The first phase of the campaign plan formulated by Xu Dalong and others was to encircle the point for reinforcements. First, they would surround the Japanese railway garrison in Gaosheng County with Chu Yunfei's 358th Brigade, attracting Japanese troops from the Yangquan direction to come for reinforcements. The independent brigade
and the Mawushan guerrillas were responsible for annihilating the Japanese reinforcements.
The specific deployment is that the independent brigade will act as a frontal blocker to contain enemy reinforcements. The Mawushan guerrillas will outflank the Japanese reinforcements from both wings and the rear, and jointly encircle and annihilate the Japanese reinforcements.
The best way to attack the Japanese reinforcements is of course to carry out an ambush. However, the terrain in this area does not have the conditions to hide a large force. Therefore, Xu Dalong can only retreat and hide the Mawushan guerrillas from a distance. The independent brigade will first fight with them.
The Japanese army engaged in a battle, attracting the Japanese army to the front of the independent brigade position, and then the Mawushan guerrillas outflanked it from both wings and the rear from a long distance.
After all, this was the first time the Independent Brigade fought against the Japanese army. In order to strengthen the independent brigade's firepower, Xu Dalong specially strengthened an artillery squadron for them, and Zhao Daman led two infantry squadrons as the independent brigade's reserve team.
At 1:30 noon, the Japanese reinforcements forward appeared in front of the Independence Brigade position.
Officers and soldiers of a company of the Independent Brigade on the forward position opened fire on the leading Japanese troops, killing more than a dozen Japanese soldiers on the spot, and the battle officially began.
The captain of the Japanese army came to the forward position, holding a telescope to observe the enemy's situation. When he saw the anti-Japanese armed forces of the underground party wearing gray military uniforms, a look of disdain appeared on his face.
In his understanding, the underground party's anti-Japanese armed weapons and equipment were very backward, and most of them were peasants who had just joined the army and lacked training.
He firmly believed that his troops could break through the enemy's position with just one charge. He immediately ordered his troops to prepare for an attack.
The Japanese army set up their battle array, using the same old tactics. They first set up Type 92 infantry guns and mortars to prepare for artillery fire, and covered the infantry for the charge.
The Japanese artillery bullied the underground anti-Japanese armed forces for their lack of artillery. They actually set up artillery positions within a few hundred meters and visible to the naked eye, and laid out their formations openly to show off their artillery firepower to the underground anti-Japanese armed forces.
When the Japanese artillery set up the artillery, calculated the shooting points, and prepared to fire, countless small black dots suddenly flew into the sky, accompanied by the sharp whistling sound unique to the flight of mortar shells.
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Soon, the artillery shells fell on the Japanese artillery position, blowing up the Japanese soldiers. A large number of Japanese artillerymen were killed and injured. Many of the artillery pieces were also overturned by the enemy's artillery fire, and they were directly blown into scrap metal.
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It turned out that Xu Dalong was very familiar with the Japanese army's fighting methods, and specifically instructed the Independence Brigade to take advantage of the Japanese army's arrogance and destroy the Japanese artillery first.
The independent brigade commander Wang Limin and the chief of staff Huang Jingzhong had cooperated with the Japanese army in combat before and were very familiar with the Japanese army's tactics. They also knew that the Japanese artillery should be destroyed first. However, the independent brigade was only equipped with a small number of artillery and was unable to complete such a task.
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But things are different now. Xu Dalong has previously replenished the Independent Brigade with a lot of Type 92 infantry guns and mortars, as well as a large number of artillery shells. Together with the original artillery of the Independent Brigade, the number has exceeded that of one infantryman of the Japanese army.
Alliance.
This time the Mawushan guerrillas specially sent an artillery squadron, and their artillery advantage far exceeded that of the Japanese army.
How did the Japanese army know that the enemy had such powerful artillery fire? Their arrogance caused them to suffer a big loss. As soon as the battle started, almost all the artillery pieces were destroyed independently.
Seeing the enemy's artillery positions being blown up into billows of smoke by their own artillery fire, the officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade were greatly boosted in morale and immediately cheered.
Seeing this situation, brigade commander Wang Limin, chief of staff Huang Jingzhong, deputy political commissar Gao Zhiyong and others felt much more relaxed, and became more confident in repelling the Japanese attack.
Seeing that his troops had suffered such a big loss, the Japanese commander should have been very careful. However, the arrogance he had cultivated for a long time made him still despise the enemy. He became angry and commanded his troops to launch an attack on the Independent Brigade's position. attack.
Without the threat of enemy artillery, the artillery of the Independence Brigade and the Mawushan guerrillas began to bully the Japanese. They fired fiercely at the Japanese attacking troops, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese army.
The Japanese soldiers still haven't come back to their feelings yet, and they are getting more and more angry. They hold bright bayonets and howl towards the defense position of the Independence Brigade.
Wang Limin watched the Japanese soldiers rush within 100 meters of the forward position and gave the order to open fire.
"Da da da da" More than a hundred light and heavy machine guns and thousands of rifles from the Independent Brigade roared together.
Under the heavy firepower, the attacking Japanese troops fell in pieces, and the surviving Japanese troops hurriedly fell to the ground. Even so, the defenders' artillery fire continued to cause casualties to them.
The powerful firepower of the defenders once again refreshed the Japanese commander's understanding. He now understood that the anti-Japanese armed forces of the underground party they faced were no ordinary troops, and must be the main force among them.
Seeing that the attack was frustrated, he gave the order to retreat.
The officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade looked at the corpses of the Japanese scattered all over the front of the position and the way the Japanese soldiers were escaping in panic, and they once again burst into cheers of victory.
At this moment, they were no longer afraid of the Japanese. They were all confident, hoping that the Japanese would come and die again.
Wang Limin, Huang Jingzhong, Gao Zhiyong and others smiled with satisfaction when they saw the performance of the officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade. They were now full of confidence in holding their positions and repelling the Japanese attack.
The Japanese commander felt confused at this time. He had already observed that the strength of the defenders should be greater than the Japanese troops he was carrying. His own troops did not have an advantage in firepower.
He put away his previous arrogance and became calm.
He saw that the frontal attack was not effective for a while, so he changed his tactics and ordered an infantry brigade to attack frontally, and the other two infantry brigade to outflank from the left and right wings respectively. In previous battles, this tactic was very effective, and the defenders were usually afraid Being cut off from their retreat, they often abandoned their positions and retreated. The Japanese army took the opportunity to look for opportunities to annihilate the enemy in pursuit.
Just as the Japanese army was reorganizing its troops and preparing to launch another offensive operation, suddenly a large group of cavalry appeared on the horizon to the left of the Japanese army and swarmed towards them.
Just when the commander was surprised, someone behind him shouted: "No, sir, there are enemy troops behind us."
The captain looked back in fear. He saw many black spots appearing in the distance. Where those black spots passed by, bursts of smoke and dust were rolled up, and they were moving rapidly towards this direction.
He picked up his binoculars and observed carefully, and then he discovered that they were actually large groups of tanks and armored vehicles.
Only then did the commander understand why the enemy in front of him was so difficult to defeat. It turned out that they had encountered the legendary Mawushan guerrillas.
The Japanese army in Shanxi had already received a notification from the First Army Headquarters, saying that a powerful enemy force had appeared in the Mawushan area. They were the Mawushan guerrillas. The characteristic of this team is that it has a large number of cavalry and
Armored fighting vehicle units, as well as powerful artillery units. These characteristics in front of them completely confirmed that the enemy they were facing now was the Mawushan guerrillas.
The commander of the Japanese regiment already knew that even the Japanese troops at the brigade level could not take advantage of the Mawushan guerrillas. He only had one infantry regiment under his command, and it had already suffered heavy casualties. It was no match for them, so
He decisively gave the order to retreat.
When the officers and soldiers of the Independent Brigade saw the Japanese running away, they installed bayonets on their rifles one by one, and waited for the order from their superiors to pursue them.
Wang Limin had already seen the Mawushan guerrillas launching an attack and saw the Japanese troops were about to run away. How could he pass up the opportunity to beat up the drowned dog? So he pulled out his pistol, fired a shot into the sky, and shouted: "Brother
Hey guys, don’t let the devils escape, chase them for me!”