Chapter 35: Absolutely Not Letting Go (Part 1)

  After Zhao Hailong led the guerrilla team to successfully repel the devils, they cleaned up the battlefield and brought back the captured materials to the guerrilla base.

  "Captain! This time's harvest is quite impressive!", Zhang Guifang said to Zhao Hailong after counting the supplies.

  "Yes! The devils have done us a favor, and this time our brothers can get a new batch of guns. Just look at the supplies we got and you'll know that the devils did a lot of bad things in Xiao Wang Zhuang again! I don't know how many fellow villagers fell victim to their evil hands." Li Xinmin couldn't help but sigh.

  "Damn the devils! We can't let them off!" Wang Zhengui cursed on the side. His family was killed in the devil's last raid, and to avenge his family, he asked Zhao Hailong to agree to join the guerrilla team to fight against the devils. Since the guerrilla team was composed of fellow villagers from this area, everyone had an unbreakable blood feud with the devils, so Zhao Hailong agreed to his request, and thus he became a member of the Wu'an Guerrilla Team. This time, when ambushing the devil's main force, he participated, but since he hadn't received training and didn't have any shooting experience before, he wasn't assigned any decent weapons, and he went to ambush the devils with an old shotgun along with others.

  "Take a look at what we don't need and set aside some grain for the fellow villagers who escaped from Korean Village." Zhao Hailong instructed.

  "This time we captured twenty rifles, several hundred bullets. There are also more than a dozen large livestock and over a dozen chickens and ducks." Zhang Guifang said, looking at Zhao Hailong.

  "Let's equip the rifles to our brothers, and send back the large livestock to the fellow villagers who escaped from Xiao Wang Zhuang!" Zhao Hailong said after a moment of thought.

  "Alright, I'll go arrange it now!" Zhang Guifang then went out to arrange for the team members to deliver supplies to the villagers.

  Now the guerrilla force has all sorts of weapons. Some have the enemy's Type 38 rifle, some have old muzzle-loaders, some have homemade cannons, and some have big knives and long spears. They distribute the weapons according to need, like Old Li and Zhang Gui Fang who are good marksmen, they can get a good gun, while other team members can only continue using those old weapons. Here, if you want to get a good gun, there are two ways. One is that your marksmanship is good, you have meritorious service and get rewarded with a good rifle. The other way is to capture one yourself, some people's guns were captured from the enemy by themselves.

  Even if they had good guns, the bullets were allocated in limited quantities. Each person only had a dozen or so bullets in hand. Therefore, each of them was very careful to conserve bullets. Because wasting one meant losing one. Winning battles wasn't always possible, and if they won, they could get the opportunity to replenish their ammunition; if they lost, they would lose the chance to replenish. If they didn't conserve themselves, next time they might have to use big knives and long spears to fight the devils.

  The guerrilla force was able to move freely in the enemy-occupied area because they were very familiar with the environment. They were all local farmers born and raised here, and the enemy hated them to the bone but had no way to deal with them.

  "Brothers! Our next target is the Luo Family Stronghold." Zhao Hailong said to his team members, revealing their next action goal.

  "Get rid of these damned little devils!", the team members were extremely excited, they were very passionate about fighting the devils, they hated them so much that they wished they could kill all of them.

  "Hmm! Don't worry, we won't let these devils off easy, we'll settle the score with them bit by bit." Zhao Hailong also said hatefully.

  "Captain! The devils in Luo's village are not so easy to deal with! They rarely come out, and with our firepower, it's not easy to attack them!", Zhang Guilin said. Luo's village was indeed a hard nut to crack, the guerrilla troops had wanted to take out this stronghold before, but they never found the best way to do it.

  "Four Tigers, tell everyone about the situation you've gathered." Zhao Hailong instructed the Four Tigers to brief everyone on the detailed situation.

  "Alright, Captain, the Luo Family Village outpost has twenty-nine devils, and their firepower is very strong. The outpost is built very solidly, and the devils rarely leave it. However, there's a local leader in Luo Family Village named Feng Damaizi who can enter the outpost freely. He often collects grain taxes for the devils inside the outpost and reports to them every day, returning home at night." Fourth Tiger explained the situation they had gathered in detail.

  "Doesn't that Feng Damao come home every day? Let's go to his house and wait for him, let him take us into the stronghold. We've just captured some large livestock, haven't we? Leave a few behind, and we'll disguise ourselves as people delivering supplies to the devils. Once we're inside the stronghold, we'll immediately take action." Zhao Hailong laid out the specific plan of action.

  On the dirt road of Luo's village, a short man hummed a little tune and slowly walked towards the village. This was Feng Dama, the running dog of the devils, who had been bullying the villagers in Luo's village without any obstruction. The villagers all hated him to the bone, but with the devils backing him up, they didn't dare touch him.

  This Feng Da Ma Zi wears a devil's military cap on his head, a gray cloth gown on his upper body, and a pair of devil's military trousers on his lower body. He has a Wang Ba box slung diagonally across his back.

  "Look out! Feng Dazhu has appeared!", The guerrilla fighters hiding outside the village immediately went into hiding.

  "Wife! I'm back, what are we eating today?", Feng Dama shouted to his wife. He found it strange that she hadn't come out yet, nor had she responded to him. Usually, she would come out of the house after he called her.

  "We're back! Come on in!" After a while, his wife responded with a sentence.

  Feng Dama didn't think much and pushed open the door to enter the house. As soon as he entered, a cold gun muzzle was pressed against his temple.

  "Spare my life, good fellow!" Feng Dazui hastily begged for mercy.

  "Ah, misunderstanding! Good fellow, brother, where did I offend you? Sir, please forgive me!" Feng Damao begged non-stop. Zhang Guifang took away his gun. Zhao Hailong pushed him into the inner room, and Feng Damao immediately saw his own wife, discovering that there were several people in the inner room, all of whom were pointing their guns at his wife.

  "Feng Baochang! Don't worry, brothers don't have any other intention, just want to ask you for a small favor!", Zhao Hailong said to Feng Dama.

  "Good fellow, speak! What instructions do you have? I will definitely carry them out." Feng Dama rushed to pack his bags.

  "We brothers quite admire the imperial army, don't we? We want to show our respect and have prepared some cattle and sheep, planning to send them over. But no one knows them, so they might just leave without receiving anything. They won't accept it, so we plan to ask Feng Baochang to help us out, to introduce us to the garrison." Zhao Hailong stated his intention.

  Feng Damao immediately heard their purpose, and it was not to send cattle and sheep at all. They wanted to attack the base! This group of people should be guerrillas.

  "Alright, folks! Let's be honest with each other. It's not easy to get in there either, and the firepower configuration is extremely strong over there. Brothers, are you sure you want to reconsider? ", Feng Dama Zi didn't want to take them to the base, he knew that if he took these people to the base and they failed, what would happen to him? He wouldn't be able to mix in anymore.

  "Don't worry, Feng Baochang! We brothers just want you to help us get in. Once we're in, past matters will be forgiven and forgotten. If the brothers can't get into the stronghold, some of them have tempers that I won't be able to control. We're all locals from this area, and everyone knows each other's bottom line. No one should think about running." Zhao Hailong stated his conditions.

  Feng Damao was a shrewd guy, and he was afraid of death. He thought to himself that if the guerrillas had him in their sights, it wouldn't be easy to get out of this situation, and he might even lose his life. Never mind, he thought, at worst he could just lead them into the stronghold and then leave; after all, there were plenty of other places for him to go. Having thought things through, he decided to agree to Zhao Hailong's request.

  "Alright then! Shall we give it a try tomorrow?" Feng Dazui asked with a request.

  "So you'll be busy tomorrow, brother?" Zhao Hailong asked with a smile.