The night was as dark as water, and under the dim moonlight, a long queue of Eighth Route Army troops was marching in a hurry.
The collision of grenades made a small tinkling sound.
In order to achieve concealment, the troops marched without lighting torches.
Because there are scouts and special forces from the Sword Squadron leading the way, there is no need to worry about going the wrong way.
If there are soldiers who are exhausted, as long as the squad leader shouts loudly, the cavalry will immediately bring the horses, and there will never be any chance of falling behind.
The brigade's cavalry regiment had completed its blocking mission, and more than 1,400 cavalrymen followed the main force.
Li Yunlong, Zhao Gang and Kong Jie gave up their troops and horses to the exhausted warriors.
From yesterday to now, Li Yunlong only slept for two or three hours in the middle of the night last night, and another three hours in the afternoon.
As someone who has gone through the Long March, Li Yunlong can still withstand both his willpower and physical strength.
They also took turns carrying Zhao Gang's large-caliber sniper rifle called Barrett during the rapid march.
The soldiers also have long-distance training as part of their daily training. Although continuous fighting and marching are tiring, no soldier complains of being tired.
Suddenly, there was a buzzing sound in the sky, and the Japanese reconnaissance plane arrived.
"Japanese plane!"
"hidden!"
Hearing the humming roar of a motor in the distance, Li Yunlong was very familiar with this sound, and immediately roared loudly.
Following his order, the soldiers responded quickly. The troops originally lined up in two rows suddenly dispersed and fell on the road. Even the horses lay on the ground under the supervision of the cavalry.
The machine gun battalion's kacha kacha loaded the machine gun and pointed it in the direction of the Japanese plane. However, the battalion commander quickly ordered him to turn off the safety and not fire.
The Japanese reconnaissance plane did not fly high, but it quickly passed through the sky.
"Damn it, what kind of plane are the devils doing?"
After the Japanese reconnaissance plane flew away, Li Yunlong patted the dust on his body and stood up with a curse.
"Have the Japanese discovered our whereabouts?"
Zhao Gang stared at the direction of the Japanese reconnaissance plane for a while. The Japanese plane seemed to be conducting reconnaissance along the road.
"impossible."
Li Yunlong shook his head and said with certainty: "With this little moonlight, you can't even see a shadow of a ghost a few meters away. The plane is at least a few hundred meters above the ground, so it's impossible for the Japanese to detect it."
Kong Jie said: "That means the Japanese were not sure whether we would return for reinforcements and sent planes to conduct reconnaissance at night. Fortunately, we did not light torches, otherwise they would have been discovered by Japanese investigators."
Li Yunlong shouted loudly: "Give me the order, everyone rest for 5 minutes, and continue the rapid march after 5 minutes!"
After finishing speaking, he took out two steamed buns that were still a little warm, swallowed them in a few mouthfuls, took the kettle from Huzi's hand, and drank two mouthfuls of water.
After resting for about 5 minutes, Li Yunlong felt himself resurrected with full blood and shouted: "Let's go!"
Immediately, thousands of troops began to march towards the Huangyadong Arsenal.
…
Taiyuan, First Army Headquarters.
"Your Excellency, Commander, the reconnaissance plane just returned the news that no Eighth Route Army was found on the roads entering the Eighth Route Bandit Areas from Licheng, Xiangyuan and Changzhi."
"Matsuda Zhongzuo called back. The Eighth Route Army's artillery group is still in Changzhi. The Eighth Route Army's firepower on the city wall is stronger than during the day."
As soon as Yoshio Shinozuka got up after eating something and sleeping for four hours, Kusuyama Hideyoshi reported to him.
Currently guarding the city wall is the county brigade of the New Regiment. Although its firepower is not as good as the main force of the New Regiment, it is several levels stronger than other regiments.
"Oh?" Yoshio Shinozuka frowned, "Are you really still there?"
However, Kusuyama Hideyoshi was still a little worried and said: "It is impossible for the Eighth Route Army to transport the artillery back to the bandit area in one night, but their infantry can return lightly armed for reinforcements."
Hearing this, Yoshio Shinozuka paced back and forth in the conference room with his hands behind his back:
"Nanshan Jun, order the reconnaissance plane to take off half an hour before dawn, so that it can reach the sky above Changzhi at dawn, and then we can see whether the main force of the Eighth Route Army has returned for reinforcements."
"Hi!" Kusuyama Hideyoshi paused and turned around to make arrangements.
6am.
Before dawn, two Japanese Nakajima reconnaissance fighter jets took off from Xincheng Airport.
After the two Nakajima fighter jets took off, they flew south in a battle formation. The roar of their huge engines woke up residents near Taiyuan.
Changzhi County.
Just after dawn, the buzzing motor started to roar.
The militiamen who had just woken up immediately took up their weapons and took cover.
The Japanese plane did not go to the city wall, but swooped down directly towards the Eighth Route Army camp.
After the militiamen put on the military uniforms of the main force, they slept in the main force's marching tent. The tent had not had time to be put away, so it was very eye-catching.
Before the Japanese plane could dive into place, a lot of anti-aircraft guns and machine guns fired at high altitude.
The Japanese pilots did not dare to pull down too low. After dropping aerial bombs and strafing a few hundred meters away, they saw at least ten thousand soldiers on the ground wearing gray military uniforms.
Then he flew north without looking back, and then visited Xiangyuan and Licheng, then flapped his wings and flew back to Taiyuan.
"The commander, chief of staff, and pilots report that the main forces of the Eighth Route Army are still in Changzhi, Xiangyuan and Licheng."
Soon, the news was sent back to the First Army Headquarters, and the communications staff reported to Shinozuka Yoshio and Kusuyama Hideyoshi.
"Li Yunlong actually doesn't even care about the arsenal. It seems that he is determined to eat the 37th Division!" Kusuyama Hideyoshi said helplessly.
"Order, the 14th and 18th Brigades speed up to assist the 37th Division!"
"We must arrive at Xiangyuan and Licheng at noon today, and we must arrive at Changzhi at night!"
Yoshio Shinozuka adjusted his glasses, stared at the map for a while, and gave orders to the communications staff officer in a cold tone.
"Hi!" The communications staff member suddenly lowered his head, put his feet together, then turned around and walked toward the communications room next door.
…
at the same time.
Daling Village, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.
"Hey!" Li Yunlong and guard Huang Erhu pulled the reins of the army horse, and the army horse stopped immediately.
Li Yunlong dismounted and handed the whip and reins to Huang Erhu.
First, he straightened his collar and military cap, and then walked into the headquarters.
The security personnel at the headquarters all knew Li Yunlong and gave him a military salute.
At this time, the security company commander of the headquarters came out and said in surprise when he saw Li Yunlong: "Captain Li, you came so quickly. The head of the headquarters is asking me to pick you up."
"Captain Wang, is the leader here?" Li Yunlong asked.
"Here he is." Captain Wang said.
This guard company commander was the one who was originally sent to pick up the Shanxi-Sui Army observation group.
Li Yunlong was taken to the entrance of the Eighth Route Army headquarters by the guard company commander. Company Commander Wang walked into the conference room: "Report to the commander, Li Yunlong is here!"
"So fast? Invite him in quickly!"
Li Yunlong heard the surprised voice of the head of the headquarters. After a while, Company Commander Wang came out and said: "Captain Li, the chief invites you to come in."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work." Li Yunlong glanced at Company Commander Wang and then walked into the headquarters.
"Chief, Li Yunlong is reporting to you!" When he walked up to the boss, Li Yunlong stood at attention, raised his chest, and raised his hand in a military salute.
The boss raised his head and looked at Li Yunlong, who had a hint of fatigue in his brows, and looked extremely satisfied.
"You're very fast," the boss said with a smile, "I thought it would take another hour to arrive, but I didn't expect it to arrive so soon."
After a pause, the boss patted Li Yunlong on the shoulder again: "You led the troops to attack the 37th Division and fought brilliantly. It set a record for our Eighth Route Army to severely damage a Japanese division."
Li Yunlong said seriously: "The main reason is that the main force of our Eighth Route Army is too small. If you, boss, give me another 30,000 troops, and after I finish defeating the 37th Division, I will go directly north to attack Taiyuan, and take down Yoshio Shinozuka as well."
As soon as these words came out, the boss and Li Yunlong couldn't help laughing.
"Who wants to attack Taiyuan?"
At this moment, the chief of staff's voice sounded in the ears of Li Yunlong and the boss.
Li Yunlong and the boss turned around and saw the chief of staff walking in from the door of the conference room.
"Chief of Staff!" Li Yunlong raised his hand and saluted the Chief of Staff.
"Li Yunlong?" the chief of staff said in a surprised tone, "I didn't expect it to be you, I just said, no one but you dares to attack Taiyuan."
"Let's get down to business." The boss looked solemn, and the three of them came to a map.
"The Japanese who attempted to besiege the arsenal included the 36th Regiment of the 18th Brigade and the 2nd Guards Division."
While speaking, the boss's finger pointed out on the map the current locations of the Japanese 36th Regiment and the 2nd Guards Division.
Li Yunlong took a closer look and saw that the two groups of Japanese soldiers were only more than ten kilometers away from the arsenal. Fortunately, he led the Taihang column to arrive overnight, otherwise the situation would have been critical.
"We have troops that have been resisting at all levels and blocking attacks step by step. However, the enemy is coming fiercely. It is expected that these two groups of Japs will reach the outskirts of the arsenal at noon." The chief of staff said, "By the way, how many main forces of the Taihang Column have you brought back? "
Li Yunlong said: "In order to paralyze the Japanese, I brought about 20,000 troops and 48 cannons."
The Taihang column had a total of more than 30,000 people, but it suffered more than 5,000 casualties in the two days of fighting, and more than 8,000 people remained in Changzhi, Xiangyuan and Licheng.
"20,000 men, 48 cannons!"
"We also have 20,000 people and 72 cannons here. It shouldn't be a big problem to deal with a division and a regiment."
The chief of staff made a quick calculation and nodded.
The cannons mentioned here are all cannons above 75 mm. If you include 70 mm infantry guns and 60 mm mortars, there will be more.
The boss stared at the map: "The 14th Brigade and the 18th Brigade are more than 30 kilometers away from us. We must act quickly and defeat or even defeat the Japanese 2nd Guards Division in the shortest time. Otherwise, these two brigades will Likely to bite like a mad dog.”
After a pause, the boss looked at Li Yunlong: "Li Yunlong, I will personally command the troops to kill this son-of-a-bitch 36th Regiment. The 2nd Guards Division will be handed over to your Taihang Column. Are you sure we can do it in a short time?" Defeat the 2nd Guards Division?"
Li Yunlong immediately expressed his stance in a confident tone: "Chief, if the 2nd Guards Division has not been defeated before dark, I, Li Yunlong, will come to see you!"
