Chapter 6: Midnight Surprise (Part 2)

  Yue Weihan only felt his nose turn sour, and hot tears almost burst out of his eyes. He hastily turned his face away, waiting for his emotions to calm down before turning back, saying solemnly: "Alright, you brothers are all good men, worthy of being my China's fine sons! However, this operation is a surprise attack, with too many people making the target big and easy for those little devils to discover. So I only need three who are skilled!"

  Before the words were finished, several warriors who were proud of their martial arts skills shouted loudly and insisted on going.

  "His grandma." Chi Chengfeng was impatient and said coldly, "Who dares to come out and practice with Old Chi? Who dares!?"

  Those few warriors were immediately stunned, Chi Chengfeng was nicknamed "Madman", not only was he crazy when fighting, but also in the camp, he would often get into fights and brawls. For this reason, he had been beaten with many military rods by Yao Changqing, but this guy just wouldn't learn his lesson, he continued to fight and brawl, and take the beatings from the rods. However, the brothers in the camp were all afraid of him and didn't dare provoke him easily.

  Yue Weihan nodded immediately: "Good, Chi Chengfeng counts as one, who else?"

  "And me!" Cao Xinglong hastily said, "In terms of martial arts skills, I may not be better than Chi Pai Zhang, but I know how to use hidden weapons!"

  "Oh?" Yue Weihan suddenly became interested and asked, "What hidden weapons can you use? Show me."

  Cao Xinglong's right hand suddenly rose, and Yue Weihan only felt a lightness on his head. When he turned around in shock, he saw that his military cap had already flown to the wall of the tunnel, with a willow leaf dart hitting the blue sky and white sun emblem on the cap, pinning it to the wall. Yue Weihan was instantly shocked into a cold sweat, nodding repeatedly: "Good, Cao Xinglong is also one, who else?"

  "And here I am, the last one to take this spot, my Bull Big Root has made up his mind!" A tall and sturdy figure emerged from the crowd and stood in front of Yue Weihan. Yue Weihan took a glance and saw that this guy was not only tall and strong, but also had well-developed muscles, and surprisingly, he was only wearing a single layer of clothing even on such a cold winter day, which showed how good his physique was.

  "Niú dà gēn?" Yue Weihan nodded and asked, "What's your skill again?"

  The ox-like man suddenly opened his big mouth and said with a loud voice: "I have great strength, in my hometown of Shandong, I can pull an ox to walk backwards, I shoot well with machine guns, I was born to fire cannons, no matter if it's the little devil's grenade launcher, 92 infantry cannon or Western warship cannon, I can use them all, within 500 meters, I won't say ten hits out of ten shots, but nine hits out of ten shots is absolutely no problem!"

  "Is it?" Yue Weihan was overjoyed in his heart, but his face remained calm and expressionless. "No need to assign a deputy shooter, right?"

  "No need to." Niu Dageng said with a hint of disdain, "A hundred or so catties of small cannons, I can carry them and run for hundreds of miles! However, officer, after we're done, you'd better arrange for me to have a full meal. I'm not afraid of anything, just afraid of starving."

  "Alright, it's you then!" Yue Weihan nodded with a smile and said, "After we've destroyed the little devils' command center, I'll make sure you're well-fed!"

  Niu Dagen was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately picked up the domestically-made recoilless gun that was placed on the ground. He turned around and was about to leave through the tunnel. Yue Weihan frowned and asked: "Where are you going?"

  "Nonsense," said Niu Dageng, "didn't the officer say we were going to attack the Little Devils' command center?"

  "Did I say to go now?" Yue Weihan scolded with a fierce face, "In broad daylight, three or five people dare to go and capture the enemy's command center? Do you think the little devils are made of paper and clay? Stay here quietly!"

  The cow radish put down the domestically-made mortar again, scratching its head and sweating: "I'm in a hurry to eat a full meal, aren't I?"

  "Want to eat a full meal? Alright!" Yue Weihan said, his eyes turned back to the whole army, "Before nightfall, the little devils will definitely attack again. This time, everyone doesn't need to save ammunition anymore. Whether it's rifles, light and heavy machine guns, mortars or Japanese sweet potato hand grenades or domestically-made hand grenades, I want you to use them to kill the little devils. If we can kill more than three little devils, we'll have a full meal!"

  Yue Weihan's words fell, and the soldiers suddenly cheered with abandon. Yue Weihan watched with a painful heart.

  What good soldiers, what great guys? Fighting against the Japanese devils, bleeding and sacrificing, they didn't even frown. Unfortunately, they couldn't even eat their fill, let alone the central army, which was the most elite, could only have two dry meals a day, and it wasn't guaranteed to be full. As for those miscellaneous troops, the treatment was even worse, sometimes they couldn't even get two thin meals a day, how miserable!

  …………

  At 3 pm, about two squads of Japanese troops wearing gas masks entered Baoshan City from the eastern city gate and cautiously searched forward along the main street. The poisonous gas in Baoshan City had not yet completely dissipated, and the entire city was eerily silent, as if it were a ghost town. Seeing this scene, the Japanese squad slightly relaxed their vigilance.

  However, the blow from the Chinese army came suddenly at an unexpected time.

  Just as the Japanese troops thought that all the Chinese soldiers in the city had been wiped out, more than a dozen windows on both sides of the street suddenly opened, and seven or eight light and heavy machine guns and dozens of rifles instantly exposed their muzzles. The next moment, the dense crossfire swept down like a gust of wind, and the Japanese troops immediately fell to the ground in large numbers.

  Immediately afterwards, dozens to hundreds of Japanese-style hand grenades and Chinese hand grenades were thrown out continuously from the open windows. In an instant, the main street, which was not very spacious, was completely shrouded in continuous explosions and dazzling flames. The whizzing fragments of the explosion made it impossible for the Japanese troops who entered to find a blind spot to hide.

  …………

  Baoshan City outside, Pingyuan large troops front line command post.

  Hearing the sudden gunfire and explosions in the city, Hirano Ichiro's face turned pale instantly.

  Just by the intensity of the gunfire and the duration of the explosions, Hirano Ichiro could tell that the Chinese troops inside Baoshan Castle had not lost their combat effectiveness at all, and even increased their firepower compared to the previous two days! How is this possible? How can this be?! Are these Chinese soldiers all cockroaches?! Can't even mustard gas kill them?!

  Amaterasu-ōmikami! This is mustard gas, not tear gas!

  Your Imperial Majesty! How are we supposed to fight this battle? For the sake of this small Bao Shan County city, for these few Chinese soldiers who just won't die, how many more brave and loyal officers will the Great Japanese Imperial Army have to sacrifice? Of course, what's even more important is, how will Hirano Ichiro face the wrath of Takaeda Kōdai-sa?

  Soon, the city of Baoshan fell silent again, with only sporadic gunfire moving towards the outside of the city. Apparently, a small number of Japanese troops were retreating while firing their guns. Standing behind Hirano's back, Matsui, the commander of the 5th platoon, twitched his facial muscles twice and said in a low voice: "Commander, let me and the 5th platoon try again."

  "Matsumoto, it's no use." Hirano Ichiro said in an unusually calm tone, "Once Inoue's squad is defeated, the mission of our 2nd Infantry Regiment will also be over. Tomorrow, General Takaori will lead the main force to participate in the battle of Pao Shan. Matsumoto, please convey my apologies to General Takaori: I am ashamed of the Empire and ashamed of His Majesty the Emperor!"

  "Captain Matsui's face turned pale as he said: 'Sir, are you going to...'"

  Hirano Ichiro slowly drew out his military sword, first admiring the snow-bright blade with a drunken heart, then took out a white cloth and began to carefully wipe the blade, calmly saying: "I will serve His Majesty the Emperor in the way of a warrior, while washing away the shame I brought to the Hirano family!"

  …………

  The night is deep and dark, the empty city is quiet and deserted.

  In the suffocating silence, a rope suddenly came down from Baoshan South City, and immediately four black shadows agilely slid down the rope one after another like monkeys. If you get closer to observe carefully, you will find that they are actually four Japanese soldiers, and the leader is surprisingly a senior military officer!

  These four people are not real devils, they are a surprise attack squad led by Yue Weihan!

  Taking advantage of the night's cover, the four people sneaked up to the Japanese army's sentry line at the south of Baoshan City like ghosts. Before it was completely dark, Yue Weihan had already secretly climbed over the city wall to observe that the little devil's regimental command post was in the south.

  It's not difficult to determine the direction of the Japanese army's brigade headquarters, because the Japanese command post has obvious characteristics, that is, the high-standing antenna, the higher the antenna stands, the higher the level of the command post.

  The Japanese army's blockade of Baoshan City was not strict, the sentry posts were far apart, and although trenches had been dug in between, no barbed wire had been erected, and the patrol teams, although present, would take at least half an hour to pass by.

  Of course, this is just the surface-level sentry post; the Japanese army must have also set up hidden sentry posts.

  "His grandma." Chi Chengfeng casually pulled off his hat and said with some disdain, "It seems that the little devil is also very rare."

  "You're wrong, this isn't laxity, but arrogance to the extreme!" Yue Weihan said coldly. "They don't think we dare to make a night raid at all, of course, it's also possible that if we really want to launch a large-scale raid, it might not work out. Don't look at the surface, they seem lax, but actually, they're loose on the outside and tight on the inside! See the temporarily flattened road ahead and those trucks and motorcycles? Any place with even a slight disturbance, the enemy's mobile forces can arrive quickly!"

  "Sir, we can sneak past them, our target is the little devil's command center."

  "No way." Yue Weihan said resolutely, "This little devil's blockade line, we must break through openly and aboveboard, or else what's the point of wearing this dog skin?"

  "Ah, Ming Chuang?"

  "Sir, will this do?"

  "His grandma said, if the little devil found out, it wouldn't be a joke."

  Cao Xinglong and two others expressed their opposition, but Yue Weihan was completely unmoved.

  Yue Weihan insisted on breaking through the Japanese army's blockade line, of course, there was a reason for this. This surprise attack was not just to destroy the Japanese army's brigade command headquarters, but mainly to confuse the Japanese army's vision and hearing, confusing their judgment, so that the remaining soldiers of the three battalions had the opportunity to escape!

  To put it bluntly, Yue Weihan led his troops in a surprise attack, both to avenge Yao Changqing and to save his own life.