The tall man made Shi Zebo, the well-proportioned commander of the first battalion, look a little thin. Shi Zebo put down the binoculars and said a little proudly: "The troops are well covered, and it is difficult for Lao Maozi to find even if he passes near them." ”

Because the people who went to Manchuria to participate in the war in Manchuria were accustomed to calling the Soviet army Lao Maozi, especially the personnel from the Northeast who were even more inseparable, so that now the Fourth Route Army has almost completely recognized this name.

Wang Dehuan, the deputy battalion commander, was only in his early twenties, and he was an old man in the Fourth Route Army when he was in Tianjin, and he was transferred to Shi Zebo's battalion not long ago.

Wang Dehuan said with great admiration: "I have long heard that the battalion commander is very good at leading troops and training. I also heard that when the battalion commander was a company commander in the Nationalist Third Army, he was surrounded by a regiment of the Feng Army for a day, and the strength of the Feng Army was ten times that of you, but in the end you led his troops to break through. ”

Shi Zebo was very conceited and said: "If a unit wants to be able to fight, in addition to the soldiers' skills and tactics must be excellent, the commander must command the law. Although the weapons and equipment of the Feng army are very good, they can be regarded as first-class in the country, and most of the soldiers' physical fitness is not bad, but most of their officers have no brains, and the more senior the officers, the more so. Another point is the Achilles' heel of the Northeast Army, that is, their will to fight is not strong, and it can even be said that the Northeast Army is worse than the fighting will of any army in the Guannai. ”

Wang Dehuan nodded and said approvingly: "What you said is not bad, otherwise during the Middle East Road incident, hundreds of thousands of Northeast Army troops would not have asked our commander-in-chief to take action personally." ”

Shi Zebo looked at Wang Dehuan and said, "However, I really admire our commander-in-chief's training. When I was a company commander in the Nationalist Third Army, I paid great attention to the training of snipers, and I specialized in fighting the enemy's commanders and machine gunners in battle. ”

Wang Dehuan said with a smile: "I think I was the best sniper in our battalion back then, and there was no missing bullet at a stationary target within 200 meters. The activity target within 100 meters, as long as it is targeted by me, there is a chance that it will not be able to run away. ”

"Oh! Then we can compete that day. ”

Shi Zebo then said with some emotion: "There are also 'one point and two sides', 'three three systems', 'three fierce tactics', 'four fast and one slow', 'four groups and one team', these clever tactics are all from the hands of the commander-in-chief!" Our commander-in-chief is simply a genius military strategist! ”

Referring to Song Zhewu, Wang Dehuan also said with reverence: "That's natural, our Fourth Route Army can develop and grow all the way from Tianjin to today, and it will never be possible without the commander-in-chief." Looking at the country, whether it is Li Zongren, Feng Yuxiang, or Yan Xishan, these big warlords who wanted to dominate the world back then have not all been defeated under our commander-in-chief. ”

Wang Dehuan took out a beautifully packaged box of "Chinese Cigarettes" produced by the Taiyuan Branch, took out a cigarette with a filter, and handed it to Shi Zebo.

He said in a tone full of reverence: "The commander-in-chief is not only a genius military strategist, but if you want me to see it, he is simply a god descending to earth. I heard from my fellow countrymen in the security unit of the research institute that many of the new gadgets produced by Xinghua Company that foreigners did not have were invented by the commander-in-chief and his students, and even the university scholars in the research institute admired the commander-in-chief very much. ”

Wang Dehuan lit a cigarette for Shi Zebo and said: "Let's just talk about this filter, it is magnificent when you smoke it, and it won't make your mouth full of tobacco, you know?" This was also invented by our commander-in-chief. I heard that many foreigner cigarette factories bought this patent, and they all rushed to buy it with a lot of money. ”

This cigarette filter is indeed a financial way that Song Zhewu thought of again, and now not only European and American manufacturers have purchased his patent rights, but also become popular very fast, in just half a year, filter cigarettes have become popular in Europe and the United States.

For a filter, Song Zhewu charged a patent fee of 0.1 cents. However, don't underestimate this inconspicuous 0.1 cent, now this item Song Zhewu has millions of dollars a month, with the wider popularity of filters, the patent fee will rise sharply in the future.

However, Wang Dehuan will not understand these things.

Wang Dehuan seemed to suddenly remember something, pulled Shi Zebo, and whispered: "Battalion commander, the commander-in-chief not only pays attention to military training, but also pays the most attention to combat merits, and those who can fight are promoted very quickly in our Fourth Route Army. With your ability, you can fight a few battles well, and you will definitely be able to become a brigade commander or division commander. ”

Shi Zebo said with some indignation: "Lao Tzu graduated from the eighth phase of Baoding Military Academy, and was promoted to battalion commander by Commander Xu during the Second Northern Expedition, but after joining the Jin Sui Army with Commander Xu, Yan Xishan was only willing to promote Shanxi people and squeeze out the people of our former National Army. ”

"And the old commander Xu is indifferent, and he is unwilling to fight with Yan Xishan, which makes us old subordinates suffer, I also made a lot of achievements in the Central Plains War, but I am still a battalion commander. Looking at Ma Liang, a Shanxi native who graduated from the Northern Military Academy, he was already a division commander. ”

"I have long heard that the commander-in-chief is a soldier, and this time I will follow Chief of Staff Chu to join our Fourth Route Army in Jingcheng, and I am ready to do a big job."

Shi Zebo smiled again and whispered: "Tell you kid, I want to be a military commander in my life." ”

Looking at Wang Dehuan's slightly surprised expression, Shi Zebo put away his smile, looked at the shiny new watch on his wrist and said, "These are all afterwords, we have to fight the battle in front of us first." Come, we're on the table. ”

Wang Dehuan looked at the new watch on his wrist that was the same as Shi Zebo, and with some anxiety, he took out a gold-shelled exquisite pocket watch from his arms, and after comparing it, he compared it with Shi Zebo.

In the Fourth Route Army, officers above the regimental level were issued watches by the headquarters, but those watches were Swiss watches purchased from foreign companies. Since May this year, the No. 2 Precision Instrument Factory of the Northern Machinery and Equipment Company was able to produce its own watches, and now the officers of the Fourth Route Army and above have been issued watches. The watch worn by the two is this Polaris brand watch.

Shi Zebo looked at Wang Dehuan and said teasingly: "I wish I had joined the Fourth Route Army earlier, with such a high salary as the Fourth Route Army, I will also get a gold watch to wear." It's a pity that I came late and have a family, so I don't have the money to buy your gold watch now. However, I see that this Polaris brand watch is no worse than your gold watch, it is more foreign to wear, and it is also waterproof. ”

Wang Dehuan was a little embarrassed and explained embarrassedly: "You don't know, my family was also a rich family when I was young, but my father smoked a lot and made the family bankrupt." My father sold his most beloved gold watch before he died, and this incident is still fresh in my memory. When I became a soldier, I always wanted to buy a gold watch when I had money......"

The big war is approaching, but Shi Zebo and Wang Dehuan, who are the commanders of the first battalion, do not talk about the war, but they easily talk about content that has nothing to do with the war, which makes the somewhat depressed atmosphere in the cover department a lot easier, and the expressions of the two staff officers gradually relaxed. In the telephone contact with the companies, the tone was not as stiff as just now.

In fact, this is not that Shi Zebo underestimated the enemy, on the contrary, he attached great importance to this ambush battle, and he personally selected the ambush positions of each company, and even the location of the machine gun fire points and mortars of each company He personally saw them one by one.

The reason why he pretended to be relaxed and chatted with Wang Dehuan was because he found that many people, including Wang Dehuan, were a little nervous about this battle, and excessive nervousness was not conducive to the upcoming battle command.

The soldiers of the Mountain Division are all elite soldiers, which Shi Zebo discovered when he was in Jingcheng. However, this unit is too young, and although most of the soldiers are very strong in individual skills, they seriously lack actual combat experience. Although the Mountain Division and Li Sichi's 41st Army joined forces to force the Jin Sui Army led by Chu Xichun to cover the mission, the Jin Sui Army had no fighting spirit and no fighting spirit at that time, and that battle could not even be called a real battle.

And this is precisely the reason why Shi Zebo chose to go to the mountain division.

He believed that such an excellent foundation as a mountain division would become a truly elite division after only a few victories and major battles. It's just that the premise is that the first few battles must be won, so that this army can develop a sharp spirit, even arrogance. But if it is defeated, even a small defeat, it will have a very bad impact on this too young army, and it will be very detrimental to the future development.

A hurried phone ringing interrupted the conversation.

Without waiting for the staff officer on the side to pick it up, Shi Zebo stepped over and grabbed the phone.

The call came from the regimental commander.

The regiment commander was born in the Northwest Army and a native of Shandong, and his loud voice shook Shi Zebo's eardrums, and even Wang Dehuan, who was standing on the side, could hear it clearly.

"I just received the reconnaissance report, and in an hour, the advance of the Soviet transport unit will enter the ambush area, and the top soldier of the Soviet army is a platoon of pseudo-Mongolian cavalry. According to the investigation, this puppet Mongolian army searched very carefully along the way, and told your troops that they were all covered for me, who leaked the target, don't blame Lao Tzu for being polite. ”

"There is also a new situation, the twelve tanks of the Soviet tank company, the position of the march that I informed you yesterday has changed, and now six tanks are opening the road in front, two in the middle, and four in formation. Your task is heavy, and now it's too late to draw anti-tank forces from the second battalion to you, so you can only rely on yourselves. You must block the way of the Soviet army to me, and you must not let a Soviet army go in this battle. ”

"Yes, please rest assured that a battalion will never let go of a single Soviet soldier." Shi Zebo replied loudly.

On the other end of the phone, the regiment commander groaned a little, and then admonished: "Enpeng, among the three battalion commanders of our regiment, you have the most combat experience and have fought a lot of vicious battles, so I have entrusted you with the most difficult task." This is the first battle between our regiment and Lao Maozida, and it can only succeed, not fail. Whether this battle can be fought well depends on whether you can block Lao Maozi, Lao Maozi is still very combative, especially if you have to knock out their tanks first. You must not underestimate the enemy! ”

(To be continued)