The 34th Cavalry Regiment launched a surprise attack on the enemy, causing great chaos. Commander Guo took advantage of the opportunity to break through the heavy encirclement.
Change the picture to Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment raiding Kumamoto Brigade
Gaofei Long led the second battalion to circle around the back of the Kumamoto Division and attacked its left wing. Gaofei Long was a man with a fiery personality and a quick temper, and he led the second battalion at high speed towards the Japanese left wing, causing chaos among the enemy's ranks. At this time, He Gang and Jiang Zhifei led the fourth and fifth battalions to circle around the back of the enemy and launched an attack from the front. The enemy forces in front were the Fifth Regiment of the Kumamoto Division, led by Takaishi Kōichirō. Takaishi was a skilled commander who suddenly realized that his artillery had stopped firing, and his left wing was in disarray. He quickly turned around and shouted: "There is a Chinese cavalry regiment attacking our rear! Open fire on them!" Many Japanese soldiers turned around and were shocked by what they saw, but they quickly regained their composure and began shooting at the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment soldiers. More than a dozen Flying Tiger soldiers were hit and fell off their horses, and other Japanese soldiers quickly adjusted their aim and fired at the Chinese cavalrymen. Another twenty or so Flying Tiger soldiers fell off their horses as the two sides clashed at close range. Just as the Chinese soldiers were about to return fire, He Gang shouted: "Everyone, don't shoot yet! Our machine guns only have a range of 70 meters, we can't hit the enemy from here. Let's retreat and regroup before attacking again!"
At this time, Koyasu Ichiro immediately ordered the light and heavy machine guns to turn their heads towards the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment and sweep them. Then, more than a dozen cavalrymen fell off their horses again, He Gang was so anxious that he was sweating profusely, Jiang Zhi Fei shouted: "He Gang, this won't work!" At this time, Qi Tianzhu shouted loudly: "Don't worry, comrades, look at our brothers!" It turned out that Qi Tianzhu and the more than 20 new brothers who had just arrived were all using rifles. The rifle's range was extremely far, with strong power and high accuracy. Moreover, they were all godly marksmen, so the Japanese light and heavy machine guns instantly became mute. A godly marksman not only needs to have accurate shooting skills but also needs to shoot quickly; otherwise, even if your shooting is accurate, if you take half a day to fire one shot, then in half a day, you can only kill one devil. Looking at Qi Tianzhu and the others, they would raise their rifles without aiming and frequently fire at the devils. Their speed of reloading was incredibly fast, with row after row of bullets accurately hitting the Japanese soldiers in front of them like they had eyes. The devils instantly fell to the ground in large numbers.
The enemy's firepower was suppressed by Qitian Zhu and others for a minute or two, and this one or two minutes decided the outcome of the entire battle. In the blink of an eye, the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment's warriors had rushed to the front of the enemy, and the soldiers raised their sabers and chopped at the enemy. The enemy was beaten so badly that they were crying out in despair. Tani Masao saw that things were not going well and quickly turned around and ran away. At this time, the entire formation of the Kumamoto Division was disrupted, and those little devils were all beaten senseless, fleeing in all directions without knowing where to go. Kumamoto was commanding his troops when he suddenly heard that the artillery on the battlefield had stopped firing. He shouted: "What's going on? Quickly send someone to take a look!" At this time, an enemy soldier came to report: "Commander, it's not good! Our artillery has been killed and our cannons have all been destroyed!" Kumamoto shouted: "How is this possible? Who did this?" The enemy soldier said: "I don't know. We only knew that we were attacking the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment, but we didn't know what was happening. A cavalry regiment from China suddenly launched a surprise attack on us from behind, and we were caught off guard."
Kumamoto roared in anger; how could this be, did the Chinese cavalry regiment come from heaven or something? How did we not notice anything? Kumamoto looked into the distance and saw the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment charging through his troops. Wherever they went, the Japanese army fell down in large numbers. Kumamoto was so angry he almost went crazy.
At this time, the 8th Route Army Independent Brigade, seeing the enemy's formation in disarray, asked; what's going on? Why isn't Kumamoto's artillery responding? Just then, a regimental commander, Ge Zhenjiang, shouted loudly; Brigade Commander, our Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment has arrived! Look!
Guo Yiming quickly looked into the distance and recognized He Gang and Jiang Zhifei. Guo Yiming was overjoyed and shouted; Comrades, our reinforcements have arrived! Charge for me!
The 8th Route Army Independent Brigade launched a counterattack against Kumamoto's division. The soldiers charged towards the Japanese army like wolves and tigers. Guo Yiming ordered five or six light machine guns to fire in the same direction, and the enemy in front immediately fell down again. Kumamoto's encirclement was torn open with a big gap.
Guo Yiming saw that it was a great opportunity to break through and immediately led his soldiers to charge towards the opening.
At this time, He Gang also saw Guo Yi Ming and shouted loudly; Commander, let's go quickly! Although the bear is now being beaten to pieces, but this little devil is not simple. He will soon be able to steady his footing and may even form an iron wall encirclement around us again. By then, it will be too difficult for us to break out again. Guo Yi Ming nodded and shouted loudly; I know! Comrades, let's charge forward! The soldiers rushed out of the encirclement one by one like wolves and tigers, and soon broke through the siege of the Mountain Forest Brigade. Xiong Ben sighed heavily; It's all over, the plan to annihilate the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment has been completely ruined. Under the cover of the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment, the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment quickly broke through the heavy encirclement and ran out for dozens of miles. By this time, the sky had already darkened. He Gang saw that it was now safe and immediately ordered his brothers to rest. The Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment was also exhausted, and everyone rested for a while. At this time, Guo Yi Ming brought the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment over. As soon as he saw He Gang, he shouted loudly; He Gang, come here! He Gang ran over immediately, and Guo Yi Ming tightly grasped He Gang's hand. Guo Yi Ming said excitedly; He Gang, fortunately you came in time. If you had come half a day later, I'm afraid I would have gone to see Marx.
He Gang burst out laughing and said, "Guo Lüchang, if you do this, then you really won't be able to show your face. The little devils haven't been driven out of our China yet, the revolution hasn't succeeded yet, how can you go see Marx like this? Besides, even if you go see Marx, I'm afraid Marx won't accept you!" Everyone heard this and burst into loud laughter.
Jiang Zhifei said, "He Gang, will the Kwantung Army catch up with us?" Guo Yiming said, "No way." Jiang Zhifei asked, "How can you be so sure, Guo Lüchang?" Guo Yiming smiled and said, "We've been fighting the Kwantung Army for a whole day, we're all exhausted, panting like dogs. Are the little devils not tired? Aren't they also human beings born to fathers and mothers?" Jiang Zhifei laughed and said, "I think those little devils must have crawled out of an outhouse!" Everyone heard this and burst into another fit of loud laughter.
The group rested on the spot until dawn the next day, when they gradually recovered their strength. The war horses were also extremely fatigued. He Gang ordered everyone to dismount and walk on foot while leading the horses. As they walked, Guo Yiming said, "He Gang, Jiang Zhifei, I represent the Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment in expressing our gratitude to you. Originally, I should reward you with something, but our Eighth Route Army Independent Regiment is also penniless, so we don't have anything to reward you with. I hope you won't mind."
Jiang Zhi Fei laughed and said, "I'm talking about Commander Guo's independent regiment of the Eighth Route Army. That's just a beggar army, you yourselves don't have enough to eat from one meal to the next, what can you use to reward us?" Guo Yi Ming burst out laughing and said, "Commander Jiang is right, we are indeed a beggar army." He Guang said, "Since choosing you doesn't pose any danger, we should head back. We'll take our leave now." Guo Yi Ming said, "Alright then, I won't see you off." At this point, Xu Bin took over the conversation and said, "Commander Guo, have a good journey!" He Guang slapped Xu Bin on the back of his head, and Xu Bin covered it with his hand, saying unhappily, "Commissar, why did you hit me? What did I do wrong?" He Guang scolded, "You little brat, don't you know how to speak properly? 'Have a good journey' is what you say when sending off the dead. You should have said 'Commander Guo will ascend to heaven on the back of a crane'!" Jiang Zhi Fei couldn't help but burst out laughing and said, "Xu Bin, you little brat really deserved that beating! How could you say 'have a good journey' to Commander Guo? You should have said 'Commander Guo will ride off into the sunset on horseback'!" He Guang shouted, "Damn it, Jiang Zhi Fei, your mouth is as foul as a dog's! I'm telling you, Commander Guo is my old superior officer. Don't dare to spout nonsense again!" At this point, Guo Yi Ming also couldn't help but burst out laughing and said, "No worries, if I really do 'ride off into the sunset', at least I'll take that damn Japanese Emperor with me! I'll ride on his back, and make him be my horse!" Everyone heard this and couldn't help but break out in laughter again.
The Eighth Route Army Independent Brigade returned to its original garrison, and the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment also returned to Changfeng County. Everyone went back to their unit, and He Gang immediately took stock of the losses. In this battle, sixty people were killed in action, and ten war horses were killed. This was not a small loss for the Flying Tiger Cavalry Regiment. He Gang and Jiang Zhifei buried the bodies of the soldiers and then held a memorial service for the dead. At the memorial service, He Gang wept uncontrollably. He couldn't bear to see his brothers who had been with him day and night leave like this. He Gang's heart ached, and he cried tears of sorrow. Jiang Zhifei walked over and patted He Gang on the shoulder, saying: "He Gang, don't be like this. People can't come back to life even if you cry yourself to death. Since we're at war, there's no way to avoid deaths. Moreover, they died for the country and the nation; their deaths were glorious." Actually, He Gang wasn't intentionally acting or trying to win people over. At that moment, he was truly feeling pain in his heart. In this battle, He Gang had made a slight mistake in commanding. If he could have let everyone launch an attack at the same time, if he could have coordinated the soldiers' formation in time, they might not have died. It was because of He Gang's oversight that sixty people lost their lives. He Gang bore an inescapable responsibility for this.
