The artillery platoon on the outskirts of Zhao Yejiao was aimed at the truck convoy of Japanese reinforcements who had arrived from Linfen. The Japanese troops on the trucks had already gotten out of the trucks to attack the Central Army in front, and there were only a few dozen Japanese soldiers left to guard the 17 trucks at the moment. Of course, the officers and men of the Eighth Route Army would not know that this large force of Japanese troops actually came from Linfen on the Nantongpu railway line, so they wondered where this long line of trucks came from, and since they couldn't find the answer, they simply did it!

Rumble! Rumble!

Two of the three mortars opened fire one after another, and Zhao Yejiao listened to the sound of the explosion of the shells—because he was estimating the firing range and target position by feeling in the dark, he deliberately set the three guns at different elevation angles—the first shot obviously missed, and the shells hit the thawed ground, making a dull muffled sound; Three or four seconds later, the shell fired from the second cannon landed exactly on a truck, and the body was blown up, and the sonorous explosion sound was very different from the first one.

The artillery platoon commander immediately ordered the other two guns to be adjusted with reference to the elevation angle of the second gun, and then the three guns fired in unison.

The unsuspecting Japanese convoy was bombed by the shells that suddenly fell from the sky, and several trucks were damaged by bullets, and two of them even caught fire. The car soldiers began to start their cars in a panic, trying to drive away from this dangerous area, but in a panic, they panicked, and the lit car headlights provided a clearer direction for the artillery of the Eighth Route Army.

Zhao Yejiao let three mortars fire four rounds of shells in one go, which was an unprecedented arrogance of this strapped and budget-conscious artillery platoon commander. The effect of the shelling was also remarkable, with at least seven or eight vehicles visually destroyed as a direct result, not counting the serious collisions between fleeing trucks.

The deputy company commander of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade was simply stunned, this was also the first time he had witnessed his own artillery doing such a wonderful salvo, and suddenly, Zhao someone, who had been incorporated from the Kuomintang Central Army, became extremely tall in his mind.

"It's your turn!"

The artillery platoon commander finished firing nearly half of the shells, turned his head and yelled at the dumbfounded deputy commander of the 5th Company. Only then did the deputy company commander react, waved the pony pistol in his hand, and led a platoon of soldiers to rush towards the chaotic Japanese convoy.

At the moment when the shells exploded in the truck convoy, Kikuchi Shaozuo, who was a few miles away, was directing the Linfen reinforcements to fiercely flank the main force of the second battalion of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army. The operation he instigated to surprise the enemy from the flank and back dealt a fatal blow to the position of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment as soon as it came up. The unsuspecting officers and soldiers of the central government were stunned by the rain of bullets poured from behind, fortunately it was dark night, the Japanese soldiers could not fully see the figure on the opposite side, and the Japanese soldiers were all rifles, and the assault fire was not strong, if they were equipped with automatic weapons like *, and launched a dense sneak attack at such a close range, the second battalion of the 391st Regiment was afraid that half of the troops would be lost in an instant.

In order to avoid the sudden attack, the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment abandoned their positions and fled, and it took a long time to reluctantly organize the defense of the opposite flank and rear direction. At this time, Kikuchi Shaosa's team had already flattened the opponent's formation; In particular, he noticed that the troops that had been engaged in a frontal exchange of fire with the Chinese army had also stepped up their flanking attacks after receiving their own support; If this momentum continues, the Chinese army in front of it will soon collapse under the two-way blows of the imperial army.

Excited and proud, Kikuchi Shaosa shouted and urged his infantry to move forward, ready to complete the battle in the shortest possible time. However, this young man, who had served as a staff officer at the brigade headquarters for a long time and was accustomed to talking about troops on paper, still lacked some actual combat experience after all. As he drove all the way in a truck just now, Kikuchi only considered attacking the newly discovered battlefield with all his might, but he neglected the key point: at this time of tonight's battle, the Chinese army had already dispersed into multiple forces, so there were multiple battlefields. Kikuchi Shaosa, who was eager to make meritorious contributions, couldn't wait to put all his main forces into the battle against the second battalion of the 391st Regiment as soon as he came up, but he neglected to guard his rear. It wasn't until he suddenly heard the rumbling of cannon from the direction of the truck convoy and turned his head to see the fire that had ignited after the truck was shot, that he suddenly realized that something was wrong.

The staff officer of the long-sitting brigade headquarters involuntarily panicked, and in an incoherent voice, he called out to the two squadron commanders who were commanding the forward operation, and it took a long time to make a deployment, asking one of the squadron leaders to lead his men back to the division immediately to save the truck convoy that had obviously been violently attacked.

The squadron leader finally led people to hurriedly turn around and start to charge, Kikuchi Shaozo thought about it again, and brought the people around him to chase after him, completely losing the battlefield in front of him to another squadron leader. At this moment, in his mind, protecting the truck fleet is far more important than eliminating the army in front of him.

But something that made Shao Zuo even more worried happened, and the squadron that rushed back didn't go far before it was intercepted head-on - another platoon of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army was ordered by the deputy company commander to come to explore this fierce exchange of fire, and prepare cameras to support unidentified friendly forces. The leading platoon commander suddenly heard the sound of a crowd running from the opposite side, and at the same time, the shouting mixed with Japanese was getting closer and closer, and immediately ordered to lie down and fire!

The 5th Company is the number one main force of the 2nd Battalion of the entire Xu Brigade, and more than 70% of the soldiers in the six platoons of the company use Type 38 rifles, and the rest are all medium and formal rifles. Battle-hardened veterans make up the vast majority of the personnel. Thus, despite the fact that it was an out-and-out encounter, at the command of the platoon commander, almost forty rifles quickly opened fire directly ahead. At this moment, they were only fifty or sixty meters away from the Japanese squadron that was running over.

The reinforcements from the Kato Brigade of the Sena Division, of course, were not idle, but their attention was attracted by the sound of shelling and explosions further away, and they were completely unaware that a group of enemy troops suddenly came out from under their noses, and they were shooting without saying a word.

It was precisely because of the preemptive opportunity that the strength of a platoon of the Eighth Route Army was able to hold back a squadron of Japanese troops. A brief standoff between the two sides formed.

These two platoons of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade and the artillery platoon suddenly appeared behind the reinforcements of the Japanese army in Linfen and launched a rapid attack, saving the lives of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army at a critical moment. Before that, they were also attacked from the flank, and it took only a minute or two of the infantry of nearly two squadrons under the command of Kikuchi Shaosa to crush the main force of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment.

Major Chen Hao, the commander of the second battalion, was trying his best to deal with the Japanese troops appearing on the flank of the frontal position, and his fourth company commander had just been wounded, and the main force of the entire 391st Regiment had almost completed the transfer. It was at this moment that the vicious and cunning Japanese suddenly appeared behind the position of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment, and the officers and men of the Central Committee were caught off guard and were forced to urgently carry out a two-sided battle. However, just the number of Japanese troops who attacked behind was already comparable to the entire strength of Major Chen Hao, not to mention, there was a Japanese squad in front of it, as well as a puppet Mongolian cavalry regiment with weak combat strength but strong momentum.

Relying on the hard support of the Makqin heavy machine gun, the second battalion of the 391st Regiment, which had lost its troops, did not completely collapse; The muzzle of the heavy machine gun had been firing horizontally in the direction of the cavalry charge of the puppet Mongolian army, and as soon as the Japanese sneak attack from the rear began, the firing team immediately turned the gun and began to fire back at the first time.

After Major Chen Hao nervously studied and judged the situation, he urgently ordered the commander of the fifth company to divide the strength of the whole company into two, half of which surrounded the Makqin heavy machine gun to form an independent blocking point to resist the sneak attack of the Japanese army; The other half were arrayed back-to-back with this blocking point to prevent the puppet Mongolian cavalry on the other side from taking advantage of the situation.

Chen Hao himself gathered the defeated Fourth Company (the Japanese troops who attacked directly hit the rear of the Fourth Company), ignored the sneak attackers, and rushed forward, preparing to defeat the small group of Japanese troops that had just appeared on the flank of the Fourth Company's position in one fell swoop - the major felt that the Japanese lineup that was sneaking up from behind was obviously strong by comparing the number of Japanese troops on both sides, so he chose the tactic of attacking to the front. This is also a choice in desperation, but as long as the blow is successful, you can get out of the dangerous situation of being attacked from both sides. As for the resulting separation from the position of the Fifth Company, it had to be ignored for the time being.

The so-called small Japanese army that was attacked by the fourth company led by Chen Hao was the Japanese reinforcements in Fengdian County, and the main force of its reinforcements was still five or six miles away behind the 7th Company of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. With the cooperation of the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army just now, they tried to break through the flank of the position of the second battalion of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, but they were unsuccessful. Now, on the contrary, the officers and men of the central government have turned from defense to attack, forcing them back more than a mile. The squadron leader who commanded this small group of Japanese troops immediately saw through the intention of the opposing branch army to try to get rid of the situation of attacking from both sides, so he began to summon the cavalry of the Mongolian army, resolutely blocking the opponent's forward steps and completing the strangulation of it!

The 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment, which had just received a respite, fell back into a bitter battle. The forces under the command of Kikuchi Shaoza of the Japanese army were divided into a part to deal with the heavy machine-gun positions of the Central Army, and the rest continued to pursue and kill the officers and men of the 4th Company who had already frustrated their positions without mercy. The commander of the fourth company, who was shot in the leg, was unfortunately strafed by the Japanese Type 96 machine gun and was killed on the spot. Chen Hao himself was almost hit by a single piece of * - the entire fourth company was almost in a desperate situation, if they were completely defeated or even eliminated, then the fifth company that was standing next to the Makqin heavy machine gun would sooner or later be surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese puppet army that had their hands freed. Major Chen Hao felt cold to the bone, just now he had ordered the signal corps to urgently contact the regimental headquarters, but the walkie-talkie couldn't call at this critical juncture!

It wasn't until the artillery platoon of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army suddenly began to bombard the Japanese truck fleet that this desperate battlefield finally had a glimmer of life! Although Chen Hao, who was surprised, did not know where the troops firing in the distance were sacred, the Japanese soldiers in front of him were obviously in chaos. He gritted his teeth and yelled at his subordinates:

"Resist me, the little devil has also been pulled back!"