Section 9
On June 1, Watanabe organized nearly a battalion of troops with thousands of puppet soldiers, two artillery pieces, each pulled by two cars, and divided into multiple routes to sweep the mountainous area centered on the train station with a radius of over 50 miles. It was called the "June 1st Big Sweep".
Superior instruction, save yourself, strike the enemy. In order to support each guerrilla team, four landmines were also issued to each guerrilla team.
Li Tie led the Fox Team to the designated location and received a powerful weapon from their superior.
The guerrilla forces in the nearby mountains launched a variety of counter-sweeping struggles against the enemy. However, due to restrictions on weapons, the damage to the devils was not too great.
Similarly, Captain Zhang and Li Tie also received specific instructions from their superiors: to cooperate with the troops as much as possible to kill the enemy's effective forces. Since there were not many regular troops in this mountainous area, only the main force of the Second Battalion of the Traveling Second Brigade and the brigade headquarters, and the second company of the Old Sixth Brigade where Li Tie was located. Therefore, the task of the guerrilla team was very heavy.
Leave a small team to guard the base, Fox Team and Second Team set out on a counter-sweeping campaign.
Adhering to the principle of killing the enemy is saving oneself, Li Tie led the Fox Team and the Second Team to carry out a series of small actions against the enemy.
Since the devils' sweeping troops left the county town, guerrilla forces have been entertaining the sweeping troops from time to time.
Someone will shoot from here and the devils will immediately send someone over to take a look, but the shooter has already escaped.
After a while, another shot came from there, and similarly, when the devils passed by, no one was left.
The devils' army advanced very slowly, covering only a dozen or so miles each day.
Li Tie and his comrades buried landmines on the road that the devils must pass through when they leave the city, then hid in the bushes to watch the excitement: In the movie "Landmine War", when a landmine explodes, the devils fly up into the sky and then heavily fall to the ground.
The devils have arrived, and in a short while, with a loud "boom", the devil suddenly turned into a black pot-bellied stove king, emitting green smoke all over his body, making strange cries and jumping around.
Next to him, Li Tie was stunned, with a black line on his face: Is this a landmine? This is just a big firecracker, and not even one devil was killed. Originally, he still hoped that these few landmines would give the devils some eye medicine.
It seems that landmines alone cannot cause serious consequences for the devils, we have to think of other ways.
Starting from the second day, the devils encountered a very brain-burning thing.
First, a bullet flew from the mountain slope and accurately hit a devil's thigh, breaking it instantly. Due to frequent sniping, the devils didn't pay much attention, but they soon got furious. Five devils were sent for routine inspection, but before reaching the spot where the shot was fired, all of them had their thighs broken or were hit in the abdomen. None of the devils died, only injured, and the wounds were unusually large, clearly indicating that the bullets had been tampered with. Even if these devils recovered, they would be disabled and unable to return to the battlefield.
There were still some devils in the queue who were injured, non-fatal but seriously wounded, with some bone fragments falling out.
Watanabe led a small team of devils with a group of puppet troops to charge towards the mountain slope where the gunfire came from. After paying the price of seven devils being injured, the devils and puppet troops finally rushed up the mountain slope.
On the hillside, there was nothing but a small pile of broken stones under a tree. On top of the stones, a flat stone slab had been placed, and on this slab lay a small pile of shell casings - these were the bullets that had injured all the devils earlier. All the shell casings were tied together with a thin string. A devil found the pile of shell casings and picked them up. However, as he was picking them up, it seemed like one of the shell casings got caught on a stone, and then after a loud explosion, that devil was blown away by the shockwave. The nearby devils and puppet soldiers were almost all hit in the head with stones, bleeding profusely. All the devils and puppet soldiers who were hit soon became dizzy and disoriented, turned pale within minutes, lost consciousness, and never woke up again.
This is a landmine modified from a hand grenade - the heavenly maiden scattering flowers. However, the scattered flowers are all poisonous stone flower, because each piece of stone has poison on it.
Li Tie knew his marksmanship was not good, so he returned to his own squad and took a look around. This time, however, he discovered a good seedling, Zhang Honglei, a young hunter who had caught countless animals. It was said that as long as the prey he saw did not escape from his gun, Li Tie would give him the 99-style sniper rifle. Indeed, with the scope on the gun, targets within 1,000 meters were just a matter of pointing and shooting, with every shot hitting its mark, no bullets wasted.
Then Li Tie had him grind the bullet head on a stone, and they targeted the non-lethal areas of the devils. If it weren't for the fact that the devils' thing was too small and not easy to hit, Li Tie really wanted to make all the devils eunuchs. Zhang Honglei wanted to directly kill the devils, but since the captain did things this way, he must have had a purpose. So he targeted the devils' thighs or abdomen. When he saw that for every devil wounded, at least two people would carry the injured away, it seemed like he somewhat understood.
When the devils were about to rush to the top of the mountain, Li Tie had already withdrawn his team to another mountain.
After disassembling the landmine, it was found that inside was black gunpowder, which is commonly used to make firecrackers. No wonder its power was so small.
But Li Tie can't make explosives himself, and there's no way to improve them. Li Tie thought for a moment, disassembled a few bullets, put the gunpowder and bullet heads into the shells, of course, also adding some commonly used powder inside, reassembling them as before, and burying the remaining three landmines on the small mountain road, two not far apart, one farther away.
The devils are coming, walking very slowly and carefully.
"Boom", a landmine exploded, and a ghost (Japanese soldier) turned into a charcoal king, all blackened by the smoke, but only with a few small wounds, no big deal at all. The nearby ghosts (Japanese soldiers) and puppet troops were also more or less affected, covered in small wounds from the flying rocks and debris, but not hindering their march. Watanabe ordered to continue advancing. Just as he finished speaking, another "boom" sounded, and another ghost was hit, similarly non-fatal.
This caused the devils to be vigilant, and they sent puppet troops to scout ahead. The puppet troops walked cautiously in front, but after half a day's walk, there was no sign of anything.
Like this, walking and stopping, from morning till now, it's already noon, the devils and puppet troops have walked less than twenty miles. The midday sun shines brightly on the heads of the devils and puppet troops, making them weak and listless.
Watanabe rode on horseback, looking at his troops with their heads hung low and morale at an all-time low, so he had no choice but to order them to rest.
As soon as they heard the order to rest, the devils and puppet soldiers immediately left the team and went to find a shady tree to cool off.
At this moment, several figures suddenly flashed out from the front mountain, wearing white clothes and black pants, very eye-catching, fired a few shots towards the devils, the devils immediately returned fire, machine guns and small cannons greeted them, and the figures flashed into the trees and disappeared.
The devils took a look and found no corpses, only a few bloodstains, it seems that at least they were injured.
After resting for a while, Watanabe drove away the devils and puppet troops and marched on.
One afternoon, when it got dark, the devils arrived at a village called Xinghua Yu. This was a small village with about 100 households. As they had known in advance that the devils were going to sweep through, all the villagers had escaped, leaving behind an empty and quiet village without any signs of life.
Watanabe ordered to set up camp.
The devils took the well water and conducted a test before giving it to humans and horses to drink. The local bandits had scared them, who knows if there was poison in this well or not.
The sentry has been posted and the devils are preparing to rest.
The sky is overcast and it's about to rain.
Not a single star in sight, it's so dark you can't see your fingers when you stretch out your hand.
Outside the village, at the crossroads and high points, bonfires were lit, with devils and puppet soldiers sitting beside them, carefully observing their surroundings.
Li Tie and the Fox Team, the second team is in the mountain forest behind the village. Through the dense thicket of trees, the enemy's layout at Xinghua Gully below the mountain is clear at a glance.
If I had brought a grenade launcher, it would be great to throw him a few grenades, unfortunately, in order to travel light, I didn't bring one.
The heavy rain started pouring down.
The little fox team all have raincoats, standard equipment in the ghost's backpack, while the second team can only wear a hood and cape.
The heavy rain extinguished the bonfire, and the devils all went to take shelter from the rain, leaving only the puppet soldiers on guard outside.
The summer rain comes and goes quickly, about an hour, the rain stopped.
After a while, the sky cleared up, and several stars came out. The moon also appeared, shining over the entire small mountain village.
The small mountain village has fallen asleep.
Li Tie set out with the Fox Team.
Silently they descended the mountain, and the fox team split into two paths, entering from both the east and west of the village.
At the village entrance, a poisoned arrow sealed on his body killed the fake military sentinel.
The fox team swaggered into the village in a big way.
The military boots stepped on the stone road, making a "crunching" sound, but this sound not only failed to attract the devils, but also made the enemy more at ease. With their own patrol team outside, what was there to worry about inside the house?
A real ghost patrol team is coming, and a ghost asks loudly for the password in this direction.
Li Tie and his men didn't know the password, besides even if they knew it, they couldn't pronounce it like locals. No choice, they raised their guns and fired a burst of shots.
This is terrible. Five or six submachine guns fired at the same time, and in an instant, the devils' patrol team was wiped out before they could even react.
"The Eighth Route Army has entered the village, The Eighth Route Army has entered the village."
It started with Li Tie and his comrades shouting, but soon some puppet soldiers began to shout along with them, interspersed with the shouts of the devils. Li Tie and his comrades were running outside while shouting, and whenever they saw an enemy, they would fire a burst of shots. When they heard the devils shouting in a nearby courtyard, they would throw a hand grenade in.
A fox squad that entered from the other end did the same. For a time, the village was filled with the sounds of gunfire, shouts, and hand grenades, as well as cries, curses, and wails, the whole village was thrown into chaos.
The devils didn't know who was attacking them. All they could hear were the dense gunshots and deafening shouts outside. They had no idea how many people were attacking them.
Some devils saw a group of comrades approaching them, just about to greet them, when they suddenly raised their guns and fired a burst of shots. The firepower was like each person having a machine gun.
Some fake soldiers saw some devils and just wanted to get close, but before they could act, they were swept away by the other side's gunfire, and many fell to the ground.
It's all messed up, everything is messed up.
The fake army saw the devils coming towards them and immediately opened fire, the devils saw someone moving in their direction and didn't even have time to ask questions before opening fire.
It's completely messed up.
The devils and the puppet troops now do not know who to believe or not to believe, everyone is in danger, fighting for themselves, each hiding behind their own body, shooting at anyone who moves towards them.
Li Tie led the Fox Team in a chaotic retreat out of the village.
Returning to the top of the mountain, looking at the occasional gunfire and explosions coming from the village, Li Tie's heart was beautiful.
It's daytime now.
Looking around the village, there were corpses everywhere, and blood was everywhere. Watanabe's heart was bleeding.
After clearing up, apart from nearly a hundred people dead, there were also nearly four hundred people injured.
One evening, even the enemy's casualties exceeded five hundred.
Watanabe is furious, don't think that the Imperial Army is just a bunch of officials, old cats don't send tigers, do you think I'm critically ill?
