Twelve

  "It really was as Captain Yan said, I'm short two men who haven't returned!" Wu Hanhuai said with a somewhat embarrassed look at Yan Wei.

  Yan Wei understood that as an officer, he had lost even his own subordinates and didn't know where they were. This was absolutely a shame! So looking at Wu Hanhuai's embarrassed face, he said: "Director Wu, don't worry, it must be because of the darkness that they got lost in this forest." After speaking, he turned to look at Old Li and said: "Old Li, two of Director Wu's men were missing after parachuting down from the plane earlier. Please trouble you to take Director Wu's men to search for them."

  "Alright, that's all, gentlemen. I'll lead the way and you follow me." Old Li said as he walked ahead, Wu Huanhua's men immediately followed behind him.

  Lan Gang just heard Yan Wei convey his message and immediately ran over quickly, saying: "Team leader, please instruct."

  Yan Wei looked at Lan Gang and said: "Wait a little while, let's talk about it after Old Li and the others come back."

  "What's he doing sneaking out at midnight?" Lan Gang asked, looking in the direction that Old Li and the others had left.

  "I helped Wu Chuzhang find someone and two of his men haven't returned yet. He's worried and asked Old Li to help look for them." Yan Wei said, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Wu Hanhuai saw Yan Wei saving his face in front of others and looked at him with gratitude, smiling: "Don't just smoke by yourself! Why are you being so stingy?" He said, stretching out his hand to ask Yan Wei for a cigarette.

  Yan smiled and said, "Goodbye, Director Wu. You're a high-ranking official in the Military Commission, how can you always take advantage of us poor devils from the lower units? I'm telling you the truth, this pack of cigarettes was even given to me by our regimental commander! My previous pack was finished long ago! I just gave you one earlier, and you didn't even return the favor. How can you still ask me for cigarettes?"

  Wu Han Hua smiled and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, handing them to Yan Wei: "Hey, our Captain Yan is really petty? It's just a cigarette, do you still remember that I owe you one?"

  "Ah, it's not just a matter of a few cents for a cigarette now! As the head of the middle school team, I'm not even as wealthy as those kids selling cigarettes on the streets in town! If my cigarette supply is cut off, I might as well not be leading this army! I'll have to start growing tobacco leaves in these mountains first!" Yan Wei said, glancing at the cigarette box. "Hey, American Winston, good stuff! It's from the same tobacco company as the Camel cigarettes I usually smoke!" He then pulled out three more cigarettes and handed them out to the two others, putting the Huafang brand one he had been smoking back in the box and into his breast pocket. He leaned over and let Lan Gang light his cigarette for him. After taking a big drag, he pinched the cigarette between his fingers and held it up to his eyes, saying: "No wonder this old military man has such a wild way of doing things! I wouldn't have gotten my hands on these Winstons otherwise!"

  Wu Han Hua looked at Yan Xun and smiled after Lan Gang lit a fire for him: "So the whole army is just for this box of cigarettes? Yun Si Dun, you like it, when we get back, I'll send someone to get you a whole case, and you can carry it back yourself when you return to your unit!"

  In the time it took to smoke two cigarettes, Old Li returned with Wu Huan's men. As soon as he saw them, Wu immediately threw away his cigarette and stood up to greet them.

  Facing one of his subordinates who had returned with a load on his back, Wu Huanhui looked at the team leader Zhang Zhun and asked: "What's going on?"

  "When Comrade Wang Ping parachuted down, the parachute got caught in a tree branch, causing it to lose its effect instantly. As a result, he fell from over 10 meters high! When he landed, his left leg was broken. Because of unclear circumstances, he lay there and didn't dare to call for help or move on his own." The team leader said this while glancing at their colleague who had been in pain and sweating profusely.

  "Is there another one? Didn't find it?" Wu Hanhuai asked.

  The team leader sighed and said, "Found him, he's dead! His whole body was deformed from the fall! The parachute malfunctioned and didn't open at all! In such an urgent situation, I took it upon myself to not bring back the corpse. We just covered it with some branches on the spot." After that, he lowered his head and remained silent.

  Yan Wei stood aside and watched Wu Hanhui without speaking, he wanted to understand this military uniform high-ranking officer through Wu Hanhui's handling of the disabled subordinate.

  At this time, Wu Han also understood that everyone present was waiting for his final disposal decision.

  Wu Han looked at Old Li and said: "Old Li, is there a village nearby that can temporarily take in this subordinate of mine?"

  Old Li then turned his head and took a look at Yan Wei, meaning that I've already told you about this matter before, you go talk to him yourself.

  When Wu Han saw that he could get this sentence out of Old Li, it was enough to show that this veteran agent of the Military Bureau was not heartless! Yan Wei walked up and said to Wu Han: "Director Wu, Old Li told me long ago that the nearest village is more than 40 miles away from here. It's not a good idea to settle this brother down now. Let's take him with us for the time being, at least we can't just leave him here to die in the middle of the night!" After speaking, he turned his head and shouted loudly at his own people who were gathering around: "Medical soldier!"

  Upon seeing the medical soldier rushing over, Yan Wei immediately began treating Wu Han's subordinate. Turning to Old Li, he said: "Alas, I really did meet a noble person on this trip! Look, in these mountains, without your help, how would we have made it? Where's my nephew? Time is of the essence, hurry up and call him out to prepare the way."

  "Remember, this time the goal is to successfully lure the Japanese army into our trap! On the way, don't get caught up in fighting and can't run too fast, or you'll lose them! We need to pretend to retreat while actually being on the defensive. Later...". Yan Wei was giving tasks to Lan Gang when he turned to Lao Li and said: "Hey, Old Li, what's your son's name again?"

  "Li Shan. A great mountain gives birth to a small one, what's it called?" Old Li said with a rather appreciative tone as he looked at his son.

  "When following Li Shan to the ambush point to observe the terrain and deploy troops, I had set fire to several large piles of firewood on the valley floor in advance. Let's give the Japanese a good view! Don't let them get lost again in the dark like last time! Make it look like our whole army is camping there from afar."

  "How old are you?"

  "Officer, after the solar new year, I'll be seventeen." Although the young man still looked a bit immature in appearance, children who grew up in the mountains with tigers and wolves as companions had already become strong and robust.

  Yan Wei pointed at Lan Gang and looked at Li Shan: "I'm telling you, nephew, later on, you must listen to his orders and act accordingly, do you understand?"

  Li Shan nodded and continued, "You can't run away with your temper and lose all my soldiers! What's left is to see the Japanese army and don't be afraid of guns! Be smart and don't do anything else, I won't be able to explain it to your father!"

  He then said to Lan Gang: "Secure his safety and set off."

  "Wait a minute!" Wu Hanhuai said and waved his hand, to the six action team agents who came up behind him: "You follow me to execute the task."

  Yan Wei was about to speak again, but Wu Hanhuai hastily said: "Hey, Captain Yan, you say that this guy can't win a large-scale battle at long range, we admit it! But isn't the small-range sweep shooting in this ambush circle exactly where our submachine guns have an advantage?"

  Yan Wei said to Lan Gang, "Let them take on the defensive task at the entrance and exit of the ambush circle. Allow the Japanese army to enter but not leave! Anyone who comes in and regrets it wants to go out, I'll shoot with a submachine gun!"

  He then looked at the six agents under Wu Hanhuai and said, "Everyone, be careful."

  "Yes, sir! Don't worry!" The team leader, Zhang Zhun, stepped forward and saluted Yan Weili before leading his men to follow Lan Gang and disappear into the night.

  Yan Wei looked at Wu Hanhuai and said: "Director Wu, your burden is not light either! The children will be handed over to you."

  Wu Han smiled and said: "Commander Yan, after this battle, we can be considered as comrades in life and death, right?"

  Yan smiled and said, "Not fighting is also a comrade."

  Wu Hanhua nodded and smiled: "In that case, we shouldn't always address each other by our official titles. As for me, my courtesy name is 'Yongxi', and as for age, I'm definitely older than you."

  Yan Wei thought to himself, "These intelligence people are really careful, even their age is a secret! But he smiled and said, "So Brother Yong Xi is also someone who lacks water in his destiny! Since I'm called 'Cong Quan', if you say I'm young then I'm young. Brother Yong Xi, please take care of the children's affairs."

  "Xuan younger brother, rest assured! I think the child is quite ordinary! Your humble brother will do his best to ensure that Fang's daughter is safe and sound!" Wu Hanhuai said, then he and Yan Weili exchanged a military salute before turning around to call for the children to retreat.

  "Li, wait for me in your hut, I'll bring your son back to you." With that, he turned around and walked into the night. Behind him followed his own battalion's second company commander Zhang Liao, and his combat advisor Huang Ran.

  Zhang Liao was ordered by Lan Gang to guard Yan Wei closely. Huang Rang, since being summoned to the team, still felt more comfortable following Yan Wei around. After all, he usually stayed in the headquarters and faced Yan Wei every day, but was not very familiar with the soldiers below! In this way, Yan Wei had a literary and martial arts guard, secretary, everything was complete.

  Three people fumbled in the dark, walking for about two miles in the mountain forest, but still didn't see the boundary that Old Li mentioned. Yan Wei was thinking that maybe they had gone in the wrong direction! Suddenly, he saw a firelight about 100 meters ahead. At first, it was just one place, then two, three, four places, and the fire was getting bigger and brighter. Obviously, Lan Gang had followed his own orders to light up the bonfire, which would guide the Japanese army in pursuit through the darkness. Now, it happened that they had lit a guiding lamp for themselves first.

  After Yan Wei and others had passed, they saw that the four bonfires set up on the small hill were already burning fiercely. Several soldiers were adding firewood to the fires. The soldiers who had taken their positions were all doing some simple engineering work. Seeing Yan Wei coming over, Lan Gang ran up to him and said: "Commander, do you think this deployment is good?"

  Yan Wei gazed out at the dark, moonlit sky and said to the natural, pot-shaped terrain's "rim": "The troops are well-deployed, pass it down that everyone should be careful to hide, when the Japanese army comes don't rush to open fire, wait for the hand grenade here to explode as a unified signal to start firing! After hearing the hand grenade explode here, don't rush to open fire, first use one hand grenade each in the trenches to greet the Japanese. Wait until the smoke clears before making precise shots at the Japanese below!"

  He said, using his right arm to gesture around the "pot edge" and pointing: "We are limited by our military strength, so we have a shooting position every ten or twenty meters. Therefore, this time we rely on excellent terrain and accurate shooting! It's not about relying on dense firepower to take enemy lives! Without the coordination of light and heavy machine guns, although we are in a superior position, it's not necessarily possible to suppress the Japanese with firepower, so the primary factor in combat is to pay attention to using temporary fortifications for cover. Tell your brothers that this battle is not difficult to fight, with such excellent terrain, after one round of hand grenades, I estimate that there won't be many people left below! The rest just need to borrow the moonlight to make accurate shots, and I estimate the battle will not exceed three minutes!"

  "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, our soldiers are all marksmen! Moreover, with the four big bonfires below illuminating everything, and at this distance, we'll definitely get one shot each, no one will escape!"

  Yan Wei looked at Lan Gang and smiled: "Fool! Later, when the twenty or so hand grenades explode below, where will there be any bonfires to illuminate you?"

  At this time Lan suddenly understood why Yan Wei was the captain and he was the battalion commander!

  "Tell the brothers that we don't know when we can get replenished, so we must pay attention to saving ammunition. After you finish passing on the order, take a small team and set out early to wait for our Japanese friends. To ensure that this plan is not discovered by the Japanese and arouses their suspicion, we cannot set the ignition point too far from here. Three hundred meters should be enough, meaning we'll withdraw after about one minute. Do you understand the route?"

  "In the dark, I couldn't tell east from west, but Li Shan that little brat knew clearly. He said his dad had told him all about the possible directions and routes the Japanese army might take, so I just followed him."

  "Be careful, come back alive." Yan Wei said and loudly called out to Qu Fei and He Lan. Lan Gang immediately ran around in a circle, one by one conveying Yan Wei's combat orders to the soldiers.

  Yan Wei shouted, Qu Fei didn't use much effort to get to Yan Wei's side, while He Lan, who had set up a sniper position directly opposite Yan Wei, took a big circle to turn around.

  Yan Wei said to the two of them, "At that distance below, it's unlikely that the Japanese army can throw hand grenades up here. Even if they hold a light machine gun and fire upwards, they won't have any accuracy. So you two must ensure that the Japanese troops below do not have the opportunity to use their grenade launchers. We must ensure that our side does not suffer any casualties."

  Both nodded in understanding, and as Yan Wei waved his hand lightly, they disappeared into the night.