Xiao Xiong knew that after this water volley, only more than 20 members of his boat and Wang Yantai were still alive, and the rest of the soldiers of the Einsatzgruppen who participated in the battle were estimated to have all been martyred. They were either killed in battle, or fell into the lake and did not escape the storm on the lake and died in the lake.

Xiao Xiong led everyone to continue sailing towards the south of Poyang Lake, and according to the predetermined plan, the troops who served as feints on the shore and the troops who intercepted on the lake all retreated south after completing their tasks, and rushed to Jiaotang Township in Xingzi County to assemble.

At this time, the sunset has already set behind Lushan, and the night has quietly fallen.

Today is the Lantern Festival, the moon rises from the water of Poyang Lake on the fifteenth, she is so bright, so bright, silently watching the scarred boat and the extremely tired rangers on board.

The night sky of the wide Poyang Lake is full of smoke, and the lake is still dark. Countless geese and cranes that migrate to Poyang Lake in the autumn to spend the winter here, after spending a long and rich winter here, are chattering on the sandbar not far away, perhaps discussing when to start their journey and move back to their homes in the north.

Not far away, on the shore, the silent village was lit up, and several families lit celebratory firecrackers.

Looking at this round of bright jade plates, Xiao Xiong and the others were full of emotion. In order to destroy this batch of poison gas bombs of the devils, the Einsatzgruppen sacrificed so many good brothers. They thought of Hong Min, Hong Zifa, and those familiar comrades-in-arms. Xiao Xiong also thought of Bai Yu and his father.

The boat sailed against the current for about three hours and arrived at Buxia Village in Jiaotang at about 8 o'clock in the evening.

Buxia Village is located in a lake in Jiaotang Township, on the edge of Huzhou in the remote Poyang Lake. In front of the village is a vast meadow, which is now flooded by the rising waters of the lake, creating numerous criss-crossing waterways. Ordinary ships would not dare to enter here, or they might get lost inside.

Before the boat docked, I saw a figure on the shore of the lake near the edge of the village in the distance, and someone was carrying a horse lantern and shouting:

"Is it Yongming?"

"Commander, it's Captain Hu. Hey, Captain Hu, it's us! ”

Jiang Yongming and the team members shouted loudly. Before the boat approached the shore and stopped, the team members on the boat couldn't wait to jump off the boat one by one. They threw themselves on the brothers who were waiting on the shore, and they hugged each other, tears streaming down their eyes. These are tears of victory, and they are also tears of emotion after the catastrophe.

Xiao Xiong and Jiang Yongming got off the boat, and everyone surrounded the two of them. Hu Maosheng, Ren Jie and Ouyang Cunfeng squeezed into the crowd. They could only keep shouting:

"Ahem, let's give up, let's go."

The three of them walked up to Xiao Xiong, and with a "snap", they saluted Xiao Xiong with a military salute.

"Report to the Commander! Hu Maosheng, Ren Jie, and Ouyang Cunfeng completed their tasks and came to report. ”

Xiao Xiong raised his hand to return the salute, stepped forward and hugged the three of them in his arms. His eyes were already moist, and he didn't know what to say to them for a moment.

"Brother Hu, the two brothers have worked hard." After calming down, Xiao Xiong said.

"Did the brothers from across the lake come here?" Xiao Xiong then asked.

"Not yet. If it's all right, they should come over soon. ”

As they spoke, the warriors who were scouting on the sandbar in front shouted in this direction:

"Here they are, here they are."

Sure enough, not long after, I saw more than a dozen fishing boats rowing over on the water, and it was Zhang Shan, Wang Xiaofei, and Ma Changyong who led the brothers who were fighting along the lake in Duchang to come back.

Everyone finally came together. So, while talking, everyone walked to Buxia Village.

According to the pre-plan, Hu Maosheng arranged for a few team members who were familiar with the nearby situation to wait here. The left-behind team members prepared a rich meal early, and they could start the meal when everyone arrived.

Everyone came to the ancestral hall in the village. After everyone was seated, Xiao Xiong swept the people sitting with his eyes, including those standing guard outside, and it was estimated that there were only more than 100 people in total. Xiao Xiong felt a pain in his heart.

This operation to destroy the devil's poison gas bomb concentrated most of the men and horses of the northern Jiangxi guerrilla corps, nearly 1,000 people. After this battle, only these few brothers remained. How is this not heart-wrenching?

After the food was brought up and the dishes and chopsticks were set, Hu Maosheng waved his hand and said:

"Let's be quiet and listen to the commander."

"Captain Hu, how can there be no wine for the Lantern Festival today. Bring the wine! ”

Xiao Xiong stood up and commanded loudly.

"The commander said, serve the wine."

Hu Maosheng hurriedly greeted. I saw a few team members carrying several large wine jars walking forward. They knocked open the sealing mud on the mouth of the wine jar, and then used a bamboo tube for making wine to scoop a full bowl of wine into the bowl in front of each person.

Xiao Xiong picked up the wine bowl and said loudly:

"Brothers, today is the Lantern Festival, and we have successfully completed the task assigned by the Ninth War Zone Commander's Department, sent the devil's transport fleet to the bottom of Poyang Lake, and eliminated all those harmful gas bombs. We finally won. For this first bowl of wine, we want to pay tribute to the brothers who have died valiantly in all the battles, and although they can no longer sit with us and drink, we will make a toast to them. ”

He stepped out of his seat, walked out of the ancestral hall, and came to the court in front of the door. Everyone walked out.

I saw that the fifteenth moon had risen very high, and the moonlight was gently sprinkled on everyone's body and shone on the vast land. The water of Poyang Lake not far away is sparkling in the microwave, and the lake water gently laps the shore of the lake, making a murmur.

Xiao Xiong raised the wine bowl above his head and shouted loudly:

"Brothers who go first, today is the Lantern Festival, although we can't sit together and drink, but the brothers toast you."

After saying that, he slowly spilled half of the wine in the bowl on the ground, and everyone slowly spilled the wine on the ground.

"Brothers in heaven, if you have spirits in heaven, make a toast with us."

He picked up the bowl and drank the wine from the bowl in one gulp. Then, he made a deep bow to the sky. Turned around and walked into the ancestral hall.

Everyone came in. They poured wine again, and Xiao Xiong said:

"Brethren, today we are victorious, but this victory was not easy to come by, and it was God who helped us to eliminate those Japanese devils. Today, we have to pay homage to the gods of Poyang Lake, without their help, we would not have today's victory. Cheers! ”

Everyone drank it all again. Then he poured a third bowl of wine. Xiao Xiong stepped out of his seat, clinked glasses with each of the brothers, and then walked back to his seat. He said:

"Today's holiday, raise your glass, and wish our relatives a safe and happy day."

Everyone raised their glasses and shouted, "Cheers to fellow relatives!" He threw up his head and drained the glass in one gulp.

After three rounds of drinking, everyone sat down. Hu Maosheng, who was full of doubts, couldn't hold back any longer, and he asked:

"Commander, you just said that God helped us, so what's going on? Don't you have thirty boats in total? Why is it that only one of you has come back?"

Xiao Xiong leaned back and was silent. Jiang Yongming quickly took over the topic, and he described the course of today's battle to everyone in detail. When it came to the sudden change in wind and clouds, lightning and thunder, Ren Jie interjected:

"No wonder we heard loud thunder, but when we looked up at the sky, the sun was still in the sky, and it was very clear. That's what happened. ”

Hu Maoxiang also said that they only heard thunder and did not see rain, and the sky was clear.

Jiang Yongming pointed to Wang Yantai again and said:

"We have a trapeze here, let him tell his story."

Wang Yantai, who was immersed in drinking and eating, suddenly heard that he was talking about himself, so he raised his head and wiped his mouth. So he told him how he was swept into the air by the tornado and threw him into the lake a few miles away. Finally he stood up, raised his glass, and said:

"Commander, brothers, today God will not accept my brother, let me stay in the world to drink and eat, they just want me to kill more devils. It seems that if the devil doesn't kill them all, God won't let my old king die! Hahaha, brothers, for us not to die, we can kill more devils in the future, cheers! ”

Hu Maosheng and Zhang Shan reported their respective battles to Xiao Xiong.

The situation on both sides of the strait is basically the same, and the focus of their attacks is to target the patrol boats parked on the shore by devils. As soon as the battle began, they violently attacked the docks, turrets, sentry boxes and outposts of the devils. So not long after the battle began, the devil's patrol boat was basically destroyed or damaged. So, they prepared to retreat. However, the devils who came back to their senses launched a crazy counterattack against them, and there were devil soldiers everywhere, chasing them all the time.

They fought and retreated, and it was not easy to get rid of the devils. But after such a storm, the troops also suffered heavy losses. The team members who broke through only added up to more than 100 people on both sides. They tossed and turned, and waited until it was dark before they arrived. Zhang Shan and the others worked even harder, and they had to row more than ten miles of boats and cross Poyang Lake before they rushed over.

Xiao Xiong picked up the wine bowl again and said loudly:

"Brothers, Brother Yantai said well just now, the devil didn't kill us because God didn't accept us, and he wanted us to kill all the devils. Those who go first must be in heaven, in the Dragon Palace, eating fragrant food and drinking spicy food. We have to continue to work hard to avenge them and kill more devils! ”

"Take revenge, kill the devil!" Everyone raised their wine bowls and roared loudly.

After drinking wine and having dinner, most of the team members followed Hu Maosheng to live in the villager's house, and they didn't have to lay thatch on the villager's house for a long time, put on the floor, and sleep together, because this can at least resist the wind and cold in early spring. The rest of the team followed Xiao Xiong back to the ship.

Several officers came to the only remaining sailboat.

The damaged canopy of the ship had been repaired by Hu Maoxian, and he had the thatch and quilt brought to him. On Poyang Lake in early spring, the weather is still so cold. No wonder people in the area of Poyang Lake said, "The spring breeze does not enter the house, and it is so cold that the cowboy cries". The howling north wind blew in through the cracks in the boat, and everyone couldn't help but shiver. Xiao Xiong asked Minghua to close the seams of the boat as much as possible, so that there would be no wind.

They were all dressed on the bunks in the cabin, with a thick thatch underneath and quilts on their bodies. Everyone doesn't feel so cold when they're huddled together.