Wu Zijian stood on the bank of the Qinglong River outside the head of Hekou Village with a dull gaze, and his heart twitched with pain. The surface of the Qinglong River, which was frozen and covered with residual snow, swept wind after wind from time to time, blowing the deputy commander of the second battalion wearing a cotton coat to the bone.

The place where he stood was full of rifle and Czech light machine gun shells, and on the day of the night attack of the Japanese puppet army, there was a fierce battle here, and a unit of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion fired at the Japanese heavy machine gun positions on the opposite bank across the river.

Now that it's all over, Wu Zijian is left with heavy casualties and the devastated village of Hekou. And just now, the instructor of the 8th Company, who suddenly rushed from Hongxing Gorge, brought the bad news that the main force of the battalion had been defeated in Xiping Village and the battalion commander Feng Changzhi had died heroically.

Wu Zijian's heart fell into a collapse.

The battalion commander, Lao Feng, left so suddenly! Last time, I took Xiao Junping, the newly promoted enemy engineering captain, the newly established artillery squad and equipment, to the battalion headquarters in Xiping Village to report, and had a big quarrel with the battalion commander and instructors. Wu Zijian can still remember the scene when he brushed his sleeves away, and the battalion commander awkwardly chased him out to comfort and persuade him, but he didn't expect that it was the last meeting with his old comrades.

Tears could no longer be hidden, and began to flow on the face of the deputy battalion commander, this strong man was crying helplessly like a child at the moment, for this fiasco, for the close comrades-in-arms who would never meet again.

The War of Resistance was indeed cruel, the enemy's strength and cunning were beyond the capacity of the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division, and it was a fierce battle that was destined to be unwinnable, and the price paid by the two base areas could no longer be described as heavy.

Looking up at the pass of Guanmen Mountain, Wu Zijian saw that the heavy machine gun fortifications that had been damaged by Japanese artillery fire were being repaired there, and the reconstruction of Hekou Village behind him was almost going on on a large area of ruins. The news just received also confirmed the defeat and retreat of the main force of the battalion in Xiping Village - after the battle here, Wu Zijian had asked Xiao Junping to send enemy engineers to Xiping Village to investigate.

Xiao Junping reviewed the ineffective intelligence work, and Chen Xuanzhu, the deputy captain of the enemy engineering team, still has no whereabouts. Xiao Junping, who was a staff officer of the Jin Army's intelligence staff, made an inference about the two night attacks launched by the enemy at the same time, and he believed that the 5th Company's early ambush of the puppet Mongolian cavalry in Hekou Village and the sneaking out of the southern city of Fengdian to attack the Japanese army had attracted the enemy's attention to the base area, so he purposefully deployed this operation.

Wu Zijian acquiesced to this inference. But he immediately realized that this would undoubtedly become a reason for Liu Shu to attack him again. The instructor had always had strong prejudices and deep worries about his idea of taking the initiative to attack the Japanese army.

Sure enough, the instructor of the 8th Company came in a hurry from Hongxing Gorge; Wu Zijian read the handwritten letter of the instructor who had just led the main force of the battalion to retreat there, and he was speechless for a long time. From the words of the instructor's letter, the deputy commander of the second battalion faintly felt the smell of the mountain rain coming. He didn't reply on the spot, because he was instantly crushed by the bad news of the battalion commander's sacrifice brought by the other party, and almost staggered out of the village alone and stood on the bank of the icy Qinglong River. The moment he went out, he heard the mournful voice of Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company.

The grief finally got through. Now, we need to be calm, we need to reflect, we need to plan.

However, he could not go to Hongxing Gorge, let alone lead the 5th Company to abandon Hekou Village and Shankou and retreat to Hongxing Gorge as ordered by the instructor.

Wu Zijian is still glad that the enemy's frenzied attack would come to an abrupt end at the last moment - once the two Type 92 heavy machine guns in the Yamaguchi fortifications were gone, he would not be able to hold the line with light weapons. If that were the case, there would be no need for a letter from the instructor urging him, and he and the 5th Company would shrink into the mountains earlier than the main force of the battalion.

The deputy commander of the second battalion judged that it may be that a new situation had appeared in the direction of Fengdian, which forced the Japanese puppet army to abandon the attack and fall short. The enemy engineering team is now going to reconnoiter the area around Fengdian, and it is believed that there will be results to explain. The enemy engineers who returned from Xiping Village first reported that the enemy troops there had also withdrawn, but according to the villagers, after seizing the village, the Japanese soldiers had further pursued the Eighth Route Army into the Guanmen Mountain Pass.

In other words, the main force of the 2nd Battalion suffered a complete defeat in Xiping Village.

But Wu Zijian did not feel any relief that he had held the last line of defense, and he would rather be driven into the mountains himself in exchange for the life of his old comrade-in-arms battalion commander.

After venting his grief, Wu Zijian struggled to crawl out of his gloomy mood. Walking back to the miserable Hekou Village, he verbally expressed his thoughts to the instructor of the 8th Company, and asked the other party to take him back to Hongxingxia to resume his life. Of course, he knew that this would definitely further intensify the conflict between himself and the instructor Liu Shu, but after the fierce battle, it was not the time to sit together and argue about what was right and wrong.

In particular, the Kawaguchi Village and the Yamaguchi defense line must not be abandoned: it was defended after a terrible battle, and the blood of the comrades-in-arms must not be wasted. Wu Zijian even complained a little, why couldn't the main force of the battalion support it for a while when it retreated to the mountain pass behind Xiping Village? If that was the case, they would have found that the attacking enemy had quickly withdrawn, and then they would not have had to abandon the Xiping Village base and trek to Hongxing Gorge with the corpse of the battalion commander with great difficulty.

The report of the enemy workers mentioned that although the Japanese army burned and plundered Xiping Village for a short time, it was very cruel and ferocious. Presumably, the desperate resistance of the main force of the battalion also made the enemy pay a heavy price, and it was inevitable that they would turn their heads and take revenge on the innocent people.

This is no longer a blood feud between one or two, in the future, the enemy must be repaid with blood!

Regarding Wu Zijian's disobedience and disrespect, instructor Liu Shu was both angry and helpless. He hesitated, whether to go to Hekou Village in person and forcibly pull back the 5th Company and Wu Zijian!

However, the unexpected return of Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th Company, temporarily interrupted the instructor's plan. Moreover, this Wei Xin's report made Liu Shu equally surprised and angry:

"You have left so many lightly and seriously wounded in the bandits' den! You actually recognized your brother and sister with a female bandit leader!? ”

The instructor's unbelievable series of questions made the dusty 7th Company grow up cramped and uneasy.

"Did they surrender? Did you agree to accept the reorganization and command of the Eighth Route Army? Liu Shu continued to ask sternly.

"Surrender and adaptation...... I can't talk about it yet, I just ask them not to fire a single shot at the Eighth Route Army in the future......" Wei Xin replied resignedly.

Liu Shu slapped the table angrily: As a member of the Communist Party, a revolutionary soldier, and a company-level commander of the Eighth Route Army, he was so unorganized and disciplined that it was so absurd!

Lu Dajiang cautiously recounted the last battle with the Black Stone Cliff bandits. When he learned that the battle was very fierce and that the 8th Company of the 2nd Battalion had paid the price of five killed and more than ten wounded, Wei Xin couldn't help but be stunned on the spot: Liu Wumei, a cunning woman, still deceived him, the "big brother"!

"Old Wei, you have been deceived by your bandit sister," the 8th company commander shook his head bitterly: "The posture of those bandits at that time was definitely not forced to defend themselves, but made it clear that they wanted to surround us and annihilate us, if it wasn't for Deputy Company Commander Cui to arrive with reinforcements in time, I am afraid that my life would have been thrown in that ravine!" ”

"After that juanzi of your company was kidnapped, was he insulted by those bandits?" Liu Shu suddenly asked Lu Dajiang jumpingly. Juanzi is the female health soldier of the 8th Company, Liu Shu recognizes her.

Everyone present was stunned for a moment, and then understood what the instructor meant. Lu Dajiang hurriedly waved his hand and said, "No, no, absolutely nothing!" As soon as they had an accident, the gunshots were heard on the side of Hongxingxia, and I immediately led people to chase after them, and the bandits were only concerned about running away with Juanzi tied up, and it didn't take long for them to be chased and entangled by us. ”

Liu Shu regretted that he had come up with such an abrupt question at this time, but at the same time, Zhang Xiu's figure appeared in his mind: she was also captured on the night of the attack in Xiping Village, the difference is that it was the more brutal and lustful Japanese soldiers who caught Zhang Xiu at that time, would she be insulted by that group of Japanese soldiers? This question has been bothering Liu Shu from time to time for several days.

"Company Commander Wei, you first arrange for your soldiers to rest, and tomorrow, you and Company Commander Lu will lead the team, and the 7th and 8th companies will each send a part of their troops, and immediately rush to the Black Stone Cliff bandits' den to pick up our wounded; If the bandits resist, you will attack and wipe out the bandits' nest in one fell swoop! ”

The commander of the 7th and 8th companies glanced at each other, but neither of them accepted the order at the first time. Liu Shu's eyes couldn't help but widen again, and he shouted at Wei Xin: "What, let you send troops to sweep away the bandits, you are still thinking about the sister who was the leader of the bandits?!" ”

Wei Xin hurriedly said: "Instructor, I definitely didn't mean that. Speaking of her sister, that's just her wishful thinking. If it weren't for the fact that she took in our wounded soldiers and provided us with much-needed provisions, I wouldn't have agreed to be her sister! ”

Liu Shu stared into the other party's eyes: "Are you telling the truth?" So if this female bandit refuses to release and surrender, will you unswervingly carry out the attack? ”

Sure enough, the attitude of the commander of the 7th company became hesitant, and the instructor let out a sneer.

"Instructor, listen to me, it's not that I can't bear to take action, but I'm thinking that we can try to resolve this matter peacefully. I have been going deep into all corners of the Black Stone Cliff Cottage this time, and I must admit that it is very tightly structured, easy to defend and difficult to attack, if you really want to use force, the outcome is difficult to predict, that is, it will be defeated, and I am afraid that our army will also have to pay heavy casualties. ”

Lu Dajiang also nodded frequently on the side: "Yes, instructor, the last time I fought with these bandits, I could feel that they had a certain amount of combat effectiveness, and the rabbit cub still had more than one machine gun." According to Lao Wei, there are also earthen artillery pieces in the Black Stone Cliff bandits' lair. Supposedly, this was not a problem in the eyes of the regular army, but we had just suffered a setback, and we needed to recuperate, and we had to guard against the Japanese army chasing us into the mountains and continuing to encircle and suppress us. Therefore, I also advocate a peaceful solution to the bandits. ”

Liu Shu coldly looked at the two company commanders of the 7th and 8th companies in front of him, and then looked at the 6th company commander Wang Shuanglong: "Company Commander Wang, what do you mean?" Also scared out of the guts by a gang of bandits? ”

Wang Shuanglong was secretly taken aback, the meaning of the instructor's words was clearly to advocate the elimination of bandits by force, but in view of the current situation and situation of the second battalion of the forest division, it was not wise to start a war with the local snake gang.

Liu Shu suddenly raised his voice: "What combat effectiveness, machine guns, earth artillery!" Bandits are bandits, a plate of scattered sand, a rabble! The dignified main battalion of the Eighth Route Army will be afraid of them? How can we leave our comrades in the bandits' den and leave them alone? What's more, these bandits have already owed us a blood debt before! My order remains unchanged, tomorrow, immediately send troops to the Black Stone Cliff, old grudges and new hatreds, and settle them together! ”