Chapter 40

  "What's your name?" Ma Liu patted the person beside him on the shoulder and asked warmly.

  That man was delighted: "My name is Wu Er Gou, you can just call me Er Gou Zi." To avoid misunderstanding with the mountain stronghold, Lin Xiu Qing and the cavalry regiment changed into Japanese military uniforms, and Er Gou Zi believed it without a doubt.

  Ma Liu smiled secretly: "Damn it, this Flying Eagle Fort has so many stupid dogs, they're all just a bunch of unlucky stars." But he still said with a smile: "Don't call me Ta Jun, I'm actually the same as you, we're all Chinese people, it's just that we joined the Imperial Army earlier than you, and we're directly under the command of General Mokuyama. He attaches great importance to our troops, that's why he gave us this mission to lead the Imperial Army in clearing out the bandits. By the way, do you know General Mokuyama? He's a good person, very kind to people. Once you've made achievements this time, I'll recommend you to General Mokuyama and we can work together. How about it?"

  Wu Ergou's tears almost fell, and he nodded repeatedly: "Thank you, officer, it's all thanks to the officer's support. If I can really get through, Wu Ergou will repay you with hard work!" The few people were only grateful and didn't know that more than a dozen soldiers under Ma Liu had quietly disappeared into the forest.

  Arriving at Flying Eagle Fort, the sky was already near dusk. The fort had been renovated, but its layout remained unchanged, only with more stringent guards than before. It seemed that no effort had been spared. Er Gou was still a relatively important figure in the fort, and he commanded the gatekeepers to open the door with an air of superiority. The gatekeepers took one look at the fully armed imperial soldiers behind Er Gou, were startled, and didn't dare ask any questions. They hastily opened the door, and Ma Liu and others followed Wu Er Gou into the inner fort with a swagger.

  The current master of Flying Eagle Village is called San Hei Zi, a man with a black face, black heart and black hands. He was drinking with two liaison officers from the Japanese army in the main hall, who were actually two Han traitors from the puppet Manchukuo state who had received several days of military training. Hearing that the Imperial Army cavalry had arrived, they didn't even have time to ask questions before rushing out to greet them. The two liaison officers saw Lin Xiucheng's rank was upper lieutenant and hurriedly went forward to greet him in Japanese. The upper lieutenant seemed extremely disgusted by the wine breath sprayed on him, frowned, waved his hand in front of his face a few times, but didn't speak.

  Ma Liuhe smiled: "You can speak Japanese, that's great. Look at this, it's the order of General Kimura." He took out a piece of paper from his pocket, which was filled with Japanese characters and stamped, something he had found on a Japanese soldier two days ago and hadn't thrown away yet.

  "Go, go inside the house, it's hard to see here." Ma Liu pulled the two into the house.

  Those two didn't know what hit them, as soon as they entered the house, they were knocked unconscious with two loud bangs. "Tie them up!" Ma Liu's face turned stern: "After investigation, these two are Chinese government spies sent to sell our intelligence for a long time. Now, under the orders of Commander Mu Village, take them back for severe interrogation. We suspect there are still their accomplices here. Now, gather your troops, this officer wants to give a speech. If anyone is found to be disloyal, they will die, quickly!"

  San Heizi broke out in a cold sweat, vaguely feeling that something was off. Before he could think more about it, Lin Xiuning had already pulled out the king-eight pistol and aimed it at his head. Hurriedly shouting: "Taigong, don't shoot! Er Gouzzi, quickly call for all brothers to assemble, assemble immediately!"

  The team quickly gathered, Ma Liu asked Wu Er Gou: "Are you all here?" Wu Er Gou hastily nodded: "All are here, except for a few who are patrolling outside, they are all here!"

  Ma Liu patted Wu Er Gou's shoulder and smiled, saying "Very good!" With a wave of his hand, the soldiers of Wu Ding Bang raised their machine guns, and the warriors of the Special Task Force had already chosen favorable positions and raised their submachine guns. Ma Liu smiled at San Hei Zi and said: "Actually, we are the traitors of the National Army!"

  San Heizi was shocked and pale, reaching for his gun, but the two soldiers on either side of him quickly subdued him, dislocating his arm. The bandits in front made a commotion, but the sound of guns being cocked quickly silenced them. San Heizi gritted his teeth in pain, saying: "You and I had no grudges in the past, nor do we have any now. What brings you to my Flying Eagle Fort?"

  "Damn it, you're really something! Being a bandit isn't a big deal, but how did you end up getting mixed up with the Japanese? And let's not even get started on all the things you've done to help them!"

  "Alright, I was wrong about this matter. Let us go and from now on we'll mind our own business!"

  Ma Liu laughed: "This, let's not talk about the bandit thing for now, just to make a living! As for you being a traitor, that's up to this officer to decide!" He said, looking at Lin Xiuchun.

  Lin Xiuzhi had heard about Guo Shanfeng's fate and said calmly, "Let him go find those two masters of the house according to the old rules!"

  Three Black Sons knew that today was a dead end and shouted loudly: "Brothers, come on, let's fight them to the death! If not, no one can escape!" The crowd surged forward.

  Bang! Ma Liu fired a shot into the air: "Listen up, we're here to eliminate traitors! Now, if you don't want to work for the Japanese anymore, go left and we won't pursue it further. If you want to follow San Heizi, go right, quickly!"

  Almost everyone stood on the left side at first, there were more than a dozen die-hard fans of San Hei Zi, they looked at the crowd and then looked at San Hei Zi, hesitating. Suddenly, a burst of gunfire rang out, these people cried out in agony as they fell to the ground dead. Ma Liu said while changing magazines: "Damn it, being a traitor still brings emotions, how despicable! Throw San Hei Zi down!" San Hei Zi was taken away.

  Wu Ergou's face was ashen, his body trembling non-stop. Ma Liu smiled and said: "Ergou, don't be afraid, tell the brothers that tonight everyone should stay in the house, don't go out, and keep the lights on inside, got it?"

  Wu Ergou made an effort to stop himself from shaking and stuttered: "I understand, I understand! I won't move, I definitely won't go out..."

  At this time, more than a dozen soldiers from the Special Operations Unit brought in seven or eight bandits and nodded to Ma Liu, indicating that everything had been taken care of. Ma Liu ordered them to be locked up together.

  Lin Xiuzhi interrogated the two liaison officers and didn't get any valuable intelligence. In a fit of anger, Ma Liu threw them off the cliff as well.

  After dinner, the three of them began to discuss what to do next. Ma Liu and Wu Dingbang thought it would be better to rest for a night and continue fighting against the Japanese army tomorrow. Lin Xiuying disagreed: "Now that the enemy situation around us is unclear, if a large group of Japanese soldiers come here, they only need to surround Feiying Fort, and we will be in a desperate situation. It's better to take advantage of the night to hurry back to the mountain stronghold."

  Ma Liu and Wu Dingbang thought for a moment, agreed with Lin Xiuying's opinion, packed up the gold, silver, and fine things from Feiying Village, as well as the two agents' radios and codebooks, and took them away. Since there were no decent people passing by, Ma Liu ordered the burying of explosives and setting of booby traps on the road, and under the cover of night, they returned to their mountain stronghold.

  Xiao Ming let Ji Hongru move all kinds of materials to the mountain, settled down the mountain stronghold, and came to find Wang Jindong for discussion: "Brother, this guard squad is idle, it's not a good thing, why don't I take them out for training?"

  Wang Jinlong smiled: "Are you itching for a fight? Alright then, go ahead. I'll take care of things at home, but next time..."

  "Next time it's your turn, provided the devils give you a chance!" Xiao Ming smiled, "This way, there can't be no one guarding the village either. I'll take ten people this time, big brother you have to be careful yourself!"

  Farewell to Wang Jinlong, Xiao Hu was called up and arrived at the guard platoon. There were not many people in the guard platoon who had really fought a battle, and when they heard that they were going down the mountain, they were all very excited and rushed to sign up. Xiao Ming chose ten young ones, instructed Xiao Hu to remain vigilant at home, let Shanwa bring a sniper rifle, and went down the mountain.

  After leaving Heifengxia, Shan Wazi asked: "Commander, where are we going?"

  "Lu'an City!" It was said that the last time Gao Shouyi encountered an ambush, the Japanese army came from Lu'an City. Xiao Ming had been holding this grudge for a long time and had been wanting to find trouble with them.

  A group of people took a shortcut and arrived at a small forest before dinner, where they could see the city of Luoyang in the distance. Xiao Ming ordered them to rest on high alert, "Shan Wa Zi, take two men to scout out and see if there are any stray devils, figure it out and come back to report." Shan Wa Zi responded and took two people away.

  Just as they had taken a sip of water, two gunshots rang out, and everyone was startled. When they looked again, they saw the three mountain boys running wildly along the edge of the forest, with over ten Japanese cavalrymen shouting and chasing after them not far behind. Xiao Ming immediately understood that the mountain boys must have wanted to lure the Japanese here, so he ordered: "Don't panic, scatter into formation, prepare for battle!"

  The three mountain children had just walked out a short distance when they encountered a Japanese army patrol team, probably finishing their mission and returning to the city for dinner.

  The two comrades were not much older than Shan Wa Zi, and they were at an age where they feared nothing. Looking at the Japanese cavalry riding on Oriental horses, one of the soldiers said: "Wa Zi, I heard that you used to follow Er Dang Jia, and a few people took down a Japanese cavalry squadron. Why don't you show off your skills today and take care of these dozen or so devils?"

  "This won't do, what if the Japanese troops in the city give chase, we can't just swallow our losses and run away with our tails between our legs. Shouldn't we ask for instructions from Commander first?" Shan Wawa thought quickly to himself, but his words were not sincere.

  That warrior sneered: "Kid, aren't you afraid? Back then when following the second master, weren't you just picking up empty bullet shells to play with?"

  "Melon baby, don't provoke Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu really fell for it." Shan Wa Zi smiled foolishly and took down the sniper rifle from his back, "After the gunshot, follow me and run, let the devils' bullets bite you, don't blame me." After finishing speaking, he raised his gun, bang! A devil fell off his horse, quickly reloading and firing again, knocking down another one who reacted a bit slower.

  Those two warriors were about to praise a few words, the mountain baby shouted "go" and ran away, and the two came back to their senses and followed in a hurry.

  The sound of gunfire rang out, and the ambushed Japanese troops didn't expect to be attacked at their own doorstep. They were startled and hastily retreated, but when they saw that there were only three people attacking them, they became enraged and chased after them without hesitation, shouting and firing their guns as they went. However, the route taken by the three fleeing men was very strange, and somehow they managed to avoid getting hurt.

  Shanwa Zi took a peek, thought it was about right, shouted "cover", made a fish-like jump to the side, landed behind a boulder, rolled with the momentum, just got up, and the other two soldiers also jumped over, thudded together, even throwing away their sniper rifles. Shanwa Zi didn't have time to scold them, pulled out his pistol, flipped over, pounced on the rock, took a closer look, and saw the Japanese army catching up.

  Xiao Ming signaled the warriors to switch to shotguns, and as soon as the Japanese army entered the ambush circle, Xiao Ming suddenly stood up, shouted "Fire!", and fired his twenty-shot shotgun. The warriors also opened fire, and the Japanese army's attention was focused on Shan Wawa and the other two people, caught off guard, and were annihilated in an instant.

  The mountain doll let out a sigh of relief, turned around and kicked the two warriors with one foot each: "Your mother's, can't you guys dodge separately? I almost got killed by you!"

  The two of them rubbed their buttocks and smiled wryly: "Wasn't it you who told us to follow you? Suddenly, we couldn't hold back our feet...".

  "Get out of here and clean up the battlefield, you're so annoying! I don't know how Xiaohu puts up with you guys normally. Go bring those two horses over from earlier!" He picked up his gun and walked towards Xiao Ming.

  Xiao Ming Zheng held up the telescope to observe the movements of Road An City, heard footsteps approaching, and said without turning his head: "You little kid is getting bolder and bolder, do you still have me, this commander, in your eyes?"

  The mountain girl giggled and said, "I'm not looking at you, old man, walking tiredly. I want to get a horse for you to ride, look, there are over ten horses! You can ride however you like, it'll make me feel better too!"

  Xiao Ming was deeply moved: "Good kid, I really didn't expect you to have this kind of heart. Since that's the case, I won't be polite anymore." After checking that everything had been gathered, he ordered his soldiers to mount up and move out, pointing at Shan Wa and saying: "You, come lead my horse!"

  Upon hearing the gunfire, the garrison in Lu'an City did not know what had happened. By the time they had reported to their superiors and come out to investigate, the people were already gone. The Japanese army could only carry back a dozen or so corpses into the city.

  Xiao Ming and the others did not go far, nor did they deliberately conceal their tracks. Instead, they found a place to ambush in front of them, waiting for the Japanese army to come and attack! However, the Japanese army seemed to have no intention of pursuing, hastily returning to the city, closing the city gate, and strengthening their vigilance. Everyone was greatly disappointed, Xiao Ming ordered to find a place to camp, rest for a while and then look for an opportunity to fight again.