Show the sword, start from the guerrillas

While the main regiment was cleaning up the battlefield, Kong Jie was holding a telegram and thinking.

At this time, the New Second Regiment had already chased the retreating Japanese to Hujia Village, and then the Japanese were surrounded. When Kong Jie looked up, he saw Xing Weiguo walking over with a happy face and reporting: "Captain, the Japanese puppet army has been eliminated without a single one left! Haha, now we have collected a lot of weapons and ammunition, enough for us to arm another battalion! What are you looking at, Captain?"

"Here, take a look at this. This is the situation report sent by a regiment of your old unit. Take a look!" Kong Jie handed all the telegrams about this battle to Xing Weiguo.

"What's going on?" Xing Weiguo quickly read the telegram, frowned, thought about it, and finally slapped his thigh: "Captain, it's obvious that the Japanese are getting anxious and have sent all of their troops to reinforce Yangquan! But now, without the reinforcements, Shouyang will probably be an empty shell! Even if there are some defenders, there won't be too many!"

"Well, you transfer the Second Battalion to me, and I'll take the people to take Shouyang! Damn it, Li Yunlong can take Yangquan, Guo Zhongmin can take Ping'an County, and we can take Shouyang too! If we take down a county, not to mention other benefits, just the warehouses in the county will be enough for our regiment to become rich in one bite! And this has to be done quickly, before the Japanese reinforcements arrive!"

"If we take over the county town, it will be difficult to escape! The Japanese reinforcements are coming. If they besiege the county town, won't you be in danger?" Kong Jie asked.

"No, it's not dangerous. There is a main force regiment in the east, and the main force of our regiment in the south. What's the danger? So, don't move for now. I'll take my men to give it a try. If it goes well, we can defend the county town after taking it down, and attract the enemy's reinforcements to attack the city! And you guys, just poke the enemy's buttocks from behind! Well, let's do it this way. With the artillery battalion here, breaking through is not a problem!"

Listening to Xing Weiguo's idea, Kong Jie thought for a moment and said, "Okay, but you can't just take one battalion. I'll assign the guard company and the artillery company to you! In this way, you can take more than 800 people to defend the city, and we will ambush the main force outside, and then encircle them. Maybe we can get a big harvest! By the way, you can take the radio that we just seized, and take two signalmen!"

Kong Jie and Xing Weiguo were both decisive in their actions, so they didn't worry about anything else. Xing Weiguo led the team and set off directly down the mountain, across the river, across the railway line, and arrived at the edge of Shouyang City. Then, the dark city gate tunnel was exposed before their eyes.

"Why is there no one guarding the city gate? There are still people coming out of the city, and no one is stopping them!" Looking at the defenseless city, Xing Weiguo was a little entangled and didn't dare to move forward, because he was worried that this was some kind of trick of the devil. However, he did not stop his action, but immediately waved his hand and asked people to find out the situation from the people.

The soldier who inquired about the situation came back quickly, and then informed Xing Weiguo of the latest situation - the Japanese had all left the city, even the puppet soldiers guarding the gate had been taken away, the detective team and the police had also been taken away, and only about a dozen Japanese were left in the gendarmerie.

"Is that so?" Xing Weiguo saw that the soldiers had asked several civilians, and also asked different people such as men, women, the elderly and children, so he believed most of the news. However, he was not completely relieved. After all, a negligence would be irresponsible for the lives of the soldiers. So, he waved his hand, and someone came over immediately.

"So, Captain of the 4th Company, dispatch a platoon from your company and immediately enter the county town to check the situation. Pay attention to the movements on the streets! 5th and 6th Companies, each of you dispatch a platoon and go around to the east gate and the west gate to occupy the city gate first! The rest of you, wait here. After checking the situation, we will immediately enter the city!"

Xing Weiguo's arrangement was undoubtedly the most appropriate, and it was also the one that caused the least casualties in the event of an accident. It was already very cautious.

After the company commanders made the arrangements, the soldiers dispersed and headed directly for the three city gates of Shouyang. As expected, nothing unexpected happened today. The soldiers of the 2rd Platoon of the 3nd Company entered the city first. One squad occupied the city gate, one squad climbed up the city gate tower and set up fire points on the city wall. The remaining squad walked forward along the street and directly arrived at the central street of the county town.

Seeing this, Xing Weiguo felt relieved and arranged three companies to enter the city. He led the guard company and the artillery company's transport team to fill sand and make sandbags by the river. About half an hour later, gunshots were heard in the city, but soon subsided. At this time, many people carrying guns ran from the mountains west of the county town, and then trotted all the way to a place not far from Xing Weiguo on the south side of the railway.

"What's going on?" Seeing that the person who came had communicated with the soldiers of the guard company, Xing Weiguo also led his men over to inquire about the situation.

"Hello, Chief. We are from the Shouxi District County Brigade. Our district chief knew that Shouyang's defenses were weak, so he contacted the Shoudong District and Lunan District County Brigade and planned to come and take a look." said the visitor.

"Aren't the Lunan District and our New Second Regiment together? Didn't you give us a heads-up in advance?" Xing Weiguo asked.

"No, Chief, our Shoudong and West districts are now under the jurisdiction of Beiyue District, and Lunan District belongs to Taihang Second District. They are not in the same area..." After a brief explanation, the man saw someone coming out of the city, so he stopped talking and looked at the soldiers running out with a face full of expectation.

"Report to the regiment commander, there are indeed not many defenders in Shouyang City. The Japanese gendarmerie have been wiped out, and Shouyang has been captured by us!" The soldier who ran all the way back reported loudly.

"Huh? That's great..." Before Xing Weiguo could say anything, the comrades from the Shouxi District County Brigade became happy. After all, they were the native people of the hometown and cared about their hometown the most.

"Okay, now you go back and tell their three company commanders to block the west gate, east gate and north gate. Make sure they are blocked firmly and cannot be blown open by one shot! Then, mobilize the main force to the south gate. We will give the Japanese a good fight here! By the way, since your comrades from the district and county brigades are here, are you interested in defending the city with us, Old Xing?" Xing Weiguo looked at the visitor.

"We'd love to! Damn our ancestors, the place where we grew up has been occupied by the Japanese for so many years, and we've been thinking about fighting back!" The comrades from the county brigade were also unambiguous and said loudly at once.

"Very good. Now, help me carry these sandbags into the city!" Xing Weiguo said, pointing to the sandbags piled on the ground.

"Yes! Commander, from now on, our Shouxi County Brigade will be under your command!" The comrades of the county brigade had already learned from the sentries that this was the New Second Regiment's team, so they did not reject it.

Just as we were carrying sandbags into the city, people from the Shoudong County Brigade in the east also came. After talking, they also joined the work of carrying sandbags.

At this point, Old Xing had gained an empty city for nothing, and with the addition of two county brigades totaling 256 troops, the total number of troops guarding the county town reached more than 1000. (End of this chapter)