Chapter 53: Top Secret Mission (1)

  "Captain Zhao!", "I'll speak directly, brother!", "What is it? Go ahead and say it!", Zhao Hailong said.

  "I'd like to invite you on behalf of our battalion commander to join the third battalion, I don't know if you're willing or not."

  "Invite me to join your troops?"

  "Not bad! Our Battalion Commander Li is a very talented officer, if he were here, I think he would also invite you to join the third battalion."

  "I'm actually quite willing, but what about the brothers who are left behind after I leave?" Zhao Hailong said, expressing his concerns.

  "We will select a batch of brothers from among them to go to the Third Camp together, and the remaining brothers can only stay behind," Huang Yuke said afterwards.

  "Alright! Huang Lianchang, I'll go back and think about it," said Zhao Hailong, who was actually eager to join the Third Battalion, having been drawn in by the battles described by Huang Yuke. However, he still had some concerns about leaving his comrades behind.

  "Alright! I'm waiting for your reply, but please Captain Zhao must give me a quick response because we're leaving tomorrow." Huang Yuke agreed to Zhao Hailong's request.

  The two of them turned around for a while before going back to have dinner. After dinner, Zhao Hailong gathered all the brothers of the guerrilla team and discussed his own affairs with them.

  "Captain! What are you thinking? Don't worry about us, just go ahead! We can still stay here and continue fighting, who knows when we'll meet again!" The team members all hoped that Zhao Hailong could join the Eighth Route Army and enter the third battalion. In the end, Zhao Hailong decided to go to the third battalion, and they subsequently invited Huang Yuke over, letting Huang Yuke personally select the soldiers. Based on Li Xinmin's recruitment standards, Huang Yuke selected eight people from the guerrilla team.

  "Huang Lianchang! I also want to join the Eighth Route Army, can you let me participate too?" Xia Laowu came up and started grinding Huang Yukei.

  "I'm really sorry, comrade! Our camp has always selected warriors based on this standard. Even if I agree to let you go now, once you arrive at our camp, you will still be eliminated. It's better for you to stay here." Huang Yu Kai persuaded.

  After selecting the candidate, the remaining guerrilla members elected Li Changjiang as the new captain. The next morning, Huang Yuke led the team to continue on their way. Huang Yuke successfully recruited Zhao Hailong and was extremely happy in his heart. He thought that if Li Xinmin saw Zhao Hailong, he would also be very happy. After all, Zhao Hailong was a rare tiger general!

  They continued to move back and forth, while Li Xinmin led the team along the Changzhi Highway towards Licheng. Along the way, they were doubly cautious, fearing that the devils' patrol cars on the highway would discover them. At night, they passed through Licheng, in a mountain valley northwest of Licheng, Li Xinmin and his men were eating their lunch, hastily marching, their food was very simple.

  "Company Commander, here!", soldier Sun Guangxiang ran to Li Xinmin's side and handed him a few bird eggs.

  "Oh? Where did you get it from?" Li Xinmin asked excitedly.

  "I picked it from the tree!", Sun Guangxiang replied.

  "You're still capable of this? You can make a great undercover agent." Li Xinmin said with a sneer.

  "Hahaha!", The surrounding warriors were also amused.

  "No, I was particularly good at climbing trees since childhood. On our way here, I found several bird nests, so I dug them out to make a snack." said Sun Guangxiang.

  "Haha! That's right! This is also a wild taste, this egg will hatch into a bird!", "Hahaha!", the warriors laughed again.

  "Alright! I'll return a can of food to you when we get back!" Li Xinmin left behind an egg and handed another one to Sun Guangxiang, distributing the rest to the surrounding soldiers. Everyone chatted and laughed as they started eating. Although they had been rushing along the way, they didn't feel bored. Li Xinmin's leadership was indeed strict, but not rigid; he never put on airs, ate and lived with the soldiers, and treated them well. The soldiers respected and admired him greatly, enjoying his company and joking around with him. After a simple lunch, the troops set off again, continuing their march.

  "Company Commander! Headquarters encrypted telegram!", on the way of marching, the communication officer told Li Xinmin that he received an encrypted telegram from the headquarters. Originally, their company level did not have a radio station, and in the Eighth Route Army, only units above the regiment level were equipped with radio stations. How could their small company have a radio station?! In order to contact Li Xinmin and his team in a timely manner, the head of the headquarters personally secretly allocated a telegraph machine from the headquarters communication company, and also assigned a telegraph operator to follow Li Xinmin's team to take action, responsible for sending and receiving telegrams. To keep it confidential, the headquarters also changed the password for this radio station.

  Li Xinmin took over the telegram handed to him by the soldier, which read: The situation has changed! You are ordered to arrive at Zhangjiaping in the northeast of Lucheng before 2 pm on the 15th and block the enemy passing through there. Signed, Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Headquarters.

  Li Xinmin knew that this matter was of great importance, and the situation must be extremely urgent. Otherwise, why would headquarters send an urgent telegram before he even arrived? After destroying the telegram, Li Xinmin immediately ordered his troops to march quickly towards Zhangjiashan. They were still dozens of kilometers away from Zhangjiashan, which was mentioned in the telegram from headquarters. If they didn't speed up their pace, it would be impossible for them to reach their destination on time. Li Xinmin forced the team to proceed at a running pace.

  The sky gradually darkened, but there was still a long way to go, so Li Xinmin decided to travel overnight. However, traveling at night couldn't involve lighting torches, as that would make it easy for the devils to discover them. He chose to march under the moonlight instead and finally arrived at Zhangjialing before dawn.

  Li Xinmin chose a favorable terrain on Zhangjialing to set up an ambush, while ordering the soldiers to build fortifications and having someone prepare breakfast. The soldiers had been marching all night and were exhausted, and once the devils arrived, they would be at a disadvantage. Fortunately, they had arrived here ahead of time and still had several hours to utilize. The fortification was quickly completed, and breakfast was ready. The soldiers sat in the trenches eating their breakfast, and after finishing, Li Xinmin let them rest in the trenches, assigning some people to keep watch.

  He found Liu Wentao, and the two of them took out a map and started studying it.

  "Company Commander, what unit of the enemy are we going to intercept?" Liu Wentao asked.

  "It must be that the intelligence personnel found out about the devils' transportation team's movements, and headquarters wants to eliminate the devils' transportation team." Li Xinmin said, looking at the map for a moment.

  "But how come we didn't see any other brother units?", Liu Wentao asked in puzzlement.

  "It should be that the headquarters has mobilized troops from other places, and our task today is to block the devils passing through here, and we will complete the task if we don't let them pass." It was really guessed by Li Xinmin. The intelligence personnel had indeed obtained a piece of information, saying that the devil's chemical weapons transport convoy would pass through Lucheng and send it to Licheng today, so the headquarters immediately deployed troops. A large number of troops were mobilized from nearby, while Li Xinmin and his team had fewer personnel, so the headquarters did not assign them the task of ambushing the devils. Finally, the chief of staff sent them a telegram, assigning them to Zhangjiayuan to block the enemy. As for whether there would be devils passing through Zhangjiayuan or not, he was not clear. He assigned Li Xinmin and his team to come here, and if there were devils passing through, they could still block the devils for a while. It's better if no devils pass through here.