The troops were quickly assembled, and each man received a hundred rounds of ammunition and two grenades, while the machine gunners carried 2,000 rounds of ammunition each.
The thirty boxes of bullets that Liu Yu came back from last time after stealing a gun from a car contained 2,000 rounds in one box. It was full, enough!
After the formation was completed, Liu Yu did pre-war mobilization.
"Comrades, tell me, who are you?"
"Eighth Route Army!!!"
The chorus of all the soldiers' shouts was deafening.
"Yes! You are the Eighth Route Army!"
Liu Yu agreed, but immediately changed his subject: "But you also have a name, and that is the people's soldiers! Your mission is to defend the country and the people!"
"The common people support us and provide for us. We cannot tolerate anything that bullies the common people!"
"My word here is, no matter if he is a Japanese or something else, if anyone dares to bully the common people, I will tear off his head!"
"Just two days ago, a group of bandits from Fenghuang Mountain, forty miles away, robbed the people of Sanhe Village of their winter food, and also killed four people!"
"What do you think we should do?!"
"kill!"
"kill!"
"kill!!!"
These three "kill" sounds were louder than the last, and the last one resounded through the sky!
Morale is available!
"Everyone, turn left!"
With a "bang" sound, the officers and soldiers of the county brigade completed the left turn with uniform movements.
The people of Yangcun who were watching the excitement from a distance felt their hair standing on end and their hearts surging when they saw this scene.
An old master leaned on a cane and said in a trembling voice: "Elite soldiers, they are really elite soldiers!"
When Zhang Erhe next to him saw this scene, he was even more determined to join the Eighth Route Army.
At this time, Liu Yu's order came from the distance again.
"Target Phoenix Mountain, let's go!"
After giving the order, more than 120 people marched towards the east in a marching column, marching neatly.
Soon, this unit disappeared from the sight of the Yangcun elders.
The old master watched the county brigade go away, turned around, grabbed an old man who must be at least fifty years old, and asked: "Yang Tai, do each family in the clan still have food left over?"
The old man named Yang Tai immediately understood the meaning of the words and said, "Dad, our village has a good harvest this year, and every family has a lot of food."
The relationship is still between father and son.
The old master stroked his beard and said: "Go back and tell each family to leave enough food for the winter, and send the rest to Captain Liu! In addition, withdraw three hundred silver dollars from the warehouse, and wait for Captain Liu to return in triumph. Send it!"
Yang Tai looked shocked: "Why don't we just give them some food? What are we going to do with the money? Didn't you call them silverfish before and wish they'd get out of here as soon as possible?"
The old master suddenly felt embarrassed, his face was hot, and he became angry with embarrassment. He paused his cane on the ground and said, "Why did I give birth to such a fool like you? It was before! With such elite soldiers guarding us, how can we fear Japanese invaders and bandits? We should try to win them over and keep them in Yangcun!"
This old man is the village chief of Yang Village and the elder of the Yang clan in the village. His name is Yang Rui, and he is a well-known wealthy landowner in the surrounding area. More than 70% of the several thousand acres of land in Yangcun and several surrounding villages belongs to his family.
This old man was not very friendly to the Eighth Route Army before, and he often gave Liu Yu a lot of stumbling blocks overtly and covertly.
Also, when Liu Yu and the others first came here, they had nothing to do with the people of Yang Village, but after a month they started borrowing food. Although they had issued IOUs, in the eyes of the people of Yang Village, they were still like those ordinary people who wanted to fight against the common people. There is no difference in Qiu Ba.
The big deal is that Liu Yu and the others are more friendly than other armies.
The reason why the old village chief didn't like to see the county brigade before was because he felt that Liu Yu and his gang were just showing off all day long and had no real ability.
Secondly, he has also heard that our party’s previous policies were very unfriendly to them, the landlord class.
Therefore, he was very unhappy with the county brigade's behavior of borrowing food. He went to Liu Yu several times and said, "Yangcun is too small and cannot support such a large army."
This is clearly driving people away.
He had even made it clear that the villagers of Yang Village would no longer lend food to the Eighth Route Army. He was so angry that Liu Yu almost came to kill him, but luckily Wu Hongbo stopped him.
In the days of the former Soviet area, such landlords and wealthy people would have been killed. But now that the whole country is safeguarding the anti-Japanese national united front, it is a violation of discipline to attack local tyrants, and you may have to be shot if you do it.
Seeing this, Old Man Yang also thought that Liu Yu was easy to bully, so he became even more arrogant. In the end, he even refused to let Liu Yu and the others live in the empty house in the village for free, and insisted on collecting rent.
But after seeing the military appearance of the county brigade today, the old man became interested.
Not to mention the Japanese in recent years, the bandits in the Taihang Mountains alone are becoming more and more rampant. He could ignore others, but his Yang family was a wealthy family. If a group of bandits came, his house would be the first to be robbed. So he thought that maybe he could leave this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers in Yangcun as guards, and his property would be safe.
But he didn't know that if the Japanese found out that there was an organized Eighth Route Army in Yangcun, they would definitely be swept away by a large army. Liu Yu would definitely not be able to defend it with the strength of a company in his hands.
. . . . . .
Just as Liu Yu was leading his troops towards Phoenix Mountain, Zhao Yizheng was leading his gang in Xiaoguangdu Village, thirty miles north of Phoenix Mountain, robbing homes and houses.
The whole village was filled with the cries of children and the shouts of adults.
What's more, women's screams were heard in some yards.
In the courtyard of the village chief's home, Zhao Yi walked out of the front hall with a gun in his right hand and a struggling girl on his left shoulder.
The girl's hands were trapped behind her back, and her mouth was stuffed with cloth. Perhaps Zhao Yi was afraid that she would bite her tongue and commit suicide, so she only had two legs left in the air and kept kicking.
The village chief's family followed behind, but were stopped by two minions with spears.
The village chief begged: "Zhao Yingxiong, King Zhao, I only have one daughter, please let her go, she is only fifteen this year!"
Zhao Yi turned around and said with an evil smile: "Fifteen? I don't believe it. How can a fifteen-year-old girl have such a figure? Besides, she is so beautiful when she is only fifteen. How can she be so beautiful in a few years? That's really my son and me. I’m not even hungry anymore!”
"Ha ha ha ha......"
Zhao Yi laughed wildly, and the younger brother beside him also laughed with him.
After finishing laughing, Zhao Yi patted the girl's buttocks again: "Be honest!"
The girl continued to struggle, her eyes full of grief, anger and helplessness.
Zhao Yi looked at the village chief again: "I told you, father-in-law, don't give it away. There will be a wedding banquet on the mountain tomorrow. You have to come then! In addition, prepare a dowry of one thousand oceans, not even a penny less!"
When the village chief heard this, he pointed at Zhao Yi with trembling hands. He was so angry that he fainted on the spot.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Yi smiled proudly, called his two younger brothers and walked away, leaving only the village chief's family members crying.
When they arrived at the entrance of the village, they saw more than fifty people under Zhao Yi. Everyone had gained a lot.
The looted grain was pulled by donkey carts and ox carts, and it filled twenty carts!
There were more than a dozen people driving a large group of cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other livestock. A few bastards even killed the village dogs and carried them on their shoulders, preparing to go back and cook the dog meat.
Of course, this is not the wealth that a village in Xiaoguangdu can have, but Zhao Yi grabbed it from Phoenix Mountain all the way north starting yesterday.
It can be said that in the recent period, he has searched all the villages within a radius of thirty miles!
This ability to sweep away is even better than that of the Japanese Locust Army.
Looking at those full harvests, Zhao Yi nodded with satisfaction.
After giving the order, the gangsters walked towards Phoenix Mountain with their harvest, preparing to go back.
Dozens of people drove the vehicles and animals, and escorted a dozen young women who were tied up in bunches, and walked slowly toward the southeast.
After walking for a full two hours, it was almost four o'clock in the afternoon, and they had only gone fifteen miles.
It's really a leisurely trip.
But what they didn't realize was that there were two pairs of eyes staring at them in the weeds on the hill in front of their team.
I heard one of them say: "Ergou, I'm following them here. You go back and report to the captain."
These two people were Zhang Erxi and Li Ergou who were sent by Liu Yu to investigate.
Although we are fighting a group of bandits, Mao Zedong once said: Strategically, despise the enemy, but tactically, we should pay attention to the enemy!
Liu Yu certainly understands the common sense of sending out advanced soldiers to investigate the battlefield terrain and enemy situation before a battle.
Including Zhang Erxi's group, Liu Yu sent a total of 20 such investigation teams, with almost 4 squads of soldiers conducting investigations on Phoenix Mountain and its surrounding areas.
"yes!"
Li Ergou left in response.
