The liaison officers sent by the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army were two cavalrymen from the cavalry company directly under the battalion headquarters; Tonight, the main force of the cavalry company of the second battalion has already gone out to the area of the railway line seven or eight miles south of Lingshi County, focusing on monitoring the movement in the direction of Hanxinling (Hanxinling Town is the nearest railway station adjacent to Lingshi County on the Nantongpu railway line), and once there is a situation, the cavalry will report to the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion set up an ambush next to the railway road in the southern suburbs of Lingshi County as soon as possible.

In addition, Wu Zijian, deputy commander of the second battalion, also left a few cavalry with him to communicate with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army and the rear of Guanmen Mountain.

From the mouth of the cavalry, the colonel of the Central Army learned that nothing had happened south of Lingshi County so far, which seemed to confirm the judgment of him and the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army before the war: Han Xinling, Huo County, Zhaocheng, Hongdong, these counties and towns along the railway, like Lingshi County, only stationed a small garrison of the symbolic Japanese army, and it was difficult to protect themselves, and they were even more unable to send troops to support other places.

"Please inform your Commander Wu that the main force of our regiment has besieged the reinforcements of a train train train of the Japanese army in the northern suburbs of the county and is launching a general attack, and it will definitely be surrounded and annihilated!" Qin Zhongxiao patiently explained to the two cavalrymen of the Eighth Route Army: "Your unit should strictly abide by the joint operation plan, maintain the monitoring of the southern part of the railway line in situ, and ensure the safety of our flanks!" ”

In the end, Qin Zhongxiao's tone was already quite stern - Wu Zijian actually sent someone to ask if he needed to assist in the battle, which obviously felt that he was dragging out the combat process of the Central Army. Qin Zhongxiao also heard a little about the dissatisfaction expressed by some officers and soldiers of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army with the assignment of roles in this joint operation.

But now he and his troops are in great trouble.

Perhaps, the experienced deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army also felt that the main attack on the battlefield might be in trouble, so he sent a liaison soldier over. It's just that whether it is out of face or out of the fact that he really attaches importance to the safety of the flanks, the colonel of the Central Army will not ask Wu Zijian to divide his troops at this time.

"Order the first battalion and the second battalion to concentrate on the use of grenadiers and knock out the fire support points of the Japanese as soon as possible!" As soon as he sent away the cavalry liaison of the Eighth Route Army, Qin Zhongxiao ordered the staff officers around him to adjust their tactics to the front line: "Their troops are not much, as long as they dumb their heavy machine guns, the charge will be assured." ”

Prior to this operation, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army had issued all the grenadiers to the company, and the six infantry companies of the first battalion and the second battalion each had one in each company; If so, at this moment, among the four main companies participating in the siege of the Japanese army, there were four grenadiers. Qin Zhongxiao, who had confronted the Japanese army many times, once personally felt the power of his grenadier tactics, so he placed high hopes on the use of grenadiers by the grassroots companies of the regiment.

Unfortunately, the six grenadiers were issued for too short a time, and most of the soldiers in control of them lacked actual combat drills, so they did not perform well in the ongoing battle of attack and defense of the railway line, and they did not become a sharp weapon against the enemy's firepower like the Japanese army.

By the time Qin Zhongxiao discovered this situation, nearly half an hour had passed in the battle. The infantry of the 391st Regiment attacked the fortification, and the progress was still slow.

At the northern foot of Guanmen Mountain, more than 30 miles away from the battlefield, a platoon of officers and soldiers sent by the 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army also lay on the wasteland, monitoring Fengdian County in the north. In the dead of night, they even faintly heard the faint sound of artillery coming from the direction of the railway line.

Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th company, personally sat in this platoon, and he analyzed the soldiers around him that the sound of artillery could be transmitted so far, it should be large-caliber heavy artillery, and it seemed that the brothers of the Central Army had already started.

Wu Zijian's task to Wei Xin's 7th Company was to deal with the Japanese puppet army in the direction of Fengdian, if the enemy there did not move, what the 7th Company had to do was to ensure the safety and smoothness of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army on the way back after the war; As soon as the enemy troops in Fengdian were dispatched in the direction of the Tongpu Railway, the 7th Company would move with the camera: the number of enemy troops was small, and they would resolutely block it in the preset position; When the enemy was numerous, they adopted the tactics of following and entanglement, delaying the time and pace of the enemy's rush to the Tongpu Railway, and at the same time sending a few men and horses left by the cavalry company to quickly fly to the front line of Tongpu Road.

Of the four platoons of the 7th Company, only the platoon led by Wei Xin went out to the northern foot of Guanmen Mountain, which was less than ten miles away from the county seat of Fengdian and not far from the southern foot of Little Elm Mountain. This is also the reason why Wei Xin set the first observation line here.

But he didn't plan to fight here, after all, there was no store in front of Buba Village here, and it was still far from the camp in Hekou Village of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade, lacking tactical depth and support. The other three platoons of the 7th Company had placed their blocking positions about five miles northwest of Hekou Village, where the wasteland had several low undulating mounds for the soldiers to ambush. A few days ago, under the instruction of Wu Zijian, deputy battalion commander, the 7th Company also dispatched men and horses to the banks of the middle reaches of the Qinglong River, cut down several towering trees and brought them back, put down the thick trunks, and placed them on the mounds in this area, further strengthening the blocking position.

At that time, Wu Zijian personally participated in the arrangement of the blocking position of the 7th Company, especially the point planning of the 24th heavy machine gun of the Republic of China, and the other two light machine guns were centered on the heavy machine gun point, with the front and left and right sides, and separate shooting bunkers were set up, forming an inverted triangle firepower layout. The deputy commander of the 2nd Battalion made no secret of the fact that the power of automatic firearms would play an irreplaceable role in blocking the enemy troops in such a plain area.

Wang Shuanglong, the company commander who had already led two platoons of the 6th Company to defend Hekou Village, had also deliberately gone to the 7th Company's blocking position to help come up with ideas, as the depth of the flank and rear of the blocking position, Hekou Village and the defensive position of Guanmenshan Pass would be given strong support to the 7th Company at that time, including that once the 7th Company could not resist the enemy from the wide front, one part of it would withdraw to Hekou Village or Guanmenshan Pass, and wait for the enemy to pass through and then attack and harass its flank.

"Dalong, do you think there will really be a battle here?" During the interval in arranging the position, the commander of the 7th company once asked the commander of the 6th company: "Our deputy battalion commander and Colonel Qin of the Central Army seem to have calculated all the moves of the Japanese in their planning; But why do I think it's a bit mysterious? ”

What Wei Xin said about Xuan was actually not very much believed that the Japanese would completely follow the preset of Wu Zijian and the commanders of friendly forces; He was especially indignant that one of his main companies was placed on the wasteland and bothered to prepare for a blocking battle that would not necessarily happen - it was a joint attack, but the Central Army had taken away all the decent battles, and the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army dispatched two infantry companies, plus a cavalry company and an artillery platoon, to carry out battles that might not be fought at all!

Wang Shuanglong's mentality was much calmer than Wei Xin's, the commander of the Eighth Route Army, who had just participated in the anti-night attack in Xiping Village in the previous stage, knew the importance and cruelty of the blocking operation. If, after all, there were solid and practical permanent fortifications on the periphery of Xiping Village at that time, then the temporary improvised blocking position built on the plain at present could not withstand the blow of the enemy's heavy firepower and the impact of large forces at all. Looking at his old comrades-in-arms who were eager to fight a battle, the commander of the 6th Company secretly prayed in his heart that this battle would not happen.

But his wish was disappointed!

Late this night, when Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th Company, was bored listening to the distant cannon sound and was almost drowsy, their bodies lying on the wasteland suddenly felt the shaking of the ground from another direction: the sound of horses' hooves!

A lot of horses were running, running towards them.

Cavalry, cavalry of brigades! Wei Xin, who woke up, quickly made a judgment, and from the sound of horses' hooves coming from the direction of Fengdian, he concluded that the puppet Mongolian cavalry in the county town had dispatched.

The commander of the 7th company looked at the watch on his wrist (Wu Zijian, the deputy battalion commander, did his best to equip each company-level military commander of the second battalion with a watch or pocket watch), and nearly three hours had passed since the battle on the Tongpu railway began, and at this time, there were enemy troops coming from the direction of Fengdian, and it seemed that he should have received an order to rescue Lingshi County.

Is it really like a god?! Wei Xin muttered in his throat, but this was not the time to sigh.

"Stand back and get ready to fight!" The commander of the 7th company gave an order to the platoon commander next to him: "Send someone to report back to the blocking position first!" ”

Pulling open the bolt of his pony pistol, Wei Xin tried his best to restrain his nervousness and excitement - he didn't expect to face the cavalry! So far, although the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Lin Division has fought with the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army many times, the 7th Company has repeatedly missed it by mistake. At this moment, through the sound of horses' hooves shaking from the ground of the earth, it can be seen that there are a lot of enemies, and the puppet Mongolian army claims to have a cavalry regiment in Fengdian County, although it has suffered several blows, the scale of three or five hundred horses is still there now.

He guessed right. The one who came was all the cavalry regiments of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army stationed in Fengdian, and the leader was Du Dongqiang, the commander of the regiment.

Kosuke Otsuka, the commander of the Japanese army in the town of Fengdian County, was first reprimanded tonight by the brigade commander who was sitting in Wencheng, and on the phone, Major General Hagiwara judged that the Shina Army, which was fighting a lot on the Tongpu railway line, was most likely the 391st Regiment of the Central Army hiding in the Great Elm Mountain.

"If it's really them, then your defense zone will be inescapable of being blamed - you let a large army of the Shina Army with heavy artillery slip under your nose, and you, the wing commander, have no idea! The entire infantry brigade of the Imperial Army, plus a cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Army, are all eating dry food?! ”

The departure of the brigade commander, Major General, was angry, which made Kosuke Otsuka confused. How did he know that the 391st Regiment of the Central Army in the Big Elm Mountain actually used the cover of two nights to secretly send people and horses to the Eighth Route Army camp at the foot of Guanmen Mountain; And his garrison, which was hiding in the thick walls of the high city, could not have seen all this with wide eyes in the second half of the night.

It's not too late to make amends. After the reprimand, Major General Hagiwara immediately ordered the captain of the Otsuka Wing to make meritorious service and lead the first part of the defenders to set off urgently at Fengdian, making a detour from the direction of Guanmen Mountain towards the Nantongpu railway line to copy the rear road of the Shina army. The cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army went out first, and the Volkswagen Kang Jie personally led an infantry squadron and arrived by car!

As soon as Kosuke Otsuka, who was angry, put down the phone, he quickly deployed. The cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army, which had repeatedly served as cannon fodder for the imperial army, once again became the pioneer of the way, and had been reduced to two battalions of cavalry, and more than 300 war horses rushed out of the open city gate in a noisy manner.

They ran headlong into the defensive position of the 7th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army!