Commander Zheng of the 769th Regiment was very impatient after confronting the enemy for more than three hours, and when he saw the enemy attacking first, he laughed and ordered: "The whole regiment is here, and according to their respective positions, face the attacking enemy, and give me a hard blow." ”

The light and heavy weapons of each battalion suddenly erupted into fierce gunfire, and the attacking little devils were very rampant at first, and under the powerful fire of the Eighth Route Army, they left more than a dozen corpses and retreated in panic.

The commander of the Japanese army, who fled back to his position, ordered the little devils to repair the fortifications, wait for reinforcements to arrive, and then launch an attack on the Eighth Route Army under Langya Mountain.

When the commander of the 769th Regiment saw that the devils were repelled from attacking, he held a telescope and carefully observed the enemy's position, intending to find weak points and launch an attack on the enemy, he did not want to wait for the arrival of enemy reinforcements before engaging the enemy. He must strike first against the enemy, and only by thwarting the enemy's sharp spirit can he better accomplish the combat missions that follow.

Commander Zheng ordered the first battalion to stealthily detour back to the enemy's flank and cooperate with the other battalions to cut off the enemy's retreat. The third battalion was ordered to launch a strong attack from the front, and it was necessary to defeat the enemy in the first attack, force the enemy to retreat, and occupy the enemy's position.

The first battalion quickly moved to the enemy's back and was ready for battle, and once the three battalions in front launched an attack on the enemy, the first battalion would immediately cooperate with the three battalions from the flank and launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

Seeing that the first and third battalions were in place, Regiment Commander Zheng suddenly shouted: "Attack the enemy's position and kill the devils——。 ”

"Kill the devil-", "Kill the devil-" ......

The cadres and soldiers of the battalions of the 769th Regiment bravely jumped out of their positions, holding their guns and shouting 'kill devils' in the enemy's dense tongue of fire, and launched an indomitable attack on the enemy.

The commander of the devil who retreated to the position saw the Eighth Route Army attacking, and immediately ordered: "The Imperial Japanese Army is an invincible imperial warrior, and His Majesty the Emperor is the most heroic troops. ”

Just as the devils began to counterattack the attack of the third battalion, they detoured back to the first battalion on the back of the flank, and under the command of the battalion commander, launched a fire attack on the enemy from the flank.

The little devils who were attacked by the enemy in front and behind were hit by the fire of two battalions, and the casualties of the little devils who were holding on to the position for reinforcements increased, and the firepower weakened. ”

Under the leadership of the commander, the little devil broke through the fire range of the battalion that detoured to the side and back, left behind the dead little devil, and fled desperately in a hurry.

As soon as Commander Zheng saw that the enemy was about to run, he ordered the troops to launch a pursuit, and the little devil ran wildly all the way, and finally escaped from the fire pursuit range of the Eighth Route Army and fled back to the stone box stronghold.

At this time, the 13th Regiment attacking Guantou Village launched an attack on the largest stronghold in Guantou Village around Liao County.

According to the stronghold of Guantou Village, a squadron of the Banjin Brigade and more than 100 devils are stationed here, and they are fully equipped with weapons and ammunition, including one mountain artillery, three mortars, five grenadiers, and seven light and heavy machine guns.

According to the terrain and geographical location, the commander of the Japanese army at the stronghold in Guantou Village built two strong pillboxes on the hill east of the stronghold in Guantou Village, in an attempt to form a powerful firepower network up and down the mountain in order to provide mutual fire support.

The commander of the 13th Regiment Tao ordered four companies of the 1st Battalion to launch an attack on the Japanese stronghold in Guantou Village with one mountain artillery, four mortars, and five light and heavy machine guns.

According to the Japanese commander who was guarding the stronghold of Guantou Village, he ordered his troops to strike at the attacking Eighth Route Army with maximum firepower, and ordered the Japanese soldiers in the two pillboxes on the mountain to form a fire cross condescendingly to defeat the attack of the Eighth Route Army.

Seeing that the attacks launched many times were blocked, the commander of the 13th Regiment Tao ordered light and heavy weapons such as mountain artillery and mortars to carry out another fire attack on the enemy's position.

From 24 o'clock on the 23rd, the 13th Regiment launched an attack on the stronghold of Guantou Village, which lasted until dawn and did not advance further.

When Commander Tao saw that this offensive tactic would not only fail to move forward, but also that the troops might inflict heavy casualties, he decisively ordered the attack to be stopped and the offensive plan to be readjusted in order to facilitate another battle.

Ten minutes later, Commander Tao ordered a company to be drawn out, feint to attack the two pillboxes on the mountain, contain the fire of the enemy's pillboxes on the mountain, and adjust the heavy weapons as a reserve to the battalion attacking frontally, so as to form the most powerful firepower and attack the Japanese stronghold in Guantou Village.

At six o'clock on the 24th, when it was nearly dusk, Commander Tao ordered the first and second battalions to attack the stronghold of Guantou Village from the southeast and southwest directions at the same time.

On the night of the 25th, the 13th Regiment, reinforced by three companies of the 769th Regiment, launched the most fierce attack on Guantou Village for the third time.

After a night of fierce fighting, the attacking troops of the Eighth Route Army did not advance much, but they were closer to the Japanese stronghold.

The Japanese commander found that the strength of the attacking force of the Eighth Route Army had increased and the firepower had also increased, and the cunning devil commander was afraid that the Eighth Route Army would attack the stronghold and ordered the firing of poison gas bombs.

Three poison gas bombs exploded in the ranks of the attacking Eighth Route Army, and the poisonous gas of the large regiment immediately spread rapidly, and the attacking troops could no longer continue to advance, so in order to protect the soldiers, Commander Tao ordered to withdraw from the battle and suspend the attack.

After three days and three nights of continuous attack, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the soldiers were very tired.

At this time, Commander Liu, who was standing in the command post of the Shanxi-Hebei-Henan Military Region Headquarters, was very concerned about the progress of the 385th Brigade's attack on the Japanese stronghold, and when he received the report from the commander of the 385th Brigade, he frowned and looked out the window, muttered for a long time, suddenly turned around, walked to the map of the war room, and a new battle plan was formed in his mind.

Commander Liu ordered Brigade Commander Chen to continue to attack the stronghold of Guantou Village with a company, giving the enemy a false impression, and the main force immediately launched an attack on the strongholds of Shijiao, Houtougu, and Mayuanshan, but the focus of the attack should be on the two strongholds of Shiqiao and Mayuanshan.

Its purpose was to lure the enemy in Liao County to reinforce it, set up an ambush in the middle of the road in advance, take the enemy by surprise, eliminate the reinforcing enemy, and prepare for the next step to attack Liao County, reduce the enemy's ability to counterattack, and create favorable conditions for the siege.

Brigade Commander Chen handed over the task of attacking the Japanese strongholds at Shiqiao and Mayuan Mountain to the 769th Regiment, and handed over the task of blocking the enemy reinforcements from Liaoxian County to the 32nd Regiment and the 14th Regiment who arrived.

At night on the 26th, Regiment Commander Zheng of the 769th Regiment led his troops over Langya Mountain, crossed the Qingzhang River, marched all the way, and came to the vicinity of the Japanese stronghold in Shicbox before dawn on the 27th.

Regiment Commander Zheng organized an assault team to serve as the vanguard of the early attack force, and by the darkness of the night, he quickly touched the northern high ground of Shiqiao Village, and other troops quickly surrounded the stronghold of Shiqiao Village.

Everything was in place, and when the sky was just dawning on the 27th, Regiment Commander Zheng gave the order to launch a general attack.

Under the cover of light and heavy firepower, Deputy Captain Kong of the commando team led a platoon, holding cluster grenades, and quickly jumped to the enemy pillbox, stuffing the cluster grenades into the gun holes of the pillboxes, and several violent explosions destroyed the pillboxes on the top of the Devil's Mountain.

After more than two hours of fierce fighting, the enemy fire points on the periphery of the stronghold were cleared, and most of the houses on the east, south, and west sides of Shiqiao Village were occupied, and the troops advanced to the stronghold in the north of the village.

The little devil who had been sticking to the bunker took advantage of the bright light to find that the 769th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army was fully exposed to the field of vision controlled by the Japanese army, and the devil commander ordered the devil to attack the attacking Eighth Route Army with the most fierce firepower.

The firepower of the Japanese army blocked all the offensive channels of the Eighth Route Army in the village, and several attacks were counterattacked by the enemy's strong firepower.

Brigade Commander Chen of the 385th Brigade, who rushed to the front line, carefully observed the firepower confrontation between the enemy and us with binoculars, and decisively ordered the troops to withdraw from the battle, retreat to the Qingzhang River, and repair in concealment on the east bank of the river embankment.

At the battle summary meeting, two opinions were formed on whether to attack the enemy during the day or at night, one was that the troops were not familiar with the terrain and could easily be attacked by the enemy's fire from the shadows, and it would not be easy to succeed.

(End of chapter)