Bright Sword: From Soldier to Brigade Commander

Su Fei did not receive Fang Ligong's telegram for help, because in the battle in the county town, under the sudden coverage of the Japanese mountain artillery group, Fang Ligong's telecommunications personnel were wiped out and blown to pieces, and not even a palm-sized trace of the transmitter could be found.

Two thousand men from three combined battalions fought hard with the Japanese for more than a day.

The Japanese artillery fire completely suppressed the battle, and the battle turned into a one-sided massacre.

The 26th Division of the Japanese Army dispatched an independent infantry regiment of nearly 4000 field troops, the 11th, plus an independent mountain artillery regiment of more than 3600 people. Together, the troops were a super luxurious independent mixed brigade. The strengthened independent artillery regiment made the firepower of this unit catch up with the Japanese Army's regular horse-drawn A-type division!

Just one independent mountain artillery regiment is a luxurious and powerful existence, with 3600 war horses used to haul cannons, ammunition, and baggage!

If these horses were used to form a cavalry, it would definitely form a cavalry brigade!

36 mountain cannons, each of which is a highly mobile and powerful mountain warfare hammer that can easily kill a group of your infantry, cavalry and any other arms.

This Japanese mountain artillery regiment not only has the conventional Type 41 mountain gun, but also the new Type 94 mountain gun, which has undergone performance optimization and upgrades, as well as four of the most powerful heavy mountain guns, the Type 99 105mm mountain gun.

The Japanese commander was the division chief of staff, Major General Chida, who had participated in the war of aggression against China for more than ten years. He was a cunning professional officer who had fought along the Great Wall for a long time. He was good at long-distance raids and the use of artillery.

In addition to the independent mountain artillery group, the old devils of Chida also have 4 mountain guns of the infantry regiment, 4 infantry guns, and mortars of each grassroots squadron.

After encircling Linwu County, the old devil Qiantian commanded the infantry to surround the county tightly and bombarded it fiercely with artillery.

After bombing for an hour, a company of the Imperial Army launched a tentative attack. After being hit, they bombarded again, and then attacked with a battalion of the Imperial Army. Then, they bombarded again, and attacked again.

A division of the Imperial Army with more than 3,000 men was deployed on the front line of the siege, while the main force of the infantry regiment was moved 5 kilometers away from the county town for surveillance and blockade.

The Japanese soldier Qian Tian originally planned to directly bombard and crush the enemy, but when he found that the survival rate of the defenders was extremely high, he concluded that they had dug a large number of tunnels and air-raid shelters. So he changed his strategy, surrounded the defenders and attacked the reinforcements, preparing to ambush the reinforcements of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army.

In order to prevent the Chinese troops in the encirclement from escaping and to ambush the reinforcements, he quickly mobilized two puppet cavalry regiments of more than 1800 people from the Chahar area of ​​Suiyuan and one battalion of 400 Japanese cavalry garrison troops.

These troops had been mobilized before departure and were now 80 miles away from Linwu County.

He lost contact with Lieutenant General Abu who came to Yuancheng.

Here, he could also faintly hear the sound of artillery fire from Laiyuan City, so he concluded that Lieutenant General Abu was fighting at a disadvantage.

He sneered in his heart, mocking Lieutenant General Abu as a fool. The old devil Qiantian was determined to severely damage Su Fei's troops in Linwu County.

The Japanese reconnaissance cavalry roamed everywhere.

Three reconnaissance planes also took off and patrolled and investigated the area around Laiyuan County.

Soon, the Japanese got the intelligence the day before yesterday. Su Fei's army defeated Lieutenant General Abu's troops, captured Laiyuan County, and then moved westward.

"Prepare to close the net! Eliminate Su Fei!"

The Japanese army quickly gathered troops on the eastern front and adopted a tactic of intercepting at every level and deliberately obstructing the provocation.

During the Laiyuan battle, Su Fei's troops realized that the enemy situation was serious and the artillery fire over there was too fierce.

The closer we got to the west, the more we could feel the muffled roar of artillery fire and the more the earth shook.

The main force of the Japanese army is coming!

The Japanese army's eastern front forces were basically an infantry battalion plus attached puppet troops.

Although the artillery fire was fierce, it was at most 5 mountain guns and infantry guns. The artillery sound from the west was so fierce that Su Fei specially consulted the artillery technical officer sent by Fang Ligong. He said that there were at least 30 mountain guns. Therefore, it was concluded that the enemy was an artillery regiment. The artillery regiment of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army was generally equipped with 36 mountain guns.

Su Fei also sent cavalry to conduct a quick reconnaissance to the west.

Unable to contact Fang Ligong's troops, Su Fei summoned the officers and carefully analyzed the enemy situation, concluding that the enemy must be surrounding the point and attacking the reinforcements in order to ambush him.

At present, the official designation of his troops is two combined battalions, with 1000 people, about 250 casualties in combat, and 300 new recruits added, which can be said to be basically unchanged.

However, there are only about 150 well-trained veterans in these two combined battalions. If they continue to fight the enemy, a large number of new recruits will soon be unable to withstand the high-intensity combat pressure and collapse.

The Eighth Route Army county brigade and numerous militiamen who helped them advance westward included about 400 people with certain military training, and about 1000 mobilized civilians. In terms of headcount, there were 2500 people, plus Fang Ligong's 3000 defenders, which was definitely a lot.

However, there will definitely be more Japanese troops.

Knowing that there is a trap over there, would you go?

Should Fang Ligong’s county defenders be rescued?

Knowing that the county town has a large number of well-equipped tunnels and air-raid shelters, and the support is very resilient, I wonder how long they can hold out.

Most officers opposed the westward advance.

There were more than 30 mountain cannons and possibly 2 heavy field artillery pieces. In the minds of several Shanxi-Suiyuan Army officers, the total strength of the Japanese army might be a division, or at least a brigade.

This is completely different from the battle in Laiyuan County.

"Commander, we are now a mere 1000-man regiment, plus over 400 Eighth Route Army militiamen and over 1,000 civilians who know nothing."

"Commander, we should ask the higher-ups to dispatch the Nationalist troops here to assist us and urge the Eighth Route Army to provide assistance!"

On the other hand, the Laiyuan County Battalion and several militia company commanders were resolute. "Captain Su, you have so many cannons, machine guns, and ammunition, and you're actually afraid of the Japs?"

Su Fei suddenly had an idea.

Since the county brigade and the guerrillas are willing to participate in the war, we should give full play to their advantages in guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare.

The county brigade commander, political commissar, and others organized the 400-strong county brigade and militia company into four guerrilla companies. Each company quickly established a command structure and familiarized its personnel, with Su Fei in charge. Each guerrilla company was issued 10 light machine guns, 2 mortars with 80 rounds of ammunition, 2 grenade launchers with 50 rounds of ammunition, 15 horses, and 8 rifles for every 10 soldiers, with 60 rounds of ammunition for each rifle.

Their mission was to constantly harass the enemy and create the illusion for the enemy that they were the main force of Su Fei's troops.

It is required to continue harassing the enemy until tomorrow morning.

The tactic was to divide the troops into three parts, with the front part conducting reconnaissance and exploratory attacks, and the rear part providing artillery cover. Once they were attacked by the enemy, they would use machine guns to fire.