The members of this detachment ran forward along the trench. Before they could run over, the Japanese army had already crossed the trench, and they opened fire on the Japanese army without hesitation.
The Japanese army divided some troops. Some jumped into the trenches, and some attacked the Eighth Route Army from above. They fired fiercely with machine guns and rifles and kept throwing grenades.
Although the soldiers of the county brigade were very tenacious, they were outnumbered and eventually all died heroically.
After eliminating the county brigade members of this detachment, the Japanese army continued to attack other units of the county brigade along the trenches. The Japanese troops on the front of the trench took the opportunity to launch a fierce attack and soon captured the defenders' position. After a short fierce battle, all the squadron died heroically.
The Japanese army crossed the trenches and continued to attack the county seat.
The captain of the 32nd Regiment of the Japanese Army is riding on a horse, with a soldier holding the reins. As he walked, he looked in the direction of the county seat. Soon, he saw a large flashing light in the distance, and he was sure that was their destination, Guancheng County.
He estimated the distance and found that it was only two kilometers away from the county seat at most. He was very excited and ordered the troops to speed up their march and capture the county seat first, gaining the first victory in this battle.
After long marches and fierce battles, the Japanese were very tired, but when they saw victory in sight, they dragged their heavy footsteps and continued to rush forward, as if they were beaten to death.
At this moment, the leading troops of the Japanese army heard the rapid sound of horse hooves, and then the shadow of a large group of cavalry appeared in front, and they opened fire on the cavalry.
The cavalry immediately jumped off their horses and fought back against the Japanese troops.
It was the cavalry brigade led by Sun Desheng who came over. They had already rushed back to the county seat. The fierce battle just now between the Japanese army and the squadron of the county brigade had already alerted the observation posts on the city wall, and they hurriedly reported to the headquarters.
When Zhao Gang, who stayed in the headquarters, was worried about having no troops to send, he saw Sun Desheng coming in a hurry and asked him to lead the cavalry brigade to stop the Japanese army.
Sun Desheng's cavalry brigade has a large number of troops, is well-equipped, has experienced hundreds of battles, and its combat effectiveness is almost as good as that of Wei Monk's special operations brigade.
As soon as they entered the battle, the Japanese army immediately felt tremendous pressure and had to go all out to fight the officers and soldiers of the cavalry brigade. They could no longer divide their troops to directly attack the county town.
Kondo led the squadron directly under the 8th Division Regiment Headquarters, carefully avoiding the active fighting area along the way, using the green gauze formed by tall corns to advance towards the airport. They were very lucky and were not discovered until they were only 600 meters away from the airport.
For the safety of the airport, tall crops are not allowed to be planted within 600 meters. An open space appeared in front of Kondo and others.
Kondo observed carefully and saw that the airport was brightly lit, with a large number of planes parked and many people busy there. There are sentries, patrols, and machine gun positions around the airport, and you can see people guarding it. The searchlights on the airport continued to shine in all directions.
Kondo knew that it was impossible to enter the airport directly without exposing the target. He could only find a way to get as close as possible to the defenders and then launch a surprise attack.
He led the Japanese soldiers to bend down and continue to approach the airport under the cover of night. When they were two hundred meters away from the airport, the Japanese soldiers lay down on the ground and moved forward bit by bit.
Climbing forward was very tiring, and the ground was uneven, which made the Japanese feel very uncomfortable. But this was no problem for these arrogant Japs. They used their tenacious perseverance to inch closer to the Eighth Route Army defenders.
The Japanese climbed until they were only 40 meters away from the Eighth Route Army's machine gun position when they were discovered by a sentry, who hurriedly fired a warning shot. The Eighth Route Army in the machine gun position also quickly picked up their machine guns and prepared to fire.
The Japanese soldiers didn't wait for the defenders to react. They all jumped up from the ground and rushed forward. The Japanese who rushed ahead threw grenades and destroyed the defender's machine gun position.
The Japanese soldiers continued to rush towards the airport runway without stopping.
The airport's security forces are the airport security company led by Wang Chengzhu and the engineer battalion of the specially strengthened independent brigade. The total strength is more than 700 people. However, they are scattered around the airport and it is difficult to gather them together for a while. The Japanese's sudden attack caught them off guard.
The ground crew and pilots who were busy on the runway were panicked by the sudden situation. They left the airport runway and fled towards the dormitory.
At this time, Wang Chengzhu was at the headquarters of the airport security company. When he heard the fierce gunfire and explosions coming from outside, he quickly led a platoon of soldiers around him and rushed towards the direction of the gunfire.
At the same time, the Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers surrounding the airport saw the fierce fighting taking place here and rushed over for reinforcements.
While Kondo was rushing forward with his men, a patrol team sent by the Independent Brigade Engineer Battalion was patrolling nearby and hurried over, and a fierce battle began between the two sides.
Kondo didn't hesitate at all, and struck hard, and soon all the soldiers on the patrol died heroically.
At this time, a nearby machine gun position also fired fiercely at this place, and the Japanese fell down one after another. Kondo couldn't care less and continued to rush towards the airport with the Japanese.
At this time, the searchlights on the airport were already shining in this direction, and the Japanese were clearly exposed.
Kondo knew the situation was critical and rushed forward with all his strength.
Wang Chengzhu and the soldiers from the guard platoon had already ran over. They were still more than 200 meters away from the Japanese soldiers, and they saw that the Japanese had rushed onto the runway. He was also in a hurry, and he didn't care that the Browning pistol in his hand couldn't hit that far, so he rushed forward and fired.
There were anti-aircraft machine gun positions around the airport. When they saw the Japs exposed to the searchlights, they lowered the angle of the anti-aircraft machine guns, changed them to flat fire, and fired violently at the Japs soldiers.
The nearby Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers also ran in this direction, shooting at the Japanese as they ran.
As the Eighth Route Army's firepower continued to increase, the Japanese continued to be shot and fell. Kondo and the Japs couldn't care less about fighting back. They just rushed to the runway and planned to blow up as many planes parked on it as they could.
Finally, the Japs rushed to the spot where the planes were parked on the runway. There were many planes preparing to take off. Kondo detached part of his force to block the approaching Eighth Route Army, and he led some Japanese soldiers to blow up the planes on the runway.
Kondo ran up to a bomber and threw a grenade towards the cabin. Unexpectedly, the glass of the cabin was tempered glass, and the grenade falling on it did not break the glass, but was bounced away.
But this didn't stop Kondo, so he shot at the cabin. The bullet shattered the glass above, and he threw the grenade in again. The grenade exploded in the cabin, immediately destroying the bomber.
The Japs also followed suit and ran towards other planes parked on the runway, blowing up those planes repeatedly.
Seeing this scene, Wang Chengzhu's heart was bleeding. He rushed forward desperately, but was hit in the calf by a flying bullet and fell to the ground.
The officers and soldiers of the independent brigade engineering battalion and the officers and soldiers of the airport security company rushed here desperately. When they saw the Japanese soldiers blowing up the planes on the runway, they also tried their best and rushed forward despite the rain of bullets.
Kondo saw a large number of Eighth Route Army troops rushing towards him from all directions and knew that he was completely lost. However, he had no regrets and was proud of his achievements. His only regret was that he was not able to completely destroy the enemy's airport. Looking at the Eighth Route Army getting closer and closer, he wanted to die heroically, so he simply stood up, grabbed a machine gun from the soldier's hand, and fired at the approaching Eighth Route Army.
The officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army saw him and shot at him, and soon several bullets hit him. Kondo did not fall down immediately. With his strong will, he fired the last bullet in the machine gun before falling to the ground unwillingly.
The Japs on the airport were completely eliminated, but the airport also suffered considerable damage. Six bombers parked on the runway were blown up, and more than 70 Eighth Route Army soldiers were sacrificed. There were more than 80 injured people, including Wang Chengzhu.
After Zhao Gang received the report, he was so distressed that he shed tears, but he couldn't care less about his sadness at this time, because there were still bigger crises waiting for him to deal with.
Seeing that his two infantry brigades were blocked by the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the Eighth Division of the Japanese Army sent out the engineering regiment, bypassing the frontal battlefield and outflanking the county town.
This Japanese army was also relatively lucky, encountering only a small group of the Eighth Route Army along the way. When the airport was attacked, they had already arrived at the northeast corner of the county seat and immediately launched an attack on the county seat.
At this time, the defenders on the city wall no longer had regular troops from the Eighth Route Army. Except for a small number of county brigade members, they were the basic militiamen drawn from each village. Without strong walls and sufficient weapons and ammunition, they would not be able to stop the Japanese attack.
The combat effectiveness of the Japanese engineer regiment is not inferior to that of the ordinary infantry regiment, and the combat experience is also very rich. In order to break through the city defense as soon as possible, he concentrated all the Type 92 infantry artillery and fired hard at a city wall. Soon after, a gap was destroyed in the city wall, and a large number of Japanese soldiers rushed towards the gap crazily. .
In the headquarters, since Wang Limin had already led the guard company to the blocking position of the Guancheng County Security Regiment, in addition to Zhao Gang, there was also Gao Zhiyong.
Gao Zhiyong received a report that a large number of Japanese troops appeared in the northeast of the county. At this time, he had no troops to send, so he took the only remaining guard platoon in the headquarters and some 70 or 80 people improvised by some service personnel to come for reinforcements. When they arrived, they saw that the city wall had been blown down and a large number of Japanese troops rushed up. Without hesitation, he led his people to meet them and started a fierce battle with the Japanese troops.
Zhao Gang stayed in the headquarters to provide unified command. He kept issuing orders, asking militiamen from other directions in the county to rush to the northeast for reinforcements.
The captain of the Japanese army saw that the Japanese army in front was blocked. He knew that time could not be lost. Otherwise, the reinforcements from the Eighth Route Army arrived and the gap would soon be blocked. He didn't care about the order and formation of the battle anymore, and ordered all the Japanese soldiers to charge towards the gap.
Although Gao Zhiyong and others are small in number, the firepower of the remaining guard platoon is very powerful. Each of their squads has a crooked machine gun, and each person is also equipped with a shell gun with sufficient ammunition. These firepower blocks a small The gap is still fully capable.
A group of Japanese soldiers rushed forward, and a group died. Another group came forward, and another group fell down. They just couldn't rush forward. When a Japanese captain who was rushing in front saw this scene, he personally fired a machine gun at Gao Zhiyong and others, and killed them directly. A machine gun from the guard platoon.
Taking advantage of the guard platoon's firepower weakening slightly, other Japanese soldiers also set up machine guns and fired at Gao Zhiyong and others, suppressing their firepower at once.
The Japanese took the opportunity to rush forward, and soon dozens of Japanese soldiers rushed into the city.
At this critical moment, the rapid mobile troops arrived. They jumped into the battle non-stop, blocking the gaps in the city wall with fierce firepower, and then completely eliminated the dozens of Japanese who rushed into the city.
Zhao Gang's heart finally calmed down. Thinking of the Eighth Route Army officers and soldiers who died at the airport and the bombers that were blown up, he felt heartbroken and tears flashed in his eyes.
Zhao Gang sent a telegram to Xu Dalong and informed him of the situation here. Then he walked out of the room and asked the guards to prepare the car and prepare to go around the county again to check if there were any loopholes.
Zhao Gang's driver lived in the house in the back, so the security guard ran over to call for someone. Zhao Gang stood alone in front of the door, took a deep breath, and made a movement to expand his chest to relieve his fatigue.
Suddenly, there was a gunshot, and a bullet was fired not far away. The bullet hit Zhao Gang's chest. His vision went dark and he fell down.
The gunfire alerted the people in the headquarters yard, and they ran out one after another. When they saw Zhao Gang lying on the ground, they hurriedly surrounded him. Some people rushed him to a field hospital, others went to search for the assassin, and the yard became a mess.
Zhao Gang was sent to the hospital. Su Xiaoyan was so frightened that she quickly arranged surgery for Zhao Gang. Wang Xinmin helped him, and the couple rescued Zhao Gang together.
Zhao Gang's guards and several Eighth Route Army soldiers conducted a search, but did not see the assassin. They just picked up a bullet casing shot from a tortoise box on the ground. It was obvious that Japanese agents had sneaked into the headquarters compound. The guards wanted to find the assassin, but it was too chaotic and there were not enough manpower. After a brief search and no one was seen, they gave up temporarily and could only strengthen the headquarters' vigilance.
(End of chapter)
