In a blink of an eye, three days passed.

Time came July 2, 1942.

In the past three days, the rain in northwest Shanxi has not stopped. The water level of the Yellow River has risen to a historical high. Facing the turbulent river water, even the most experienced shipwreck in the local area can only stare at it.

So the entire river crossing work has completely stagnated.

More than one million people and a large number of livestock, poultry and supplies were stranded in the narrow zone between Wohu Mountain and Jiugong Mountain, which was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

Once the Japanese army breaks through the defense and attacks, the more than one million unarmed people gathered here will definitely be ruthlessly slaughtered by the Japanese, and the Japanese will never be ruthless.

Fortunately, the four major fortresses have not yet been lost.

Tiandagang and Yunqi Town were not lost either.

But the Japanese attack never stopped.

Although the 28th Division was annihilated, Okamura Yasuji transferred the 110th Division again.

Therefore, the Japanese army besieged the base areas in northwestern Shanxi still maintained the size of eight divisions.

The eight Japanese divisions were divided into six directions and launched a fierce attack on the northwestern Shanxi base areas.

Among them, the 1st Division had the most powerful offensive. After the Engineer Regiment built a simple road, the tanks of the 2nd Regiment of the chariot were able to drive to the hillside and cooperate with the infantry to launch an attack. The pressure on the Wild Boar Gully Fortress instantly increased.

In order to strengthen the defense of the Wild Boar Gully Fortress, the brigade commander could only transfer the column's direct guard regiment over.

But even with the joining of the guard regiment, it was not able to fundamentally reverse the situation of the Wild Boar Grotto.

Judging from the current situation, the Wild Boar Gully Fortress can last for up to four more days.

The situation in northwest Shanxi suddenly became unprecedentedly severe.

...

Yunqi Town, outside the command center.

The brigade commander looked at the sky with a worried look on his face.

"God, is this the water tank at home broken?"

"In the past three days, I have been going on and off, and I haven't seen it this day!"

"If this continues, how can the more than one million fellow villagers gathered between Jiugong Mountain and Wohu Mountain cross the river and move to Hetao? It's true."

Just as the brigade commander was talking to himself, Wang Ye hurried over.

"Xiao Wang, how about it?" the brigade commander asked anxiously, "Is it possible to force the Yellow River?"

"The Brigade Commander, it's impossible." Wang Ye said solemnly, "I've already visited Wanmadui. The water level has skyrocketed and is extremely turbulent. In this case, there is no condition to force the ferry."

"Damn." The brigade commander cursed, "Then there is nothing to do."

"Yes." Wang Ye nodded and said solemnly, "We must make the worst."

"Let's go, go back to the command center first." After the brigade commander said that, he turned around and left, and Wang Ye quickly followed.

The two returned to the command center's war room and saw Ma Yuan and Chen Mingli were carrying out sand table operations.

Seeing the brigade commander and Wang Ye walked in, Ma Yuan and Chen Mingli quickly stood at attention and said, "Brig Commander, Commander Ding just called from the Wild Boar Gully, and the Japanese 1st Division advanced nearly fifty meters."

"Another fifty meters?" said the brigade commander, "Didn't it mean that the wild boar ditch is only four hundred meters deep?"

Chen Mingli said: "To be precise, it is less than 400 meters, and there are about 350 meters left. According to the current propulsion speed of the 1st Division, it can last about four days."

The brigade commander asked again: "How is the situation in the other directions?"

Ma Yuan replied: "The situation in the other directions is fine."

Wang Ye sighed: "But as long as one direction is broken, our defense line will completely collapse."

Speaking of this, Wang Ye said again: "Originally, according to our plan, almost all the more than one million fellow villagers in the base area had completed crossing the river."

"We can break through after completing the cover mission."

"But now, most of the people still don't have time to cross the river, so we must extend the time to stick."

"But the problem is that the Wild Boar Gow Fortress is almost unable to withstand it. Once the Wild Boar Gow Fortress is broken, there is no need to continue to stick to it."

"There is also Yunqi Town and Tiandagang, so there is no need to stick to it."

Speaking of this, Wang Ye said again: "So we must adjust the defense deployment."

"It is certain to adjust the defense deployment." The brigade commander nodded and then said, "How to adjust the problem now?"

Wang Ye said: "No matter how you adjust, one thing is certain, that is, you have to find several defensive support again, which can block the Japanese army's progress!"

The brigade commander and Wang Ye's eyes fell on the sand table at the same time.

A few seconds later, the brigade commander and Wang Ye said at the same time: "County!"

Then the two stopped at the same time and then Wang Ye said, "Braft Commander, tell me."

"You should talk first, Xiao Wang." The brigade commander said with a smile, "Look at if you think the same thing as me?"

"Okay." Wang Ye immediately pointed to the sand table and said, "Brig Commander, from the current situation, once the wild boar ditch is in danger, we have only two choices, either to mobilize troops to reinforce from other directions, or to give up the wild boar ditch directly."

"The problem is that the troops in other directions are now too short to be adjusted."

"So the only option is to give up the boar ditch, so you need to find another defensive support in the back."

"If you want to find a pass like Wild Boar Gully, it is impossible to kill a pig's mouth. Fortunately, there is still a county town."

"From the map, the county town of Wan County, Ping'an County and Anhua County town form a triangle."

"If the three main detachments of our column can defend three county towns separately, they can completely cut off the passage of the Japanese army into the western part of our base."

"At least the heavy equipment of the Japanese army is absolutely impossible to enter."

"And if only a small number of infantry, our local armed forces are enough to deal with it."

Speaking of this, Wang Ye said again: "So my defense plan is that when the situation is not right, I will decisively give up the four fortresses and Tiandagang on the periphery, the fortifications of Yunqi Town, and the main force of the column retreated to the north, Ping'an County and Anhua County respectively. The local armed forces of the three military sub-districts also retreated to the west of Tongpu Road, using groundhog tactics to block the enemy's attack."

The brigade commander nodded and said, "You have thought of this with me. The question is what to do with the artillery regiment?"

"Yes, artillery is indeed a problem," Wang Ye said. "If we still have an offensive operation, since we can choose the attack time at night, the artillery will still be able to participate in the war."

"But the current situation has become a passive defense."

"In passive defense, if artillery soldiers want to play a role without air supremacy, they can only protect themselves with strong or complex fortifications. Just like the artillery companies in the four outer fortifications, they would not have survived the bombing of Japanese air forces without fortifications."

After pausing, Wang Ye said helplessly: "But no fortress provides cover for our artillery, so we have only two choices, either to order the artillery regiment to transfer, or to divide the artillery regiment into three, and hide it in the private buildings of the three county towns as flat artillery guns."

After Wang Ye finished speaking, his eyes turned to the brigade commander, and the brigade commander could only make the final decision.

The brigade commander's brow frowned, because this was indeed a very difficult choice.

On the one hand, the brigade commander really wanted to protect this artillery. For the Eighth Route Army with insufficient firepower, the existence of this artillery unit is crucial, but on the other hand, the brigade commander also knew that if the artillery was transferred, the situation faced by the Northwest Shanxi Column would become more difficult.

In addition, there is another factor that must be considered.

That is, they do not have the ability to evacuate the arsenal.

Therefore, if the artillery regiment is transferred away, the reloaded artillery shells in the arsenal will be useless. If the artillery regiment is still in northwest Shanxi, it will be able to continuously cause damage to the Japanese army with the reloaded artillery shells in the arsenal, so this is really a dilemma.

After repeated consideration, the brigade commander finally decided to adopt a compromise plan.

The artillery regiment was divided into four, and Cao San Company led an artillery battalion to the Taiyue Column.

The remaining three artillery battalions (each with four artillery companies with 16 75 mountain artillery pieces) were organized into three detachments.

Then Ding Wei led the first detachment to guard Wan County, Kong Jie led the second detachment to guard Ping'an County, Li Yunlong led the third detachment to guard Anhua County, and the brigade commander led the guard regiment to temporarily station in Anhua. All local troops in the three military sub-districts were transferred to the west of Tongpu Road to deploy defenses.

...

The combat plan of the Northwest Shanxi Column was soon reported to the Eighth Route Army headquarters.

The boss, division commander and deputy chief of staff all fell into deep thought after circulating the telegram.

After pondering for a long time, the boss said, "Two old guys, let's talk about it?"

The division commander said: "Our party is the party of the people, and our army is the army of the people. This will never and cannot be shaken. Therefore, before the more than one million fellow villagers in the Northwest Military Region of Shanxi had safely transferred, even if all the Jinxi Northwest Column was fighting, it would never be allowed to evacuate without authorization!"

"I agree." The boss said solemnly, "We will always be the army of the people!"

The division commander said: "Under this premise, the choice of the Northwest Shanxi Column can be said to be the only feasible choice. Only by firmly guarding Ping'an County, Wan County and Anhua County can the road be cut off and the Japanese army's heavy equipment will be prevented from crossing Tongpu Road, posing a threat to the arsenal and fellow villagers hidden near Wanmadu."

The Deputy Chief of Staff said worriedly: "But this is a city defense war after all?"

After pausing, the Deputy Chief of Staff said: "First of all, we lack experience in urban defense warfare, and secondly, the Japanese army's equipment is far better than our army, and even the coordination of aviation forces, so the difficulty of this stopping war will be beyond imagination, and the final result is likely to be..."

What would it be? The Deputy Chief of Staff did not say further.

But the meaning has been clearly stated, that is, it is very likely that the entire army will be destroyed.

The division commander said: "I still stick to my opinion just now. I would rather fight for the entire column than protect the people from moving!"

The boss said directly to the deputy chief of staff: "Call back to the Northwest Shanxi Column, saying that their combat plan headquarters has been approved, but there is one thing they must ensure that they complete the task of covering the transfer of the people. While completing the task, they must also protect themselves as much as possible and kill and hurt the enemy as much as possible!"

"Yes!" The Deputy Chief of Staff agreed solemnly.

...

That night, the brigade commander hurried back to the headquarters of Anhua County.
To be continued...