In the early morning of the next day, it was just dawn, and the banks of the Shah River flowing from south to north were quiet. Only a few faint chirpings of birds could be heard in the distance, and thick morning fog shrouded the river about 200 meters wide.
At this time, there was a faint sound of paddling in the heavy fog. Not long after, two naked people with big oilcloth packages on their heads stood up from a shallow beach on the east bank.
These two people were Zhou Wen and Zhang Xiaoping who had already rushed to the upper reaches of Shahe River. It is more than 30 kilometers away from where the Japanese army set up a pontoon bridge.
Zhou Wen and Zhang Xiaoping actually arrived at the west bank of Shahe in the middle of last night, but they were not in a hurry to cross the river.
One reason is that they are not familiar with the terrain in this area, and it is the ice melting season of the river. The river may seem to be flowing slowly, but it may also be turbulent, and swimming in the dark is prone to accidents. And now that they were far away from the Japanese troops searching behind them, there was no need to take risks.
Another reason is that the two of them have traveled more than 50 kilometers continuously in just 6 hours, and their bodies also need to take a rest and replenish calories and nutrients.
You know, the temperature in the Yanshan Mountains is still very low now. At night, the temperature of the river is even lower. It is not an exaggeration to say it is bone-chilling. Even though it is only a short 200 meters, if you add the pull of the water flow, it will be very harmful to people. The physical strength is a test.
So Zhou Wen and Zhang Xiaoping found a secret place on the west bank to rest and eat. When a trace of fish belly white hung on the horizon, they chose a nearby swimming point, packed all their clothes and weapons in a camouflage cloak with an oilcloth layer on one side, and then used Holding the package and paddling with one hand, it took nearly twenty minutes to swim to the east coast.
Moreover, the place where they landed was more than 100 meters downstream from where they entered the water, which shows that the speed of the water flow is actually not low.
At this time, the two of them came ashore, breathing heavily, and quickly dried themselves with towels while shivering.
Even a master of Qi Jinjing will feel various discomforts after soaking in this cold river water for a period of time.
After putting on their clothes and neatly draping them, the two brothers smiled at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. It was almost like they had escaped.
Zhou Wen took out the map, compared it, and said to Zhang Xiaoping: "We have bypassed Dushan County. We can enter the mountains less than a kilometer ahead. As long as we climb over this mountain, we should be able to contact our brothers."
Zhang Xiaoping suddenly showed a naughty smile and said softly: "Senior brother, you won't just go back quietly, right?"
Zhou Wen chuckled, slapped Zhang Xiaoping on the shoulder and said, "You still know what I'm thinking. Now that we've got into Princess Iron Fan's belly, I'm not willing to go back without taking advantage of it!"
After saying that, he turned to look towards the west bank and said bitterly: "I was chased for hundreds of miles by little devils like a dog. If I don't show them some color, wouldn't it mean that we have lost the reputation of our senior fellow apprentices?"
Zhang Xiaoping also said with an eager expression: "Senior brother, you tell me how to do it."
…
When it was getting dark, a ringing phone rang in the headquarters tent of the 6th Division's Baggage Regiment.
After not sleeping all night, Colonel Hiraki Sano, who had been guarding the wing headquarters, picked up the phone with a pair of panda eyes.
"Nani? A checkpoint at Dushan Pass was attacked?"
"Hey! The patrol found..."
Sano Pingshu quickly looked at the map and had a bad feeling in his heart.
It was reported on the phone that the patrol found that a checkpoint at Dushan Pass was attacked by unknown persons. All six soldiers in the entire checkpoint were killed, and they were all shot in the head. However, the patrol did not hear any gunshots, indicating that the attackers used silenced weapons.
At that time, the soldiers at the checkpoint were eating breakfast. The attackers did not take away the weapons and ammunition left behind. Instead, they looted all the breakfast of the six people.
Sano Pingshu immediately thought of the group of Chinese scouts who escaped yesterday.
He looked at the map and took a breath of cold air. If it was really these Chinese people, they had traveled such a long distance in half a day and one night. The distance of more than 50 kilometers was second, mainly because they had to climb several mountains. This kind of physical strength is a bit scary, even a mule can't bear it!
Moreover, this group of cunning Zhina people actually crossed the river 30 kilometers upstream, just out of the search range of the cavalry regiment.
"But aren't they afraid of exhausting themselves to death? These abominable animals." Sano Hiraki cursed angrily, and at the same time he felt a trace of regret in his heart. Why couldn't he overestimate the enemy's distance to search and block the cavalry? What about expanding to 40 kilometers?
If that's the case, maybe these straight people are now their own prisoners, right?
However, he firmly believed in his intuition that it was this group of Chinese scouts who attacked the checkpoint, and they probably did not bring much dry food, or the dry food was lost when fleeing or crossing the river, and they had to grab the breakfast of the checkpoint.
By the time he got here, he had already made a preliminary judgment.
This group of Chinese was indeed very tough. When they retreated, they made the illusion of fleeing south. Then they used the mountain streams to escape the tracking of the military dogs and turned north. After making a big circle, they ended up at the Shahe River. Crossed the river upstream.
However, after ten hours of continuous exhaustion, even if they had the physical strength of animals, they were probably exhausted now, otherwise they would not risk being exposed to snatch food.
So, based on this judgment, he ordered a brigade under him to immediately cross the river from the pontoon bridge and march directly to Dushan to block the mountain passes leading to the south from Dushan. At the same time, he called the cavalry regiment to request support and provided his analysis He told the whole story to Captain Kuroda Mori of the Cavalry Wing.
In his opinion, if the Chinese scouts want to return to the Great Wall defense line, there are only two routes. One is to flee south along Dushan Mountain, but they are more than 30 kilometers away, and his men can definitely catch up with them before they arrive. The southbound passage was previously blocked.
The other one crosses Dushan Mountain and flees towards Qinglong Mountain further east. Where the distance is far away, your infantry may not be able to keep up, so you can only let the cavalry pursue it.
It can be said that Sano Hiraki's analysis and inference were very accurate, and he accurately judged Zhou Wen's and his others' routes.
Moreover, he felt that his deployment was not very safe. At the same time, he reported to the division commander, Lieutenant General Masaemon Sakamoto, and requested that a reconnaissance plane be dispatched to conduct reconnaissance in the area between Mt. Matsuyama and Mt. Qingryu.
However, Sano Pingshu's deployment, which seemed too cautious to outsiders, almost killed Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen had countless calculations, but he never expected that the little devil would be so vicious. Just because of a few scouts, they suddenly changed their stingy habits and actually sent a plane to deal with him.
