Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

Chapter 422 Chapter 421, Requesting a Battle and Going to Battle

As the saying goes, action speaks louder than words! After everyone discussed how to send out the troops, it only took half a day to complete the team assembly and pre-war preparations, and then set off along the mountain road!
Of course, before setting off, Zhu Xingyu, on behalf of the guerrillas, symbolically sent a telegram to the brigade headquarters requesting to fight, and stated that the guerrillas would dispatch about 400 troops to conduct guerrilla warfare to contain the Japanese army.

At the brigade headquarters, the brigade commander, who was arranging the final deployment, took the translated telegram from the guerrillas, read it and put it in his file bag. He smiled and said to Political Commissar Wang: "The guerrillas are losing their temper again and are sending a telegram to ask for a fight! I think they are wasting their time. Their strength is there. If they want to fight the devils, how can we not agree?"

"At least they asked to fight, so there is no problem with the procedure! Although they have the right to decide when to fight and fight on their own, it is reasonable for them to ask for a fight!" said Political Commissar Wang.

"In fact, it would be good to let them actively look for opportunities to fight and tie down the Japanese army! According to the news from the headquarters, we know from various channels, including deciphering the Japanese army's communication codes, that the Japanese army is stepping up its mobilization of troops and drawing troops from various places. There will be about 3 troops concentrated here!"

"Now, while the Japanese haven't completed their troop assembly and mobilization, we can still fight against the 4th Independent Mixed Brigade, and even take the initiative to seize the county town and attack the stronghold! Once the Japanese counterattack, we should join the anti-mopping-up battle! And even if we don't carry out this large-scale raid, the Japanese will still carry out a mopping-up against us!"

"This year's harvest is good, with good weather and decent grain production. Every base has harvested a lot of autumn grain! Japs, it's time to go to the villages to grab food!" the brigade commander laughed.

"So, after the Yuliao Campaign, we will strengthen the defense of our base area, and then delay this raid, which will give us a few more months of development time! As long as the devils don't kill us in one blow, we can gradually grow and develop! As long as there are no major casualties, and we can achieve certain results at a relatively small cost each time, we can develop!"

"In fact, we are not looking for the kind of results that the Beishan guerrillas have achieved, where one kill equals ten, or even one kill equals dozens. Although such results are very gratifying, they are, after all, an exception and cannot represent our Eighth Route Army, let alone all guerrillas! The Beishan guerrillas can only be a goal that we want to achieve in the future, and a benchmark!"

"More importantly, we won the battle with firm thoughts, united the masses, appropriate strategies and tactics, and the soldiers were not afraid of sacrifice and dared to fight the Japanese army to the end! According to the strategic guidelines given by the headquarters, if we can win the battle with a casualty ratio of three to one, then such a battle is worth fighting! After the battle, we can afford the casualties and it is still profitable!"

"But this is just a statistic. In previous battles, we used flexible guerrilla warfare to achieve very good results with minimal sacrifices. We can say that we made a lot of money!"

"According to our general combat tutorial, after firing three volleys in an ambush, we need to engage in hand-to-hand combat. We must not give the devils time to react, and then we have to use hand-to-hand combat to win! But that is a helpless move due to poor weapons! For example, in the Battle of Pingxingguan, it was called hand-to-hand combat, but there were no bayonets, so how could it be considered hand-to-hand combat? Now, with the emergence of the Beishan guerrillas and the development of the arsenal, some combat methods have changed, especially for troops with shotguns, shotguns, and a large number of grenades."

"They prefer to use shotguns to bombard the Japanese in the shortest possible time, then fire as many grenades as possible, use the smoke from the grenade explosions to cover their advance, use shotguns and hunting rifles to kill and wound the Japanese at close range, and then engage in hand-to-hand combat! With this method of warfare, our casualties will be much smaller!"

"Our weapons are developing and being produced, so the tactics have also changed accordingly. This is a necessary development process! And our brigade is precisely the unit that benefits the most from this change! This time, the headquarters arsenal handed over 500 of the latest semi-automatic light machine guns to our brigade. My plan is to build an assault battalion, with all members equipped with semi-automatic light machine guns..."

While the brigade commander and the political commissar were talking to ease the tension before the battle, the guerrillas had already reached Mantou Mountain along the mountain road. They stopped and looked behind them. "The ground is full of white dried sweet potatoes. Although they are not very delicious, they can be preserved for a long time after being dried! This is actually the reason why we can continue to fight!" Looking back at the dried sweet potatoes drying on the large piece of land in the west of the village, Li Yuexuan was very satisfied with this year's harvest.

"After harvesting the sweet potatoes, we'll plant a large area of ​​spinach. We can still eat vegetables for a while before winter! Of course, our harvests of cabbage, radishes, and potatoes are also good!" Zhu Xingyu said with a smile, glancing at the northern hillside where some children were playing.

"That's where we buried the Japanese, right? The children in the village are not afraid at all!" Li Yuexuan smiled as he watched the children using poles to hit the occasional red dates on the trees.

"Yes, a lot of Japanese soldiers were buried there, and a lot of jujube trees were planted! It seems that the Japanese soldiers found the land fertile, and the jujube trees planted last year have already borne fruit this year! Although it's a little less, we still have a harvest! I just don't know if this jujube forest will become a place for future generations to remember this period of history after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in a few years!"

"Haha, I suddenly had an idea. We can call that forest the Ghost Date Forest. What do you think of this idea?" Li Yuexuan suggested.

"Ghost Date Forest? This is a good name! I think we should find a way to plant more forests like this! We should have large tracts of ghost date forests planted throughout Shanxi Province, and even throughout China where the Japanese invaded!" Zhu Xingyu unfolded his ambitions.

"Then let's go! This time we're bringing the third and fourth companies, as well as two mortars and 80 rounds of ammunition, which is enough for us to fight a battle! By the way, our mortar platoon has also increased to 6 mortars, shouldn't we upgrade them to the standard of a mortar company? Forget it, let's talk about it later! Who would have thought that there were 82 mortars stored in the Yangquan arsenal?"

"I don't know. Anyway, after taking Yangquan this time, we have enough reserves! As long as the third and fourth companies can successfully complete the combat training, then..."

"Perhaps, our guerrilla team can add a few more companies of new recruits and become a large team of about 1200 people!"

"Did you hear that, comrades? In order for our children to play happily, we should also plant more jujube trees! In order to achieve this goal as soon as possible, we should transform our guerrillas into guerrilla brigades. So what should we do? Yes, go out, fight, beat the devils, turn ourselves into qualified veterans, and then we can lead more recruits! So... let's go!"

After a brief pre-war interaction and morale boost, the guerrillas set off! A team of exactly 400 people, fully equipped and with plenty of firepower, rushed to where the devils were.

PS: I’ve had a cold for a week, with a cough, fever, sore throat, and dizziness. I feel so uncomfortable!
(End of this chapter)