The conversation between the instructor and Wu Zijian ended unhappily. In front of Liu Shu, Wu Zijian expressed his attitude to the battalion commander: The high and low will pull Xiao Junping, the intelligence staff officer of the Jin Army, into the ranks of the Eighth Route Army, and it is useless for anyone to obstruct it!

"Xiao Zhang, you don't have any worries," Wu Zijian became more and more excited, and he said to Zhang Xiu, a female soldier who was still sobbing and choking: "I sent you to communicate with Staff Officer Xiao, mainly because when he helped us interrogate the Japanese prisoners, you were present to make a record, and there is a basis for cooperation between you." As for college students who are not college students, it's a joke, if someone makes a fuss about this to find fault with you, I Wu Zijian don't rub sand in my eyes! ”

With that, the deputy battalion commander brushed his sleeves away.

Liu Shu's face became more and more pale, his fingers almost trembled and pointed at the back of Wu Zijian leaving, and said to Feng Changzhi: "Listen, listen!" This is the deputy battalion commander of our battalion, who speaks at a lower level than ordinary cadres and is even more uncultivated than ordinary soldiers! ”

Feng Changzhi had no choice but to play a round from it: "Forget it, instructor, Lao Wu has this donkey temper, don't be like him." After that, the battalion commander glanced at Zhang Xiu, who was still standing in place, in a dilemma, and gave her a gentle look, signaling that she was okay and left quickly.

As soon as Zhang Xiu turned around and walked away, Feng Changzhi said to Liu Shu: "That staff officer Xiao of the Jin army is indeed a rare intelligence talent; Last night, he learned that we were going to send someone back to Fengdian to investigate, so he took the initiative to suggest to the commander of the 5th company that he must go to a few more people - instructor, guess why? ”

Liu Shu still snorted angrily and did not say anything. Feng Changzhi took the initiative to give an answer: "Staff Officer Xiao said that your battalion does not have a radio, and the reconnaissance team cannot quickly contact the rear; Fengdian is now the front line, once the reconnaissance team has 100,000 urgent information, someone has to be able to pass it back first, and at the same time, someone needs to continue to stay and observe. When Lao Wu and I heard it, we thought it made sense; Originally, I wanted Deputy Company Commander Xia to bring two fighters to go, so I sent six this morning. ”

Liu Shu interrupted Feng Changzhi's talking, and when the battalion commander praised Xiao Junping, a trace of disgust passed imperceptibly on the instructor's face: "Okay, battalion commander, let me ask you, why did we leave the captain staff officer of a brigade headquarters of the Jin Army in the second battalion?" Whether we call it the Red Army or the Eighth Route Army, although there is no military rank, if it corresponds to the formation of the Kuomintang army, the captain should also be our battalion-level cadre. So what position do you plan to put this Xiao staff officer in the 2nd Battalion? Battalion commander or deputy battalion commander? Otherwise, I, the instructor, will let Hyun give it to him!? ”

Feng Changzhi was really stunned by Liu Shu's question-leaving Xiao Junping was Wu Zijian's master, but after staying, how to treat and arrange the other party's captain rank, I'm afraid even Lao Wu didn't think about it!

Seeing that Feng Changzhi's face was at a loss, Liu Shu sneered and continued: "Do you think that if you don't arrange any position for this Xiao staff officer, he will stay willingly?" The Kuomintang army pays attention to promotion and wealth, and he is also a captain in the Jin army, do you think he will stop the good lieutenant and accompany us to fight guerrillas here? Wake up, Battalion Commander! ”

Feng Changzhi was happy, and he admired the instructor's sharp angle of looking at the problem from the bottom of his heart: Indeed, if you recruit an ordinary rout or something, it would be easy, but Staff Officer Xiao is an officer after all, and he will be promoted to the rank of captain at his current age, and his future in the 12th Brigade can be described as immeasurable. It seems that Lao Wu is too self-righteous and shaved his head.

"Instructor, you are really clever in your analysis," Feng Changzhi gave Liu Shu a thumbs up: "I'll go and persuade Lao Wu again, let him die, and when Staff Officer Xiao recovers from his injuries, let them go." ”

"Let?! Battalion commander, do you think we can still let him go casually at this point? Liu Shu's face showed a sinister anger, and he gritted his teeth and said: "From Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, to Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company, and then to Xiao Zhang, the secretary of the battalion headquarters, how many military secrets of the Second Battalion have been leaked to this Kuomintang officer these days?!" ”

After Wu Zijian and Liu Shu had a verbal exchange, the good mood of the whole morning had disappeared. He didn't want to stay in the camp anymore, he had planned last night that he would take the men of the 6th Company to patrol south along the western foot of Guanmen Mountain this morning, focusing on the small village called Hekou, which was the closest entrance to the western foot of the entire Guanmen Mountain. I was going to set off after the sun rose, but Wu Zijian, who was angry, ordered the 6th Company to leave immediately after breakfast.

The estuary, in fact, is a mountain pass of Guanmen Mountain: the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, where the cliffs are connected with each other, it is like suddenly opening a gate here, a slope with a width of 20 zhang from left to right, stretching and bending to the depths of Guanmen Mountain, the center of the gentle slope is a river valley, the boiling spring water flowing out of the deep mountain rushes straight down, after reaching the foot of the mountain, it suddenly forms a sharp turn of 90 degrees, maintains a posture parallel to the west foot of Guanmen Mountain, and flows to the south of Jin-this river with a width of four or five zhang, named Qinglong River. The small village of Hekou is sandwiched between the foot of Guanmen Mountain and the Qinglong River.

The 6th Company did not enter the village, but stopped on the bank of the frozen Qinglong River, and Wu Zijian took only a few soldiers to cross the river on the hard ice and knocked on the doors of several villagers' houses. Soon, they learned that there were more than 50 families in Hekou Village, and a few more on the gentle slope of the mountain pass. The Qinglong River is not deep, and the flood season is only three feet, and in the dry season, the water surface only floods people's calves.

But this is one of the only two mountain passes at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, and to the next mountain pass, it is more than ten miles to the south.

Wu Zijian took the commander of the 6th company and others, invited a fellow villager to lead, climbed the gentle slope and entered the wide mountain pass, the villager said, a few years ago, there were bandits in Guanmen Mountain, and the bandits of Heishi Cliff came out from here to loot at every turn, and half of the families in Hekou Village fled, leaving a lot of empty houses and idle courtyards; But for more than a year, the bandits seem to have become less ferocious than before.

"If you enter from here, you can touch the Black Rock Cliff?"

Wu Zijian asked the fellow. The fellow shook his head and said, not many people can tell where the black stone cliff is, only a few hunters and mountain pickers can find it.

"I heard that this gang of bandits is very famous in this area, and the bandit leader in charge is still a woman." Wu Zijian said to the commander of the 6th company beside him.

"Deputy battalion commander, are we here to suppress bandits?" The commander of the 6th company looked at the deep mountains in the morning fog and asked eagerly.

"Maybe," Wu Zijian smacked his lips: "One mountain does not allow two tigers, since we are stationed in this area, we can't watch the bandits come out again to harm the common people." ”

"Do we live in the mountains or in the villages?" The commander of the 6th company had just noticed the vacant houses in this estuary village.

Wu Zijian did not answer. He was pondering another situation that the fellow who led the road told him: from here he left the foot of the mountain and walked westward, at most twenty miles, which was the Tongpu Railway Line. But which station was closest to Tongpu Road, the fellow couldn't say - apparently, he hadn't been there.

You have to rely on Xiao Junping!

This morning, Wu Zijian had handed over the local map hand-drawn by Xia Lianshan to Zhang Xiu, the secretary of the battalion headquarters, and asked her to take the map to Staff Officer Xiao and ask Staff Officer Xiao to help check the correctness of the map; As the intelligence staff officer of the 12th Independent Brigade stationed in central and southern Jin, he should be familiar with the geography of this area. When I went back, I asked him how many stations there were in this area.

Wu Zijian took the 6th Company, under the guidance of his fellow villagers, and walked a long way along the mountain pass to Guanmen Mountain, basically clarifying the terrain in this area of the mountain pass. Then, they went down to the foot of the mountain and entered Hekou Village, where Wu Zijian ordered the soldiers of the 6th Company to help all the villagers repair the courtyard wall, break the ice and carry water, and chop wood to collect wages; At the same time, the empty houses that were no longer inhabited were simply cleaned up; It's been a busy morning. Prior to this, the villagers of Hekou only knew that there was a Jin army with Yan Xishan, but they did not know the origin of the Eighth Route Army; It's far from the fighting, and the news is very closed.

At lunchtime, he asked the commander of the 6th Company to lead a platoon of men to cook food at the homes of the villagers in Hekou Village, and after the meal, he continued to search and reconnoiter the next village in the south along the Qinglong River and the foot of the mountain, and then returned to the second camp after ascertaining the general situation of that village. Wu Zijian himself, with the rest of the soldiers of the 6th Company, returned first.

The first two warriors sent by Xia Lianshan galloped wildly from the southern suburbs of Fengdian along the route they had come, and ran back to the camp before lunch.

The news that Fengdian County had been occupied by the Japanese immediately spread among the officers and men of the Second Battalion.

As soon as Wu Zijian and the main force of the 6th Company returned from Hekou Village, they were pulled by the correspondent to the tent at the battalion headquarters, Liu Shu walked around the tent restlessly, and Feng Changzhi smoked a cigarette pouch with his head bored.

"Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, tell you bad news, Fengdian has been occupied by devils!" Liu Shu said eagerly: "I just suggested to the battalion commander that the second battalion should immediately move towards Guanmen Mountain. Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, did you enter the mountain pass in the morning? What's going on there? ”

The news of the fall of Fengdian somewhat surprised Wu Zijian. In the past two days, he has figured out the situation of the Fengdian garrison from Xiao Junping's mouth, and he knows the number of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, during the Battle of Xinkou last year, the main regiment of the Lin Division where the second battalion is located once passed through the defense area of the 391st Regiment in the operation of attacking the Japanese army behind the flank, and later I heard that the regiment fought quite bravely. However, it was still that regiment, how could it lose a county town guard so quickly?!

"Old Feng, is Lianshan back?" Wu Zijian was still worried about the quarrel in the morning, so he ignored the instructor's straightforward approach and went to ask Feng Changzhi instead.

"Not yet, two people were sent back to report the news first, and he took the rest with him, preparing to get closer to the county seat to investigate." The battalion commander replied unhurriedly, he was obviously not as anxious as Liu Shu.

"What else are you investigating? Now that the Japanese army has occupied Fengdian, they should hurry back and move with the whole battalion! Liu Shu complained.

Wu Zijian finally couldn't help it, and shook his head while saying, "Instructor, I think you should change the way you think about the problem, you can't think of transferring as soon as you hear that there are devils nearby!" We are Chinese soldiers, and at the moment of foreign enemies, we should first defend the land and resist the war! Blindly avoiding the enemy and fearing the enemy like you will have an extremely bad impact on our party and our army! ”

When Liu Shu heard this, he immediately lowered his face and retorted angrily: "Deputy battalion commander, I see that your thoughts and tone are becoming more and more like the Kuomintang officer lying on the stretcher!" ”