Wu Ming smiled apologetically at the frightened middle-aged man, put the chair more than a meter in front of the fire pit, and respectfully asked the old village chief to sit down first.

After a few words of greeting, Wu Ming took out a pack of cigarettes to respect the old village chief: "Excuse me, uncle, there is something I need to explain to you, in order to ensure the safety of the flanks of our army's main force, from today onwards, we need to check the people who come and go, and at the same time need the list of the fathers and villagers in the whole village, so as to check the people entering and leaving, and prevent the spies of the communist army from mixing in and disturbing the local stable life." ”

The old village chief was taken aback: "Many people in our village are relatives of the surrounding villages, and there are many businessmen who come and go, so if it is sealed, it will be inconvenient!" ”

"Uncle misunderstood, I didn't say it was sealed! It's just that the people who come and go need to check and ask, we will never embarrass the old folks, let alone do those extortion, I hope the uncle will support more! Wu Ming patiently explained.

The old village chief could only nod: "Okay, I have the household registration list of the whole village at home, so I'll bring it to the chief." ”

"Uncle Xie Lu, Uncle Xie, we won't take away the household registration list, I'll just let someone copy it." Wu Ming motioned to Zhang Dongning to call the two staff officers outside the door in.

The old village chief quickly brought the roster, and Zhang Dongning led two staff officers to meet him, took the roster and copied it on the low table next to him.

Wu Ming invited the old village chief to sit down, turned to the middle-aged man sitting on the grass mound, and asked, "This old brother has your surname?" ”

The middle-aged man hurriedly stood up and replied respectfully: "The contemptible man is also surnamed Zhou, and his family lives in Tangyin Town in the south, and he is Uncle Zhou's nephew. ”

Wu Ming politely invited him to sit down: "It's not easy to walk in Tangyin Town to this place!" The main corps of the Red Army has been stationed in your place for a long time, right? ”

The middle-aged man's heart contracted suddenly: "I, I don't know what to do!" We didn't have the Red Army in that poor place, they had come before, and they were soon gone again. ”

"It's okay, sit down."

Wu Ming asked him to sit down with a smile, and turned to the old village chief who was already pale with fright: "Don't worry, uncle, although the Kuomintang and the Communist Party are fighting, it is a soldier's business, and it will not affect the poor people, at least my troops will not embarrass the civilians who have come into contact with the Red Army, the reason is very simple, my army, including myself, is also from a poor family, and I know that all the ordinary people and villagers in this troubled world are not easy to live." ”

The old village chief hurriedly echoed: "Yes, yes! It's not easy! ”

Wu Ming took out two boxes of cigarettes and stuffed them into the hands of the old village chief, stood up and said goodbye amicably: "The little nephew still has to go to the south to have a look, so I won't disturb your old man's house, my two staff officers will leave immediately after copying the list, and I have to trouble you to inform the villagers of the card check, so that everyone will panic, please forgive me for the inconvenience!" ”

The old village chief trembled with two boxes of cigarettes, and just wanted to return them, Wu Ming had already strode out of the door, and the two guards standing at the door followed closely, blocking most of Wu Ming's figure in a blink of an eye.

The old village chief sighed helplessly, put the cigarette in his pocket and went back to sit down, lifted the pipe and lit it to smoke silently, and waited for the two staff officers to finish copying the roster and leave, he pulled the middle-aged man into the back room, and asked worriedly: "It seems that the head of Wu just now suspected you, what should I do?" ”

The middle-aged man was even more panicked: "Uncle, you said that I would leave now, would he let me leave?" ”

The old village chief was stunned for a long time: "It's hard to say! This young head Wu seems to be kind, but in fact he is full of city, gloomy, and frightening! ”

The middle-aged man was even more nervous: "Uncle, no matter what, I have to bring the news here back to the south immediately!" This Commander Wu is amazing, and his officers and soldiers look very shrewd, they must be the elite troops of the Central Army! If I don't send the news back, what if the main force still thinks that the previous white dog is guarding here, and is ignorant and comes up to fight? How many people have to die? ”

The old village chief stomped his feet anxiously: "You can't call over!" They built new fortifications at all the intersections, high and low, inside and outside, all of them were equipped with machine guns, and there were people watching on the hills where there were no sentry posts, and I saw that many of them had telescopes, and if you six or seven hundred people came in and were discovered, it would not be enough for machine guns to fight! ”

"I know it! I know the truth! I'm anxious about how to get out of the village and rush back! Uncle, you must help me anyway! "The middle-aged man is really anxious.

The old village chief hurriedly signaled him to be quiet, turned around twice and made up his mind: "Forget it!" I'll send you out, and they'll have to give me some face. ”

The middle-aged man was overjoyed: "Or go west?" ”

"How do you go west? You have to detour forty miles of mountain roads, can you catch up? The old village chief asked worriedly.

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth: "If you can't catch up, you have to catch up!" Didn't the head of the white dog just now say that he wanted to go to the south to have a look? You can't go south, otherwise he will be suspicious, so go west! ”

"Good! Follow me, through the back door! ”

The old village chief sent his distant nephew out of the west entrance of the village, and did not return with confidence until he could not see the shadow, but he knew that the sudden change in the faces of the two of them just now had aroused Wu Ming's suspicions, and he made arrangements for this.

The middle-aged man who successfully passed through the west entrance of the village walked out of the three-mile road, saw that no one behind him finally breathed a sigh, and did not care to observe the front under the dry mouth, strode to the spring under the mountain road, squatted beside a pool of clear spring water and stretched out his hands, but was shocked to see the clear reflection on the water surface.

"Don't move, I won't hurt you, you drink, drink it later." A cold voice sounded in front of the side.

The middle-aged man only felt that his ears were roaring, his scalp was numb, and he didn't care about drinking water, so he stood up suddenly, gritted his cheeks, stared at the heavily armed soldier in front of him, and asked, "I know who you are, and which Wu regiment commander are you, right?" What do you want? ”

The tall Han Tiecheng smiled: "Don't be nervous, our head of the regiment asked you to bring a message back, please don't come over your team, we won't take the initiative to attack, everyone will be safe." ”

"I don't understand what you're talking about." The middle-aged man quickly calmed down.

Han Tiecheng smiled and quickly sank his face: "Don't come with me, I've seen too much, I really want you to tell the truth very simply!" Okay, you go, be careful all the way, from here to the south you have to go to the west of Liu Jiayuan first, after Liu Jiayuan can go south along the east of the village road, along the way over the mountains and mountains have to cross the river three times, nine bends and eighteen bends, it is estimated that you will not be able to get to the south of the Huanglian pit tonight, Ha Lu Ha! ”

The middle-aged man was completely dumbfounded, he never thought that this group, which had just arrived for less than a day, would know so much about the surrounding mountain trails.

The middle-aged man had forgotten his thirst, and quickly left under the gaze of the tall soldiers, ran out of the Wuli Mountain Road in one breath, threw himself into the roadside stream like a prostration, soaked his head in the stream and drank a few sips of water, turned over and lay on the damp side of the stream and gasped loudly.

At 10 o'clock in the morning of the next day, Zhou Dezhi, a middle-aged man with a sweaty face and a haggard face, finally rushed to the north of Tangyin Town, where the Fourth Division of the Red Army was located, and entered the division headquarters in the town with the support of the sentry, and reported what he had seen and heard to the leaders of the division headquarters who were urgently concentrated.

After listening to Zhou Dezhi's report, Guo Tianming, commander of the Red Army's ** Fourth Division, who graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, asked a few more key questions, and after commending him, he ordered the guards to carry Zhou Dezhi down to rest, and immediately surrounded the map with political commissar Xie Weijun and two regiment commanders, and the two staff officers hurriedly marked the situation of Wu Ming's regiment on the map.

Guo Tianming couldn't help but sigh after reading the fortifications marked in the three directions of Maopai Ling: "I didn't expect Chen Cheng's reaction to be so fast, blocking all the passages of our flank attack, and even Baiguozhai, a narrow mountain road along the river to the north, was blocked, and the defenders increased from a battalion to a regiment, and also scattered the patrol team ten miles away, which is a strong enemy!" ”

"Didn't figure out the group number?" Xie Weijun asked for the second time.

Guo Tianming shook his head: "The secrecy measures of this regiment are quite good, according to Zhou Dezhi's report, the commander of this regiment is surnamed Wu, with a Nanchang accent, from Chen Cheng's former enemy headquarters, and it is speculated that it is likely to be a ** regiment directly under the guard mission, and there is an important piece of information, this regiment does not carry artillery, but there are a lot of light machine guns and machine guns, and the equipment is a typical guard unit." ”

Deng Tingqian, the 30-year-old commander of the 1st regiment, was very unconvinced, this veteran soldier from Shanghang, Fujian Province, participated in the third anti-encirclement and suppression and the previous battle to encircle and annihilate the 52nd Division, and looked down on the Kuomintang guard unit that fled the fastest: "No matter how many light machine guns there are, there is no combat effectiveness if there are no people!" You see, as soon as this regiment arrived at Maopailing, it rushed to repair the fortifications, except for the road leading to Nancheng in the east, which did not repair the fortifications, the other three directions were all repaired, so it can be seen that the commander of this regiment is definitely a coward who does not seek merit but seeks no fault! ”

Guo Tianming asked kindly: "Then how to explain the fact that they found out Zhou Dezhi's identity?" ”

"I guess they didn't recognize the identity of Platoon Leader Zhou, but cheated, and they just gave up if they couldn't get any fame, otherwise how could they let Zhou Platoon leave peacefully?" Political Commissar Xie Weijun put forward his own views and immediately won the support of the two regiment leaders.

Guo Tianming, who was puzzled, pondered for a long time: "Do you think you need to change the previous raid plan?" ”

The stakes were high, and the two regiment commanders kept their mouths shut in amusement.

Political commissar Xie Weijun thought about it for a long time and put forward a compromise plan: "Maopai Ling is located in the throat position between Nancheng and Yihuang, and it is a surprise attack channel that our army's First Army attaches great importance to. Moreover, it is not equipped with artillery and heavy machine guns, and at most it is two infantry battalions, so it can be seen that Maopai Ridge has not yet attracted the attention of the enemy, and our army can implement it according to the original plan. ”

Deng Tingqian immediately agreed: "I agree with the political commissar's opinion!" In three days, the main forces of our army are about to launch a campaign, and our division, as the right-wing vanguard of the 1st Red Army, is the unshirkable responsibility to conquer Maopai Ridge and ensure the rapid penetration of the main force. ”

The steady and cautious commander of the Second Regiment also agreed with Xie Weijun and Deng Tingqian's opinion, saying that the task of the headquarters could not be changed, otherwise there would be a huge change in the operational plan of the entire left wing troops' more than 20,000 officers and men, which by no means could be done in a short period of time.

Guo Tianming finally put aside his worries and agreed with everyone's opinions, but he still said that he would immediately report the latest situation to the commander of the legion, Lin Biao.