under fire

If the Eighth Route Army really concentrated its efforts and invested a lot of manpower and material resources, it would not be difficult to capture a county through advance penetration and sneak attack.

However, once they capture the county seat, they will face a crazy counterattack by the Japanese who mobilize heavy troops, and they will eventually have no choice but to retreat.

The reasons for not being able to hold on are more complicated. In addition to the strong strength of the Japanese, there is another problem that cannot be ignored: basically the people who settle down in the county are rich people.

Driven by interests, the rich do not agree with the Eighth Route Army's idea of ​​liberating the suffering people all over the world.

If all the poor become masters, who will plant the land owned by the landlords?
Not to mention that you still have to equalize the land.

A basic condition for the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to cooperate in the fight against Japan: the Eighth Route Army must give up attacking local tyrants to divide their land.

It was impossible to attack the wealthy families in the county. For the Eighth Route Army, attacking the county was completely worthless!

The 23rd Regiment made a surprise attack on Qinghe County, the core area of ​​the Japanese-occupied area.

No one thought they could gain a firm foothold, but at this juncture they attracted the attention of their superiors.

In the opinion of their superiors, the Eighth Route Army troops were scattered and completely unable to defeat the well-equipped Japs who could mobilize large numbers of troops from surrounding counties at any time.

The national army deployed troops in northern Shaanxi in large numbers. In the hinterland of the Japanese in North China, if there was a team that could contain the Japanese who were ready to move westward, it would always reduce the pressure on the northern Shaanxi base area a little bit.

As a result, an order was sent directly from northern Shaanxi to the Eighth Route Army headquarters.

Then transfer to the main regiment of the deputy commander of the third division.

Hu Yi also received an order from the deputy commander, asking him to lead his team into Qinghe County and drive the nails into the enemy's core occupied area.

Hu Yi felt uneasy after receiving the order.

It's easy to be a thief, just steal from whomever you want.

If you have property, you must be prepared to guard against thieves.

The guard camp set fires everywhere in enemy-occupied areas to cause trouble, and it was only a matter of time before the Japanese found out their whereabouts.

The Eighth Route Army, which has a little devilish temper and is good at guerrillas, has no chance of winning if it stops and faces a retaliatory encirclement and suppression by heavy Japanese troops.

Hu Yi felt that since there were few people in the Ninth Battalion, it was better to be a thief, so he asked the deputy commander for the job of guarding the perimeter.

The operator took off his earphones and said: "Battal Commander, the main force is calling again. There are large-scale deaths in the villages near the canal."

Hu Yi clicked on the message and quickly read the three lines, then frowned.

It is basically certain that the Tiger La bacteria under the Japanese army began to wreak havoc in the canal area.

The Eighth Route Army had issued a notice before, but it had no effect at all.

The plains continue to be dry. People who have been relying on water trucks or even carrying water from canals to irrigate their fields are finally looking forward to a heavy rain. Who can bear to watch the water flowing back into the fields after the canals have swollen and flowed away in vain?
By the time Hu Yi and his team arrived outside Xihe Village, about ten miles away in Qinghe County, with sweat all over their backs, the sun had already set to the west.

The sun hanging in the western sky still radiates heat arrogantly.

The wind blowing from the Grand Canal in the east carries a moist earthy smell.

In a small pond outside the village, a group of naked children were swimming in the pond.

Looking at the ditch that continued to pour water into the pond, the leading scout was shocked.
After hearing the report from the soldiers waiting on the alley, Hu Yi opened his eyes and looked around. The water in the ditch on the roadside was flowing silently, and the children playing in the pond on the roadside were being shouted at by the underground comrades who came to rescue them. Drive away.

Hu Yi's heart was suddenly filled with fear.

He knew very well that there was a deadly virus in the water!
"Order, no one is allowed to enter the water!" Before entering the village, Hu Yi began to give the first order.

The stinging pain in his eyes forced him to close them again.

After being injured by poisonous gas, I always feel like there is sand rolling in my eyes.

Seeing the blurry pond in front of me, the stinging sensation in my eyes seemed to dissipate a lot under the boundless fear.

"Order two, no one is allowed to enter the water!" Hu Yi issued the second order.

After hearing from the militiamen who were in charge of observing and guarding that a team was coming, the underground workers who were busy in the village trotted out of the village.

The uniformly curved brim of the hat and the smoke-stained military uniform are covered in dark brown spots, and the bodies of cleaner soldiers are also covered with dense black and brown spots.

The one at the head had narrow eyes and stood straight in military posture after stopping.

After fighting all night, I took a nap in the sorghum field in the morning and finally saw my own people.

Hu Yi quickly stepped forward and introduced himself: "The guard battalion commander of the first regiment, Hu Yi!"

"Hello, Camp Commander Hu, welcome to your arrival."

Someone in the ninth battalion team knew the staff who came out to greet them, and they stepped forward to hold each other's wrists and whisper greetings.

The fighting situation of the Nine Battalions was kept secret, and the militiamen could only select some unimportant situations to report.

The tears couldn't stop flowing.

There was no joy of reunion at all.

The team quickly entered the village, and the order not to drink raw water or touch water was quickly issued.

Several women who were carrying wooden basins and preparing to wash their clothes in the pond were reluctantly dragged back to the village by the soldiers.

Since the drought, the quilts in every household have not been washed for almost a year.

"Report! The big dog platoon leader is back." The correspondent came to Hu Yi, who was sitting under the eaves and looking at the map, with joy in his tone.

Nearly two hundred comrades died, and now one more person is coming back because God is wise.

The big dog, covered in dried blood, came to Hu Yi, who was looking at a map with his eyes open and closed for a while, and whispered in a low voice: "Chief Hu didn't notice Madman Yang and Liu Yuanqing."

Pu Buhuan was heading north with his prisoners.Every time he reached a fork in the road, he would personally go to the green gauze tent next to it to check.

On the rough sand between the sorghum fields, someone used a bayonet to make a crooked scratch on the character nine.

The handwriting is fresh.

The nine-character sign points to true north.

Instead of erasing the word nine with his foot, he took out his bayonet and drew a circle behind the word nine, and drew a horizontal line outside the circle.

瓢！
The person who suggested using this ancient method of communication that was rarely used by bandits was Luo Fugui.

He proposed the method during a meeting one day to discuss establishing a transportation line.

Not only is this practice ancient, it's not secretive at all.

It’s just that this method is not very reliable.

For some people, when they want to join a certain group, they will first evaluate the pros and cons of joining this group.

For example, Crazy Yang is such a person.

If Jiuying kept fighting the Japanese, he might also stay in Jiuying.

But it is not necessarily necessary to have a sense of belonging.

Madman Yang has not been in the Nine Camps for a long time.

He was not qualified to know the secret communication method of Jiuying.

But this guy from the Gendarmerie was definitely a master at gathering intelligence and performing small assassination operations.

Seeing Park Buhuan, who was walking in front of the team, leading the team away.

"Remove your hands!" Madman Yang suddenly muttered to Wen Wuquan, and then quietly left the team and entered the green gauze tent.

The position where he entered the green gauze tent was different from the position where Park Buhuan entered the green gauze tent.

The team going north did not stop. After Madman Yang and other teams all passed the fork in the road, they quickly trudged through the green gauze tent and reached the edge of the fork in the road.

The footprints of Park Bu-hwan's previous stay are still there.

My eyes searched the ground for a long time, and finally I found those two words.

Another nine and a zero, still can’t understand
These two words appeared at three forks in a row. It must be some kind of secret communication code.

It seems that there are intelligence experts among the Eighth Route Army!
A road leaves Qinghe County and follows the canal southward.

It is about five miles away from the south gate of the county seat.

Among the sorghum on the west side of the highway, a team was hurrying south along the ditch.

"Almost there!" Wang Xiaosan, who was walking at the front, suddenly lowered his voice.

As soon as these words were spoken, the group of people began to walk forward.

Not far away, in the ditch ahead, two Eighth Route Army soldiers scattered on guard.

"Platoon Commander Wang, those guys have been parked there without any movement for almost an hour."

The soldiers walking in front immediately gave way to the side of the ditch.

Su Qing, who was walking in the middle of the team, quickly stepped forward, took out his binoculars and began to crawl towards the edge of the sorghum on the east highway.

The ground temperature in sorghum is at least forty degrees.

It was very muggy.

After crawling for just over twenty distances, large beads of sweat began to trickle down his forehead.

A lock of short hair was wet and stuck to her cheek.

The areas where the gray military uniform was in close contact with the body were soaked with sweat and turned black when he came here in a hurry.

The guard soldier in front looked back at Su Qing and said with joy, "Captain!"

Wang Xiaosan, who was following Su Qing, took the lead in asking with a submachine gun: "How is the situation?"

"The group of people in the corn field on the other side of the road is estimated to be about fifteen, all of them riding bicycles. Every ten minutes or so, two people will come from the south on bicycles, and then two people will come out and ride bicycles south."

"Are there any sentries in the south?"

"Yes, it was arranged by underground comrades. Their traffic officer came over ten minutes ago and said, don't alert others for now."

Su Qing, who was holding a telescope and observing continuously, suddenly said: "Immediately arrange for people to surround the group of people in the Qingsha Tent and get rid of them!"

"Didn't you say, don't alert others?"

"Don't worry, those people are the enemy's spies!"

"What? What eyeliner?"

Su Qing thought for a while and explained: "Those people must be the reconnaissance team. They are hiding here and constantly sending people south to report to the enemies coming from the south!"

"The south? Isn't the ninth camp in the south?"

"Execute the order!" Su Qing did not reveal that the Nine Battalions had gone to the west of Qinghe County to rest.