The fourth episode: Demolition of armored vehicles II, Armored vehicle seals the valley

  Zhan Biao heard Director Liu of the county annals office ask about his achievements in the War of Resistance against Japan. "Oh," he said, "Da Yu, didn't you dig up those two small Japanese Type 94 tankettes we buried? And what about that time when we pushed a few tanks into the river and dismantled eight heavy machine guns?"

  "Never mind, I was so nervous at the time that I couldn't even find my way around. Besides, I didn't participate in some of those battles."

  Director Liu was overjoyed: "You can excavate the Japanese army's WWII tank?! That's great, it's said that only three are left in the world, one at the Beijing Military History Museum, one at Taiwan's Armored Forces School, and one that was exhibited in Germany but its whereabouts are now unknown. It seems like even Japan itself doesn't have a complete one."

  Magistrate Zhu and Secretary Jiao exchanged a delighted glance, then Magistrate Zhu said: "Alright, Grandma, you take one car back to pack the dumplings first. Meanwhile, we'll show Grandpa Biao around." Then he instructed Director Liu: "Call Manager Sha of the County Construction Company and have him send workers and excavation equipment over."

  Everyone got on the bus again. Zhan Dongdong's van was in front, and under the guidance of Zhan Biao and Da Yuan, the convoy moved forward stop by stop.

  Secretary Jiao pointed ahead and said to Zhan Biao: "Old hero, the front is Walnut Gorge. General Peng Xuefeng mentioned in his memoirs that he had a fierce battle with the enemy here."

  Always miss this place, said that here he and his troops have been greatly improved, said the old hero is a true Chinese man, is the most reliable friend, later was also criticized for being unclear about class boundaries and befriending the Kuomintang.

  Zhan Biao laughed: "I was never a member of the Kuomintang, I was just an anti-Japanese soldier. Xiao Fei, that's even more of a hero." Director Liu continued: "Peng Xuefei is the company commander of the first machine gun company of the New Fourth Army, he said that Hetao Gou is where the machine gun company was born, do you still remember?"

  Zhan Biao pointed to the mountain valley outside the car window and said, "I remember, I remember, it was here. I still remember that we suffered a loss here and were bitten by Songshan Old Ghost." Da Yu seemed to have lingering fear and said, "The merits of Si De cannot be forgotten. If not for him, we would have suffered an even greater loss."

  While Zhan Biao led the New Fourth Army in intense training in Walnut Gorge, Xiao Feng did not worry him and did not disappoint him. He led more than 20 people from six small classes to strictly hide in a mountain cave according to Zhan Biao's arrangement, like a hibernating black bear, directing everyone to practice military affairs and learn culture in the cave.

  That night, Xiaofeng brought four 92 infantry cannons, 6 92 heavy machine guns, 6 82 light machine guns, 132 rifles, 282 pistols, 6 grenade launchers and 4 flamethrowers into the cave, along with dozens of boxes of various ammunition. The original sentry posts outside were all converted to hidden sentry posts.

  Careful Chengyi and Liu Yang sorted out the various handguns they had captured, including the Meiji 26th year model handgun, Taisho 14th year model handgun, Nambu Type A handgun, Nambu Type B handgun, Nambu Special Type pocket handgun, and Nambu 94 handgun. Then Xiaofeng organized everyone to train in handgun marksmanship. Xiaobao and Xiaoyu both chose the only 11cm long Nambu pocket handgun, while Xiaofeng and others liked the 94 style. As for the originally popular Wang Ba box, no one liked to use it anymore because this gun always jammed. Maybe that's why many Japanese officers who committed suicide chose to use the Wang Ba box - as long as they bit their teeth and pulled the trigger, they would die for the emperor. If the gun didn't fire due to jamming, then it was heaven's will not letting them die, leaving a way out for survival.

  Cheng Yi then turned his attention to the infantry gun and flamethrower. In the cave, the infantry gun could not be operated freely, but only repaired and assembled the scattered parts. However, the flamethrower made Cheng Yi work hard. At that time, the Japanese army was equipped with a 93-style flamethrower, which weighed 25 kg, held 14 liters of fuel, had a range of 28 meters, and could spray for 12 seconds, making it a pretty amazing weapon at the time. With the help of Xiaobao, Cheng Yi finally succeeded in conducting field operations after repeated research. Xiaofeng made everyone operate it in person, using half a bucket of gasoline from the Japanese reinforced squad's truck, which made Liu Yang very heartbroken. Xiaofeng was thinking about how to disguise himself and go out of the cave to collect gasoline, he wanted to ambush single-action trucks, as the Japanese always had a gasoline barrel on single-action trucks.

  Daily training, Xiaofeng didn't relax for a day, and like Zhanbiao, he taught new recruits martial arts with great care. Seeing the training results of new recruits who had learned martial arts, Chengyi analyzed: "Our nine brothers' ability to win these two battles is closely related to our mastery of martial arts. If Chinese National Army soldiers all know some martial arts, their combat effectiveness will be greatly enhanced, and they won't let the devils be so rampant."

  Although both sides were tense in their military exercises, Zhang Biao's mood had not relaxed. He and everyone else were on edge, with a string of tension in their minds. He knew that the Japanese army at Songshan would not give up easily, and these days of calmness were just like the momentary calm before a storm. Songshan must be designing an even bigger conspiracy. In this underground competition between the two sides, Zhang Biao became more and more vigilant, guarding against Songshan's sudden attack, and grasping every second to intensify training his troops.

  As expected, Songshan had not been idle for the past ten or so days. Although he did not know where Zhang Biao's troops were specifically located, he knew through the blockade and reports from surrounding counties that Zhang Biao was still within a hundred miles nearby. He also knew that Zhang Biao wanted to leave but had nowhere to go because the National Army was being pushed further away by the Japanese army. The reason Songshan hadn't taken action yet was firstly to lull Zhang Biao into complacency, secondly to recover from his shoulder injury, and most importantly, he was waiting for reinforcements.

  The opportunity to increase the troops had finally arrived. The Japanese army, in order to cut off the connection between the Chinese government's Third War Zone and Ninth War Zone, began mobilizing troops to prepare for the Battle of Nanchang. The commander of the Japanese forces, Ningji Okamura, was preparing to form a tank group for the first time to launch an attack. A large number of tanks from the 8th Tank Regiment passed through the county. Major Songshan immediately took a liking to the Type 94 light armored car, which was the only vehicle that could withstand the attack of heavy machine guns. Songshan requested to leave behind 16 vehicles, stating that he would borrow them for two weeks to eliminate the remaining Chinese defeated soldiers in the area before returning them to their units.

  The cunning Songshan also knew the theory of Sun Tzu's Art of War: the most dangerous place, the place where people least expect it, is actually the safest place. So he first looked for Zhang Biao from these two aspects and indeed found clues in the unexpected Hegou Village northwest of Gaoping Town - he discovered that the common people were transporting horse feed and food to Hegou on large carts.

  To annihilate the heavy machine gun squad of Zhan Biao, which made him extremely humiliated and hateful, he designed a battle plan called "Tiger Out of Mountain". The plan was to let his special officer squad enter the mountain from the southeast direction of Walnut Gorge in Kao Shan Town. If they encountered the enemy, they would annihilate them; if not, they would attack northward. Then, 16 Type 94 armored cars would be ambushed outside the mountain pass that could be traversed by horse-drawn vehicles in the north. Later, Songshan thought for a while and changed his plan to recall 6 of the armored cars that were ambushing in Kao Shan Town.

  On the night of a lunar eclipse, also the 11th day of the Battle of Mount Song, Songshan began to act under absolute secrecy.

  Zhan Biao had suggested changing places two days ago, as they couldn't stay in one place for too long. He had already chosen their next destination - a small mountain five kilometers away called Xiao Liang Shan. However, Peng Xuefei was worried that moving would disrupt the training that was going well and asked Zhan Biao to hold on for two more days. Zhan Biao didn't insist on his own opinion, after all, he had a guest's mentality and was only responsible for the training.

  This morning, Zhan Biao woke up from his dream with a sense of foreboding, and he also felt somewhat annoyed when observing the four virtues. His ears were often perked up listening to something, so he urged to relocate again, and Peng Xuefei agreed to relocate that night.

  Walnut Gorge is a wild mountain valley with a big belly and small ends, where people rarely set foot. The vast wilderness of the mountains and forests has many mountain ridges, which are even more desolate in the deep autumn season. In a small forest in the middle of the gorge, twelve horse-drawn carriages were parked, and the warriors were scattered around.

  Songshan quietly set out at night, and ten bean war cars and two squads of infantry had already been ambushed outside the northern mountain pass of Walnut Gorge. Songshan led another six bean war cars and a squad of Japanese guards near Kao Shan Town outside the southern mountain pass.

  Before dawn, Songshan dispatched two teams of special forces officers, 20 officers carrying six Type 96 machine guns, who silently killed two of Peng Xuefei's sentries and were quietly approaching the horse-drawn vehicle team from both sides.

  Zhan Biao had strict training requirements for everyone, and according to their past martial arts habits, they started training early every day. The whole team of soldiers had gathered near the horse cart to begin training. In the past few days, the New Fourth Army soldiers were in high spirits, having just learned how to use light and heavy machine guns and seeing that the troops had more weapons and ammunition than ever before. Each one was eager to fight against the enemy, and Peng Xuefei told the soldiers that they would set out tonight, find the enemy and have a battle, and then continue to look for a place to train.

  Qiangzi's training subject today is disassembling and maintaining machine guns. He, San De, Da Yuan, Er Min, and eight other anti-Japanese soldiers are preparing to demonstrate for everyone. Eight heavy machine guns have been placed on the horse cart. Qiangzi also wants to take this opportunity to maintain all the heavy machine guns.

  Just as Zhang Yong was about to give the order to dismantle the guns, Si De rushed towards the nearby mountain forest, shouting loudly. San De reacted first and immediately inserted the ammunition belt into his Markov heavy machine gun. Zhan Biao also made a quick decision and directly ordered the soldiers who were not carrying weapons: "Everyone pay attention, there may be devils sneaking up on both sides. You pretend to be calm and leisurely, all machine gunners quickly return to their own weapons, and the rest prepare to load vehicles and harness horses..."

  Zhan Biao's quick wit on the spot was inexplicable, an instinctive reaction that came from his brain. He knew that if there were enemies approaching from both sides, they would try to get as close as possible without being detected, just like a hunter hunting prey, getting close to the prey and shooting it dead with one shot. At this time, if the prey makes a move, the hunter will immediately open fire. So, we must strive for time, pretend to be unaware, paralyze the enemy, and quietly prepare. Once preparations are complete, it's not necessarily clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.

  The tacit understanding between the brothers reappeared, and San De suddenly sang a small tune in a loud voice, while his hands were continuously gesturing to command the soldiers beside him. Qiangzi observed with the corner of his eye as he quickly checked the eight heavy machine guns at the edge of the forest. As they spoke, Zhanbiao also turned to a Czech light machine gun, picked up the magazine and inserted it. The eight people in the anti-Japanese class each held a heavy machine gun and loaded bullets, seemingly unintentionally pointing them in two directions. Peng Xuefei also picked up a light machine gun, quietly arranging Zhangbiao's orders on specific targets, emphasizing that the horse handlers should not let the horses be startled by the gunfire.

  At this moment, the wind has stopped, people's hearts are about to jump out of their throats, and every person's strings in their brain and muscles on their body are stretched tight.