Of course, the colonel of the Central Army has his own difficulties, the divisions and brigades under the 391 Regiment have all been disabled at the end of last year, Qin Zhongxiao has still not been able to directly contact the Wei Lihuang Commander's Department in the Second War Zone, and there is no stable supply channel for more than 1,000 guns in the whole regiment. Therefore, they desperately counterattacked Fengdian, in addition to recovering the lost territory, they also had the purpose of occupying this rich county town and fighting for food.

Zhang Hong, chief of staff, explained to the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army: The 391 Regiment at present is far from the strong and strong it was when it entered Shanxi in early autumn last year, the equipment of the mortar company and the anti-aircraft artillery company were all gone, and all the heavy machine guns were also lost when they lost Fengdian County. If it weren't for the two counterattacks on Fengdian, the equipment of the whole regiment would not even be able to catch up with the regimental level of an independent brigade in Yan Xishan.

Wu Zijian couldn't help but be silent when he heard this.

He had just gotten acquainted with Qin Zhongxiao, but it could be said that he was familiar at first sight, and he also had full trust in the colonel who led his troops to fight the Japanese army to the end, and believed that what his chief of staff said was true.

"My newly restored machine gun company is all Japanese goods, two Japanese guns, and two 92 heavy machine guns were captured during the recovery of Fengdian County. Before this battle, the main regiment of the Central Army really did not have a single gun or a heavy machine gun. Qin Zhongxiao continued to explain, his expression quite ashamed.

Wu Zijian was also stunned: The main regiment of the chairman's descendant was so weakly equipped, which he never expected -- his own battalion would be on a par with the other side in terms of heavy weapons.

But after thinking about it, the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army was relieved again, and the 391st Regiment ran out of heavy equipment, which just shows the intensity of the confrontation with the Japanese army last year and this year. Moreover, at present, the regiment has snatched a few heavy weapons from the Japanese, and although they are still thin in one regiment, they are always as if they are empty-handed.

When it comes to weapons and equipment, Wu Zijian, who is from the firearms department, is interested again, and he opens the dragon gate with Qin Zhongxiao and Zhang Hong to compare the current number of heavy weapons on both sides. As a result, there is a striking similarity, the second battalion of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division has a mortar and a heavy machine gun made in the Republic of China, a Japanese-made mortar, two heavy machine guns, and two Japanese-made grenadiers; The 391st Regiment of the Central Army has one Japanese-made infantry gun and one mortar, two Japanese-made heavy machine guns, and five Japanese-made grenadiers.

Qin Zhongxiao gave Wu Zijian a thumbs up from the bottom of his heart.

Zhang Hong also said with admiration: "Deputy Battalion Commander Wu's subordinates fired extremely accurately, and the rate of fire was also extremely fast, when I was standing at the head of the city, I saw the cannon explode in the ranks of the Japanese army!" Before the little devils could react to what was going on behind them, the shells had already blown them all apart. ”

Unexpectedly, this praise from the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment made the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army look gloomy, and he lowered his head and stopped talking. Qin Zhongxiao and Zhang Hong saw that something was wrong, but they didn't know what was going on, so they had to sit at the wine table and look at each other.

"Alas!" After a long time, Wu Zijian sighed, raised his head to look at everyone, and said: "Since our two armies have decided to fight together, then I will not tell lies in front of real people - the last time I attacked the devil outside the south gate, I brought a mortar, and as a result, I surrendered a Japanese cannon and a heavy machine gun on the spot, as well as grenadiers, and counting the 92 heavy machine I originally had, this is all the heavy weapons of the 2nd Battalion of the Lin Division." ”

Everyone watched Wu Zijian list with his fingers, but they didn't understand what he meant.

"However, after the battle outside the south gate was collected and returned to the camp, I had just set up a heavy machine gun squad and an artillery squad separately, and the artillery squad was transferred to Xiping Village by our battalion headquarters even with people and cannons, including grenadiers."

Qin Zhongxiao still didn't understand what Wu Zijian meant, so he asked: "So now that your army and our regiment have planned to attack the Japanese army together, wouldn't Deputy Battalion Commander Wu transfer the artillery squad again?" ”

Wu Zijian shook his head and said carefully: "Head Qin doesn't know anything. The layout of our second battalion at the western foot of Guanmen Mountain is to defend to the north and develop to the south; Therefore, the heavy weapons and the main force of the battalion were deployed in Xiping Village, south of Hekou Village. ”

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong observed his words, and then couldn't help but bask slightly: "I understand, that is, in which direction there are no devils, in which direction will you develop?" Your army has recently been accused of swimming but not attacking, and it seems that there is indeed a problem. ”

Qin Zhongxiao's face changed slightly when he heard this, and he hurriedly used his eyes to stop his chief of staff. But Wu Zijian was already angry, he held a wine cup with half a wine cup in his hand, and at this moment he tapped the table with the wine cup while talking:

"Chief of Staff Zhang, please pay attention to your speech! We were invited by your army to fight on our own initiative, and you yourself witnessed the fierce battle between the 2nd Battalion of the Forest Division of our Eighth Route Army and the Japanese army outside Fengdian City, and you are talking nonsense with your eyes open, are you worthy of your conscience?! ”

The people of the 391st Regiment did not expect the reaction of the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army to be so strong and excessive, and they were all stunned for a while, and the atmosphere on the wine table became awkward and tense.

Wu Zijian only took a platoon of the 5th Company with him on this trip, and Li Tianlin, the commander of the 5th Company, was left by him in Hekou Village, so now only the platoon commander of that platoon is sitting with him at the wine table; The 391st Regiment was accompanied by five or six people, including Li Yan, who disguised himself as a captain officer. But the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army was obviously not afraid, and fired at the other side's chief of staff with a fierce voice.

Zhang Hong's view of the Eighth Route Army has always been not good, so he made the attack just now. However, Wu Zijian's argument based on the performance of his headquarters did make it difficult for Zhang Hong to refute, but Wu Zijian's words were quite ugly, and the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment was inevitably annoyed and angry.

At the critical moment, Qin Zhongxiao played a round in time, and he smiled intentionally and patted the shoulder of Wu Zijian, who was sitting next to him: "Deputy Battalion Commander Wu is quick to talk and open-minded, Qin admires!" Chief of Staff, it was you who offended our guests first, and you lost your manners, and you have to make amends to Deputy Battalion Commander Wu! ”

Zhang Hong, who wanted to have a seizure, saw what his boss said, so he had to endure his anger, picked up the wine cup in his hand and raised it to Wu Zijian, saying polite words in his mouth, but his face was already quite ugly.

After all, Wu Zijian is a person who has seen the world, not to mention that the enemy is currently infighting, so he laughed, holding a wine cup that had splashed a lot of wine and only a shallow wine bottom, and at the same time gestured to Qin Zhongxiao and Zhang Hong.

Everyone echoed and toasted noisily, covering up the discordant scene.

Wu Zijian thought, not taking advantage of this moment to explain the words, but afraid that the misunderstanding of the friendly army about the Eighth Road would get deeper and deeper, he picked up the wine jug, took the initiative to fill the wine cups of Qin Zhongxiao and Zhang Hong, and then wiped his lips and said:

"It's no wonder that Chief of Staff Zhang said this just now, in fact, the current Eighth Route Army is being broken into pieces and advancing into various departments in Shanxi, and on the surface, it really doesn't look like last year's three whole divisions concentrated on heavy combat."

Zhang Hong's face still did not turn clear, and he looked at the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army coldly, wanting to hear what he said before looking for an opportunity to counterattack.

"However, this is also out of a kind of helplessness," Wu Zijian continued to talk eloquently: "The main forces of the Second Theater, whether it is the Jin Sui Army or the Central Army, lost one after another in last year's battle, giving up a large area of defense areas, while the Japanese army drove straight into and controlled the strategic points in Shanxi one by one. Under such circumstances, the three divisions of our 18th Group Military Region are poorly equipped, so how can they turn to the front to withstand the attack of the little devils? ”

Qin Zhongxiao listened attentively and slightly bowed in agreement. Wu Zijian simply left the wine table, walked to a local military map hanging on a wall, skillfully found the area of Nantongpu Road, and said while gesturing: "My intelligence source has just shown that the main force of the Sena Division is currently attacking along Nantongpu Road, and the forward has already marched under the city of Linfen, which is the headquarters of Chief Yan and Chief Wei. ”

Qin Zhongxiao couldn't help but look at the chief of staff and others - the 391st Regiment was trapped in the mountains, and they only got some sporadic updates about the war in southern Jinnan from the spy team of the Shanxi Station of the Military Command, but they didn't know anything about the soldiers of the Sena Division coming to Linfen City. The colonel of the Central Army was immediately impressed by Wu Zijian, who was standing in front of the map and commanding: The intelligence update of the Eighth Route Army was so fast!

"The Japanese army has ironclad planes in front of the road, and heavy artillery follows behind, and the area around Nantongpu Road is located on the plain, so I am afraid that the troops of Chief Yan and Chief Wei will be difficult to support." Qin Zhongxiao sat reclining in his chair, his eyes staring at the map on the wall, and responded helplessly but calmly. He was a man who had fought bloody battles all the way from northern Shanxi, Xinkou and Taiyuan, and knew very well that with the equipment and combat strength of the current national army, he could not hold on to the main force of the Japanese army for a long time in the plain area where there was no danger to defend.

Wu Zijian nodded at the colonel of the Central Army, then squinted his eyes, looked for the location of the western foot of Guanmen Mountain on the map, and continued: "The location of the second battalion of our Lin Division is parallel to Nantongpu Road, and what we want to talk about developing southward is actually consistent with the direction of the Japanese army's southward attack along Nantongpu Road; It can be said that it was the advance movements of the Sena division that were being monitored. This is not what Chief of Staff Zhang just said! As he spoke, he walked back to the table.

Zhang Hong finally seized the opportunity, and without waiting for the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army to sit down, he deliberately asked in a respectful tone: "Then how did your army attack the parallel Nantongpu Road area when the Japanese Sena Division advanced south?" ”

Wu Zijian's buttocks had just sat down, and he was choked by Zhang Hong's words, he looked up at the chief of staff of the 391st Regiment who was secretly exerting his strength, and he was a little jealous of him in his heart.

"Well," Wu Zijian dragged out his tone, thinking about countermeasures: "The main force of our second battalion stationed in the Xiping area is only six or seven hundred, and my enemy engineer captain is still sending people to reconnoiter the Japanese army on the railway line, so I haven't made too many sorties for the time being." ”

Zhang Hong smiled triumphantly: "That is to say, your army is just monitoring the Japanese army moving south to fight against the national army, and has not taken any coordinated attack actions?" ”

Wu Zijian, who was poked in the soft underbelly, was angry, stared at Zhang Hong with his eyes, and fought back word by word: "If the hundreds of thousands of troops of Chief Yan and Chief Wei can't resist the southward movement of the Sena Division, what kind of attack do you want these hundreds of people under me to do?" ”

Li Yan, a lieutenant of the military commander who was sandwiched among the officers, witnessed this war of words between the Central Army and the Eighth Route Army, and had the intention to interject a few words, but he was afraid that he would be reprimanded by his female boss again because of his identity, so he made a fortune in a muffled voice and carefully wrote down the words of everyone, especially the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army. This was also the first time he had face-to-face dealings with officers of the Eighth Route Army, and the lieutenant commander was secretly surprised by Wu Zijian's speech and demeanor.

In the end, it was the host Qin Zhongxiao who calmed down the opposing war of words, he was actually somewhat inclined to Wu Zijian's point of view, and the two of them were from the same Huangpu background, which made him involuntarily close to each other in terms of position, not to mention, the deputy battalion commander of the Eighth Route Army was also a good man.

"Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, I am very ashamed, since my 391st Regiment was separated from the main force, it has not been able to restore contact with the Second War Zone, so it is inevitable that my people will speak unfairly when they touch elephants and sit in wells and watch the sky in the mountains. Fortunately, we are looking for ways to rebuild our connection to the World War II zone; From the words of Deputy Battalion Commander Wu, Qin learned that your army's intelligence updates are very fast, which is obviously ahead of the 391st Regiment; Since we are ready to join forces, we would like to ask your army to share more information with our regiment in the future. ”

After that, Qin Zhongxiao instructed the chief of staff to start establishing radio exchanges with the second battalion of the Lin Division. However, to his surprise, Wu Zijian admitted with a sad face that he did not have a radio or telephone in the whole battalion, and that the communication between the troops in peacetime depended entirely on the messenger soldiers to pass on messages and paper orders.

"Look, Colonel Qin, this time you should understand, I'm not crying poor here, right? The equipment of the Lin Division is the best among the three divisions of the Eighth Route Army, but it is still very backward. Wu Zijian said without self-deprecation.

After Qin Zhongxiao was stunned, he also nodded generously, and instead praised Wu Zijian and his subordinates for being able to rely on their own combat strength to seize advanced equipment from the Japanese army: "In this way, this joint attack on Little Elm Mountain, your troops will do your best, and you can contribute as many troops and equipment as you can; There is a capture on the battlefield, our own brothers, discuss and distribute, how about it? ”

"Brothers are on the wall, and they are insulted outside! That's it! ”

After Wu Zijian finished speaking, he stood up almost at the same time as Qin Zhongxiao, and when everyone saw it, they stood up in an uproar, everyone held a wine cup, and the antagonistic atmosphere that was still permeated just now was swept away.