In the early morning of the 25th, the 20th Division of the 52nd Army began to search and advance to the area of Yixian, and the vanguard was the troops of the 73rd Brigade.

Guo Liji, a small village located between Zaozhuang and Yixian, is now stationed in the village with the 10th Squadron under the 2nd Brigade of the 5th Wing, the Japanese army is still asleep, and the position assigned by the sentry is also very good, but unfortunately, the sentry at the entrance of the village was negligent, did not take the vigilance seriously, and stood and squinted and dozed off. As everyone knows, they have been discovered by the soldiers of the national army, and the soldiers of the 73rd Brigade have discovered the Japanese troops in the village, and they did not act rashly, but hurriedly passed the news step by step, until the ears of the brigade commander Zhang Hanchu.

One person's negligence can often kill a group of people.

Zhang Hanchu got the news that the Japanese army had been found at the front, and decided to kill them, and by night, he ordered the 146th Regiment in front to deploy and surround the village, and the 145th Regiment was also ready to attack.

The soldiers of the 146th Regiment took advantage of the night to kill the negligent Japanese sentries, and then, the troops began to encircle, infiltrating the village, accompanied by gunfire, the fierce battle began, the national army and the Japanese army fought house by house, the Chinese army had a firepower advantage this time, and constantly knocked out the strongholds of the Japanese army, and the Japanese army was not given in vain, and organized counterattacks one by one, and once drove the national army out of the village, of course, it was soon beaten back.

The Japanese army always controlled the core of the house, so as to tug and war with the national army, however, they only had one squadron, and in the end they could only huddle in a small area. Zhang Hanchu ordered that the village be set on fire, and the national army would not attack inside, but use firewood and flammable materials to prevent fire outside the houses guarded by the Japanese army, throw fire sources inside, and then use mortars and firearms to hit them, and at the same time, he also pulled up a field artillery company attached to the artillery battalion of the 52nd Army, and four 38 field guns shelled the Japanese troops in the village, and the Japanese soldiers were either burned to death or killed.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese army, which could not stand it, began to rush out, but was either killed or captured by the national army, and the troops of the 73 brigade fought for a day and finally annihilated this squadron of the Japanese army.

Guo Liji is attacked by Chinese defenders! This news reached Yixian, where Zhang Wei and they fought, and the commander of the 63rd Wing, Furong Zhenping, immediately drove out of Yixian to reinforce Guoliji, including an infantry brigade, an independent machine gun brigade, and a squadron of light armored vehicles, to reinforce in the direction of Guoliji, and as a result, a small-scale engagement with the troops of the 52nd Army was launched.

Guan Linzheng, the commander of the 52nd Army, found that a large number of Japanese troops appeared on the flank, and he knew that this was for Guo Liji, and the Japanese troops were behind their buttocks, and once they attacked, their troops were likely to be defeated, so he ordered that the troops retreat to the northeast while there was no large-scale contact.

Zhang Yaoming, the commander of the 25th Division, received the order and immediately ordered the troops to move in, and the 73rd Brigade had already suffered a lot of losses in attacking Guoliji, and the troops must stay in Guoliji Village, Zhang Yaoming handed over this task to the 75th Brigade without a big war, and the two infantry companies of the 150th Regiment (that is, the regiment they saw under the 75th Brigade entered Guoliji Village, the area of this village is really not large, so two companies were placed, and the two companies were personally commanded by Gao Peng, the commander of the 150th Regiment.

There was chaos, and there was confusion in the plans of both sides.

On the 26th, the Japanese army reinforcing Guoliji finally rushed to Guoliji after a skirmish, and when they arrived at the place, they found that the garrison troops had been annihilated by the Chinese army, and the embarrassed and angry Japanese army besieged the national army in the village with the advantage of strength and firepower, and entered it in less than three hours, and the Chinese defenders were almost completely annihilated, only the regiment commander Gao Peng broke out with a few people.

After this battle, the 25th Division inadvertently brought out the Japanese army in Yixian, and at the same time, because of the battle with the Furong United, the plan to counterattack Yixian was also forced to stop. Just after the fierce battle between the 25th Division and the Japanese army, another division of the 52nd Army, the 2nd Division, had already arrived on the battlefield after a trek.

The forward troops of the 2nd Division found a small group of Japanese troops in the pigeon's nest, and the division commander Zheng Dongguo ordered an attack and immediately routed a small group of Japanese troops in the pigeon's nest. After capturing the pigeon nest, Zheng Dongguo learned from the 25th Division that the plan to counterattack Yixian was basically impossible, and the battle situation changed.

Zheng Dongguo kept in touch with the 25th Division on the one hand, and on the other hand, ordered the troops to be on guard on the spot, and monitored the Japanese troops in the Zaozhuang area, and assisted the 4th Division in the direction of Zaozhuang.

On the 4th Division, after the troops rested, the troops of the 4th Division began to encircle the area around Zaozhuang, and the division commander Chen Daqing learned of the battle of the 25th Division, but he did not change the plan, and the battle on the Yixian side would not change Zaozhuang's counteroffensive plan.

After a night's march, the 4th Division finally arrived at Zaozhuang, and Chen Daqing ordered to encircle from three sides, and besiege from three sides: Mashan, Table Mountain, and Huangshan.

Outside Zaozhuang, Zhang Wei lurked in the grass, observing the movement of Zaozhuang City Gate, Chen Daqing handed over the relatively weak Huangshan area to the 23rd Regiment, Chen Chunyi's first thing to do was to investigate, but his battalions had just been replenished with a large number of recruits, and the regimental headquarters was also reorganized, and the strength was not good.

Zhang Wei took the telescope to observe, behind him was Qiu Wei and a squad under him, He Kun also took a squad to follow, Zhang Wei looked at the low city wall nearby, the Japanese army opened the city gate, pedestrians came and went, although it was relatively sparse, after all, it was wartime, but the people always had to live.

"Two infantry detachments, one Type 92 heavy machine gun, at least three crooked light machine guns, there are mobile sentinels on the city walls, and there are very few outside the city gates."

Qiu Wei took a pen and paper and recorded it on the side. They just want to find out the strength and vitality of the enemy in front of them. Qiu Wei asked in a low voice, "This is too little, right?" Both of them knew that the main force of the Japanese army must be in the city, and the defenders near the city gate were few, but they were not so few. Zhang Wei didn't answer him, and thought about the general possibility in his heart, either the Japanese had too few troops, or all the troops were shrunk in the city, or these two things might coexist! Now the Japanese forces are very dispersed.

"Withdraw, no matter what, it will be fought, and the city gate must be taken down." Zhang Wei and his entourage returned to the regiment headquarters the same way, and the troops preparing for the attack were still doing pre-attack education, shooting education, and advance and retreat education.

Walking into the regiment headquarters, Chen Chunyi, who had been waiting for a long time, asked anxiously: "How is the situation, how many Japanese troops are there in the city gate?" ”

Zhang Wei took a sip of water and replied: "Regiment commander, now according to our observations, the Japanese army has less than a squad of troops near the city gate, three crooked handles, and one is 92. ”

"The main force of the Japanese army should be in the city, but there are so few Japanese troops near the city gate, speculate that the total strength of the Japanese army in Zaozhuang will not be too much, at most it is the strength of a reinforced brigade, maybe they control the key points in the city, so they dare to be so relieved and bold."