Two months have passed in the blink of an eye, and the Independence Camp has completely changed.
At this time, the Independent Battalion can be said to be very strong. Thanks to Zhao Gang's hard work and the recent reputation of the Independent Battalion, countless people have participated in the recruitment.
The current independent battalion still has three infantry companies, but each company has 220 people, and each company is equipped with one heavy machine gun, ten light machine guns, and twelve grenade launchers.
The machine gun company was merged with the mortar company to form a machine gun company, equipped with a Type 92 infantry gun, 13 mortars, three heavy machine guns, and 15 light machine guns.
There were also more than 200 captured military horses. Li Qiufan shamelessly ran to the brigade headquarters and asked the brigade commander for more than 200 sabers, and finally formed the cavalry company he had longed for.
The reconnaissance platoon was also upgraded to a reconnaissance company, with a strength of more than 200 people. The guard platoon and communications squad remained the same.
After some expansion, the strength of the independent battalion exceeded one thousand and more than doubled to more than 1,300 people.
Although he was happy about the expansion, the huge daily consumption also put pressure on Li Qiufan. He could hardly bear it anymore.
"Old Zhao, how are we going to get this food? I'm worried to death!"
Li Qiufan complained to Zhao Gang in the room, worrying about food.
"Oh, I can't help it. I can't just go out and rob like bandits."
Zhao Gang spread his hands and shook his head helplessly.
"Go out and grab it?"
Hearing Zhao Gang's words, Li Qiufan's eyes lit up.
"Hey, Qiu Fan, don't make any crooked ideas. I'm telling you, our Eighth Route Army can't go out to grab things!"
Seeing Li Qiufan's look, Zhao Gang instantly understood what he meant and hurriedly opened his mouth to admonish.
"Hey, what are you thinking, Old Zhao? I want to rob the Japanese and puppet troops!"
Li Qiufan knew that Zhao Gang had misunderstood, so he explained.
"It scared me to death. I thought you were going to make a mistake."
Zhao Gang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the explanation.
Just as he said, Li Qiufan took the map and started studying it.
Ten minutes later, Li Qiufan finally found a target that he could attack, a stronghold where a large group of Japanese soldiers were stationed. However, this stronghold was relatively close to the nearby county seat, and he wanted to send troops to stop the Japanese soldiers in the county town.
"Monk, go and call me the commander of the reconnaissance company."
Li Qiufan called to the monk without raising his head and asked him to find the reconnaissance company commander.
Not long after, the reconnaissance company commander walked in: "Batalion Commander, do you have anything to do with me?"
"Well, Peng Gang, pick a few good guys from the reconnaissance company and keep an eye on this Hewa stronghold for me, and come back and report back when the Japs go to the stronghold for support!"
Li Qiufan pointed to the position of the stronghold on the map and gave the order to Peng Gang, the commander of the reconnaissance company.
Peng Gang went out directly after receiving the order, and returned to the reconnaissance company to select a few people and send them out.
Three days passed and there was no news from the reconnaissance company. Li Qiufan even wondered whether the Japanese in the stronghold did not need to eat.
On the fifth day, the news finally came back, and Peng Gang jogged all the way to Li Qiufan's house.
"Battal Commander, here's the news. The people sent out came back and said that they saw a dozen large vehicles driving into the stronghold today. They should be here to deliver supplies!"
Upon hearing this, Li Qiufan immediately slapped his thigh: "It's his grandma's. If the Japanese don't give me food, I'm going to peel off the bark of the tree!"
"Monk, go ask Heizi to assemble the troops!"
After giving the order, Li Qiufan dressed neatly, picked up his gun and walked out.
"Brother, do you have a mission?"
Heizi asked after gathering his troops and ran to Li Qiufan.
"Well, take the brothers out to bring back some food. If we don't bring back some food, the brothers will go dig wild vegetables."
Li Qiufan said a few words to Heizi and set off directly with the team.
After a short half-day's march, the independent battalion finally arrived at the outskirts of the Hewa stronghold. Li Qiufan called Heizi over and showed him the map.
"Heizi, I have a mission for you. You take the First Company and the Reconnaissance Company to guard near the county seat, and then stop the Japanese who come to support."
"No matter how many people come out, you must withstand it for two hours. After two hours, you can lead your troops directly back to the station."
Heizi nodded after hearing this, and then gave the monk some instructions before leaving with Yilian.
Seeing Heizi telling the monk, Li Qiufan shook his head helplessly. It seemed that he was destined to sit in the rear.
Twenty minutes after Heizi left, Li Qiufan was ready to launch an attack.
"Old Ma, let me shoot the artillery accurately. Don't use the infantry artillery yet. Just use the mortar."
After explaining to Lao Ma, Li Qiufan directly issued the attack order, and thirteen mortars began bombing in turns.
The Japs in the stronghold reacted immediately after being bombed, and came out directly from the stronghold to set up positions and start counterattacks.
"Fire me with the heavy machine gun, push the Japanese back!"
"Old Ma, where the hell are you fighting! Take down that heavy machine gun position for me!"
"boom!"
As he was shouting, a shell exploded not far away from Li Qiufan, and the monk threw Li Qiufan directly to the ground.
"Bah, how are you, monk? Are you injured?"
After spitting out the mud in his mouth, Li Qiufan opened the monk on top of him.
"It's okay, battalion commander, I'm just a little dizzy from the shock."
The monk was a little confused by the explosion, but he was not injured.
Seeing that the monk was injured, Li Qiufan breathed a sigh of relief and then looked up at the battle situation.
Under the powerful firepower of the Independent Battalion, the Japanese in the stronghold were beaten so hard that they could not even lift their heads.
"Corpser, blow the charge horn for me!"
Seeing the situation, Li Qiufan shouted and prepared to charge.
As the charge sounded, Li Qiufan led the guard platoon and the soldiers of the second and third companies to charge. The machine gun company stayed in place, and the cavalry company did not take them with them in this operation at all.
Although there were twice as many people as the Japs, this was a surprise attack and the Japs were completely unprepared. Coupled with the powerful firepower of the Independent Battalion, one-third of the Japs were killed in the first round of shelling.
After another crazy fire suppression, more than half of the Japs in the Hewa stronghold had been killed or injured, and there were only a few more.
"Bang, bang, bang..."
Li Qiufan kept firing his gun, and a Japanese soldier would fall after every gunshot.
Soon the leading troops rushed into the stronghold, but as soon as they entered, they were strafed by gun towers on both sides.
"Old Ma, use infantry artillery to knock down the turrets for me, quickly!"
Looking at the soldiers lying on the ground, Li Qiufan turned his head and shouted in the direction of the artillery position.
"boom!"
As the words fell, a huge explosion sounded. The turret on the left was blasted open, and the Japanese inside were blown to pieces.
"Nice job, old horse! There's another one!"
Li Qiufan was overjoyed when he looked at the collapsed turrets.
It took Lao Ma two artillery shells to knock down another turret, and then Li Qiufan gave the order to continue the charge.
Seeing that the two gun towers had been blown down, the Japanese commander stopped resisting and started to flee with the remaining troops.
