Chapter 8: The Untouchables
"Lao Liu, think of a way to melt down this field gun and make bayonets out of it," Hu Weidong instructed. The steel used for the cannon, especially the barrel, was good steel, and this field gun was even made in Germany, so even if it's old, making bayonets out of it would be absolutely no problem. How could it not be better than those made from railway steel with severely insufficient hardness by the Eighth Route Army's ordnance factory in history?
"Alright." Liu Hai took a reluctant glance at the door of the wild warfare howitzer, but he also knew that in exchange for one unusable cannon, making each militiaman a bayonet like this would still leave many surplus, absolutely a very cost-effective deal, although his heart was really aching...
Although Hu Weidong attaches great importance to the role of bayonets, bullets are still more important, so getting explosives as soon as possible has become a top priority. It's easy to think that there must be explosives in the county town, but with the current strength of the militia regiment, wanting to take down the county town is undoubtedly a pipe dream. However, Old Liu Hai thought of another place where they could get explosives - Xingguo County is rich in colored metal resources, and those tungsten mines, gold mines, and lead-zinc mines should have a lot of explosive stockpiles. It's just that the mine guards of this era are not vegetarians, so with the limited strength of the militia regiment at present, it's better to deal with the weakest Returning Home Team first and develop the team before talking about it...
The next morning, a message tree was suddenly knocked down in Dawangzhuang, not far from Liujiacun. Hu Weidong immediately led a platoon of militia to rescue and rushed to Dawangzhuang at emergency march speed before the enemy. The enemy's attire was very strange, all wearing gray uniforms, gray cloth leg wraps, white shirts, black shoes, black socks, and waist belts made of horizontal leather straps, looking bizarre yet neat, clearly having received strict training. What Hu Weidong noticed most was that although this enemy army had only twelve people, their equipment was surprisingly good, with each person carrying a well-made standard rifle on their back, a pistol at their waist, and even a light machine gunner in the team, whose firepower was simply more powerful than the nearly hundred-man militia last time, especially in close combat.
Seeing the militia stationed at Dawangzhuang, the leader of this enemy force seemed to have let out a sigh of relief, but he still loudly rebuked, "Since the Red elements here have already been purged, why are you still lingering around?"
"It's because...", a militia leader dressed Hu Weidong spoke quietly and took a step forward, suddenly pulling out two pistols and opening fire. Due to the close distance, there was no time to dodge, and the enemy commander fell to the ground with a loud thud. Another bullet hit the most eye-catching machine gunner in the team. The sound of the company commander's gunshot was an order, and several pistol-wielding militiamen behind Hu Weidong immediately pulled out their pistols and opened fire. The rest of the hundreds of militiamen also raised their guns and fired, instantly knocking down most of the enemy.
But the enemy's combat will was quite strong, and in the face of such a disadvantageous situation where they were outnumbered and forced to fight defensively, the three survivors immediately made evasive maneuvers and counterattacked with their guns, killing or wounding several militiamen on the spot. However, their numbers were simply too small, and the distance between the two sides was too close; even if only one in ten shots fired by the militiamen hit them, it would still take only two volleys to knock them all down...
But even though they saw the big trend was gone, the two wounded soldiers who didn't die still wanted to shoot themselves (or maybe struggle until death), fortunately Hu Weidong acted quickly, with two swift and ruthless hand knives, they were immediately knocked unconscious. These guys must know a lot of important information, how could they be allowed to die like this? Hu Weidong was so sure because at this time he had already judged the identity of these enemies, they were the infamous "Special Task Force" of Kang Ze, the Blue Shirt Society...
The Red Guards killed people, usually for revenge or greed, with varying degrees of severity, and some were relatively lenient. The Rebel Troops, on the other hand, often carried out extermination-style massacres, similar to how Hitler treated Jews and Poles, but based on class and political orientation rather than race. Anyone they suspected could be killed without trial, and entire villages and towns could be wiped out...
Although the bandits were guilty of heinous crimes, Hu Weidong did not kill the two wounded soldiers on the spot. Instead, he hoped to extract from them the intelligence that interested him. Hu Weidong remembered that this was the height of the bandits' power, with their commander Kang Ze enjoying imperial favor and many local officials, even high-ranking officers in the regular army, having to give way to him three parts.
It has to be admitted that the quality of the Blue Shirt Society's special agents during this period was still quite high. Ordinary torture could hardly get them to tell the truth, but Hu Weidong, as a time-traveler, originally knew many secrets about the special agents. He used this to make the two people who were separated and imprisoned think that their comrades had betrayed them, so it didn't matter if they said something useless to suffer less. As a result, Hu Weidong was able to extract everything from them bit by bit. Since all members of the special agents during this period had undergone strict screening by Kang Ze, the difficulty of conversion was extremely high. Hu Weidong lacked political commissars at the time, so he simply gave them a quick death, which was already quite merciful considering their crimes...
The Blue Shirt Society's mobile troops, from the headquarters down, were initially organized in a "三三制" (three-three system) pattern. The headquarters had three large teams, each large team had three branches, each branch had three middle teams, and each middle team had three district teams. Each district team was divided into smaller teams. Each small team was equipped with one light machine gun, and each member had a rifle and a pistol, forming an independent action unit.
This year (1934), at the beginning of the year, in order to cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek's fifth encirclement campaign against the Central Soviet Area, the mobile troops underwent a large-scale expansion. The headquarters expanded from three large teams to five large teams, and the total number of troops exceeded 10,000 people.
The uniforms of the mobile troops were generally the same as those worn by the regular army, but sometimes they would disguise themselves or even pretend to be Red Army soldiers in order to carry out their missions.
In addition, the first district of each detachment is designated as a plainclothes district, holding special permits for convenience in secret activities. The organization adopts the principle of "military uniforms covering plainclothes, plainclothes leading military uniforms", thus forming a three-layer structure, namely: General Team - Plainclothes - Ordinary Members. Moreover, members of the detachment also assist or lead militia, security teams and even central army to carry out "bandit suppression" tasks, generally in person or in small groups, but sometimes an entire district or even a battalion, regiment, or even a brigade...
