Chapter 28: Cutting Grass and Eradicating Roots (1)

  The security team collected spoils of war in Heifeng Village, and then there's Li Xinmin and his group.

  Not long after lunch, Liu Wentao told him that the returning soldiers had arrived, and Zhang Dawei led a team to meet them. Li Xinmin immediately came out of the house and met with Zhang Dawei.

  "Captain! The brothers have all arrived!", "Hmm! You guys must be tired! Go eat something first!", Seeing that everyone had walked a long way and hadn't eaten yet, he let them fill their stomachs first.

  "Ah!", Zhang Dawei responded, a soldier handed Zhang Dawei a bowl of rice, and they squatted down together to eat. The soldiers were all starving. After finishing their meal, Li Xinmin briefed Zhang Dawei on the task. Li Xinmin planned to have Zhang Dawei lead his men to bring back all the gains from this operation to report to the headquarters leader. This way, the headquarters would not have to worry too much anymore.

  After receiving the task, Zhang Dawe reluctantly took people to bury the weapons with Zhang Huaping. Lan Guoqing, who was captured alive, was also in this team. Li Xinmin specially reminded before departure that he must pay attention to this traitor, and if he let him run away, it would be difficult to catch him again.

  "Oh! I'm really envious of you all!", the warriors who came with Zhang Daquan this time said to Zhang Huaping with envy.

  "Haha! You young man don't have to be envious either! Go back and practice your basics well, next time you might just get a chance!" Zhang Huaping lectured with a pretentious air of seniority.

  "Hey! Tell us about the situation when Zhang Shaodong was shot dead that day!", a soldier came forward and pulled Zhang Huaping to say.

  "That day, it was so exciting! Our battalion commander shot and killed that traitor Zhang Shaodong with just one bullet! I didn't see it myself because I had a task to complete, but our Liu Lianzhang told us about it later. He said that our battalion commander and Liu Lianzhang carried out the mission together, and Liu Lianzhang came back saying that our battalion commander gave Zhang Shaodong a fatal shot!..." As they spoke, they walked towards where the guns were buried, and after retrieving their belongings, Zhang Huaping left them and returned to Li Xinmin's temporary base.

  The vegetable stall in front of the Tongfu Pharmacy in Liaoyang County has not been set up for two days, because Wang Xijiu is busy fighting for the position of deputy team leader! With Zhang Shaodong's death and Lan Guoqiang's disappearance, Lu Liyi was appointed as the acting team leader by the Japanese devils. He guessed that Lan Guoqiang must have died, otherwise why hasn't he come back until now? It's a fact that Lu Liyi will be the team leader, so who should be the deputy team leader? Only three of them are left: himself, Wu Yunsheng and Zhao Zuofang. If he doesn't go for it now, he might really miss his chance.

  The security team's internal struggle for the deputy team leader position has begun, and these three people have started a fierce competition. The three of them each try to gain the support of their subordinates, being friendly on the surface but secretly undermining each other.

  "Comrades! Our next task is to sweep the tail, although Lu Ri, Wu Yunsheng, Zhao Zuofang and Wang Xijiu are not as harmful as Zhang Shaodong and Lan Guoqiang. However, in order to eliminate all possible hidden dangers, this action must be taken with extra caution and cannot be taken lightly." The soldiers listened attentively to Li Xinmin's words.

  "The mission to eliminate Zhang Shaodong and Lan Guoqiang has been completed. The first squad was exposed in the previous operation, so this time Squad A will be responsible for receiving them outside the city, while the other squads continue with Operation Dog Beating!", "Yes!", The soldiers immediately went down to make preparations.

  The headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in Wangjiayu, Zhang Daguang led a company of men, escorting Lan Guqing and the captured weapons to the headquarters.

  "Isn't this Zhang Lianchang? What's going on? Another harvest?" As for Li Xinmin's actions, others were unaware of them, so Zhang Dawei did not reveal any information about Li Xinmin to the soldier.

  "Oh! We've just intercepted a transport team of the enemy, with some small gains. I plan to give it to the leaders at headquarters." Zhang Daweixiao chuckled and slipped away.

  "Report to the commander! The third battalion's third company captain Zhang Dawei says he has something to report to the commander!", the guard entered the house and reported to the commander.

  "Oh! Zhang Dawei of the 3rd battalion?", said the commander, looking at the chief of staff and others.

  "Isn't there something gained?" The Chief of Staff said with a smile.

  "Let him in at once!" the adjutant commanded.

  "Reporting to the commander! The third battalion's third company captain Zhang Dawei is reporting for duty!" Captain Zhang Dawei walked into the command center with his chest out and head held high.

  "Speak! What's going on? Is something wrong with Li Xinmin?" the leader asked.

  "Reporting to the leaders! It's like this......", and then Zhang Daweili detailedly reported to several leaders at headquarters.

  "Hahaha! Commander! This Li Xinmin is really clever! ", the staff officer couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Where's that traitor Lan Guoqing you brought? Where is he?", the staff officer asked, "He's right outside!", "Hahaha! This kid!", several people laughed heartily, these two poisonous thorns have finally been removed.

  "Commander! Just received intelligence!", just as everyone was chatting and laughing, an intelligence officer handed a piece of intelligence to the staff officer. The staff officer took a look and immediately handed it over to the commander. "Commander, take a look!", after taking the intelligence from the staff officer, the commander looked at it for a few moments before handing it over to the chief of staff. After several people took turns looking at it, they burst out laughing again.

  Intelligence shows that the Liao County Security Regiment has just captured Heifengzhai, and the bandit leader Liu Heizi led the remnants to escape. Heifengzhai was completely annihilated. How can this news not be exhilarating?

  Three people came to the tobacco shop on the west side of Bao'an Team in Liaoxian County, they were Yu Hongbin, Xie Guangyuan and Wang Guoquan, the three walked directly into the shop.

  "Oh! Three people have arrived, what cigarettes would you like to buy?" The boss enthusiastically greeted the customers as soon as he saw them.

  "Boss! We want to rent a storefront, are you selling this store?" Yu Hongbin asked.

  "Not for sale! Although this shop doesn't bring in a lot of income, it's still a steady livelihood, isn't it? It's not easy to find another one in these times!" The boss said after some consideration.

  "How about we rent this shop for a few days? We have a batch of goods that need to be sold urgently, and once they're sold, we'll leave. It's just a matter of a few days." Yu Hongbin negotiated with the boss. Afterwards, he took out five silver dollars from his pocket and handed them over to the boss.

  "Are all these for me?" the boss asked suspiciously. His greedy eyes betrayed his thoughts.

  "Not bad! We'll rent for a few days, and once we've sold our goods, we'll leave." Yu Hongbin said affirmatively again.

  Greed ultimately triumphed over reason, and in just a few days, he could earn five bright dollars, which was too cost-effective. The boss readily agreed, quickly picked up the dollars, simply packed up and left.

  Yu Hongbin and the others quickly cleaned up the place. Since the boss didn't take his goods with him when he left, Yu Hongbin had told him that the cigarettes were counted here, and if some were missing after a few days, it would be considered as having been smoked by them. As Yu Hongbin was willing to compensate for the loss, the boss didn't care about this small amount of money at all. Of course, the silver dollars weren't anything significant to Li Xinmin and the others either. They just wanted to get some silver dollars to catch a few traitors.

  The traitor Zhao Zuofang was a heavy smoker and only smoked "Wutaishan" brand cigarettes. He came to this tobacco shop every day to buy cigarettes. Yu Hongbin and the others wanted to take advantage of his opportunity to buy cigarettes to get rid of him. When they had everything ready and it was dark, three people waited here for two days in a row, but the traitor Zhao Zuofang did not appear.

  Yu Hongbin and the others were not in a hurry, just waiting slowly here for the traitor to show up himself. Because his nicotine addiction would drive him out. As for these few days, Zhao Zuofang was really busy, because of competing with the other two for the position of deputy team leader, he couldn't get away from work. Today, when he felt that there was no more cigarettes in his pocket, he hurriedly called his subordinates to buy some for him and specially instructed them to buy "Wutai Mountain" brand.

  "Boss! Give me a pack of 'Wutai Mountain' brand cigarettes!", a fake soldier walked into the tobacco shop and said to Hong Bin.