Devil's Army

The next morning, the Japanese army did not attack Hengshui City, but still surrounded Hengshui City on all sides.

It was already seven o'clock, and there were still two hours left before the air force reinforcements came. If the Japanese army had not yet attacked Hengshui City, the air force of that army would have been of no use.

Brigade Commander Gui discussed with Brigade Commander Li:

"The main target of the Japanese army this time is our newly formed 9th Brigade. If they don't attack, I will lure them to attack. I will send the newly formed 9th Brigade out of the city and pretend to retreat. They will definitely attack us, and then you can bombard the Japanese attacking forces from the city wall."

Brigade Commander Li felt that Brigade Commander Gui’s plan was feasible.

Because they bombarded the Japanese army at the west gate yesterday and severely damaged a Japanese infantry battalion, they set the direction of their bombardment this time at the north gate of Hengshui City.

Brigade Commander Li immediately asked Battalion Commander Fan to move the artillery unit to the north gate of Hengshui City.

After the new artillery positions were arranged, Brigade Commander Gui began to order the soldiers of the 25th Regiment of the newly formed th Brigade to go out of the north gate and pretend to retreat outside the city.

This retreating main force of the Eighth Route Army was soon discovered by the Japanese reconnaissance troops.

The Japanese troops outside the north gate quickly surrounded the Eighth Route Army 25 that was preparing to retreat, and the two sides then fought outside the north gate of Hengshui City.

Brigade Commander Li had equipped the 25th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army with a batch of machine guns and also sent three groups of rocket soldiers to lurk in the Eighth Route Army troops.

The 25th Regiment of the New Ninth Brigade of the Eighth Route Army entered the temporary fortifications outside the north city and fought fiercely with the Japanese. Rocket soldiers bombarded the Japanese machine gun fire points from time to time.

The Japanese division commander, Ichiro Nanada, was furious when his encirclement and suppression was blocked and attacked, and ordered the Japanese artillery at the north gate to fiercely bombard the position of the 25th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army.

Brigade Commander Fan quickly discovered the approximate location of the Japanese artillery positions. Unfortunately, the Japanese were very cunning and placed their artillery positions outside the range of the First Army artillery in the city.

The 25th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army began to lose the battle and gradually retreated towards the north gate of Hengshui City.

The Eighth Route Army retreated while shooting at the Japanese troops behind them.

The pursuing Japanese soldiers were shot and fell to the ground one after another, which further aroused the Japanese army's desire to conquer.

The Japanese captain had forgotten the lesson from yesterday's Ximen and ordered his troops to move forward immediately, ready to wipe out the main force of the Eighth Route Army.

Just as the 25th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army withdrew into the north gate of the city, the earth-shaking roar of cannons suddenly rang out in the city.

One shell after another landed accurately on the pursuing Japanese infantry positions.

The bodies and body parts of Japanese soldiers were blown all over the sky, wailing was heard everywhere, and the casualties were heavy.

Soon, Ichiro Shichida sent a telegram to ask the captain about the battle situation at the north gate.

The captain was afraid of being punished, so he answered ambiguously:

"Part of the Eighth Route Army was wiped out, and the rest fled back to Hengshui City."

This led to a misjudgment by the division commander Ichiro Nanada: the devil's troops would not allow the Eighth Route Army to stay in their Hengshui city for a long time, so the Eighth Route Army had to look for opportunities to break out.

Brigade Commander Li saw that the Japanese troops at the north gate had retreated. At this time, there was less than an hour left before the First Army's planes arrived to reinforce.

Brigade Commander Li decided to repeat the old trick and let the newly formed 9th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army retreat from the other three city gates.

After a while, fierce gunfire was heard from the West Gate, South Gate and East Gate of Hengshui City.

The 26th and 27th Regiments of the newly formed th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army and their direct battalions broke out from the west gate, south gate and east gate of Hengshui City respectively.

This further strengthened Nanata Ichiro's belief in his own judgment. He immediately ordered his troops to encircle and suppress the main force of the Eighth Route Army that was preparing to break out.

The Eighth Route Army launched a tenacious resistance against the Japanese army based on the fortifications dug by the First Army when attacking Hengshui City and the existing fortifications outside the city gate.

Division Commander Ichiro Shichida launched multiple attacks on three sides of Hengshui City, but failed to break through the Eighth Route Army's defense line.

Division Commander Ichiro Nanada ordered to intensify the offensive, and artillery from various units began to bombard the Eighth Route Army positions at the three city gates of Hengshui City.

In order to delay the Japanese army, Brigade Commander Gui asked all units to withstand the Japanese attack, but in order to reduce casualties, he reduced the number of soldiers defending each position.

The aviation soldiers of the Sixth Brigade arranged for Golden Eagle drones to scout the coordinates of the Japanese artillery positions at each city gate and send them to the Xiaoguanzhuang Airport Command.

At nearly nine o'clock, a fighter squadron of the First Air Force escorted a bomber squadron and finally arrived over Hengshui City. According to the coordinates given by the headquarters, they were divided into four groups, one bomber bombed the Japanese artillery position, and two bombers bombed the attacking Japanese troops.

The fighter's three 20mm machine guns also kept firing at the Japanese infantry.

The First Army's air force was still bombing the Japanese troops outside Hengshui City. Another wave of planes flew over from the direction of Shijiazhuang.

Commander Tada Shun also spent a lot of money to cut off the connection between the devil troops and the Eighth Route Army. He transferred three fighter squadrons and one bomber squadron from the southern battlefield and nearby areas to the sky above Hengshui City.

Brigade Commander Gui witnessed with his own eyes the fierce battle between the First Army Air Force and the Japanese Air Force over Hengshui City.