The news that the intelligence station in Wencheng City had been successfully established was brought back to Hekou Village at the foot of Guanmen Mountain by the commander of the cavalry company, and Wu Zijian, the deputy commander of the second battalion of the Lin Division, couldn't help but be overjoyed. Regarding the establishment of an underground intelligence station in the pseudo-heartland of Japan, Wu Zijian can be said to have made a bloody investment. This is not only reflected in the investment of real money, he even sent all the elites of the enemy labor team to Wencheng, including the two captains of the enemy labor team.

In fact, Xiao Junping once proposed earlier that the deputy captain Chen Xuanzhu should stay by Wu Zijian's side and preside over the daily work of the enemy labor team - after all, no matter how important Wencheng is, it is only one point, and the second battalion of the Lin Division is facing far more than this point, and the enemy situation work needs to be fully rolled out. Therefore, Xiao Junping suggested that Chen Xuanzhu did not need to be sent to Wencheng together.

However, Wu Zijian weighed it again and again, and still decided to focus on strengthening the strength of the Wencheng intelligence station. In the view of the deputy commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division, since the Sena Division of the Japanese Army is about to open up the Tongpu Railway and realize the opening of the entire line, the 2nd Battalion Base Area, which is only more than 20 miles away from the Nantongpu Road, will undoubtedly be aimed at the Japanese puppet army along the Nantongpu Railway in the future. As an important hub along the railway line, Wencheng not only stationed the headquarters of the Hagiwara Brigade of the Sena Division, but also became the rear base camp of the main force of the Sena Division currently fighting in the southern and southwestern areas of Jin. In this sense, whether or not they can timely and accurately control the movements of the Japanese puppet activities in Wencheng will become the key to the success or failure of the 2nd Battalion of the Forestry Division and the Guanmenshan Base Area in the future operations against Japan.

So Wu Zijian gritted his teeth and was ruthless: the elite of the enemy labor team concentrated in Wencheng. Of course, the deputy commander of the second battalion did not blindly make a desperate bet. First of all, he had established close contacts with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army in the Great Elm Mountain. At present, the enemy engineering team consists of a group of ten people, specializing in the surveillance and intelligence gathering of Fengdian County; Of these ten people, four were responsible for liaising with the 391st Regiment; Among them, there is also a young soldier from Beiping, who has been raising carrier pigeons since he was a child, and at his initiative, the enemy engineer team of the second battalion of the forest division is trying to establish a carrier pigeon communication mechanism with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army. This is not a powerful means for the Second Battalion, which has never had a radio station.

Second, in the southern direction, Wu Zijian used the rest of the enemy workers to infiltrate the villages and settlements south of Xiping Village, mobilized the local people, supported and supported the Eighth Route Army's War of Resistance, and then covered a superficially loose and secretly tight intelligence transmission system among the people.

In this way, the 2nd Battalion of the Forestry Division backed Guanmen Mountain to the east, and joined forces with the 391st Regiment to monitor Fengdian County (including Xiaoyushu Mountain) to the north; to the south, relying on the masses of the people; To the west, there is the Wencheng Information Station. An all-round intelligence network has been initially formed.

After returning from Wencheng, the commander of the cavalry company, Xia Lianshan, soon made a new suggestion to Wu Zijian: In the direction south of Xiping Village, in addition to sending enemy engineers to carry out infiltration, he himself could also lead the cavalry company to patrol southward, and reach Pingquan County, which is 70 miles away. Among them, the cavalry company commander did not hide his purpose of wanting to go back to his hometown to have a look. So far, Xia Lianshan's search for Fengdian's sister's family has still been fruitless. Now that the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division was ready to be stationed for a long time at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, Company Commander Xia made this request.

Xia Lianshan's suggestion has a deeper meaning: according to the intelligence of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, Pingquan County is now stationed in the main force of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, and the momentum is not small. Xia Lianshan proposed that he could take the initiative to go forward and liaise with the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, and if he could obtain the promise of joint operations, the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division would have a strategic defensive barrier in the south.

Wu Zijian also heard the liaison officer of the 391st Regiment mention this matter not long ago. Speaking of the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, although there are many disgraceful resumes, the Second Battalion of the Lin Division can also be regarded as having a relationship with it: they were rescued in the ambush battle of Dawangyu in Xiaoyushu Mountain, Xiao Junping, the then staff officer of the Jin Army. Today, Xiao Junping is already an expert in intelligence warfare in the Eighth Route Army, but what Wu Zijian remembers is also the second lieutenant of the Jin Army and the bearded Li Mancang who made a good knife. I wonder if the bearded second lieutenant who once served in the broadsword team of the 29th Army is still serving in the 12th Brigade of the Independent Army?

However, in the face of this request of the cavalry company commander, Wu Zijian seemed to be in a dilemma. The whereabouts of Xia Lianshan's sister and her family in Fengdian County have not yet been known, and Wu Zijian has always felt guilty about this; What's more, as early as when the second battalion of the forest division had just arrived at the foot of Guanmen Mountain, Xia Lianshan privately mentioned to the deputy battalion commander that Pingquan County was his hometown. But at that time, the second battalion had just arrived and urgently needed to gain a firm foothold, so even Xia Lianshan himself did not ask to return to his hometown to visit relatives immediately. It is said that at this moment, the commander of the cavalry company proposed to visit his relatives, and the deputy battalion commander could fully agree. But if Xia Lianshan led the entire cavalry company to go deep into the direction of Pingquan County, Wu Zijian still showed hesitation.

At present, the cavalry company stationed in Xiping Village for training has just recovered part of its vitality, and in addition to the original men and horses that were slowly recovered after the anti-night raid, a group of young and strong people with horses at home have been mobilized to join the army, so that the number of people in the whole company has recovered to more than 40 horsemen. But compared with the previous heyday of two rows of more than 60 riders, there is still a gap.

What's more important to mention is that after being captured by the second battalion of the Lin Division, the officers and soldiers of the cavalry of the puppet Mongolian army who participated in the Eighth Route Army anyway were completely lost in the battle against the night attack, and all the others disappeared mysteriously except for the battlefield where some people were left behind. Wu Zijian and Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy labor team, judged that it was very likely that they took advantage of the chaos to escape that night and re-threw themselves into the arms of the Japanese army. On the one hand, this has laid hidden dangers for the defense and security of the Eighth Route Army's base areas, and on the other hand, it has objectively caused the cavalry company of the Second Battalion to lose experienced instructors, which has brought many disadvantages to the training of new cavalry.

"Lianshan, you tell me the truth," Wu Zijian asked while scratching his head in a private house in Hekou Village, "What is the combat effectiveness of your more than 40 cavalry now?" Compared with the original cavalry company, how big is the difference? ”

Of course, Xia Lianshan understood Wu Zijian's contradiction and hesitation, he thought about it, and replied more affirmatively: "Deputy battalion commander, if compared with the combat level of the anti-night raid battle, the current cavalry company can reach sixty percent of the combat strength of the old company. ”

The cavalry company commander assessed this, of course, with his true feelings and basis: among the dozen or so soldiers who were newly recruited with their own horses, half of them did not know how to gallop on horseback; The horses brought with them were mostly engaged in transportation, farming and other activities in the past, and they were not the same as the Oriental horses captured from the Japanese cavalry wing and the Mongolian war horses captured from the puppet Mongolian cavalry regiment. What's more, if you want to become a qualified cavalryman, it is far from being as simple as being able to ride a horse and ride a good horse.

With such an association, Wu Zijian and Xia Lianshan both remembered the officers and soldiers of the cavalry company who died in the anti-night attack battle - what an elite cavalry it was, when the battle in Hekou Village was at stake, it was this elite cavalry that saved the fate of the second battalion of the Lin Division with an almost suicidal charge!

Looking at Xia Lianshan, whose eyes were already slightly reddened, Wu Zijian deliberately turned his body halfway and did not look at the other party: "I am mainly worried that the cavalry company has not yet been fully trained and matured, and if it runs so far and goes deep into an unfamiliar area at once, once it encounters the enemy, I am afraid that something will happen." ”

"Deputy battalion commander, don't worry, the comrades of the enemy engineering team have recently come back from reconnaissance from the area south of Xiping Village, and I have been communicating with them to understand the situation in that area," Xia Lianshan said with some muttering: "The main force of the Japanese army is now only frantically moving south along the Tongpu Railway, and there is no trace of them in the large area south of Xiping Village. ”

The deputy commander of the second battalion nodded, his eyes still fixed on a short broom at the tip of the fire kang. He had been informed of the situation that had been detected by the enemy's engineering team. Suddenly, his mind moved: The original intention of sending enemy engineers to the south of Xiping was to consider security and confirm the enemy's situation, so as to prevent the base area from being attacked again. However, now that it has been confirmed that there is no Japanese puppet army in that area, is it necessary for the second battalion to stretch its hands and feet longer while ensuring the safety of the flanks?

Wu Zijian felt a little excited about his "rash" idea, and he asked the people from the battalion headquarters to bring the map, spread it out on the kang table, and asked the cavalry company commander to come and see it in detail.

According to the further memories and sketches of Xia Lianshan, a local person, some place names have been added between Xiping Village and Pingquan County on this map, including several larger villages. Wu Zijian pointed to these villages and said:

"In the past, our second battalion was stationed near Xiping, and we wanted to gain a firm foothold and then open up to the west and south. However, Xiping Village has just been destroyed by the Japanese, and it is destined to take a long time to recover. Then why don't we jump out of Xiping and continue to develop into these big villages in the lower reaches of the Qinglong River? Conscription and food conscription have a new landing! ”

Xia Lianshan's expression also perked up, and in his memory, his hometown of Pingquan County to the north, that is, in the direction of Xiping Village, there were several densely populated natural villages, which were generally on both sides of the Qinglong River.

"Deputy battalion commander, shouldn't we send troops over?"

Glancing at the cavalry company commander who was becoming more and more eager to try, Wu Zijian looked down at the map again and thought for a while, feeling that this seemingly aggressive plan was actually quite feasible - spreading propaganda and agitation all the way among the officers and soldiers should be able to replicate the good situation that was successfully obtained in Xiping Village. It's a pity that the instructor is gone, but fortunately, there is still Zhang Xiu! They are all good at doing mass work.

Wu Zijian instructed the battalion correspondent to find Zhang Xiu immediately! This beautiful female soldier who is in a hurry is currently busy connecting with the villagers and catching the spies who are infiltrating in Xiping Village, but it is ineffective. It seems that she is not the material to do this, so let's play her strengths!

"Company Commander Xia!" The deputy commander of the second battalion, who had made up his mind, put on a serious posture: "Your cavalry company is divided into two parts, leaving a few veterans to lead the recruits to continue training in Xiping; You personally led no less than twenty-five horsemen and horses, as the vanguard of our battalion, and marched in the direction of Pingquan County! ”

"Yes!" Xia Lianshan also replied with a serious face. He had the heart to continue to ask if he could take the opportunity to visit relatives in Pingquan County, but the atmosphere at the moment seemed to be inconvenient to mention.

Wu Zijian seemed to see through the thoughts of this capable general, and further ordered: "After the cavalry company arrived in Pingquan County, it identified itself to the 12th Brigade of the defending army, and forwarded a letter from the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division to the brigade commander of the brigade, requesting that friendly troops establish contact with me in preparation for cooperation against the enemy in case of war!" ”

The cavalry company commander raised his eyebrows and saluted again. At this time, all he and the deputy battalion commander thought about was how to cooperate with the 12th Brigade of the Jin Army, just like with the 391st Regiment of the Central Army.

However, both of them had the wrong idea: the 12th Brigade of the Du, which fled all the way and retreated to Pingquan County, was far less friendly than the 391st Regiment, and they thought that the hand of the Eighth Route Army was stretched too long.