As the sun rose and the mist gradually dissipated, the well-fed and well-fed Qilian set off again, following the direction discussed by Zhao Shixun and Zhou Yu, and carefully began to move towards the west.

After the 70th Division was dispersed, Zhao Shixun judged that the Japanese army was likely to quickly gather forces to sweep south. For this reason, Zhao Shixun decided to temporarily avoid the Dingjiawa area, where the Japanese army was densely stationed, and turned to the southwest of Jiangxian County, where the driver attacked the enemy who swept into the mountains.

After the replenishment of a batch of 70 divisions this time, the strength of the 7th Company increased compared with the number of troops when it set out from the regiment headquarters, reaching more than 90 people, which can barely be regarded as a fully equipped company.

After departure, in order to prevent the troops from being exposed, Zhao Shixun and his team basically went out day and night, trying to avoid the detection of Japanese planes along the way, and finally completely disengaged with the Japanese troops who were following behind them two days later.

After getting rid of the entanglement of the Japanese army, Zhao Shixun planned to lead the team to advance towards the area where Shen Cunzhi of the Second Company was active, hoping to join the Second Company.

After walking along the mountain path for a long time, at noon, when Zhao Shixun was looking for a water source, he accidentally ran into a group of people hiding in the mountains.

Seeing an army suddenly appear around them, the group of ordinary people was startled, and ran into the mountains in a panic.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Yu hurriedly brought a few people to catch up and show his identity.

Finding out that it was the eighth road, the villagers gradually walked out of the woods.

It didn't take long for these ordinary people to take out their own little dry food and stuff it into the hands of the soldiers for the soldiers to eat.

Looking at these ordinary people who were dressed in tattered clothes and full of vegetables but held their heads high for themselves to eat, Zhao Shixun couldn't help but feel moved in his heart.

The Japanese army swept through a large scale, displacing the already poor people.

For these people, Zhao Shixun is actually very guilty in his heart.

As a soldier, seeing these people hiding in the mountains to escape the massacre of the Japanese army and being powerless, Zhao Shixun even felt ashamed to raise his head in front of them.

"Fellow villagers, fellow villagers, on behalf of the Eighth Route Army, I thank you for your support, but we have discipline and cannot eat the things ......of the masses casually."

Listening to Zhou Yu's dissuasive voice in his ears, Zhao Shixun gently pushed back the nest head in front of him, looked at the people in front of him who were helping the old and the young in tattered clothes, and sighed, and then turned around and called the old immortal.

"Old immortal!"

"Come on!"

"Let the soldiers leave half of the food for the villagers, and then give some of the captured Japanese blankets to the villagers."

……

After leaving a lot of food and blankets, Zhao Shixun and the others left the mountain valley where the people were hiding step by step in the voice of the villagers' thousands of thanks.

Not long after the Seventh Company walked out of the valley, suddenly an old man chased out from behind with a crutch and shouting.

"Comrade of the Eighth Route Army, comrade of the Eighth Route Army, wait a minute!"

Seeing someone chasing after him, Zhao Shixun and Zhou Yu hurriedly turned around to greet him.

"Fellow, what's the matter with you?"

Looking at the kind-looking officer in front of him, the old man pursed his mouth, and finally grabbed Zhou Yu's arm and begged as if he had made a lot of determination:

"We are from Hujiagou in the north, and we are in a hurry, and we didn't bring enough food. The day before yesterday, more than a dozen young people in our village returned to the village to get food and clothes, but they have not come back yet.

We have always wanted to go back and see, but now that there are women in the mountains, they are old men and dolls, and we really dare not go back to ....... ”

Hearing this, Zhao Shixun looked around and asked directly:

"Old man, how to go in the direction of Hujiagou?"

"Uh, ......, walk south along the mountain road from here, about a dozen miles away."

"Black baby!"

"Here!"

"Immediately take your platoon to search south along the path, and come back as soon as you encounter the village."

"Yes!"

……

Three o'clock in the afternoon, Hujiagou.

Stone walls and thatched roofs, dotted all over the place. Looking at the small but silent somewhat strange village under the mountain, Zhao Shixun frowned and waved his hand.

Soon, the seven companies scattered into several waves, loaded with bayonets unsheathed, and cautiously entered the village from several directions.

Half an hour later, looking at the bloodstained and dried bodies of six young men in a courtyard in the village, Zhao Shixun looked around with a dark face.

"The second platoon left to bury the corpse of the fellow, and the others gave me to scout around to see which direction the little devil went."

The facts are in front of him, and Zhao Shixun knows that the villagers who returned to the village must have encountered the devils who came to sweep up.

The village was not large, with no more than twenty households, so news soon came.

According to the soldiers' reports, many of the hidden cellars of their homes were opened and the food inside was looted.

According to the old man's words, there should be nearly twenty young men who returned to the village, and Zhao Shixun found only six corpses.

In other words, eighty percent of the other people were taken away by the devils along with the grain.

Soon, the exact news came from Zhou Dahu's side.

"Report to the company commander! Our platoon found that there were dense rut marks and footprints in the southwest of the village, and the platoon commander had already led people to follow the marks to catch up. ”

"Okay, Quanlian assembles immediately!"

……

Hengling Pass was once a pass that had been abandoned for many years, and now it is a very important node on the highway connecting Jiangxian County and Hengqu County. A few months ago, it was one of the important core positions of the Kuomintang defenders in Zhongtiao Mountain, guarding the main road south to Hengqu in the Jinzhong area.

After the defeat of the Nationalist army at Mt. Nakajo, it was once occupied by heavy Japanese troops.

Later, after most of the Nationalist army retreated to the south bank of the Yellow River, the Japanese army retained the strength of a puppet military camp here, responsible for searching for the remnants of the Nationalist army in the surrounding Qingxiang.

Nine months ago, the Pioneer Regiment had also repeatedly attacked the puppet army forces of the Hengling Pass generation, and once blocked them in the stronghold and did not dare to come out.

If it weren't for the sudden sweep by the Japanese army, Lei Wancheng would have even begun to think about destroying this puppet army stronghold deep into the Zhongtiao Mountain area before the autumn grain harvest.

However, at this time, a squadron of Japanese troops and more than 100 puppet troops had been stationed in Hengling Pass again.

In the past few days, the Japanese puppet army has taken Hengling Pass as a base and sent troops everywhere to brutally sweep the surrounding villages and implement the three-light policy. On the one hand, a large number of young people were captured in the surrounding villages, and a large number of construction projects were built to expand the stronghold in Hengling Pass, in an attempt to completely blockade this place.

In order to control the surrounding villages and roads as much as possible, the Japanese army not only built a strong stronghold in the core area of Hengling Pass, but also planned to build another artillery tower at Pingdao Village, six miles to the north of Hengling Pass, and five miles to the southeast of Xingshan Valley.

Since the common people in the vicinity of Hengling Pass had long since fled, in order to speed up the progress of the project, the Japanese army sent troops to go deep into the base areas everywhere, sweeping the villages in the mountains and capturing young and middle-aged laborers.

……

Following the traces left by the Japanese army, Zhao Shixun and the others finally discovered the whereabouts of the Japanese army before nightfall.

After discovering that there were traces of Japanese troops stationed in Pingdao Village, Zhou Dahu immediately sent people to closely monitor the village.

Before nightfall, Zhao Shixun and his team found that more than 30 Japanese puppet soldiers were escorting more than 200 villagers and went straight back to the village along the mountain road.

Pingdao Village is built on a raised plain near the mountain road, and it is an ancient village with a history of more than 100 years.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the world was in turmoil. In order to protect the villagers from the snitches, the big families in Pingdao Village raised funds to build a fence along the perimeter.

At this moment, the Japanese army used the wall of Pingdao Village to turn the village into a temporary prison.

As for the people in the village, most of them have fled and disappeared, and the few remaining families have been killed after the arrival of the Japanese army.

Soon after discovering the village, Qilian found a stronghold under construction on a hill beam on a face-facing highway less than a mile from Pingdao Village.

Obviously, the young Zhuang in Hujiagou Village was captured by the Japanese, and the grain that was stolen was probably used by the Japanese to build a stronghold.

However, although they found a place, Zhao Shixun and they didn't know at all how many devils there were in Pingdao Village, which was occupied by the Japanese army, what was the firepower configuration, and where Qingzhuang was imprisoned.

If you attack rashly, you are likely to be blocked outside the village by the Japanese puppet army that occupies a geographical advantage, not to mention, and it may also alarm the nearby Japanese puppet army.

Zhao Shixun knew very well that before the Japanese swept away, Hengling Guancun, which was not far from here, had been occupied by a group of puppet troops.

Because the puppet army had built a strong stronghold on the high ground east of Henglingguan Village, although the vanguard regiment could easily drive them back, there was nothing they could do about the puppet army squatting in the stronghold.

Now that the Japanese army has entered the mountains on a large scale, it will inevitably deploy heavy troops in the Hengling Pass stronghold.

If there is a stalemate here and there is a stalemate, if the Japanese army at Hengling Pass gives him a front and rear attack, then he may have to fold in.

After scouting around Pingdao Village, Zhao Shixun could only delay the attack and gather troops to discuss again.

At night, it is located in a mountain depression near the village of Pingdao.

After a short break, Zhao Shixun called all the officers above the seventh company platoon.

With the faint light of the fire, looking at the few people sitting together, Zhao Shixun opened the conversation first.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you can say what you think about the Japanese puppet army in Pingdao Village. This battle is not easy, and I hope you can speak freely. ”

After a brief silence, Kiko was the first to open her mouth.

"The location of this village is so good that there is only one way in and out of the village. If you want to attack, I'm afraid you won't be able to rush in at all, so I think it's better to let people out and fight, so that the little devils have no favorable terrain to use. ”

"I don't think it's easy to fight."

Looking at everyone, Zhou Dahu touched his bearded face.

Everyone could see clearly that the little devil tied the villagers together with ropes and escorted them, which made it impossible for the villagers to run at all.

Everyone knows what the little devil is, but once the devil fights and uses the villagers as cover to block bullets, what should I do? You can't shoot at the people. ”

Hearing this, Zhou Yu nodded.

"Big Tiger is right, the little devil never takes our Chinese's lives seriously, and we must take into account this situation."

…… To be continued, thank you all for your votes! Hanhai will stick to it!

Thank you all for your support!!

(End of chapter)