When the first gunshot rang out from the village of Ewhapo, Hirai Terarichi was leading his men to have lunch outside the village, and the sudden gunfire in the quiet atmosphere of the afternoon almost choked him on a mouthful of food. The gendarmerie captain, who had never experienced a firefight, suddenly looked flustered and at a loss. Fortunately, there was a member of the capture team by his side who was from the combat unit of the Sena Division and used to be a machine gunner, and the reason why he was selected to join the capture team was because he looked like a Chinese.

"Captain Hirai, it may be that our people have been exposed, and we have to enter the village immediately to answer them!"

The team member pulled out the pistol from his waist and hurriedly suggested it to Hirai Teriichi. The rest of the capture team also drew their guns and waited for their captain to give the order. However, before Hiraiji could make a decision, the gunshots rang out again, and soon there was an explosion. At this time, including the team member with combat experience, his face also became shocked and confused: his initial judgment was that his companions who entered the village encountered the resistance of the villagers, but with the successive gunshots and even the sound of explosions, he realized that the situation was not so simple.

"Oops, could it be that there is an army in the village?" Another team member also sniffed out the danger.

The location of this group of people at the moment is in the northwest direction of Ewhapo Village, about 100 meters away from the nearest village house on the periphery, and the flat terrain of the entire Ewhapo Village makes them unable to see the village clearly because their vision is blocked by the houses scattered all over the village. But there must be a serious situation in it, and if it was just friction with the villagers, there should not be such a fierce shooting or even throwing *.

As the supreme commander of the capture team, Hirai Teraichi did not expect a battle scene during the arrest. The barracks on the southern outskirts of Bunjo, which was set up by the commander of the Hagiwara Brigade for the arrest operation, was only deployed with a squadron of infantry on standby, and it was used to guard against the possible presence of Shina troops nearby. Unexpectedly, the first time he led his subordinates to a slightly farther place, he encountered a complicated and thorny situation. He also knew very well that most of the members of the detachment he brought out today had no combat experience, and the weapons were all short guns and daggers, and a few people had brought them*.

"The situation is unknown, we can't enter the village for the time being!"

The pale-faced captain of the gendarmerie finally made a decision, and he ordered the three members of the team to stay where they were, while he and the rest of the men drove the cart back quickly, and used walkie-talkies to make emergency contact to the rear. On the one hand, this was done because of timidity, and on the other hand, the brigade commander, Major General, had personally explained to him: it was better not to catch women than to leak the news. If there really is a branch army in the village, then avoiding the annihilation of his entire team is the most important thing - so many imperial officers and soldiers pretend to be the people of the branch, and once they are captured alive, it is easy to leak secrets.

The member of the Japanese capture team, who was being chased by two cavalrymen of the Eighth Route Army, after firing the first shot, quickly turned back and fired the second and third shots indiscriminately, which was also undisciplined. Fortunately, the two cavalrymen who were chasing closer and closer did not shoot, and it was clear that they were going to catch them alive. At this moment, a small path appeared in front of the Japanese soldier that could turn left, and he hurriedly turned into it, and in front of him was a wooden fence only half a person high, and without thinking about it, he jumped over the fence and jumped into the backyard of a farmhouse. When the two chasing cavalrymen hurriedly reined in the reins of their horses and tried to turn left, they found that the path that turned could only lead to the backyard of this farmhouse, and it was already difficult for the horses to move forward, and the suspicious person who was chasing closer and closer now passed through the backyard and disappeared behind the house of another farmhouse!

Just then, the explosion of * rang out. The two soldiers of the cavalry company of the second battalion of the forest division also sensed that something was wrong from the sound of *, and at the same time vaguely saw that the cavalry comrades in the distance were riding their horses one after another, galloping in the direction of the * explosion, they should have been called by the order. The two cavalrymen discussed it and decided to abandon the pursuit of the shooter and move closer to the main force first.

Along the way, they encountered many villagers fleeing and hiding in panic, and the two cavalrymen rode back while loudly reassuring the people not to panic and hurry back to their homes. During this time, they all saw two men leading donkeys running in the same panic and passing by them, but they did not know that these two guys were the ones who had just thrown out*.

When the cavalry company commander Xia Lianshan arrived at the site of the explosion, it was already a mess, in addition to many civilians who were affected by the explosion, and a soldier of the infantry squad was injured; Their squad leader had already run over from the house of the fellow who was helping to carry water, and was directing the deployment of the defense in place. More than a dozen people relied on the cart and an old elm tree nearby to build a simple defensive circle, and Zhang Xiu and others were wrapped in the center of the defense.

Seeing that the female soldiers and female team members were fine, Xia Lianshan took a breath for a while and hurriedly organized the rescue of the wounded soldiers and injured people. The cavalry that had gradually gathered over, because they were not under further attack, did not dismount for the time being, and watched vigilantly on horseback. The sudden sound of gunfire and explosions just now came and went quickly, and at this time, Ewhapo was becoming quiet again, with only a faint smell of gunsmoke, floating in the spring breeze.

Seeing neither the enemy nor the situation, the people of the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division became a little confused for a while. It wasn't until the two cavalrymen chasing the suspicious person reported the situation to Xia Lianshan that the cavalry company commander gradually realized that it was not a large group of enemy troops just now, but one who shot with a pistol in the west of the village, and the other who skimmed * here; There may be others, but based on the current lull, there will definitely not be many.

"It's a spy, it must be a spy!"

The female soldier Zhang Xiu heard the conversation of the cavalry, stood behind the cart and shouted towards Xia Lianshan. Previously, in Xiping Village, she had been given the job of catching the lurking Japanese puppet spies by Deputy Battalion Commander Wu Zijian, so at this moment, after listening to the descriptions of the two cavalrymen, she made a judgment reflexively.

Xia Lianshan felt that the blood in his whole body was surging to his face, and a sense of shame and indignation arose spontaneously - at the beginning of the battle, he immediately judged that it was the Japanese army attacking, and out of the strategy of protecting the female soldiers and team members, he issued an order to concentrate the team, but also to prevent the scattered officers and soldiers from being cut off by the Japanese army. However, the fact in front of us should be that there are only sporadic enemies. As the commander of the cavalry company, he inevitably seemed too nervous and timid!

"Platoon Commander Li, you take a part of the cavalry to search nearby, be careful not to drive too far. Infantry squads and squads continued to fortify in situ; Xia Lianshan gave an order angrily: "Ten cavalrymen come with me and pursue the guy who fired the gun!" ”

The platoon commander Li he was talking about was one of the two platoon commanders of the original cavalry company, and the other platoon commander died in the anti-night raid battle. After issuing the order, Xia Lianshan immediately ordered ten cavalrymen, led the way by the two who were chasing the suspicious person just now, and galloped out.

The member of the Japanese capture team who escaped by chance, when he was dizzy, ran in the right direction, all the way to the western edge of the village when they entered, and he was so tired that he was panting and almost collapsed, so he had to squat on the ground to rest for a short time, and his eyes were restless to look behind to see if the cavalry of the Chinese army had caught up; At the same time, he guessed where his squad leader Mizukawa was now. After a while, the Japanese soldier felt that his breathing was much more even, and he didn't want to wait for Lieutenant Mizukawa here. Raising his eyes to look out of the village, where Hirai Nakasa's men and horses were also missing, he gritted his teeth, pulled his legs and continued to run towards the wasteland outside the village.

Suddenly, he heard a voice calling him in Japanese, coming from a ditch in the wasteland ahead, and behind a few willow trees not far from the end of the ditch, the figure of his companion also flashed - it was the three members of the team who had stayed here to pick up before Hiraiji left. They converged. Immediately after, another donkey popped out of the village, and two people ran on the cat's waist and heel on the donkey's left and right.

It was the squad leader, Lieutenant Mizukawa, and his companions.

The Japanese soldiers regrouped unscathed outside the west of the village, and neither could believe in such good fortune. They celebrated with their heads in hand, and at the same time they ran away: chasing the cart of the captain of the gendarmerie.

And it wasn't until they disappeared behind a handful of woods in this wasteland that the commander of the cavalry company of the Eighth Route Army led his subordinates to search and chase all the way to the west of the village.

A middle-aged female villager at the edge of the village, who witnessed several people running out of the village from different places just now, was sure that none of the escapees were from her own village, Xia Lianshan learned about this from her mouth, and basically determined that the escapee was the suspicious person who had just opened fire in the village.

"Chase!"

The cavalry company commander made up his mind to catch them and find out.

Eleven rode out of the village like a whirlwind and chased in the direction the female villager had guided.

It was still Lieutenant Mizukawa who was riding on the back of a donkey, and when he looked back as he ran, he spotted the pursuers coming from afar, and he shouted: The cavalry of the Shina Army is coming!

The members of the Japanese arrest team, who were already exhausted, had to cheer up and continue to run wildly. The experienced Mizukawa realized that he could not just run away, otherwise he would have to wait for death if he was caught up. He pointed to a mound diagonally in front of him, and ordered all of them to run over, and lay behind the mound to fortify it, and hold back the pursuing cavalry.

Six men, six Southern Eleven pistols, were all set up on this sloping mound that was only more than half a man high, waiting nervously and gloomily.

The cavalry of the Eighth Route Army caught up.