After the leading Japanese troops entered the village, they saw that the village was deserted and reported the situation to the commander of the regiment.
The captain said angrily: "Baga is blocking the road, but these unscrupulous people can run very fast."
The brigade commander of the puppet army knew that he was angry because of the Eighth Route Army's attack, so he comforted him: "Your Excellency, captain, this is actually a good thing. Think about it, if the guerrillas in the mountains did not bring these people with them, they would It’s easy to move around, but it’s not easy for us to find them. Besides, the guerrillas have limited supplies, and with so many ordinary people and so many mouths to eat, it’s easier for them to be overwhelmed.”
The brigade commander of the 7th Puppet Army Brigade was an old man who was good at understanding people's thoughts. The Japanese commander had a good impression of him. Hearing what he said made sense.
He nodded and said: "Xinxi, you are very knowledgeable. Send your men out to find the whereabouts of the guerrillas as soon as possible."
The puppet brigade commander said: "Your Excellency, captain, please rest assured that the guerrillas have brought so many people with them. They cannot run far and their whereabouts will be found soon."
The Japanese captain admired the puppet brigade commander very much and invited him to move the brigade headquarters to the village so that he could discuss anything with him.
The puppet troops received the order from the brigade commander and searched in groups in the mountains. Soon they found traces of the guerrillas.
It's no wonder that with so many guerrillas and villagers carrying so much supplies, it is inevitable that they will leave traces on the road. A platoon of puppet soldiers found Mantou Peak based on the clues they found.
Zheng Xirong had already sent out many surveillance posts. When he saw the Japanese and puppet troops climbing up towards Mantou Peak, the sentries knew that they could no longer hide, so they took a preemptive strike and opened fire on the puppet troops.
The guerrillas on the mountain heard the gunfire and hurried into the defensive position. When they saw the puppet troops on the hillside, they shot at them.
Five or six of the puppet soldiers died, and Lie retreated in panic. When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, the puppet platoon leader sent someone back to Qiligou Village to report the news.
Zheng Xirong knew that the Japanese and puppet troops would soon surround him, so he climbed up the mountain with a surveillance post.
On the way, he saw Li Jinzhu working there with a group of soldiers from the demolition team, and said: "Brother Jinzhu, you have to hurry up, the Japanese and puppet troops are coming up soon."
Li Jinzhu said: "I know, I'll be fine soon."
Li Jinzhu and others had already laid a large number of stone mines on the way up the mountain. He saw a stone weighing several hundred kilograms on the roadside. He had an idea and led the masons from the demolition team to directly attack this stone. It took them more than two days to dig a hole in the boulder, and they are now installing explosives.
Zheng Xirong was also looking forward to it, hoping to see the power of the super stone mine when it exploded. He said, "Okay, I'll go up first, and then it'll be up to you."
The puppet soldiers ran back to the village and reported the situation to the brigade commander.
After discussing with the Japanese commander, the brigade commander decided to immediately send troops to surround Mantou Peak, build fortifications to prevent the enemy from breaking out, and wait until tomorrow to launch an attack on the mountain.
Wang Chengzhu, Wang Xiaohu, Wei Heping and others stood on the top of the mountain. The view here was extremely wide. Without a telescope, they could see groups of Japanese and puppet troops climbing up the hills around Mantou Peak.
There were so many of them that even there were many people in the valley and a blockade was set up.
The Japanese and puppet troops first occupied the surrounding hills and valleys, forming an encirclement, and then came to the two mountain ridges leading to the top of Mantou Peak. They didn't dare to get too close and stopped a few hundred meters down the mountain.
Wang Chengzhu was experienced and had already measured the distance of the surrounding terrain. He saw a lot of Japanese and puppet troops on the hill closest to Mantou Peak, so he decided to give them some clues first.
He ordered the soldiers of the artillery team to set up four mortars and fired two rapid-fire rounds at the top of the mountain.
The Japanese and puppet soldiers on the mountain heard the sound of the artillery and hurriedly found a place to hide, but the top of the mountain was bare and there was no hiding place at all.
Two mortar shells landed on the mountain, causing rubble to fly. More than 20 Japanese and puppet troops were killed and injured. The remaining Japanese and puppet troops ran down the mountain in panic.
Wang Chengzhu laughed loudly when he saw the corpses of Japanese and puppet soldiers scattered on the top of the mountain. The soldiers were also very happy, pointing and talking.
The other two hills are a bit far apart, and one of them can be reached with the Type 92 infantry gun. Wang Chengzhu fired two shots at the top of the mountain with the Type 92 infantry gun, killing five or six Japanese soldiers. Suddenly there was no one on the top of the mountain.
On the farthest hill, the artillery team's 75mm mountain cannon could hit it, but it was a pity that it was too bulky, so they didn't bring it to the mountain this time. Find a place and bury it temporarily.
Li Jinzhu had been thinking about those mountain cannon shells for a long time. In order to make the super stone mine, he asked Wang Chengzhu for a few mountain cannon shells and put them into the huge stone.
Wang Chengzhu and others were chatting on the top of the mountain. A soldier from the artillery team shouted: "Vice Captain Wang, the Japanese are setting up artillery on the mountain."
Wang Chengzhu and others hurried over to take a look and found that on the hill where they first bombed, a group of Japanese soldiers were setting up a Type 92 infantry cannon. The little devils are just like this. As long as they suffer a loss, they will take revenge immediately.
The Japanese soldiers brought up two Type 92 infantry cannons and were debugging the artillery there.
The reason why the Japs used the Type 92 infantry artillery was because their hilltop was too low and they couldn't reach the top of Mantou Peak with their mortars.
Wang Chengzhu had already opened fire first. His first shell hit right next to a Japanese Type 92 infantry gun. It overturned the gun on the spot, and the artillerymen nearby were also blown over. land.
The Japanese soldiers were anxious. They hurriedly loaded shells on another Type 92 infantry gun and fired a shot without taking aim. The shells hit the bottom of the cliff and did not pose any threat to the guerrillas. .
Wang Chengzhu also took aim and fired a shot. This shot was more accurate. The shell directly hit the Japanese Type 92 infantry cannon's shield, and directly blew the Type 92 infantry cannon to pieces. The cannon body flew up and fell to the bottom of the mountain.
The Japanese soldiers who were lucky enough to be alive saw this situation and ran to the back of the mountain in panic.
Wang Chengzhu knew that the little devils would definitely not be reconciled and would come for revenge, so he sat there and waited to see what other tricks the little devils had.
After waiting for about 40 minutes, a puff of white smoke suddenly appeared from the hilltop opposite, followed by the sound of a gunshot, and a shell from a Type 92 infantry gun flew over. The cannonball hit a little high, missed the top of the mountain, and flew over.
It turned out that the little devils suffered a loss and moved another Type 92 infantry gun. They did not dare to move it to the top of the mountain, so they found a place behind the hillside, with only the muzzle exposed, and carried out a sneak attack on the top of the mountain. .
It's just that their terrain is very unfavorable. Wang Chengzhu and others can see them at a glance from the top of the mountain, but they can't see clearly what's going on on the top of the mountain. Moreover, their angle is difficult to grasp. If the cannonballs are fired high, they will fly over the top of the mountain and hit them. If it is too low, it will easily hit the cliff.
However, this could not stop the little devils from retaliating, and they could not help but fire at the top of the mountain.
Wang Chengzhu saw the location of the Japanese cannon, so he set up a mortar and blasted towards that place.
The mortar shell drew an arc and landed behind the mountain. The shell quickly exploded at the place Wang Chengzhu was interested in. Because it was blocked by the top of the mountain, he couldn't see the effect. But from now on, the little devil We never went to the mountains to shoot guns again.
Wang Chengzhu guessed that there must be a lot of Japanese and puppet troops behind the mountain, so he used mortars to fire six more shells at the back of the mountain.
Sure enough, there were many Japanese and puppet troops hiding behind the mountain. They were blown away so much that they ran down the mountain crying and howling.
It was getting dark, and the guerrilla sentries also remained vigilant at night, always on guard against sneak attacks by the Japanese and puppet troops.
The night was uneventful.
At 9 o'clock in the morning the next day, the sun was shining brightly, the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant, which was very pleasing to the eye.
However, this beautiful scenery was quickly destroyed by the Japanese and puppet troops at the foot of the mountain.
Under the two mountain ridges on the east and west, large groups of Japanese and puppet troops gathered there, and the attack was about to begin.
On the ridge to the east, the Japanese and puppet troops began to set up artillery. A large number of Japanese and puppet troops gathered on the hillside, waiting for the artillery fire to stop before launching an attack on the top of the mountain.
Of course Wang Chengzhu would not get used to this problem of theirs. He simply bombarded them and the Japanese artillery position was destroyed on the spot.
The person in charge here was a captain of the Japanese army. Seeing this situation, he simply did not follow the prescribed infantry tactics and directly sent a squadron of Japanese soldiers to rush up the mountain.
When the Japanese soldiers arrived more than 120 meters away from the top of the mountain, the machine guns of the guerrillas on the top of the mountain opened fire, killing seven or eight Japanese soldiers on the spot.
The Japanese soldiers were extremely brave. They set up machine guns for cover, while the rest used skilled individual infantry attack tactics and continued to rush towards the top of the mountain.
When the Japanese soldiers rushed to a distance of seventy or eighty meters, the guerrillas holding rifles also opened fire.
The Japanese soldiers were constantly shot and fell, but they continued to rush upward. It has to be said that the Japanese soldiers were not only skilled in tactics, but also very accurate in their marksmanship. Even if they fired into the mountains while running, they still caused some casualties to the guerrillas.
On the top of the mountain, Li Yinzhu was very nervous. He hoped that the Japanese would rush higher because they had set up many stone mines on the hillside, all at a distance of 40m to 60m.
The enemy finally entered the minefield. Li Yinzhu's palms holding the rope were already sweating. He pulled hard, threw away the rope and covered his ears with his hands.
"Boom, boom, boom, boom." Dozens of stone mines exploded together, causing smoke and dust to billow on the hillside and gravel to fly.
When the smoke cleared, the guerrillas saw that the hillside was covered with Japanese soldiers. The few dozen Japanese soldiers who were lucky enough to survive crawled down and fled.
The puppet army captain did not expect that the guerrillas on the mountain would be so difficult to fight. He lost more than a hundred people in the first charge.
He brought in another squadron of infantry and prepared to attack again.
To the west of the mountain ridge, the Japanese and puppet troops were also organizing an attack on the top of the mountain.
The terrain here is better than that to the east, with many boulders on the hillside. The Japanese soldiers hid behind boulders, set up artillery, concealed their strength, and prepared to launch an attack. The Japanese captain and a group of officers were hiding behind a large rock.
Seeing this situation, Li Jinzhu was secretly happy, because the Japanese soldiers were hiding near the huge rock.
This place is about 150 meters away from the top of the mountain. Li Jinzhu is quietly lying in a stone gap on the side of the hillside, waiting to detonate the super stone mine.
Seeing more and more Japanese soldiers gathering there, Li Jinzhu spit in the palm of his hand, rubbed it, and yanked the rope.
This tug did not move, but instead caused pain in the palm of his hand.
He took a closer look and found that the rope was stuck in the crack in the stone in front. The position where the rope was stuck was a cliff more than ten meters deep. It was very difficult to pull the rope out of the crack in the stone. If you were not careful, You might fall off the cliff.
Li Jinzhu had been working hard for several days on this stone thunder, and he was not willing to let it lose its effect. So he crawled over, grabbing the crack in the rock with his hands, stepping on the protruding part of the rock with his feet, and moved towards the crack little by little.
The guerrillas on the top of the mountain saw Li Jinzhu's actions and were all worried about him.
Li Jinzhu finally climbed to the crevice where the rope was stuck, took the rope out, and then slowly climbed back.
At this moment, gunfire broke out and the Japanese soldiers launched an attack. Seeing this situation, Li Jinzhu stopped looking for a safe place. He grabbed the rock with one hand and pulled the rope hard with the other.
With a loud "boom", the super stone mine was blown to pieces by more than a hundred kilograms of black powder and four mountain artillery shells inside.
In this violent explosion, the Japanese captain and more than 200 Japanese soldiers were knocked to the ground by the strong shock wave and flying gravel. Many of them were directly shocked to death.
The explosion was so violent that the mountains shook as if they had experienced an earthquake. Because he was too close to the explosion site, Li Jinzhu was also stunned. His eyes darkened, his hand on the rock loosened, and his body fell towards the cliff.
