Chapter 25: Fierce Battle at Yu Jia He River

  The Third Special Task Regiment of the Northwestern Army was an elite unit of the Northwestern Army. Although the current situation of the 17th Route Army is not very good, the supply for this special task regiment is quite abundant, especially the famous Deng Pei-yuan battalion, a reinforced battalion with nearly eight hundred people. In addition to having two water-cooled Maxim heavy machine guns and an 82mm mortar battery, their weapons are among the best in the country, all equipped with Mauser rifles and bayonets, which gave them strong combat power in close combat, making the German-equipped Central Army of the Nationalist Party fearful at that time.

  Even after many years of peace, this unit still had good training and was tempered by continuous battles against bandits, so its combat effectiveness was still not to be underestimated. In the eyes of Yang Hucheng and other generals of the Northwestern Army, this was simply using a sharp knife to kill a chicken! (The pistol unit was one of the characteristics of the Northwestern Army! At the beginning of the Central Plains War, the Northwestern Army had a more than 3,000-strong pistol brigade, with excellent equipment, which had made the Central Army flee in disarray. This type of unit had also performed brilliantly in the warlords' battles in China.)

  As soon as the order from the military department was received, this reinforced battalion gathered on the drill ground in just three minutes. On the high platform stood a lieutenant colonel who was only twenty-seven or eight years old, with a strong physique and an armed belt around his waist, giving off an unusual masculine aura. He silently stood still in standard military posture. His two thick black eyebrows were raised high, and there was no warmth or anger in his eyes, just a calmness like water, looking at the sea of gray military caps below, looking at those pairs of bright and piercing eyes, looking at the large knives emitting a chilling aura, and a faint smell of blood. This is the troops he commanded, this is the elite reinforced battalion.

  The Twenty-fifth Army, which had just won a small victory in the three major battles, arrived at Yu's family river after crossing mountains and rivers, dozens of miles away, and camped there. The troops, who had not had a good rest for a long time, immediately fell into a deep sleep, with many exhausted bodies huddled together around the crackling fire, without shelter from wind or rain. Even Wu Zhengwei and Xu Deputy Military Commander couldn't help but shake their heads in bitter smiles as they inspected the troops. They carefully checked each post and sentry to ensure that the soldiers could have enough time to rest and recover their strength.

  In the distant Danfeng County, a thousand-strong troop was quietly and slowly exiting from the north gate of the city, into the silent small county town. It was as quiet as in the past, especially on this winter day, without any sound or noise. The citizens were also deeply asleep on this icy winter night.

  As the morning sun slowly warmed the earth, when the fragrance of cooking smoke drew out groups of "little hungry ghosts" from their dreams, and when the bonfire was still smoking with a faint scent of coldness, the entire camp began to bustle. Rows of troops lined up in formation, doing morning exercises or receiving their breakfast rations. However, like gold among silver, the guard company led by Gaoquan always stood out as the most eye-catching group in the crowd. Their standard-issue rifles, grenades, and bayonets, along with ten Czech-made machine guns that exceeded regulations, emitted a faint blue glow. Their uniform pace, uniform military songs, and synchronized footsteps not only transmitted a consistent pulse to the earth but also drew envious, dissatisfied, and jealous glances from soldiers and officers of other units.

  However, Gaoquan and his soldiers were oblivious to all this, just like the later Wild Field Army facing local troops, although still very polite in tone, but that deep-seated pride, good military quality, brilliant achievements and supreme honor made them forever a crack troop that could fight and win!

  After having breakfast, the troops, who were ready to set out on a new journey, were suddenly ordered to be on high alert, which left everyone in shock. "Has something major happened?" But no matter how hard they thought about it, nothing came to mind. There had been no unusual movements recently, and the troops had just achieved a string of victories, with high morale. Taking advantage of being part of the military guard unit, Gaoquan quickly learned from the duty officer that the provincial party committee leaders were going to discuss the direction and approach of future battles, as well as a bunch of other miscellaneous things at a party committee meeting.

  "Another meeting! It's definitely not something that can't be solved in a day or two!" Gao Quan grumbled and went back to reorganize the troops, thinking it was a high-level party committee meeting. As a young company commander who had just joined the party, Gao Quan naturally didn't have the qualifications to attend as an observer, not even the head of the military's security department could get a seat, only occupying a corner spot. This also made Gao Quan, who was used to participating in military decision-making with special status, feel slightly balanced inside.

  However, Gao Quan did not know that what was originally just a casual conversation about recent events over the past month had turned into a prolonged reminiscence, with everyone discussing some major decisions. This made Cheng Junlong anxious, as his long-term experience working in the White area told him that in this small mountain valley very close to Henan, where enemy pursuit troops were not far away, it was easy to be attacked by the enemy if they rashly held a prolonged meeting without any arrangements! He thought that the meeting would not end soon. Therefore, Gao Quan was very reluctantly arranged to be excluded as a vanguard and went to reinforce the sentry post set up on the high ground in the north.

  Not long after leaving the campsite, Gaoquan felt a strange aura in the air. The nerves around his right eye kept twitching and jumping, and he looked at the towering mountains on both sides with some confusion. The dense forest was still quiet, and the occasional cold wind blowing through the trees made a "squeaking" sound as the branches swayed.

  The air was filled with an inexplicable aura, and so Commander Gao decided to lead the troops to immediately enter the mountain ridge through the small path between the mountains. After all, in open areas, the possibility of being ambushed was extremely low. However, when they finally reached the top of the mountain ridge, panting and out of breath, they were shocked to discover the dense black mass of Nationalist Army troops at the foot of the mountain! Yes, this was that famous Special Task Force that had left the city under the cover of night! And what's more, even they themselves didn't know that just a dozen or so miles away on the other side of another mountain ridge, there was also the 60th Division of the Nationalist Central Army!

  A fully-equipped division of over 10,000 men! It was the same one that had been toyed with by the Red Army in Lushi County, and now it's Qi Shouyuan who is furious and wants to use the heads of all high-ranking officers of the 25th Red Army to wash away the humiliation and frustration of being scolded by the Chairman! The mighty Central Army was actually toyed with by such a small, shabby, and poorly armed force! It's an unforgivable sin! What they should do is to confront Qi Shouyuan head-on and then be torn into pieces by the German-made cannons and machine guns!

  But all the enemy's carefully laid plans were unwittingly ruined by Gaoquan!

  In the valley, a winding river, and wisps of smoke, clouds and mist-shrouded mountains, are in a place very hard to find on the national map of Yu Jia He, witnessing an important battle during the Red Army's Long March!

  When the loud rumbling sounds came from the mountain ridge, the soldiers of the Special Operations Battalion, who were originally in a hidden rapid march, all raised their heads! Looking at the smoke-filled and continuously rumbling mountain top, they were very puzzled, wondering what kind of person could sneak into the gap between their reconnaissance vanguard and launch a surprise attack on this team. Perhaps it was those dozen or so corpses with their throats cut, not far from where Gao Duanting was leading his men, who would never be able to tell them.

  Two seconds later, a dense hail of iron bullets, like hailstones, covered the winding team in the valley. The mournful cries continued to sound from this team, but more were well-trained people looking for giant rocks and trees that could hide their bodies. The performance of this unit in the brief moment of being attacked by bullet rain made Gao Quan feel as if his mouth was full of salt, bitter and astringent. Faced with such an unprecedented hard stone, Gao Quan also had to concentrate 120% of his attention to contend with the enemy!

  However, what the high-ranking officials did not notice was that those artillerymen and machine gunners who were usually very arrogant used their bodies to protect their own weapons. Even when they were riddled with bullets like a sieve, they still used human walls to block the enemy's hail of bullets. This may be one of the inherent spirits that allowed this unit to survive until now!

  The hastily set up mortars quickly poured down a hail of shells on the mountain top, trying to clear away the elite handgunners who were suppressing the charge with overwhelming firepower. Due to range issues, the current predicament was not easy to resolve, and Deng Pei-yuan did not have an easy way out. Except for sending out a portion of soldiers to continue pinning down the "Communist bandits" with firepower, the others quickly retreated to the flanks of Gao Quan during the prolonged artillery preparation, dodging machine gun bullets that occasionally hit the rocks and sent splinters flying everywhere.

  Delayed a bit, originally did not want to write this Yu Jia He battle in detail, but it is an unforgettable part of the Red Twenty-Fifth Army's Long March history, anyway Gao Daquan will stay in southern Shaanxi to take root and sprout...

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