With the end of the Beiping battlefield, almost all the troops that had fought on the battlefields around Beiping went south to participate in the war, except for one unit that was put into the direction of the Tianjin and Beining lines. In the entire Jizhong battlefield, the total strength of the Anti-Japanese Federation has four columns and five divisions.

In the North China battlefield, more than 1,000 tanks and nearly 400 artillery pieces of more than 100 millimeters have been put into operation. There are nearly 500 combat aircraft of various kinds. Although the losses are not light at present, the current number of tanks is still more than 700, and the number of combat aircraft is also more than 360.

However, the take-off and landing conditions in the mountainous areas of western Hebei are too poor, and in addition the Soviet-style aircraft are relatively poor in maneuverability, the accident rate of air force take-off and landing is relatively high. The number of crashed planes is no less than the number of war-damaged planes. Therefore, the losses of the aviation are relatively larger.

Among the troops on the ground, in addition to three independent tank regiments, plus four infantry divisions were attached to the Tianjin battlefield to pin down the enemy in Tianjin. The rest of the heavy equipment and the main force were mainly invested in the Jizhong battlefield. That is to say, although the troops currently invested in the Jizhong battlefield have a certain loss in terms of overall strength, they are still within the range that can be beared.

In addition, some of the battle-damaged equipment that has been repaired, even if the heavy equipment is not increased from the northeast, the current quantity is enough to meet the needs. If you add one from each of the Jin-Cha-Ji, Jin-Hebei-Luyu, and Shandong Military Regions, Yang Zhen, who has an unusually sufficient strength in his hands, is determined to prepare a comprehensive counterattack.

However, in terms of the overall war situation, we should start with the main situation of the North China battlefield and the base areas behind enemy lines in North China. Yang Zhen was still determined to go west first and then east, concentrate most of his troops, as well as the main forces of the armored group, to deal with the enemy on the west bank of the Ziya River first. Cutting off the possible connection between the Japanese troops in the Hebei Battlefield and the Shanxi Battlefield.

Although the First Army on the Shanxi battlefield has never been able to take a step out of the Shanxi battlefield since the start of the battle. But this First Army, which has three integrated divisions, has always been Yang Zhen's henchman. Deal with the Japanese heavy army group on the west bank of the Ziya River first, even if the Japanese army in Shanxi breaks through the interception and blockade of the brother troops, they may not be powerless to fight back.

And in the battlefield east of the Ziya River, except for the local battlefield between Renqiu and Dacheng. Yang Zhen's determination was still the overall situation, first mainly on the defensive, and adopted the tactics of local continuous counter-assault to contain the Japanese army on the Tianjin-Pudong Railway. The most important of these is the five infantry wings that the Japanese army has invested in the Baoding battlefield, as well as the six infantry brigades of the Japanese army in front of Gaoyang.

In terms of the entire tactical deployment, Yang Zhen prepared to use the main force of the 1st Armored Division to strengthen an infantry division, and Xiong Botao commanded Jingwan County to forcibly intersperse Qingfengdian in the rear direction of Baoding. At the same time, with the strength of one division, it advanced from Gaoyang to the flank attack of the Baoding battlefield.

Cooperate with the troops interspersed with Qingfengdian, as well as Chen Hanzhang's one and a half divisions that were fighting fiercely with the five wings of the Japanese army, and two divisions that were transferred later. Under the cover of all tactical attack aircraft, the five wings of the Japanese army that had arrived in front of Baoding carried out a combined encirclement operation.

On the front of Gaoyang, the original division was concentrated, with an armored brigade transferred from the Pingxi battlefield, to launch a full-front counterattack on the front of Gaoyang. At the same time, the 11th Independent Tank Regiment was reinforced with an infantry division, and penetrated directly into Suning from the direction of Gaoyang, cutting off the connection between Gaoyang and the enemy in front of the river.

After cutting off the enemy's connection between Gaoyang and the river, this unit not only reinforced a tank battalion with an infantry regiment, but attacked from east to west to cooperate with the troops attacking from Gaoyang's front, and dealt with the enemy's six infantry brigades in front of Gaoyang. The main force immediately launched an attack to the east, on the left flank of the 64th Division.

In the frontal battlefield between the rivers, one tank regiment of the Second Armored Division, two battalions of the mechanized infantry regiment of the division, and an armored reconnaissance battalion directly under the division were concentrated, accompanied by two infantry divisions. Carry out a comprehensive counterattack against the main force of the 64th Division of the Japanese army in front of it. The focus was on the division of the 64th Division and the connection between the Japanese forces on the left and right flanks.

According to this deployment on the battlefield west of the Ziya River, Yang Zhen has invested almost all tank forces and tactical attack aircraft, except for the 4th Tank Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division, the 11th Armored Battalion of the 3rd Armored Brigade, and the reinforcement of two infantry divisions as the general reserve.

On the Cangzhou battlefield on the Western Front, in addition to using an infantry division with the cooperation of the troops of the Hebei-Shandong Border Military Region, the 22nd Division and the remnants of the 32nd Division trapped in Cangzhou were blocked around Cangzhou and the 22nd Division was cut off from the connection between the 22nd Division and the 32nd Division.

Yang Zhen scattered the 2nd Cavalry Brigade and, with the cooperation of the 1st Division of the Shandong Military Region, launched an attack on the supply line deep in the 22nd Division of the Japanese Army. He gave only one order to the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, that is, to let the 22nd Division on the Cangzhou battlefield weaken the supply capacity of the Japanese army as much as possible before the main force completes the turn.

As for the Japanese army, bypassing the front of Hejian and Cangzhou, trying to detour to Renqiu, and reverse outflanking and dividing a brigade of the Japanese army in the entire Jizhong battlefield. Although it was true that Du Kaishan was caught off guard before, taking advantage of Du Kaishan's energy to be attracted by Cangzhou and the frontal battlefield between the rivers, the Japanese army completed the forced crossing of the Ziya River and broke through the eastern cluster between Nianzu Bridge and Liu Gezhuang, which is also the weakest place in the defense of the entire Jizhong battlefield.

But who is Du Kaishan, that is the master who dares to poke a hole in the sky for a bamboo pole. Although when the 66th Brigade broke through the Nianzu Bridge, it was indeed a little passive, and even a little caught off guard. But he didn't panic at all, and he didn't rush to move troops to plug the gap.

Faced with the strength of an entire brigade of the Japanese army, he tore a hole in his defensive line, on the contrary, he was very calm. Taking advantage of the large number of vehicles in his troops, he quickly mobilized some troops and spread along both sides of the breakthrough. The idea of directly allowing the 66th Brigade to expand to the two flanks and widen the breakthrough became a bunch of bubbles.

When the Japanese army in the direction of Nianzu Bridge turned to the area between Renqiu and Dacheng after a long attack. It also adopted the tactics of resisting step by step, weakening the frontal Japanese forces layer by layer, and blocking the breaches opened by the Japanese army with intensive artillery fire. The Japanese brigade has been placed around Lugongbao, and it has formed a situation of a lone army going deep.

Only then did he concentrate two regiments, reinforce a tank battalion and a battalion of the mechanized infantry regiment of the 2nd Armored Division, and fought out from the two flanks of the Japanese army, copied the rear route of the main force of the 66th Brigade of the 63rd Division that broke through his defensive line, and surrounded the main force of the 66th Brigade on the land with Lügongbao as the core and a surrounding radius of only 10 square kilometers.

And just after the 66th Brigade broke through the front line of the Nianzu Bridge and opened a gap in the defense line of the Anti-Japanese Union on the north bank of the Hutuo River. Whether it was on the front of the river or on the Cangzhou battlefield, although the flank was broken through by the Japanese army. However, the anti-coalition forces on the two battlefields did not fall into any chaos.

In addition to urgently mobilizing a part of the troops from the front of Hejian and the Cangzhou battlefield, and deploying them on the first line of Shahe Bridge and the first line of Zhusheng and Chongxian, respectively, to strengthen the second line of defense on their respective flanks. The remaining units of the Anti-Japanese Federation on the two battlefields participated in the battle, and basically how they should fight or how to fight.

There was no vacillation and confusion expected by the Japanese army, which made the first part of the Jizhong Military Region and the first part of the Jilu border military region that cooperated with the anti-Japanese joint action feel extremely surprised and incredulous. Ordinary troops are broken through at one node, and front-line combat units in the rest of the directions, it is difficult to avoid wavering.

The forces of the Anti-Union were broken through at a very important juncture, whether it was the Hejian battlefield or the Cangzhou battlefield, which was already under considerable pressure. Instead of wavering, there was a series of beautiful tactical counter-attacks on the front.

This undoubtedly allowed the two battlefields to cooperate separately, and the front line of the Nianzu Bridge was broken through, and the battlefield west of the river has actually been divided into two sections that are not connected to each other. The situation has taken a turn for the worse, and the brother troops who are all pinching Khan's troops for Du Kaishan are quite emotional.

The flanks were breached, and the frontal forces were not thrown into any confusion or vacillation. Not only is it still fighting stubbornly, but it has not even lost a piece of the main position. It was not only the brothers who were surprised by this, but also their opponents. In particular, Lieutenant General Funahishima, the commander of the 64th Division, and Saburo Isota of the 22nd Division, who were in front of the river, felt the most obvious.

Originally, he wanted to take advantage of the breakthrough of Shimoeda Ryuo's 66th Brigade to create some opportunities for his own breakthrough attack that he could not attack for a long time and could not miss for a long time. As a result, the 66th Brigade Group's breakthrough operation on the front line of the Nianzu Bridge had passed 24 hours. Even though the 66th Brigade had penetrated deep into the front line of Lügongbao, they still did not see any weakening of the resistance of the frontal defenders. This made the commanders of these two divisions quite shocked.

Because in the case of a breakthrough on the flanks, the combat troops in front of it hardly wavered. None of the troops flinched, but continued to engage in tactical counterattacks, which is difficult to do in any army. The flanks are broken through, and the defense is generally contracted. This is the practice of not wavering in other directions like this, and this is called the real immobile like a mountain, and this is called the army whose real will is beaten with iron.

Compared with the two division commanders who were amazed, Major General Shimono Ryunan, the commander of the 66th Brigade, who tore through the front of the Ziya River and was now surrounded on the front line of Lugongbao, is indeed suffering now. As soon as he made a breakthrough, he felt that he and his 66th Brigade stepped into the fire hedgehog formation.

Originally, Major General Ryunan Shimoeda, after receiving the order, did not want to advance on the left and right flanks, almost in the case of negligible. The lone army went deep into the enemy's depths to carry out the plan of General Okamura Ninji to outflank the enemy's army. Especially when he broke through on the flanks and the enemy positions on both flanks did not waver, he didn't want to take this risk.

Therefore, he took advantage of his favorable situation in breaking through the front line of the Nianzu Bridge and desperately attacked the left flank of the Hejian battlefield. Trying to cooperate with the frontal attack of the 64th Division, in one fell swoop, the enemy in the river was completely defeated. As for General Okamura's original plan to advance to Renqiu, he only sent a reinforced infantry brigade to cope with the errand.

The main force still stayed on the battlefield between the rivers and attacked fiercely in the direction of Shahe Bridge and Twenty Lipu. The attempt was to pry the enemy's deep defense line in the Hejian battlefield and create favorable fighters for a frontal breakthrough. Unfortunately, after six hours of hard fighting, no progress was made, let alone the defense of the enemy head-on.

Under the urging of General Okamura Ninji one telegram after another, he could only turn around and continue the assault to the north. He also wanted to take advantage of the enemy's attention to be attracted to the flank of the riverside battlefield by his previous offensive. In one fell swoop, break through the enemy's defense line in depth and seize Lugongbao, cut off the road from Renqiu to Dacheng, and seize Renqiu County.

But the six-hour delay was too long for a commander like Du Kaishan. He can give Major General Shimoeda Ryu six hours of time, it's not that he has no troops to adjust, and it's not that he doesn't have that strength. He wants to completely solve the problem after all the 66th Brigade is brought in.