"You bring these cans, we still have them, don't worry, it's enough to eat, and there are so many of you, how can four cans work."

Fortunately, they brought out a lot of food from the positions of the stick soldiers, ammunition was secondary, and there were few medicines, and the stick soldiers had even fewer uniforms, so they only brought a dozen sets, and there were many more than one set.

Instructor Shao forced it, and the two soldiers took over a box of canned food, and they didn't want another box of canned food.

"Comrade, thank you, you must be careful when you go over, when we were reconnoitring in front before, we encountered the enemy's reconnaissance troops, you should pay more attention when you pass."

"Thank you for reminding me, we'll take notice."

"Goodbye then!"

Everyone saluted each other, and the two comrades carried a can and went into the dense forest.

"What a lovely comrade."

"yes."

Xia Yuan also nodded with emotion and said, "Instructor, let's continue to set off." ”

"Hmm."

After driving more than 10 kilometers, they encountered an ambush by the enemy, but fortunately there were their own comrades nearby, and they were surrounded by left and right, and this group of stick soldiers was eliminated, but it was a pity that the two wheels on the left side of a truck were pierced by the enemy's bullets and dumped to one side, and the car was loaded with a lot of ammunition, medicine and food.

They had to carry the supplies to another truck and distribute the excess to the reconnaissance unit.

Saying goodbye to them, everyone set foot on the road to the City God Hall again, and finally drove on the winding path for two hours without danger, and finally arrived at the City God Hall before dawn, and Captain Luo followed them to the City God Hall. They were greeted by the commander of the third battalion, and the commander of the third battalion of the 540th Regiment was surnamed Xu, and everyone called him Battalion Commander Xu.

In the Chenghuang Hall, the headquarters of the 3rd Battalion of the 540th Regiment was set up in a simple mud house, with a map hanging on the wall, and on the ground was a map model on the organ, a few stones, and weeds represented everything. Battalion Commander Xu stood in front of the map and said to Xia Yuan beside him: "You guys are here, I've been worried about what went wrong with you on the road, the regiment commander has transferred the order of the division headquarters to me, let us cooperate with all your actions." ”

After a pause, he said: "The current situation is not optimistic, according to the news transmitted by the scouts from the front line, a division of the US army is moving in the direction of the City God Hall, which is still more than 80 kilometers away from the City God Hall, and is expected to arrive at the City God Hall at about 10 o'clock this morning. There are only two companies in the City God's Hall, and another company is deployed on the high ground on our left flank, and it is almost impossible to resist the attack of a division of American troops. ”

Battalion Commander Xu asked curiously: "I don't know if the division commander has any other instructions besides cooperating with the action." ”

Xia Yuan groaned and said, "Camp Commander Xu, give up the City God Hall." ”

Battalion Commander Xu was stunned for a moment and asked, "This is the division commander's instructions?" ”

Xia Yuan shook his head, "Although the division commander didn't say so, it basically means the same, there is a distance of dozens of kilometers from the City God Hall to Zhiyanli, and the road of this distance can't bypass Eagle Peak, give up City God Hall and garrison Eagle Peak." ”

Battalion Commander Xu said in a heavy voice: "Give up the City God Hall, if the US army occupies the City God Hall, even if it occupies Eagle Peak, we will be helpless in the face of the mechanized US troops." ”

"I will try my best to delay the advance of the US army and buy more time for the 180th Division."

Xia Yuan looked at his watch and said: "Tonight, the 538th Regiment and the 539th Regiment will cross the Han River and set up defenses to block the enemy in the north of the Han River, and we will choke Eagle Peak, which is the last line of defense on the retreat road of the 180th Division, even if the US army occupies Zhiyanli, there is no problem." ”

Eagle Peak is very important, as long as Eagle Peak is not lost, on the section of road from Chenghuangtang to Zhiyanli, if the US army wants to attack, it will have to suffer bullets from Eagle Peak at any time, and it will suffer from irregular attacks by the volunteers at any time, and the US army will definitely have a headache.

"Hold back the U.S. military." Battalion Commander Xu was stunned for a moment and said, "Comrade Xia Yuan, maybe we can defend the City God Hall together, and it is actually the same to hold out until the evening." ”

"Battalion Commander Xu, we can't hold on, even if we have twice as many troops, we can't hold on, we can only stop the enemy on the road, harass the enemy, so that the enemy can't not stop, as long as their pace of progress slows down, the later they will arrive at the City God Hall, and the City God Hall is still a long way from Zhiyanli."

Xia Yuan had already thought of a plan: "They continue to attack north, heading to Zhiyanli, the sky has already darkened at this time, when passing through Eagle Peak, as long as the Eagle Peak gun is fired, the US army will have to retreat into the City God Hall, waiting for dawn, as for what will happen tomorrow, we can only wait until tomorrow, and spend today first." ”

Battalion Commander Xu looked at the map and fell into deep thought, and after about ten seconds, "Okay, then listen to you, how do you need us to act." ”

"Battalion Commander Xu, hand over the Seventh Company to me, and I will lead it to block the enemy, and the Eighth and Ninth Companies will abandon their original positions and go to Eagle Peak to build fortifications, and dig tunnels on the anticline as much as possible, which do not need to be too deep, and can avoid the bombardment of American artillery shells and aircraft."

Xia Yuan deliberately emphasized digging a tunnel on the anticline, if his efforts today make the 180th Division tomorrow not receive the order to retreat, then he must consider facing the continuous attack of the entire American army at Eagle Peak, and they must be ready at any time.

The anti-slope tunnel is the most effective means of evading American artillery shells.

Battalion Commander Xu responded: "Okay, just act according to the plan you said, but, Commander Xia, the strength of a company, will it be possible to contain the enemy from moving north?"

Xia Yuan said: "Battalion Commander Xu, we pulled out a lot of ammunition, grenades, and even some mines from the stick soldiers, and they will always be used." Dragged to the afternoon, from the time of departure, it should be about the same. ”

In addition to these means of blocking, Xia Yuan also prepared a backhand, hoping that these backhands would not be used, and the backhand would be too risky.

"Okay."

Battalion Commander Xu took Xia Yuan and Instructor Shao to find the Seventh Company.

The commander of the seventh company is named Cai Changjian, and the instructor is called Pang Xueqin, who understood the intention of the battalion commander Xu, and the two agreed without saying a word.

Battalion Commander Xu also wanted to start arranging the matter of garrisoning Eagle Peak, so he said to them: "You guys just discuss it, and I'll arrange other things first." ”

Before leaving, Xia Yuan stopped Battalion Commander Xu again and said: "Battalion Commander Xu, you have to leave a platoon to harass the enemy in the City God Hall, and it is best to plant traps and mines on the way into the City God Hall, such as digging anti-tank trenches, so that the enemy will not enter so smoothly." ”

Battalion Commander Xu understood what Xia Yuan meant, and immediately said: "Good way, even if we really don't guard the City God Hall and give the City God Hall away, we can't let the Yankees take it so easily." ”

Xia Yuan also told Camp Chief Xu about the production of some traps, such as using bamboo, baking bamboo on the fire, making the bamboo more sharp, and the inspiration for the trap came from the more monkeys, although the more monkeys are backward, they are not counted in terms of trap making, and all kinds of weird traps emerge in endlessly.

The second is the anti-tank trench, and after a simple explanation of the principle, Battalion Commander Xu basically understood, and left in high spirits, and immediately arranged this matter.

After all, time was pressing, and the US 24th Division began to move north, and as soon as the day came, US planes would definitely appear over the City God's Hall.

There was still some time left before dawn, and they had to seize every minute.

The chat with Company Commander Cai and Instructor Pang could only be on the road, the Seventh Company abandoned the other personnel, there were one hundred and forty combatants, and after the order of Battalion Commander Xu was given, Xia Yuan took them to the truck that drove over.

The flask, the iron ox and the cook had not left yet, and were chatting with the others in the company, when they saw Xia Yuan and Instructor Shao coming over, they stood up and saluted and said hello.

The cook said: "Company Commander Xia, Instructor Shao, and Squad Leader Luo asked us to follow you and go to carry out the task of blocking the enemy." ”

Instructor Shao glanced at Xia Yuan and saw that he didn't say anything, so he said, "How can this work." ”

Tie Niu said: "Instructor, our squad has become like this, and we have also been separated from the large army, and we have to go back to find the large army, it is better to follow you directly, our squad leader also asked Deputy Battalion Commander Sun, and he agreed." ”

Instructor Shao pushed Xia Yuan and said, "Old Xia, you say two words." ”

Xia Yuan groaned and said: "I think this is a good thing, now we need manpower, the addition of the three of them is beneficial and disadvantageous for us, but this journey is more arduous, you have to go, you may die for life." ”

The flask said: "What are you afraid of, if it weren't for Company Commander Xia, we would have died a long time ago, or we would have been caught by the Han army and tortured by them, and life would be better than death." ”

Wang Xiaoliang said on the side: "It's a stick." ”

The flask sighed, "yes, stick." ”

"Then let them join, instructor, after all, the problem we are facing now is still quite serious, and the three of them are just enough to form a combat group."

Xia Yuan glanced at his watch and said, "Time is a little tight, so it's decided, Company Commander Cai, the materials on this truck were captured by us from the position of the stick and distributed to the soldiers of the Seventh Company, and we are ready to go." ”

Company Commander Cai and Instructor Pang looked at the supplies on the truck and opened their mouths wide in disbelief.

"You little people, from Han. There were so many supplies on the stick position, and we couldn't capture so much material even after winning a battle. ”

The commanders and fighters of the Seventh Company were a little surprised, looking at the company in front of them that was less than a squad, in addition to being surprised, they were still surprised, and more unbelievable, the battle was fought to this extent, but they understood that it was too difficult and difficult to seize materials from foreign devils, especially food.

After a battle, they may not even be able to capture a can, and sometimes if they are lucky, they will touch some candy from the pockets on the corpses of American soldiers, but more often they return empty-handed.

"Leave some of the medicine and food for Battalion Commander Xu, and we will take the rest away, as for ammunition, bring more grenades and mines, bullets or anything, you can't use them, you need to replace weapons and equipment, but you still have to bring more, there will always be a time when it can be useful."

The distribution of supplies was soon over, and more than 100 people in the 7th Company, a combat group, were given a can, which they had to eat while they were on the road. The 540 Regiment has also been out of food for several days, these days they are relying on wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger, they have thousands of people in the camp, just eating is a huge problem, the wild vegetables around them have long been eaten by them, if you want to find wild vegetables, you can only go to farther places.

It's too bitter.

The cooking class of the Seventh Company also saved a lot of wild vegetables, just to eat them at a critical time, and this batch of canned food solved their urgent needs.

Company Commander Cai said: "All the canned food is gathered in the cooking class, and when it arrives at the place, the canned food is mixed with water, put some wild vegetables, and cook a pot of hodgepodge to eat." ”

The leader of the cooking squad responded: "Yes!" ”

Company Commander Cai found Xia Yuan again and said, "Company Commander Xia, everything is ready, we can go." ”

"Then let's go, it's too much time to delay, and if we can find a U.S. military station, then the situation will be even better."

At six o'clock in the morning of the 24th, the sky shimmered, and a touch of the slanting sun fell on the top of the mountain.

In front of the 539th Regiment's Tumudong position, the battle was extremely fierce, and the position was bombarded by the US troops in waves after waves, and the originally hard soil was turned over by artillery fire, like the ground that had just been plowed on, and gunpowder smoke continued to rise from the soil.

The casualties among the grassroots cadres were so serious that they exceeded the total number of troops in the war of liberation, and they were only attrition, without any replenishment of troops.

At the regiment headquarters, the regimental political commissar Han was using the telephone to communicate with the front line, and the US army's shells continued to fall around, and the flames exploded around the fortifications of the regiment headquarters, and the earth fell to the ground one after another, and the air waves of the shell explosions rolled up, washing the dust everywhere.

"Ahem, ahem!" Commissar Han inhaled a cloud of dust and coughed violently, and as soon as the phone was put down, the phone rang again: "Hey? Feed? Be louder, I can't hear clearly. Commander, yes, I'm Han Qiming, what's the matter? ”

Division Commander Zheng was in the division headquarters, and as soon as the phone was connected, he heard a deafening buzzing sound from the other side of the phone, and was briefly attracted by the sound of cannons, and he immediately asked: "Where is Wang Zhicheng!" What's going on with the sound just now!? ”

The gunfire and artillery on the side of the Han political commissar kept ringing non-stop, and from the beginning of the night, the offensive of the US troops changed from small to large, and as soon as they retreated back dozens of kilometers, the enemy was like a tail, biting them tightly, not relaxing for a moment, and before the fortifications were completed, a new round of enemy attacks began.

The troops in charge of the rear of the palace were dispersing too quickly.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, a new shell fell next to the regimental headquarters, and with a boom, a deafening roar accompanied by a terrifying wave of air swept through the regimental headquarters, and the documents on the table were pressed by stones, still flying everywhere by the air waves.

(End of chapter)