"It's Japanese!" Zhang Chi pretended to be panicked and shouted, "They must have copied from the path to the front with the help of the Burmese!" ”

Having said that, Zhang Chi was happy in his heart: this section of the road only allows two cars to pass side by side, and there is basically no open land except for a small village a mile away, and the British's rush to escape for their lives will definitely cause traffic congestion, and it will be seen that they will not leave a few tanks or supplies behind?!

Where would Ensign Burke think that these gunshots were made by Zhang Chi and others, and couldn't help but curse fiercely: "Damn the Japanese, damn the Burmese......"

As he spoke, he immediately picked up the walkie-talkie behind the jeep and called.

However, just as Zhang Chi was secretly having fun in his heart, he suddenly saw three red flares rising from the other end of the bridge, followed by a dense gunshot, and bullets and shells rained down on the bridge.

Zhang Chi couldn't help but be stunned, he didn't arrange people to pretend to be Japanese soldiers on the other side of the bridge, and even if he pretended, he didn't have so many guns and so many cannons, and even if there were so many guns and cannons, he didn't have to play for real......

"Get down!" Just when Zhang Chi couldn't figure out the situation, his fellow villagers rushed up in time and threw Zhang Chi to the ground, followed by a shell that exploded more than ten meters away.

"Platoon commander!" The townsfolk shouted: "This is the real Japanese devil coming, and there are many of them!" ”

At this time, Zhang Chi realized that it was the real Japanese army coming.

After being stunned for a moment, Zhang Chi shouted at the two soldiers guarding the bridge: "Blow up the bridge, blow up the bridge immediately!" ”

Where did the two soldiers dare to slacken, as soon as the power switch was heard, a bright red flame immediately exploded at the iron bridge and blew up the tile bridge into the sky, and the flames exploded at the same time as they illuminated the dense Japanese troops on the other side who were rushing towards this side like wolves.

*******

In fact, the Japanese army had already rushed to the other side of the iron bridge an hour earlier, and this Japanese army was the vanguard of the 56th Division that had rushed to reinforce Tonggu.

The Japanese 55th Division had been attacking Tonggu for a long time, and Shozo Kawabe, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Burma Front, began to worry that the main force of the Chinese Expeditionary Force would arrive in time to build a defensive line in Tonggu. So he immediately sent an additional 56th Division, which was good at jungle warfare and was known as the "king of jungle warfare", to Tonggu, intending to combine the strength of the two divisions to take down Tonggu in the shortest possible time and pull out this hard nail.

As soon as Masao Watanabe (commander of the 56th Division) landed in Burma, he quickly recruited a large number of bicycles from the Burmese people...... This was not difficult for the Japanese army, because at this time, the Burmese people thought that Japan was here to help them drive away the British colonists and give them an independent Burma, so they bravely donated bicycles to the Japanese army, and even took the initiative to send guides to lead the way for the Japanese army.

So the 56th Division used bicycles to forcibly march in the jungle path, and in just three days, it drove more than 200 kilometers to Tonggu.

Arriving on the other side of the Watai Iron Bridge was the 1st Brigade of the 113th Wing of the 56th Division, and the captain of the group, Yuta Harada, an experienced veteran who had risen from a small soldier to a group leader, observed the situation and did not act rashly, because they found that the bridge had been loaded with explosives, and there was a platoon of Chinese soldiers guarding the other side.

This is not to say that he is afraid of the Chinese soldiers of that platoon, you must know that there are more than 1,000 people in an infantry brigade of the Japanese army, and this strength is a comparison between elephants and ants for the Chinese platoon, not to mention that Yuta Harada also boasts that his combat effectiveness is much better than that of the squadron, so of course he will not put the **** people of this platoon in his eyes.

He was worried about the explosives on the iron bridge...... Yuta Harada considered abandoning the bridge and choosing to cross the river, which may not be a big problem for a brigade, but for the main force of the 56th Division that followed, crossing the river would eventually be more dangerous, and more importantly, there would be difficulties in subsequent supply delivery.

Therefore, although Yuta Harada wanted to enter the battle with Gu as soon as possible, he finally decided to act cautiously after thinking about it twice.

At this time, Yuta Harada received an order from Wing Commander Matsui Daisa: The British 7th Armored Regiment is about to pass by your position, and you must stop the armored regiment while ensuring that the iron bridge is not blown up.

Yuta Harada immediately drew up several plans:

One: Attacking the British armored regiment before crossing the bridge, the advantage of this is that the Chinese people may not dare to blow up the bridge because the British tanks did not cross the bridge.

However, this plan was opposed by most of his subordinates, because the British armored regiment had more than 50 tanks and dozens of armored vehicles, and the terrain at the end of the bridge was still an open area suitable for tank combat, while the Japanese army did not carry heavy weapons for a long time, and it was afraid that only a large group of soldiers would not be enough for the British tanks to fill their teeth.

(Note: The topography of Burma is divided by Tonggu, which is a mountainous area with complex terrain to the north and plains to the south, which is one of the reasons why the Chinese Expeditionary Force planned to fight the Japanese army in Tonggu.) ）

Two: Launching an attack when the British armored regiment crosses the bridge halfway is the same as above, but the disadvantage is still that the Japanese army marched lightly without carrying heavy equipment and anti-tank weapons, and the British army even only had two tanks or armored vehicles guarding the bridge, and the Japanese could only watch the armored regiment cross the bridge and then blow up the bridge.

Then there is only one last plan: let the British armored regiment cross the bridge first, and after the armored regiment is separated from the iron bridge, then block the British armored regiment and take the iron bridge respectively.

This plan was approved by most of his subordinates, because it was easy to stop the armored regiment, which only required destroying roads or setting up roadblocks, and did not need to directly confront the armored regiment. In this way, they can complete the two tasks assigned to them by their superiors very well.

So Yuta Harada gave an order: send two squadrons (180 people) and a squad (54 people) to secretly cross the river under the leadership of the Burmese guide, and the two squadrons waited for the British armored regiment to separate from the tile step bridge and then flank the left and right to stop the armored regiment, and one squadron took advantage of the chaos to seize the bridgehead position and cover the main force to cross the bridge and enter the battle.

Therefore, Zhang Chi is also wrong and wrong.

Because if Zhang Chi continues to wait like this, it is very likely that he will be killed by the Japanese army before he can figure out what is going on. And the British armored regiment was really going to be blocked by the two squadrons that came around.

The problem is that at this time, the troops sent by the Japanese army to sneak attack are still on the road, and the two squads disguised as the Japanese army to scare the British have already released their guns at this end......

As soon as the guns were fired at this end of the bridge, the main Japanese forces ambushed in the woods on the other side of the bridge thought that the sneak attack team had started.

Yuta Harada, the captain of the Japanese army who commanded this battle, also scolded: "Bastard, Naoki, this fool, won't you wait for the British armored regiment to go a little farther before making a move?!" ”

However, Yuta Harada thought that since the battle had already begun, it was time to start anyway, so he fired a few flares, and then a large number of Japanese troops came out of the woods and rushed to the tile iron bridge.

Of course, the Japanese army did not succeed, and the tile iron bridge was soon blown into several pieces in front of the Japanese army.