After the 2nd Regiment joined up with the baggage battalion, handed over all the captured food, property, and recruits, and left a company of troops to help train the reading battalion and protect the newly liberated Xizhuang, it rushed to the second destination without stopping.

At this time, a regiment had already figured out the exact location of the bandits' lair in Woniu Mountain, and the head of Sun Xingbang was rushing to the back road of the bandits' lair with a battalion, trying to block the bandits' retreat before the bandits discovered the Eighth Route Army.

"Comrades, work hard, it's almost there." The instructors of the first battalion kept shouting at the soldiers, and gradually, some soldiers began to fall to the ground from exhaustion. Commander Sun looked at the soldiers who were lying on the ground tired, and secretly felt guilty in his heart.

"Company commander, you take a platoon to the back to contain the stragglers, remember, there must be no non-combat attrition, our fighters are used to fight devils, and they can't die for a few bandits." Commander Sun said to the commander of the first company.

"Yes, regiment commander, resolutely complete the task and not leave a single comrade behind." The commander of a company left with a platoon and began to contain the soldiers who had fallen to the ground.

Seeing the fallen soldiers being contained and treated by a platoon, Sun Xingbang's heart finally relaxed, and he immediately followed the team and continued to move forward.

Finally, after a two-hour rapid march, the troops came to the designated position specified by the chief of staff. At this time, only two companies remained in the first battalion of three fully manned companies. Looking at the soldiers lying on the ground, Sun Xingbang smiled, because he could have a premonition of the scene when the troops launched a general attack.

And at this moment, the commissar received a telegram from the head of the regiment "arrived at the designated position", looked at the four mortars erected, and looked at the cottage on the top of the hill in the distance, and the commissar shook his head. Originally, Sun Xingbang meant to persuade this gang of bandits to surrender, after all, they were all born poor, but he didn't expect that the bandit leaders here were stubborn, no matter what, they wanted to resist to the end.

"Report to the commissar, the mortar platoon is ready and ready to fire." The commander of the fire support company came to the front of the political commissar Zhao Dahe and said.

"Okay, various gun emplacements, three salvos." The commissar gave the order. The company commander, who received the order, immediately ran back to his position. It didn't take long for the commissar to hear the sound of a cannon being discharged.

"Boom, boom, boom" four shells exploded inside the door of the cottage, and the simple wooden door of the cottage was torn to pieces in an instant, and several bandits were thrown high. The bandit leader hiding in the shadows happened to see the scene of the first round of shells falling, and looking at the broken arm of the residual value thrown high, the bandit leader was immediately stunned, and he could no longer see the high-spirited demeanor of the Reading Brigade just now, and cold sweat broke out on his head.

Soon, the bandit leader knew that he would definitely die here if he stayed here today, and immediately, an escape plan appeared in front of him, and he found one of his most trusted cronies, took all the gold in the cottage, and took dozens of cronies to sneak down the mountain from the back door of the cottage, trying to make a comeback.

Just when the bandits just walked out of the cottage with their belongings, a group of charging horns also sounded, for the current bandit building, the shelling just now has frightened these small soldiers who have never seen the world, and when they saw the group of soldiers at the foot of the mountain under the cover of machine guns, they swarmed and charged upward, and they couldn't stand it anymore, so they could only look blankly at the soldiers who rushed up, and even some bandits directly threw down their guns and lay on the ground.

It can be said that the frontal battlefield came suddenly, and the end was also very sudden, looking at the watch in his hand, the political commissar looked at the second battalion commander who came to report in disbelief, more than 300 bandits were wiped out in less than five minutes, 5 casualties themselves, no casualties, 280 prisoners, a large amount of food and part of the ammunition were captured, and the bandit leader escaped.

"Hehe, so quickly, order the fourth company to pursue the fleeing enemy, and join up with the battalion led by the regiment commander, and strive to eliminate all these bandits, and the remaining soldiers will immediately screen the prisoners, clean up the battlefield, and count the captured materials, the list must be detailed.

At this time, the bandit leader was taking dozens of his cronies to be happy because of his luck to escape, seeing that the battlefield was getting farther and farther away from him, everyone thought that he had taken out the clutches of the Eighth Route Army and was about to rest, but the long-awaited battalion did not let them live long, and as soon as a group of forty or so people sat on the ground, the regiment commander Sun Xingbang shot. "Da Da Da ......" all the firepower of the first battalion opened fire at once, and when the four companies chasing behind arrived, only the task of cleaning up the battlefield remained.

Since the bandit leader brought out all the cronies, it can be said that the equipment was the best among the entire bandits, and the largest delivery of almost all double-spearmen (a barge gun, a domestic rifle) was not weapons, but a box carried by the bandits, in which nearly 5 kilograms of gold and 40,000 silver dollars were found.

Sun Xingbang returned to the bandits' lair with a battalion and seized property, at this moment, the soldiers were collecting supplies everywhere, screening prisoners, after more than an hour of screening, investigated and dealt with several small bandit leaders with blood debts, Sun Xingbang showed no mercy to these people, and immediately shot them. After the continuous mobilization of political workers, 220 of the remaining 260 prisoners were willing to join the Reading Brigade, and Sun Xingbang paid them travel expenses according to the old rules to let them leave after the war.

At this time, all the seized materials were also counted, a total of two light machine guns, 310 rifles were captured in this battle, but the rifling of many rifles were smoothed, a total of 45 shell guns, more than 50,000 bullets, nearly 1,000 grenades, 200,000 catties of grain, 65,000 silver dollars, and 5 kilograms of gold. ：

Haha, political commissar, it's good for us to go back this time, such a big seizure. "Order the soldiers to take away all the food and supplies, and when they are done, burn down the entire cottage." Sun Xingbang gave the order.

Soon, very soon, a regiment of soldiers shouldered, hand-carried, with a large amount of supplies and prisoners willing to join the Eighth Route Army to the base camp Zhangjiazhuang

Finally, a week passed, and the three troops returned to Zhangjiazhuang with the captured materials, looking at the three regiment commanders and political commissars with smiles on their faces, Liu Hua knew that there must be a big harvest this time, and sure enough, a statistical result appeared in front of Liu Hua.

After a week's efforts, a total of three Han annihilation landlords were eliminated, a large amount of food and ammunition were seized, and the most important thing was that the three troops brought back a total of 700 recruits, and now the recruit regiment can be counted as a regiment, and within a week, five more villages were included in the sphere of influence of the Reading Brigade, and each village shed a company of troops for defense, and each village established a reading battalion shelf, but the strength was very small, each battalion had less than one company's strength.

Now Liu Hua will laugh when he sleeps at night, because a large amount of grain has been seized, and several caves in the Woniu Cave in the back mountain have been filled, Liu Hua has probably calculated that the grain is enough for 10,000 people to eat for half a year. Looking at the happy soldiers in front of him, Liu Hua didn't care about discussing with the political commissar, and shouted loudly.

"Comrades, you have been on the expedition for a month and have achieved remarkable results, and now I announce that we have a lot of fat pigs in Xizhuang a few days ago for the entire reading brigade dinner, and now I order the brigade headquarters to kill 10 fat pigs today, and all the soldiers will eat well tonight, and ensure that they are enough."

"Eh, long live the brigade commander" After listening to Liu Hua's words, the comrades shouted excitedly, and even the always calm political commissar and chief of staff nodded again and again. In the evening, the Reading Brigade finally had its best dinner since the beginning of the war. Every camp is filled with laughter.

And just as the soldiers were happily enjoying a sumptuous dinner, Liu Hua received a message from the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army about the current situation on the frontal battlefield and the analysis of the future battle situation, and asked about the situation of the Reading Brigade gaining a foothold and establishing a base in Jindong.

After reading the telegram, Liu Hua knew that Taiyuan had now been lost, and that all the Kuomintang troops in Shanxi had retreated, and that there were only a few stragglers in Shanxi, and that there were no longer regular troops of the Kuomintang Party, and that now was the best opportunity for the Eighth Route Army to develop in Shanxi, and that the General Headquarters had asked all units of the Eighth Route Army to quickly occupy the areas not occupied by the Yue Army, and to send effective troops to establish base areas in the rural areas, and to vigorously develop the base areas by taking advantage of the great opportunity that the Yue Army had no time to take care of us

"Chief of Staff, prepare a telegram to the headquarters about our current situation, send it over, and send all the results of our past few weeks, so that the bosses will be happy and happy." Liu Hua said to the chief of staff next to him who was sorting out the results of the battle.

"Yes, Brigadier Commander, I'll sort out the materials right away." As he spoke, he took out the results and losses of the previous battles.

Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. "Commander-in-Chief, General Peng, a telegram from the Reading Brigade." Zuo Quan, deputy chief of staff, hurriedly ran into the headquarters with a telegram in his hand.

"I said Zuo Quan, what is it that makes you happy like this?" Mr. Peng joked with a smile.

After reading the telegram, Mr. Peng was stunned, is this true? Mr. Peng said to himself.

"What's the matter, Lao Peng, to excite you like this." As he spoke, the commander-in-chief also picked up the telegram. But before I finished reading it, I said excitedly. "The Reading Brigade is really good, Comrade Liu Hua is really good, he really didn't misunderstand him at the beginning?" The commander-in-chief said, slapping the table.

Soon, this telegram was forwarded to Yan'an by the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, and the chairman called Vice Chairman Zhou and others, who sat in the conference room and looked at the map, keeping their eyes on the Woniu Mountain, where Liu Hua is now, along the Zhengtai line.

"Enlai, the place Liu Hua chose is really good, this place is located in the east of Jin, adjacent to Hebei, and there is along the Zhengtai line, which can cut off the enemy's railway traffic at any time. In addition, it is densely populated and is a good place to establish a base, I didn't expect Liu Hua to open up the situation there so quickly, it's really good, it's really good. ”

At this time, I don't know that it is precisely because of the chairman's few words today that he has laid a good foundation for the establishment of the military region in the future, and has made his status in the chairman's heart even higher.

(To be continued)