The key to this battle is to capture and protect the Liangzhou River Bridge connecting the two places.
Once the Liangzhou River Bridge was cut off by the Japanese army, the Zhongtiaoshan Command would not be able to communicate with the 72nd Army in Sangcheng. Even if the Japanese troops in this area were driven away, the Zhongtiaoshan Command would not be able to communicate with it with the existing financial resources. Repair the Liangzhou River Bridge. Even if the communication between the two armies is established, they can only face each other across the river.
How to ensure that they can capture the Liangzhou River Bridge and hold it there to avoid being destroyed by the Japanese army? General Fu and others thought of the Mawushan guerrillas under Xu Dalong who were capable of conquering and fighting. They all believed that only Xu Dalong and others took action to complete the task. Only then can this important campaign mission be guaranteed.
Xu Dalong looked at the terrain marked on the map and knew that this mission was very dangerous. Since the Liangzhou River Bridge is located in the middle of the Japanese defense depth, after taking the Liangzhou River Bridge, the Mawushan guerrillas will fall into a tight siege by the Japanese army and will definitely be in a hard fight.
At that time, the Mawushan guerrillas will be completely passive, and whether they can receive reinforcements will depend entirely on whether the Guo army can defeat the 37th Division and the 33rd Guarding Division.
If they fail to join Xu Dalong's troops as planned, Xu Dalong's Mawushan guerrillas may be completely destroyed.
To be honest, Xu Dalong really didn't believe in the combat effectiveness of the Guo army. Regarding General Fu, Xu Dalong knew that he was an upright and patriotic general and respected and trusted him very much. However, the interior of the Guo Army is very complicated. The generals of the Guo Army belong to different factions. During wars, they often hesitate to advance in order to preserve their strength, and they often turn to the point of death to save each other. The anti-Japanese armed forces of the underground party are friendly forces to them and are in different factions. It is very likely that they will not come to the rescue when the time comes, or even add insult to injury.
While Xu Dalong listened to the chief of staff's introduction, his brain was running at high speed as he weighed the pros and cons. In order to maintain the anti-Japanese national united front and support friendly forces in the anti-Japanese war, the underground party is obliged to do so. Xu Dalong believed that even if he reported it to his superiors, they would definitely ask him to do so.
What he was considering was not whether to accept the task or not, but what to do if the situation he was worried about happened after accepting the task.
After the chief of staff introduced the situation, the generals of the Guo Army turned their attention to Xu Dalong to see how he would express his position.
Xu Dalong had already thought about it, and he said without hesitation: "The Mawu Mountain guerrillas and the Guojun brothers in Zhongtiao Mountain are one family, and we have taken over this task."
General Fu was very moved when he heard this and said: "Brother Dalong is so noble and upright." After saying this, he took the lead in applauding.
The generals of the Guo army felt lucky when they saw a hard-to-gnaw bone being taken over by Xu Dalong, because this way they no longer had to risk their own troops. Regardless, everyone was grateful for this, so they also applauded along with General Fu.
After the meeting, Xu Dalong returned to his temporary residence and reported the meeting to the commander.
The commander did not immediately reply to Xu Dalong and reported the situation to the headquarters. The headquarters expressed affirmation and support for Xu Dalong's actions.
The commander sent a telegram back to Xu Dalong, agreeing that the Mawushan guerrillas would cooperate with the Zhongtiao Mountain headquarters in launching this offensive campaign. He just reminded Xu Dalong that he must consider all the risks that the Mawushan guerrillas may encounter and make emergency plans in advance to prevent unexpected events.
Xu Dalong also kept an eye on it, and he secretly made two preparations. First, he found General Fu and said that his Mawushan guerrillas were good at mobile warfare, but not good at positional warfare. Therefore, after completing the task of seizing the Liangzhou River Bridge, they needed a force good at defense to hold on. Mawushan The guerrillas conducted mobile operations to assist in the defense of the bridge.
Therefore, Xu Dalong hoped that the Zhongtiao Mountain Command would send a Guo Army unit to act together with the Mawu Mountain guerrillas.
The Mawushan guerrillas and a unit of the Fruit Army operate together. When encountering danger, at least the direct superior of this unit will be much more likely to send reinforcements.
General Fu was sincere and he thought Xu Dalong was right, so he agreed to Xu Dalong's request.
He dispatched the 137th Division of the Fruit Army, which was relatively close to Xu Dalong. Division Commander Li Zhendong led a reinforced group to follow Xu Dalong and others.
Even so, Xu Dalong was still not at ease. He secretly laid a chess piece, ready to play a role unexpectedly at the critical moment.
General Fu kept his word and soon sent a large amount of food, weapons, ammunition and other supplies to the Mawushan guerrillas.
After receiving this batch of supplies, Xu Dalong and others led the Mawushan guerrillas to the station of the 137th Division of the Guo Army and met with the division commander Li Zhendong.
Li Zhendong was very excited to see Xu Dalong. Seeing that his junior brother, Monk Wei, was also here, he was even more happy and held a banquet to entertain Xu Dalong and others.
That afternoon, Xu Dalong and Li Zhendong led the Mawushan guerrillas and the reinforced regiment of the 137th Division to leave the 137th Division's station. Under the leadership of guides who were familiar with the local conditions, after a night's march, they arrived in the early morning of the next day. , came to Yujiagou, 35 kilometers away from Liangzhou River Bridge, and temporarily hid here.
In order to avoid being discovered by the Japanese army, Xu Dalong decided to personally lead Wei Monk's special operations squadron and Wang Pao's motorcycle squadron to seize the Liangzhou River Bridge.
Once the battle started, the Mawushan guerrillas and the reinforcement regiment of the 137th Division of the Fruit Army immediately went to reinforce.
The Liangzhou River Bridge is 134 meters long and 12 meters wide. It is an important traffic artery from the Zhongtiao Mountain area to Sangcheng. The Japanese 37th Division and the 33rd Garrison Division were stationed in the north and south of the bridge respectively.
The task of guarding the bridge was an infantry squadron of the 33rd Division.
That morning, the Japanese officers and soldiers guarding the bridge saw a Japanese motorcycle fleet coming from the north. This motorcycle fleet had a total of nine motorcycles.
When they arrived at the bridge, the sentry stopped them and asked them to show their documents.
Sitting on the motorcycle at the front was a captain of the Japanese army. He showed his ID.
The people guarding the 33rd Regiment saw that this unit belonged to the Japanese 37th Division. They often passed by the bridge and there were no problems with their documents, so they let them cross the bridge.
Half an hour later, another cavalry unit came from the north. This cavalry unit consisted of about 40 people. They came to the bridge and also asked to cross the river.
The Japanese sentry checked their IDs. They were also from the 37th Division and there were no problems with their IDs, so they let them go.
Soon after, another Japanese cavalry unit arrived. This cavalry unit had about 100 people.
The sentry guarding the bridge felt a little puzzled. He didn't understand what was going on today. There were so many troops from the 37th Division wanting to cross the bridge.
The sentry picked up the phone and reported to the squadron leader, who asked the sentries to stop the Japanese cavalry unit and then asked them about their purpose of crossing the bridge.
The commander of the Japanese cavalry unit was tall and thick, taller than the average Japanese officers and soldiers. He was very unhappy when he saw that the sentry guarding the bridge dared to stop him, so he said that he was ordered by his superiors to cross the bridge to perform his mission, and that the sentry had no right to stop him.
At this time, the sentry had received an order from the squadron leader to interrogate the origins of this cavalry unit, so he insisted on asking them to tell them the purpose of their trip.
The cavalry commander was very angry and stretched out his hand to give the sentry a big mouth.
The commander's hand was extremely strong and he slapped the sentry. The sentry's face immediately swelled up and he could not stand still. He took two steps back and fell to the ground.
The Japanese 37th Division was a field army, and they had always looked down upon the troops guarding the 33rd Division. Therefore, the officers and soldiers guarding the 33rd Division felt very displeased when they saw the officers and soldiers of the 37th Division. The two sides had always had conflicts.
At this moment, seeing the people of the 37th Division beating others, the officers and soldiers guarding the bridge rushed out one after another and started arguing with the officers and soldiers of the Cavalry. A group fight was about to break out between the two sides.
The squadron leader of the Japanese army couldn't sit still. Fighting in groups was prohibited among the Japanese army. If such a thing happened, as a commander, he would be severely punished.
So he hurried over to stop what was happening.
The commander of the Japanese cavalry was none other than Monk Wei. He deliberately made such a scene in order to let the Japanese soldiers hiding in the bunkers and barracks come out, especially to lure out the Japanese commander.
Seeing the officers and soldiers guarding the bridge gathered around here, Monk Wei was secretly happy.
Seeing the Japanese squadron leader approaching, he also jumped off his horse and stepped forward with eyes wide open, as if he wanted to argue with the Japanese squadron leader.
The cavalry of the special operations squadron dismounted and surrounded them, as if they were going to fight with the troops guarding the bridge.
The Japanese squadron leader had the rank of captain. When he saw that the cavalry commander in front of him was also a Japanese captain, he walked up to him without any scruples and said, "Which army are you from? Why did you beat my soldiers?" Give me your name and number, and I will accuse your superiors of your bad behavior."
It seems that this guy has studied for a few days and is somewhat knowledgeable when he speaks.
Monk Wei said: "What are you arguing about? Who makes your soldiers blind? I deserve to beat him. Don't you want to sue me? Okay, this is my ID. If you have the ability, go ahead and sue." Then, he stretched his hands to his arms.
The Japanese squadron leader really thought he was going to take out his ID from his pocket, so he looked at him eagerly, waiting for him to take it out. He wanted to take a good look at it and remember this guy's name, position and unit number so that he could report it to his superiors. Charge him.
Unexpectedly, when Monk Wei stretched out his hand from his arms, it turned out to be a twenty-shot shell gun.
The Japanese squadron leader didn't react for a while and said: "You are so brave, how dare you..."
Before he finished speaking, Monk Wei opened fire and the Japanese squadron leader was shot in the chest. He looked at the fresh snow spurting from his chest in disbelief, rolled his eyes and fell down.
The sudden situation made the Japanese officers and soldiers guarding the bridge a little confused. They couldn't react for a while and didn't understand why the people of the 37th Division dared to shoot.
The members of the special operations squadron were already ready for battle. When they saw Monk Wei firing, while the Japs were still in a daze, they immediately opened fire on the Japs soldiers.
Monk Wei and others eliminated the group of Japanese soldiers in front of them and immediately rushed into the enemy's bunkers and barracks.
The Japanese were caught off guard. Only a few Japanese soldiers had time to fire a few shots, and they were quickly annihilated by the guerrillas.
Monk Wei and others occupied the bridge head on the north side of the bridge and immediately launched an attack on the bridge head on the south side.
The Japanese soldiers guarding the bridge on the south side of the bridge heard gunshots coming from the bridge head on the north side and saw some Japanese officers and soldiers running over. They were not sure what was going on for a while.
Because they couldn't see the faces of these people clearly on the bridge for a while, they thought they were members of their own army, so they didn't fire, wanting to find out the situation.
At this moment, fierce gunfire suddenly rang out from behind them. The motorcycle team and the cavalry unit of more than 40 people who had previously crossed the bridge rushed towards the bridge and launched a fierce attack on the Japanese troops guarding the bridge.
All this was arranged by Xu Dalong in advance. Since there were Japanese troops guarding the bridge at both ends of the bridge, it was impossible to capture the Japanese positions on both sides at the same time. Therefore, some guerrillas were sent across the bridge in advance, and after the fighting started on the north side of the bridge, they launched an attack from the south.
In order to avoid alerting the Japanese army, the guerrillas adopted the method of crossing the bridge in batches. There were not many people crossing each time, and they were not enough to pose a threat to the Japanese bridge guarding troops, so the Japanese army relaxed their vigilance.
At this time, there were 27 guerrillas on the nine motorcycles that had crossed the bridge before, plus more than 40 cavalry, and the total number of people was quite considerable.
There were only sixty or seventy Japanese troops guarding the south end of the bridge. The guerrillas attacked from the north and south sides, and they were all wiped out in a short time.
Since the special operations team members cut off the telephone lines leading to other places on the south side of the bridge after crossing the bridge, and the battle on the north side of the bridge happened very suddenly, the news of the bridge's fall has not yet been received by other Japanese troops.
Soon after, Xu Dalong also arrived at the bridge. While he ordered the guerrillas to seize the time to repair the fortifications, he sent a telegram to Sun Desheng and Li Zhendong, asking them to rush to the bridge immediately.
In order to delay the Japanese army's discovery of the accident on the bridge as much as possible, the special operations team members hid the bodies of the annihilated Japanese officers and soldiers, cleaned up the snow traces left on the ground, and then pretended to be guarding the bridge and stood guard there.
Pedestrians and vehicles pass by on the bridge from time to time, including many Japanese troops. These people were just passing by the bridge and therefore did not pay attention to the changes that took place on the bridge.
Therefore, for a full hour and a half after seizing the bridge, the Japanese army still did not notice that anything unusual had happened to the bridge.
10:30 am. At this time, it had been two hours and ten minutes since the bridge was captured. Two motorcycles and a car drove over from the defense area of the 33rd Division to the south.
After arriving at the bridge, they stopped, and a Japanese soldier on the left got out of the car. He saw that the people guarding the bridge all had unfamiliar faces, and asked in confusion: "Where is your squadron leader?"
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