Devil's Army

The second commander listened to the advice of Commander Lu and gave up the idea of ​​attacking Gao County. He cooperated with Commander Lu to manage Meihua Town.

During this period, the surrounding Japanese troops attacked Meihua Town three times, but were repelled by the Second Regiment and the 691st Regiment, which had detected the town in advance. Gradually, they stopped attacking Meihua Town.

Meihua Town became a wedge inserted into the Japanese-occupied area in central Hebei.

On this day, the sentry at the east gate came to report that an army was about to enter the town, saying that they were the men of Captain Lu.

"How many people are there? Have you sent someone to notify Captain Lu?"

"There are nearly a battalion of soldiers. They have been notified."

“Okay, let’s go check it out.”

When the Second Regiment Commander and his men arrived at the east gate, they saw Commander Lu and an officer hugging each other tightly.

When the regiment commander saw the second battalion commander coming over, he quickly introduced them:

"Thank you, Commander. This is the commander of my Second Battalion. They were stationed in Jingxing. Jingxing was captured by the Japanese army, and they found me after searching for a long time."

"Congratulations to Captain Lu and the Second Battalion Commander for getting together. Let's go to the headquarters and have a drink of water."

At the headquarters, Commander Lu asked the Second Commander:

"Brother Xie, I have an idea I want to discuss with you?"

"Captain Lu, please feel free to speak up if you have any ideas."

"At present, Meihua Town is relatively safe, but the Japanese invaders are eyeing us from all sides and may attack at any time. I want to station our four combined troops in the four directions of Meihua Town. Meihua Town will be jointly guarded by the Second Battalion and your Second Regiment's direct company. Do you think it's a good idea?"

"You are more familiar with the situation here, so you have the final say."

The Second Regiment Commander did not fight for territory or power at all, because the area where he was stationed in the Tieling County base was much larger than Meihua Town.

The next morning, the troops followed the advice of Captain Lu and stationed in four directions of Meihua Town.

Under the management of its own army, Meihua Town began to regain its vitality. However, the Japanese would not allow a wedge to exist in the wing, and always wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible.

After capturing Shimen (now Shijiazhuang), the Japanese Army's Toyama Force, namely the 14th Infantry Regiment of the 50th Division, marched eastward in an attempt to annihilate the Chinese troops in Meihua Town and remove the wedge of Meihua Town.

The commander of the 50th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Toyama Noboru, learned from the commander of the 41st Regiment of the th Division of the Japanese Army, Yamada Tetsujiro, that the Chinese army in Meihua Town had nearly two regiments of troops. Among them, the regiment using Japanese weapons had a very strong combat effectiveness.

He then arranged four tanks to cooperate with two battalions to attack Meihua Town.

Just two days after the Second Battalion was stationed in Meihua Town, the soldiers of the Second Regiment's Aviation Corps stationed to the west of Meihua Town discovered that a large group of Japanese soldiers were heading towards Meihua Town with the support of tanks.

The Second Regiment Commander ordered the Second Battalion stationed west of Meihua Town to take advantage of the favorable terrain to resist the Japs step by step and try to eliminate the Japanese army's effective forces.

Commander Lu also asked the Third Battalion of the 691st Regiment to obey the command of the Second Battalion Commander of the Second Regiment and resist the Japanese step by step.

Just as the second regiment commander was arranging the battle, Commander Lu was responsible for the logistics support as agreed with the second regiment commander and began to evacuate the residents of Meihua Town.

The residents of Meihua Town immediately started cursing. After just a few days of peace, the Japanese came back to cause trouble.

Those who have not lived in troubled times will never understand the pain of being displaced. The residents had no choice but to continue fleeing to the villages near Meihua Town.

In order to prevent the newly built Meihua Town from being ravaged by Japanese artillery fire again, the second regiment commander decided to place the main battlefield on the field west of Meihua Town and arranged the retreat route in advance.

The first company of the second battalion was the first to engage in a firefight with the Japanese vanguard.

The company commander took advantage of the terrain to catch the Japanese off guard and gained a small advantage.

After the chaos, the Japanese army, with the cooperation of two tanks, launched a fierce attack on the first company.

At this time, the Army Aviation soldiers operated the Golden Eagle II and launched two air-to-ground missiles in succession, destroying two Japanese tanks on the path.

The path was temporarily blocked by the wreckage of two Japanese tanks, and the Japanese soldiers had to get off their vehicles and walk.

As more and more Japanese troops joined the battle, the first company gradually could not hold out and had to retreat with cross-cover.

The Japanese army's Yuanshan troops attacked Shimen relatively smoothly and looked down on the Chinese army. Seeing the Chinese army fleeing in front of them, an infantry company of the 50st Battalion of his th Regiment quickly followed up and closely followed the first company.

The Japanese Army's Yuanshan troops were quickly led into the ambush circle of the Second Battalion of the Second Regiment and the Third Battalion of the 691st Regiment.

Following the order from the second battalion commander, soldiers from the second and third battalions fired fiercely at the Japanese troops in the encirclement. Grenades also flew into the Japanese troops in this squadron like snowflakes.

Although the Japanese in this infantry squadron fought desperately, they still suffered heavy casualties.

The 50st Battalion of the th Regiment of the Japanese Army's Toyama Force, which followed up, launched a fierce attack on the soldiers of the nd and rd Battalions.

The soldiers of the second and third battalions did not want to fight, but took advantage and ran away, and began to retreat towards Meihua Town. However, by then, the casualties of this Japanese infantry squadron had exceeded two-thirds.

The commander of the 50th Regiment of the Japanese Army, General Toyama Noboru, was not in a hurry to catch up with the Chinese army, but stopped to analyze the troops in front of him.

He felt that this Chinese army's tactics were more flexible and its firepower was stronger than other Chinese armies he had encountered, so he ordered his troops to advance steadily towards Meihua Town.