Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Shangganling

Chapter 392 A Feng Shui Treasure Land, Where the Virtuous Reside (An extra 4K chapter added as an apology)

Looking at the continuous artillery fire, Li Chishui turned his head and asked:
"Has the Third Battalion arrived yet?"

Li Chishui's goal was to wipe out the 67th Brigade, not to drive them back to Jining.

"Commander, we just got in touch. The Third Battalion has arrived at its designated position and is repairing its firing positions."

“Very good!” Li Chishui nodded.

After glancing at his watch in the flash of the exploding shells, he gave the order:
"The final assault will begin in ten minutes!"

"Once the signal flare is fired, the assault team must charge in and split the enemy in two!"

The enemy forces are numerous, making it somewhat difficult to defeat them all at once.

Only by dividing and encircling them, and creating a local numerical advantage, can the 67th Brigade be eliminated more quickly.

At this time, You Zhenbang had already received the report from the reconnaissance unit.

"A mere regiment of the G Army thinks it can wipe out my 67th Brigade?!"

According to reconnaissance, the force that formed the encirclement was only three thousand men, fewer than their own.

“Brigadier, the situation may not be that simple. The detachments that went towards Jining and the surrounding areas to scout have all reported encountering cavalry.”

"The G army is very likely trying to pin us down and then encircle us with their main force!" Xiang Zhiqiang analyzed.

No one in the Kuomintang army believed that a single regiment of the Kuomintang army could wipe out the 4,000 men of the 67th Brigade.

However, there are still tens of thousands of G troops in the Jining direction, which is what You Zhenbang and Xiang Zhiqiang are afraid of.

“I also think it’s highly likely!” You Zhenbang nodded in agreement.

I had never heard of a battle where three thousand surrounded four thousand.

"The G army has probably already laid an ambush in the south. If our army makes any rash moves now, it is very likely to collapse."

You Zhenbang was confident in the combat effectiveness of his troops, but if asked whether they could maintain order during the retreat, he dared not say.

Only the elite of the elite can maintain order during a retreat.

"Pass on my order: immediately construct fortifications, prepare to hold out, and call for air support at dawn."

"I don't believe the G army will dare to persist then!"

Although the 67th Brigade was an American-equipped division, its communication capabilities were inferior to those of the US military.

The walkie-talkies of the 67th Brigade were only issued to battalion-level units or important units such as artillery companies.

In open field battles, it would be easy for the G army to seize an opportunity.

However, the 67th Brigade, or rather the entire Guo Army, excels at building strongholds and fighting protracted battles.

"I'll go right away!" Xiang Zhiqiang nodded.

Guo Jun's civil engineering skills are a family tradition, passed down from 33 to the present day.

As long as the G army doesn't launch an attack immediately, the 67th Brigade isn't afraid of anyone when it comes to digging.

However, You Zhenbang's plan was clearly flawed.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Chishui immediately fired a signal flare when the time came.

After receiving the order, the soldiers of the 521st Regiment had just started digging when they saw a signal flare rise from the G Army's position.

Immediately following was the resounding bugle call to charge.

Upon hearing the bugle call to charge, You Zhenbang's expression changed drastically.

"Damn it! Does the G army think they can take me down one by one?!"

For the 67th Brigade, having fortifications and not having fortifications are two completely different situations.

Without fortifications, command would quickly fall into disarray.

Once control over the rank-and-file soldiers is lost, the combat effectiveness of the 67th Brigade will be greatly reduced.

"Pass on my order! Each unit shall organize elite veterans and officer suicide squads to hold off the G army's attack."

"The rest of you, hurry up and dig trenches!"

Once the initial trench fortifications are in place, the 67th Brigade is safe.

On the positions on both sides of the highway, the soldiers of the 201st Regiment heard the bugle call and immediately got up to charge towards the 67th Brigade.

"Kill!"
"Assault team! Follow me!" Ren Wuliu shouted, then led the assault team to charge towards the waist of the 67th Brigade.

Just as the assault team charged forward, the artillery behind them fired shells at the target area at top speed.

The 82mm mortar has an extremely high rate of fire; by the time the first shell lands, the third is already airborne.

"Boom!" "Boom!"
67旅的腰部阵地陷入了一片火海，原本还想要的组织反击的521团9连，直接伤亡1/3。

They never expected that the artillery fire that was bombarding all the positions of the 67th Brigade would be concentrated on their own heads.

As soon as the shelling ended, before the Guo army could react, Ren Wuliu had already led his assault team, rushing up through the still-hot loose soil.

"Da da da".
The intense firepower of submachine guns and semi-automatic rifles tore a hole in the 67th Brigade's defense line.

"Good! The assault team has succeeded!" Li Chishui was overjoyed as he watched the assault team advance with unstoppable momentum.

"Fire the signal flare! General offensive begins!"

"Comrades! Follow me and kill!"

Li Chishui drew his military knife from his waist in a flash and charged out with a shout.

You Zhenbang's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he watched the G army charge in as if they were nothing.

Because of the assault team's rampage, the 521st Regiment and the brigade's directly subordinate units began to riot uncontrollably.

"Don't mess up! Don't mess up!"

"All companies and platoons, organize a counterattack!"

You Zhenbang kept shouting.

The number of G troops is not large, and the 67th Brigade has only been partially breached so far.

As long as we stabilize the situation, we can defeat the G army.

However, the nature of the Guo Army cannot be changed by You Zhenbang's shouts.

When the command chain is smooth and officers at all levels can control the soldiers at the grassroots level, the Kuomintang army often fights very tenaciously.

However, if chaos breaks out in the troops, it will immediately lead to a bloodbath.

"Report! The 23rd Detachment has entered Jining and is currently engaged in street fighting with the enemy!"

"Report! The cavalry regiment reports that they have cooperated with the 201st Regiment to complete the division of the 67th Brigade!"

At the Second Detachment Command Post, people kept rushing in to report.

"Very good. Send the 22nd detachment into Jining to join the battle as well. The 203rd Regiment is to provide immediate support to the 201st Regiment," Chen Chengxing ordered.

"We must eliminate the 67th Brigade as quickly as possible!"

According to the schedule, the troops from Jin-Sui and Jin-Cha-Ji will arrive at Zhuozishan in the morning.

If the second team is fast enough, they might be able to get some leftovers.

"yes!".
The fighting in both locations continued until four in the morning before it finally came to an end.

You Zhenbang was still putting up a fight, but after the 203rd Regiment marched for two hours to reach the battlefield, the soldiers of the 67th Brigade completely gave up the fight.

The G army is much larger than this; if they cannot escape, there is no point in continuing to resist.

The fleeing Guo army soldiers who chose to scatter and escape were all intercepted and killed by the cavalry regiment; not a single one escaped.

At 8:00 a.m., the 201st Regiment, the 203rd Regiment, and the Cavalry Regiment returned to Jining with prisoners and spoils.

"Commander! I've brought you a battalion of American-made mountain artillery." Li Chishui said excitedly.

The more artillery the Second Detachment has, the better. If they have too much artillery, it will eventually be distributed to the lower ranks.

"You got injured?" Chen Chengxing asked, somewhat surprised, looking at Li Chishui's sling.

"Hey, if you get grazed by a stray bullet while charging, it's nothing serious."

"Nonsense!" Chen Chengxing slammed his hand on the table, his face darkening. "As the commander of a regiment, your task is to command operations, not to charge into battle!"

Upon hearing Chen Chengxing's anger, Li Chishui immediately lowered his head and muttered something under his breath.

"But didn't you used to charge into battle all the time?"

"What the hell are you saying?" Li Chishui's voice was very soft, and Chen Chengxing didn't hear it clearly.

"N-nothing, I promise I won't do it again!" Li Chishui quickly stood at attention.

"Hmph! Get lost. The Chief of Staff will be responsible for handling the captured supplies and prisoners." Chen Chengxing waved his hand.

"yes!".
From the direction of Zhuozishan, General Liu led the main force and arrived at the outer perimeter around nine o'clock.

However, when the troops reached Sulim, south of Zhuozi Mountain, they were blocked by the 4th and 5th Cavalry Divisions.

The two sides fought until noon before finally driving away the two cavalry divisions and completing the mission of besieging Table Mountain.

"So, the Provisional 3rd Army has remained stationary at Table Mountain?"

Looking at the latest intelligence he had gathered, General Manager Liu was somewhat puzzled.

According to his understanding, the Provisional 3rd Army, the 4th Cavalry Division, and the 5th Cavalry Division all belonged to Fu Yi's main forces.

There shouldn't be a situation where they don't support each other.

"What is Fu Yi up to?"

Upon hearing General Liu's words, the political commissar beside him spoke up:
"Old Liu, don't worry about what kind of medicine they're selling. Just follow the plan. The fox's tail will show sooner or later."

"Okay, let's proceed according to plan! He can do his thing, we'll do ours!" General Manager Liu nodded.

Since we don't understand it, let's not do it for now.

As long as we keep an eye on the Provisional 3rd Army, we won't have to worry about them escaping.

"The Second Detachment has captured Jining and annihilated the 67th Reorganized Brigade. It's a good start."

"Should we transfer them over as well?" the political commissar asked.

"It seems we're on the same page. I've already had my staff send a telegram to Chen Chengxing," General Liu said with a smile.

General Manager Liu knew that the Second Detachment was somewhat tired from working through the night.

However, as the Second Detachment's trump card, he was confident that the Second Detachment could be in the Zhuozishan area.

No matter what unexpected events occur, they can be dealt with promptly.

Just as the various units began their first probing attack on Zhuozishan, Chen Chengxing had already completed the handover with the Suiyuan-Mongolia Column.

However, Chen Chengxing did not lead everyone off; Luo Ping stayed behind with the political department and Chu Yunfei's supplementary regiment.

The artillerymen, machine gunners, drivers, medics, and other personnel of the 67th Brigade are exactly what the Second Detachment needs right now.

The Guo Army has trained these soldiers in their professional skills very well.

Luo Ping needs to seize the time to do ideological work.

After the handover was completed, the second detachment was divided into three parts: front, middle and rear, and began to advance towards the table along the road.

On Willis, Chen Chengxing looked at the telegram forwarded by the command center, and was also somewhat puzzled.

Guo Jun's actions were somewhat strange.

Chen Chengxing had the jeep stop temporarily on the side of the road, and then took the map from Xu Wu, who had rushed over.

After casually drawing a few arrows on the map, Chen Chengxing, though not understanding Fu Yi's plan, had his own ideas.

“The Provisional 3rd Army cannot possibly hold Zhuozishan to the death,” Chen Chengxing asserted.

The distance from Suicheng to Zhuozishan is a total of 80 kilometers, of which 40 kilometers are mountain roads.

Although a road was built along this mountain path during the War of Resistance against Japan, there are still many places suitable for ambushes.

The Eighth Route Army troops of the Jinbei Military Region once fought guerrilla warfare here.

Fu Yi couldn't possibly be unaware of this.

Since Suicheng cannot provide long-term support to Zhuozishan, the Provisional 3rd Army will inevitably retreat.

"Commander, do you mean to infiltrate the rear and block the retreat of the 3rd Provisional Army?"

"But surely we can't completely ignore this, can we?" Xu Wu said, looking at the map.

"The commander did indeed send a brigade to build a blocking position in Fuzhuang, blocking the retreat route of the Provisional 3rd Army."

"However, the terrain in this area is not treacherous. If the Suicheng troops send reinforcements, Fuzhuang may be caught in a pincer attack."

"We need to send another force to block Fu Yi's reinforcements," Chen Chengxing explained, looking at the map.

The problems that Chen Chengxing could think of, the general manager could naturally think of as well.

However, since the forces available were already somewhat insufficient after the siege of Table Mountain, no additional troops were dispatched for the time being.

General Liu's original plan was to send out blocking troops after the Second Detachment arrived.

"Commander, are you planning to send troops to infiltrate?" Xu Wu understood why Chen Chengxing had stopped.

“That’s right, look here.” Chen Chengxing pointed to the map.

“The terrain here is treacherous, making it a good place for an ambush. I have decided to have the 204th Regiment outflank and infiltrate here.”

"As long as the 204th Regiment arrives, it can not only block Fu Yi's reinforcements, but also ambush the retreating Provisional 3rd Army."

The place Chen Chengxing pointed to on the map was none other than the Three Ridges.

Upon receiving Chen Chengxing's order, the 204th Regiment left the formation and began to accelerate forward.

Thanks to a series of victories, the number of mules and horses in the Second Detachment has increased considerably.

The heavy weapons of each regiment and battalion were basically assigned to mules for transport.

Therefore, the 204th Regiment can now travel together with its battalion-level heavy weapons and regimental-level infantry artillery.

As for the shells, those were naturally carried by mule-drawn soldiers.

After leaving the main force, the 204th Regiment moved at lightning speed.

Although the distance they had to run had increased by half, the 204th Regiment arrived at Sandaoji not much later than the 2nd Detachment arrived at Zhuozishan.

The next afternoon, after arriving at Zhuozishan, the Second Detachment did not immediately participate in the attack on the city, but instead began to rest on the spot.

However, while the Second Detachment was resting, the Provisional 3rd Army at Zhuozi Mountain had already obtained intelligence.

"The second detachment of the G army has also arrived. It seems that this is all the main force of the G army in northern Shanxi."

Sun Wanjiu, commander of the Provisional 3rd Army, put down the intelligence and stood on a high point in the headquarters to look out.

"Commander, we must not let our guard down," Wang Zanchen, the commander of the 10th Division, reminded him.

"The 67th Brigade was wiped out by the Second Detachment in less than 8 hours. The combat power of the Second Detachment must be extraordinary."

“That’s because You Zhenbang is stupid!” Sun Wanjiu said disdainfully.

"If he doesn't think about fleeing, but instead uses Jining's city defenses and a mountain artillery battalion, he can easily hold out for a few days."

"As a result, he actually split his forces into two groups, and they were defeated one by one. It was utterly foolish!"

In Sun Wanjiu's view, no matter how strong the G army's combat power was, it was impossible for them to knock down the city wall with one punch.

Moreover, compared to trench warfare, mobile warfare is the weakness of the Guo army.

Using one's weaknesses to attack another's strengths—isn't that just courting death?
It's not that You Zhenbang himself is stupid, but that he caused problems with Commander Fu's initial plan.

In the original plan, Ji Ning was supposed to draw away tens of thousands of G army main forces.

Now that the G army has pressed all its forces to Zhuozi Mountain, it will make it more difficult for the Provisional 3rd Army to break out.

Just as Sun Wanjiu was observing the G Army troops outside, a combat staff officer came running up.

"Commander, we have received three telegrams!"

"The 4th Cavalry Division and the 5th Cavalry Division?" Sun Wanjiu took the telegram with some doubt.

(End of this chapter)