The dark night gradually faded away, the sky turned white, the noisy gunshots all night gradually subsided, and my ears rarely regained their purity.
Yang Ling and the others used the cover of night to struggle all night, and successfully allowed most of the defeated regiment to break through the Japanese blockade and return to the area controlled by the national army. They also rescued Lao Yanqiang and his remnants.
After running back and forth all night, they fought fiercely with the Japanese. At dawn, they hurried for dozens of miles in order to escape from the Japanese's search area. When they arrived at this unknown village, everyone was sweating profusely and exhausted.
Under the cover of darkness at night, they could do whatever they wanted, but at dawn, there were enemy reconnaissance planes in the sky. In order to avoid being exposed and attracting enemy encirclement and suppression, they had no choice but to find a place to hide.
Fortunately, the Japanese troops have limited strength and can only control larger towns and areas along railways and highways. They cannot take care of the vast rural areas for the time being, which also allows Yang Ling and the others to stop and take a breath.
Panting, Yang Ling and the others arrived at the outskirts of a dilapidated village. The village was shrouded in deathly silence in the early morning mist. For safety reasons, Yang Ling did not dare to directly give orders to enter the village.
The village in sight is not large, with a population of only a few dozen households. Most of them have grass and adobe houses, but there are also brick and tile houses.
I don't know if it was because of the war, but there was no smoke from cooking, no movement of chickens and dogs, and it was eerily quiet.
"I'm afraid everyone has escaped." Qin Shou Sanba Dagai pointed his gun at the empty village entrance and whispered.
The evil deeds of burning, killing, looting and looting by the Japanese had already spread like a plague. In addition to the evacuation organized by government officials, many people had already fled to the west with their families and their families. Even those who did not flee, most of them found places to hide.
Yang Ling looked at An Jing and looked at the village with a gloomy and uncertain face. He estimated in his heart that the people in this village must have fled, otherwise there would be no sound. But now that he is in an occupied area, if he is not careful, he will die.
He didn't dare to be careless in the end if the group was destroyed.
He patted the company commander Qin Shou on the shoulder and lowered his voice and ordered: "Take a few brothers into the village for a walk--"
Although Qin Shou was reluctant in his heart, if something happened to the village, he and the others would definitely be the first to be unlucky when exploring the route, but since Yang Ling ordered his general, he had to bite the bullet even if he didn't want to.
He gritted his teeth and called out to several of the brothers around him: "Follow me!" After saying that, he hunched over and trotted out of the hiding place with the 38-meter cover in hand.
Seeing several brothers rushing to the village, Yang Ling waved to Yang Dashu, who nodded knowingly, unfolded the bipod of the Type 96 light machine gun, and pointed the muzzle at the entrance of the village, ready to fire at any time.
In fact, Yang Ling was too cautious. Qin Shou and a few brothers carefully entered the village. Apart from the empty thatched houses, they didn't see even a ghost.
Qin Shou put down the 38 big cover in his hand, and his hanging heart finally fell to the ground. He waved his hand to a brother, and the brother walked out of the village with a gun. Soon, Yang Ling and his team also entered the village.
.
There were originally thirty-two brothers in Yang Ling's group, and together with the rescued Lao Yanqiang and his group, they were in their early forties.
Although they were small in number and had a small target, it would be troublesome if they were discovered by the Japanese reconnaissance planes in the sky, so he decided to rest in hiding in the village. After all, the Japanese would not be able to find him here for a while.
Qin Shou applauded Yang Ling's decision. They had been chased all the way by the Japanese and had been sleeping in the open air to escape. Now that they could sleep comfortably in this village, why would they want to sleep in the wilderness?
Lao Yanqiang also nodded and agreed with Yang Ling's opinion. Firstly, it was out of trust in Yang Ling. Secondly, they couldn't run anymore and urgently needed to rest. Instead of taking the risk to find a new hiding place, it was better to stay where they were.
Hidden, the Japanese won't come anytime soon.
After arranging the sentry posts, Yang Ling got into a room and fell asleep with his head covered. He had not gotten any rest these days, and his nerves had been highly tense. He was so exhausted that he wished he could sleep for three days and three nights.
When the Yangling people who had jumped out of the Japs search area were soundly sleeping in a rural village dozens of miles away, the Japs soldiers of the 104th Brigade's direct brigade were still searching for them all over the mountains and plains.
"Sir, the Third Squadron reported that they found no trace of the Chinese." A Japanese soldier reported to the brigade commander, Major Mishima.
Major Mishima had not slept all night, and his face looked haggard at the moment. He and his team had turned the area upside down, but except for the more than thirty Chinese who were killed in the attack on the car convoy, nothing was found.
He was confused now. They had clearly detected Chinese radio activities in this area, but what about the radio stations and the Chinese people? Could it be that they could fly into the sky and escape?
A Japanese captain guessed: "Sir, have the Chinese jumped out of our encirclement at night?"
"But our aerial reconnaissance aircraft did not find anything in the periphery. If a large number of Chinese people fled, they would never escape the aircraft's detection." Another Japanese lieutenant added.
Major Mishima looked gloomy and made a firm judgment: "They must still be in this area and must be hiding somewhere. Order each squadron to conduct a blanket search again to find out the hidden Chinese!"
In fact, Major Mishima and others made a mistake in their judgment from the beginning. Based on the radio, they judged that there was a dispersed Chinese army hiding in this area, and that there might be senior generals present.
But in fact, the radio signal they discovered was only exposed by Lao Yanqiang and the others by contacting the Jiangfang Group Headquarters. Lao Yanqiang and the others, who were mistaken for a large group of defeated troops, had actually been mostly wiped out by Major Mishima and the others, and they
Just don't know it.
Major Mishima and the others still stubbornly believed that what they were destroying was just a small force, and they wanted to find and destroy the force that did not exist at all, so they had been working in vain.
While the brigade directly under the command of Major Mishima was still searching for the non-existent unit, on the front line of Jiangyin, the main Japanese force of three and a half divisions had already launched an attack on the Jiangyin defense line across the board.
The divisions under the Jiangfang Group Army refused to retreat in the face of the Japanese's fierce attack, and the battle became intense as soon as it began.
The 150mm cannon of the Huangshan Fort in the Jiangyin Fortress, which had been disassembled and prepared for transportation, was reinstalled after a night of hard work, and roared angrily with a loud bang.
The battle ahead was fierce. General Liu Xing, the commander of the Jiang Defense Group Army, who had not slept all night, had bloodshot eyes and kept issuing combat orders.
"Report!"
"What's up?"
"Sir, the Huashan 667th Regiment has sent the person you want to see."