Ruichang County fell again, and the war was raging towards De'an. The atmosphere in the Mahuiling area in northern Jiangxi suddenly became tense. The scouts had sent back news that a large number of Japanese soldiers were heading here.
This time the Japanese learned the lesson from the defeat in Minshan and no longer took shortcuts over mountains and ridges. Instead, they gathered heavy troops and pressed directly along the highway. There were tanks and armored vehicles on the ground clearing the way, and a roaring fleet of aircraft in the sky covering them. This time, they were attacking De'an.
It is inevitable to win.
Although the Japs took the highway, the brothers had already blown up the bridges and important road sections along the way when they retreated. In addition, the heavy rain all night made the road muddy, which slowed down the Japs' advance.
The Chinese troops that had already withdrawn to the vicinity of Mahuiling also took advantage of the Japanese troops being delayed on the road. Without taking any rest, they were busy building fortifications and digging trenches day and night.
The entire Mahuiling area has become a huge construction site. Countless troops are hiding in the mountain cols to rest. In various dangerous locations and mountains, there are countless brothers working hard with no shirts. Countless trench fortifications are being carried out.
forming.
In addition to the troops of the 74th Army, troops from the 159th Division and the 25th Army also came in for reinforcements. The dark ranks on the muddy road stretched with no end in sight, flags were fluttering, and the officers and soldiers were enthusiastic about fighting.
The retreating people drove ox carts and crowded on the narrow road with packages on their backs. Watching these majestic troops advancing against the current, the sad and depressed atmosphere of leaving their hometown was swept away.
The common people got out of the way and stood in the wet wilderness, cheering with tears in their eyes for the troops heading to the battlefield.
"Fight Japanese imperialism! Swear to death to not be a slave to the country's subjugation!"
"You have to fight the devils well!"
...
The people's cheers and cheers filled with grief and indignation grew louder and louder. The troops heading to the front line were inspired and marched to the battlefield with heads held high while singing war songs.
The majestic military songs and the shouts of the people merged into a torrent that echoed among the mountains for a long time, making people excited.
Although Yang Ling and his group of troops who had withdrawn from the front were dressed in tatters and looked dirty, they were in high spirits in this situation and wished they could immediately get the ammunition and go back to fight the Japanese in a bloody battle.
The Japanese bombing clusters kept swooping down from the clouds. The Japanese planes were extremely ferocious and arrogant, almost grazing the heads of the Chinese officers and soldiers. Their arrogant appearance made people itch with hatred.
"Da da da......"
The onboard machine guns of the Japanese planes spurted out long tongues of flame, and a series of bullets hit the ground with mud and splashes. The troops marching on the road suddenly scattered into the ditches and rice fields beside the road, allowing the Japanese planes to shoot down the air.
.
The Chinese army fought from Shanghai to Nanjing and then to Xuzhou in a bloody battle. Although it lost most of China, the successive fierce battles also allowed the Chinese army to grow rapidly, so that the Chinese army would not suffer heavy casualties when encountering Japanese planes.
The Japanese planes let out a roar of "Woo-ang--" and seemed to be frustrated that they did not hit the Chinese officers and soldiers. They swooped down again ferociously, targeting the Chinese troops scattered in the field.
However, the Japanese plane made a wrong calculation this time, and the quadruple machine guns and anti-aircraft guns of the Chinese troops hidden in the mountains opened fire one after another.
The two Japanese planes collided head-on with the ferocious chain of barrage fire, and immediately burst into flames and plummeted down with black smoke.
The Japanese planes behind were also scared to death. They hurriedly pulled up to avoid the sudden attack of firepower. Seeing the embarrassing appearance of the Japanese planes hurriedly pulling up, the brothers lying in the mud gloated and cursed the Japanese planes, while looking at those Japanese planes.
Troops with concealed anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns cheered loudly.
The frustrated Japanese planes did not dare to dive at low altitude anymore. The incoming bombers dropped heavy bombs one after another, causing the paddy fields to rise up with columns of mud and water more than ten meters high. The brothers hiding in the mountains also lifted up the
Transferring weapons.
The Japanese did not get any benefits from this attack. Instead, two planes were shot down and fell into the rice fields, burning blazingly. Finally, they circled twice unwillingly and flew away.
Whether they were in the trenches in the mountains or in the marching troops of various numbers, they all felt refreshed when they saw the fallen and burning Japanese planes, and the morale of the officers and soldiers became high again.
Yang Ling and the others also found the location of the brigade headquarters along the muddy road. The brigade headquarters was hidden in a forest not far from the main road, surrounded by guards with guns on alert.
Yang Ling asked the troops to rest on the roadside, and he took the two battalion commanders Chen Ming and Lu Xing to the brigade commander Zhou Zhidao to report back to the army.
Yang Ling and the others were already covered in dirt from the consecutive days of fighting. After rolling around in the mud, they had already turned into mud monkeys.
The dignified appearance of the soldiers had long since disappeared. The guards thought they were ordinary people who had gone astray, but when they got closer, they realized that they were also their own brothers.
"Brother, please inform me that I am Yang Ling, colonel and deputy commander of the 301st Regiment. Our unit has completed the task of blocking the enemy's rear and came to the brigade headquarters to hand over the order."
"Deputy Commander Yang, the brigade has already given instructions that you can go in directly when you come back." A guard knew Yang Ling and when he saw them returning, he immediately stood in awe and hurriedly stepped aside to get out of the way.
Cutting off the enemy's back is usually a desperate battle, and very often only one out of ten can come back alive. Every one of these brothers who cut off the back and stop the enemy admires them from the bottom of their hearts.
"Thank you." Yang Ling thanked the respectful guards and walked directly towards the brigade headquarters tent with Lu Xing and Chen Ming.
The temporary brigade headquarters was a mess and busy. The ticking of telegrams kept ringing. Troops were withdrawing from the front, ammunition was being replenished, soldiers were being replenished... all kinds of things were complicated.
Brigadier Zhou Zhidao's head was so big.
"Report!"
Yang Ling and the other three stood in front of brigade commander Zhou Zhidao, shouted and saluted.
Brigadier Zhou Zhidao raised his head and saw Yang Ling and the others. He hurriedly threw the signed document in his hand to the staff officers and walked quickly to them.
"I sent people to look for you, but couldn't find you. I thought you didn't stand out. It made me worry all night. If there is no news again, I will send troops back to look for you." Zhou Zhidao saw Yang Ling and others covered in dust.
He looked very happy when he came back and pulled them to sit down.
Their 151st Brigade has a total of two regiments. Now the 302nd Regiment's blocking team has withdrawn, but there is still no news about the 301st Regiment. If a main regiment is suddenly lost, it will be equivalent to breaking an arm.
, can't tolerate him not being interested.
"Thank you for your concern, sir." Yang Ling stood up and thanked Zhou Zhidao.
Zhou Zhidao waved his hand and said: "No thanks, as long as you can withdraw safely, by the way, where is your group leader?"
Yang Ling, Lu Xing and the others looked at each other, and then told them the story of their breakup.
"Is his injury okay?" Hearing that regiment leader Zhang Handuo was injured in a close battle with the Japanese cavalry, he asked nervously.
"Tuan Zuo has a few broken ribs, I'm afraid it will take some time to recover." Yang Ling told the truth.
Hearing that Zhang Handuo's life was not in danger, Zhou Zhidao also breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled and cursed with a rare smile: "The war is getting intense now. Han Duo is throwing down his sword with both hands. It's really unjust."
"By the way, what are the casualties of the troops?" Zhou Zhidao asked again.
"After these few battles, there are still more than 300 people left in our regiment..."
Although they completely crippled the Japanese Maruyama brigade and killed thousands of Japanese soldiers in the Minshan battle, in general it could only be regarded as a tragic victory, and the casualties of each unit were also very high.