Chapter 39: The Wind Rises in Ji Nan (Part 2)
The division headquarters was located in a small mountain village 5 miles away from Zengjiadai. On the wall of the combat room, there was a large-scale map of the Taihang Mountains area. Zhang Yafei and Chief of Staff Huang Jiawei were standing in front of the map, talking in low voices. Deputy Division Commander Xu Zheng was now at the ambush site, responsible for commanding. Apart from these two men and the staff officers busy answering phone calls, there were two other people in the command center - Song Zhe Wu and Xiao Guodong. Because this was the first large-scale proactive operation of the Security Guard Army, both of them were a bit worried, so they followed along. However, Zhang Yafei had already instructed them that all commands would be arranged by him, without needing to ask for their opinions. At this moment, the two men were sitting on one side drinking tea.
"A staff officer reported: 'Reporting to the superior, the third battalion commander Sun called on the phone, and the third battalion is ready for everything. Please instruct whether to start the action.' Zhang Yafei looked at his watch, it was exactly 3:10, and exchanged opinions with Huang Jiawei, walked over to pick up the phone: 'Commander Sun? Start the action at 3:30, try not to disturb the bandits in Zengjiashan on the opposite side.' After hanging up the phone, he asked that staff officer again: 'Has the call from Deputy Commander Xu's place been connected?' 'Not yet, I'll go ask the communication camp right away.' The staff officer said and quickly went out to inquire."
On the halfway up the mountain, two large forts were built on both sides of the small road leading to the top. They were constructed with massive stones and had no windows facing downhill but many shooting holes.
The two blockhouses on the hillside, judging from their scale, should each accommodate a squad. The doors of both blockhouses face the mountain road, with a tall pole erected in front of each door, and a wind lantern hung on top. Under each pole stands a sentry holding a rifle, leaning against the pole and dozing off.
The 1st Company, 1st Battalion was responsible for capturing the small hill. After receiving orders, the company commander Huang Daifu and the special operations team leader discussed and redeployed the personnel of the special operations team. Three groups of five men each were dispatched to climb up from the other three sides of the small hill. The remaining personnel were divided into two groups, with the team leader leading one group along the mountain path on both sides towards the half-hill fortifications.
The special warfare team members were not only agile, but also highly coordinated. When they approached the bunker at a distance of over 40 meters, one person from each group automatically left the team and quietly looked for a good hiding spot to set up their guns and aim at the sentry in front of the bunker. Under the command of their respective team leaders, two people from each group slowly and silently crawled towards the bunker. Their actions were extremely cautious, not only paying attention to the reaction of the sentries but also being mindful of the rocks and grass underfoot. On this quiet night, any slight noise would alert the enemy.
After 10 minutes, the people who went to touch the whistle on both sides came to the dark shadow behind the bunker. Just two steps across and they could reach the sentry.
At this moment, the stone house door on the mountain responded, and then the flashlight turned on, rushing towards the bunker. At the same time as the door responded, two sleepy sentries were immediately awakened, forcing themselves to be spirited, holding guns and standing at attention. The flashlight shone on the edge of the trench behind the bunker, and with the moonlight, it could be seen that a bandit wrapped in clothes looked towards the direction of the bunker for a while, and then the flashlight turned towards the back of the mountain. The special warfare personnel knew that this was a patrol, and this bandit had other small groups of people to clean up.
As soon as the flashlight was out of sight of the two sentries, the western sentry mumbled and leaned back against the high pole, continuing to doze off. The eastern sentry, on the other hand, yawned, took out a cigarette, used his body to block the mountain wind, struck a match, and lit the cigarette. When he raised his head, he suddenly widened his eyes in terror, only to see two dark-faced men silently emerging from behind the opposite sentry, one of whom covered the sentry's mouth with one hand, while the other hand flashed a cold light across the sentry's neck. The sentry struggled slightly before becoming motionless. Another black-faced man quickly took over the rifle that had fallen from the sentry's hand and gently put it aside. Almost simultaneously, the sentry who was about to shout felt his mouth being tightly covered, only feeling a chill on his neck before losing consciousness, unable to perceive any external sounds.
As soon as the signal was given, the special forces soldiers on both sides quickly emerged from the shadows behind the bunker and moved to the front of the bunker door. Only 5 soldiers were left in front of each bunker, while the others quickly slid into the trenches and carefully made their way to the sides of the trenches. After about 10 minutes, the special forces soldiers in front of the two bunkers exchanged hand signals with each other. The two groups of people quickly pushed open the slightly ajar bunker doors and rushed inside. A faint noise was heard from inside, followed by the appearance of a flashlight covered with red cloth at the shooting hole on the west side of the bunker.
Ten minutes later, Huang Dafu led the two platoons of Company One to the front of the stronghold at a quick pace. At this time, the red cloth-covered flashlight on the corner of the stone house on the mountain also lit up, and the two teams of special warfare soldiers opened the way in front, guiding the two platoons of Company One to rush towards the four stone houses on the top of the mountain.
The mountain top was not large, relatively flat, and the four stone houses only had doors and windows on one side. Huang Dafu looked around and saw that the four stone houses were surrounded by his own people. He raised the flashlight in his hand and swung it down fiercely. This was the signal to take action, and immediately the sound of "bang bang" came from the four stone houses, followed by a shout of "don't move" mixed with cries of surprise and screams.
"Bang." A gunshot rang out from the stone house on the south side, followed by two more shots. The sound of gunfire was particularly clear in the quiet night.
Huang Dafu immediately rushed towards the stone house where the guns were firing. After rushing in, he saw that two bandits had been stabbed to death on the bed, and the rest of the bandit soldiers were being forced against the wall by the soldiers with bayonets. The second squad leader came out from the suite and reported to Huang Dafu, saying that this house had a suite, where the bandit commander lived. The windows outside were small, making it difficult to enter through them, giving the bandit commander an opportunity to open fire. The bandit commander had already been shot dead.
At this time, the deputy battalion commander also brought several other companies and the regimental machine gun company to the heights. Huang Dafu immediately ordered the soldiers to help the machine gun company build positions, with 8 Type 92 heavy machine guns deployed on the mountain top facing Zengjiashan, and 12 82mm mortars placed in the open area at the center of the mountain top.
The gunfire just now had alarmed the bandits in Zengjiashan, and at this time many places in Zengjiashan had lit up with lanterns. Huang Dafu sent out a second messenger to report the situation to the battalion headquarters under the reminder of the deputy company commander. Later, leaving behind one platoon to guard the machine gun company, he led his troops down the mountain with the captives, preparing to participate in the battle to attack Zengjiashan.
The headquarters of the three brigades was set up in a mountain valley not far from Zengjiashan, where more than a dozen tents were set up. The largest tent in the middle was Sun Li's command center. He also heard the gunfire just now and knew through telephone inquiry that it came from Xiaogaodi Mountain in front of Zengjiashan. Soon he received another call from the regimental commander, who reported to him in detail about the situation of occupying Xiaogaodi and the news that the bandits in Zengjiashan had been alerted. Just as Sun Li put down the phone and was thinking about how the bandits in Zengjiashan would react to the gunfire on Xiaogaodi, he received a third call from the regimental commander, reporting that the bandits in Zengjiashan were coming down the mountain.
