Most of the Japs were entrenched in strongholds near county towns and traffic arteries.
Most of the villages and towns outside the county were garrisoned by surrendered Japanese security forces and even armed landlords and gentry.
This was supplemented by detective teams that went to various villages to develop informants and arrest anti-Japanese elements hiding among the people.
In the counties where the canal flows, people fell ill and died in droves, causing great panic among the people.
Rumors spread, and many people thought there was a plague.
Chinese herbal medicines that are said to prevent epidemics, such as honeysuckle, bupleurum and isatis root, are in short supply.
The Japanese soldiers stationed there didn't seem to care at all.
The Japanese commanders and staff in North China are busy deploying troops from various places to march westward.
It is planned to attack the northern Shaanxi base area of Tubal Road from the east and west with the national army.
The Japanese and puppet troops in each county were originally tight, but after being deployed, many county towns were left empty for defense.
After all, it was a shameful thing for Qinghe County to be captured by Tubal Road. The county seat was lost and was not even reported on the war situation.
The Japanese headquarters knew very well that the 59th Division was executing the top-secret Eighteenth Autumn Plan in Qinghe County.
The fall of Qinghe County did not attract much attention from the top Japanese leaders at all.
In the eyes of the Japanese, the loss of a small county town in the hinterland of the occupied area was of no importance.
The 40th Zhongyong National Salvation Army and the New Fifth Army stationed in Kaifeng are moving northward with a large-scale sweep.
Retaking the county seat is easy...
All resistance elements will flee upon hearing the news.
...
The Ninth Battalion suffered more than 200 casualties this time, and it was completely exhausting.
The voice and smile of the former comrade-in-arms are no longer there.
The baptism of iron and fire allowed the militiamen who had just joined the Ninth Battalion to continuously experience the battlefield... their bayonets were red, and they saw enemies fall under their own guns, and they grew up rapidly.
A month ago, the militiamen who fell asleep during the literacy class now work hard to learn to write whenever they have a little time. The militiamen who lie down in the sorghum fields to perform blocking tasks are all exchanging various tactical terms they heard from the squad leaders. .
The militiamen, who know almost no tactics other than guerrilla fighting, are almost all veterans now.
Although I am not proficient in tactical terminology, I can basically understand what my comrades want to express by looking at their comrades' gestures.
Finally, I was freed from the low-end level of giving orders from the commander... completely relying on shouting at the top of my lungs.
The soldiers of the Ninth Battalion were very different from other Eighth Route Army soldiers because...there were no instructors to do ideological work.
The only instructor of the reconnaissance company seemed unreliable.
Ideology class...it seems like I just took two night classes.
It can be said that there are three days of fishing and two days of drying nets. It can also be said that Jiuying is indeed very busy and has no time to fight against the Japanese.
The deputy commander knew that the Ninth Battalion was attacked by Cangzhou Road and suffered heavy casualties, so he directly sent 120 new soldiers to the Ninth Battalion!
Since the formation of the Ninth Battalion, the Ninth Battalion has never been short of guns or bullets.
On the first day the recruits joined the Eighth Route Army, training had already begun.
There are soldiers who always cannot distinguish between their left and right feet when standing in formation.
Just kick him!
If you don't fight, you won't be motivated. This certainly doesn't count as abusing the recruits...
How can education be considered abuse?
"Quiet, everyone, stand at attention!"
"Look forward..."
"Turn right...Group haircut!"
About to face a large number of enemy counterattacks, the training of new recruits is in full swing.
Li Laosi is responsible for training new recruits of the reconnaissance company.
He has strict requirements on new recruits and is good at repairing thorns.
At this time, Instructor Li was lying on the ground.
He wasn't demonstrating...
There is a foot on his back.
A young man with patched clothes stepped on Li Laosi's back with his left foot, looked around and asked proudly: "Who else... who else is dissatisfied?"
Li Laosi struggled several times in succession, but failed to overturn the young man. His face turned black and he said, "Okay, you will be the martial arts instructor..."
The young man put his feet back, picked up Mr. Li, and clasped his fists: "Platoon Commander Li, how offended I am!"
In the army, fists are the most powerful.
Li Laosi had a dark face and patted the dirt on his body: "You are so skilled, why didn't you join the anti-Japanese army earlier?"
"Well, there were rumors in the county a few years ago that the Eighth Route Army shared property and wives. I have a sister above me and a sister below me, so I don't dare to hang out with you..."
Li Laosi's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot: "Then how have you figured it out now?"
"Hehe, I think that your platoon leader Wang Xiaosan dared to rob even a pawnshop covered by devils in the county town, and also gave the stolen goods to those orphans and widows. I guess he must be a good man who robbed the rich and gave to the poor."
Rob? Li Laosi's face turned black again: "You can't get along... The Eighth Route Army is a poor man's army and will not take advantage of the masses."
"Okay, I won't take advantage of the masses in the future." Chen Qian's sincere tone stunned the veterans. This guy... is a real thorn.
After being defeated again and again, Li Laosi was so angry with the new soldier Chen Qian that he vomited blood on the spot.
The recruits received their guns, touched the metal barrel and bolt, and stroked the handguard with excited expressions.
Guns were not allowed in the Republic of China, and there had been years of fighting in the Central Plains. There were only a few people who had never touched a gun.
But not many people have ever had a shot.
The first thing is to clean the gun.
Chen Qian looked at the rifle in his hand, took out a steel wire from his body, and began to clean the dirt in the gaps of the rifle.
There are two straight characters and one horizontal line painted on the butt of the gun.
He was well aware that eleven of the enemy had been shot by the rifle's original owner.
It seems that one can feel the ruthless killing of this rifle in the smoke of the battlefield.
He raised his rifle and aimed it far away, simulating the sound of a gunshot: "Bah..."
Hey, you are so good at kung fu, have you never touched a gun?
My dad wouldn't let me touch that thing, saying that if it got on it, I couldn't throw it away.
Does your father know that you joined the Eighth Route Army?
The old man is not allowed to do this or that all day long. I have had enough.
Listen to them, your father runs a martial arts gym?
During the Qing Dynasty, my grandfather even broke into the Forbidden City!
...
"Quiet, everyone, stand at attention!"
"Looking forward..."
"Turn right...Group haircut!"
Li Xiang didn't waste much time and directly assigned the new recruits to each class.
He doesn't have many rules. There are eleven people in a class, that is, eleven people. One more will not work, and one less will not work.
From the expression on his scarred face, it can be seen that he dislikes having a light machine gun, a grenade launcher, and a shell gun group in one squad.
In his heart, he hopes that all of his squad will either be equipped with pistols, or all of them will carry him on their backs, or all of them will be equipped with light machine guns...
He has a full firepower platoon and a machine gun, and can be assigned to a squad directly.
Luo Fugui directly wanted to be the boss of the company. The ninth company commander who could not find his team as soon as he entered the battlefield directly left the reorganization matters to his platoon leaders and squad leaders.
You can't let your soldiers not know you.
Luo Fugui held a piece of paper in his hand and began to lecture the recruits: "Grandma, what a blessing it is for me to join our Ninth Company...ah...you are all good material for the revolution...uh...what are you talking about? Well...you will be in the future Follow this company commander and eat in a restaurant... You are stirring the pot and fighting the Japanese. We will use machine guns to sweep a large area and kill all Xiao Dongyang. We must carefully seize and search them. For example, we must break open their bodies. Check your mouth to see if there are gold teeth..."
Luo Fugui's heartfelt words benefited the soldiers a lot.
It's just that the company commander said a lot of things that not only gave him more knowledge, but also gave him a different kind of feeling. As for what that feeling was... I couldn't tell.
It has to be digested carefully.
