In a forest about five kilometers away from the Zhengtai Railway, Zhou Chengzheng, who was the first to arrive here, arranged for the troops to monitor the every move of the Japanese Railway garrison and waited for the arrival of the subsequent troops.

Although the troops returning to the aid defense zone had war horses for transportation, the artillery and air defense battalions had not been trained by cavalry. The addition of war horses could only make their march much faster than usual, far from the speed of cavalry and mobile battalions, so they had to arrive here one to two hours later than Zhou Cheng.

"Regiment Commander, there is something happening on the railway!" A company commander of the cavalry battalion suddenly rushed to Zhou Cheng's side, looking very nervous.

"Slowly, the sky cannot fall!" Zhou Cheng asked calmly, not affected by his subordinates at all.

"There are Japanese and puppet troops to reinforce the railway line, and there are a large number of them. There are at least two thousand Japanese and a regiment of puppet troops, carrying a large number of artillery and heavy machine guns. Once they arrive at the railway line, they start to divide their troops to arrange defenses, which must be to stop us from coming!" When the company commander reported, he looked very nervous.

"So many Japanese and puppet troops, have the deputy regiment commander and others completed the blocking mission?" Zhou Cheng's face flashed with shock and said to himself.

Then he stared at the cavalry company commander and asked, "Do you know where they came from?"

"It seems to be coming from Hebei!" The cavalry company commander thought and reported.

"I led them to follow them for two kilometers. After boarding the railway, I immediately entered small and medium-sized strongholds along the railway with a strengthening squadron, which strengthened the Japanese and puppet troops along the railway by at least twice!"

"The mountain cannons and infantry cannons they carried were divided into two, and they entered two large strongholds!"

After hearing this, Zhou Cheng's shocked expression disappeared, and he suddenly realized and said, "So that's how it is!"

"As long as you don't come from Shanxi garrison, there's no problem!"

"The Japanese garrisons in Shanxi are so familiar with us. If they want to break through their defense and forcefully cross the Zhengtai Railway, they will definitely have to pay a lot of money."

"The Japanese in Hebei have not fought with us yet. If you don't understand us, it will be much easier to break through their defense!"

"You go back to the railway line and stare at this Japanese and puppet army. I will remember all the Japanese and puppet troops from which stronghold is stationed, how many artillery and light and heavy machine guns are strengthened."

"When the artillery and air-off troops are in place, we will directly attack the railway line!"

At 11 o'clock in the evening, all the troops returning to the defense zone were in place, and the latest situation of the Japanese and puppet troops was also sent to Zhou Cheng.

"Comrades, a new situation just happened!" Looking at the battalion commander who was rushing over in front of him, Zhou Cheng directly told the unexpected situation that had just happened on the battlefield.

"The Japanese departing in Taiyuan were attacked by the left-behind forces in the defense zone and could not reach the railway directly in front of us in the middle of the night, cutting off our passage to the defense zone."

"But we ignored the Japanese devils in Hebei."

"Just just now, two brigades of Japanese devils and a regiment of Imperial Army reinforced the railway line in front of us, and were strengthening the defensive forces of all large and small strongholds along the railway with the unit of strengthening squadrons!"

"Now the Zhengtai Railway has been built into a solid wall by the Japanese and puppet troops. It is definitely not as easy as it is to cross over when we just came to Hebei."

Shen Liwen, the commander of the mobile battalion, blurted out: "If you can't attack, let's attack forcefully and use artillery fire to attack all the way!"

"The artillery battalion has come to two large-caliber mortar companies, and the ones that have been fired are all 120mm caliber shells. As long as one shell hits the target, it can destroy an ordinary artillery tower!"

"If we concentrate on artillery fire and blast, we can take a stronghold in a few minutes!"

"The troops returning to the aid have war horses to carry on their transportation, so everyone is ready for marching in advance!"

"As soon as the artillery tower is destroyed, all of them can cross the railway line in a few minutes. No matter how fast the Japanese and puppet troops in the nearby artillery tower react, they will not have the chance to kill us!"

Zhou Cheng didn't expect that Chen Liwen's thoughts were the same as he did, and replied with a look of surprise: "Bathman Commander Chen's proposal just now is what I want to tell you next!"

"Although there are many Japanese and puppet troops blocking the railway line, they overlook a very critical issue!"

"In Hebei, the Japanese and puppet troops who fought with us were basically wiped out. The three thousand Japanese and puppet troops who reinforced the railway line did not fight with us at all, and did not understand the national rescue army, so they made a very serious mistake."

"After arriving at the railway line, he actually divided his troops to defend the strongholds along the line, resulting in the lack of a mobile force on this section of the railway."

"If the reinforcements were the Japanese garrisons in Shanxi, they would definitely not divide their troops and give us a chance to defeat them. Instead, they formed several mobile troops to patrol the railway line, reinforce the battlefield in time, blocked the opening we tore open, stuck to our return troops, and fought with us."

"They know that we have strong offensive capabilities and can quickly capture their strongholds. If we follow the conventional playing method and temporarily dispatch troops from surrounding strongholds to reinforce the battlefield, there will definitely be too late."

"I decided to concentrate the twelve large-caliber mortars of two artillery companies to bombard the Lijiapo stronghold. The mobile battalion attacked the front, counting the time from the artillery bombardment, and taking the stronghold within ten minutes."

"The rescuing troops set off in advance, brought all their equipment and followed two hundred meters behind the mobile battalion. When they saw the signal that the mobile battalion had taken the stronghold, they sent it, and crossed the railway line as fast as possible..."

"As long as there is no accident when breaking through, everyone can cross the Zhengtai Railway in five minutes. It takes ten minutes to attack the stronghold, and it only takes fifteen minutes to add up."

"The nearest stronghold is three kilometers away. After hearing the sound of artillery, it takes five minutes to assemble troops. No matter how fast the marching is, it will take twenty minutes to reach here. When they reach the battlefield, they can't even catch our tails and can only eat dirt!"

In the Lijiapo stronghold, more than 200 Japanese who had just arrived were resting and on standby.

The squadron leader Captain Fujita was accompanying Lieutenant Yoshino, who was observing the surrounding terrain. The central artillery tower of the stronghold was ten meters high, and several people stood on the roof of the artillery tower to see the surroundings clearly.

The railway passes by the artillery tower, three meters higher than the ground, and anything that crosses the railway cannot escape the eyes of the artillery tower garrison.

Two heavy machine guns were mounted on the roof of the artillery tower on the left and right, shooting from a high point. With an effective range of more than 1,000 meters, they could block the railways on both sides of the stronghold.

If the National Salvation Army wants to cross the railway, it must seize the stronghold, otherwise the return troops will be exposed to the strafing of the Japanese heavy machine guns.

Captain Fujita's military rank is the highest among all the garrisons in the stronghold. From the beginning of entering the stronghold, he will automatically command the stronghold.

After observing the terrain around the stronghold, the order began to be issued: "Divide the heavy machine gun squad we brought into two, and arrange the two heavy machine guns on the roof of the artillery tower, and cooperate with the two heavy machine guns of the stronghold garrison to block the railway line 800 meters away from the artillery tower."

"Two heavy machine guns are arranged on the three floors of the outer artillery tower, blocking the railway line between 400 and 800 meters away from the artillery tower."

"Light machine guns are arranged in a scattered manner, blocking railway lines within 400 meters of the artillery tower, and protecting the safety of the strongholds!"
Chapter completed!