Hu Guoshan was very satisfied with the performance of the old troops on the battlefield on the first day, they successfully contained the Japanese offensive and stabilized the defensive line. These troops are all veterans who have followed Hu Guoshan for two years, and they have rich combat experience, especially against little devils, they are familiar with the tactics of the Japanese army, and any one of these veterans can be selected to serve as a platoon commander.

However, Hu Guoshan didn't want to use his elite in a hundred battles to consume the Japanese army, because the little devil consumed it, and he couldn't afford it, the veterans all survived from the battlefield, and the loss of one was one less.

"This Lao Gang is quite ruthless, he used 80,000 people in the first attack on the whole front, as well as armored troops and cavalry!" Hu Guoshan had to admire the courage of this old devil, and dared to attack them with cavalry and armored troops at night, if he had such a big advantage over other little devils, he would definitely not choose to attack at night.

"Lao Hu, don't praise that old devil first, look at it, this is information from the forward position, there are 50,000 Japanese troops detouring to our two flanks, this old devil wants to cut off our back road!" Zhao Caizhu took the telegram and showed it to Hu Guoshan.

Hu Guoshan glanced at the information, and then looked at the map: "It seems that this old devil knows that if we have Taihang Mountain as a backing, it will be difficult to eat us, but this old devil's appetite is a little too big!" ”

"I'm not worried about having Division Commander Li's troops in the north, but there is only the mouth of the Zhanghe River in the south, and we don't have many troops over there!" Zhao Caizhu was worried that the Japanese army would break through the defensive line on that side, and then penetrate directly into the depth of their defense area from the south, and the battle would be lost if it was not fought.

"The division headquarters is handed over to you, I'll go to the mouth of the Zhanghe River to have a look, and I'll take the spy battalion and the guard battalion away! The safety of the division headquarters you transferred a regiment to protect! ”

There are many big rivers in northern China, but these big rivers are not suitable for the navigation of large ships due to perennial soil erosion, let alone the ships of the little devils, but the little devils also have the ability of the little devils, they have gunboats, which are especially suitable for shallow waters, and the gunboats can also be loaded with mortars and heavy machine guns, which is a small tank on the water.

Although Hu Guoshan's defense area was large, the degree of mechanization of his troops was not weak, and the trucks could soon reach the mouth of the Zhanghe River.

Because of the natural defense line, the area around the mouth of the Zhanghe River rarely became the direction of the Japanese attack, and the north side of the mouth of the Zhanghe River was high and the south side was low, and the west side was high and the east side was high, which could be described as an excellent defensive position, and Hu Guoshan only arranged one battalion of troops here.

But this time, it didn't work, the Japanese army attacked not a few thousand people, even if they had an absolute advantage in the terrain, the Japanese army tens of thousands of people jumped into the river like dumplings and could fill up the entire river.

Hu Guoshan looked at the originally turbulent Zhanghe River with a telescope, which was already frozen at this time, and this news was half happy and half sad for Hu Guoshan, the good news was that in this case, the Japanese army could not use gunboats at all, and the worry was that they had been frozen for thousands of miles of the river, and the Japanese army could pass directly through the river without building a bridge.

"How many cannons do you have here?" Hu Guoshan asked the battalion commander guarding the mouth of the Zhanghe River.

"A little devil's 105 howitzer* bombardment, and more than a dozen mortars, and the rest are flying thunder guns that we made ourselves!"

"Let the artillery aim at the river, and once you find that the Japanese army is crossing the river on foot, up!" Attacking it is the best option, but this can only be a temporary solution, since the Japanese army wants to go from here, they must have thought of other methods.

In the face of the frenzied attack of the Japanese army, for the new 33rd Army, which lacked intelligence, the Japanese army took a step, and they could only passively follow one step, and they could only wait for the Japanese army to have a flaw in itself, so that they could seize the opportunity and then turn defeat into victory.

But at this time, Okamura Ningji had not used all the troops he had gathered, Hu Guoshan could only hold his position, and only when Okamura Ningji showed all the cards in his hand could they make the next move.

Hu Guoshan underestimated Okamura Ningji, or Hu Guoshan overestimated himself, Okamura Ningji was not an ordinary general of the Japanese army, and there was a reason why he was able to be appointed commander-in-chief of North China.

On the first day, Okamura Ningji's troops were divided into three routes, although there were 100,000 troops, but this was a drop in the bucket for Okamura Ningji, and his purpose was only to simply test the combat effectiveness of the new 33rd Army. In the battle on Chinese New Year's Eve, Okamura Ninji had already gained five percent of the combat effectiveness of Hu Guoshan's division, but Okamura believed that this was not all Hu Guoshan's combat effectiveness.

When Hu Guoshan tried his best to test the full strength of Okamura Ningji, Okamura Ningji gradually understood Hu Guoshan's ability.

"Your Excellency Commander, our troops are still not making progress today, should we arrange for our troops to strengthen the offensive against the Chinese army?" The person who spoke to Okamura Ninji was the lieutenant general of the Japanese Kwantung Army, who was transferred from Dalian to North China, and wanted to have the opportunity to let the Japanese base camp see the combat effectiveness of their Kwantung Army, but he, the new commander, always made him feel a little calmer.

The lieutenant general of the Kwantung Army had just come from outside the Guan, and he didn't know much about the New 33rd Army, he thought that the New 33rd Army was just like the ordinary Chinese army's combat effectiveness, even if it was the elite unit of the Guozitou Army, just the first batch of 100,000 troops sent by Okamura Ningji could completely solve the Chinese army, and then there would be nothing for him to do in North China, and he would run in vain.

"Don't be too anxious, our opponent is not as weak as we thought, we don't know our opponent very well, these 100,000 troops are just bait for us to put out!"

100,000 troops as bait, I'm afraid only Okamura Ningji has the guts, it's really that he has too many troops in his hands now, and many generals doubted that using so many troops to deal with the new 33rd Army was not a knife to kill chickens, but Okamura Ningji insisted on his own point of view, and the lion fought the rabbit with all his strength!

"Your Excellency, Commander, can't the 100,000-strong army test the combat effectiveness of the new 33rd Army?" The lieutenant general did not understand what kind of troops needed to test their combat effectiveness with a hundred thousand troops.

"I said we don't know our opponents, wait quietly, you will definitely have a chance to make a move!" Okamura Ningji is very calm, with such a calm and terrible opponent, I don't know if it's Liao Fan's luck.

It was at this time that an intelligence officer walked into Okamura's headquarters.

"Your Excellency, Commander, this is a letter from the Chinese High Command!"

Okamura Ningji frowned, the Chinese high-level command will write to him at this time, so that he is a little puzzled, is this a trap deliberately set by the Chinese for him, and then let him take the bait?

Thinking of this, Okamura wanted to tear up the letter immediately, but after thinking about it, he still looked at what was written in the letter before making a decision.

"The Chinese like to borrow a knife to kill people! However...... "Okamura Ninji didn't trust Chinese, and he even suspected that it was a deliberate trap for them.

"What's wrong with Your Excellency Commander?" The lieutenant general of the Kwantung Army saw that Gangmura Ningji was slow to speak, thinking that something was wrong.

Instead of speaking, Okamura Ninji handed the letter to the lieutenant general of the Kwantung Army, the letter was written in Japanese, and Okamura Ninji was not worried that he would not be able to read the contents of the letter.

"Hmph, woe to Xiao Wall, the Chinese have not changed for thousands of years!"

"What do you think about this?" Gangcun Ningji was hesitating about this matter.

"The Chinese are not reliable, and if they really want to do it, they can do it themselves, so why tell us? The second is that if the New 33rd Army is wiped out by us, the interests of Shanxi will be neither national nor common! ”

"If they have the ability to do it, they will definitely do it last night, they ask us for support, I'm afraid they don't have the ability to complete this matter, and if we don't wipe out the New 33rd Army at that time, I'm afraid they will have to bear more than the wrath of the New 33rd Army!" Gangmura Ninji understood the complex relationship between various forces in China better than Lieutenant General of the Kwantung Army.

"If Your Excellency the Commander thinks that this matter is beneficial to us, it is okay to agree to them, but let them arrange someone to come to us to talk, the matter must be explained, we can't help them in a foolish way, and since it is help, our interests cannot be less!" The lieutenant general of the Kwantung Army believed that this matter was very operational, especially since the person who wrote the letter begged them that they could get more benefits from it.

Okamura Ningji felt that it was very reasonable, first of all, he thought of the interests of Shanxi, and it was better to hand over Shanxi to the New 33rd Army than to a group of rice buckets, so that they could take Shanxi whenever they wanted, and no one could stop them from the iron hooves of the Imperial Japanese Army.

"But this can't be done in my name!" Okamura Ninji first thought of his own reputation, he was a high-ranking general of the Great Japanese Empire, and if one person could represent a country, if it was known that he was a conspiracy to eliminate the New 33 Army was a conspiracy of the Chinese, not his own strength, it would have a great impact on his future political career.

"Then arrange for the intelligence department to talk to them, the matter is settled, and the intelligence department also has credit, so it will be beneficial to everyone!"

"Yes, after this battle is fought and the New Thirty-third Army is eliminated, you can stay with me and be a chief of staff!" Okamura Ninji feels that this lieutenant general of the Kwantung Army is very good, although he is a little arrogant in doing things for others, but he is still very strong in terms of ability.

Of course, the ability of a person who can be a lieutenant general in the Japanese Kwantung Army is weak, it's just that Okamura Ningji's vision is too high, he looks at the Kwantung Army Lieutenant General is arrogant, in fact, Okamura Ningji is even more arrogant, otherwise he wouldn't have thought of his own reputation in this matter for the first time.