Despite the pain of losing his sister, the commander of the cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army was still conscious, and after the initial confusion, Xia Lianshan gradually returned to normal. The old lady of the Xia family instructed his subordinates to prepare a sumptuous dinner for his beloved son and his subordinates, who had been away from home for a long time. Before the dinner, Xia Lianshan also had a long talk with his old father, covering his wandering resume over the years, the current situation of the Anti-Japanese War, etc.; Seeing that his youngest son has now become a company commander of the dignified national army, and is an admirable cavalryman, the old lady of the Xia family is deeply pleased, and he can't help but ask his son for advice between words.

Xia Lianshan specially instructed Mrs. Xia to privately instruct Mrs. Xia about the branch of a "Cheng Ruixiang" store opened in Wencheng City, saying that the branch was the external cover of the secret intelligence station of Wencheng of the Eighth Route Army, and asked Mrs. Xia to know in his heart and not reveal the truth to the outside world.

During this period, the female soldier Zhang Xiu was invited into the back hall by the female relatives of the Xia family to ask for warmth, ask long and short, to the beginning of the dinner, Zhang Xiu has been mixed with the female relatives of this family, from the back hall to the dining table in the main hall, the degree of familiarity between the two sides even made the cavalry company commander of the Eighth Route Army feel dumbfounded.

Xia Lily's maid Sun Nier, since she fled to the Xia family's old mansion, has been living in a simple house, and the kind-hearted Xia Zhai took pity on her for the physical and mental torture and fright she suffered in the Fengdian war, so she was raised as an idler, and did not arrange any specific affairs for her to do on weekdays. In this afternoon, Zhang Xiu, a female soldier of the Eighth Route Army, had a heart-to-heart conversation with Sun Nier, encouraging her to come out of the trauma of war and face the future bravely. Sun Nier, who had a good impression of Zhang Xiu from the beginning, actually took the initiative to put forward her intention to join the Eighth Route Army.

Of course, Zhang Xiu was very happy about this, and she also liked this little girl who had experienced the tempering of the war and was very clever, so at the dinner table, she tentatively raised the matter to Xia Lianshan. Xia Lianshan was both surprised and instantly moved by Sun Nier's idea, and after obtaining the consent of the old lady of the Xia family, he decided to take Sun Nier and return to the second battalion headquarters of the Eighth Route Army together.

The trip of the Xia Lianshan team to the south has been very fruitful. In Pingquan County, a formal liaison was established with the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, several village work points were built along the way, a total of nearly 100 village guards were raised, and when they returned to Xiping Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, they also brought back 33 villagers who were willing to leave home to join the army, including a female soldier Sun Nier.

Wu Zijian, deputy commander of the second battalion, raised his eyebrows and praised his cavalry company commander fiercely. When Zhang Xiu, the secretary of the battalion headquarters, privately reported to Wu Zijian about the situation of Xia Lianshan's sister, Wu Zijian not only sincerely expressed his condolences to Xia Lianshan, but also assured him in person that in the near future, he would definitely conquer Fengdian County, completely annihilate the Japanese army there, avenge Xia Baihe's family, and comfort the dead.

Regarding Sun Nier's use, Zhang Xiu strongly advocated that she should be left in the battalion headquarters and guided by herself to help her become a qualified soldier of the Eighth Route Army as soon as possible. But on the way back from Pingquan County, Xia Lianshan already had a more mature consideration, in view of Sun Nier's perennial life in the Xia family and more familiar with the silk and satin cloth business, he should consider sending her to the secret intelligence station in Wencheng, which can better help the apparent "Cheng Ruixiang" semicolon to do a good job of covering up the outside world. Wu Zijian made some trade-offs and finally decided to do what the cavalry company commander wanted.

Sun Nier was a little scared at first, because the city of Wencheng where she was asked to go was still controlled by the Japanese, and she didn't dare to agree for a while, because she was afraid of the Japanese army's bestiality. But Xia Lianshan and Wu Zijian both assured her that the underground intelligence station in Wencheng was strongly protected by the captain and members of the enemy engineering team of the Eighth Route Army, and she would definitely not be harmed. In this way, the battalion headquarters decided that Xia Lianshan would personally escort Sun Nier into Wencheng and start working as a female partner of Cheng Ruixiang's branch. From now on, Sun Nier will officially become the first female member of the enemy labor team, under the direct leadership of Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy labor team.

And another piece of information brought back by Xia Lianshan attracted Wu Zijian's great attention - at the headquarters of the 570th Regiment in Pingquan County, he heard the discussion of the middle and lower-level officers of the Jin Army, and learned that in the area of Wuxiang County, Taihang Mountain, in the south-central Jin Dynasty, the main force of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division was active! Xia Lianshan, who was deeply surprised by this, tried to find out more detailed information from it at that time but was unsuccessful, and those Jin army officers were obviously very vague about this information, and there were no specific details to share.

"Lianshan, this situation is not sloppy!" In the battalion headquarters of the second battalion, Wu Zijian said with a serious face: "If it is true, it means that the main force of our Xu Brigade is not only not along Zhengtai Road at the moment, but has also made great strides to Jinnan; Have you thought about it, if our instructor is still looking for a superior on Zhengtai Road at this time, wouldn't he be in vain?! ”

The cavalry company commander didn't realize this before, but after Wu Zijian's order, he was suddenly shocked, and he was also worried about the future of the instructor and his party: "Then I will return to Pingquan again and try to find out more from the Jin army?" ”

The deputy battalion commander of the second battalion pondered for a moment and shook his head - the instructor is now far away from the main force of the battalion with a small team of men, and there is no communication. At the moment, he has more important things to hand over to Xia Lianshan to do, in addition to escorting Sun Nier into Wencheng, the daily training of the cavalry company must also be carried out immediately.

In order to gain a firm foothold, these work points must always maintain contact with the Guanmenshan base area, and in the absence of an effective means of telecommunication at present, the cavalry is undoubtedly the most important and fastest means of communication. In addition, the surrounding enemy situation is complex and severe, and it is particularly crucial for the 2nd Battalion to maintain a mobile cavalry force in wartime. Therefore, Xia Lianshan must command the cavalry company to recover and grow as soon as possible.

Wu Zijian also inquired in detail about the exchange of fire with Japanese spies in Lihuapu Village, but just relying on Xia Lianshan's oral account, it was difficult for him to judge the reason why the Japanese spies appeared in that small village; He told the cavalry company commander to escort Sun Nier into Wencheng, and by the way, he reported this matter to Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy engineers, and he helped analyze it.

After the resourceful captain of the enemy workers penetrated into the Japanese puppet heart city, Wu Zijian often felt that he lacked a right-hand man who could discuss important matters at any time; Moreover, there was another troublesome thing one after another, the people of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army had asked Xia Lianshan about the whereabouts of Xiao Junping, the former staff officer of the Jin Army, this time, but fortunately, they had been prepared for it and did not show any flaws. At present, it seems that the 12th Brigade of the Independent Brigade is not sure that their intelligence staff officers must have been incorporated by the Eighth Route Army, and since they are suspicious, I am afraid that this old public case will be rediscovered sooner or later.

The 391st Regiment of the Central Army in the Great Elm Mountain soon received news from the foot of Guanmen Mountain, and the liaison personnel of the 2nd Battalion of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division came to inform them that the department had established contact with the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army.

Qin Zhongxiao felt excited. As a regimental commander, he did not belittle the friendly troops who had escaped from the battle to the point of uselessness, as his own subordinates did; After the confirmation of the Eighth Route Army, the two regiments of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army are still maintained, and they are still able to effectively control Pingquan County and the surrounding areas, which is undoubtedly a fortunate thing for the frequent bad news from the Tongpu railway line.

By listening to the radio station of the Nationalist Government in Wuhan and the broadcasts of the local Japanese pseudo-radio station, the colonel of the Central Army in the mountains finally had a relatively accurate grasp of the situation in Shanxi during this period. In the past few days, Qin Zhongxiao has heard the loss of important towns along the Tongpu Railway in the southern part of Jinnan, and he is anxious in his heart -- according to the development of this trend, the Japanese army will not only be able to open up the entire line of the Tongpu Railway very quickly, but also have a great possibility of expelling the main force of the national army in southern Jinnan from Shanxi.

At a recent military seminar jointly held with the regimental chief of staff and the battalion and company commanders, these subordinates were also worried about this, and everyone was well aware of the shortcomings of the insufficient strength of the Japanese troops stationed in Shanxi, but this shortcoming will be solved with the opening of the Tongpu Railway! At that time, the Sena Division and the Yamaoka Division of the Japanese Army will make use of the north-south Tongpu Railway and the east-west Zhengtai Railway to realize the rapid transportation of troops in Shanxi Province in a vertical and horizontal manner, and they will be able to quickly project their limited forces to the relevant battlefields at any time, thus forming a local superiority in troops.

"With a powerful mobile projection capability, the two thin divisions of the Japanese will no longer be rigidly and rigidly deployed to defend the entire territory of Shanxi, but can appear wherever they are needed, and this is a very terrible situation."

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong pointed to the sand table made by the regiment headquarters and made the above discussion. This statement shocked and frustrated many of those present. So much so that at this moment, Qin Zhongxiao was alone in the face of the huge sand table, still feeling incomprehensible; However, unlike the pessimism of the chief of staff, Qin Zhongxiao also had hope for the Central Army in Jinnan -

Sena's division advanced to Yuncheng, which was only a few dozen miles away from the border between Shanxi and Henan, and would Chief Wei Lihuang make a last-ditch fight with natural hazards? The natural danger in Qin Zhongxiao's mind is not the turbid Yellow River, but the Zhongtiao Mountain on the edge of Shanxi.

The Central Army, which was pursued by the Japanese along the Tongpu Railway, could have fought a battle against the water if all of them hid into the steep and towering Zhongtiao Mountain; The Sena Division belonged to the Japanese army's horse-pulling division, and was accustomed to using chariots and field artillery to advance in the plains, but when they faced the Nakajo Mountains in front of them, they obviously did not have the advantage of mountain warfare in terms of strength or weaponry. This may provide a valuable respite for the Central Army of the Commander of Wei. As long as the national army in the second theater is not completely expelled from the game, there is still hope for the war of resistance in Shanxi.

Suddenly, the colonel of the Central Army set his sights on the Tongpu railway line on the sand table: since this railway is so important to the Sena division that they are desperate to attack southward, why can't I lead my troops to inflict heavy damage on the enemy on this railway line from the flank and rear!?

This idea made Qin Zhongxiao excited, the 391st Regiment had just obtained a batch of heavy munitions from the outskirts of Junling County, of course, it was not used for vegetarianism, and now, the mountain artillery company and the heavy machine gun company have been established, and it is time to come in handy! If Commander Wei's Central Army was able to engage in a final decisive battle with the Sena Division in the area of Mt. Nakajo, the 391st Regiment would have to fight on the railway line, or attack the important towns along the line behind it to cut off the passage of ammunition, grain and grass, or demolish its railroad tracks and block the main artery of the Tongpu Railway.

It was at this time that the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army sent liaison personnel to report the latest situation of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army.