It was night, the moon and stars were sparse, and the hazy moonlight shrouded the earth like a wisp of gauze. Such a beautiful scene was disturbed by the sound of horse hooves.
"Comrades, hurry up, follow the team, don't fall behind!" The correspondents of each company shouted back and forth while riding on their horses.
Under the leadership of Zhang Dabiao, the new regiment withdrew from the battle along the old path of the Yellow River and marched northwest, with the purpose of reinforcing Wu Qin and other troops in the Dongming Dynasty, or to poke holes in the 35th Division.
As usual, Zhang Dabiao sent the reconnaissance company directly under the regiment headquarters to be the sharp knife company of the entire marching team, responsible for the task of clearing the way for the entire regiment.
"Stop advancing, rest where you are, and the platoon leader will take people to guard!" Liang Shengquan, commander of the reconnaissance company, ordered.
The reconnaissance company also participated in the battle during the day. After withdrawing from the battle, it replenished some ammunition and then set off first. At this time, the soldiers' legs felt like they were filled with lead.
"It's eight o'clock in the evening, we'll leave in twenty minutes!"
"Li Quan, compare with the map to see where you are now!" Liang Shengquan issued several orders in succession.
"Company Commander, you can still know the approximate location at dawn. It's so dark now that I can't figure out where it is? But the general direction is correct!" Li Quan scratched his head in embarrassment.
"What you are saying is nonsense. You are a local from Dongming. If you still get lost, just bang your head against the wall!" Liang Shengquan said angrily.
The reason why Zhou Weihan asked the New Regiment to reinforce Dongming was because when the New Regiment first arrived in southwestern Shandong, it was based on Dongming County. Both the New Regiment and the Independent Regiment absorbed many local people.
These people are familiar with the local situation in Dongming.
"Company commander, haven't you been staying in Dongming for a long time? Why are you still asking me?"
"What are you talking about? Our company is the sharp knife company of the whole regiment. We took the wrong route. It is a small shame and a delay in the mission. Go and take two people to a nearby village for a walk!" Liang Shengquan said with a glare.
"Yes!" Li Quan responded, greeted the two soldiers with whom he was close, and disappeared into the dark night with a puff of smoke.
Liang Shengquan did not dare to sit on the ground to rest. Instead, he leaned against a big tree to rely on his strength and looked at the time from time to time. Seeing that the departure time was getting closer, Li Quan and the others still did not return, and Liang Shengquan couldn't help but worry.
Suddenly, there was a burst of gunfire in the distance, and the soldiers of the reconnaissance company quickly began to assemble.
"Company commander, the gunfire came from due north. It was the sound of the 38-meter cover and the flower trap!" the platoon leader in charge of the alert said first.
"Li Quan used the flower trap. He must have encountered the enemy. This is our base area. If the enemy appears here, there will definitely be many in number. Correspondent, stay where you are and use the walkie-talkie to contact the regiment headquarters immediately to report the situation.
, the rest of them will come with me to support!" Liang Shengquan waved his hand and led the reconnaissance company to the location of the battle.
After the Thirty-fifth Division broke through the old route of the Yellow River, Harada Xiongyoshi responded to Nakazawa Mitsuo's request and sent an infantry brigade to Caoxian County to join the Japanese army of the Sixteenth Division.
Because the Japanese troops of the 16th Division were destroyed too quickly under the powerful artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army and did not have time to send a final farewell telegram, the Japanese troops of the 35th Division did not know about this yet.
Liang Shengquan sent Li Quan to circle around in order to determine the current specific location. Coincidentally, the group of little devils who went to reinforce were even less familiar with the situation in Dongming. The personnel sent by both sides to explore the road collided at the entrance of the village.
A positive one.
Li Quan was hiding behind the earthen wall at the entrance of the village. His right ear was in burning pain. When the people on both sides came face to face, they couldn't help but be startled. After Li Quan reacted, he subconsciously swept the bullets over and knocked down the two little Japs.
The little devil reacted equally quickly, and a bullet grazed Li Quan's ear.
"We are unlucky. Every time we go out to explore, we can meet little devils. Listening to the sound of gunfire, this group of little devils has about forty people at least. Now we don't dare to take the initiative to attack because we don't know how many of us there are.
, I’m afraid I’m going to end up like this this time!” Li Quan said with a smile.
As he spoke, he used the light reflected from the little devil's helmet in the moonlight to spot the opportunity, poked his head out, and used the flower mechanism in his hand to shoot a short shot directly into the little devil's helmet. In order to save bullets, he could only use burst fire to hit the opponent.
The little devil pressure.
"What are you afraid of? Keep at it, the company commander will arrive with his men in a moment!" Another soldier replied nonchalantly.
"I'm not afraid, but you, Sanshunzi, are very skilled. Less than half a year after joining the army, you were transferred to the reconnaissance company by the company commander. Unfortunately, you have a wooden head. Why can't you turn your head? Let's
There are reinforcements, but there are no Japs on the opposite side? A large number of Japs are probably not far away from here. They must be rushing here when they hear the gunshots. I don’t want the company commander to bring people over, otherwise our entire reconnaissance company will have to
Fold it here!" Li Quan said with a stern expression.
Since the reconnaissance company carried a high-power walkie-talkie, it left marks along the way and kept moving forward, putting a distance of more than twenty miles from the main force of the new regiment.
"Give me a shot!" After a short confrontation, the little Jaap Sergeant finally figured out the situation of the person on the other side. Following the little Jaap Sergeant's order, three 89-type grenade launchers were aimed at Li Quan and Li Quan.
The earth wall where they were hiding began to be shelled. At the same time, more than thirty Japanese soldiers were divided into two groups, one group attacked from the front, and the other group tried to outflank the enemy from the side.
"Come on, little devil, grandpa is here, fight here!" Li Quan shouted, then changed his position, and then a grenade exploded on the spot.
While the two sides were fighting, several figures slipped out of the village. The leader was also a soldier from the reconnaissance company, and they immediately found Li Quan.
"The village chief of Houjiaji is organizing the villagers to evacuate. We need to stop the attack for at least ten minutes!" The soldier responsible for notifying the villagers to evacuate said to Li Quan: "By the way, this is the time for the Houjiaji militia to evacuate."
team leader!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Comrade, there are too few of you. I have brought all the weapons our militia has!"
Li Quan lowered his head after hearing this: "Captain Hou, just leave this place to us. The little devils may have been sent to block the entrance to another village by now. If you stay here, what will the villagers do?"
After the exchange of fire between the two sides, when the Japanese army on the opposite side hesitated, Li Quan and the others could have safely evacuated under the cover of night, but what about the people in the village?
The Eighth Route Army was discovered at the entrance of the village, and the Japs would definitely not let go of the people in the village. For this reason, Li Quan and the others decided without hesitation to stay and block the Japanese army, buying time for the villagers in Houjiaji to evacuate.
Captain Hou held a shell gun and kept firing at the little devils who were rushing towards him. Hearing what Li Quan said, his heart was agitated, and then he said: "We are all here, so we can't control so much. There are many trails out of the village."
Here, it’s so dark, how many people can the little devil block?”
While they were talking, a militiaman stayed on the spot and fired due to lack of experience in fighting the Japs. He was immediately targeted by the Japs' Type 89 grenade and fell into a pool of blood.
The two sides faced off for five or six minutes, but the Japs were unable to reach the wall. The price they paid was the heroic sacrifice of a soldier from the reconnaissance company and four militiamen.
"Li Quan, I'm out of bullets!" the soldier responsible for reporting the news to the village said, touching his empty bullet belt.
The flower trap used by Li Quan had long been used up. Now he replaced it with the 38 cap used by another reconnaissance company soldier. He turned to look at Captain Hou who was shot in the abdomen, leaving Captain Hou with two bullets.
grenade.
"Lao Hou, you are tough enough and a man!"
Captain Hou leaned against the earth wall, endured the pain and unscrewed the back cover of the grenade, and slowly hid the two grenades in his arms, with a meaningful smile on his lips: "With these two grenades, this response should be enough."
Got it!"
At this moment, the little devils saw that the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side had no ammunition, and they rushed forward one by one.
"Sanshunzi, I will teach you another rule today. On the battlefield, the soldiers of the new regiment have never been shot in the back. They put on their bayonets and fight with the little devils!" Li Quan shouted, jumping from behind the wall.
And out.
At this moment, the little devils also started to tease them, and in the blink of an eye, more than a dozen little devils surrounded Li Quan and San Shunzi.
The little Japanese sergeant was extremely frightened by this encounter. The opponent only had a few people, and his opponent was an unsatisfied infantry squad. However, he failed to capture the opponent, and instead suffered more than a dozen casualties.
"You guys, which unit of the Eighth Route Army are we from?" The little devil sergeant planned to take the opportunity to find out the unit number of the Eighth Route Army in front of him.
"Hey, grandpa is not afraid to tell you. Your grandpa and I are from the New Regiment of the Eighth Route Army's Southwest Shandong Military Division. We were the ones who killed the Fourth Cavalry Brigade in Shangqiu. What's going on, come here and die?" Li Quan finished speaking and pointed his bayonet.
The little devil sergeant.
"Haha, your grandfather's name is Sanshunzi. Little devil, remember whose hands you died in!"
The little Japanese sergeant was a veteran from the early days of the war. He had spent a lot of time in China. Of course he understood what his grandfather meant, and he immediately roared: "Baga!"
With a wave of his hand, three little devils rushed toward Li Quan with bayonets in hand. However, San Shunzi on the other end fell into a pool of blood under the siege of several little devils.
"Chinese, you are a respectable opponent. Surrender, otherwise you will end up like him!" the little Japanese sergeant said in an attempt to surrender.
Li Quan covered the wound on his abdomen and used his rifle to hold himself up from falling to the ground. He turned his head and glanced at San Shunzi, who was lying on the ground dying, his eyes turning red.
"Okay!" Li Quan said, leaving the rifle on the ground. He lost his support and his whole body was trembling as if he was about to fall down at any time. However, his right hand touched the dagger on his waist.
"Youxi, you are a Chinaman who knows the current affairs!" the little Japanese sergeant laughed crazily.
"Fuck you, uncle!" Taking advantage of the little Jaap Sergeant's relaxation, Li Quan tried his best to knock the little Jaap Sergeant down, and then sealed his throat with a clean knife.
"Haha, damn, it's worth it. I gave you a backrest before I died!" Li Quan turned over and looked at the moon getting closer and closer in the sky. With the sound of the bayonet stabbing into his flesh, he suddenly realized
, the moon is so close to me.
The remaining less than ten little Japs carefully inspected the corpses of every Eighth Route Army soldier in order to retaliate.
Captain Hou listened to the footsteps in his ears, and his eyes that had been closed suddenly opened. The anger gushing out of his eyes made the little devil in front of him shiver in his heart.
Immediately, there was an explosion, and Captain Hou and the little devil were crushed under the collapsed earth wall.
"Baga, are these Eighth Route Army crazy?" The surviving little Japanese army looked at the scene in front of them and said in shock. This group of Japanese soldiers had been stationed around Zheng County for a long time to confront the national army. They had no experience of fighting against the Eighth Route Army before.
Liang Shengquan, who was rushing to the battlefield, heard the gunshots stop and then heard another explosion. His heart sank and he quickened his pace.
"Da da da!"
More than 20 commandos from the reconnaissance company pulled the triggers and opened fire with the flower traps in their hands, knocking down the little Japs who were cleaning the battlefield.
"Company commander, all died. Li Quan, San Shunzi, Wu Dahao, and four militiamen all died!" A soldier from the reconnaissance company said sadly after inspecting the battlefield.
Liang Shengquan looked around at the corpses arranged together, suppressed the grief in his heart, and squeezed his fingers until they turned white: "They are all good people. They are soldiers of our new regiment. They did not embarrass our Eighth Route Army. It is because we came late!"
"The main force of the Japanese army must be nearby. They may have already rushed towards them. Take the corpses and retreat through the village!"
"Yes!" The soldiers of the reconnaissance company responded in unison, and then several people came out to carry the bodies of the sacrificed soldiers on their backs.
This was a sudden encounter. Although the battle was short, the scene was extremely tragic.
Participants on the Eighth Route Army side included three main force soldiers and five Houjiazhai militiamen. The Japanese side had about forty troops, equipped with light machine guns and grenade launchers.
In this situation where there was a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides and the disparity in weapons and equipment, the eight soldiers relied on their flesh and blood and at the cost of heroic sacrifice of all the Japanese soldiers, killing and wounding nearly 30 Japanese soldiers, and successfully saved the lives of the villagers in Houjiazhai.
Safe transfer bought time.
Although the scale of this battle was small, some people have always remembered it. Three Eighth Route Army soldiers and five fellow villagers died trying to cover the evacuation of the villagers.
After the war, the villagers of Houjiazhai found out through the local government and after many days of hard work that the soldiers who died in Houjiazhai were three members of the reconnaissance company of the New Regiment of the Southwest Shandong Military Division of the Eighth Route Army.
Warrior, Li Quan, Liang Sanshun, Wu Dahao.
Subsequently, the burial ground for the martyrs' bones was found outside Houjiazhai Village. Eight old people in Houjiazhai Village took out the coffins prepared for themselves and buried the eight martyrs again.
In the following decades, the land of China went through many changes, and the folks who experienced this incident passed away one after another. However, every Qingming Festival, the folks in Houjiazhai would spontaneously go to the cemetery to pay their respects.
The inscription on the tombstone has gone through wind and rain, and is even unclear, but it is still upright, guarding the entire Houjiazhai like a guardian angel.