At dawn, the battle in Xinzhuang was coming to an end. Occasionally, one or two gunshots broke the morning light. It was the guerrilla search team searching for and suppressing the remaining enemies.
The explosion ignited several large tile-roofed houses in Xinzhuang, with thick smoke billowing and hot flames flying everywhere. The walls of some courtyards became riddled with holes, all of which were craters left by the battle.
Although Han Feihu's anti-Japanese and national salvation brigade has a sufficient number of four to five hundred people, except for the core of more than a hundred people with strong fighting ability from water bandits, the rest are a ragtag group.
On the contrary, the guerrilla officers and soldiers have experienced the test of fire, and they have fought face-to-face with the Japs. Therefore, in the face of the guerrillas' surprise attack, Han Feihu and the others' resistance was quickly defeated.
"Let's go, hurry up——"
The guerrilla officers and soldiers with smoke-blackened faces were unkempt and bloodshot at the moment, but their fighting spirit was high. Wherever they stood with their guns, they were as hard as rocks, and their solemn gazes made the prisoners palpitate.
A group of disheveled members of the Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Brigade who had been disarmed were driven out by gun-toting guerrilla officers and soldiers from various places and gathered in the open space in front of the Xinzhuang Ancestral Hall.
The battle ended successfully. Those members of the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade who resisted were all sent to see the King of Hell, while those who voluntarily threw away their rifles and surrendered became prisoners.
"Tuan Zuo, you really guessed it right. This bastard named Han is really a little devil who has taken refuge in——"
Battalion Commander Wang Hu's face was still stained with blood, he picked up an eighty-percent-new light machine gun with a crooked handle, and his words were filled with anger.
The Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade was originally an anti-Japanese armed force under the Ninth Guerrilla Column, but now it is killing its own compatriots with machine guns secretly funded by the little devils. How can this not make people angry?
The blacksmith, the deputy battalion commander, mocked: "These little devils are really willing to spend a lot of money. I gave them six machine guns alone. It's a pity that these losers don't know how to use them, so they got us a lot of money."
Although the machine gun is very powerful, it does not happen overnight for an illiterate person to skillfully operate a machine gun and exert its combat effectiveness.
Moreover, a machine gun not only needs to be able to fire, but also requires maintenance. After all, the machine gun has a fast rate of fire. If the daily maintenance cannot keep up, the barrel will be scrapped after a short period of time.
Although the Japanese had allocated a batch of weapons and ammunition to the Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Brigade in order to strengthen them, they wanted them to attack the guerrillas from behind.
However, Han Feihu had the intention of preserving his strength, but he was not yet proficient in the new weapons and equipment, so his combat effectiveness dropped, and Yang Ling and the others took over.
Although a large number of weapons and ammunition were seized, and the culprit who murdered the family members of Zhangjiaji was brought to justice, Yang Ling still looked serious.
The Japanese have now begun to use various means to win over and divide the anti-Japanese armed forces behind enemy lines. In the future, the situation will be more severe and the battle will be more cruel. He is worried about the future of the guerrillas.
"Report——" While Yang Ling and the others were counting their seizures, a veteran with firm eyes came over and stood at attention and saluted.
Yang Ling raised his head and asked, "How is it?"
The veteran replied with a serious face: "Han Feihu was so stubborn that he died without asking anything."
Han Feihu tried to escape during the battle, but was shot. Although his heart and other vital parts were not hit, he died of excessive blood loss within a short time.
"Damn, this beast is so easy to take advantage of! I still want to take him back to Zhangjiaji and show his head to the public."
When he heard that Han Feihu was dead, Wang Huzi still cursed and muttered unwillingly, but now that the person was dead, there was no need to bring back a corpse.
"All his men have confessed. The person who contacted them was Liu Liang, the former rich man of Wangjiazhuang, and he also brought the weapons." After Wang Huzi finished cursing, the veteran continued to add.
When he heard that it was the traitor Liu Liang who persuaded the anti-Japanese and national salvation brigade people to surrender to the Japs according to the bridge-building front line, which led to the tragedy in Zhangjiaji, the grumpy Wang Huzi immediately jumped up.
"It turns out it's the bastard named Liu. Where are the others? I'm going to kill this scum alive!"
The veteran said helplessly: "I heard that the man named Liu was still in Xinzhuang yesterday, but I went to look among the prisoners just now and couldn't find him. I guess he ran away in the chaos."
When he heard that the traitor Liu Liang had run away, Wang Huzi was still angry and cursed: "What do you do for food? A big living person can run away. Now send people to chase him. I want him dead or alive!"
It was still dark when Yang Ling and the others launched their attack on Xinzhuang. It was dark and they were not familiar with the terrain. They didn't expect Liu Liang to take advantage of the chaos and run away, which was a pity.
"Okay, it's been half an hour, and I can't catch up." Yang Ling waved his hand to stop the order to send people to pursue him: "If you can run away, the monk can't run away from the temple. As long as he is in Qinghe Town, sooner or later he will have to deal with it.
Got him."
Now with the destruction of the Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Brigade, the only place where the traitor Liu Liang lives is with the little devil in Qinghe Town. If he can't catch up now, it doesn't mean that Yang Ling can't deal with him.
His special force had just been formed and had yet to make any achievements, so it happened to be sacrificing the traitor Liu Liang's head to the knife.
"Sir, the prisoners have been counted. There are 305 in total, and there are 181 of them." Soon, someone came to report.
"Six crooked light machine guns, three grenade launchers, 300 Hanyang rifles, and 23 short guns were seized..."
It can be said that the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade was basically wiped out by the guerrilla raids. From then on, there was no such armed force as the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade in this area.
Naturally, Yang Ling would not follow the truth and ordered: "Write a report on the specific situation and send it to the column commander. The Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade has rebelled and surrendered to the enemy. Our department has annihilated it!"
Now, regardless of whether the guerrilla column commander believed it or not, the Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Brigade had been destroyed anyway. Yang Ling believed that they would not waste time and energy investigating a team that had been destroyed.
"What to do with the more than 300 prisoners? Do you want them?" said the taciturn deputy battalion commander Blacksmith, wiping his neck.
In his opinion, the Anti-Japanese National Salvation Brigade had massacred so many people in Zhangjia, so it would be better to kill them all to avoid wasting food.
Yang Ling didn't think so. After all, those who surrendered to the Japanese were their main leaders, but most of them were just following orders, and there was no need to kill them all.
Yang Ling thought for a while and ordered: "Go and interrogate one by one. Anyone who has killed or set fire to Zhangjiaji will be screened out for me. Those who have not committed any crimes will be incorporated into our team. Those who have committed crimes, blacksmith, you
Know how to do it."
There was no emotion at all on the blacksmith's resolute face. He knew that he had always done the dirty work. Without saying a word, he went straight to the prisoners in front of the ancestral hall with his bloody saber.
The screening of more than 300 people was a heavy workload. Fortunately, the people of the Anti-Japanese and National Salvation Brigade were now facing the cold muzzle of a gun and had become a piece of meat on the chopping board. They almost answered all questions.
Soon, more than 150 people who participated in the Zhangjiaji massacre were identified, and some usually vicious water bandits were also isolated and taken into a courtyard.
In just over ten minutes, the deputy battalion commander Blacksmith walked out of the yard covered in the smell of blood. The veterans following him all turned pale.
The raging fire burned, and the smell of barbecue filled Xinzhuang. All the dead were not buried, but were set on fire. Looking at the sizzling human oil, the prisoners who were still alive were all
Legs feel weak.
"I had known this, why did I do it in the first place..." Wang Beard withdrew his eyes from the burning oil in the fire, murmured to himself, shook his head and sighed.