!

From the very beginning, the Saijo Wing arrived at the outskirts of Xiping Village and put on an offensive stance, and the center of gravity of the team and heavy firepower was always inclined to the front of Xiping Village. But what I never expected was that the Eighth Route Army would have the strength to suddenly kill from the flanks and even the rear from outside the defensive position.

"Dazuo, the Chinese army is fierce, please immediately transfer the firepower of the front!"

The captain of the Takagi brigade on the flank, shouted hoarsely. In fact, there is no need for him to shout, Saijo Shigehei has already seen clearly from the telescope the number of Shina troops attacking his flank, and it is definitely no less than three or four hundred people! Their charging formation was very well maintained, and their movements were also very sophisticated, showing a very unusual tactical quality.

"It's the Eighth Route Army!" Wing Commander Dazuo saw the military uniform of the stormtrooper clearly, and immediately muttered to himself suspiciously: "How can there be so many Eighth Route Army in that direction?" Could it be that the pre-war intelligence was wrong? ”

With such a moment of hesitation, the Eighth Route Army on the flank approached dozens of meters forward, and this time not only machine guns, but also rifle bullets rained down like locusts.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the commander of the Japanese wing hurriedly ordered all his efforts to block the attack, and at the same time ordered the machine gun squadron, which had just been transferred to the front, to immediately transfer two heavy machine guns.

It was a real battle in the wilderness, with neither side having fortifications or bunkers to rely on, and firing fiercely from a distance of about a mile.

The commander of the Eighth Route Army who instigated the attack was none other than Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the first battalion of the Guanmenshan Detachment of the Xu Brigade, who immediately ordered a charge after discovering in the woods that Xia Lianshan's cavalry company had succeeded in raiding the trucks of the Japanese rear.

This was a very dangerous charge, like the Japanese soldiers standing opposite, they also did not have any concealment to cover, Wang Shuanglong ordered the three company commanders to spread out the formation, bow down and even crawl forward, in order to avoid the Japanese bullets returning fire.

Of course, he had to keep track of the charge - when he was on standby in the woods, he could already see that the number of Japanese troops in front of him was several times his own, which meant that he could never really rush in front of them. The effect that Wang Shuanglong wanted to achieve was to reduce the pressure on the defense line of Xiping Village by striking at the enemy's flanks and forcing him to shrink his forwards.

Seeing that the front team had arrived at a position about two hundred meters away from the devil's phalanx, the flanks of the Japanese troops who were attacked panicked and retreated. Wang Shuanglong noticed that two heavy machine guns with small wheels were desperately moving in this direction, and he immediately gave the order to retreat. He also arranged for several soldiers with good marksmanship to fire at the Japanese soldiers who were surrounding the heavy machine guns.

The team retreated again and re-hid into the grove. At this moment, the battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army very much hopes that the devil will organize some troops to chase after him, even if it is good to attract only one infantry squadron.

But the Japanese commanders were obviously more serious, and they only set up a defensive line in this direction, first the two improvised heavy machine guns began to roar, and the Japanese heavy machine gun bullets with the same long range whizzed into the woods, and even knocked down some of the soldiers who were caught off guard.

Immediately after, several more mortars and grenadiers were turned in this direction, and shells and small * whizzed and smashed into the woods.

In the end, however, the Japanese did not send infantry to charge. This disappointed Wang Shuanglong - the Japanese had already brought in heavy machine guns, and if he ordered the team to rush over like just now, he would undoubtedly be killed by the heavy machine guns. He told one of the companies to withdraw from the woods and continue to retreat a mile away, in order to reduce the density of the team in the groves and avoid unnecessary sacrifices. The remaining two companies held out, ready to attack.

For the Eighth Route Army, which retreated in the grove to the south, the Japanese wing commander was quite a headache - the charge just now had confirmed that the other side was a well-trained regular army, and the weapons and equipment were quite sophisticated; Their soldiers were in possession of a large number of Type 38 rifles, apparently captured, which made Saijo Osa even more angry and frightened.

However, fortunately, the Eighth Route Army did not have heavy equipment, and the Czech light machine guns in front should be their main firepower. It's a lot more reassuring.

Shigehei Saijo approached Captain Takagi, and the two commanders analyzed the situation and concluded that the attacks that appeared in the rear and on the flanks were harassing in nature, and that the number of the Eighth Route Army that carried out the attack was not enough to pose a major threat to the Imperial Army headquarters. They decided to maintain the original combat policy, with only an infantry squadron and some heavy machine guns and mortars to strengthen the flank and rear guard. The troops continued to concentrate their main forces and firepower, focusing on attacking Xiping Village.

There was another important factor that contributed to the decision of the captain of the Saijo Wing - his team to Xiping Village was mixed with a commando team of 30 people, all of whom were from another wing of the brigade: the Otsuka Wing, and it is reported that several plainclothes officers of the Wencheng secret service also joined them. This assault team has an important mission, searching for several cavalrymen who have disappeared earlier in the cavalry wing of the Rescue Division. According to accurate information, the cavalrymen who were captured in the battle of Dawangyu in Xiaoyushu Mountain have been imprisoned in the base area of the Eighth Route Army in Xiping Village since then.

Of course, Saijo Shigehei, who had just returned from leading the wing back from the southwestern front of Shanxi, did not know that among the officers and men of the cavalry wing who were captured, there was a warrant officer named Takamatsu, who was the son and daughter of a staff officer of the North China Front Headquarters, and was from the imperial family. It is necessary to find the order of Warrant Officer Takamatsu, directly from the staff headquarters on the home turf!

At this moment, the thirty-man commando team has been standing by in its own camp, and once the infantry brigade breaks through the front line of Xiping Village, the commando team will quickly insert into the village to search for relevant clues. For this special task, it is also necessary to take Xiping Village.

So, after adjusting the tactics locally, the commander of the Saijo Wing ordered to resume the heavy artillery bombardment of the front line of Xiping Village - since it was impossible to accurately capture the heavy machine guns of the Shina Army, then simply raze the village to the ground, so that the heavy machine guns and the Eighth Route Army would lose their hiding places.

When the sun completely sank, the 1st Infantry Brigade, which launched several fierce attacks under the cover of artillery fire, finally broke through the opponent's defense line and attacked the village of Xiping in the vanguard.

Takagi Shaosa, the captain of the brigade who has always commanded from the front, was in ecstasy, and ordered the follow-up troops to follow up with all their strength and slaughter the whole village!