Lü Chengyun died without understanding why Captain Fukagawa Taiji suddenly turned against him.

Furthermore, he was going to kill all of them bandits. At this moment, he also thought of the mountain village family members sent to Xuzhou to enjoy themselves. He was about to die here, and the fate of those family members would probably not be much better.

Rooting out the weeds was not something only bandits did. When the Japanese devils did such things, they were no better than bandits.

He fell to the ground, his eyes wide open, looking at the sky, dying with unresolved grievances. Lü Chengyun didn't understand until his death that an unintentional smile during his delusion had cost the lives of nearly two hundred bandits.

Of course, Captain Fukagawa Taiji, after killing Lü Chengyun and his gang of bandits, understood one thing: although the traitor had been eliminated, the crisis facing his detachment had not changed in the slightest.

He was no longer thinking about how to annihilate the National Revolutionary Army soldiers in the encirclement. He was nervously thinking about finding a place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, waiting for reinforcements from Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji.

Around here, the place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack was, of course, the bandit's den.

The Yellow Earth Ridge, originally occupied by Lü Chengyun and his gang of bandits, was such a place.

At the very beginning of the battle, the First, Second, and Third Companies discovered Japanese devils hiding in the bandit's den when they jointly attacked Yellow Earth Ridge.

That was why they retreated and hastily established the current triangular defense land.

At this time, the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment also stopped attacking. They abandoned the encirclement and began to retreat towards Yellow Earth Ridge.

Entering the bandit's den, these Japanese devils immediately entered the original bunkers and fortifications, and began to set up firepower points.

This time it was not an attack, but a defense, to protect their own lives. Every Japanese devil in the entire Fukagawa Taiji Detachment was desperately trying, striving to be the first.

They kept tearing down the door panels, wooden boards, and roof beams in the bandit's den and sending them to the front to reinforce the fortifications.

Relying on the original village walls of the bandits, they added two more lines of defense behind them. In this way, the three lines of defense could support each other.

The Fukagawa Taiji Detachment was busy setting up a desperate struggle on Yellow Earth Ridge, making a last-ditch effort.

Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji in Xuzhou City was very embarrassed. The situation in the Tianjia'an direction was already precarious.

After Battalion Commander Mizune Ichiro reported, an accurate reply finally came an hour later: Captain Ueda Haruki of the direct artillery team reported that of the more than nine hundred Japanese devils in the entire artillery team, only three hundred and sixty-seven remained, and all the cannons had been taken away by the Special Operations Brigade.

The remnants of the Nakamuya Yūsuke Battalion consisted of three hundred and twelve Japanese devils, and Battalion Commander Nakamuya Yūsuke was still alive and had returned.

Captain Hane Yuda Taro was also alive, but his battalion had less than two hundred surviving Japanese devils.

Calculated in this way, of the two infantry battalions and one artillery battalion that first departed for Tianjia'an, less than one battalion of Japanese devils remained.

The main thing was that all the cannons were lost, and the artillery battalion had completely lost its combat effectiveness.

The battle there had ended, and the Special Operations Brigade was still digesting the results of the battle and had not yet launched a new offensive.

However, Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji, based on the Special Operations Brigade's tactics yesterday and today, speculated that they were fighting steadily and surely, and would definitely launch a new offensive tomorrow or the day after at the latest.

The only complete force in Tianjia'an now was the nearly two thousand Japanese devils of the garrison headquarters.

No one knew how long they could last.

However, Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji knew exactly how long the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment could last.

He believed that the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment could hold out for half a day without any problems, but after half a day, without reinforcements.

This infantry battalion would be finished, which he could not accept under any circumstances.

Rescue was necessary, but the question was what kind of team to send.

Thinking of the seventy-kilometer distance, Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji felt a little headache.

In the end, he had no choice but to order the tank squadron, cavalry battalion, and Yamada Yūsuke infantry battalion to set off immediately to rescue the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment.

To be on the safe side, Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji also ordered the 17th Brigade, which was guarding Xuzhou, to send an infantry battalion, and the puppet 37th Army to send a brigade to meet them.

In order to get through these seventy kilometers of road as soon as possible and reach the battlefield earlier.

Soratani Shunji, the brigade commander of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade, and Manda Yūto, the brigade commander of the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade, organized a motorcade in Xuzhou.

It was specially used to transport two infantry battalions and one puppet army brigade over there. All they did was to rescue the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment as soon as possible.

If possible, they also intended to use a large force to encircle and annihilate the Lunan Detachment, which had surrounded the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment, in one fell swoop.

Kinugasa Akihito, the remaining regimental commander of the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Infantry, led the Shiba Hideki infantry battalion and the Gocho Naoki infantry battalion to set off immediately from Xuzhou and rushed to Tianjia'an as the second batch of support troops.

These troops behind the 10th Brigade would go to Tianjia'an immediately after rescuing the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment.

This was Brigade Commander Soratani Shunji's plan, and this plan was also affirmed by Commander-in-Chief Terauchi Hisaichi of the North China Front Army.

Commander Terauchi Hisaichi already knew the difficulties encountered by the 10th Independent Mixed Brigade.

He was very angry about the battle in Tianjia'an. There were many things that made him angry these two days. The performance of the entire North China Front Army's troops participating in the Battle of Wuhan was very poor on the battlefield.

Except for the 6th Division, which was able to cheer up again after the defeat and continue to seize territory in the new offensive.

The Second Army, which the North China Front Army sent to participate in the Battle of Wuhan, performed particularly poorly. Not only was the offensive on the front line unfavorable, but it was also blocked by the National Revolutionary Army's 36th Division and was completely unable to break through.

The two divisions in Liu'an and Huoshan not only failed to complete the plan to counterattack Hefei, but also lost Liu'an and Huoshan.

The defeated soldiers fled to the main force of the Second Army, making the situation of the entire Second Army dangerous all of a sudden.

Now, whether it was Terauchi Hisaichi or Commander-in-Chief Okamura Neiji of the China Expeditionary Army, they could see that this was a big trap.

The National Revolutionary Army had set up a large ambush circle in the area from Fujin Mountain in Jiangbei to Shangcheng, Gushi, Liu'an, Huoshan, and Macheng, trapping all four divisions of the Japanese Second Army.

General Higashikuni Naruhiko, the commander of the Japanese Second Army Group, still didn't care. He said to Commander Terauchi Hisaichi, "This net of the National Revolutionary Army has caught a big fish.

The big fish only needs to wag its tail, and their net will be broken.

The Second Army Group must take this opportunity to annihilate all the elite divisions of the National Revolutionary Army's Fifth War Area here."

His idea was very good. The staff of the Second Army Group Headquarters also made a set of combat plans according to General Higashikuni Naruhiko's ideas.

In the National Revolutionary Army's headquarters in Wuhan, the Japanese devils' actions had become more and more frequent these days. In the Jiangbei direction, the Japanese 6th Division had directly reached Tianjiazhen, the last fortress of Wuhan on Changhan.

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, the Japanese devils were also strengthening their forces to attack. Commander Okamura Neiji was working hard to complete the large and small encirclements in his plan.

However, Chiang Kai-shek was very happy today. He personally said excitedly at the military conference, "Everyone! The encirclement we planned some time ago has been completed.

The Special Operations Brigade has occupied Liu'an, Huoshan, and Hefei.

The four divisions of the Japanese Second Army Group have all been put into the pocket. Now what is needed is to compress the space for the Japanese Second Army Group's activities and prepare for the final decisive battle."

He pointed on the map with the baton in his hand, "The Japanese devils are in the area of Shangcheng, Jinzhai, Gushi, and Yejiapu.

The Special Operations Brigade has closed the door and cut off the Japanese devils' logistics supply channel. Now what is needed is for everyone to unite sincerely and attack the Japanese devils' Second Army Corps to compress them.

The armies in Jiangnan should try their best to defend, and when the Japanese devils' Second Army Corps is completely annihilated, the Fifth War Area can free up its hands and continue to repeat such combat examples."

No matter how the meeting at the headquarters was held, what was really implemented still needed the Fifth War Area to do it.

Bai Chongxi, the acting commander, said at the military conference, "The Special Operations Brigade was able to defeat the Japanese 16th Division and 10th Division with a partial division, and seize Liu'an and Huoshan from them.

We have deployed ten armies on this line. Are our ten armies, with more than 200,000 troops, not as good as their 20,000 troops?

From today onwards, all units must take the initiative to attack, eliminate the Japanese devils in mobile warfare, and disturb the Japanese devils in the jungle, so that they cannot act in peace and cannot sleep at night.

The specific action plan will be distributed now, and each team will act according to the plan."

Lin Fan's team's actions in Hefei, Liu'an, and Huoshan have also attracted the attention of the direction of northern Shaanxi.

After all, every action of the Special Operations Brigade was reported to both Wuhan and northern Shaanxi at the same time.

Some people in the direction of northern Shaanxi still had opinions about Lin Fan's behavior of not asking for instructions beforehand and only reporting afterwards.

They believed that Lin Fan was contemptuous, distrustful of the organization, and a surrender behavior of leaning towards the National Revolutionary Army, and decided to conduct an investigation on Lin Fan.

When this matter reached Li Desheng's ears, he slammed the table at the meeting and said, "Some of us are acting like officials.

In front-line combat, the situation is changing rapidly, and the commander does not make a decisive decision but has to ask you for instructions.

Do you really think you are sitting steadily in the central military tent, strategizing and winning battles thousands of miles away?

In the feudal era, those ministers of the Song Dynasty formulated combat plans in the court and sent people to send them thousands of miles away to direct the battle.

Any situation on the front line needs to be sent back to the court to wait for new instructions.

What was the result?

The dignified superpower eventually perished.

Our cause is still in struggle, and such problems have already emerged.

Some people! All day long, they don't think about doing things well, but they just think about how to harm people.

I think the investigation must be conducted, but it is not to investigate the teams outside, but to investigate how many such people are in our internal."

Lin Fan didn't know anything about these things in the wilderness outside Tianjia'an.

Now he was preparing to attack Tianjia'an.

He also learned from the telegram sent by Gu Xiuming that the Lunan Detachment had fought fiercely with a Japanese battalion today, and had now surrounded the Japanese battalion on Yellow Earth Ridge.

He was preparing to annihilate the Japanese battalion in one go next.

Lin Fan asked Gu Xiuming in detail about the situation around Yellow Earth Ridge. When he learned that this place was at least fifty kilometers away from the railway line, he asked how the Lunan Detachment's troops were nearby.

Finally, he suggested that Gu Xiuming postpone the attack on the Japanese devils on Yellow Earth Ridge and prepare to encircle the point and strike at the reinforcements.

He analyzed to Gu Xiuming the Lunan Detachment's advantages in the Yellow Earth Ridge area: inconvenient transportation was the Japanese devils' biggest disadvantage and the Lunan Detachment's biggest advantage.

Encirculating a Japanese battalion here, the Japanese devils would definitely continue to send troops to rescue this battalion.

The Lunan Detachment could set up ambush positions around it, specializing in attacking the Japanese devils who came to reinforce.

In places with inconvenient transportation, there were only a limited number of roads that the Japanese devils' mechanized troops could pass through. Deploying troops in these places could inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese devils.

Gu Xiuming immediately replied to Lin Fan's telegram, "Received! Will do!"

Lin Fan's analysis made Gu Xiuming understand at once that this was an opportunity. The Lunan Detachment would set a trap here and have a good fight with the Japanese devils.

Since this was the case, he would of course transfer all the troops of the Lunan Detachment over.

He would also concentrate the guerrillas organized by the reclamation groups. This time, he would not only annihilate the Japanese devils, but also train the troops.

According to the habits of the Special Operations Brigade, more practice on the training ground and then learning on the battlefield is the mark of a true good soldier.

Since Gu Xiuming had made a decision, he immediately transferred the security regiments distributed in various places to Tancheng.

The Lunan Detachment had occupied eleven county towns in Sishui, Zoucheng, Pingyi, Fei County, Yishui, and Yinan, and later expanded some more. By now, it had occupied nearly thirty towns and villages, and had placed several thousand reclamation groups around these county towns.

After receiving Lin Fan's order for the first time, these reclamation groups had already organized nearly twenty regiments to go out to fight with the regular regiments.

Within a hundred kilometers around Yellow Earth Ridge, there were two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment of the Lunan Detachment. There were ten security regiments cooperating in the operation.

Regiment Commander Shan Yecan of the Third Regiment was in Donghai County, 150 miles away from Yellow Earth Ridge. After receiving Gu Xiuming's order, he immediately led his troops on a forced march towards Yellow Earth Ridge.

Yellow Earth Ridge was in the territory of Tancheng. At the same time, ten new security regiments were being organized in the base area, preparing to come to Tancheng for reinforcements.

Within a range of less than ten kilometers behind the First Regiment, there was an artillery battalion and four security regiments.

Gu Xiuming had already ordered the rocket launcher company of the First Regiment to bombard Yellow Earth Ridge violently. He wanted to first destroy the morale of the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment, so that they would stay honestly on Yellow Earth Ridge and not have any thoughts of leaving the bandit's den.

Then the First Regiment would withdraw from Yellow Earth Ridge and go to the southwest to block the main force of the Japanese devils coming from Xuzhou.

The task of encircling Yellow Earth Ridge was handed over to a local security regiment.

This was a risky move, a bit like an empty city strategy, but it was only temporary. After the Third Regiment arrived, the Lunan Detachment would have two infantry regiments and one artillery regiment of regular troops here, and the main combat force would not be so stretched.

Although the combat effectiveness of the local security regiment was not as good as that of the regular army like the First Regiment, their training intensity and training volume were not much different.

This was because the reclamation group was established from the end of June, and these refugees who had fled from the Yellow River flood area. When they arrived at a new place, what they could do was completely in accordance with the arrangements of the Lunan Detachment: build houses, cultivate wasteland, and military training.

As the saying goes, if you eat someone else's food, hold someone else's bowl, and obey someone else's rules.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees, from the time they entered the Lunan base area, were supported by the Lunan Detachment in terms of food, clothing, and use. Even now, their food and clothing are still distributed by the base area on time.

Therefore, when they were given military training, these people were very active in their training. The Lunan Detachment received hundreds of thousands of refugees, and all men aged fifteen to fifty and women aged fifteen to forty-five were required to receive military training.

If the Lunan base area now issued a full mobilization order, the number of soldiers that could be organized would exceed 400,000.

This was only organized from the refugees received, not including the original residents in the base area.

This time, Gu Xiuming was preparing to mobilize 100,000 militiamen to participate in the battle.

Song Guo'an, the commander of the First Security Regiment of Fei County, was originally a platoon leader of the Lunan Detachment. Because he injured his left hand, he could no longer continue to fight in the regular army as before.

That was why he was arranged to go back and serve as the commander of the First Security Regiment of Fei County. He was in charge of commanding and training the entire regiment on weekdays.

Today, he stood in front of Gu Xiuming again. When he saw the old company commander, he stood at attention and saluted loudly, "Report to the regimental commander, Song Guo'an leads the First Security Regiment of Fei County to report!"

Gu Xiuming looked at the subordinate he had when he was a company commander, walked up happily, and patted him on the shoulder, "Does the wound still hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt!" Song Guo'an said loudly.

Gu Xiuming pointed to the distance, "There are remnants of a battalion of Japanese devils over there, about seven or eight hundred Japanese devils, occupying a bandit's den.

They are holding on to the mountain to resist stubbornly. I want you to take your regiment and surround them, so that they can't run away. Can you do it?"

"Guarantee to complete the mission!" Song Guo'an said loudly.

Then he asked in a low voice, "Regimental commander! Aren't you letting us annihilate them?"

Gu Xiuming laughed, "It's not easy to annihilate them. With one charge from the First Regiment, the Japanese devils will die.

The brigade commander has a good plan to surround these Japanese devils. The Japanese devils in the distance will come to rescue them in a panic.

We can set up traps around and kill one if they come, and kill two if they come as a pair.

This is called encircling the point and attacking the reinforcements, do you understand!

You are the key here, you must not let these Japanese devils run away, and you must not let them all die."

Song Guo'an understood now, "The brigade commander's plan is brilliant! He is using the Japanese devils here as bait, and he is not afraid that the other Japanese devils will not be fooled.

The First Regiment must be going to carry out the mission of blocking the main force of the Japanese devils!"

Understanding this, he immediately said, "Regimental commander! We are also the First Regiment, and the morale of the soldiers is very high, and the intensity of the usual training is also high.

Since this is the case, we will immediately enter the position and replace the main force of the First Regiment. Let the brothers rest for a while, so that they can complete the next mission."

Gu Xiuming nodded, "Okay!"

The security regiment of the Lunan Detachment was completely organized according to the regular army system. Although anti-aircraft machine guns, rocket launchers, and rocket launchers were not equipped.

However, each company was still equipped with two heavy machine guns, four light machine guns, and the regiment was equipped with five infantry guns and fifteen mortars. The security regiment specially established an artillery company.

His artillery company built an artillery position behind a mountain on the opposite side of Yellow Earth Ridge, ready to bombard the Japanese devils' counterattack at any time.

These troops who took over the defense also carefully received the directional bombs that the First Regiment had previously deployed in front of each position.

This was the foundation of the Special Operations Brigade, and the use and teaching of directional bombs was specially regarded as a major subject for training even for the security regiment.

This was because the main purpose of establishing the security regiment was to protect the hometown and defend the position. In this case, it was the most economical and effective to use directional bombs when these soldiers in the security regiment were familiar with the terrain and fighting on their own territory.

According to the habits of the Special Operations Brigade, the artillery company of the First Security Regiment of Fei County immediately established four positions.

When they entered the first position, they immediately launched a wave of attacks on the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment on Yellow Earth Ridge.

This was mainly to test the firing angle and direction, and also to let the soldiers of this artillery company really feel the difference between actual combat and training.

After each gun fired a base number, the soldiers did not actually feel any different from the live ammunition firing during training.

They couldn't see the situation on the battlefield at all, so of course they didn't feel anything.

Only the six companies who had taken over the defense and entered the position saw the smoke billowing on Yellow Earth Ridge, and heard that it was the brothers of the artillery company who they usually trained with.

These militiamen cheered excitedly one by one. Although the bombing now did not show the scene of the Japanese devils flying in blood and flesh.

However, it was always a very relieving thing to see the enemy's position being bombed.

Especially for these people, they were all caused to wander here because of the Japanese devils. If it weren't for the Japanese devils' invasion, they would not have suffered so much.

Thinking this way, being able to personally surround the Japanese devils today and fight them was completely avenging themselves.

Song Guo'an was also commanding a regiment for the first time. Although he had studied commanding with the instructors every day when he was a platoon leader.

However, he was still a little uneasy in his heart. After commanding the artillery company to fire a base number, he ordered them to quickly transfer the position.

He also went to the front line to check the fortifications and trenches. The First Regiment had just surrounded the Fukagawa Taiji Detachment.

Many of the fortifications and trenches could only be used, and were far from meeting the standards.

Seeing this situation, Song Guo'an immediately ordered the soldiers to widen and deepen the fortifications according to the standards of training.

He built individual shelters and communication trenches between each trench. He said to the soldiers, "Brothers! The task of the main force regiment to encircle and annihilate the Japanese devils has been handed over to us.

We must surround this place well and not let a single Japanese devil run out.

If any Japanese devils rush down, just greet them with machine guns.

If we dig the trenches well and build the fortifications well, we can hide in the trenches and fortifications to fight the Japanese devils, so that the Japanese devils can't hit us.

Only we can hit the Japanese devils, and make the Japanese devils angry!"

In order to surround the Japanese devils on Yellow Earth Ridge well, the Lunan Detachment was already sending barbed wire from the base area here.

These barbed wires were all cleared from the battlefield, and now they were suitable to be used here!