Chapter 9: A Narrow Escape

  As soon as it was dark, Yang Jingyu and Ma Qianan quietly crawled towards the direction of Cheng Bing's squad, their movements extremely slow, carefully controlling their body posture to make no sound. They slowly crept to a place not far from the foot of the mountain, then lay still again, motionless.

  Ma Qianan glanced sideways at the general's direction, and with the weak reflection of the bonfire, he saw that the general was tightly biting a wooden stick in his mouth, with beads of sweat constantly dripping from his face. It was clear that this stretch of road had exacerbated the pain of the wound on the general's leg, causing him unbearable agony.

  Yang Jingyu saw the expression on Ma Qian's face and knew he was worried about him, but he didn't say a word. He just stretched out one finger and pointed downwards, signaling to Ma Qian not to be distracted.

  Two men gazed intently at two bonfires tens of meters away, patiently waiting for the enemy to become exhausted and looking for an opportunity to rush out.

  Beside each bonfire sat three to five people, hugging their guns and chatting while roasting dry rations.

  Cheng Bing walked back and forth between several bonfires, but refused to sit in front of any one of them to warm up, causing Li Sipao to follow behind him, constantly turning around.

  "Captain, sit down and warm up by the fire for a bit? You've got me dizzy." Li Si Pao begged from behind.

  "What's with the old man following me everywhere? Want to roast yourself?" Cheng Bing was very impatient, thinking, "Yang Jingyu hates me to the bone, if he sneaks down at night and shoots me, what can I do? I'm not going to sit there like a living target."

  As they walked, Cheng Bing suddenly remembered something and asked Li Sipao behind him: "Hey, Sipao, what did that RB person say earlier? I didn't quite understand the mumbo-jumbo half-Chinese words he spoke, did you get it?"

  Li Si said with a sigh, "You don't understand, how can I? Not to mention the RB language, even the ZG language I haven't fully learned. But when the superior asks questions, we have no choice but to answer." "It seems like he's a messenger or something, who knows what he's saying, but from his gestures, it looks like he wants us to sneak up there before nightfall."

  "Touch it?" Cheng Bing rubbed his chin, rapidly turning around in circles. "Sending ourselves to death! What if Chang Jingyu takes advantage of the chaos and mixes in with us? Who knows? Is this RB guy blind or what?"

  "Yes, Captain is right, I also think it's not a good idea to go up now." Li Sipao listened to Cheng Bing's analysis and was also unwilling to go up. "But how do we explain it to the RB people?"

  Cheng Bing thought for a moment, "What does it have to do with me? He can't order me around. What if Yang Jingyu mixes in with us and escapes down the mountain? Who will take responsibility then? At that time, RB people won't acknowledge it, and I'll be the one who loses big."

  As he spoke, Cheng Bing's footsteps stopped, and Li Sipao, who was following behind, didn't notice and bumped into him, knocking Cheng Bing to the ground, causing a group of puppet soldiers roasting by the fire nearby to burst out laughing.

  Cheng Bing was so angry that he jumped up and kicked Li Si's gun to one side, then walked away with a huff towards the next bonfire.

  Li Si cannoned away with a grievance, saw the most ferocious smile of Erzhong team leader Tian Xiruo, furious, without saying a word, pounced on him. Tian Xiruo saw that things were not going well, immediately stood up and fought bravely. The two mouths were "turtle grandson, little rabbit" cursing uncleanly, while wrestling together.

  Ma Qianan watched the commotion with interest in the dark, while Yang Jingyu quietly introduced these people. They were all original anti-Japanese alliance defectors, and Yang Jingyu knew them all.

  "Strolling with his hands behind him is Cheng Bing."

  "Hmm, I'll beat him to death in a moment!"

  "Li Si's gun is quite good."

  "Hmm, I'll kill him in a moment!"

  "The one who fought with Li Si was Tian Xiwu, who liked to take advantage of others."

  "Hmm, I'll kick him to death in a moment!"

  Yang Jingyu smiled slightly in secret.

  On the other side of the mountain, a tall and straight tree stood facing the dark mountain top with a sigh. Another logging team had just arrived, led by an officer with the rank of Da Wei, one level higher than him, who took over command.

  The newly arrived commander, Lieutenant General Watanabe, vetoed his plan and did not allow the pursuit to continue in the dark. Aoyama Naoki was stunned for a moment, suppressing his discontent, and decided to argue reasonably.

  "Captain Watanabe, I think we can launch an attack now, they can't see us, it's a good opportunity."

  Watanabe glanced at Aoyama Naoki and said slowly, "Aoyama-kun, they can't see us, but does that mean we can see them? Hmm? How long have you been participating in the suppression of bandits?"

  "Two months."

  It's only been two months, no wonder you're so anxious. Do you know who your opponent is? Nonsense! Watanabe is very familiar with Yang Jingyu's combat skills. For more than four years, not only has he failed to capture Yang Jingyu's trail, but he has also suffered a lot. Every time he thinks of the cruelty of the Anti-Japanese League, his heart trembles with fear. In his mind, Yang Jingyu is already an almost divine existence that must be treated with extreme caution.

  "Uh, Qing Shan, you still need to work hard. I've been fighting bandits for over four years and know them all too well. They're very cunning and have strong combat capabilities, especially at night battles and close-quarters combat. We can't let our guard down. We've already surrounded this place and victory is within reach. As long as we maintain the encirclement, that's enough. There's no need to take that risk now."

  "But."

  "No excuses, are you going to continue with your usual methods? You're completely incompetent." Watanabe bluntly pointed at the dozen or so soldiers' corpses lined up in the distance.

  "Watanabe-kun."

  "Bastard! Call me Your Excellency!" Watanabe saw that Aoyama Naoki was still defiant, so he had to use his official position to intimidate him.

  "Ah-hai!" Qing Shan didn't dare argue anymore and honestly shut his mouth.

  "Midoriyama Lieutenant"

  Yes

  "Who is in charge over there?"

  "Cheng Bing's Charging Troop"

  Watanabe was taken aback after hearing this, thought for a moment, and said: "Send another small team to assist him, and also strengthen the joint part of the two teams."

  Aoyama Naoki looked at Watanabe's inscrutable expression and felt inexplicably puzzled, "Major, they have enough manpower over there, no need."

  Watanabe looked at this foolish guy, shook his head and said: "Qingshan Jun, this is an opportunity to make a meritorious deed. If Chang Jingyu is captured when he comes down from the mountain on that side, then Cheng's merit will surpass yours and mine. How can our Great RB Imperial Army not be better than the Manchurian Army? Don't you understand?"

  Aoyama Naoki suddenly enlightened, looking at Watanabe at this time, feeling not so annoying. Immediately seriously executing the command, deploying it down.

  The arrival of a small group of devils, although causing discomfort to Cheng Bing, also made the encirclement around him more solid. Yang Jingyu and Ma Qianan had not found a good opportunity yet, seeing that night was about to fall, they would soon be unable to hide, both were anxious in their hearts, and without prior agreement, they made up their minds to fight to the death.

  Cheng Bing had been wandering around for more than half the night, occasionally kicking and punching his drowsy subordinates, but he himself became more spirited. As the sky was about to brighten up, catching Yang Jingyu was just in front of him, and the nightmare that had entwined him for over a year was about to dissipate, bringing an indescribable joy to his heart.

  "Captain, look quickly!" Li Si Pao brought a big panda eye and came closer again.

  Cheng Bing followed Li Si's cannon hand pointing direction, saw another team holding torches towards his own direction, and couldn't help but curse in a low voice, "Who the hell is coming to steal credit from me again? You go ask."

  Li Si puffed out his chest and ran a few steps forward, opening his mouth to shout loudly: "Who's ahead? Halt! If you don't stop, I'll shoot!"

  From far away in the darkness, someone responded: "Is that Brother Cheng's people? I...I'm Tang Zhendong."

  Hearing the answer, Cheng Bing kicked the snowy ground in annoyance. It's him again, damn it, so unlucky.

  After a while, Tang Zhendong's stout figure appeared under the torches, laughing and walking towards Cheng Bing. Behind him, a group of people quickly dispersed and ran towards each bonfire. Cheng Bing suddenly felt something was off, the number of people didn't add up. With the faint light from several torches, he saw that behind Tang Zhendong, there were hundreds of people dispersing. Cheng Bing knew exactly how many men Tang Zhendong had in his troop. In these few days, due to the cold weather, over a hundred men from his own troop had fallen ill or injured and dropped out. Tang Zhendong's troop wasn't much better off, so why hadn't their numbers decreased, but instead increased?

  "Lao Tang, you son of a bitch, stop right there!" Cheng Bing pulled out his gun and pointed it at Tang Zhendong, "Anyone else?"

  Tang Zhendong was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he shook his hands repeatedly, saying: "Put it down quickly, put it down quickly. We met on the road, we are the Tiptop Team from Jilin Province."

  "Take a look, let me see!" Cheng Bing refused to believe it easily. The people beside Cheng Bing slowly got up, stretching their necks to watch the excitement. For these small soldiers, they didn't care about what was being disputed or not, the more people on their side, the safer they would be.

  Tang Zhendong looked back awkwardly at the person behind him, and this action immediately alerted Cheng Bing. He subconsciously swept a glance at the person standing behind Tang Zhendong, and the familiar figure made his heart skip a beat. Suddenly, his head buzzed, and he almost fainted.

  Li Si stepped forward with a swagger, muttering: "Captain Tang, you came yourself, why bring people from other provinces? Go back, go back, there are enough people."

  Before hearing Tang Zhendong's response, Li Sipao saw several fire snakes suddenly appear in front of him, followed by a burst of gunfire. Li Sipao's body jerked to a halt and he fell to the ground.

  Just as Li Si was about to ask questions, Cheng Bing had already spread his legs and ran into the darkness with a whoosh, disappearing without a trace. The soldiers under him were stunned, not knowing what kind of trick their captain was playing. It wasn't until they saw Li Si fall over and the sound of gunfire erupting that they came back to their senses. They didn't even have time to reload their guns before they scattered in all directions in a chaotic retreat.

  "The Anti-Japanese United Army is coming! Run quickly!" A fake soldier shouted loudly from a distance, then escaped to an even farther place.