Devil's Army

When the Second and Third Regiments retreated to the section of the road where the house collapsed, Leng Feng originally planned to ambush the Japanese here again. However, after discussing with the Second and Third Regiments, they unanimously decided to cancel the ambush here and directly retreat to Shan County.

Because the Japs have tanks, if they attack them here, once they are caught by the Japs, their tanks move very fast and can easily block their retreat, so their ambush troops will most likely be wiped out.

The Second and Third Regiments retreated all the way to the headquarters of the Third Regiment of the Second Brigade before stopping.

The large force coming from Rehe finally managed to move the two destroyed tanks to the foot of the mountain, allowing the troops to continue advancing.

The troops had originally planned to raid the fortifications outside Diaobingshan County in the early morning, with tanks advancing quickly and following up the next day. Now they had been blocked by the Devil Tribe for a day and two nights, so a surprise attack was no longer possible, and the troops had no choice but to storm.

As the Japanese troops from Rehe continued to advance towards Tiaobinshan County, the Japanese troops from Changtu Kaiyuan and Fengtian also advanced towards Tieling County and Tiaobinshan County from Xiaonan Town.

It turned out that this time Commander Musashi's troops were divided into three groups. More than 20,000 people came from Rehe and approached Tiaobinshan County; more than 7,000 troops from Changtu and Kaiyuan, led by Lieutenant Colonel Isoguru, approached Tieling County; more than 7,000 troops from Fengtian, led by Lieutenant Colonel Sasaki, approached Tiaobinshan County from Xiaonan Town.

The troops from Changtu and Kaiyuan took the lead in fighting the devil troops in Tieling County.

Due to Major Fujie's poor performance in the last battle in Tieling County, Commander Musashi replaced him with Lieutenant Colonel Isoguru, who was known for his ferocious combat, to command the battle to occupy Tieling County.

As soon as Lieutenant Colonel Isoko started the battle, he used artillery, tanks, and infantry together. Artillery bombarded, tanks exploded, and infantry charged.

The first company of the first battalion of the first regiment of the fifth brigade, which was guarding the fortifications in Tieling County, felt unprecedented pressure.

Before the battle began, in order to prevent the artillery positions from repeating the same mistake and being wiped out by the devil troops, Lieutenant Colonel Isoguru divided the artillery into four positions, with one artillery position supporting the infantry charge and the other three artillery positions watching the back of the fortifications, and immediately covering and bombing the artillery positions of the devil troops as soon as they were discovered.

Before the war, in order to stop the Japanese tanks, the Fifth Brigade pulled back two 150mm howitzers that had supported the Second Brigade last time. However, the situation of the Japanese artillery was unclear, and they did not dare to use the 150mm howitzers casually.

The distance was a bit far, and the gunshots fired by the Japanese infantry were just loud, not threatening. The soldiers of the first company were hiding in the fortifications and did not even fire their guns.

The Japanese artillery and tank fire occasionally hit the fortifications and areas near them.

The fortifications reinforced with wooden boards and planks were quite effective in preventing artillery fire, and the intensive artillery fire from the Japanese had not caused many casualties to the company.

The 150mm howitzers of the th Brigade were heavy and they did not dare to fire without warning to expose their positions. But the four mortars were much more flexible. They kept changing positions to bombard the infantry next to the tanks.

The other three artillery positions of the Japanese took turns to suppress the mortar positions of the Fifth Brigade, but the effect was not great. The mortar soldiers of the Fifth Brigade were as slippery as loaches. They would set up their mortars and bombard them once, but at most twice, and then immediately carry the mortars and move to another position.

The Japanese artillery coverage was quite accurate, but they were always a step or two slow.

The artillery company commander estimated that the Japanese had at least four artillery positions based on the trajectory of the Japanese artillery bombarding his mortar artillery. He dared not use his heavy howitzers casually.

The tanks were blocked by the anti-tank cones and could not move forward. The Japanese infantry launched the first round of charge under the cover of artillery, and the engineers began to blast the anti-tank cones in the back.

Except for two observers, everyone else in the second company hid in the fortifications.

Observers kept reporting the distance of the Japanese infantry from the fortifications.

"500 meters, 400 meters, 300 meters, and 250 meters to go," the observer reported.

"Everyone prepare grenades!" ordered the company commander.

"200 meters, 100 meters, the Japanese infantry are only 50 meters away from us." The observer shouted a little anxiously.

"Throw!" With the order from the company commander, countless grenades flew from the fortifications into the group of Japanese devils.

Since the First Army was founded, it has lacked heavy weapons such as artillery, so their most powerful weapon to kill the devils is the grenade, so they are very good at using grenades. Especially the Second Brigade.

The charging Japanese soldiers fell down in droves amid the continuous explosions of grenades. The company seized the opportunity to fire back and knocked down the Japanese infantrymen who were not knocked down by the explosions one by one.

The Japanese infantry retreated, and their artillery and tanks continued to bombard the company's fortifications.

Due to the continuous bombardment of the Japanese artillery and tanks, some parts of the fortifications were directly hit by two or three shells in succession and collapsed. Casualties began to occur one after another.

This time, the Japanese troops divided into three groups and advanced towards Tiaobinshan County and Tieling County. Leng Feng felt that the crisis was more serious than the last time.

Since Tieling County was currently recaptured by Leng Feng's First Army, the garrison in the underground warehouse was not so important. Leng Feng ordered the 1st Brigade and 1st Regiment stationed in the underground warehouse to immediately move to the open space outside Tieling County and wait for orders.

One company was left behind from two battalions of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Brigade stationed at the simple wharf on the Waterfall River, one company was left behind from a battalion stationed at the pass at the foot of the tribe mountain, one battalion was left behind from the army's direct regiment, and the 4th Brigade stationed at Hejia'an Village only left one battalion each in the small woods fortifications outside Tieling County and at the pass on the mountainside. All other troops gathered in an open space outside Tieling County and waited on standby.

More than 10,000 troops gathered outside Tieling County, ready to meet Musashi Nobuyoshi's three-way siege.