The sky was always overcast, and the rain was pouring down, making the forest even more damp and muddy, and if you weren't careful, you would slip and get covered in muddy water. It doesn't matter if it's muddy water alone, it's the rain that gets your clothes wet is the most important thing. After your clothes are wet with rain, the cold that invades your bones is enough to make you shiver involuntarily, and some of them will make you have a fever after a few hours, and your internal organs will burn unbearably.

Tang Cheng's throat twitched, and he tried hard to swallow the jerky stuck in his throat, the rain was too heavy, and they couldn't find a suitable place to stop and eat while wearing their robes, so they had to put some food in their mouths while hurrying, fortunately, there was the jerky prepared by the fat man, otherwise Tang Cheng could only gnaw on the light cake soaked in the rain like everyone else.

On a rainy day, the chili pepper used as a cold is indispensable, and Tang Cheng also felt cold, so he followed Hou San's example and chewed half of the dried chili pepper. Tang Cheng is not a person who can't eat spicy food, but the spicy smell after chewing the dried chili pepper made Tang Cheng not only burp again and again, but even hugged the big tree next to him and retched. "Nothing to do, right?" Yu Changshui, a Hunan soldier walking behind Tang Cheng, stretched out his hand to support Tang Cheng, and Yu Changshui, who had been smiling all day, claimed to be a sapper, but Tang Cheng didn't see that this obscene guy looked like a sapper.

Tang Cheng waved his hand very depressed to signal that he was fine, he did not stay for a moment in the open air, and marched in a hurry for three days, and finally arrived at Sanxi Bridge. The muddy march consumed too much of everyone's body, but fortunately there were fewer things and more people now, if these 300 people were all loaded with guns, I am afraid that they would have been tired and lay down more than half.

Tang Cheng looked up at the still gray and gloomy sky, wiped the rain on his face, and touched the shell gun on his waist, then continued to bow his head and follow the soldiers in front of him to continue to move forward, pushing aside the branches and vines, Tang Cheng worked hard to move forward. Many of the routs were veterans who had fought many battles. These people are very good at fighting, they know how to dodge shells, they know how to dodge Japanese scouts, and these are all experiences that have been summed up with flesh and blood in many defeats. The more times like this, the more the gap between the veterans and the new recruits becomes clearer, and the routs in the wind and rain are just marching with their necks bent and burying their heads, and if the order to stop the advance is given, they will probably go all the way to the end of the sky without stopping.

There was a sudden burst of birdsong in front of him, and Lao Dongbei, who was walking at the head of the queue, quickly squatted down and raised his arms high, signaling the team to stop. The soldiers who had been allowed to be armed with rifles quickly dispersed, leveling their rifles and guarding carefully. The birdsong just now was sent by the scouts who went out to explore the way, and according to the regulations of those subjects formulated by Tang Cheng in order to train these defeated soldiers, the scouts in front sent back a signal of vigilance, and the soldiers who followed up needed to react immediately.

The other soldiers who were used as a reserve by Tang Cheng also dispersed, hiding in the bushes in twos and threes, and no one would care about things like muddy water. It's been more than a day since I've been in this dense forest, and this is the first time I've heard the scout's siren, and everyone is nervous. Tang Cheng also hid in the bushes, his shell gun tightly in his hand, and his eyes looked nervously ahead.

Tang Cheng knew how important the cooperation between the soldiers was when he was about to fight, but these defeated soldiers around him were all fresh faces, and in order to better command these guys, Tang Cheng could only lead by example most of the time. Lao Dongbei, who was walking at the head of the team, was already half-squatting on the ground, squinting his eyes and looking hard through the rain. But in this kind of woodland, you can't see much with the naked eye, and you can't hear anything other than the sound of rain. Lao Dongbei waited for a while, and couldn't help but feel anxious, he reached out and took the light machine gun on the shoulder of the soldier next to him, and slowly pulled the bolt to prepare to touch it.

Suddenly, the bushes in front of him not far from the old northeast shook, and a head poked out, it was Hou San, who served as the scout in front of him. Hou Sanxian showed a smiling face towards Lao Northeast, and then raised his hand and shook it towards Lao Northeast, signaling that the alarm was lifted. "Okay, it's okay, let's all get up" Seeing the signal sent by Hou San, Lao Dongbei breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, beckoning the soldiers who were on covert guard.

Hou San and Dice were born as bandits, and they were especially familiar with the mountains, and after entering this woodland, Tang Cheng let Hou San and Dice replace the previous batch of scouts. Hou San rushed out of the bushes, and Tang Cheng and the others surrounded him, without waiting for everyone to speak. Hou San suddenly burst out with a sentence, "We found a few bullet casings in front, which looked like they were left by the little devil's Arisaka rifle bullets." ”

Hou San's outstretched palm was impressively three bullet casings, and the anxious old Northeast reached out and grabbed the three bullet casings for a few moments, then immediately turned his head to look at Tang Cheng beside him, he could already confirm Hou San's suspicions, this is the bullet casing of the Japanese-style Arisaka rifle bullet. After crossing the river, Tangcheng did not use less Japanese weapons, especially the Japanese army's 38 rifles and light machine guns, and these two weapons used Arisaka rifle cartridges, it was precisely because Lao Dongbei dealt with Arisaka rifle cartridges every day that they would recognize the three cartridge casings brought back by Hou San at a glance.

Tang Cheng took the bullet casing handed by Lao Dongbei and looked at it a few times, and then nodded, this is indeed the bullet casing of the Japanese-style Arisaka rifle cartridge.

"Everyone be careful, Hou San, give you 10 more people, and pay attention to the surrounding situation when you go further." They are all people who have experienced many lives and deaths, not to mention bullet shells, even dead people have seen too many people, so Tang Cheng tried to maintain a calm tone when he spoke. Tang Cheng just didn't want to cause a riot among the other soldiers when he said this, but he obviously forgot that these soldiers under his command were not ordinary recruits, and these defeated soldiers, who could be called veteran soldiers, had already seen the problem from the solemnity on his and Lao Dongbei's faces, but the defeated soldiers didn't know the specific content yet.

It may be that God can't bear to add new sorrows to the sad Tang Cheng, after experiencing the warning just now, the pouring rain that began in the morning has finally subsided. But the rain had been falling all morning, and although it had subsided, the ground was still muddy.

Tang Cheng they could only follow the marks left by the scouts, and march along the edge of the bushes, after all, this is a woodland, there are a lot of shrubs and bushes, the root system of the shrubs is developed, the branches and leaves are mixed with muddy water and leaves, and it is obviously much easier to walk compared to the muddy water all over the ground. In addition, the dense bushes are also good shelters, and in case of emergencies, these shrubs can effectively provide camouflage protection for them in Tang City.

There was still no one in the queue of 300 people to speak, not because they didn't want to, but because they didn't have the extra strength to speak. Tang Cheng was obviously satisfied with the appearance of these defeated soldiers, and after three consecutive days of marching, except for the first night when someone secretly asked Hou San and a few of them when he was camping, from the second day, Tan Fei, who was patrolling back and forth, did not hear anyone privately discussing the hardships of the march. Marching towards an unknown place for three days in a row, as long as people who are not fools will murmur in their hearts, Tang Cheng knows that these defeated soldiers are not unwilling to ask, but they have not yet figured out how to ask themselves.

Climbing over another hill, Tang Cheng, covered in mud, ordered to slow down and transfer the 60 selected gunners to the front team. The scout of the striker had already returned to one person, and according to the words he had thought, he walked a few miles forward, and it was the first destination of the trip, Zhangjiadian. Zhangjiadian is just a small place, and you can't even find its storage zài on the map, and the fact that Zhangjiadian may have Japanese troops came from the local guides that Tang Cheng found from the middle of the road. Not all Chinese are as accustomed to being in conflict with the world as the people in Longgang Town, and the closer these people get to De'an, the more they hate the Japanese army, and even Tangcheng received a lot of information about the Japanese army along the way.

"Everything is carried out according to our plan, don't panic if you really make sure that there are Japanese soldiers, since the guides said that there are not many Japanese soldiers here, then let's treat this as the first battlefield." When he could see the mountain road outside Zhangjiadian from a distance through the binoculars, Tang Cheng ordered the troops to be careful and march slowly. For them to fight alone, it is necessary to be safe, and all the planning and arrangement will be in vain until the scouts who come out have really confirmed the enemy's situation.

The rain finally stopped, and the fog rose on the hills around Zhangjiadian, and a group of 300 people from Tangcheng quietly moved towards Zhangjiadian with the help of the cover of this fog. Stopped advancing, Lao Dongbei, who was still walking in the front, raised his arms high, and several figures appeared in the fog in the distance, and when they got closer, they found that it was Hou San and their scouts who came out of the way back.

"It looks a little wrong, although Zhangjiadian is not big, but there are dozens of households, but we have been staring at it for a while, and there is not even a ghost shadow in the entire Zhangjiadian, let alone a person, and even a dog barking can't be heard." What Hou San brought back was obviously not good news, in such a situation, either the information provided by the guides was false, or Zhangjiadian might have become a deserted village a long time ago, Tang Cheng seemed to be more inclined to believe the latter inference.

"Hou San, you take me over to have a look, Lao Dongbei, you look at them, tell everyone to find a place to rest, without my order, you must not expose the target." Only when he saw it with his own eyes could he make a judgment, and after telling Lao Dongbei a few words, Tang Cheng followed Hou San forward and went to the observation point of the scouts. "Tell everyone to spread out and search carefully, if we can confirm that there is no abnormality here in Zhangjiadian, let's use this as a temporary headquarters."