Jiang Hailong accepted all the bandits who defected to the Tigers, as long as they did not have bad habits such as smoking cigarettes or visiting brothels. After transformation and training, more than 70 soldiers were recruited.
Members of Wang Dali's hunter team mobilized more than 400 young adults from neighboring villages to join the Anti-Japanese Tigers. These people are of high quality, can endure hardships and stand hard work, and have experience in mountain survival. Most of them can hunt. With a little training, they can become
Qualified warrior.
The number of team members expanded to more than 700. Jiang Hailong reorganized the team into four companies and promoted Li Ming, who had higher military qualities and received higher education, as the commander of the third company. The other three company commanders were served by the original squad leaders.
The first batch of veteran team members who were personally trained by themselves served as squad and platoon backbones and instructors respectively.
Wang Dali's company was composed of elites selected from the team members and was named the Special Agent Company. Jiang Hailong personally formulated the training plan.
The reason why Jiang Hailong has not had direct contact with the Japanese for the time being is because the military quality of the team members is uneven, and he is afraid that he will suffer a lot if he joins the war rashly. He must win the battle in the first battle and build up the team's morale to benefit future development. After months of intense training,
He saw relatively satisfactory results and felt that it was time to take the team out to practice. The situation did not allow him to wait long.
In order to prepare food and grass for the winter, the Japanese began to loot villages one by one. Unable to bear the harassment, the villagers took food and drove their animals to escape into the mountains. Jiang Hailong tried his best to arrange a proper place for them. The blind dates felt sorry for themselves and asked to do something for the Tigers.
What? Jiang Hailong arranged for them to make military uniforms and shoes, and dye the captured Imperial Army and Japanese uniforms black as Tigers uniforms. He also organized a group of women who were quick and willing to work for the army to set up a temporary hospital, with Chunhua in charge.
, he taught them simple war-wounded care knowledge, told them to wash the homespun cloth and use it as gauze after high-temperature sterilization, make and use fracture splints, and basic debridement and suturing.
Looking for an opportunity to fight, the scouts sent to the foot of the mountain came back to report that tomorrow the Japanese Zuoteng squadron will conduct a "clearance" operation in the Wangcun area. The Japanese encountered resistance from a small group of Eighth Route Army guerrillas when they were grabbing food in this area.
Jiang Hailong immediately convened an emergency military meeting and decided that the second and third companies would stay behind, while he would lead the first company and the special agent company to ambush him at the Ma'er Mountain on both sides of the Mabian River, which was the only way for the Japanese to pass. It was surprisingly difficult.
According to local legend, Monk Tang, Sun Wukong, Monk Sha, Zhu Bajie and their disciples went to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures and passed here. The way was blocked by a mountain. Monk Sha whipped the mountain into two halves. The two halves of the mountain were shaped like two sharp peaks.
Mal'er, a small stream formed at the bottom of the valley between the two mountains, hence the name of this mountain and this stream.
Jianghai Long led his troops to set off overnight and arrived at Ma'er Mountain in the morning. They dug bunkers, sent out hidden sentries, and rested in hiding.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the Japanese vanguard consisting of a dozen cavalrymen was discovered.
The arrogant Japs have never suffered serious losses in the Black Tiger Mountain area. They have always driven away the Chinese army and small groups of Eighth Route Army guerrillas.
The team fled in all directions, never expecting that anyone would dare to ambush a well-equipped squadron of their own. More than a dozen cavalrymen rode in a circle in the valley without even getting off their horses before returning to the original route.
Four trucks loaded with heavily armed Japs, escorted by a cavalry squad, marched into Horse Whip Creek.
Squadron Leader Sato, who graduated from the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School, was riding on his horse and was reflexively alert to the dangerous situation he was in. He felt vaguely uneasy. He signaled the team to slow down their progress and increase their vigilance. He raised his telescope and looked around carefully.
Suo Yiban found nothing unusual and was relieved when he saw that the team was gradually leaving the valley.
The first Japanese military vehicle suddenly fell into a trap when it was only about 200 meters away from the entrance of the valley. Its rear wheels were spinning in the air, and the Japanese soldiers on the vehicle fell to the ground.
Jiang Hailong yelled: "Hit!"
Six light machine guns and more than two hundred rifles opened fire at the same time, and according to the captain's deployment, they targeted the beginning and end of the Japanese team. As expected, the Japanese soldiers shrank to the middle of the team as expected by the captain, and concentrated their firepower to fight back.
The Japanese casualties in the first round of attacks ranged from 30 to 40. The cavalrymen who had targeted the enemy fell off their horses one after another. Many of the cavalrymen were trampled and crushed by their injured horses. The horse of Squadron Leader Sato was killed on the spot, and the men were rescued from the horse's corpse by the soldiers.
The Japanese's military quality was indeed not bad. They quickly organized a formation and used their own corpses and cars as cover to counterattack. Various light and heavy weapons were fired at the Tigers' position. Three Type 92 heavy machine guns played a huge role at close range.
With such power, the bodies of more than a dozen Tiger Army soldiers who were shot were smashed into pieces.
Jiang Hailong waved his hand and the soldiers stopped shooting and retreated to the bunker.
Squadron Leader Sato was secretly happy when he saw that the opponent's firepower was suppressed. He was about to launch a counterattack when a mortar shell roared in.
The Tigers' four mortars fired three rounds at the predetermined target. Twelve shells accurately hit the enemy group, followed by twenty grenade launchers in turn. Taking advantage of the enemy's inability to evade, the Tigers
In the bunker, he stood up and threw more than a hundred grenades at the enemy.
The violent steel attack killed more than half of the Japs. Squadron Leader Sato was blown away on the spot. The remaining Japs fought hard, but their firepower was greatly reduced.
After Jiang Hailong organized another round of strafing, he left a platoon to specifically snipe at the enemies trying to escape. He ordered all other team members to prepare their rifles and stab them, and shouted "Kill!" He took the lead and charged at the remaining dozens of Japanese soldiers. More than a hundred of them.
Like tigers, the stormtroopers descended from the mountain and charged into the sheep, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with dozens of Japanese soldiers. The soldiers of Wang Dali's special agent company were particularly brave, killing many of them against the few and making the Japanese cry for father and mother.
When Jiang Hailong's sword saw blood, Wang Dali, who followed closely behind him, drew a gourd and a gourd, and he was ready to kill.
Jiang Hailong ordered that no prisoners should be taken, and all wounded Japanese soldiers would be remedied by new members. He required all new soldiers to see red with their bayonets to eliminate the fear of the first battle. The Japanese who were used to killing unarmed Chinese people were more powerful than them.
The anti-Japanese Tigers soldiers who stared at them let out bursts of desperate screams. Almost every fallen Japanese was stabbed more than a dozen times. Several Japanese who escaped towards the exit of the valley were shot down by sniper platoons.
In the first battle between the Anti-Japanese Tigers and the Japanese, they annihilated a well-equipped enemy squadron at the cost of more than fifty casualties.
The team members quickly cleaned up the battlefield and seized a total of two Type 92 heavy machine guns, one of which was blown up, six light machine guns, six mortars, 20 grenades, more than 100 rifles, and tens of thousands of ammunition.
issued, two hundred and twenty hand grenades, a pair of binoculars, a 120-meter dual-lens camera, five films, a map of Black Tiger Mountain, a radio station, three walkie-talkies and some canned dry food for the Japanese. One truck was damaged.
The remaining three vehicles can still be driven.
Jiang Hailong asked the soldiers to cut up all the dozens of war horses killed and injured by the Japanese with knives and throw them on the trucks. These things could provide the soldiers with a lot of protein and fat. With the transportation tools, he was reluctant to throw them away, and he also threw away the captured guns and ammunition.
Got on the truck, buried the bodies of the fallen comrades, and took photos of their gravesites for later memorials. He also took photos of the battlefield and took a close-up of the corpse of Squadron Leader Sato. He stripped off the Japanese soldiers' still intact uniforms and took them away.
They dug several large holes and buried the bodies. They told the soldiers to carefully carry the wounded. He, Wang Dali and another former National Army veteran who could drive drove a car and led the team back to the Black Tiger Mountain base area.
In the evening at the Black Tiger Mountain Station, the soldiers ate the fragrant horse meat hot pot stewed by the captain with Chinese herbal condiments. Except for the soldiers on duty, everyone happily drank the rice wine sent by the villagers and reminisced about the battle scenes during the day.
.
Special agent company commander Wang Dali said: "Our captain is a bull. Two companies dared to attack one Japanese squadron, but they were completely wiped out. He led the brothers to break the myth of the Japanese army's invincibility."
In the past, many national army units had an unwritten rule that they would only decide to take the initiative to attack the Japanese when they had an eight-to-one superiority in strength. Even so, they still lost more than they won. In fact, in addition to weapons and combat effectiveness, the more important reason is that
Because the troops were trying to preserve their power, they were not united and could not coordinate operations well. For example, when the anti-Japanese hero General Zhang Zizhong in the national army, regardless of personal grievances, fully assisted Pang Bingxun in the defense of Linyi, Chiang Kai-shek's two direct troops did not fight.
They escaped, causing a huge joke that a Japanese division achieved a complete victory against 120,000 Chinese troops.
Xiao Ma said with red eyes: "If we all had the ability of the captain, let alone a squadron, the Japanese would dare to attack a brigade or a regiment! Alas, I think back then our army of hundreds of thousands were defeated by the Japanese's hundreds of thousands.
It’s really shameful to chase and fight. If there were more commanders like the captain, so many comrades would have been killed in vain.”
The veterans of the former National Army were silent for a while.
Ma Long, a platoon leader with a background as a hunter, said: "Brothers, you should be happy after winning a battle. Why should you sigh? After following the captain, you will have more opportunities to avenge your dead comrades and fellow villagers. Come on, cheers!"
Several team members became excited after drinking and clamored to find the captain for a toast.