After sleeping overnight at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain, many officers and men of the 2nd Battalion woke up early at dawn.

There was a sense of excitement at the campsite, and when I arrived last night, it was already dark, and people only had a glimpse of the partial appearance of Guanmen Mountain; At this moment, under the clear winter sky, the peaks and mountains that can be included in the eyes are particularly clear and magnificent. According to the instructor: the second battalion will have great plans here!

After a month-long journey, not only did they have to bypass the Japanese army's defense area, but also evade the remnants of the national army, and the second battalion had a hard time. But now that all this has passed, some veterans who participated in the Long March have compared the arrival of the second battalion at Guanmen Mountain to the arrival of the Central Red Army from the Jiangxi Soviet District to northern Shaanxi.

Xia Lianshan and the people of the investigation team had breakfast early, and Feng Changzhi and Wu Zijian discussed it again last night, and in order to find out the situation of the Fengdian battle as soon as possible, they decided to let the investigation team go on horseback.

Xia Lianshan is the son of a large family in southern Jinnan, he has practiced the ability to ride a horse since he was a child, he also selected six soldiers who can ride horses, and pulled seven horses of the captured Japanese cavalry, and the group jumped on the horse and whipped away, galloping away.

Looking at the backs of Xia Lianshan galloping away, Wu Zijian was full of pride, and he said to the battalion commander standing beside him: "Old Feng, I see, the second battalion will pull up a cavalry company sooner or later!" ”

Feng Changzhi was happy when he heard it, and his eyes narrowed into a slit: "That's good, but if you call a cavalry company, you have to have more than a hundred horses, right?" ”

Wu Zijian patted his old partner on the shoulder: "Isn't it just a hundred horses!" We brought out five horses from Wutai Mountain, and two days ago, Dawangyu seized another twenty-eight horses, which is thirty-three. The remaining more than 60 horses, as long as you let me do it, I will get it for you in a month! ”

"Good! Deputy Company Commander Xia's riding skills are not bad, and if he really wants to pull up the cavalry company, I think he can be the company commander and select a group of soldiers to practice with him. ”

"I think it's okay, Lian Shan is a local, let him come forward when the time comes, and recruit more people who can ride horses in the local area to join the army; This cavalry company is done! ”

The more the two chief and deputy battalion commanders talked, the happier they became, and they didn't notice that instructor Liu Shu came over from a distance, followed by Zhang Xiu, the secretary of the battalion headquarters.

"Battalion commander, deputy battalion commander Wu," Liu Shu's voice suddenly sounded from behind, and the cavalry company's plan that the two military commanders were depicting came to an abrupt end.

"Instructor, you're just in time!" Feng Changzhi was still shouting at Liu Shu with great interest, wanting to reveal the idea and coil of the cavalry company to him, but Wu Zijian keenly noticed the aggrieved and confused look on the female soldier Zhang Xiu's face. Sure enough, Liu Shu interrupted Feng Changzhi's words:

"Battalion commander, I want to check some things with Deputy Battalion Commander Wu."

The instructor's serious face and the female clerk's tear stained face surprised the battalion commander who still had a smile on his face.

"Check what? Go ahead. Wu Zijian changed into a cold tone. In his opinion, as long as Liu Shu picked up the instructor's shelf and talked to him, there would be no pleasant content.

"I found out this morning that Xiao Zhang Wenwen was talking with the staff officer Xiao of the Jin army, and after I verified with her, Comrade Zhang Xiu revealed to the staff officer of the Jin army the action policy and plan of our battalion to come to Guanmen Mountain. I severely criticized her for her disorganized and undisciplined behavior for this! However, according to her reflection, this conversation between her and Staff Officer Xiao of the Jin Army was instructed and approved by Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, is this the case? ”

After Liu Shu asked, Wu Zijian looked at him fixedly, speechless for a while; Then, the deputy battalion commander sighed heavily and said:

"Instructor, I don't understand, why do you look at Staff Officer Xiao so unpleasantly? He is now operating with our battalion, and along the way the commander of the 5th Company and I have been persuading him to join the Eighth Route Army, and he is obviously tempted, so I asked Xiao Zhang to talk to him again, and try to keep him in the 2nd Battalion - both of them are college students, so they can talk together - how did this become an unorganized and undisciplined behavior? ”

"What do you mean to be able to talk together?!"

Liu Shu suddenly let out a broken cry, and everyone present was startled, and the instructor's face turned pale in an instant, and his anger and anxiety were overflowing:

"Is this still what a battalion commander should say?! We are a revolutionary contingent, an advance detachment shouldering a major mission! You even instructed our female comrades to go and chat with a Kuomintang officer, and what did you say that we could talk together! Where have you lost your party spirit and position?! ”

Liu Shu's fierce questioning made Wu Zijian speechless and speechless for a while. And the reason why he was speechless was somewhat because of some weakness.

Wu Zijian, who is good at battlefield observation, actually keenly captured the Jin Army's staff officer's good impression of Zhang Xiu before, which is a kind of good impression that is not very clear, but the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army intends to take advantage of this, and Zhang Xiu will take the lead, prompting Xiao Junping to make up his mind to join the second battalion - he needs this intelligence officer who is proficient in Japanese and has mastered the military intelligence of the Japanese army!

It's just that the instructor's strong reaction is inevitably a bit excessive. But Wu Zijian didn't have the heart to think about it, he looked at the female clerk who had obviously cried, and said to her with a pleasant face: "Xiao Zhang, I didn't think it well and made you feel wronged." ”

Unexpectedly, Zhang Xiu cried out loud.

Facing the tears of this beautiful female soldier, who was actually still a girl, the three military commanders suddenly looked at each other and fell silent without saying a word.

Xia Lianshan seven people and seven horses, from the northwest foot of Guanmen Mountain and the small elm mountain between the gap through the open wilderness composed of frozen soil and dry grass, although the terrain is uneven, but compared to the rugged and winding mountain path, it is a different world. They began to gallop on horseback.

The northern foot of Guanmen Mountain is thirty or forty miles away from Fengdian County.

Xia Lianshan, who was riding on a horse, had been analyzing and calculating: the second battalion had been pulling out from the small village next to Dawangyu to Guanmen Mountain three days ago, and on the first day of the opening, they had ambushed a group of Japanese cavalry in Dawangyu, and according to the later confessions of the cavalry captives, they would start an all-out attack on Fengdian County on the day they were ambushed.

In this way, today should be the fourth day of Fengdian's attack by the Japanese army!

Is the county still in the hands of the defenders? The staff officer of the Jin Army who was rescued by the company commander proved that it was a regiment of the 12th Independent Brigade of the Jin Army and a regiment of the Central Army who defended the city. How many troops are there in these two regiments, and what is the combat strength?

The anxious Xia Lianshan kept whipping the horse. However, two of the six warriors who could ride horses were mediocre, which somewhat slowed down the speed of the group.

Finally, I saw the outline of Fengdian County from afar.

But Xia Lianshan's heart became frightened: at this distance, he couldn't hear any gunfire coming from in front of him. What does this mean? Either the defenders repelled the devils, or the devils occupied Fengdian!

According to the plan agreed in advance, before stepping out of the wilderness on the road, which was a road leading from the south gate of Fengdian to Little Elm Mountain, they reined in the reins of their horses by the side of the road, leaving four men to guard the horses; Xia Lianshan led the two people on foot on the highway and marched towards the south gate of Fengdian. The four people who stayed behind all carried pony guns that had captured the Japanese cavalry, and the three Xia Lianshan carried shell guns under their clothes.

However, after only walking about a hundred or ten steps along the road, Xia Lianshan's heart sank suddenly.

He saw the head of Fengdian City, two miles away, with several red and white sun flags, dancing and flying in the cold wind blowing from the north. At the head of the city, there are people walking around.

That should be the Japanese soldier - Fengdian County, undoubtedly fallen!

Xia Lianshan, who was in pain and anxious, regretted not borrowing the company commander's telescope. He originally thought that Fengdian should still be fighting. But now, the closed gates and the bravado of the sun have heralded the end of the battle.

Sister!

Xia Lianshan shouted in his heart.

The county seat of Fengdian in the distance is so silent, but in the silence, there is a hidden omen.

"Deputy company commander, what should I do?" The two soldiers accompanying him also understood the situation and asked anxiously.

You can't go any further, and maybe three or eight shots are being fired at the three lonely men on the road.

"Withdraw, I'll find a way to climb up the ridge over there, and then go into the city to observe." Xia Lian Mountain refers to the mountain beam of the small elm mountain in the west of Fengdian City. A few days ago, when he came to Fengdian to visit his sister, he encountered Japanese soldiers and failed to enter the city gate, so he climbed to the mountain beam over there to observe the Japanese troops.

They returned to the wilderness south of the road, and Xia Lianshan sent two warriors to immediately ride back to the second camp at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain to report the news that Fengdian had been occupied by devils.

Then, he continued to leave two people to wait in place, and he led the other two to run into Little Elm Mountain, and climbed a mountain beam closest to the west wall of Fengdian, where they clearly saw the Japanese soldiers patrolling the city, and the west gate was also closed. Xia Lianshan was desperate.

Sister!

There was no trace of the national army nearby, and the two regiments of the Jin army and the central army defending the city seemed to have evaporated from the world. And the Japanese army occupying the county did not open the city gate, which also made the deputy company commander of the Eighth Route Army puzzled. Xia Lianshan, who had been thinking about it for a long time and couldn't see more of the situation, had to take the two soldiers and walk out of the mountain in a depressed mood.

Unexpectedly, just as they were about to leave the mountain, they suddenly witnessed a group of devils marching along the road outside the south gate of Fengdian and into Little Elm Mountain.

Xia Lianshan and the three of them hid behind the mountain rocks and observed carefully. This group of devils, the cavalry opened the way, and there were infantry, artillery, and sappers on large trucks, no less than a few thousand people. And this road from the south gate of Fengdian into Little Elm Mountain, Xia Lianshan is aware, three days ago, they had crossed this road in the mountains to run to Guanmen Mountain, the guide hired by the second battalion told him at that time, this road leads to Wencheng on the railway line outside the mountain.

In this way, the Japanese army that occupied Fengdian will continue to attack Wencheng!

After the Japanese army passed, Xia Lianshan and the three returned to the meeting place in the southern suburbs, and they noticed that there were still devil soldiers left behind in Fengdian, and the city gate was still closed.

Xia Lianshan originally thought that the Japanese army who had fallen away would abandon Fengdian so that he could sneak into the city. But it all backfired.

Sister! Are you all safe?

How would the deputy company commander of the Eighth Route Army know that his sister, who had been worried about her, had been ruined by the Japanese army defending the city for two days and two nights, and had just swallowed her last breath, and was abandoned under the city wall.