Chapter Twenty-Two

  "Commander, are you sure this gun can penetrate the enemy's armored vehicle?" Machine Gunner Permitting sat behind a boulder, fiddling with the machine gun in front of him, and asked Xiao Ming anxiously.

  "Don't worry, within 200 meters, it's like playing with that thin iron. But you must hold on tight, if you let him get away with an empty gun, I'll make you pay!" Xiao Ming leaned against the stone, lazily saying with a grass stem in his mouth. Wang Jinlong brought back over a dozen heavy machine guns, including four large-caliber ones, which Xiao Ming said could be used to shoot armored vehicles and planes, Xu Dage was half-believing and half-doubting.

  The Japanese army occupied Chang County, relying on the county town, and stockpiled a large amount of war materials, preparing to launch a new round of attacks. Xiao Ming led his team to set up an ambush on the highway, and it was already the third day. During this time, some small units of the Japanese army passed by, but Xiao Ming was not interested.

  Xu Dage stared blankly at Xiao Ming's relaxed face, who was pretending to be asleep, and couldn't believe that the person in front of him was the infamous "Smiling Tiger" who could kill someone with one kick.

  "What are you looking at? The person who called you is ready. The devils will be here soon." Xiao Ming said, his eyes still closed and biting on a blade of grass.

  Xu Dage was startled and asked: "How did you know, old man?"

  "I can count on it, my master's surname is Zhuge." Xiao Ming said with a smile. Xu Dage hastily dispatched someone to make arrangements.

  As expected, the scout came to report: A Japanese army convoy is coming from the north, with two armored vehicles, ten cars, seventy or eighty horse-drawn carts, and about 200 soldiers following, arriving in ten minutes.

  Xiao Ming spat out his cigarette butt and ordered everyone to get ready: "I've been waiting for him for several days, damn it."

  Xu Dage's jaw almost dropped, and he looked at Xiao Ming with a worshiping gaze. Shan Wawa chuckled and said disdainfully to Xu Dage, "Gua Wawa, you think the commander really calculated it? Didn't you see his ear stuck to the stone?" Xiao Ming casually knocked Shan Wawa on the head: Shut up!

  On the highway, a Japanese army convoy slowly approached, with several motorcycles leading the way, two armored vehicles at the head and tail of the team, ten trucks in front of the convoy, and 70 or 80 large vehicles and escorting Japanese troops behind.

  A loud gunshot rang out, the lead motorcycle lost control and crashed into a stone at the side of the road. Immediately after, gunfire erupted and cars fell to the ground. Xu Dage aimed at the armored vehicle and opened fire, but the powerful recoil of the machine gun almost made him lose control, and the bullets also lost their accuracy, flying off in all directions.

  At this time, the Japanese armored vehicle spewed out flames, and people fell down one after another. The crowd began to aim at the armored vehicle and shoot, but the bullets only splashed sparks on the body of the vehicle, posing no threat at all, and the surviving Japanese took advantage of the opportunity to hide and counterattack.

  Xiao Ming was shooting at the motorcycle driver, a row of bullets came over, and gravel splashed everywhere. Xiao Ming angrily shouted: "Xu Dage, what the hell are you doing?!" He threw the sniper rifle in his hand to Shan Wazi, flew over, grabbed Xu Dage with one hand, and ordered the deputy shooter: "Change the magazine, then hold down the mount, Xu Dage, hug me tightly." As he spoke, he fired at the armored vehicle with a series of shots. After a burst of gunfire, there was no movement inside the armored vehicle.

  Xiao Ming put down his gun and rubbed his sore shoulders, shouting: "Shan Wazi, send the signal!"

  The mountain doll pulled out a chicken egg-sized two-kick foot, ignited it, and with a loud bang, the two-kick foot exploded in mid-air. Xiao Ming's side stopped firing, and the soldiers all took cover.

  The Japanese commander thought the enemy was going to run, waved his gun and ordered a pursuit. Who would have thought that as soon as he stood up, there were rows of straw men standing behind him? Dozens of submachine guns spat out tongues of fire, and dense bullets rained down like raindrops, sweeping over the Japanese soldiers who hadn't even had time to turn their heads, falling one after another. After the bullets in the magazine were fired, these people easily pulled out large magazines from their waists, running and shooting as they rushed onto the highway.

  Xiao Ming tilted his ear to listen, nodded at Shan Wa Zi, and Shan Wa Zi took out a wooden whistle from her pocket. With a sharp whistling sound, the crowd rushed onto the highway.

  Ma Liu's face was covered in blood, and while firing his gun at the ghost on the ground, he shouted: "Damn it! That son of a gun almost blew my brains out! Come out, I'll give you another shot!" The special agent squad was ambushing from across the way, and as soon as the gun fired, a bullet grazed Ma Liu's scalp and flew past, giving him a fright. Xu Dage heard this and was startled in his heart, knowing that Ma Liu was a man of his word, and hastily hid to one side.

  "Ma Liu, what's wrong with you? Hurry up and clean the battlefield!" Xiao Ming's cold voice came over. Ma Liu suddenly woke up, wiped the blood from his face, and ran away. Xiao Ming was studying those motorcycles, thinking that with these things, it would be much more convenient to travel between the mountains. He shouted: "Who knows how to drive this thing? Come take a look." Several National Army soldiers came running over from the crowd, saying they had driven before when they were in the army. Xiao Ming waved his hand: "Drive back!"

  Ma Liu walked over, his face smeared with blood in a terrifying manner. Xiao Ming asked: "Are you seriously injured?"

  Ma Liu was flustered and hastily said, "It's nothing, just a scratch. The old lady's grandson isn't here, so I'm the unlucky one instead. Commander, what about those cars?"

  The road back was impassable for cars, and Xiao Ming didn't want to take a detour either. He ordered the things on the car to be moved onto the horse-drawn carriage, and everything that could be dismantled from the armored vehicle was taken away. As for the cars, Xiao Ming used them to give the special agents a lesson: delayed explosion.

  Back at the mountain stronghold, Wang Jinlong ordered a banquet to celebrate. This time, not only did they have enough guns in hand, but they also captured a large amount of military supplies and provisions, including the telephone and electrical wires that Xiao Ming had been dreaming of. In the previous long-distance raid, they had captured two diesel generators, and Xiao Ming had already conceived the idea of installing telephones and electric lights for the mountain stronghold.

  Of course, what delighted the soldiers most was that among the spoils of war there were also a hundred hams, and after eating enough coarse horse meat, they could finally have a change of flavor.

  The hillside has added several new graves, and Xu Dage is crying in front of the grave, thinking that his own mistake caused the casualties of his brothers. Xiao Ming had told him that the gun had a strong recoil, and it must be firmly fixed to hit accurately. Xu Dage was confident in his strength and didn't take it seriously, resulting in not shooting down the armored vehicle in the first time, causing five deaths and more than ten injuries.

  Xiao Ming kicked him with one foot, brought him back to the playground, pointed to a pile of stone locks and said: "From now on, every day, the machine gun squad will run 20 kilometers in full gear. The rest of the time is spent playing with them. Don't let them lift their heads in front of their brothers!"

  For the previous period of combat, Flying Tiger Fort made a summary. Xiao Ming believed: Several successful sneak attacks were all due to taking advantage of the Japanese army's numbness, catching them off guard, and having strong continuous firepower support, which barely succeeded. Now that the Japanese army has strengthened its vigilance, it is likely that they have already targeted Flying Tiger Fort, and he does not want to touch this sore spot. Lin Xiucheng expressed agreement. Therefore, an order was given for the entire mountain stronghold, except for the reconnaissance company, to strictly prohibit going down the mountain, and the whole stronghold conducted large-scale military training.

  The Sichuan army brothers were enthusiastic after receiving their weapons and voluntarily asked Lin Xiuzhen to send someone to guide them in training. Lin Xiuzhen came to find Xiao Ming, who said: "Let the guard company draw people to coach, you are responsible for it. However, I heard that the Sichuan army brothers have a strong habit of being arrogant, Old Lin, you must grasp it."

  Ji Hongru's worries were not unreasonable, he found Wang Jindong and Xiao Ming, saying that the mountain stronghold's food could last at most two months, and there were still more than two months before the wheat harvest. Moreover, the Japanese were now checking very strictly, and it was inconvenient to go out and buy things. He asked the two masters to think of a solution early. Wang Jindong cast his eyes towards Xiao Ming, Xiao Ming thought for a moment and said: "Why don't we do this? We'll first go to those villagers in the back mountain to take a look, understand the growth of this year's crops, and then think of a way!"

  Three people came to the back mountain, and the villagers opened several hundred acres of land, planting corn, sorghum and vegetables. The village was a row of low stone-stacked thatched cottages, Xiao Ming had never been here before. Since they arrived, Xiao Ming ordered them to help the villagers build houses, and afterwards, they were not allowed to come and disturb them, those who disobeyed would be severely punished, and it was rare to see their faces in the Flying Tiger Fort.

  The old man, upon hearing of the arrival of the masters of the house, hastily came out to greet them, clasping his fists and bowing his head, saying: "I didn't know that the two masters had arrived, this old man's greeting is late, forgive me, forgive me." The old man's surname was Chen, and because he often interacted with him, he was very familiar with Ji Hongru.

  Wang Jinlong and Xiao Ming bowed slightly and smiled: "Old man is too polite, I'm sorry to intrude, please forgive me."

  After some polite conversation, several people sat down at the village entrance. Xiao Ming didn't like to beat around the bush and asked directly: "Old man, how do you think this year's harvest will be?"

  The old man hesitated for a moment and said: "Looking at the situation, if there's nothing unexpected, it should be fine." After finishing speaking, he looked at Xiao Ming with a puzzled gaze.

  Xiao Ming thought for a moment and suddenly laughed: "Old man, I didn't mean anything else, I just wanted to ask, don't you usually raise chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep?"

  "Alas," said the old man, "this isn't a case of being allowed out after coming in, so there's no way to raise it."

  "Old man, how about this?" said Xiao Ming, "We'll buy back piglets and chicks for you to raise. Later on, you can sell the eggs and meat to us. What do you think?"

  "It's okay like this, but..." The old man hesitated a bit.

  "Don't worry, old folks, we won't let you lose out." Xiao Ming chuckled and stood up to bid farewell.

  Wang Jinlong and Ji Hongru were both confused, asking Xiao Ming: "You've been talking for half a day, what do you mean exactly?"

  Xiao Ming smiled and said: "With a good harvest, we can collect more rent, and our long-term battles will be guaranteed. In addition, the villagers can raise pigs and sheep to ensure a stable food supply. Mr. Ji, you are responsible for catching some livestock calves and letting those old soldiers start raising them. Also, ask Sun Er Gou to contact the villagers to see what they lack and let Sun Er Gou handle it." The two men thought this was a good idea, but currently, how to solve the grain problem is still uncertain.

  "Don't panic, those are nothing!" Xiao Ming smiled mysteriously.

  Xiao Ming sent out Ye Maozi and Sun Er Gou, the two returned in a few days, whispered to Xiao Ming for half a day, Xiao Ming smiled and patted Sun Er Gou's shoulder, turned around and came to the main hall, found Wang Jinlong.

  Wang Jinlong saw Xiao Ming beaming with joy and asked: "Brother, what good thing happened?"

  Xiao Ming smiled and said: "Nothing good, just now there are 200,000 catties of grain outside, I don't know if big brother wants it or not!"

  Wang Jinlong's spirits lifted as he heard this, "Grain, where is it? This time I'll bring people to get it, no one can compete with me!" He knew Xiao Ming couldn't afford to buy it, so some poor guy must be in trouble. The 'somebody' was of course referring to Xiao Ming.

  Xiao Ming burst out laughing: "Big brother, didn't we agree not to fight this time? We're doing business, making a deal!"

  "Doing business? With whom?" Wang Jinlong thought to himself, you've forgotten that we're bandits, isn't doing business just robbery?

  Xiao Ming smiled and said: "Li Ma Zi has defected to the Japanese, joined the security forces, and is now eating imperial rations. This guy kept a mind for himself, hid his weapons and food, preparing to secretly take action, anyway the Japanese will give them out later. Old Cat heard the news and told me about it, I was afraid it wasn't accurate, so I didn't report it to you. This time he and Sun Er Gou went to confirm it again, and even met with the middleman, who was afraid of too many people knowing, walked away with the information, thinking of handling it cleanly. So, I came to ask for your instructions, Big Brother."

  Wang Jinlong let out a sigh and shook his head, saying: "Whatever you need to ask about, whatever the price is, go find Mr. Ji to get it, no need to come ask me!"

  "Don't mention money!" Xiao Ming said with a smile, "I've thought about it, we have opium in our warehouse, let's exchange it! Even if something goes wrong, it won't be a loss. Besides, using opium for trade won't attract the attention of the Japanese, what do you think?" In those days, gold, silver, opium and land were all hard currencies.

  Wang Jinlong suddenly realized, and only then did he understand what Xiao Ming meant by "the big smoke can harm people but also save people". He thought to himself that you really are capable of scheming, but his mouth said: "This isn't quite right, is it?"

  Xiao Ming smiled and comforted Wang Jinlong, "In these times, those who smoke opium are either rich or noble. Even if someone loses their family fortune, it's considered a contribution to the resistance against Japan!"