Section 4

  A single branch of crops relies on fertilizer to thrive. To achieve a bountiful harvest, fertilizer is indispensable; aside from this, water is also an essential condition.

  The land is just this small, and the fertilizer is only soil miscellaneous fertilizer. The water is relatively tight. The few mountain springs that are available can only provide drinking water for humans and livestock, how much water can be given to the crops? So we can only rely on heaven for food, when it's dry, there may not be a single grain harvested in the field.

  Actually, here, the harvest is small, and water occupies a large part of it.

  Li Tie hid in one of the ditches near the base.

  Under his suggestion, Captain Zhang mobilized all the labor forces in the base to renovate these gullies. Every tens of meters, a small dam was built to store as much rainwater as possible for the future rainy season, which would fundamentally solve the problem of water shortage in the base.

  In addition, they also dug several large water pits in the lower places of the field, which is also a kind of "container" for storing water.

  Theoretically solved the water problem, and then it's the fat problem.

  Li Tie plans to mobilize the masses extensively, taking advantage of the abundance of grass and high temperatures in summer to cut as much grass as possible, pile it up, let it rot, and use it as fertilizer next year. Now it's hard to get chemical fertilizers, so we have to do it ourselves.

  Captain Ono's sweep has finally begun.

  However, this sweep did no harm to Li Tie and his men.

  The devils haven't found their base!

  Under the noses of the devils, the devils didn't discover!

  The devils divided their troops into six routes, advancing with a menacing aura, and launched a large-scale sweep of the mountains and forests near the base area. The mountains were filled with the sound of ghosts wailing and wolves howling, as chickens flew and rabbits ran for their lives. Those who couldn't escape became spoils of war for the devils.

  Two groups of devils' soldiers, one on the left and one on the right, charged past from both sides of the base, without paying attention to that barren little hill, not even thinking about rushing over to take a look.

  Li Tie-xu was shocked. He didn't think that just relying on these ten or so guns could stop the enemy's attack.

  Finally, the six armies converged in triumph.

  After clearing the battlefield, this sweep captured a total of 46 rabbits, 28 pheasants, 9 snakes, 3 badgers, 21 hedgehogs and over 60 bird eggs that were suspected to be used as supplies for the Eighth Route Army.

  Although it did not sweep away the main force of the Eighth Route Army, it was also a fruitful result.

  Captain Ono was depressed because this mop-up operation went too smoothly, so smoothly that not a single Eighth Route Army soldier was encountered, nor were there any guerrilla fighters. His own troops had no casualties except for two unlucky soldiers who sprained their feet while climbing mountains, which was unprecedented.

  Complete a sweep operation with zero casualties!

  Although they did not capture the Eighth Route Army and other reactionary forces, Lieutenant Colonel Ohno was still commended by his superiors.

  After all, it's not easy for anyone to complete a sweep operation with zero casualties, but the achievement was deliberately ignored.

  This is the great victory of the Imperial Japanese Army!

  Taking advantage of this "great victory", the superior held a grand commendation meeting for Lieutenant Commander Shō.

  In addition to spiritual rewards, there were also rich material rewards, including a mouthwash cup used by His Majesty the Emperor, a face basin, a pen used by General Okamura Ningji (although it was already broken), and other precious items. And I hope that Lieutenant Colonel Ono will continue to work hard, be humble and prudent, carry forward the good style of the Imperial Army's fearlessness and shamelessness, and make his own contribution to the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.

  Captain Ono also had tears in his eyes, took over the prize with both hands, held it high above his head, and said: I will remember the Emperor's entrustment, think carefully, correctly understand the superior's instructions, resolutely execute the superior's orders, for the Emperor, work hard until death.

  The commendation conference was successfully concluded in a grand, warm, harmonious, solemn and dignified atmosphere.

  Li Tie divided the guerrilla team into two small teams, one led by Captain Zhang and the other led by himself, called Fox, meaning cunning.

  The Fox Team, led by Li Tie, had only seven people inside, but these seven people were obviously clever and would not be taken advantage of. In contrast, the members of another team looked more honest and simple-minded, with sturdy builds and great strength, straightforward and down-to-earth.

  Due to the current shortage of weapons, they can only take turns training, but the training of the two teams is also different, with some differences. Li Tie mainly trains the Fox Team in aspects such as traps, mines, poisoning, and reconnaissance, while Captain Zhang's team focuses on weapon usage, physical training, and armed confrontation.

  To overcome the difficulty of insufficient weapons, Li Tie motivated his team members and took action himself, making sure they were well-fed and well-clothed.

  First, a longbow was made. To increase the range and power of the shot, the team members made this bow very large. It is about one and a half meters long, with an arm-thick bow arm made of the most elastic horn, and steel wire as the string. Normally, it can shoot out about 200 meters away. In order to increase the lethality, Li Tie and others applied the toxic juice of the Chinese parasol tree on the arrow shafts made of pagoda tree wood, ensuring that the target would not be able to withstand after being shot. Because this bow is too large and inconvenient to carry, everyone fully demonstrated the excellent tradition of the Chinese nation, gathered their thoughts and ideas, and soon created a much smaller handheld crossbow. This crossbow uses small-caliber bolts, although the range is not very far, but at a distance of 40-50 meters, it still has great lethality. Moreover, it is convenient to carry, so it received everyone's praise and was unanimously rated as an excellent product for home travel and hunting. As a result, almost everyone had one, under the banner of military training, the rabbits and pheasants in the nearby mountains became the targets of attack. After more than ten days, they were almost extinct. Of course, the direct consequence of this was that everyone's living standards rose sharply, from worrying about food for the next meal to having meat every meal, and on the other hand, everyone's physical fitness also improved a lot.

  The blow dart, also favored by everyone, has a smaller volume and is easier to carry. However, this is not the main point, the main point is that the arrow used in this blow dart is small, so small that it's hard to notice, even if it hits someone, it feels like being bitten by a mosquito, it won't make people too sensitive. Moreover, when the arrow hits someone, if it's through clothing, it will be quickly wiped away by the clothes, leaving only a small part in the body; if it hits exposed skin, it will go deeper, almost invisible.

  Of course, the range is very short, only a few meters. Similarly, the arrowhead is also coated with a highly toxic substance - "see blood seal throat". See blood seal throat, also known as "poisonous arrow wood" and "scissors tree", is a third-class protected plant in China, a type of Moraceae plant, known as the most poisonous plant in the world. Once its juice enters the bloodstream, whether it's a wild beast or a human being, it will inevitably die.

  It is produced in Guangxi, Hainan and southern Yunnan, China, as well as India and Indonesia. It is one of the most poisonous plant species in the world. Du Chang San, He Ding Hong and Qi Bu Dao, those are the top-level poisons in martial arts that make people tremble with fear, but if we really talk about toxicity, they are only second-rate toxic substances.

  The real poison king is a tree, a tree that looks ordinary but has dense branches and leaves - see blood seal throat. If you accidentally touch its skin or pick one of its leaves, it's highly likely that you won't be able to take seven steps. Because this poison is too overbearing and goes against the heavens (Li Tie's words), Li Tie only allows this poison to be applied to blow darts, while other arrows are coated with willow leaf peach toxin.

  In fact, the real reason is that this toxic substance is too rare, only two leaves were obtained from a team member's grandfather, which he brought back from the south when he was young for some unknown purpose.

  Li Tie conducted an experiment, using the water soaked with these two leaves to apply to a blow dart. The blow dart was shot at a chicken, and the chicken only lived for less than ten seconds. After pulling out the blow dart and continuing to use it, it finally lost its effect on the ninth chicken. It can be seen that this toxin is very effective. However, as for how effective it is on humans, there hasn't been time to experiment yet. So Li Tie decided that when he had time, he would definitely do some more research to see how much stronger the imperial army soldiers were compared to chickens.

  Here is the translation:

  Next was clothing. Having gotten used to modern camouflage, looking at their current team members, they were 100% country bumpkins - if you could even call them that. White shirts, black pants, and black cloth shoes. It seemed like everyone had also gotten used to this outfit. When the team members first saw Li Tie's clothes, they didn't get accustomed to it for a long time, but under Li Tie's education - he himself hid in the mountains and let the other team members search for him. Everyone searched for half a day and still couldn't find him, which finally made them convinced. Under Li Tie's help, everyone's clothing was also dyed with dye into all sorts of colors. Luckily it was self-dyed, after washing the black pants several times they turned white, very easy to dye, just a bit darker than before, no big deal. The only problem was hats, everyone's hats were different, so they could only dye a piece of cloth and make a small bag, putting their heads in it when needed, leaving only two holes for the eyes. Currently, conditions weren't good, so they had to make do with this.

  After a period of training, the originally scarce bullets were even scarcer, with less than 100 rounds left for the entire team. Captain Zhang was reluctant to let everyone practice with live ammunition, but Li Tie said that only by using bullets could they nurture marksmen. One hundred bullets can kill five devils, but it's better to use five bullets to kill five devils; rather than firing ninety-five bullets chaotically on the battlefield, it's better to practice on the training ground. Captain Zhang thought about it overnight and gritted his teeth, allowing team members to practice live-fire shooting the next day. After several hundred rounds of ammunition were fired, everyone's shooting became more standardized, and they began to resemble marksmen.

  At the same time, the fox team has not been idle during this period. Today, they brought back a few pheasants, and tomorrow they caught a few wild rabbits. Since arrow branches can be made by themselves, everyone is now freely using them. Now almost every member of the team has become a godly archer, basically achieving the effect of shooting wherever they point within their effective range.

  The devils didn't find the Eighth Route Army last time, and they haven't been attacked in nearly half a month, so they gradually relaxed. The devils and puppet troops who died before were slowly forgotten. Some of the devils and puppet troops began to move around again with swagger.

  Li Tie decided to take everyone out for a spin, with two goals: to see the results of the team members' training over this period of time and to try to make some extra money on the side.

  Captain Zhang expressed spiritual support for this action, but was pessimistic, thinking that it would be good if everyone could come back safely.

  With Captain Zhang's suspicion, under the gaze of Captain Zhang's team members, Li Tie bid farewell to his dry mother and fellow villagers who came to see him off, and led the Fox Team to set out.