Sun Desheng received Lu Ming's order, hurriedly selected elite cavalry, and quickly advanced towards the front line.

Lu Ming, on the other hand, commanded the first battalion of the armored cavalry, the second battalion of the artillery, and the assault guard company, which marched at the fastest speed.

Of course, although these troops have horses, bicycles, etc. to increase their speed, their overall speed is only slightly faster than that of infantry.

These troops cannot be compared with real mechanized troops, so it will take some time for them to reach the battlefield in southern Shanxi.

At this time, fierce fighting started here in Zhongtiao Mountain.

In response to the Japs' attack, the defenders deployed an arc-shaped defense configuration on Zhongtiao Mountain.

The Third Army, 17th Army, and 80th Army under the Fifth Army mainly defend the western part of Zhongtiao Mountain.

The 15th Army, 43rd Army, and 98th Army under the 14th Group Army mainly defend the northern part of Zhongtiao Mountain.

The Ninth Army troops mainly defend the eastern part of Zhongtiao Mountain.

Seven military units are responsible for defensive operations, and some units are deployed in Taiyue Mountain and Taihang Mountain to support operations.

It's just that the little devils took this battle very seriously, and they were fully prepared.

Take the defense of the entire northern line of Zhongtiao Mountain as an example. There are three armies of the 14th Group Army here.

On the surface, the 15th Army, 43rd Army, and 98th Army have quite a lot of troops.

But what they had to face was the Japanese 41st Division on the Northern Front, which was independently formed into the 9th Brigade.

At the same time, there is also the 33rd Division of Dong'a, which is in danger, and is independently mixed into the Third Brigade!

The number of Japanese troops in these two groups exceeds 50,000. Counting the attached puppet troops, there are at least 60,000 to 70,000 troops.

And they have aviation and armored forces to assist them in combat.

On the other hand, although these three army units are ostensibly under the command of a group army, they are all temporarily added.

The 43rd Army is the Jinsui Army, which is Yan Laoxi's army.

As for the combat effectiveness of the Jinsui Army, it has already been demonstrated in the battles in Jin Province.

At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, Itagaki Seishiro commanded half a division and swept through the invincible forces of Jin Province.

Moreover, the Jinsui Army has a very obvious characteristic, that is, even if they are temporarily assigned to the 14th Group Army, they are under the command of the 14th Group Army.

But let alone the commander-in-chief of the 14th Group Army, even the commander-in-chief He Jingzhi, who is now acting as the commander of operations, has difficulty mobilizing them.

They only have Yan Laoxi in their eyes, and what Yan Laoxi wants to do most right now is to preserve his strength.

So at this time, facing the attack of the Japs, the 43rd Army is holding on, but they will not hold on for too long.

Let them spend all their money, and no one from Yan Laoxi to these officers will agree.

Moreover, the current attitudes of Little Devil and Yan Laoxi are quite immodest, and they will not kill the Jinsui Army troops.

As for the 15th Army, this is the starting force of Commander-in-Chief Liu of the 14th Group Army. Its predecessor was the famous Zhensong Army.

This army is completely armed with half-bandits. It was led by Commander-in-Chief Liu's brother and has a very bad reputation.

Fortunately, the situation has improved after Commander-in-Chief Liu took over, and Commander-in-Chief Liu also has a firm determination to fight.

However, their strength is limited and their combat effectiveness is not very strong.

The last 98th Army was from the Shaanxi Army. Due to some reasons, they were suppressed everywhere and their combat effectiveness was average.

In the entire Zhongtiao Mountain area, most of these troops belong to the direct line troops.

However, they are only collateral members of the direct line troops and are incomparable with the real direct line troops of Huangpu.

If we really count, only the Ninth Army stationed in the east of Zhongtiao Mountain can be regarded as a direct force of Huangpu.

They also fought many tough battles in Jin Province. At the Battle of Xingkou, their commander and the commander of his subordinate 54th Division were killed on the front line.

They are a force that can fight tough battles, but they fight continuously, which consumes a lot of strength. They have to recruit a lot of new soldiers, and their combat effectiveness drops a lot.

But overall, it is better than other troops.

But even if the Ninth Army has a slightly stronger combat effectiveness, the Japanese forces they have to face on the eastern front are the 35th Division and the 21st Division.

Moreover, these two divisions were the main force dispatched, with a total of 40,000 people.

Of course, the goal of the little devils on the eastern front was not just to annihilate the Ninth Army. They wanted to break through quickly, seize the Yellow River crossing, and block the retreat of the hundreds of thousands of defenders.

The current situation on the battlefield is very obvious, and all the little devils have obvious advantages.

And at this time in Zhongtiao Mountain, there were a large number of plainclothes teams and paratroopers conducting cooperative operations internally.

As for tanks and armored vehicles, bombers continued to cooperate with them in combat.

Fierce gunfire continued, thick smoke was everywhere, and the smell of blood spread in the air.

The Western Front, the Northern Front, and the Northeastern Front are all the main directions of attack by the Japs. The troops here are far inferior to those on the Eastern Front.

However, they received a large number of tanks, armored vehicles and aviation support, and these three little devils fought the most fiercely.

Of course, the little devils here on the Eastern Front took advantage of their strength and repeatedly attacked the Ninth Army's positions!

The entire Zhongtiao Mountain area was instantly plunged into fierce fighting.

For the defenders, the situation is the worst!

Not only did they have to face frontal attacks by the Japs' superior force, but they also had to defend themselves against air strikes by the Japs.

At the same time, the command organs at all levels of the garrison had to deal with the attacks of the Japanese plainclothes teams and paratroopers.

The entire Zhongtiao Mountain battlefield was almost a mess.

Troops deployed in Taiyue Mountain and Taihang Mountain quickly provided support and participated in the battle one after another.

It's just that it's almost impossible for them to take the initiative on the battlefield.

By the morning of the 8th, the 43rd Army, which was responsible for the defense of the northern front, began to retreat after successive battles.

The 43rd Army abandoned its position, quickly broke through to the north of the battlefield, and withdrew from the battle.

The little Japanese didn't know why, but he ignored them and continued to attack the Zhongtiao Mountain position.

At this time, the Japs also achieved significant results in the Western Front operations. The headquarters of the Fifth Army was attacked by plainclothes teams and paratroopers and was quickly relocated.

At this point, they directly lost contact with the various ministries, and at the same time, the command structures of each ministry were also attacked, and the ministries gradually crossed the river and evacuated southward.

Each unit suffered heavy casualties, and the Japs began to attack the ferry where the newly formed 27th Division was defending.

The newly formed 27th Division fought to the death and struggled to hold on until the Japs reached the division headquarters.

However, under such circumstances, the division commander resolutely commanded the troops to hold on and cover the main group's crossing of the river.

In order to quickly capture the ferry, the little Japanese began to use poison gas attacks.

The division staff urgently arranged for the division commander to evacuate, but the division commander refused and pushed them away!

"Shame on you for not annihilating the enemy! How can you show your face to others? If a soldier fails to succeed, he will become a benevolent man and will die with all the troops!"

Master Wang shouted loudly, and his subordinates were greatly moved, and they all swore to follow and fight to the end!

In the end, under the attack of the superior Japs, the commander, deputy commander, and chief of staff of the newly appointed 27th Division successively died for their country.

On July 9, the Japanese army had fully grasped the operational initiative.

It was at four o'clock in the afternoon on this day that Lu Ming commanded the leading troops of the independent regiment to arrive near Taiyue Mountain.

The cavalry troops dispatched by the Armored Cavalry Battalion came quickly to report!

But at this time, the twenty elite cavalry carefully selected by Sun Desheng were already less than ten.

Here in Zhongtiao Mountain, the Japs have an absolute advantage, although their detection is hidden.

But once exposed, it would be difficult for them to escape the attack of the little devil.

After all, they have absolute air superiority and have a large number of tanks and armored vehicles to assist them in the battle.

Lu Ming quickly summoned Sun Desheng, Zhang Dabiao, Wang Gensheng, Wei Monk and others together.

To be honest, these troops are the most elite troops that the independent regiment can produce.

1st Battalion, Armored Cavalry Battalion, 2nd Artillery Battalion, Assault Guard Company.

However, if these more than a thousand troops were directly thrown into the battle at Zhongtiao Mountain, it would be like pouring a glass of water into the desert, without any effect.

Lu Ming discussed with the cadres, and the expressions on each of their faces were very solemn.

"Dingdong, the system has issued a mission to rescue the prisoners of war in Licun Town!"

"The reward for accepting the mission is four Schneider 105MM field guns!"

"The conditions for obtaining this reward are to annihilate one thousand Japanese troops and one thousand puppet Manchu troops!"

At this time, the system sound started to sound.

After Lu Ming heard the sound, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

He thought carefully and accepted the task.

The few scouts had just reported, and they went directly south along their current location, more than 30 kilometers away, to Licun Town.

There are currently a thousand puppet Manchu troops stationed in Licun Town, and there are still more than two thousand prisoners here!
To be continued...