Chapter Eleven: The Critical Shot

  The whole night passed quietly with both sides exercising restraint and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

  However, as soon as the sky brightened, the Japanese artillery shells arrived at Fenghuangling along with the dawn. The bombing points of this bombardment were extremely sparse, and it was not an exaggeration to describe them as sporadic shellings.

  However, after the shells landed, a thick smoke rose with the explosion, and as the smoke spread, all the brothers were choked, coughing and tearful wherever they went.

  "Poison gas!" Ye Tufei exclaimed, "Take off your clothes immediately, wet them, and cover your mouth and nose!"

  There are too many people and not enough water, it's basically impossible.

  Ye Tu Fei shouted loudly: "Take off your pants and pee on it!"

  While everyone was busy dealing with the poisonous gas of Little Japan, the Japanese infantry crept up. One by one, Japanese soldiers wearing gas masks under the cover of smoke and fog, like ghosts, rushed towards the brothers who were still busy urinating.

  In this case, any tactical method has lost its effect, and the only thing that can be done is to pick up a knife and have a bloody fight with the enemy.

  The first one to welcome Xiao Riben was Ye Tufei.

  This was the first time the brothers had seen Ye Tufei kill someone.

  In the smoke and fog, only Ye Tu's flying figure was seen, appearing and disappearing suddenly. Wherever he went, there was always a cry of agony from a small Japanese man.

  Feng Zhongliang's vanguard also rushed up immediately afterwards.

  Although the brothers of Zhongyitang are skilled in martial arts and can hold their own against the Japanese, even surpassing them slightly, under the smoke bombs, they need to use one hand to cover their mouths and noses, which greatly reduces their combat effectiveness.

  Moreover, the number of Japanese rushing forward is increasing.

  Just as they were about to collapse, Ye Tu Fei's reserve force was put into the battle and quickly turned the tide.

  The leader of this backup force is Xiao Zhonghe, the sixth-ranking of the Thirteen Taibao.

  Xiao Zhonghe was once a professional killer, and if only his killing skills were considered, Xiao Zhonghe would be above Ye Tufei. He stayed in Jiajiazhuang after that, deliberately concealing his past until he met Ye Tufei.

  In the days of occupying Zhongyitang and standing on the mountain, Ye Tufei supported him in forming an assassination team. In the bloody storm of Erlang Mountain's Jianghu battle for hegemony, he established a brilliant military merit.

  This time in the battle against Xiao Riben, Ye Tuofei originally had no plans for a white-blade fight, so he hid Xiao Zhonghe and his assassination team.

  Xiao Zhonghe's assassination team and Li Zhongyun's sharpshooter team are somewhat similar, with not many members. Li Zhongyun's sharpshooter team, including himself, has only fifteen people, while Xiao Zhonghe's assassination team has even fewer members, totaling only seven people including Xiao Zhonghe himself.

  However, when these seven people play with cold weapons, they can be equivalent to seventy or even more.

  The battlefield passage on Fenghuangding was not wide, and with the participation of these seven people, plus Ye Tufei, eight people formed an indestructible defense line. The small Japanese who encountered this defensive line were almost all hit in one move, either dead or disabled.

  At this time, the poisonous smoke also gradually dispersed. The brothers no longer needed to cover their mouths and noses with one hand when they were fighting. As one side weakened and the other strengthened, Ye Tufei's troops quickly gained the upper hand, while the Japanese retreated step by step, eventually choosing to withdraw.

  This battle was ultimately won, but at a great cost.

  Among the thirteen Arhats, Lao San, Lao Qi and Lao Jiu were killed on the spot. Lao Shi Er was seriously injured and could not hold on any longer. Lao Da Feng Zhongliang's left arm was hit by shrapnel from a cannon shell, and blood flowed nonstop.

  Among the brothers, there were as many as sixty or seventy people who died of poisoning due to lack of time to escape. In addition, more than forty or fifty people were killed in a fierce battle after being ambushed by the Japanese.

  This is just a superficial loss, the greater loss lies in the physical condition of the brothers. Whether using a wet cloth to cover their mouths and noses or urinating on it before covering their mouths and noses, they were unable to completely avoid inhaling toxic gases. As a result, the vast majority of brothers showed varying degrees of poisoning symptoms.

  And at this time, Little Japan's next round of attack began.

  The Japanese army, which had always been cautious with their lives, launched a suicidal attack on Fenghuangding. The small Japanese soldiers at the front didn't care about the bullets coming straight at them, only charging forward until they fell to the ground after being hit. The ones behind them took over the mission of their predecessors and continued to charge forward bravely, using their bodies to block the bullets for their comrades in the back.

  After nearly a hundred casualties, Little Japan finally climbed up Fenghuangding again.

  The second White Blade War was inevitable.

  Still the same as the first white blade battle, Ye Tufei and Xiao Zhonghe's assassination team charged to the front. However, unlike before, their movements were no longer as agile, and their killing moves were not as sharp as before.

  Fortunately, when Zhongyitang first started out, they lacked guns and ammunition, so Ye Tufei spent more time researching cold weapon combat, who would have thought that it would come in handy at this moment.

  Just as Ye Tufei, Xiao Zhonghe and others were about to collapse, Feng Zhongliang led more than 20 brothers, with two people forming a group, carrying long guns with iron rods nearly three meters long and wine bottle mouths, charging over.

  One minute longer, one minute stronger. Faced with such a row of terrifying killing machines, Little Japan was helpless and had to retreat again.

  At this time, the sky had already brightened up.

  The Japanese army under Fenghuangling showed no signs of retreat.

  Ye Tu Fei hesitated, "Could it be just my illusion? The general counterattack of the Tai'erzhuang Campaign wasn't on the morning of April 6th?"

  The residual memories that flashed in Ye Tu Fei's mind were not wrong. At 5:00 am on the same day, Li Zongren issued a general counterattack order to all units of the Fifth War Zone, and the Japanese army's Tsukahara Division was indeed unable to fight again as Ye Tu Fei had expected, and could only withdraw from the front line.

  Koizumi received the order to retreat at 5:05 in the early morning.

  But at this time, Koizumi Masao had already gone mad, he abandoned the command of the regimental commander and was determined to eat Ye Tufei before he would stop.

  Less than ten minutes after receiving the order to retreat, Koizumi Masao ordered the artillery to bombard Fenghuangding and used up all the poison gas shells they had brought with them.

  The enemy on Fenghuang's peak surprised him, and they withstood his attack even in the poisonous gas.

  Koizumi's unyielding spirit launched a second wave of attacks, only to be forced back once again.

  The two-pronged attack cost Koizumi Masao nearly two hundred Imperial Warriors, forcing him to stop and regroup.

  Similarly, Ye Tufei's troops on Fenghuang Peak suffered even heavier losses and also needed to stop and catch their breath.

  The Phoenix Peak fell silent for a moment.

  During this rare and brief lull in the battle, Ye Tufei called for Zhang Luohui.

  " Luo Hui, brother, do you still remember what I said when we played Go yesterday?" After Zhang Luo Hui fearlessly led his troops to fight the Japanese army to the death yesterday, Ye Tu Fei changed the way he addressed Zhang Luo Hui.

  "What are you talking about? Oh, right, you used the principles of playing Go to teach me how to grasp the situation."

  Ye Tufei smiled and said: "What I'm saying isn't about the first round, it's about the second round!"

  "Second disk? Second disk, I told you to give me a big son, you agreed."

  Ye Tu Fei smiled and shook his head, saying: "What else did I say besides these?"

  Zhang Luo Hui shook his head and said: "I don't remember."

  Ye Tu Fei let out a sigh and said: "I told you that if you still lose this round, I'll hand you over to the Japanese. Do you remember?"

  "Zhang Luo Hui's mouth opened wide: "You're not kidding?""

  "Of course not, I rarely joke."

  Looking at Ye Tufei's enigmatic smile, Zhang Luohui seemed to understand something and said, "Alright then, I'll listen to you."

  Ten minutes later, just as the Japanese army completed another deployment for attack, a white flag suddenly appeared on Fenghuangling.

  Koizumi Masao decided to temporarily postpone the attack and see what was happening on top of the mountain.

  Then there was a dialogue between Guo Zhonglin, the representative of Shanshang, and Kiyohara Genki, the representative of Shanshang, shouting into the loudspeaker:

  "Japanese brothers! Listen to me, actually we brothers don't want to be against you, it's that damned National Army Colonel Zhang LuoHui and our big boss Ye LiuYe who forced us. Now Ye LiuYe has been blown up, we also don't want to fight with you anymore, we want to surrender, is that okay?"

  "Eight Trigrams Formation! Crafty and big, who knows whether you're truly surrendering or faking it?"

  "Japanese military brothers, we carry guns and eat also out of necessity, who would want to lose the rice bowl on our necks? We brothers are not like the National Army, they are soldiers, we are bandits, they eat imperial rations, we drink blood from the knife tip. Tell me, why do we have to go against ourselves, and die together with those who eat imperial rations?"

  "Hmm, what you said makes sense, but if you want to show your sincerity in surrendering, first throw down all your weapons from the mountain."

  "Hey, Japanese brother! It's not that I don't trust you, but after all, you can't represent your superior! We've already tied up that damned Zhang Luohui, don't believe me? Take a look! We just want to hear one sentence of promise from your highest superior, let Lieutenant Colonel Koizumi come out and say something!"

  Zhang Luohui was tied up with five flowers and exposed his body.

  All of this was seen by Koizumi Masao.

  If Yè Tú Fēi was really killed by the imperial army's artillery fire, as the people on the mountain top said, and then captured the commander of this Shina army unit, Koizumi Masao felt that his face would be sufficiently preserved.

  So he decided to speak out.

  Suzuki Masao, who had walked to the front of the troops, adjusted his uniform and was about to speak when a gunshot rang out.

  Koizumi Masaaki fell on his back.

  The top of the mountain was at least four hundred meters away from where Koizumi was, a distance that neither Han Yang or Zhong Zheng could reach with precision/shooting distance, so Koizumi thought he was safe.

  Koizumi Masao didn't know that Chūyītáng had a godly shooter named Li Zhongyun, and Li Zhongyun happened to have a German-made Mauser rifle with an effective range of 800 meters, which could maintain high shooting accuracy within 500 meters.

  Although there were not many original bullets left, Li Zhongyun had always been reluctant to use them like a treasure, but facing such an important figure as Koizumi Junichiro, Li Zhongyun gritted his teeth and gave him one.