Brigade Commander Fan of the New 10th Brigade found that the devil who walked out of the fortress stopped, and he was thinking about how to take the next step.

The thirteenth regiment commander lowered his voice and said again: "Commander Fan, don't hesitate any longer, quickly give the order to shoot and destroy these little devils who came out, even if you can't break through the devil fortress, at least you can destroy dozens of enemies, and it can be regarded as avenging our sacrificed soldiers." ”

Without waiting for the thirteenth regiment commander to finish speaking, Brigade Commander Fan roared: "Shut up, stay silent, and wait for orders." ”

The soldiers hid in their positions and did not move, and saw more than 30 little devils not far in front of them, who were scanning around, if they suddenly attacked at this time, none of these little devils would survive, and maybe they could take the opportunity to kill the enemy camp.

Not to mention that the soldiers couldn't figure it out in their hearts, even the commander of the 13th Regiment couldn't understand why their brigade commander Fan didn't take the opportunity to eliminate these dozens of little devils and launch a general attack on the enemy in one go.

The little devil in the barbed wire, with the light of the flares, searched the surroundings with a gun, and at the same time, the commander of the new 10th Brigade Fan quickly checked the firepower deployment of the Sangzhang bridgehead devil fortress, station and other positions at the moment when the devil's flare was lit.

Dozens of little devils searched for a while, but found no trace of the activities of the Eighth Route Army, and then returned to the fortress with a gun and trot.

Brigade Commander Fan ordered to the commander of the thirteenth regiment beside him: "Immediately arrange a platoon of soldiers, change into devil uniforms, quickly approach the devil's fortress, and once you can be confused, carry out the most fierce fire to destroy the devil's fortress." ”

After a short time, a group wearing devil uniforms, carrying light and heavy weapons, and waving the Japanese military flag, swaggered towards the fortress outside the Sangzhang Bridge. When the devil's flare lost its light for a moment, this small unit disguised as a devil quickly approached the front of the enemy's position about 60 meters, and under the cover of several big trees, set up light and heavy machine guns.

Brigade Commander Fan ordered the soldiers of this unit who brought over: "Hurry up and set up your position, and when the next wave of flares is lit by the devils, find the enemy's fortress and fire position, and hit me hard." ”

Everything was arranged, and Brigade Commander Fan approached the mortar with his waist down, personally adjusted the gun position, and waited for the launch.

The commander of the 13th Regiment led the troops to a hillside, deployed the light and heavy machine guns in the regiment in the best position to carry out fire strikes against the enemy, and waited for Brigade Commander Fan to issue the order to attack.

After another wave of devil flares were launched, Brigade Commander Fan took the opportunity to load the shells and shouted to the soldiers around him: "The target is directly in front of the devil fortress, aim and fire the cannon for me——。 ”

The whistling cannonballs flew out of their disembowels, dragging orange flames in the night sky and flying towards the devil's fortress.

'Boom, boom, boom, boom, ......', the overwhelming artillery fire covered the devil's fortress, and in a series of explosions, the devil's fortress was destroyed by the shells and flew into the sky.

The commander of the 13th Regiment, who was lurking on the hillside, watched the shells explode in the strong fortress group of the devils with the revenge anger of the soldiers, and he lost no time in ordering: "Light and heavy machine guns use the most fierce firepower to block the fortresses and positions of the devils that have not yet been destroyed, cover the demolition assault team that sneaks up on Daqiao, and quickly approach the Sangzhang Bridge." ”

The commander of the ninth company, who led the assault team to blast the 21 Kong Sangzhang Bridge, under the cover of powerful firepower, did not wait for the little devil to react, and more than a dozen soldiers were like fierce tigers, interspersed with the enemy's gunfire and artillery fire.

The fighters in front fell, and those behind followed, rushing up the bridge one after another, quickly separating, jumping into the arch of the bridge, planting explosives, lighting the fuse, quickly jumping to the bridge deck, and desperately withdrawing from the bridge.

More than a dozen commando fighters, returning to the bridgehead, only three fighters remained, and the rest of the fighters fell under enemy fire blockade.

When the three soldiers just rushed to the bridge, they only heard a violent explosion behind them, the rails, sleepers and railway ancillary facilities were blown into the air, the sharp gravel of the roadbed was blown out of one or two hundred meters, and the entire Sangzhang Bridge was destroyed from the middle, and the backbone of another important transportation line of the Zhengtai Railway was blown to pieces, and the entire Sangzhang Bridge became a ruined bridge with a broken waist under the smoke and flames.

When the explosion sounded, Brigade Commander Fan brandished his pistol and shouted: "Comrades, rush——。 ”

When the dawn was revealed in the east, Brigade Commander Fan led the soldiers of the New Tenth Brigade, holding guns and shouting loudly, to destroy the enemy position with the momentum of overwhelming mountains and seas.

After three fierce firefights of one hour and 50 minutes, and finally a close fight, at 4:50 a.m., the entire battle of the Sangzhang Bridge came to an end amid cheers, the military flag fluttered in the wind at the highest point on the hillside, and the New 10 th Brigade successfully completed the arduous task of destroying the Sangzhang Bridge.

When the good news reached the headquarters of the Shanxi-Hebei-Henan Military Region, Commander Liu shouted happily: "Great, the new 10th Brigade has destroyed the backbone of the Zhengtai Railway, which is very exciting, and orders all units to speed up the attack, expand the results of the battle, and advance in depth." ”

Immediately afterwards, Commander Liu successively received good reports of the destruction of Lujiazhuang, Shangchao, Monk Zu, Ma Shou and other strongholds, and ordered the results of the battle to be further expanded. The number of troops participating in the general raid is continuing to increase at the fastest pace.

Responsible for destroying Lujiazhuang and other strongholds, is the left wing column of the 386th Brigade of the Shanxi-Hebei-Henan Military Region, with the chief of staff of the brigade Zhou (Xihan) as the commander-in-chief. ”

The political commissar of the military region pointed out in a serious but serious tone: "Chief of Staff Zhou, as the commander-in-chief of the left-wing column, you did not appoint you with a political commissar, chief of staff, and director of the political department this time, and the burden of the three people is on your shoulders, okay?" ”

Chief of Staff Zhou (Xihan) looked at the head of the military region, and looked at him with an expectant look, and he straightened his chest and made a straight report: "Report to the chiefs, I am not afraid, this is a short-term mission, and two or three competent staff officers are enough, please rest assured, I promise to complete the task." ”

After receiving the task, Chief of Staff Zhou did not stay long in the military region, and took advantage of the night to take more than a dozen soldiers of the communications squad and galloped all the way on war horses, and at dawn on the 19th before the start of the war, he came to the left wing column in the dust.

He walked into the Nanguoao headquarters near Songta and immediately issued an order, ordering the commanders and political commissars of the three regiments to attend the military meeting at the headquarters as soon as possible. At the meeting, Chief of Staff Zhou conveyed the instructions of the head of the military region to issue specific combat tasks to each regiment in accordance with the operational orders of the military region.

After the meeting, the commanders of each regiment personally led the cadres of the battalions and companies who were responsible for the main attack to disguise themselves as local civilians, some carrying hoes, some carrying firewood, and some disguised themselves as businessmen doing petty business, and secretly infiltrated the area around the enemy's pillboxes and the township strongholds occupied by devils, and reconnoitred the enemy's troop deployment and weaponry, as well as the transportation and reinforcement channels between the pillboxes and strongholds.

The political commissars of each regiment held a mobilization meeting to encourage all battalions and companies to carry out a contest to kill the enemy in a sabotage battle, and asked each soldier to remember the results of his own killing of the enemy as a summary of the campaign after the war.

The commander-in-chief of the left flank column, Zhou, ordered the troops to immediately advance to the forward position under the cover of the green gauze tent, and be sure to arrive at the designated place before dusk.

The troops advanced to the enemy's strongholds in an orderly manner, and with the close cooperation of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians along the way, the secrecy work was done very well, and at dusk, the troops arrived at the designated lurking place and made all preparations for battle.

At 22 o'clock on the 20th, the dark night sky was flickering with stars, and suddenly three red signal flares flew into the air with a whistling sound, and the left-wing troops under the order of Commander-in-Chief Zhou, the soldiers descended the mountain like fierce tigers, fiercely pounced on the designated combat areas of the troops, and launched a fierce night battle with the enemy.

At this time, the Lujiazhuang stronghold, which served as the heaviest combat mission for attacking the left flank column, was the 16th Regiment of the 386th Brigade.

Commander Xie of the 16th Regiment led the battalion and company cadres to get close to the reconnaissance before the battle began, and learned that the Lujiazhuang stronghold was garrisoned by a squadron of little devils and a platoon of puppet soldiers.

The Japanese stronghold in Lujiazhuang was the key part of the destruction of the Shouyang and Yuci railways, especially the Lujiazhuang station, and was the most important part of the left column's attack on the enemy's stronghold, and it must be destroyed within the specified time.

There is a devil reserve oil depot in the station, and there is also a military station, and there are more than a dozen little devils in the military station, responsible for the safety of the station and the oil depot.

On a piece of high ground northeast of the station, seven forts were built on the high ground, each fort was equipped with a light machine gun and four barbed wire, forming a fire mutual aid system with the station.

The west side of the station is the Lujiazhuang Iron Bridge on Zhengtai Road, the bridge is not long, it should be about 50 meters, the south is a small stream that is not wide, the stream is not deep, it can reach the waist in the rainy period, and it is usually below the knee.

Guarding this stronghold was the Yoshida Squadron of the Harada Brigade, which was well-armed and combat-ready, and the soldiers were of high military quality. The squadron consisted of a curved artillery squad, a heavy machine gun squad, and a grenadier squad, with more than 100 troops.

According to the deployment of the left wing column headquarters, the 16th Regiment of the 386th Brigade, under the leadership of Regiment Commander Xie, led all units to take secret actions at 19 o'clock on the 20th, and the troops were divided into several routes to quickly surround the Lujiazhuang Railway Station.

(End of chapter)