Chapter Thirty-two Expansion According

  According to the scouts' report, the main force of the devils is concentrated in the area centered on Dingyuan City, and the border between Chuzhou and Dingyuan belongs to the vacuum zone. The next action of "Divine Eagle" is very simple, which is to quickly occupy these areas and expand the base.

  For this, the "Divine Eagle" formulated a detailed action plan. Prepare to let Song Guantao's first company go west to occupy Huangpu and Zhangguang, the two towns in the westernmost part of Chuzhou; The second company directly occupies Yutang Town within Dingyuan County; The third company goes south, as far as Shiji Town in the south; The fourth company monitors Daliu Town on the Chuding Highway. Daliu Town is a must-pass route for the devils from Chuzhou to Dingyuan, with a small team of devil soldiers stationed there. Last time, due to the harassment of the big island English tree, the "Divine Eagle" was unable to pull out this nail embedded on the Chuding Highway. This time, the devil's main force is far away in Dingyuan County, and this small team of devils is just a piece of meat at the mouth, how can it be let go?

  Chen Jifa required at the combat meeting: The troops must mobilize the masses with great efforts when passing through, help each village organize militia, and finally repeatedly emphasized that they must unconditionally obey military discipline, and treat the people of each village equally regardless of their composition.

  Four company commanders originally thought it was a combat operation, but who would have thought that the battalion commander had assigned them this task. They all complained and grumbled, saying that this was like forcing Zhang Fei to embroider flowers, and it was even better to let them take their troops out for a fierce battle with the devils.

  Chen Jifan looked at them coldly as they complained, but in fact Chen Jifan understood their complaints deep down. After all, they were all soldiers, and even he, a former old party member, didn't know how to mobilize the masses, let alone these ordinary soldiers who had just picked up guns? However, understanding is one thing, orders must still be executed without compromise, after all, everything starts with difficulty.

  "Why do we need to mobilize the masses? We've discussed this many times before. As for your concerns, I don't think it's a big deal. When you go there, will you leave a bad impression on the common people that you're 'bandits in uniform', or will you give them a feeling that the 'Divine Eagle' troops are their loved ones? This depends on you military leaders. Actually, things are simple: just let the local people take you as their mainstay. If they have grievances and troubles, they'll think of you; if there's any benefit, they'll naturally remember you. But which unit dares to bully the common people? Don't blame the military law for being ruthless when the time comes. I brought over a dozen students from Wuhan, they're educated, studied some military knowledge, and the battalion is preparing to assign them to each company to assist you in carrying out mass work. Any other questions?"

  "Got it!" Long Song Guanhu responded with his chest out, "Two battalion commanders, I have over a hundred men stationed in an unfamiliar place, how can we handle the logistics of the troops?"

  "Didn't the headquarters give you some foreign currency as activity expenses?" Chen Jifan asked.

  "My commander, that little money can only buy food for the troops for a month at most, it's not enough!" Song Guantao was from the National Army and had no idea how to mobilize the masses.

  "Either you eat us or think of a way out for yourselves."

  Alas, even the company commander is being unreasonable, everyone was speechless, and each of them returned to their squad with a heavy heart.

  Huyu Feng, the second-in-command of Erlian and Luoyu Gang, the third-in-command of Sanlian, did not have the same helplessness as Song Guantou. They had at least appeared on TV, just waving flags and helping their fellow villagers carry water and sweep the yard, as long as they made the common people feel close to them.

  Song Guantou returned to his own company and lectured the platoon leaders: "You all listen up, this time we're going to mobilize the masses. What does it mean to mobilize the masses? It means finding ways to get the common people to support us in fighting against the devils. The battalion commander said that the common people are our true relatives. Whoever dares to violate military discipline and bully our own people, I'll be the first to execute him, and then ask the battalion commander to execute me!"

  After the four infantry regiments set out, Chen Jifang and Zhong Dingcheng began to focus on Daliu Town. The Japanese army's combat characteristics were that as long as one place was attacked, the Japanese troops in other places would rush to reinforce it. Therefore, although Daliu Town only had a small team of soldiers, if they went to attack with great fanfare, the Japanese troops from other places would definitely come to reinforce them, and the pressure would be greater at that time.

  Chen Jifan stared at the map for a long time, and a bold plan flashed in his mind.

  "Got it!" Chen Jifan threw his pencil onto the desk.

  Looking at Zhongding City with some puzzled eyes, Chen Jifan put forward his idea, which was to use a special warfare team to launch a surprise attack on a small team of devils in Dayu Town.

  "Lao Chen, you'd better think it through clearly. The firepower of the special warfare team is not superior to that of the Japanese army. If we engage in battle, the casualties of the special warfare team will be quite heavy." Zhong Dingcheng should be more cautious.

  "Pull out the assault squad from the special warfare company, each equipped with a submachine gun and two base ammunition and enough hand grenades. Also conduct a detailed reconnaissance of the situation in Daliu Town." Chen Jifan's determination was set.

  To strengthen the special warfare squad, Chen Jifang also incorporated Zhong Dingcheng and Gao Huanjie into the special warfare squad. The number of people participating in this operation was 33, all equipped with Thompson submachine guns except for four blocking hands.

  To achieve the suddenness of combat, Chen Jifan informed Zhao Jun to let the special warfare company move to the outskirts of Daliu Town in the name of unit training. Then Chen Jifan went to the 4th Company's barracks with Vice Regimental Commander Zhong and Gao Huanjie under the pretext of inspecting the regimental headquarters. Chen Jifan first inspected the 4th Company, instructing them to keep a close eye on the highway south of Daliu Town and not to leave without orders.

  When Chen Jifan and his two men arrived at the special warfare platoon's hidden assembly point, Special Warfare Platoon Leader Zhao Jun had already drawn a rough sketch of the reconnaissance situation.

  Daiyutown is smaller than Zhulongtown, the wall is more broken, so the devils are all concentrated in a yard in the middle of the town. At night, they sleep in this yard, and during the day, soldiers are sent to patrol the streets. The yard is surrounded by barbed wire, and a temporary watchtower is built with wood on the front side, which is the only high point of the yard, with a fixed sentry and a machine gun on it.

  The yard has a direct telephone line to Chuzhou and Dingyuan, which means that once Dayu Town is attacked, the devils around will quickly provide support along the highway. With the Japanese army's tenacious combat effectiveness, as long as the other side does not have heavy weapons, a small team of devils can still hold on until reinforcements arrive.

  That's why the devils only left a small squad here.

  The attack was set at 2 am, when people are most likely to be drowsy. The Japanese troops in the town had basically fallen asleep, leaving only five or six soldiers patrolling the streets. The residents of the town had long since fled, and those who didn't were either captured by the devils and forced into labor or killed.

  Chen Jifeng divided the special warfare platoon into four groups, with Wen Chuanhao's sniper squad still responsible for perimeter cover. The other three groups were led by Chen Jifeng, Zhong Dingcheng and Zhao Jun respectively. After cutting off the telephone lines, the attack officially began.

  Three small groups easily crossed the wall from different directions of the town, and the patrol soldiers on the street were suddenly killed by a special warfare team. Five or six devils didn't even have time to pull the bolt before being pressed down by fighters rushing out from both sides. After a burst of "popping" sounds, everything was settled. As soon as the devils on the street were cleared, the three small groups rushed towards the devil's residence at an extremely fast speed.

  For more than sixty devils who were fast asleep in the yard, the pagoda became their last safe shelter.

  Chen Jifan signaled to the other two groups, letting them climb over the wall from different directions, and then signaled to Wen Chaohe to stare at the sentry on the tower. His own group hid under the gate.

  The height of the wall and the installed barbed wire could not stop the special warfare team that had undergone rigorous training. Chen Jifan watched as the last soldier from the other two groups jumped into the courtyard and gave a hand signal to the blocking hands.

  "Bang", a crisp gunshot pierced the quiet night sky, and the sentry on the watchtower was hit accurately in the head and fell down.

  The sound of the gun was the order, and the yard immediately transmitted the intermittent explosion sounds. This was planned in advance. As soon as the gun rang out, the first batch of warriors who climbed over the wall threw hand grenades at the enemy's camp. Immediately afterwards, Chen Jifang led a small group to charge into the yard from the main gate.

  The devils were startled awake by the explosions, and they ran out of their houses with guns in hand, disheveled and unkempt. Some of them pulled the bolts as they ran, while others ran wildly to the left and right under the shouts of their commanders.

  An infantry squad of the First Division would still be difficult to deal with on the battlefield, but unfortunately they are now like sheep waiting to be slaughtered, because in front of them are about 30 "God Eagle" warriors who have undergone rigorous training and hold automatic weapons. The devils didn't even have time to aim before being knocked down by dense bullets coming from all directions, occasionally one or two escaped and were just about to raise their guns to aim when they were ruthlessly shot dead by snipers.

  This courtyard became the graveyard of the Japanese army. In no time, the ground was littered with the bodies of the Japanese devils lying all over the place. The remaining Japanese devils howled and prepared to launch a desperate final attack. The little captain of the Japanese squad grasped his knife and charged forward, while the soldiers behind him retreated in disarray, firing their guns wildly as they went.

  "What's with the 'Pīn Cì Dāo'?" Chen Jifan thought disdainfully.

  "Fire!" Chen Jifan's Thompson submachine gun fired a burst, and the devils were met with a web of death woven from the bullets.

  The battle was without any suspense, one by one the devils fell in front of the special warfare squad warriors, and even the devil's team leader didn't have time to say a word before being shot into a beehive, he died with his big eyes still open, seemingly very unwilling.

  "Old clock, count the enemy corpses! The rest follow me!" Chen Jifan saw at a glance that there were less than 60 corpses on the ground, which means that more than a dozen devils were hiding in the house. There are four rooms in the yard, one is the combat room, and the other three are all devil's barracks.

  "Throw!" Chen Jifan ordered, and the soldiers threw the smoking hand grenades from their hands into all the rooms through the windows. Sure enough, the houses immediately echoed with the desperate howls of the devils, but this sound was soon drowned out by the explosions of the hand grenades. By the time "Divine Eagle" rushed in, there were no living people inside.

  "What's going on! What's going on!" There was actually someone in the operations room. This devil was almost crying as he yelled into the phone, but there was no response from the other end.

  "Bang!", when he saw a large group of soldiers with green paint on their faces and bodies rushing in, the devil finally collapsed. He dropped the phone, wildly waving the knife in his hand, Chen Jifan raised his hand and fired a shot, he never intended to capture him. The special forces had a rule during training, not allowing them to shout "surrender or be killed" to the devils, the correct approach was, as long as there were still devils alive, they should shoot without hesitation.

  The battle in the courtyard lasted about ten minutes, including the patrolling devils, a total of 70 devils were killed, an entire infantry squad. However, not one of the special warfare team's warriors seemed excited, on "Divine Eagle" who didn't know that the regimental commander and his seven men had wiped out a devil squad in a glorious battle achievement, compared to which this little achievement was not worth mentioning.

  The task of clearing the battlefield was left to the 4th Regiment, which had rushed to the scene upon hearing the news. Chen Jifang ordered Shang Changfu to take away everything that could be taken away. After dawn, they guarded all directions around Daliu Town, strictly preventing any information from leaking out. In this way, the devils in Dingyuan and Chuzhou would not know about the news until at least a few days later.

  Dalyu Town is certainly not defendable, a palm-sized piece of land, the enemy's artillery fire only needs one salvo to cover it all. "Divine Eagle" has never gone to do such a stupid thing as to take unnecessary cannonballs.

  Dalyu Town cannot be defended, next of course is to prepare and have a good fight with the devils who come for revenge. Perhaps that will be an even more brutal battle.