Soon it was getting dark. The devils filled the three big pits and occupied Shentou Township. denied Li Daze's plan to ask for a night attack on the devils in Shentou Township, after the daytime attack, the devils will definitely be very careful tonight, and even arrange traps. You can shoot the devil's sentries from a distance, harass the devil's hilltop camp with 60 mortars, and run away with one shot.

The fifteenth moon is sixteenth round, and the moonlight at night is particularly bright. The harassment war started in the middle of the night, and the devil sentry was killed a lot in the first round, so it was impossible to sleep peacefully. The devil's headache is the devil on the mountain, and the retreat is unwilling, and the pursuit will encounter mines or ambushes; Mortars were used to shell or machine gun fire at any suspicious place. What is difficult to deal with is mortar harassment, and after one shot, it runs away, and the devils can't even find the mortar position.

The harassment did not subside until dawn. Statistics at least 20 or more, the key is that the devil did not rest all night. It's just that it doesn't have much effect on the devils, and the devils who came out the next day directly replaced them. A large number of devils began to attack on both sides, and the small-scale attacks were like tickling. The way to deal with this is to use ravines, lure the enemy in pursuit after the attack, kill and wound the enemy with mines, and occasionally carry out small ambushes. The devil has experience in filling the pit, and the speed is also fast, and it only takes half a day to advance to the vicinity of Xiangtangpu. The devils on both sides were not slow to advance, and wherever they thought it was suspicious, the devil veterans cooperated with machine guns and mortars to strike. The team members are in danger if they move slowly, and Li Da has already had two injuries. The sappers planted 200 kilograms of high explosives directly on the road behind Xiangtangpu, directly blasting out a large crater with a diameter of 50 meters. The devil is not ambiguous, and it was filled up in the mortar harassment from time to time in one night, barely delaying the devil for two days.

Next, Li Da was ordered to disperse and monitor the division of the devil's troops. When encountering a division of troops, they will harass the battle with mines and long-distance shooting, delaying the devils and reporting the situation.

At the request of the chief of staff, he returned to the headquarters, and the chief of staff, in accordance with the advice of the engineers, adopted the method of secretly burying some minor materials, such as materials, on the spot. The evacuation speed of the entire material has been greatly improved. In two days, the chief of staff still had the spare strength to send 50 people to help the Sichuan army strengthen the fortifications for two days. The chief of staff called him back with the original intention of being afraid that he would be surrounded by the devil army, and more importantly, he heard about Sun Dianying's troops harming the Sichuan army, and he also had to make some reservations about the Sichuan army. I also felt that I was afraid of the chief of staff outside. The telegram Li Daze arranged for a team to escort the two liaison officers back to the headquarters, and the other personnel were under the command of Li Daze.

The Sichuan army not only dares to fight, but is also very good at fighting. On the 17th, the Japanese devils began to use all their strength, aircraft, artillery, and heavy troops to attack for a day; There was no sign of a breakthrough in the positions of the Sichuan army, and the battle reports said that no less than 500 devils were killed or wounded. In particular, one of the devil's planes was shot down by the air defense company dispatched by the chief of staff, although the air defense company lost one quadruple anti-aircraft gun, lost three soldiers, wounded two people, and scrapped one car; It also made it easy for the devil planes not to bomb and strafe at low altitudes, and the effect of the bombing was greatly reduced. At dusk of the same day, the enemy stopped attacking and retreated to the foot of the mountain.

The battle on the 18th was even more intense, and the devils, under the cover of the aircraft, placed the infantry guns on the top of the opposite hill. The direct fire of the infantry artillery caused the casualties of the Sichuan army to increase suddenly. After hearing this, the chief of staff sent people to determine the coordinates, secretly sent out two 47-mm field guns, and under the cover of the air defense company, in a short time after the devil's plane returned to the airfield, the enemy's mountaintop artillery was knocked out. The chief of staff directly ordered the artillery and air defense companies to retreat directly and concealed, which suddenly attracted more than 10 planes of the devils and began to bomb in turn. Later, the battle report learned that the Japanese army that came from the west of Linxian County, Henan Province had broken through the defense line of the friendly army and pointed straight to Ping. In the evening, the chief of staff received a notification from the Sichuan army that the Sichuan army must quickly move to Changzi County, southwest of Changzhi, to assist in the defense of Changzhi.

During the two days of fighting, although we did not know the casualties of the Sichuan army, we also knew that their sacrifices were enormous, and only some of the wounded who were sent to ask for help and treatment reached 300 people. The retreat of the Sichuan army was arranged in an orderly manner, and the order was unexpected. The Chief of Staff also immediately began to clear the traces of the retreat, arranging for the troops to be delayed and blocking the enemy who might advance northward, and at the same time to disperse the scouts.

The Sichuan army retreated cleanly overnight, and the devils did not notice anything unusual in their positions until dawn. Later, I heard that there was still a company left in the position to block the attack, and it is said that it held on to the order to retreat, and all but a few soldiers retreated and escaped, and all the rest were killed. (Salute to the martyr Huang Gaoyi!) Lin Sen's inscription: "Zhi Reward Wrapping Leather", Chiang Kai-shek's inscription: "Loyal and brave", Li Jiayu's inscription: "Sacrifice for the country". ）

The devils did not attack from all sides, and directly pursued the Sichuan army, and the remaining troops only controlled the county seat and key points on the road. Only on February 21 did Changzhi fall. Li Da was arranged to lead people to attack the surrounding areas of the county and the roads from the south side, which gave us time to calmly transport supplies. By the end of February, all the supplies had been transported, including the burials, and they had been taken out.

The fortifications left behind in the Baiyun Cave were also arranged, and the two damaged quadruple anti-aircraft guns were still dismantled and used, and the chief of staff placed them in the two fortifications facing the entrance of the ravine. The chief of staff gave the garrison platoon, and the reserved supplies were enough for them to consume for half a year. I also inspected the entire defense, and it is estimated that it is difficult for the devil to touch the edge of the cave without letting 500 people live, and the role of aircraft artillery here is very small, especially the chief of staff let people break through a hole, and the hole is facing the flat ground to the west, under the threat of a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun, it is difficult for the devil to control this flat land, and it also makes it practical to guard the hole!

The chief of staff was busy reinforcing the Longdong defense, and after a month and a half of construction, the reinforced concrete fortifications could withstand the bombardment of aerial bombs. A triangular hill is pointed in the west, and there are cliffs on both sides of the north and south, and climbing to the top of the mountain is a minefield; The entrance of the cave is on the wide face on the east side, opposite is a low hill, and the northeast corner that can ascend the entrance of the cave is Shiquan Village below, and there is no ready-made mountain road; To control the fortifications of this aspect, a quadruple 20-mm anti-aircraft gun was set up for flat fire plus four large-caliber Browning machine guns.

Entering and exiting a ravine in the southeast corner of Licheng County, the slope from this side is more than 75 degrees, and the chief of staff has set up the main passage here, directly paving a concrete slope, and using automobile power to make a winch to pull the trailer up and down. The fortifications for the control of the ravine were set up with four dismantled 20 anti-aircraft guns, which, according to the chief of staff, could be used as sniper rifles. Two 40-gun positions were erected on the top of the hill, and two semi-underground bunkers with concrete thicknesses of more than half a meter were constructed. The entire defense can resist the all-round, all-fire strikes of the devils.

The strength of the defense, according to the chief of staff, is enough for 50 people in a platoon. It is useless to attack in large forces, and it is necessary to defend against the enemy's infiltration attack. The chief officer who arranged for the defense here was his cousin Li Dakui with his more than 80 security guards who could not run, plus 20 firearms instructors, a confidential team and 100 arsenal personnel.

The Chief of Staff had no intention of placing the headquarters here, at most as a place for the final battle. The headquarters he chose was set up in a small mountain village called Shanghuangtang Village, which was backed by Laohan Mountain, facing Baiyun Mountain, and the guards of Baiyun Mountain Cave Mansion were lined up in horns, and the high ridge area of Taihang Mountain was to the west. The enemy is mainly coming from the direction of Licheng County, and the possibility of the enemy coming from the direction of Liao County is relatively small, and there is also a company of troops in that direction to develop a base area and defend on that side, but the possibility of the Eighth Route Army coming from that side is very high.

As the construction of the arsenal took shape, the sappers began to build fortifications for the headquarters and the places where the troops had been stationed for a long time.