The artillery of the Northwest Army fired various units at different distances marked in advance. The first round of artillery fire covered most of them in the Japanese army's ranks, causing heavy losses to the Japanese army.

The captain of the Japanese army saw that the target had been exposed, the enemy's firepower was so fierce, and the front of the position was filled with fire. He knew that the sneak attack had failed, so he issued an order to retreat to the troops.

Toshita Tanaka also had great hope for the Japanese army's night attack. He did not sleep that night and personally observed the battle. When he saw a large number of fires emerging from the front, he knew that the enemy was prepared in advance and the attack must have failed.

Tanaka Toshita became even more depressed. He did not expect that even a miscellaneous army like the Northwest Army had such powerful firepower and tenacious combat power, and his feelings became worse and worse.

Not long after, the Japanese brigade commander ran over in a very embarrassing manner. He said in shame: "Report to the division commander, the enemy has prepared in advance and the firepower is strong. In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, Beiyi ordered the troops to retreat. Beiyi did not complete the task, so he asked the division commander to punish him."

Tanaka Toshita didn't blame him and said lightly: "Go down and have a rest."

The chief of staff standing next to him said worriedly: "The situation is not good, the division commander, the enemy's firepower is so fierce. It seems that their equipment advantage has surpassed our division. This is not a solution."

Yamaaka Toshiyu said hatefully: "I really don't know what happened to the 37th Division? Didn't they say they had already been dispatched? It's been two days since the distance of more than 100 kilometers, and even if they climbed, they had climbed over. And the damn Air Force, why haven't they dispatched yet?"

The Chief of Staff said: "Secretary Commander, after dawn, we will send a telegram to the military command again and ask for tactical guidance."

Tanaka Toshita said, "Why are you waiting for dawn? I'll send them a telegram right away. We can't sleep, so we can also taste the taste of insomnia."

The Chief of Staff was still rational, and he said, "Grand Commander, let's forget it. It's midnight, even if they are alarmed, they can't do anything. Why bother to make the superiors angry? As soon as the day begins, he personally sent a telegram to the headquarters."

When the coalition troops saw that the Japanese reinforcements did not come, everyone became more convinced by Gao Jiu. They repelled the Japanese attack twice in a row, which further increased the confidence of the coalition troops. Everyone worked hard to dig the trenches, and the distance of the troops advanced reached 80 meters every day.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, each unit was less than 50 meters away from the Japanese trenches.

The grenade has a wooden handle, which is very easy to throw. At this distance, those strong soldiers can throw the grenade into the Japanese trenches.

The melon is a grenade, but it is an iron lump. The Japanese soldiers could not throw the grenade to such a long distance. The soldiers of the guo army were very excited. They kept throwing grenades into the Japanese trenches, causing the Japanese army to suffer.

The commanders of the Japanese frontier positions could not bear the bullying of the coalition officers and soldiers. They organized troops to risk launching a raid on the coalition trenches. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties and suffered heavy casualties under the fierce firepower. They could only leave a small number of soldiers in the front trenches to hide in the cat's ear piercings, and the rest of the soldiers retreated to the next trenches.

When Tanaka Toshita saw this situation, he was a little anxious. He kept sending telegrams to the Sixth Army Headquarters, asking for tactical guidance.

The commander of the Sixth Army was also anxious. He personally called the commander of the 37th Division and asked them why they hadn't yet gone to reinforce the 42nd Division?

The commander of the 37th Division was very aggrieved and said, "Commander, the enemy has buried a large number of landmines on the road, and our army has to clear mines while advancing. However, the enemy has ambushed many snipers, and our army's engineers have basically been completely lost. It's really hard to get through!

I had sent a corps to detour, but they encountered an ambush from the enemy on the road. The enemy had many troops and strong firepower. Our officers and soldiers were killed and injured, so they had to retreat."

The division commander of the 37th Division did not lie. The Taohuashan guerrillas did not actually bring so many landmines, but they were true and false, and the Japanese army didn't know where there were mines. The engineers could not escape the bullets of the sniper rifles of the special forces members, and the Japanese army had no choice.

Of course, this was also intentional by the commander and chief of staff of the 37th Division. If they really made up their minds to reinforce the 42nd Division, they would risk ordering the troops to break into the mine formation. The Taohua Mountain guerrillas carried limited mines and could not stop the Japanese troops.

As for the commander of the 37th Division, the commander of the 37th Division, sent a detour to move forward, this matter was true, but he was ambushed by the guard battalion of the 69th Division on the road. The commander of the Japanese army had already received the hint from the commander of the division in advance, and after fighting fire with the enemy, he immediately retreated.

These things are real. Even if the superiors send someone to investigate, they can't see anything wrong. The division commander is full of confidence.

The division commander continued: "I have received information. On the way to reinforce our army, a division of the 41st Army of the enemy has built a blocking position. Behind them, there are also troops from an enemy brigade. The enemy guards the enemy and waits for work. Even if our army breaks through the enemy's mine formation, it will probably be difficult for us to break through the enemy's blocking position."

The words of the division commander can stand the scrutiny, because in order to shock the 37th Division, Gao Jiu specially told them his arrangements, hoping that they would retreat without being lucky.

The commander of the Sixth Army had received telegrams from Toshita Tanaka, the commander of the 42nd Division. He had already known that these enemy troops were different from other Guo troops. Their firepower was even stronger than that of the Japanese army. He really couldn't figure out where so many powerful enemy troops came from?

The commander found the head of the Special High School and asked him to provide the situation of the enemy.

The Japanese intelligence departments were not just for a good meal. Soon, they found out that the enemy commander who commanded the battle was Gao Jiu, the famous Taohua Mountain Guerrillas.

When he heard that Gao Jiu appeared here, the commander of the Sixth Army also started to have a headache. Although he was very arrogant, countless Japanese troops had already fought against Gao Jiu, and no Japanese troops had taken advantage of it. He did not think that he could defeat this world-famous opponent with such great ability.

After discussing with the Chief of Staff and others, the commander decided to hand over the conflict. So they also sent a telegram to ask the Central China Expeditionary Force Command for tactical guidance. After receiving the report, the commander of the Central China Expeditionary Force felt a headache. Due to the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army drew a large number of troops from the Chinese battlefield and headed south to Southeast Asia, and his troops were in short supply.

This time, the Central China Expeditionary Army sent the 42nd Division to cut off the traffic line between the rear and the southern region. It was originally expected that it would encounter an enemy's counterattack, but unexpectedly, the enemy had drawn so many troops to surround the Japanese 42nd Division, and the 42nd Division was at risk of being surrounded. The commander of the Central China Expeditionary Army could not help but feel a little nervous. The first thing he thought of was to send troops to rescue the 42nd Division.

Now, the 37th Division is the closest to the 42nd Division, and the only one who can provide support is the Fifth Air Force. He believes that even if the enemy commander is Gao Jiu and the 37th Division makes every effort to rescue and the Fifth Air Force launches bombing, the safety of the 42nd Regiment can still be ensured. The two divisions can join forces together to defeat the enemies surrounding them and even annihilate them.

So, the Central China Expeditionary Force issued a death order to the Japanese Fifth Air Force, asking them to send troops to reinforce the 42nd Division. In order to ensure that they could send troops, the Central China Expeditionary Force specially sent a deputy chief of staff to the Japanese Fifth Air Force to serve as the military supervisor to ensure that they must be able to dispatch the air force to carry out combat missions.

The Central China Expeditionary Army issued another order to the Sixth Army, asking the 37th Division of the Sixth Army to fully rescue the 42nd Division, and at the same time ordered the Fifth Air Force to go to the Lan County area to bomb the enemy troops besiege the 42nd Division.

The commander of the 6th Army of the Japanese Army also issued a death order to the 37th Division, asking them to rescue the 42nd Division with all their might. At the same time, the chief of staff of the 6th Army also came to the 37th Division to supervise.

The 37th Division and the Fifth Air Force both felt very embarrassed, so they sent the information to Gao Jiu quietly. Gao Jiu replied to them with a telegram, asking them to bluff and give them a reason to withdraw.

Japanese Fifth Air Force.

After the deputy chief of staff of the Central China Expeditionary Force arrived at the Fifth Air Force, the commander of the aviation team immediately sent troops to the Lan County area to bomb the enemy. The commander of the Fifth Air Force said that the runway at the airport had not been repaired yet and no troops could be sent for the time being.

The deputy chief of staff of the Central China Expeditionary Army did not believe it and asked the commander to accompany him to the airport to check.

After arriving at the airport, the deputy chief of staff saw that there were indeed several large pits on the runway of the airport, and several Japanese soldiers were escorting a group of civilians to repair them there.

The deputy chief of staff carefully looked at it and thought that the construction speed was too slow. So he asked someone to take away the civilians and transfer all the guards at the airport to put these Japanese soldiers into construction.

When the Japanese soldiers saw a lieutenant general commanding the scene, they were all anxious to show that they worked very hard one by one and quickly filled the big hole.

The deputy chief of staff said: "Isn't that enough?"

The commander of the Fifth Air Force shook his head and said, "These big pits are not enough to fill them up. The road surface must be hardened. Otherwise, the plane will be destroyed and killed when passing here."

He felt that the Chief of Staff was not good at it, so he found an excuse to shirk it.

The deputy chief of staff asked: "How long will it take to use the runway?"

The commander said: "It will take at least two days to harden the cement floor, and you can use the runway as soon as possible."

There is no high-grade fast-setting cement in this era, and it does take two days to completely solidify.

The deputy chief of staff had no choice but to do anything about this, and the expression on his face was very frustrated.

The commander of the Fifth Air Force was secretly proud. He had already greeted Gao Jiu in advance and was preparing to attack the airport again before the airport runway was repaired and found a way to explode several larger pits.

Who knew that at this moment, an accident happened. An engineer at the Japanese airport did not understand the commander's true intentions. Seeing the Chief of Staff and the commander in a dilemma, he took the initiative to make a suggestion in order to show his talents.

He said: "His Chief of Staff, Commander, has a way to get the plane to take off as soon as possible."

"Oh, really?" asked the deputy chief of staff with great interest.

The commander was very depressed, but it was not convenient for him to show it. He also pretended to be interested and looked at the engineer with anticipation. He was already hating this guy in his heart, and said to himself: "You unsightly guy, wait until the deputy chief of staff leaves and see how I deal with you."

The engineer felt very honored to see the two generals looking at him. He said: "Just hurry up and harden the ground and then lay it on it with iron or hard wooden boards, you can temporarily replace the cement runway and allow the aircraft to take off and land."

The deputy chief of staff was very excited and said, "Okay, this suggestion is good. According to this method, construction should be carried out quickly."

The engineer was praised by the deputy chief of staff and became more and more excited and immediately led people to start construction.

The commander of the Fifth Air Force was so angry that his teeth were itchy, but he had no choice but to face the deputy chief of staff.

The deputy chief of staff was worried that the people of the Fifth Air Force would be lazy, so he sent his adjutant to stay at the airport to supervise the progress of the construction.

That night, Gao Jiu received a telegram saying that the airport of the Fifth Air Force could be repaired tonight and that he would have to perform a bombing mission tomorrow morning.

Gao Jiu was also a little depressed. At this time, Zhang Quan and others had left the Japanese airport to assist the 69th Division in blocking the Japanese 37th Division. Tonight, they would never be able to reach the Japanese airport.

Gao Jiu sent a telegram to Zhang Quan, asking them to return to the Japanese airport immediately and go to sabotage again tomorrow night.

At 9 a.m. the next day, eight Japanese bombers took off. Half an hour later, they were approaching the Lan County area.

At this moment, a rumbling sound of cannons suddenly sounded on the ground, and then a large number of anti-aircraft shells exploded in the air.

Anti-aircraft shells hit the plane not by directly hitting the plane, but by shrapnel generated by shell explosions in the air. These shells will adjust the fuses in advance according to the Japanese flight altitude and let them explode at a predetermined altitude.

The squadron leader of the Japanese bomber had received a notice in advance that these anti-aircraft guns did not directly attack their fleet, but started shelling ahead of them. Despite this, the squadron leader, crew members and other aircraft pilots were still sweating.

When the commander explained to them, they thought they were just to find an excuse, but they did not expect that the enemy really had large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the artillery fire was so dense.

The Japanese squadron leader returned without saying a word and led the bomber group.

After returning to the airport, the squadron leader went to report to the commander and the deputy chief of staff. The deputy chief of staff was very angry. He did not believe what the squadron leader said and accused him of being greedy for life and fear of death. In order to test whether what he said was true, he called all the pilots and crew members who were carrying out the bombing mission. As a result, he said that the enemy had many anti-aircraft guns, and they were large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, with very strong firepower, and they escaped by luck.

The deputy chief of staff was still unwilling to give up. He said: "Even so, you cannot not perform combat missions because of danger. You must organize troops immediately, first destroy the enemy's anti-aircraft gun positions, and then perform bombing missions."

The commander of the Fifth Air Force was unhappy. They were only assigned to the Central China Expeditionary Force, and their affiliation belonged to the Japanese Air Force. He had given enough face to the Deputy Chief of Staff. Seeing that he was still talking nonsense here, the commander also lowered his face and said, "To support your army, should we sacrifice our Air Force? Your army is a human being. Can our Air Force soldiers die at will? I want to report to my superiors, and if you have any questions, please negotiate with our superiors."

After saying that, he ignored the deputy chief of staff and went back to rest on his own.

The deputy chief of staff had no choice but to report the situation here to the commander of the Central China Expeditionary Army.

The Central China Expeditionary Force could only negotiate with the top leaders of the Japanese Air Force.

That night, Zhang Quan and others attacked the Japanese airport again. They came from afar, carrying not much explosives and could not carry out large-scale damage to the airport. However, the Fifth Air Force was already ready, and they quietly placed a lot of aviation bombs on the airport in advance.

After Zhang Quan and others arrived, they first launched a raid on the targets at the airport, blowing up several aircraft at the airport, and then used those aviation bombs to blow out two large pits with a diameter of more than 30 meters and a depth of more than 3 meters. Now, for at least one week, the Japanese airport was unavailable.

Seeing this situation, the deputy chief of staff of the Central China Expeditionary Force had no choice but to leave the Fifth Air Force.

The commander of the air force breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately protested to the Central China dispatched troops, accusing the army of not being good at protecting the airport and that they must be responsible for the losses suffered by the Fifth Air Force.

Gao Jiu breathed a sigh of relief after completely resolving the threat from the Japanese Air Force. Next, his mission was to completely stop reinforcements from the 37th Division of the Japanese Army.

Gao Jiu came to the independent brigade of the Southwest Shandong Military Sub-district. After discussion with Gao Hong and others, he asked Jiang Xiaomei to lead a regiment to follow Gao Jiu to block the 37th Division of the Japanese army.

Gao Hong, Chen Johan and others had no objection. Jiang Xiaomei was very happy to be able to fight side by side with Brother Jiu. The soldiers of the Independent Brigade heard that General Gao Jiu personally directed them to fight, and everyone was extremely excited and ready to do something.

Under the personal command of the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army, the 37th Division of the Japanese army left the garrison to reinforce the 42nd Division of the Japanese army.

On the way, they still encountered mine formations. This time the 37th Division had no excuses. When the Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army came this time, they specially brought the engineer battalion directly under the Sixth Army. When they encountered the mine formation, they went up to clear the mines.

This time it went smoothly because the number of mines brought by the Taohua Mountain guerrillas was not large, so they could only make some fake targets to scare the enemy. Just relying on the mine formation could not stop the Japanese army's advance.

The guerrillas continued to use cold guns to attack the Japanese marching brigade, slowing their advancement as quickly as possible.

The 37th Division walked 100 kilometers and arrived at a hilly area ahead, and the vanguard stopped.

The Chief of Staff of the Sixth Army said, "Go and ask why you stop moving forward."
To be continued...