Chapter 258

Although the first day of May had passed Qingming and Guyu for a few days, the water of the Hutuo River still had a cold and heart-warming feeling. The spring in the north in 1942 came later than before. The drought that occurred last winter was barely relieved by the sporadic rain and snow in early spring.

Mazhuang, a small village near the Hutuo River in Hebei Central Hebei, is sandwiched between the Hutuo River and the Zhulong River, and is very close to the world, so it is not affected by the drought in early spring, and even fortunately escaped the locust plague that had just been chaotic in the west.

Japanese devils in nearby Suining County came out to sweep from time to time, but the militia teams in the village and the militia teams responsible for the care of this area were always able to respond quickly. Small groups of enemies were eaten directly, and large groups of enemies notified the villagers to move and hide. The people of Mazhuang have not suffered any major losses.

The weather on May 1st is particularly good, with clear sky and the sunshine in May gently spread to the earth. However, unlike usual, there is no figure in the fields outside the village. In the past, the fields are full of villagers serving crops wholeheartedly.

"Old Wang, why are you still busy??"

Several militia patrolled a cornfield and saw an old man holding a hoe to weed.

Lao Wang took off the Aries' sweat towel around his neck, wiped it with a sweat, and said with a smile: "If you want to produce more food in this field, you have to cultivate it carefully. If you don't go around the field, you will feel uneasy!" His face, which was tanned by the sun, was rosy.

When the militia men heard this, a leading militia said, "Oh! Lao Wang, today is the May Day International Labor Day. The working people all over the world are going to celebrate the festival. Everyone goes to Zhanggang to watch the Eighth Route Army Drama Club to act. You are always good, but you are busy here alone! Let's leave it to us, so you can watch the show."

"Yes, Mr. Wang, we are here."

The militia usually had a pistol and a hoe, and in war, soldiers, and in idle time, they were civilians. They immediately took off their hoes on their backs and ran to the ground, helping Lao Wang to do the work.

"This, how can this happen? You go, I don't like to watch that thing!" Old Wang shouted embarrassedly when he saw the militia enthusiastically rushing over to help weed, but his tone was still a little yearning for the program of the Eighth Route Army Drama Club.

The military and civilians in the base area are either busy with production or anti-Japanese war. Their leisure life is extremely monotonous and it is also a rare entertainment activity. The performances at the Hebei Zhonghuo Line Drama Club can be regarded as a spiritual meal that is worthy of Bao Shen Bi. The villagers from several nearby villages, including Mazhuang, took their families and went to Zhanggang Village, far away to watch the Eighth Route Army Drama Club drama before dawn.

"Old Wang, don't be busy, let's go see it together. It will be a day to delay anyway, so it won't be a big deal." The militia cheered.

The group was making a fuss in the cornfield, and a teenager ran over in the distance.

"Brother Xiao Ma! Brother Xiao Ma, there is a puppet army, the puppet army is here!" I heard the boy shouting out in anger from a distance.

"Puppet Army!" As soon as he heard that the puppet army was coming, all the young people in the cornfield stopped the hoe in their hands and looked at the young man running over.

The young man who was leading the militia walked out of the cornfield and said, "Amao, let's talk slowly, what's going on?"

"A dozen puppet troops came to the countryside to scrape the land. They just came out of Chen Village and came to our village! There were still ten miles of land, all three new large and brand new." The boy rushed to the edge of the cornfield, his face flushed with exhaustion.

In his tone, the more than a dozen puppet soldiers seemed not very important, but the 38 rifle carried by the puppet soldiers was the key point.

"Business comes to your door. Ah Mao, go and call the brothers from Qi Village to fuck you, and then find the brothers from the next village to come and gather around fifty people, so that these black dogs will never come back!" said the young militia named Xiao Ma Ge. The puppet troops in the nearby enemy strongholds became smarter and knew how to use the villagers to go to Zhanggang to watch operas. There were not many people in the village, so they took the opportunity to run out to take advantage of the opportunity.

"Old Wang, go and watch the show. The show here is about to start!" Brother Ma waved his hand, and a group of militia immediately followed him.

A puppet army team appeared on the small ridge outside Mazhuang without any formation. Several puppet soldiers even grabbed a few chickens with their legs tied up and came towards the village in a big way.

In the fields outside the village, under the cover of sorghum and the tender green branches of corn, the militiamen from Mazhuang and several nearby villages gathered together, staring at the puppet army squads that were getting closer and closer. Most of the militia's eyes were focused on the shiny 38 guns on the backs of the puppet soldiers.

"Grandma, big fat sheep!" The captain of the Mazhuang militia took off the Eighth Route Army cap on his head, and glanced up and down the puppet army like a wolf looking at a lamb. These dog-dreams are really well equipped. The militia in several villages here can only take two 79 styles and four 38 guns. The remaining are bird guns and muskets, and these four 38 guns were sponsored by the Baiyangdian guerrilla team a while ago.

Bang! Bang! Bang! ~

A burst of guns suddenly broke out from the crops, and several puppet soldiers waving their arms randomly to the ground. The remaining puppet soldiers changed their faces and turned around and ran away.

"Chasing!" The captain of the Ma Village militia waved his hand, and there was no way to let go of the fat meat in his mouth. The puppet army only had some cords. The militia were so powerful that they could deal with it.

More than fifty militiamen shouted and pulled open their swarms toward the small hill where the puppet soldiers fled and climbed over.

A small Japanese sun flag suddenly shook out from behind the disappeared ridge of the puppet army, followed by countless groups of bayonets with cold light on the entire ridge, and then a large number of Japanese soldiers quickly appeared.

"My mother!" The militiamen were so scared that they almost disappeared. In the blink of an eye, the old hen turned into a duck. Several puppet troops crossed the ridge and turned into a large group of Japanese soldiers in a blink of an eye. This was simply ridiculous, and it was not so outrageous to turn into a living person.

A large number of Japanese soldiers wearing yellow tweed uniforms pulled a very long line and pushed this forward steadily.

"Ghosts, sweep!" The captain of the Mazhuang militia came to his senses first, his eyes widened, as if he had accumulated enough strength in his body, and shouted: "Run! The enemy's sweep is coming! Run!"

The militia did not expect that the Japanese suddenly launched a large-scale mobilization without knowing it. There was no movement at all before, and the large number of Japanese soldiers and dazzling bayonet reflections in front of them proved that they were not dreaming.

"Say it!~~~~~~~~"

Like a rain of bullets from locusts, they came towards the militia's hood.

"Run! Tell the Eighth Route Army quickly, hurry up! Run scattered!" The captain of the Mazhuang militia witnessed more than a dozen militias being ruthlessly knocked down to the ground by the Japanese rain of bullets. Blood splashed, and his eyes were split and he continued to roar at the top of his lungs.

Every militia who survived had the only idea, was to run, run without looking back, run with no life, and tell others the news that the Japanese came to sweep, tell the guerrillas, and tell the Eighth Route Army to prepare the villagers and the team as much as possible.

There were large black smoke mixed with red flames on dozens of village houses in Mazhuang, and the tragic cries of pigs, sheep, cattle and chickens. A large group of Japanese soldiers rushed into the village with Type 38 rifles and plundered them.

Unwilling to let go of the stranger's surprise dogs, they were shot and killed by Japanese soldiers before they had time to bark a few times. Of course, there were also several unlucky Japanese soldiers who were bitten by the gloomy dogs, and even the Chinese dogs did not bring cowards.

"Yoxi, that's it, don't let anyone go!" Colonel Ogawa Cedar, the captain of the 29th Brigade of the 7th Independent Mixed Brigade, Colonel Ogawa, with a telescope in his face, watched the soldiers of the 29th Brigade advance steadily.

"Okamura is indeed tall! He is worthy of being the first and only lieutenant general in history to receive the Golden Bird Medal." Colonel Ogawa was extremely satisfied with the initial promotion of this sweep. No public security sweep has been as smooth as this time.

At the end of March, at a military meeting of the regiment commander level was held in Shijiazhuang, Okamura Yasuji was personally awarded and commended by the Japanese Personnel Director, which excited the officers of various Japanese troops in North China who attended the meeting, and the former commander of North China, Chief Tada, was unable to receive this honor.

At the same day's meeting, Okamura Yasuji took the opportunity to arrange the mobilization operation mission at the end of April.

After the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan, the military strength of the Kuomintang army in southern Shanxi was greatly damaged, and the vacant areas were infiltrated by the Eighth Route Army. The strong resistance shown by the Chinese anti-Japanese armed forces in the second strengthening of public security operations at the end of 1941 and the spring sweep in early 1942 had to make the Japanese army in North China pay attention to the threat of these Turkish Eighth Route Army.

The Japanese army's military suppression attention began to shift from the end of 1941 to the growing anti-Japanese armed forces of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, the main goal of the combat plan at the end of April 1942 was to target the most active Eighth Route Army in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region.

At the end of 1941, Okamura Yasuji, who had long been planning the combat goals of this year, allowed the four divisions, the 17th, 32, 36th and 41st divisions to participate in the Japanese and Soviet battlefield for practical training, and returned at the end of March, just in time for the large-scale mobilization operation.

The central Hebei region is an important agricultural grain-producing area in North China. In early 1942, the continuous outbreak of droughts, locust plagues and food shortages in various base areas of the Eighth Route Army made the Eighth Route Army urgently need food. There is no doubt that food is the lifeblood of the Eighth Route Army. Okamura Yasuji's initial sweep goal was the old base areas that were most loyal to the Communist Party, such as the Ninth Division and Tenth District of the Eighth Route Army in the Central Hebei region.
Chapter completed!