Independence Corps

Chapter 22 Head-to-head confrontation (3)
The scouts came and went several times, constantly sending the latest situation of the 13th Division.After successfully encircling and suppressing the two divisions of the National Army, Ichiro Miyatahara ordered the 25th Division to stay in Maihe to clean up the battlefield. The 13th Division took advantage of the victory and advanced to take Miliangcheng.Victory can often bring great encouragement to people. This is true for the national army, Shen Mengzi, and the Japanese army.The morale of the 13th Division, which had just won a big victory, was very high, and the speed of advancing was extremely fast.The scouts also reported that it was 50 kilometers, 30 kilometers away from Miliang City, and at 20 kilometers away, Shen Mengzi received another urgent call from the brigade commander Tang Peisen:

"Shen, Bi, Bai and all the soldiers of the 72nd Regiment: The 14th Front Army of the Japanese Army bloodbathed the Maihe River one day ago, and all two divisions of the National Army were martyred. Right now, the Japanese Army is attacking the Miliang Mountain Area at an abnormal speed. Our department received an order from our superiors to urgently Rush to the Baishui River to stop another invading enemy. After receiving the call, your regiment immediately withdrew from the Luanshigangzi line, handed the Luanshigangzi to the 12th Division of the National Army, and the whole regiment entered Wufengling and Huajialing for defense. The division ordered that no matter what happens, Wufeng Ridge and Huajia Ridge must not be lost, let alone abandoned..."

There was still a long section in the telegram, Shen Mengzi shook his head wordlessly when he saw this, and handed it to Bi Chuanyun.While paying attention to the movements in the front position, he secretly observed Bi Chuanyun.Unexpectedly, Bi Chuanyun could not read more than three lines, so he handed the telegram to the correspondent: "Put it away. From now on, all the telegrams from the brigade headquarters will be handed over to Staff Officer Shi, and it will be fine for Staff Officer Shi to handle them."

The messenger looked at Shen Mengzi in confusion, and Shen Mengzi also looked at Bi Chuanyun in confusion.Bi Chuanyun smiled relievedly: "There's nothing to hope for, so let's do this. None of us can count on it now. Whether the 72nd regiment lives or dies, our lives are in our own hands. In addition, you tell Staff Officer Shi that the National Army is also People, just say that I, Bi Chuanyun, said this." After speaking, he hugged the binoculars and lay down on the edge of the wet trench to observe.

Shen Mengzi stared at him strangely for a long time, laughed twice, and turned to the signal soldier: "Just follow the instructions of the political commissar. Except for the situation on each front, all other telegrams will be sent to Huajialing!"

"Yes!"

When another dawn came, the Japanese army appeared in darkness one kilometer below the stone slope of Luanshigangzi.Contrary to Shen Mengzi's expectations, Sasaki's task force did not exchange fire with the 12rd Regiment of the 73th Division that was ambushing ahead. Gangben was ingenious and stopped suddenly at a place called Laoyingzui six kilometers away from Ma'anpo, allowing the troops to rest for two weeks. Hour.Then, Sasaki's task force was sent to touch the flood ditch west of Ma'anpo, directly under the nose of the 72nd regiment, and Ma'anpo was handed over to the Fifth Wing of Ma'anpo.

Ma'anpo and Luanshigangzi were fired almost at the same time. Seeing that Sasaki's task force had crossed the grove under the stone slope and entered within range, Shen Mengzi, who was lying in the trench, suffocated and roared. : "Brothers, fight!"

Therefore, the three companies of the fourth battalion deployed at the forefront opened fire at the same time, and the dense bullets flew across the open space in front of the trench like angry raindrops, shooting at the enemies who touched them.Sasaki's contingent was probably still immersed in the excitement of the First Battle of Maihe, before they got used to it, the bullets had already hit their bodies, and five or six Japanese soldiers fell to the ground one after another, only to see them hide in a hiding place.The brothers in the fourth battalion may have held it in for too long. Once the bolt was pulled, they couldn't hold it. , Didn’t you see the devil go back?”

Sure enough, the devil retreated, and within 10 minutes of shooting, the small group of enemies that passed through the woods retreated back into the woods, and the enemies behind did not come forward, and the gunshots that had just started stopped suddenly, and the chaotic rocky hillock Back to silence again.

Shen Mengzi looked at Bi Chuanyun, feeling something was wrong.Bi Chuanyun also frowned. Obviously, he also suspected that Sasaki was playing tricks.But after waiting for half an hour, the second wave of enemies still hadn't attacked, but there was loud gunshots from Ma'anpo, thick smoke billowed, and the pungent smell of earth was already wafting here.

After waiting for another half an hour, Bai Jianjiang's left wing suddenly opened fire, and Shen Mengzi turned his head to see that there were about four battalions of devils swarming towards Bai Jianjiang and the others.

"Hitting east and west!" Shen Mengzi had just finished speaking, when suddenly ten times as many enemies as before rushed out from under his nose, "Damn it, it turned out to be a test!"

"Everyone hold your breath first, wait until you reach the rocky slope before fighting!" Shen Mengzi was afraid that his brothers would get agitated, the enemy was several times stronger than me, and this battle cannot be fought indiscriminately.He lay quietly in the trench, his eyes measuring the distance from the little devil to the trench, 500 meters, 300 meters, 100 meters, the devil went up the stone slope.Going up the stone slope is tantamount to falling into the trap. The stone slope was carefully prepared by Fang Jinwen and the Siying brothers for the little devil. In the middle of the stone slope, they sprinkled something called pine oil.There is a large dense pine forest behind Huajialing, and there are many such things on the trees. Fang Jinwen asked the brothers to scrape off the pine oil, dilute it with water, and then sprinkle it on the rocky slope, and then sprinkle a thin layer of it on top. soil.The little devils had just arrived, so naturally they didn't know that there was something wrong, and when they realized something was wrong, the feet of the number one hundred and ten devils in front had already been stuck firmly with pine oil.

"Fight!" Shen Mengzi gave an order, and the two companies and the machine gun companies in the forward position opened fire crackling.Submachine guns, machine guns, and rifles intertwined into a dense firepower net, and the Japanese army rushing to the front was hit in the head, and a large area fell instantly.

Sasaki's contingent was not a vegetarian either. After failing to attack twice in a row, they immediately adjusted their strategy. They avoided the stone slope and attacked Shen Mengzi and the others from both sides of the stone slope.In an instant, the sound of cannons and gunshots rang out, and the rocky hillock fell into a sea of ​​flames.

Another half an hour later, when Shen Mengzi was enjoying the fight, he suddenly discovered that more Japanese troops rushed from the depression on the lower right of Widow Slope, and attacked the fifth and seventh battalions under the cover of rear artillery.

"Not good!" He yelled, handed the widow slope to Bi Chuanyun, took the guard Su Wuzi, and ran towards the fifth camp.

Although the 72nd regiment was well prepared, when they really fought against Sasaki, they found that they were a little weaker.Not only is it weak, but there are indeed problems in arming.Everyone thought that the Japanese army would adopt a frontal assault tactic, but Sasaki was a cunning and cunning man. On the surface, he adopted a frontal attack. In fact, he ambushed the most violent artillery fire and the most elite combat power on the two wings.Compared with the fourth battalion, the second battalion deployed on the left wing and the fifth battalion and seventh battalion on the right wing became the center of firepower.

The battle was extremely difficult. With the advantages of the terrain and the relatively strong fortifications, Shen Mengzi and the others repelled the enemy's attack five times in a row.But under the fierce artillery attack of the enemy, they also had to retreat three miles back.When it was dark, the enemy's sixth attack was defeated. The brothers fought hard all day, their mouths were dry and their eyes were burning, but no one dared to let go of their spirits.In contrast, Sasaki suffered more serious injuries.

So Sasaki avoided the 73rd Regiment in Ma'anpo and volunteered to run to the front to meet the 72nd Regiment.Sasaki is a special person under Okamoto. He has a deep friendship with Okamoto, and he has a life-and-death acquaintance on the battlefield. In addition, after his contingent entered China, he has repeatedly made military exploits. Commander Miyata treats him well. Very much appreciated.It was Commander Miyata's idea to let him join the 13th Division this time.Commander Miyata praised him as a sharp knife, saying that this knife is invincible and omnipotent.He wanted to insert this sharp knife into the rice grain mountain, into the hearts of Tu Lanlong and Shen Mengzi.Only in this way can the plan of eliminating the 11th Army to control Miliang City and then the entire Miliang Mountain area be realized, and only in this way can the iron boots of the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army trample on any piece of land he wants to step on with the spirit of sweeping everything .

It's a pity that Sasaki was too arrogant and underestimated the enemy. He thought that the 72nd Regiment entrenched on Wufengling was nothing more than a scumbag, and Shen Mengzi was just trying to make a name for himself. Especially after being incorporated into the 312th Brigade, the combat effectiveness of this team has long been It's not as good as before, and with the 43rd brigade down the mountain for nearly half a year, it should be that people are exhausted and ammunition and food are running out.He picked this weak spot to fight, firstly, he wanted to win the first prize, and secondly, he also took a fancy to Wufengling and Huajialing, two treasured lands of geomantic omen.If Shen Mengzi's 72nd Regiment was easily eaten up, Wufengling and Huajialing belonged to Sasaki. At that time, he would be condescending and attack the Tu Lanlong in the city.

It's a pity that Sasaki made a wrong calculation, Shen Mengzi didn't get his name in vain, and the 72nd regiment was far from being as stupid as he thought.After a day of fierce fighting, his loss was more than three times that of the 72nd regiment.When it was dark, Sasaki had to give an order to suspend the attack, retreat to the bank of the Valley River, and readjust the attack plan.

As soon as the guns fired, the Tufu in Meiyuan immediately became tense.Three days ago, Tu Lanlong moved his headquarters to the second row of bungalows in front of Meiyuan. The purpose of doing this was to make it easier for commanders at all levels to find him.The Plum Garden is too deep. If you go to the original headquarters through the two front yards and the back garden, it will waste a lot of time, and it is not good for the safety of the Plum Garden.It's better to simply move to the front, which will save a lot of trouble.

The air in the headquarters was tense. After the sound was fired from Maihe, Tu Lanlong called several of his cronies and several division heads who had had life-and-death acquaintances with his adoptive father to the headquarters. Pay attention to the movements of the 13th and 25th Divisions of the Japanese Army.After the gunshots from Maihe fell silent, Tu Lanlong even vacated six rooms in Meiyuan, and temporarily moved the command center of the old regiment leader Gu Shanyi and the others here.Adjutant Teng Yunfei didn't understand why he did this, so he asked him when no one was around: "Gather everyone together and fight in the future, how do you command?"

"Fight, fight with whom?" Tu Lanlong looked at Teng Yunfei casually, and asked in a strange tone.

Asking this made Teng Yunfei sweat all over.Who else can we fight? The Japanese devils are all in sight. Why does the young commander still ask such a question?

When Tan Weiming's 12th division and the devils got into the fire, Tu Lanlong's performance surprised Teng Yunfei even more.He summoned ten division heads to the headquarters, said nothing, just stared at the battle map on the wall.Tan Weiming and Zhu Daquan repelled the devil's attack once, and Tu Lanlong planted a small red flag at Ma'anpo's position, repelled twice, and inserted it on both sides.After inserting it, he stared blankly at the map, and the ten division heads present were in a cold sweat.No one can guess what Tu Lanlong is thinking in his heart. Normally, when the 12th divisions exchange fire, the entire population of Miliangcheng should be mobilized and enter the first level of combat readiness.But Tu Lanlong didn't, there was a lot of war over there, but here, Tu Lanlong ordered that everything should go on as usual, the shops must be opened, the school would be open as usual, and even the drama of the Majiaban would be performed as usual.The only difference was that the two roads leading to the equipment factory were all closed, and the newly formed artillery brigade also moved into the equipment factory.

The first day passed in such a boring way. During dinner time, the operator sent another urgent telegram. On this day, the Ministry of Ministers sent 12 urgent telegrams successively, all announcing the situation ahead.According to telegrams, except for the encounters between the 13th and 25th Divisions of the Japanese Army from Maihe to Miliangcheng, the invading enemy was found in the Sujiashan area and the Honggu area.Especially near Xinzhou, 120 kilometers away from Datong, the Japanese 39th Army has been found active.There are various indications that the Japanese army's large-scale aggression against China has already begun, and a bloody battle will inevitably start across the country.

"Read!" The radio operator stood for a long time before Tu Lanlong said.

The operator gave Tu Lanlong a timid look. This was the 13th time she heard the same word today.Usually, she handed over telegrams directly to Adjutant Teng Yunfei, but today Teng Yunfei also seemed restless, so she could only bite the bullet and read:

Lan Long and the soldiers of the 11th Army Group:

Half an hour ago, the 173rd Division and 129th Division, the main force of our department, had exchanged fire with the Japanese army in Taigu and Changzhi. , Eliminated more than 173 devils, it can be said that the flag is a victory, and our army is strong.According to the order of the Minister's Department, the 129th Army must be ready to fight and wait for the orders of the Minister's Department at any time.

Yan Xishan

After the operator finished reading, he straightened his body and waited for Tu Lanlong to speak.Tu Lanlong waved his hand, the same as the previous 12 times, signaling the operator to go back.As soon as the telegraph operator walked to the door, Tu Lanlong suddenly called out: "Wait a minute."

The operator had no choice but to turn around again, looking at Tu Lanlong in fear.

"Call back!"

Tu Lanlong paced and dictated the telegram: "Mr. Yan, the telegram has been received. The 173rd Division and the 129th Division were cultivated by Mr. Yan himself, and they beat the enemy. They are an example. The 13th Division of the Japanese Army has approached our rice grain city. Be prepared to fight back, and I hope Lord Yan can rest assured. The 11th Group Army will follow the example of the 173rd Division and the 129th Division, and deal a heavy blow to the enemy, so that the post will never come back! Tu Lanlong."

After listening to the ten division heads present here, they let out a long sigh of relief.It seems that the young commander's determination to beat the Japanese invaders has not wavered, and they were called before the battle just to stabilize the morale of the army.Unexpectedly, as soon as the radio operator left, Tu Lanlong said something that discouraged the ten division heads: "It's getting late, let's have dinner, there will be a good show in Xibazi after dinner, I invite you to watch the show."

The moonlight was dim, and there was a strong smell of gunpowder smoke in the air, making people uneasy.The ten division heads who had been arranged to enter Meiyuan were sent to Xibazi Xibazi Opera Garden on time by four military vehicles.At a time like this, who still has the heart to watch a show?The theater was deserted, and even Liu Tailor, who loved to join in the fun, was gone.It was reported that after the execution of storekeeper Sun of Hengtong Rice Store, the storekeepers in the city actually handed over a lot of hoarded goods.Among them, Qi Jitian, the owner of Guangren Pharmacy, took out the most medicines. After the boxes of medicines were taken away by the logistics manager Lao Hong and the others, the aunts and wives of the shopkeeper beat their chests and scolded God for not being open. They saved medicines for five or six years. Gone.The treasurer Qian of Dahe Bank also hoarded a batch of medicinal materials, all of which were used for first aid in wartime.Tailor Liu from the tailor's shop was even more ingenious. He bought a batch of stretchers from Taiyuan, as well as hemostatic plasma and so on, and hid them with his brother in the country.After President He took Meng Bingliang and the others to the countryside to take away the things, he actually bit out a lot of people from the chamber of commerce.After further investigation, it was discovered that the chamber of commerce was the chief culprit in the incident of hoarding supplies. There was no express or hint from the president. These shopkeepers may not be so bold.Meng Bingliang gave an order and threw the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce He into prison.

"Kill it, these greedy things are obviously accomplices for the Japanese." Before the play started, the division heads were touched by the scene and talked about some things about the chamber of commerce and the shopkeepers.

"I heard from Lieutenant Teng that the hoarding is not only grain, oil and medicine, but also kerosene and cotton." Gu Shanyi from Yunshuijian said worriedly.

"It's a pity that the old commander, who taught him all his life, has such a result." The old head of the 121 regiment is full of thoughts. He misses the old commander very much these days.

Everyone said one sentence to another, and glanced across the stage from the air. It's strange that Ma's class tonight seems to be unprepared.Just as he was wondering, Wu Qi, the captain of the pistol team, hurried to the theater with a few brothers. He first whispered to Old Tang, who had one leg under the stage, and then walked up the escalator to the private room: "I'm sorry. , The young commander has something to do, so he can't come, the headquarters asked me to take the officers to a place, the car is waiting outside, please get in the car."

The officers were astonished, they didn't understand what Wu Qi's move meant, but they didn't dare to disobey, and finally boarded the car after dawdling.

At this time, Tu Lanlong was standing under the unique moon-watching pavilion in the back garden of the plum garden. There was no moon to admire tonight, and the stars were covered by dark clouds. The plum garden was hazy and covered with a layer of mystery.Another layer of mystery shrouded Tu Lanlong's heart.There was no practical purpose for him to summon ten division heads who were closely related to himself and his adoptive father to Meiyuan.This move is entirely for the future battle situation.Tu Lanlong has prepared for this fierce battle for two to three years. Of course, if he fights well, it may end in less than a year.But the end doesn't mean he can stop. If the Japanese don't withdraw from China for a day, he, Tu Lanlong, can't expect to stop.Let's just talk about the fierce battle in front of us. The 11th Army's morale is high on the surface, and everyone is gearing up. They wish they could learn from Tan Weiming and fight against Little Japan.But if we really want to fight, I am afraid that many people will be like turtles.Yesterday he had heard that Chi Shaotian, the commander of the Sixth Division, secretly sent someone out of Miliang City. As for where he went, he didn't know, but he thought, most likely, he went to find Chief Yan.Chi Shaotian was under Chief Yan at that time, and he was the head of the regiment. Later, he was caught by the adjutant of Brigadier Hu because he slept with the concubine of his superior, Brigadier Hu. Out of Mizhi Mountain.After being hunted down by Brigadier Hu, he had no choice but to vote for his adoptive father.Of course, the adoptive father accepted him with a condition, that is, to take good care of the things in his crotch, and not to cause trouble, let alone sleep with the wives or aunts of the brothers.The foster father had a saying at that time, which was very classic: "When you sleep with other people's wives, maybe your wife is also in other people's arms. This kind of thing is not worth it to you. So everyone should take care of the things in the crotch. Sleep indiscriminately, so that the world will be peaceful, and you don’t have to go around to rely on others.” It is said that Chi Shaotian swore to the sky at that time, saying that if he made such a stupid mistake again, his foster father would castrate him.The foster father smiled and said, "I know how to cast a pig, but I haven't done eunuchs before, and I don't want to do it. If you commit a crime, I'll give you a knife and solve it yourself."

(End of this chapter)