Chapter 36: Attacking the Western Xia's Stronghold and Flying Pavilion Network

  After wiping out the reinforcements led by Nakamura Toshio, deputy commander of the middle team, Liu Feng felt that the time to attack Xixian Village had matured. Xixian Village is only 15 miles away from Guangping County, but because the reinforcements sent by Chiyou Middle Team were all annihilated by Liu Feng and his men, there are less than a middle team of devils in Guangping County, as well as three teams of puppet troops.

  The puppet army of the devils at the Xixian Dian Village stronghold, according to Han and others' estimates, did not exceed one hundred people.

  Liu Feng discussed with Captain Lin and Commissar Chen, both Chen Zhi-kui and Lin Xue-jun were somewhat hesitant. So far, the assault team had taken down the Dongda Xin stronghold without a single casualty, and had also eliminated the puppet army in Guangping County. This was already an unprecedented major victory for the Eighth Route Army. Unexpectedly, Liu Feng actually wanted to expand the results of the battle, and then took down the Xixian Dian village stronghold.

  "Director Liu, it's already a miracle that we were able to take down Dongdaxin so smoothly and annihilate the Guangping reinforcement troops without a single casualty. Although there are less than 100 Japanese puppet troops at the Xixian store village stronghold, Guangping County is within 15 miles of the stronghold and can send reinforcements at any time. We only have 40 people! Even if the devils in Donggao Village, Feixiang County can't come for the time being, there are several hundred Japanese puppet troops in Guangping County!"

  Chen Zhi-kui also said: "Liu Can-mou, this battle is not easy to fight. If we can block the ghostly pseudo-army of Guangping County, taking down the Xixian store village stronghold is no problem."

  Chen Zhi Kui now has a good understanding of Liu Feng's tactics, so he is very confident in taking down the next stronghold. However, when it comes to blocking the Japanese reinforcements from Guangping County, he is completely at a loss.

  Liu Feng said, "It's very simple. This time I've brought three snipers and bulletproof shields to block the Japanese reinforcements from Guangping County. If Guangping County wants to reinforce the Xixiantou Village stronghold, they'll have to exit through the North Gate. If they exit through the West or East Gates, they can certainly take a detour, but that would add at least ten miles of road and they wouldn't be able to drive cars. It would take them at least two more hours to reach Xixiantou Village. I think with all these cannons, you can take out Xixiantou in an hour at most. We just need to block the Japanese at the North Gate for one hour, that's all. Is there any other problem?"

  The reinforcements from Guangping County were wiped out, and the assault team captured three grenade launchers and a large number of grenades.

  Lin Xuejun said: "No problem, as long as Director Liu can hold off the enemy reinforcements for one to two hours, we guarantee that we can take down the Xi Xian Dian village stronghold."

  Chen Zhi-kui thought for a moment and also agreed with Liu Feng's idea, so the assault team continued to fight in the spirit of continuous combat and immediately moved towards Guangping County.

  This time Chen Zhi-kui mobilized the masses to help the assault team transport the captured materials. Not a single thing was left for the devils. The bullet shells were also mass-produced by the masses, and Liu Feng took Han Da-tou and Xu Guang-fu, carrying a large number of bullet shells, to the north gate of Guangping County.

  When they arrived at Guangping County, the sun had already set. Liu Feng found a quiet place for Han Dazui and Xu Guangfu to rest, while he himself sat in meditation to recite the "Ming Xin Jing" to recover his strength.

  These days of continuous fighting, everyone is exhausted, but because of the great battle with Liu Feng, everyone's morale is high, and their spirit is positive, no one complains about being tired. This makes Liu Feng very satisfied, a team with such morale and spirit, its combat effectiveness cannot be weak. Han Dingtou and Xu Guangfu both sleep soundly with Liu Feng by their side.

  Three people rested until night, Liu Feng woke them up and said: "Dahou, Guangfu, let's get to work."

  The three men began to lay out bullets and shells outside the north gate of Guangping County, and set up many sniper positions. In order to prevent the devils from circling around the west and east gates, they also buried hundreds of bullets and shells on the roads from the west and east gates to the north gate.

  After the three men finally set up all the explosive bullets in their hands, Liu Feng ordered them to enter the sniper positions in three directions that could control the North Gate.

  Then Liu Feng took out the Southern pistol and fired three red signal flares into the northern sky. Of course, this was a Japanese military pistol and signal flare captured from the enemy. The Southern pistol was considered one of the worst pistols during World War II, but the captured signal flares could only be fired from this pistol, so Liu Feng had to bring one with him.

  Three signal flares were very conspicuous in the dark night sky, and Lin Zong, Chen Zhengwei, who had been prepared at the Xixian store village 15 miles away, immediately saw them. They immediately shot down the searchlight inside the stronghold with a gunshot. The gunfire was an order, and two mortars and nine grenade launchers fired shells and grenades into the stronghold. Several sentries were quickly taken out by snipers.

  Mortars continued to attack the artillery tower, and grenades attacked the enemy's military camp. The Xixian Village stronghold was immediately plunged into a sea of flames. The stronghold was suddenly thrown into chaos. The screams and wails of the Japanese puppet army merged into one piece. Soon, the Japanese artillery tower collapsed under the mortar attack, and the Japanese lost their commanding height. Due to the flames inside the stronghold, it was illuminated like daylight, while the Japanese could not see the outside situation clearly.

  The sniper of the assault team would immediately shoot and kill any Japanese commander who came out to command, and as soon as they saw a machine gunner or mortarman setting up their weapon, they would immediately shoot and kill them. This continued until the end of the battle, when the Japanese puppet army had not organized a powerful counterattack, and the machine guns only fired a few shots, while the mortars and grenade launchers did not fire a single shell or grenade. The sniper's first priority was to eliminate the enemy who posed the greatest threat to himself, followed by the most important target.

  The explosion in Xixian Village suddenly awakened Chiyojo Nakamura, the commander of the Chishui Detachment, who was sleeping in Guangping County. He jumped out of bed and asked loudly: "What's going on? What's going on?"

  A duty officer rushed into the room of Squadron Leader Pool, saying: "Report to Squadron Leader, the Xixian Village outpost called and said they were attacked by a large number of Eighth Route Army troops, suffering heavy losses, requesting tactical guidance."

  "Hegu, the Eighth Route Army attacked the Dongda Xin garrison this morning, how come they're attacking the Xixian Dian garrison at night?" Chi Shang Qiu Zhu felt a blackness before his eyes.

  He knew that he had dispatched a deputy regiment led by Nakamura Toshio to reinforce Dongdaxin. However, later on, contact with Dongdaxin was lost, but he knew that the garrison in Feixiang County and the stronghold in Donggao Village had also sent reinforcements to Dongdaxin, adding to his own dispatched troops, which might have totaled half a battalion. With such a large force, it would be possible not only to deal with the small Eighth Route Army guerrilla forces but also to take on a regular division of the Chinese army.

  It's normal that contact with the Dongdaesin outpost can't be reached, as it's common for phone lines to be cut off during wartime. Soon, a messenger from Dongdaesin will come to report on the situation. Chiaki Shōzuki thinks that even if they can't annihilate the Eighth Route Army, driving them away is almost certain. The Eighth Route Army has always been opportunistic and runs away when they can't win, so Chiaki Shōzuki isn't worried and after sending out Nakamura Toshio, he went about his business as usual.

  However, the sound of gunfire in the middle of the night made Chika realize the severity of the problem.