Political commissar Zhao Gang was once a student at Yanjing University in Peking. He had further studies at the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. He was capable in both civil and military affairs and was shrewd and capable.
Li Yunlong had never had a good relationship with the political commissar. When he saw Zhao Gang's thick eyebrows, big eyes, talent, and an intellectual, he thought he was a pretty boy who was here to cause trouble for him, and his attitude towards him was very cold. As soon as the two met, the atmosphere was a bit unharmonious.
Kong Jie was very polite, and Zhao Gang's first impression of him was much better than that of Li Yunlong. With Kong Jie smoothing things over, the atmosphere at the meeting finally got better.
Zhao Gang is shrewd and capable. Since the pleasantries could no longer be continued, he started talking about work directly. He called the national soldier he rescued and asked him to talk about his experience.
This national army soldier once learned kung fu in the Shaolin Temple and was known as Monk Wei. He provided important information.
While fighting the Japanese army, Monk Wei was stunned and captured by artillery shells. In the prisoner of war camp, he met a group of Japanese soldiers whose weapons and equipment were very different from those of ordinary Japanese soldiers, and they were all very skilled.
They used those prisoners of war for capture and fighting training. Two or three prisoners of war could not defeat one of these Japanese, which shows that these people have received special training.
Monk Wei was highly skilled in martial arts. While fighting with the Japanese army, he killed a Japanese squad leader and escaped while taking advantage of the chaos. The Japanese and puppet troops were chasing him. When he was exhausted and exhausted, Zhao Gang happened to pass by and rescued him.
Li Yunlong and Kong Jie originally believed that the Japanese troops who attacked the Independence Regiment were specially trained special forces. The information provided by Monk Wei just verified their suspicions. They believe that there is indeed a special force with extremely strong combat effectiveness among the Japanese army.
They discussed for a while and decided to report the situation to their superiors.
Li Yunlong didn't believe it when he heard that Monk Wei had killed four Japanese soldiers with his bare hands. He personally tested his martial arts, and the result was that he was no match for him.
Not only was Li Yunlong not angry, but he praised Monk Wei's skills and kept him as his bodyguard.
Monk Wei felt that he was very powerful in martial arts, so he always competed with others. The soldiers in the regiment, including Wang Xiaohu, were often bullied by him.
Li Yunlong has his own uniqueness in leading troops. He does not object to his subordinates competing with each other or even fighting. He believes that fighting can cultivate the bloodiness of soldiers, so if someone is bullied and cannot beat others in a fight and comes to complain to him, he will look down on the person who was beaten, call them cowards, and encourage them to fight back on their own.
Wang Xiaohu was angry with Monk Wei and was very depressed. He was looking forward to Xu Dalong coming back and taking care of this annoying monk Wei.
That afternoon, Wang Xiaohu and Monk Wei had another quarrel over a trivial matter. Monk Wei waved his fist and threatened Wang Xiaohu. Wang Xiaohu said angrily: "I have never practiced martial arts. You are showing off your power to me, which is nothing. When my brother Dalong comes back, if you have the ability, go to him and fight. I guarantee a fight." You’ll have to look for teeth everywhere.”
Monk Wei has not yet met an opponent in the independent group and feels bored. Hearing that there was a person like Xu Dalong, he felt itchy in his heart. He had the same thoughts as Wang Xiaohu, hoping that Xu Dalong would come back as soon as possible. As long as Xu Dalong is defeated, he will be the top master of the independent group.
After Zhao Gang took office, he quickly became familiar with the work of the independent regiment. When he saw the establishment of the special service platoon, he was very puzzled.
So, he came to Li Yunlong and asked: "Captain, what's going on with this special service platoon? We don't have this organization in our army."
Li Yunlong said: "I decided to establish the special service platoon, which is responsible for carrying out special services."
Zhao Gang said worriedly: "Our army does not have such a structure. The independent regiment has a special service platoon. Will the superiors think that we are doing something special? I am afraid we will be punished by the superiors."
Li Yunlong said disdainfully: "Commissar Zhao, are you stupid in studying? Why don't you enlighten? Let me ask you, our division's official establishment in the national army only has two brigades and four regiments. How many are there now? Troops? Aren’t there all the new first regiments, new second regiments, independent regiments, and supplementary regiments?
In order to meet the needs of work, our independent regiment should set up a special service platoon. Isn't it okay? "
Although Zhao Gang was dissatisfied with Li Yunlong's attitude, he felt that what Li Yunlong said made sense, so he stopped caring about it.
Because of this incident, Zhao Gang became interested in Xu Dalong. He specifically asked Wang Xiaohu about Xu Dalong's situation, and he also wanted to see Xu Dalong as soon as possible.
The headquarters of the Independent Regiment is more than 80 kilometers away from Wanjia Town. If you walk in a straight line, you will pass through two strongholds of the Japanese and puppet troops. The existence of these two strongholds is a big obstacle to the independent regiment's long-distance attack on Wanjia Town.
Even if Wanjia Town is successfully captured, it is easy to be intercepted by the Japanese and puppet troops on the way back. Therefore, Xu Dalong and others must first figure out the situation inside these two strongholds.
They first came to the nearest stronghold. Xu Dalong rode a horse up a slope to observe the situation in that stronghold.
This stronghold is not big, with only a three-story gun tower and a bunker below. There is a trench dug outside and a suspension bridge above it. There is a sentry on the top of the turret, and there are people walking around outside.
Xu Dalong said: "The stronghold in front is full of puppet troops. Let's go in and take a look."
Zheng Xirong and the two soldiers from the reconnaissance team also followed to observe, but it was a bit far away from the stronghold and they could not see clearly. They didn't understand why Xu Dalong was observing from such a long distance.
They were all very surprised when they heard Xu Dalong's words. Some of them didn't believe that Xu Dalong's eyes could see so far.
After Xu Dalong finished speaking, he took the lead in riding towards the puppet stronghold.
The puppet sentry standing guard on the gun tower saw a few horses approaching in the distance, and he immediately became alert. He shouted down: "Platoon commander, someone is coming, it's the cavalry."
The puppet platoon leader knew that there were anti-Japanese army activities dozens of kilometers away. He did not dare to be careless, so he came to the top of the gun tower and set up a pergola to observe.
Soon after, he saw clearly that it was a small group of Japanese cavalry, and his tense nerves relaxed.
The cavalry came very quickly and arrived outside the trench in a short time.
A Japanese officer in the lead shouted something in the direction of the gun tower. He was speaking in Japanese because he didn't know whether there were Japanese troops in this stronghold.
The platoon leader of the puppet army could not understand what the Japanese soldiers below were saying, but he had no doubt about the identity of the people below.
He shouted at the top of his lungs: "Taijun, there is no Taijun here. We don't understand what you are saying."
The Japanese officer seemed to understand what he said, so he said in half-baked Chinese: "Your job is to lower the suspension bridge, and I am thirsty and need to drink water."
The platoon leader of the puppet army understood this and quickly ordered his men to lower the suspension bridge, and personally went down from the gun tower to greet him.
Xu Dalong left two people to look after the horses. He took Zheng Xirong and walked across the suspension bridge carrying several water bottles.
The puppet platoon leader was very enthusiastic, nodding and bowing to lead the way for them. After entering the artillery building, he ordered his men to fill Xu Dalong's kettle with water.
Xu Dalong was very good at pretending to be Japanese. Although he spoke in a gentle tone, he inadvertently showed the Japanese's condescending arrogance towards the puppet troops.
Xu Dalong said that he was from Taiyuan, a member of the Japanese Military Police Command's Special Higher Education Course, and was going to Ping'an County from here.
The reason why he said this was because the Special High School was a spy organization of the Japanese army. Their methods were vicious and notorious, and ordinary Japanese officers and soldiers were unwilling to deal with them, let alone these puppet troops.
Xu Dalong believed that the puppet soldiers must not want to have anything to do with him, so it would be easier for them to hide their identities.
Sure enough, after the puppet platoon leader heard about the identity of the Japanese lieutenant, his face changed slightly and his attitude became more respectful.
Xu Dalong chatted with him for a few words and roughly understood the military situation here. However, he also wanted to understand the terrain here, so he said he was going to Pingan County and asked the puppet platoon leader to accompany him to the top of the gun tower to show him the way.
Xu Dalong came to the top of the turret. This is a plain area. The turret is the highest point here, and the surrounding terrain can be seen at a glance.
Xu Dalong got off the turret and saw Zheng Xirong. Zheng Xirong shook the kettle to indicate that the water was full. So, the two of them left the stronghold, got on their horses, beat their horses and left.
The puppet platoon leader stood at the end of the suspension bridge and saluted the backs of Xu Dalong and others. Seeing them walking away, he returned to the watchtower.
A squad leader of the puppet army said: "Platoon leader, who are these Japanese? Do we want to report to the superiors?"
The puppet platoon leader glared and said, "What are you paying for? You've eaten enough to support yourself. Those Japanese are from Taiyuan's special higher education courses. You want to provoke them, are you impatient?"
The puppet squad leader was so frightened that he stuck out his tongue and stopped talking.
Xu Dalong and others walked a long way until the turrets were no longer visible. Then they got off their horses. Xu Dalong took out a notebook and recorded the situation in the stronghold they just passed.
Zheng Xirong and two soldiers from the reconnaissance squad saw that Xu Dalong not only recorded the number of people, weapons and equipment in the stronghold, but also drew a topographic map. The terrain drawings are very standard, and the annotations on them are also very professional. Even the woods, rivers, ditches, etc. within the field of view of the turret are very clearly marked, and even the specific distance data are marked. I really don’t know how he observed it in such a short period of time.
Zheng Xirong once went to the brigade headquarters to participate in a training camp. He felt that the combat staff at the brigade headquarters who gave them lectures were not up to the level of Xu Dalong, and he couldn't help but admire him very much.
Xu Dalong and the others continued walking for more than 20 miles and came to another stronghold. This stronghold is relatively large, with two gun towers and three rows of bungalows. There are also traffic trenches and a suspension bridge in front of the stronghold, and Japanese troops are active inside.
Xu Dalong and others walked openly towards the Japanese stronghold. When the Japanese saw that these people were Japanese cavalry, they had no doubts, because if they were the anti-Japanese army, there were only four of them and they would not have the guts to come to their stronghold.
Zheng Xirong and the two soldiers from the reconnaissance team were really nervous when they saw so many Japanese in the stronghold. They were afraid that if their secrets were exposed after entering, they would definitely be dead.
Xu Dalong understood their mood and said to them: "When we get to the suspension bridge later, you don't want to go in. I can go alone."
Soon Xu Dalong and others came to the edge of the suspension bridge. Xu Dalong turned over and dismounted, and said to a Japanese commander Cao who had already walked over and stood by the suspension bridge: "I am Lieutenant Sato from the Special High School Section of the Taiyuan Military Police Headquarters. I want to I want to ask you something."
The Japanese army lowered the suspension bridge and Xu Dalong walked in.
Zheng Xirong and others held the horses and stood on the edge of the suspension bridge with their hearts pounding, fearing that something would go wrong. Xu Dalong went in, and they wanted him to come out quickly. Their feelings at this time can no longer be described as days and years. Every minute and every second makes them feel very tortured.
About ten minutes later, Xu Dalong came out. He was actually carrying two bottles of wine in his hand. He was accompanied by a Japanese captain. The two of them were talking and laughing as they walked.
Xu Dalong crossed the suspension bridge, got on his horse, and waved to the Japanese captain. The Japanese captain also smiled and waved to see him off.
Xu Dalong was very relaxed, but Zheng Xirong and others were covered in cold sweat. After the horses started running, the wind blew and their bodies felt cold.
They asked Xu Dalonglong what happened after he entered the stronghold.
Xu Dalong smiled and said: "It's nothing. I met a fellow from Osaka. He was very enthusiastic and gave me two bottles of sake."
"Platoon Commander, you are really amazing." Now, Zheng Xirong and others admired Xu Dalong so much that they no longer addressed him as Platoon Commander Xu, but directly addressed him as Platoon Commander. They also used honorifics when speaking, which was both respectful and respectful. close.
Soon after, Xu Dalong dismounted and marked the map again. This time, he gained even more. Not only did he learn about the situation of the Japanese and puppet troops in this stronghold, but he also learned about the general situation of Wanjia Town and Ping'an County.
There were no more Japanese and puppet strongholds on the way from here to Wanjia Town. Xu Dalong and others worked hard. By 2 o'clock in the afternoon, they had arrived at Wanjia Town.
Wanjia Town is a large town, with a large group of dark buildings, probably containing thousands of households. In order to find out the garrison situation of the puppet troops here, Xu Dalong and others decided to conduct on-site reconnaissance in the town.
In order to control the puppet troops, the Japanese army often set up instructors among the puppet troops to monitor them. At the stronghold he passed just now, Xu Dalong learned from the Japanese captain that there was also a Japanese instructor in the puppet cavalry battalion, who was also a fellow from Osaka.
So they came to the entrance of the town and said they wanted to see Lieutenant Watanabe, the commander of the Japanese army, and asked the puppet soldiers standing guard to guide them.
