Chapter Thirty-Four

  Unexpectedly, the first battle was ambushed, and the reconnaissance team was easily exposed, with two deaths and one injury.

  The Japanese army immediately investigated the cause and found it ridiculous. It turned out that the clothes provided by the Japanese army for these plainclothes personnel were all obtained from local people at the city gate, and they looked like Shandong farmers when worn.

  In those years, there was no such thing as chemical fertilizer. In rural areas, organic fertilizers were accumulated, and farmers often carried a dung basket early in the morning to pick up dung, which was very common in rural areas of eastern Shandong Province.

  Li Tie, however, saw something unusual in this common scene: people picking up dung usually do so along the main road, following the horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts that leave behind dung on the highway. What's strange is how these few people ran to the fields beside the highway to pick up dung? Farmers who pick up dung always lower their heads and walk along the road, but these few people were walking while looking around in all directions.

  Then Li Tie saw a group of shabbily dressed "farmers" sneaking around - were they even picking up dung in groups?

  As soon as he opens his mouth, his accent doesn't sound like a local. No matter how you listen to it, it sounds awkward. Does the trash collector not sound like a local? Did he pick up trash and take it back to Japan?

  What would Li Tie's reaction be if he saw such a weird group of people?

  After self-examination, Lieutenant Shōsuke Matsushita decided to strengthen his language training

  。

  Under Matsumoto's inspection, each of the devils studied Chinese very diligently. After more than a dozen days, they finally didn't have any devilish accent at all.

  "This should mean no one will think of us as devils anymore..." they thought.

  One day, Song Xia sent a ghost to the market to get some shrimp stir-fry. At the market, he saw an old man catching shrimp.

  So this ghostly figure, full of confidence, greeted the old man in the local dialect: "Old fellow! Do you know where I'm from?"

  The old man replied: "Your accent is not very clear..."

  The devil was delighted and thought to himself, "I didn't expect my Chinese to have improved to this extent, it's really impressive..." At this time, the old man looked him up and down and said, "If you can count the number of shrimp I caught, I'll know where you're from." The old man had caught some small wild river shrimp, only about 2-3 cm in size.

  The devil started counting with a fairly standard tone: "One, two, three,... fifty... one hundred... two hundred..." After more than an hour of counting, he answered proudly: "Nine thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven shrimp! Old man, I bet you can't guess where I'm from!!"

  The old man laughed and said: "I know! You must be Japanese! Hahaha..."

  The devil was extremely surprised, but still asked the old man in a standard local accent: "You... you... how did you know?"

  The old man replied: "Ah, this is simple. Chinese people ask about fish and shrimp by the catty, no one is as foolish as you!"

  The little devil hung his head and walked back to the barracks with some grass shrimp, saw the captain of the plainclothes team, and reported what happened in the market one by one.

  The plainclothes team leader reported this important intelligence to Matsushita again. Matsushita was shocked and discolored: "What, our Great Japanese Imperial Army's IQ has dropped so fast?"

  After a period of investigation and inquiry, Song Xiaofeng finally heard about a Chinese folk remedy that can improve intelligence, which is derived from a Chinese proverb: eat what supplements what.

  。

  Since the Imperial Army's IQ has dropped, it must be a brain problem. According to the principle of eating what you need to supplement at that time, everyone just needs to eat more brains to improve their IQ.

  But what to eat became a problem. Logically, monkey brains should be the best, but there were no monkeys here, and while there were many chickens and ducks, their brains were too small. In the end, pig brains were the best choice: one was that they were easier to handle, and another was that there were plenty of them. Of course, after eating the brain, the remaining meat wouldn't go to waste either, so we might as well eat it all together and supplement other parts at the same time.

  After a period of replenishment, the Ghosts' plainclothes team moved again, but these were still detected by the Eighth Route.

  What's the reason? Matsushita couldn't figure it out. Last time, he spoke and his accent gave him away, but this time, he didn't even open his mouth before being exposed. What was the reason?

  Nonsense! Everyone is struggling to make ends meet, but who has a servant eating well and looking plump? How can they afford to eat meat every day when others can't even afford rice?

  After several failures, Matsushita finally understood that his skills were limited to being a staff officer in the general staff office and that he was not suitable for actual combat.

  He then went to report his situation to Itai and requested disciplinary action.

  Seeing that his trusted aides can't even handle this matter, it seems that his request to have the entire plainclothes squad composed of Imperial Army personnel is a must.

  In the end, he had no choice but to take a step back and select some people who were loyal to the Imperial Army from the pseudo-army and special troops to join the plainclothes team.

  This plainclothes team conducted a series of reconnaissance on the outskirts of the mountainous area where the base was located, and finally came to a conclusion: there were eight roads in this piece of mountain, big and small, with eight roads.

  However, when Itai asked where the Eighth Route Army was specifically located, the plainclothes team couldn't answer. None of the plainclothes who entered the mountainous area could come out, and they all disappeared. Do you think anyone else dares to go in?

  He pointed at the map and said to Itai, "Right here in this area."

  Ban Tian was furious: "Ba Ga, of course I know it's in this area, but where exactly is it? This area covers hundreds of miles." He raised his hand and slapped him twice, followed by a kick to the stomach.

  The plainclothes captain had actually mapped out the entire mountain area.

  "From tomorrow on, if you can't detect the specific location of the Eighth Route Army, you will be subject to military law."

  。”

  Ittō gave a death order to the plainclothes squad.

  No way out, the entire plainclothes team, except for the devils and about twenty puppet soldiers and secret agents, saw Banta's anger, what to do? Don't go, military law will be enforced, or else go into the mountains.

  Life and death are determined by fate, what is precious lies in heaven.

  －－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－

  During this time, Li Tieguo's was still pretty good.

  Superiors praised the large amount of supplies, especially medical and surgical equipment, provided to the Mong County District Team, and awarded a collective first-class merit once. Individuals who performed outstandingly were also commended, including Li Tie as the main recipient. Additionally, after Er Gou reported his current armed forces to superiors, they decided to expand the Mong County District Team's establishment, upgrading it to the Mong County Battalion, with Er Gou becoming the battalion commander. After reorganization, the battalion became a regiment-level unit, and Er Gou became a regiment-level battalion commander.

  The entire battalion was reorganized, with one company formed from the first platoon, still led by Chen Hai, the second platoon became the second company, still led by Wang Fei, the sixth platoon became the third company, led by Wang Wei, the fifth platoon became the artillery company, led by Zhang Dazhu, and the third and fourth platoons merged to form an independent company, externally known as Fox, led by Li Tie, with Old Bao as deputy commander. So now, the battalion consists of four companies plus a Fox Independent Company, which is not only independent in terms of organization but also has its own base in the mountain cave, separate from the battalion headquarters.

  The current mountain cave base has already communicated directly with the big team department by phone. If there's anything, just shake it a few times and you can talk about it.

  Another point is that the independent regiment does not participate in general military operations at ordinary times. All actions are decided by Li Tie himself, and it's okay to report to the brigade afterwards.

  This is the second dog, the big team leader. Seeing Li Tie, this little guy, if he stays in the big team, except for being mischievous and causing trouble all day, I estimate he won't have much effect either. It's better to let him go outside to cause trouble for the devils and save ourselves some trouble. Who knows, we might even gain something from it? Because as long as Li Tie has spoils of war, most of them will still be voluntarily handed over to the team headquarters, and if he keeps a little for himself, that's also understandable.

  Although the two squads merged into one company, the actual number of people did not increase much. The Fox squad had few people to begin with, and the Third squad also didn't have many, so after merging, Independent Company was still the one with the least number of people.

  But the combat power is not the weakest, it can't be said that the four companies will work together to take down the fox, they can't win in a head-on fight, but if they come from behind, the four companies combined are no match for the fox.

  In terms of weapons, the foxes only use submachine guns and sniper rifles, as well as special weapons like rocket launchers. As for machine guns, they're not nonexistent, but the foxes just don't use them. Except for two in a cave, nobody wants to carry those heavy things around. Each car has one mounted on it, though. Now that the foxes have taken control of all the cars, nobody else dares to drive them - except for the foxes, no other team has anyone brave enough to operate these vehicles.

  The hundred-style assault rifle replaced by the fox was directly assigned to several companies by Second Dogzi, making several company commanders so happy that they couldn't find their way north. To put it another way, that's what the fox used leftover.

  Moreover, the landmines set up by the fox, who doesn't want to go and try, see if you can destroy the mine, see if you can come out of the minefield intact. This is not just talk, it depends on real strength.

  Riding the momentum of victory, Er Gouzi led three main combat battalions to sweep through the enemy strongholds around the base area within a week. For a time, within a radius of 100 miles of the battalion headquarters, the remaining puppet troops in several strongholds dared not to be arrogant anymore. Seeing the Eighth Route Army, they feared that they could not avoid it and were given to the government by the Eighth Route Army. There was not a single devil in these strongholds because all the devils had been loyal to the Imperial Army.

  These strongholds were left behind by the Second Dog Commander, and if they weren't so far away from the base, even if they were taken down, they would be too close to the devils and might be attacked at any time. However, this way, the puppet army inside the stronghold was also taught a lesson, telling them to behave themselves and not do anything out of line.

  The place is big and there are many things to do.

  First, safety is a big problem.

  Such a large area cannot be defended by just a few battalions. Fortunately, there are also militia participating in the defense.

  All the villages have established militia forces. If a village is too small and it's difficult to form a militia team, several villages will unite to form a joint defense team. The Second Dog Battalion Commander distributed the recently captured weapons to these militiamen, and his subordinates, several company commanders, taught the leaders of these militia teams some basic military knowledge. A certain combat effectiveness was gradually formed.

  These militiamen were each responsible for security in their own village areas and also undertook reconnaissance missions to gather intelligence on enemy movements.