Du Yidao rode up to Fu Deyou and asked with a gloomy face: "What were you mumbling just now?"
"Report to the battalion commander." Fu Deyou said proudly, "I am telling my new comrades about your glorious deeds."
"Preach my glorious deeds?" Du Yidao's face immediately darkened, making the scar running from the left cheek to the right look even more ferocious and terrifying, even though Fu Deyou and Du Yidao had been friends for many years. Comrade-in-arms, being stared at by Du Yidao like this, felt like a thorn in the back, as uncomfortable as it was.
"You are the only one who talks a lot." Du Yidao stared at Fu Deyou for a full two minutes before he said viciously, "You talk nonsense during training time. According to the regulations, you will be punished with five thousand slashing trainings!"
"Ah?" Fu Deyou's face immediately fell. Five thousand times? His arms were all broken.
Du Yidao snorted, stared at Fu Deyou and said coldly: "Six thousand times!"
Fu Deyou shuddered, and immediately did not dare to say anything, and then he rode his horse obediently to do the slashing training. Besides, six thousand times will become seven thousand or even ten thousand times!
Seeing Fu Deyou being punished, the new recruits fell silent for a moment.
Du Yidao snorted coldly and said, "Are you scolding me in your heart, scolding me for being cold-blooded and inhumane? Do you blame me for torturing you on the training ground to a point where life is worse than death?"
More than two hundred officers and soldiers were silent, but they deeply believed it in their hearts.
Du Yidao continued: "But what I want to tell you is that it is better to be tortured to death on the training ground than to be on the battlefield one day and beheaded by the Ma Jiajun or the Japanese cavalry! You only have one life, if you I feel that I have lived too long and I can leave, but I, Du, will never make it difficult for me!"
Naturally, no one leaves, and those who can still stay here are determined warriors.
"Since I have nothing to say, then stop talking nonsense and accept the training obediently!" Du Yidao snorted again and said, "All of you, let's train to kill five thousand times! The counting begins!"
With a metallic voice, Du Yidao's saber struck down hard.
The next moment, more than two hundred cavalry officers and soldiers lined up surged forward like a tidal wave that broke a dike. For a moment, all they could see was the flash of swords and the neighing of horses and people.
Du Yidao sheathed his sword and was about to find a place to rest when the sound of rapid horse hooves suddenly sounded behind him.
Looking back, it was Lao Yang from the Eighth Route Army's Dihua office who came, and he seemed to be in a hurry.
"Old Yang, why are you here?" Du Yidao rode up to meet him and asked casually, "Are you here to inspect the work again? But didn't you just inspect the work two days ago?"
"Lao Du, we have an urgent mission." Lao Yang had no time to joke with Du Yidao.
"Emergency mission?" Du Yidao's expression immediately became serious and asked, "What mission?"
"That's it." Lao Yang took a breath and said, "The Party Central Committee obtained a batch of supplies from the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union was only responsible for escorting them to Dihua. After that, our own troops were responsible for the entire journey from Dihua to Yan'an. Escort, because the journey is long and the time is tight, it will definitely be too late to transfer troops from Yan'an, so the Party Central Committee decided that your independent cavalry battalion will be responsible for escorting this batch of materials. What do you think? Are you confident?"
"No problem!" Du Yidao saluted, "As long as there is still one person in our cavalry battalion, there will definitely be no accidents with this batch of supplies!"
Lao Yang asked again: "Then when can you set off?"
Du Yidao replied: "Our independent cavalry battalion can set off at any time."
"Very good!" Lao Yang nodded and said, "Then you gather the team now and follow me to Dihua Station to receive supplies!"
Du Yidao immediately ordered the correspondent behind him to blow the assembly call and summoned more than two hundred officers and soldiers of the independent cavalry battalion. Then he took his luggage and started heading towards Dihua Station.
Before the cavalry battalion arrived at the station, the staff of the Eighth Route Army's office in Dihua had already completed the handover procedures with the Soviet personnel. The Sheng Shicai authorities in Dihua also issued road instructions, so after the cavalry battalion arrived, the convoy set off on the road. , marching toward Lanzhou along the northwest highway.
Originally, if there was only a convoy, we could travel at least thirty kilometers per hour. The journey from Dihua to Lanzhou was nearly 1,500 kilometers and took almost five days. But now that we have joined the cavalry battalion, the march speed has been slowed down. Now, I can only walk more than a hundred miles a day at most.
Ten days later, the convoy arrived near Yumen Pass.
One of the poems written by Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, includes a sentence: I urge you to drink a glass of wine, and there will be no old friends when you leave Yangguan in the west. From ancient times to the present, Yumen Pass has been the geographical dividing line between the Central Plains and the Western Regions. Only when you enter Yumen Pass can you be considered a true traveler. Entering the Central Plains world.
The journey was relatively peaceful and there were no horse bandits attacks.
You must know that in the northwest area, various ethnic groups live together, and the public security has always been chaotic. Tribal vendettas, herdsmen, Qiao Zhuang, horse bandits, and horse bandits are not uncommon. Of course, most of these horse bandits are small in scale and come and go quickly. For those who have independence, The cavalry battalion would not dare to attack such a big target.
But Du Yidao did not relax his vigilance, but became more cautious.
Because Du Yidao knew better than anyone else that there was a vicious enemy lurking in the pass. The small group of horse bandits led by the herdsman Qiao Zhuang did not dare to attack them, but the vicious enemy had no scruples. Back then, even their West Route Army Being torn apart by this ferocious enemy, let alone their mere battalion
Yes, this vicious enemy is Ma Jiajun!
Therefore, Du Yidao became even more cautious.
Although it is a very cold season in spring, it is still extremely hot at noon in the desert.
Due to being scorched by the scorching sun for a long time, the sweat flowed and dried, and it condensed into salt flowers on the cheeks, which made people extremely uncomfortable. Du Yidao took off the sheepskin from the side of the saddle when he was really thirsty. He opened the cork of the water bag and took a sip. But just as he was drinking water, he suddenly saw someone vaguely on the sand dune on the right out of the corner of his eye.
However, when Du Yidao turned his face, he found that the sand dunes far to the right were bare and there was not even a shadow of a ghost. Could it be that he was dazzled? Du Yidao's brows suddenly frowned, because experience told him that there must be someone on the Dune Man on the right just now, and they were probably being targeted. Thinking of this, Du Yidao's mood immediately became solemn.
At that moment Du Yidao turned around and shouted: "Fu Deyou!"
Fu Deyou rode up to Du Yidao and asked, "Batalion Commander?"
Du Yidao said: "We are not leaving today. We will inform the convoy to stop advancing and set up camp on the spot!"
"Camp on the spot?" Fu Deyou was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then whispered, "Batalion Commander, if we go more than a hundred miles, we should reach Yumen Pass."
Du Yidao snorted and said in a deep voice: "But if we go more than twenty miles further, we should reach Death Canyon, and it was just dark when we arrived at Death Canyon."
Fu Deyou's face immediately darkened.
Death Canyon is a weathered canyon outside Yumen Pass. It is fifty miles long. The rocks on both sides of the canyon are rugged. It is not easy for people to ambush thousands of troops and horses. It is especially easy to be ambushed at night. Inside the canyon, it can be said that it is paved. The corpses of business travelers who traveled from the Western Regions to the Central Plains were all talked about with disgrace.
But this is the inevitable path that cannot be avoided.
Therefore, when business travelers pass through Death Canyon, they usually choose to pass by in groups during the day.
Du Yidao is not afraid of the attack by a small group of horse bandits, but if the Ma army comes to attack, Death Canyon will most likely become their burial place! Therefore, Du Yidao decided to find a nearby place that was easy to defend but difficult to attack and rest for the night. It would not be too late to move forward after dawn tomorrow. After all, this was the period of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and Ma Jiajun must have had scruples in broad daylight.
Du Yidao's order was conveyed quickly. Although the people in the convoy were unhappy, they could only obey. Soon, the convoy drove to a high ground on the side of the road and parked on the lower wall.
The cavalry battalion set up camp on the high ground and built simple fortifications. These simple fortifications were more than enough to stop ordinary horse bandits, but if they encountered the Ma Jiajun, they would have no effect. But even so, the officers and soldiers of the cavalry battalion would not Still meticulously constructing simple fortifications there.
Du Yidao was not dazzled just now, they were indeed being targeted.
Moreover, the one who was eyeing Du Yidao and the others was none other than Qing Ma!
The so-called Qingma refers to the Ma Jiajun in Qinghai Province, and its counterpart is Ningma. Compared with Ningma, Qingma's style is more brutal and brutal, and its combat effectiveness is stronger!
At this moment, a cavalry regiment led by Ma Jiyuan was ambushing in the Death Canyon.
Ma Jiyuan left Xining half a month ago. He first led his troops to Wuwei, and then headed west in the name of eradicating banditry and protecting passing business travelers.
All the way to the west, we never encountered a convoy transporting anti-Japanese supplies.
Even so, Ma Jiyuan is not worried at all, because the Hexi Corridor is very narrow and can be said to be the only way from Xinjiang to Yan'an. If the convoy transporting military supplies wants to go to Yan'an, it must pass through the Hexi Corridor. Therefore, Ma Jiyuan should be careful. Don't worry that your supplies will slip away quietly through other channels.
However, what surprised Ma Jiyuan was that after walking west for ** days, he had already arrived at Yumen Pass and still did not find the convoy transporting supplies. Ma Jiyuan began to be a little worried, but what he was worried about was not that the convoy would take a detour, but that he was worried The convoy was robbed by a small group of horse bandits on the way.
After passing Yumen Pass, Ma Jiyuan ordered the main force of the cavalry regiment to station in the Death Canyon, and then sent out reconnaissance cavalry to search for the whereabouts of the convoy.
At this moment, Ma Jiyuan was getting angry in Death Canyon.
Ma Jixuan whipped the guard's face with blood with a horsewhip. The reason was that the guard's roasted leg of lamb was slightly burnt. As a result, Ma Jixuan was furious and whipped him half to death!
"You bitch, do you want to choke this young master to death or something?" Ma Jiyuan scolded while lashing out, "You actually gave this young master a half-cooked leg of lamb to eat? You're looking for death!"