Chapter 63 Conspiracy

  "Reporting to the superior, the company commander Huang Yukai reports to you." Huang Yukai led his troops back to the headquarters and did not find the people of the third battalion. He went to the headquarters to report to the deputy commander-in-chief.

  "Oh! You're back so soon? Was everything okay on the way?" Deputy Commander asked with concern.

  "Thank you for your concern, the journey has been relatively smooth so far." Huang Yukai replied hastily. "Chen and Luo also asked me to pass on a message to you, they have arrived safely." Huang Yukai replied.

  "Oh! They've already sent me a telegram, praising you all. You've done a great job this time!" Deputy Commander praised.

  "This is our responsibility," Huang Yuke said humbly.

  "Right, Commander, are we in the midst of a big battle here! Why is everyone fighting?", Huang Yuke asked the Deputy Commander with confusion.

  "Oh? How did you know?", the deputy commander asked in surprise.

  "Haha! Commander! You don't know. They just had a battle and captured a small group of devils!", said the staff officer with a smile, seeing the deputy commander's surprised look.

  "What's going on?" The leader asked curiously.

  "Hehe! Nothing much, just on the way back we ran into a small squad of district troops blocking the Pingyang stronghold of the devils, so we lent them a hand and annihilated this small devilish unit." Huang Yuke said with great modesty.

  "Hahaha... Great! Well done!", The deputy commander also burst out laughing happily.

  "Your troops have gone out on a mission and will be back soon. Not long ago, we wiped out a large group of devils, the ones you encountered were trying to rush over to reinforce." The staff officer said to Huang Yuke.

  "You lead the team back to the base first, your people will be back soon!" The deputy commander ordered.

  "Yes, Commander." Huang Yuke received the order and led his troops back to the third battalion's barracks.

  Kato returned to Ryojyu with a belly full of anger. Kato could not accept such a result, the Kato corps had never suffered such a great loss!

  "Commander! I request that you immediately instruct headquarters to launch a large-scale sweep of the Eighth Route Army here, thoroughly eliminating the Eighth Route Army and those farmers who dare to support them." Kato suggested to Kodera Jiro.

  "Not bad! We did indeed underestimate the combat strength of the Eighth Route Army, resulting in such a great loss this time. I have an inescapable responsibility." said Kojiro Kodera.

  "Your Excellency! This is not the time to discuss whose responsibility it is. We should take immediate action and eliminate the Eighth Route Army here, they are the greatest threat to the Imperial Army's occupation of this place. We must eliminate this threat, otherwise we will all be sinners of the Imperial Army." Kato said on the side.

  "Yes! We must take action as soon as possible, it's been how long and they already have the power to confront two divisions of the Imperial Army head-on." "This is just a corner of their exposed strength, do you know how many Eighth Routes there are in North China? We don't even know that much, which is why they are the greatest threat to the Imperial Army." Katō and Kodera Jirō secretly conspire on how to carry out the mopping-up operation against the Eighth Route Army's base.

  Kotero Kodama summoned all the officers under his command to discuss and pass a resolution on the mop-up operation against the Eighth Route Army base. Kotero Kodama immediately made a request to the North China Area Army Command and made a detailed report of the incident to the Command.

  The North China Area Army Headquarters of the Japanese army agreed to their suggestion after some discussion, and issued a directive for combat operations against the Eighth Route Army, sending a telegram to various units in North China, requiring them to carry out a large-scale mopping-up operation against the Eighth Route Army with the aim of thoroughly eliminating it.

  Kotero was reprimanded by his superiors for this incident and lost the opportunity to be promoted. The headquarters ordered him to atone for his crime, in charge of the mopping-up work here in Lucheng. Lieutenant General Kato, commander of the 108th Division, was also punished, calling him a shame to the Imperial Army. The unlucky Miura was taken to the headquarters, where he was interrogated and finally ended his sinful life with a bullet.

  In the three battalion camp, Huang Yuke led the soldiers to welcome Li Xinmin and his men back. After being separated for so long, the soldiers were very nostalgic and warmly greeted each other. However, when they saw the stretcher carrying the wounded soldiers behind them, their excitement immediately disappeared. From Li Xinmin's military uniform, it was clear that this battle had been extremely difficult.

  "Da Chengzi!", Warrior Wang Guangming called out to Tang Wancheng in the team.

  "Ah, Guangming!", Tang Wancheng suddenly hugged Wang Guangming tightly, "You little scamp has finally come back!", Tang Wancheng was actually crying, he held onto Wang Guangming's hands and kept patting his back.

  "How are you? And how about the other brothers?" Wang Guangming asked.

  "I'm fine, other brothers, other brothers...", "What's wrong with the other brothers? You'd better say!", Wang Guangming asked anxiously.

  "All the other brothers have sacrificed!", Tang Wancheng said with tears streaming down his face.

  "What are you crying about, kid? The brothers of our three battalions shed blood but not tears. This debt will be paid back to the devils sooner or later." Wang Guangming said with hatred.

  "Right! Revenge! Take revenge on them!", Tang Wancheng shouted.

  Li Xinmin and his team returned to the command room, where everyone sat down waiting for Li's inquiry.

  "Is this operation going smoothly? Why didn't I see Gao Dabao and the others?" Li Xinmin asked after taking a sip of water.

  "Captain! Gao Dabao and the others were left behind by Commander Chen, he said he would inform the Deputy Commander-in-Chief." Huang Yuke replied.

  "This operation has been relatively smooth so far, but we still lost a dozen or so brothers along the way," Huang Yuke continued.

  "Director! Our regiment has suffered significant losses recently!", Huang Yuke asked Li Xinmin.

  "Yes! Recently, our team has suffered heavy casualties in these intense battles!", said Deputy Commander Liu Wentao on the side.

  Li Xinmin and a few others started discussing in the house. "Right, Battalion Commander, I almost forgot something important." Huang Yukei said, patting his own head.

  "What? What's up?", Li Xinmin looked at Huang Yuke with confusion. Then Huang Yuke told him about how he met Zhao Hailong on the road and invited him over. Li Xinmin immediately asked Huang Yuke to invite Zhao Hailong over, so they could meet in person.

  "Someone come, quickly go and invite Captain Zhao!", under the command of Huang Yuke, the guard invited Zhao Hailong into the camp command room.

  "Captain Zhao, come in quickly." "This is our third battalion commander Li. Battalion Commander, this is Captain Zhao I mentioned to you earlier." Huang Yu-kai introduced them to each other.

  "Hello Captain Li!", "Hello Captain Zhao!", Li Xinmin warmly greeted Zhao Hailong.

  "This is Liu Wentao, the commander of our third battalion, and this is Zhang Dawei, also a battalion commander," Huang Yuke introduced to Zhao Hailong one by one.

  "Hello Liu Lianchang! Hello Zhang Lianchang! ......", after getting familiar with several people, Zhao Hailong was arranged to sit next to Li Xinmin.

  After a few people discussed, Li Xinmin made important personnel adjustments, appointing Huang Yukei as deputy regimental commander and promoting newly joined Zhao Hailong to company commander. The others had no opinions on Li Xinmin's arrangement. While they were resting and reorganizing, the devils were busy preparing for this big sweep.