SHADOWS OF THE VALLEY
Chapter 15: The Instructor and the Grade
Date: December 15, 1938
Location: 129th Division Rear Area, Southeastern Shanxi
The first winter of the full-scale war against Japan was the coldest anyone could remember. It wasn't just the weather; it was the cold reality of attrition. The Japanese advances had been brutal, but the Eighth Route Army, true to its doctrine, had flowed around them like water, embedding itself in the countryside. Li Fan's unit was no longer a novelty; they were a proven tool, and tools get used until they wear down.
They were back in a Shaanxi-style valley, but this one was in Shanxi, serving as the semi-permanent site for Training Detachment Alpha. For the past year, their existence had bifurcated. One half of the company, led by Zhao Quan and Liu Feng, was almost constantly on deployment—conducting the deep reconnaissance and precision strikes they were famous for. The other half, led by Li Fan himself with Chen Rui and Zhang Wei as key instructors, was trapped in a cycle of relentless teaching.
Before him stood the latest class: eighty men from three different guerrilla regiments. They were lean, hardened by survival, but their knowledge was patchwork. They stared at Li Fan with a mix of skepticism and desperate hope.
"Your commanders sent you here because you are good," Li Fan began, his voice carrying over the frozen parade ground. "Good at hiding. Good at enduring. Good at putting a bullet in a general direction. That is no longer enough. The Japanese are learning. Their patrols are larger, their counters faster. To survive, you must stop being clever refugees and become intelligent soldiers. The difference is discipline. Not the discipline of standing in line, but the discipline of thought. The discipline of the ambush, the discipline of the shot, the discipline of silence."
He nodded to Chen Rui. The young man, now a seasoned squad leader with a calm authority, stepped forward. He held up a single 7.92mm cartridge.
"The most important weapon you have is not your rifle. It is this." He held the cartridge high. "You have maybe twenty. The Japanese machine gunner has two thousand. You cannot miss. For the next week, you will not fire a single live round. You will learn to breathe, to squeeze, to follow through. You will learn it until you dream it."
The training was brutal and fundamental. Zhang Wei, his explosive temper now channeled into explosive instruction, taught booby-traps and field demolitions with the care of a master craftsman. "This is not about big bangs!" he'd roar. "It's about the right bang! A matchbox of explosive under a rail tie can derail a train. A pound in the wrong place just makes noise!"
Li Fan supervised it all, but his mind was on the larger puzzle. Their successes had created a bottleneck. Requests for their unique skills flooded into 129th Division Headquarters faster than they could respond. A single company, even one as effective as theirs, was a pinprick on the map of a continent-wide war. Their true value, as he had argued to Commander Wang, was in becoming a template, not just a tool.
This reality was formally acknowledged one bitter afternoon when a staff car, kicking up mud and ice, arrived at the training camp. Out stepped Commissar Deng and a senior staff officer Li Fan didn't recognize.
"Captain Li," Deng said, his breath pluming. "This is Colonel Lin from Division Operations. We need to speak."
In the rough command hut, a stove struggling against the cold, Colonel Lin got straight to the point. "Your training detachment's graduates have a higher survival rate and a threefold increase in operational effectiveness. The Division Command recognizes this. The Party recognizes this. We are formalizing the structure."
He laid a document on the crude table. It was an order, creating the 129th Division Special Operations Training Battalion (Provisional). Li Fan was to be its commander. His promotion to Major was included, effective immediately. Zhao Quan and Liu Feng were to be promoted to Captain.
"It is not just a title, Major Li," Colonel Lin said, using the new rank. "You are authorized to recruit up to three hundred men directly from division units. Your mandate is two-fold: continue direct action missions at battalion strength, and systematically train cadre from every regiment in the division. You will develop a standardized curriculum. Your methods will become our methods."
It was the institutionalization he had pushed for. It was also a monumental task. As the officers left, Commissar Deng lingered.
"The Party is pleased with your work, Major. And with your understanding. You have built a weapon for the people, not a personal army. This trust is your greatest asset. Do not squander it."
"The trust of the men is the asset, Commissar," Li Fan replied. "The rank is just a tool to serve them better."
Deng gave a rare, genuine smile. "A correct answer. Continue to give correct answers."
The news was met with pragmatic acceptance by the veterans. That night, around a larger stove, they held an unofficial council.
"Major," Zhao Quan said, testing the word. It sounded strange. "A battalion means more than just more men. It means staff, logistics, a larger signature. We are harder to hide."
"We are not meant to be hidden anymore," Liu Feng countered. "We are meant to be replicated. This is the next logical step. But we must control the replication. The quality must not dilute."
Zhang Wei grinned. "More men means I can finally have a proper demolitions platoon. Not just me and two guys carrying my bags."
Chen Rui was quieter. "The new recruits... they won't have lived through what we did in the valley. They won't understand."
Li Fan looked at him. "Then you will teach them. Not just how to shoot, but why. The 'why' is what we fought for in Shaanxi. The 'why' is what makes us different from bandits or warlords. That is your duty now, Chen Rui. To be the keeper of the 'why'."
The boy, now a man, nodded solemnly.
In the following weeks, the framework of the battalion took shape. It was built around the core of the original company. 1st Company (Direct Action) went to Zhao Quan. 2nd Company (Reconnaissance & Sniper) to Liu Feng. 3rd Company (Combat Engineering & Demolitions) was Zhang Wei's dream made real. 4th Company (Training & Assessment) was formed under Wei Guo, with Chen Rui as his chief marksmanship instructor.
Li Fan's role shifted from frontline leader to commander, planner, and diplomat. He spent hours at division HQ, arguing for supplies, coordinating missions, and protecting his unit's unique culture from being absorbed into the bland, desperate need of the conventional war.
One evening, reviewing a roster of new candidates, Liu Feng entered with a report. "The Japanese 108th Division is starting a new pacification sweep in the Taihang sector. They're using a new tactic: combined infantry and engineer teams, clearing villages and fortifying them as strongpoints."
Li Fan studied the map. "They're trying to turn our sea of people into islands. A slow strangulation." He tapped the map. "This new battalion... its first major test shouldn't be a raid. It should be a counter-doctrine. We need to show the Division we can think on this scale."
He outlined a plan. Not an ambush, but a coordinated series of actions across a county-sized area: Zhang Wei's engineers would make the new Japanese strongpoints untenable with harassing demolitions. Liu Feng's scouts would provide real-time intelligence to local guerrillas. Zhao Quan's assault teams would hit the vulnerable engineer convoys moving between points.
"It's a battalion-level operation," Liu Feng said, a spark in his eyes. "Coordinating three companies across fifty miles. We've never attempted anything that complex."
"We have now," Li Fan said. "We're a battalion. It's time we fought like one."
The Shadows of the Valley were gone. In their place stood a battalion of the Eighth Route Army, with a Major at its head and the weight of a widening war on its shoulders. The intimate scale of the valley was a memory. They were now part of the machinery of a people's war, and Li Fan's task was to ensure their unique edge wasn't ground down by the gears, but instead sharpened the entire machine.
End of Chapter 15