At this moment, the mixed team that had quietly converged to the north of Lihuapu Village had increased to nearly two hundred people—more than 50 people in a cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army, more than 60 people in two infantry platoons, and more than 50 people in the bandit gang of the Black Stone Cliff Cottage. Half of the individual weapons are Type 38 cavalry guns and rifles, and the other half are Zhongcheng, Hanyang-made, shotguns, and firearms; It also has two light machine guns: Czech and Lewis.

If we include the more than 300 men of Wang Shuanglong's 1st Battalion, which was attacking south of the village, the overall number of troops should slightly exceed that of the Japanese entrenched in Ewhapo.

"The most important thing is that the Japanese in the village don't know that we have moved to their backs," the commander of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army eagerly discussed with the cavalry company commander: "The enemy is in the light and I am in the dark, and if you don't take him seriously, the odds of victory are very great!" ”

Although Xia Lianshan is meticulous, he is not a good and decisive person in terms of temperament and temperament, and at this moment, listening to his old comrades-in-arms analyze it like this, he feels quite reasonable - not to mention that from the perspective of his position, Wei Xin is the battalion commander of the detachment, and he is only the company commander of the cavalry company, so he should obey and execute.

"Old Wei, listen to you, then let's do it!"

With Xia Lianshan's support, the second battalion commander's confidence was greatly increased, and he immediately sent people to the east bank of the Qinglong River to mobilize Liu Wumei's men and horses, so that they could withdraw the ambush position and rush to this side to concentrate.

In the end, Wei Xin decided to launch the upcoming raid on the village of Lihuapu from three directions at the same time: he personally commanded two infantry platoons in the northeast direction, Xia Lianshan commanded the cavalry company in the northeast direction, and Liu Wumei commanded the Black Stone Cliff armed forces in the northwest direction.

"Sister, the direction of your men's attack should be the location where Tie Shou was shot just now," Wei Xin cautiously ordered in front of the female bandit leader and the master: "Your people will quietly touch it, and strive to find Tie Shou's corpse before officially opening fire and attacking; Be sure not to startle the snake - although the Japanese focus on defending the south, there will definitely be guards on the four sides of the village! ”

"Don't worry, big brother, I'll let the brother who followed the iron hand just now lead the way, and I will definitely find it before I fire. In case the corpse is no longer there, then leave it to fate. Anyway, it won't delay us from fighting the little devils! Liu Wumei responded with great sincerity.

Xia Lianshan on the side suddenly had a feeling, so he interjected: "Big boss, if you find the body of the iron hand, you must put it away, and I want to look back at the part of his body that was shot - I always feel a little strange about this matter." ”

Time was of the essence, and they did not bother to further analyze the accidental death of Iron Hand and the accidental escape of the village women present. The commander of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army made a tactical goal agreement for the upcoming offensive: the third route men and horses used the sneak attack to attack the village in one go, and then quickly found hidden places such as houses and courtyards, and advanced forward for the battalion step by step; If the 1st Battalion, which was attacking in the front, could be strongly cooperated, it would strive to squeeze the Japanese troops out of the village; If the attack is blocked, or if the Japanese army encounters a strong counterattack, or if Japanese reinforcements from the direction of Xiping Village suddenly arrive, they can retreat under the command of the Unification until they withdraw from Ewhapo again.

In order to find the body of the bandit leader Tie Shou in advance, Wei Xin arranged for the Black Stone Cliff armed forces to attack the village from the northeast to take the lead in the operation. The five soldiers of the Eighth Route Army who were previously assigned to this gang of bandits still stayed there to guide the battle and play a certain supervisory role; Now, two of the five warriors and three other bandits, led by the one who had been attacked and killed with Tetsute, and had narrowly escaped, had reached the scene of the incident outside the northeast corner of the village.

Without much difficulty, the bodies of Iron Hand and his minions were found, and several people quickly lifted the two corpses and retreated back the same way. In the process, they were only a dozen meters away from the nearest house in the north of Ewhapo Village, and thankfully, no one noticed it at night.

Knowing that the corpses of Tieshou and the others were successfully recovered, Wei Xin gave an order, and the soldiers of the two platoons got up lightly from the prostrate wasteland, and the cat bent down and pounced on the end of Lihuapu Village, which was more than a mile away. Immediately, the Black Stone Cliff bandits on the left and right flanks and the cavalry companies of the Xu Brigade detachment also began to move forward.

The Japanese army Saijo Shigehei, who had retreated to Ewhapo, did focus on the defense in the south, one is that the Eighth Route Army has always had a large number of troops from the south to follow and pursue, and the other is that the Japanese commander Saijo Osa has learned through telegraph that the battle in Xiping Village has won a big victory, which can be described as worry-free; Therefore, there was no rush to deploy defenses in the north of Ewhapo Village as soon as possible. This is also the reason why the Blackstone Cliff bandits were able to get close to the village and carry away the remains of the Iron Hand.

However, when the commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Eighth Route Army later ordered an all-out attack on Ewhapo, Saijo Shigehei's troops had already begun to drive the truck fleet to the north of the village, with the aim of parking the trucks away from the front line south of the village. As a result, the auto soldiers were the first to spot a large crowd of people coming up from outside the village - and the battle broke out.

After all, the Japanese truck fleet was too small to withstand the swarming attackers. It didn't take long for the two men of the Eighth Route Army and the Black Stone Cliff Bandit Gang to enter the village. Ewhappo on the banks of the Qinglong River was once again ignited by the flames of war.

Saijo Shigehei did not expect a large number of enemy troops to appear behind him, and the Japanese co-captain who was bent on holding on to Ewhapo and thus forming a belly back defense with Xiping Village suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Thankfully, the enemy forces chasing from the south were slow to launch a storm on the headquarters of the village barrier, apparently fearing the 92 Infantry Guns, which had just finished deploying their positions and began firing, and the flat fire of the seven guns supplemented by flares was enough to deal a heavy blow to any Shina Army that entered within two kilometers of Ewhapo, which was almost a flat open area.

With the solid support of the frontal defensive line, Saijo Osa quickly deployed an infantry squadron and organized a linear countercharge to the north of the village with all his might, and this infantry squadron immediately collided head-on with the opponent who attacked Ewhaura!

The vast majority of the bandits have not experienced such a close encounter, and the Japanese soldiers with bayonets on the 38-type rifles charged quickly and the firepower was so intensive, which caused a huge psychological shock to the Black Stone Cliff bandits in a short period of time, and the bandits quickly began to retreat in a hurry, even if there was a Lewis machine gun and five veterans of the Eighth Route Army, they failed to save the collapse situation.

The rapid rout on the side of the female bandit leader directly led to the loss of flank cover by Wei Xin, who was attacking in the middle, and was attacked by the Japanese army. The commander of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army thought that the Black Rock Cliff bandits might not be able to suppress the field battle of the Japanese soldiers, but the fact that their collapse came so quickly was much more than expected—after all, it was a rabble, who had neither experienced formal training nor faced brutal combat. Wei Xin scolded angrily in his heart, regretting that he should not have handed over such a heavy burden to a group of bandits out of trust in Liu Wumei!

At this time, looking at the past from a distance, the Black Rock Cliff bandits had been completely expelled from the village, and they waded across the Qinglong River in embarrassment, and hid on the other side of the river before organizing a counterattack. Wei Xin understood that it should be Liu Wumei who was trying her best to suppress it, and the five veterans he sent over played a certain role in supervising the army, otherwise, this so-called bandit would have fled without a trace long ago.

With the help of a river barrier and the strafing of Lewis machine guns, the Blackstone Cliff bandits finally held up the line. However, the Japanese soldiers who had defeated them only left a small part across the river to keep an eye on them, while the rest turned around and began to outflank Wei Xin's team, which had just invaded the village.

At the same time, the Japanese counter-charge from the village continued to intensify, and Captain Saijo invested more troops, determined to drive out the enemy forces that had entered the village.

The Eighth Route Army's battlefield communication lagged behind, and at this moment it swallowed up the bitter fruit - just when Wei Xin commanded his men and horses to launch an overall offensive from the north of Lihuapu, the commander of the first battalion of the Eighth Route Army, who did not know about it, only carried out a small-scale exploratory attack south of Lihuapu; And after being hit by Japanese flares and artillery fire, the attack pattern was tightened more and more.

As a result, the Japanese wing commander, who did not have much pressure on the frontal defense, could calmly invest more troops and turn to his flank.

Wei Xin finally felt that he could no longer support it, in the face of more and more Japanese soldiers who swooped over, as well as the protection of the left wing that had been lost, this battle planned according to the sneak attack had undoubtedly changed its taste, and it would only suffer greater losses if it was hard topped. He gave his subordinates the latest order, and at the same time sent someone to the right flank to inform Xia Lianshan's cavalry company: Withdraw!

Compared with the bumpy attack, the retreat seemed to be very smooth: the Japanese soldiers who frantically counter-charged were ordered to recover the defense system in the north of the village, and did not take the initiative to pursue and kill the officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route who suddenly withdrew outside the village. Two infantry platoons, plus a cavalry company, retreated to a distance of two miles north of the village.

The commander of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army and the commander of the cavalry company soon met, and the expressions of both sides were a little embarrassed. Some officers and soldiers who were familiar with the inside story began to bitterly scold the Black Rock Cliff bandits who had just collapsed at the touch of a button on the left flank and eventually led to the collapse of the whole situation.

Xia Lianshan knew the special relationship between Wei Xin and the female bandit leader of the Black Stone Cliff, but he was afraid that his old comrades-in-arms would not be able to hold their faces, so he spoke out to stop the officers and soldiers from venting their anger.

"Old Wei, the village can't get in, I'm afraid we have to consider quickly contacting the first battalion of Dalong to implement the transfer, the terrain here is open, the sky is bright, and our target of hundreds of men and horses is too big."

Wei Xinzheng was distraught by the attack that had just failed, and couldn't come up with an idea for a while, so he asked the cavalry company commander: "In which direction to transfer?" ”

"Xiping Village is definitely not able to go, and the direction of Tongpu Road is not safe, and now there are only two roads to go; One is to continue northward, cross the periphery of Xiping Village, and enter our Hekou Village Defense Area; One is to bypass the Lihuapu in front and return to the defense area of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army to the south. ”

It was only at this time that the mind of the commander of the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army stabilized, and he pondered these two transfer routes of Xia Lianshan in his mind: to go north to Hekou Village, he could directly join up with Li Tianlin, chief of staff of the detachment, and quickly hide into Guanmen Mountain, but he had to pass through Xiping Village along the way, and he could not rule out the risk of being intercepted and killed by a large number of Japanese troops there. Going south to the defense area of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, although there is no danger of encountering the main force of the Japanese army, the 12th Brigade is different from the 391st Regiment of the Central Army after all, and it is difficult to predict whether it can live in peace; Moreover, from the defense area of the Jin army to enter the Guanmen Mountain, you can only take the mountain pass at the southern foot of it, and the road in the mountain is far away, rugged and difficult to walk.

What's more, the current Wei Xin has already made up his mind to accompany Liu Wumei's team - after the battle just now, he feels more and more that it is necessary to incorporate the Black Stone Cliff bandit gang into the Xu Brigade Guanmenshan Detachment, and then train them well - and his righteous sister escaped from a catastrophe on the territory of the Jin army, and then take them back to the defense area of the 12th Independent Brigade, the resistance is undoubtedly huge.

Go? You have to make a decision now!