People are shining their swords, secretly helping the Iron Triangle in Northwest Shanxi

Chapter 172 Changes in the Seventh Battalion of Zhang Fugui

Major General Chu Yunfei, Major General of the Independent 48th Brigade, and Colonel Fang Ligong, Chief of Staff, issued combat orders successively.

The officers began to return to their respective stations and immediately made preparations.

It didn't take long for the various ministries to start operations and quickly advance towards the designated areas.

The 11th regiment is preparing to gather towards Zhuangmo Town, Baizi Mountain, and Crouching Tiger Mountain.

Chen Ziyun took the lead in dispatching Monk Wei's reconnaissance platoon to start the reconnaissance here.

Wu Ziqiang's Fifth Battalion, Zhang Fugui's Seventh Battalion took the lead; Shi Yujia's Sixth Battalion, and Liang Guoping's Artillery Battalion followed.

By three o'clock in the afternoon, the position of the Independent 48th Brigade was empty and there were no personnel left.

The subordinate ministries are advancing towards the Xinxian area, and they are going to directly launch combat operations against the Japanese independent mixed fourth brigade.

Here at the Yangcun position, Kong Jie, the head of the independent regiment, hurried over after receiving the report.

Kong Jie raised his binoculars and looked at the 48th Independent Brigade's base. Looking at the empty position, he showed a surprised expression.

"Leader, don't look at it, there is no one there, and all their thousands of troops have been dispatched."

"They are advancing towards Xin County, and I don't know what they were doing in the past. Are they going to attack the little devil?"

"It shouldn't be, this large-scale sabotage operation was carried out by our Eighth Route Army alone, and the nearby friendly forces didn't even know about it."

"What's more, the troops of the Jinsui Army have always had conflicts with us. Even if they knew about it, they wouldn't cooperate with us in fighting."

The company commander who commanded the troops to defend in Yangcun looked at Ding Wei with a puzzled face and said.

Up to now, the various ministries of the Eighth Route have launched large-scale battles, not to mention here in Jin Province, even North China is in chaos.

The independent group has also received related news, but the honest man Ding Wei has no complaints about the arrangement of the superiors.

They still stayed calmly in the Yangcun area to carry out defensive deployment, directly undertaking the defense tasks of the previous three regiments.

It's just that after the independent 48th brigade gathered troops and quickly rushed towards the Xinxian area, Ding Wei attached great importance to this matter.

He came here to find out the situation in person, and he was completely confused about the actions of Chu Yunfei's troops.

"You're right. The 48th Independent Brigade is a unit of the Jinsui Army. It's impossible for them to take the initiative to cooperate with us."

"This situation really confuses me what Chu Yunfei wants to do, but let's report immediately."

"In addition, once their troops leave, there are huge defensive loopholes here. Send troops to advance and build a guard position."

"Although the little devils are now facing the attack of our troops, no one can say whether they will send troops to carry out a sneak attack."

After Ding Wei pondered for a moment, he immediately issued an order.

The independent regiment has strengthened its defense and vigilance, and at the same time quickly contacted the brigade headquarters to report the situation here.

As for the General Headquarters of the Seventh Army of the Jinsui Army, Zhao Yinfu was a little furious at the moment.

When he knew that the Independent 48th Brigade was advancing eastward with all the troops and started combat operations directly, he stared and his face was full of anger.

"Chu Yunfei, Fang Ligong, Chen Ziyun, what do they want to do, is it time for them to be heroes?"

"The Eight Routes launched full-scale combat operations, and all units of the Japanese army were hit. This independent and mixed fourth brigade is the only mobile force controlled by the Japanese army."

"They launched an attack on this army. This is simply pulling out teeth from the tiger's mouth. They really want to wipe out the wealth of the Independent 48th Brigade."

"What's more, if you take the initiative to attack now, don't you cooperate with the eight-way battle invisibly?"

"Do they still have brains, and they don't think about doing things at all!"

Zhao Yinfu was furious, and he was very dissatisfied with the direct advance of the Independent 48th Brigade to Xin County.

Of course, the most important point is that Chu Yunfei's troops left the station, and the 33st Division under the 71rd Army was the first to bear the brunt.

At this time, if any little devil troops came to fight, the 71st Division would directly face the Japanese attack.

The Seventh Army has two armies under its jurisdiction, one brigade directly under it, with six divisions and one brigade.

But among these troops, Chu Yunfei's independent 48th Brigade was naturally the most capable.

The second is the 71st Division. Originally, according to Zhao Yinfu's intention, Chu Yunfei's troops were at the front, and the 71st Division was behind to cooperate.

In this way, even if they are attacked by the Japanese army, with these two troops, they can at least ensure invincibility.

However, now the Independent 48th Brigade is advancing directly eastward, and the 71st Division is at the forefront.

If the little devil came over, as long as the 71st division was defeated, the remaining five temporary divisions would not be opponents.

These five temporary divisions are all troops that have just been expanded from brigades. It will take some time for them to gather combat effectiveness.

So at this time, Zhao Yinfu was even more worried that his troops would be hit and suffered heavy casualties.

"Boss, they applied for it before, and the minister's department also approved it."

"According to the current situation, it is indeed the best time for them to attack now."

"Of course soldiers are impermanent, and water is impermanent. No one can tell what the little devil will do now. We should also strengthen our defenses."

"As for whether to transfer the independent 48th brigade back, we still need to be cautious about this matter."

At this time, the chief of staff of the group army came to Zhao Yinfu and analyzed directly.

"Trap, this is their trap, they..."

"Forget it, contact the 33rd Army and the 34th Army and ask them to strengthen their vigilance to prevent them from being attacked by the Japanese army."

"At the same time, keep in touch with the independent 48th brigade so that you can keep track of their situation."

"In addition, immediately contact the Minister's Department to report the situation of the Independent 48th Brigade, and ask the Minister's Department to make a decision."

Zhao Yinfu sat helplessly on the chair, and he said weakly.

Intercepting the Independent 48th Brigade and forcibly ordering them to withdraw, Zhao Yinfu can do it.

But he knew that once he did this, he would definitely be accused by thousands of people.

After all, Chu Yunfei commanded the troops to fight the devils, and even to attack the independent and mixed fourth brigade that slaughtered the people of Jin Province.

If Zhao Yinfu tried to stop it, he would definitely be labeled a traitor.

He is not willing to take responsibility, so it is still the old routine, throwing the difficult problem to the minister's department to decide.

While Zhao Yinfu was in contact with various ministries one after another, Zhuang Mo was here.

Zhuangmo Town is a small town in Xin County, surrounded by mountains.

Because there is the Tongpu Railway nearby, the location here is very important.

The Japanese and puppet troops built more than a dozen bunker groups outside the town, and there are two artillery towers in the area east of Zhuangmo Town.

There is even a defensive position built by the Japanese and puppet troops in the town. This is a stronghold carefully constructed by the Japanese and puppet troops.

In order to ensure the absolute safety of Zhuangmo Town, about [-] Japanese and puppet troops have been stationed here for a long time.

Of course, the strength of the Japanese army is seriously insufficient at present, so most of the configuration of these strongholds is that there are few Japanese troops and many puppet troops.

Among the two hundred defensive troops, there are more than 140 puppet troops, and a small Japanese army has more than 50 people.

In terms of weapon configuration, they mainly use two 60MM mortars and four Jin-made heavy machine guns, with light machine guns, grenades, rifles and other weapons.

The Japanese army was only equipped with grenades for light machine guns, but for heavy weapons, they were closely guarded.

"Regimental seat, according to our repeated investigations, combined with the previous notification from the cavalry company."

"There are two hundred puppet troops in Zhuangmo Town, mainly equipped with light and heavy machine guns and grenadier mortars."

"The fortifications here are very well-defended. There are blockhouses on the west, south and north sides, and two gun towers on the east side."

"There are also complete fortifications in the town, and barbed wire fences have even been deployed on the main street to block it."

"The current configuration of their weapons is unknown, but their main force should be concentrated in the outer blockhouses and gun towers."

At three o'clock, as Chen Ziyun commanded the troops to come to Zhuangmo Town, Monk Wei, the leader of the reconnaissance platoon, quickly reported.

Chen Ziyun raised his binoculars and looked towards Zhuangmo Town, and soon he looked towards Baizi Mountain and Crouching Tiger Mountain to the east.

Zhuangmo Town echoes these highlands from afar. If you want to conquer Zhuangmo Town, you have to pay attention to the highlands to the east.

Otherwise, the troops would only focus on attacking Zhuangmo Town and fire on the eastern highlands, which would be fatal to the attacking troops.

"Battalion Commander Liang, Li Yang, Sun Xiong, please tell me where the artillery positions are more appropriate."

After some observation, Chen Ziyun looked at the officers of the artillery battalion and asked directly.

"Tuan Zuo, since we are going to attack Zhuangmo Town, the eastern highlands have to be on our guard."

"Otherwise, the Japanese and puppet troops would deploy a few artillery pieces on the high ground and bombard us condescendingly, which would definitely inflict heavy damage on us."

"So our artillery must be able to reach Zhuangmo Town and suppress the eastern highlands."

"I carefully observed the map on the march, and Taohuashan is the best choice for the artillery position."

Liang Guoping, the commander of the artillery battalion, looked at Chen Ziyun, and he spoke first.

Chen Ziyun glanced at the map, and then raised his binoculars to look at the location of Peach Blossom Mountain.

Taohuashan is really good here. The artillery is set up here, which can effectively carry out combat strikes against Zhuangmo Town, Baizishan, and Crouching Tiger Mountain.

However, Liang Guoping's artillery concept is still behind.

Deploying artillery on high ground for direct bombardment is an old-fashioned tactic.

Whenever the Japanese and puppet troops have artillery to launch a counterattack, the artillery battalion will definitely suffer casualties.

You must know that the Artillery Unit of the Independent 48th Brigade was accumulated little by little by Chen Ziyun.

For him, artillery is a treasure, and artillery is even more precious, and there can be no loss at all.

With the development of the artillery force to the present, Chen Ziyun tried his best to avoid casualties of artillery and artillery.

If the deployment is carried out according to Liang Guoping's suggestion, it is estimated that two or three battles will wipe out Chen Ziyun's family fortune.

"It's a good choice to set up a reverse-slope artillery position here in Taohuashan."

"Li Yang, Sun Xiong, what do you mean?"

Chen Ziyun nodded, he did not expose Liang Guoping's true thoughts.

After all, Liang Guoping is also the commander of the Lieutenant Colonel Artillery Battalion, and now he has taken the initiative to reconcile with himself, so Chen Ziyun doesn't need to embarrass him.

The so-called rivers and lakes are not only fighting and killing, but also all aspects of human relationships.

Otherwise, in the Jinsui Army and other troops, just being capable is not enough.

"Tuan Zuo, the puppet army's artillery in Zhuang Mozhen is not much, it is not worth us to use all the troops of the artillery battalion."

"The first mountain artillery company and the second mountain artillery company can set up shelter positions in Liangou Village and Fenghuanggou area respectively, and bombard Zhuangmo Town and the eastern highland respectively."

"The distance between these two areas is not very far. At critical times, the artillery can quickly join forces and launch shelling with concentrated fire."

Li Yang, the deputy battalion commander of the artillery battalion and the company commander of the first mountain artillery company, immediately responded.

Then Sun Xiong also put forward his own suggestion, and his idea was roughly the same as Li Yang's.

Chen Ziyun nodded, and directly arranged for Liang Guoping to deploy.

The first company of mountain artillery is deployed in Liangou Village; the second company of mountain artillery is deployed in Fenghuanggou.

In addition, after hesitating again and again, Chen Ziyun dispatched Zhang Fugui's seventh battalion to undertake the attack on Zhuangmo Town.

The regiment is directly under the reconnaissance platoon, and it is assigned to Wu Ziqiang's fifth battalion to attack Baizi Mountain, Crouching Tiger Mountain and other high grounds.

Regardless of the fact that the 11th Reserve Regiment currently has three infantry battalions and one artillery battalion, the overall force looks very strong.

However, the overall combat effectiveness of these three infantry battalions is far inferior to the four infantry battalions of the 358th regiment.

Especially Zhang Fugui's Seventh Battalion, this Zhang Fugui and Chen Ziyun are at odds with each other, and there is a big conflict.

So when Chen Ziyun commanded the battle, he couldn't do it with ease.

Given a choice, he would rather have the cavalry company and the guard company come over.

The combat effectiveness of these two companies is not weaker than these infantry battalions.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the various ministries launched combat operations.

Zhang Fugui commanded the first part of the Seventh Battalion and took the lead in launching a probing attack on Zhuangmo Town.

At the same time, Wu Ziqiang's Fifth Battalion also began to attack highlands such as Baizi Mountain and Crouching Tiger Mountain in a scattered manner.

Not long after, intense gunfire sounded.

There are 300 Japanese puppet troops in Zhuangmo Town, and more than [-] Japanese puppet troops in Baizi Mountain and Crouching Tiger Mountain.

These more than 500 days of puppet troops are the strength of an infantry squadron of the little devil and an infantry battalion of the Imperial Association Army.

On the eastern highlands, there are more than 100 little devils and 200 puppet troops, and their weapons and equipment are not weak.

The puppet army here has two 82MM mortars, and the other weapons are light machine guns and grenades.

They stick to the high ground and have stronger firepower.

After the 11th regiment prepared to launch an attack, the Japanese and puppet troops immediately launched a fire strike.

In Zhuangmo Town, the light machine guns deployed by the Japanese and puppet troops in the bunker, and the rifles in the trenches fired fiercely one after another.

The Japanese and puppet troops on Baizi Mountain and Crouching Tiger Mountain are condescending, concentrating their firepower with light machine guns.

Especially here on the high ground, the Japanese and puppet troops instantly assembled a dozen crooked handles and Czech-style light machine guns to launch a fire attack.

The dense bullets formed a firepower net with no dead ends, and a large number of bullets hit like raindrops from a torrential rain.

Wu Ziqiang's Fifth Battalion was considered the main battalion in the 11th Reserve Regiment, but in the face of such firepower, their attacking troops were beaten very embarrassingly.

As for Zhang Fugui's [-]th Battalion, when encountering firepower, the troops retreated quickly and directly withdrew from the battlefield.

Chen Ziyun, who saw this scene, brought the sixth battalion cannon company directly to Zhuangmo Town.

"Zhang Battalion Commander, let me command the troops to attack at the same time."

"The machine gun company of the sixth battalion serves as the supervising team. Anyone who retreats without authorization will be killed on the spot!"

"If my regiment commander retreats, I will still be killed. If you, the battalion commander, retreat, you will also be killed."

"It's [-]:[-]. If Zhuangmo Town can't be taken down before [-]:[-], the officers above the seventh battalion and platoon will be dismissed. Battalion Commander Zhang and I will take all the responsibilities."

When Chen Ziyun came to the Seventh Battalion, he said angrily with a gloomy face.

If it weren't for the morale of the Seventh Battalion, Chen Ziyun would have beaten Zhang Fugui violently.

He didn't need to think about it, and he knew that it must be Zhang Fugui's arrangement to withdraw the intercepting troops when encountering firepower.

Of course, the same sentence, Chen Ziyun is now the team leader.

If Zhang Fugui was attacked directly, the Seventh Battalion might mutiny.

So he chose to command the troops to fight at the same time as Zhang Fugui, and whoever retreated without authorization would be killed.

In this way, all the officers and soldiers of the Seventh Battalion could not say anything. After all, Chen Ziyun, the regiment commander, personally commanded the troops to charge.

"Tuan Zuo... not like this, I will urge the Seventh Battalion to fight bravely and strive to take Zhuangmo Town before six o'clock."

"You are the head of the regiment. If you take such a risk and personally lead the troops to attack, if there is a mistake, I can't bear the responsibility."

"What's more, as the head of the regiment, commanding the seventh battalion to charge will inevitably bring psychological pressure to the officers and soldiers."

Zhang Fugui was taken aback, and he hurriedly said.

Perhaps a few years ago, Zhang Fugui had the courage to command the troops to fight.

If he didn't have this ability, Chu Yunfei wouldn't let him serve as the deputy battalion commander of the 2000 troops.

But after sitting in the position of deputy battalion commander for too long, Zhang Fugui inevitably had other thoughts.

Now let him continue to lead the troops to attack the Japanese positions, he does not have the guts.

"During the Battle of Xinkou, Commander Hao of the Ninth Army and Commander Liu of the 54th Division were all killed by Japanese machine gun bullets during the counterattack led by the troops."

"The commander of the lieutenant general and the commander of the major general and division can command the troops to fight back. In your view, Battalion Commander Zhang, the colonel can't personally lead the charge?"

"If I, the head of the regiment, dare not charge, any of you can kill me at any time!"

"In the same way, Zhang Fugui, the battalion commander, if you dare not charge, you can kill him at any time."

"As an officer, it is such an honor to be able to die on the way to charge back and be killed by Japanese bullets."

Chen Ziyun said with a serious expression on his face and a firm tone.

The officers and soldiers of the Seventh Battalion gathered nearby, after hearing these words, they couldn't help looking at Chen Ziyun, and their hearts were greatly touched.

"Tuan Zuo, with your words, even if the brothers die here, they won't have any regrets."

"You don't need to personally command, we promise to take down Zhuangmo Town before six o'clock!"

"If you can't take Zhuangmo Town, you don't have to hold me accountable, because I should have been killed by then."

A platoon leader was emotional, he looked at Chen Ziyun and said.

"Yes, Tuan Zuo, we know that the brothers who died under your command can get an extra pension."

"Every time you fight, you also lead the team in person. Your words are enough."

"We promise to take Zhuangmo Town before six o'clock, and you are here to watch us attack."

"As long as the Seventh Battalion retreats without authorization, don't use the Sixth Battalion's machine gun company, let them save the bullets to fight the devils."

"We guarantee that as long as there are unauthorized retreaters, we will clean up these scum ourselves."

The soldiers all said that their morale was boosted by Chen Ziyun's words.

Zhang Fugui was taken aback for a moment, he did not expect Chen Ziyun to have such a great influence.

Vaguely, Zhang Fugui could feel that the Seventh Battalion seemed to be less and less under his control.

(End of this chapter)