Section 6

  The trees in the mountain forest are very dense, the grass under the branches is lush, and the distance between the grasses is small.

  Tracks of wild animals passing through the grass thicket are very obvious.

  The traces of Li Tie and his teammates are also obvious.

  The devils have caught up with us.

  The devil walking in the front suddenly stepped on empty air, before he could understand what was happening, a tree branch rose straight up from the ground, one end stepping on his heel and the other end fiercely hitting the back of his head, at that moment he was knocked unconscious. Immediately following, an explosion sounded in the ranks, this devil and the devils closely following him, with unwilling expressions, boarded the express train to hell.

  This was a very simple little trap left by Li Tie, a thin stick laid flat on the ground, one end with a shallow hole dug underneath, and the other end hung an altered hand grenade. To be honest, Li Tie didn't have too much hope for this cunning landmine. He thought that if the devils didn't trigger it, he would come back later to take away the hand grenade after all, wasting is shameful.

  Without even seeing the enemy's face, they had already lost seven men, half of their entire squad, and only injured one of the opponent. This was a humiliation for the proud "Sakura King" special forces, a humiliation for the Imperial Japanese Army, a humiliation for Japan itself. They must wipe out all these dirt roads to avenge this shame, no, not even that can alleviate my anger, they must capture them all, at least flay their skin, extract their tendons, pierce their lanterns, and burst their chrysanthemums, only then can they slightly redeem the honor of Sakura King.

  The devils thought angrily.

  To avoid similar traps, the devils opened up a skirmish line and advanced while relying on the dense forest for cover.

  How could these devils think of the ideas and tactics that have led the world for sixty years? Especially a troop that has not experienced actual combat, how can they understand it clearly?

  A devil closely following the trail, suddenly took another step into emptiness. In order to avoid the impending explosion, he made a forward plunge, falling face down towards the front. The nearby devils also hastily lay down on the ground.

  Several minutes passed and there was no movement at all.

  The devils got up and cautiously approached the devil who had stepped into the trap - he lay motionless on the ground.

  A devil pushed him, he didn't make a sound, turned him over, and found that he was already dead - three thin locust tree arrows were neatly inserted in his chest, from left to right, very evenly.

  Another loud explosion, and the devil in front of him also went to see God.

  An explosive grenade was tied under the arrow, and the devils were turned over, and the grenade was pulled along with fire. In this way, the "Sakura King" team lost two more, leaving only five.

  The "Sakura King" special squad, more and more frightened, while the foxes are getting more and more excited. Along the way, they followed the captain and learned a lot of things.

  At this moment, the devils suddenly rushed towards them like they had gone mad, no longer caring about traps or treacherous thunder.

  Li Tie regretted it to death, if he had known that these devils would lose control so quickly, he would have set up a few more traps.

  But it's too late, the devils are already shouting "Charge!" and rushing towards them. If the devils get close, it'll be a matter of their guns versus the hand crossbows, automatic pistols versus blowpipes? Even thinking with their toes, the Fox Team would absolutely not have any advantage. It's possible that before they even see the enemy clearly, they'll already be riddled with bullets like a honeycomb.

  What's wrong?

  The Thirty-Six Stratagems, run for it!

  And so, a life-or-death race began.

  Eight foxes in front, with a cripple among them, bullets occasionally flew by their side, intending to add more cripples or corpses. Occasionally branches were broken off, or sparks were struck on the rocks.

  Five Cherry Blossom Kings followed behind, the hundred styles in their hands occasionally shooting out tongues of fire. Pointing towards the dense thicket in front. Due to the fox's excellent hiding ability, it was not easy to see clearly, and could only be seen when the grass moved, which was a swift arrow.

  When going up the mountain, two foxes carried Little Zhao who was injured. When coming down the mountain, they didn't need to do that anymore and just rolled and crawled down, anyway, as fast as possible.

  Although there was an injured comrade, the escape skills cultivated by evading the devils' sweeps for so many years were not something that a few inferior special soldiers could match.

  So, although the devils were chasing behind, the distance with the fox team members basically did not shorten much.

  Even so, the devils and foxes also want to be wolves, one by one panting.

  Later on, when the Japanese devils stopped to rest, the Fox Brigade members also rested; when the Japanese devils chased again, they ran again.

  Li Tie also started to show off: using his own Han Yang rifle to shoot at the devils. Although he tried very hard, marksmanship is not something that can be mastered in one or two days.

  After wasting a few bullets, not a single devil was injured, it's too humiliating.

  It was the devils who were startled, and they began to think that the bandits didn't have guns, so they chased after them with all their might. As they chased, they eventually pulled out guns, but judging from their marksmanship, it was still a long way off, and gradually they didn't take it to heart anymore.

  Like this, the devils chased and the fox team fled, the devils stopped chasing, they stopped, occasionally firing a few shots back.

  The sky gradually darkened, and they had hardly eaten anything all day. Whether it was the devils or the Fox Team members, everyone was exhausted. Although they outnumbered the enemy, Li Tie and his men did not dare to launch a direct attack on the devils, as the devils' bullets were not limited to just eight rounds, and going forward would only result in being wiped out by the devils.

  After a while, seeing that the devils didn't seem to be chasing them, they took a closer look and found that the devils were actually starting a fire to cook dinner. Li Tie also panted heavily and told everyone to start a fire and make something to eat. A team member pulled out a small pot (which Li Tie had obtained from the artillery tower last time) and poured water from the canteen into it. After a day of fleeing, they hadn't even had a chance to drink a sip of water. They only hastily drank some water when passing by a mountain spring, without even taking out their canteens. They grabbed a handful of millet and threw it into the pot, also finding a few mushrooms nearby and throwing them in to cook together. The other team members either leaned against trees to rest or kept an eye on the devils' movements.

  "The devils have come, run quickly." a team member shouted loudly.

  The foxes picked up their weapons and set up Xiao Zhao before making a run for it. The bullets flying around them were invisible to the eye.

  In a short while, there was no one around, only a small pot still on the fire, and the millet porridge inside was just about to boil. But nobody noticed that Li Tie had added a little seasoning before leaving.

  The devils closed in.

  Two devils stood guard while another three devils gathered around the small pot, staring at the already boiling millet porridge and smelling the fragrance of millet.

  "Yo xi, mi xi mi xi." The devil captain said.

  It turned out that this was one of the enemy's tricks.

  When they received the order to transfer to Jinan, they also received an order not to drink water casually. At the same time, there was a field survey report of the poisoning of all devils in the artillery tower.

  They chased the fox all the way, and when they were thirsty, they drank water from their own canteens. As a result, they soon ran out of water, but they didn't dare to drink from the mountain springs, especially those that the fox had passed by. They were afraid that the fox might have tampered with them. When they saw that the fox was very tired and would rest whenever they rested, they pretended to set up camp, luring the fox into camping as well.

  The fox was indeed deceived. They actually lit a fire and cooked porridge to drink.

  It's tolerable when it's raw, but unbearable when it's cooked, so they estimate that the congee is almost done and come to grab and drink it.

  The porridge has cooled down a bit, it's drinkable now. Sakura King gave each of his subordinates a little porridge and poured some for himself too. He held the porridge, blowing on it while observing the surroundings.

  At this moment, two other henchmen dropped their lunchboxes and clutched their stomachs in agony, crying out in pain. Before long, blood foam began to flow from the corners of their mouths, and they were on the verge of collapse.

  Got it, I've fallen into the trap.

  The traitor must have poisoned him in this dish.

  He hastily gave the antidote to his two subordinates, but before long, the two subordinates still died. The little devil thought he had a panacea for all poisons, could this poison be easily solved?

  Willow Leaf Peach, what a beautiful name, but why is its toxicity so strong? Is this the legendary Red Powdered Skull? It's confirmed.

  The devil captain immediately picked up his gun, but an arrow flew from somewhere and landed on his left chest. He shouted at his other companions, but they didn't hear his call. In vain, he fired a burst of bullets into the grass in front of him, but eventually, he couldn't control the muzzle anymore, only tightly grasping the grip. The last few bullets shot into the air. He fell backwards to the ground with a dull thud.

  The other two devils have also died early.

  Li Tie and the others didn't leave this place too far, taking advantage of the fact that it was almost dark, the light was not good, plus the camouflage effect of their uniforms, the devils didn't discover them at all, only two members of the Fox Team carried Xiao Zhao to withdraw, while the other team members completely lost their trace.

  The ambushing troops led by Li Tie surrounded their former campsite in an arc, and when they saw the devils starting to drink porridge, they took action.

  Two vigilant devils happened to be near the two team members who were lurking, when the devil drinking porridge suddenly became violent, the team members' killing pig knives quickly cut off the devil's trachea. Li Tie was still several meters away from the devil captain, this distance of several meters is a certain distance for people, but it's just right for the crossbow. So Li Tie shot an arrow at the devil captain and then tightly pressed himself to the ground, and then the devil's bullets flew past his head.

  The poor and highly anticipated Sakura King Special Forces have gone bankrupt before they even started. It's truly a case of dying before achieving success, often bringing tears to the eyes of onlookers.

  Li Tie led his teammates in a mountain valley, eating and drinking their fill, and sleeping soundly.

  The sky is bright, sweep the battlefield.

  There were no devils in front of them, only the corpses of devils.

  Adhering to the principle of greening the motherland, everyone has a responsibility. Li Tie led his team members to use the bodies of the devils as fertilizer and bury them under each tree with their engineer shovels, making their own due contribution to greening the motherland.

  As for those things that are not easily rotten, such as guns, backpacks, hand grenades and bullets, if they are buried in the ground and accidentally dug up by some little friends, it is easy to cause harm to the physical and mental health of the flowers of the motherland. Li Tie would not do this, he plans to hand these things over to the relatively more professional Fox Team for disposal.

  So each member of the Fox Team was equipped with the devils' equipment, including the devils' yellow military uniforms.

  All of his clothes were packed in his backpack.

  The pistol bullets of the devil's child are not compatible with the Type 38, and once they're used up, there's no way to replenish them. We should take this opportunity to get more, or else we'll have to import them from Japan later on.

  Xiao Zhao's wound is a bit red and swollen, from the injury to now has not been properly treated, it seems to be inflamed, need to get some medicine.

  Li Tie thought of the Japanese devils' supplement point.

  Li Tie carried a sniper rifle of the devils, and his comrades held Type 100 submachine guns, each also carrying an automatic pistol.

  So cool!

  No wonder people say that one person's happiness is built on another person's suffering, it really makes sense. But now it should be a group of people's happiness is built on the death of another group of people.

  Following the direction of the devils, they walked for about 20 or 30 miles and saw a small town in front of them. It was called a town, but it was actually just a slightly larger village. There was only one not-too-wide main street with several shops.

  There is a small artillery tower in the town. Let two foxes accompany Little Zhao to guard the remaining weapons and equipment in the mountain forest.

  Li Tie led four big and majestic foxes into the town.

  He just saw a car next to the artillery tower on the mountain.

  Is there a car in the small cannon tower? Do you think you are a capitalist? It must have been left by Sakura ō.

  There must be something in the car that he needs.

  Probably due to the haunting, there weren't many people on the street. The clerks in a few shops were leaning lazily against the counter, staring blankly at the door with their eyes glazed over.

  Li Tie led four foxes in a column formation, directly towards the enemy's artillery tower.

  Far away, the pseudo-military soldier on sentry duty saw this group of "devils" and immediately straightened up, but it was too late. The "devil" had already seen them and arrived in front of them. The leader of the "devils" came to the gate and gave two slaps on the ears, followed by a kick in the stomach, while shouting "Baka" and other insults. The pseudo-military soldier let out a miserable cry as he fell to the ground.

  After knocking out the gate guards with two slaps, the "devils" entered the gun tower.

  Inside the artillery tower, there were only half a squad of devils, led by a sergeant. In addition, near the artillery tower, there was also a company of puppet troops. Since most of these puppet troops were local people who had been forcibly conscripted, they weren't all bad guys; a large part of them just came for a meal. Only the leader of the puppet troop and his few trusted followers often did something bad, considered to be relatively "dedicated" as puppet troops. Due to the "honesty" of the puppet troops, the devils were extremely distrustful of them, so they put them in barracks farther away from the artillery tower, and their weapons weren't complete either; usually, there was a lack of bullets, only issuing a few more during sweeps. Therefore, most of the puppet troops didn't have good feelings towards the devils either, but running away wasn't an option, and it might also implicate their families, so they endured.

  When Li Tie and his men entered, seven devils were drinking on the ground floor except for one who was keeping watch at the top of the artillery tower. A machine gun was placed against the wall on several boxes of ammunition, and three Type 38 rifles were placed to one side.

  The devils who had come a few days ago "triumphantly returned", the devils hastily stood up, and before they could open their mouths, they were met with five angry gun muzzles. Before they could understand what was happening, they had already gone to see their heavenly aunt.

  The devils on the watchtower heard the gunfire and wanted to come down to take a look, but were also killed by a burst of bullets. It was probably unthinkable to him that the Eighth Route Army would have such strong firepower.

  Because the submachine gun made a relatively small sound, the nearby puppet troops did not discover that the devils had already been dealt with.

  Just then, the leader of the pseudo-army squad came with his confidants.

  They usually didn't dare to come to this gun tower, but the Japanese squad leader ordered him to send two jars of good wine over, so he had no choice but to comply. He went to the town and got a few jars of wine, and also went to a small restaurant next door to stir-fry two dishes for himself (the devils have recently been cooking their own meals and not allowing outside food deliveries). He brought his trusted aide to deliver the wine.

  As soon as I entered the gun tower, apart from seeing several "Ta Jun" who came in the past few days, I also saw that the Japanese squad leader and other devils were already dead.

  The wine jar fell from his hands and landed on his own foot, but he didn't dare make a sound because the muzzle of the "devil's" gun was already pointed at his head.

  "Sumimasen, sumimasen." The false army captain repeated the two sentences of Japanese he had just learned a few days ago, wanting to let Ta Jun know his "sorry".

  How did Ke Li know that this guy had a strong dialect accent and said "Si Ni Ma Si"? So he shot the guy dead with one bullet. The other fake soldiers were so scared that they urinated and surrendered their weapons.

  "We are the Eighth Route Army, you have been captured." Li Tie declared to them.

  Several fake soldiers knelt down, "Eighth Route Army Master spare our lives, Eighth Route Army Master spare our lives" while kowtowing and begging for mercy.

  "Get up and take us to your barracks."

  "Yes, yes, yes, Eighth Route Army master, please." Several puppet soldiers nodded and fawned, leading the way.

  Walking and examining these several fake soldiers at the same time.

  Li Tie only found out from these guys that the one who was just killed was the squad leader, and the other puppet soldiers were all in their barracks. The devils forbade these puppet soldiers from going out on the streets, except for those on sentry duty.

  They soon arrived at the pseudo-military base, and Li Tie ordered the pseudo-soldiers to assemble.

  The fake soldiers assembled smoothly, without any accidents. Nor did anyone express suspicion about them.

  Because they were wearing military uniforms different from those of the cannon tower devils, holding different weapons, and in any case, these were all elite among the devils, so it was normal for the Chinese to be smooth, and they were brought over by several confidants of the captain.

  "We are the Eighth Route Army. You have been captured. Now put down your weapons and we will spare your lives, otherwise you will be killed without mercy."

  When all the fake armies were gathered, Li Tie declared.

  Almost all of the fake soldiers put down their weapons and surprisingly let out a sigh of relief, as if they had been liberated.

  Since Li Tie and his men arrived, none of the puppet soldiers dared to speak up.

  "I know most of you were forced, now you are willing to join the Eighth Route Army to fight against the devils, we welcome you. If you want to go home, we won't keep you back, we will give you some travel expenses and let you return home. But please remember, we are all Chinese people, Chinese people will eventually drive the devils out of our country, being a traitor is a dead end."

  "I agree!"

  "I am willing to be an Eighth Route Army soldier."

  Most of the fake army tended to be the Eighth Route Army. Only a few people chose to go home, including several confidants of the captain just now.

  Li Tie gave each person two silver coins for the road, letting them go home. The silver coins weren't his own, so he didn't mind spending them; there were still several dozen left in the Japanese soldier's backpack.

  "When you join the Eighth Route Army, you may have to suffer hardships. You may not be able to eat or sleep well, and you may have to march all day long. There will be many restrictions on you. Can you endure it?"

  "We must hold on tight. In the past few months as a puppet soldier, I didn't even have the face to talk to my family members. Now that we have this opportunity to join the Eighth Route Army, how can we not do our best?" one of the puppet soldiers said.

  "Hold on". The puppet troops have all expressed their stance.

  "All right, I now formally declare that from this moment on, you are all glorious Eighth Route Army soldiers. As an Eighth Route Army soldier, one must have the demeanor of an Eighth Route Army soldier. Now, I announce the Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention of the Eighth Route Army. Anyone who violates them will be subject to punishment. The first item of the Three Main Rules of Discipline: All actions are subject to orders..."

  Li Tiesheng successfully recruited the first batch of puppet soldiers, a total of 36 people. He temporarily organized them into an reinforced company, with a vixen team member temporarily serving as the company commander, and would be formally reorganized after returning to the base.

  Old rules, pack up.

  This time it's really serious.

  In terms of weapons, there is a light machine gun (this light machine gun is a modified version of the 11-year model, using a spring-loaded magazine to feed bullets, which can be fired at high and low angles without any additional tools, only one shooter is needed to operate it, but in any case, continuous firing cannot be achieved. The shooting accuracy is equivalent to that of the 11-year model, very accurate. Caliber: gun barrel length 550mm, total length 1070mm, weight: 30-round magazine, firing rate 550 rounds/minute, initial velocity 2200m. Six boxes of ammunition (the number in each box has not been counted), four Type 38 rifles, some bullets, a shotgun with 60 rounds of ammunition. Forty-two Han Yang-made guns, four boxes of bullets, two boxes of hand grenades, and sixteen boxes of hand bombs were found in the artillery tower and the pseudo-military barracks.

  Of course, the best things were in the car: apart from over a dozen boxes of rifle bullets, there was also a submachine gun, a radio transmitter and quite a few medical supplies, including four boxes of penicillin! Li Tie suspected that this was specially prepared for Little Zhao. As for syringes? Yes, several, glass ones, with plenty of needles too, hehe. There were also two large iron drums of gasoline, unfortunately no heavy weapons, only two grenade launchers and a small amount of ammunition.

  Other supplies were even more abundant. Not to mention the flour in the artillery tower, or the millet in the puppet army barracks, just the canned goods in the cars alone filled Li Tie's eyes.

  There is strength in numbers, load all the weapons and equipment onto the cars, let the new recruits carry the Hanyang-made guns on their backs, put the only two large carts on, loaded with food and salt, everyone carries as much as possible, and the grain that cannot be carried away is distributed to nearby residents, then set fire to the artillery tower and barracks, burning them to ashes.

  Under the astonished gaze of all the Firefox members and new recruits, Li Tie stepped onto the car.

  Ignition, gas pedal, everything is normal.

  Everyone cheered with excitement, a small guerrilla team had a car, just thinking about it was exciting, awesome!

  But after everyone cheered for a while, they saw the car suddenly rush forward - and then stall.

  Li Tie smiled apologetically at everyone: It's been a long time since I drove, my hands are rusty, please forgive me!!!

  Re-ignite, step on the gas, shift gears, release clutch, and this time the car finally started moving slowly.

  Everyone cheered again and followed the car out of the door.

  Gathered the other fox team members, gave Little Zhao a shot of penicillin, and then had Little Zhao sit in the passenger seat. But it was too late, the others were already ruined. That little brat Little Zhao got lucky, why didn't I get hurt? It's really unfair, even if it meant scraping off a piece of skin from my leg.

  Under everyone's envious gaze, Li Tie drove his car, carrying Xiao Zhao, slowly moving forward towards the destination.

  At that time, the road was not as easy to walk as it is now, especially in mountainous areas. Many places were barely passable on foot, let alone by car. So Li Tie took out all the engineer shovels. If they encountered a place that really couldn't be passed through, they had no choice but to repair the road themselves.

  United we stand, after two days of arduous journey, exhausting two-thirds of the gasoline, Li Tie and his party finally arrived near the base area and met Captain Zhang who came to greet them.

  When Captain Zhang saw eight people go out and come back with forty or fifty people, especially the large amount of supplies brought back by shoulder-carrying porters, his mouth was so shocked that it couldn't be closed.

  With the help of Zhang's team, everyone finally moved all the supplies to the base. Since the car couldn't drive into the base, Li Tie drove it into a small cave and disguised it well on the outside.

  Looking at the mountain-like supplies, Captain Zhang was so happy that he couldn't sleep for several days.

  The only shotgun was given to Captain Zhang, and Captain Zhang finally had a bit of a leadership look.

  With the current personnel, guns have basically reached one per person, so Li Tie and Captain Zhang reorganized the guerrilla team after research. And uniformed the team members' clothing: There were many uniforms in the confiscated materials this time, which became the standard uniforms of the guerrilla team members after slight processing, of course, they were mountain-style camouflage suits.

  After reorganization, Li Tie expanded the Fox Team to 14 people, selecting six agile young men from new recruits to join the team. All were equipped with pistols and blowpipe crossbow backpacks. Additionally, they were also equipped with eight submachine guns, one sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and four Type 38 rifles.

  Others, from Captain Zhang's squad, took out a part of the old soldiers to form the second squad, supplemented with new recruits, and carried out ideological and political education while conducting military training.

  A small base is slowly growing, preparing for the upcoming great war.

  Li Tie didn't idle for a while either. He brought all the fox teams to upgrade the array of the base.

  First, the southern slope position was set up on the basis of the original trap, with many hand grenades modified into landmines added. Everyone fully exerted their imagination, turning over a hundred hand grenades into more than a hundred landmines with different detonation methods, directly turning the southern slope into a minefield. In fact, it's very simple to modify hand grenades into landmines, and the modified hand grenades are even easier to use than landmines. First, gently twist open the bottom protective cover, and a fuse connected to the cover will be exposed, with a glass bead attached below. When the glass bead is pulled, the friction between the surface coating and the inner tube wall will generate sparks, similar to safety matches, which will ignite the fuse. Normally, it takes about 3-5 seconds for the fuse to burn to the detonator. Gently cut off the hand grenade's fuse, reassemble it as before, and you're done.

  All the dark forts have also expanded in area, processed to be more comfortable and hidden, and directly arranged the second team's barracks nearby. As long as there are enemies coming over, someone will always discover them first. Of course, other barracks have also been renovated and disguised, even if enemy planes fly over from above, they won't find out that it's a house.

  Then there are three cliffs, Li Tie and others directly expanded the secret whistle into a secret fort, absolutely cannot capsize in the shade, making the southern mountain city become the Maginot Line.

  Let the little devils come, let them come fiercely.