Chapter 26: The Battle of Gui Xi (2)

  Only a few sets of protective suits were taken out. The warriors put on these captured protective suits, ignoring the short clothes that did not cover their skin, and rushed into the poisonous gas to rescue back several comrades. However, those who were rescued, no matter how hard the soldiers fanned the wind and blew air, still died quickly.

  The 500 warriors who stayed on the battlefield and did not have time to withdraw were all killed.

  Seeing no way out, the exhausted commander ordered: "Those wearing protective suits, go and retrieve all the guns and ammunition."

  After issuing the order, he fell silent with red eyes.

  The warriors silently transported guns back and forth in the toxic gas at the front line. Many of the guns and ammunition were pried from the hands of martyrs. After finishing transporting the ammunition, they took off their protective suits and saw that each other's faces were covered with tears.

  The toxic gas lingered for a long time and temporarily separated the two sides in combat.

  Perhaps even heaven was weeping at this tragic scene, and a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.

  The small detachment of devils has begun to circle around the back of You Fei, and the devils wearing protective clothing are approaching the front line. A large group of devils is gathering in the light rain, preparing to launch an attack.

  You Flying called over the members of the "Patriotic Armed Observation Team" who had been helping with logistics work, and said to them: "You can go back now. Everyone has seen how we fight against the devils. The devils have no tricks left, even using poisonous gas to attack our homes. If we continue fighting, our casualties will be heavy, but we must hold down the enemy from the front line and not let the devils harm the people again. Among you, if there are Chinese, go back and tell your leader to harass the devils from behind, this battle is won, it will be your credit."

  The members of the observation team had not yet expressed their opinions when the sound of mortar fire came. It's still a distance away, and it's not the devils attacking. A group of people came out to take a look and saw that the devils' rear was in chaos. One member of the observation team said: "This is the work of our Xilin Town Protection Team, we got two brand new mortars a few days ago, and now they're being used against the devils."

  "Alright! Let's start by giving you a lesson. We'll unite as one and we're sure to win. The 259th Brigade will persevere to the end, we won't retreat!"

  As the observation team disappeared from view, You Fei slowly and firmly said: "Pass on my order, prepare to retreat."

  He Tianhao, who was following You Fei, asked in a puzzled tone: "Big brother! Let's retreat. Our small team is fighting against the devils, and we're afraid of being surrounded by them."

  "Hmm! They're clever, aren't they? Besides, we didn't really retreat. We're going to harass the devils, it's raining, the ground is slippery, and our army, mainly made up of muddy legs, will compete with the little devils in speed and agility. Even if we can't eliminate them for a while, we'll whittle them down layer by layer and eat away at them."

  He Tianhao said: "Is that so, big brother? Then shouldn't we still split up into small teams and act separately?"

  "Yes! However, the activity range should not exceed ten miles outside of Guixi Village, don't lead the devils too far away, and it's also more convenient for the squad to merge. Now pass the order on to each company commander. Disperse and retreat in five minutes."

  "Yes!" He Tianhao understood that the most arduous tug-of-war was about to begin. As he left, he patted Jiang Zhuang's shoulder, meaning for Jiang Zhuang to take good care of You Fei. Jiang Zhuang nodded in understanding. Small units were fighting and maneuvering within a limited range, and there was no safe place anywhere.

  The devils occupied the original camp of You Fei after the reconnaissance was completed, but it was already empty. The old devil patted the shoulder of Dou Teng, who had a swollen mouth, and asked kindly: "Dou Teng! Your luck is really good, you're still alive! Great! Analyze it for me, where did You Fei's troops go?"

  The bean vine shook its head vaguely.

  "Hah! Hah! Hah!" Mokoto ignored Tofu's slightly rude behavior and continued, "I bet they're still around here somewhere, watching us! They want to nibble us to death! Alright! I'll divide us into small squads, just what they want. Oh! Guerrilla warfare, isn't that what the infantry manual says? Let's have a competition with the Chinese on our squad's combat abilities. Tofu-kun, how about it?"

  Tofu listened to Mokuto's words, stared with his eyes and nodded, then shook his head. He wasn't actually stupid, but intentionally acted dazed, wanting to know Mokuto's attitude towards the accidental fall he had during his sudden advance earlier. Before knowing Mokuto's attitude, he wanted to save his life first, not wanting to be shot as a deserter.

  "Bean sprout! This time, I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you again to lead a small team and go out a bit further to see if the Yu Fei have already escaped. It's not that I want to give such an important task to you, but there's no other choice! All the officers don't have your good luck, haha! Wishing you eternal martial fortune and another merit for the Empire!"

  After listening to Taito's words, Tohru's legs trembled again. After some thought, he made a decision and his trembling legs finally stabilized.

  The rain is getting heavier and heavier, showing no signs of stopping at all.

  Tofu led fourteen devils, cautiously making their way forward on the muddy road. They kept a considerable distance from each other to avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop.

  Zhang Mingshan quietly watched the fifteen devils advancing in the rain, aiming his gun at the first and then the last one. Just as he was about to fire, several shots rang out, stopping him. One of the devils had been hit and was still alive, writhing in the muddy water.

  "Forward!" Behind them, a large group of enemy soldiers rushed over. Captain Mu used his boots to kick the little soldier who was crawling on the ground and shouted, "You must hold back the enemy, you can't come to support you so quickly again! Forward! Keep moving forward!"

  Zhang Mingshan saw the Japanese officer shouting at the Japanese soldiers, and the small team of Japanese soldiers moved forward again. The large group of Japanese soldiers retreated instead. Zhang Mingshan understood. This was a tactic to lure out the enemy, using these few as bait. Looking at those disheveled Japanese soldiers, he had an idea.

  The suicidal squad is advancing with difficulty. Ahead of them are the most elite Gale and Qingyun squads, lying in wait.

  Using a large force to win easily, but it's easier to expose the target. You Fei's idea is to let the devils not see our shadow at all, wait until they are huddled together, and then unite with other small armed forces to bite the elephant like ants, eating away the entire devilish army.

  Will You Fei's plan come true? For now, Wang Lie and the others can't be certain, but one thing is for sure, the little squad of devils will definitely be finished. Ever since Zhang Ming Shan gave up on shooting the enemy commander and came back to report the devils' movements, everyone has been calling that little squad the "little squad sent to their deaths". As for them, the only suspense left is how much of a commotion they can stir up before they die.

  The trap had been set, and the members of the Liefeng squad were hiding two meters away from it. The perfect camouflage combined with their extremely high mental quality made them blend in completely with nature. The rainwater stimulated Wang Lie's slightly open eyes to ache, a gecko hastily crawled under He Tianhao's nose to avoid the rain, and they all remained motionless. This was also the reason why they dared to hide at such close range.

  The first devil to walk onto the trap was unscathed, followed by the second, third, fourth... By the time the tenth devil stepped onto the trap, the first one was about to exit. The trap had to be triggered, no choice! The devils were too spread out. Wang Lie pointed with his hand, and the ground suddenly flipped over, sending the ten devils who were cautiously advancing in all directions tumbling into a muddy pit. Besides mud and water, the pit also contained many sharp wooden stakes and bamboo arrows. The only sounds they made were faint cries of surprise and the thudding of the stakes entering their bodies, which were completely muffled by the heavy rain.

  The five devils behind looked around in horror, one devil opened his mouth to shout, and another devil raised his rifle. Before they could figure out the situation, a dagger was inserted into the neck of the devil who had opened his mouth, he gurgled and fell to the ground. With the fierce wind in front and the Qingyun squad behind, they instantly charged into the midst of the five devils, daggers and bayonets working together, four of the devils fell down. The remaining devil reacted quickly, seeing danger, immediately raised his hands and spoke in broken Chinese, saying "I surrender! I surrender!"

  At this time, Sun Qingyun's dagger was pressed against his neck.

  "Damn it! Really unlucky, this one seems to have made up his mind to surrender. I couldn't bring myself to do it." Sun Qingyun said. Wang Lie took a swift step forward and knocked the devil out with the butt of his gun. Two soldiers quickly dragged him away.

  When Mato received the report, the Tofu Squad had already been gone for a while.

  "Bah! Is our squad going to be defeated so easily? I order a full retreat, we'll wait for this damned rain to stop before taking action again."

  His orders had hardly been given when a report came in that another decoy party which had been sent out was being heavily attacked. The party was putting up a stubborn resistance. Major Dōtō's spirits rose at once: "Yoshi! Engage the enemy all along the line. Fight hard."

  The large unit of the enemy still joined the battle with a strange cry, Mato listened to the movement and suddenly ordered: "Slow down the attack. Leave the main force as a precaution."

  A Japanese sergeant didn't understand and asked, "Battalion Commander! The enemy's gunfire is very dense, there should be a large number of personnel. Haven't we been too careless in this direction?"

  "Haha! Yours, don't understand! Although the gunfire is dense, it's not very lethal, otherwise the squad wouldn't have lasted this long. And listen, there are also musket and bird shot sounds in here. This isn't the Flying Brigade."

  "Hai! Great Captain Ying's name! I am far inferior."

  "Hmph!" Mu Tong didn't say anything else, thinking to himself: If you were smarter than me, then you would be the captain. Hmph!

  While fighting at a moderate pace over here, You Fei was meeting with a guest in a broken temple.

  "Haha! You've arrived so quickly, General Yu! As a government official, you shouldn't be coming to this dilapidated temple occupied by bandits like us, or you might get a bad reputation!"

  "Haha! Dong Dajia, you're joking! You've come to help me, haven't you? I, You Fei, am not an ungrateful person. Besides, with the country in crisis, what's the difference between officials and non-officials? What is the official army? What are bandits? In my opinion, if we don't resist the Japanese, then the official army is no better than bandits! Those who fear death and crave life aren't even worthy of shining your shoes, a heroic outlaw like yourself! We're risking our lives to fight against the devils, why bother with distinctions between officials and bandits?"

  "Oh! I didn't expect Travolta to be such a real man, Dong certain person admires, admires ah!"

  You fly to hold the leader of the local largest bandit group, sincerely suggested: "I see! The outside fight is quite lively, that's enough! You'd better see good and collect it! The rain is not timely, and the sky is too dark. Large-scale attacks are not easy to handle now. Small fights, the devils have shrunk relatively tight. I think, tonight strengthen vigilance, wait for tomorrow we launch a comprehensive counterattack to let the little devils eat not take away."

  "Ah! Brother! I'm listening to you. Are you a regular army? No need to say, you're much stronger than us in fighting!"

  You Fei repeatedly said, "Ashamed! Ashamed!" He was really embarrassed. He had only been a soldier for a few days! Thinking back, they were just a bunch of street thugs, and compared to this Cao Da Dangjia, they were far inferior.

  The bandits' gunfire grew more and more sparse, and finally they all retreated. The devils didn't pursue them either. Mokutō ordered the troops to set up camp on the spot, strengthen their vigilance, and wait until dawn to settle accounts with the Chinese army.

  The tranquility of the rainy night had washed away the bloodiness and fatigue of the daytime, and the scattered troops of the 259th Brigade also chose to camp in dry places, only the communication soldiers were still shuttling back and forth on the road, transmitting a series of orders about tomorrow's general offensive.

  Dong Tianhao, the big boss of the Bald Mountain bandits, and You Fei, the commander of the 259th Brigade of the National Army, were delighted to have a good show to watch. They smiled at the Japanese officer in front of them, who was fidgeting with anxiety, and glanced at his short arms and legs with great interest before starting their interrogation.

  "What's your name?"

  "I, Tofu Kisho. Captain of the Great Japanese Army. I have lost faith in the Great Japanese Army, so I choose to surrender." Tofu's Chinese was very unfluent, but fortunately, it could be understood.

  "Oh! Captain Tofu! What do you mean by 'Great Japan'? Is Japan very big?" You Fei asked slowly and calmly.

  He wiped the cold sweat from his face, thinking that he had misspoken and would lose his head for it. In a moment of desperation, he blurted out a truth that he wouldn't dare say in Japan: "This! It's like this, small countries all like to add a big character before their country name. For example, the Great Republic of Korea, the Great Empire of Japan, and Great Britain, etc. But truly great powers like America and China are too proud to add that character."

  "Haha! So that's how it is!" You Fei didn't actually intend to make things difficult for Dou Tao, he was just casually asking. But then he suddenly became serious and said: "Alright! Next, tell me about your troop deployments! Be detailed."

  "Ah-hai! …… Yes! This time it's the Mato Taisa, equipped with two Type 41 75mm mountain guns, with a range of 6,000 to 10,000 meters, but an elevation angle of up to 45 degrees. Equipped with eight machine guns, each with a firing rate of 600 rounds per second..."

  Wang Lie suddenly rushed in and said to You Fei: "Commander! Aren't you going to kill that devil?"

  "This isn't right, what's going on?!"

  "It's a long journey! The bloody case of Luqiao was committed by this devil. Zhang Mingshan has recognized him."

  "Oh! That's gotta be killed! But... " You Fei was also hesitating.

  Wang Lie said bluntly, "You devil, if you're willing to help us, we can spare your dog life. You can slowly atone for your sins! First, I'll ask you, I want to learn how to speak the devil's language, are you willing to teach me?"

  "Hai! Yes! I'm willing!" said Tofu.

  You Fei also said on the side: "Tomorrow you will go to the front of the formation and shout, persuading the remaining devils to surrender. Are you willing?"

  "Ah? I'm willing!" Tofu said with a pout. Anyway, it had already fallen into You Fei's hands, and if he didn't want to do something, things might not go well!

  "Uh-huh! So, let's continue talking about troop deployment! Continuing from what I said earlier."