The little girl never looked back, and even though she cried, she did not stop. She kept running, against the wind, with her face covered in blood.
A bird flew high in the sky, overlooking the vast fields in the morning sun. On the narrow path, the little girl in flowery clothes running was just a tiny dot, far behind the crowd fleeing in panic. In the distance, at the end of the crowd, the Japanese and puppet troops had blocked the path, and new guard posts were extending into the fields at intervals.
This is the so-called co-prosperity zone, near the county town, and in broad daylight, so the old people, children, and disabled people who escaped from the village were let go by the Japanese without hesitation, but the rest needed to be identified by the villagers before they could pass.
With Xiaojiao Village as the center, the situation was similar in all directions. After the news reached the gendarmerie at night, a large number of Japanese soldiers, puppet troops and plainclothes teams began to leave the city. Some were responsible for setting up checkpoints on important roads, some were responsible for establishing regional blockades, and some were responsible for reinforcing Xiaojiao Village. When they entered the village and found that the Eighth Route Army had left, they changed to chasing and searching by following the sound of gunfire. As Hu Yi expected, they had already been surrounded, but the distance was still far and the range was large. However, now, the blockade and encirclement line was slowly shrinking towards Xiaojiao Village. Without the cover of night, there was no chance of escape.
He grabbed the petite military uniform jacket and her small belt on the millstone and stuffed them into the shoulder bag she left behind. It was bulging like her little cheeks when she was eating cake.
"What should we do next?" She finally spoke at the corner.
"Next... I'll hide in the well." As he answered, he picked up the girl's two bags and walked towards the corner.
“…” She was speechless.
When passing by her, he handed her the shoulder bag of one of the girls and said, "Keep this with you at all times." Then he strode over her shoulder, walked around the corner, and headed towards the courtyard in the village.
She took the girl's bag expressionlessly. It was not heavy. She picked it up and opened it, revealing a gas mask that looked like an ugly grimace.
Street fighting is one of the most brutal forms of fighting. Because it is fought street by street, alley by alley, and even in every house, it is basically close-range firefights and hand-to-hand combat, which leads to a mixture of enemies and friends, and a blurred line of attack and defense. The division of space leads to fragmented fighting, and the limited field of vision makes street fighting full of weirdness and unpredictability.
Xiaojiao Village is not a city, so there are no streets and tall buildings; nor is it a county town, so there are no densely packed alleys. However, thanks to its close distance to the county town and its relatively stable location on a plain, the village is not too small, with many houses and courtyards, and has the basic elements for street fighting.
Hu Yi, who had fought in the ruins of the city many times, had his own experience and understanding of street fighting. In any case, stubbornly resisting in Xiaojiao Village was better than fighting in the woods on the plains, and it would allow the Ninth Platoon to survive for a while longer.
There are three key points in street fighting. First, control the main streets. Whoever controls the main streets cuts off the opponent's combat space, cuts off the opponent's range of action, and limits the opponent's attack and retreat routes, reinforcement and supply routes, transfer and retreat routes, communication and coordination, and other factors, thereby gaining the initiative. However, Xiaojiao Village is just a village with messy houses and courtyards, so this point can be ignored.
Second, control the high points. The most critical reason for the complexity of street fighting is the limited vision. Therefore, the high points in street fighting are particularly valuable. The party that controls the high points not only has the regional vision, but also has the regional suppression power. For this reason, the battle for high points is often tragic. If it cannot be obtained, then it is necessary to try to raze it to the ground and turn the high points into low points. This is also one of the reasons why even chimneys are gone after the street fighting in many cities. There are no high buildings in Xiaojiao Village, so this can also be saved.
Third, control the strong buildings. In street fighting, a fortress-like building often affects the direction of local tactics. When defending, it is a nail and a meat grinder; when attacking, it becomes a support. Among the three key points, Xiaojiao Village only has the last point, so Hu Yi ordered the first squad to occupy the courtyard with high walls and thick courtyards.
Although the guys in Class 9 had never fought in a street battle, Hu Yi had trained them several times in the past and had taught them some simple tactics. Later, Li Xiang and Shi Cheng's Class 1 had no idea what to do.
Hu Yi entered the courtyard, walked around the screen wall, and stopped inside the courtyard. Shi Cheng was shouting and arranging the defense positions. Some soldiers were climbing up the roof, and some were setting up ladders to lean out of the wall from the courtyard. It looked like a real battle. Seeing Hu Yi appear in the gate, Shi Cheng hurriedly trotted across the courtyard and came to him.
"Platoon leader."
Hu Yi frowned as he looked at the situation in the yard. This definitely wouldn't work. If a team of ten people followed the law, the yard would be gone in ten minutes. Even if it was a last-minute move, he had to give them a lecture: "Tell your people to gather here immediately."
The squad that had just been arranged by Shi Cheng was in a mess. They hurried to the screen wall and stood in a row, waiting for instructions from the platoon leader.
Originally, he wanted to say something to encourage them, but when he scanned their faces one by one, Hu Yi gave up the idea. Needless to say, in the entire ninth row, except for Wu Shitou and Luo Fugui who was concentrating on catching chickens, no one was unaware of the desperate situation they were facing. Their solemnity showed that they were calm, so what else was there to say? Save time and get straight to the point.
"I don't have time to explain it to you in detail now. I can only say that you can understand as much as you can." Hu Yi folded his arms in front of the class, paced slowly, looked at the ground and thought for a while, then raised his head again: "You must learn to use the corners. Street fighting is a battle for the corners. Whoever controls the corner has the first move. Now I will only teach you an experience of controlling the corner. I will only do it once, watch me."
After saying this, Hu Yi took off his rifle and walked to one end of the screen wall, leaning his right shoulder against the screen wall, facing the other end of the screen wall and said, "For example, this screen wall is a walled courtyard, and there is a corner at the front end, and the situation on the right side is unclear, so learn to do this."
Hu Yi bent down and held the gun, moving forward along the right side of the screen wall. When he reached the corner, before his body and the muzzle of the gun were about to protrude from the corner, he first crawled on the ground, then used his legs and elbows to move to the left, so that his crawling body began to gradually become perpendicular to the screen wall, and almost parallel to the direction of the corner he wanted to pay attention to.
"Do you understand? Now I have a good command of most of the frontal vision. If I tilt my head slightly or move my body slightly to the outside, I can see the entire situation without any blind spots. I can also shoot at any time or roll sideways to hide at any time."
He got up, put away his gun, casually patted the dust off his body, and continued: "How can we defend this yard? If you keep thinking about fighting the devils, you can't defend it. You can only die in vain. You have to use this place to let the enemy come to fight you. The longer you live, the more they will die."
Then Hu Yi stood in front of Shi Cheng and said, "Above the height of your head, find a good location and direction to punch some shooting holes on the surrounding walls. You can use furniture or sacks as a shooting platform. The smaller the shooting holes, the better, just enough to put out your gun.
Find a way to knock down this screen wall, and even better, smash the gatehouse, and completely block the front door. You can use whatever method you want, but don't leave any door. Make a hole at the bottom of the wall over there that is big enough for people to climb in and out, and assign someone to guard the hole. If the enemy wants to come in, they must climb in from the top of the wall.
These houses will be destroyed by mortars sooner or later. You can call Li Xiang in later and ask him to find a way to make the big house in the middle collapse and become a mortar defense position. Or you can directly demolish this house and try to make it a mortar defense bunker in the middle of the yard, guarding the walls in four directions. The house at the back will block the backyard wall, so find a way to make that house disappear. You can decide whether to burn it, blow it up, or demolish it. As for how thick and strong it is to defend against mortars, you can ask Li Xiang.
In addition, all the bags filled with grain should be laid out in this yard, crisscrossed horizontally and vertically to form a grid."
Shi Cheng was a little dumbfounded after hearing the order and was hesitant to speak.
Hu Yi noticed his expression: "If you don't understand, just ask."
"This, this is not something that can be accomplished in a short time. Can we let Team Nine also..."
"No, Li Xiang can give it to you. The mission of Class 9 is to rely on your yard and conduct guerrilla warfare outside the wall to contain the enemy. Otherwise, we won't be able to hold on for long."
"But these things take a long time, and I don't have enough people..."
"I didn't ask you to finish everything before the battle begins. You have to keep doing it during the battle, using all the breaks to do it. Decide which one to do first and which one to do later based on the situation. Use your brain. If you really can't demolish the room at the back, then wait until the battle begins and send someone up there to shoot a few shots. Maybe some shells will come to help."
"I see."
Hu Yi nodded and was about to turn around and leave, when Li Xiang suddenly said, "Platoon Leader, I... have one last question."
"explain."
“Why do you throw all the food into the yard?”
"It's too flat here. Do you want to watch the grenades fly over the wall and roll around in the yard?"
After saying this, Hu Yi walked out of the door.
At the entrance of an alley not far away, a man and a woman were squatting not far away, with their backs against the wall, connected by a rope. Liu Jianqiang was holding a gun, slowly walking back and forth near them. Su Qing was walking towards the gate from there.
Hu Yi waited for her to come closer before speaking: "You have to give my runny nose back to me. You, Li Xiang, and your two good comrades, go stay with Class 1 from now on."
Su Qing glanced at Hu Yi coldly, and without saying a word, she walked past him and walked into the door, as if she had ignored him.
Aren't they comrades? Am I right? Hu Yi muttered to himself, gestured to Liu Jianqiang and shouted, "Bring them here."
Liu Jianqiang pointed his gun at No. 3 and No. 21 who were resting by the wall and said, "Get up. Go over there." Then he led them to the courtyard. He did not notice that on the wall where No. 3 and No. 21 had rested, there was a sheep's head that was casually drawn with chalk...