Chapter 24: The Unnumbered Unit

  The remaining four devils were shocked, standing in a semicircle around Zhang Lin, no one dared to shoot first. Zhang Lin swung his knife in front of the leftmost devil's eyes, and that devil hastily retreated a step. The rightmost devil felt an opportunity and stepped forward, making a sudden thrust. Zhang Lin used the back of his knife to deflect the gun, then counterattacked with his knife, and that devil's head rolled out far away. The remaining three Japanese soldiers were demoralized, seeing that the east side was blocked, they desperately ran towards the west side where the wheat had already been harvested. Li Weiming was about to order a volley of gunfire when Xiao Wang's reinforcements arrived, two submachine guns swept the three devils onto the cut wheat straw. Li Weiming endured his pain and quickly called for reinforcements to support Liu Zhan and the others. The bullets were not left in his body, and he received simple bandaging for his wounds. Although the devil's Type 38 rifle had a long range and high accuracy, the 6.5mm bullet had a stable trajectory and strong penetration power, which reduced its lethality.

  From the start of the battle to the complete annihilation of the enemy, it only took about ten minutes. 36 enemies were eliminated, and one light machine gun, thirty Type 38 rifles, one handgun, and several damaged rifles were captured. In addition, a batch of military supplies, including bullet bags and canteens, also became spoils of war.

  Our side only had Li Weiming injured. This made Xu Liang feel that the cost was not small either. Fortunately, at this time, medicine and bandages were still in sufficient supply.

  Xu Liang said to the villagers who had gathered: "Fellow countrymen, we are the Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party, and we are the people's own troops. Do you have nearby villages? Quickly transport these harvested wheat back. The devils may come to take revenge, tell the fellow countrymen in nearby villages to hide quickly."

  The young man who beheaded a ghost with a sickle: "Officer, I want to join the army, take me in."

  "Right, we're going to join the army and take revenge on the devils." Some others followed with shouts.

  "Alright, Liang You Tian and Yan Xue Wen, you two are in charge of recruiting soldiers."

  During the war, the enlistment procedure was extremely simple, and reporting one's name and hometown was considered completion of the enlistment formalities. On the spot, more than 20 people signed up.

  The military uniforms carried on the mules' backs were taken down and distributed. What's more, these new recruits immediately received guns, which was rare at that time. It is worth noting that even the main force of the Eighth Route Army found it difficult to achieve this at that time.

  When the 4th Regiment was established, the machine gun company and the directly affiliated team were armed. The 1st Battalion had 90 Type 79 rifles at the time, and later acquired some miscellaneous rifles, with the 1st Battalion receiving 150 more. This left 80-90 soldiers in the 1st Battalion without guns. At Lanfeng Railway Station, over 200 Type 38 rifles were captured, with the 1st Battalion receiving over 100. Li Weiming also specially assigned a squad from the 1st Company to collect and manage the weapons of friendly wounded personnel, which they brought along on the train during the raid on Neihuangji Railway Station. The Battle of Neihuangji yielded over 30 Type 38 rifles and one "crooked handle" machine gun. At Minquan Railway Station, they actively purchased guns, ammunition, and other military supplies from retreating Nationalist troops. They bought over 50 Type 79 rifles and some handguns. At this point, the rifles equipped by Xu Liang's unit were half Type 79 and half Type 38, but it was difficult to replenish ammunition for the latter. The new recruits enlisted in Minquan were issued Japanese-style Type 38 rifles, which surprised passing Nationalist troops. At the time, most Communist-led armies had many men but few guns, with a severe shortage of weapons, whereas Xu Liang's unit had fewer men but more guns, and their weapon quality was also exceptional. Unfortunately, most soldiers had too little military service.

  After the "Wheat Field Shooting" battle, Xu Liang's self-proclaimed Eighth Route Army unit without a number had high morale and swept away the tense atmosphere when they were surrounded by enemies at Minquan Station. At this time, the troops had more than 300 people, equipped with:

  82 mortars; 2 Russian-made 1910 wheel-mounted Maxim heavy machine guns; 2 Czech-made light machine guns; 2 Japanese-made Type 11 light machine guns; 10 German-made submachine guns. Rifles were Chinese military standard Type 79 rifles and Japanese military standard Type 38 Arisaka rifles. There were also over 100 old-fashioned muzzle-loaders, Hanyang-made rifles, and a small number of Type 38 rifles in reserve. Ammunition was relatively sufficient.

  It was almost dusk, and Xu Liang ordered the assembly to speed up. Despite Li Weiming's opposition, he had someone help him onto a stretcher. Liu Fen and other soldiers in the company vied to be the stretcher bearer to carry their company commander.

  The 10 backbone members sent by the superiors, two have already sacrificed in battle, four stayed with Chen Hao, and the situation is unclear. Now Li Weiming has been injured again. Originally, this troop was short of cadres, especially those like Li Weiming who had strong military and political qualities. His injury made Xu Liang feel heavy-hearted. How to lead this troop and these weapons across the river according to plan, into the newly opened guerrilla zone and base area of our party? Even if they were replaced with good things like Hanyang-made and old-style rifles in the base area, let alone those few good weapons that the main forces of the Eighth Route Army had. Xu Liang firmly believed that after strengthening some political and military cadres, and undergoing a period of political education and military training, this troop would definitely become a particularly capable and strong team. However, for now, it was still quite fragile, although the equipment was better than that of ordinary Chinese infantry troops.

  Xu Liang led the vanguard with Er Lian and his direct troops, while Liang You Tian brought up the rear with the machine gun company and the first company in the middle, and the third company at the back.

  Ní Dépíng fought against the devils in Shanghai. Every time he clashed with the devils, our army's casualties were always greater than theirs, relying on flesh and blood to bravely fight against the strong enemy. Today, Xú Liàng's "shooting gallery" tactics quickly eliminated more than 30 enemies, while only one of their own was injured, and they also captured so many spoils of war, making Ní Dépíng feel very excited. From the air defense in Gǒng County to today's wheat field "shooting gallery", Ní Dépíng's attitude towards Xú Liàng has developed from admiration to some idolization.

  Ni De Ping followed closely behind Xu Liang, chatting as they walked: "Deputy Captain, you're really clever and resourceful. We've been heading north for almost a day now, and we just happened to run into this group of devils, who even brought us all these things. When you ordered the demolition of the train station and led everyone out in a northern direction, I thought you were preparing to lead the brothers in a fight against the devils."

  "Oh? Why?"

  "I think the enemy is pressing in from the east, and the west has also been cut off by the devils. Even if there's an order to retreat, it can't be passed on. Deputy Commander Xu is a good man, he won't lead us south in retreat. Well, Minquan Station will be our tomb, the time for us to sacrifice ourselves for the country has arrived."

  "Haha, Nian Lianchang is a real man."

  "But later, you ordered the explosion of the station house and broke through to the north. I thought that the deputy regimental commander was braver than I had imagined. He didn't wait for the devils here, but instead took the initiative to find them and fight to the death. I also made up my mind: today, I will die on the battlefield, fighting until I am satisfied, even if it means taking two of them down with me!"

  "We are fighting a long-term war with the devils, bravery is important, but just being brave to fight to the death is not enough. When Commander-in-Chief Cheng Qian came to our troops to personally deploy the task of attacking Lanfeng Railway Station, he said we should regard Lanfeng Railway Station as our own grave, I told him at that time, we will turn it into a grave for the devils. What was the result?"

  "Of course we won, didn't we wipe out all the devils guarding the station? Deputy Regimental Commander, you're really amazing. Hey, this Li Lianzhang doesn't look like a new recruit at all, I was skeptical of him at first, but it seems he's probably an old subordinate who came to join your ranks."

  "We must learn to eliminate the enemy while preserving ourselves to the greatest extent possible in our long-term struggle against the Japanese. If we were to defend the Minquan Railway Station to the death, we could eliminate some of the enemy, but it would not have a significant impact on the overall situation. However, if we were to launch a surprise attack from behind enemy lines, taking advantage of their weakness in manpower and avoiding their main forces, striking at their weak points, today we can wipe out ten of them, tomorrow eight, and with time, the Japanese, with their small country and limited troops, will surely be unable to withstand it. By disrupting the enemy's transportation in the rear and cutting off their supply lines, we can make the Japanese devils on the front lines lack food, ammunition, medicine, and clothing, and occasionally even have to withdraw troops to reinforce, greatly weakening their offensive momentum."

  "Deputy Commander, your method is truly ingenious, even a god couldn't think of it."

  "This isn't some magical method thought up by gods, this is the strategic tactics for anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare established by the Communist Party and Chairman Mao."

  "This is really a great talent of our China, unfortunately the treacherous officials are in power, and Chairman Chiang cannot reappoint these people. Fortunately, they have been pardoned and can fight against the devils together. They must all be heroes greater than Song Jiang and Wu Yong."

  Ni De Ping's words made Xu Liang laugh and cry at the same time, reminding him of He Wu Ting from the munitions factory.

  Ni De Ping continued: "Deputy Captain, I heard that the leader of the Communist Party is called Zhu Mao, he's really formidable."

  Xu Liang explained: "Zhu Mao are two people, one is Chairman Mao, whose name is Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China. The other is Zhu De, who is now the commander-in-chief of the 18th Army Group, also known as the Eighth Route Army."

  "The Eighth Route Army! They are a force to be reckoned with, the victory at Pingxingguan was exhilarating for many days. By the way, Deputy Regimental Commander, you told the fellow villager that we were the Eighth Route Army earlier, wasn't it because our Security Regiment's name isn't impressive enough? Or are we really going to join the Eighth Route Army?"

  "What do you think?"

  "We'll follow you, Eighth Route Army, after all it's a regular national army, and at least it's much stronger than this security regiment."

  "The Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army are both armies led by the Communist Party, which is quite different from the general Nationalist army."

  "What's the difference? Is it really 'shared property and shared wives'?"

  "Of course not, those are slanders. The Communist army is first of all an army of equals among officers and men, where officers and soldiers share the same hardships and are like brothers, all being equal comrades."

  "That's really good." Ni De Ping, like Xiao Wang Zi, had only been a squad leader in the regular National Army.

  "Moreover, the Communist Party's army particularly emphasizes taking care of the common people, not allowing a single needle or thread to be taken from the masses, let alone oppressing them."

  "True benevolence and righteousness."

  "Moreover, both the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party are fighting against Japan to save the country, requiring soldiers to be loyal to the country, bravely kill the enemy, and not fear death. However, there are also differences in this regard."

  "What's different?"

  The method of the National Army is 'under heavy rewards, there must be brave men', often it is to conquer a certain place or defend a certain place and reward with so much silver dollars or promote several ranks, in short, it cannot leave the four words 'promotion and wealth'.

  Yes.

  "The Communist Party's army fights not for promotion or wealth."

  "What's the point of that?"

  "The Communist army fights not only to drive out the Japanese invaders, liberate the suffering Chinese people, but also to establish a new China without exploitation, oppression, corruption, where everyone is equal, the people are masters of their own destiny, and everyone lives a happy life. For this lofty ideal and great goal, one can sacrifice everything, fight selflessly, and advance bravely!"

  The warriors in front and behind, left and right, were all enchanted, their hearts racing with excitement.

  "Great, Deputy Commander, let's go and join the Eighth Route Army, become a Communist Party member. Unfortunately, Commander Chen and the others didn't come with us, don't know what happened to them."