In midsummer, when the sun is blazing, most country people go out early and come back late when they go to the city, hoping to stay cool and refreshing.
Just after midnight, there was an endless stream of people entering the city from the southern checkpoint. Those pushing carts, pulling carts, and carrying baskets and burdens. At a glance, there were all kinds of men and women.
Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu each drove a donkey cart filled with large, round and bright watermelons.
Following the crowd through the checkpoint, the donkey cart went all the way north, walked three hundred meters east to the intersection, and stopped at the gate of Xianghe Hotel.
Shanzi jumped out of the car and walked into the hotel alone.
At a short time, the donkey cart, led by Ma Xiaoyue, drove into a private house. This house was the residence of Ma Xiaoyue's natal family. It was located southwest of Xianghe Hotel, with only a north-south laneway in between.
Aunt Ma is nearly sixty years old. Her husband died young because of the revolution, and she has been living single.
The four young men worked together and pulled out two packages from under the watermelon. The packages contained various guns and ammunition, as well as Japanese uniforms and other items.
At noon, five former task force members, including Xiaolong and Xiaohu, checked into the Xianghe Hotel.
At this point, all nine members of the sharp knife squad headed by Shanzi have arrived.
Starting from nine o'clock in the evening, the northeast wind pushed up pieces of floating clouds and blew non-stop.
It was already ten o'clock in the night when Zhao Danian led a company across the Linlan Highway and stopped on a sandy beach east of Wenquan Village.
After another ten minutes, the deputy company commanders of the second and third companies each led two platoons and rushed to the gravel beach from the northeast and southeast.
After announcing the combat requirements, Zhao Danian commanded the team to march straight to the combat location.
At this time, there were six carriages left on the gravel beach. Yanni and six soldiers were waiting on the spot. They all belonged to the third platoon led by Jin Ye.
During this battle, the three platoons of the company acted as a rescue team and were responsible for battlefield rescue missions.
Jin Ye led most of the team members to the front line, participating in the battle while evacuating the casualties. Yanni was responsible for the reception and care at the rear.
When the troops arrived at the large grassy beach on the east bank of the Wenquan River, they saw searchlights swinging left and right on several towers opposite, illuminating most of the grassy beach as if it were daytime.
At this time, Zhao Danian instructed the machine gunner that once the sharp knife squad was unable to control the tower immediately, the machine gunner was only allowed to shoot down the sentry on the tower and was not allowed to shoot out the searchlight.
Zhao Danian's instructions are also a planned plan. In this way, the enemy will be completely exposed to the light, which will help us hit the target more accurately.
Mao Yao was close to the center of the grassy beach. The soldiers followed Zhao Danian and fell down one by one, crawling for dozens of meters and setting up their positions in a half-moon shape, only a few meters away from the edge of the light.
Just as the main battlefield entered a war-like state, the second company and one platoon rushed to three kilometers northwest of the county seat and set up an ambush in a sorghum field. Their mission was to contain the No. 4 Squadron from Guocun who was rushing to assist the Japanese base camp.
A platoon of the third company was divided into two. One group was hidden about five kilometers east of the county town, and the other group was hidden about four kilometers west of the county town.
The tasks of these two ambush points are that the former is responsible for containing the Japanese Third Squadron coming from Sangtian, and the latter is responsible for blocking the Second Squadron stationed in the Chiling area.