Chapter 66: The Devil's Pursuit Troops Appear from Behind

  "Does Mr. Nomura mean that this was done by the Chinese?" Suzuki seemed to have some faith in Nomura's words, but he still couldn't understand why these bloodstains were covered up and what purpose the Chinese army had in doing so. He just couldn't figure it out.

  "That's right, I can not only determine that this is the work of a Chinese person, but also know that the blood on the ground was shed by our empire's brave warriors!" Nomura had no doubt about his own judgment, and everything he found at the scene confirmed his conjecture.

  "Are you saying that these are the Imperial soldiers patrolling around here?" Suzuki couldn't believe it was true. Here and their nearest stronghold were only three miles apart, and the ambushed Imperial patrol team was a full platoon of guards with over a dozen people. When they were attacked, as long as one person fired a shot, they could attract all the devils from the nearby stronghold to rush towards this side, and in that case, the other party would definitely have nowhere to escape. But strangely, there was no gunfire here, and over a dozen people disappeared silently. This couldn't help but make him feel fearful of Chen Shaogin's abilities from the bottom of his heart.

  "That's right, and these bodies should have been thrown into the valley across by them because that's the most ideal hiding place. They chose to deal with these aftermaths in order to hide their action route." Nomura analyzed everything thoroughly as if he had seen it all himself.

  "Where are they now?" Suzuki looked up at Nomura, as if he thought that since Nomura had discovered all this about Chen Shaoqin and the others, he should know where they were now. Otherwise, he wouldn't be Nomura.

  "Chen Shaoqin's team must have had around two hundred people, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to silently take out our Imperial Japanese Army patrol. To conceal their tracks, after disposing of the bodies and guns, they would likely choose to enter the mountain paths near Xuzhou as their route, avoiding a direct confrontation with us. Because he can't guarantee that next time they encounter the Imperial Japanese Army, they'll be able to kill them off so easily without being detected. So I'm certain, Chen Shaoqin and his team must have entered the mountain paths on our eastern side!"

  "The first and second squads, enter the forest to conduct a dragnet search. The Imperial Army battalion rushes to reach the hidden river mouth and sets up an ambush. No Chinese can pass through there!" Suzuki listened to Nomura's analysis and immediately issued orders, deploying all his troops to form a comprehensive encirclement of the forest. He was very clear that the end of this forest was the hidden river mouth, and as long as his troops could hold it, he didn't believe Chen Shaokan would be able to fly out of the encirclement.

  Nomura had no objection, and after listening to Suzuki's arrangement, he immediately followed the team into the mountain forest. He knew that Chen Shaoqin must be in this forest, and he wanted to confront Chen Shaoqin head-on, so he could only make trouble in this forest, therefore he did not miss the opportunity to take the team in personally.

  Chen Shaoqin led the way with Liu, Xue Yumei and Han Yingchang as they continued on their journey through the mountains and forests. No one noticed the changes that had taken place outside the forest, and the warm sunlight filtering through the gaps in the trees cast a peaceful and serene glow over them.

  "In front of us is Yinhe Town, once we pass through this town, we will smoothly break out of the devils' encirclement and enter the heartland of Xuzhou!" At this time, Chen Shaoqin stopped in his tracks, took the map from Xiaoshi's hand, unfolded it to take a look, and pointed at the name of Yinhe Town.

  "The Yincunji is not the main defense point of the devils, so they shouldn't have deployed many troops. With the men and guns we have in hand, it shouldn't be difficult to cross the river from Yincunji. The problem is, after crossing Yincunji, where should we go? We can't just lead the team directly into Xuzhou City, can we?" Han Yingzhang also stopped in his tracks, examining the map with Chen Shaoqin. Alongside Han Yingzhang were Xue Yumei, Guai Zi Liu, and A Si, while the other brothers continued marching forward without stopping. At this moment, after hearing Chen Shaoqin's words, Han Yingzhang immediately asked.

  "I've already thought of this, we can gather at the old temple fifteen miles outside Xuzhou City and then decide on our next move!" Chen Shaoqin made a decisive decision. The silver dollar was just an excuse, he planned to wait until all the troops had arrived at the fifteen-mile pavilion before telling Han Yinglong and others the truth of the matter. At that time, even if Han Yinglong wanted to part ways with them, it would be impossible, and in the end, they could only follow their orders and head south into Nanjing together. No matter what, Chen Shaoqin had to find Qian Zhanggui first, wait for Qian Zhanggui to contact the organization, see what arrangements the organization had for this team, and then execute the commands they were supposed to execute according to the organization's orders.

  "Alright, the front ten miles should be Yinhe Village. Let's get through it smoothly and then see what to do next!" Captain Han had no objection to Chen Shaoqin's suggestion. And on the other side, Xue Yumei and Liu naturally wouldn't have any opinions either. So they unified all their opinions and led the team to continue advancing towards Yinhe Village.

  Just as the troops were about to leave the forest, the brother in charge of rear security ran back and reported to Chen Shaoqin and Han Yingchang: "Report to Officer Chen, Captain Han, we have discovered devils behind us!"

  "How many people are there? What kind of equipment do they have?" Chen Shaoqin asked first, he didn't expect the little devils to catch up with them so quickly. As someone who usually had a keen sense of enemy movements, Chen Shaoqin's first question was about the number of enemies and their equipment, as these were the primary factors in battle. Only by understanding the number and equipment of the enemies could he come up with a combat plan at the fastest speed.

  "Roughly two full-strength platoons, two mortar squads, two heavy machine gun squads, and eight submachine guns!" The brother heard the inquiry and immediately reported the situation he had reconnoitered to Chen Shaoqin, including every detail without daring to be remiss.

  "The number of devils is not many, but they have the equipment of a whole battalion! With such strong firepower, if we engage them head-on, we will definitely be at a disadvantage!" Captain Han looked up at Chen Shaoqin immediately after hearing this, clearly placing all his hopes on Chen Shaoqin. "Commander Chen, what do you think about this situation?"