Chapter Eleven: Oriole in the Rear (Part One)

  Yang Jie opened the map and found that Lao Ye Mountain was actually in Fangshan, Mentougou, Beiping. "How many people are there in Nan Wei now? How did they run to that place?"

  Li Ying smiled and said, "These three guys can be said to have found their place in the world. Nan Zhi Ren has the least number of people, with 583; Gao Junping has already developed into the areas of Zhuolu, Huailai, and Yangquan, and he is basically in control of the entire Sanggan River area south of the river, with a total of 894 people; Li Baoguo's strength is the greatest, with two regiments under his command, totaling 2,526 people, stretching from Datong in the west to Laiyuan County in the south, basically all within our control."

  Yang Jie was shocked, and Chen Zhihao, who was busy arranging the team to transport supplies on the side, also stunned.

  "How did he get so many people? What's the composition of his personnel?" Yang Guang asked with concern.

  "Isn't this all thanks to you?! The personnel composition is very complicated, these people all have some foundation, and most of them have personal admiration for Li Baoguo." Li Ying said.

  "Now that this matter is settled, immediately have a brigade take over Li Baoguo's defense zone and conduct political education and examination on the people he has gathered!" Yang Wei said to Chen Zhihao with some impatience, "Old Brother Chen, I'll make a trip to Lao Ye Mountain, and leave things here to you. I'll take a brigade with me, let's consider it a real military exercise."

  Chen Zhihao knew that Yang Wei was worried about Nan Weiren and the other brothers, nodded: "Okay, pay attention to our party's united front policy, try to resolve it peacefully."

  Li Ying immediately responded and came over: "I'll go too!"

  Chen Zhihao didn't know what the relationship between the two was, but Li Ying's feelings for Yang Ke were clear at a glance. He smiled and said, "I have no opinion."

  Yang Jie said unexpectedly: "Very well. You notify the troops immediately and set off in ten minutes."

  When Nan saw Yang Wei personally leading the team to rush over, he was very excited and ran up from a distance: "Captain, how did you come?! Li Ying sister! Old Zhou? Comrade Jia." Looking at Yang Wei's excitement like a child. The special forces soldiers behind him had never seen the captain, who was usually calm and sensitive, lose his composure, and couldn't help but admire Yang Wei.

  "Captain, this is Company Commander Zheng Junguo, Deputy Company Commander Wang Guixi, and Third Company Commander Li Huatao." Nan Wuren smiled as he introduced the several soldiers behind him to Yang Xun, "This is our company commander."

  The three of them hurried forward and saluted loudly, saying: "Captain, good!"

  "Comrades, good. I've long heard of your great names, and today we finally meet in person, so the people and their reputations can be matched up at last. From now on, the Nan Wei Ren Special Warfare Squad will rely on you to develop and grow stronger. As the saying goes, 'one hero needs three helpers', but I think you three are already heroes, and you need to lead the team well and make it bigger. The responsibility is heavy and the road ahead is long, do you have confidence?"

  "Yes!" The three people replied loudly.

  Yang Jiong then introduced himself to others. Nan Wei Ren gave a detailed report of the work situation over this period of time to Yang Jiong and Li Ying.

  The team led by Nan Wei Ren had been active in the eastern part of Weixian, where the mountains were high and the forests were dense. It was a famous scenic area known as Xiao Wutai. At that time, the mountains were desolate and sparsely populated, with many bandits and outlaws roaming around. Nan Wei Ren, relying on his exceptional marksmanship and agile special combat skills, had been recruiting and training these bandits since he was young. He then led them to fight against the Japanese devils, killing evil tyrants and eliminating traitors, achieving great success. In the past, the bandits did not dare to do things that they thought were impossible or too difficult, but after following Nan Wei Ren, they became invincible. Their equipment also improved dramatically, replacing their bird guns with cannons, and they were all equipped with Japanese Type 38 rifles, twenty-round magazines, machine guns, and even four small cannons.

  Previously, when encountering a small group of devils, the bandits only knew how to set up ambushes and shoot cannons. As a result, they attracted more devils for revenge, so much so that they didn't dare to fight when they encountered devils. Now, under Nan Erren's guidance, personnel are divided into several groups: some lure devils, while others kill them; the methods of killing are not limited to shooting, but also include crossbows, slingshots, pitfalls, lassos, clubs, stones, and more. In Nan Erren's words: "Even if we only kill a company of devils, we don't need to fire a shot. These mountains and forests are the best weapons."

  In the process of suppressing the armed landlords, the original landlord's castle defense, which was as solid as gold in the eyes of the bandits, became useless under Nan Weiren's command. With just a few people, after Nan Weiren's guidance and arrangement, their combat effectiveness increased exponentially. The special warfare team not only gained fame but also demonstrated their own unity, experience, and financial security.

  These bandits admired Nanpuren from the bottom of their hearts, who was magnanimous, bold and meticulous. He was kind to soldiers and civilians, democratic in battle, and never made arbitrary decisions.

  Many of them had been in the army before and knew that such officers were rare. They were determined to follow a captain like Nan Erxin.

  Nan Wei Ren led more and more troops, active between Xiao Wutai and Jingxi. The Japanese army's cultural invasion of Xiao Wutai unfolded with the war, often with Japanese officers or collectors of cultural relics coveting ancient treasures under the protection of small groups of devils. Nan Wei Ren was very interested in the guns of these inspection teams and repeatedly led people to attack these unconnected small groups. Nan Wei Ren's battlefield expanded from Weixian to Jingxi, supporting a large number of local guerrilla forces, making the anti-Japanese situation in Weixian to Jingxi greatly improved, with fewer than 100 devils and special agents not daring to enter Xiao Wutai. This time, the Caojiapo guerrilla force sent someone to send a message, saying that the internal line at Xiaozhugou Railway Station had received news that two carriages of military supplies were to be transported to the Kaifeng front line, attached to the rear of the passenger train, and asked for Nan Wei Ren's opinion. Nan Wei Ren immediately decided to get rid of these two carriages.

  Each guerrilla team quickly assembled, and the mobilized civilians also hid with the troops in Tai Liu Village between Doujia Dian and Zhuozhou. This was the ambush site chosen by Nan Wuren. Tai Liu Village is located at the intersection of Bei Ju Ma River and Pinghan Railway, originally with less than 50 households, and after being slaughtered and driven away by the devils, only a dozen or so households were left. Nan Wuren's special warfare team patrolled along Bei Ju Ma River towards Zhuozhou to prepare for blocking the devils coming out of Zhuozhou.

  Comrades of the guerrilla squad are responsible for removing hooks from trains and eliminating any possible Japanese devils who may be hiding.

  Things went very smoothly, and the spoils of war quickly moved west along the Ju Ma River to the center of the guerrilla zone in Xiejiabao. When the Japanese devils from Zhuozhou arrived, they only triggered the special gift left behind by Nan Wuren's squad - cluster landmines, leaving behind more than 30 Japanese corpses. Not even a shadow of Nan Wuren and his men was seen, as they retreated back to Zhuozhou in disarray. The villagers of Tai Liu Village were all relocated to the guerrilla zone for resettlement.

  When Comrade Nan Wuren was distributing the spoils of war to the guerrilla comrades, he found a large number of box guns among the captured military supplies. Without hesitation, he kept all the box guns for himself and distributed the remaining military supplies, including several small cannons, evenly among the various guerrilla teams. Almost every guerrilla team got a machine gun. However, the guerrilla comrades returned the small cannons to Nan Wuren's squad because no one knew how to use them.

  Just at that time, news came from Caojia Slope that a group of bandits had raided the village, taking away large quantities of cattle, sheep and grain, and also abducting dozens of villagers.

  The guerrilla force of Caojiapo's bandits was ambushed, and they immediately took up the newly captured weapons and shouted as they chased after them. As a result, the enemy's firepower was very strong, and several team members were injured, causing their morale to plummet instantly.

  Each guerrilla team has not dispersed, and they all ask Nan Weiren to get rid of this group of bandits. Nan Weiren knows that this kind of energy cannot be dissipated, so he orders the special warfare team to follow the enemy, find out the enemy's lair, and then lead the guerrilla team and the second and third companies to follow up.

  They surrounded the bandits in Lao Ye Mountain and found out that these people were originally regular troops of the Nationalist Party, belonging to Xu Tingya's 17th Central Army during the Great Wall War. After the failure of the Great Wall War, the 17th Army retreated, and some important logistics units did not have time to withdraw with the army, so they hid in the mountains near Beijing. They left a battalion of soldiers to guard them. Later, many people escaped, including the battalion commander, who abandoned his troops and ran away. Now only an reinforced company is still holding on, but because they lost their logistics supply, they can only do some banditry and struggle to survive.

  Yang Jie heard about the situation and immediately thought of Xu Tingyao's Central Army's 17th Army, which was relatively well-equipped with light and heavy weapons. He decided to accept this group of Nationalist troops. Looking around at several people, he said: "First, let's clarify a few issues: First, these Nationalist troops have degenerated into bandits because they often harass civilians, and our battle has become a campaign to eliminate bandits and maintain local stability. Second, their personnel are extremely scarce, but they hold large amounts of strategic materials in their hands. If the Japanese find out, it is highly likely that these materials will become enemy supplies, so we must take measures before things happen to ensure that these things are used for resistance against Japan. Third, our masses have been taken hostage by them, and we cannot help but launch an attack. Does everyone agree with these views?"

  Everyone knows in their heart that it is necessary to eliminate or absorb these national troops, but they cannot violate the principle of the anti-Japanese united front. Yang Jie's explanation made seemingly impossible problems easy to solve.

  Jia Zhenhao thought to himself, this is what people mean by "two-faced", anyway, they can all talk. But he still supported Yang Wei's explanation.

  In fact, Yang Jiong was just talking to Jia Zhenhuan, because among the people present, except for him, others would not think about whether Yang Jiong's orders were correct and would immediately execute them thoroughly. They wouldn't care about what unified front policy.

  Yang Jie saw that everyone agreed, and immediately issued the order to go into battle: "Nan Ren, you will hand over the control point defense zone to Zhou Shicai's troops. Each company will select 50 men to follow me and Li's team to raid the enemy command center. Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhenhao, you two will lead a team to take down the three mountain strongpoints before midnight tonight, then set up sentries and launch a search and destroy operation towards the command center to rescue the hostages. We will launch a surprise attack on the command center at 3 am. Yang Jie looked around at everyone, "This is our first battle since the formation of the Wei County guerrilla team, we must fight well, show off our strength, and show off our prestige. Do you have anything to add?"

  Everyone looked at each other, nodded heavily and said in unison: "Understood."

  It was already deep in the night, and the moon in the mountains had just laboriously climbed up the eastern slope. The hazy moonlight became even more indistinct in the misty fog between the mountains. Although it was already the sixth month of the lunar calendar, there was still a bit of coolness in the mountain nights. Yang Jie led a small team, winding their way through the rugged rocks and hills. This section of road couldn't be considered a road at all - the rocks were jagged and crisscrossed, and the trees and grasses stretched out their necks and glared with strange shapes, lying across the path like eerie shadows on the ground, silently laughing together. Li Ying closely followed behind Yang Jie, nimbly brushing aside various branches that reached out to grab them, as if she had returned to her days in Africa.

  Suddenly, Yang Qianyin pulled Li Ying's hand and the two quickly hid behind a rock. Li Ying made a gesture with her hand, and Nan Weiren, who was following ten or so meters behind, immediately ordered his men to hide and wait for orders. He then led Zheng Junguo, Wang Guixi, and Li Huatai in sneaking up quietly.

  Li Ying looked down at the mountain road below from behind the rock, and there wasn't even a single figure in sight. At this moment, Yang Wei leaned in close to her ear and whispered softly, "The people ahead are still far away, but there's someone right under your feet!" The close proximity of his voice made Li Ying's ears feel a slight tingling sensation, and the intimate gesture inadvertently stirred up a ripple in her heart.

  To the sound just now, Yang Jue was absolutely intuitive. It was a very subtle sound that was inadvertently emitted when intentionally suppressed. If it wasn't for Yang Jue, if he wasn't in an extremely vigilant state, it would be easy to confuse it with the various rustling sounds around him. But Yang Jue, the creator of the special forces training standard, had extremely sensitive insight into this kind of sound that was emitted intentionally and quietly. This kind of sound that was intentionally hidden and emitted made Yang Jue more vigilant than the chaotic and urgent footsteps coming from the mountain below. Because in modern special forces warfare, there are many examples of slight mistakes leading to big errors.

  Li Ying, because she was certain that someone was lurking below, carefully observed and indeed found a dozen or so scarecrows hidden in the grass. If one didn't know that someone was hiding, even if they walked right up to them, it would be very difficult to discover. Li Ying knew that she had encountered an expert, because in that era, there were few people who could use their surroundings to create visual illusions for others.

  Nan Ren and others quietly came up, saw Li Ying making a silencing gesture towards himself, and then pointed to the bottom, knowing that the enemy was hiding under his own feet, and quietly conveyed Li Ying's meaning to Zheng Jun Guo and others.

  Yang Jie whispered in Li Ying's ear: "It's the art of endurance." But what Yang Jie saw was more than 20 people, because several Li Yings were "invisible".

  Obviously, the footsteps coming from down the mountain also attracted the attention of the people who were lurking under Yang Jiong's feet. Several clumps of grass moved silently for a few moments on both sides of the mountain road where it was easy to launch an attack.

  On the winding mountain road, two frail figures appeared, looking like a man and a woman, hastily rushing towards the top of the mountain. The hazy moonlight stretched and distorted their shadows on the rocks, like changing magic shadows that were sometimes long and short, sometimes thick and thin. The woman was speaking in soft Suzhou dialect to the man. Li Ying couldn't quite understand, but saw Yang Xiang listening with a friendly face.

  "Ah Tung, why are you in such a hurry to leave? My legs can't move anymore, I'm almost dead from exhaustion." The woman said as she sat down on the stone steps.

  Atong sat down next to the woman and said in standard Beijing dialect, "Cuīhuā, hold on for a little while longer. Once we get over this mountain ridge, we'll see houses and can hire someone to walk with us. As long as we make it out of these mountains by 12 o'clock, we won't have to live in fear anymore."

  "What? You know Li Xuerong's temper, he won't come after us?" Cuihua asked softly, her voice without fear.

  "Li Xue Rong?! Him?! Hmph!" Ah Tong sneered, "If he can make it through tonight, that's already a big deal for him! Even if he does make it through tonight, he's nothing but a toothless sick cat. Who kills who is still uncertain."

  "What?! Someone is going to kill him tonight?! Who?! Isn't he your company commander?!" Cuihua asked.

  "Who? Shi Fengtian, no, not him, it's the Japanese he brought. " Ah Tong continued with a cold face, "Shi Fengtian didn't come back this time with good intentions, he wants to give these things to the Japanese as a reward. He colluded with several deputy officials behind Li Xuerong's back and has already pulled several people over. A few days ago they instigated Li Xuerong to rob Caojiapo, it was just a case of borrowing a knife to kill someone, who doesn't know that Caojiapo is the territory of Nan Baye?"

  "Who is Nan Ba Ye?" Cuihua asked.

  "He's a surname Nan, an Eighth Route Army man who led some people to recruit local bandits in this area. I heard he's fierce in battle, not even the little devils dare to provoke him. Everyone calls him that behind his back, and even some special agent devils know this name."

  "How come Li Xue Rong doesn't know?"

  "Li Xue-rong is thinking about Chiang's appointment letter all day, he knows nothing." Ah Tong said angrily, "What kind of thing is He Jing-xiang? The whole thing is just a chicken feather being taken as an imperial edict, only Li Xue-rong this fool would listen to him. I think he's not even as good as Shi Feng-tian, at least the Japanese are in Beiping, right under our noses, but Chiang? He's far away."

  "Ah Tong, it's not what you said. Chiang Kai-shek is still the chairman of China no matter how far away he is. The Japanese are outsiders who invaded us and came to kill us, rob our country. My parents were killed by a Japanese plane in Shanghai. That's why I married Li Xueyong because he could lead troops to fight against the devils. If you hadn't said you'd take me to find the troops fighting against the devils, I wouldn't have let you take advantage of me."

  "Fight the Japanese devils?! Easy to say, but who dares to fight except for Eighth Master? How many devils has Li Xuerong killed all these years? Alright, let's go out first and talk later! Once we're outside, if you insist on killing devils, we'll go find the Eighth Route Army, don't know if they'll accept us or not!"

  "As long as we sincerely kill devils, none will be spared. What's going on with Li Xue saying he won't live past tonight?"

  "Alas, this is my good fortune. If not, I would have been killed by him just like others. Who knows who will take you away? A fellow countryman and sworn brother of mine, who knew about Shi Fengtian's plan, told me that tonight's celebration banquet is actually Li Xuerong's 'Hongmen Banquet'. It's said that the Japanese will make their move tonight, and if Li Xuerong doesn't agree, tomorrow will be his memorial day."

  "What?! The Japanese are going to kill him?!" Cuīhuā exclaimed loudly. ā Tóng hastily covered her mouth with his hand and looked down the mountain, "Why so loud, do you want to get us killed?"

  Cuihua said in a low voice: "Shall we send him a message before leaving? After all, he also has an anti-Japanese heart, don't let the Japanese really kill him."

  "What are you talking about?" Ah Tong sneered, "I'm saying I want to betray you, and my conscience won't let me rest, so I came especially to tell you that the Japanese are going to kill you." His words were laced with a sour tone.

  "You don't want to, never mind, it's come to this anyway, what can I do?! Alas! Just hope you'll truly help me kill the devils, even if I die, I'll be at peace." Cui Hua said languidly.

  "The bright moon and high mountains are my witnesses, I, Ah Tong, swear that in this life and this world, I will be true to Su Cuihua, help her fulfill her wishes. If I have the slightest deceit, let me die on the spot." Ah Tong said, standing up and raising his hand to his chest.

  Li Ying listened to Ah Tong's oath, secretly scolding him for being cunning. Cuihua had asked him to avenge her family by killing the Japanese devil, but instead he had become genuinely fond of Cuihua and was now making vague promises to fulfill her wishes. This kind of empty talk would be fatal if not followed through, but it wouldn't lead to immediate divine retribution like being struck by lightning. Once tonight was over, this oath would lose all meaning anyway.

  Cuihua covered Ah Tong's mouth with her hand and whispered: "As long as you're sincere, there's no need to make this poisonous oath. Let's go!"

  At the same time, Ah Tong was holding onto Cui Hua with one hand and a small bundle wrapped in floral cloth with the other. Just as he was about to step up onto the stone steps, he saw a sudden movement in the grass beside him. A flash of lightning accompanied by a gust of cool wind flashed before his eyes, and he felt a chill on the back of his neck. He fell backwards, tumbling down the mountain road. Cui Hua was also simultaneously cut in half at the shoulders and back, her blood splattering everywhere. The two figures made of grass disappeared into the underbrush in an instant, as if nothing had happened. The whole thing took only a few seconds.

  Li saw the opponent's killing process clearly, the knife flashed coldly in the moonlight; the person moved dazedly in the grass; the technique was as quick and accurate as a fish swimming in the air.

  Nan Weiren also saw the other's skills and was secretly shocked in his heart. This was absolutely not an enemy he could afford to provoke. The coordination of body, hands and mind was almost natural and effortless. Nan Weiren estimated that Li Baoguo might not even be a match for him.

  In Yang Jue's eyes, although the movements of these two people were impressive, they were flawed by their hastiness and viciousness, and he couldn't help but feel a murderous intent.

  At this time, a "yi?" suddenly came from the grass below, and then someone stood up from the grass, looking towards Yang Jue's direction on the mountain. Yang Jue suddenly realized that his killing intention had startled the other party.