There is insufficient ammunition, and there is no place to replenish it during the Dragon Boat Festival. The cavalry can only use part of the Type 38 rifles.
The Type 38 rifle is too long and is not suitable for cavalry combat. But it also has an advantage, that is, it has small recoil and is suitable for the body shape of Asians.
Of course, the most important thing is that there is no other gun nowadays, even if it is not easy to use, you still have to use it.
Duanwu asked Shangguan Zhibiao to find seven or eight machine guns to supplement the firepower of the cavalry battalion. Then Duanwu mounted his horse and led the cavalry battalion back to Bengbu again.
It's more than fifty kilometers. If you walk, it could take five hours, six hours, or even ten hours.
Because when the troops march, it is not only as easy as walking on two legs, but there are also baggage troops and even artillery following them.
Therefore, if the troops are not marching in a hurry and are lightly armed and simple, their speed will generally not be very fast.
But the cavalry is different. The cavalry has horses to travel, although it cannot be exaggerated to travel a thousand days and eight hundred nights. But it only takes about two hours for Duanwu to return to Bengbu, and three hours later, he can arrive near Liutaizi Village and launch a surprise attack on the Japanese army.
Of course, Dragon Boat Festival will not confront the Japanese. As long as he saves people, he will retreat immediately.
Before leaving, Duanwu asked Shangguan Zhibiao to send a message to the Fifth Theater Command. The first is to tell Li Zhongren that the Japanese 10th Regiment has been completely wiped out. The Japanese right wing in the Huainan area has been almost crippled.
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The second thing is that Tang Jiujiu is in Liutaizi Village.
Duanwu didn't say much about this matter, because Li Zhongren was not a fool, and smart people didn't need to explain so much. He guessed that Li Zhongren should know what to do.
Little did he know at Dragon Boat Festival, the 31st Army had already declined under the fierce attack of the Japanese Ninth Division and the 114th Division, and its defense line had shrunk by more than one-third.
The commander of the 31st Army planned to shrink the defense line to the Shouxian County and Changfeng area of Huainan, and concentrate its troops on it.
And Li Zhongren is also preparing to reinforce it, because once the 31st Army retreats across the board, the 51st Army will really become a lonely army.
However, at this moment, the Dragon Boat Festival called. Of course, before that, he had received a message from Liu Taizi Village and knew that Tang Jiujiu was in Liu Taizi Village.
But his reply was only to order Lao Abacus to organize troops and escort Tang Jiujiu to evacuate immediately.
Because at this time, troops were being used everywhere, and there were already two armies in the direction of Bengbu. If more troops were sent up, Xuzhou would be empty of troops, so how could it deal with the northern front battle. The Japanese Second Army was approaching fiercely, and Han Fuju was going against the will again.
And if it weren't for the Dragon Boat Festival holding an artillery regiment to hang him up, I'm afraid he would have withdrawn from Jinan long ago.
But even so, Han Fuju still sent three telegrams asking for help a day. Therefore, Li Zhongren was really worried that Duanwu had predicted that Han Fuju would withdraw his troops from Jinan without permission.
Once Jinan falls, he must mobilize troops in the Zaozhuang and Taierzhuang areas to block the Japs. Otherwise, the Japs will march straight in and take Xuzhou directly. Then the Xuzhou battle that he has prepared for three months will be will cease to exist.
But at this time, another telegram was sent from Dragon Boat Festival, which forced him to think about it carefully.
The Japanese Tenth Regiment was completely wiped out, which would be a turning point in the Huainan Campaign.
He got the information from the intelligence department. In addition to the strength of a regiment of the Little Devils detouring from the direction of the 31st Army, the 10th Regiment of the Japanese 10th Division was most likely to cross eastward and then meet with the Japanese 26th Brigade. The regiments gathered together to prepare for the outflanking of the Dragon Boat Festival Division in Bengbu.
Li Zhongren originally thought that Dragon Boat Festival would suffer a big loss this time. He was planning to inform Dragon Boat Festival of the incident, but he didn't expect that Dragon Boat Festival would go from Bengbu to Laoye Ridge overnight and annihilate the Japanese 10th Regiment.
Without the 10th Regiment, the Japanese's 26th Brigade would be useless. After all, the Japanese 26th Brigade had already suffered heavy losses before the Battle of Huainan began.
And one arm of the enemy on the Eastern Front was cut off, which meant that the turning point of this battle had appeared.
Of course, the most important thing is that Tang Jiujiu was in Liutaizi Village and did not leave for unknown reasons, otherwise Duanwu would not have sent a second telegram.
Duanwu was reminding him that if Tang Jiujiu suffered any casualties, even you, Li Zhongren, would have to bear the chairman's thunderous wrath.
Li Zhongren thought for a while and felt that there was no need to offend the Chairman in this matter. What's more, the war situation on the southern front has changed, and it's time for him to use his troops.
Li Zhongren ordered the 125th Division of the 22nd Army to fully support Liutaizi Village and rescue Miss Tang Jiujiu.
The 125th Division of the 22nd Group Army, the division commander is called Chen Dingxun, has jurisdiction over the 373rd Brigade, the 375th Brigade, and a 136th mixed brigade.
The predecessor of this mixed brigade was actually a shelter. When the Sichuan Army came out to fight the war, many troops were dispersed. Many Sichuan troops had nowhere to go, and no troops were willing to take them in. So Chen Dingxun, the commander of the 125th Division, was ordered to set up such a shelter.
After that, the size of the shelter continued to expand, eventually reaching the strength of nearly a regiment. As a result, the prototype of the 136th Brigade was formed. Later, such a supernumerary battle sequence was drawn from the main force and mixed together.
The commander of the 136th Brigade is Lu Jian. At this time, he is doing the final work with the Independent Regiment in Laoye Ridge to completely annihilate the Japanese Tenth Regiment.
Of course, the news of Lu Jian's battle had already been sent back.
Lu Jian has always been in contact with the division headquarters and informed the division headquarters that the special commissioner Duan Wu was just like the rumors, not only generous but also approachable. As soon as the 136th Brigade arrived at Liutaizi Village, a company of pure German equipment was distributed. After several battles, although the troops suffered casualties, almost the entire brigade was replaced with Japanese equipment.
Lu Jian also told his division commander Chen Dingxun that this little devil's Type 38 rifle was easy to use.
Whenever Chen Bingxun saw the telegram from Lu Jian, he would smile from ear to ear. Because when had the Sichuan Army been treated like this?
So at this time, when he received Li Zhongren's telegram, Chen Bingxun immediately ordered the entire division to maneuver towards Liutaizi Village in Bengbu.
The reconnaissance force went first, with a regiment of troops carrying only light weapons. They went to support and must rescue the wife of the Dragon Boat Festival Commissioner - Miss Tang Jiujiu.
The 125th Division was dispatched across the board, but at this time, the battle situation in Liu Taizi Village was not optimistic.
Because just as Duanwu expected, although the baggage troops were brave, their overall combat effectiveness was average.
In fact, most of them are people who were removed from the combat troops during the Dragon Boat Festival. Many of them are wounded soldiers. Although they have recovered from their injuries, they are left with disabilities and can no longer join the front-line troops. And they were unwilling to retire, so they were incorporated into the supply camp.
Others are old, weak, sick, old, young, or have some diseases.
They were unwilling to leave the army, and Duanwu had no reason to abandon them.
Moreover, there are trucks in the supply camp, so even some soldiers with leg disabilities can follow the troops in combat with ease.
But these people still have a patriotic heart. They yearn for the battlefield and to be able to kill a few more Japanese with their own hands.
It happened that the Japanese came and the main force was not there, so it was time for them to go into battle to kill the enemy.
It's just that the little devil is not weak. Although there is only one small team, it only took more than ten minutes to break through the position of more than 30 people blocking the team outside Liu Taizi Village.
The soldiers sacrificed themselves heroically. The moment the Japs broke through the defense line, they detonated the explosives tied to their bodies and died together with the little Japs who jumped into the position.
The explosion was so violent that more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were instantly swallowed up by the explosion, and no one survived. More than twenty Japanese who were charging behind were blown away, and the smoke and mud rising from the position once reached a height of more than 20 meters.
At this time, smoke and dust were everywhere, and among the falling soil and stones, the little Japs were wailing all over the field. No one knew how many Japs would be taken away by this explosion! ...
