After the puppet army surrendered, facing the remaining seven or eight Japanese troops who resolutely refused to surrender to the bunkers, Li Ziyuan looked at the remaining shells. In the end, he was still reluctant to use artillery shells, and directly blew up the pillboxes held by the remnants of the Japanese army, and decided to adopt the tactics of using fire attack.

Anyway, for Li Ziyuan at the moment, the Japanese puppet army in Pingchuan Town no longer has the strength to reinforce Qiaokou. I can have at least a few hours to fully toss these devils slowly. The assault was certainly not under his consideration, and although the bunker that the Japanese army withdrew from was located in the latter half of the Qiaokou stronghold, the firing boundary just blocked the only access to the entire Qiaokou stronghold.

Storming, that comes at a considerable cost. In the case that there are other ways to solve the problem, Li Ziyuan still cherishes his soldier's life quite a bit as a last resort. Some of Zeng Sheng's words, obviously, to a certain extent, also gave Li Ziyuan a lot of sting.

And although it is easy to solve it with shells, it can also avoid all losses. But the shells are still too precious for themselves. This thing is all about seizure, and one shot is one less shot. Now that it's gone, what should I do if it's really a critical moment? Since the time is barely sufficient, it is not impossible to think of other ways.

At present, the entire Taihang Mountain area has entered winter, and Qiaokou, which is surrounded by mountains, is much colder than Hubei County in the Shangdang Basin because of the mountain wind. And this time, the Japanese army in Hubei did not know for what reason, and they have not been issued military coats until now. On the contrary, the puppet army wearing old cotton jackets was first issued winter clothes.

Although the winter in Taihang Mountain is not as cold as that in the northern Shanxi region in the north, it is not as warm as in southern China. The devil has not yet been issued winter clothes, so naturally the requirements for heating are very high. In order to keep warm and cook, the Japanese puppet army forcibly distributed it to the surrounding villages and towns, and the firewood is now piled up in the Qiaokou stronghold.

These piled up on the edge of the turret, almost catching up with the firewood and grass of a hill, and a few large barrels of kerosene fell into Li Ziyuan's sight. These are ready-made ignition things, and local use is also a kind of double-pence. For Li Ziyuan, when there is a little more time, one shell can be saved is one shot.

Li Ziyuan asked people to move a batch of firewood and grass from the Qiaokou stronghold on the spot, and piled it upwind of the pillbox under the cover of light and heavy machine guns. After being doused with kerosene and ignited, it is covered with a layer of drenched grain grass. After a puff of smoke rose, under the influence of the wind, they rushed into the firing hole of the Japanese army holding the pillbox.

On this pile of firewood, Li Ziyuan also sprinkled pepper noodles and chili powder collected from the kitchen of the Japanese puppet army in Qiaokou stronghold, as well as several villages and towns in Zhou'an, plus fresh horse manure was thrown in it. This indescribable smoke made the violent coughing sound of the Japanese soldiers in the pillbox clear from hundreds of meters away.

A few minutes later, the Japanese soldiers, who could not stand the smoke, opened the door of the pillbox and rushed out with a bayonet on it. It's just that as soon as this gang of outlaws rushed out, they were all knocked down by the crossfire formed by the two machine guns that Li Ziyuan had already deployed outside the bunker gate in a short period of time.

After solving the Japanese troops who rushed out, a platoon commander was about to take the lead in entering the pillbox to clean up the battlefield, but he was pulled by Li Ziyuan. Holding the platoon commander and preventing him from acting rashly, Li Ziyuan pulled out a grenade from a Japanese corpse. After pulling open the safety and slamming it the wall, he threw it into the bunker.

After the grenade exploded, Li Ziyuan signaled the platoon commander to go in and clean up the battlefield. The platoon commander only glanced at the corpse of a Japanese officer wearing a gas mask inside the bunker with a pistol in his hand and a crooked machine gun in the bunker, and he couldn't help but smack his tongue. If it weren't for Li Ziyuan's quick hands, he would probably be here.

He didn't expect that there were still two gas masks in the bunker. I didn't expect that these two guys were all smoked out of their subordinates. These two guys, who only wore gas masks, did not open the way for their own subordinates, but planned to stab the black knife here.

After quickly cleaning up the battlefield, Li Ziyuan piled up the firewood and grass collected from the entire Qiaokou, along with the remaining firewood and grass in the stronghold, and directly set a fire in the turret of the Japanese puppet army. The firing boundary of the entire Qiaokou stronghold can turn all the surrounding turrets in and out of the mountains into a blazing extraordinarily large torch.

Li Ziyuan didn't have time to demolish this turret, anyway, this turret is also a wood and stone structure. The firewood that was piled up on the first floor of the turret was poured with the remaining kerosene and set on fire, which was enough to burn down the turret. As for the black smoke that can be seen dozens of miles away when the turret burns, Li Ziyuan didn't care.

Li Ziyuan, who did not plan to directly attack Pingchuan, thought that it was enough to scare the Japanese puppet army in Pingchuan. After lighting the turret, Li Ziyuan asked the remaining two pillboxes to be demolished by the captured puppet army on the spot. After doing all this, Li Ziyuan set up grenades in Qiaokou stronghold, on several Japanese corpses and key parts.

And the last dozen or so mines from the Wangjiagou stronghold in his hands were buried around the stronghold. After doing all this, Li Ziyuan set out from Qiaokou with his troops, but did not go to Pingchuan. Instead, along the terrain, he secretly lurked near the Baijin railway line, and he was still worried about the batch of grain that Liu Yan had provided.

There is no way, although a batch of grain has been seized in several Japanese strongholds, but the quantity is too small. Even with the capture of the Qiaokou stronghold, it was only enough for his troops to feed their stomachs in one room. If we follow the requirements of the superiors, we can only last for 20 days if we save some food every day to help the victims of the disaster and the people who are living in difficulty.

Li Ziyuan has already made up his mind, and this batch of grain must be obtained no matter what. This not only involves their own troops, but also greatly reduces the burden on the common people in the base areas, and even ensures that the entire army and sub-district units can have a better life as possible and tide over the most difficult spring famine next year.

In order to get this batch of grain, Li Ziyuan gave up the Pingchuan stronghold, which was already extremely empty. The Pingchuan stronghold contained the Baijin Railway, which was the first large-scale station after the railway left Changzhi City. If you hit the Pingchuan stronghold, it will be a scareless snake.

The Japanese puppet army was not stupid, and would not transport a large amount of grain to Taiyuan through this railway when they knew that there were eight routes of activity on the Baijin Railway. As soon as this side starts, the grain train over there may not know when it will leave. Without this batch of food, how will we survive this winter?

After arriving along the Baijin Railway, the secret lurked. Li Ziyuan sent someone to drop off his horse to inform Zhang Zijian, ordering him to immediately launch a guard to the east without having to join the main force of the detachment after taking the drop stronghold. Li Ziyuan had a premonition in his heart, he felt that the Japanese puppet army that was sweeping in Taihang Mountain at the moment should not be far away from ending this winter sweep.

Li Ziyuan didn't want to be fighting a sabotage battle on this side, but he was outflanked by the Japanese puppet army from behind. He was very cautious this time, and left Zhang Zijian in the eastern mountainous area, just to do some vigilance in advance. Liang De was killed by himself, but according to the information he provided, the Japanese puppet army had enough knowledge of the situation in the mountainous areas in the eastern part of Hubei.

After making a certain amount of deployment behind the scenes, Li Ziyuan was very patient while waiting for Liu Yanlai's information while waiting for the expected grain train to enter. It's just that Li Ziyuan didn't expect that he had been lurking for three days. Not only did Liu Yanlai not rush over, but even the legendary military column transporting grain was not seen.

The reconnaissance personnel sent by Li Ziyuan in several directions returned to report that there was basically no abnormality in the entire Baijin Railway at the moment. Looking at the calm Baijin railway line at the foot of the mountain, even if he could calm down, Li Ziyuan's heart was a little chaotic at the moment.

One is the plan formulated by the military sub-district to attack the Baijin Railway, which will be in full swing in the next two days. Once the Baijin railway line starts, it means that the grass is startled. As long as the Baijin railway line in Hubei and Ludong is attacked, it will be almost difficult to transport this batch of grain in a short time.

Another point, that is, Li Ziyuan felt that the time for the Japanese army to end the sweep was getting closer and closer. Once the attack on this side starts, the Japanese army on that side will come back in a big way, but it means that the entire participating troops will have to suffer from the enemy. Especially in the entire eastern mountainous area of Hubei, the Japanese puppet army stationed there has suffered heavy losses.

It can even be said that except for the Hejiayu stronghold, the enemy in the rest of the strongholds has been completely annihilated by himself. The Japanese puppet army on the Pingchuan side may have asked for help from the Japanese puppet army in Hubei County, and even the Japanese army in Changzhi. The Japanese puppet army, which was attacked in the rear and swept through the eastern mountains, was already on its way back to help.

And once the Japanese puppet army returned to help, it not only increased the difficulty of this raid. The most important thing is that in terms of the consistent habits of the Japanese army, this time they took advantage of the cold to make such a guy suffer heavy losses, and it is impossible for them not to retaliate. When the time comes, it will be too late to deal with the ensuing retaliatory sweep of the Japanese army, and there will still be energy to fight the grain train?

As time passed, the target had not yet appeared, which made Li Ziyuan a little anxious. But now not only can't startle the snake, but can't even lure the snake out of the hole. This undoubtedly made Li Ziyuan quite depressed and uncomfortable. In addition to these two points, there is another thing that worries Li Ziyuan even more, that is, Liu Yanlai is actually missing now.

Whether the missing Liu Yanlai will be a traitor or not, Li Ziyuan can be sure. Even if anyone becomes a traitor, Liu Yanlai will never come. But Liu Yanlai, with his correspondents and guards, lost all contact from the time he arrived at the Baijin Railway and was on standby, which undoubtedly made Li Ziyuan a little worried.

Li Ziyuan was in the mountains east of the Baijin Railway, and waited in hiding for three whole days. In the past three days, except for dozens of pseudo-plainclothes soldiers and puppet soldiers who set out from Pingchuan to go to the Qiaokou stronghold to see what was going on, and stepped on the treacherous mines he set up when collecting the corpses of the Japanese soldiers, there was almost no movement in the entire mountainous area in eastern Hubei.

On the Baijin railway line under the mountain, except for two passenger trains and a few wagons, there are no trains transporting grain passing through at all. The Japanese puppet army in the Pingchuan stronghold, except for Pingchuan, which went to Qiaokou to collect the corpse and stepped on a mine, and was blown back to Pingchuan, there was no movement.

The entire eastern mountainous area of Hubei is calm as if nothing had ever happened. In the Ludong area to the north, the commander of the military division who received Li Ziyuan's report commanded the main regiment that was also lurking along the Baijin Railway, and did not find any abnormalities.