The artillery company of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army played well on this night, with two Krupp 75 mountain guns, one 94-type 75 mountain gun, and one 92 infantry gun, which not only successfully bombarded the northern city wall of Fengdian County, but also adjusted the gun port in the later battle with the Japanese army for the mountain pass at the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain, and carried out a fierce blow at the depth of the Japanese army's shape without a clear firing boundary at night.

Several infantry squadrons of the Otsuka Wing and the Saijo Wing suffered a lot from this. This is not because the artillery of the 391st Regiment has improved too much, but because it is still the narrow and long terrain between Fengdian County and the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain, which delineates a relatively concentrated strike range for the four heavy guns of the artillery company.

In the desperate battle for the last mountain pass just now, the Japanese were able to lay out the forces that could charge in front of them by less than two squadrons, and the rest of the troops were all in a long snake formation, piled up behind the stormtroopers, stretching for several miles. However, in the thick of the night, this scene was not discovered in time by the 391 Regiment of the Central Army, and Zhang Hong, the regiment's chief of staff who commanded the artillery operation, and the commander of the artillery company, purely out of the conventional consciousness of striking at the depth of the enemy's army, fired artillery bombardment in that direction. Unexpectedly, it hit the huge rear of the Japanese; As a result, the opponent's rear team was disconnected from the attacking troops at the front several times, unable to form a sustained attack; To a considerable extent, this supported the defensive position of the mountain pass where Qin Zhongxiao personally led the first battalion, so that the Japanese advance could not take the last mountain pass for a long time.

Of course, the spy company reconnaissance team led by Zhao Mutou was also extremely lucky to rush to that mountain pass as fast as they could—they didn't know that only fifteen minutes later, an infantry squadron of the Japanese Saijo Wing, which had wedged in from another mountain pass, was outflanked from the mountain by the sound of firefights. If Zhao Mutou and the others arrived fifteen minutes late, not only would they not be able to escape, but the first battalion gathered near the mountain pass to desperately block the attack, including Tuanza himself, would be attacked from both sides, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

In sharp contrast to the smooth events of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, the combined forces from the two wings commanded by Kosuke Otsuka have suffered repeated setbacks since the beginning of the war. When Captain Kameda of the Saijo Wing personally led a squadron and finally captured the mountain pass that the enemy had finally abandoned, Kosuke Otsuka was ecstatic for a while; However, after he reported this result to the Wencheng Brigade Headquarters, he quickly attracted a reprimand from Shangfeng, believing that the active withdrawal of the Chinese army from the mountain pass meant that its tactical goal had been achieved, and the occupation at this time was completely meaningless.

Subsequently, the chief of staff of the brigade and regiment, Kawabe Osa, personally replied to the telegram, instructing Wing Captain Otsuka and deploying the operational plan for comprehensively pursuing and annihilating the Chinese army of the unit.

According to the instructions of the chief of staff of the riverside, Kosuke Otsuka quickly gathered two infantry squadrons of his own wing, entered the city from the west gate of Fengdian County, passed through the county seat to the north gate, and then opened the north gate to go out of the city to chase and kill.

The cavalry regiment of the Mongolian Xinjiang Army followed in the footsteps of the city, passed through the county seat to the east gate, opened the east gate and left the city, cruised in the eastern suburbs of the county, controlled several mountain passes near Fengdian at the western foot of the Great Elm Mountain, and cut off the retreat of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army along that direction in advance.

The three squadrons of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Saijo Wing, under the command of Captain Kameda Shosa, immediately pursued the retreating Shina Army along the eastern foothills of Little Elm Mountain.

This improvised and urgent combat plan shifted the many forces that had been cowering in a narrow strip of land to the greatest extent, spread out the size of five infantry squadrons and one cavalry unit from west to east, and completed a large-scale tactical deployment. The chief of staff on the riverside specially emphasized that two 75 mountain guns had been mobilized from the Qingshikou defensive position in Xiaoyushu Mountain, and they were advancing in the direction of the northern suburbs of Fengdian County, and as soon as they arrived in place, they could be put into actual combat, and then they could suppress the heavy artillery of the Chinese army.

Kosuke Otsuka, the anxious commander of the Japanese army, although he has a lot of complaints about his chief of staff on weekdays, he has to admire the many tactical adjustments made by the other side urgently at this moment. The brigade commander, Major General, bluntly warned Otsuka: Tonight, with the huge strength of five infantry squadrons, and then strengthen the combined force of cavalry and artillery, you must complete a annihilating blow to the 391st Regiment of the Central Army; Otherwise, they will be severely punished by military law!

At the same time, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, commanded by Qin Zhongxiao, was beginning a major retreat.

Initially, they tried to make a detour back to the eastern suburbs through the northern suburbs of Fengdian County, and still returned to Da Yushu Mountain from the Loess Ya where they came, one of the main mountain passes at the western foot of Da Yushu Mountain, diagonally facing the east gate of Fengdian County; The 391st Regiment, which failed to defend the city during the Spring Festival this year, withdrew from the east gate of Fengdian and then hid into the Great Elm Mountain from the loess ya; Since then, this pass has basically become the main gateway for the 391st Regiment of the Central Army to enter and exit the Great Elm Mountain.

But tonight that wish was in vain. At this time, the Japanese troops who stayed in Fengdian City concentrated almost all the mortars and grenadiers in the city, and placed them at the head of Beicheng City, together with a few 92 heavy machine guns, and fired frantically outward. Their purpose is very clear, that is, to use a powerful firepower network to block the open area in the northern suburbs of the county, so that the 391st Regiment of the Central Army will not pass through this area and rush to the eastern suburbs.

After discovering this tactical purpose of the Japanese army, the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment once tried to force a surprise attack, but was immediately suppressed by the condescending fire of Fengdian City, and suffered a lot of casualties. When Chief of Staff Zhang Hong saw this, he hurriedly ordered the operation to be stopped. Soon, he got together with Qin Zhongxiao, the group seat who had just withdrawn from the Little Elm Mountain Pass; The colonel of the Central Army couldn't help but sink his heart when he learned that the most convenient retreat route had been forcefully blocked.

At this moment, the two main battalions of the 391st Regiment attached an artillery company, all gathered on the Junfeng Highway four miles north of Fengdian County, and there were wastelands about half a mile wide on both sides of the road, and then there were steep cliffs on the edge of Big Elm Mountain and Little Elm Mountain. This Junfeng Highway sandwiched between the two mountains, continue to the north-west for nearly 100 miles, you can go straight to the important town of Jinzhong, the ancient city of Junling on the Tongpu Road.

If you can't return to the camp at Big Elm Mountain from the loess ya outside the east gate of Fengdian, then you can only retreat north along the Junfeng Highway, and then choose another mountain pass along the way to enter the Great Elm Mountain - but the roads in those passes are mostly rugged trails, and there is no shortcut to the 391st Regiment station, so you can only take a long detour to the mountain road to return to the station. This will undoubtedly face huge troubles for the 391st Regiment, which concentrates the main force of the regiment and the artillery company equipped with heavy artillery.

"How about letting our artillery battery carry out a burst of fire to counter-suppress?" The colonel of the Central Army, who was unwilling to take a detour to the mountain road to return to the camp, stared at the Fengdian Castle where the occasional moonlight was shining, and asked his chief of staff. In view of the outstanding performance of the artillery company tonight, Qin Zhongxiao's reliance on them has obviously increased. Observing the artillery shells fired from Fengdian City, it should be mainly curved guns and grenadiers, which are of course sufficient to deal with the infantry, but if they compete with the four large-caliber heavy guns of the 391st Regiment Artillery Company, the one who has the upper hand should belong to the latter.

However, Chief of Staff Zhang Hong directly poured a basin of cold water on his regimental base, saying that under such visibility conditions, the artillery company would fire directly at the head of the city several miles away, and the probability of hitting would be very low; If the slightest grasp is not right, 75-caliber shells are more likely to fly into residential areas in the city, causing innocent casualties among civilians.

When the colonel of the Central Army heard this, he had no choice but to give up. And at this moment, a large number of Japanese soldiers poured out from the area of the mountain pass at the eastern foot of Little Elm Mountain, which they had just abandoned, and came straight here!

This should have been a reaction of the Japanese army's shift from fighting for the mountain pass to a new battle to hunt down the enemy—this sudden enemy situation also completely dispelled Qin Zhongxiao's idea of trying to return to the station along the shortcut.

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong immediately made a decision and ordered the first battalion to defend the mountain pass, which had suffered heavy casualties, and to protect the regimental headquarters and artillery company to immediately retreat north along the Junfeng Highway, choose the nearest mountain pass along the way, and hide in the Great Elm Mountain. Zhang Hong personally commanded the 4th Company of the 2nd Battalion to build a temporary defensive line to block the Japanese pursuers by relying on the original artillery positions established earlier. He immediately sent a message to the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion, asking them to gradually retreat from their current position (the 5th Company had been sent to the Junfeng Highway, about seven or eight miles north of Fengdian, to cover the rear flank of the troops before the battle began), and move closer to the blocking position of the 4th Company.

The only thing that is reassuring now is that there is no enemy garrison within a short distance of the Junfeng Highway to the north; Previous operations also confirmed that only a small number of Japanese troops were stationed in the ancient city of Junling. Unless the Hagiwara Brigade in Bunjo will send a force to urgently outflank the northern foot of Little Elm Mountain tonight, the rear flank of the 391st Regiment can be said to have no worries.

Before leaving, Qin Zhongxiao insisted on ordering the 92nd infantry gun of the artillery company to be left to the chief of staff - the 92nd infantry gun was low, short and thick, not as large and clumsy as the Krupp 75 Mountain Cannon, and it was easy to disassemble and transport, and it would not drag the infantry back when retreating after the blockade. The commander of the artillery company was well aware of the danger of the situation of the troops after the break, so he ordered the platoon commander in charge of the 92nd rifle gun: Don't be stingy with ammunition, and shoot out all the remaining shells!

This blocking battle on the highway began when the main force of the 391st Regiment had not yet been completely withdrawn.

The Japanese troops who were running and rushing up were the main force of the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Saijo Wing, which was the vanguard of the pursuit, and under the command of the captain of the group, Kameda Shaosa, they charged bravely, vowing to bite the enemy who was about to escape. Not long after the battle began, the north gate of Fengdian County was also opened, and two infantry squadrons of the Otsuka Wing swarmed out and followed up along the Junfeng Highway that stretched out from the city.

"Order Kameda Shaosa, don't be afraid of the heavy artillery of the Shina Army, pursue with all your might, and the brigade headquarters will strengthen the 75 mountain artillery given to us, and then it will arrive!" Kosuke Otsuka, the commander of the Japanese Army, ordered the telecommunications troops to use walkie-talkies to cheer up the brother troops in front of him, and at the same time drew his command knife and ordered his subordinates to rush forward.