Chapter 72 Under Siege

The reconnaissance platoons, having received their orders, immediately sprang into action. According to intelligence from the National Revolutionary Army troops on the De'an defense line, the Japanese artillery had bombarded the Panjia Mountain defense line just yesterday.

Based on this information, it could be inferred that the Japanese field artillery regiment was originally stationed in the direction of De'an. However, since it was only ten kilometers from Panjia Mountain to Aikou, it was entirely possible for the Japanese to have withdrawn the field artillery regiment from the front.

Regardless of their location, the reconnaissance platoons had to find them!

This time, Lin Fan dispatched a total of ten reconnaissance teams towards Aikou, while the other reconnaissance platoons were deployed around the left and right flanks of Xigu Mountain.

The night cloaked the deep mountains and forests in darkness, providing the best cover for the reconnaissance teams to move. Company Commander Jing Liquan led his soldiers through the mountains and forests.

Along the way, they could see faint campfires flickering on many peaks, marking the Japanese defense lines. They had even stealthily approached one of the peaks and discovered a company of Japanese soldiers atop, who had constructed three lines of defense.

Tonight, however, they had a different mission. Company Commander Jing did not engage these Japanese soldiers. Attacking them here would alert all the Japanese forces, hindering the reconnaissance platoon's subsequent actions.

After searching through the mountains and forests for several hours, Company Commander Jing still hadn't found anything. While the night provided the reconnaissance platoon with excellent camouflage, it also limited their visibility.

Considering the 150mm guns equipped by the Japanese artillery regiment, the Japanese artillery positions would definitely require road access, as these large cannons needed to be towed by tractors.

The Japanese guarded the roads very closely. The reconnaissance platoon could only cautiously peek out from the jungle to observe a section, then detour around a mountain and check the next section of the road.

This method of observation was not only time-consuming and labor-intensive but also prone to omissions. Despite this, they had no choice but to continue their journey.

Upon receiving the order to relocate their position, Regiment Commander Yamada Hidenosuke immediately began to take action. Moving his artillery regiment was no simple task.

The most difficult part was the twelve 150mm howitzers, which could not be moved from their positions in less than two or three hours.

Therefore, despite constantly urging his subordinates to act quickly after receiving the order, it was already late at night when they actually began to withdraw from the Panjia Mountain artillery position.

According to the brigade commander's orders, they had to be deployed behind Aikou by dawn, so fortunately, the engineering regiment had already begun constructing the artillery positions in that direction in advance.

In the early hours of the morning, vehicles with their headlights on advanced along the uneven road. The lights cutting through the night sky could be clearly seen from several kilometers away.

Attracted to the lights were not only the moths of summer, but also the ten reconnaissance platoons of the Special Operations Brigade. Each platoon was inquiring about the lights via the radio: "Did anyone see clearly what those Japanese vehicles are carrying?"

None of the reconnaissance platoons were nearby. From afar, they could clearly see that the lights were heading towards Aikou.

Company Commander Jing allocated the positions of the ten reconnaissance platoons over the radio. They were to wait on the road for the Japanese artillery vehicles. While the Japanese artillery vehicles were slow on the mountain roads, they were still faster than human legs.

Moreover, Company Commander Jing and his men had to detour around the defense lines deployed by the Japanese along the way.

The ten reconnaissance platoons moved stealthily through the mountains and forests, each responsible for a section of the road. The first to approach the night-marching convoy was the ninth platoon. Platoon Leader Yun Yangping reported: "They're cannons! It's the Japanese artillery regiment!"

They had truly searched high and low without finding it, and the Japanese had delivered themselves to their doorstep. All ten platoon leaders breathed a sigh of relief.

They had been working hard all night, and finally, they had found it. Soon, Platoon Leader Yun continued to report: "The Japanese artillery regiment has all forty-eight cannons."

This was even more reassuring! Now, their mission was to follow them and find their final destination.

By the time Regiment Commander Yamada Hidenosuke followed the convoy to the new position, it was already past 2:00 AM. His troops had not rested yet.

According to the brigade commander's orders, they had to enter the position overnight to prepare for tomorrow's battle. What else could he do?

Sergeant First Class Fujikawa Kinozo yawned and followed the cannons to the new position. This night was truly exhausting. They had just arrived and still had to arrange the cannons before they could rest.

Those guys from the engineering regiment didn't do a good job at all. The gun emplacements weren't properly dug, so they had to do it themselves. It seemed like they wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, just keep working.

Captain Kouchi Akashi inspected the twelve gun emplacements, urging the Japanese soldiers to be diligent and quick: "We'll need these cannons in the morning, you lazy bums, hurry up!"

Of course, he knew that these Japanese soldiers were exhausted, but the current situation allowed for no delay! His subordinates had no idea what was happening.

He knew that Brigade Commander Sato Seizaburo had notified the battalion commander level that two infantry regiments of the division had been completely annihilated by this suddenly appearing National Revolutionary Army force.

This unfortunate news shocked all the commanders in the regiment. They had no idea where this force had come from.

"Could it be that the National Revolutionary Army has hired mercenaries?" Most of the Japanese soldiers thought this. They already knew that the National Revolutionary Army had spent a lot of money to hire foreign pilots to participate in the war.

If the National Revolutionary Army was willing to spend money, it was not impossible to hire a mercenary infantry force. In this world, money could make the devil turn the millstone.

It was precisely because they did not understand that these Japanese soldiers were worried! After all, the Tsuda Tatsuhiko regiment had been completely annihilated. What an unfortunate Japanese soldier.

Therefore, no matter how tired his subordinates were, Captain Kouchi Akashi had to have them deploy all the cannons tonight.

The 101st Field Artillery Regiment did not sleep all night and finally managed to deploy all the artillery of the four artillery battalions.

Dawn broke! After a night of rest, the companies of the Special Operations Brigade began to eat breakfast. Although there were no large meat buns today, each person had a large piece of horse meat, a full three liang (approximately 110 grams) of tough meat.

Yesterday's spoils were enough for their force of less than 10,000 men to eat for several days. Lin Fan marked the location of the Japanese artillery position on the map, calculating how to strike them.

Here, the towering mountains were a huge obstacle for the Japanese, but for those familiar with the terrain, it was like a tiger entering the jungle.

Lin Fan initially wanted to use rocket launchers to bombard the Japanese artillery regiment directly, but Regiment Commander Shangguan Zhiwen suggested: "We can take a shortcut through the mountains and forests and directly seize the Japanese cannons."

This suggestion made sense. There were already ten reconnaissance platoons, a full five hundred elite soldiers of the Special Operations Brigade, around the Japanese artillery position.

They would have no problem capturing the Japanese artillery position, but their numbers were too small. After occupying the Japanese artillery position, they would definitely not be able to hold it and would be surrounded by the Japanese infantry regiment.

According to Regiment Commander Shangguan Zhiwen's idea, the 15th Regiment would cut through the mountains and forests and cooperate with the reconnaissance platoons to capture the Japanese artillery position, and then hold it.

For the 15th Regiment, as long as they occupied this position, holding it for a day or two was not a problem. If the Japanese cannons could still be used, they could directly bombard the Japanese infantry guarding Aikou, and the 2nd Regiment could coordinate the attack, and everything would proceed very quickly.

Lin Fan was still not reassured and summoned the guides sent by the National Revolutionary Army to ask if they were familiar with the mountains and forests in this area.

How could these soldiers not be familiar? They had been deployed in this area for two months and had walked every road and visited every hilltop.

Since that was the case, Lin Fan was relieved! He would adopt Regiment Commander Shangguan's suggestion. With an order, the 15th Regiment went directly from Xigu Mountain and entered the mountainous area via a small path.

The 2nd Regiment marched along the main road towards Aikou, but Lin Fan controlled the speed and did not allow the troops to move too fast. Today's protagonists were the 15th Regiment and the reconnaissance platoons. The 2nd Regiment would only begin the attack when they opened fire on the Japanese from behind.

Just as the two infantry regiments of the Special Operations Brigade were attacking the Japanese 101st Division, the artillery regiment of the Special Operations Brigade, coming from Jiangbei, encountered difficulties.

The difficulty did not come from the Japanese, but from an unauthorized force that actually wanted to rob them! Company Commander Shi Honghua of the 8th Regiment's 1st Company ordered the entire company to fire on the soldiers who had infiltrated their ranks.

As soon as the gunfire rang out, people bled and fell to the ground. The artillerymen opened fire to protect the cannons, and the infantry protecting the artillerymen immediately took action.

Three companies seized the high ground on the left and right, and two companies surrounded the demoralized soldiers crowding the road.

Infantry Company Commander Cheng Ying shouted loudly: "Disarm and you will not be killed!" He held a state-of-the-art submachine gun in his hand. The force protecting the artillery regiment was specially transferred by Li Xian from Jurong.

The five companies were all equipped with the latest weapons from Jurong: submachine guns, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns. In particular, the current heavy machine guns could be mounted on a tripod to become heavy machine guns, or removed from the tripod to become light machine guns, which was very convenient.

Battalion Commander Jian Zhi, who had been specially ordered to come and create trouble, was instantly enraged when he saw thirty or forty of his men bleeding and falling to the ground.

His mission today was to seize these cannons. Commander Hu had said: "The war effort at the front is critical. This local warlord's artillery regiment is not only not fighting the Japanese, but also secretly fleeing back from Jiangbei."

Their division was to seize these cannons and use them on the front lines to defend Wuhan. Jian Zhi was furious when he heard this news: "The war effort is critical, and what is most lacking at the front is cannons. These local warlords have cannons but don't fight, how can we tolerate this?"

"You don't dare to go to the front lines to fight the Japanese, give us the cannons, we'll go to the front lines to fight." Jian Zhi and his division had been training in Nanchang with foreign instructors since the Battle of Nanjing.

Their weapons had all been replaced with the latest foreign goods. When they finished training, the foreign instructors proudly said: "This is the most elite infantry in the entire theater, without exception."

After completing their training, they had not yet faced off against the Japanese on the front lines. Their first mission was to seize the Special Operations Brigade's cannons.

According to Jian Zhi's thinking, since it was a local warlord's artillery regiment that didn't dare to fight the Japanese, he could easily control the situation with his battalion.

The result, however, was completely reversed. Battalion Commander Jian was enraged when he saw his men being injured! He shouted loudly: "Brothers, fight them to the death!"

When they set out, Battalion Commander Jian had received orders: "You can hit people, but you can't shoot."

But the other side had fired first. This was too dishonorable!

Battalion Commander Jian had just shouted when "bang!" A gunshot rang out, and he looked in disbelief at the soldier standing on the car not far away.

The surrounding soldiers shouted in horror: "Battalion commander is injured!"

"Battalion commander is dead!" Battalion Commander Jian was dead. He had been shot in the forehead, and the bullet had exited from the back of his head. One glance was enough to know that he was dead.

"I'll count to three, put down your guns, hold your heads, and walk down the road. Those who disobey will be killed!" Cheng Ying shouted after shooting Jian Zhi.

The battalion commander had been killed, and some of the soldiers in the battalion immediately picked up their guns to fight, "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Gunshots rang out continuously. "Da da da!" The sound of machine guns firing also rang out.

At the same time, the shouts of "Disarm and you will not be killed" also rang out. Dozens of soldiers in Jian Zhi's battalion were injured or killed, this force was no less fierce than the Japanese.

Seeing that the Special Operations Brigade's soldiers were serious, the other soldiers in the battalion were afraid to resist and began to lay down their weapons.

At this moment, the sound of machine-gun fire suddenly rang out from the hilltop not far away. Company Commander Yuan Bench of the 5th Company saw six or seven soldiers in the 1st Platoon suddenly fall, and his eyes turned red.

He shouted loudly: "Kill these bastards. Rocket launchers! Take out their machine guns." The soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army on the road immediately tightened their grip on their weapons again.

"Fire!" Company Commander Cheng Ying shouted after counting to three, seeing that these people had not put down their weapons. Only a few soldiers had fired just now, but now that the company commander had given the order, the entire artillery company and the two infantry companies protecting them opened fire at the same time.

Especially the two infantry companies, they were now using the submachine guns designed by Lin Fan, which were very powerful. One submachine gun was fiercer than ten Type 38 rifles.

As the gunshots rang out, the soldiers of this National Revolutionary Army force were finally afraid: "Don't shoot! We surrender! We surrender!"

In just a short while, at least a hundred people were injured and fell to the ground. The infantry company sent a platoon to collect the weapons of these National Revolutionary Army soldiers and had them carry away the bodies and the wounded.

The artillery companies on the road saw the machine-gun fire suddenly appearing on the hilltop not far away. Company Commander Shi Honghua of the 1st Company shouted loudly: "3rd Company! Target the firing point on the right side, destroy it immediately." Company Commander Qian Jiayi immediately ordered: "Target the firing point on the right side, prepare! Fire!"

It took at least fifteen minutes to switch from a marching state to a firing state for the 150mm howitzers, but only two minutes for the 88mm anti-aircraft guns.

When the situation occurred, the twenty anti-aircraft guns were already taking action nervously. As soon as the gunfire rang out on the right side, the cannons were immediately aimed at the right side.

Company Commander Shi Honghua continued to order: "4th Company, pay attention to the two hilltops on the left side and carry out preventative bombing.

5th Company, pay attention to the hilltops behind and carry out free bombing! 1st Company, target the mountain in front, fire. 2nd Company, standby!"

There were situations all around, Company Commander Shi Honghua didn't know what was going on, he could only deal with it in the worst-case scenario.

"Immediately send a telegram to the brigade commander! We are under ambush by unknown forces in Guanqiao Town, Wuhan. Our army is fighting back and preparing to break out. Please give us directions to break out!"

Lin Fan was just walking from the bridgehead to Xiong here when he suddenly received this telegram from the artillery regiment, and he was not feeling good at all. He immediately telegraphed back: "Fight back with all your might, establish a defense line on the spot and await reinforcements. Any forces that attack us, as long as they do not voluntarily lay down their weapons, will be treated as Japanese. Those who do not actively surrender will be killed on the spot."

Lin Fan was really angry this time, the Special Operations Brigade had two standards for dealing with the enemy: one was the Japanese, and the other was the puppet army. Surrender was not accepted when dealing with the Japanese, but surrender was accepted when dealing with the puppet army.

This time, treating them according to the standards of the Japanese meant no prisoners would be taken.

If Lin Fan had not added this sentence at the end, the company commander would have ordered all the National Revolutionary Army soldiers in the battalion that had just been captured to be executed.

In reality, Cheng Ying and the others did find it inconvenient to bring this battalion of over four hundred National Revolutionary Army soldiers with them, the artillery regiment was short-handed to begin with, and now they had to send out forces to guard these prisoners.

The 2nd Regiment immediately stopped marching. Lin Fan looked at the distance between Guanqiao and De'an on the map: nearly four hundred li (approximately 200 kilometers).

Guanqiao Town should now be an area controlled by the National Revolutionary Army, and it was impossible for the Japanese to appear. Lin Fan immediately understood: someone was jealous of his artillery regiment.

Without asking, Lin Fan knew it was a National Revolutionary Army force, he immediately sent a telegram to the Second War Area and the Fifth War Area, severely criticizing them for deliberately luring the Special Operations Brigade's artillery regiment into the National Revolutionary Army's encirclement, and for sending troops to encircle the artillery regiment that was heading to the Guangzhou front line while the Special Operations Brigade was fighting the war with all its might.

Xue Yue was stunned when he received the telegram, he knew that Lin Fan was going to take an artillery regiment to Guangzhou. But he didn't know that this artillery regiment would be ambushed in Guanqiao.

Xue Yue didn't even dare to think about such a thing! But since Lin Fan had asked, he would of course ask about it, Xue Yue's connections within the National Revolutionary Army were not fake. He soon found out everything.

Similarly, Li Zongren was very surprised after receiving Lin Fan's telegram, he also found out the inside story of this incident after finding a connection.

Li Zongren could be considered a true representative of the local warlords, his Guangxi Army had strong combat effectiveness, and he would not have cooperated with Chiang Kai-shek like this if it were not for the Japanese invasion.

The Wuhan battlefield was so tense, and the Japanese offensive on the Guangzhou front line was so urgent, yet someone in the rear would ambush the Special Operations Brigade's artillery, with their own people fighting their own people.

Even now, internal strife could not be stopped, and a feeling of sadness welled up in his heart. Was it so difficult to maintain even the superficial unity of the War of Resistance United Front now?

In recent months, the situation in the War of Resistance had just begun to improve, and Li Zongren could see from the Japanese offensive on the front lines that the momentum of the Japanese offensive was completely inferior to that of the Battle of Xuzhou.

He was just happy about this: the defensive stage of the War of Resistance was about to pass, and the stalemate stage was about to begin. As a result, this kind of thing happened now.

He would never believe things like misunderstandings and accidental injuries, this must be Chiang Kai-shek's old problem acting up again, wanting to eliminate the Special Operations Brigade, a trap that had been laid.

The Special Operations Brigade's today would be the Guangxi Army's tomorrow. Li Zongren immediately sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, questioning this matter, and he also immediately rushed to Wuhan to ask what was going on.

Commander Hu Han, who had been tasked with ambushing the Special Operations Brigade's heavy artillery regiment, was under orders from his superiors to intercept the artillery regiment, send all the officers to the rear for education, and allow those who could be transformed to return to command the force, and leave all the soldiers to operate the cannons, so that the combat effectiveness of the force would not be reduced, and the goal of increasing an artillery regiment could be achieved.

He had rarely heard of the Special Operations Brigade's combat effectiveness before, and only learned about this brigade after the donation of one hundred fighter planes, he had heard that their combat effectiveness was somewhat strong, and they were not afraid of the Japanese.

He, Hu Han, was also not afraid of the Japanese, although he had suffered repeated defeats, he still persisted in fighting the Japanese.

He had carefully selected the location for this ambush, and to prepare for the worst, there were forces ambushed on the surrounding hilltops in advance.

What Hu Han did not expect was that this force was so vigilant that they dared to take the lead when they found something wrong.

They had directly disarmed a battalion that had approached the cannons. Even Battalion Commander Jian had been directly killed, the Special Operations Brigade's force was too arrogant.

At the same time, the force's reaction was also too fast, while they were still arguing on the road, there was a force rushing over to occupy the high ground.

Fortunately, Regiment Commander Deng You was not ambiguous at all and immediately ordered the soldiers to open fire and hold the defense line. This was a point that made Commander Hu Han quite gratified.

Machine gunner Yan Xin was one of the first to open fire, he was an old soldier on the battlefield, he had participated in the Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanjing, and this time he had received training from the Americans, and the fighting spirit that had been accumulated for a long time had been completely ignited.

Hearing the commander's order to open fire, he immediately opened fire, he didn't care who was rushing up on the other side, a soldier was just listening to the commander, and doing what the commander told them to do!

What Yan Xin did not expect was that as soon as he opened fire, seven or eight people on the other side fell, and the rest of the soldiers all lay down, and then a shell flew over.

This was just the beginning, the first to fire at this firing point was the 5th Company's rocket launcher, and then the 88mm anti-aircraft guns on the road fired at this place.

"Boom boom boom!" The sound of cannons was incessant, and the sound of explosions on the hilltops here was "rumbling". The biggest advantage of anti-aircraft guns was their fast rate of fire.

In the blink of an eye, at least thirty shells had exploded on the hilltop guarded by Regiment Commander Deng You, and then more shells landed, this was the 5th Company's mortars and infantry guns firing.

Commander Hu Han, who was standing in the distance watching the battlefield, was surprised to see this battle, the forces under his command who had just received training had only fired a few shots and were now being suppressed.

Regiment Commander Deng You did not expect that their elite force, which was equipped with the most advanced weapons, had just opened fire and was suppressed.

After the three rounds of shelling ended, the infantry who had just been lying on the ground had already rushed up with their submachine guns, after all, they were a force that had just received training, and Regiment Commander Deng shouted loudly at this time: "Rush up! Fight them to the death."

In Regiment Commander Deng's view, the distance between the two sides was now less than fifty meters, if they charged, everyone would only charge a distance of twenty-five meters, which would be reached in the blink of an eye.

His side had more than a thousand people, while the force on the other side only had about two hundred people, the strength of the force was completely crushed, and a bayonet charge would definitely win.

Regiment Commander Deng's thoughts were very beautiful, it wasn't until the forces under his command rushed out of the trenches for a few meters that they realized that they had thought too well.

The force on the other side was all armed with automatic weapons, and they kept firing while charging, without delaying at all. The bullets fired from those guns had never stopped, what kind of weapons were these?

Regiment Commander Deng would never find the answer, he was hit by several bullets and fell into the trenches. Company Commander Yuan Bench of the 5th Company had already received the order from Cheng Ying, which had been relayed by the brigade commander: "Those who do not actively surrender will be treated as if they were the Japanese."

Since that was the case, they would no longer show mercy to the forces on the battlefield. Even fleeing was not allowed, the Special Operations Brigade had never let go of a single Japanese soldier.

Although Company Commander Yuan had not fought the Japanese for a long time, the rules of the Special Operations Brigade had never been forgotten.

The battle here was not just isolated, similar scrambles were also taking place on the other hilltops, Commander Hu Han was watching everything that was happening in front of him, which was completely different from what he had imagined: when Deputy Commander Gu Zhirong was deploying the task, the situation they deduced was: as soon as the National Revolutionary Army showed their guns, the Special Operations Brigade's forces would only raise their hands to surrender.

Even if some stubborn elements resisted, there would only be small-scale bloodshed, the current situation had completely exceeded his expectations. The situation on the battlefield was always like this, Commander Hu ordered: "1st Regiment! Immediately rush out from the front and launch an attack on them, show no mercy."

He had already seen that this was not the time to hold back, Regiment Commander Yu Hong, who had received the order, took the lead and rushed out from the hidden position. His regiment was right in front of the road, if the Special Operations Brigade's force had not discovered it quickly, they would have completely fallen into their ambush circle if they had continued to advance three hundred meters.

Now they could only be considered to have entered the ambush circle with half of their body, and Regiment Commander Yu was going to take the entire regiment to rush past this three hundred meter distance. Seeing that there was no infantry blocking the front, these artillery should not have much resistance to their infantry.

Regiment Commander Yu shouted loudly: "Brothers! Charge for me, charge up and seize the cannons!"

Company Commander Cheng Ying looked at a force rushing out in front, without hesitation, "1st Company! Target! The enemy in front! Fire!"

The 1st Company was equipped with 150mm howitzers, which were slow to deploy, and now only two cannons could fire at the force charging in front, the firing angles of the rest of the cannons were blocked.

"Boom! Boom!" Two cannon shots rang out, and the ground shook, two shells with warheads weighing more than fifty kilograms flew out.

This was truly using a cannon to kill a mosquito! The 150mm cannon fired at a position three hundred meters in front, and the two shells exploded with a "rumbling" sound.

The 1st Regiment, which had just rushed out of the hidden position, was immediately hit hard, and these two shells almost crippled the entire regiment.

Regiment Commander Yu Hong was standing at the very back of the regiment, still waving his pistol to urge the soldiers to charge quickly, when he suddenly saw the muzzle of the cannon in front flash, and then a violent explosion sounded, and the ground under his feet was shaking.

Before he could steady himself, he fell to the ground, Regiment Commander Yu heard the shrapnel whistling overhead, he could even feel the heat from the shrapnel.

After the shrapnel had passed, Regiment Commander Yu stood up and realized that his infantry regiment had been blown up by these two shots, with wounded everywhere.

Those soldiers who had been bravely charging just now did not know whether to continue charging or turn around and run.

"Rumble! Rumble!" Two more of the same shells flew over and exploded in the position that had just exploded not far away, and now the soldiers who had been lucky enough to survive no longer dared to hesitate, and all turned around and ran back.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Regiment Commander Yu Hong did not dare to insist on ordering these soldiers to charge, and immediately followed them to run backwards, even so, the Special Operations Brigade's artillery regiment did not let them go and was still firing.

The sound of "rumble! rumble!" was incessant, and the shells exploded around these fleeing soldiers as if they had eyes.

If the power of the 150mm howitzers had not been too great, and they could not have gotten too close, for fear of hurting their own people, the company commander in charge of protecting the artillery regiment would have ordered the forces to pursue and kill this infantry regiment, now Company Commander Cheng Ying only ordered the 1st Platoon, 2nd Platoon, and 3rd Platoon to rush up and occupy the high ground three hundred meters in front.

The artillery had fired ten shells continuously at that high ground before stopping.

Too brutal! Commander Hu Han was now somewhat regretting his recklessness, now he was in a difficult position, the force on the other side had not shown any mercy from the beginning.

"What to do?" He immediately called his superiors for instructions. Gu Zhirong heard that an elite division had suffered heavy casualties in a premeditated ambush, and so far, a main infantry regiment had been crippled, a main battalion had been captured, and several main regiments were still in fierce fighting, but they were all completely suppressed and had no power to fight back.

Hu Han's division was organized with four regiments in two brigades, and he had sent all four regiments at once, because this was happening in his own territory, there was no need to leave reserves, and at the same time, he thought that this was just a simple disarmament, as long as his forces showed their weapons, the other side would obediently submit.

Now everything was different from the plan, what to do?

Gu Zhirong heard that his confidant was actually using an elite infantry division to deal with an artillery regiment and was so angry that he almost vomited blood, what to do? He didn't know either.

He could only order: "Withdraw! And shout to the other side, explaining that this is a misunderstanding."

"Yes!"

Commander Hu immediately sent someone waving a white flag, riding his warhorse, towards the force on the road. Although this was somewhat embarrassing, his men were dying every minute, and he could not waste any time.

What made Commander Hu speechless was that the other side did not seem to see the white flag waved by the signal soldier, and heavy machine guns and machine guns were fired from far away.

The signal soldier was so frightened that he ran back, the warhorse was too large a target and had fallen to the ground and could no longer get up.

Now there was really no way! When this situation was reported to Gu Zhirong, Gu Shirong also had no way: now the situation was that they could not talk on the battlefield at all.

If that force did not stop, his elite division was afraid that it would be wiped out, and he had no choice but to report this situation to Chiang Kai-shek.

The purpose was only one, to ask Chiang Kai-shek to order the Special Operations Brigade, declaring that this was a misunderstanding, so that the Special Operations Brigade's artillery force would stop the pursuit, and at the same time send military police to enter this force to disarm them and investigate their responsibility for harming their comrades.

This matter made Chiang Kai-shek very embarrassed, the commanders of the Second War Area and the Fifth War Area were all asking about this matter, and Li Zongren had already rushed to Wuhan from the front line, just for this matter.

Chiang Kai-shek had originally thought of taking down the Special Operations Brigade's artillery regiment with lightning speed, and the subsequent matters would be investigated and studied by the Military and Political Department, and the matter would be dragged on and forgotten.

The current situation was completely different! A main division was being beaten by an artillery regiment, he knew how ruthless the Special Operations Brigade was, the Special Operations Brigade's forces never left any Japanese alive, and they had to make up a knife when cleaning up the battlefield.

Now what could he do? All because these people under him were arrogant and incompetent, if things could be done again, he would never have approved this action.

The telegram sent by the Wuhan headquarters to the artillery regiment never received a reply. Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to let the Wuhan headquarters send a telegram to Lin Fan: "I am shocked to learn that your artillery regiment had a conflict with the garrison in Guanqiao Town, and the other party has reported the situation to the headquarters.

The headquarters has now decided as follows: order your artillery regiment to stop attacking immediately, lay down their weapons and accept the investigation!"

Lin Fan replied: "My brigade's artillery regiment was ambushed on all sides by the enemy in the Guanqiao Town area. The soldiers of the entire regiment suffered heavy casualties, and they fought back heroically. Although my regiment has suffered heavy casualties, please rest assured, headquarters, that the officers and soldiers of my regiment are united and determined to annihilate the enemy.

We will definitely not leave any puppet forces behind in the rear of Wuhan. Guanqiao Town is still our Guanqiao!"

Shi Honghua sent a telegram to Lin Fan: "We have occupied the surrounding high ground and are pursuing the fleeing enemy."

Lin Fan replied: "Do not pursue! Be careful of falling into a trap! The entire regiment will immediately advance towards De'an, and no armed personnel are allowed to enter the company along the way. If there is any obstruction! Force your way through!"

Chiang Kai-shek was so angry that he cursed when he saw Lin Fan's reply: "Damn it! He clearly knew that it was the National Revolutionary Army, it was my main division, and he deliberately turned a deaf ear.

Send him a telegram, report the unit number, and order him to stop attacking immediately and accept the investigation."

At this time, Gu Zhirong's phone call came: "Report to the president! Good news! They have stopped pursuing!"

Chiang Kai-shek finally breathed a sigh of relief and ordered: "Stop the last telegram! Re-draft! Order the artillery regiment to disarm on the spot and wait for the Military and Political Department to send people to deal with it!"

Lin Fan replied: "My artillery regiment has defeated the puppet army, and the remnants of the enemy are fleeing! To prevent accidents! I have ordered the artillery regiment to accelerate its advance towards De'an!

Please inform the friendly troops along the way not to obstruct us! To prevent misunderstandings, a man who has been bitten by a snake will be afraid of ropes for ten years! The artillery regiment is fighting alone and is prone to impulsiveness. If a misunderstanding is caused, it will be detrimental to the unified war of resistance situation.

Today's battlefield situation, my regiment has taken enough photos and is preparing to hold a press conference to remind the people in the rear to be careful of the puppet troops hidden among us."

When he saw Lin Fan's telegram, Chiang Kai-shek was trembling with anger: "He is threatening me! Naked blackmail!

Who gave him such courage? How dare he speak to his superiors like this?"

When he said this, Chiang Kai-shek did not even think about the fact that the superiors had moved against the subordinate's forces first! He only felt that his authority had been challenged.

Chiang Kai-shek was also in a difficult situation now: Lin Fan said that he had evidence in his hands, and they were also carrying prisoners, a battalion of prisoners. If all this evidence was really exposed, it would indeed have a very bad impact on his image.

What to do? Just put up with it?

He asked his confidant Chen Cheng: "What would happen if I sent a force to forcibly intercept this artillery regiment?"

"Absolutely not! This kind of thing can only be done once, take the beating and stand up straight, and accept it if you fail! We have already missed the opportunity, why not just let them pass!

Lin Fan designed a few days ago in Xiushui, and intentionally had the Second War Area build barracks in a place that was easy to be discovered.

This caused Gangcun Ningci to send more than a hundred planes to bomb them, and these planes were all shot down by Lin Fan's forces.

Then he set off from Xiushui and went directly to Mahuiling, where he severely damaged the Botian Detachment for the second time. Yesterday, he severely damaged the Japanese 101st Division's 102nd Brigade in the area of Donggu Mountain and Xingshui.

Today, they are preparing to attack Aikou, preparing to eliminate the Japanese 101st Brigade. If he really feels that the artillery regiment is in danger, these six thousand infantry will definitely cut through and meet the artillery regiment.

In this case, our defense line will not be stable!

Now the fighting in the Guangzhou direction is fierce, why not let them go to Guangzhou early!"

Hearing his persuasion, Chiang Kai-shek also slowly calmed down: not to mention that the Special Operations Brigade was currently fighting the Japanese, just based on the combat effectiveness of this force, how many troops would his elite forces need to send out to be able to stop them?

The forces of the Second War Area were out of the question, they had fought side by side with the Special Operations Brigade and would not necessarily obey orders, send those forces that had just been reorganized?

There was already a reorganized division that had been beaten to the ground by them