Chapter Seventeen: The Enemy in the County Town

  The content of page 1 is as follows:

  In the county town's pseudo-military headquarters, Li Quanduan sat in a taishi chair sipping tea. Li Youcai cried beside him and said: "Son, you must avenge your brother. He died so miserably."

  Li Quan took a sip of tea and closed his eyes, as if he hadn't heard Li Youcai's words. He said slowly: "Good tea."

  Zhang Fugui knelt in the hall, his hands tied behind his back. Although there were no visible signs of beating, he had clearly been starved for several days. Since being caught by Li Youcai, Zhang Fugui knew he didn't have many days left to live. Fortunately, he was a favorite of Ye Tian's, at least Ye Tian didn't know that he had helped the guerrillas to survive. Li Youcai didn't dare use torture on him. But now Li Quan was back. Although he was afraid in his heart, he didn't bother to beg for mercy, after all, it was a vendetta of killing his son and brother. Li Quan was not a kind person, Zhang Fugui could only resign himself to fate.

  With Li Quan backing him up, Li Youcai brandished his stick and was about to beat Zhang Fugui. He cursed furiously: "You son of a bitch, I've been serving you with good food and drink. Not only did you get my son killed, but also made me lose 100 dan of grain. Today, I'll beat you to death, you dog!"

  Li Quan gave a signal with his eyes, and several fake soldiers blocked Li Youcai.

  Zhang Fugui secretly laughed in his heart. He didn't know if Li Youcai was heartbroken over the death of his son or that one hundred dan of grain.

  Li Youcai pushed away the fake soldiers blocking him, angrily shouting: "Get out of my way, I'm going to kill this turtle today!" Li Quan put down his teacup and shouted loudly; "Enough!" Then he quickly walked up to Zhang Fugui's front, helped him up, and untied the ropes binding him. With an innocent face, he made a fist and said: "Brother Fugui was frightened, I apologize for my brother here."

  Li Youcai was stunned, Zhang Fugui was dazed, and all the fake soldiers were dumbfounded. What on earth is Li Quan singing about?

  Li Quan said to Li Youcai, "This matter was masterminded by the guerrilla troops. We should go find them to avenge ourselves, how can we put all the blame on Brother Fugui's head?"

  "This, this..." The son's sudden change in attitude left Li Youcai speechless.

  "Brother Zhang, Brother Zhang..." After Li Quan called out several times, Zhang Fu Gui finally came to. Although he didn't know why Li Quan wanted to spare his life, this sudden chance at survival was something Zhang Fu Gui had to seize. So with a sincere and fearful tone, he said: "The kindness of not killing me today, Zhang Fu Gui will forever remember in his heart. If one day Brother needs my help, I will definitely go all out, even if it means death."

  Li Quan burst out laughing and said: "You and I are originally good brothers, why say these polite words. In a few days, I'll set up a few tables at the wine tower to celebrate with Brother Fugui."

  "It should be me treating you to wine and apologizing instead."

  "Haha......" The two burst out laughing, and indeed felt a sense of mutual appreciation.

  After laughing, Li Quan said again: "It's better for Brother Fugui to go and explain it to Lieutenant General Noda as soon as possible. After all, the Japanese who traveled with Brother Fugui were also killed by the guerrillas." "Yes, yes..." Zhang Fugui, who had narrowly escaped with his life, ran away like he was fleeing.

  Watching Zhang Fugui leave, Li Youcai angrily scolded Li Quan: "You beast, you let your brother's enemy go like this."

  Li Quan called over two fake soldiers and instructed them: "Go follow him, if there's any situation come back immediately to report."

  Two puppet soldiers went to follow Zhang Fugui. Li Quancai said to Li Youcai, "Dad, listen to me. If the Japanese knew the truth about this matter, Zhang Fugui would definitely die. If he can't deceive the Japanese, I will naturally kill him for my brother's revenge. This way, we won't offend the Japanese either. If he can deceive the Japanese, I will have more use for him in the future. Dad wouldn't want me to end up like the previous puppet army commander, would you? If no one speaks well of me at Noda's place, my son may not live a good life either."

  "Ah," Li Youcai finally understood why Li Quan spared Zhang Fugui. He gave a thumbs up and said, "Clever, you're indeed my son."

  Li Kui said: "It's just that the Japanese haven't seen Dad's food, I'm afraid Dad still has to prepare 100 bags of rice. What kind of thing is Japan, Dad is very clear about it."

  "What?" Li Youcai fainted on the spot.

  In the county town, Major Noda's room. Major Noda stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at the three people in front of him. Ozawa Tsuguo, Yamamoto and Nakamura stood straight in front of Noda. After a long time, Noda finally spoke in a gloomy tone: "I want to hear each of you explain the reason for this action's failure."

  The content of page 2 is as follows:

  "Our intelligence was inaccurate. I had a whole squad wiped out, and when I inspected the site, my soldiers were shot at close range without any defense. Another soldier was killed by a single bullet while running away in shock. Moreover, the enemy had skilled trappers. We didn't know about these beforehand, which led to incorrect troop deployment and our defeat."

  Noda paced back and forth in the room. He knew that Ozawa Tsuguo wouldn't lie, but how could so many skilled guerrillas appear all at once?

  Yamamoto continued loudly: "It's because the military department wants to catch us alive, so we had a conflict with Lao Ying Village. Only then did they take advantage of the situation and escape."

  Nodao: "Then why didn't you go after her later?"

  Yamamoto said in a low voice, "That's because there's Nakamura-kun behind him, I thought no one could escape from him."

  Noda gritted his teeth so hard they creaked. If Yamamoto hadn't been his wife's brother, he would have made him commit seppuku long ago.

  Nakamura finally said: "At least two of them are masters. And I only have a chance to defeat them one-on-one."

  Nakamura's words enraged Noda. "Are we, the great Imperial Japanese Army, a bunch of good-for-nothings?" he bellowed.

  Koizumi, Yamamoto and Nakamura were all speechless. After all, they were losers.

  "When the report came in, at the time of Noda's furious anger, a soldier came in and whispered something in Noda's ear. After hearing the soldier's report, Noda's mood slightly improved. Suppressing his anger, he slowly said: "Give you three a chance to redeem your merits." "Yes!" Suzuki, Tsuguo, and the other two responded in unison.

  Noda ordered: "Send Odazawa to interrogate the few communists we've caught. No matter what method, you must get to the bottom of them within three days. This is your strong point, don't disappoint me."

  "Hi", Koide bowed and left.

  Noda was very polite to Nakamura, after all, Nakamura was borrowed to help. A second-class battalion like Noda's didn't have a blocking hand. Noda said to Nakamura: "Nakamura-kun, go to the army and select a few good shooters, then train them for you. I hope they can join the battle as soon as possible."

  "Hey" Nakamura took command and went.

  Noda ordered: "Yamamoto go to Lao Ying Village, you know what to do."

  "Hey" Yamamoto went with great joy. This is a big difference.

  After everyone left, Noda took out a photo of Zuo Caiyun and sneered: "You still can't escape my palm."

  ()