"Heizi, immediately order all the troops to build fortifications. Our next task is to defend the city!"
After listening to the reports from various ministries, Li Qiufan began to arrange the next task, guarding Shangyang City and waiting for friendly forces to arrive and join forces.
In the direction of Taiyuan, when the Japs commander learned that Shangyang County was lost, he immediately ordered the surrounding Japs and puppet troops to move closer to Shangyang County and recapture the county seat.
All of a sudden, all the Japs in Taiyuan began to mobilize. The first batch of Japs arrived two days later, with a brigade of troops.
After this group of Japanese soldiers arrived, they immediately launched an attack on Shangyang County without any intention of waiting for other reinforcements.
"Damn it, how dare a brigade be so arrogant!"
"Heizi, let the troops beat me hard!"
Li Qiufan became angry when he saw that a Japanese brigade dared to attack the county town. This was so disrespectful!
Li Qiufan immediately ordered a counterattack, and the soldiers defending the city began to fire directly at the Japanese. Under the strong firepower, the Japanese were beaten back and did not dare to attack again.
In fact, it is not the fault of these Japs, because they have never encountered such a situation in Taiyuan, and the Eighth Route Army was able to suppress them with firepower.
You must know that in their eyes, a Japanese brigade can defeat a division of the Eighth Route Army, and they have never seen an Eighth Route Army with such strong firepower.
That's it. Li Qiufan didn't even use heavy artillery for bombardment. He only used mountain artillery and infantry artillery mortars. Cannons and howitzers were useless.
This time, Li Qiufan brought all his family's money with him. He only had several carts of artillery shells. If he wanted to engage in an artillery battle with him, unless the Japanese brought a heavy artillery brigade, he would not even be able to bring a division. Disregard it.
"Heizi, how are the troop casualties?"
After the Japanese retreated, Li Qiufan found Heizi and asked about the casualties of the troops.
"The casualties of each unit were very small. The Japanese were pushed back directly by us without being too violently attacked."
Heizi shook his head. Now a brigade of Japanese soldiers could not move the Independent Brigade at all, let alone the Independent Brigade being the defensive party.
"Brothers, let's get some rest. It won't be long before Japanese support arrives. It won't be so easy then!"
Li Qiufan looked solemnly into the distance. Although his independent brigade had strong firepower, it was in an area occupied by the Japanese. In terms of support and troop strength, the independent brigade simply couldn't compare.
Sure enough, when it was almost dark, the Japanese reinforcements arrived. The Japanese troops coming one after another from all around totaled almost one and a half divisions.
Except for the artillery, the Japanese are not as good as the independent brigade, and their strength is already more than twice that of the independent brigade.
Looking at the more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers not far away, Li Qiufan also felt the pressure, and at the same time asked the dispatcher to send a report to the headquarters to inquire about the arrival time of friendly troops.
"Brigadier, call back from headquarters!"
After receiving the telegram from the headquarters, the telegraph operator immediately handed it over to Li Qiufan.
Li Qiufan picked it up and looked at it, then frowned.
The headquarters actually asked his independent brigade to hold on until about three o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Li Qiufan was a little confused.
His independent brigade had already taken Shangyang County for three days, and it would take another day for reinforcements to arrive. This made him wonder if someone was timid and delayed the opportunity to fight.
"Confirm the time with headquarters again!"
Li Qiufan turned to the radio operator and said, he really couldn't understand how one and a half divisions of Japanese soldiers had come over now, and he didn't know how many more would follow, so how could his independent brigade be able to survive.
Fortunately, the Japanese did not attack that night, but camped on the spot waiting for the next day.
Early the next morning, as the sun just rose, the Japanese on the opposite side began to make moves, and one after another they set off towards the position of the Independence Brigade.
"Heizi, cheer up brothers! The Japs are coming!"
Li Qiufan stood on the top of the city and shouted towards Heizi.
Not long after, the Japanese launched a general attack. Countless artillery shells hit the city wall, making the soldiers unable to stand upright.
"Signal soldier, tell Lao Ma to call me back! Let's have an artillery battle with the Japanese!"
Li Qiufan was almost hit by a shell. Fortunately, he hid in time, but he was still a little confused by the explosion, so he immediately asked Lao Ma to fight back.
Not long after, Lao Ma's side began to exert force. This time howitzers and cannons also came into battle. The power of heavy artillery was simply not comparable to that of mountain artillery and field artillery. It directly blew up all the enemy's artillery positions on the opposite side.
The Japanese on the opposite side did not expect that Li Qiufan would have heavy artillery. The artillery position was not hidden at all. Because the mountain artillery and field artillery could not hit it at this distance, they were directly destroyed by the regiment.
After destroying the Japs' artillery position, Lao Ma's artillery fire began to bombard the Japs' troops, directly knocking the Japs' soldiers off their backs.
The Japs in the rear were being bombed, and the Japs in front had already rushed to the bottom of the city wall. They were constantly climbing the city wall, and some were holding explosives and preparing to blow up the city gate.
"Extremely! You lead this reconnaissance battalion to block the city gate with stones and soil. No matter what, you can't let the Japanese blow it open!"
Li Qiufan had just killed a Japanese who was about to blow up the city gate, and immediately turned around and shouted to him.
In the current situation, the city gate cannot be breached, because the advantage of the independent brigade is artillery. If the enemy rushes in, the advantage will be gone.
Facing twice as many Japs and having to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Japs, Li Qiufan had no confidence. I believe that no army would have the confidence to fight the Japs hand-to-hand when faced with such a situation.
Soon, he led the reconnaissance battalion down the city wall and began to block the city gate with stones and earth. When the bricks and stones were not enough, he started demolishing the houses. Of course, he did not forget that he had no money.
After more than an hour of fighting, the Independent Brigade finally withstood the first wave of Japanese attacks and had some breathing time.
But Li Qiufan was not relaxed at the moment, frowning and looking at the Japanese opposite.
"Signal Corps, go tell Lao Ma and ask him to drag the cannon to the edge of the city wall and hide it. I have a hunch that the Japanese should have ordered a plane bombing!"
Li Qiufan solemnly said to Heizi that the Japanese artillery on the opposite side was destroyed by him. If he charges again at this time, there will be no cover, so the Japanese will definitely find a way to destroy the artillery of the independent brigade.
The fastest and most direct way was to call for air support and bomb Shangyang County. Li Qiufan guessed that the Japanese would probably do this, so he felt a little heavy.
Dragging the cannon to the edge of the city wall and hiding it could reduce losses, but the soldiers were also within the bombing range. After the bombing, he was afraid that there would be heavy casualties. However, he did not have anti-aircraft guns, so he could only watch the Japanese bombing.
