In the small village in the depths of the Great Elm Mountain, in the huge yard of a farmhouse next to the regimental headquarters of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army, in addition to the yellow chickens, black ducks and white geese raised by the owner of the house, there has recently been a batch of the same kind: six or seven pigeons with gray-white feathers.

This is not an ordinary domestic pigeon or even a wild pigeon, but a professionally trained carrier pigeon. Their owner: a Shanghai veteran over 40 years old, who has only been in the army for a few years, but has been raising carrier pigeons for more than 20 years.

At present, this veteran has been given a special task by the commander of the 391st Regiment and the commander of the communication platoon of the regiment headquarters: to use carrier pigeons to pass on the book and contact the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division dozens of miles away from the mountain road.

This particular form of field communication has not been around for a long time, but it has already sent a lot of information between the two friendly forces. And on this sunny spring afternoon, several carrier pigeons fluttered their wings and descended from the sky into the courtyard of this ordinary farmhouse, and the letter pipe on the foot ring of one of the pigeons was immediately removed by the owner. Soon, the writing paper inside the letter tube was presented on the desktop of Zhang Hong, chief of staff of the 391st Regiment of the Central Army.

Reading this piece of paper, Chief of Staff Zhang Hong's face gradually became solemn, and as soon as he finished reading the last word, he hurriedly got up and went to his regimental seat to discuss face-to-face.

Ten minutes later, several commanders, including regiment commander Qin Zhongxiao and battalion commander Li Jiayu, were already jointly referring to this flying pigeon biography from the Eighth Route Army's Guanmen Mountain base area.

There are two contents of the preacher: the first is to thank and ask about the commendation order and the bonus; The real key is second, to inform the friendly 391 Regiment that the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division will be officially reorganized into the Guanmenshan Dispatch Detachment of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army Forest Division from now on. Wu Zijian served as the detachment leader, Liu Shu served as the political commissar, and Li Tianlin served as the chief of staff; Wang Shuanglong, commander of the first battalion, Wei Xin, commander of the second battalion, Lu Dajiang, commander of the third battalion, and Xia Lianshan, commander of the cavalry company. In the future, the two armies will exchange ideas, and the Eighth Route Army will begin to show people with new customs defenses.

The content of the biography was read by Chief of Staff Zhang Hong in front of everyone, and Qin Zhongxiao, Li Jiayu, and several regimental staff officers listened attentively all the time. After Zhang Hong finished reciting, everyone in the regiment headquarters looked at each other, and no one spoke for ten seconds.

"What is the Eighth Route Army doing?"

The first to break the silence was Li Jiayu, the commander of the first battalion, who scanned the regimental seat and the chief of staff with a puzzled gaze as he asked questions.

Zhang Hong smiled coldly, and slapped the paper from the flying pigeon in his hand on the table, but pressed his palm on it: "Everyone, have you heard clearly?" I have long said that the communist army and the Nationalist government are in the same bed and have different dreams, ostensibly under the banner of anti-Japanese resistance, and secretly dial their own wishful thinking! ”

An operational staff officer at the regiment headquarters woke up like a dream at this time, and said in shock: This Guanmenshan dispatch detachment was not approved by the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government!?

Zhang Hong glanced at the staff officer under him half satisfied and half critically, and then said to Qin Zhongxiao: "Tuanza, we should immediately report to Major Wang, the military commander, and transfer it from the Shanxi Station of the military commander to the headquarters of the Second War Zone, accusing the Eighth Route Army Forest Division Xu Brigade of violating military orders and establishing a private army!" ”

As soon as the chief of staff's generous statement fell, everyone's eyes instantly focused on the colonel of the Central Army, waiting for his statement.

Qin Zhongxiao still didn't say anything, but raised his body slightly on the chair, stretched out his arm and opened Zhang Hong's palm, took the piece of paper, and took it to his eyes to read it carefully.

When he finally took his eyes off the paper, a mysterious smile appeared on his face: "Detachment? There are three battalions plus a cavalry company, this is obviously a regimental scale, Wu Zijian, the detachment leader, seems to be at the same level as me, the regiment commander? ”

"It's so shameless!" The chief of staff of the Central Army was already furious: "Who gave them the power to upgrade a battalion to a regiment without authorization?" The law and military discipline are all out of the eyes of these communists! ”

Li Jiayu shook his head and said to himself: They are quite cautious, they are obviously expanded into a regiment, but the number is not called a regiment but a detachment.

Unexpectedly, the colonel of the Central Army from Huangpu commented meaningfully: "I'm afraid it's not careful, but has another purpose - in the national army sequence, the detachment is usually a brigade-level establishment; The Fourth Army, another army of the Communist Party, was under the jurisdiction of four detachments, each of which was at the brigade level. ”

As soon as the regimental seat said this, the command headquarters suddenly stirred: Brigade level! Obediently, I am not satisfied with expanding into a regiment, and I have to go to the brigade level! A battalion of the Eighth Route Army will be larger than a main regiment of our Central Army in the blink of an eye!!

Unexpectedly, Qin Zhongxiao, who had just thrown out this topic, changed his tone again: "In all fairness, the second battalion of the Xu Brigade of this forest division was originally overstaffed, and when they arrived at Guanmen Mountain, there were seven or eight hundred men and horses in one battalion. If we talk about the root cause, it is the drawbacks left over from the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government when it first set the Eighth Route Army; It is said that at that time, there were 15,000 soldiers in one forest division. Therefore, with the current total strength under Wu Zijian, it is not too much to call it a detachment or regiment. ”

Chief of Staff Zhang Hong immediately objected, claiming that it was not a problem of the same nature: if the establishment was low, you could appeal to the Military Commission and apply for an expansion; However, such an act of assertion and self-assertion and private expansion of the army is absolutely perverse.

"Tuanza, we can't tolerate the traitors anymore," the chief of staff had become calm at this time, and discussed word by word: "The Eighth Route Army did this, making it clear that it was not subservient, expanding the territory on the one hand, and expanding the army on the other. Do you still remember that after the night attack and the battle of Tongpulu, our regiment used to rest in Xiping Village? At that time, I witnessed with my own eyes that the sign of the Xiping Village Village Office had become the Xiping Village Field Mobilization Committee, and everyone who came in and out of it wore the uniforms of the Eighth Route Army - what does this mean? It shows that the village office, the grass-roots political power of the former National Government, has become the grass-roots political power of the Communist Party. Isn't this about changing the sky, and what is it!? ”

Qin Zhongxiao's eyes kept staring at the gushing chief of staff, thoughtfully, until the regiment headquarters became silent again because of Zhang Hong's remarks, he slowly opened his mouth: "Chief of staff, will there be some cups and snakes?" What kind of battlefield mobilization committee should have been established by the order of Governor Yan of Shanxi himself, right? The province has a provincial-level general mobilization committee, and counties, towns, and villages also have a corresponding level of the general mobilization committee. ”

"However, the Eighth Route Army has replaced the village offices and town offices with the so-called teams of the General War Mobilization Committee, and perhaps it will replace the county-level government in the future. Zhang Hong said in his mouth, but he had already picked up a wooden pole in his hand, and pointed at the military sand table on the side.

Everyone's eyes unconsciously moved with the movement of the wooden pole, and they all felt that the chief of staff was reasonable.

Li Jiayu nodded frequently and said: "If this is really the case, it is indeed no different from rebellion." However, then again, we only saw this scene in Xiping Village, and the other villages, towns, and counties where the Eighth Route Army was stationed may not be like this, right? ”

Zhang Hong frowned and replied: "The matter of the General War Committee, Shanxi is so big, our department is trapped in a corner of the mountain, and I really don't dare to assert it casually. But what can at least be proved in front of me is that the second battalion of the Xu Brigade has really become the Guanmenshan detachment of the Xu Brigade, which was sent by the Eighth Route Army itself! ”

At this time, the colonel of the Central Army, in fact, also complained about this practice of the Eighth Route Army in his heart, whether it was the Eighth Route Army or the 18th Group Army, after all, it was a government army under the Military Commission of the National Government.

However, after a period of close cooperation with the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade of the Eighth Route Army, Qin Zhongxiao had a lot of good feelings and respect for this strong brigade of the Lin Division, especially in the joint operation between the night attack and Pulu, and the performance of the Second Battalion of the Xu Brigade was remarkable. It is no exaggeration to say that in terms of fighting devils in the Anti-Japanese War, Wu Zijian and his subordinates can definitely be called a model for Chinese soldiers. From this point of view, the expansion of the 2nd Battalion of the Xu Brigade into the Guanmen Mountain Dispatch Detachment of the Xu Brigade is obviously beneficial and harmless to the overall situation of the War of Resistance in the region. As long as they don't swim and don't attack, as long as they dare to confront the Japanese devils head-on, let alone become a regiment-sized detachment, or really become a brigade larger than the 391st Regiment, what's the matter?

Thinking of this, the colonel of the Central Army decisively vetoed the motion of the chief of staff, and proposed to wait and see what happened for the time being, as long as the Xu Brigade Guanmenshan Dispatch Detachment continued to resist Japan with all its might, the 391st Regiment did not have to find faults.

Zhang Hong, who was greatly disappointed, although he was extremely unwilling, had followed Qin Zhongxiao for many years, and he also knew the temper of Lord Tuanzao, so he had to sit aside and swallow his anger.

Suddenly, Li Jiayu, the commander of the first battalion, remembered something: The flying pigeon biography from the Eighth Route Army also mentioned another thing, that is, how to distribute the 10,000 yuan bonus issued by the former enemy headquarters of the Second Theater of Operations? Listening to Balu's tone, it seemed that he was politely soliciting opinions, but the commander of the Central Military Battalion, who had dealt with Wu Zijian face-to-face, also knew that the other party's baht must be compared. This Commander Wu is from the same Whampoa as the regimental lord of this regiment, and his preference for weapons and equipment is undisguised. Usually win some firearms and arms on the battlefield with red eyes, this time in the face of the 10,000 yuan bonus of white flowers, how can you let others say the last sentence?

As soon as Li Jiayu expressed his worries, there was an uproar in the headquarters of the 391st Regiment, and people, including several staff officers, stressed one after another that although the attack was nominally a joint operation with Pulu, there was no doubt that the 391st Regiment was the main attacking force, and the 10,000 yuan bonus should be shared!