Chapter 49

  At night, Xiao Ming and Lü Jizong met at the Dache shop. Without beating around the bush, Lü Jizong told Xiao Ming: Da Ba didn't go home, but went to Zui Chun Lou to drink flower wine instead. That was also one of Da Ba's properties under his name. The followers had sealed off the front and back streets tightly, making it impossible for outsiders to get close.

  Xiao Ming thought for a moment and said to Lü Jizong, "Tell Xie Sibao to lead the men and divide them into two groups. Have your people help identify and ambush Dabao!" He turned around and ordered Ma Liu, "Divide your men into three groups. One group will escort the master of the house, one group will keep watch on the Drunken Spring Building, and one group will go directly to Dabao's home. Ye Maozi will meet you there. We'll start at 9 o'clock!"

  Look at the watch, the pointer has passed eight o'clock. He ordered Dalong: "Divide your men into three groups, one group attacks the Garrison Command, one group attacks the Constabulary, and one group attacks the warehouse. Remember, don't fight hard, let the little devils go if they want to! Now start acting, arrive at the designated location at nine o'clock sharp and launch an attack!"

  Everyone received the order and took action separately. Xiao Ming looked around and found that except for more than 20 people who were rushing to catch up, there were only Shanwa Zi and 10 assault troops from the machine gun company. He ordered those who were rushing to take control of the big car store, and after seeing the signal, they would take action separately. He led his men to change into Japanese military uniforms and head towards the barracks.

  A very strange phenomenon appeared in the city of Yamashiro, where groups of tall and majestic imperial soldiers walked down the street with an air of arrogance, their equipment being quite bizarre, except for their clothes and light machine guns, which seemed to have nothing to do with the ordinary imperial army. This quickly caught the attention of the Kempeitai, who immediately dispatched someone to investigate, but the person sent was like a mud cow entering the sea, never to return, and it wasn't until then that the Japanese garrison felt something was amiss and became flustered.

  Because they were far from the Big Scar Bandits' lair, Ma Liu led a team of men to hurry along. On the way, they encountered a group of constables who came over to inspect them. Ma Liu was too lazy to bother with them, so he waved his hand and his subordinates rushed up, some drawing their knives, others twisting their necks. Before they could even open their mouths, they were beaten back home.

  As soon as they arrived near the Dapeng's house, a black-clad Night Cat flashed out and informed Ma Liu that there were less than twenty guards in the courtyard, scattered around the perimeter. Ma Liu didn't hesitate, letting the Night Cat sneak into the courtyard to provide cover while he led his men to charge straight at the main gate.

  At the gate, there were two stone lions, looking very majestic. The gate was tightly closed, and two household guards with holstered pistols at their waists walked back and forth in front of it, scowling. When they saw a group of imperial soldiers approaching with an air of urgency, they were startled and hastily went forward to salute. But just as they bowed, Ma Liu grabbed the heads of the two men and knocked them together with a crash. As soon as he let go, the two men fell to the ground, limp and soft. With a wave of his hand, the crowd pushed open the gate and rushed in.

  The house guards saw a dozen or so imperial soldiers rushing in, and for a moment they didn't know what to do. Ma Liu and the others hid their daggers up their sleeves and didn't say a word. Taking advantage of the guards' confusion, they went forward and ended their lives, leaving two people on guard and the rest rushed straight to the backyard.

  A servant happened to be passing by, shouted "Not good, killing people!" and fainted. The entire courtyard suddenly became chaotic. Seven or eight guards from the backyard drew their guns and rushed over, seeing a group of Japanese soldiers like evil spirits, they were stunned for a moment. In this brief moment of distraction, Ma Liu and others fired their box cannons, and the house guards fell to the ground one after another. A cautious guard rushed to the end, just as he raised his gun, he heard a gunshot behind him. The night cat stood up from the corner, holding a still smoking handgun.

  At this time, the big yard was in a mess, and several of the young ladies had fainted. Ma Liu fired a few shots into the air, which finally calmed them down. After asking around, they found out that Da Baochou hadn't returned yet, so he left a small team to assist Ye Maozi with the aftermath and took his men to Zui Chun Lou.

  The distance between the Drunken Spring Building and the Big Scar's house was not far. A gunshot rang out, startling the Big Scar. Upon hearing that the gunshot came from his own home, he pushed away the girl in his arms, gathered his subordinates, and went downstairs. As they were about to leave, this old fellow left a trick up his sleeve, ordering his subordinates to exit through the front gate first and drive their car to the intersection ahead, while he brought two people with him to sneak out through the back door. However, even this didn't allow them to escape unnoticed. The moment they showed themselves, a gunshot rang out again, and Big Scar fell backwards onto the ground. His subordinates, who were keeping watch around the perimeter, rushed over upon hearing the gunshot, only to find seven or eight figures suddenly appearing at the corner of the wall and on top of the house, with pistols and submachine guns spewing forth tongues of fire...

  A gunshot rang out from behind, and the scar-faced man's subordinates were shocked. Someone shouted "Not good, County Chief...!" As soon as he turned around, several rifles protruded from behind him, a hail of bullets swept across the entrance of the wine tower, and many people fell down before they could even turn around. What was even more frightening was that with the sound of gunfire, those who wanted to raise their guns to counterattack were almost all shot in the head. These bodyguards were used to intimidating ordinary civilians, but they had never seen such a scene before. They trembled with fear and couldn't hold their guns steady. In no time at all, the front of the Drunken Spring Tower was filled with corpses lying horizontally and vertically.

  As three red signal flares streaked across the night sky, intense gunfire and cannon fire erupted within the city, with chaos erupting in all directions. At the same time, the northern gate also shook with thunderous cannon fire - needless to say, Wang Jinlong had begun his assault on the city.

  The three infantry guns fired simultaneously, but only five or six shells landed on the city wall. Wang Jinlong sighed. He had led troops before and knew that artillery was a technical job. Without three to five years of tempering, it was impossible to become proficient. The entire artillery company had only a few people who had received professional training and were somewhat skilled. Thinking about it, even someone like Lian Shao Ming was just mediocre, Wang Jinlong didn't bother to say anything.

  Even so, the Hubei Army on the city wall was confused, and the gunfire in the city was intense. The defenders were at a loss, not knowing whether to hold out or flee quickly. Just as they hesitated, a group of Japanese soldiers rushed onto the city wall. Seeing the Imperial Army arrive so quickly, the Hubei Army was shocked and hastily raised their guns, pretending to counterattack. But before they could do anything, they were kicked hard in the buttocks: "You son of a bitch, you're from the Flying Tiger Fort, don't you value your life?"

  It's said that they were from the Flying Tiger Fort, the government soldiers came to their senses and saw that there were indeed submachine guns in front of them. Without saying a word, they dropped the guns in their hands. A leader-like figure stepped forward and made a fist: "Good fellow, we're all just trying to make a living, please spare our lives. My brothers will never forget the kindness of the Flying Tiger Fort!"

  Ma Liu's men arrived, and seeing the enemy speaking in this manner, they did not want to entangle with them either. They said, "Go down and open the gate, run out of the city and hide!" These government troops were overjoyed as if they had received a great amnesty, and they slipped down the city wall, opened the gate, and ran away.

  Wang Jinlong saw the signal on the city wall and rode into the city. Ma Liu's men came over to meet him. Wang Jinlong asked, "Where are your two masters?"

  Someone replied: "I heard from our squad leader that he went to the barracks."

  "How many people did you bring?"

  "A dozen or so!"

  "What, a dozen or so? Grandma's, if something happens to my brother, I'll peel off your skin one by one!" After inquiring about the direction of the barracks, he didn't even bother to have the cavalry company stand guard and ordered the artillery company to pull up their guns, rushing to the barracks together.

  The Japanese military police headquarters was a two-story building with only a dozen or so on-duty soldiers. As soon as the gunfire rang out, they began to contact various departments, but the phone couldn't get through no matter what. The sound of gunfire came from the entrance, and two sentries fell down. They hastily organized a counterattack. The other side was not in a hurry, and a mortar and a grenade launcher fired slowly and steadily, targeting places with gunshots and weak points in the building. As the floor creaked and swayed, the commander reluctantly ordered the evacuation of the headquarters, fighting while retreating towards the barracks.

  The Garrison Brigade was a Siheyuan, and since everyone had scattered, only seven or eight garrison soldiers were left inside. The house was not very sturdy, and with just a few cannons, the walls collapsed and the people inside didn't even have a chance to fight back, they were buried under the rubble. After solving the Garrison Brigade, the special troops followed Dalong's orders and began to reinforce the warehouse.

  The big dragon led a group of people to attack the warehouse, which was divided into two parts: one was the material storage and the other was the arsenal. The arsenal had watchtowers built around it, standing tall and overlooking its surroundings, with no buildings nearby, making any movement visible under the spotlight.

  According to Lv Jizong's intelligence, there was only one squad of Japanese troops guarding the arsenal. But when they arrived, they found that there were actually an additional platoon of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers outside the gate! With no other choice, Dalong divided his men into four sentries, while the remaining six men split into two groups: one group operated a mortar to launch an attack and cover another group's grenade launcher advancing forward. The arsenal was already beyond the range of the grenade launcher.

  Da Long held a sniper rifle for cover, but only fired one shot, knocking out a searchlight, and was pinned down by the enemy's fierce firepower. The rocket launcher team was also blocked from firing range, and one soldier was injured. They had to fire two smoke bombs to disrupt the enemy's line of sight. Da Long secretly cursed his luck, fortunately, the enemy seemed to not believe that just a few people dared to attack the arsenal, and did not launch a counterattack, or else it would have been dangerous.

  Fortunately, the artillery was not large, and the other two groups of mortars and grenade launchers arrived in time. The three mortars fired simultaneously, knocking down a watchtower, and finally suppressed the enemy's firepower.

  As they fought on, the defenders of the arsenal discovered that something was amiss: the enemy did not seem to intend to occupy the arsenal, and a mortar was actually attacking the warehouse. This made everyone tense up, the devils were indeed determined to die, but that one company of the Imperial Japanese Army was not going to do it, if the arsenal blew up, they would also be blown to smithereens, how could this work! So they lost heart for battle, probing and moving sideways, preparing to seize the opportunity to slip away.

  The Japanese army saw through the thoughts of the Imperial Army, and shouted loudly. The Imperial Army had no fighting spirit and turned around to run away. The Japanese soldiers on the watchtower were furious and turned their guns around, firing at the fleeing Imperial Army. Seeing their comrades falling one by one, the desperate Imperial Army became enraged, and someone shouted "Damn it!" and they turned around to exchange fire with the devils.

  The special agent relaxed the pressure here, and the cannon also hit the target. With a loud noise, another guard tower collapsed. The Japanese firepower was momentarily stalled. Da Long took advantage of the situation to get up and fire two shots, knocking down the searchlights on the remaining two guard towers. Three grenade launcher teams quickly moved forward, using the shooting dead angle in front of the wall as cover, and began firing grenades. The puppet army took advantage of the opportunity to escape.

  At this time, the special agent connected the pipe to the imperial army's position, turned the muzzle, and fired a burst of hand grenades into the courtyard. Then he blew open the door of the arsenal, and the light machine gun sprayed out tongues of fire, covering the watchtower with bullets. The Japanese were in chaos, unable to organize a threatening counterattack for the time being.

  At this time, the warehouse also rang out with intense gunfire. Da Long was puzzled: The mountain stronghold had already come with so many people, but he hadn't heard that there were still people attacking the warehouse?

  At this time, there were only six Japanese soldiers left in the arsenal. Seeing the retreat signal fired from the northeast direction, and hearing gunfire all around, they lost heart and didn't even bother to blow up the arsenal before scrambling down from the watchtower and fleeing in a cloud of smoke.

  The material warehouse was not attacked. As soon as the guns and cannons rang out, the regimental commander of the Imperial Guard guarding the warehouse panicked and immediately sent someone to investigate. Before long, someone came back to report: The Garrison Command, the Military Police Corps, and the Arsenal were under attack by unidentified armed personnel, and the situation was extremely critical!

  Lian Chang was hesitating whether to send troops to support, a trusted subordinate walked in and whispered: "Commander Lian, just now I heard one of my fellow villagers say that outside is the Flying Tiger Fort coming to take revenge on the Japanese, and said not to move, wait until the Japanese can't hold on and then follow them..."

  " Flying Tiger Fort!" The company commander was startled and scanned his subordinates on the scene, "What do you think we should do?"

  "If we fire, we'll be making an enemy of the Flying Tiger Fortress!" Half a day passed before a squad leader spoke up. "With so many people entering the city, there must be some who are in cahoots with the Flying Tiger Fortress. Since it's between the Japanese and the Flying Tiger Fortress, it's best if we don't get involved!" The others echoed in agreement.

  Lian Chang thought for a moment and said: "Even so, we have to put on a show for the Japanese! You go back and tell your brothers, fire into the sky, the louder the better, be careful not to hurt anyone!"

  After the crowd dispersed, Lian Chang called over a few trusted subordinates: "You go out and keep watch, don't mistakenly injure the imperial army in the dark!"

  His subordinates understood and dispersed in all directions...