This is a Taisho 10th-year grenade launcher, with a caliber of 50mm, a weight of about 5 kilograms, and a maximum range of about 200 meters. Li Xiang brought two boxes of grenade launchers and placed them in the yard. Li Xiang squatted in the sun and carefully examined each grenade, then classified and counted them. The nine squads stood in a circle around him and watched.
"Can you use this?" Liu Jianqiang asked.
"Anyone can do it, but the question is, can you hit it accurately?" Ma Liang asked.
“No.”
"You're using it without even using it in a fight? Damn it, are you more arrogant than me? You might as well help me carry the machine gun," said Luo Fugui.
"Supply Department... this is the only thing that can be used."
Everyone was speechless. It seemed that he took it back because of this.
"Actually... sometimes... this thing doesn't need to be very accurate." Li Xiang suddenly said.
Luo Fugui glared: "What? How dare you say that? I've always suspected that you're not very smart. Now it turns out that you're not much better than a fool."
After hearing what Luo Fugui said, Liu Jianqiang actually bent down and looked at Li Xiang's face, as if he felt that Luo Fugui's words made sense.
Ma Liang curled his lips and said, "From what you said, the enemies are all mice, and they will be scared away by two loud noises, right?"
Li Xiang hesitated for a moment and said, "I mean... I mean..."
Hu Yi, who had been looking down at the classified grenades, suddenly interrupted Li Xiang and said, "Alright, stop talking. Pack up, gather everyone, and go up the mountain."
"Go up the mountain?" Everyone was puzzled.
"Haven't you ever fired one before? You should at least fire a few rounds to get familiar with it. Why are you still standing there? Help him get the ammunition."
Although he knew how to use it and its general principles, Li Xiang had never used a grenade launcher before. Unexpectedly, Hu Yi asked him to go up the mountain to fire a few rounds just after he got it back. Li Xiang suddenly felt panicked and unsure.
Hu Yi looked around and pointed at a small tree more than a hundred meters away: "See that small tree? Take it as your target. You guys stand aside and don't get so close to it." Seeing Li Xiang's nervousness, Hu Yi was also afraid of something going wrong. He didn't want to accidentally wipe out Class 9.
Luo Fugui, Liu Jianqiang, Ma Liang, Xiao Hongying and Wu Shitou retreated more than ten meters away, looking at Li Xiang and waiting for his action.
Li Xiang half-crouched down, held the grenade launcher in front of him, held the barrel with his left hand, and looked up at the target. It was easy to aim in a straight line, there was a thin aiming line marked vertically on the barrel, just align it with the target; the most difficult thing was the distance of the landing point, Li Xiang had no idea how to calculate this problem, there was an adjustment bolt at the bottom of the barrel, and he also knew that this adjustment bolt was used to control the adjustment rod to change the length of the barrel, thereby changing the chamber pressure, so as to control the grenade to fly at different distances at the same angle and correct the error.
It was the problem of landing point distance that stumped countless people. The Japanese grenadiers had systematic training methods and tricks, but they had to practice for a long time and fire many rounds before they could form combat effectiveness. The Eighth Route Army did not have such conditions.
It was useless to think about anything, at least let it go off and fire it out. Ignoring everything else, I pulled the trigger lever, picked up a grenade with my right hand, opened the safety bolt, and loaded it from the barrel. My left hand, which had been holding the barrel, began to tremble slightly, and I looked up at the small tree again, and pulled the trigger rope with my right hand.
Bang!
A violent tremor entered the body, a muffled sound vibrated the eardrum, a light smoke rose in front of my eyes, and a black dot vaguely shot up into the sky, it seemed... all this was not as terrible as imagined.
boom-
The small tree was still the same small tree, but the grenade explosion was at least fifty meters away.
"Well done!" The one who opened his mouth to applaud was Luo Fugui: "Well, you've joined the wrong team, I think you should be a grenadier for the devils, that would save us a lot of worry."
Ma Liang covered his mouth and laughed, Liu Jianqiang was full of black lines on his head, but the little girl was watching with relish, after all, this was much more interesting than setting off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year.
Hu Yi didn't show any special expression, and ordered: "Continue. Second shot."
After repeated explosions and repeated corrections, the tenth grenade finally landed about ten meters away from the tree, and the killing radius of the grenade was only about five meters. This landing error was usually the first hit range of the Japanese grenadiers, and Li Xiang only hit it with the tenth shot.
Luo Fugui, Liu Jianqiang and Ma Liang were talking to each other, making sarcastic remarks, and laughing until their teeth fell out. Li Xiang was sweating all over, and he hung his head and dared not say a word.
Hu Yi didn't have any idea. This was normal. If the grenade launcher was really that useful, would it still be rusting in the warehouse? But if it could be practiced, this light indirect firepower could torture the enemy to death, just like the Japanese had been using it to torture us. Looking at the current situation, it would be meaningless to empty the two boxes of grenades. This was not a simple matter. Let's save it for now and slowly think of a solution.
"What are you laughing at? Huh? Is it funny?"
When the three guys saw Hu Yi coming, they quickly pretended to admire the surrounding scenery.
"Now I order you three to lie down behind the tree."
"Ah?" The three of them immediately dropped their jaws: "Boss Hu... you... you don't want to..."
"Stop talking nonsense and get over here now." Seeing the three guys moving their feet helplessly, Hu Yi suddenly added, "Fool, you get over there too."
The little girl's eyes widened in confusion as she asked, "Fox, what if the gun hits the target? Wouldn't they all be killed?"
He smiled faintly at the little girl: "They can't die."
The little girl didn't understand, and Hu Yi didn't explain any further. He just walked straight to Li Xiang.
"You said that sometimes the grenade launcher doesn't need to be so accurate. I guess... you are talking about this, right?" Hu Yi took out a grenade from the ammunition box. The marking color was completely different from other ordinary grenades and asked Li Xiang.
Li Xiang looked at Hu Yi in surprise. He didn't expect him to say that. No one paid attention to the grenade launcher, and of course no one knew the difference between the grenades. He learned it from the factory director. So he nodded: "Yes, I checked it. Four of them are chemical bombs, two tear gas, and two vomiting. How did you know?"
Hu Yi weighed the grenade in his hand and said, "I guessed it was this. I was once smoked by this thing. At that time, some brothers could not hold on any longer and wanted to move to another place, but they were all fed to the machine guns."
Li Xiang was silent.
"This tear-jerker, shoot one at the top of the tree."
Near the small tree, four people were lying quietly.
"Boss Hu, are you serious?"
"Impossible, the squad leader must be trying to scare us."
"It's to scare you two, not me and the fool."
"Oh my god, I find you are becoming more and more shameless now, Runny Nose"
Bang!
"Grandma, what's that sound?"
"Is that... the grenade launcher going off?"
"I'll go..."
Clank, clank—the grenade seemed to have fallen to the ground. Judging from the sound, it didn't seem to be close, but it wasn't far either.
"Why didn't it ring?"
"How should I know?"
"Dud"
"Huh - it seems that even God feels sorry for us. Boss Hu, this is too much, isn't it? Ah? No, I won't do this even if I'm beaten to death.
“Cough… this smoke cough… why does it feel like… cough cough… cough cough cough cough… uh… cough…”
Tears, snot, saliva, the feeling of suffocation from fear, and the feeling of powerlessness made the four people completely confused. They were unable to speak or straighten their backs. They tried to escape by rolling and crawling in a panic, but they didn't even know which direction they were facing.
I hugged him, rolled around, and crawled around involuntarily. I cried, shed tears, and coughed violently. I opened my mouth wide to try to breathe, and my eyes were full of tears. I vaguely saw a small figure walking towards me, wearing a gas mask with two small braids sticking out. A dull and strange laugh came from the mask: "Hahaha... Is it really that powerful?"
Looking at the four unfortunate guys fleeing the scene in a panic, she was very curious about what the smoke smelled like. She couldn't help but raise her little hand, opened the mask a little, and took the initiative to sniff it.
The petite body suddenly staggered, and she tried to fasten the mask again in panic, but her two little hands became more and more confused, and she was too panicked to fasten it again. A violent cough came from the mask, so she had to spread her thin legs and run away, then fell down in a miserable state, got up again, fell down again, got up again, and fell down again... She was in a miserable state all the way.
Hu Yi looked towards the small tree and said to Li Xiang calmly, "Are you ready?"
Li Xiang asked confusedly: "What should I prepare for?"
"Do you think they have the guts to vent their anger on me?"
With a thud, Li Xiang lost his balance and was tripped by the ammunition box behind him.
Dozens of civilians in tattered clothes and carrying large and small bags entered Dabei Village. They came from Qingshan Village and were all family members or good neighbors of the Qingshan Village guerrillas.
After being reminded by Li Youcai, Shi Cheng went to Qingshan Village to mobilize the villagers, saying that the Japanese were coming and Qingshan Village was facing a crisis, and asked the villagers to move out quickly. Unfortunately, Qingshan Village, located in the middle area, was not a place that had been used for anti-Japanese work. They were just ordinary and honest people, and Shi Cheng's words did not attract the attention of the villagers.
In the past, the Japanese had also come to Qingshan Village, but they did not think it was that scary. They just walked through the village without doing anything. Now, according to Shi Cheng's words, how could they bear to leave their houses and lands and leave their hometowns? The Japanese might just come to find the Eighth Route Army as usual. As long as they hide the food at home, nothing will happen. This is what the villagers basically think.
In desperation, Shi Cheng had to mobilize the family members of the team members and sent one person to lead them to move to Dabeizhuang and report the situation to the independent regiment. He led the rest of the people to continue persuading in Qingshan Village and monitor the area between Lushuipu and Qingshan Village.
The regiment leader and the political commissar were discussing how to deal with this emergency. Su Qing volunteered to go to Qingshan Village to evacuate the people.
Taking into account the guerrillas' reports, it seems that Shi Cheng's persuasion has a low success rate. On the one hand, he lacks prestige, and on the other hand, he lacks experience in this kind of persuasion work. The regiment commander and political commissar finally agreed to Su Qing's request and asked her to take the ninth platoon with her to be on the safe side.
So, the signalman hurriedly ran out of the regiment compound with the order and started running towards the hill where the ninth squad was training...