The houses and military fortifications in Hekou Village were damaged and burned, and after the villagers who fled late at night were picked up by the Eighth Route Army, they immediately began to rebuild their homes: they had been repeatedly attacked by bandits on the Black Stone Cliff in Guanmen Mountain, so most of them were still mentally prepared for all this in front of them.

Wu Zijian had already sent the seriously wounded to Hongxing Gorge, and the lightly wounded who remained were all left in the camp behind the mountain pass fortifications, defending on the one hand and recuperating on the other; The commander of the 5th Company, Li Tianlin, was hit in the calf by a bullet with a large cover of 38, the bullet had been taken out, and there was no major problem, so Wu Zijian asked him to lead the lightly wounded soldiers of the 5th Company to guard the mountain pass.

"Tianlin, now that the enemy situation is unknown, the Japanese puppet army retreated only because Fengdian County was feinted by the central army, once they understand it, it is difficult to say whether they will make a comeback; Therefore, you must not leave here, and you must personally lead your subordinates to strictly guard and ensure that the passage for us to retreat into the mountains is smooth and safe. Wu Zijian was afraid that Li Tianlin would not be able to recuperate from his injuries, so he specially instructed him several times, until the commander of the 5th company swore to the sky and patted his chest, Wu Zijian took sixty elite soldiers, and cooperated with Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy engineers, to go down to Hekou Village.

Today, there are only about two platoons left of the 5th Company's uninjured and disease-free elite soldiers, and two of the squads were taken to Xiping Village by the instructor and the deputy company commander.

There were only the last three enemy workers left around Xiao Junping, and the rest were sent to Fengdian, Wencheng, Da Yushu Mountain, and along the Nantongpu Road Railway.

The captain of the enemy engineer is worried: the people who have been sent out, because of the lack of carriages and horses, the speed of the round trip has been greatly affected, and no information has been transmitted back so far (and the whereabouts of the deputy captain Chen Xuanzhu are unknown). The second battalion is newly defeated, surrounded by strong enemies, but he is like a blindfolded person, unaware of everything around him.

Looking at the pony pistol on Wu Zijian's shoulder, Xiao Junping became more and more ashamed: the deputy battalion commander tried his best to disagree with the crowd and collected all the short guns of the battalion commander and handed them over to the enemy engineering team, but the enemy engineering team was useless at the critical moment! Because Xiao Junping was born in the national army, he attached great importance to military ranks, guns and other things, and saw that the battalion commanders, including Wu Zijian and Li Tianlin, were carrying a pony pistol on their backs, and they only felt that they were thorned in their backs and that it was difficult to sleep and eat.

Finally, the enemy team reconnoitred a trio along the Nam Dong Pu Road Railway and returned first. The three of them were sent to the Lingshi area south of Wencheng, and as soon as they arrived at the village near the railway line, they learned that after the Japanese army occupied Linfen, where the headquarters of the Nationalist Army was in the Second War Zone, Linfen, the seat of the headquarters of the Nationalist Army's Second War Zone, the railway was being repaired, and it was rumored that the Tongpu Road would soon be reopened to traffic. The enemy workers climbed onto the railway line and witnessed the scene of the Japanese army's small train transporting grain, and even encountered a motorcade of horses transporting grain along the highway that night.

Hekou Village was less than 20 miles away from the Nantongpu Railway and Highway in a straight line, and with the help of a horse-drawn carriage, the three-man group quickly returned. For the first time in the past few days, Xiao Junping showed a heartfelt smile, and together with Wu Zijian, he listened to the report of the three-person team.

Xiao Junping had heard the news of the occupation of Linfen from the ore radio before, but the news that the Japanese army had stepped up its maintenance of the Nantongpu Railway and was preparing for the resumption of traffic on the whole line was the first shocking news.

Wu Zijian spread out the map drawn by Xia Lianshan and Xiao Junping, and compared the strategic points above, and his mood became heavier and heavier:

"Captain Xiao, once Nantongpu Road is fully restored to traffic by the devils, I am afraid that the situation of the Anti-Japanese War in Jinzhongnan and Jinnan will be even more severe."

Xiao Junping looked at the thick and eye-catching Nantongpu railway line on the map, and nodded slightly: "Yes, the Japanese army's mobility ability is already strong, and it already has an advantage on the highway by relying on cars and cavalry. ”

"Will it be the two wings along the railway line that will bear the brunt?" Wu Zijian was still staring at the map and asked without raising his head.

Xiao Junping understood what the deputy battalion commander meant, but he couldn't confirm whether the Japanese army would keep an eye on the base of the second battalion of the Lin Division at the foot of Guanmen Mountain in the future; For a while, the captain of the enemy engineer did not say a word.

After a long time, Wu Zijian raised his head, looked at Xiao Junping and continued to ask: "I have always been very strange, where did the Japanese army that attacked the camp headquarters in Xiping Village at the same time at night come from?" Tianlin's analysis is reasonable, and it definitely didn't come from under the noses of our Hekou Village! So, could it be that it was delivered from Nantongpu Road? ”

This time, Xiao Junping was also moved by Wu Zijian's thinking: combined with the information that the enemy workers had just sent back, this possibility had been greatly increased.

Wu Zijian said to himself: "Originally, we thought that at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, we only needed to guard against the enemy troops from the direction of Fengdian in the north, but now it seems that our entire west - along the Nantongpu Road - is lurking at any time. Captain Xiao, did you realize that once Hekou Village and Xiping Village faced Nantongpu Road, the threat was even greater than the Fengdian enemy army we expected? ”

The frequency of Xiao Junping's nodding accelerated: "I think it's the same." Facing Fengdian in the north, including the area of Little Elm Mountain, we can at least send people to reconnoiter to roughly grasp the number of troops and the distribution of troops, and if our intelligence work is more solid, we can even set up an eye next to the enemy camp, and once they are dispatched, we will report to us as soon as possible. However, in the face of a north-south railway line, we have no way of figuring out how many enemy troops will be and how soon they will be overwhelmed! That's the most dangerous thing. ”

After listening to Xiao Junping's words, the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army sighed, dropped a small branch that he had just used to compare the map, and walked out of the room thoughtfully.

The house where they were listening to reports and looking at maps was the one where Xiao Junping had been living in Hekou Village, located in the easternmost part of the village, and the east wall of the courtyard had almost been pasted to the cliff at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain. It is one of the tallest houses in the entire village, and from the courtyard gate that opens on the west wall, you can overlook the Qinglong River that flows outside the village and the wider boundary on the other side of the river. The last time the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army wandered to Hekou Village and there was a fierce battle, Xiao Junping stood in this courtyard condescendingly, providing observation and help to Xia Lianshan, who was in charge of commanding the defense.

Because the courtyard is close to the cliff and the terrain is high, the Japanese puppet army who occupied the village after the night attack did not hurt the place too much by the hastily carried out sabotage before withdrawing. At this moment, Wu Zijian, who was pacing into the courtyard, stood under the open courtyard gate and looked at the frozen Qinglong River in the distance with a heavy heart.

After a while, Xiao Junping limped out and stood behind Wu Zi's body.

Wu Zijian, who seemed to be aware of the arrival of the enemy engineer captain and had never looked back, suddenly said:

"Captain Xiao, you have always been skeptical of the establishment of a base in this area by the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division, thinking that this place is far away from the Japanese army, and that the Eighth Route Army is fearing the enemy and avoiding battle. But the Japanese puppet army actually took the initiative to come here for a night attack, what is your point of view on this? ”

Xiao Junping felt a burst of nervousness: he had indeed said something similar more than once before he had changed from a captain and staff officer of the Jin Army to the captain of the enemy engineer of the Eighth Route Army, and the tone of the words was mostly extremely cynical. Is the deputy battalion commander ready to pay tribute to himself?

didn't hear a reply for a long time, Wu Zijian turned his head strangely and looked at Xiao Junping on the side behind him, and suddenly, the deputy commander of the second battalion realized something from the other party's embarrassed and confused expression, and he laughed:

"Captain Xiao, don't get me wrong, I mean, why did the Japanese puppet army suddenly carry out such a powerful attack on these two inconspicuous base areas of the Eighth Route Army? It's just a desperate posture! They are now launching an important offensive in Nantongpu Road, and their troops are extremely tight, why do they not hesitate to divide their heavy forces and provoke a war at the foot of the sparsely populated Guanmen Mountain at this critical juncture? ”

Xiao Junping secretly sighed: Fortunately, the deputy battalion commander is not an instructor, otherwise, if Instructor Liu Shu questioned himself like this, he would definitely have to settle his old accounts as a "Kuomintang officer"!

"The cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army had flowed over earlier and was beaten by me, and then the deputy battalion commander led the main force of 5 companies to attack Fengdian County, which should have triggered the enemy's desire for revenge."

After listening to Xiao Junping's analysis, Wu Zijian turned his head to Qinglonghe again, and retorted word by word:

"The first time the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army wandered here, I am afraid that it was unintentional, after being hit by me, if the enemy wants to retaliate, it should undoubtedly be aimed at Hekou Village, but Xiping Village was attacked at night at the same time as our side, which makes some sense. Also, this simultaneous night attack on two sides by the Japanese and pseudo was obviously carefully planned in advance, and it was by no means a whim. This is even more inexplicable - we are not a big threat to the Japanese army's Fengdian and Wencheng strongholds here, why do they want to make such a big move? ”

He remembered the liaison officer of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army who had just come to visit, and remembered the exchange of information between the two sides on their respective actions in the past few days, so he reminded Wu Zijian: From the chronological point of view, the order of the Japanese army's dispatch should be to counterattack Fengdian County first and force the 391st Regiment of the Central Army to seize it. After taking Fengdian back, there was the next step of night raids on Hekou Village and Xiping Village.

"Do you mean that the Japanese army attaches great importance to the occupation of Fengdian County, and then treats our two villages as the outlying areas of the county seat and clears them? But I still don't understand, what is there in that county town in the mountains that is worthy of so much attention from the little devil? Wu Zijian was still confused.

"It's not just Fengdian County!" Xiao Junping's train of thought suddenly became clear: "There is also Little Elm Mountain!" Deputy battalion commander, you and Company Commander Li personally led the troops to sneak into Little Elm Mountain, and saw the big things that the Japanese army had done in the mountains - building roads, putting up lights, and patrolling; And that's just a small part of what you've seen in the lurking area, and God knows what the Japanese have made a name for themselves in that mountain? ”

Wu Zijian's eyes also began to shine: "Ah! Colonel Qin of the 391st Regiment came to invite me last time to jointly attack Little Elm Mountain. I remember that his reason at the time was that there were an unknown number of Japanese troops stationed in Little Elm Mountain, and that there was heavy artillery in the mountain pass near the south gate of Fengdian. Qin Zhongxiao's meaning was to unite with the Eighth Route Army to defeat the Japanese army in the mountains and relieve Fengdian's elbow and armpits. At that time, I was bent on seizing the equipment of the Japanese army, and I agreed without much thought. Looking back and analyzing it now, it doesn't seem that simple! ”

Xiao Junping, as the staff officer of the 12th Independent Brigade of the former Jin Army, was stationed in Wencheng, where the brigade headquarters was located, and was well aware of the importance of Wencheng as a fortress in Nantongpulu; However, Fengdian, which is separated from Wencheng by a small elm mountain, was not taken seriously in the mind of the brigade commander, and only one battalion under the 570th Regiment was stationed there all year round. Later, the Japanese army went south from Taiyuan to fight and occupied Junling, and the national army began to implement a front-line confrontation, Fengdian because there is a road directly leading to Junling, so it suddenly became one of the frontiers, and the brigade commander sent the entire 570 regiment to the past.

As for the small elm mountain between Wencheng Fengdian, I once walked there, and it was even more sparsely populated, except for an abandoned coal mine and an equally abandoned railway branch line to transport coal, which simply did not have any strategic significance.

However, the deputy battalion commander and the commander of the 5th company had just seen with their own eyes that the Japanese were building a lot of construction in the mountains, and even built a road that allowed cars to drive in both directions. Reminiscent of the Japanese army's resolute refusal to abandon Fengdian on the side of Little Elm Mountain, this shows a bit of strangeness.

"Deputy battalion commander, I agree with you, the Japanese are very likely to make a name for themselves in the area of Little Elm Mountain. Perhaps, Colonel Qin Zhongxiao of the Central Army knew something inside, otherwise he would not have suddenly invited us to attack Little Elm Mountain. In the future, you might as well find an opportunity to ask him. ”

Wu Zijian felt that the captain of the enemy engineer had the same thing as his hero, and secretly wrote down this matter, but he didn't want to wait too long, so he decided to meet the colonel of the Central Army as soon as possible to find out the mechanism - after all, this also involves the safety of the Eighth Route Army base not far from Fengdian and Xiaoyushu Mountain!