The commander of the Japanese 108th Division, Konichi Fujiwara, received an order from the commander of the Japanese First Army, Yoshio Shinozuka, and he was responsible for commanding this battle.
He was an experienced general and judged that when Xu Dalong's troops went to the Taihang Mountain base to transport supplies, the underground party armed forces in the Taihang Mountains would definitely send troops to respond.
So he personally commanded an infantry regiment, an engineer regiment, an artillery reinforcement regiment, and two infantry regiments of the independent mixed fourth brigade of the 108th Division to intercept the underground party armed support troops in the Taihang Mountain base area to ensure that
The 215th Brigade and the 32nd Division encircled and annihilated Xu Dalong's troops.
At 8 o'clock in the morning that day, the first squadron of the cavalry sub-brigade, the vanguard of the Mawushan guerrillas, was searching and advancing. Suddenly it was attacked by the Japanese army, and the battle officially began.
Xu Dalong was marching in a black car, and a motorcycle drove up in front of him.
Xu Dalong ordered the car to stop, and the motorcycle also stopped next to the car.
A communications staff officer on the motorcycle said: "Report to the brigade captain that troops from the 215th Brigade of the 108th Division of the Japanese Army have been found ahead. They have cut off the road in front and are outflanking our army from the left and right wings."
Xu Dalong was not surprised by this, because all this had been expected.
He immediately ordered Wang Chengzhu to lead the infantry detachment to build a defensive position on the left side of the road to block the Japanese troops on the left. Cui Zhenyue's chariot detachment launched an attack on the Japanese troops blocking the road from the front.
Sun Desheng's cavalry was divided into large groups. Part of it cooperated with the chariot troops in the frontal attack, and part of it contained the enemy on the right.
At the same time, Xu Dalong informed the brigade commander and Chu Yunfei of the situation here.
After Chu Yunfei received the telegram, he immediately ordered his troops to speed up their march and outflank the Japanese 215th Brigade.
After receiving the telegram from Xu Dalong, the brigade commander also ordered his troops to speed up their march and go to meet Xu Dalong's troops.
Li Yunlong, Zhao Gang and Zhang Dabiao led the independent regiment, which was the vanguard of the underground party armed forces participating in the war and opened the way in front.
Zhang Dabiao personally led the independent regiment's chariot battalion as the vanguard of the independent regiment and attacked in the direction of Lingao City.
The officers and soldiers of the Independent Regiment were marching when suddenly the sound of rumbling artillery came from the front. The tank battalion led by Zhang Dabiao was first attacked by the Japanese army. Then, the Japanese army also appeared in the front left.
While commanding the troops to attack the Japanese army, Li Yunlong reported the situation to the brigade commander.
The situation soon became clear. The Japanese troops intercepting them had two regiments, an artillery brigade and two infantry brigade, with a total strength of 8,000 people.
Although the brigade commander expected to be intercepted by the Japanese army on the road, he did not expect that so many Japanese troops would come out. At this time, the total strength of the five regiments of the Eighth Route Army participating in the war was only more than 7,000, except for Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment and Kong Jie's New Second Army.
Apart from the regiment, the rest of the troops were backward in equipment, especially the two supplementary regiments, which were mostly new recruits and lacked training. Compared with the Japanese army, they did not have an advantage in strength or firepower.
The situation on the battlefield was very critical, but the brigade commander was experienced in many battles. He did not panic. He just ordered the troops to build simple fortifications on the spot to block the Japanese attack. At the same time, Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment and Kong Jie's New Second Regiment attacked the Japanese army.
The 108th Division Engineer Regiment launched an attack, planning to first defeat the enemy all the way, and then attack the Japanese troops in other directions.
The brigade commander informed Xu Dalong of the situation here, and Xu Dalong quickly responded with a telegram.
He was worried that the troops led by the brigade commander would suffer heavy losses, and asked the brigade commander to lead the troops to withdraw to the base area immediately, saying that they would handle the situation here by themselves, and asked the brigade commander not to worry.
The brigade commander believed that Xu Dalong's opinion was correct. Today, the Mawushan guerrillas plus Chu Yunfei's 358th Brigade are basically equivalent in strength to the Japanese army they faced, but they have certain advantages in equipment, which is enough
To cope with the Japanese attack, there is a huge gap in strength between him and the enemy. If he does not get rid of the enemy quickly, he will suffer serious losses.
However, the brigade commander did not immediately order the troops to retreat. He was worried that once he led the five regiments to evacuate, the Japanese army they faced would reinforce the 215th Brigade of the Japanese 108th Division and join in the attack on Xu Dalong and other troops.
If that happens, Xu Dalong's 358th Brigade and Chu Yunfei's 358th Brigade will be attacked by two Japanese troops together, and there is a danger of the entire army being destroyed.
The brigade commander thought twice and decided to retreat while fighting without breaking contact with the Japanese army. He wanted to entangle the enemy in front of him and reduce the pressure on Xu Dalong's troops.
The brigade commander made up his mind and immediately informed all the participating troops of his combat intentions.
Li Yunlong had not fought such a large-scale battle for a long time. He was extremely excited and commanded the chariot troops led by Zhang Dabiao to directly attack the Japanese army. He led other battalions to also join the attack on the Japanese army.
These are all plain areas. Although the Japanese army arrived a step early, they did not have time to build strong defenses. Since the anti-Japanese armed forces did not have armored weapons on the Chinese battlefield, the Japanese army was not equipped with anti-tank weapons and faced independent regimental tanks.
They simply could not withstand the charge of the battalion. The independent regiment quickly captured the enemy's position, defeated a Japanese engineering brigade, and then continued to advance towards the enemy's deep attack.
At this moment, the communications staff sent an urgent telegram from the brigade commander, asking Li Yunlong to lead the troops to cover the retreat of the troops of other regiments to the base area.
Li Yunlong was in high spirits when he received this order, but then he lost his temper again.
He directly said to the communications staff: "You just said that you didn't find me, so the telegram was not sent to me. Do you understand?"
"Ah?" The communications staff officer was startled. His duty was to deliver the order, but Li Yunlong said he had not received it, which was a dereliction of duty on his part.
However, he understood Li Yunlong's temper and knew that Li Yunlong would not cheat him. Even if his superiors investigated him in the future, Li Yunlong would not let himself take the blame.
He immediately stood at attention, saluted, and said loudly: "Yes, regimental commander. The battlefield was very chaotic. I could not find the regimental commander, so the order was not delivered."
Li Yunlong was very satisfied and said: "Good boy, you are so sensible. When you win this battle, I will give you two kilograms of sweet potatoes to bake when you get back."
"Yes, thank you, commander." the communications staff officer said happily.
Zhao Gang was a little worried and said: "Old Li, you can say that we did not receive the order and continued to attack the Japanese army. But if the other regiments received the order and began to retreat, wouldn't we just get out of the way?
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Li Yunlong said: "Immediately send someone to inform Kong Erlunzi and ask them to follow our independent regiment to continue the attack."
The commander's determination cannot be shaken on the battlefield. Although Zhao Gang knew that this violated the principle, he did not say anything more and planned to take the blame with Li Yunlong, so he sent a correspondent to inform Kong Jie of Li Yunlong's intentions.
Kong Jie's New Second Regiment was on Li Yunlong's flank. Seeing Li Yunlong's troops break through the Japanese position, they were not to be outdone and launched a fierce attack on the Japanese army, defeating a Japanese engineer squadron in front of them, and then moved closer to Li Yunlong's headquarters.
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The brigade commander originally planned to lead his troops to retreat to the Xiaojianshan area in front, and use the favorable terrain there to organize defenses to hold back the Japanese army. Unexpectedly, Li Yunlong came to the battlefield to disobey orders again.
The brigade commander was so angry that he whipped a big tree next to him with his riding crop several times, and cursed: "Li Yunlong, this bastard, always causes trouble for Lao Zi."
The chief of staff said with some worry: "Brigade commander, what should we do now?"
The brigade commander said helplessly: "What else can be done? We can't leave Li Yunlong and Kong Jie's troops here. Order each regiment to follow Li Yunlong's troops and attack the Japanese army."
Li Yunlong received a report that the other three regiments led by the brigade commander also followed.
He said excitedly: "The brigade commander is a wise man. Brothers! Fight hard. This battle must bring out the prestige of our independent regiment."
Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment and Kong Jie's New Second Regiment are now all equipped with Japanese equipment, and the number of artillery pieces exceeds that of the Japanese army of the same level. In addition, there is a chariot battalion under Li Yunlong, and this is a plain area.
It was suitable for the actions of chariot troops, so under the fierce attacks of Li Yunlong and Kong Jie's troops, the Japanese army could not withstand it and retreated steadily.
The brigade commander saw clearly the changes in the battlefield situation, immediately changed his original combat intention, and ordered the 69th Regiment to take a detour to outflank the Japanese engineer regiment. He led two supplementary regiments and directly followed the New Second Regiment to join the attack on the Japanese army.
attack.
Li Yunlong and Kong Jie fought fiercely and quickly broke into the depth of the Japanese engineer regiment's position.
The Japanese army fought very tenaciously. Although they were completely at a disadvantage, they still resisted on the spot and waited for reinforcements from other directions to arrive.
The Independent Regiment and the New Second Regiment rushed into the Japanese army's position and immediately expanded their victory. The tank troops continued to attack forward, dividing the Japanese army into two halves.
The Japanese engineer regiment was in great panic and urgently requested tactical guidance.
Fujiwara Konichi still underestimated the combat capabilities of the underground party's armed forces. When using troops, he adopted encirclement tactics. As a result, the troops were somewhat scattered, which gave Li Yunlong the opportunity to seize the opportunity and attack the engineering unit with all his strength.
In order to avoid the complete destruction of the engineer regiment, Fujiwara Kinichi ordered the engineer regiment to immediately attack the right wing and move closer to the infantry regiment of the 216th Brigade. At the same time, he ordered other Japanese troops to attack the underground party armed forces.
The brigade commander had the talent of a general. He quickly determined the situation on the battlefield and led two supplementary regiments to block the Japanese 216th Brigade. At the same time, he ordered Li Yunlong and Kong Jie's troops to seize the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the Japanese engineering regiment.
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This time Li Yunlong became even more excited. He issued a series of attack orders, and then couldn't help but pull out his shell gun and rushed forward with a shout.
The Japanese engineer regiment retreated while fighting. The troops tasked with covering the enemy simply could not stop the attacks of Li Yunlong and Kong Jie's troops, and the troops had begun to collapse.
At this moment, an even heavier blow came.
Captain Cheng led the 69th Regiment suddenly appeared behind the Japanese engineer regiment and immediately launched an attack.
Under the siege of the three main regiments of the underground party armed forces, the Japanese engineer regiment was defeated and was completely destroyed soon after. The Japanese regiment leader was also seriously injured and captured.
When Li Yunlong saw the captain of the Japanese regiment who had captured the Japs, he said excitedly: "Good guy, we killed a Japs regiment in this battle. It's really a relief. Old Zhao, hurry up and report the victory to the brigade commander and tell him, let's go
Attack the Japanese infantry regiment."
The brigade commander saw that the Japanese engineer regiment had been annihilated so quickly. At this time, the troops he brought exceeded the Japanese troops in number.
Now that the troops had just won a victory and their morale was high, he also changed his original combat intentions and decided not to retreat, but to launch an attack on the Japanese army in an effort to annihilate another part of the Japanese army.
Therefore, he commanded two supplementary regiments to launch an attack on the Japanese infantry regiment.
Fujiwara Konichi, the commander of the 108th Division of the Japanese Army, did not expect that the combat effectiveness of the underground party armed forces was so strong. In such a short period of time, the entire engineer regiment was wiped out. You must know that although the Japanese engineer regiment is a technical branch,
Their infantry tactics training is basically the same as that of other infantry regiments. They are often used as infantry regiments on the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness is very strong.
He did not expect that the equipment of Li Yunlong's Independent Regiment and Kong Jie's New Second Regiment actually surpassed the Japanese army, and even had tank troops. The engineer regiment was no match at all, and was destroyed.
Fujiwara Konichi realized that there was a problem with his previously formulated campaign plan.
He ordered his troops to seize a village and move to defense. At the same time, he ordered two infantry brigades that were independently formed into the Fourth Brigade to move closer to his village.
The Japanese army independently formed two infantry brigades of the Fourth Brigade and launched an attack from the side and rear of the supplementary regiment led by the brigade commander.
In order to avoid being attacked from both front and rear, the brigade commander opened a road and let the Japanese army pass, allowing the two Japanese armies to meet up.
Soon the troops led by Li Yunlong and Kong Jie arrived, followed closely by the 69th Regiment led by Commander Cheng.
After seeing the brigade commander, Li Yunlong raised his chest high and said loudly: "Report to the brigade commander that we have annihilated the Japanese engineer regiment and captured the Japanese regiment leader. Please issue a new combat order."
Li Yunlong smiled with a proud look on his face.
The brigade commander pointed his riding crop at Li Yunlong and said angrily: "Li Yunlong, you bastard, I have no time to deal with you now. Let's see how I deal with you when I get back."
Li Yunlong didn't care. As long as he could win the battle, be criticized or punished, it didn't matter.
Kong Jie was also very excited. He defeated the Japanese engineer regiment. The New Second Regiment also made a great contribution this time.
He suggested: "Brigadier, the little Japs are in the village ahead. Let's just surround them and eat them all."
Of course the brigade commander also wanted to do this, but he knew that this was simply unrealistic. He was a pragmatic person and would not get carried away by a momentary victory.