The commander then dispatched Cheng Xiazi's troops to dispatch three regiments to cooperate with Li Yunlong's actions, and designated these three regiments to be under the unified command of Li Yunlong. Li Yunlong asked these three regiments to enter Hebei territory, and wait until his ambush operation began. They cut off the Japanese reinforcements' retreat.
As the Japanese 145th Division suffered heavy losses and its morale was low, the Japanese army switched to the 146th Division as the vanguard and attacked in the direction of Yucheng.
This time, in order to speed up the march, the Japanese army recruited a large number of civilian vehicles. The Japanese army had a large number of troops, and the convoy traveling on the road was more than ten kilometers long.
The Japanese 145th Division followed closely behind. They still used railway transportation, got off at a station near the Shanxi border, and attacked along the railway line.
Li Yunlong originally planned to ambush a Japanese infantry brigade, but he did not expect that the entire Japanese 146th Division was marching together. Not only that, the distance between the 145th Division and the 146th Division is only a few dozen kilometers. It is impossible for Li Yunlong to swallow up such a huge Japanese battle group even if he adds the three regiments in Cheng Xiazi's hands. Down.
Li Yunlong felt a little headache, but he had rich combat experience and had dealt with all kinds of situations.
He believed that since he could not eat so many Japanese troops in one go, he should engage in mobile guerrilla warfare with them, gradually wearing down the Japanese troops, and then seize the opportunity to annihilate some of them when the Japanese troops were dispersed.
He kept the independent brigade in his hands as a battle reserve, and ordered Zhang Dabiao to lead the main force of the new brigade to launch a harassment operation against the Japanese army in regiment units.
Xu Dalong ordered Wei Dayong to lead the special operations brigade north to attack the Japanese transportation lines. At the same time, he sent a telegram to Xu Dalong, asking him to arrange a flying brigade to bomb the Japanese marching brigade.
That morning, Li Yunlong received a telegram from Zhang Dabiao, saying that the Japanese 146th Division had arrived at the border with Shanxi and was currently marching on the highway.
Li Yunlong called Wang Chengzhu and asked him to lead the rocket launcher battalion to attack the Japanese army.
Soon after Wang Chengzhu set off with the rocket launcher battalion, Li Yunlong rode up from behind on horseback. He wanted to personally experience the power of the rocket launcher salvo, and also wanted to accumulate experience so that he could better use the rocket launcher, a powerful weapon.
Zhang Dabiao closely monitored the actions of the Japanese army, and he was very excited when he saw Li Yunlong approaching with a rocket launcher. He and Li Yunlong went up a hillside, from where they could clearly see the scene on the highway in the distance.
Seeing the Japanese convoy coming in a mighty manner. Li Yunlong asked Wang Chengzhu to get ready.
Wang Chengzhu is an artillery expert in the Mawushan Military Division and already has mature plans for the use of rocket launchers.
He said: "Captain, it is not cost-effective to use rocket launchers to attack the Japanese army's marching brigade. The Japanese army's vehicles maintain a certain distance from each other. When the rockets are launched, most of them will be wasted. The only way is to find a way to let the Japanese army Only by gathering together can we fully unleash the power of rocket launchers.”
Li Yunlong and Zhang Dabiao are both very good at this.
Li Yunlong said: "Da Biao, it's up to you. Let the little devils get together and let's give him a spoonful of stew."
Zhang Dabiao understood what Li Yunlong meant, so he issued an order to the Second Regiment of the New First Brigade, asking them to build defensive positions on the highway to block the Japanese army head-on.
The battle started soon. The Japanese army encountered an obstruction from the Eighth Route Army, and the leading troops immediately fought back on the spot. The Japanese convoy stopped on the road, and they all jumped off the trucks and rushed forward.
Under the command of the commander, they began to set up artillery and gathered troops to prepare to attack the Eighth Route Army's blocking position.
Seeing the increasing number of Japanese troops gathering on the road, densely packed like a swarm of locusts, Li Yunlong rubbed his hands with joy.
He shouted loudly: "Zhuzhu, it's up to you. Let me brew it for him!"
Wang Chengzhu was already impatient with waiting. He grabbed the phone and ordered loudly: "Fire the rocket launcher, don't be economical, hit Lao Zi hard."
The rocket launchers pressed the launch button. The rocket's tail fin spurted out fiery snakes, and with a whooshing sound, it rose into the sky. In less than a minute, more than 500 rockets exploded sequentially around the highway. For a while, smoke and dust billowed, making it impossible to see anything clearly.
Soon after, the smoke cleared. Although Li Yunlong had already heard about the power of rocket launchers, he was still deeply shocked when he saw the mutilated corpses of Japanese soldiers everywhere on the road, with almost no one standing. He estimated that this round of rocket attacks could at least kill an infantry regiment of the Japanese army. He shouted excitedly: "It's so exciting."
Although the officers and soldiers of the Eighth Route Army have heard about the power of rocket launchers, most of them have never seen it with their own eyes. When they saw the scene on the highway, they were all shocked and let out earth-shaking cheers.
The Japanese troops of the 146th Division were completely stunned. They had no idea that the enemy had such terrifying weapons. The 146th Division was newly formed. Except for some officers, all of them had no combat experience. Seeing the mutilated corpses of their comrades lying everywhere, everyone was frightened to death. Many people fled in the direction they came from at all costs.
No matter how loud they shouted, the Japanese officers could not stop them. Seeing that there were only a few lonely people left on the road, each one of them chased the Japanese soldiers with their tails between their legs and fled.
The officers and soldiers of the Second Regiment of the New First Brigade, which was blocking the Japanese army, immediately pursued them and seized a large number of Japanese military vehicles. Nowadays, many people in the Eighth Route Army can drive. They seized the time and drove the captured cars to the back of the defensive position.
Li Yunlong liked rocket launchers so much. He was good at catching fighter planes. When the Japanese army began to retreat, he ordered Wang Chengzhu to load the rocket launchers quickly, and then he and Wang Chengzhu led the rocket launcher battalion to pursue the Japanese army.
Li Yunlong's judgment was correct. The large groups of Japanese troops evacuated one after another, and gradually stopped after staying away from the Eighth Route Army's defensive positions. The officers began to gather their troops, and a large number of Japanese troops regrouped on the road. At the same time, the Japanese troops from behind also caught up one after another. They also stopped and asked what happened in front of them.
Suddenly, the Japanese army gathered a large number of troops in a small area, even more than the number gathered last time.
Li Yunlong was extremely excited and quickly ordered Wang Chengzhu to bombard the Japanese army again.
The effect of this shelling was no less than the last one, and even exceeded it. It directly killed an infantry regiment of the Japanese army. Even the Japanese brigade commander and chief of staff who came to inquire about the situation were blown to pieces. The Japanese troops were completely stunned and fled along the route they came from regardless of the cost.
At this moment, Bob also led the flying brigade to rush over and violently bombed the Japanese troops on the road.
The Japanese 146th Division basically collapsed, and they fled along the same route they came from at all costs.
The Japanese 145th Division, which was advancing along the railway, saw the embarrassment of the 146th Division. Their morale was already low, and they immediately stopped advancing and began to retreat.
Li Yunlong did not expect that the Japanese army would be so weak. He would never let these Japanese troops leave, and immediately ordered the New 1st Brigade and the Independent Brigade to pursue the Japanese army. At the same time, the three regiments sent by Cheng Xiazi were ordered to block the Japanese army's retreat.
In order to ensure that the Japanese army's retreat was blocked, Li Yunlong sent a telegram to Wei Dayong, asking them to give up attacking the Japanese army's transportation lines and come back directly to participate in the blocking of the Japanese army.
After more than two hours of fierce fighting, the Eighth Route Army finally formed an encirclement on the Japanese army. The Japanese 145th Division and 146th Division were surrounded in a small area of less than 30 square kilometers. The Japanese officers and soldiers built defensive positions on the spot and sent the telegram directly to the North China Front Army Headquarters, requesting tactical guidance.
The North China Front urgently mobilized troops for reinforcements.
In order to quickly annihilate the surrounded enemy troops, Li Yunlong ordered the participating ministries not to save ammunition, but to use all artillery and continuously fire artillery shells at the surrounded Japanese troops.
The rocket launcher exerted great power in this situation, and each round of launch caused huge casualties to the Japanese army. Unfortunately, the ammunition consumption was too high, and the rockets brought were quickly used up.
Zhao Gang also spent a lot of money this time and immediately ordered the Air Force to airdrop all the rockets in stock in the base area to Li Yunlong.
Xu Dalong felt that this was still a waste of ammunition. He told Bob to carry two thermobaric bombs, and when throwing ordinary aerial bombs, he also dropped them into the Japanese defensive positions.
The power of thermobaric bombs is so amazing. Just two thermobaric bombs caused the casualties of thousands of Japanese officers and soldiers, and directly destroyed the headquarters of the Japanese 146th Division.
The use of thermobaric bombs is classified. At this time, there were explosions of artillery shells and aerial bombs everywhere, and neither the Japanese army nor the Eighth Route Army noticed that thermobaric bombs were mixed among them.
The Eighth Route Army's artillery fire was so fierce that it completely exceeded the awareness of the officers and soldiers of the Japanese 146th and 145th Divisions. They were completely stunned. Many officers and soldiers have lost their will to fight, and many have even become insane due to collapse.
Li Yunlong was good at catching fighter planes. Seeing that the resistance of the Japanese army was rapidly weakening, he ordered the troops to shrink the encirclement and compress the Japanese army to a smaller area in order to maximize the power of artillery fire.
Under the fierce artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army, the Japanese army simply could not organize an effective counterattack. As the encirclement became smaller and smaller, the Japanese losses were increasing faster and faster. Three hours later, the Japanese army completely lost its combat effectiveness. More than 3,600 Japanese officers and soldiers raised their hands and surrendered. The battle ended victoriously.
When the Japanese troops learned that the 146th and 145th Divisions had been destroyed, they were all horrified. They immediately broke away from the battle and quickly withdrew to their original defense areas. The Japanese army's attempt to mobilize heavy troops to obtain coal resources was completely crushed at the beginning.
The Japanese 145th and 146th Divisions were completely destroyed, causing a huge sensation in China. Grand celebrations were held in the underground anti-Japanese base areas and in the rear areas of northern Shaanxi. The names of Li Yunlong, Zhao Gang, Xu Dalong, Zhang Dabiao, Wang Limin, Huang Jingzhong and others were once again published in various newspapers and magazines, and they became famous for a while.
This news also caused an uproar in the island country. Two infantry divisions that had just been formed from China and went out to war came to the Chinese battlefield. They suffered all losses in the first battle, which was an extremely heavy blow to the morale of the island nation's citizens.
The Japanese base camp was extremely angry and severely reprimanded the North China Front Army and asked them to retaliate against the troops in the Mawushan Military Division. But the North China Front could only smile and shake its head. They also wanted to fight the tiger, but unfortunately, they were not Wu Song and did not have the diamond.
Yoshio Shinozuka was even more confused about whether to laugh or cry. Now that he mentioned the troops of the Mawushan Military Division, he felt a headache.
Chiba Xunyi felt very lucky. After encircling and annihilating the Japanese 145th and 146th Divisions, the Eighth Route Army withdrew from Yucheng and returned to the anti-Japanese base area. Qianye Xunyi knew very well that this was the Eighth Route Army saving face for himself. Otherwise, with the strong strength of the Mawushan Army Division, it would be very easy to capture Yucheng.
He knew that Yan Guiwu played a big role in this, so he treated Yan Guiwu even more kindly. He tacitly allowed him to keep in touch with Xu Dalong secretly.
The 32nd Garrison Division did not take the initiative to cause trouble for the Eighth Route Army, and turned a blind eye to the Eighth Route Army passing through its own defense area, pretending not to see it.
Cheng Xiazi and Li Yunlong got a big deal this time by cooperating and received a large amount of weapons and ammunition.
Li Yunlong has gradually disdained Japanese equipment, and gave almost half of the captured Japanese weapons and ammunition to Cheng Xiazi, an old comrade.
Cheng Xiazi expressed his gratitude to Li Yunlong, and at the same time he was very envious of the advanced weapons Li Yunlong had in his hands. He made a special trip to the Mawushan Military Division, hosted a banquet for Li Yunlong at his own expense, and asked him to find a way to get him a batch of powerful rocket launchers produced by the Mawushan Military Division arsenal for the sake of his old comrade.
Li Yunlong refused directly. He said that for the sake of his old comrades, he had been given a lot of captured Japanese equipment. He advised Blind Cheng not to be too greedy, and also said sarcastically that even if you were equipped with a rocket launcher, you would not be able to shoot those expensive rockets.
Blind Cheng saw the power of the rocket launcher with his own eyes. When he heard the price of the rocket launcher, he thought he could not afford it, so he had to give up the idea.
However, he still worked hard and bought a batch of rocket launchers, 82mm recoilless rifles, and some artillery shells from Li Yunlong.
Zhao Daman and Chuntao are frequent visitors to Xu Dalong's home. Back then, Xu Dalong and Chuntao worked together in the Quilt Factory of the Logistics Department. Later, Chuntao followed him to the Mawushan guerrillas and is now the director of the Mawushan Military Division Quilt Factory. Her lover Zhao Daman later transferred to the human and military work and is currently the director of the Human and Military Department of Mawushan Xingzheng Office.
Today Chuntao and his wife came over and brought some meat and vegetables. Chuntao and Lin Xueying were in the kitchen together, preparing dinner.
(End of chapter)
