Xie Baoqing became the deputy company commander, and Ergou followed him to the seventh company and became the second platoon commander.
Only then did Wang Xuexin realize how many casualties there had been in the previous defensive battle. Each of these vacancies had to be filled with sacrifices.
Second squad leader Chen Hao also died.
This is what the instructor told Wang Xuexin. Wang Xuexin had just found his own place and spread out the quilt on the bed... Zhaojiayu had just been looted by the Japanese. Of course, there was no kang, so it was good to have a wooden bed to sleep on.
At this time, the instructor came up. He first asked about Wang Xuexin's injury, and then said: "Chen Hao is a good comrade! When he was dying, he spent his last savings, two silver dollars and five yuan.
The legal currency was donated to the army, and there was still blood on the legal currency. We were not willing to spend it, so we decided to keep it as a souvenir! It can also serve as an example and testimony for learning in the future!"
As he spoke, the instructor took out his notebook, flipped through it for a while, and then handed it to Wang Xuexin.
Wang Xuexin took a look and found an old and yellowed banknote inside. The wrinkles had been flattened. There were two big characters "五元" in the middle, and "Central Bank" written from right to left at the top. The portrait next to it was stained with blood.
The red becomes blurry.
Wang Xuexin stretched out his hand, but after hesitating for a moment, he retracted it and said, "Let the instructor keep it! I might lose it if I leave it here!"
The instructor nodded, covered the notebook and put it back in his pocket, and said heavily: "Comrade Wang Xuexin, don't put too much burden on you. They all sacrificed for the anti-Japanese cause and their sacrifices were valuable. We will never forget these good comrades.
Yes, we should turn our grief and anger into strength and fight more Japanese to avenge them!"
Wang Xuexin did not speak. He looked around at the subordinates who were looking at him. At least half of them were new faces.
This is the cruelty of war!
Wang Xuexin hasn't had time to adapt to this, but the soldiers seem to be used to it.
Or maybe they were not used to it on the battlefield, but it was already commonplace in this era of chaos.
Wang Xuexin spent two days training the troops to get familiar with the new faces.
The first and third squad leaders remained the same, Hu Zi and Zhang Qingcai, while the second squad leader was replaced by Liu Dazuo.
This batch of new recruits is different from usual. Most of them are veterans. They were temporarily recruited when the independent regiment was stationed in Zhaojiayu and fighting with the Japanese. Some of them did not return to the army because they wanted to stay on the front line... At this time, there was a call for large-scale production.
Building back to the second line means reclaiming wasteland for farming.
Five of them were bandits, and Wang Xuexin could see that they were still a little wary.
Among them was a man with a scar on his forehead, nicknamed Scarface, who was the leader of the group.
Wang Xuexin knew that to make the bandit obey, he had to suppress it, so he waved to call Scarface up while he was resting!
Scarface stood up in front of Wang Xuexin and saluted: "Report to the platoon leader, second squad soldier Liu Baosheng!"
This salute was given to the platoon leader, but there was dissatisfaction on his face.
Liu Baosheng was also a figure in Heiyun Village. His only other advantage was that he had a huge appetite and gained brute strength. When he came up, he would grab his opponent, lift him high and smash him to the ground. He would lose half his life even if he didn't die.
Wang Xuexin tied up his shoe strings and said: "I won't tell you any big truths. You just need to understand one truth. We are fighting the devils. The devils are not joking with you. What if you are in the army?"
If you don’t work hard on your idea, just go home as early as possible and don’t harm anyone here!”
The army is a place where coordination and cooperation are important. The biggest problem for soldiers who have fought bandits before is not that their individual qualities are not good. In fact, they all have two skills, and they are well fed and in good physical condition.
The problem is that they focus too much on individual performance, are aggressive, disobey orders, and do not care about the collective.
After being trained by Wang Xuexin like this, Scarface replied a little aggrievedly: "Platoon leader, I am not dissatisfied with you. You saved our lives and killed the second leader. You have real skills! We admire you.
A man of real skill! But..."
"But what?" Wang Xuexin asked doubtfully.
"But..." Scarface looked in the direction of Liu Dazuo, leaned forward and lowered his voice and said: "We can't work under an opera singer! How about we compete with Wu Sheng, and if he loses, the squad leader will let him
I’m coming!”
Wang Xuexin couldn't help but laugh. It turned out that this guy was troubled by this matter.
"I said Scarface!" Wang Xuexin raised his head and said, "What's the point of comparing our ability with our own people? If you have the ability to fight the Japanese, our Eighth Route Army will compete with the Japanese. The last time the martial arts students fought, they fought against the Japanese.
If you kill five Japs, if you fight more Japs, let alone the squad leader, I can be your platoon leader!"
"Really?" Scarface's eyes lit up.
"Of course it's true!" Wang Xuexin said: "Didn't my platoon leader also come from fighting against the Japanese?!"
Scarface responded and was so excited that he was eager to try.
He thought to himself, let's first make a squad leader, then platoon commander, company commander... When he becomes company commander, won't the boss become my soldiers and have to obey my orders?
This feeling is good!
Later, the scarred face actually asked others: "How many Japanese did our platoon leader fight?"
When the soldiers heard this, they laughed and started to persuade each other:
"If you want to surpass the platoon leader, then save it!"
"Don't even think about it in this life!"
"It might scare you to death if I tell you, but it's better not to know!"
…
Scarface was not convinced anymore: "Give me a number, we can catch up one day!"
Liu Dazuo stretched out a finger.
Scarface laughed: "I said how many there are, isn't it just ten?"
"What a beautiful idea!" Liu Dazuo replied: "Our platoon leader has at least a hundred Japs under his command, especially last time, when the car was blown up and set on fire, half of the road was set on fire, and two ammunition trucks were blown up.
There are at least fifty or sixty Japanese who were blown up and burned to death. If you add this up, a hundred people are not too much, right?"
The soldiers nodded in agreement:
"Although I can't count how many people were beaten, there were about a hundred people!"
"If you ask me, this is not a big deal! We, the platoon leader, are all picking up tough Japanese and beating them up. Can we just count them all?"
"That's right, the platoon leader fights all Japanese officers, machine gunners, or sharpshooters. Ordinary Japanese can't even look down on them!"
…
After being told this by the soldiers, the scarred face lost his temper.
Damn it, it's really not easy to be an officer in the Eighth Route Army.
The platoon leader killed over a hundred Japanese, the company commander, regiment commander, brigade commander...
Scarface didn't dare to think any further.
At this time, a sentence flashed in his mind: "There are mountains outside the mountains and people outside the mountains."
No wonder Shanmaozi fell into the hands of the platoon leader!
No wonder the bosses all obey the platoon leader!
No wonder we want to be the Eighth Route Army!
In short, in one sentence, this is the right path!