In the light of the sun, the bayonet shone brightly. Nearly 100 heavily armed soldiers held their guns in their left hands and crossed their chests with their right hands in front of them, solemnly raising their guns and saluting silently to the graves in front of them.

The ceremony is short and solemn, sacred and solemn. No mourning, no gunshots. There was only silent silence.

On the left side of the line, there were more than 50 soldiers of the Eighth Route Army wearing gray cloth and old military uniforms, who were soldiers of the special service company of the pioneer regiment of the southbound column. The leader of the team is an officer named Yang Chenghu, who is the company commander of the special service company. At the age of thirty, there is a clear scar on his face, and he looks like the kind of veteran who has survived a hundred battles.

On the right side of the team is the Hengqu County Brigade led by Zhao Shixun with more than 30 people, although they are dressed in tatters and miscellaneous, like beggars. But the militia were all armed with light infantry, and each of them even had a certain amount of Japanese-style steel helmets.

Earlier in the day, Yang Chenghu led people to find the decomposing breath of the corpse and slowly found this place. When he bumped into the guard post arranged by the militia on the periphery, Yang Chenghu once thought that he had encountered the elite of the Japanese army pretending to be ordinary people.

After the two sides confronted each other through the dense forest for an hour, Yang Chenghu first became impatient, and he sent a few soldiers to try to detour to the side, but they were all wrapped dumplings by the big pillar. Knowing that he had captured a few soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, Zhao Shixun finally put his mind at ease.

After a false alarm, the identities of both sides were quickly revealed. Although there was no misunderstanding, Yang Chenghu was unhappy about the "capture" of his subordinates, looking at his captured subordinates, with a look of hatred for iron and steel.

Originally, Yang Chenghu received an order to come to Xujiayu to pick up the commissioner and the militia team and return to the unit station, but when he arrived in Xujiayu, he found that the once lively village had already been empty, and a large amount of blood stains and bullet casings remained at the scene. The edict indicates that there was once a fierce battle here.

In order to find out what was going on in the village, Yang Chenghu led his subordinates to search back and forth in this generation for two days, and finally ran into Zhao Shixun and them, who were burying the body.

However, when he saw Zhao Shixun and them, Yang Chenghu thought that he had heard the wrong order. Where is this militia that is backward in arms and lacks training, this is clearly an elite army that is fully armed!

Every soldier in front of them not only had a full set of light infantry equipment, but what was even more surprising was that they actually had a Japanese-style steel helmet.

The ammunition box also looks bulging, which is a clear indication that there is enough ammunition. The most perverted thing is that although there are only thirty-eight of them, they actually have four machine guns! My dear, where did all this come from, did these people pick up the devil's ammunition depot?

Yang Chenghu himself knows very well that his spy company is the absolute main force in the vanguard regiment, and the weapons and equipment are absolutely the best. But half of the fifty people he brought out were 38 big cover rifles, and the rest were all old-fashioned Hanyang.

As for the light machine guns, fifty people with two Czechs thought it was very good. As a result, compared with the group of "miscellaneous cards" on the other side, he became a beggar!

Although the dozens of people on the other side didn't even have decent military uniforms, Yang Chenghu didn't dare to look down on the other party because of this. Yang Chenghu, who was old in the war, didn't believe in pie in the sky, he just glanced at the other party's people, and Yang Chenghu saw that none of these "militiamen" were fuel-efficient lamps.

The murderous aura on everyone's face is not pretended, it is a murderous aura that can only be found after seeing battles and blood. Especially their captain named Zhao Shixun, although he only wore a shabby Eighth Route Army military hat, Yang Chenghu could see at a glance that the other party was from the old army. The aura of a professional-born officer revealed by the other party's gestures made Yang Chenghu really surprised.

identified himself and buried his comrades. After learning what happened from Zhao Shixun, Yang Chenghu didn't dare to delay for a moment, and immediately took Zhao Shixun and them on the way back to the army station.

……

Four days later, early in the morning.

Walking out of the barracks, Zhao Shixun stretched a big lazy waist, and the water droplets on his face were blown by the wind, bringing a trace of chill and taking away the last trace of sleepiness. Looking at the team that had assembled outside, Zhao Shixun's eyes swept in front of everyone one by one.

"Big pillar, have all the people arrived?"

"Report to the chief, all forty-five people of the Seventh Company have arrived, please instruct!"

Two days ago, Lei Wancheng, commander of the Pioneer Regiment, announced an order, appointing Zhao Shixun as the company commander of the newly formed Seventh Company of the Pioneer Regiment and Zhou Yu as the company instructor.

Zhao Shixun thought that his people would be dismantled and supplemented to other troops, but he didn't expect the regiment headquarters to let the militia become an independent army.

The big pillar stood at the head of the team, snapped and saluted, staring at Zhao Shixun and shouting loudly.

"En......, what about Instructor Zhou? Where did he go? ”

Seeing that Zhou Yu was not in the team, Zhao Shixun asked suspiciously.

"Report sir! As soon as it was dawn in the morning, the instructor was called by the head of the regiment to hold a party committee, and he has not yet returned. When the instructor was leaving, he brought a message and asked you to go to the regiment headquarters at eight o'clock, saying that there was something important. ”

"Oh, I see, you guys go to training."

"Take the brothers for a morning run first, finish the queue training, and go to the cafeteria on time at nine o'clock to eat."

Seeing that the team was walking away, Zhao Shixun pondered for a moment, and walked towards the old and immortal house.

……

Two days ago, Yang Chenghu took everyone back to the temporary station of the Pioneer Regiment, a mountain village called Shipangou in the mountainous area northeast of Jiangxian County.

When they came to the Pioneer Corps, the head and political commissar of the Pioneer Regiment personally welcomed Zhao Shixun and his party.

This vanguard regiment is a direct unit of a brigade in Jinnan of the Eighth Route Army, and its commander, Lei Wancheng, is nearly 40 years old and is a veteran revolutionary who has participated in the Long March. Political commissar Jiang Hongfei is similar to him, and he is also an old Red Army. For Zhao Shixun's arrival, the two can be said to be very happy. When he saw Zhao Shixun's equipment, he was even more impressed by Zhao Shixun and Zhou Yu.

After a short period of politeness, Regiment Commander Lei and the political commissar organized a meeting of all the officers above the company level of the regiment, which allowed everyone to get to know each other and introduce the current situation of the vanguard regiment and the surrounding situation of the enemy and us.

Through this meeting, Zhao Shixun can be regarded as having a general understanding of the pioneer group.

The current situation of the Pioneer Regiment is very bad, even very miserable. Due to the overestimation of the enemy's situation, as well as intelligence failures and too many recruits. The vanguard regiment that went south alone encountered many attacks by the Japanese puppet army along the way, and even fell into a heavy siege for a time.

Although the troops eventually broke through and crushed the enemy attack, the losses of the vanguard regiment were also very large.

Before setting out from the Jinzhong base area, the vanguard regiment had three infantry battalions, one special service battalion, and one guard company, with more than 1,400 people and more than 100 mules and horses. It can be regarded as a regiment with a full strength and a slight strengthening.

In terms of weapons and ammunition, the regiment had more than 980 long guns, more than 100 short guns, 36 light machine guns, three heavy machine guns, and four mortars. In addition to the fact that there are not many shells, the ammunition is also quite sufficient.

However, after a series of fierce battles, there were now less than 700 men left in the regiment, including more than 50 wounded.

Not only in terms of personnel, but also in terms of weapons and ammunition, there was only one heavy machine gun left, less than 20 light machine guns, mortars were directly turned into decorations, and most of the mules and horses were also lost. The worst thing is that in terms of ammunition, there are less than 15 rounds of ammunition in the manpower.

Due to the serious attrition of personnel, there is a serious shortage of personnel, and some battalions even have only a few dozen people. In order to improve combat effectiveness, let a limited number of people clench into several powerful fists. After discussing with the political commissar, Lei Wancheng carried out a large-scale downsizing of the whole regiment. For the three battalions, one battalion was retained, and all the recruits of the regiment were concentrated in one battalion for unified management. The first battalion is the largest at present, with a full 280 men. But the combat effectiveness is indeed the worst, there is no way, recruits account for more than half.

The original special service battalion was reduced to a 120-strong special service company, which continued to serve as the sharp knife of the whole regiment.

The remaining 2nd and 3rd battalions suffered the greatest losses in the battle, and the former commander of the 2nd Battalion, Xia Yongnian, the deputy battalion commander, Ma Gui, and the deputy commander of the 3rd Battalion, Cheng Dong, were all killed on the way to break through, and the officers at the company level were killed and wounded. In order to integrate the team and improve the combat effectiveness, the second battalion and the third battalion were merged into two companies, with a number of 130 people, which was finally enough for the formation of a company.

As for the original guard company, since all the personnel were transferred to the combat unit, the number was only 30 left, so it was directly reduced to a guard platoon.

The rest is the regiment headquarters and the hospital, except for the regiment commander and political commissar plus a dozen messengers, the vanguard regiment now has 40 miscellaneous soldiers left, and in addition to the remaining 50 wounded.

In terms of personnel, the commander of the first battalion is named Han Weimin. He used to be the commander of the guard company under Lei Wancheng, and a veteran who had been in the army for eight years. Although he did not participate in the Long March, he was also an old Red Army from northern Shaanxi.

The commander of the second company is named Shen Cunzhi, who has been in the army for six years, and it is said that he used to come out of the Red Army's four front armies.

Yang Chenghu, the commander of the special service company, a veteran who has been in the army for seven years, was formerly a company commander under the three main divisions of the Eighth Route Army. A year ago, he was transferred from the troops in the northwest of Jin to the vanguard regiment.

After the welcome meeting, Zhao Shixun and Zhou Yu reported to the regiment commander and political commissar about their battle in Xujiayu in person, and told the regiment commander and political commissar the news obtained from interrogating the prisoners.

After listening to the reports of Zhao Shixun and Zhou Yu in detail, Regiment Commander Lei and Political Commissar Jiang were quite surprised by the combat effectiveness of this militia force. When they learned that all the militia were trained by Zhao Shixun, Regiment Commander Lei and Political Commissar Jiang were not calm at all.

After the meeting, Lei Wancheng immediately asked the communications platoon to contact the rear headquarters and asked the headquarters to verify Zhao Shixun's identity.

Since the vanguard regiment was the eye of the southward column, it was able to deploy a radio station at the regimental level.

In other units of the Eighth Route Army, generally only the brigade headquarters can be equipped with radio stations, and other units can only use signal troops to communicate, which shows the importance of the vanguard regiment.

…… To be continued, ask for collection, ask for recommendation! Thank you all for your support!