Chapter Twenty

  Lin Xiuzhi is indeed a talent, in just a few days, he brought more than 400 soldiers, mostly young and strong men, and special troops such as artillery, engineers, medical personnel, and machine gunners were all included. Wang Jindong and Xiao Ming were very satisfied. Counting the mountain stronghold already had over a thousand people, Xiao Ming stopped recruiting soldiers.

  The mountain stronghold suddenly had so many people, and it was chaotic. Eating was easy to handle, but housing was a problem. In the end, Xiao Ming and Wang Jinlong came up with a plan, moved all the supplies to the cave in the back of the mountain, and emptied out the warehouse. This solved the problem. Xiao Ming had no experience leading troops, and the large group of people made him feel overwhelmed. Fortunately, Lin Xiuying and Zhou Yongnian helped out, and they were able to gradually settle down.

  Wang Jinlong became a absentee owner, not caring about anything, and every day he would go to various garrison towns for inspections, saying it was to strengthen defense, Xiao Ming was very happy. But Wang Jinlong would often whisper with Ma Liu and Ye Maozi, secretly discussing something. Finally, on this morning, Wang Jinlong disappeared, along with him were Ma Liu, Zhang Tiezhu and Xin Chengshan etc.

  At first, Xiao Ming didn't think much of it, as he had already gotten used to Wang Jinlong not being in the hall for the past few days, assuming he had gone to another outpost. But until nightfall, without seeing Wang Jinlong's shadow, Xiao Ming felt a bit surprised, and sent people to ask around everywhere. The Black Wind Gorge people came back to report: The master of the house, along with Zhang Tiezhu, Xin Chengshan, Ma Liu, and Little Tiger, had taken sixty or seventy men towards the direction of Er Long Ridge.

  Xiao Ming felt something was wrong, and hastily gathered the Flying Tiger Squad, rushing to Er Long Ridge on horseback. Before they even arrived at Er Long Ridge, a group of people came towards them from the front, pulling their horses to a stop. Upon closer inspection, Xiao Ming saw that the leader was none other than Wang Jinlong.

  Xiao Ming and others were busy, Wang Jinlong pushed himself to say he didn't understand, and voluntarily asked to go on a tour of inspection. In fact, he had his own small abacus in mind. The Japanese had already reached the front line, and if he didn't take action against them, it would be unbearable. After discussing with Xin Chengshan and Zhang Tiezhu, several people agreed immediately.

  The Night Cat returns to report: The Japanese and National Armies are fighting fiercely in Shanyang, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Reinforcements are being deployed on both sides, and the highways have been filled with Japanese troops passing through over the past few days. Wang Jinlong is overjoyed, mobilizing his men from all directions to rush towards the highway, while strictly ordering that no news be leaked out, especially not to let the Second Master know.

  Upon arriving at the highway, Wang Jinlong saw the entire Japanese army passing by. He weighed his options and thought to himself that his small group of men was not even enough to fill the gaps between the enemy's teeth, and for a moment he didn't know what to do.

  Ma Liu had an idea and said to Wang Jinlong, "Boss, I remember the second boss saying during training that when fighting in the enemy's rear, it's best to disguise ourselves to confuse the enemy and catch them off guard. We're wearing Japanese army coats, why don't we just put them on and go out onto the road? If we find a suitable target, we can take care of him. The only problem is, none of us speak Japanese!"

  Wang Jinlong was overjoyed and said, "This idea is not bad. If we can't speak Japanese, we just won't open our mouths. Order the brothers to dress up properly, check that they're not showing any flaws, and get on the road!"

  On the highway, a group of Japanese soldiers came from the north, with about 40 to 50 pack horses and over 100 people, marching hastily. As soon as they turned the corner, they found several Imperial Army soldiers lying on the side of the road, with over a dozen soldiers beside them, apparently rescuing them. A soldier covered in blood blocked their way, holding his neck and mumbling something unintelligible, while pointing at the people by the roadside, seemingly seeking help. This person was Ma Liu.

  The Japanese army stopped in their tracks, surrounded them, and Ma Liuhe smiled and shouted: "Take action!" With a flick of his coat, he pulled out two large-caliber pistols and opened fire. The people around him also opened their coats, revealing handguns and submachine guns, and fired wildly, sweeping the area like a gust of wind blowing away fallen leaves. The Japanese army was caught off guard, and many fell to the ground. In the distance, the Japanese saw that things were not going well, and just as they were about to lie down and counterattack, Wang Jinlong led his men in a charge, firing machine guns, submachine guns, and twenty rounds of ammunition in a single burst. In an instant, there were hardly any survivors left.

  King Jinlong ordered to hurry up and clean the battlefield, chase back the frightened horses, and himself circled around the pack horse. To his surprise, he found a heavy machine gun on the horse's back. He burst out laughing: "Damn it, great! The enemy's machine gun squad was taken down so easily! It turns out that their stuff isn't that tough after all!" King Jinlong had studied at the Military Academy with Japanese instructors and was familiar with the Japanese military organization.

  Xiao Ming saw Wang Jinlong and hastily dismounted his horse to greet him: "Big brother, where have you been? You've been gone for a whole day, you scared me half to death!"

  Wang Jinlong burst out laughing and said, "Brother, I'm so bored that it's painful. Let's go to the road and pick up some spoils of war. Look, we got our hands on a whole machine gun squad's equipment from the devils, and only two of our brothers were lightly injured. We hit the jackpot!"

  Xiao Ming smiled wryly and said: "Big brother, you're going out, at least say something to me, so I can take care of things, just in case..."

  "Brother, if I told you, would you let me go? This time it's my fault, next time I'll definitely tell you!"

  Xiao Ming shook his head and asked: "Big brother, where is Ma Liu?"

  Wang Jinlong replied: "The back was cut off later. I said, brother, this group of people is not bad for you, today if it wasn't for Ma Liu's attention, it would be difficult to get started!"

  Xiao Ming nodded and smiled: "Yes, it's good to see that you've all become skilled. Alright, Da Long, take over and replace Ma Liu at the back."

  Wang Jinlong looked at Xiao Ming's strange smile and sighed in his heart: They're going to be unlucky!

  "Next one." Sun Erdou stirred the spoon in the basin, shouting weakly with his mouth closed.

  Sun Erdou has been feeling depressed lately. Since he got injured, he quit the Flying Tiger Team and not only did he fail to achieve anything in his two descents from the mountain, but he was also assigned to work under Ji Hongru. Ji didn't dare let him do any heavy work, so he had him distribute food instead.

  "Give it to me first." A big black man rushed forward and slammed his lunchbox onto the table.

  "Get in line!" Sun Erdou said coldly without even lifting an eyebrow.

  "Queue up?" Hei Da Ge sneered, "I've never done it before, don't know how to queue."

  "Who's the old man?" Sun Erdou looked up, glanced at Hei Da Ge, and smiled. "Whose old man are you?" As he spoke, Sun Erdou slammed his hand on the counter, jumped in front of Hei Da Ge, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him into a hug. Just as Hei Da Ge was about to struggle free, Sun Erdou took a step forward, elbowing him hard in the chest, sending him tumbling out more than three feet away. Sun Erdou hobbled back behind the counter, rapped on it, and said: "If you want to talk about old men, there are only two in Flying Tiger Fort - the two masters! If you want to eat, get in line, one by one!"

  Everyone saw that Sun Erdou was actually a cripple, and they were first shocked, then burst into laughter. Hei Da Ge's face turned bright red with rage as he struggled to get up, but just then a cold voice said: "This guy has quite a temper! What's the point of arguing with a cripple? Why don't we try it out, if I win, you'll be the first one to eat from now on, how about that?" The speaker was Xiao Ming, who had walked over with Lin Xiuying and Zhou Yongnian.

  Zhou Yongnian was startled, he had seen Xiao Ming kick a devil to death with one foot, fearing that Hei Da Ge didn't know good from bad, and quickly pulled him aside. Someone nearby who understood the situation also advised him: "Forget it, just now, they still showed mercy!"

  Lin Xiuzhi hastily said that the man's surname was Xu, a machine gun squad leader, and it is said that he is quite good at playing with machine guns, but he is a bit silly. Xiao Ming hummed and said to everyone: "When we arrive at Feihu Village, dragons coil around and tigers lie down, everything must follow the rules of the village. Whoever is not convinced can come find me anytime, got it?"

  Since they all had the energy to fight, Xiao Ming gave a decisive order to start training. As soldiers, going out for drills was a matter of course. Xiao Ming led the team in person, Lin Xiuling maintained order, and Zhou Yongnian and Zhang Tiezhu supervised. In just one day, half of these soldiers collapsed, each one crying out in distress.

  Seeing that they had complaints, Xiao Ming's approach was simple: the next day, stop training for a day and observe the Flying Tiger team's training. This made these National Army soldiers almost drop their jaws: the amount of training they did in one day was equivalent to five days of theirs, were they even human? Xiao Ming smiled and said, "They used to be worse than you guys, so practice hard!"

  As before, Xiao Ming slowly observed and eliminated, two months later, fifty people were left to prepare for separate training. As for the others, they discussed with Wang Jinlong and Lin Xiucheng, and Lin Xiucheng came up with a plan to reorganize the team. Xiao Ming had chatted with Lin Xiucheng before and learned that he was from Huangpu and had also served as a combat advisor, so it was natural for him to take charge of this task.

  Three people finally settled on a plan: ten people as one class, three classes plus one machine gun class as one row, three rows plus one artillery row as one regiment.

  Thus, Hulu Valley, Jiudao Bay and Heifeng Gorge each stationed a company. The rest also established artillery companies, machine gun companies, automobile companies, reconnaissance companies, guard companies, engineer companies, logistics companies and communication teams. The Flying Tiger Team was renamed the Special Service Company, and company commanders were appointed. Heifeng Gorge was commanded by Xin Chengshan, with an additional platoon added to garrison Erlong Ridge, with a requirement for daily contact.

  Of course, the mountain stronghold also established a leadership group: Wang Jinlong as commander, Xiao Ming as deputy commander, and Lin Xiucheng as chief of staff. Anyway, at that time, more than ten people with seven or eight guns dared to call themselves commanders, and it was not uncommon for a county to have dozens of commanders.

  At first, Wang Jinlong declined, saying that he was not good at fighting and suggested letting Xiao Ming do it. Xiao Ming naturally disagreed. The two men pushed each other for half a day, and finally Xiao Ming said: "Big brother, you should be the commander, leading the whole village, and I'll take charge of this battle, what do you think?"

  Wang Jinlong agreed. Only later did he realize that he had been schemed by Xiao Ming: This kid must have been resentful about sneaking down the mountain to do that one thing, and afterwards, there probably wouldn't be an afterwards!

  The Japanese and National Armies were both unable to launch a threatening attack for the time being, forming a stalemate in Shanyang. The Japanese army deployed heavy troops along the railway line, and Flying Tiger Fort also had no chance to take action. Xiao Ming and Lin Xiuzhen divided their work, with Lin Xiuzhen responsible for training and guiding the construction of fortifications for each company, while Xiao Ming continued to lead the special operations company in training.

  On the selection of the platoon leader, Xiao Ming was in a dilemma for a while: both Da Long and Ma Liu were good candidates, each with their own strengths. Da Long was steady and persistent, while Ma Liu was bold and agile. After weighing his options for a long time, Xiao Ming decided to make Da Long the platoon leader, after all, it wasn't easy to train such a team, so it's better to be more stable.

  Xiao Ming selected fifty people, who can be said to be the elite of the national army, each with good skills, but also a bit temperamental and not very obedient. Xiao Ming didn't get angry, he called out Da Long, Ma Liu and Xie Si Bao, and demonstrated for them.

  The big dragon was simple, one stroke of luck and a kick broke off a wooden stake. Ma Liu called out four soldiers, and in the blink of an eye, he wiped each person's neck with something. The most incredible was Xie Sibao, who disassembled a shotgun, a submachine gun, and a rifle, looked up at them for a moment, then covered his eyes, quickly reassembled the three guns, loaded the bullets, fired one shot from each, and only then removed the blindfold. Everyone watched in amazement as all three guns hit a wooden stake fifty meters away, and they began training with admiration and respect.