Ping'an County is located in the southwest of Shanxi. It is surrounded by the Shanxi-Sui Army, the Eighth Route Army and various bandit armed forces. The situation is very complicated. It is also the first line of direct contact between the Japanese army and various forces.
Because the location is very important, the Japanese stationed a garrison brigade here, that is, more than 700 Japanese troops, plus a regiment of the Imperial Association Army, the total strength is close to 2,000 people. This kind of strength is everywhere in Shanxi
It is also rare among the county towns.
Since the Japanese troops stationed in Ping'an County were strong and stored a large amount of weapons and ammunition, the Shanxi-Sui Army, the Eighth Route Army and other armed forces from all over the country had always wanted to capture Ping'an County.
However, Ping'an County is not only strong in its own strength. Once an attack is launched against it, it will only take two to three hours for the surrounding Japanese troops to rush in for reinforcements. It will be too difficult to capture it.
Therefore, neither the Jinsui Army nor the Eighth Route Army dared to take action.
But today, some people really don’t believe in evil. At 9 o’clock in the morning on July 1st, accompanied by a sudden burst of fierce artillery fire, the Japanese troops deployed in four positions outside the county were drowned in the artillery fire before they could even send out a distress signal.
middle.
More than ten minutes later, when the artillery fire ended, the four bunkers that the Japanese army had spent great efforts to build around Pingan County had been razed to the ground, and not even a single Japanese soldier inside could escape.
After solving the Japanese outer positions, a battalion of soldiers in gray-green uniforms launched a thunderous attack on Liantai County under the cover of more than a dozen tanks.
In Qixiaguan, the commander of the 684th regiment who left his post without permission last time had been shot, and this time the Jinsui Army sent a new regiment commander.
The group leader's name is Gao Jie. He is in his thirties, but he looks older. His dark complexion makes him look like an old farmer in his late thirties at first glance.
Looking at Gao Hongming in front of him, Gao Jie smiled bitterly and said to Gao Hongming: "Captain Gao, after all, we were the same family hundreds of years ago. Can't you give me a face and stop causing trouble?"
Gao Hongming said seriously: "Brother Gao, I don't like hearing what you say. What do you mean by not causing trouble?
Don't forget, just over two months ago, I was attacked here and almost wiped out my entire army. Three days ago, the Japanese even dispatched bombers to carry out a brutal bombardment of my troops.
Damn it, if I were less lucky, I might not be able to talk to you here.
As the saying goes, it is disrespectful to come back but not reciprocate. Since the little devil likes to play dirty tricks so much, I naturally have to express my feelings."
In other words, after the Japanese made a sudden attack on Gao Hongming in Wild Wolf Valley, the anger in Gao Hongming's heart was kindled.
The next day, he convened a military meeting with all the officers from the battalion and above. The topic was how to retaliate against the Japanese.
Everyone discussed it all morning, and most of them focused on Ping'an County, which is dozens of miles away from Liantai County.
Ping'an County is an important stronghold of the Japanese in southwestern Shanxi. A large group of garrison troops and a regiment of puppet troops have gathered here, which can be said to be a strong force.
Moreover, this is also a bridgehead for the Japanese army in the southwest region. If we can capture Ping'an County, it will definitely deter the Japanese army. Secondly, I also told Yoshio Shinozuka that it is disrespectful to come and not go back. This is what I said to him.
Your return gift.
After some discussion, it was finally decided to dispatch all troops except the supplementary battalion.
Among them, the first and second battalions were responsible for ambushing and blocking the east and west sides of Qixia Pass. The third and fourth battalions, the armored battalion and the second artillery battalion were responsible for attacking Ping'an County. The fifth battalion served as a reserve team, and the medical brigade also accompanied the army.
In this attack on Ping'an County, Gao Hongming did not notify the Jinsui Army in advance, but sent the large army directly to Qixia Pass.
As the commander stationed at Qixiaguan, Gao Jie was naturally unhappy, but he did not dare to say anything in the face of the powerful Gao Hongming. After all, it was the former commander of his 684th regiment who severely punished Gao Hongming just a few months ago.
Sold, if it weren't for Gao Hongming's strength, the vigilante group would have ceased to exist.
Now people have told him clearly that my brother is here for revenge this time. The reason why he did not notify you in advance is because he was afraid that you would leak the news.
What else could Gao Jie say?
To say that you are looking down on me is something I would never do.
Even he himself didn't believe this. The Jinsui Army had long been infiltrated by the Japanese. This was no longer a secret. Yan Xishan had flirted with the Japanese in his early years. Even the advisers in the army were Japanese.
, to say that there are no spies planted by the Japanese can only be deceived by a three-year-old child.
Faced with Gao Hongming's half-soft and half-hard attitude, Gao Jie had no choice but to compromise, but a compromise was a compromise, so he still had someone secretly send a telegram to Yan Xishan, which could be regarded as fulfilling his obligation.
But what surprised Gao Jie was more than that. As soon as the battle started, Gao Hongming taught him a lesson about mechanized warfare.
When the 2nd Battalion's eighteen M2 105mm howitzers fired at the gun towers and other defensive positions outside Ping'an County, he was stunned by the feeling of the earth shaking.
More than ten minutes later, all the artillery towers and peripheral positions deployed by the Japanese army in Pingan County were razed to the ground, and then the general offensive began.
The armored battalion took the lead, attacking from the south and north respectively, followed closely by the two infantry battalions. The seemingly solid city gate only lasted less than five minutes before the tank guns blasted it open, followed by the two infantry battalions with more than 1,000 soldiers.
Infantrymen swarmed in behind the tank, and the whole process went extremely smoothly.
If he hadn't known that there were real Japanese troops stationed inside, Gao Jie would have thought he was watching an exercise.
But despite this, Gao Jie was still very worried. He knew very well that the Japanese would not watch the fall of Ping'an County. Their reinforcements would arrive in a few hours, and there would definitely be a big battle...
"Boom!" A ball of orange-red flames rose from the window of a building. The violent explosion shattered all the surrounding windows, and half of the house was also destroyed by the explosion.
The "culprit" that caused this consequence was a Panzer IV tank.
This is a Type IV F tank equipped with a short-barreled 24x75mm main gun and two MG34 general-purpose machine guns.
Some people may ask, since the army has been equipped with a large number of MG42, why are tanks and other armored vehicles still equipped with old machine guns like MG34?
This is because both machine guns are air-cooled and require frequent barrel replacement during combat.
When changing the barrel, the MG34 only needs to be pulled open from the side to change the barrel. It has low space requirements and is convenient for quick replacement in a small space like a tank.
When changing the barrel of the MG42, you must pull the receiver upward and then change the barrel, which makes it difficult to operate in a small space such as a tank or armored vehicle.
After the No. 4 tank fired, the parallel machine gun installed at the muzzle also spurted out tongues of flame...