Before the death of the battalion commander Feng Changzhi, several company commanders of the second battalion were rarely directly ordered by the instructor in military operations, let alone this order that seemed a little unreasonable. But now that the battalion commander has died, and the deputy battalion commander is not in Hongxing Gorge, the instructor's order is undoubtedly the ultimate order! Wang Shuanglong, Wei Xin and Lu Dajiang glanced at each other a few times, and then immediately raised their hands in salute and shouted:

"Yes!"

Since the main force of the second battalion pulled out of the Hongxing Gorge, Lu Dajiang led the 8th company to start a large-scale construction in this wide canyon, although the weather was cold and the ground was freezing and the start of construction was difficult, but at this moment when the main force of the second battalion was forced to shrink back, the garrison conditions of the Hongxing Gorge have been greatly improved. In addition to the original tents, new simple barracks made of various stones and woods lined up half of the canyon. Chen Shu, an officer of the 2nd Battalion Headquarters, had studied civil engineering design in Shanghai before joining the Red Army in the Soviet District, and this time the 8th Company stayed behind in Hongxingxia, and instructor Liu Shu asked him to stay with him in order to guide the commanders and fighters of the 8th Company in building this base area in Shanouchi. Now it seems that this is a good move, under the auspices of Officer Chen, the layout of the barracks and fortifications in Hongxingxia is very reasonable, and all the officers and men of the second battalion who have returned here are amazed and praised.

Liu Shu chose a relatively leeward spacious house as the new battalion headquarters. The instructor was mentally prepared to concurrently serve as the commander of the second battalion: Deputy battalion commander Wu Zijian must then accept party and military discipline, and even if he is not dismissed, he must at least be demoted. Looking at the entire second battalion of the forest division at present, apart from himself, there is no suitable candidate who can take over as the battalion commander, the supreme military commander.

Suddenly, Liu Shu realized that Zhang Xiu had not appeared in his sight for a long time, and the new battalion headquarters needed to be arranged; In addition, some of the contents related to the party group meeting of the second battalion also need to be briefed to her in advance. But where did this Niko go?!

The instructor ordered the people around her to go to Zhang Xiu and asked her to return to the battalion headquarters and start her work as soon as possible. Of course, Liu Shu was still thinking about finding an opportunity to ask her further about the detailed process of being captured by the devil when only he and Zhang Xiu were present. Liu Shu secretly hoped that at the village office in Xiping Village that night, the Japanese soldiers who captured Zhang Xiu did not touch her body.

Zhang Xiu was busy running in the Red Star Gorge at the moment. On the one hand, she helped the health squad of the battalion headquarters to deal with the minor and serious wounded; On the other hand, she also collected casualty figures between companies. Among them, the latter item is the statistical work that the battalion commander Feng Changzhi will inevitably hand over to her after every major battle when he was still alive.

When the correspondent sent by Liu Shu finally found Zhang Xiu, who was very busy, in the huge canyon, she had already collected the statistics of all the companies, including the units directly under the battalion headquarters, and learned that the instructor was looking for her in a hurry, Zhang Xiu went straight to the new battalion headquarters that had just established the location.

Looking at the numbers in Zhang Xiu's hand, Liu Shu's heart became irrepressibly indignant again.

The 2nd Battalion does not count the 5th Company and the battalion that are still stranded in Hekou Village, which belong to the enemy's engineering team, heavy machine gun squad, and the cavalry company whose whereabouts are unknown, and the battle losses in the Battle of Xiping Village are as follows:

In terms of personnel, three battalion and company-level commanders were killed: one battalion commander, one instructor of the 6th Company, and one deputy company commander of the 7th Company; Seventeen officers of the squad and platoon level were killed.

138 soldiers of the 6th Company were killed and missing, and 45 were wounded; Seventy-seven soldiers of the 7th Company were killed and missing, and another 49 remained in the Black Rock Cliff Bandits' Lair (including 37 wounded soldiers); One hundred and eighty-two recruits were killed and missing (estimated to be mainly deserters) and four were wounded; three people were wounded in the battalion's artillery squad; One person was killed and one wounded in the health class; Five people were killed and two wounded in the battalion. In addition, because two platoons of the 8th Company, which had originally stayed behind in Hongxingxia, were transferred to Hekou Village by the deputy battalion commander without authorization, they also passively participated in the night attack on Hekou Village, resulting in 29 killed and 20 wounded.

In terms of equipment, the loss of weapons was relatively small, and the surviving officers and soldiers all kept their own guns and ammunition - it can also be seen that the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division was a strong force with excellent quality - the 7th Company lost one Taizheng 11th type light machine gun; However, the damage to horses and vehicles was serious, and a large number of heavy goods were forced to be abandoned.

Up to now, the intact strength of the 2nd Battalion at Hongxingxia is 57 people in the 6th Company, 114 people in the 7th Company, 186 people in the 8th Company, 51 people in the recruit company, and 19 people in the artillery squad.

The instructor sat down on a bench and looked at the list of battle damage on the rough wooden table in distraction, crying without tears.

Zhang Xiu, who was tired, looked at the instructor who was mentally committed, and didn't know what to say for a while.

This beautiful female soldier is actually still thinking about Hekou Village and Xiao Junping there. In the afternoon, she had already learned from the instructor of the 8th Company that the 5th Company had suffered serious battle losses, and that the cavalry company that supported them had no whereabouts; But apparently the deputy battalion commander Wu Zijian and the 5th company commander Li Tianlin are still unharmed, and the unharmed ones also include Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy workers - thank God!

Zhang Xiu didn't dare to ask the instructor of the 8th Company too much about Xiao Junping's situation, lest he see the clues. However, the instructor took the initiative to mention Captain Xiao, saying that he was sending enemy engineers everywhere to spy on the next move of the Japanese puppet army, and at the same time looking for Xia Lianshan's cavalry company.

Bang!

Zhang Xiu, who was thinking about Xiao Junping, was startled by the instructor's sudden slamming of the table, only to see Liu Shu stand up, poke the battle damage list with his finger, and said to Zhang Xiu angrily:

"You see that, right? See it! This is the catastrophe brought to us by his Wu Zijian's single-mindedness, personal heroism, and left-leaning adventurism! ”

Zhang Xiu's heart was pounding, she didn't expect that this defeat and loss of the second battalion of the Lin Division would be the responsibility of the deputy battalion commander Wu Zijian's fault, so she asked timidly:

"Instructor, what did Deputy Battalion Commander Wu do? Is it related to the devil attacking us? ”

Liu Shu ignored Zhang Xiu's question and continued to vent: "The good base area, the good battlefield mobilization committee, the good recruit company, the good second battalion, and the good battalion commander are all ruined and collapsed!" He Wu Zijian must take all responsibility for this......"

Zhang Xiu noticed that in the end, there were tears in the instructor's eyes, and his voice began to choke. The panicked female soldier hurriedly began to look for the instructor's towel in the house, but it was obvious that everything was messy in the camp headquarters that had not yet been arranged. Zhang Xiu had no choice but to take out his towel from the satchel he was carrying and handed it to Liu Shu, who had already sat down on the bench again:

"Instructor, don't be sad, there are still so many revolutionary comrades-in-arms in the second battalion, we won't collapse. Sooner or later, we will be able to restore the base area outside the mountain. ”

Liu Shu subconsciously took the towel, and did not wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes, but slowly shook his head heavily, and muttered: It's difficult, it's too difficult.

Zhang Xiu suddenly lost his words, so he had to silently watch the instructor under the dim horse lamp.

Suddenly, Liu Shu noticed that what he was holding in his hand was Zhang Xiu's towel, he looked at the towel, put it under his nose and sniffed it, and then looked at Zhang Xiu. This action made the beautiful female soldier's heart tense, she couldn't be sure whether the instructor's action was unintentional or intentional, but she vaguely felt that there seemed to be something wrong with it.

"Instructor, rest early, I'm back to my barracks." Zhang Xiu said as he looked at the towel with the same eyes, but Liu Shu just nodded thoughtfully at her: You go, rest early. He didn't mean to hand the towel back to her.

The female soldier Zhang Xiu flashed out of the gate of the battalion headquarters in a panic.

The three company commanders of the 6th Company, 7th Company, and 8th Company, when they came out of the battalion headquarters, all felt worried; However, in the already dark sky, the three battle-hardened company commanders did not speak. Lu Dajiang, the commander of the 8th Company, was the "host", and he had to hurry to arrange barracks for the men and horses of the 7th Company who had just arrived. In the end, it was Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the 6th company, who couldn't help but open his mouth first, and he asked the other two with a little hesitation if he could find a place to chat together after the settlement was properly placed.

Wei Xin nodded wisely: "Lao Lu, you are the most in charge here, you will be busy in a while, you will find a place?" ”

Lu Dajiang looked around and said softly: "Don't make a noise, I'll send someone to invite you separately in a while." ”

More than an hour later, the three company commanders of the second battalion of the forest division quietly gathered in a small wooden house with air leaks on all sides near the northern end of Hongxing Gorge.

There were a number of carpentry tools piled up in the cabin, all of which were broken and needed to be repaired at a later date. Lu Dajiang only called a young soldier to come with him, helped to cover the leaky part of the cabin with a broken tarpaulin, hung a horse lantern, and lit a huge charcoal brazier in the center of the house. After the other two company commanders each found a low wooden pier to sit down, Lu Dajiang took out a bottle of liquor, three enamel jars, and a canned beef from the military schoolbag he was carrying, and placed them on the ground.

In the past, when old comrades-in-arms who had been separated for a period of time met, this kind of gathering was often joyful and noisy, but at this moment, the second battalion of the forest division suffered a blow, the battalion commander and a large number of commanders and fighters died, the base area was lost, and the dark cloud of defeat hung over everyone's hearts. Therefore, the three company commanders were very gloomy and sat down silently. Lu Dajiang bit the cap of the baijiu (Shanxi's famous Fenjiu) bottle with his teeth and poured it into the three enamel jars with a clatter, while Wei Xin took out the short knife he carried with him and opened the iron canned beef box.

The two of them looked at Wang Shuanglong with their eyes - the rules of the second battalion of the Lin Division, although they are both at the level of company commanders, but the main company in front of the sequence is the main company, and the authority of the company commander is greater than that of the back in turn, at this moment the 5th company commander Li Tianlin is not there, and the 6th company commander Wang Shuanglong has become the boss.

Wang Shuanglong sighed slightly, picked up an enamel jar from the ground, and said, "First of all, our battalion commander, and hundreds of brothers who sacrificed-"

The three enamel jars touched lightly, and the three company commanders raised their heads in unison to drink the wine in the jars, and when they put down the jars, Lu Dajiang's tears flowed out first, and he wiped them with the sleeves of his cotton jacket, but he didn't wipe them, and when he wiped them, the tears became more and more turbulent, and then he cried out uncontrollably.

Wei Xin silently patted the shoulder of the 8th company commander, and his eye circles turned red.

"This hatred, this account, our second battalion must find a little devil to settle." Wang Shuanglong lowered his head and continued, but from his muffled voice, he could also hear the sadness and indignation: "However, what matters at the moment is not this, what do you two think about the instructor's arrangement just now and let us send troops to the Black Stone Cliff Bandit Lair tomorrow?" ”