Chapter 72

  "Alright, let's discuss how to get close to them without being noticed!" Ma Liu sat up, still remembering the purpose of this trip. The soldiers started discussing in a cacophony of voices.

  "Alright, all good! However, I have something to attend to today, so let's not go through the drills one by one. Just follow my method for now!" After saying that, Ma Liu led the crowd in a few circles and then swaggered onto the highway, heading towards the checkpoint.

  "Halt! What are you doing? If you don't stop, I'll shoot!" The fake soldiers at the checkpoint suddenly saw twenty or thirty people wearing uniforms that were neither yellow nor green walking towards them and hastily raised their guns in warning.

  Ma Liu remained unmoved, a smile even appearing on his face as he quickened his pace and walked towards them with his head held high and chest out.

  "Hold on! Keep your eyes open, no one is allowed to fire without my order!" The fake army platoon leader's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly stopped his subordinates.

  Before he could even open his mouth, the fake army platoon leader cupped his hands and said: "Is this the famous Flying Tiger's Ma Liu?"

  Ma Liu was taken aback, looked him up and down, and asked strangely: "Do we know each other?"

  "This isn't it. At present, in this territory, who else dares to come out with a gun besides the Flying Tiger Fort? And Sixth Master is one of the top heroes of the Flying Tiger Fort, so naturally I thought of you."

  This is like eating a piece of ice watermelon on the hottest days, Ma Liu's body and mind are comfortable, but he didn't expect his reputation to be so loud! However, he still said seriously: "You little boy, how dare you talk like this, do you still have us in your eyes? You deserve to be beaten!"

  "Ah, ah, ah! Old Six has come to our place, what's the matter?" The squad leader waved his hand and signaled for his men to retreat. As for the Japanese army besieging Feihu Fort, this squad leader had heard some rumors that Feihu Fort had surrendered to the Japanese, so the Imperial Army withdrew its troops. However, judging from the behavior of Feihu Fort, it didn't seem quite right either - who would believe that the Japanese would be so tolerant of a surrendered army?

  Ma Liu lowered his voice and asked: "What were those people who just passed by?"

  "What a surprise! I thought these people had arrived early! Not daring to be slow, I replied: "There are several Chinese people, the rest didn't say anything, but they seem to be Japanese, don't know what kind of trick they're playing! They said to pay attention, and after a while, two more cars will come from behind."

  Ma Liu thought for half a day and still couldn't think of a reason, he was the kind of person who would dare to stir up trouble as long as he had something in his hands. His curiosity got the better of him, so he decided to go take a look. "Give us a few sets of clothes, we'll finish our business and return them to you later!" Ma Liu said to the squad leader.

  Paired with the long, not daring to disobey, quickly ordered his subordinates, took off their clothes and let Ma Liu and others change into them. Ma Liu left someone here to guard, himself led people to stroll forward, found a relatively spacious place to stop, just waiting for the car to arrive.

  After a long time, the sound of engines came from the highway. Ma Liu listened and waved his hand, saying: "It's coming! Get ready!" The soldiers quickly lined up, with someone standing in the middle of the road, holding up a small flag.

  Two cars came slowly to a stop in front of them, one in the lead and one behind. In the driver's cabin were two men wearing the uniform of the Royal Cooperative Army. Ma Liu shouted: "Bring out your documents for inspection!"

  The driver seemed very unhappy, took out the documents and handed them over. Ma Liu pretended to take a look, saw that his people were all in place, took out a gun and pointed it at the driver: "Not right, what are you doing? Get down and talk!" Someone on the side was holding a gun aimed at another person.

  The driver suddenly became furious and scolded in stiff Mandarin: "Bastard, I am the Imperial Army..."

  The words were not yet out of his mouth when Ma Liu smiled and said, "Oh, it's a Japanese!" The gun in his hand went off, the driver's head burst open, his body slumped to one side, and fell down. Immediately afterwards, more gunfire rang out from behind.

  The battle ended quickly. Someone came over to report: "Company Commander, there are two more people in the carriage, they're quite tough, and two brothers were injured, fortunately not too serious!"

  Ma frowned, thinking to himself that these little devils reacted quickly enough, and were indeed not ordinary. He immediately shouted: "Quickly, send their clothes back to them, call our people over, and have the rest of you clean up, quickly!"

  On the way back, Ma Liu and others changed into Japanese military uniforms, holding Japanese credentials, and surprisingly no one stopped them. They drove all the way to the foot of the Flying Tiger Fort mountain and ordered someone to go up the mountain fort to find Xiao Ming, to see what these Japanese people meant.

  Xiao Ming had them drive the car directly to the back mountain, arriving at Ma Liu's base. He dispatched people to stand guard on the periphery, and no one was allowed to approach. The soldiers unloaded the things from the car one after another, and Xiao Ming was shocked!

  Ma Liu saw Xiao Ming's gloomy face and hastily asked: "Master, what's wrong?"

  "Ma Liu, don't you think these equipment look familiar?" Xiao Ming's smile was somewhat bitter.

  There's quite a lot of stuff on the ground, including radios, walkie-talkies, twenty rounds, German-made submachine guns and hand grenades, light and heavy machine guns, mortars, as well as canned biscuits and so on. There are also backpacks and over a hundred sets of gray uniforms. Ma Liu thought for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed: "Damn it, this is just like our stuff!"

  "The enemy is here! But it seems they're not coming for us!" Xiao Ming fiddled with an assault rifle, the receiver engraved with "MP40", "Those little devils are really generous, the latest model of submachine gun, great stuff!"

  "When at home, the brothers' hands are not young anymore, don't you think...?" Ma Liu's mind was racing, seeing Xiao Ming's tone was calm and gentle, he immediately followed up with a flattering face.

  Xiao Ming smiled and said: "Okay! You see how much, later call Da Long over, you guys split it, remember not to make a big deal out of it for now... However..."

  "As a guarantee for your family, I will definitely set aside the first batch of guns and ammunition for you and the guards. Later, I'll have them delivered to you!" Just now, when Xiao Ming was handling the gun, his eyes were shining with praise, and Ma Liu naturally understood what he meant!

  "Good kid, you have a bright future!" Xiao Ming patted Ma Liu's shoulder with satisfaction and smiled, "From now on, you and Da Long will be in charge of the mountain and the outside respectively. Keep your eyes peeled and don't let anyone steal our old nest!"

  Back in the hall, Xiao Ming briefly introduced the situation, and Lin Xiuchun became alert: "Old Xiao, what do you mean by this? Who are these Japanese people after?"

  Xiao Ming raised his hand and pointed north: "It should be the Eighth Grandfather in the northern mountains, I heard their headquarters is right there!"

  "How did you know their headquarters was there?" Lü Jizong asked in surprise.

  "What? Don't you know?" Xiao Ming was even more surprised. "Two days ago, a regimental commander of the Imperial Japanese Army said it, and the Japanese all knew about this matter, have you forgotten?"

  "Oh, I see!" Wang Jinlong let out a sigh of relief.

  Lü Jizong said: "I knew it, the Japanese are being so polite to us because they're afraid we'll mess up their plans!"

  "Lao Lü, can you send a telegram to your superior and ask them to inform the 18th Army Group to be on guard?" Lin Xiūqīng looked at Lǚ Jìzǔ with expectant eyes.

  "This is difficult!" Lü Jizong shook his head, "Besides, would they believe it? Wouldn't it lead to more misunderstandings?"

  "Why don't we send a clear message then, to remind them? We can't just sit back and watch our allies suffer!" Lin Xiuling said anxiously.

  "That's even more unbelievable! Besides, isn't this a case of 'burning one's own body to ashes'?" Lü Jizong waved his hand.

  "Or shall we send someone to inform them?" Lin Xiuzhi was very persistent.

  "That's even more impossible!" Xiao Ming said, "They've been able to develop to this point today, they must have something special! Let alone we don't know the exact location, even if we did, I'm afraid before we even see anyone, we'd be taken out by the outer guards as spies!"

  Everyone thinks that the big headquarters is not easy to see, even if it's true. Even those responsible for security below won't take a stranger's words seriously, and they might even cause misunderstandings.

  "Don't worry, Old Lin!" Xiao Ming comforted Lin Xiuzhen, "A mere hundred or so devils can't stir up much trouble, maybe they've already cancelled their plans and are heading our way! Let's make some preparations ahead of time!"

  At the same time, Captain Miki of the Japanese army was looking for his own equipment.

  Captain Mikoto was ordered to organize a special attack unit to complete some special tasks. After long and strict training, this team finally took shape and withstood the test, becoming a magic weapon in the hands of superiors that could achieve surprise victories.

  Sanmu's mission this time was to disguise himself and infiltrate the mountainous area, find the headquarters of the 18th Army Group, and provide guidance for the air force and the main forces behind, striving to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

  Operating on someone else's land, wanting to be undetectable is no different from a fool's daydream. Sanmu, who was well-versed in the Art of War, thought of a tactic called "Deception of Heaven and Crossing the Sea". He and his men disguised themselves as imperial collaborationist troops and set out first, with their equipment following later to rendezvous with them, and then launched their operation under the cover of night. But unexpectedly, the truck carrying their equipment had vanished!

  Helpless, Sanmu had no choice but to order his subordinates to start searching. Only after finding the corpse of their companion by the roadside did they thoroughly lose heart. They hastily went to a nearby stronghold to make a phone call and contact headquarters to send more equipment. Fortunately, they were well-prepared, so it didn't delay things. Sanmu was furious, gritting his teeth in anger, vowing that after completing the mission and returning, he would definitely find out who did this and make them pay the price!

  Xiao Ming led people to turn around in the mountains and outside for several days, but didn't find anything unusual, only then did they put their minds at ease. However, the news brought back by Night Cat shocked everyone: the Japanese army had assembled tens of thousands of troops from somewhere and carried out a large-scale sweep of the 18th Group Army's base area, causing heavy casualties among the military and civilians!

  Everyone suddenly realized that the Japanese had been planning this action all along and simply didn't want to waste their energy on Flying Tiger Fort.

  "It seems that the Japanese army is warning us that if they want to, it would be easy for them to wipe us out!" said Lyu Jizong.

  "We can't just watch our allies get wiped out by the Japanese, can we? I think we should send some people to support them, even if it's just to rescue some ordinary people, after all they're innocent!" Lin Xiuying looked at Wang Jindong and Xiao Ming.

  Xiao Ming's face turned black and he didn't say a word, letting out two cold snorts before turning around and leaving the hall, making Lin Xiuying extremely embarrassed. Wang Jindong comforted him saying: "Old Lin, don't take it to heart, this isn't directed at you! If anyone is to blame, it's Old Lü. Last time when the mountain stronghold was attacked, so many distress telegrams were sent out, but not a single response was received! This time, even if the Chairman himself came to ask for his help, he still wouldn't care!"

  Lü Jizong's face turned red and he stuttered: "This, isn't it far from here? Distant water can't solve the thirst of the moment, Old Xiao should understand this, right?"

  Lin Xiuzhi smiled helplessly and said, "I was just talking casually! Actually, this time can't be compared to the last time we broke through. Last time there was a clear target, as long as we opened up a gap, it would be easy to coordinate inside and out, but this time the devils are everywhere, and there's no way to start, don't blame Old Xiao!"

  Wang Jinlong sighed and said, "This time the mountain stronghold suffered a lot of casualties, he's got a burning fire in his heart, it's best not to provoke him, just wait for him to vent his anger! But I don't know what he's been plotting these past two days!"

  Xiao Ming left the hall and found Ye Maozi, asking him to send someone to closely monitor the battlefield situation. Ye Maozi asked: "What are the requirements? Are we following the usual reconnaissance procedures for going into battle?"

  Xiao Ming shook his head and said: "That's not necessary, just see when the Japanese will withdraw their troops! However, the longer it takes, the more advantageous it is for us!"