The black donkey's face was the most embarrassed, and there was even a faint hint of annoyance, but now the minions he instigated had caused a big disaster outside the mountain, and he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot when he was helpless, and happened to meet the Wei commander of the Eighth Route Army in front of him to visit—nominally speaking, Wei is still the big brother of the big boss—and of course he wants to take the other party as a lifesaver. So the three masters could only endure the unhappiness and explain with a smile:

"Chief Wei misunderstood, the brothers of Iron Hand actually just went out to hunt game, and probably didn't touch any decent prey, so they kept wandering south out of the mountain. I didn't expect to bump into the people of the 12th Brigade of the Du......"

The battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army directly scoffed at the black donkey's statement: "Hunting game? If you really hunt game, even if you go out of Guanmen Mountain and bump into the Jin army's team, can the other party arrest people without asking? Yan Laoxi has been in charge for so many years, when did hunting be considered a crime in Shanxi? ”

This mocking and merciless questioning made the gangsters more and more embarrassed.

Wei Xin was originally frustrated about going up the mountain, but now seeing that these bandits were more begging to come out of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army for them, he didn't want to wade into this muddy water, so he immediately got up and arched his hand towards the people on the wine table: "Since your boss is not here, I won't bother much today, and if there is something in the future, let her go directly to the mountain pass camp next to Hekou Village to find me." Leave! ”

This made the black donkey suddenly panic, and he couldn't care about anything else, got up to block the other party, and hurriedly retained: "Chief Wei, Brother Wei, Master Wei!" The small one is for you - please always look at the face of the big boss and help the cottage! ”

As he spoke, he ordered two minions to come up—these two had fled from the village at the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain—and in front of a group of leaders, the two honestly told the Eighth Route Army commander Wei the whole process of the incident at that time.

The 12th Independent Brigade of the Jin Army gained a firm foothold in Pingquan County, and immediately began to work on the plan of local grain requisition. Although it was a rout army fleeing from the front line of the Anti-Japanese War, the 12th Independent Brigade still retained the scale of 2,000 people, and the consumption of grain and grass by these 2,000 men and horses was undoubtedly considerable. Brigade commander Zheng Yuan gave an order for the 569th Regiment to set aside a battalion to collect grain and grass in the countryside on the outskirts of Pingquan County as a platoon.

Of course, the grain collection must be carried out under the banner of the War of Resistance. Brigade Commander Zheng Yuan and his chief of staff thought about it for a long time in advance, and they carefully demarcated the scope of grain requisition on the map - now on all sides of Pingquan County, the enemy and our military situation is more complicated, and there are heavy Japanese troops in the direction of Tongpu Road in the west and Handan (Dan) Chang (Zhi) Highway in the south, which Zheng Yuan absolutely does not dare to provoke. About 100 miles to the east, Qin County and Wuxiang are stationed the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the main force of the Xu Division; About 40 miles due north, a battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division is active in the area of Xiping Village in Guanmen Mountain; In addition, Qinyuan County, about 60 miles to the southeast, is also stationed in the 84th Division of the 17th Army of the Central Army.

The principle of requisition of grain is to resolutely not offend the Japanese army, and try not to provoke friendly troops; As a result, the villages in the northeast of Pingquan County have become the first batch of key targets, including the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain.

The brigade commander of the Jin army knew very well in his heart that the surrounding area of Pingquan was already in a state of anarchy, and whoever had a gun could call the shots. Therefore, he ordered his subordinates to raise the banner of the 12th Independent Infantry Brigade of the Second Theater and act in the name of the War of Resistance.

As the second-line unit of the Jin Army, the 12th Brigade has always had loose military discipline; There are still certain constraints in peacetime, and now that war is alive, the Qiu Ba who are soldiers are naturally even more lawless. The battalion of the 569th Regiment left Pingquan County, and suddenly rushed out like a wild horse loosening its reins, heading out towards many villages in the northeast.

According to the instructions of the battalion commander, the whole battalion was formed independently by platoons, and a total of nine platoons roughly divided the positions and began to act separately.

Second Lieutenant Li Mancang, the platoon commander of the second platoon of the eighth company of the third battalion, led the team to go through several rounds and finally selected a large village at the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain: Maicun.

Compared with other junior officers in the 12th Brigade of the Du, Second Lieutenant Li Mancang is still quite upright and gentle. This Shanxi man, who served in the broadsword team of the Zhao Dengyu Brigade of the 29th Army of Song Zheyuan in his early years, participated in the Great Wall War of Resistance and is one of the few hot-blooded soldiers in the 12th Brigade of the Independent Army. Three years ago, his mother was seriously ill, he resigned from Hebei and returned to his hometown in the western suburbs of Wencheng to serve his mother, and after his mother recovered from illness, Li Mancang joined the Jin Army nearby, and stationed in Wencheng with the 569th Regiment of the 12th Independent Brigade.

From the bones, Li Mancang, who slashed the head of the Japanese Kwantung Army with a broadsword at Xifengkou, hated the series of escape actions of the 12th Independent Brigade; The third battalion, eight companies and two platoons of which he was a platoon commander were also different, and most of the soldiers were quite effective under his daily training. A month and a half ago, just after the battle of Fengdian, Li Mancang's eighth company set out from Wencheng to escort the intelligence staff of the 12th Brigade Headquarters and the female soldiers of the telecommunications squad to the front line of Fengdian, and encountered the cavalry of the Japanese Sena Division on the way, and after the battle, the entire Eighth Company retreated, and the second platoon commander Li Mancang led his subordinates to resist hard, and then received the support of a battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division, and finally survived.

That was also so far, after the outbreak of the Shanxi Anti-Japanese War, Li Mancang was the only time to face off with the Japanese soldiers, and after that bloody battle, he was coerced in the army of the 12th Brigade of the Independence, and fled all the way to the south, arriving in Pingquan County, where he is now resting.

Located in a county town far away from the public railway and closed to news, a junior officer like Li Mancang had no channel to obtain external news of the war, which made him particularly depressed and anxious; In private, Li Mancang vented his dissatisfaction with the brigade headquarters and regiment commanders to his subordinate soldiers countless times - Fengdian did not defend, Wencheng did not defend, and Lingshi did not defend, so he retreated again and again, and let the Japanese army drive straight in, which really lost the face of the Chinese soldiers!

Trapped in Pingquan County, with nothing to do all day long, he finally got a mission, and even went to collect grain from the local people - it is now a spring of green and yellow, and the people's families must also be struggling with material resources.

With such emotions, the second lieutenant platoon commander of the Jin army let go of a few small villages on the way forward and did not disturb, but took a platoon of soldiers all the way to the foot of Guanmen Mountain.

This area is the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain, the field is fertile, the products are rich, and the village they entered called Mai Village, close to the foot of Guanmen Mountain, there are three or four hundred households. In Li Mancang's consciousness, the burden on the villagers was relatively lighter by collecting some grain and grass from the rich villages.

The village office was already empty, and the chief of the village was the patriarch of the village, and the platoon commander of the Jin army politely invited the elderly patriarch and explained his intentions. When the old patriarch learned that it was to raise food for the Anti-Japanese War army, he did not hesitate much, and instructed the people in the clan to run errands, etc., and circled a group of portals where the surplus grain was relatively rich in the family to inform the truth, and handed over the grain to the wheat field in the village.

From entering the wheat village in the afternoon to the evening, no less than 20 stones of grain had been collected on the wheat field, which made Li Mancang doubly frightened and ashamed.

In view of the fact that it was late and the way back was long, the old patriarch invited Platoon Leader Li and his entourage to stay in the village and leave again the next morning. Li Mancang hesitated again and again and finally agreed, and ordered his subordinates not to harass the houses, and all of them crowded in the empty village office for the night.

But that night, after 4 o'clock in the morning, something suddenly happened: a group of bandits quietly infiltrated Mai Village, opened fire, and plundered the house.

They are none other than the Iron Hand and Minions of the Black Stone Cliff Gang in Guanmen Mountain!

The village office of Mai Village is located at the south end of the village, and the Black Rock Cliff bandits attacked from the northeast corner of the village, which is four or five hundred meters away from the village office. This area has always been safe and sound, since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the iron hooves of the Japanese army have not been trampled here, after learning of the above situation, Li Mancang, before going to bed, only routinely sent three sentries to take up posts, one to guard the village office, the other two to guard the grain collected in the wheat field; Rotation of the front and rear half-nights.

And after four o'clock in the morning, the three sentries also fell into a half-asleep state. So it wasn't until the bandits fired their guns and set fire that the sentries realized that they hurriedly reported to the platoon commander in the village office who did not know the situation.

In the relatively rigorous military career of the 29th Army, Li Mancang had already developed the vigilance of a professional soldier, and as soon as the gunshots rang out, he immediately turned over and got up and ordered his subordinates to gather urgently.

By the time a sentry on the threshing floor came and reported the flames and gunfire in the northeast corner of the village, the whole platoon of soldiers had rushed out of the village office.

The gunshots created by the bandits were not intentional. At first, they quietly infiltrated the village, gathered more than 30 men to surround the three houses, and used the usual methods such as flipping the deadbolt with a blade to sneak into the house. Unexpectedly, when he entered the second house, he alarmed the young head of the household, and he resisted fiercely, so he had to shoot and kill.

As soon as the gunshots rang out, the gang's big leader Tie Shou knew that his whereabouts had been exposed, so he simply ordered his minions to switch to open fire and fight in a gang of four or five people, so as to speed up the speed of breaking into the house.

It's just that this gang leader who has done a lot of evil never dreamed that at this moment, directly south of the village at the foot of this Guanmen Mountain, there is actually a platoon of the government's regular army stationed.

So, two teams with the same standard weapons met unexpectedly, and a shootout in the darkness before dawn began.