The various regiments of the Special Operations Brigade were fighting bravely. Lin Fan, as the brigade commander, was not sitting idly in the central command tent, devising strategies and securing victory from afar.

Upon arriving in Hefei, he immediately organized people to repair the damaged Huainan Railway.

The dismantled rails were returned and installed, and the train was fully prepared. All of this was for the First Regiment to advance towards Tianjia'an along the Huainan Railway.

Tianjia'an was first established as a township in 1929 and abolished in 1932.

Tianjia'an's administrative level was not high, but in this era, it was indeed a key town that the Japanese devils paid special attention to defending.

This was solely because it housed the distribution center of Datong Coal Mining Co., Ltd., with access to railways and waterways.

In this era, coal was a strategic material. The Japanese devils launched their war of aggression to plunder resources such as coal, oil, and minerals.

The coal produced by Datong Coal Mining Co., Ltd. was all concentrated in Tianjia'an and shipped to various parts of the country by train.

The Japanese devils were very clear about its importance, so they stationed heavy troops here.

The Japanese devils established a garrison headquarters in Tianjia'an, with Commander Kaminoto Yusuke directly commanding a reinforced infantry battalion.

This infantry battalion had six infantry companies, one machine gun company, one artillery company, one tank company, and one cavalry company.

In addition, there was also a puppet army division guarding Tianjia'an, with Division Commander Bian Binbiao leading as many as 5,000 puppet soldiers stationed here.

In order to strengthen control over the mine, the Japanese devils also established a Mine Loving Team. The members of this team were all composed of pro-Japanese miners, traitors, and Japanese devils, with a total membership of 5,000. They participated in military training every week, equivalent to a militia organization.

The internal organization of this Mine Loving Team was completely in accordance with the regular Japanese establishment, and all command personnel were also Japanese devils. They formed as many as four battalions, nearly 5,000 people.

In addition, the Japanese devils also set up a military police station in Tianjia'an. Military Police Commander Eizumi Soto had nearly 600 Japanese devils in three military police companies.

The entire Tianjia'an Garrison Headquarters had a total force of 13,000 people, which was completely the strength of a Japanese brigade.

This also gave Tianjia'an Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke full of courage. After learning that Hefei had been occupied by the Special Operations Brigade, he immediately requested Commander-in-Chief Terauchi Hisaichi of the North China Expeditionary Army to organize a team to attack Hefei.

Terauchi Hisaichi was of course willing, but the Tianjia'an garrison team was directly under the command of the headquarters, and it was still necessary to request domestic approval.

His request was rejected, because for the Japanese devils, nothing was more important than plundering resources.

The National Army was also very clear about the importance of coal. At this time, most of the power plants used coal for power generation.

The boilers used in factories also used coal, and the ships and trains also used coal. It can be said that 70 percent of the entire modern industry would shut down without coal.

Therefore, the teams of the National Army that remained in the enemy-occupied areas had always wanted to attack Tianjia'an, but after learning about the troops deployed here by the Japanese devils, they no longer had the idea of provoking them.

The defense of the Japanese devils in Tianjia'an was too meticulous, and the deployed troops were too strong.

Lin Fan had been preparing to advance north and south since he arrived in Hefei, and had already sent advance troops to investigate the strength of the Japanese devils.

Knowing that the Japanese devils had actually organized so many teams here, Lin Fan still did not change his plan to attack Tianjia'an.

Chen Sichuan's advance team was the First Company. Company Commander Gui Wen had been scouting outside Tianjia'an many times in recent days.

After learning that Hefei had been snatched back by the Special Operations Brigade, the Japanese devils also took the initiative to dismantle a section of the railway to cut off traffic with Hefei.

Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke built a new bunker at the end of the railway and sent heavy troops to guard it.

It added three new lines of defense in the south of Tianjia'an to cope with possible attacks.

In order to prevent the Special Operations Brigade from attacking from Hefei, Commander Kaminoto Yusuke was also very worried.

Anyway, within its jurisdiction, there were tens of thousands of miners, plus those laborers who depended on coal for their livelihoods. The labor force in its hands was no less than 100,000.

It was not a problem to temporarily build these three lines of defense. Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke began to build a line of defense 20 kilometers in front of Tianjia'an, and built another line of defense every five kilometers backward.

A large number of bunkers and trenches were built on each line of defense, and it also used barbed wire to separate the outside of this line of defense.

It completely cut off all contact between Tianjia'an and Hefei. Its efforts were not in vain. At least after the Japanese devils established the blockade line, there was no way to obtain intelligence from inside Tianjia'an.

When Gui Wen led the First Company here, what he saw was a row of barbed wire that could not be seen at the end. On the other side of the barbed wire, the Japanese devils also opened up a patrol road.

Puppet soldiers led large wolves to patrol along the way. Their patrols were very regular, twice every two hours during the day and once every four hours at night.

Fifty meters behind the barbed wire was a bunker. These bunkers were 300 meters apart. The open space cleared in the middle could completely ensure that people trying to pass through could be clearly discovered between the two bunkers.

There were also traffic trenches between the bunkers. The Japanese devils' design was indeed a great investment and a great effort.

Lin Fan arrived here on August 30 with the First and Eighth Regiments, and had been preparing for the past two days.

At six o'clock in the morning on September 2, the First Regiment's attack on the Japanese devils began.

For the Japanese devils' bunkers every 300 meters, Lin Fan had issued an order to Regiment Commander Feng Junya from the beginning:

"The 150mm howitzers of the Eighth Regiment will be deployed to the front the night before the battle.

When the First Regiment attacks, directly fire at the bunkers at the first time, and be sure to completely destroy them."

In order to complete the task assigned by Lin Fan, Feng Junya led a group of artillerymen from several companies of the Eighth Regiment's howitzer artillery, and ran to the front to check the terrain and observe the firmness of the Japanese devils' bunkers.

They formulated a battle plan on the front line: to set up an artillery position 800 meters in front of a Japanese devil's bunker.

Deploy a 150mm howitzer, one gun responsible for destroying the three bunkers on the front, left, and right sides.

In their observation, they also found that there were at least a dozen Japanese devils and more than 30 puppet soldiers defending in a bunker.

In order to strengthen the effective killing of the Japanese devils, the Eighth Regiment arranged as many as 18 cannons on the front to tear open a 15-kilometer-wide gap in the first line of defense of the Japanese devils.

The 18 cannons were distributed on a 15-kilometer-wide battlefield, and their own safety was also a problem. Therefore, most of the cannons of the Eighth Regiment required immediate transfer after shooting.

In order to protect these cannons, Lin Fan specially transferred Tang Youwei's logistics soldiers from the rear and sent a company of logistics soldiers to protect each cannon.

During the day on September 1, the officers and soldiers of the Eighth Regiment had quietly made preparations. The roads were repaired and the artillery positions had been set up.

Thanks to the Japanese devils' blockade, the situation inside Tianjia'an could not be transmitted. No one could transmit the news about the Eighth Regiment's actions on the other side.

Some of the Japanese devils' sympathizers, even if they wanted to pass on the news, were dissuaded by the personnel arranged by the Special Operations Brigade at various intersections.

The so-called intelligence of these people was all verbal, and no evidence could be found. Their intention to send intelligence was not strong, and they would send it if they could, and if they could not, they would just forget it.

These people did this because they heard that they could get a reward of five silver dollars for sending intelligence to the Taijun (Japanese officer) once.

As the order to fire from Feng Junya came from the communicator: "Rumble! Rumble!" The sound of cannons rang out simultaneously from east to west.

The earth was shaking. At six o'clock in the morning, those Japanese devils and puppet soldiers who were pulling up the drawbridges and closing the doors to sleep in the bunkers.

While still in their dreams, their bunkers were blown up by the direct fire of the Eighth Regiment's howitzers.

The three-story bunker was built by the Japanese devils at the cost of a lot of manpower and material resources, using yellow mud mixed with stones and interspersed with wooden stakes.

Such a building, in the face of large-caliber howitzers, was directly hit and collapsed directly.

None of the Japanese devils in the bunker escaped, and they were all buried inside. Most of them had already been hit by the rampant shrapnel and died before they were buried.

The sudden explosion awakened Squad Leader Nikawa Eito from his sleep. His squad was ordered to guard three bunkers, with each platoon guarding one.

In order to strengthen the strength, each squad was also assigned a platoon of puppet soldiers to help.

The daily patrol tasks these days were all completed by sending out puppet soldiers. These Japanese devils, if they were in a good mood, would go out for a walk, and if they were in a bad mood, they would stay in the bunker to play.

The sudden explosion and the vibration frequency transmitted from the earth all panicked Squad Leader Nikawa Eito.

He asked loudly: "What's going on? Where is the shelling coming from?"

No one answered!

The Japanese devils and puppet soldiers in his bunker were all sleeping. The two puppet soldiers on duty on the top of the bunker had not figured out the situation yet.

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito hurriedly ran to the top of the building and collided with the puppet soldier who was coming down to report, almost knocking him down the stairs.

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito was both scared and angry, and slapped him twice: "Are you blind? Don't you look at the road when you walk?"

"Taijun!" The puppet soldier, who was dizzy from the collision, looked up and saw that it was the squad leader.

He was so scared that he could not speak properly: "Report to Taijun! The left... the left bunker is gone."

Hearing what he said was bizarre, Squad Leader Nikawa Eito pushed away the puppet soldier blocking the way and quickly rushed to the observation hole on the side of the bunker, looking to the left.

This glance shocked him: the bunker that was originally the same as his here suddenly became shorter. It was not gone, but had been blown into a pile of rubble.

To cause this situation, there must be saboteurs who installed explosive packs under the bunker, and explosive packs with a considerable amount of explosives could achieve this effect.

"Du du du!" Squad Leader Nikawa Eito blew the whistle hanging around his neck.

The sharp whistle sound broke the tranquility of the early morning. The Japanese devils and puppet soldiers in his bunker all heard the squad leader's panicked shout: "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Immediately check the surroundings of the bunker, and open fire immediately if you find the enemy."

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito was afraid that there were such enemies outside his bunker, or that they were placing explosive packs.

While his shouting did not stop, another puppet soldier on the right side also shouted in horror: "The right! The bunker on the right is also gone."

The bunker that disappeared on the right was farther away, because there was another bunker in the middle. This time they could not see the section that had become ruins, so they could only see that it was gone.

This further strengthened Squad Leader Nikawa Eito's judgment: this was an organized and premeditated attack against the blockade line.

He quickly rushed to the second floor of the bunker. He wanted to report to the company commander, although the company commander might already know.

Company Commander Hachimotoki Ryuto could no longer know: the bunker where he was located was unfortunately used as the first target of the Eighth Regiment's bombing.

He ended his sinful life without pain in his sleep. He and all the Japanese devils and puppet soldiers in this bunker were killed in a shell.

"Rumble! Rumble!" The explosion sounded again. This time, the two puppet soldiers on the roof finally played the role of sentries.

Their terrified voices rang out on the roof: "It's coming again! It's coming again! Another bunker has been blown up!"

They were finally a little sober now. The smoke and dust after the explosion mixed with gunpowder smoke rose, letting them understand: it was blown up.

The bunker where they were located was lucky enough to be arranged by the Eighth Regiment to the third batch, that is, the last batch.

To ensure that nothing went wrong, Feng Junya concentrated all the artillerymen of the entire regiment to calculate and discuss the position of the Eighth Regiment's cannon and the adjustment angle after each bombing.

Even if there were slight adjustments in actual combat, they were very limited. This would ensure that every shell could take down a bunker.

The Japanese devils who had died and the Japanese devils in the bunkers that had been destroyed would no longer be afraid.

Japanese devils and puppet soldiers like Squad Leader Nikawa Eito, who were left as the third batch of targets, were the most afraid at this time.

"Throw grenades! Throw them at the base of the wall under the bunker. If they want to blow up the bunker, they can only use explosive packs to rush close." Squad Leader Nikawa Eito was still calm and could still issue orders clearly.

The Japanese devils and puppet soldiers who had been urgently blown up by the whistle heard the squad leader's order.

They all threw grenades out of the bunker in a panic. The machine gunner had already rushed to the machine gun that had been loaded with bullets and was ready to fire at any time, and pulled the trigger.

The sound of heavy machine gun fire came, and whether it could hit the enemy or not, this sound mixed with the "Boom! Boom! Boom!" when the grenade exploded immediately made the Japanese devils in the entire bunker feel a lot more at ease.

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito picked up the phone and shook it hard. After shaking it for a while, he picked up the receiver, and all that came out was static.

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito, unwilling, continued to shake the telephone. The sounds of "Boom! Da da da! Bang! Bang!" coming from outside made him feel at ease.

From these sounds, he could hear that the entire bunker had already opened fire. Heavy machine guns, light machine guns, rifles, and grenades were all firing and bombing. That was right.

Squad Leader Nikawa Eito could finally rest assured. Grenades exploded at the base of the bunker. So many had been thrown out. If there were enemies below, they should have been blown to death.

The dense gunfire was warning the enemy: our firepower is fierce, so fierce that we are afraid ourselves! Don't come over! Don't come over! Just when the Japanese devils and puppet soldiers in the bunker were relieved, they all felt the entire bunker suddenly tremble. The entire world suddenly became slow in front of these Japanese devils.

A ball of fire suddenly burst out from the south side of the bunker. The light was so dazzling that it seemed to melt them.

As the fire spread, the entire bunker also melted silently like an ice cube illuminated by the summer sun.

On the second floor, Nikawa Eito was surprised to see the two puppet soldiers on duty on the third floor slowly falling from the roof, and at the same time, he seemed to be falling, and also seemed to be flying to the sky.

The chaotic feeling did not last long. Soon he heard a deafening explosion and a feeling of pain all over his body.

Then Squad Leader Nikawa Eito was buried along with his squad and the bunker.

None of the nine fortresses on Company Commander Hachimotoki Ryuto's side were able to send out a warning. There was always a lucky company commander who reported the unknown situation that occurred on the front line to Mine Loving Team Commander Shihodo Atsushi in the first time.

The Mine Loving Team was responsible for the first line of defense. Tianjia'an Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke was certainly reluctant to put the infantry battalion directly under his command on the front line.

Its team was to be placed in the most important position: guarding the town of Tianjia'an.

Commander Shihodo Atsushi did not receive much news. He only knew from the phone that someone was destroying the bunkers on the first line of defense. The Japanese devil who called reported that he had seen two bunkers being destroyed.

Then Commander Shihodo Atsushi heard a violent explosion from the receiver, and then only static came out of the receiver.

He frantically ordered the switchboard operator of the headquarters to connect him to the phone in other bunkers in front. Unfortunately, none of the calls went through.

Could it be that in such a short time, all the bunkers in front had been blown up?

This crazy idea only appeared in Commander Shihodo Atsushi's mind for a moment, and was immediately abandoned by him.

Are you kidding me! So many bunkers, so strong bunkers, how could they all be finished in such a short time?

The battle of the Eighth Regiment lasted a total of ten minutes from start to finish. If you count their early work, it was a full three days.

The Eighth Regiment, which had completed the first phase of its mission, was nervously cleaning up the position. They were going to gather immediately and follow behind the First Regiment to move forward!

At this time, the First Regiment had also cut open the barbed wire set up by the Japanese devils, and the entire regiment rushed towards the Japanese devils' second line of defense.

The two lines of defense were five kilometers apart, and the Japanese devils maintained the road in the middle very well. They also had to use these roads, but sending supplies to the bunkers in front every day was not an easy task.

Regardless of the situation on the front line, the fact that the first line of defense was attacked was certain, although it was not known how strong the attack was.

Commander Shihodo Atsushi still reported the situation to Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke. Garrison Commander Kaminoto Yusuke was furious when he heard his unclear report.

He angrily ordered: "Immediately send someone to the front line to find out the situation and report back. Whether one or two bunkers on the front line have been attacked or the entire line has been attacked, report back immediately!"

If Commander Shihodo Atsushi, this pig, was not on the other end of the phone line, Kaminoto Yusuke would have slapped him a few times to let him know that battlefield reports need to be clear and precise.

"Hai!" Although across the phone line, Commander Shihodo Atsushi could also hear that the garrison commander's anger had rushed to the top of his head.

He quickly accepted the scolding with "hai, hai" and immediately sent three squads out of the command post to check the front.

These three squads were all led by a three-wheeled motorcycle in front, followed by two cars.

Such a configuration shows that Commander Shihodo Atsushi also put his heart into it: if they really encounter an enemy attack, such a squad will be able to resist for a while.

Squad Leader Chishiro Yuta sat excitedly on the three-wheeled motorcycle. Just now, he received an order from Commander Shihodo Atsushi: to go to the front line to see the situation.

As a Japanese devil who had fought on this land for twenty years, he had been discharged to the reserve and could have a good life in his country.

Squad Leader Chishiro Yuta could not live the hard life of farming in the fields every day in his hometown, and took the initiative to request to join the army again.

Because he was over fifty years old, and considering his combat experience, although he was only an ordinary sergeant before, this time he was still allowed to join the Mine Loving Team in the mine as a squad leader.

This made Chishiro Yuta so happy that he was looking forward to someone coming to attack every day. Only in this way would the commander of this Mine Loving Team have something to do.

Usually, the soldiers of the Mine Loving Team were doing their own things, exploring mines, mining, and doing small businesses.

They only gathered for training for two days a month.

These days, because Hefei was recovered by the Special Operations Brigade, the entire Mine Loving Team was gathered together, which also gave him more than fifty Japanese devils and puppet soldiers under his command.

Now they were going to the front line. According to Squad Leader Chishiro Yusuke's idea: it would be best to discover that the National Army was attacking after arriving at the front line.

In this way, he could have a place to use his skills, and maybe he could continue to be promoted to company commander and battalion commander because of his military achievements.

After all, in the entire Mine Loving Team, no Japanese devil has fought for as long as he has.

When it comes to combat experience, he has the most.

Squad Leader Chishiro Yusuke, whose thoughts were constantly running wild, looked at the distance, as if he was observing the situation in front, but also as if he could not see anything.

This made Sambin Rikiya, who was driving the motorcycle, very admired.

Originally, Sambin Rikiya was just an ordinary miner. As the Japanese devils occupied more and more territory here, the demand for various talents was expanding.

People like him with professional skills were particularly popular. He used to work in the Northeast.

After the Japanese devils occupied Tianjia'an, they hired him at three times the salary. As a Japanese devil, after arriving here, he naturally joined the Mine Loving Team.

Usually, he also liked to drive his motorcycle around, which was also a way to explore mines.

He had always admired and admired the Japanese devils like Squad Leader Chishiro Yuta who specialized in fighting.

He believed that they were the most manly, but he was reluctant to give up his high-paying job. Now that he could join the Mine Loving Team, he felt that all his wishes had been fulfilled.

Sambin Rikiya drove the motorcycle and flew on the flat road. Only fifteen minutes after departure, he suddenly saw a team of people in front. The people in front were pushing several wheelbarrows.

That momentum was even more arrogant than his driving a motorcycle!