After escaping the anti-aircraft artillery bombardment, the pilot had discovered the anti-aircraft artillery position, and after taking precautions, he began to head towards the stone bridge.
At the same time, the five anti-aircraft guns of the 1st Anti-aircraft Artillery Battalion continued to bombard, but they did not hit the target.
Seeing the plane getting closer and closer to the stone bridge, Li Qiufan immediately ordered the Second Battalion of Anti-aircraft Artillery to open fire.
After receiving the order, the Second Battalion of Anti-aircraft Artillery immediately bombarded the enemy aircraft from the side, catching the enemy plane by surprise.
Two of the dozen or so planes were shot down instantly, and the remaining planes were also affected by the explosion and changed their flight direction.
As a result, the two anti-aircraft artillery positions were all exposed, and the next step was to fight hard.
"Tell the anti-aircraft artillery battalion that planes must not blow up the stone bridge. If they dare to get close, I will beat them to death!"
Li Qiufan looked at the enemy planes hovering in the sky not far away and said to the correspondent beside him.
On the other side, the Fourth Column has arrived at Tangke Cao, which is not far from Huangbagou.
But the 36th Army and the 57th Army behind them also caught up. With the help of cars and other tools, the leading troops of the two armies were only a few miles away from the fourth column.
Upon seeing this, Li Xiping immediately asked his correspondent to contact Li Qiufan and informed him of the situation he was facing.
After receiving the message from Li Xiping, Li Qiufan immediately responded to him and asked him to provide the coordinates of the enemy.
Li Xiping looked through the telescope at the enemy troops pursuing him a few miles away. After roughly calculating the distance and time, he reported the current coordinates of the fourth column to Li Qiufan.
"Inform the heavy artillery division to bombard Tang Kecao in three minutes, and give them the coordinates!"
After receiving the time and coordinates provided by Li Xiping, Li Qiufan immediately issued the order to the heavy artillery division.
After receiving the order, Lao Ma quickly asked the gunner to start adjusting the angle, and all the howitzers aimed their muzzles in the direction of Tang Kecao.
After the gunner adjusted to shoot Zhu Yuan, the time was almost two minutes, and Lao Ma immediately ordered to load and fire.
Nearly thirty howitzers fired at the same time, instantly hitting the shells at Tang Kecao, directly turning the coordinates provided by the four columns into a sea of fire.
In the sea of fire were the soldiers of the national army who had just arrived. They were the vanguard of the 36th Army and the 57th Army, and they were responsible for catching up and delaying the march of the four columns.
It looked like they would catch up soon, but unexpectedly, a rain of shells rained down above their heads, covering them directly.
The smallest caliber of the nearly thirty howitzers is 105 mm. Among them, there are twelve Type 96 with a caliber of 150 mm. Its power can be imagined.
And in order to cover the four columns, Li Qiufan directly asked the heavy artillery division to fire three rounds of salvos, nearly ninety shells to seal the road.
Under such a fierce bombardment, and because the National Army's vehicles and soldiers were in open areas without any bunkers, they were almost wiped out.
The commander of the 36th Army saw this tragic scene through the telescope, and he was so angry that he immediately dropped the telescope.
In his mind, the loss of some troops was nothing, but without cars and other tools, it would be impossible to catch up with the People's Liberation Army ahead.
On the other side, Li Xiping, who was not far in front of the artillery fire coverage area, also saw this scene.
Seeing that the enemy's vanguard was defeated, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then ordered the troops to continue to speed up and rush to Shiqiao.
The crisis in the four vertical columns has been resolved, but the battle on Shiqiao's side continues.
Enemy aircraft continued to break through in the direction of the stone bridge, trying to blow up the stone bridge.
During this period, the artillery blockade of the anti-aircraft artillery battalion was broken twice, but in order to avoid the blockade, the landing point of the bombs was also deviated.
Both bombs landed near the stone bridge and did not hit the target directly.
And for these two opportunities, the enemy lost five more aircraft.
Seeing that the stone bridge had not yet been blown up and that seven aircraft on their side had been lost, the remaining pilots began to think about retreating.
After reporting to the old fox, the order to retreat was finally received.
After all, the old fox doesn't have many planes, and losing one makes him feel uncomfortable, let alone losing seven.
Now we can only hope that the 36th Army can catch up with those 20,000 to 30,000 people and eliminate them.
But not long after, news came from the 36th Army, saying that all the cars had been blown up and they could no longer catch up.
The old fox became furious after seeing the telegram. He was so angry that he tore the telegram in his hand into pieces.
For the sake of these two to thirty thousand people, he lost not only seven planes, but also took a lot of transportation, which made the old fox's blood pressure rise instantly.
After seeing the enemy plane flying away, Li Qiufan finally breathed a sigh of relief. The stone bridge could be saved, as long as the fourth column could reach it safely.
Soon good news from the Fourth Column was delivered to him. Li Xiping reported that the enemy had given up the pursuit. Now they had entered Huangbagou and would soon reach Lijiahe.
After waiting for more than 20 minutes, four columns of teams finally appeared on the distant horizon, and Li Qiufan was completely relieved.
After the fourth column passed the stone bridge, Li Qiufan directly asked people to install explosives to blow up the stone bridge, and then led the troops to Baijiagou to meet up with the first column.
After arriving at Baijiagou, after questioning Erhu and finding out that nothing had happened, Li Qiufan allowed the troops to rest briefly.
"Brother, where should we go next?"
After finishing his work, Heizi came to Li Qiufan and asked him.
"To the north, there are mostly mountainous areas, which is not conducive to the march of large troops. We can only go east now."
"We still follow the original plan and go to Xiashi Town along the river bank, then turn from Xiashi Town to Jinhe River, and then go all the way to Xi'an area."
Li Qiufan was looking at the map. After hearing Heizi's inquiry, he immediately drew a route and said to him.
"That's all we can do. Do you want to send someone to monitor the enemy troops on the south bank of the Wei River?"
Heizi nodded after hearing Li Qiufan's words, and then continued to ask him.
"I've already sent people to do it, so you don't have to worry about this."
After Li Qiufan heard Heizi saying that he wanted to send people to the south bank of the Wei River, he immediately waved his hand and said.
"Already sent someone? Why didn't I know?"
Heizi asked with confusion on his face when he heard Li Qiufan say that he had sent someone.
"Do you still want me to know what I'm doing? I'm the right one if you're the deputy!"
Li Qiufan glared at Heizi angrily, then raised his leg and kicked him before giving up.
"Well, I'm just asking."
Heizi felt a little aggrieved after being kicked, and looked like a resentful woman.
"Don't play with Li Yunlong in the future, you've already learned bad things from him!"
Seeing Heizi's death, Li Qiufan felt a little familiar, and then he instantly realized who it looked like.
