Chapter 42

  But he had not spoken his mind to anyone, including his trusted advisors. He also strictly ordered each unit not to recklessly destroy the autumn harvest. All units, including plainclothes units, were not allowed to leave the city to grab grain without his order.

  This is also one of the reasons why No. 1 didn't receive any intelligence, plus No. 1 had little experience and didn't know that abnormality was a sign of something being off, so no intelligence came in.

  Seeing that there was no intelligence here either, Li Tie couldn't figure out what the devil was selling in his gourd.

  According to the folks from our hometown, at this time every year, the devils would come in groups to rob food. But why hasn't a single group come this year?

  Just as Li Tie was in a daze, a soldier came to report that the devils had come out to rob food.

  It's said that the devils have come out to rob grain, Er Gou and Li Tie hastily stood up and came before the scout.

  "Report to the battalion commander, company commander, just now the patrol sentry said that a small group of devils was seen heading west towards the mountain, carrying some large carts and sacks, estimated to be going to plunder grain."

  Patrol sentries are some mobile sentries, who immediately run to the nearest telephone when they encounter a situation, report to other nearby sentries, and then these sentries report to the mountain cave base through the telephone, after sorting out, and then transfer to the battalion department.

  This is Li Tie's idea. Due to the recent battles, a large number of telephone lines and telephones were captured, so he set up observation posts in several more important places and installed telephones directly connected to the mountain cave base. Since the base was relatively far away and not concealed, he arranged the intelligence department inside the mountain cave, and the telephone was also installed here. Because there was no switchboard, only two telephones could be connected with one wire, and it couldn't solve the problem like now with just one telephone.

  "I'll go take a look, it's been a long time."

  "Alright, be careful on the road and bring more people with you."

  "I guarantee completion of the task!" Li Tie saluted Er Gou and left.

  According to the observation post, the direction the devils went was towards Wujiayu. Obviously, the devils' target was food!

  Li Tie led the main force of the Independent Regiment, riding in cars, and rushed towards Wujia Village.

  Not long after, they arrived at Wu Jia's territory in three hours.

  。

  But to Li Tie's surprise, the militia squad that came to greet them said they had already driven away the devils and captured a large number of sacks, as well as a big cart, but there were no livestock.

  Li Tie looked at the militia team in front of him with great puzzlement, although it was called a "militia company", but there were only about 20 people, let alone their weapons and equipment. There were more than ten rifles, five or six shotguns, and several men carrying big knives, not even a single machine gun. Could such a group of people drive away a fully armed Japanese troop that came to rob grain? Li Tie wouldn't believe it even if he was beaten to death.

  It's hard to believe, but a large pile of sacks was just piled up there, and next to it was a cart with a broken axle.

  What's going on here? When did the devils become so bad?

  After being unable to think of a solution, Li Tie stopped thinking about these problems. In short, when the soldiers come, we'll draw our swords; when the waters come, we'll build dams. Let's take it one step at a time and feel our way across the river by touching the stones.

  Anyway, now that we lack gunnysacks and other materials for carrying things, the devils are delivering them to our doorstep. Who would reject something given for free?

  Nowadays, there are n kinds of main containers for carrying things in the countryside. The most important ones are baskets and hampers woven from willow branches and mulberry bark, as well as earthen jars made by oneself. Both types of containers have obvious drawbacks: baskets and hampers leak and are prone to damage when carrying small grains like millet or sorghum, while earthen jars are too heavy, fragile, and inconvenient to move. Snake skin bags, commonly seen in modern times, were nowhere to be found back then. Even the "foreign ash" (cement) used by the Japanese was packaged in paper bags. As a result, each household would buy two feet of cloth from the market, sew it themselves, and make a small cloth bag to carry some small items. Although every household had one or two of these small cloth bags, they were not abundant and were not used to carry things that could be carried in baskets. These small cloth bags were considered high-end products.

  Li Tie inquired in detail about the process of catching devils.

  According to the company commander of the militia, the devils came with a total of four large trucks, each carrying some sacks. At first, there were about 40 or 50 devils and puppet soldiers following behind the trucks. After discovering the devils, they set up an ambush on the mountain ridge in front of Wujiayu, waiting for the devils to approach. When the devils arrived, they triggered the landmines they had laid, immediately blowing up three or four puppet soldiers. Then, they opened fire with a row of guns, killing and wounding several devils and puppet soldiers. Before they could fire again, the devils and puppet soldiers began to flee, throwing the dead and wounded devils and puppet soldiers onto the trucks, dumping all the sacks, and then driving the livestock back in a hurry. In the chaos, one truck's axle broke, so they abandoned the truck and only brought the livestock with them as they ran away.

  。

  Throughout the whole process, the devils only fired two or three shots, and none of the militiamen were even injured.

  After carefully checking the seized burlap sacks, Li Tie didn't find any major issues. Although they weren't brand new, they were relatively new, at least 90% new. Roughly counting, there were over a hundred of them. The cart was old, but the axle was new, and the broken end of the axle also looked new, no problems could be seen.

  Leave thirty sacks of rice for the militia and leave 238 rifle bullets, twenty hand grenades, and twenty stone landmines for the Wujiashan militia company as a reward. There were these things in the car, Li Tie casually opened his mouth, and the car was cleaned up to make a small space.

  Load the remaining sacks onto the car, and Li Tie led the independent company back to the battalion headquarters.

  Tell the situation to Er Gou's captain, and the captain also thinks it's not right.

  The Eighth Route Army has another trick to deal with this: hold a Zhuge Liang meeting.

  The whole team leader, platoon leader, even the squad leader, as long as they were near the battalion headquarters and didn't take their troops out for patrol, all gathered in the battalion's office to listen to Second Dogzi Battalion Commander explain what had happened, then began discussing.

  Although most of the class cadres couldn't figure out what was going on, some people still put forward their own views.

  A string of words from the second squad leader: Usually at this time, the devils and puppet troops would come out to rob us of grain several times, but this year they haven't come even once. I wonder if there's some sinister plot brewing. Today the devils sent us a batch of gunny sacks. I think this is something the devils deliberately sent over. Otherwise, why did the militia open fire with their rifles and then retreat? Why would they throw down the gunny sacks as they retreated?

  The monitor of the second row also expressed his own views: Are the devils trying to use this batch of sacks to lure out our military rations, and then come to rob us when we are ready to transport them after packing?

  Some people say that the devils might think our pots are not convenient to carry, and they themselves bring sacks but still have to fill them up. Is it because they want us to fill up the sacks first so that it's easier for them to grab?

  At the end of the meeting, Li Tie and the battalion commander exchanged a glance, and they had already unified their opinions. So the battalion commander made an important instruction: First, no matter what reasons the devils sent this batch of sacks, we must use them well and bring out their functions; second, no matter what conspiracy the devils have, vigilance cannot be relaxed, the string in our hearts must be tightened, and we must be on guard against the devils' sneak attacks at all times; also, regarding the use of this batch of sacks, we must publicize it loudly, let the devils know that we are using these sacks to load grain, as for the specific location, attention should be paid to confidentiality, of course, only appropriate confidentiality, and finally let the devils know; finally, we must make good preparations for battle.

  。

  It's over!

  Li Tie based on his own experience of watching military training methods on TV and online, formulated a training plan according to his current situation and handed it over to Er Gou's team leader. Er Gouzi looked at it and applauded, directly ordering all the battalions under his command to follow this training method.

  Here is the translation:

  The general plan is as follows: Since it's autumn now, we get up before dawn at around 4:30 am. We put a 20kg weight on each person and run for about 1,000 meters over mountains and hills. After breakfast, half an hour later, we continue to run with a 20kg load for another 5,000 meters. Then, we train in target shooting for an hour, followed by training in falling skills (jumping backwards 1.5 meters high and landing heavily on the ground), free fighting, hard qigong, etc. Since some people in the team come from martial arts families and have learned some martial arts, they teach everyone some basic kung fu moves.

  After lunch, anti-insurgency physical training: holding a rifle horizontally, with the muzzle tied to a brick, remaining still for 2 hours.

  Three days a week mountain running training: carrying 40 kilograms of heavy objects, climbing over twelve mountains and then returning.

  Every 5 days, an eight-route iron man competition: weighted running 2000 meters, climbing ten mountains through the forest, and cycling 2000 meters.

  A 25km loaded march with a 30kg backpack every 7 days.

  15-day wilderness survival training, bringing 1 day's worth of food to survive in the wild for 7 days, marching a total of over 1,000 kilometers, and carrying guns, ammunition, and survival supplies. Along the way, they also have to complete tasks such as breaking through encirclement, anti-breaking through encirclement, reconnaissance, and cliff climbing set by their superiors.

  Foxes are independent and even in peacetime, they increase their all-around training programs. For example, from handguns to rocket launchers, from motorcycles to cars, most of the equipment in the army must be mastered one by one.

  After two months of training, everyone has completely changed their appearance. Except for the independent regiment personnel who need to perform special tasks, they try to participate in training as little as possible, in order to fully integrate into the crowd, while others have already brought a murderous aura, giving people a sense of oppression.

  Three days have passed and there is no sign of the devils.

  Just as everyone was puzzled, the devils finally took action. The patrolmen in the Wujiayu area reported that Wujiayu had been attacked by the devils.