It was almost seven o'clock in the morning, and the sky was completely bright.
After receiving Li Qiufan's telegram, Li Xiping immediately ordered the troops to withdraw from the Goujialing position and march towards Huangbagou.
Originally, the people responsible for tracking the National Army did not notice anything unusual, but the movement of the Fourth Column directly exposed it.
The People's Liberation Army, which originally numbered more than 100,000, only had 20,000 or 30,000 left. This shocked them, and they immediately sent the news to Gaojia Town.
After receiving the news in Gaojia Town, the commander of the 36th Army gave the order to attack after a moment's thought, and the three armies headed straight for Goujialing.
On Li Qiufan's side, all the second columns have successfully passed the stone bridge, and now only Li Yunlong's third column is left.
"Inform the First Column and ask them to immediately go to Baijiagou in the northeast of us to conduct reconnaissance and deploy defense lines there."
"Let the second column build positions along the river bank. After the third column passes, they will be responsible for the defense lines on the east and west sides!"
"In addition, notify the heavy artillery division to immediately find a location to build an artillery position and be ready for artillery support at any time!"
Li Qiufan had an inexplicable premonition that this matter would not go smoothly, so he made arrangements for the various units to deal with possible accidents.
On the national army side, the 36th Army and the 57th Army arrived at Goujialing first, and the 90th Army followed not far behind them.
After arriving at the Goujialing position, they found that the place was deserted.
When the commander of the 36th Army saw this, he immediately reported the situation to the old fox.
At this moment, he was also a little confused, and he didn't understand the intentions and purposes of this group of People's Liberation Army.
We were all prepared in Gaojia Town, just waiting for this group of People's Liberation Army to come and fight.
But unexpectedly, they ran away overnight. Those who didn't know might think that the National Army was the attacking party, and the People's Liberation Army disappeared without a trace.
The old fox was also very puzzled after receiving the telegram. He didn't understand why these hundreds of thousands of troops were gone.
Then someone sent a reply to the 36th Army and asked them to wait for the news where they were.
After arranging the 36th Army, Old Fox directly sent out planes to conduct reconnaissance in the direction of the four columns' evacuation.
The flying speed of the aircraft was incomparable to human power, and it quickly caught up with the four columns who were marching rapidly.
At this time, the Fourth Column had just passed Zhaojiaya and arrived at Xiantou Ridge, which was still about two hours away from Lijiahe.
After discovering the traces of the fourth column, the pilot immediately reported it to the old fox.
The old fox became even more confused after receiving the news. According to what the pilot saw, there were only about 20,000 to 30,000 people in the People's Liberation Army at Xiantou Ridge, which directly evaporated nearly 100,000 people out of thin air.
The puzzling old fox once again dispatched more planes and began to conduct reconnaissance farther away. At the same time, he sent a telegram to the 36th Army, asking it to pursue the People's Liberation Army at Xiantou Ridge.
After all, no traces of other troops were found near Xiantou Ridge, and it was impossible to hide 100,000 people, so there was definitely no ambush.
Since there were only 20,000 to 30,000 people, the old fox would definitely not let them go, and even issued a pursuit order.
After receiving the order, the 36th Army directly pursued the 57th Army, while the 90th Army was arranged to garrison at Goujialing.
Old Fox dispatched a total of eight planes to continuously expand the search area from Xiantou Ridge to the west.
Not long after, a plane finally detected the vicinity of Huangbagou, and then saw the three columns crossing the bridge.
Hearing the buzzing sound above his head, Li Qiufan looked up suddenly and saw that his face turned pale with shock when he saw that it was behind a plane.
"Hurry up and send a telegram to the fourth column and ask them to speed up their march. The enemy has discovered us!"
Li Qiufan hurriedly asked the correspondent to send another telegram to the Fourth Column, urging them to speed up their march.
He had no choice but to deal with the plane above his head. Since the anti-aircraft artillery battalion was not deployed suddenly when the incident occurred, and the plane was currently flying at a height where the machine guns could not hit it, he could only watch it leave.
"Have the heavy artillery division immediately transfer the anti-aircraft artillery battalion to prevent enemy aircraft from blowing up the bridge!"
Looking at the plane gradually moving away, Li Qiufan suddenly thought of some scenes, and then immediately shouted to the correspondent beside him.
On the old fox's side, after learning that the People's Liberation Army had arrived on the north bank of the Weihe River, he frowned and pulled out a map.
After taking a look, he seemed to understand something, and then immediately sent out all the planes and ordered them to blow up the stone bridge in Lijiahe.
At the same time, another telegram was sent to the 36th Army, telling it the location of the People's Liberation Army's large forces, and then asking him to capture those 20,000 to 30,000 people.
The old fox already knew what Li Qiufan had planned, but now that nearly 100,000 people had crossed the bridge, there was nothing he could do about it.
We can only leave the 20,000 to 30,000 People's Liberation Army troops still on the south bank of the Wei River and try to eliminate the opponent's forces as much as possible.
After receiving the telegram from the old fox, the 36th Army immediately launched a life-threatening pursuit of the fourth column.
They didn't expect that the other party was actually about to cross the river, and about 100,000 people had already passed. The remaining 20,000 to 30,000 people were just behind.
They originally planned to counterattack the People's Liberation Army in the defensive battle of Gaojia Town, but now the other party simply stopped playing with them.
The commander of the 36th Army was also angry, saying that he would keep these 20,000 to 30,000 people, and then find an opportunity to go to the north bank to continue fighting.
While the infantry on the ground was chasing after them, the plane sent by Old Fox had already arrived at Huangbagou and was preparing to bomb the stone bridge.
The opponent's plane has arrived, and Li Qiufan's two anti-aircraft artillery battalions are already in place.
Ten anti-aircraft guns were deployed in the woods next to the river bank, just waiting for enemy aircraft to come within range and shoot them down.
With the lessons learned from Goujialing, the pilots of the national army were much more cautious this time.
When he was about to reach the stone bridge, he didn't rush over directly, but made a sharp turn and made a feint.
The gunner controlling the anti-aircraft gun was so shaken that he almost couldn't lift it up, but luckily he restrained himself from firing.
This test almost exposed the location of the anti-aircraft gun, and Li Qiufan broke out in cold sweat on his forehead after seeing this.
The enemy plane found that it was not under bombardment, circled in a circle and flew towards the stone bridge again, but this time it was still a test.
"Let the first anti-aircraft artillery battalion fire, and the second anti-aircraft artillery battalion continue to hide!"
Upon seeing this, Li Qiufan immediately ordered the exposure of five anti-aircraft guns. Since the other party was already prepared, he could only give them a taste of sweetness first.
As five anti-aircraft guns fired, the enemy aircraft hurriedly evaded and then circled again.
Because the enemy planes were prepared and the 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion took the initiative to expose their position just to confuse them, they did not hit the target.
