Pan County.

As a county seat where the Japanese army was stationed relatively close to Zhao Jiayu's base area, the Panxian devils had a deep understanding of the strength of the independent regiment.

The first time the two sides fought was when the Independent Regiment first picked up the tracks of the Zhengtai Railway.

At that time, more than half of the Panxian brigade, that is, more than 600 people, set up positions along the way to intercept the second battalion of the independent regiment that returned to the base area with steel rails, but it was attacked by the cavalry battalion of the independent regiment, the infantry company, the reconnaissance company of the first battalion, and the third artillery company from behind, and the two sides fought on the gentle slope on the left side of Panxian.

The Panxian devil garrison is really not weak, with a total strength of 1,000 people, equipped with two mountain guns, two Type 92 infantry guns, eight heavy machine guns, and a standard Japanese second-line division and regiment configuration.

However, in the face of the high mobility of the cavalry battalion and the infantry company, the terrifying firepower of the unified equipment of general-purpose machine guns and submachine guns, and the 12 82 mortars of the 3rd artillery company, these more than 600 devils collapsed after an hour, leaving more than 100 corpses and fleeing back to Panxian.

During this period, the Panxian devils even used mustard gas and other poison gas bombs on a large scale, but the independent regiment had gas masks and thick cotton clothes, and it was an open terrain, so the effect of poison gas was not great, and a small number of soldiers who were injured by poison gas also received timely treatment, and there was naturally no shortage of drugs for treating common poison gas in the medical kit.

The follow-up was that the barracks was bombarded by 120 heavy mortar shells from the Second Company of Wang Chengzhu's artillery, as well as cold gun mines from time to time.

Until yesterday, according to the statistics of the Japanese army in Panxian, a total of 180 imperial soldiers were in the hands of the independent regiment, and one-fifth of the imperial army, including the wounded, was gone.

The Panxian Devil Brigade, which received the order to block again, naturally treated it with twelve points of spirit.

Two mountain guns were erected in a safe position, and two Type 92 advance positions were in a solid civil bunker, leaving only one squadron to garrison the county town of the remaining 800 or so, and the rest were dispatched to urgently build bunkers.

This time, the devil has learned a lesson, not only guarding against the front, but also from the back.

But there seems to be a rule that when you think you are fully prepared, reality will always give you a slap in the face. This time, the enemy waiting in front did not come, nor did they expect the attackers from behind, but something happened on the flank.

"Hit."

When Kong Jie shouted the order to attack, the new 2nd Regiment opened fire.

Four doors 120 heavy pressing, eight 82 guns forced to carry out intensive artillery bombardment of the devil positions in the distance, compared to Li Yunlong, Ding Wei and Kong Jie's family background is not solid enough, life is carefully calculated, large-scale full-speed artillery bombardment only lasted three minutes and stopped, but the intensive fire of the twelve mortars also made the unprepared devil position a mess, with heavy casualties.

As soon as the artillery fire stopped, the 1st Battalion of the New 2nd Regiment, which had already moved 300 meters in front of the Japanese position, immediately launched a charge, and at the same time, four flares also illuminated the position of the devils.

The Panxian devils, who had not yet come to their senses, pierced the machine guns and submachine guns of the first battalion of the new second regiment.

The captain of the devil brigade finally stabilized the team, retreated to the county under the cover of two mountain guns, and was suddenly attacked by the second battalion of the new second regiment ambushed outside the city, although he finally successfully escaped under the cover of the fire of the defenders of the city wall, but was forced to leave most of the heavy equipment.

In the end, Commander Kong retreated with two Type 92 infantry guns, two Type 92 heavy machine guns, and more than 100 Type 38 covers.

As soon as he returned to the county seat, the captain of the devil brigade in Pan County hurriedly sent a telegram to Shimakawa Dazuo in Yu County.

·····

Yu County.

"The flank of the Yuxian garrison position was attacked by the Eighth Route Army and was forced to retreat to the county seat, losing about a squadron, the opponent's strength was about 2,000 people, and it was equipped with a lot of artillery fire."

Hearing the telegram read out by the staff officer, Shimakawa froze for a while, and then went directly insane, and he howled hysterically:

"Two thousand people of the Eighth Route Army!"

"Where did this come from?"

"There are still two thousand Eighth Route Army at Niangziguan Railway Station, what the hell is going on?"

He didn't understand, where did these Eighth Route Army that suddenly popped up come from?

After scolding hysterically for a while, Shimakawa regained some composure, he found a map of the northwest of Jin, looked at the independent regiment base on it, and the surrounding force markers, and began to ponder.

Various sources of intelligence can confirm that the 4,000 Eighth Route Army that suddenly appeared is not a unit of the Independent Regiment, and now the remaining thousands of people of the Independent Regiment are still in the base area.

So who are they?

Where did it come from?

Without much thought, he set his sights on the two regiments located on either flank of the Separate Regiment.

"Are these two regiment-level troops of the Eighth Route Army?"

Shimakawa began to think about information about the two regiments.

Because the intelligence department of the First Army focused on the independent regiment, it did not pay much attention to the two surrounding regiments, but after all, it was close to the independent regiment, and it was somewhat concerned.

According to aggregated intelligence.

These two regiments are called the new first regiment and the new second regiment, and the strength is about 1,500 people, and they are equipped with equipment that has been eliminated by the independent regiment.

There is direct evidence for these messages.

Compared with the independent regiments, these two regiments were very peaceful, rarely launched attacks on the imperial army, and the few active attacks were aimed at squad-level baggage transport teams, through these battles, these two regiments showed very poor strength, most of them were recruits, only equipped with grenadiers and small-caliber mortars, and the number was relatively small, and the machine guns were mostly Czech, and even the machine guns of the empire. When there is an imperial army brigade or even a squadron, it will take the initiative to avoid it.

"Is it..."

Shimakawa figured it out in an instant.

These two regiments were deliberately concealing their strength.

Because of Li Yunlong's large-scale actions around his base area, the construction of highways by more than 60,000 people with great fanfare, and the many sorties to pick up railroad tracks, shell barracks, and bombard railway stations, almost all the attention of the intelligence department of the entire First Army has attracted the attention of the entire First Army.

Thinking of this, and thinking about the enemy's firepower and number in the telegram from Panxian County that he had just received, Shimakawa directly took a breath of cool air.

Li Yunlong's more than 6,000 people, plus the strength and combat effectiveness displayed by these two regiments, that is, more than 10,000 troops, not including the remaining troops of the new 1st Regiment and the new 2nd Regiment, the total number is estimated to be 12,000 people. Moreover, the equipment is advanced, equipped with a large number of artillery, and the firepower is even more powerful than that of the imperial army.

Thinking of this, Shimakawa was immediately followed by a tingling of his scalp.

Big trouble.

Although four newly formed brigades have been supplemented recently, the total strength of the imperial army, including his Yu County, Ping'an County, Niangziguan Railway Station, Heyuan County, and Pan County, is just over 10,000 people.

The number of people is not comparable, and the strength of the same scale is not comparable.

There are other troops in the surrounding area, and even more, but the other imperial troops need to guard other Zhengtai railway lines and communication lines, and they also need to guard against other guerrilla forces and the Jin Sui army, what happened on their side, it is not so easy to support.

This is a serious problem.

"Give me a call from General Yoshimoto."

Shimakawa's voice trembled, and large drops of sweat dripped from his forehead.

He hadn't forgotten that Li Yunlong was stealing railroad tracks!

Last time more than a thousand people stole a little and a half kilometers, so how many will three thousand people steal this time? How long does it take to fix it afterwards? Also, how should the more than 10,000 Eighth Route Army be dealt with? What if they come back to steal the rails after a while?

······

Niangziguan Railway Station.

The fighting had stopped, and after the troops who had supported Nishimura and other places had withdrawn and broken through the guerrillas' resistance, the attacking Eighth Route Army had also retreated, which made the devil commander finally breathe a sigh of relief.

If this group continues to attack, with the opponent's firepower, it is estimated that they can completely destroy the Niangziguan Railway Station for a few more hours.

"What about the losses?"

The devil commander asked.

This battle was really not easy, the opponent had sufficient troops, strong firepower, more than 1,000 people attacked the railway station, and also divided a part to block the retreating reinforcements, the imperial army fought very hard.

"The main building of the station was seriously damaged, the railroad tracks were also partially damaged by enemy artillery fire, the warehouse was also damaged, and the losses were not counted for the time being, and the garrison brigade suffered 159 casualties, including 77 jade shatters."

The staff officer quickly came up with the result:

"The three brigades that returned to the reinforcements, in order to break through the enemy's resistance, launched a group attack, and suffered heavy losses, with 372 casualties, including 190 jade shatters and 17 missing,"

"A total of 531 casualties and 284 missing jade shatters."

Hearing the data, the devil commander was dizzy at that time.

Although the battle was long, the enemy did not intend to attack, and the Eighth Route Army, which was attacking the railway station, retreated and shifted the direction of attack when it encountered a slight resistance.

But he still suffered almost one brigade of casualties, and lost as many as two squadrons.

The main reason is that in order to break through the enemy's resistance, the returning troops launched a group charge without fire preparation, and the enemy's firepower was also very strong, and its heavy artillery could not only bombard the station, but also support the blocking force.

"Give me a call from the Taiyuan Headquarters."

The devil commander said.

······

"Withdraw."

At eleven o'clock in the evening, the Zhengtai railway line near Saigo.

Looking at the bare railway, and the train that completely disappeared and only a little plank, ore and grain remained, Li Yunlong gave the order to retreat with satisfaction.

"It's a pity."

Before leaving, he glanced at the grain that had been left on the ground, and felt a little pity in his heart.

He didn't care about the ore, but these grains, even if there was no shortage of food in the regiment now, or even more, even if there were only some coarse grains such as soybean meal and millet, Master Li was still a little distressed.

After all, this is food!

But he couldn't help it, he couldn't carry anything else with the troops this time, all the board cars were loaded with rails, and even some soldiers were still carrying or carrying rails.

For the independent regiment, steel is much more important than these coarse grains, and it can only be abandoned.

The devil attaches great importance to the railway, there are no villages at all in the vicinity of the railway, the closest to Xixiang here, Yejia Village also has more than five miles of road, and there is no way to give it to the people, after all, this is still the territory of the devil.

The convoy pulled out and headed in the direction of Zhao Jiayu.

However, when Grand Master Li finally looked back, he found that the grain seemed to be much less than at the beginning, almost nothing, but there was no one in the regiment carrying the grain on his back, and there was no one on the cart.

By his side, Huang Baowang gave him the answer.

"Regiment leader, I see that these grains are also wasted, so I will eat them all for the big mule, you know the appetite of the big mule, you really have to eat it openly, and there is no problem in eating thirty or forty catties at a time."

"Haha, that's good..."

Li Yunlong was very satisfied.