Chapter Eighteen: Reconnaissance Mission
Lieutenant General Lai Gu's eyes turned red with rage, and he ordered the artillery to launch indiscriminate bombardment on the main battlefield of Luo Wenyu! The soldiers of both sides who were fighting in front of the position were simultaneously killed or wounded. The temporary second division's garrison was a full-scale counterattack, but the devils also invested most of their troops in the general attack, so this round of artillery fire can be said to have been a double defeat for both sides. However, from the final result, the devils still had the upper hand. At least Liu Zuming's garrison did not take advantage of the situation to drive out the devils, and the devils retained their attacking front-line position.
The bombardment occurred on the way back after Li Jintang's raiding troops completed their mission, and when they suddenly heard the intense cannon fire, they didn't know what the situation was like for the defending troops at the pass. Commander Li was anxious and wished he could fly back to the pass immediately, urgently urging his troops to speed up their return to the pass.
Liu Ruming's teacher from Luowenyu village made a long-distance call and blocked Li Jintian's way.
"Kanada, the enemy's artillery fire is too intense. How are our casualties? If they're not heavy, see if you can find the enemy's artillery and give them another blow tonight?"
The usually strong and unyielding commander was speaking to him in such a tone, which meant that the brothers at the Yuku Pass were really in trouble now. Otherwise, the commander would not have let this unit, which had been fighting all night, execute another mission. Looking at the soldiers walking by with excitement mixed with fatigue, Li Zhongtang felt a sense of melancholy in his heart. How many of these men would survive the next battle? He couldn't bear to think about it. Li Jintian quickly gathered his spirits and scanned the troops, just as Gao Quan and his squad were approaching. Gao Quan saluted Li Jintian with a military salute, which made Li feel a bit strange, but he had an idea in mind and beckoned Gao over.
"Gaoquan, I have a task for you. Are you brave enough to complete it?" Without further consideration, Li Jintian directly said this somewhat provocative sentence, which was both a test and an opportunity for the young man.
"Please instruct the passenger." Dare or not? This sentence is completely meaningless to Gao Quan, he doesn't even remember when was the last time he felt fear, elementary school? Or junior high? It seems that feeling was still wonderful, at least it was a real human emotion, unlike now, everything in front of him only has whether can be done or not, and there is no such thing as being afraid or not.
"The enemy's artillery fire has suddenly increased, and the division commander has ordered our troops to attack the enemy's artillery position tonight! Our troops have been fighting all day, and now they are exhausted after crossing seven mountains in one night to attack the enemy's machine gun position. We've fought two rounds with the devils, and the men and horses are tired. The troops need rest now. I'll give you two hours to scout out the location of the enemy artillery position clearly. Two hours later, the whole army will set out to destroy the enemy artillery position. If we succeed, I'll recommend you to the division commander to be promoted to company commander. If not, you can't be a platoon leader anymore, and you can just follow me as a guard in the future." Li still really valued Gao Quan, whether they succeeded or not didn't matter, if they succeeded, he would be promoted one rank, if not, he would become the division commander's bodyguard, which was also a beautiful job that countless soldiers dreamed of.
"Yes!" Gao Quan responded loudly and turned around to leave.
"Wait for me, we'll go with you."
Gao turned his head and saw Wang Dazhu and Qian Sixi closely following behind him.
Gao Quan hesitated for a moment, "Si Xi will go with me, and Da Zhu will stay behind to take care of the wounded soldiers." When going out on reconnaissance, Wang Dazhu and Qian Sihai had no experience at all. They were just following along, adding unnecessary burden. The good thing was that if something unexpected happened, there would be someone to respond. Moreover, Gao Quan also intentionally wanted to cultivate a scout. In the future, if he needed to gather information about the enemy, he couldn't do everything himself. No matter how strong one person's abilities were, they couldn't handle everything alone. This was something that Gao Quan understood more clearly than anyone else. Cultivating one or even a group of excellent scouts was also something he had to do in this era.
Wang Dazhu had been a soldier for a long time and had a relatively high prestige in the team. He was also not the best candidate for reconnaissance work, but he would be suitable as a commanding officer. In comparison, Qian Sihao seemed to have more delicate thoughts. This is why Gao Quan brought Qian Sihao and not Wang Dazhu. Wang Dazhu saw that his platoon leader did not bring him along and was unhappy in his heart, but he dared not say anything and reluctantly answered "yes" before walking away to sit with the other soldiers.
On the way, Gao Quan briefly told Qian Sihui some basic skills that a scout must master, such as how to determine direction based on surrounding terrain and how to simply calculate target positions. It can be seen that Qian Sihui had difficulty understanding these things, but he was always trying his best to remember them. By the time they climbed to the highest point of the mountain, Gao Quan asked him again, and he could recall about 30-40% of it, which was already quite impressive. It's worth noting that Qian Sihui had only attended private school for two years and could barely read and write, while most soldiers in the army, including Wang Dazhu, were illiterate and couldn't even write their own names. Someone like Qian Sihui was considered half-educated. Scouts are a high-tech branch of the military, so naturally, the higher one's cultural level is, the better.
On the top of the mountain, there was an old locust tree. Two people climbed up the tree and took out his binoculars to look far away. At this time, the enemy's artillery fire continued, behind the mountain in front, a red light flashed, and the sound of cannons echoed in the night sky. It seems that it is at least two mountains away from here. Running there for two hours and back would be enough, but now there are no means of transportation, and Gao Quan doesn't want to waste all his precious physical strength on such mountain climbing. Besides, it's really not possible to make it in time anyway.
Eyes rolled around, and an idea was born. The Japanese devils who passed by didn't take away a few flashlights, did they? At that time, Gaozhi quietly hid one, now took it out, tore off a pocket from the upper garment, covered the lamp head with it, turned on the switch to try, and a simple signal light was made.
"When I reach the highest peak over there, remember to look for my signal light. One flash means there's an enemy artillery squad, two flashes mean a company, three flashes mean a battalion, and four flashes mean a regiment. Drawing one circle means we need to pass through one mountain ridge, drawing two circles means two ridges, and so on. That's it, simple enough. Now go find another flashlight at the brigade HQ and wait for me under this tree. After receiving the signal, turn the flashlight switch three times."
After everything was handed over, Gao Quan patted his body once and went down the mountain road. The moon in the sky finally revealed its curved silver teeth at this time, and the clear and cold light shone on the mountains, making the mountain road faintly visible.
Although the mountain road was difficult to navigate at night, Gao Quan moved swiftly and silently like a ghost cat. Downhill, uphill, and downhill again. The sound of cannons grew louder, and Gao Quan knew that the enemy's artillery position was just ahead. Finally, they arrived at the foot of a steep but not-too-high mountain peak. Judging by the sound, the enemy's artillery position must be on the other side of the mountain. Special forces have their own biological clock, and Gao Quan estimated that it would take about two hours to reach the top. The winding path on the mountain was treacherous, but Gao Quan stepped forward with confidence, his hands grasping for the small shrubs beside him, a layer of cloth wrapped around his palms to prevent injury.
"Rustle rustle!" Hands grasped and feet kicked, the body quickly climbed upwards.
