The place where the 28th Regiment fought with the Japanese vanguard.
Compared with the tragic battle situation of the New Regiment, the situation faced by the 28th Regiment at this time was slightly "peaceful".
When the Japanese army advanced, the 28th Regiment retreated. Under the tug of war between the two sides, the battlefield actually extended from Lucheng to Licheng.
Ding Wei was not hasty or slow in using troops at this time. He neither allowed the Japanese army to break through the 28th Regiment's defense line nor made the Japanese army feel that the Eighth Route Army soldiers on the opposite side were too numerous and powerful to defeat them.
If analyzed carefully, the leading force of the Japanese army originally consisted of an infantry brigade and a mountain artillery brigade. At this time, except for the mountain artillery brigade, which had no casualties, the Japanese infantry brigade of more than a thousand people passed through the previous joint operations of the new regiment and the 28th regiment.
, the subsequent 28 regiments were eliminated, and at least one third was lost.
The Japanese commander was so cruel that his teeth were itching. He felt that the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side was too slippery to hold back, but he had no choice but to urge his soldiers to keep coming forward to invite battle.
28th Regiment Headquarters.
"Old Ding, there is an urgent telegram from the military region headquarters!" The political commissar of the 287th Regiment sent a telegram to Ying.
Ding Wei glanced at it quickly and then said: "The bait over at Weizi Town has been taken, and the fishing nets are about to be set up. We are just waiting for the order to counterattack!"
"The battle has been a bit frustrating these days. With the joint efforts of our 28th Regiment and the New Regiment, we could easily defeat the Japanese army, but it ended up dragging on for several days!" Xiang Ying said, shaking his head.
Shake his head.
"Hey, we can't just wait and see when we fight. Zhou Weihan has played a big game. Since nearly 5,000 Japs came out of Changzhi, he has no intention of letting them go back!"
"Based on the current situation, if the little devils who are fighting against the new group are delayed, the next step is to eliminate them as a matter of course, and I always feel that Zhou Weihan will not give up so easily!" Ding Wei said in a spirited voice.
"Is there any big move?" Xiang Ying asked.
"It's hard to say, forget it, let's do the things in front of us first. The first battalion has probably penetrated behind the Japanese army at this time, and ordered the third battalion to be ready to attack at any time!" Ding Wei ordered.
Weizi Town.
At this time, Luo Benzhong had already retreated with his guard company. The second and third battalions deployed in the town successively abandoned the first position and concentrated their strength on the second and third positions.
"Damn it, Zhou Weihan's side is finally completing the encirclement. To be honest, I'm really afraid that the soldiers won't be able to withstand the crazy bombings from the sky and the ground by the little Japs!" The new regiment had gone through a series of hard battles at this time.
, Li Yunlong is no longer as generous as before.
"After all, positional defense warfare is not much smaller than ambush warfare or guerrilla warfare. The room for maneuver is much smaller. I would rather face the heavy siege of the little devils and fight a breakout than be bombarded like a living target on the position!"
The words are divided into two ends, Xinzhuang stronghold.
Near noon, a battalion led by Wang Yigong had secretly gathered outside the Xinzhuang stronghold.
The three strongholds attacked by the first battalion: Langwo, Gujiacun, and Damiao are the farthest from Shanjiao, in other words, they are the closest to the Xinzhuang stronghold.
Through the radio carried by the first battalion, Wang Yigong had learned that Zhou Weihan had issued an order to attack the Xinzhuang stronghold as soon as possible.
"The Japanese and puppet troops in the Xinzhuang stronghold have obviously received the news and have begun to defend to the death!" reported Ge Shifeng, instructor of the 1st Battalion.
Wang Yigong put out the cigarette butt in his hand and said immediately: "We can't wait any longer. The Xinzhuang stronghold is so big. Even with the troops here, the offensive formation cannot be deployed. Now there are three artillery pieces. It is not a problem to capture the Xinzhuang stronghold. Order
The troops will launch an attack immediately!"
As soon as the order was issued, a battalion of more than 600 soldiers appeared in the southeast and northeast directions of the Xinzhuang stronghold. Wang Yigong deliberately arranged not to surround the stronghold, leaving a way for the defenders in the stronghold to escape.
The Xinzhuang stronghold is guarded on the highway from Pingshun to Lucheng. It is a large stronghold with three cannon towers inside and surrounded by a wall. There are several bunkers built outside the wall, and there are trenches and barbed wire surrounding it.
Seeing the Eighth Route Army appearing outside the stronghold, the observation post on the top of the three-story gun tower immediately fired a warning shot.
The attack process was still the same old routine, with two combat defense guns and two Type 92 infantry guns all concentrated at the junction of the southeast and northeast.
"Adjust Zhuyuan!"
"Good shot!"
.......
"Four shots are good!"
"Boom, boom, boom!" Four artillery shells were aimed at the two gun towers respectively. After many battles, the artillery of each regiment had grown greatly.
The turrets on the outskirts of the stronghold became living targets. One turret was blown down, and most of the other turret was blown up as well.
The Japanese and puppet troops in the blockhouse now knew how powerful the Eighth Route Army was, so they simply slipped out of the blockhouse and used the wall as a cover to fight back.
Wang Yigong was not surprised by the reaction of the Japanese and puppet troops in the stronghold, otherwise he would not have aimed the artillery at the gun tower immediately, in order to take it by surprise and eliminate some of the effective forces of the Japanese and puppet troops first.
Immediately, under the cover of artillery fire from mortars and Type 92 infantry guns, all the officers and men of the first battalion launched a charge.
There was no bunker outside the Xinzhuang stronghold. They charged to about 800 meters, and the enemies in the stronghold began to make sporadic counterattacks.
The heavy machine gun company accompanying the battalion built machine gun positions from the southeast and northeast.
I saw piles of sandbags filled with soil being stacked up, and then a heavy machine gun was set up, and the muzzle of the gun was pointed directly at the Japanese and puppet troops on the wall.
Nine heavy machine guns opened fire at the same time, and the firepower of the defenders in the stronghold was completely suppressed. At the same time, 50 mortar grenades continued to explode around the enemy.
Facing the fierce offensive of the Eighth Route Army, the puppet troops in the stronghold had the idea of escape when they saw the artillery in the hands of the Fourth Regiment, but they did not dare to do so due to the intimidation of the Japs.
The situation now is different from before. The dozen or so little Japs in the stronghold actively fought back and immediately became the target of 50 mortars. After a heavy firepower output, most of them were killed.
Several puppet soldiers in the surrounding area glanced at each other in unison and ran to the west, leading two, then three, causing a chain reaction.
As soon as the soldiers of the first battalion rushed more than a hundred meters away from the wall, several holes appeared in the defense line of the Xinzhuang stronghold, and they tended to expand.
"Charge, comrades, capture the Xinzhuang stronghold!" The leader of the charge was Ge Shifeng, the instructor of the 1st Battalion.
It only took about half an hour for the First Battalion to occupy the Xinzhuang stronghold, but most of the puppet troops in the stronghold escaped.
"Ge Shifeng!"
"arrive!"
"I will leave the Third Company to you. You must guard the Xinzhuang stronghold and respond to the arrival of the Second and Third Battalions! When the time comes, let the Third Battalion stay at the Xinzhuang stronghold, and the rest of the troops will rush to the opposite Handan-Chang Highway to meet up!
"Wang Yigong shouted loudly.
"yes!"
"The rest of you, follow me!"
Subsequently, Wang Yigong led two infantry companies and a heavy machine gun company and marched along the highway, aiming directly at the Handan-Changchun Highway to the west.