The night was as dark as ink, and Cao Xinglong was leading a regiment of guard companies heading westward along the Longhai Railway.
After the breakout of Xuzhou, the Baoshan Brigade was divided. The three infantry battalions under the 1st Regiment of the Baoshan Brigade all acted independently. Regiment Deputy Huang Baocheng followed the 1st Battalion, while Regiment Commander Cao Xinglong followed the guard company. According to the map provided by the staff, the guard company
The march route was along the Longhai Line to the west until Kaifeng, and then crossed the Yellow River north to return to Feixiang in southern Hebei.
Of course, the General Staff only gave a rough route, and the actual route would depend on the war situation.
There is also plenty of time. As long as we can get to Feixiang and return to work before the end of August, the task will be completed.
While they were marching, the guard company commander Zeng Laoliu suddenly caught up with him and said breathlessly: "Commander, the little Japs are catching up!"
Cao Xinglong turned back and said with murderous intent: "How many troops?"
Zeng Laoliu took a breath and said in a hurried tone: "Two and a half teams, six three-wheeled vehicles, six crooked handles, two grenades, and no heavy machine guns or mortars."
In an instant, a hint of cold murderous intent appeared at the corner of Cao Xinglong's mouth.
The little devil is really tired of living. Two and a half squads of infantry dare to chase his guard company at night?
In terms of the quality of individual soldiers, the Baoshan Brigade is almost as good as the Japanese army's seventeen permanent divisions; in terms of heavy firepower, the Baoshan Brigade cannot keep up with the Japanese army; but in terms of light firepower, the Baoshan Brigade is not inferior to the Japanese army. Czech style
, Maxim's performance and dense firepower even surpassed that of the Japanese army.
Take Cao Xinglong's guard company as an example. It has 180 troops, which is basically the same as an infantry squadron of the Japanese army.
A Japanese infantry squadron has three infantry squads, six crooked handles, three grenades, no heavy machine guns, and no infantry guns or mortars. In the Japanese battle order, only the infantry brigade is equipped with artillery squadrons and heavy
Only machine gun squadrons, independent detachments or divisions are equipped with artillery regiments, and only front armies are equipped with heavy artillery brigades.
Cao Xinglong's guard company has three infantry platoons and a heavy machine gun platoon. It has six Czechs, two Maxims, and three grenades. In terms of performance, the Czechs are better than the Crooked, and the Maxim is heavy.
The range and rate of fire of the machine gun cannot be compared with that of the crooked gun. Of course, the performance of the imitation grenade launchers of the Chinese army is much inferior to that of the Japanese army.
Therefore, in terms of firepower configuration, Cao Xinglong's guard company is far superior to an infantry squadron of the Japanese army.
If the Japanese army did not have tanks, artillery and aviation to coordinate operations, with the combat effectiveness and firepower of the guard company, coupled with the fact that it was a night operation, it would be easy to annihilate a Japanese infantry squadron!
Zeng Laoliu, the guard company commander, gasped and asked: "Team leader, to fight or not to fight?"
"Fight! Of course we have to fight, and we have to fight quickly and quickly to wipe out these little Japs in the shortest possible time, otherwise they will attract the Japs' motorized infantry brigade, and then we will be in big trouble!" Cao Xinglong
Leng Ran ordered, "The first platoon will set up minefields, the second and third platoons will set up pocket formations, and the heavy machine gun platoon will step up its firepower points and prepare for an ambush!"
"Yes!" Zeng Laoliu, the guard company commander, and the four platoon leaders agreed with a loud voice and immediately took the order.
…
On the road from Xuzhou to Zaozhuang, Li Yulong's bayonet battalion was marching urgently.
The Bayonet Battalion held on to the Xuzhou Railway Station for eight days, and more than half of the battalion suffered casualties. When Yue Weihan sent troops to take him back to the city, there were only 208 people left in the battalion, starting with the battalion commander Li Yulong. Although 600 people have recovered now,
The number of personnel is still relatively high, but the quality of the soldiers has dropped slightly compared to before.
"At the camp, the Japanese motorized infantry brigade is catching up!" Zheng Baoguang, the guard platoon leader, said after catching up with Li Yulong.
Zheng Baoguang has returned to the team after recovering from his injury. He suffered an abdominal injury while trying to save Ye Xiaoxian that day. The injury looked scary, but in fact it was not too serious. After the wound was sutured, it took him seven days to recover and he was almost recovered. In his own words,
Except for two more scars on the abdomen, it is basically the same as before.
"I saw it." Li Yulong said angrily.
Li Yulong had indeed seen it. There was a long line of car lights on the road behind. There were at least a dozen large trucks. If each truck carried thirty soldiers, it was almost half an infantry brigade, not to mention there were several more in the middle of the line.
An armored car, these iron bastards are not easy to deal with. The firepower of an iron bastard can almost catch up with a heavy machine gun squadron!
"Battle base, let's take a small road." Guard platoon deputy Ye Xiaoxian said anxiously, "If we continue marching along the road, the kid's motorized infantry brigade will catch up with us sooner or later, and then we will be in big trouble!"
"You know nothing!" Li Yulong said coldly, "Is that what a man should do if he takes a side road?"
Guard platoon leader Deng Baoguang also reprimanded Ye Xiaoxian: "Vice platoon Ye, our Bayonet Battalion is the iron fist of the Baoshan Brigade and the backbone! So we can't just think about breaking out on our own, we have to share the pressure with other battalions. We attract people here.
If the Japanese's motorized infantry brigade is inhabited, they can't go after Touzu and the others, do you understand?"
"Yingzuo, I understand!" Ye Xiaoxian stood up suddenly and said solemnly, "There are some responsibilities that we must bear!"
Li Yulong patted Ye Xiaoxian on the shoulder, and immediately issued an order: "Give me the order, and each company will step up the construction of fortifications, lay out minefields, and kill these Japanese Japanese devils!"
"Yes!" The company commanders of each company responded loudly and immediately took the order.
…
Yue Weihan and Liu Yi personally led the cavalry battalion, artillery battalion and brigade headquarters team and were advancing rapidly along the east bank of the canal towards Jining.
Since ancient times, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal has been a strategic transportation line connecting the north and south of China. It was not until the opening of the Tianjin-Puzhou Railway that the strategic status of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal declined slightly, but only slightly. Therefore, moving north along the canal is very dangerous.
, it was easy for the Japanese army to mobilize heavy troops to surround and annihilate them along the canal.
The reason why Yue Weihan took the risk and chose the canal route had two main purposes.
One, of course, was to draw the Japanese army's attention to itself and cover the rest of the troops' successful breakout.
The second one came for the Cao Gang. The Cao Gang was born along the canal, but now it has evolved into another gang organization. This organization is the famous "Qing Gang". Huang Jinrong, the powerful boss in Shanghai,
Zhang Xiaolin is a disciple of the Qinggang Tong generation, while Du Yuesheng, who is more famous, is a disciple of the Wu generation.
Most of the existing Qinggang disciples are from the generation of "Da", "Tong", "Wu" and "Jue".
Yue Weihan knew very well that even if everything went as he wished and the Baoshan Brigade finally regained the entire southern Hebei Province, it would never be able to defend it for long, because no matter whether the Wuhan battle was won or lost, the Japanese army would eventually give up the frontal attack and start instead
A large-scale law and order campaign was launched against the occupied areas. Even if the Nationalist Government won the Wuhan Battle, it was impossible to turn into a counterattack in a short period of time. This was determined by the comprehensive national strength and heavy industrial foundation of China and Japan.
.
During World War II, the reason why the Soviet Union was able to quickly switch to counterattack after the Battle of Stalingrad was because the Soviet Union had a complete and huge heavy industry system, and its comprehensive national strength was the second in the world, so it was able to quickly switch to counterattack, and the National Government
The national strength is weak and heavy industry is zero. How can we counterattack?
Therefore, no matter what the final outcome of the Wuhan Battle is, the Baoshan Brigade will not be able to defend southern Hebei for long!
After all, the Baoshan Brigade only has one brigade of troops, and it is still a tree without roots and water without a source. No matter how hard it fights, it will never be able to confront the more than 300,000 elite troops under the jurisdiction of the Japanese North China Front. Of course, Yue Weihan has never imagined that he will.
To defend southern Hebei, he wanted to move into the Taihang Mountains and use the dangers of the mountains to create a solid anti-Japanese base.
Once the Baoshan Brigade really enters the mountain, the smuggling channel with the outside world will become extremely important!
It is foreseeable that after abandoning Xuzhou, Chairman Chiang and Yue Weihan will completely turn against each other. It will be basically impossible to receive military pay and military supplies from the National Government in the future, and the Communist Party is even more impoverished.
, will soon be forced to launch a self-rescue movement through production, so there is even less hope over there.
At that time, the Baoshan Brigade will have to raise its own food, wages and military supplies.
Therefore, Yue Weihan wanted to meet the Youth Gang, especially the Youth Gang disciples on the border between Shandong and Hebei. If he could establish a good relationship with the Youth Gang disciples in the two provinces, it would be possible for the Baoshan Brigade to establish a smuggling channel from the Taihang Mountains directly to Shanghai in the future.
Aid materials and arms to China can be continuously imported into the Taihang Mountains through this smuggling channel.
"Hospitality, why haven't you seen any movement, kid?" Liu Yi asked as he rode up to catch up with Yue Weihan.
The last time Liu Fengsheng brought back more than 800 horses, 300 pack horses were used to carry equipment for the artillery battalion and the direct troops. Liu Fengsheng selected 240 good horses from them to form three cavalry companies, and the remaining
The more than 200 horses were distributed to the commanders of each regiment and each battalion as mounts. Basically, officers above the company commander could get one.
Of course, the commanders of each regiment and battalion rarely have the opportunity to ride these mounts, and they are basically the sick and wounded.
Yue Weihan stopped his horse, looked up at the dark night sky, and said: "The calmer it is now, the storm that will come later will be more intense! It is absolutely impossible for such a big target of ours to hide from the enemy. If I
If I guess correctly, what follows should be a special force of the Japanese."
When Liu Tiezhu heard the sound, he immediately galloped forward and said: "Traveler, I will take people to kill them!"
As early as the eve of the breakout, Yue Weihan had ordered the separate special operations teams to assemble and standby at designated locations. At this time, the special operations teams had also joined Yue Weihan and the others. During the long-distance battle that was likely to last three months,
If Yue Weihan wants to make great achievements, he cannot do without the elite special operations brigade.
"No." Yue Weihan raised his hands coldly and said, "That's not necessary."
It is indeed not necessary. Let’s not talk about whether Liu Tiezhu’s special operations brigade can completely wipe out the Japanese special forces that are following them. Even if they can completely wipe out their opponents, the special operations brigade itself will inevitably suffer casualties. Yue Weihan does not want the special operations brigade to make any mistakes.
What's more, Yue Weihan didn't want to hide his whereabouts in the first place.
As the brigade commander of the Baoshan Brigade, Yue Weihan must take on some responsibilities!