Twenty miles west of Lingqiu County, Yanjiawan Village.
The regiment headquarters and main force of the Chahar Independent Regiment have advanced to Yanjiawan, but after advancing here, they cannot continue to advance because the fourth battalion serving as the vanguard has not yet captured Lingqiu County, but the Baoda Highway
But it passes through the middle of Lingqiu County, so you can't go around it even if you want to.
Xu Rui raised his wrist and looked at his watch. It was already half past one in the afternoon.
According to the original plan, Lingqiu County should be captured around eight o'clock in the morning, but it has been delayed by a full five hours. However, what is even more worrying is that, at least judging from the current situation, the Fourth Battalion has not yet
Taking over Lingqiu County in a short period of time is really not a good sign.
Because every extra minute the main force of the independent regiment is delayed in Lingqiu County, the little devils in Laiyuan County ahead will have one more minute to prepare, and the second battalion of Zijingguan must hold on for one more minute! The second battalion defends the pass alone.
, and there are no heavy weapons, and we have to face the enemy attacks from both east and west. The situation is very serious!
The only one that can provide fire support to the Second Battalion is the aviation force.
But unfortunately, the Japs in Datong City blew up the airport before they were annihilated. This forced the flying regiment to station at Datong Airport and use Datong Airport as a support to support the main force of the Chahar Independent Regiment at close range.
It will be reduced to nothing, at least until Datong Airport is repaired.
According to the telegram just sent by Xiao Yanyue, it will take at least one day to repair Datong Airport. In other words, in the next day, the Second Battalion will only be able to receive air support for a very small period of time, and most of the remaining
Within a short period of time, you will have to use the light weapons in your hands to resist the Japanese heavy army group.
Thinking of this, Xu Rui frowned.
Although the Second Battalion is the most powerful among the nine main battalions of the Chahar Independent Regiment, and He Shuya also has the best tactical command ability among the nine battalion commanders, this battle to guard the gate is different from every previous battle.
, this time when guarding the pass, not only was there a huge disparity in military strength, but the key terrain was also very unfavorable.
Even though Xu Rui was already used to big scenes, he couldn't help but feel anxious.
Just when Xu Rui was anxious, Shi Changqing came over in a hurry.
"Shi Changqing, what the hell are you doing?" Seeing Shi Changqing, Xu Rui could no longer suppress the anger in his chest and cursed at Shi Changqing, "According to the original plan, your fourth battalion should have captured Ling by eight o'clock.
Qiu County is here, but look at what time it is now? It’s already half past one, and Lingqiu County hasn’t been taken yet, so what are you doing to eat?”
Shi Changqing stood in front of Xu Rui with his head drooped. His grandson did not dare to defend himself even after being scolded.
There is not much to say, because in the battle of Lingqiu, their fourth battalion did not fight well, or to be more precise, his command as the battalion commander was too weak. The key is that he was careless.
Shi Changqing is really careless, but this is normal. Before in Shanghai, he was just a small battalion commander. Now, although he is still only a battalion commander in name, he lives the life of a regiment commander, with more than 2,000 people under his command.
, and there is also a battalion-level field artillery company equipped with twelve 122mm-caliber field howitzers.
Not only that, there is also a tank battalion to cooperate with their four battalions in combat.
There are even a group of fighter jets from the flying regiment in the sky to cooperate with them in fighting.
Because of this, Shi Changqing felt that this battle had completely lost its suspense. He could easily win Lingqiu County with his eyes closed. Therefore, after winning the forward task, Shi Changqing did not pay enough attention. Not only was he lacking in ideological
There was not enough preparation, but not enough attention was paid to the action.
As a result, when they advanced to a place called Tucao, they encountered stubborn resistance from the Japanese.
The Japanese military police captain in Lingqiu County is named Takeo Tsuchiya. This little devil is not a student of the Mainland Military Academy. He has not even attended the Army Academy. However, he is a top student of Waseda University and majored in construction engineering. This little devil is
Using his professional knowledge, he combined with the Heilong River and the railway in the western suburbs of Lingqiu County to build a line of defense.
Although this line of defense was only a temporary line of defense, it made good use of the favorable conditions.
Tsuchiya Meng first asked the Japanese engineers to blow up the highway bridge over the Heilong River, and then parked an armored carriage on the railway line two kilometers away from the Heilong River. This armored carriage was blown up by the Eighth Route Army guerrillas half a month ago.
Because it was not repaired, it was temporarily parked at Lingqiu Railway Station, and it became a weapon in the hands of Tsuchiya.
Tsuchiya sent a company of puppet troops to drive away the local people and push the armored carriage to a distance of two kilometers from the Heilong River Highway Bridge. Then he dug a groove in the ground and ingeniously arranged the armored carriage into four
tilted at an angle of fifteen degrees, and then relied on this armored carriage to build a blocking position on the east bank of the Heilong River.
Now it's over, because after more than one thousand meters, the armor-piercing ability of the T-34B tank's main gun is greatly weakened, and there is no way to penetrate the diagonally placed and specially reinforced armored compartment.
But to get close enough to shoot, you have to cross the Heilong River Highway Bridge.
In order for tanks to cross the river, the Heilong River highway bridge must be repaired.
But to repair the bridge, we must first deal with the armored carriages, because the Japanese set up heavy machine guns in the armored carriages and fired at an elevation angle of 45 degrees, completely blocking the Heilong River Highway Bridge, leaving the officers and soldiers of the fourth battalion still trying to repair the bridge.
The local militiamen had no way to get close to the bridge.
This formed an endless loop, and Shi Changqing was unable to do anything.
In the past seven or eight hours, Shi Changqing tried everything. First, he used an artillery battery to bombard him, but it was useless. Then he sent infantry across the river to outflank both wings, but it was useless. The defensive position built by the Japs relying on armored trains was very strong.
, three consecutive attacks that waded across the river failed to capture it more than a dozen times, but they suffered hundreds of casualties.
There was really no other way to go. Shi Changqing even thought of digging a tunnel from the bank of the Heilong River, directly to the underside of the Japanese armored train, and then use explosives to blow up the Japanese armored train. It was a blessing that he could come up with such a way.
I really have to wait until he digs out the tunnel. I don’t know, it will be the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.
When Shi Changqing came over, the local militiamen who came to help were still digging.
Seeing that Shi Changqing didn't say a word and didn't even say a word of defense, Xu Rui's anger subsided a little, thinking that although Lao Shi's ability was lacking, his attitude of admitting his mistakes was still excellent.
At that moment, Xu Rui asked again: "Tell me, what's going on?"
Only then did Shi Changqing tell the truth about the situation encountered by the Fourth Battalion.
After listening, Xu Rui's thick eyebrows frowned and said: "It seems that the Japanese military police captain in Lingqiu County is a tough guy. He can use existing resources to build a military base in such a short period of time."
There is really no one who can build such a highly targeted defense fortification, but you are so stupid that you can dig tunnels for as long as the monkey years and horses and moons?"
Shi Changqing was so anxious that he scratched his head and said, "Captain, isn't there anything I can do? I'm really at my wits' end."
"You know you are anxious now? It's too late now." Xu Rui snorted, "If you had been more vigilant and sent an infantry company to harass before the main force of the battalion arrived, you might have been able to stop the Japanese generals.
The armored carriage was moved to the position on the east bank of the Heilong River, so that it would be much easier to repair the bridge."
Shi Changqing said awkwardly: "Am I careless?"
After a pause, Shi Changqing asked again with saliva on his face: "Captain, do you have any good ideas?"
"No, you've been beaten like this. What else can you do?" Xu Rui said angrily, "Right now, we can only use the stupidest method, but it's definitely not digging a tunnel!" He paused.
Next, Xu Rui said again, "You should immediately contact the local party organization and mobilize the villagers to fill in the river and fill in a channel in the narrow part of the upper or lower reaches of the Heilong River."
"Fill the river?" Shi Changqing shook his head like a rattle after hearing this, "Impossible, Captain, the Heilong River is wide. If we want to fill in a channel on the river, it will take at least ten days and a half months. This is longer than digging a tunnel.
It’s much more laborious.”
"You know nothing," Xu Rui said angrily, "Who asked you to fill in a channel on the river?"
After a pause, Xu Rui continued: "It is now the early spring season, and the water level of the Heilong River has dropped to its lowest point. First try to find the narrowest part of the river bed, and then lay a layer of long logs on the mud at the bottom of the river to pass three or five tanks.
It is still possible, even if only one tank passes by in the end, it will be enough to kill the little Japanese armored carriage."
Shi Changqing suddenly realized: "So that's it, I understand."
Xu Rui said: "Now that you understand it, why not hurry up and fill in the river!"
"Yes!" Shi Changqing agreed, turned around and flew away.
Xu Rui turned back to the battalion commanders behind him and said: "The fourth battalion wants to fill in a channel on the Heilong River. It must first collect enough wood. It will take less than three to five hours. In addition, we must deal with the Japanese in Lingqiu County."
The time to garrison the troops will be in the evening when the main force of the regiment passes through Lingqiu County."
Qin Gang, Huang Shouxin and other battalion commanders nodded.
Huang Shouxin said in a deep voice: "Captain, we can't give the little Japs in Laiyuan so much preparation time. What if the Japs in Laiyuan also imitated the Japs in Lingqiu and did this to us? It would be terrible."
Already."
"Shou Xin is right." Xu Rui nodded and said in a deep voice, "So, we cannot wait for the heavy equipment to follow. We must immediately send a battalion to Laiyuan with light equipment to clear the obstacles for the main force of the regiment in advance."
Several battalion commanders raised their hands one after another and shouted: "Commander, it's me! I'm going!"
Except for He Shuya from Zijingguan, He Guangming who was still in Datong, and Shi Changqing who had just left, the remaining six infantry battalion commanders were all in front of Xu Rui at this moment. Xu Rui's sharp eyes swept over the faces of the six infantry battalion commanders one by one.
, and then said: "This time I'm going to be the one to tell the ugly story. If you can't complete the task, you'll have to go to the cooking class to carry the big pot!"
After hearing Xu Rui's words, most of the battalion commanders did not dare to say a word.
Only Huang Shouxin said proudly: "Captain, I'm going!"
PS: I will keep updating twice in the past few days, and there will be an update on the 7th, at least 10 chapters in a row!