Chapter 1: Mountain Dwelling (5b)

As the guerrilla political commissar Li Guodong expected, Zhang Songling did not go far. He is now hiding in a cave where he rests during his usual hunting, hurriedly waiting for Meng Xiaoyu, who suddenly developed a high fever.

Losing her mother and father in a row within a year was too hard for Meng Xiaoyu. Her seemingly strong body could no longer support it, and as soon as she left the sight of the villagers, she collapsed softly in Zhang Songling's arms.

Even if you fall, you won't fall in front of those who have insulted you! Zhang Songling understood Meng Xiaoyu's feelings, so he didn't turn around and ask anyone for help. He carried the 38 gun horizontally on his shoulder, hugged Meng Xiaoyu tightly with an intact arm, dragged and hugged him, and walked to the cave that Uncle Meng had brought him to be familiar with. Inside the cave, there are grain, salt and some simple cooking utensils, which were originally prepared by Uncle Meng to cope with the sudden abnormal weather during hunting. No one expected that these inadvertent preparations would become the last life dependencies of their daughter and prospective son-in-law.

The exit from the cave is blocked by a dense coniferous forest, making it difficult for people unfamiliar with the nearby terrain to spot from a distance. After climbing a hundred and ten steps out of the cave, there was no more than half a tree taller than one meter. Standing on a stone casually and looking down, you can see the entire Longquan Village at a glance. (Note 1)

In order to prevent a traitor from leading the way up the mountain for the little devil, Zhang Songling specially arranged several traps near the cave, and piled up dry firewood in the cave, so as not to fall into the hands of the little devil after the bullets ran out. It's just that these arrangements are really redundant, and when the devil's reinforcements arrived, Longquan Village had been completely burned to a pile of ruins. The devil lieutenant who led the team lingered a few steps next to the corpse of his companion, then pointed the saber towards the path at the east entrance of the village, and led all the devils and puppet troops to chase down. From beginning to end, I didn't look at the mountain more.

Late that night and the next morning, around Longquan Village, six villages were bloodbathed by devils and puppet soldiers. More than 400 innocent people who did not have time to escape died tragically under the butcher's knife. When the little devils satisfied their desire for revenge and withdrew from the mountains with the looted cultural relics, gold and silver, cattle, sheep and livestock, the villagers who had escaped completely fell into the guerrillas. Those who can sign up for the army sign up to join the army, and those who are too old to carry a gun to fight donate the last bit of value on their bodies. There were also some people who could neither join the army nor were penniless, but they took the initiative to act as the guerrillas' eyeliner and reported every move of the devils and the puppet army to the ears of the guerrilla leader Wu Nan.

As a result, in just half a month, the Niangziguan guerrillas swelled to more than 300 people, and became the largest armed force in Pingding County. Although most of the team members were armed with spears and bows and arrows, it also made it easy for the little devils not to dare to enter the mountains again to "clear up".

The devil's elite soldiers and main forces are now concentrated near Xuzhou, vowing to shame the defeat of the Battle of Xuetaierzhuang. I really can't mobilize too many people to compete for a few barren mountains near Niangzi Pass where birds are so poor that they don't want to. The Japanese troops left in the northwestern part of Shanxi, including Pingding County, were all second-rate troops, and their combat enthusiasm was not high, and they were not willing to fight a mushroom battle that was destined to have no end in sight.

During this period, the guerrilla leader Wu Nan and the political commissar Li Guodong looked for Zhang Songling several times. The first time was to help redeem Uncle Meng's remains from the puppet army, and to assist Zhang Songling and Meng Xiaoyu to put the old man in peace. The second time was to give the old man the "first seven", and brought a few packs of traditional Chinese medicine by the way, hoping to alleviate Meng Xiaoyu's condition. The third time, he came with a letter of awakening, hoping that Zhang Songling could temporarily serve as a shooting instructor for the guerrillas, and after the headquarters of the 120th Division of the Eighth Route Army contacted General Feng Anbang of the 27th Division of the 26th Route Army, he would consider the issue of returning to the team.

On the first two occasions, Zhang Songling received the guests very politely. After all, no matter how capable he is, he is only one person, and it is impossible to snatch Uncle Meng's body back from the puppet army single-handedly, and it is impossible to prepare a decent funeral for the old man. But for the third time, he directly rejected the invitation of Wu Nan and Li Guodong, and only took out a few pieces of paper full of handwriting and forcibly stuffed them to each other.

"Here are some of the shooting guidelines that I learned when I was training in the Secret Service Corps last year. Hope it will be useful to the two chiefs! Seeing the unconcealable disappointment on the other party's face, Zhang Songling emphasized in a very slow voice, "But there are more things that Zhang can't do." Sensei said that Xiaoyu is now sick like this, and Zhang really has no time to doppelganger. Even if Xiaoyu's body is well raised, Zhang has to go down the mountain first and find Zhu Er to seek justice for Uncle Meng! ”

"We can find someone to help you take care of Xiaoyu! The matter of getting rid of the traitor Zhu Er can also be wrapped up in the guerrillas. Li Guodong immediately stood up and swore an oath.

He never imagined that the guerrillas would swell to such a large size in the blink of an eye. There are more than 300 brothers, of which more than 290 are recruits, and he and the captain Wu Nan alone cannot complete the daily training of the team members with quality and quantity. According to the news conveyed by the newly established Jinbei Military Division, the headquarters of the Devil's North China Front Army had noticed that the newly conquered areas were showing signs of "gradually getting out of control" and began to transfer more Devil soldiers from Japan and Northeast China to North China to help stabilize the "war results."

If we can't train the brethren into an elite force before the devils turn the focus of their attack to the mountains. I am afraid that it will not be long before the guerrillas face a catastrophe. That will not only affect the development of the Northern Jin Military Division, but will also greatly affect the current support for the guerrilla anti-Japanese strategy in the Second Theater. After all, Commander Yan Xishan of the Second War Zone, from the very beginning, was very reluctant to see Commander-in-Chief Zhu De pointing fingers at his one-acre and three-point land.

"With Xiaoyu's current situation, I'm afraid that more contact with people will be more conducive to her physical recovery!" Wu Nan's meaning was similar to Li Guodong's, but it sounded more tactful, "She has studied nursing, and she can just teach us the medical team under the guerrilla brigade." There were a lot of female soldiers there, and they were about the same age as Xiaoyu. They should be able to talk to each other. As for the traitor Zhu Er, our people have already begun to summarize his travel rules, and within half a month at most, they will be able to carry his head to Uncle Meng's grave! ”

Note 1: Distribution of plants unique to mountainous areas. Affected by temperature, the plants in the mountainous areas are distributed in a gradient from top to bottom. Above the coniferous forest belt, there is a shrub belt or an alpine meadow belt. This scene can still be observed in some mountainous areas in the north of Shanxi that have not been destroyed by man.