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"Young Marshal, our sphere of influence is only in the Acropolis. Can the surrounding towns listen to us? The Tang Dynasty is in danger now. Although the whole country has been resisting foreign aggression and has transferred its troops to the front line, they will not move the troops left at home in order to protect themselves, let alone send them to our troops!"

"There is nothing in this world that cannot be solved with money. If there is, it's because the money is not enough! The conditions I proposed are several times better than those of the National Guard. As long as they are not fools, they will definitely agree to my conditions. This is a good deal with no disadvantages and only benefits!"

.......

While Xu Le was waiting, a fierce fight was going on at Liu Quanhua's place.

The Japanese attacked several major villages and towns such as Bozhuang several times, but were repelled by the 388th Brigade. However, the Japanese did not suffer much damage.

This is the gap. The previous Japanese reinforcements and the Japanese around Pu County had average combat effectiveness, ordinary equipment, and no unified command. Therefore, the previous battles of the 176th Division relied on equipment firepower, and all of them were suppressed!

The 21st Division and the 37th Division were completely different. They did not advance blindly. Their artillery, infantry, scouts, cavalry, etc. coordinated very well.

In other words, the 388th Brigade had the advantage of 702 walkie-talkies, so they were able to accurately attack the Japanese, making their several exploratory attacks fruitless.

"As expected of the 21st Division that was sent to Zhongtiao Mountain, they are a tough nut to crack. After a lot of fighting, no one can do anything to anyone! My automatic weapons are useless!"

"Commander, the Japanese can't keep dragging it out like this. They are testing our firepower points and troop deployment. Since they are not in a hurry, let's make them anxious!"

Liu Quanhua looked at the operations staff officer who was speaking and asked, "What do you think?"

"Brigade Commander, whether it is the Japanese invaders that the 666th or 667th Regiment is facing, they must want to coordinate with Xiting and Zhaoqu's main force to attack after understanding our deployment.

It's very simple for us to not give them time. We just need to increase the offensive in Linfen! I don't believe they can wait any longer. If they delay for one more day, the dilemma in Zhongtiao Mountain will last one more day. I think the Japs are also scratching their heads at this moment. After all, their probing attacks and several waves of scouts have been dealt with by us!"

Liu Quanhua thought for a moment and said, "Okay, contact the Chief of Staff, and have the two mountain artillery battalions bombard Linfen City with all their might. We'll speed up the enemy! The enemy should launch a general attack tonight at the latest. Notify the field artillery battalion and prepare to meet the enemy!"

......

9月16日中午12点，388旅的两个山炮营共72门博福斯山炮再次对临汾发动猛烈炮轰，这是包围临汾后的第二次集群炮轰。

At the headquarters of the 114th Division of the Japanese in Linfen, Akiyama Osaburo shouted into the phone: "Three Kingdoms Lord, the Tang army has started to bombard our city walls again. You should have heard the sound! Please support us quickly, support us quickly, we can't hold on any longer! If we lose Linfen, neither you nor I will be able to escape the blame!"

The voice on the other end of the line said, "Please wait a moment. We haven't figured out the specific firepower points of this army yet. We can't launch a main attack rashly now!"

"We can't wait any longer. Most of our troops have been destroyed and we can't hold on any longer! Linfen has been under siege for 10 days. You know the importance of this. Please give us support as soon as possible for the sake of our friendship with Division Commander Numata!"

...

After contacting the 21st Division, Akiyama Okisaburo also contacted the 37th Division, and the content was almost identical.

After more than a week of hard resistance, they are now facing another round of mass bombardment. Although most of the shells hit the city walls, many shells exploded at the firing points on top of the walls. After the Battle of Meidong Mountain, the 114th Division only had combat-capable troops left, and that was even with the engineers and baggage soldiers who had been brought up.

Now, there are less than 114 combat-capable people left in the entire 8000th Division, many of whom are wounded.

Although the 21st and 37th Divisions had some concerns, they could not help it after all. The Taiyuan Military Headquarters and the North China Front Army Command both called to urge them. The situation in Zhongtiao Mountain had changed, and there was a large gap in the logistics of the troops, and they urgently needed to restore railway support.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese in the surrounding villages and towns stopped their tentative attacks and advanced fiercely.

Zhaoqu's 21st Division did not receive any deployment intelligence for the fork, so the artillery regiment simply carried out indiscriminate bombing, slowly extending the artillery fire, followed by several tanks and armored vehicles belonging to the division in the front, the cavalry regiment in the middle, and two infantry regiments in the back.

Gan Ting's 37th Division used almost the same method, except that they had a tank squadron of tanks and armored vehicles leading the way, followed by two infantry regiments.

As for the division's cavalry regiment and the puppet army's cavalry regiment, they joined together and charged towards Yangquan and Duandian.

To this end, Fang Yue urgently concentrated all the mortars except the one in Gaohedian to Yangquan and Duandian, and intercepted all the enemy cavalry halfway with intensive artillery fire combined with the firepower of MG42 general-purpose machine guns and M16 automatic rifles.

Liuzhuang is located between Jiaquan and Bozhuang, on the northern edge of Huoyan Mountain. The hills here are undulating, making it very suitable as an artillery position. Two field artillery battalions are stationed here, covering a 15-kilometer-long north-south line of Linfen within their firepower range.

388th Brigade Field Artillery Battalion.

"Battalion Commander, the Chief of Staff has sent an order that the enemy's main force has moved. Let my battalion seize the opportunity to attack!"

"Okay, notify the frontline scouts to report the enemy's coordinates at all times!"

...

The 387th Brigade Field Artillery Battalion not far away also received the same order.

At 3 p.m., as the artillery scouts from various corps transmitted the precise coordinates of the Japanese invaders through the Xiao Bayi radio station, the two field artillery battalions opened fire, using bottom-exhaust cluster bombs. Not only could the range be increased to 20 kilometers, but the shells also contained dozens of small bombs.

When the cluster bomb reaches the target, it will explode, and then dozens of small bombs inside will scatter in all directions and explode a second time.

Cluster bombs have the characteristics of intensive instantaneous firepower, large coverage area, and large destructive efficiency. They are mainly used to attack cluster targets such as tanks, armored vehicles, troop assembly areas, or to block large-area targets such as airport runways.

72 L118 howitzers, each wave firing 72 cluster bombs. The main force of the Japanese happened to be advancing rapidly in clusters. Needless to say, the outcome of such an attack was obvious.

Moreover, the field artillery battalion has no shortage of ammunition, and there are specially appointed guards around to protect the artillery positions, so each gun only needs to output at full strength.

Liu Quanhua saw through the telescope the miserable appearance of the Japanese under the artillery fire. Although he was fearless, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. He put away the telescope and said that he couldn't bear to watch it anymore, it was too cruel.

You should know that cluster bombs were weapons that were banned internationally in Xu Le’s previous life because of their excessive destructive power.

"Communicator, contact the field artillery battalion. Just fire casually, but don't blow up the railway line by mistake. This is the infrastructure of our Tang Dynasty!"

.....