Rise From Eight Hundred

Tang Dao set off early the next morning.

This time Tang Dao traveled light, with Ming Xin, Pang Zilong and Uncle Han.

Xia Dayu wanted to follow, but Tang Dao stopped him severely. Although the mountain city was not a dangerous place, it was dangerous. Xia Dayu was wise not to drag Tang Tuanzuo down.

Ming Xin is now the second strongest cold weapon fighter in the Four Lines Regiment. Pang Zilong is a rising star among snipers. In the battle of Zishan, he even had a terrifying performance of sniping hundreds of meters at night. He was catching up with Niu Er. With the two of them following Tang Dao, it was a great supplement to Tang Dao's own combat power, and the other chief officers of the Four Lines Regiment could feel more at ease.

Uncle Han was old. He was hit by a bullet in the battle of Zishan and his combat power was not as good as before. He also had the intention of retiring, but his hometown was still in the Japanese-occupied area and he could not return.

Tang Dao suddenly had an idea and asked Uncle Han to temporarily serve as the leader of the inner house guards at the Tang family's old house. He would be responsible for teaching the guards martial arts and return to his hometown after the war.

Uncle Han was originally a little entangled in whether to retire or not. When he heard that he could continue to make use of his remaining energy and did not have to occupy a position in the regiment, he naturally agreed.

Since Tang Dao's departure was top secret, except for a few people in the regiment who knew that Tang Dao was going to the mountain city, the rest of the people only thought that Tang Tuanzuo was going to the war zone to report on his duties. Therefore, except for Lei Xiong, Shangguan Yun, and Zhuang Shisan who were stationed at the base, there was no one else to see him off.

"Tuanzuo, it's a long journey, please take care!" Seeing Tang Dao and his men get on their horses, the three people who saw him off stood at attention and saluted.

"Don't worry, I will be back within three months!" Tang Dao grinned and raised his hand to return the salute.

"Go!" With a low roar, the green horse under Tang Dao's seat began to trot all the way and gradually accelerated. The four people and four horses disappeared from the sight of the three people.

"It's really uncertain whether the commander will go to Shancheng this time!" Shangguan Yun's face was full of clouds.

Shangguan Yun had been in the 88th Division for a long time, and he knew a little about the dirty tricks among the top leaders, but he understood the cruel methods of those big men.

Tang Dao was ordered to report back to the Military and Political Department this time. In his opinion, it was as dangerous as Yue Wumu's return to Beijing with twelve golden medals. From his personal point of view, he would rather Tang Dao pretend to be sick than go to Shancheng, a dangerous place.

"Don't worry! Shangguan, have you forgotten the situation when the commander was taken into the warehouse alone? At that time, let alone saying a wrong word, if he showed a little timidity, he would probably be regarded as a deserter and executed on the spot. In that dangerous situation, the commander was able to gain the trust of Commander Xie and was promoted twice on the battlefield." Lei Xiong did not have Shangguan Yun's worries. He looked up and looked around, and his eyes were shining.

"If things really get to the point you're worried about, Shangguan, let alone whether they can kill the regiment commander, our Four Lines Regiment is definitely not Yue's army. If anyone dares to challenge our leader, we will dig up his ancestral grave."

"Be careful with your words! Deputy Lei, you are the highest commander designated by the regiment commander before he left. Your decision is related to the lives of more than 10,000 brothers in my Four Lines Regiment!" Zhuang Shisan reminded in a low voice.

Before Tang Dao left, he made arrangements for the command structure of the Four Lines Regiment. Gong Shaoxun was responsible for intelligence and was not involved in the management of other affairs in the regiment. The four people who stayed in the regiment were Deputy Regiment Commander Lei Xiong, Director of the Political Department Ye Chenghuan, Chief of Staff Shangguan Yun, and Director of the Logistics Department Zhuang Shisan. Important matters were decided by the four people voting together. If there was a disagreement of two votes against two votes, Lei Xiong's opinion would prevail.

This was the best way Tang Dao could think of. It was both democratic and centralized. It would not allow Lei Xiong's personal power to be too concentrated to make misjudgments, and it would not affect efficiency too much.

"You, Lao Zhuang! The commander's evaluation of you is absolutely correct. Everything is good, but you are too cautious. OK, who made you the steward of our tens of thousands of people! No more talking, let's go!" Lei Xiong led the way back.

Zhuang Shisan and Shangguan Yun looked at each other silently, both smiled bitterly and shook their heads.

Deputy Commander Lei was brave in combat and had rich tactical ideas. He was an outstanding commander, but compared with Tang Dao, he lacked something, although they couldn't tell what it was.

This is the role of Tang Dao in the Four-Line Regiment. Usually everyone is used to it and doesn't feel anything. Suddenly he left, although the ability of several chief officers is not bad, they always feel that a backbone is missing.

However, 3 months is still worth waiting, especially during this period, the Japanese North China Front Army has been much more honest. The newly appointed commander of the Japanese North China Front Army, Okamura Koji, has not made any big moves except shouting the slogan of "Sino-Japanese Friendship".

It won’t be long before several officers of the Four-Line Regiment will realize the power of the commander who was once known as the ‘most sinister commander of the North China Front Army’.

The four Tang Daos took the shortest and safest route, all the way from Taihang Mountain to Wangwu, and secretly arrived at the 38th Army’s base on the third day.

Commander Zhao of the 38th Army personally led a guard company to meet Tang Dao and his party 15 miles away, entertained Tang Dao and his party at the military headquarters, and sent his personal guard platoon to escort Tang Dao through his defense zone to the Yellow River ferry the next morning.

The four men temporarily deposited their war horses in a regiment of the 17th Division of the 38th Army, and crossed the river at dusk on a sheepskin raft. On the other side of the Yellow River, five miles away from the ferry, there were already four trucks waiting in the woods.

After the two sides exchanged commands, in the dark, the four Tang Daos got on the car and headed straight for Chang’an under the escort of 120 fully armed soldiers.

The 120 soldiers were all from the Guard Regiment of the 10th War Zone Command. Before meeting Tang Dao, none of them knew who they were going to meet. They only knew that it was an important person returning from the North China front.

It can be seen that the Shancheng intelligence department attaches great importance to Tang Dao's return to Shancheng to report on his work. It is close to the treatment of the commander of the war zone army.

No, to be more precise, it is even higher.

Tang Dao and his four companions stayed in a mansion somewhere in Chang'an City for 4 days. Except that they could not go out on the street, everything else was arranged properly.

Chang'an is not far from the Qinling Mountains. There are all kinds of mountain delicacies, and even seafood. It shocked Pang Zilong, a "country bumpkin" who has never been far away for a hundred years.

But Pang Zilong still underestimated the luxury of those so-called upper-class people. In addition to all kinds of delicacies, an accompanying army colonel even brought a group of singing and dancing for Tang Dao and his companions in the secret room to choose. Tang Dao naturally refused without hesitation.

"What kind of monsters are these!" Mingxin carefully buttered his sword and commented on it with disdain.

In this world, there is nothing else that can ruin his Tao heart except those division commanders who have not returned yet!

The young Pang Zilong thought about it carefully. Compared with the heroic female soldiers in the regiment, the faces of these women were too pale, as if they had lost too much blood.

Uncle Han had experienced many ups and downs in life, and was not surprised by this, but just smiled and said nothing. Some things can only be experienced by young people themselves, and that is their own life.

"What does it mean that the rich are drunk and the poor are frozen on the road? This is it." Tang Dao sighed slightly.

No wonder the commander of the 10th War Zone is one of the five tiger generals under that person's command. This is a lot of thinking! However, if this is the person's corroded mental routine, then it really underestimates him, Tang Dao!

Finally, seeing that the four Tang Daos were not satisfied with eating and drinking, and did not touch women, they had a fighting training in the back garden of the secret official residence. The four people were not satisfied with the fighting, and they called the elite guards of the war zone responsible for the security of the official residence to come for a fight. Tang Dao did not even make a move, but a young man and a white-haired old man alone beat the most elite guards in the war zone. Seeing that if they waited any longer, the two-man team of the Four Lines Regiment would beat the guards invincible, the commander surnamed Jiang had to show up.

"Brother Tang, I have always heard of your great name but never had the chance to meet you. This time, I saw that there are indeed several tiger generals in my million-strong army. The officers and soldiers of the guard company of the war zone were all impressed by it!" The commander of the 10th War Zone was more direct than Tang Dao imagined. Although he was not arrogant, the pressure of the commander of the war zone was visible to the naked eye.

It must be said that although this commander did not perform well in the war against Japan, he had the demeanor of a commander.

"Hello, Commander Jiang! Tang Dao has been in the army for a long time, and it has become a habit. Commander Jiang treats me so well, Tang Dao dare not refuse, but I can only take this opportunity to lose some fat, I hope Commander Jiang will forgive me!" Tang Dao stood at attention and saluted in a proper manner, and answered neither servilely nor arrogantly.

"Haha! Brother Tang is really a wonderful person, no wonder Minister He called me specifically and said that you will become a great man in the future and asked me to treat you well." The commander of the 10th War Zone laughed out loud.

The two sides tried to stop, and this person also took the opportunity to convey the goodwill of his immediate superior to Tang Dao.

Next, it was business.

It turned out that Tang Dao's stay in the official residence for a few more days was not entirely arranged by this person, but also a confidentiality plan of the director surnamed Dai.

Since Tang Dao arrived at the 38th Army's base, the transport planes from Shancheng to Chang'an have increased their flights, and this has been the case for several consecutive days. One is to test the reaction of the Japanese intelligence department, and the other is to confuse the Japanese army, so that they did not expect that an important person would arrive in Shancheng on the return transport plane.

After all, the air supremacy in North China is now completely in the hands of the Japanese army, and Shancheng cannot send fighter planes to protect this defense line of more than 1,000 kilometers.

Lei Xiong did not regard the Four-Line Regiment as Yue's army, and the same was true for Shancheng. According to the analysis of the intelligence department, if something happened to Tang Dao, the probability of the Four-Line Regiment joining the 80th Army would be as high as 70%, and the Sichuan Army generals would definitely react strongly.

Tang Dao could even have an accident in Shancheng, but it must not have an accident on the plane. Shancheng even sent someone to remind the Military Control Commission.

This was not a useless effort. A few months later, a Japanese spy hiding next to a lieutenant general senator was captured, and a colonel of the Army of the Ministry of Military Affairs was caught. There were strange but extremely cruel punishments invented by Director Dai, such as "Ten Months of Pregnancy", "Tian Ji Horse Racing", and "Leech Bath". Few Japanese spies could stand it.

This confession pulled out the Japanese action plan when Tang Dao arrived in Shancheng in June.

It turned out that the Japanese North China Army had known that Tang Dao had been ordered by the Ministry of Military Affairs to return to Shancheng to report on his duties. However, the rank of the Army Colonel of the Ministry of Military Affairs was not high enough. He only knew that Tang Dao was going back to Shancheng, but he did not know how he would return, let alone that the Ministry of Military Affairs would let Tang Dao return on a special plane.

For this reason, the Intelligence Department of the Japanese North China Army formulated several assassination plans for Tang Dao's long journey back to Shancheng.

There were land routes, water routes, and even air routes. They even secretly ordered the Japanese North China Army Aviation Corps to dispatch 4 Type 96 fighters to prepare for air interception.

However, the Military Control Commission deliberately set up a false formation. For several days, supplies were transported to Chang'an by transport planes. According to insider intelligence, they were all medicines and military pay urgently needed by the Yellow River and Zhongtiao Mountain defense lines. Naturally, this was far less important to the Japanese army than assassinating Tang Dao. In order not to alert the enemy, the Japanese army took the initiative to abandon the plan to assassinate Tang Dao from the air and concentrated a large amount of manpower and material resources on several necessary roads to enter Sichuan.

Naturally, this was a futile wait, as Tang Dao, on a plane, arrived at the mountain city in just three hours.

Director Dai, who had obtained this information, was said to be sweating profusely. If Tang Dao was really assassinated by the Japanese army, according to the report of a spy he had planted inside the Four-Line Group, the Four-Line Group would definitely rebel! Seventy percent of the report he had given to that person before was just to comfort that person.

With the personal escort of this military leader who had eyes and ears all over the world, Tang Dao and his four men boarded a transport plane on the afternoon of the sixth day after arriving in Chang'an, and arrived at Shancheng Airport with a bumpy ride.

Pang Zilong, who was fearless, had a pale face. Sitting on a plane far away from the ground, it was a nightmare for the elite army to no longer control their own life and death.

Even Ming Xin, who was a big-headed man, did not look like his face changed, but in fact, the veins on the back of his hand holding the handle of the sword were bursting. When the plane encountered air currents, the feeling of weightlessness brought by the rapid drop of a hundred meters was also extremely oppressive to him.

Not to mention the two young men, even Uncle Han sighed and sighed when he got off the plane: "It's not easy to be a pilot!"

"That's right, I would rather fight a hundred battles with the devils than take another plane. I always feel that I will be smashed into a meat pie at any time." Pang Zilong complained with lingering fear.

The two foreign pilots who accompanied him off the plane were full of sneers on their faces. They had seen many such army bumpkins.

The only thing that surprised them was probably the young man with the colonel's collar badge. His face was normal, and he even smoked two cigarettes in the cabin. He didn't take the precision instrument of the plane seriously at all.

They might not have thought that in Tang Dao's eyes, this old Yak-6 transport plane assisted by the bear might only be cherished because it was an antique, and it had nothing to do with precision instruments.

Tang Dao did not respond to his subordinates' words, but cast his eyes on the city several kilometers away.

It was already dark at this time, but the city was still shrouded in darkness. It was obviously not because the mountain city had not enough people.

Shancheng was originally a large city in the southwest. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the population was as high as 400,000, and the population density reached more than 5,000 people per square kilometer. Because of the failure of the Central China Campaign, most of the various agencies and factories in the southeast retreated to Shancheng, and the population surged to more than one million. In this era, it must be a super city.

There are few lights after nightfall, naturally because the Japanese army wanted to shake the Chinese government's determination to fight the war and force the Chinese government to surrender. From 1938 to 1943, the Japanese army dispatched a large number of aircraft to carry out inhumane strategic bombing on Shancheng for five years.

"Zilong, I don't know if you can shoot down a plane flying at an altitude of 3,000 meters no matter how accurate your shooting skills are!" Tang Dao stood on the runway of the airport and asked in a low metallic voice.

"This, of course, is not possible!" Pang Zilong stood up straight.

"Do you know? This city has been subjected to indiscriminate attacks of more than 10,000 bombs in the past two years. Schools, hospitals, factories, residential areas, military camps, and even Western embassy areas are all within the attack range." Tang Dao's eyes were as sharp as a knife in the mist at night.

His words were more like a knife, stabbing the hearts of the two elite army soldiers.

In Zishan, the Japanese army used hundreds of fighter planes to drop hundreds of bombs at a time, which made the elite soldiers hiding in the tunnels feel like the end of the world, and they still had hundreds of anti-aircraft weapons fighting back desperately.

But this city, which was basically composed of civilians, actually suffered tens of thousands of bombs. How much loss would that be? They couldn't imagine it.

Tang Dao was not exaggerating.

According to records: In five years, the Japanese army air raided the mountain city 218 times, dispatched 9,513 aircraft, dropped bombs, killed citizens, injured people, destroyed more than 30,000 houses, and bombed more than 30 colleges and universities.

Among these bombings, three major bombings were the most tragic, namely the May 354 bombing, the August 19 bombing, and the June 5 tunnel tragedy.

May 354 bombing: On May 3 and May 4, 1939, the Japanese army changed to naval bombing. Taking off from Jianghan, they bombed the central area of ​​Shancheng City continuously and used a large number of incendiary bombs. The fire in the center of Shancheng City burned for two days, and the commercial street was burned to ruins. The total number of deaths in the bombing was 3,991 and 2,323 were injured. 4,889 buildings were destroyed, and nearly 200,000 people were homeless. Even foreign churches, embassies of Britain, France and other countries in China, and the German embassy were not spared.

August 19 bombing: In May 1940, the Japanese headquarters launched "Operation No. 101" and began to bomb our army's rear at the same time by the army and navy. The army was based in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, and the navy was based in Hankou. The Japanese planes that bombed Shancheng exceeded 2,000 sorties. Among them, the bombing on August 19 of the same year was extremely tragic. On that day, more than 2,000 houses in Shancheng were destroyed. At the end of 1940, the Japanese army dropped a total of 4,333 tons of bombs on Shancheng.

The June 5th Tunnel Massacre: In early 1941, before the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor in the United States, they launched Operation 102 in China to concentrate their forces on air strikes against China. From January to August, more than 3,000 aircraft attacked Shancheng, including night raids.

On June 5, the Japanese army bombed Shancheng for 5 hours from dusk to midnight. Many refugees fled to a major air-raid shelter in Shancheng City. At that time, the guarding soldiers did not allow anyone to enter or exit. Part of the ventilation holes of a major air-raid shelter collapsed, resulting in insufficient ventilation in the cave. Citizens in the cave squeezed to the entrance of the cave due to difficulty breathing, causing each other to trample and a large number of refugees to suffocate. It is estimated that thousands of people died.

According to the survivors, there were Japanese traitors who sent signals to Japanese planes at that time, and the Japanese bombed the cave entrances and vents in a targeted manner. This caused the appalling air-raid tunnel tragedy, known as the "Great Tunnel Massacre", one of the three major massacres in the history of China's War of Resistance.

Listening to Tang Dao talking about the Japanese bombing incidents in the past two years, Pang Zilong's eyes became increasingly angry. He glanced at the sparse fighter planes on the runway, and sadness appeared in his eyes again: "Why don't we have planes in China?"

Ming Xin also clenched his fists tightly, a few points tighter than on the plane.

"We will have it sooner or later. We will return everything the devils gave us sooner or later." Tang Dao said softly.

This Chinese colonel has a good mentality. With China's current industrial level, building airplanes will wait until the next century! Two foreign pilots who have been in China for nearly a year gave Tang Tuanzuo a definition.

At this time, there was a roar of engines on the runway, and a truck rushed from the other end of the runway.

Obviously, the people who picked them up were here.