After receiving Li Qiufan's order, Erhu immediately led Yizong to start building defensive positions.
At the same time, Li Yunlong quickly returned to Zhangjiashan with the third column and cooperated with the fourth column to eliminate the 38th Army.
On the side of the 36th Army, after reuniting with the defeated troops of the 65th Army, they immediately understood the situation.
After learning that the People's Liberation Army opposite had nearly 100,000 troops and also carried heavy artillery.
The commander of the 36th Army, who originally planned to launch an attack, instantly changed his mind and confronted Yizong on the spot. At the same time, he reported the situation to the old fox.
Li Qiufan has been observing the position of the 36th Army with binoculars, trying to figure out the strength and configuration of this unit.
However, the deployment of the 36th Army is very clumsy, and the hidden firepower points everywhere are difficult to detect unless they are actively exposed.
"The commander of this unit is an old man. We have met our opponent!"
Li Qiufan frowned and sighed. After looking for a long time, he only found the enemy's firepower on the surface. As for other firepower points, he didn't find it at all.
"Damn it, we were about to wipe out the 65th Army, and Cheng Yaojin came out halfway!"
The captured national soldiers already knew the numbers of the 65th Army and the 38th Army. Heizi looked at the position of the 36th Army and cursed through gritted teeth.
"I am lucky to have lost my life. It seems that the 65th Army should not be killed. Fortunately, we have disabled this army!"
Li Qiufan was also very angry about not taking down the 65th Army, but it was useless to say anything at this point.
Fortunately, there is also the 38th Army over Zhangjiashan. Although it is not the main force of the national army, it can be regarded as a bit of psychological comfort.
Moreover, the 65th Army had been crippled, with less than one division of soldiers escaping, and most of them died on the ground or were captured.
"Brother, shall we fight?"
Heizi was still unwilling and asked Li Qiufan, pointing to the position of the 36th Army.
"Look again, we don't even know what's going on with the troops on the opposite side."
"Besides, the Fourth Column and the Third Column are currently dealing with the 38th Army. We only have one column available."
"Looking at the opponent's formation, you can tell that they are not just ordinary people. This is at least an army!"
Li Qiufan shook his head at Heizi. The current situation was not conducive to them. After all, there was only one Yizong available.
If the third and fourth columns can finish off the 38th Army and arrive in time to support them, then this battle can still be fought.
Although the 38th Army is not the main force of the national army and its combat effectiveness is not very strong, it cannot be said that more than 20,000 people can be eliminated in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, Li Qiufan did not want to take this risk. At present, winning the 38th Army was the best result.
Seeing that Li Qiufan did not agree to the beating, Heizi sighed helplessly, and then stopped talking.
After receiving the telegram from the 36th Army, Old Fox decided to let it retreat after weighing the pros and cons.
Facing nearly 100,000 people of the People's Liberation Army, even the 36th Army could not rescue the 38th Army from their hands.
Moreover, both the 65th Army and the First Army were crippled and had little combat effectiveness.
Asking more than 30,000 people to fight against nearly 100,000 people is a waste of time.
Therefore, the old fox decided to abandon the 38th Army and let the 36th Army take the remnants of the First Army and the 65th Army to deploy a defense line in the Gaojia Town area.
After receiving the telegram from Old Fox, the 36th Army immediately began to retreat with alternate cover, heading towards Gaojia Town.
Seeing that the 36th Army on the opposite side began to evacuate, Li Qiufan also breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, if the enemy on the opposite side chooses to attack, there will probably be a lot of casualties.
Because the heavy artillery division did not follow up, and the positions were not built in a hurry, they would definitely suffer losses in the fight.
Er Hu also breathed a sigh of relief. After several consecutive battles, the soldiers of Yi Zong were already very tired.
Moreover, the previous battles also caused a lot of attrition, with several regiments suffering nearly half of their casualties.
Now with a tired army facing an enemy waiting for work, Erhu himself has little confidence.
"Let Erhu leave one regiment to garrison here, while the other troops withdraw from their positions and return to Zhangjiashan!"
Now that the enemy troops have retreated, there is no need to stay here any longer. Li Qiufan immediately ordered Yi Zong to return to Zhangjiashan, leaving only one regiment to watch here.
If something happens then, the distance between Gaojiaya and Zhangjiashan can also serve as a buffer.
After receiving the order, Erhu left a relatively intact regiment to garrison, and then led a large force towards Zhangjiashan.
By the time Li Qiufan and others returned to Zhangjiashan, the battle here was over.
Soldiers from the third and fourth columns were cleaning the battlefield and registering the captured national soldiers.
"How many prisoners are there?"
Li Qiufan directly found Li Yunlong and Li Xiping, and then asked them.
"I haven't calculated the total yet, but I guess it will be no less!"
Li Yunlong turned his head and glanced at the prisoner's position, and then said to Li Qiufan.
"No need to register, just give them a few days of rations and let them go as before!"
After hearing what Li Yunlong said, Li Qiufan waved his hand towards him and said.
"You still want to let go? We lost a lot of troops in this attack. How can we replenish all our troops if we let them go?"
Seeing that Li Qiufan was about to release the prisoners again, Li Yunlong immediately asked him with wide eyes.
"The political commissar is not around, and there is not even a single person engaged in political work. Do you have the guts to do ideological work for the prisoners?"
"If you don't do your ideological work and are just thrown into the army, you, Mr. Li, aren't you afraid that someone will take advantage of you?"
Hearing that Li Yunlong was still unconvinced, Li Qiufan immediately gave him a slap in the face, leaving Li Yunlong speechless.
Now Zhao Gang is still in Lanzhou City, and all the civilian cadres have been left there to help handle the work in Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. Li Qiufan and the others have nothing but ordinary soldiers and military cadres.
Moreover, due to insufficient manpower, Zhao Gang took over every political commissar and instructor at all levels of the army, and even the chief of staff, Qi, was not spared.
This resulted in Li Qiufan currently having no cadres who could do political work, so he did not dare to use them even if there were prisoners.
At that time, if you are shot in the dark, or if the camp is bombed and a riot occurs, it will really be more than worth the gain.
"But...but..."
Although he understood what Li Qiufan meant, Li Yunlong was still a little unwilling to see so many prisoners unable to be used for his own purposes. He wanted to defend himself but could not formulate the words.
