Li Tianlin, chief of staff of the Xu Brigade Detachment, who had been stationed at the Guanmen Mountain Pass near Hekou Village, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

Since the battle started in Xiping Village, more than ten miles away, he wanted to participate in it personally, but Wu Zijian, the detachment commander, had a strict order, asking him to lead the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion and the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion to defend the same place, and not to take any unauthorized action without receiving the personal order of the detachment commander himself.

Of course, Li Tianlin knew the importance of the defense area he guarded: the straight-line distance between the mountain pass here and the Hongxing Gorge in Guanmen Mountain was only more than 20 miles. If it was lost in this way, the Japanese army would directly threaten the base camp where the Xu Brigade detachment was finally sheltered.

However, I knew very well in my heart that it did not mean that I was not in a hurry--the battle report from Xiping Village was that the Japanese army had dispatched about 1,000 troops to launch a fierce attack, and the detachment commander controlled only two battalions plus a cavalry company, and even the artillery platoon, which could be relied on in the past, could not participate in the battle because it had not been replenished after the last shells were exhausted.

Such a huge disparity in strength and firepower means that the battle in Xiping Village will not have a very good ending: either the force will fight to the death and suffer heavy losses, or the entire line will retreat and lose the defense area.

And what made Li Tianlin unbearable the most was that no matter how the battle situation developed over there, the chief of staff of his detachment could only watch the fire from the other side and sit still. This veteran commander of the Red Army, who has been fighting all the way from the Jiangxi Soviet District, has always taken the lead in every battle, but now he has fallen to this point, which can be called like a burning heart.

During this period, the 391st Regiment of the friendly Central Army unexpectedly sent a company to support, which greatly encouraged Li Tianlin, and the company commander, Captain Zhu Xingyun, was his old acquaintance, and he immediately personally mobilized a platoon and guided the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment to rush to Xiping Village to help in the battle.

But since sending away this road of reinforcements, Hekou Village has once again fallen into a message corner, except for the faint and faint sound of artillery, no news has come. Before dawn, the chief of staff of the detachment, who had not slept all night, could no longer bear it any longer, and ordered a six-man reconnaissance team to rush to Xiping Village to investigate.

As a result, he waited for the most undesirable scene - after dawn, the reconnaissance team ran back to report that Xiping Village had been lost, and the village was full of devil soldiers. There was no exchange of fire, and no own troops were seen.

"What about the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment? They're gone?! Li Tianlin had a splitting headache, and almost grabbed the collar of the scout's clothes and roared.

"Chief of Staff, there are too many devils piled up there, we can't enter the village, we can't see anything......"

Looking at the leader of the investigation team with a sad expression on his face, Li Tianlin finally let go of the other party stupidly. In this case, the only thing that can be done is to wait, whether it is good news or bad news.

When it was still night, the 391st Regiment of the Central Army in Da Yushu Mountain once sent a liaison officer to inquire about the progress of the battle in the Eighth Route Army Defense Area, and euphemistically suggested that if it was not particularly necessary to help in the battle, it could be considered to put back a company of Zhu Xingyun, who had been reinforced before-because at that time, the 391st Regiment had temporarily dispatched troops to the eastern foot of Xiaoyushu Mountain and engaged in an exchange of fire with the Japanese puppet army in Fengdian County.

Li Tianlin did not ask from the friendly liaison officer the reason for the 391st Regiment's night attack - he even thought that this was Colonel Qin's plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao as always, and to support the allies of the Eighth Route Army at the foot of Guanmen Mountain - but he had to regretfully inform the other party that the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 391st Regiment led by Captain Zhu Xingyun only made a short stop near Hekou Village and then went to the main battlefield of Xiping Village. No news has been heard from so far.

This unexpected episode also informed the chief of staff of the Xu Brigade detachment about the battle that broke out between the big and small elm mountains. He immediately issued an order to the 6th Company of the 2nd Battalion, which was stationed at the mountain pass camp above Hekou Village, to prepare for battle: As soon as enemy troops were found to be marching on the outskirts of Hekou Village, they would immediately carry out a flank attack to prevent them from passing smoothly. Li Tianlin believes that the main force of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army is fighting in the area of Fengdian County, which may cause the Japanese army that is attacking Xiping Village to rush to the rescue; In that case, he would rather risk being severely reprimanded by the detachment leader and send troops to intercept it.

However, the actual situation once again made Li Tianlin, who was eager to try, fall into a state of madness, and the periphery of Hekou Village was silent all night, and several groups of sharp soldiers he sent out squatted in vain all night, but the Japanese did not even appear a shadow.

Fengdian County in the north and Xiping Village in the south are obviously fighting, but the chief of staff of the Xu Brigade Detachment, who is backwater here and has always had a hot temper, can't wait to grow wings and fly to the war zone to find out what is going on - in the final analysis, the battlefield communication means of the Eighth Route Army are too backward! The 391st Regiment of the Central Army still has a radio station and walkie-talkie, which can at least be connected to the battalion level. But there is a detachment on his side, and the communication can only be transmitted by manpower. And it is not uncommon for the way of human communication to be blocked in the fierce firefight.

Li Tianlin, who had finally calmed down, calculated the time of the detachment leader Wu Zijian's action - if they were forced to retreat to the Guanmen Mountain Pass behind Xiping Village until dawn at the latest, then at least this afternoon or even evening, there would be a signal corps passing through the Guanmen Mountain and arriving at the Hongxingxia base camp to report the battle report; And if I get the news from the Red Star Gorge here, I'm afraid it will have to come at a new night.

Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy engineering team, had long suggested that a radio link should be established between the Wencheng underground intelligence station and the Guanmenshan base area; Now it seems that even between Hekou Village, Xiping Village and Hongxingxia in Guanmen Mountain, it is necessary to establish telecommunications as soon as possible. Otherwise, when the war is going on, several defense zones will become isolated islands fighting for each other.

Li Tianlin, who is now the chief of staff of the detachment, has obviously broadened his vision of the problem. At this moment, he was tormented, and he made up his mind to discuss with the detachment commander immediately after the battle, and to get the telecommunications contact at all costs. I remember that last time, the intelligence sent back by Xiao Junping, the captain of the enemy engineering team, from Wencheng, indicated that the Japanese army was transporting a large number of arms and baggage from Taiyuan to Wencheng along the railway line; Judging from experience, this inevitably includes military communications equipment such as radios, telephones, and walkie-talkies.

"Damn, don't rush the machine gun first! Find a way to get a few radios first! Li Tianlin was in his own headquarters, slapping the table and shouting, listening to the inexplicable words of several subordinates around him.

The machine gun he was talking about was actually the task that Wu Zijian had given when Xiao Junping had just infiltrated Wencheng to build an underground intelligence station: to strive to use the channels of the local underground arms black market to purchase machine guns and other weapons. Later, Captain Xiao also personally led the enemy workers to enter the Japanese freight yard of Wencheng Railway Station, preparing to steal the arms, but unfortunately failed. Now, Li Tianlin remembered this passage again, and suddenly had the idea of letting the enemy engineer team build a few radio stations from the Japanese baggage warehouse. In his opinion, the current demand for communication equipment of the Xu Brigade detachment is far greater than a few machine guns.

Thinking so crankily, after evening, there was still no news from the detachment commander, but the 391st Regiment of the Central Army in Da Yushu Mountain sent a liaison officer again, delivering a news that shocked Li Tianlin even more: According to the report of the Second War Zone, the First Army of the Japanese Army in Shanxi has mobilized one of each of the four divisions and regiments, and is encircling the Taihang Mountains in central and southern Shanxi from four directions along the four public railways; The attack on the Xiping Village base area of the Xu Brigade Detachment, which began yesterday afternoon, was part of the Sena Division's participation in the siege operation on this occasion!

Good guy - the chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army detachment couldn't help but stick out his tongue, thinking that it was just a devil who wanted to carry out a retaliatory sweep against the Xu Brigade detachment, but he didn't expect it to be such a big move by the Japanese First Army in Shanxi!

In addition to being shocked, Li Tianlin felt more and more the urgency and necessity of establishing battlefield telecommunications means: Looking at the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, it was because of the radio station that he quickly figured out the truth about the Japanese army's large-scale army operation. And his side, including the detachment leader Wu Zijian, must still know nothing about this.

The liaison officer sent by the 391st Regiment was an operational staff officer at the regimental headquarters, and Li Tianlin was busy inquiring about the 391st Regiment's operation last night while giving him a warm hospitality. Li Tianlin breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that the main force of the regiment had now all shrunk back to the mountain and was ready to deal with the next possible attack of the Japanese army; At the same time, he said that Zhu Xingyun Company, which was supported by the 391st Regiment, would definitely be safe and sound, and it would be impossible for Captain Wu to use friendly troops as cannon fodder.

During the day, the operational staff officer attended the meeting of the regimental headquarters of the 391st Regiment, and at this time, he relayed to the chief of staff of the Xu Brigade Detachment the situation of the attack on the hinterland of the Taihang Mountains by the other three forces of the Japanese army, and also informed him of the analysis made by his regiment. This made Li Tianlin feel worried—even if, as analyzed by the colonel of the Central Army, the forces of the other three divisions of the Japanese army to encircle the hinterland of Taihang Mountain would be very limited, but after all, as many as three divisions and regiments jointly dispatched men, no matter how limited the strength was, it would far exceed the scale of the Japanese army on the side of Tongpulu.

"Our detachment is subordinate to the Lin Shi Xu Brigade and was specially sent to Guanmen Mountain; The main force of the Xu Brigade is now in the Taihang Mountain, plus a Liu Division, which together is only the strength of three brigades, and it is really hard to say whether it can withstand the ferocity of the Japanese! ”

The operational staff of the 391st Regiment also expressed concern, but at the same time emphasized that in addition to the Eighth Route Army in Taihang Mountain, there was also the Zeng Wanzhong Department of the Central Army.

Next, the friendly staff officer relayed the exciting report of Taierzhuang's victory, which finally made the sad Li Tianlin show joy. Knowing that the main force of the national army that resisted the enemy in Taierzhuang was Sun Lianzhong's Second Group Army, he applauded extraordinarily - in the late autumn of last year, the Japanese Sena Division attacked Niangzi Pass at the junction of Hebei and Shanxi along Zhengtai Road, and the desperate blocker was Sun Lianzhong's department, and the number at that time was still the First Army; And the Eighth Route Army Forest Division Chen Brigade, under the leadership of the division commander at that time, attacked the forward of the Sena Division that entered Niangzi Pass from the flank several times, and cooperated to cover Sun Lianzhong's department.

"At that time, our Lin Division Xu Brigade was still in the area of Wutai Mountain, and we couldn't catch up with those few battles, it's a pity!" Li Tianlin smacked his lips and said with regret: "But since then, we have known that Sun Lianzhong's department is good--now they have moved to the Fifth War Zone, and finally killed the Japanese in Taierzhuang, which is really a good man!" ”

"Chief of Staff Li, the Fifth Theater has won a big victory, and we can't just watch the excitement in Shanxi," the combat staff officer of the 391st Regiment took the opportunity to say: "Before coming, Qin Tuanzuo specially asked his brother to tell the commander of your detachment that when the Japanese are finished in this wave of encirclement and tossing on all sides, our two families should also join forces to attack and give the Japanese troops in Little Elm Mountain a look!" ”

"That's for sure!" When the chief of staff of the Xu Brigade detachment heard this, he immediately took the case, but immediately showed a blank look: "Little Elm Mountain? Is Colonel Qin going to fight there? Why? ”