After Chu Yunfei entered the city, he executed a group of traitors in the city, confiscated their property, and distributed some grain and other daily necessities to the people in the city. This won the favor of the people in the city, and the 358th Brigade was very popular. He quickly established a foothold in Xinhe County.
Next, Chu Yunfei sent troops to the countryside to eliminate the Japanese and puppet grassroots organizations in Xinhe County, and opened up the situation in Xinhe County.
The 358th Brigade occupied Xinhe County, and Xu Dalong was the most satisfied. The location of Xinhe County is very critical. It is not only the gateway to the northeast of the World War II District Governor's Department, but also cuts off the connection between Guancheng County and Juma County. The Japanese army wants to form a complete encirclement of the Mawushan guerrillas. This is no longer possible.
Xu Dalong felt that his pressure was suddenly reduced a lot.
The headquarters of the 358th Brigade was located in the courtyard of the former Zheng Mansion in Xinhe County. Here, Chu Yunfei chaired a joint meeting between the 358th Brigade and the Mawushan Guerrillas. The meeting discussed the future of the Mawushan Guerrillas. Matters related to mutual cooperation with the 358th Brigade.
After the meeting, Li Kun introduced to Xu Dalong the members of the liaison group prepared by the World War II District Chief's Department to station the guerrillas in Mawu Mountain, as agreed in advance.
The leader of the liaison group is Gao Lixin, a major staff officer in the Operations Department of the Shanxi-Sui Army. There are four members in the liaison group, and Chu Yun'er is not among them. It seemed that Chu Yunfei had done his sister's job, which made Xu Dalong relieved, thus avoiding the embarrassment between him and Chu Yunfei.
Later, Li Kun led the liaison team and followed Xu Dalong and others back to the Mawushan base area.
That afternoon, Li Kun and others were on their way when suddenly there was the roar of armored vehicles in front of them, and then they saw smoke and dust billowing in front of them, and tanks and armored vehicles appeared.
Li Kun, Gao Lixin and others were very nervous. They could not imagine why the Japanese armored troops suddenly appeared after they had entered the guerrilla base area.
They unconsciously drew their pistols and prepared for battle.
Seeing the nervous look of Li Kun and others, Sun Desheng laughed loudly and said: "Sir Li, Team Leader Gao, you don't have to worry, those tanks and armored vehicles are the tank squadron of our Mawushan guerrillas."
Li Kun and others were very shocked. You must know that the entire Shanxi-Sui Army has no armored troops. It was unexpected that the small Mawushan guerrillas actually had a tank squadron. Looking at the number of tanks and armored vehicles, there are really a lot of them.
Gao Lixin asked curiously: "Where did you get the tanks and armored vehicles?"
Sun Desheng said proudly: "Of course it was given to us by the little devils. In order to attack our base, the little devils sent a tank brigade, but we destroyed it. These tanks and armored vehicles were all captured from them. .”
The tank squadron that was training paused their training when they saw Xu Dalong and others.
A Type 97 medium tank drove over and stopped in front of Xu Dalong and others. A young man got out of the tank. His name was Cui Zhenyue, and he was the squadron leader of the tank squadron.
Cui Zhenyue ran to the front of Xu Dalong and others, stood at attention, saluted, and said: "Report to the captain, Mawushan Chariot Squadron is training, please give instructions. Cui Zhenyue, captain of the chariot squadron."
Li Kun knew about the Mawushan guerrillas. Gao Lixin and others met the Mawushan guerrillas for the first time. In their original impression, the Mawushan guerrillas were just a group of Tubal, even worse than Tubal. A group of people wearing various casual clothes and carrying a variety of weapons.
Unexpectedly, they are so formal and look even more imposing than the Jinsui Army.
Xu Dalong asked Cui Zhenyue to lead the chariot squadron to continue training, and then accompanied Li Kun and others to Daliushu Village.
After the general anti-Japanese armed forces stationed in a village, in order to keep secrets, under normal circumstances, they would just stay in the homes of fellow villagers without any construction, so that they could move quickly.
The Mawushan guerrillas were different. They were very confident and sure of holding Daliushu Village. Therefore, after the brigade headquarters moved here, they not only provided money to help the common people repair and build some houses, but also invested in building a lot of buildings themselves. There is a large guest house among them, and the conditions inside are quite good.
Gao Lixin and others were originally worried that the guerrillas would suffer hardship when they arrived in Mawu Mountain, but they did not expect that the conditions would be so good.
Next, Xu Dalong and others held a reception banquet for Li Kun and the members of the liaison team. The food and wine were also very sumptuous, which was no less than what they could enjoy in the Jinsui Army.
After Gao Lixin and others arrived at Daliushu Village, they hoped to fully understand the situation of the Mawushan guerrillas. However, Xu Dalong and others had made arrangements in advance and deliberately concealed some combat units, not wanting them to know the true strength of the guerrillas.
Even so, the exposed strength of the Mawushan guerrillas far exceeded the imagination of Gao Lixin and others.
Valley
They are all smart people, and they also have eyes and ears, and they can feel the strength of the Mawushan guerrillas. It is not just a guerrilla brigade like Xu Dalong and others said, and they don't know how much strength is hidden behind it.
According to regulations, the first thing they did when they arrived here was to report the strength of the Mawushan guerrillas to the headquarters.
In a telegram drafted to the World War II Zone Headquarters, they said: "According to the introduction of Mawushan Guerrilla Brigade Captain Xu Dalong and others, the Mawushan Guerrilla currently has a combat squadron, four cavalry squadrons, and six infantry squadrons, as well as others. The direct team has a total strength of about 1,200 people.
But according to our observations, the strength of the guerrillas goes far beyond that. They even have car transport squadrons, motorcycle squadrons, bicycle squadrons, and armored fighting vehicle squadrons. According to our estimates, the total strength is probably close to 3,000, which does not include the thousands of county brigades and what they call the basic militia.
The Mawushan guerrillas are well-equipped and have high morale. They are a very powerful force. We will further verify the specific situation. "
On this day, Xu Dalong discussed with Li Kun and said that the Japanese army was currently relatively weak around the Mawushan base area. He hoped to cooperate with the Jinsui Army to launch an offensive against the Japanese army and eat some of the Japanese army.
The specific combat goal is to attack Juma County and annihilate an infantry brigade of the Japanese army and a regiment of the puppet army in the city.
Li Kun had no objection, so he contacted Chu Yunfei.
Chu Yunfei invited Xu Dalong and others to go to Xinhe County to discuss combat deployment.
Soon after, Chu Yunfei led the main force of the 358th Brigade, 4,000 people, and the Mawushan guerrillas dispatched a special operations squadron, a tank squadron, two artillery squadrons and a motorcycle squadron, six cavalry squadrons, and six infantry squadrons, with a total strength of More than 1,800 people went to Juma County.
Outside Juma County, Chu Yunfei, Fang Ligong and others were waiting on the roadside for Xu Dalong and others to arrive.
At the appointed time, Xu Dalong led the main force of the Mawushan guerrillas and drove over.
Although Chu Yunfei had learned from the liaison group that Xu Dalong's troops had developed greatly, when he saw the Mawushan guerrillas' tank troops, motorcycle troops, artillery troops, cavalry troops, and equipment They were still a little shocked when the sophisticated infantry troops came over.
They really didn't expect that Xu Dalong would develop a small guerrilla force to such a large scale during the period after he parted with them.
Fang Ligong said with emotion: "No wonder Chief Xu and his friends often win battles. Even the Japanese don't have such equipment."
Chu Yunfei said: "What you said is wrong. Brothers Dalong and the others were able to win the battle not because of these equipment, but because they captured these equipment after winning the battle."
Fang Ligong smiled and said: "You are right, this is even more admirable."
Seeing Xu Dalong approaching, Chu Yunfei stepped forward to greet him and said with a smile: "Brother Dalong, your troops are strong and well-equipped. How can they be considered guerrillas here? I think you are the first-class main force of the underground party." , I can’t keep up with you either.”
Xu Dalong smiled and said: "Compared with Lao Eighth Route Army, we are still far behind. The army has developed a bit too quickly, and education and training have not kept up. Although we have won some battles, they were all skillful battles. If we really fight against the Japanese When the bayonet sees red, it's still far worse."
Xu Dalong is not being modest when he says this. The main advantage of the Mawushan guerrillas in fighting is in tactics. In terms of the bravery and tenacity of the troops, they are really not as good as those old troops of the Eighth Route Army. If you really fight with the Japanese with bayonets, you won't be able to take advantage at all.
Of course, Xu Dalong is also confident. He believed that the Mawushan guerrillas would continue to be tempered during the war and grow into a strong and powerful steel force.
After research, Chu Yunfei, Xu Dalong and others decided to let the 358th Brigade carry out the main attack. The artillery unit and tank squadron of the Mawushan guerrillas would cooperate. Sun Desheng led the cavalry unit to attack the Japanese reinforcements coming out of Dongxiang County.
The battle started soon. Chu Yunfei commanded the mountain artillery battalion of the 358th Brigade and the two artillery squadrons of the Mawushan guerrillas. They fired fiercely at the Japanese army and soon blew open the gate of the county town and torn the city wall. The Japanese and puppet troops were blown to pieces.
When the Mawushan guerrillas were besieged last time, the walls of several county towns around Mawushan had been reinforced and raised. The officers and soldiers of the 358th Brigade were initially a little afraid of the towering city walls, but when they saw When the chariot squadron of the Mawushan guerrillas opened the way in front, I suddenly became bolder.
The tank squadron lined up in front, and the officers and soldiers of the 358th Brigade followed the tanks and armored vehicles and quickly rushed to the bottom of the city wall.
The tank squadron is not suitable for urban street fighting. They have received orders from Xu Dalong not to enter the city to avoid unnecessary casualties.
They stopped under the city wall, blocked the city wall with machine guns, and covered the officers and soldiers of the 358th Brigade as they rushed towards the city gate.
