Hou Zhigang took a dozen brothers and took a small road back to Jigongling.
Hou Zhigang was originally a platoon leader of Yang Sen's 20th Army of the Sichuan Army. During the Battle of Songhu, Yang Sen's 20th Army fought bloody battles with the Japanese in Dachang Town for five days and nights. More than 18,000 people in the army were killed, more than 7,000 were killed, and eight were injured. More than a thousand soldiers, with almost all casualties. The battle was fought with extraordinary bravery. After the war, it was rated as one of the five most capable armies.
After the Battle of Songhu, the 20th Army retreated to Anqing for replenishment.
Because of his heroic performance in the Battle of Songhu, Chairman Chiang ordered that the Twentieth Army be given priority to replenish, and appointed Yang Sen as the commander-in-chief of the 17th Group Army. What is annoying is that the Ministry of Military Affairs did not take Chairman Chiang's order seriously at all. The 20th Army was not given priority at all for replenishment, and the Anqing local government did not even provide food and salary.
The Sichuan army couldn't grab it openly, so Yang Sen was very angry.
After the Battle of Wuhan started, the Botian detachment took advantage of the rainy night to raid Anqing. The Twentieth Army was caught off guard, but the battle did not deteriorate immediately. If the Twentieth Army resisted desperately, there would be absolutely no problem in holding Anqing for seven to ten days, but Yang Sen had been so angry with Chairman Chiang and the squire officials in Anqing that he abandoned the city with his troops.
After this retreat, the Japanese Botian Detachment took advantage of the situation and crushed it. The Twentieth Army was immediately defeated. As a result, not only Anqing was lost, but the Twentieth Army also collapsed. Because of the loss of command, Hou Zhigang's Sichuan Army lost its way at night. , retreated all the way to the river, and luckily found a few boats. Just as they were preparing to cross the river, the Japanese pursuers arrived.
After a melee, most of the Sichuan Army was killed, and only Hou Zhigang's Sichuan Army Company crossed the river.
As a result, after staying in Jiujiang for less than two days, the main force of Neji Okamura's Eleventh Army arrived, and Jiujiang was immediately declared lost. The Sichuan Army company withdrew all the way south in the melee, and was separated from the First Corps again. No longer contacted the main force of the National Army, so he settled down in Jigongling and became the king of the mountain.
In the first few months, the Sichuan Army Company was doing pretty well.
Although the Japanese army occupied Jiujiang, because the war was not over yet, the Japanese troops were fighting on the front lines with the National Army, so they could not take care of the vast occupied area. Except for the urban area of Jiujiang and the areas surrounding highways and railways, the rest of the vast towns and villages In fact, in a state of anarchy, the local gentry inevitably lost money and avoided disasters in order to protect themselves.
So every time the Sichuan army came over, the squires from several nearby towns would give them some money and food.
But starting three months ago, with the establishment of the Nanjing Reform Government, maintenance committees in the vast Japanese-occupied areas were also established one after another. The squires in several towns near Jigongling felt that they had a backer, so they did not sell the accounts of the Sichuan Army Company. , the Sichuan army went to collect food supplies several times, but was rejected. This time, they shot them directly.
Hou Zhigang was so angry that he immediately retreated to Jigongling with his men.
In the cottage on Jigong Ridge, Sichuan Army company commander Zhao Baishi and another Sichuan Army platoon leader Li Sijin were drinking wine while waiting for the good news from Hou Zhigang. Although the squires from several nearby towns have given Money and food are no longer very active, but Zhao Baishi doesn't think these squires dare to resist.
After all, their Sichuan Army company still has more than a hundred men and guns, which of course cannot be used to deal with the Japs in Jiujiang, but it is more than enough to deal with the militia of the squires in the surrounding towns.
Li Sijin drank up the white wine in the small wine cup, then picked up a few peanuts with chopsticks, threw them into his mouth and chewed them carefully. While chewing the peanuts happily, he said to Zhao Baishi: "Brother, what do you mean? Will Li Laoqi from Lijiacun be assassinated this time? I heard someone said that his son has become the company commander of the Imperial Association Army."
"What are the Imperial Association Army, puppet army, puppet army?" Zhao Baishi corrected.
"The enemy is the puppet army." Li Sijin quickly changed his words, "It's the puppet army."
Zhao Baishi snorted and said: "So what if I become the company commander of the puppet army? I think back in Dachang, we even crippled the little devil's permanent division, and we are still afraid of a mere company commander of the puppet army? This time Li Laoqi Just give him the money obediently, if he dares not to give him the money, I will have to lead troops to raid his Li family compound, what a bastard."
As soon as Zhao Baishi finished speaking, rapid footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.
Looking back, I saw Hou Zhigang angrily walking into the Juyi Hall.
"Lao San, what happened?" Zhao Baishi and Li Sijin stood up at the same time.
Seeing Hou Zhigang's appearance, Zhao Baishi and Li Sijin knew that something must have happened, no matter how slow they were.
Hou Zhigang strode over, grabbed the jug on the table, tilted his neck and drank the remaining half of the jug, then wiped his mouth and said in a ferocious voice: "Brother, second brother, this old guy Li Laoqi is so brave. Well, not only did he refuse to pay the monthly fee, he actually dared to shoot us. Damn it, he didn’t want to live."
"What, there is such a thing." Li Sijin said angrily, "Does he really dare?"
Zhao Baishi became even more furious and said: "Second and third brother, immediately summon the brothers and ransack the Li family compound!"
Li Sijin and Hou Zhigang agreed, and just as they were about to turn around and leave, a faint voice suddenly came over: "Li Laoqi's son has already laid a dragnet in Lijia Village. If you knock on the door at this time, you will be trapping yourself. In my opinion, you might as well put up with this for the time being, and it won’t be too late to go to Lijia Village in the future.”
Zhao Baishi and the others were stunned. When they turned around mechanically, they found that a stranger was already sitting at the table. The three of them were standing here. There were several sentries outside the Juyi Hall. They were stunned. I didn’t find out how he got in. Could this person be a ghost? Zhao Baishi suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.
Li Sijin and Hou Zhigang subconsciously reached out to touch the guns, but Zhao Baishi stopped them.
"This brother." Zhao Baishi stopped Li Sijin and Hou Zhigang, clasped his fists and asked, "May I ask which path you are from?"
"Which road?" The man picked up his chopsticks and put two peanuts into his mouth. He chewed them and said with a smile, "I'm not from any road, I'm just a sleepover."
"Borrowing?" Zhao Baishi looked at each other in confusion.
Instead of staying in a hotel, I actually came to the village. This was really new.
Zhao Baishi took a breath and said in a deep voice: "Brother, you should go to a hotel for the night."
"To be honest, it's a little inconvenient to go to the hotel." The man smiled and shook his head, and added, "So, we want to temporarily stay in your cottage for a few days, but you can rest assured that we will not touch the cottage. Every plant and tree, and the rent will be paid according to the price, no less than you will get."
"You?" Zhao Baishi and the other three were shuddered upon hearing this.
Looking around anxiously, they saw only six more people walking out from the four corners of the Juyi Hall. There were men, women, and even an old woman. However, just by intuition, Zhao Baishi and the others could feel that none of these people were the same. What's so annoying is that it's not easy just for them to be able to go in and out of Jigong Ridge as if they were nothing.
Their Sichuan Army Company has been entrenched in Jigong Ridge for more than half a year, and has set up many traps and light and dark sentries. In terms of defense, although they cannot be said to be impregnable, they can be regarded as as strong as iron barrels.
These seven people are naturally Xu Rui and the others.
Xu Rui and his seven men set out from Damei Mountain and rushed to Jiujiang after two consecutive days and nights of forced march.
Because the matter was of great importance and it was still on the territory of the Japanese, Xu Rui did not look for a move as soon as he arrived in Jiujiang. Instead, he decided to find an escape route first, then make careful deployment, and finally look for an opportunity to take action, and then , and found Jigong Ridge, because Jigong Ridge met two conditions.
First, Jigongling is not far from Jiujiang City.
Second, Jigongling is secluded enough and is close to the lake.
Although it can be seen from the traces around that the mountain must have been occupied by bandits for a long time, Xu Rui did not care about it. It would be better if there were bandits on the mountain. They were just pretending to be someone else. It was only after going up the mountain that Xu Rui discovered that the people who occupied Jigong Ridge were actually They were not bandits in the true sense, but a group of Sichuan soldiers.
As a traveler, Xu Rui has always had a good impression of the Sichuan Army.
During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, Sichuan was the province that contributed the most people to the country, no other!
The Sichuan Army fought with iron and steel during the eight-year war of resistance. Although they wore straw sandals, were hungry, and held old sleeves with smooth rifling, their performance on the battlefield was no better than that of the well-equipped Central Army. Worse, Tengxian and Guangde left behind the evocative chapters of Wang Mingzhang and Rao Guohua.
Xu Rui smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, you three. We have no ill intentions."
After all, Zhao Baishi is the company commander and has seen the world. He said in a deep voice: "Who are you?"
By this time, Zhao Baishi had already seen that the seven people who suddenly appeared were definitely not ordinary business travelers.
Xu Rui told the truth: "To be honest, I am the leader of the Dameishan Independent Regiment of the New Fourth Army. Xu Rui, this time I brought several brothers to Jiujiang for business. Please forgive me for causing any inconvenience to me." .”
"Dameishan Independent Regiment, Xu Rui?" Zhao Baishi and the others suddenly changed their expressions upon hearing this.
Hou Zhigang even screamed strangely: "Animate the Dameishan Independent Regiment of the Japanese 10th Division?"
Because of the broadcasts on Dameishan Radio, Xu Rui's independent group can be said to be a household name throughout China.
Although Zhao Baishi's Sichuan Army Company was in a remote place and almost completely lost contact with the rear area, it had heard about the deeds of the Independent Regiment from the surrounding squires.
However, Xu Rui's expression condensed and he said: "The annihilation of the Japanese 10th Division was nothing more than a fluke. It is not a skill. Your Sichuan Army fought with the Japanese in a big field, facing the indiscriminate bombardment of the Japanese aviation force and large-caliber naval guns. , for five whole days and nights, the little devils were killed and wounded countless times without being able to advance even an inch, this is the real skill!"
Zhao Baishi and the others immediately felt that Xu Rui was very pleasing to their eyes.
The bloody battle was the first trial of their 20th Army's national war, and the Sichuan Army became famous. Before today, I don't know how many people praised their Sichuan Army for their ability to fight, but no one could make them sincerely proud like Xu Rui, because This is Xu Rui, the leader of the Dameishan Independent Regiment that completely annihilated the Japanese 10th Division!
ps: I recommend the new book "The Extraordinary Soldier King" by the veteran master 8 Difficulties. After "The Supreme Soldier King", the extraordinary returns.
Hidden Dragon is the strongest special forces force in China, and Dragon Ya is the strongest soldier of the Hidden Dragon Army. This book tells the story of Dragon Ya.
Anyone who bullies my brother shall be killed!
Anyone who insults my relatives will be killed!
Anyone who offends China will be punished no matter how far away! (To be continued.)