"Company commander, what do you think the Japanese are transporting in the car? Are they fleeing en masse? ”

Standing on a horse in the wasteland, a cavalryman of the Eighth Route Army asked Xia Lianshan beside him. At this moment, the cavalry company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade was less than 20 zhang away from the Tongpu Road Road, and if they were to go any further, the headlights of the Japanese trucks might even catch them.

Xia Lianshan didn't say anything, he was silently counting the number of trucks passing one after another on the highway. From start to finish, there are seventeen in total! Looking at the fleet of trucks that had gradually drifted away and finally disappeared at the end of the road, the cavalry company commander began to think nervously: the seventeen trucks should be loaded with no less than 300 troops, could it really be that the Japanese troops who were besieging the city and were fighting for reinforcements fled from the road? The Central Army set up an ambush to attack the Japanese reinforcements from the direction of Wencheng, if the truck team just now was carrying them, where would it be to flee? Han Xinling? It doesn't make sense, after all, Lingshi County is still in the hands of the Japanese army.

Xia Lianshan, who was thinking hard but had no clue, did not dare to be careless, and signaled Quanlian to stand by and continue to monitor the direction of Han Xinling in the south, in case the Japanese army went and returned. After holding on for another fifteen minutes, there was no movement of the Japanese army, but the gunfire in the direction north of Lingshi County became more and more intense. Finally, Deputy Battalion Commander Wu Zijian sent someone to send an order: the cavalry company was transferred to the east gate of Lingshi County, monitoring the Japanese troops in the city on the one hand, and alerting the left flank of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade on the other.

Xia Lianshan asked the correspondent (who was actually also a soldier of his cavalry company, who was temporarily sent to various departments to serve as a liaison tonight) what was going on with the gunfire, but the other party didn't know anything about it—when he was sent by Wu Zijian from the position he had just taken over, there was still silence. The cavalry company commander simply sent another cavalryman to follow the messenger to the position of the 5th Company, and while reporting to the deputy battalion commander about the situation of the fleeing Japanese truck fleet on the road, he also brought back the reason for the battle there. He believed that the intelligence of the Japanese trucking fleet would be of interest to Wu Zijian.

Sure enough, the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army, who was directing the operation on the 5th Company's position, was also quite confused after hearing the news sent by the cavalry company, but immediately ordered Xia Lianshan to send a few horsemen and horses back to the original position of the 5th Company next to the demolished highway to monitor the direction south of Tongpu Road.

"Tianlin, the Japanese attack on the front is so fierce, it shows that there should be a lot of troops, but Lianshan found that seventeen Japanese trucks drove along the road, what is going on? What tricks are the Japanese playing? ”

"Seventeen?!" Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company, who was fighting inextricably, was also taken aback when he heard the words of the deputy battalion commander who rushed to his side: "Impossible, right? The Central Army confessed that the devil reinforcements who entered their ambush circle were about the size of two squadrons, and if they all got on those seventeen trucks, wouldn't they have run out! So where did the devil come from who is fighting with us now? ”

Wu Zijian lowered his head to avoid the rain of bullets, while pondering Li Tianlin's words, obviously the two of them were close to the same idea. Suddenly, Wu Zijian's heart moved: Could it be that the Japanese hid important military assets in the city of Lingshi County, fearing that they would fall into the hands of the Chinese army after breaking the city, so they transferred it south overnight? In that case, Xia Lianshan's cavalry company should have missed a good opportunity to take advantage of the fire to rob!

Just as he was thinking about it, a battle suddenly broke out in the right front of the position, and there was a faint panic behind the left flank of the opposing Japanese attack formation. The deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army immediately realized that it was Deputy Battalion Commander Liu of the Central Army who led his company to touch the public railway and open fire! This was an agreed move by the two sides, and the fighter plane was fleeting, and Wu Zijian ordered all three platoons of the first line position of the 5th Company to immediately move forward and shoot.

"Attention, it's not a charge! Three platoons quickly crawled forward and fired at close range at the front of the Japanese army, with machine guns to take the lead! ”

The tactics of the three platoons of the 5th Company were to take advantage of the confusion caused by the attack on the Japanese flanks to destroy their positions from the front and force the opponent to retreat - and they did it.

Most of them stood unsuspectingly on the side of the road and watched the battle in front of them, first being blown up by the officers and soldiers of the Central Army who suddenly threw them out in the dark of night, and then they were subjected to a dense rain of bullets fired from Czech machine guns.

At this time, in front of Captain Maori, Ushijima's squadron had completed its tactical deployment and was engaged in a positional battle with the enemy forces on the opposite side. The deputy captain of the Japanese army did not expect that a detachment of troops would suddenly jump onto the road and launch a flank attack on his rear team, and the fire was fierce.

At the beginning of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army last year's operation in Shanxi, the configuration of Czech light machine guns almost reached one per squad, and an infantry company had more than 20 light machine guns, which was on par with each detachment of the Japanese army (equivalent to a squad) with a light machine gun - the elite equipment of the Central Army can be seen from this - but now there are only 19 Czechs left in the 391st Regiment. The remaining eighteen were divided equally between the six infantry companies of the first and second battalions. The three companies led by Deputy Battalion Commander Liu of the 1st Battalion at this moment lined up all three Czech machine guns at the front of the attack formation.

It seems that the 5th Company of the Eighth Route Army, which began to carry out an approach attack in the front, also used all three Czechs as a vanguard weapon. The Ushijima squadron of the Japanese army, which was holding on to them, could have maintained a standoff posture and attacked each other with artillery fire; However, the Central Army suddenly appeared behind the flank of the Japanese army, which made the military spirit of the Ushijima squadron fluctuate, and at this critical juncture, Li Tianlin led the 5th Company of the Eighth Route Army to press forward again, which immediately frustrated the sharp spirit of the Ushijima squadron, and the Japanese soldiers at the forefront involuntarily began to retreat.

Wu Zijian wants this moment!

Seeing that the Japanese troops at the front were retreating one after another, Wu Zijian immediately ordered Li Tianlin to take the first, second, and third platoons to stop the attack, turn around and run back, and suddenly formed a detachment from the Japanese squadron of Ushijima. At the same time, the artillery platoon of Zhao Yejiao on the third line of defense, which had ceased fire, decisively carried out a round of shelling, and as soon as the shells were fired, the whole platoon raised three mortars and began to retreat at full speed together with the Makqin heavy machine guns lifted down from the second line of defense. Wu Zijian led the 5th and 6th platoons to monitor the spot and cover the retreat of the main force of the company led by Li Tianlin.

Before the Maori Lieutenant, who was attacked from the flank, could not figure out the situation, he noticed the abnormal movement of the Ushijima squadron in front, and his scalp couldn't help but tighten: there was still a wounded military column parked on the railway line adjacent to the highway behind him, and the military column had been used as cover for the previous operation, but now the Ushijima squadron had completely spread out the formation in the wilderness area under the road, and it was obviously impossible to quickly shrink to the military column, so he must not give up easily.

"Hold it off for me! Infantry artillery to lower the artillery * to hit the Chinese army! ”

Captain Maori yelled at Squadron Leader Ushijima over a walkie-talkie as he called for the heavy machine guns in the column to turn their guns diagonally and fire heavily at the Shina Army that appeared on the flank. At this moment, the infantry squad that had been transferred back from Lingshi County rushed over, and the deputy commander of the Japanese army hurriedly ordered the squad to go around the rear of the military column and attack forward to drive away the enemy who had jumped onto the railroad and road.

"Captain! The men of the railway brigade found flares in the carriages! ”

Suddenly, the squad that remained in the column sent a senior soldier and ran to the side of the Captain Maori to report urgently. Stunned for a moment, Captain Maori was immediately surprised and delighted -- the two brigades of the Railway Corps Wing directly under the North China Front of the Japanese Army were driving and maintaining trains on the Nantongpu Railway and the Zhengtai Railway in Shanxi.

"So what are you waiting for!" Captain Maori shouted excitedly: "Launch immediately, towards the railway line and highway to the north, and the position of the Shina Army in front, release!" ”

A little more than a minute later, two flares were fired from the carriage of the military train, and under the earth-shattering sound of gunfire, the flares exploded almost silently, and then briefly illuminated the night sky.

It was in this short moment that the Japanese officers and men saw clearly the situation on the front and flanks: the enemy's frontal blocking positions were empty, and the Chinese army that jumped onto the railway line was also turning around and running down the road.

Yaga!

Captain Maori roared, before that, he was ready to convince himself that the Shina Army was making a comeback for a second attack, but under the light of the flares, it could be seen that the Shina Army was undoubtedly fleeing from both the front and the side!

Immediately afterward, two more flares pierced the night sky, which made Captain Maori see even more: the Chinese army in both directions seemed to be only about 100 men, and it should have been left behind—apparently, their main force had already slipped away first!

The deputy captain shouted hoarsely at the walkie-talkie and towards the squadron leader Ushijima again, he asked Ushijima to ignore the enemy who was sneaking up behind the flank, and instead concentrate on pursuing the main force of the Shina Army that fled head-on at full speed: catch up, bite tight!

After dropping the microphone of the walkie-talkie, Captain Maori personally commanded the two squads and began to pursue the Chinese army in the flank direction.

The Central Army Company, which jumped on the road and railroad and withdrew with one blow, was suddenly stuck by the Japanese army who had come back because of the close distance. Their rear team was less than ten feet away from the Japanese army's front line, and the 38 rifle bullets that flew up easily entered the ranks. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu, who led the team, knew very well that if he insisted on retreating quickly at this moment, he would inevitably incur a close-range shooting by the pursuers, and the consequences would be unimaginable. In desperation, he had no choice but to wave the Mauser* and loudly order his subordinates to lie down on the spot to block the attack.

Relying on the firepower of three Czech light machine guns, the 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 391st Regiment finally held their positions, but at such a pause, they also lost the opportunity to retreat in great strides, and had to re-enter the confrontation and entanglement with the Japanese troops on the opposite side.

The deputy battalion commander of the Central Army was hot and dry: Damn, Lao Tzu was originally helping the Eighth Route Army, but now that they have run away, his company has been bitten by the Japanese! If they had already crossed the large force of Japanese troops behind them and suddenly turned back to attack, the more than 100 people of the first battalion and three companies would face the catastrophe of being surrounded by the Japanese army!