Chapter 27: Borrowing a Knife to Kill (Part 2)

  Here is the translation:

  Now that we've come to this point, it's necessary to introduce Liu Heizi. Liu Heizi was originally named Liu Guidang and was a notorious bandit who roamed across seven provinces in northern China. At the age of 10 or so, he began his life of crime by blocking roads and committing robbery, and gradually formed a large gang that operated mainly in the mountainous areas of western Shanxi Province. Due to his dark complexion, he earned the nickname "Liu Heizi". Liu Heizi went around pillaging and burning villages, killing and looting wherever he went. During the warlord era, local military forces were corrupt and did not crack down on bandits, instead trading guns with them, which allowed Liu Heizi's power to expand rapidly, eventually growing to over 10,000 men. In the early days of the Republic of China, he led his troops in surrendering to the Nationalist government and was incorporated into the New Fourth Army. During the Central Plains War, he defected to Yan Xishan and became the commander of the 26th Army. Not long after, he again switched sides and joined the Northeastern Army, becoming the commander of the 6th Mixed Brigade, but soon betrayed them and surrendered to Shi Yousan. In this way, Liu Heizi led his troops in wandering between various warlords, roaming across northern China.

  After the defeat of Liu Hei-tzu's forces in Daming, Hopeh, they retreated back to the mountains of western Shansi and soon grew to a strength of 10,000 men. To annihilate Liu Hei-tzu, the Nationalist Party assembled five divisions of troops plus militia and launched an encirclement campaign which lasted for over a month before finally annihilating Liu's forces. Unfortunately, the bandit leader Liu Hei-tzu escaped.

  After the outbreak of the war, Liu Heizi took advantage of the various forces being busy fighting against the Japanese invasion to gather his scattered old troops and continue to recruit soldiers and horses, expanding his team to over 3,000 people. He often led his team to launch surprise attacks on the anti-Japanese armed forces in various places, and after being repelled by the local anti-Japanese armed forces, he would raise the banner of fighting against Japan again and launch surprise attacks on the Japanese transportation teams. Liu Heizi was a bandit by nature, unruly and unscrupulous, and only cared about his own interests. He retreated back to his old haunt in the Shanxi mountain area. However, this region already had Nationalist Party local armed forces and the Eighth Route Army stationed there, so he could only raise the banner of "turning over" to gain a foothold in this place.

  However, Liu Guidang's "turning over" was just a temporary expedient, an old trick repeated, and once the situation changed, he would still have to change his allegiance and find a new master. Recently, because he was caught between the power of the Nationalist Party and the Eighth Route Army, he could no longer burn, kill and loot as freely as before, so he contacted the devils again and wanted to surrender to them and become a traitor.

  Unfortunately, Liu Heizi's plan was about to go down the drain, messed up by Li Xinmin like this, plus his previous record, how could the devils still trust him? If he knew he was taking the fall for Li Xinmin, he would probably be furious. Next, Black Wind Fort would face the most crazy revenge attack from the Security Regiment.

  The next day, as soon as the sky was bright, the gate of Liao County opened, and the security team set out in full force. The devils even equipped them with more than a dozen infantry guns, and the large team of several thousand people marched towards Heifengzhai.

  "Captain! The security team has set off, and they've even brought a lot of big guns this time. It looks like Heifeng Fortress is in for a tough time!" reported soldier Li Jiqing after completing his reconnaissance mission to Li Xinmin.

  "Haha! Great! That's perfect! Best of all would be for both sides to suffer a crushing defeat!" Liu Wentao said with a smile.

  "Old Liu! Our people should be back by now, shouldn't they?" Li Xinmin asked.

  "If everything goes smoothly, I should be back today!" Liu Wentao thought for a moment and said.

  At this time, the 70mm infantry cannon of the devils was continuously firing at the Heifengzhai mountain stronghold, each shell destroying a large area of ground, and the personnel of Heifengzhai suffered heavy losses. At first, someone discovered that a large number of enemy troops had arrived at the foot of the mountain and reported to Liu Heizi, but Liu Heizi didn't take it seriously. When he learned that it was the Pacification Corps, he took it even less seriously. In fact, Liu Heizi's arrogance was very high, in his eyes, there was no such thing as the Pacification Corps, he thought the Pacification Corps was too weak and not worthy of being on an equal footing with him, let alone the regular Japanese army. When the Pacification Corps troops were preparing at the foot of the mountain, he realized that something was wrong, but he had clearly made arrangements with the Japanese, how could they still send people to attack him?

  The devils' infantry artillery proved one thing, the devils indeed sent people to attack their own stronghold. So, he immediately dispatched someone to shout in front of the mountain, "Brothers below the mountain! You've got it wrong! We are our own people! We have already surrendered to the Imperial Army! We were recruited by Lieutenant Suzuki!", The shouting bandit took advantage of the pause in artillery fire and loudly shouted towards the foot of the mountain.

  "Brother down the mountain! Don't shoot! Let's talk it over!" The bandit shouted again.

  "Damn it! What a load of crap! Open fire!" Lu Li cursed. A barrage of artillery fire followed, and after the bombardment, it was the security team at the foot of the mountain that shouted out. Lu Li's men held up the enemy's broken loudspeaker and shouted from the foot of the mountain, "Liu Heizi, listen up! Hand over Deputy Commander Lan of the Security Team immediately! Otherwise, we'll raze Black Wind Fortress to the ground!"

  "It's the Home Guard! The people below are from the Security Regiment! They keep saying that we have to hand over their Deputy Commander Lan!", a small bandit leader hastily told Liu Heizi.

  "They said we tied up their deputy team leader?" Liu Heizi asked in confusion. "Yes! They were indeed shouting that!", the little head replied.

  "Damn it! Is this the trouble you guys got me into?", Liu Heizi cursed and asked his subordinates. Several people looked at each other, all indicating that they had nothing to do with this matter.

  "Speak! Now it's this late and you still won't speak, wait till I find out myself then you'll have no chance!", Liu Heizi said fiercely.

  "It's our home! We really haven't done anything!", "Impossible! They've already beaten us to the village entrance, how can this be fake?", Liu Heizi said disbelievingly.

  "Head! It's not impossible that it's fake! Don't forget, Suzuki has invited us to surrender several times, and you didn't agree. Who knows if the devils deliberately gave us this title to take advantage of us and annex our village!", said the teacher on the side.

  "Right! It's a frame-up! It's possible that the security team intentionally gave us a bad name, they're jealous of us and want to take us down!", one of the leaders said.

  These bandits were some petty people, they kept slandering the security team on the side, Liu Heizi was not a good bird either, and his temper was small. Under everyone's stir, he also got angry, with one order, all the bandits moved out and attacked the security team at the foot of the mountain.

  At that time, the mountainous area where Heifengzhai was located was ablaze with flames and gunfire. Both sides were fired up and took turns attacking each other. In the end, Heifengzhai was no match for the security team's attack, and Liu Heizi led his remaining men to break through the encirclement from the rear mountain and flee eastward. The unlucky Liu Heizi had originally planned to surrender to the Japanese, but due to an unexpected mishap, he not only failed to do so but also lost all his family property in the process. In a hurry, they fled southeast and eventually escaped to the mountains of southern Shandong Province. There, they resumed their old ways and soon gathered a large number of men. At their base in southern Shandong Province, Liu Heizi committed evil deeds, attacking the Eighth Route Army and harming anti-Japanese crowds. They killed or injured hundreds of soldiers from the Eighth Route Army. In the end, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army dispatched Li Xinmin's unit to eliminate the notorious bandit Liu Heizi. The invincible Liu Heizi was no match for Li Xinmin and fell under his gun. Perhaps Li Xinmin was born to be his nemesis! First, he had designed a trap that left him penniless, and second, he took his life. To celebrate this victory, the military and civilians at the base in southern Shandong Province held a grand celebration meeting. Of course, all these are later stories.

  The security team's flag was raised in victory, and the road ahead seemed even more exciting. This was what he had been eager to see. If Hei Feng Zhai had surrendered Lan Guoqing from the start, he might not have had this opportunity as the team leader. He knew best that Lan Guoqing was far more important than himself. Even if he managed to rescue Lan Guoqing, he would at most become a deputy team leader. But it's unlikely that Lan Guoqing would agree to him being his deputy. Wu Yunsheng, Zhao Zuofang, and Wang Xijiu all had a chance.