Chapter 27: The Flying Cannon Tower
The news of the Eighth Route Army's capture of Guangping County and the annihilation of 1,500 Japanese puppet troops spread like wildfire through press conferences and newspaper reports. Although this victory was insignificant, even with exaggerated numbers, it was still a much-needed boost to morale at a time when the national resistance against Japan was going poorly and the enemy was becoming increasingly arrogant. The nationwide newspapers sensationalized it into the "Great Victory of Guangping". After all, never before had a county town been retaken.
Chiang Kai-shek rarely sent a commendatory telegram to the Eighth Route Army, promoting the military rank of Li Jiegui, the commander of the new eighth division, to major general. However, there was no substantial reward.
Across the country, except for the occupied areas, grand parades and celebrations were held everywhere, and firecrackers across the country were almost all set off during those few days, and gongs and drums were beaten to pieces.
On the evening when the Eighth Route Army headquarters sent a telegram to Chongqing, the 223rd regiment withdrew from Guangping County. At this stage, the Pacific War had not yet broken out, and the Japanese army was still very powerful, so defending the city was no different from looking for death. Therefore, after clearing up all the Japanese puppet materials in Guangping County, the 223rd regiment returned with a full load.
To cope with the revenge and sweep of the Japanese army that was about to arrive, the various departments of the Eighth Route Army retreated one after another and transferred to the mountainous areas.
Liu Feng and his Liu Feng Strike Team also moved to the nearby mountains. In the mountains, they continued to train, and Liu Feng taught his strike team members the mountain warfare training he had received from the Special Forces.
Because the 223rd Regiment guaranteed ammunition supply for Liu Feng's assault team, Liu Feng required his men to fire live rounds every day, no longer just ten rounds a day but one hundred rounds of live ammunition. Those who failed to complete the firing of one hundred rounds within the specified time and scored above a certain score would be punished.
Physical training has not been neglected either, and every day we have to climb up and down the mountain. Whoever falls behind will be punished.
During training, Liu Feng gradually discovered six people with potential as snipers and selected them for special sniper training. Among them was Han Dingtou, who had followed Liu Feng to fight in Guangping. Liu Feng made Han the leader of the sniper team. He chose six Type 38 rifles with the best performance as their weapons. Within a month, Liu Feng taught them skills such as long-range shooting, hiding, lurking, identifying important targets, and protecting themselves. Then he had them divide into groups to hide and seek each other out; the group that was found had to do laundry for the group that found them.
Then Liu Feng selected suitable machine gunners, grenade launchers and mortar men from the troops. They were specially trained. Of course, every member of Liu Feng's assault team was required to use box cannons, 38 rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars. For specialized heavy firepower personnel, the first shot of grenade launchers and mortars must hit the target. Due to the large number of grenades and shells captured for training, everyone's performance improved quickly.
Then there was hand-to-hand combat training, and Liu Feng taught everyone the knowledge of some vulnerable parts of the human body, so that everyone could master how to make the enemy lose their combat effectiveness as quickly as possible. These hand-to-hand combat skills were all special forces' hand-to-hand combat skills in later generations, without any fancy moves. It was a completely fatal blow. Lin Xuejun and Chen Zhiyuan both learned with relish, and they couldn't help but cheer.
The training lasted for about a month and the sweep by the devils also ended.
Couldn't find the main force of the Eighth Route Army, the devils got angry and burned and killed ordinary people, then retreated back to their garrison. But in this more than a month, the devils caught many civilians and built pillboxes at important points outside each county town. These pillboxes were very solid, without cannons, it was difficult to attack and break through.
And each fortification is surrounded by barbed wire, with trenches and suspension bridges, forming individual strongholds. Attacking the county town like Liu Feng would be even more difficult.
However, as the Eighth Route Army publicly claimed that Guangping County was taken by the New Eighth Brigade, and the New Eighth Brigade had several thousand regular troops, while Guangping County only had a company of Japanese troops and three companies of puppet troops. The commander of the Independent Mixed First Brigade, Sakai Takashi, deliberately concealed this fact, resulting in none of the high-ranking officials of the North China Area Army knowing the truth about Guangping. They all thought that Guangping County was taken by the New Eighth Brigade, and reevaluated the fortification capabilities of the Eighth Route Army.
Sakai no Sukune learned from the lessons of the three counties being defeated by Liu Feng and began to build fortifications on a large scale at important points, mainly protecting the safety of the county towns and highways.
The devils withdrew from their garrison, so Liu Feng and his men also returned to Hanxi Village from the mountains.
To protect the highway, the devils built a large stronghold in Xixian Village, only over ten miles away from Guangping County, with a fort and a squad of devils and a small team of puppet troops stationed there. About twenty miles north of Xixian Village, there is another large stronghold in Dongdaxin, also with a squad of devils and a small team of puppet troops stationed there. Thirty miles west of Dongdaxin is Feixiang County. Thirty miles north is the devil's stronghold in Donggaocun Village.
These are large strongholds, and between these strongholds there are small fortresses with only one or two devils and a group of puppet army guards. Basically, there is one every few miles. The devils think that the Eighth Route Army, without heavy weapons, can't do anything about these fortresses, so they hope to use this method to step by step compress the Eighth Route Army's living space.
The Hundred Regiments Campaign of the Eighth Route Army destroyed a large number of strongholds, pillboxes and artillery towers, which made Liu Feng timely like a fish in water, and successively took down Qiu County, Quzhou and Guangping County without the enemy's reaction. Now, a large number of strongholds have been rebuilt, posing a major threat to the Eighth Route Army after the Hundred Regiments Campaign.
Lin Xuejun and Chen Zhiyuan returned to Hanyang Village, only to find themselves in a very passive situation. The enemy forces that had been suppressed before were now rampant again. The assault team was at a loss for the enemy's stronghold policy, with strongholds and fortresses everywhere. They studied the map, discussing and deliberating, but couldn't come up with a good plan to break the stalemate.
Liu Feng, as the chief of staff, had been training troops all along. As soon as he returned to the house, he found Lin Xuejun and Chen Zhiyuan with furrowed brows. Liu Feng asked: "What's wrong? You both look so worried?"
Captain Lin briefed Liu Feng on the situation, and Liu Feng marked out the enemy's strongholds and pillboxes on the map. After some thought, he said: "Captain Lin, Commissar Chen, our assault team will attack a few artillery towers to lure the enemy out for a fight. It's just right that our assault team has been training for so long and needs actual combat training. We'll give them a good fight!"
Lin team leader listened, first raised an eyebrow and was about to shout "good", but after glancing at Commissar Chen, said: "Liu Feng, we only have 40 people!"
