Xu Dalong's Mawushan guerrillas and Chu Yunfei's 358th Brigade were already difficult to deal with. The underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces sent reinforcements, making it much more difficult to annihilate them.
Qianye Xunyi sent someone to call Yan Guiwu and asked him to find out the relevant situation of the underground city party's anti-Japanese armed reinforcements.
Yan Guiwu returned to the headquarters of Huang Xiejun's Fourth Division, called Wang Shuhuai, asked him to get in touch with Xu Dalong, and informed Xu Dalong of the situation provided by Qianye Xunyi.
Xu Dalong quickly sent a telegram back to Wang Shuhuai, asking him to tell Yan Guiwu that the reinforcements from the underground party's anti-Japanese armed forces from the Taihang Mountain base area were the newly formed first brigade of the underground party's Taiyue Military Region. The brigade commander was named Li Yunlong, and his strength was unknown. There are five to six thousand people.
Xu Dalong told Wang Shuhuai that Yan Guiwu could report the situation to Qianye Xunyi.
The reason why Xu Dalong did this was because such a large unit of the newly-organized First Brigade came to the Mawushan base area. Their serial number, commander's name, and general strength of the troops could not be hidden. It was better to keep this information Tell Yan Guiwu to report it to the Japanese army in exchange for Qianye Xunyi's trust in him.
Yan Guiwu felt that Xu Dalong was really a good friend, so he reported to Qianye Xunyi about the situation of the new brigade.
Chiba Xunyi was very happy to see that Yan Guiwu had inquired about the underground party's anti-Japanese armed reinforcements so quickly. He immediately notified the gendarmerie in each county through the special high school of the division and regiment headquarters to verify the information provided by Yan Guiwu.
Sure enough, the information was basically accurate. Qianye Xunyi was very satisfied and increased his trust in Yan Guiwu.
Chiba Xunyi reported the situation reported by General Yan Guiwu to Shinozuka Yoshio.
When Yoshio Shinozuka heard that the Mawushan guerrillas had added another brigade, he immediately felt that the troops to clear the Mawushan base area were insufficient at this time, so he flew to Peiping City again and asked to see Jun Tada, the commander of the North China Front.
After listening to Shinozuka Yoshio's report, Tada Shun decided to transfer part of the 101st Division stationed in Baoding and the Japanese 8th Division stationed in SJZ to Shanxi and put them under the command of Shinozuka Yoshio.
Yoshio Shinozuka added a large number of reinforcements and was confident. After returning to Taiyuan City, he began to make final arrangements to attack the Mawu Mountain base.
At the junction of Ping'an County and Yangcheng County, Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others were searching for traces of the Japanese cavalry unit that attacked the New 1st Brigade.
According to the information provided by Zhang Dabiao, the Japanese army retreated toward the southwest after attacking the New 1st Brigade.
Xu Dalong ordered Zheng Xirong and Monk Wei to search in this direction. The Japanese cavalry brigade crossed the fields and trampled many people's crops, leaving obvious traces.
Zheng Xirong, Monk Wei and others followed these footsteps and came to the junction of Ping'an County and Yangcheng County. They tracked to Shili River and lost trace of the Japanese cavalry.
Zheng Xirong and Monk Wei judged that the Japanese army crossed the Shili River from here. However, after they crossed the river, they found no trace on the other side of the river. The Japanese army seemed to have disappeared out of thin air.
Zheng Xirong was quick-thinking and had been engaged in intelligence work. He had a relatively open mind. He believed that it was impossible for the large Japanese army to disappear out of thin air. The only possibility was to use the river water to cover up their traces. He believed that the Japanese army most likely did not cross the river directly, but waded in the river to move upstream or downstream, and then crossed the Shili River elsewhere.
He told Monk Wei his opinion. Monk Wei thought it was reasonable, so he divided his special team into two parts. After crossing the river, they searched upstream and downstream along the opposite bank of the river.
As expected by Zheng Xirong, a vegetable field was discovered about a kilometer upstream. There were obvious traces of a large group of cavalry passing through the vegetable field.
Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others followed for more than ten miles and came across a county-level road. The ground of the road was very hard, and the horseshoes could only leave shallow marks on the road.
Wind is common in this area. After a gust of wind, the marks on the road basically disappear. The enemy's cavalry mass was lost again.
But war horses defecate very casually, so why don’t we see war horse feces on the road? This is because the cavalry troops, in order to cover their tracks, installed a dung bag behind the horse's quill so that no traces of excrement would be left on the ground.
Yangcheng County was already an enemy-occupied area. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others put on puppet army uniforms and entered Yangcheng County to continue searching for traces of Japanese cavalry.
In order to find traces of the Japanese army as soon as possible, Monk Wei dispersed the special operations squadron and searched in different directions. He, Zheng Xirong and others stayed where they were and waited for the various search teams to come back and report.
After about three hours, all the search teams returned. One search team returned with only two people. They reported that they found a large number of horse hoof prints and a large amount of horse dung in a crop field. There were so many of them, there must have been a large group of cavalry dumping horse dung here.
The members of the special operations squadron said that their squad leader led others to continue searching in that area and sent the two of them back to report the news.
The guerrillas were very excited when they found the traces of the Japanese cavalry. They immediately mounted their horses and, led by the two special forces members, ran in the direction where the traces of the Japanese troops were found.
Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others arrived at the place where the Japanese army dumped horse dung, and saw two special forces members waiting for their arrival.
After meeting Zheng Xirong and Wei Monk, the two remaining special forces members reported to them that they had discovered the place where the Japanese troops were hiding, which was in Liujiazhuang, three miles ahead.
Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others arrived at Liujiazhuang. The squad leader of the special operations squadron was waiting for Wei Monk and others to arrive.
The squad leader said: "Squadron leader, the horseshoe prints are in the direction of this village. We have bypassed this village and found no other horseshoe prints. The Japanese army should have entered this village. We have been observing here for a long time, and there are no traces in the village." It is abnormal for people to come out, which means that the people in the village have been controlled by the Japanese army, and the Japanese army should be in this village."
Zheng Xirong and Wei Monk thought that what the squad leader said was reasonable, so they hid in the distance and used telescopes to observe carefully in the direction of Liujiazhuang. They looked for a long time, but they did not find any Japanese troops. Maybe the Japanese sentries were hiding in the dark.
When they were thinking about how to verify that the Japs were in the village, suddenly several gunshots rang out in the village, and then they saw two people running out of the village, dressed as ordinary villagers. Not long after I ran out, a group of Japanese soldiers with guns appeared at the entrance of the village. They shot at the two villagers. The villagers were knocked to the ground. The Japanese soldiers chased after them and stabbed the fallen villagers with bayonets. After a few blows, he dragged the bodies of the dead villagers back to the village.
The Japs were very cautious. They looked around for a while, and then someone cut some branches from the trees on the roadside, and then used the branches to sweep the ground to cover up the blood stains left by the villagers.
Soon after, these Japanese soldiers returned to the village, and then they hid again, and there was still no trace of them outside.
Seeing such atrocities committed by the Japanese soldiers, the guerrillas were very angry.
Monk Wei was so angry that he gritted his teeth and said: "These damn little devils, I will never let them go. Send a telegram to the captain quickly and ask him to send troops to eliminate these devils."
Although Zheng Xirong was also very angry, his duty dictated that he must remain calm.
He said: "It's not possible now. We still need to find out how many Japanese troops there are in the village. If the captain and his troops arrive and fight with the Japanese troops in the village, how many Japanese soldiers will be nearby to come for reinforcements? All these must be checked clear."
Monk Wei knew that Zheng Xirong was right, but he was in a very bad mood. He urged: "Then go check it out quickly."
Zheng Xirong said: "Call all the squad leaders over, I want to explain to them."
The captains of the special operations squadron were called over. Zheng Xirong ordered them to disperse their men and search for people who were related to Liujiazhuang in nearby villages. They tried to find out how many Japanese soldiers there were in Liujiazhuang. In addition, they also had to go to nearby villages. Conduct reconnaissance in the direction of Yangcheng County to find out how many Japanese and puppet troops there are in the city.
Monk Wei asked the squad leaders to follow Zheng Xirong's instructions.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the special operations team members sent out to inquire about the situation returned one after another, and one team leader also brought a fellow villager.
The daughter-in-law of this fellow villager is from Liujiazhuang. His wife took the child back to her parents' home and did not come back for several days. He went to Liujiazhuang yesterday. When he was about to enter the village, he heard gunshots coming from the village. He was very scared and did not enter the village, and then ran back to his village. Later, the president of the Liujiazhuang Maintenance Association came to their village with two Japanese soldiers and asked their village to provide food, meat, salt and other supplies.
This villager was a long-term worker in the village's chairman's family. Because he missed his wife, he eavesdropped on the conversation between the chairman and the Japanese soldiers. He learned that more than a thousand Japanese soldiers had come to the village, all riding tall horses. He said that the official was a big leftist.
According to the villager's description, Zheng Xirong, Wei Monk and others can basically confirm that these Japanese troops are a cavalry regiment.
Soon after, the special forces reconnaissance team from Yangcheng County also returned. They said that there were no large groups of Japanese in this area, only a military police unit of Japanese soldiers in Yangcheng County and a security brigade of the puppet army.
After figuring out the situation, Zheng Xirong sent a telegram to Xu Dalong.
Less than ten minutes after the telegram was sent, Xu Dalong's reply arrived.
The telegram said: "Keep an eye on this group of Japanese. I will arrive soon."
After Xu Dalong received the telegram from Zheng Xirong, he immediately mobilized his troops to eliminate the Japanese cavalry regiment that had attacked the New 1st Brigade.
After receiving the order, Sun Desheng immediately gathered the cavalry troops, and Cui Zhenyue also gathered the armored troops, preparing to set off with Xu Dalong.
Zhang Dabiao got the news that the Mawushan guerrillas were going to send troops to fight, and hurriedly came to Xu Dalong to inquire about the situation. When he heard that they were going to eliminate the Japanese cavalry regiment that had attacked them, he insisted on participating in the battle.
Xu Dalong said that the New 1st Brigade was basically infantry and they could not help in this battle, so he persuaded Zhang Dabiao not to participate in this battle.
Zhang Dabiao refused, saying that the New First Brigade had sacrificed hundreds of brothers. If he could not personally destroy the Japanese cavalry regiment, not only would he not be able to accept such a result, but even Li Yunlong would scold Zhang Dabiao after hearing about it.
After Xu Dalong thought for a while, he agreed that Zhang Dabiao would lead the chariot battalion of the New 1st Brigade, and then bring an infantry battalion with him to participate in this battle with the Mawushan guerrillas in trucks.
Zhang Dabiao was very happy. He immediately gathered his troops, led the team himself, and left Guancheng County with the Mawushan guerrillas.
Zhao Gang also wanted to participate in this battle, but he and Xu Dalong had already made an agreement. Unless there were special circumstances, the two of them could not leave the base area at the same time. Someone must be left to look after the home to prevent the base area from getting out of control.
He was very regretful and could only do a brief pre-war mobilization for the troops who were about to go on the expedition, saying that he would hold a big banquet and wait for the soldiers to return in triumph.
Xu Dalong, Zhang Dabiao, and Wang Chengzhu led a large group of troops and went straight to Liujiazhuang, Yangcheng County.
When 10 kilometers away from Liujiazhuang, Xu Dalong ordered the troops to stop advancing.
Zhang Dabiao was sitting in a tank. He saw the troops in front stopped and was not sure what happened, so he got out of the tank, borrowed a horse from the cavalry of the Mawushan guerrillas, and went to the front to see Xu Dalong. .
When he saw Xu Dalong, he saw that Sun Desheng had also rushed over, and they were studying a map placed on the front of the car.
Zhang Dabiao asked: "Brother Dalong, why don't you leave? What happened?"
Xu Dalong said: "This battle is not easy to fight. We can't go there directly."
Zhang Dabiao asked in confusion: "Little devil, a cavalry regiment has less than 2,000 troops. We have so many troops and so many tanks and armored vehicles. It won't take much effort to fight them. What's so hard to fight?" ?”
Xu Dalong said: "The little devils are all in Liujiazhuang now, and there are more than a hundred households in the village. If a war breaks out, it will be difficult to ensure the safety of the people if the artillery fire is not discerning."
Zhang Dabiao also felt a headache when he heard this. He said, "What should we do?"
Xu Dalong said: "Don't worry, I have already sent a telegram to Zheng Xirong and the others. We will make a decision after he comes over to introduce the situation."
Zheng Xirong rushed over quickly and introduced the situation in Liujiazhuang area. He reported in great detail. He even personally checked the terrain around Liujiazhuang and drew a sketch.
Xu Dalong looked at the terrain around Liujiazhuang and had an idea in his mind.
He invited Zhang Da to go with him to survey the terrain on the spot before making the final decision.
