Three miles outside the Beicheng Gate of Pingquan County, there is a small village called Longwan - the Qinglong River, which flows from the north to the south, turned a corner in front of this small village and flowed to the west in the direction of Tongpu Road. The name of Longwan comes from this.

The regimental headquarters of the 570th Regiment of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army is now condescending to be located in this Longwan Village.

The conditions are naturally very simple, which makes Tian Mingda, the head of the 570 regiment, always dissatisfied. However, the banishment of the 570th Regiment to the outside of Pingquan County for defense was the order of Zheng Yuan, the commander of the 12th Brigade of the Independent Brigade, and Tian Mingda, as the commander of the regiment, could only swallow his anger.

At present, two of the three battalions of the 570th Regiment were stationed in the western suburbs of Pingquan County, and the purpose was naturally self-evident. This is also the origin of Tian Mingda's so-called "cannon fodder theory".

According to common sense, since the main strength of the 570 Regiment is deployed in the western suburbs, its regiment headquarters and regiment commander should accompany this part of the troops, but Tian Mingda took his most elite first battalion and stationed it in the northern suburbs of the county. His purpose in doing this is also self-evident: to avoid the direction where the Japanese army is most likely to attack, and not to be cannon fodder for the brigade commander.

Moreover, choosing the regiment headquarters in the small village of Longwan instead of being stationed under the city wall under the city wall, Tian Mingda also had the meaning of being angry with the brigade commander: since I was sent outside the city, then I simply stayed away from the brigade headquarters. Fortunately, there was no Japanese stronghold for a considerable distance north of Pingquan County - 70 miles away from the north was another county seat, Fengdian, which was also the defense area of Tian Mingda's regiment in the past, and now the Japanese puppet army was stationed.

Moreover, between Pingquan and Fengdian, there is also a battalion-sized combat unit of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division, which can play the role of a forward buffer. Therefore, Tian Mingda, who is known for escaping and avoiding war, this time put his regimental headquarters in front of Longwan Village on the bank of the Qinglong River.

Speaking of the battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, the commander of the 570th Regiment of the Jin Army has recently deepened his impression of them.

First, some time ago, the battalion's cavalry company commander Xia Company took the initiative to visit with a team of people, and there was a beautiful female soldier in his team, which made the usually lascivious Tian Mingda itch.

Second, just after the Eighth Route Army's visit, Tian Mingda's subordinates sent to reconnoiter the situation in the upper reaches of the Qinglong River successively reported the phenomenon of the Eighth Route Army's small-scale stationing in many villages on both sides of the Qinglong River. It is alleged that the Eighth Route Army, often led by a few cavalry and accompanied by a number of infantry and uniformed civilians, established so-called field mobilization committees in the above-mentioned villages, which were all held or assigned by the Eighth Route Army. Once the Field Mobilization Committee was established, they implemented rent and interest reductions on land in the name of the committee, and even recruited new recruits.

After receiving these reports, the commander of the Jin Army smelled that something was wrong: this Eighth Route Army, which relied on the western foothills of Guanmen Mountain, was obviously expanding its territory and troops to the south and west. The 12th Brigade arrived in Pingquan County much later than the Eighth Route Army, thus losing the opportunity to control these villages.

After some hesitation, Tian Mingda reported this information to the brigade commander. Brigade Commander Zheng Yuan was extremely nervous and attached great importance to this, and immediately reported to the Second Theater Commander Yan Headquarters by telegram.

Soon after, the headquarters of the commander of the Second War Zone replied to the 12th Brigade of the Independent Army, ordering the department to immediately organize troops to be stationed in the surrounding villages, as close as possible to the territory already occupied by the Eighth Route Army, and strictly restrict its continued expansion. However, it is necessary to pay attention to a good sense of proportion and try to avoid causing armed friction between the two armies.

After the secret telegram from the Theater Commander's Department was transmitted to Tian Mingda by the brigade headquarters, Brigade Commander Zheng himself also personally gave him a face-to-face lecture on the appropriateness of asking the 570th Regiment to let go and do it, not only to quickly send troops to the villages along the Qinglong River that the Eighth Route Army had not yet touched; At the same time, it is also possible to try to carry out grain requisition operations in villages where small units of the Eighth Route Army have already entered.

Tian Mingda was jealous of the latter task and asked his brigade commander: If the Eighth Route Army objected or even drove its headquarters, how would it respond?

Brigade Commander Zheng Yuan had a dark face and said firmly: "Our infantry brigade is far stronger than the battalion of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division Xu Brigade in terms of level and scale, and they are not qualified to compete with us for food and territory. If there is a confrontation, just show the banner of the brigade headquarters to force them back, it is really not possible, we still have the sword of Shang Fang from the headquarters of the Second World War Zone, forgive him a battalion, he has no courage and no strength to confront us! ”

With this order from the brigade commander and major general, Tian Mingda's courage grew, and he transferred one company from each of the second and third battalions stationed in the western suburbs of Pingquan County, and also transferred a company from the first battalion that followed the regimental headquarters.

However, just as the troops he had drawn began to assemble, the commander of the cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army, Xia, who had come to visit him last time, came uninvited again.

The commander of the 570th Regiment, who received the report from the peripheral sentinels, had made up his mind not to see the other party, but when he heard that the cavalry company commander was carrying a "gift list", Tian Mingda's eyes suddenly lit up: As the saying goes, those who are officials do not give gifts, for the sake of the face of the gift list, this side can be seen. At the same time, I also figured out what kind of medicine was sold in the gourd of the Eighth Route Army.

The person who came was Xia Lianshan, the cavalry company commander of the Guanmenshan Detachment of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army. Lian Commander Xia, who couldn't wait to complete the deal earlier, got straight to the point when he saw Tian Mingda's face, and said it briefly, making his intentions clear.

I heard that there were two hundred oceans and ten stones of grain, and the commander of the Jin Army not only had bright eyes, but also gave off a light in his head - isn't it just to release a few bandits who had helped the Eighth Route Army, this matter is not costly, the only thing that is a little troublesome is that the Mai Village at the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain mentioned by the cavalry company commander of the Eighth Route Army should not be the people of his own 570 Regiment who are collecting grain there at this moment, but the grain collection team sent by the brigade commander from the 569 Regiment. However, this is also easy to do, let his chief of staff take the people of the Eighth Route Army to Maicun for a trip, it is estimated that the commander who caught the bandits over there is at best a certain company commander of the 569th Regiment, and send him fifty oceans plus a few stones of grain, and ask him to quietly release the people, it should not be a difficult task. In this way, he can easily carry the remaining more than 100 pieces of ocean into his pocket.

Tian Mingda, who made a promise to the commander of the friendly cavalry company, asked the other party to immediately go to get the money and food on the gift list, and as long as the things were in place, he would immediately take them to Maicun to ransom people.

In accordance with the instructions of the detachment leader Wu Zijian before leaving, Xia Lianshan deliberately blurred the number of captured bandits in the Black Stone Cliff and the number of people they carried* (including a light machine gun) to the Jin army commander during this trip; According to Wu Zijian's analysis, although the combat effectiveness of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army is not strong, according to the account of Xiao Junping, who served in the brigade in the past, the weapons and equipment of the brigade are not bad, so it may not pay as much attention to the captured guns as the Eighth Route Army.

Soon, Xia Lianshan took the ocean and grain and a platoon of cavalry to return, for the sake of the white flowers, Tian Mingda temporarily gave up the-for-tat position with the Eighth Route Army, and sent his chief of staff with a smile, leading Xia Lianshan and his party straight to Maicun.

The Jin Corps Commander's analysis was indeed correct, he happened to attack the 569th Regiment of the Black Stone Cliff Bandits in Maicun, and the commander did not exceed the company level: Li Mancang, the second lieutenant platoon commander, was ordered to lead a platoon under his command and was stationed in Maicun to collect grain.

Ever since he let go of the two minions of the Black Stone Cliff bandit gang and returned to their cottage to report the news, Li Mancang has strengthened his vigilance in case Black Stone Cliff does not come to ransom people, but sends more men and horses to rescue them by force.

He will take turns in three squads of the whole platoon, every eight hours, to set up a guard post in the direction of the southern foot of Guanmen Mountain. The small cannon-like machine gun he had just captured, which he had forced the bandits to teach his two soldiers how to use, was now erected near the north entrance of the village.

With the machine guns in the press, Second Lieutenant Li Mancang had a bottom in his heart: the more than 30 human guns under his command have good combat effectiveness, and it should not be a problem to deal with bandits twice as large as himself in the case of occupying a favorable geographical position. And according to his judgment, it is more likely that the gangs will send people to negotiate rather than solve it by force.

But to the great surprise of the second lieutenant of the Jin Army, it was not the people from the Black Rock Cliff bandit nest who came to negotiate, but the chief of staff of the 570th Regiment of the 12th Brigade Neighboring Regiment; This chief of staff did not bring a bandit, but a cavalry company commander of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army's Forest Division!

Seeing that the commander temporarily stationed here was only a second lieutenant platoon commander, the lieutenant colonel of the 570th regiment suddenly became arrogant, and he explained the general meaning to Li Mancang in a rather impatient tone, and then proposed to hand over to the other party fifty yuan of ocean and five stone of grain (he even once moved the idea of only handing over thirty yuan of ocean to the other party, but in a hurry he had time to change his words), and asked Li Mancang to immediately release the bandits he was detaining.

If it is replaced by an ordinary second lieutenant platoon commander, since the person who comes is a commander who is much higher than his own military rank, he should be given a favor, and he has a lot of money to earn, including the fact that he can increase the amount of food he can collect, so how can he not follow such a good thing?

However, Li Mancang was a rare loyal and upright grassroots officer in the 12th Brigade of the Independent Brigade, and he had an arrogant backbone, and when he saw the attitude of the chief of staff of the friendly and neighboring regiment, he immediately became disgusted, and on the surface he was respectful and respectful, but his words of reply were neither humble nor arrogant:

"Report to the chief of staff, on the orders of the commander of the third battalion of the 569th Regiment, to collect grain here, just in time for the bandits to enter the village to rob, so he beat the other party off guard and captured more than 20 bandits. These bandits burned, killed, and committed adultery, and the people were very angry, and they really didn't dare to accept this bit of the ocean, so they let the tiger return to the mountain. He was preparing to report to the battalion commander and await the order to dispose of it. ”

The chief of staff of the 570th regiment, listening to the other party's prevarication from the battalion commander one by one, suddenly became angry and coldly reprimanded:

"Your battalion commander is just a major, can't I, the lieutenant colonel, be his master?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as these words came out, Li Mancang became more and more resistant, and replied coldly: "The commander is the chief of staff of the 570 Regiment, and the first person I want to obey the order is, of course, the battalion commander of our 569 Regiment." Please don't be embarrassed by your duties again, sir. ”

"I didn't embarrass you," the chief of staff of the 570th Regiment held back his anger: "If you don't make money by putting fifty yuan in the ocean, did you let the donkey kick your head?" ”

Li Mancang laughed and said that fifty oceans sounds like a lot, but there are more than twenty fast guns that this gang of bandits carried with them, and there is a strange-looking but powerful machine gun, just with these guns, it is not fifty oceans that can be taken, right!?

The chief of staff of the 570 regiment was taken aback: more than twenty fast guns, and a machine gun! What is the origin of this gang of bandits? It's okay to be equipped by the army?! He then turned his head to look at the cavalry company commander of the Eighth Route Army on the side, and the latter's face suddenly became embarrassed.