At four o'clock the next morning, it was just dawn. The eighth detachment of Chenjiazhai gathered in Chenjiazhai. The 10th detachment set out under the leadership of the villagers of Chenjiazhai.

Motianling is only fifteen or sixteen miles away from Chenjiazhai. Although the mountain road is rugged, it is difficult for the well-trained officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion, not to mention the guidance of this unit and the villagers of Chenjiazhai who are familiar with the situation.

At around seven o'clock, gunshots sounded from the Motianling Ridge, and there were also a few "bang, bang" mortar shells exploded.

More than an hour later, the guns and cannons in the direction of Motianling stopped. After about two hours, Zhang Ergou took back a hundred bandits to Chenjiazhai and brought back two injured Japanese and the crooked machine gun.

Although the bandits in Motianling are known as bandits, they are actually very majestic in front of the unarmed people. Now that they meet a well-trained regular army, they are immediately defeated back to their original form.

In particular, the mortar equipped by Li Qinglin for the 10th Squadron played a huge role. The power of the mortar shells made these mobs know what war is. When a few shells exploded on the mountain, the bandits panicked. They threw their guns and fled in a hurry. Feng Zheng and Zhang Ergou's soldiers only needed to guard the important road and capture the prisoners.

Without having lunch, Li Qinglin personally interrogated the two injured Japanese.

After interrogation of the Japanese and bandits, Li Qinglin finally learned the reason why the Motianling bandits attacked Chenjiazhai in an abnormal manner.

The Japanese have not sent troops to attack the three brigades around them for so long. In addition to the confrontation caused by the distrust between the Japanese and puppets, there are two other important reasons. One is that Sun Dianying's temporary new Fifth Army has been ordered by the Military Commission, and his defense zone will focus on Lin County in the future, so its main force has begun to transfer from southern Hebei to northern Lin County; the second reason is that in addition to supporting the 87th Annals, the 386th Brigade of the Eighth Route Army has carried out a series of operations against the Japanese and puppets in the northwest of Henan Province, which has attracted most of the Japanese and puppet troops.

The Japanese now have no time to take care of the small army around them, but they are unwilling to let the third brigade be here, so they sent spies and traitors to contact local bandits to provide weapons and supplies, give numbers and other conditions to absorb these bandits to join the puppet army, so that these bandits can restrain and consume the strength of the third brigade.

Li Qinglin collected taxes some time ago and sent troops to occupy Niuwangzhai and Xiashan Valley, which made the bandits feel that their territory and interests were suppressed and lost. In order to protect their existing sphere of influence, they actually began to cooperate with the Japanese, thus transforming into local armed forces of semi-traitors.

Li Qinglin's troops have been training troops in Sangyu Town, and the bandits are not blind. They know that with their own strength, they will definitely not be able to defeat the third brigade, so they set their goals on the local gentry who donated grain to the third brigade. Chen Shide, the largest local gentry, became the first target to be attacked.

There is a high-walled stone village in Chenjia Village. The bandits knew that this village was not easy to break. In order to enhance the strength of the bandits, the Japanese distributed twenty 38-large hoods to the bandits in Motianling and equipped them with a crooked machine gun. Because the bandits did not use this more difficult machine gun, the Japanese also sent a three-person machine gun shooting team to specifically operate the machine gun. However, one of the three was shot dead by Guo Zilin in yesterday's battle, and the remaining two were captured today.

The bandits in Motianling were strengthened by the Japanese, and their confidence soared. So they gathered bandits from all over the country, made an appointment to open Chenjiazhai and looted and divided the spoils. At this time, they discovered that Mujinshan had an intention of rebelling, so they sent people to contact Mujinshan secretly. Mujinshan provided a location to set up a secret agency for the Chenjiazhai to call the police at night. The bandits promised to wash Chenjiazhai. After removing Chen Shide and several other wives, the Chen family left only the eldest wife to control Chenjiazhai.

The bandits had a good plan, but they did not expect that day they encountered two incidents that they had never expected. One of these two incidents was that in addition to setting up secret agencies to call the police, Wang Leshan also ambushed several secret sentries outside the village. These secret sentries called the police in time. The other was that Li Qinglin suddenly visited Chenjia Village that afternoon. The dozen guards he brought were equipped with double guns, and these veterans were extremely combat-effective, which caused the bandits who were attacking bravely to suffer great casualties.

The bandits in Motianling were wiped out, and Li Qinglin got almost everything he wanted.

First, Li Qinglin eliminated the largest bandit force in his defense zone and solved his major troubles; second, he occupied Motianling, a key land that is absolutely easy to defend and difficult to attack; according to Zhang Ergou's report, because the terrain of Motianling is extremely dangerous, this group of bandits did not manage it well, and the mortar he brought exerted the power of the curved weapon, Motianling would be easily captured; if the third brigade built solid fortifications on this dangerous terrain in the future, and deployed elite soldiers and generals, the Japanese would want to take it down.

Motianling will definitely have to pay a heavy price; thirdly, Li Qinglin also knew from the prisoners that the situation he was facing, that is, the Japanese puppet, Sun Dianying's troops, and the Eighth Route Army units have strengthened their strength here, and the future situation in the region will be very complicated; fourthly, it is also a point that Li Qinglin is very satisfied with, that is, the suppression of bandits has won the hearts of the local people, the local gentry will cooperate well with him in the future, and the food and grass problems of the third brigade will be well solved in the future.

However, Chen Jinbao and the second wife only got some of what he wanted.

Because the bandit leader of Motianling was shot dead in the battle, the direct evidence of Mu Jinshan collusion with the bandits disappeared, and Chen Jinbao could not provide a direct proof. Therefore, his plan to drive Mu Jinshan out of the Chen family, that is, to deprive the eldest wife of the entire power was dashed. Although there is indirect evidence that Mu Jinshan was unfaithful to Chen Shide, it only kept Mu Jinshan away from the decision-making center. Chen Jinbao secretly made up his mind that in order to get what he wanted, and to prevent the third wife and fourth wife from completely controlling Chenjiazhai, he must work closely with Li Qinglin in the future.

The third and fourth wives basically got what they wanted.

Because the eldest wife fell out of favor in the Chen family, the third wife Jin Xiaoai's status was stabilized, and the fourth wife Wang Yinhua's strength increased because her brothers completely controlled the village protection team. After the bandits were wiped out, Li Qinglin will become the first person in charge of the local authority. In order to get more things, both of them secretly made up their minds to cooperate with Li Qinglin in order to get full support from Li Qinglin.

It was precisely learned that the Japanese had no time to take care of themselves and that the troops had received absolute support from the people, Li Qinglin let the team wipe out the bandits and semi-traitors in the defense zone, and when necessary, sent the troops outside the defense zone to wipe out other bandits involved in the attack on Chenjiazhai.

This bandit suppression was organized by Han Jizhong Plan, directed by Zhang Ergou, and implemented by other squadrons. Li Qinglin himself did not participate much, but his contact with Chenjiazhai is becoming more and more close now, and he is basically staying in Chenjiazhai. He has close contact with Chenjiazhai for nothing else, but has been constantly sending captured bandits to Chenjiazhai.

During this period, the three brigades continued to suppress bandits. Among them, three bands of bandits in Li Qinglin's defense zone were wiped out. Except for forty or fifty people who were killed on the spot, the rest were all surrendered. In addition, Li Qinglin sent troops out of the defense zone to suppress bandits, and captured more than a hundred bandits. These bandits may not be bandits who occupy the mountains and become kings. Many of them were actually farmers in a certain village. They joined the bandits when profitable and made a fortune by robbing people who were weaker than them.

These bandits are men and women, old and young, and many of them are the pillars of ordinary farmers. How to deal with these bandits has become a headache.

However, Li Qinglin came up with a good idea, which was to hand over these bandits to Chenjiazhai for handling.

The Chenjiazhai people really have a way. They first isolated the bandits and let them report back to back to each other. Each person must report the bad things done by the other three people to be considered as passing the test. This is a simple method. The bandits who are leading among these two hundred people, the habitual bandits with blood debts, were soon reported.

The people of Chenjiazhai built dungeons and detained these bandits with heavy blood debts. As for other bandits with less crimes, the people of Chenjiazhai formed them into teams and asked the village protection team to concentrate on the supervision. They usually do farm work for the village to offset their sins.

These bandits are all from farm families and are experts in farm work. Now, after being arrested, they are all trying their best to release them as soon as possible, so they do their work quickly and well. Inspired by this, Li Qinglin sent these people to other villages that have been harmed by bandits, and asked these people to help the people do farm work to atone for their sins.

Li Qinglin's actions were naturally welcomed by the people, and the prestige of the third brigade among the people was increasing. In the winter, Li Qinglin also asked this group of people to clear the dredging and repair water conservancy to prepare for the next year's agricultural production.

The Chinese people are the kindest. When the year is approaching, Li Qinglin decided to release these bandits with less crimes. The people also asked each bandit to bring some food home and let them become human again after they go home.

As for those bandits with blood debt, Li Qinglinkou was not so merciful.

Li Qinglin escorted these people to Sangyu Town and chose to escort these young bandits to a large open space north of the town on an early winter morning. Soldiers had already laid a wooden platform on the open space, and these people were escorted to the wooden platform and lined up.

In front of all the people in Sangyu Town, Han Jizhong held a thick stack of paper and counted the crimes of the twenty or so bandits on the table.

Since ancient times, northern Henan has suffered from bandits and the people have suffered a lot. Han Jizhong read out that these crimes of bandits are true events that happened around the people. The people were excited and demanded that these habitual bandits be shot to death.

After reading out the bandits' crimes, Han Jizhong finally announced loudly: "In order to uphold national laws and eliminate violence and safeguard good deeds, our army will implement the strictest criminal law for these habitual bandits today."

Then he waved his hand and said sternly to the soldiers who were already on guard: "Drag them down and be sentenced to death."

The bandits were put on signs and dragged to the river beach by the town. There were executioners waiting there with sharp swords on their shoulders. The bandits knelt down on the ground, and the executioners started killing each other. More than 20 heads rolled on the river beach, and the gushing blood stained the large area of ​​the river beach red.

From then on, the bandits in northern Henan trembled when they talked about the Third Brigade, and even privately called the Third Brigade, they used the nickname "Three Master"...
Chapter completed!