Bright Sword: From Soldier to Brigade Commander

After Commander Zu left, he left behind Chief of Staff Zhao and a communications team. Chief of Staff Zhao humbly bowed to Su Fei and saluted: "Although I am nominally the commander of the independent division, I know you are the commander, and I am just your assistant. Your military achievements and your relationship with Miss Fanglin are far beyond my reach. Strictly speaking, I am Commander Zu's representative, the quartermaster responsible for distributing military pay!"

Since the other party was so polite, Su Fei would not make it difficult: "How about this, in front of everyone, you are still the division commander, and I can be the advisor. I can participate in the specific tactical command."

Chief of Staff Zhao shook his head hurriedly.

In the end, we followed Su Fei's advice.

Chief of Staff Zhao was in charge of overall planning and training the troops, while Su Fei focused on studying the current situation, the Japanese army's combat effectiveness, and its tactical characteristics. He frequently held officer meetings to discuss issues and improve the officers' military literacy.

A simple ceremony was held in the army and Su Fei and Fang Lin were officially married.

Thinking of Baijia Town, Bai Yan, Zhiyuan and others, Su Fei's heart was filled with emotion.

This person has passed away!

Life is a road of no turning back!

Before entering the bridal chamber, I toasted and offered sacrifices in the direction of northwest Shanxi, wishing the two lovely women peace in heaven.

There are also more than thirty other female soldiers who claimed to be his concubines. May they rest in peace in heaven.

Only after the dim candle was blown out did Fanglin tell Su Fei the truth.

She was a peripheral member of the underground party, ordered to persuade her brother to go to the mountain village to recruit talents, and invited Su Fei to join his army. Her brother had repeatedly clashed with the Eighth Route Army and local armed forces. With Su Fei's joining, the focus shifted to fighting against Japan, almost eliminating internal friction. Now, although he isolated Su Fei, his gratitude to Su Fei completely changed his attitude towards the Eighth Route Army. He vowed not to hinder them, but to unite and fight together.

"Well, let's unite now?" Su Fei felt that his fight was very valuable and his mood improved a lot.

"Unite, who is afraid of you!"

"Stand together to the end?"

“A warm welcome!”

……

The troops were on the right track; the only problem was the lack of manpower.

After contacting the independent regiment, soon, Commander Xing Zhiguo came with a company of regular army troops, plus more than 500 basic militiamen from dozens of surrounding villages.

"Comrade Su Fei, we have been ordered to come and cooperate!"

Su Fei was overjoyed and immediately discussed with Commander Zhao to appoint Xing Zhiguo as the commander of the mountain artillery battalion, and to organize the 12 dowry mountain cannons and his own 5 into a battalion.

Start with the battalion-level units first, otherwise, the organization under Commander Zu will not be successfully approved.

Now, Su Fei has more than 2200 people under his command, organized into four battalions: a mountain artillery battalion, a mortar battalion, a light artillery battalion, and a special forces battalion, which is considered an infantry support battalion and also a water machine gun battalion. This battalion has 350 machine guns!

An infantry guard company was actually guarding the warehouse.

One month later.

The cold wind howled all day and all night, and heavy snow fell the next morning. The sky and the earth were in chaos, turning into a white fairy tale world.

"Urgent telegram, Commander Zu, urgent telegram!" Commander Zhao came to see Su Fei with a telegram, extremely anxious.

Su Fei took the telegram and saw that it was extremely urgent military information. The Japanese army had mobilized the 21st Division, the 33rd Division, three independent mixed brigades, two infantry divisions of the puppet army, and three cavalry regiments, and was about to encircle Su Fei's independent division. For this purpose, the Japanese North China Front Command specially formulated a plan.

Xing Zhiguo also reported the same problem through the Eighth Route Army's intelligence channels.

Haha, you really think highly of me.

Things have come to this point and we must evacuate.

Commander Zhao immediately pointed out that his actual identity was a quartermaster and he wanted to evacuate with his personnel first.

Ok.

Commander Zu's order was to have Su Fei's troops march north back to the mountains west of Baishishan Mountain to join the main force of the group army.

Row!

Su Fei immediately mobilized the troops and formulated a detailed plan. Xing Zhiguo was appointed as the commander of the first regiment, and he himself was the commander of the second regiment. Each person led two battalions and marched north, passing through the gap between the first and third divisions of the Eighth Route Army, and continued north to Baishishan.

The cavalry platoon will go out first, conduct reconnaissance and search, and advance to ensure safety.

Who knew that they would cause a sensation soon after they set out!

This was a daytime operation, and the villagers in the north were very puzzled. They had not seen Su Fei's troops on the move for a long time. They had been training inside and outside the county. Why did they suddenly move?

After asking the cavalry platoon, the people came to the county town to ask to see Su Fei, "Aren't we going to fight? Let's join the army!"

"We believe in a unit that can destroy the Japanese 110th Division."

Within three hours, more than two thousand people arrived with rifles and pistols.

Residents of the county town, as well as residents in areas to the south and east, also joined the army to fight.

Su Fei was really overjoyed.

They immediately selected and eventually gathered three thousand men and mixed them with the existing troops.

An artillery regiment was organized, with Xing Zhiguo as the regiment commander. It had 17 mountain cannons, more than 10 infantry guns, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns, which were organized into three battalions with a total strength of 1,800 people!

An infantry regiment, 1,500 men, including a mortar battalion, a machine gun battalion, and an infantry battalion. 1800 men. Su Fei was in direct command.

A supplementary regiment of 1500 people, including a baggage battalion, an infantry battalion, and a recruit battalion. Duan Peng was promoted to regimental commander.

A special cavalry company is responsible for protecting the division headquarters.

Quickly organize and promulgate disciplinary regulations, coordinate officers and soldiers, and after a day of running-in, set off immediately.

It went very smoothly because of the support of the Eighth Route Army. Local guerrillas even served as guides in the front, and Captain Xing Zhiguo played a key role.

We have arrived at Baishishan.

An accident happened.

Commander Zu's troops did not come to join the forces, but were ordered to retreat westward.

retreat?

The staff officer who stayed behind to deliver the message left after he finished speaking.

Is there really no one in charge of the independent division?

That's weird!

Su Fei immediately felt something was wrong.

After destroying the 110th Division, Su Fei's reputation spread like wildfire, and he was definitely a thorn in the eyes of the Japanese army!

Urgently notify all troops to prepare for battle immediately.

There is a mountainous area around Baishishan, which is sparsely populated and difficult to supply. Fortunately, ideal combat sites are everywhere. They immediately chose a mountain village that had been burned and reduced to ruins by the Japanese. The three regiments built fortifications based on a village and the nearby mountains respectively.

"The enemy has probably surrounded us. We've fallen into their trap. We must immediately dig a good fortification system within three hours!"

Under Su Fei's mandatory order, 5300 officers and soldiers immediately took action and dug frantically.

Starting from the individual pits, to the connected horse-tooth trenches, to the cat-ear holes on the edge of the trenches and deep tunnels, the officers and soldiers worked enthusiastically while shouting slogans.

"Sweat more in peacetime and bleed less in war!"

"Every second counts, and the fortifications are completed! The Japs are in a headache, and the position is secure!"

Send some female soldiers to shout slogans, carry out propaganda and agitation, and motivate officers and soldiers.

Su Fei also participated in the labor himself and set an example.

The telegraph team kept in constant contact with Commander Zu and the Eighth Route Army to learn about the situation outside.

Intelligence from the Eighth Route Army arrived first. "Recently, we've discovered that several Japanese troops are moving toward Baishishan! The target may be the Su Fei Independent Division!"

"The previous intelligence may be wrong. It may be false information deliberately released by the enemy!"

"Comrade Su Fei's independent division must move quickly or establish a strong position on the spot."

Fanglin was responsible for contacting Commander Zu, but there had been no information.

No information is the biggest information. Something has gone wrong on Commander Zu's side.

By dusk, the independent division had established a basic position, with three regiments arranged in a V-shaped formation, supporting each other and 1000 meters apart. They dug positions around the core village, and in addition to infantry trenches, they also built anti-tank trenches and anti-infantry mine belts.

Su Fei was constantly on patrol, giving instructions on the construction methods of the fortifications, modification measures, etc.

The cannons were dug into inclined artillery holes so they could be pulled in for concealment.

The artillery shells and other items were stored in ammunition depots dug out of the ground, and small ones were loaded into the depots separately to avoid explosions after being attacked by enemy heavy artillery.

Su Fei prepared for the worst.

There is no shortage of food, but it needs to be distributed immediately.

The water source is still good, and there is a lot of water hidden in the water cellars in these mountain villages.

Strictly speaking, this area is not a continuous mountainous area. Some places are low-lying and there are even small streams flowing. This is why Su Fei chose this area as his base.

The most difficult thing to arrange was actually the military horses. They captured a lot of Japanese military horses, thousands of them. Most of them were given to the civilians who participated in the war to take back, and they still had 800 horses. Later, the civilians came to join the army and brought more than 1000 horses.

They could only dig trenches in the center of the position to keep them in confinement.

Su Fei had already fought hard, and all these war horses were killed by the Japanese army. It was a good thing that they were really killed or injured, because they were high-quality military rations for the troops.

At night, the soldiers ate and drank their fill and took turns resting.

Nothing happened?

Midnight is the time when Su Fei is most nervous.

At three o'clock in the morning, Su Fei was wide awake and got up to observe the distance through a telescope.

At dawn, a cloudy yellow cloud appeared on the horizon.

The Japanese army is coming.

More than a thousand meters away from Su Fei's troops' position, the Japanese army came to a complete stop.

The troops in the front were also very sparse, mainly consisting of cavalry.

Japanese troops were discovered in the east, north, west and south.

Su Fei sent a message to the officers and soldiers, asking them to quickly enter the cover posts of the combat positions, leaving only a few personnel outside to monitor and observe.

Fang Lin arrived, her face flushed with anger, tears welling up in her eyes. "How could there be a brother in this world who would betray his own sister!"

Su Fei comforted her: "Wife, you are wrong. There must be something wrong over there."

Fanglin was reminded and became anxious, and wanted to take people there to take a look personally.

"Okay, I'll go too. The problem is that we have to defeat the Japanese."

The Japanese sent a representative, holding a white flag. Su Fei sent a junior officer who was fluent in Japanese to inquire. After a while, the officer returned with a serious face and said, "Commander, the Japanese just arrived in the form of a major. He has been ordered to negotiate. Can you talk to their division commander face to face?"

The officer pointed to an open space in front, 500 meters away from Su Fei’s army’s front line.

Su Fei thought for a moment and decided to go, but Fang Lin refused to allow it.

Su Fei frowned, and she immediately pouted obediently, "I know! Go ahead!"

Su Fei wanted to know what was going on with the enemy.

He rode a maroon warhorse, carrying only a pistol, and rushed over there to negotiate.

Both Captain Xing Zhiguo and Captain Duan Peng opposed Su Fei going forward, but they were in their respective positions and did not have time to stop him.

Soon, a Japanese cavalryman also came from the opposite Japanese army. He was about fifty years old, of medium build, fat, dark, with a red beard, a saber slung over his shoulder, and a terrifying murderous light flashing from his triangular eyes.

The two sides stood 20 meters apart, sizing each other up. The old Japanese soldier on the other side raised his lips, looking extremely proud. "Are you Su Fei, the de facto commander of an independent division of a certain group army of the Nationalist Army?"

Su Fei nodded. His Japanese was very advanced now. Since the devil asked in Chinese, he used Japanese: "I am indeed you. May I ask if you are Lieutenant General Nagatsu Saki, the commander of the 21st Division?"

The old devil also nodded.

"Your Excellency, I have long admired your name. This time, I, the division commander, am not here to persuade you to surrender. I know you will not surrender. The Empire has already paid a heavy price for this fantasy. I simply want to admire your grace and tell you that you are in a desperate situation."

"Our agents have infiltrated your Nationalist Army system and have already incited the main generals of your newest group army to defect. They've arrested the commander, your brother-in-law, and are cooperating with us to lure you to Baishi Mountain. Currently, the Imperial Army ambushed nearby includes the entire 21st Division, the entire 33rd Division, and three independent mixed brigades, totaling over 3 troops. In addition, there are two infantry divisions and three cavalry regiments of the Imperial Army. The total force is 2. Commander Gangcun is in command personally, and I will be the frontline commander. Do you understand?"

Su Fei understood.

The Japanese are really evil.

"Now that the situation has been explained, it proves that you, General Nagatsunobi, are a sinister and cunning fox, as well as a confident commander. There is nothing else to say. Let's start the war now!" Su Fei said calmly.

The old devil Yongjin Zuobi kept staring at Su Fei, trying to spy on his inner weakness.

"War is inevitable, but don't you feel you're trapped in a desperate situation surrounded by opponents twenty times your size?"

How could Su Fei be frightened by a word from the devil?

"so what?"

Nagatsu Sakubi sneered, "You and your 5,300 men will all be buried in this wilderness. Do you really want all your men to die with you?"

Su Fei asked without hesitation: "Mr. Nagatsu Saku, you are surrounded by 450 million Chinese soldiers and civilians. You will surely die in the wilderness, in a foreign land. Aren't you afraid and guilty? Do you have to drag so many young Japanese people to their deaths here?"

Yongjinsai smiled awkwardly, his murderous aura grew heavier, and his eyes became more vicious. "If you have the ambition, then let's talk about the future world order!"

The old devil spoke incessantly, citing classics and boasting that the Japanese army would win, bringing glory to the yellow race and East Asia, and that China would definitely lose! He listed twelve reasons in one breath.

Who doesn’t know how to talk big?

Su Fei immediately started the topic from the Pacific War, linked it to Europe, and declared that the Japanese army would be defeated. He gave solid arguments and also made a detailed deduction of the war situation.

"You?" Half an hour later, cold sweat covered the forehead of the old Japanese soldier Nagatsusabi!

Su Fei's words hit him directly, and he instantly felt that Su Fei was right!