After some pleasantries, Wang Ping arrived at the brigade headquarters without hesitation and directly stated the purpose of his trip.
"Commander Zhang, map!" Cheng Xiao did not answer immediately, but put out the map.
"Old Wang, there is a county town less than 20 kilometers away from the copper mine. There are nearly 3,000 Japanese and puppet troops stationed in it. Once the mine is attacked, they will definitely send troops to reinforce. I want to take this opportunity to give the Japanese and puppet troops
Come on hard!"
"Since the army was expanded, we have never experienced a real battle. I want to use this opportunity to let you set up a stage for us to ambush the Japanese reinforcements~"
"In normal times, such a large combat mission would definitely need to be reported to the military division, or even the military region. But now that the commander has made the independent brigade fully cooperate with your orders, I have no problem even pulling the entire independent brigade out!".
Needless to say, this is indeed a very bold idea.
Wang Ping's eyes lit up and he asked, "Lao Cheng, this is not your usual style."
Cheng Xiao had no worries and answered directly: "I also learned a lot from you, Lao Wang, about the problem I have. I also learned a lot from you, but courage is the most important!"
After making a joke, Cheng Xiao pointed directly at the map and asked: "Old Wang, the Japanese troops in the copper mine are very strong. But if you only need one regiment, there must be one regiment. I plan to separate Zeng Quan's regiment."
Here you go, and then assign a company of mountain artillery, a platoon of the reconnaissance company, a company of the guard battalion, and a company of the engineer battalion!"
"I will personally command the remaining troops and find a place to eat the Japanese reinforcements!"
"No problem!" Wang Ping replied readily.
Knowing that he had to fight with his old regiment commander again, and that he was under the direct command of the old regiment commander, the more than 2,000 soldiers of the independent brigade immediately became excited.
In the eyes of many people, the old regiment leader has never failed against the Japanese.
Fighting with the old regiment leader means victory and military exploits. Therefore, the morale of the regiment is very high. After the order was issued, the troops were assembled in less than half a day, and then waited for the departure time to arrive.
After a night of rapid march, the troops lurked directly in the woods near the coal mine.
The leader of the first regiment, Zeng Quan, the chief of staff Zhang Qing, and Cheng Xiao specially strengthened their reconnaissance platoon leader and security company commander! A dozen people in the group were calm in the night and easily touched a copper mine less than two kilometers away.
On the high ground, you can look down at the entire mine.
The size of the mine is very large, more than twice the size of the Guangtouling Coal Mine that I conquered.
Because, in order to facilitate transportation, the Japs built several smelting furnaces directly in the mine. The ore transported from the mine was poured directly into the furnaces for smelting. In this way, the Japs only needed to leave here with the copper ingots, which was very
convenient.
In the brightly lit mine, several smelting furnaces with long chimneys were particularly dangerous, and Wang Ping could see them immediately.
Next to the stove, dozens of ragged workers were pouring ore and coal into the feed port under the supervision of the Japanese. No matter who it was, as long as they moved a little slower, they would immediately be whipped by the Japanese.
In just a minute or two, two absentees were whipped.
The absentee workers dared not speak out in anger, otherwise, with the brutality of the Japanese, they would stab him into a hornet's nest with bayonets and throw him outside the mine to feed the wolves.
Wang Ping's face suddenly turned gloomy, but he did not speak. He held up his binoculars and began to search for the fortifications placed by the Japanese army around the mine.
"Old commander, this is indeed the source of wealth for the little devils. The security is too tight. There are more than five machine gun bunkers made of stone and cement alone. This is on the surface. We don't know if there are any that we haven't discovered.
How much!" Zeng Quan frowned and said what he saw.
Wang Ping's face instantly became heavy.
He also built the machine gun bunker with cement and stone. It is very strong and ordinary mountain artillery will definitely not be able to do anything to it.
The Japanese had built so many bunkers around the coal mine at one time. If they carried out a forceful attack, the casualties of the troops would definitely be very high!
He frowned and ordered: "Old Zeng, arrange for the reconnaissance troops to get as close as possible to the deployment and firepower deployment of the Japanese troops in the copper mine! It is best to find a truant in the mine, otherwise we will not know the situation inside the mine.
It’s impossible to feel clearly!”
At three o'clock in the morning that night, Zeng Quan came over with a solemn look on his face.
"Old commander, the situation is not good! The Japanese army asked the workers to build a total of eleven bunkers, large and small, around the mine. Each bunker has a Japs handle of no less than one combat unit, and is equipped with light machine guns and heavy machine guns! Each bunker
For us, we are all like hedgehogs. If we attack by force, we will not be able to survive no matter how heavy the casualties are!"
"Is it possible to get in from the back of the mine? If that doesn't work, you can take the high ground behind the mine and suppress the Japanese in the mine from a high position!" Wang Ping suggested with a frown.
Zeng Quan shook his head helplessly.
"It's difficult. The Japanese also built two machine gun bunkers in the back!"
"As for the highlands, we thought about it, and so did the Japanese. They built three forts directly on the highlands and stationed a reinforced infantry squad."
"A large number of light and heavy machine guns can form a dense crossfire around the bunker. If we charge hard, it will be impossible to occupy the hilltop no matter how heavy the casualties are!"
"Then there's nothing we can do!" Wang Ping frowned and shouted dissatisfied.
"Besides attacking by force, I really can't think of any other way!" Zeng Quan replied helplessly.
"No!" Wang Ping refused without thinking!
"The Japs have so much firepower and they have a machine gun bunker. If we charge hard, you won't be able to get the copper mine even if you try to kill them all!"
"What should we do?" Zeng Quan was also anxious and asked, staring at Wang Ping closely.
"Urban tanks, we can use them to cover the troops approaching those machine gun bunkers!" Wang Ping's eyes lit up and he shouted.
"But the Japanese have guns, and the earthen tanks can block bullets, but they can't stop the shells falling from the sky. After one round of shells, no matter how many earthen tanks there are, they will be blown into sawdust!" Zeng Quan immediately pointed out the disadvantages of earthen tanks and stared at Wang Ping and asked.
.
"If the Japanese have artillery, we have artillery too!" Wang Ping replied confidently.
"As long as we can block the bullets fired from the Japanese machine gun bunker and cover the troops approaching the bunker, I will solve the cannon problem!"
Zeng Quan quickly reacted: "Okay, old commander, I will arrange for people to make earthen tanks right now!"
"Well, in order to prevent accidents, make a few more tanks!" Wang Ping nodded in agreement.
On the only way from the county town to the copper mine, troops from two regiments of the Independent Brigade, under the personal command of Cheng Xiao, have been lurking in the nearby woods for almost two days.
Seeing that there was only one day's worth of dry food carried by the troops, the political commissar who had just been transferred to the independent brigade couldn't help but remind him.
"Brigadier, would you like to send a telegram to Factory Director Wang to ask?"
Cheng Xiao shook his head and refused: "I believe in the old regiment commander. He has never failed in fighting the Japanese. If it weren't for that incident, he would be the commander of the independent brigade now, and it would not be my turn. Send him a telegram now.
, will disrupt his thoughts!"
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