At night, thirteen kilometers southwest of Maopai Ridge, Nanhua Mountain.

At the west foot of the majestic and beautiful Nanhua Mountain, there is a village called Sanpi Village, where the stream flowing out of the southwest mountain surrounds the village, flows six miles with three bends and two folds, and flows into the Li River from west to east, and flows to the Maopailing Village eighteen miles away in the east.

If calculated in a straight line, Nanhua Mountain is only eight kilometers away from Maopai Ling, because the mountains are towering and the forests are reckless, you can only walk along the road by the stream, so the distance reaches 13 kilometers.

However, the local residents also know that there is a sheep intestine trail hidden in the dense forest of the canyon, this road does not need to pass through the confluence of two streams in the north, but only needs to climb over the cold wind mountain in the east, and the exit is a small mountain village only five miles west of Maopailing Village.

The officers and men of the 2nd Regiment of the **4th Division were responsible for attacking the west entrance of Maopailing Village.

The vast majority of the officers and men are veterans who have participated in all the anti-encirclement and suppression campaigns in the past two years, and four of the only six Makqin water-cooled heavy machine guns in the whole division belong to the Second Regiment, which is good at fighting tough battles.

In order to facilitate the command of the adjacent Third Regiment to attack the northwest entrance of Maopailing, division commander Guo Tianming and political commissar Xie Weijun personally followed the Second Regiment on the march day and night, and finally entered Sanpi Village at the western foot of Nanhua Mountain, which had a relatively good revolutionary foundation, before nightfall.

The 800 officers and men, who had been tired for a day and a night, hurriedly ran down to sleep after using dry food, and Guo Tianming and Xie Weijun were patrolling everywhere to comfort the wounded and sick, while at the same time waiting for the three reconnaissance teams to send back the information.

Seeing that the dark clouds in the night sky gradually converged, and the rising moon disappeared into the clouds from time to time, Guo Tianming, who returned to the land temple at the entrance of the village, was a little anxious, and was about to go out to ask for news, when he heard a rush of footsteps, Guo Tianming immediately greeted him, and Xie Weijun, who was recording his diary in front of the dim oil lamp, also put away his pen and notebook.

The second regiment commander personally led the old company commander who went out to reconnoiter to Guo Tianming and Xie Weijun, and after entering the house together, he didn't have time to take a sip of water, and the old company commander from Ningdu immediately reported the situation:

"Division commander and political commissar, it seems that we have been discovered by the enemy, and the enemy has suddenly abandoned the temporary checkpoint at the confluence of the two rivers in the north, and together with the swimming patrol team, all retreated to Xiaofang Village, five miles outside the west entrance of Maopai Ridge, and the three log sandbag fortifications temporarily erected are just erected on the highest hill at the head of the village, blocking the exit of the hidden path, and ......"

"Wait!"

Guo Tianming interrupted the old company commander's words: "Lao Pan, you just said that all the enemy's guards retreated to Xiaofang Village, five miles outside the west entrance of Maopai Ridge, and three fortifications were temporarily erected? In this case, the enemy's secret sentry must have discovered you, so why did you still allow you to sneak into the mouth of the village to observe? ”

The stocky bearded old Pan nodded bitterly: "Yes! At that time, I was also surprised that in the valley two miles away from the entrance of Xiaodong Village, I could clearly hear the barking of dogs, which was very loud and deep, and it was by no means the barking of ordinary watchdogs and local red-haired retrievers...... At that time, our class was frightened, and after waiting for half an hour without moving, I really had no choice, so I had to take two brothers with good skills to quietly touch it, but as soon as I crossed the bend of the mountain and entered the straight road by the stream, I saw three large wooden signs inserted between the road twenty meters ahead, with two lines of eye-catching large characters written on them......"

"What word?"

Guo Tianming and Xie Weijun asked urgently in unison.

Lao Pan swallowed his dry throat hard, and said word by word in a hoarse voice: "Eight words: Be careful of mines, go back!" ”

Guo Tianming and Xie Weijun looked at each other, and they both clearly saw the shock in each other's eyes. Ling Yun, the second regiment commander on the side, had a face as black as the bottom of a pot, and only the two political work officers who accompanied the team exclaimed.

Xie Weijun asked first: "Lao Pan, have you seen clearly?" ”

Lao Pan nodded helplessly: "I saw clearly, I fought the danger of being killed, climbed behind the stone more than three meters in front of the first wooden row, and clearly saw the new wooden sign half the size of a small table, and wrote these eight big characters in ink. ”

"Drink saliva first, everything is almost dumb." Ling Yun picked up the teapot on the table and handed it over.

Lao Pan was not polite, took it and drank it dry in a few sips, and continued to report with a long breath:

"After withdrawing, the more I thought about it, the more unwilling I became, and immediately climbed up the side of the rear more than 100 meters of the mountainside, when it was not dark, quite bright, I clearly saw the three newly built log sandbag fortifications on the high ground at the entrance of the village, I did not expect that the enemy in the fortification was holding a telescope to look at me, and one of them also pulled out a red flag and shook at me...... Outside the fortifications there were two other enemies in steel helmets, leading a large wolf dog, barking in my direction with the laughter of the enemy......"

"Alas! Division commander, political commissar, my old Pan has never experienced such a thing since the second anti-encirclement and suppression, and he is confident that he has walked very secretly and cautiously along the way, but he was still discovered, and it is estimated that he was killed by the big wolf dog from nowhere! ”

Guo Tianming and Xie Weijun gasped, and the two officers and several division staff officers who surrounded them were also shocked, and the small temple was extremely silent for a while, and it seemed that even the sound of heartbeat could be heard.

Guo Tianming, who was the first to react, took a deep breath: "Our army has never encountered enemy mines since its formation, and there are very few mines in China, I heard that only Jinling Arsenal and Yan Xishan's Shanxi Arsenal can be manufactured, the last time I heard the news of mines was last year's Songhu Anti-Japanese War, the two ace divisions of the Central Army used it once, it seems to have no effect, and I haven't heard of it again, I didn't expect it to appear in front of us now, and put up a sign to remind us, what the hell is going on?" ”

Everyone looked at each other, but Lao Pan smiled bitterly, as if he didn't know how to explain it.

Xie Weijun asked anxiously: "I'm afraid that the first and third regiments have also encountered such a situation...... Now that the enemy has discovered us, this battle cannot be fought. ”

The tall and thin acting director of the political department of the division was anxious: "How can this work?" If you don't leave Maopai Ridge, how can you explain to your superiors? ”

Ling Yun raised his head in annoyance: "How can you fight after all this?" The enemy is clearly in a position to wait for work, and the most odious thing is that they still have wolf dogs...... I know this thing best, when I was young, I was hunting at home, when my hunting dog was downwind, he could smell the smell of prey or living people across the five miles, and a well-trained dog could find an abnormality across a mountain, and he would bark loudly and manically, obviously unable to sneak attack...... Since we can't sneak attack, what do we do with an enemy who has a lot of firepower and occupies an advantageous terrain? ”

The acting director of the political department was also anxious, but no matter how anxious he was, he couldn't say why.