Devil's Army

The 119th Regiment of the Japanese Army was ambushed by the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army in Shandi Village, Ci County. After the 107th Regiment's full rescue efforts, one third of the soldiers finally escaped.

Afterwards, under the leadership of the commander of the 107th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Shiro Nagasawa, they bypassed Shandi Village and prepared to return to Baodi County via the nearby Wangkan Village and Sufeng Village.

The 385th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army saw that the 107th Regiment of the Japanese Army was fully committed to supporting the 119th Regiment, and judged that they would take a detour back to Baodi County from Wangkan Village and Sufeng Village. They immediately marched to the vicinity of these two villages and set up an ambush.

Sure enough, the 107th Regiment of the Japanese Army, as the vanguard, was ambushed by the 385th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army in Raodaowang Village and Sufeng Village.

The commander of the 107th Regiment of the Japanese Army, Shiro Nagasawa, was ambushed by the 385th Brigade and suffered more than casualties. He had to retreat again and choose a new direction to return to Baodi.

The two Japanese regiments were ambushed twice by two brigades of the Eighth Route Army, and all their trucks were destroyed. They had no choice but to retreat to Ci County and find another solution.

Liu judged that the two Japanese regiments still had at least 4000 troops and would definitely not give up going north to Baodi to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the Tangshan Anti-Japanese First Army Base. However, he was not sure which route the Japanese army would take.

After discussing with Deputy Division Commander Xu, he left behind the Golden Eagle No. 386 drone to closely monitor the movements of the Japanese army, and the th Brigade rushed to Zhifang Village to build a blocking position.

Zhifang Village, as the starting point of Fukoujing, is a major passage from Shanxi to southern Hebei.

The next morning, Deputy Commander Xu learned from the news sent by the Golden Eagle UAV that the Japanese 107th and 119th Regiments were indeed heading towards Zhifang Village.

Deputy Division Commander Xu ordered the 385th Brigade to follow the two Japanese regiments and wait for an opportunity to act.

When the 107th and 119th Regiments of the Japanese Army marched to Zhifang Village, they were blocked by the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army and attacked by the following 385th Brigade.

Seeing that it was difficult to break through the blocking position of the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, and that the 385th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army was chasing them, Lieutenant Commander Shiro Nagasawa and Lieutenant Commander Kinzo Ishida had to obtain the consent of Division Commander Yamaoka to temporarily retreat to Ci County.

The Japanese 41st Regiment at the fork failed to wait for reinforcements from the other two regiments of the 109th Division, but it also attacked the Sanchakou wooden bridge in the afternoon of the same day and occupied the positions on the north bank of the Sanchakou bridge.

However, before they could even sit down, the soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 12th Brigade, who were reinforced by the Type 2 tank, rushed back to the south bank of the Sanchakou Bridge.

When the Japanese cavalry battalion commander Yamazaki Qing retreated to the river on the north bank of the bridge, he heard that nearly 30 men of his cavalry squadron were swallowed by the river water when crossing the bridge due to the cracked river ice. The river water was still flowing under the broken ice.

He did not dare to cross the river on the ice again and ordered all his troops to cross the river via the Bailonggang Bridge.

He then commanded the cavalry to attack the positions of the Devil's troops on the north bank across the Bailonggang Bridge.

However, the Bailonggang Bridge is narrow and cannot accommodate too many cavalry at one time, making it impossible to achieve the effect of a large-scale surprise attack.

Soldiers from the First Army on the north bank of the Bailonggang Bridge used the Golden Eagle drone to block the passage of the Bailonggang Bridge from the air. The Japanese cavalry suffered heavy casualties and was unable to pass through the Bailonggang Bridge smoothly.

To make matters worse for the Japanese 109th Division, Captain Hu led the five-county guerrilla joint corps, which had been refitted and briefly trained, to ambush the transport team of the Japanese 109th Division near Baodi, providing strong support to the defenders of Sanchakou and Bailonggang Bridge.

The battlefield in the direction of Baodi became stable, and Wu Lang turned his attention to the important battlefield of this encirclement and suppression by the Japanese army: Xiaoguanzhuang Airport.

The defensive strength of Linnancang Town and Xinyin Town was significantly enhanced due to the arrival of the two main regiments of the Second Brigade.

Although Japanese planes continued to bomb Linnancang Town, Xinyin Town and the northern position of Xiaoguanzhuang Airport, the soldiers of the First Army still firmly held half of Linnancang Town, Xinyin Town and the northern position of the airport.

Moreover, the First Army's bombers would frequently look for opportunities to come over to reinforce and bomb the Japanese troops in the town.

At night, Brigade Commander Du deployed a large-scale counterattack. Fierce gunfire and grenade explosions were heard in Linnancang Town, Xinyin Town and the northern positions of the airport.

Soldiers from the 11th and 2nd Brigades of the 1st Army used their expertise in night and close combat to drive the Japanese 5th Division out of Linnancang Town, Xinyin Town and the second line of defense of the airport in one fell swoop.

At the Tangshan temporary airport, Captain Xu and Squadron Leader Ren gathered together to discuss today's air combat situation.

In this air battle, in order to avoid being attacked by the First Army Air Force, the Japanese fighter planes no longer dispersed their actions, but acted together as a whole fighter squadron.

So, in addition to Captain Xu's team shooting down four Japanese fighters in Fengrun County, Captain Ren's team only managed to shoot down three Japanese fighters and five Japanese bombers at Xiaoguanzhuang Airport.

Although the air battle on this day had the lowest number of Japanese planes shot down since the air battle at Xiaoguanzhuang Airport, not a single plane of their air force was shot down.

Captain Xu encouraged everyone: "If the situation continues like this, as long as the Japanese army does not send more fighters, we will soon be able to regain air superiority in this area."