Du Jiang, a ragged and dirty intelligence staff officer, followed the brothers of the two reconnaissance teams along the path and soon found a large team resting in a field.

When he saw the officers and men of the patriotic battalion who were on guard with guns and the large number of civilians around him, intelligence staff officer Du Jiang was happy and felt guilty at the same time.

At the beginning, they followed the deputy captain Yuan Guangtao to withdraw from Huaiyin City in a panic, and left countless brothers and people in the city.

Later, when they heard the news that the people in the city did not break through, Du Jiang and the others were extremely self-blaming, thinking that they had harmed the people in the city.

Now that they have seen so many people successfully break through, they finally feel better.

Soon Du Jiang, an intelligence staff officer, was brought to Zhang Liechen, the deputy chief of the team, and Zhang Liechen almost couldn't recognize this embarrassed person as Du Jiang.

"Sir......

Intelligence staff officer Du Jiang gathered his feet and stood up to salute Zhang Liechen, and in a short period of time, he encountered many changes, and he was choked up for a while.

In the past few days, the Northern Jiangsu Guerrilla Corps has encountered many things, many people have broken up, and many people have never seen each other again, and Zhang Liechen, the deputy commander, also understands Du Jiang's feelings.

"Don't say anything, just come back alive."

Zhang Liechen looked at the embarrassed Du Jiang and hurriedly asked someone to bring some food.

Soon someone sent over clean water and some dry food, and Du Jiang and the others were also hungry, and they didn't care about their image, so they devoured it.

"Why just a few of you? What about the others? ”

Although Zhang Liechen, the deputy captain, was very unhappy with Yuan Guangtao and the soldiers and civilians in the city who abandoned the soldiers and civilians in the city and fled for their lives, he had to inquire now.

"We went north after leaving the city, and encountered a Japanese puppet army on the way, we fought a battle, most of the people were scattered, I followed Chief Yuan when I was about to enter the mountain and encountered an attack by bandits, I finally stood out, and Chief Yuan They were also scattered, and I don't know if they fell into the hands of bandits without ......"

Du Jiang, an intelligence staff officer, briefly reported some of the things he had encountered along the way to Zhang Liechen, the deputy head of the team.

Zhang Liechen, the deputy captain of the team, expressed sympathy when he heard what happened to them, and finally heard that they had encountered bandits on the edge of the mountain, and his face became extremely solemn.

"Tell me more about what you encountered with bandits."

Now Zhang Liechen is responsible for taking the people and logistics units into the mountains, if there are bandits in front, it will be much more dangerous, and Zhang Liechen cannot afford not to pay attention to it.

"There is a group of bandits, I don't know where they came from, there are about two or three hundred people, but the combat effectiveness is not very strong......

Du Jiang made a report on the situation of the bandits they encountered, which made Zhang Liechen finally breathe a sigh of relief.

If there were only two or three hundred bandits, Zheng Gang's patriotic battalion that was responsible for guarding them could handle it, but if it encountered stronger bandits, it would be troublesome.

After the deputy captain Zhang Liechen asked about some things, he let Du Jiang have a good rest in the team first, and as for sending someone to inquire about the deputy captain Yuan Guangtao, he would arrange it.

After settling Du Jiang and the others, Zhang Liechen immediately convened an emergency meeting.

They thought that they had gotten rid of the pursuers of the devils behind them, and everything would be fine as long as they entered the mountains, but now that new problems were placed in front of them, Zhang Liechen could not be careless.

Zheng Gang, the battalion commander of the patriotic battalion, Sun Chong, the quartermaster chief, Wang Dongming, the deputy battalion commander, and Liu Sheng, the intelligence chief, rushed over from all over after being notified.

"We just met Staff Officer Du from the scattered intelligence department, and they were attacked by a group of two or three hundred bandits in a village on the edge of the mountain......

Deputy Captain Zhang Liechen first introduced the situation to everyone, and when he heard that there were bandits in front of him, everyone looked at each other, and his feelings had just escaped from the tiger's mouth and fell into the wolf's den again?

"It's just two or three hundred bandits, and our battalion can deal with them." Zheng Gang, commander of the patriotic battalion, took the lead in expressing his position.

"Camp Commander Zheng, don't be impatient, I think since there are bandits on the edge of the mountain, then there must be a lot of bandits in the mountain, once we know that we are carrying good things, we will definitely not give up, once they rush up, we will be in trouble."

After hearing the words of the deputy captain Zhang Liechen, he could only look pale, if it was really as Zhang Liechen said, then the situation was really not optimistic.

They are now such a huge contingent, and the common people, plus some personnel of the Northern Jiangsu Guerrilla Corps, are tens of thousands.

Although there were a large number of people, the only ones who could really fight were three companies, and they carried a lot of food and military supplies brought out from Huaiyin.

It can be said that they are now a big piece of fat, and if the bandits in the mountains are targeted, it will definitely not be a good thing.

"But now we have to go into the mountains, so many people stay outside the mountains, the devils will find us sooner or later."

Zhang Liechen opened his mouth and said: "I don't mean not to enter the mountain, but to hide here first, send people into the mountain to find out the situation and then enter the mountain, if you enter the mountain so recklessly, if you get into the bandits' den, it will be troublesome." ”

"I agree to find out the situation first before entering the mountain, then the people from our intelligence department will send someone out to investigate, where there are bandits, where they can stay, find out first." Director of Intelligence Liu Sheng said.

"We have to hurry up on this matter, after all, our back is not safe, once the devil catches up, our people will not be able to stop it for long." Zhang Liechen advised.

"By the way, let the brothers who went out to inquire about the situation pay attention to our scattered brothers, and bring them back when they meet them."

"Yes!"

Director of Intelligence Liu Sheng nodded, and then got up and went out to make arrangements.

After seeing Liu Sheng leave, Zhang Liechen instructed the battalion commander Zheng Gang: "Your people must be on guard, and the sentries are placed five miles away." ”

"Yes."

Zheng Gang also felt that the courage on his shoulders was very heavy, and the safety of tens of thousands of people was all pressed on the brothers of their three companies.

"All of our wounded have been moved to the woods to hide, and the people have been evacuated, so as not to be discovered by the devil planes in the sky."

......

Because of the bandits found in front of them, the entire retreating team had to stop and wait for the people at the newspaper office to find out the surrounding situation before they moved.

All the people from the intelligence department went out to the mountains to find out about the bandits, but before the people from the intelligence department could send back the news, the bandits came to the door first.

The bandits of the Black Wolf Village targeted the remnants of the Northern Jiangsu Guerrilla Corps who had withdrawn from Huaiyin, and they were more familiar with the area.

Although Zhang Liechen and the others were well concealed, but such a large team entered this area, and it didn't take long for the bandits of the Black Wolf Village to figure out their location.

Black Wolf Village also suffered a loss when it fought with Du Jiang and them before, but he didn't expect to be beaten by more than a dozen people and suffered heavy losses.

This also makes the bandits in the Black Wolf Village also emaciated camels bigger than horses, even if the Northern Jiangsu Guerrilla Corps is defeated in the hands of devils, they can't eat it in one bite.

Therefore, they changed their strategy and used the deputy captain Yuan Guangtao as a threat, and sent people to Zhang Liechen's side to ask for ransom, hoping to make a windfall.