Although some crazy Japanese counterattacks caused casualties to the officers and soldiers of the 25th Division, the final outcome was already destined, and the 25th Division won the victory with casualties lower than that of the Japanese.

The artillery was transported onto the animal cart, or carried on the back of horses or mules. The sporadic battles on the battlefield were no longer needed to support the artillery. They wanted to destroy another group of Japanese devils - Japanese devils driven from Huangkou Town. The infantry also began to gradually withdraw from the battlefield and organize rectification.

The Japanese were wiped out here, and the battle was still going on fiercely. The Japanese drove from Huangkou Town were also trapped in the siege, rushing left and right, like a crazy bison, but they were unable to break through the siege.

But the battle was very difficult, especially in the north and east, the Japanese also found that the firepower on these two sides was a little weak, not as fierce as the other sides.

There is no way, the Eighth Route Army is responsible for defense and blocking. Compared with the New Seventh Army, the weapons, equipment and firepower are more than one level different.

After the judgment was clear, the Japanese slightest rectification and launched a continuous and fierce attack on the east side.

One hundred meters, fifty meters, and thirty meters. Only when the Japanese were able to clearly see clearly did the Eighth Route Army start firing, platoons, grenades, and the clattering sound of light and heavy machine guns mixed in it. They together form a symphony that was played on the blocking position.

After repelling a charge, a group of Japanese soldiers rushed over. The Japanese organized a supervision team, threatening the soldiers, and attacking like crazy.

The Japanese army's continuous attacks caused great casualties to the First Battalion of the 14th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army, but the military region leaders have issued orders that they must not be embarrassed in front of friendly troops, and they must defend their positions even if they beat the remaining one.

"Holding the position to the death" is probably an order that many soldiers will be afraid of, but Battalion Commander Chen, who received the order, felt it was simple. No need to think about anything else, at worst, he would throw these 180 kilograms here.

Even though he received a batch of ammunition supported by the New Seventh Army, the battle continued very fiercely in the face of the Japanese's desperate attack.

The Japanese attacked fiercely without fear of life and death. After breaking through the front line of defensive positions, the two sides launched bloody hand-to-hand combat, bayonets, butt stocks, daggers, and fists all became weapons. The Japanese sent human bombs, and the wounded members of the Eighth Route Army also pulled the grenades on their bodies and died with the enemy.

One is to break through the siege, and the other is to defend the position to the death. The battle was extremely fierce. Charge and counter-charge, attack and counter-attack, as many as seven or eight times, and the last two times ended in hand-to-hand combat.

At this time, both sides had no reservations and showed their greatest strength.

Sometimes it can be said that a battle is a battle between the two sides in combat power, but sometimes it is a will. The first battalion suffered a lot of casualties, but firmly held the position until the regiment headquarters transferred the third battalion of the reserve team to fight back the final charge of the Japanese.

The hope of breaking through was disillusioned, the troops suffered heavy casualties, and the Japanese suffered a heavy mental blow. The New Seventh Army troops in the south and the east continued to launch centripetal attacks to reduce the defensive pressure of friendly forces. Although the Japanese left on the spot were stubbornly blocked, they paid a heavy price.

The battle had been going on for more than two hours. With the arrival of artillery and some reinforcements, the doomsday of the Japanese arrived. Under the fierce bombardment of artillery, the New Seventh Army and the Eighth Route Army launched a general attack from all sides.

The shouts of killing were earth-shaking. Two equally brave anti-Japanese teams stepped on the land of their motherland and launched a revenge attack on the invaders, turning the Japanese into cold and ugly corpses.

Almost while annihilated Yanji Town to aid the Japanese army in the field, two regiments of the 25th Division's Second Brigade were interspersed and launched a siege on Yanji Town; the Third Regiment of the Second Brigade and the 16th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army joined forces to launch an attack on Huangkou Town, which was greatly weakened by another defender.

As a cooperation, the 26th Division of the New Seventh Army, under the command of Chief of Staff Liang Moqing, dispatched a brigade to the north from Guoxinwa, Majing Town, Xiaoxian, to cut off the railway in the Pengxinzhuang area, blocking the Western aid route of Xiaoxian. With the cooperation of local guerrillas, the other two brigades of the 26th Division interspered and attacked Xiaoxian in a form of a pincer, and suddenly cut off the main line of the Xiaoyong Highway that Miyamoto spent a lot of effort to build, and isolated the connection between five or six Japanese strongholds and the county town.

At this point, from harassment to combat, and then from combat to battle, the New Seventh Army joined forces with the Eighth Route Army to launch a large counterattack against the Japanese army in Xiaoxian.

…………

During the entire War of Resistance Against Japan, as an invader, the Japanese army was not only unpopular, but also hated, and was always at a disadvantage in intelligence.

A better example is the Hundred Regiments Battle, the mobilization of more than 200,000 regular troops, mobilizing millions of people to break the railway and highways, but the Japanese devils did not notice it before the battle was launched.

Yang Tianfeng pays more attention to intelligence and confidentiality work, which can be seen from the military operations of the Third Column (New Seventh Army). Secret mobilization, blocking news, hiding day and night, spreading smoke screens, giving the Japanese an unexpected feeling in all battles.

Similarly, putting aside the fact that Miyamoto went to Xuzhou to attend the military conference, this counterattack also made the Japanese feel suddenly and unexpected.

First of all, the New Seventh Army suddenly ended its expansion and rest training, instead of completing it all, and launched a military operation. This is very different from the time of the Japanese's prediction and judgment. It was supposed to be the Japanese who launched the first sweep, but now the New Seventh Army has rebelled first.

The second was that the New Seventh Army and the Eighth Route Army jointly launched a first attack on the north of Longhai Road, and launched a surprise attack on the railways and strongholds in Xiaoxian from Fengxian, luring and besieging them, and completely raided the railways and highways extending from Xiaoxian to the west, and launched a tough battle against the strongholds along the route.

The smoke screen released by Yang Tianfeng also caused some wrong judgments to the Japanese. Information showed that Yang Tianfeng did not base the base at this time, but rushed to Kaifeng to attend the military meeting in the Henan-Anhui border region. In the absence of the military chief, the Japanese did not believe that the New Seventh Army would launch a large-scale military operation.

Where the military chief is and where the command center is, this is also a basis for judging the direction of the opponent's action in military terms. Miyamoto may have made such a judgment, so he went to Xuzhou to attend the military conference with greater confidence.

Moreover, the geographical location of Xiao County also made the Japanese take it lightly. Xiao County is close to Xuzhou and is known as the "Xuzhou Back Garden". The county is only fifteen kilometers away from Xuzhou.

Fifteen kilometers, thirty miles. Not to mention cars, how long can it take to walk?

Therefore, the Japanese were not mentally prepared for the enemy to launch a fierce attack on Xiaoxian. In Xuzhou, which can provide rapid reinforcements nearby, more than 3,000 Japanese were stationed in Xiaoxian. Highways and railways were extending and strongholds were being established. The local anti-Japanese armed forces in Xiaoxian had been completely suppressed, either surrendering or avoiding, and it was only a matter of time before they were all flattened.

In the eyes of the Japanese, Xiao County's defense and alert scope have been expanded, and the periphery is stable, so there is no need to leave so many troops in the county. Therefore, there are only more than 700 Japanese in the county, and the remaining more than 2,000 are all arranged on highways and along the railway.

Among them, the most powerful forces are the vanguards who are advancing westward. The western ends of the Longhai Railway and Xiaoyong Highway each have nearly one brigade of troops. The strongholds along the railway and highway are mostly guarded by squads and platoons. The important strongholds do not exceed one squadron.

This arrangement of the Japanese can be used as an image metaphor, which is "copper head, iron tail, tofu waist". Although the troops within the Japanese ruling area were empty during the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the troops and defense in the border areas between the enemy and us were still relatively strong and strict.

When the enemy has a large number of troops and is intensifying "eating" and tightening of our bribery, this area will move toward the base; when the enemy's troops decrease and our army's strength increases, and we squeeze the enemy outward, this area will move toward the enemy-occupied area.

As the frontier position of the anti-Japanese military and civilians, if the border guerrilla areas are well maintained, the base areas will be consolidated and expanded; otherwise, the base areas will be "eroded" and destroyed by the enemy. Moreover, the border guerrilla areas are also expansion lines outside the base areas, which are springboards, channels and bridges for implementing the "flip tactics".

Therefore, when Miyamoto stepped up his campaign to sweep and suppress, divide and disintegrate in Xiaoxian, and put the situation of the Miyamoto brigade into an unfavorable situation and the border guerrilla areas continued to retreat to the base, Yang Tianfeng launched a counterattack operation, and the timing was well grasped.

Just as Yang Tianfeng wrote in "Guerrilla Strategy": When the enemy is preparing to attack the base area with strong troops and we cannot stop it head-on, in order to force them to return, our army attacks the enemy's side and backward direction and advances the battle to the enemy's occupied areas, or even the heart of the enemy, so that we can more effectively deal with the enemy's encroachment and sweep, and at the same time expand the base area.

Through deep penetration and large-scale detours, not only cut off the tentacles and claws that the Japanese extended to the base, but also treated the isolated Japanese as isolated troops to go deep into the annihilation attack, and strive to push the border guerrilla areas back to the surroundings of the county town.

Correct strategy, reasonable tactics, locally possessing absolute advantage in the forces, and the multi-flowing situation formed by combining all forces has made this counterattack achieve exciting results.

Overnight, Huangkou Town, Yanji Town and Liutao Town on the railway line were captured by two brigades of the 25th Division and more than 4,000 Eighth Route Army; Majing Town, Dulou Town and Dingli Town along the highway were captured by the 26th Division. From battle to battle, the New Seventh Army and the Eighth Route Army formed an encirclement of Xiaoxian County from three sides. The Third Brigade of the 25th Division acted as a clearing force to attack and eliminate the enemy strongholds that had been cut off.

If the attack at night is insidious and the scale and nature of the opponent's actions cannot be judged, the situation of full passiveness will be obvious during the day.
Chapter completed!