Wang Xuexin indeed planned to build an airport in Duolun County and use it as an advance base to attack Chifeng.

This is mainly because there are too few places suitable for building an airport along this road.

This sounds like something is wrong. The west side of the mountains is full of flat grasslands. It should be suitable for building airports everywhere, but why are there fewer places suitable for building airports!

In fact, this is precisely because the west side of the mountain range is too flat and empty:

Flat and open terrain is indeed very convenient for building civilian airports in peacetime, but this is wartime, and the Eighth Route Army wants to build a military airport!

The first thing to consider at a military airport is safety:

If the enemy can spot an airport in an empty space from a long distance away, and can easily fire shells into the airport with heavy artillery ten kilometers away, can it still be used as an airport?

If there is not even a warehouse that can hold cars and ammunition, and they are placed in the open air, and a few mortar shells can detonate them all, can it still be used as an airport?

If enemy fighter planes fly over, and the Eighth Route Army fighter planes are placed there one by one like lice on a bald man's head, can it still be used as an airport?

Therefore, the Eighth Route Army needs a county-level city as a base, which requires basic fortifications for ground troops to deploy; houses and warehouses to store fuel, ammunition, and fighter planes; and the ability to provide necessary water sources and food for the troops.

In this case, only Duolun County can meet the conditions...Kaikai County can also be used, but it is too close to Zhangjiakou, only 55 kilometers away.

Wang Xuexin did not expect that this would expose his combat target and prepare the enemy to lay a trap.

It was five o'clock in the morning when the independent regiment reached Duolun County.

With the addition of these two regiments, which consist of twenty Shermans plus hundreds of half-track armored vehicles, and a howitzer battalion each, there should be no big problem in defending Duolun County.

After reading the telegram, Li Yunlong's face became very ugly. He cursed dissatisfiedly: "Damn it, you are about to take Duolun County, so you are retreating like this? The blood of the comrades who died tonight was not in vain!"

"Tank troops?" Li Yunlong asked in confusion: "Where did the tank troops come from?"

No one could answer this question because the intelligence did not say that there were Japanese tank troops nearby.

At this time Wang Xuexin’s order came down: “Retreat immediately!”

The reason why the battle lasted so long was because it was difficult for heavy equipment to operate at night, but the Japanese could rely on their familiarity with the terrain to guerrilla around the city, and sometimes used the people in the city as cover to make the Eighth Route Army use enemy weapons.

But the Japanese still underestimated the determination of the puppet army to become "weeds on the wall"... The puppet army in Duolun County was the same as other puppet armies. They had no idea that the current Eighth Route Army still had this kind of outfit. When the Eighth Route Army came, it was also a tank.

It was also a half-track vehicle. Just the "rumbling" sound of the engine scared the puppet troops, not to mention that a burst of artillery fire silenced all the Japanese artillery.

More than 200 Japanese soldiers could not withstand the Eighth Route Army's attack. After more than half an hour, they were besieged by the Independent Regiment and unable to move at the Duolun County Railway Station.

However, as soon as the sky dawned, Li Yunlong discovered something was wrong: the enemy's defense and firepower at the train station exceeded his imagination.

Kill the puppet soldiers?

He didn't commit any crime, so what excuse was there to kill him?

Moreover, there are so many puppet soldiers that it is not certain who will win or lose when they start fighting!

Besides, now that all the puppet troops are being killed without any reason, will the other puppet troops become disheartened? They know that fighting with the Japanese will lead to death sooner or later, so it is better to rebel sooner rather than later?

Can the devils withstand the chain reaction caused by this?!

As a result, the Japs could only arrange the puppet troops to build trench defenses outside the city, while the Japs themselves would man the earthen walls inside the city and aim their guns at the backs of the puppet troops... The Japs hoped that in this way they would at least be able to defeat the puppet troops.

Fire a few shots or let the puppet troops and the Eighth Route Army consume some of them.

Then I heard a report from the communications unit: "Commander, the Japanese reinforcements are coming, from three directions, they are enemy tank troops!"

Li Yunlong replied in a sullen voice: "Isn't there a new regiment and a new regiment? Are they afraid of the Japanese when the two regiments arrive?"

At that time, Li Yunlong was also waiting for dawn. He thought that street fighting like this was very difficult to fight in the dark night. Some Japanese soldiers dressed up as civilians and threw a grenade unexpectedly. Many soldiers died with hatred like this.

This is not a simple comparison of troops and equipment, but a review of the entire city.

Then as expected, the puppet soldiers dispersed as soon as they shouted. Before they fled, they did not forget to throw grenades behind them to explode smoke so that the Japanese could not aim.

The information Li Yunlong learned was that the county garrison only had one squadron of nearly 200 Japs, and there were dozens of Japs military police. The total strength was only 250 people. The puppet army had a regiment of more than 2,000 people, and they were assigned to

Trench defense outside the city.

But can any common people inside do this?

So the Eighth Route Army had no choice but to abandon its heavy firepower and use repeating rifles and pistols to fight the Japanese in street battles, clearing house after house.

Unite and fight with the puppet army?

No one believes that the puppet army will "unite" with them at the critical moment.

What the Japanese often did was to hide two or three people in a private house, threaten the people and line up in front of the windows as human shields. They would hide in the dark and shoot at the Eighth Route Army outside.

The Japanese did this to delay the daybreak.

Later, Li Yunlong learned that the intelligence he had received was inaccurate. There were more than 500 Japanese soldiers fighting directly and externally against the Eighth Route Army, and there were still more than 500 Japanese soldiers besieged in the train station. That means the total strength of the Japanese soldiers was at least 10,000.

Thousands of people.

At this time, the Japs were in an awkward situation. They didn't know how to deal with the puppet troops.

The subsequent battle turned into a confrontation between the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese.

At this time, the Eighth Route Army was very passive... It's not that the Eighth Route Army didn't have enough firepower. A tank could blast all the houses where the Japs were hiding with a single shot, or a half-track truck could drive up and beat the Japs into sieves with a sweep of machine guns.

Zhao Gang advised from the side: "There are Japs inside who have not been eliminated, and there are Japs reinforcements outside, so we should withdraw first!"

There is nothing wrong with Li Yunlong's words. The New First Regiment and the New Second Regiment are two hours away behind the Independent Regiment, and they are almost there now.

But after hesitating for a moment, Li Yunlong gritted his teeth and ordered: "Withdraw!"

After saying that, he spat in the direction of the train station: "You are lucky, I will skin you again later!"

Li Yunlong hated the Japanese's method of using the common people as a cover.

However, just as the Eighth Route Army retreated in an orderly manner, there was a roar of motors in the train station, and then several strange large tanks broke through the wall of the train station and suddenly appeared in front of the Eighth Route Army.

With a "quacking" sound, he turned to the "Sherman" of the Eighth Route Army...
Chapter completed!