After sending off the liaison officer of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, Wu Zijian quickly convened an operational meeting, and for this reason, he specially transferred many company and platoon commanders from Xiping Village, which was still more than ten miles away, to Hekou Village.

At present, the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Forest Division has just completed a major adjustment, and nearly 200 recruits, except for a few who have been added to the 7th Company, most of the rest have been driven into the Hongxing Gorge of Guanmen Mountain and incorporated into the 8th Company. Of the more than 180 veterans of the 8th Company, 150 were transferred to the 5th, 6th, and 7th companies. Only more than 30 company, platoon, squad leaders and other backbones were left in the 8th Company, which were responsible for training the recruits.

This major adjustment enabled the three first-line companies of the 2nd Battalion to maintain the establishment and combat effectiveness of veterans to the greatest extent. Following the 7th Company, the 6th Company, under the leadership of the company commander Wang Shuanglong, reopened from Hongxing Gorge to Xiping Village to deploy defense.

Due to the heavy losses in the last anti-night raid battle, the establishment of each infantry company of the second battalion was reduced, and Wu Zijian simply set the number of each squad at 12 in accordance with the standard structure of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government after the reorganization of the army, and one platoon had a total of 36 men in three squads. The 5th Company, as the first main force of the battalion, still has six platoons; The remaining three companies, each with four platoons. In this way, the total number of the four infantry companies of the second battalion is about 700 people (counting the personnel of each company).

The strength directly under the battalion headquarters is: cavalry company, with forty-three cavalry; the enemy squad, twenty-two in all; The artillery squad was upgraded to 30 people and upgraded to an artillery platoon, which currently has two mortars and two grenadiers, and will soon use one of the grenadiers to exchange a mortar with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army; The heavy machine gun squad was upgraded to a heavy machine gun platoon of 28 people, and currently has two Type 92 heavy machine guns and one Makqin heavy machine gun, and will soon receive a Min 24 heavy machine gun (to be repaired) from the 391st Regiment of the Central Army.

The biggest impact of this adjustment was the 8th Company that stayed behind in Hongxingxia, not only was most of the veterans removed, but even a Czech light machine gun that had just been assigned to them last time was also withdrawn and returned to the 5th Company. For this reason, Wu Zijian came forward to do the pacification work of Lu Dajiang, the commander of the 8th Company, and he said that Hongxingxia is the name of the instructor's personal life, and the name "Xingspark" means that it can set the prairie on fire, and the current 8th Company will be used as the rear of the entire second battalion to deliver the torch to the front line, which is of great significance.

In fact, the reason why the deputy commander of the second battalion dared to greatly transfer the forces of the Red Star Gorge to the outside of Guanmen Mountain was that the Black Stone Cliff bandit gang that threatened this large rear had now turned enemies into friends; Prior to this, he had asked Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th Company, to write a handwritten letter and attach his own handwritten letter, which was sent to Liu Wumei, the big boss of the Black Stone Cliff, to explain the Eighth Route Army's anti-Japanese war proposition, hoping to coexist peacefully with the Black Stone Cliff bandits. This move was quickly promised by Liu Wumei. Originally, Wu Zijian also wanted Wei Xin to personally go to the Black Rock Cliff to see if he could try to pull this strong bandit army under the banner of the Eighth Route Army, but at this moment, the military situation was urgent, and it was imminent to coordinate with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army to attack the Tongpu Railway, so he had to put it on hold for the time being.

"You have to take the matter of absorbing the Black Stone Cliff armed forces to heart, and when this joint operation is over, it will be put on the agenda immediately!" Wu Zijian ordered his 7th company commander.

At this military meeting in Hekou Village, almost all the company-platoon-level military commanders of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Lin Division at the foot of Guanmen Mountain attended the meeting. Wu Zijian, who was good at learning, ordered a large sand table to be made in the company headquarters of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion, and the sand table area included the location of the headquarters and extended to the Nantongpu railway line. Combined with the sand table, Wu Zijian explained to his subordinates the operational intentions of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army and the content of the coordinated operations of the second battalion.

The participants all expressed their appreciation for the courage and wisdom of Regiment Commander Qin Zhongxiao, believing that the Central Army was much stronger than the Jin Army. Talking about the batch of heavy artillery and heavy machine guns that the 391st Regiment had just accidentally obtained, everyone was even more envious, and at the same time felt that they had made the best use of it - if the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, which was afraid of the enemy like a tiger, got this batch of heavy equipment, I was afraid that it would have to be secretly surrendered.

Zhao Yejiao, who was born in artillery, was the most excited, first, the artillery squad was upgraded to an artillery platoon, and he himself was promoted to platoon commander; Second, his artillery, which had already run out of ammunition in the last battle against the night attack, could exchange a grenadier for a Type 94 mortar and more than 30 shells this time, which was like a dream, and he was so happy that he never closed his mouth. Wang Shuanglong, the commander of the 6th Company, who had a good relationship with him, led the whole company to make an evaluation as soon as he returned to Xiping Village: The artillery platoon's three mortars and one grenadier canister are probably in the forefront of the entire Eighth Route Army.

At present, except for the 8th Company, the main force of the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the entire forest division has all been pulled to the foot of Guanmen Mountain. The 5th Company and the heavy machine gun platoon were stationed in Hekou Village, and the 6th Company and 7th Company, as well as the cavalry company, artillery platoon, and battalion headquarters were stationed in Xiping Village. In this joint operation, Wu Zijian decided to dispatch all four platoons and all of the 7th Company of the 5th Company, an additional platoon of the cavalry company and an artillery platoon to advance to the predetermined area along the Nanpu Road to cover the flank of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army. The other two platoons of the 5th Company attached heavy machine gun platoons remained in Hekou Village, and the 6th Company attached all the cavalry companies and one platoon to Xiping Village.

At the meeting, no one raised any objections to the joint operation. Since the large-scale night attack by the Japanese puppet army, the officers and soldiers of the entire second battalion have held their breath, ready to avenge the sacrifice of the battalion commander and comrades-in-arms; Now, this opportunity for revenge has arrived, and everyone has an inexplicable excitement and excitement.

Wang Shuanglong was once dissatisfied that his company was given the task of staying behind, after all, the 6th Company was the main force company on a par with the 5th Company. However, Wu Zijian pointed out that the 6th Company suffered the heaviest losses in the anti-night raid battle, and the proportion of replenishment troops was also the largest. Wang Shuanglong had no choice but to give up. During this period, Wei Xin, the commander of the 7th Company, "took advantage of the fire to rob" and proposed to exchange one of the two Czech-style light machine guns of the 6th Company with a crooked light machine gun of the 7th Company, but was immediately reprimanded by Wang Shuanglong.

Wu Zijian smiled and played a round and took the initiative to say that he would go to the 7th Company as a firearms expert to study the much-criticized crooked machine gun. The 2nd Battalion currently has seven light machine guns, three in the 5th and 6th companies, and two in the Czech, respectively, and only the 7th company is one Czech plus one crooked machine gun (the other crooked machine gun was killed along with the shooter in the anti-night raid).

As soon as the meeting ended, Wu Zijian immediately ordered the commanders of each company and platoon from Xiping Village to immediately return to the deployment, while he himself stayed behind and worked out a detailed battle plan with Li Tianlin. Unexpectedly, at this moment, the underground intelligence station in Wencheng suddenly sent an urgent military information, which immediately stunned the deputy commander of the second battalion.

The information was personally written by Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy engineering team of the 2nd Battalion in Wencheng, and there was only one content: It was rumored here that the commander of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division had been shot and wounded in Xi County, southwest of Shanxi Province, and Brigade Commander Chen had taken over the post of commander of the Lin Division; This information is unconfirmed.

Shocked, Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin quietly analyzed behind closed doors, although they were very reluctant to believe the authenticity of this information emotionally, but as the so-called groundless, Xiao Junping has always been extremely stable in doing things, but I am afraid that this matter is true.

"If Chen Guang takes over as division commander, who will take the position of brigade commander Chen?" Wu Zijian looked at Li Tianlin and asked.

"If you want to talk about qualifications, Li Tianyou, the commander of the 685th Regiment of the Chen Brigade, should be able to stand up to it, right?"

The famous Tiger General of the Eighth Route Army, Li Tianyou, and Li Tianlin, who was sitting at the kang table at the moment, had only one word of different names, so that in the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Forest Division, from time to time, some officers and soldiers half-jokingly and half-seriously thought that the commander of the 5th Company and the commander of the 685th Regiment of the Chen Brigade were brothers.

After being silent for a long time, Wu Zijian sighed: "I hope the teacher is safe!" Then again, the means of communication of our Eighth Route Army are too backward, and now they are divided into parts, scattered troops, lack of radio contact, and the battalion cannot find the regiment, and the regiment cannot find the brigade; If it is true that Division Commander Lin was injured, the military commanders below should know about it in time, but now they have to rely on rumors and hearsay! ”

"The division headquarters with the main force of the Chen Brigade has been active in the Fenhe and Luliang areas, and now the Japanese army is heavily advancing to suppress the southwest of Shanxi, and the Chen Brigade and Yan Laoxi's army are mixed together, and the battle should be quite fierce; At this juncture, if the division commander is really wounded, it will be a heavy loss for the whole army. ”

This sudden news affected Wu Zijian's mood, and also made him think of Liu Shu, an instructor who had been away for a long time and had no news - intelligence from the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army showed that the main force of the Lin Shi Xu Brigade had left the Zhengtai Line Railway area predicted by the instructor before departure, and interspersed with Wuxiang in the South Taihang Mountains. This will cause the instructor and his party to miss the target, and I wonder if he will be able to learn of this change and return to Guanmen Mountain as soon as possible. However, with Liu Shu's stubborn temper, it is not ruled out that he will follow the footsteps of the Lin Division Xu Brigade to the south and continue to catch up with the regiment headquarters and the brigade headquarters.

"Forget it! Since we can't get accurate information, let's not think about these for the time being, and we will concentrate on cooperating with the 391st Regiment to fight this battle! The deputy commander of the second battalion began to cheer himself and his subordinates: "The division commander took the main force of the Chen Brigade to fight in the southwest of Shanxi, there is no doubt about this, we and the 391st Regiment jointly attacked the Nantongpu Railway and cut off the supply line of the Japanese Sena Division, which is definitely a strong support for the Lin Division Chen Brigade." ”

"Are all the heavy machine gun platoons left? Do you want me to bring one or two and attack together? Li Tianlin asked with a ghostly heart. However, this little calculation of the commander of the 5th company was immediately seen through by Wu Zijian, and he said in a warning tone: Don't attack the idea of a heavy machine gun platoon, it is a platoon directly under the battalion headquarters, and like the cavalry company and artillery platoon, it is under the direct command of the battalion headquarters and is uniformly configured in battle.

Seeing that his trick had not succeeded, Li Tianlin was not as annoyed as Wang Shuanglong, who was calculated by the commander of the 7th Company at the meeting just now - of course, he did not dare to be annoyed with the deputy battalion commander - but said with a smile: The heavy machine gun fortifications on the mountain pass and in Hekou Village have been under the command of the 5th Company for a long time, and no company is as familiar with the two Type 92 heavy machine guns and one Makqin as the 5th Company. Besides, isn't the 391st Regiment of the Central Army going to allocate a heavy machine gun to our second battalion right away?

Wu Zijian himself has a deep preference for weapons and equipment, so he was not angry when he saw Li Tianlin's rogue behavior. What's more, the 5th Company, as the first main force of the whole battalion, is more heavy in terms of firepower allocation, which is understandable.

"The heavy machine gun is still cumbersome when it is equipped with the company that implements the maneuver, do you know why Qin Zhongxiao's 391st Regiment would exchange a mortar for one of our grenadiers?!"