Li Ziwen had been observing the battle ahead. When he saw two Type 92 infantry cannons being blown up by the Japanese army, he immediately realized that the Japs were about to run away.
"Captain, the little devil is trying to run away!"
After Jing Dagang heard this, he sneered: "Run, where are you going?"
At present, except for the artillery battery, all the troops of the regiment were pressed forward. At this time, Jing Dagang no longer had any extra troops to go around the front to intercept the Japanese troops trying to escape.
But this does not mean that Jing Dagang has nothing to do with the Japs. At this time, the two of them were standing behind the artillery company position.
"Deng Chengwu, don't save the artillery shells, the artillery battery will use the artillery shells to intercept the little Japs for me!" Jing Dagang said to the artillery company commander Deng Chengwu.
"yes!"
The six 82 mortars of the artillery company continued to bombard the assembled Japanese troops, while the four Type 92 infantry guns extended their artillery fire and continued to bombard the direction of the Japanese troops' advance.
The Japanese major who commanded the battle reacted very quickly when the battle just started. He realized that the Eighth Route Army was surrounded by a large number of people and would surely fall into a hard fight due to the entanglement. In addition, the location of the battlefield was far away from the main force of the imperial army, so he immediately decided to conserve his strength.
Break out first.
But he never expected that the Eighth Route Army he was fighting against was not an ordinary Eighth Route Army unit, and its reaction speed was equally quick.
"Boom!" an explosion sounded nearby, and several Japanese soldiers nearby were hit by shrapnel. The accompanying medical soldiers hurriedly moved the wounded soldiers to a safe place for bandaging.
"Sir, the Eighth Route Army's artillery fire is too fierce. The shells are intercepted in the direction of the troops' advance, and the soldiers cannot rush out!" said the adjutant on the side.
"Baga, how come this group of Eighth Route Army has so many artillery shells? This is unreasonable. The damn First Brigade actually concealed the true strength of the Eighth Route Army!" The Japanese Major looked at the shells falling one after another and cursed loudly.
At this time, the situation on the battlefield was in chaos. More than thirty Japanese troops were still fighting fiercely with the Sixth Company on the hill as the rear troops. The pressure on the Sixth Company was greatly reduced for a while, and they only had to deal with attacks from the front and flanks.
A small Japanese army unit.
The guard company advancing in the middle was firmly holding on to the Japanese rear troops.
It only took three to five minutes from the time the Japanese troops retreated and began to gather until they were intercepted by artillery fire. But it was these three to five minutes that allowed the troops on the left and right flanks to seize the opportunity and attack them.
"Quick, don't let the little devil get away!" Although the second battalion commander Geng Erdong only had one infantry company in hand, he did not give in and led his soldiers to the front.
Braving the hail of bullets, the soldiers who charged on both sides were constantly shot and fell.
Although the outflanking troops on both wings had strengthened a heavy machine gun company, it was of no use at this critical moment. It was all about the bravery of the soldiers who stepped forward to bite the little Japanese.
In an instant, soldiers from both sides exchanged blows and fought in a melee.
At this time, the Japanese army was under constant shelling and the personnel were divided into two groups. There were less than 300 Japanese troops on the main battlefield.
On the other hand, although the surrounding group of soldiers suffered some losses during the charge, there were still four infantry companies and a guard company, totaling more than 700 people.
As Jing Dagang said in his previous reply to Zhou Weihan, the combat effectiveness of a regiment needs to be tested on the battlefield.
Although the soldiers from both sides were fighting together, the soldiers in the group were quite organized. There were few lone soldiers. Two or three soldiers formed a group to strangle the lone little devils around them.
The fighting power of the regiment also surprised the Japanese major. Seeing that there was no hope of breaking through, the Japanese major simply ordered hand-to-hand combat to defeat the encircling Eighth Route Army.
Unexpectedly, wherever he looked, the battlefield was filled with the tragic sight of wounded Japanese soldiers wailing.
Seeing this scene actually made the Japanese Army Major's scalp numb. The origins of the group of more than 400 Japanese soldiers he led were not simple.
This group of Japanese troops is a rapid reaction force specially formed by the 35th Division, and its members are all battle-hardened veterans selected within the 35th Division.
This time, he was specially seconded by Suzuki Teiji to carry out raids into the Eighth Route Army base area.
Who would have thought that this group of little devils had a bad start, or that Zhou Weihan's side was favored by the national destiny, so that the little devils bumped into a group that also detoured around the Zhanghe River.
"Baga, give me this!" Seeing the Eighth Route Army approaching, and looking around at the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese major pulled out his sword and rushed towards a group of soldiers.
"careful!"
Cai Dali, a soldier of the Ninth Company, was trained in martial arts. When he first joined the army, he used to use a big gun. However, the army emphasized team fighting, so he abandoned the gun and used a bayonet instead.
Cai Dali saw a Japanese officer rushing forward, swinging the bayonet in his hand and swinging away the Japanese major's command knife.
The force was so strong that the Japanese major was forced to take two steps back before he could regain his footing.
"Baga!" The Japanese commander clenched his command knife tightly, feeling a little soreness in the tiger's mouth.
Before he could react, a soldier in Cai Dali's group with a sword in his right hand raised his left hand and fired.
As the gunfire rang out, the Japanese Major slowly knelt on the ground unwillingly.
Cai Dali stepped forward and took a look: "Hey, he's still a major. Shi Yuansheng, you got a big deal!"
The words are divided into two parts.
On Beigaodi's side, Dong Jiang also led the soldiers to open boxes of weapons and equipment brought by the Japs and check them carefully.
Zhou Weihan on the mountain had already received a bunch of telegrams.
"I didn't expect that the little devils are so extraordinary. They almost reached our base area silently. If these little devils were to arrive, it would be difficult for the political commissar to deal with it!" Zhou Weihan said with lingering fear.
"Yeah, luckily we were met by accident. Otherwise, we would have been in trouble. The little devils are really making a lot of noise this time. Just watch. Although we haven't found any movement from the Japanese troops in Anyang yet, we are sure
It’s not far from us!”
"Once Fushimi Palace is in the hands of the Japs, the large forces behind them will approach!" Li Yunlong said at the side.
Zhou Weihan also had a headache about this. Fighting was not just a battle on the frontal battlefield, but intelligence warfare in the dark was also an indispensable part.
However, there has been no effective intelligence coming from the enemy's engineering department at the moment. On the other hand, the Japanese army can approach the base area silently, which also shows that the Eighth Route Army's weak foundation in the Japanese-occupied areas and guerrilla zones prevented the news from being known in advance.
This feeling of lameness is uncomfortable.
Just before Zhou Weihan received the telegram from the First Regiment, the Third Regiment and the Fourth Regiment sent telegrams one after another. The telegrams stated that large groups of Japanese troops were present at their locations.
Liangpu area.
The third regiment moved south from Nanle, originally to keep an eye on the 76th Independent Infantry Brigade of the Japanese First Independent Mixed Brigade with Puyang as the core.
The main force of the Japanese army is in Puyang, with Japanese troops under its command stationed in Pu County to the east, Qingfeng to the north, and Dongming to the south.
After leaving the base area, the Third Regiment quickly arrived near the highway connecting Qingfeng and Puyang.
According to Zhou Weihan's prediction, once the battle begins, the Japanese troops in Puyang will definitely move north along the highway to attack the base area, and one of the tasks of the third regiment is to block this group of Japanese troops.
At this time, along the highway from Puyang to Qingfeng in the north.
There was continuous gunfire, and the three regiments, under the command of Wu Qin, were divided into three groups and were carrying out a tenacious blockade along the highway.
The battle with the first battalion at the front was the most brutal. Due to the sudden and tight movement of the Japanese army northward, the first battalion fought against the Japanese army before they could even set up a position.
The headquarters of the Third Regiment is located on a high ground four or five miles away from the east side of the highway line.
"Commander, the second battalion has completed the construction of the position!" The correspondent from the regiment headquarters hurried back to report.
"Okay, you've been working hard, go to the first battalion commander immediately, and the first battalion will immediately withdraw behind the third battalion!" Wu Qin said in a deep voice.
"yes!"
After the correspondent left, Wang Lin, the political commissar of the third regiment, put down his telescope and frowned: "Commander, there is something wrong with these little devils. According to previous intelligence, the 76th Independent Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army is stationed in the Liangpu area.
At best, there are just over a thousand people!”
"If you look at it now, the Japanese army alone has a large group and a half, accompanied by at least four mountain cannons, and the puppet army has at least more than 3,000 people. Even if the little devils gathered all the troops in the Liangpu area here, they would not be able to do that.
There are so many people!”
"Humph, what's so strange about this? They must be the Japanese troops coming from Kaifeng. This is the only explanation!" Wu Qin snorted coldly: "But don't be afraid. Even though our Third Regiment can't eat these Japanese and puppet troops, it's okay.
He wants to pass under our noses!"
On the other side, the situation faced by the Fourth Regiment was even worse.
More than 700 Japanese troops who set out from Xinxiang, plus a tank squadron, gathered the Japanese troops in Junxian and Huaxian counties, and then a total of more than 1,000 Japanese troops marched across the endless plains toward Neihuang.
After the scouts sent by the Fourth Regiment learned of this situation, they immediately rushed back to report.
At that time, Wang Yigong was leading his men to select a suitable position, but there was really no suitable place to block the attack in the surrounding terrain. If it was summer, there would be a green gauze tent that could be used as a cover.
Let alone whether it is suitable for fighting, once the Japanese army is not interested in fighting, they can immediately change direction and take a detour.
When Wang Yigong received the news reported by the scouts, his face suddenly darkened.
Then Wang Yigong ordered the fourth regiment and one battalion to stay here to fight against the Japanese army. The main force of the fourth regiment retreated more than thirty miles, waiting for opportunities to find favorable terrain to block the attack.
Looking at the entire Hebei, Shandong and Henan region, except for Neihuang, where the Eighth Route Army was conducting transactions with the Japanese army, there was no fighting, but there were fighting in other places.
In Guancheng, the nearest city to the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region in northwestern Shandong, more than 500 Japanese and puppet troops went deep into the base area alone. Tan Lin led an independent regiment to deal with them.
The Japanese troops in Fan County and Chaocheng were tightly entangled by troops sent from the Luxi Military Region and were unable to move.
The main force of the Luxi Military Region is deployed on the east side, always on guard against the Japanese troops in Tai'an and Yanzhou along the Jinpu Railway.
In addition, the supplementary regiment of the 94th Division of the Tainan Military Region on the west side of Anyang and the Yang Han 280th Regiment were dispatched again to carry out a flank attack on the western area of Anyang in accordance with the previously implemented plan.
The series of battles that occurred due to the transaction of Fushimi Miya Mingyi became more and more intense, but on the contrary, Beigaodi, where Zhou Weihan was located, was peaceful.
At this time, the Eighth Route Army headquarters as far away as Taibei also learned of the battles taking place in the Hebei, Shandong and Henan areas.
Eighth Route Army Headquarters.
After the boss listened to the report from the person in charge of the Intelligence Department, the muscles on his face twitched obviously, and then he said: "Zhou Weihan is really a big deal. Our Eighth Route Army alone has nearly 20,000 troops participating in the war. The movement is so big
Not too small!"
The deputy chief of staff on the side said: "This time the Japanese army reacted really violently, and it can be said that they went into full force. This was something we had not expected before. It seems that Zhou Weihan really touched the Japanese army's sore spot!"
"That's right. Send a telegram to Zhou Weihan immediately to ask how the battle is going. At the same time, all the information about the Hebei, Shandong and Henan regions reported by the Intelligence Department will be shared with Zhou Weihan in a timely manner!"
"It's very difficult for Zhou Weihan right now, so we must do our best to help!" the boss finally said.
At the same time, here at Beigaodi.
After Zhou Weihan learned that battles were starting one after another in the surrounding area, especially the battle on the 1st regiment had just ended and was on the way to the south for forced march.
In response to this situation, Zhou Weihan sent a monk to notify Dong Jiang to continue to delay and buy time for the group.
At this time, Zhou Weihan and Li Yunlong were sitting together, carefully analyzing the several telegrams they had received.
"It's a pity that the intelligence from the enemy engineering department was a step too late. Judging from the current situation, the Japanese troops in Kaifeng must have been secretly dispatched yesterday, otherwise they would not be able to reach the Liangpu area now!" Zhou Weihan said with a hint of regret.
"Report, telegram forwarded by headquarters!" The telegraph operator who was also in the mountain temple stood up and reported the report.
Li Yunlong quickly went over to receive the telegram, turned around, glanced at it quickly, and then read the telegram to Zhou Weihan.
"That's right. The Japanese brigade and regiment headquarters in Anyang City mobilized some Japanese troops from Tangyin, Qi County, and Ji County. Together with the Japanese mobile troops in Anyang City, a total of more than 2,000 soldiers joined us from this morning.
Set off from Zhangzhuang stronghold outside Anyang City and head east!"
"The Japanese army in Kaifeng dispatched a large group of infantry and a squadron of mountain artillery. They arrived outside Puyang City last night but did not enter the city!"
"One part of the Japanese troops around Xinxiang went north to station in Anyang area, and the other part brought a squadron of tanks and dispatched this morning!"
After hearing this, Zhou Weihan said: "This is the headquarters after all. The intelligence power is stronger than ours!"
"The little devil wants to advance in three directions simultaneously, plus a partial division to attack the base area. This is to achieve internal and external flowering. Unfortunately, the little devil is just daydreaming!" Li Yunlong saw through the Japanese army's plot at a glance.
At present, the position of chief of staff of the Hebei, Shandong and Henan Military Region is vacant, and Xing Zhiguo is not with Zhou Weihan. Li Yunlong has temporarily established a replacement for the chief of staff, who is good at analyzing intelligence.
"Hmph, no matter what, as long as Fushimi Gong Mingyi is still in our hands, we have the initiative. Now with just one move, I will not only take away the equipment in front of me, but also annihilate the Japanese troops dispatched in Anyang in one fell swoop!