Chapter 40: Two Dozen Flat Broad County Flying Warehouse

  The ambushers had been silent for a long time, and the squad leader at the foot of the mountain thought that the other side might have been hit by stray bullets. He ordered the sappers to continue clearing mines, but as soon as they shone their flashlights on the ground, they heard a gunshot, and this sapper's head was also shattered by a bullet.

  The squad leader Yamashita felt he was being driven mad, and hysterically shouted: "Baka, baka, your conscience is completely rotten! How dare you treat the Imperial Army like this! I'll tear you to pieces!"

  However, what responded to him were two hand grenades that exploded in mid-air, killing two devils and wounding several others.

  Yamashita could only curse incessantly at this devil who had crushed the Imperial Army to the ground, making it impossible for them to even get back on their feet.

  The reply was often bullets coming from different directions, hitting some devils who did not hide their limbs.

  More than half of the people in Yamashita's squad have been injured, and so far they haven't even seen a single hair from the enemy. Now, Yamashita is on the verge of losing his mind.

  After arriving in China from Japan, the squad leader of Yamashita always felt that the Chinese army was not worth mentioning. A few Japanese imperial soldiers could capture hundreds of people. A small team can chase an opponent's division. He was full of contempt for China and thought that such a weak nation was not worthy of owning such vast land. This land should naturally belong to Great Japan.

  But today he finally knew how fierce Chinese warriors were.

  Due to Sakai Kōji's concealment of the defeat of the Sakata detachment and the battles in Qiu County and Quzhou County, the Japanese army did not understand Liu Feng and his tactics at all. It also caused Ikegami Shizuo to make mistakes in dividing troops multiple times. First, he sent Nakamura to rescue Dongdaxin, but after Nakamura's reinforcements were defeated, he was blocked again when he divided troops for the second time in Guangping County North Gate. As a result, all three places fell into the snare of the enemy's ambush.

  The Han Da Tou ambush team that detoured from the west gate to the riverbank was in a similar situation, with the entire team trapped in a hail of bullets and being tormented by Han Da Tou's 38 rifle, one shot at a time. The commander of the riverbank team was not as lucky as the commander of the mountain team, because he actually drew out his command knife to give orders, only to be killed by Han Da Tou with one shot. Now the riverbank team has also suffered half casualties. The remaining soldiers were under the command of a sergeant and were all lying on the ground unable to move.

  Liu Feng led the three snipers in the dark night, relying on bullet storms and ordinary 38 rifles and grenade launchers, to suppress a company of devils under the command of Chikujo Naoyuki and two companies of puppet troops outside the city gate of Guangping County, not even daring to move.

  Captain Lin and Commissar Chen used Liu Feng's tactics, always using mortars and grenade launchers to talk to the devils, as well as suppressing fire from three snipers in different directions, thoroughly pinning down the devils at the Xixian store village stronghold.

  Due to the fact that the Japanese puppet army stationed in Xixian Village was transferred by Nakamura to Dongdaxin for reinforcement, there were less than a hundred of them. They were bombarded by Lin's artillery and Chen's rocket launchers. In less than half an hour, they lost their combat effectiveness.

  "Commander Chen, you lead the villagers to clean up the battlefield, I'll take the assault team to support General Liu. The three of them can't hold off three companies of Japanese and puppet troops alone, it's too tough."

  "Alright, let's gather at Hán Xī Village."

  Lin led thirty commandos and rushed to Guangping County.

  However, when he arrived at the north gate of Guangping County, he found that all the Japanese puppet troops were pressed to the ground and no one dared to move. Xu Guangfu appeared in front of Lin Zong like a ghost, startling him. After realizing it was Xu Guangfu, he quietly asked: "What's going on? Why are the Japanese puppet troops all crouching on the ground and not daring to move?"

  Xu Guangfu reported the battle situation to Captain Lin one by one. After listening, Captain Lin felt unbelievable, and Liu Feng said that a sniper could suppress a team of devils, it seemed to be true. Moreover, the combination of sniping tactics and bullet rain made the devils so passive. This tactic greatly interested Captain Lin, who repeatedly praised it as good.

  Since the devils were all cowering on the ground and didn't dare to move, Captain Lin was not polite either. He immediately ordered the mortar and grenade launcher to be set up and first attacked the devil's position outside the city gate. Poor Chiyo Ikezuki no longer had to worry about whether he should commit seppuku or not, as he was blown to pieces in the first round of shelling.

  Those pseudo-soldiers lying on the ground saw that the Eighth Route Army had started using mortars, and it was clear that they were the main force of the Eighth Route. So they didn't make any noise at all, and just lay flat on the ground. After seeing Chi Shangbin being blown to death, Zhang Changfeng, the commander of the pseudo-army regiment, hastily shouted: "Eighth Route Grandpa, we are Chinese, we haven't done anything bad, we surrender! Please don't bomb us anymore!"

  Captain Lin had originally planned to blow up the devils and then blow up the puppet army, but he didn't expect that the puppet army would already be on the verge of collapse due to the snipers and bullet rain. Now seeing that even Liang Shangzhong, the deputy captain, was blown to death, they didn't have to sacrifice themselves anymore, they should surrender.

  The false army still has nearly three hundred people, while Captain Lin only has thirty people in his hands. Captain Lin had a headache. What to do with so many captured false soldiers?

  "Alright, you can surrender if you want to," Lin Xuejun shouted. "Stand up, throw away your weapons, and raise your hands. Move to the outside of the city wall. Face the wall and do not look back."

  Three hundred fake soldiers stood up, threw their weapons to the ground, raised their hands high and walked obediently to the city wall, standing facing the wall. No one dared to look back.

  Lin Xuejun led his team to quickly sweep the battlefield, leaving behind three machine guns and six soldiers to guard the fake army. Then he led the remaining team members to rush to Liu Feng's battlefield, where they found that Liu Feng had almost completely eliminated the devils. Captain Lin opened fire on the devils without hesitation, and in a short time, he killed off the remaining devils. He then rushed to the other side and used cannons to solve the problem of the devils sniping at Han Da Tou. The small team leader under the mountain was blown up by cannon fire.

  The whole city of Guangping County was left with only one class of devils and a battalion of puppet troops. After consulting with Liu Feng, Lin decided to take down the city of Guangping for the second time.

  Liu Feng directly called out the commander of the Guangping County puppet army, Zhang Changfeng, and said: "Commander Zhang, we have decided to take down the city of Guangping County. However, we are all Chinese people and do not want to kill all the puppet soldiers in the city. We are afraid that when the fighting starts, the guns and cannons will be indiscriminate and harm our comrades, which would be bad. So, we want to ask you to go into the city and have the puppet army surrender completely. After all, there is only one platoon of devils inside the city. We have artillery, and it would be easy to wipe them out."

  Zhang Changfeng nodded and bowed, saying: "Thank you, sir, for giving us a way out. We were also forced into this situation. Although we've worn these uniforms, we haven't done anything bad. The little devils are all in the company headquarters. I'll go into the city right away and let my brothers take care of them. Those few devils can be handed over to my brothers, and let me contribute a bit to the resistance against Japan."

  Liu Feng burst out laughing and said, "Good, you're in the Cao camp but your heart is with Han. As long as you do what I say, from now on you'll still be the commander of this Guangping County city's puppet army, considered our inside line in the enemy's heart. How about it?"

  Zhang Changfeng was overjoyed and repeatedly said: "Good good good, I will definitely get it done."