Chapter 32 First Strike East Big Xin's Stronghold Flying Web

  "What personal property? As a peasant, how much property can I have? These are all properties seized from the little devils in Qiu County and Quzhou County. Of course, they should be used to fight against the devils. Let's use them to nourish our bodies so that we can better fight against the devils."

  Chen Zhengwei said with a smile: "Director Liu, your ideological awareness is really high."

  Captain Lin also said: "Now our team has delicious food."

  Liu Feng smiled and said: "I buried the dollars and gold bars seized from Qiu County and Quzhou County in XX place, made a mark, you can send someone to take them away."

  ……

  The Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army.

  The deputy chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army held a telegram from Liu Feng's raid team and walked into the headquarters office, saying to the deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army: "Old General, Liu Feng's raid team has sent a telegram. They pulled out three enemy artillery towers overnight without any casualties."

  The commander-in-chief, who had been studying the map all along, looked up and asked, "How did they fight?"

  For the Eighth Route Army, it was normal to attack the enemy's artillery towers, but a small team of forty people, in an area where the enemy's artillery towers were dense and strongpoints were numerous, managed to dismantle three enemy artillery towers overnight, which did surprise the commander-in-chief.

  He originally had opinions on the establishment of the Liu Feng Strike Team under the Central Committee's Eighth Route Army, and it was directly under the command of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters. He had a straightforward temperament and directly sent a telegram to ask why he should be in direct command of such a small detachment. It wasn't until the No. 1 leader personally replied to the telegram that he accepted.

  The Chief of Staff said, "Old General, look at this. This is a telegram from their political commissar Chen Zhi-kui. They have proposed a concept for special operations suitable for small teams like this. This is their training and combat situation."

  The commander looked carefully, thinking as he read. After finishing, he raised his head and said: "It seems that the central government's decision to establish a Liu Feng strike team is indeed reasonable. This is a brand new tactic. Let's first experiment with the Liu Feng strike team, if it works well, our entire army can also form such small teams."

  The Chief of Staff continued: "However, the three leaders of their assault team had differences in enforcing the discipline of the Eighth Route Army and brought the case to us."

  "What's going on?" The commander asked.

  The Chief of Staff then took out another telegram and told Liu Feng and Chen Zhi-kui's differences, finally saying: "Liu Feng actually said that their small team, if they followed his training method and combat command, could eventually execute a beheading operation. It may even affect the entire battle situation."

  "Hmm!" The commander-in-chief took the telegram and looked at it, actually smiling, "This Liu Feng is quite bold, Operation Beheading? Destroying the enemy's command center? If we can really do this, killing a few puppet soldiers is nothing!"

  "How shall we reply?" asked the Chief of Staff.

  The commander-in-chief is not a pedantic person. He waved his hand and said: "Send a telegram, on the issue of discipline, it can be flexibly grasped when necessary."

  ……

  Yan'an Cave Dwellings, a few top leaders of the Central Committee are having a meeting.

  "Old Chiang gave us the order to move north with the New Fourth Army at the beginning of the month, now it's already the end of December, and Old Chiang has come again to urge us, how should we respond?" said the Number Four leader.

  "No. 5 leader said: 'Our men have been scouting in the Maolin area and indeed there are several tens of thousands of troops stationed under Gu Zhutong and Shangguan Yunxiang. According to the northern route set by Old Chiang for us, this time Old Chiang's transfer of the New Fourth Army northward is likely a trap. Old Chiang can do anything, we cannot send tens of thousands of men from the New Fourth Army into the tiger's mouth.'"

  "The second leader said, 'I think that if we openly defy Old Chiang's orders, it would not be appropriate. That would give Old Chiang an excuse to attack us. After all, his pretext is to have the New Fourth Army move north to resist Japan, and politically we would be at a disadvantage.'"

  Commander No. 4 said: "We have a relatively scattered New Fourth Army, and the troops need to gather excuses for departure, which can delay for a while, but this is not a long-term solution."

  The No. 1 leader extinguished the last bit of cigarette butt in the ashtray and said: "Firstly, the news that Liu Feng brought to us is likely to be true. He said that Old Chiang would transfer the New Fourth Army northward at the beginning of December, which has now been confirmed. He also said that there were tens of thousands of troops from Gu Zhutong and Shangguan Yunxiang's forces ambushing in the Maolin area along the route of the New Fourth Army's northward march, which is basically confirmed as well. Since Old Chiang's planned route for us to go north would have to pass through Maolin, I think what Liu Feng said about Old Chiang planning to take action against the New Fourth Army is also true. In that case, the New Fourth Army definitely cannot fall into this trap. Secondly, in order to counter the political passivity, the New Fourth Army can launch small-scale attacks on the Japanese devils. The specific tactics can refer to Liu Feng's team's tactics, using a small but elite force to launch surprise attacks on the Japanese devils, with minimal losses and great results. As long as the battle starts, the New Fourth Army will have a reason not to accept the order to go north."

  ……

  Guangping County Town, the Japanese army commander was furious, beating his subordinates and puppet army commanders left and right.

  "Hah! You're all idiots!" Chikuji's bellowing voice could be heard a mile away.

  The squad leader who had been slapped and the pseudo-regimental commander stood upright, constantly saying: "Hey, hey, hey!"

  The Eighth Route Army removed three artillery towers along the highway from Guangping County to Quzhou County overnight, causing Chi Shangzhong to lose face. These artillery towers and strongholds were all within his defense zone. Without the protection of the artillery towers, transportation on the highway might be subject to attack by the Eighth Route Army. And early this morning, Chi Shangzhong had already received a severe reprimand from Akio Akiyama, the commander of the garrison in Quzhou, over the phone. He ordered him to immediately rebuild the artillery towers and ensure that such incidents do not happen again.

  The team leader of Chi Shang naturally had to shift the fire onto his subordinates.

  The last Chi Shou Zhuang ordered the Japanese army to capture the Zhina people in collaboration with the pseudo-army and build a cannon tower. And also dispatched a squad of devils and a small team of pseudo-troops to defend against the Western Xiandian village and the Eastern Daxin devil's stronghold respectively.

  ……

  In this way, Xi Xian Dian Village and Dong Da Xin Zhuang each had more than 20 devils, while the puppet army had nearly a hundred men.

  This news soon reached Liu Feng's rapid reaction force.

  Hanxi Village, in Liu Feng's house, Liu Feng is studying enemy situation with Lin Team Leader and Chen Political Commissar.

  "The devils are increasing their troops, it seems they're afraid of our tactics. This western village stronghold must be taken down, otherwise we'll have a hard time threatening Guangping County." Liu Feng said, pointing at the map.

  Comrade Chen said, "But we only have forty people, while the Xixian shop village has a hundred fake soldiers and more than twenty devils. It's not good to fight. Moreover, the Xixian shop village stronghold is only about fifteen miles away from Guangping County, as soon as the battle starts here, the devils and fake soldiers in Guangping County will come out to reinforce. How can we fight?"

  Liu Feng said: "We will temporarily not attack Xixian Village as a base, but first attack Dongdaxin as a base."