Chapter Seventy: Blood-Stained Peach Blossom Ridge

  Blood-stained Peach Blossom Ridge

  The fierce ghost troops' continuous attacks on the Japanese army in Linping made Yamaguchi's old devil furious. The strongholds in Lihua Gorge and Taohua Ridge were also destroyed, which was a heavy blow to the Japanese occupation of Lingfeng. The myth of the Japanese army's invincibility was shattered. To take revenge, the Japanese special forces led by Yoshio Kijima took advantage of the cover of night, killed the sentry, surrounded Taohua Ridge, and the sound of gunfire tore through the quiet night sky. The devil opened its cruel and evil mouth, and a catastrophic disaster that would destroy humanity was approaching Taohua Ridge.

  The demon-like Yoshio Nishimura ordered the special troops to drive the sleeping villagers from around the village to the center of the village. The inhumane devils used bayonets and bullets to massacre the unarmed villagers who showed slight resistance. The villagers were concentrated together in terror, like a flock of sheep waiting for slaughter, at the mercy of the devils.

  Yoshio Yoshida stood on the high platform, a ferocious and triumphant smile spreading across his face as he gazed out at the crowd surrounded by machine guns and bayonets. The interpreter followed behind him, translating: "The Imperial Army has come to this place to build a Greater East Asia in cooperation with you all, but there are some insolent people who try every means to disrupt this land of peace and prosperity under imperial rule. This is something the Imperial Army cannot tolerate. They are among you, so hand them over. The Imperial Army will not hold it against you and will still consider you good citizens. Otherwise, everyone will be killed."

  The villagers didn't say a word, staring with hateful eyes and despising the group of devils. Enraged Kikkawa Hidetoshi ordered the little devil to pull out a young boy from the crowd. The child's mother desperately tried to stop him, but not only did she fail, she was also pulled out. With her big belly, she hugged the child tightly. The inhumane little devil grabbed the child's hair, kicked his mother away with one foot, and snatched the boy from his mother's arms. The shameful Japanese military interpreter walked up to the boy, took out candy from his pocket and said: "Little brother, want some?"

  The boy looked at the candies wrapped in colorful paper and then at the interpreter's nodding head and said: "I want to eat."

  The interpreter saw the boy move for the candy and said, "Well, you tell me, who is the anti-Japanese element here? Are there any people from the fierce ghost squad? As long as you expose them, all this candy is yours. How about it?"

  The boy suddenly burst into a naive laugh, pointing at the interpreter and saying: "You're really stupid, the uncles of the fierce ghost squad have all gone to Linping to kill devils, who has time to be here? Now there are only people from our village left, and then there are little devils and you guys, the secondary dogs."

  The interpreter's face turned iron-green, he slapped the boy and scolded: "Little turtle egg, looking for death?" He reached out and pulled out his gun.

  Yoshio Yoshida stopped the interpreter and said two sentences, which also stunned the interpreter. Two little devils dragged the boy away, each grabbing one of his legs. Yoshio Yoshida walked up to the mother of the frantically struggling boy and said in stiff Chinese: "Tell me who is an anti-Japanese element, otherwise your child will only die in front of you."

  The boy's mother begged and cried out: "No, don't hurt my child. I don't know anything, I don't know anything. Please, let go of my child, let go of my child!"

  "Let him go? You don't want to cooperate with the Great Japanese Imperial Army, so I'll let him go now." He waved his hand at the two little devils. The two wolves each grabbed one of the boy's legs and pulled hard, only to hear a brief, heart-wrenching scream from the boy as he was torn alive from his crotch, his internal organs spilling out through the tear, blood gushing out, staining the ground red.

  The boy's mother was stunned, she stopped struggling and shouting, she couldn't believe it was true. Just then, Yoshio Kikawa drew his command knife and swung it down at her, opening up her chest, her intestines and unborn child spilled out of her body. The two little devils who were holding her let go of their grip with a grin. The boy's mother didn't seem to be in pain, she dragged the exposed fetus and internal organs, trying to crawl towards the boy, but she had no strength left, unable to move, all she could do was stare at the boy who was torn in half with helpless eyes. She stretched out her hand, weakly gasping for breath, wanting to hug her child. She still felt like this was a nightmare, just a terrible dream that couldn't be endured. How much she wished to wake up quickly, but her head and outstretched hand heavily hit the ground instead. The crowd rose up, the angry villagers could no longer bear the brutal slaughter of the little devils, they wanted to resist, they wanted to tear apart these beasts worse than animals, they wanted to avenge their dead loved ones.

  In a state of panic, Yoshio Kikawa gave the order to fire, and the bullets pierced the chests of the unarmed villagers. The villagers sacrificed their lives in the struggle against the devils. The cruel devil head Yoshio Kikawa ordered his men to gather the villagers who had not been killed but were only injured, behead those who were seriously injured, hang them on a large tree at the village entrance, tie up those who were lightly injured, douse them with oil and set them on fire. The inhuman Yoshio Kikawa watched the villagers struggling in the flames, laughing wickedly. He ordered his interpreter to write on the wall with the blood of the villagers: "Yunxiang Tian, this is the consequence of resisting the Imperial Army. I, Yoshio Kikawa, will wait for you at Linping. I hope you dare to come and avenge yourself like a warrior." Then he gave the order to burn down all the houses in the village.

  Taohua Ridge is located at the intersection of the Eighth Route Army's controlled area and the enemy-occupied area, thirty miles away from Nanshan Village, where the Qilin Mountain Anti-Japanese Brigade's First Battalion was stationed. After hearing gunshots coming from Taohua Ridge, the sentry in Nanshan Village immediately dispatched two small teams of soldiers to provide support. However, the mountain road was treacherous and narrow, covered with ice and snow, and it was pitch black, making it extremely difficult for the troops to advance. By the time they arrived, the Japanese devils had already finished massacring the village and were withdrawing from the village, carrying stolen goods and setting fire to the houses on Taohua Ridge. The soldiers of the Anti-Japanese Brigade did not hesitate, firing their rifles at the Japanese devils with hatred in their hearts. They charged forward, causing the Japanese devils to flee in disarray back into the occupied area. The two anti-Japanese teams dared not advance too far and set up defensive positions on the spot, dispatching a liaison officer to await further orders.

  When Yun Xiang Tian and the fierce ghost squad arrived at Taohua Ridge, the little ghosts had already been chased away. As soon as they arrived at the village entrance, they were shocked to see that on the big locust tree at the village entrance, there were more than a dozen heads still dripping with blood hanging from it. Yun Xiang Tian suppressed his inner anger and ordered the team to enter the village for a thorough search, hoping to find survivors.

  The houses that had been burned by the devils were still emitting green smoke, and the streets were filled with unarmed villagers who had been killed. Suddenly, Xiuzhu let out a cry of surprise, and Yunxiang Tian saw that in an open area in the middle of the village, a large number of villagers had been slaughtered. An unborn baby had been cut out of its mother's womb by the devils, and lay outside her body. The mother, who was already dead, still stretched out her hand and stared with wide eyes at something not far away - a boy who had been torn in two from his legs.

  Xiu Zhu turned around and threw herself at Yun Xiang Tian's body, her whole body trembling with fear and anger. Chuan Xiong Mu Nai Zi clenched his fists and tears burst out of his eyes, he muttered: "Why is it like this, where has the conscience of our great nation gone?"

  The foolish and slow monk slowly walked over, carefully looking at the boy. He shouted in terror: "Tiger cub, it's a tiger cub!" He tearfully pieced together the tiger cub's body. How could he have known that seventeen years ago, the mother of the tiger cub he had saved was just yesterday from Ba Hua Ridge, bringing the tiger cub to Tao Hua Ridge to visit relatives, but unexpectedly suffered this disaster.

  Someone shouted: "There are blood letters here, it's Hideto Yoshikawa, it's the village of Hideto Yoshikawa, the little devil butcher."

  Chi Yun and Shang slowly got up, wiping away tears, his eyes blazing with anger. He said word by word: "Kikawa Hidetoshi, Buddha will now go to super-degree you. Brothers kill into Linping, slaughter Kikawa Hidetoshi this little devil, for the dead difficult fellow villagers revenge."

  His shout stirred up the vengeful anger of the members of the fierce ghost squad, who clenched their fists and rubbed their palms, ready to kill their way into Linping and flay Kikkawa alive.

  Yun Xiang Tian grabbed the monk and shouted loudly: "Uncle, it's not time to attack Linping yet. Comrades, the debt of blood owed by the little devils will be settled one by one, but now is not the best time to attack Linping. There are a regiment of devils and three battalions of Wang Dama's second dog inside Linping City, with a total number of people exceeding ours by several times. Attacking Linping strongly now would undoubtedly be like hitting a stone with an egg. So I hope everyone remains calm, this debt of blood will be repaid double by the little devils, let's just let our unfortunate fellow villagers rest in peace for now."

  That night, while Yun Xiang Tian and the others were studying how to eliminate Yoshio Yoshikawa and avenge their fellow villagers, Chi Tuan and Shang snuck out of the camp.