Devil's Army

Chapter 1972 Recapture of Qixi Town

Because it was already dark and the other party was hiding in the woods, the soldiers of the Third Regiment could not identify them.

As soon as the third regimental commander shouted, three people emerged from the woods opposite.

After sizing up the third regimental commander and the soldiers of the third regiment, they asked:

"Are you from the Southern Independent Division of the First Anti-Japanese Army?"

"Yes, we are from the Southern Independent Division of the 1st Army, and they are from the 12th Brigade of the 1st Army."

By this time, the third regimental commander was basically certain that the enemy was neither a puppet army nor a Japanese army.

"Hello, we are from the Third Detachment of the Zhejiang East Guerrilla Force. Your uniforms are too similar to those of the Japanese army. Our scouts have reported that a large number of Japanese troops are heading towards Yushan County, so we are preparing to ambush you."

"Hahaha, we were preparing to encircle you, and you were preparing to ambush us. If I hadn't come out and warned you, wouldn't we have done something the Japanese would hate us for?"

"Are you heading back to Yushan County now?" the other person asked, scratching their head sheepishly.

"We originally planned to connect Yushan County and Kaihua County, but it's getting late now, so we'll go back tomorrow."

At 6:00 a.m. the next morning, the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the Independent Division and the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 12th Brigade parted ways in Tongcun Town.

The 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the Independent Division returned directly to Yushan County, while the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the 12th Brigade and the 3rd Detachment of the Zhejiang East Guerrilla continued to clear out the remaining Japanese and puppet army strongholds in the towns and villages of Kaihua County.

While the 1st Regiment of the 12th Brigade was advancing towards Kaihua County from the direction of Majinling and the 2nd Regiment of the 12th Brigade was advancing towards Kaihua County from the direction of Huihua Ancient Road, Brigade Commander Zhang of the 12th Brigade led the 3rd and 4th Regiments and the brigade's directly subordinate troops to advance towards Kaihua County from Qixi Town.

Qixi Town is located in a mountainous area with "nine parts mountains, half part water, and half part farmland". The town is characterized by overlapping peaks and interspersed rivers and mountains, and the overall terrain is relatively high.

This terrain would significantly limit the speed of the heavy equipment carried by the 3rd and 4th Regiments of the 12th Brigade, forcing them to advance only along limited routes.

The Japanese army, relying on the mountainous terrain, established pre-positioned positions, creating a commanding offensive posture to gradually block the advance of the 12th Brigade.

Moreover, Qixi Town has many canyon terrains. The Japanese army ambushed the 12th Brigade's advance in the canyon where the Qingling Ancient Road is located and in the natural passes of the mountains around Dalong Village.

These strongholds are strategically located, overlooking the canyon and surrounding roads, and are also important transportation routes at the junction of Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces, making them easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Moreover, its forest coverage rate reaches 91.3%, and even higher at 97.55% in Qianjiangyuan Forest Park.

The dense vegetation not only concealed the deployment and movement of Japanese ambush troops, facilitating the movement or mutual support of several Japanese units, but also interfered with the reconnaissance vision of the First Army Air Force, making it difficult to launch air raids on the Japanese and providing air support to the 12th Brigade.

Therefore, although the Japanese army had far fewer troops, the battle was fierce and bloody from the very beginning.

Brigade Commander Zhang used his overwhelming troop strength to launch multi-faceted, multi-layered, and continuous attacks on various Japanese ambush sites.

After a day of fierce fighting, they finally broke through the Japanese army's resistance at several mountain passes in Qixi Town, opening up a passage from Xiuning County, Anhui Province, through Qixi Town, Zhejiang Province, to Kaihua County.

Then Brigade Commander Zhang divided his troops into two groups. The Third Regiment rushed to Majinling to attack the Japanese troops blocking the First Regiment from behind.

The Fourth Regiment and its directly subordinate units continued their advance towards Kaihua County.

Shortly after the 4th Regiment of the 12th Brigade launched its attack on Kaihua County, the 2nd Regiment of the 12th Brigade also broke through the Huihua Ancient Road and launched its own attack on Kaihua County.

Under the pincer attack from two main regiments of the 12th Brigade, the defense line of Kaihua County was quickly breached.