Chapter 67: Capturing Zhoukou Upper Third Watch

  Zhang Mingyu led the army to Taihe Town (now Taihe County, Anhui Province) in the afternoon and continued to advance after a brief rest. The next target was Shenqiu Town.

  Wuhan headquarters

  Dai Li carefully placed a telegram from Fuyang area in front of Chiang Kai-shek and said respectfully: "Director, according to the telegram, the Independent Regiment suddenly left Fuyang County last night and headed north."

  Chiang Kai-shek has been annoyed for some time, first the defeat of the Battle of Xuzhou, followed by the loss of Xuzhou. The Japanese army in Xuzhou took a short rest and then rushed straight to Hefei, Huainan, Lu'an, and Zhoukou, which fell one after another. The military situation is now critical, with the enemy advancing towards Fuyang and Xinyang. At this time, Zhang Mingyu led his troops to "run away" and disappeared without a trace. How could Chiang Kai-shek not be angry?

  After reading the telegram, Principal Chiang scolded angrily: "Damn it! What is Zhang Mingyu trying to do? The Japanese army is behind him, does he want to go and die?"

  Principal Jiang didn't think that Zhang Mingyu had defected to the enemy, but instead was still very concerned about Zhang Mingyu, who had brought him countless surprises in the past.

  "Send a telegram to the independent division and order Zhang Mingyu to return to Fuyang immediately!" Principal Jiang tried to recall Zhang Mingyu.

  "Director, since last night, the independent regiment's radio station has been in a closed state." Dai Li said with his head down.

  "What is this Zhang Mingyu trying to do? Does he really want to rebel?" Chiang Kai-shek was furious.

  The county seat of Zhoukou was captured by the Japanese 11th Division, Infantry Regiment 10 Brigade, and the 12th Regiment under the command of Colonel Ando Nijiro yesterday. The 11th Division originally belonged to the Shanghai Expeditionary Army of Japan, after the Battle of Xuzhou, the 11th Division was ordered to attack Henan Province. The 12th Infantry Regiment was responsible for attacking from the border area between Yu and Anhui towards the front line. As soon as Zhoukou was captured, Colonel Ando Nijiro led two infantry battalions to attack in the direction of Xinyang, leaving one battalion to garrison the city of Zhoukou.

  Zhang Mingyu's independent regiment arrived at the outskirts of Shenqiu Town, Zhoukou County around 8 pm that evening. Due to the arrival of the devils, all the old hundred names in the town ran away, and the original security team in the town surrendered to the devils and became traitors. There were a small team of devils and more than 200 pseudo-armies in this small town.

  Zhang Mingyu took Tie Niu and Li Gang to Shenqiu Town for close-range reconnaissance. The terrain around the Huai River is flat, and even small county towns have city walls. Although Shenqiu Town was not a county town, it was also built with a small city wall over three meters high at the southern border of Henan Province, and there was no moat outside the city. There were no devils outside the city, only a few puppet soldiers standing on the city wall.

  After Zhang Mingyu returned, he said to Zhang Biao and others: "It seems that there are only some fake soldiers in this small town, and the number of devils should not exceed the strength of a small team."

  "Master, how did you know that there's only a small squad of devils in the town? You didn't even go inside." Zhang Biao asked doubtfully.

  "The reason is simple, after the Japanese army captured Xuzhou, they urgently needed to rest and regroup. They only dispatched two divisions to attack the Anhui and Henan borders. Among them, the 11th Division attacked Henan, with a division of one or two hundred thousand people attacking a province. Because there were Japanese reinforcements behind, they would not leave too many troops to garrison, let alone this was just a small town."

  Zhang Mingyu's analysis is quite right, in such a large combat area, the 11th Division originally had insufficient troops, if Shenqiu Town did not have a special geographical location, I believe that the third infantry battalion commander Liu would not have sent even this small team of troops from Zhoukou.

  "This is his grandma's, such a little devil, directly attack him down." Zhang Biao roared.

  Zhang Mingyu opened the map and pointed to Zhoukou, saying: "Taking down this small town is relatively easy, but you see, two days ago the Japanese army has already occupied Zhoukou. If we attack Shenqiu Town, the devils in Zhoukou will definitely reinforce it. Even if we can take down Shenqiu Town before the devil's reinforcements arrive, our whereabouts will be exposed. The devils in Zhoukou will be on high alert, and our plan to pass through Zhoukou to Shanxi will fall through!"

  "What does 'that master' mean?" Zhang Biao asked.

  "Feign an attack on Shenchou, strike the enemy reinforcements!" Zhang Mingyu said eight words, then continued: "The task of attacking Shenchou will be undertaken by a battalion from Lai San's Second Regiment, while the other battalions of the Second Regiment and the First Regiment set up ambushes on the highway to attack the enemy reinforcements."

  "Yes!" Everyone stood up at once and stood at attention.

  In the end, it was up to the third battalion with relatively poor combat effectiveness to take on the task of attacking Shenqiu. Although the third battalion's combat effectiveness was poor, dealing with the dozens of devils and a few hundred puppet troops inside the city was still not a problem. Moreover, they were only besieging, not attacking.

  Around 10 o'clock that night, the devils had already fallen asleep early, and the puppet soldiers standing guard on the city wall also fell asleep leaning against the city wall. Zhang Mingyu led two battalions from the first and second regiments to bypass Shenqiu Town and set up an ambush on both sides of the devils' path in Zhoukou.

  Lai San personally led three battalions to surround Shenqiu Town.

  At midnight, Lai San led three battalions to launch an attack on Shenqiu Town from four directions. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire shook the town, and the Japanese devils and puppet troops inside were startled awake, hastily crawling out of their beds, holding guns and rushing towards the city wall. The little devil squad leader, Toiro Wataru, hastily put on his clothes, brought his command knife, and rushed outside.

  A figure rushed towards him and collided with him, causing Ferry Niurou to fall over. Enraged, he drew his baton: "Hakka Yaku!" He was about to strike the person in front of him.

  That man hastily scrambled up from the ground and hurriedly knelt down, saying: "Your Highness, spare me, it's me!"

  Ferry Erlang saw that it was a fake military security captain, and inserted the command knife into the scabbard, asking: "Where are you going to shoot?"

  The false military security captain seemed to remember something and said, "Your Highness! There are gunshots everywhere, the outside must be the regular army of the National Army, they even have cannons! You'd better ask for help from the Grand Duchess quickly! If it's late, the National Army will attack and it'll be all over!"

  The ferry Er Lang kicked the fake military security captain with one foot: "Ba Ga, take your men and block for me! I'm going to ask the battalion commander for reinforcements now." After finishing speaking, he ran towards the telephone house, quickly shaking the phone: "Hello, Battalion Commander, my unit is under attack by a regular army of Chinese bandits, listening to the gunfire, there are at least a battalion of troops, please rush to reinforce, please rush to reinforce!"

  On the other end of the phone, Liu said last time: "Ferry Jun, you must hold on, reinforcements will arrive in half an hour."

  "Ha Yi" ferry Erlang hung up the phone and ran towards the city wall.

  Liu Shangci also hastily assembled his troops, and for a time the bugle calls echoed throughout Zhoukou County, as large numbers of devils wearing steel helmets poured out of their barracks and gathered on the drill grounds.

  Liu Shangci loudly commanded in bird language: "The third battalion will stay and guard, the second and first battalions follow me to set out and reinforce Shenqiu Town. Set out!"

  Liu sat on a three-wheeled vehicle and waved his hand: "Open the way!" The two squads of devils followed one after another out of the city, rushing towards Shenqiu Town.

  Brothers, today is the third update, everyone gets up! The public list's overall top five is our goal. Last week we all killed to the top three, and today's strong push is in the top eight! Brothers give more power! Recommended click collection! Endless gratitude!