Chapter 21: Shocking Water Surface Battle

  A curved new moon appears and disappears in the mountains, under the hazy moonlight, the great mountain stands like a giant, the forest is like the giant's clothes, with a gust of wind, the clothes are wrinkled layer by layer.

  Looking at the distant dark and hazy scenery, Nan Weiren felt a strange sense of emotion in his heart. What a wonderful night view! It's been a long time since he had carefully watched and appreciated the beauty of the black night. It was already August on the lunar calendar, and the night wind in the mountains had a bit of chill to it, but the slightly cold air stimulated the hot blood in his body. He stood up, looking towards the end of the small road at the foot of the mountain, where Kangnian Mountain was the only way they could climb.

  Li Baoguo came over and said, "Zhu Zhenkun and the others have arrived, everything is going smoothly. I've arranged for them to rest in Langyadong."

  "Should we go and meet Kang Nianshan and the others?" Nan Weiren asked with some concern, as they were already half an hour past their scheduled meeting time.

  "Then I'll go take a look." Li Baoguo nodded and said, "With you here, I can rest assured."

  At this time, several short cries of night owls suddenly came from the mountain below. The two immediately looked at each other and smiled, Kangnian Mountain arrived smoothly.

  "Kang Nianshan, what's wrong?" Nan Weiren walked a few steps to Kang Nianshan's front, holding the hands of several people in front, "Li Dui and I were just discussing how to receive you."

  Kang Nianshan saluted the two while saying, "This time we've gone too far, almost got caught by the devils. The five mortars were also abandoned there."

  Li Baoguo smiled and patted Kang Nianshan's shoulder: "It's good that you're back safely, we've seized some more weapons, which is enough for us to use."

  Kangnianshan led two companies, after wiping out the Japanese scout squad, they snuck into the Japanese main force's garrison. With silencers, they easily took out the Japanese sentry, Kangnianshan personally led five small cannons to within 300 meters of the enemy barracks and fired a salvo at the Japanese camp, each cannon firing three rounds. After finishing, they didn't even take the cannons with them, instead pulling the strings on the pre-buried landmines and turning around to run away.

  The devils were indeed well-trained, and when they suddenly came under attack, they didn't panic at all. They countered the artillery fire in an orderly manner and launched a pincer movement. Kangnianshan and his men continued to take cover behind rocks and bushes, escaping to the front of their defensive position, where they waited for the devils to trigger the landmines connected to the small cannons.

  Li Baoguo's new trick is a kind of powerful landmine newly developed by Gao Junping at the base, which looks like an ordinary big stone on the outside but contains real explosives inside. The explosive power is huge, and it doesn't need to be buried, just place the mine there and wait for the devils to step on it themselves. Gao Junping named this mine "Explosive Heaven Thunder".

  Some skilled stone craftsmen made the shape of the Stone Thunder very artistic, one even carved a beautiful flower basket out of a piece of stone, with a round big watermelon and several flowers in the basket. The whole Stone Thunder is small and exquisite, very good-looking. Yang Jie heard about it and then mobilized people to specially study this kind of artistic thunder.

  When the devils searched in front of the small cannon, they saw that only a few shells were left. One devil was angry and kicked over one of the small cannons with one foot. Suddenly, the landmine exploded, and the nearby small cannons were knocked down, triggering continuous explosions. The huge power of the exploding thunder made all the devils within 50 meters disappear, and even the trees were blown to pieces. Kangnianshan was shocked and stunned, never thinking that its power would be so great. The devils responsible for pursuing and surrounding were caught off guard by the well-hidden heavy machine guns, which threw down more than a dozen corpses and retreated. However, the range of the heavy machine gun was 4500 meters, and the preset shooting angle made it play out its greatest power, chasing after the devils and shooting downwards.

  Next, Kangnianshan and the devils began to contend for the position. After several losses, when the devils were about to use heavy artillery, Kangnianshan ordered his men to withdraw to the second position. The devils followed suit, this time becoming more cunning, suppressing with cannon fire, and launching scattered attacks. Soon, the second position was lost, and it was only seven o'clock at that time.

  Kang Nianshan ordered the first company to lead the devils in a wild goose chase through the mountains, while he led the second company around to attack the devils from behind. They engaged in a cold gun battle against the devils' main camp, with sporadic gunfire that made the devils think they were trying to lure them into chasing after the first company. In reality, Kang Nianshan's men were just trying to disrupt the devils' senses, firing high and not killing a single devil. The devils' squad leader laughed loudly: "Let those foolish Chinese waste their bullets, no need to bother with them."

  Distant gunfire echoed, Kangnianshan understood that Nan and his men had probably succeeded, ordering: "Tighten your guns, don't provoke the devils, snipers get ready!"

  Kang Nianshan looked at his watch. The needle had just pointed to 7:30. "One minute of concentrated firepower, fire!" Various hidden firepower opened fire simultaneously. "Withdraw, support the first company."

  However, Kangnianshan underestimated the reaction ability of the devils. When he led his troops to charge from behind and pursue the devils in a row, his own back was also targeted by the devils who followed closely. Kangnianshan made a quick decision, merged two rows, and quickly took the devils to turn around in the mountains. A local warrior came over and said: "Captain, we can lead the devils to Guipan Ridge, where there are many roads and steep mountains, even locals can easily get lost."

  "Line up." The other local warriors also nodded in agreement, "There, we can still beat the dog day out of him."

  Guipan Ridge, lush vegetation, high mountains and dense forests, the road is complex and confusing, like a maze. Kangnian Mountain and his men followed several local fighters to climb up a mountain, under the moonlight, they found that the devils were right at their feet. "Captain, now if we attack them, they will only be able to take a beating. If they want to catch up with us, they have to climb two more mountains. The small path we took earlier, the entrance is very hidden, they won't be able to find it."

  "Fire! Why not fire? The high command said before they left that we should take advantage of every opportunity to annihilate the enemy. Hand grenades at the ready." Kangnianshan ordered the grenade launcher.

  The selection of grenade throwers has been retained by Gao Junping since the Battle of Kangjia Town, who is known as the "Bomb King" and deeply understands the use of hand grenades in clusters, whose power is not inferior to that of artillery shells.

  Each grenadier can throw three hand grenades forty meters with great accuracy.

  The grenade throwers, taking advantage of the terrain, grasped five or six grenades in their hands and threw them at the enemy's heads with abandon. The grenades exploding in mid-air sent shrapnel flying everywhere, leaving no dead angle to hide. Especially when a large number of grenades exploded one after another.

  When the devils counterattacked with their heads held high, they found that the enemy was almost at a vertical height, and only saw grenades flying randomly, without seeing any human figures.

  This raid made it clear to the devils' officer who was commanding the pursuit that he could not take advantage of these familiar terrain Chinese.

  After Kangnian and the others threw hand grenades and left, the Japanese officer directed the Japanese soldiers to carry or back the dead and wounded Japanese soldiers away.

  After listening to Kangnianshan's report, Nan Weiren and Li Baoguo almost simultaneously became interested in the terrain there.

  "Is this Guipan Ridge, where 'strangers don't pass Guipan Ridge and familiar guests don't pass Motian Cliff'?" Nan Wuren asked.

  "Yes." Kang Nian Shan looked at them in confusion, and saw that they were laughing loudly for no reason.

  With the war report that had just been delivered by the Imperial Guard officer in his hand, Commander Yano Yuichi of the Independent Mixed Brigade paced back and forth in the command center. Adjutant General Okamura Masao looked at the swaying figure under the electric light, wanting to speak but hesitating.

  Yano Yuichi, although known for his fierce fighting spirit, was calm and collected in the face of adversity, with a grandeur befitting a great general. As he walked around, he also noticed Okamura Masao's hesitant expression, so he stopped in front of the large tactical map and said: "Okamura-san, what are your thoughts on this matter?"

  "Commander, I believe this is the main force of the Eighth Route Army's guerrilla troops. Their goal is to blow up the Shalingzi Bridge and prevent our army from dividing into two routes along the river and moving quickly downstream. They will continue to harass us with more skirmishes in order to delay our advance."

  "Go on," said Yano Yuichi calmly.

  Okamura Masao clearly saw that Yano Yuichi's shoulders trembled slightly, knowing he was interested. Okamura Masao was just a major general, and this time he went to great lengths to get the position of chief of staff of the expeditionary army, just wanting to use this war to promote one more step. Of course, this must be done with Yano Yuichi's beautiful words.

  "Judging from the way this attack was carried out, it should be a small team-type mission. However, considering the extent of destruction inflicted on our army, their combat capability is not something that a small team can achieve. Additionally, I went to Shalingzi Town earlier and found only a few Mauser rifle shells on the ground, indicating that this was not done by the Chinese National Army. From the signs of fighting on the other side of the Shalingzi Bridge, it appears that some of the opponents were skilled in close combat, which should be the main force of the Eighth Route Army's combat capability. Therefore, my conclusion is: This Shalingzi incident was carried out by a small part of the main force of the Eighth Route Army leading the main force of the guerrilla army. From their military objective, it can be inferred that the base of the Eighth Route Army should have known about our military action this time, and there must be an important target of the Eighth Route Army in the direction of our attack, and there are no troops stationed near this important target, requiring time to assemble troops or make a transfer."

  Yano Yuichi walked back and forth excitedly, smiling at Okamura Masao: "That makes sense, that makes sense. Okamura-san, it seems you're still a very insightful chief of staff. What do you think our next move should be? I'd like to hear your thoughts."

  "We will attack from this direction. According to the report of the Weixian Garrison Command, there was an incident of violent resistance against the Imperial Army in Weixian three or four months ago, resulting in the loss of a company of troops. In several months' time, this force will not have developed very quickly. When our army arrives, they will either flee at the sight of us or be defeated by our first strike, and are not worth worrying about. The ones currently harassing us may also be this force. To the southwest of Weixian, the bandit situation is severe, I estimate that it is the location of the Eighth Route Army's headquarters, and it is extremely empty, so they dispatched troops to harass us in order to gain sufficient time to operate. Therefore, I suggest we dispatch two battalions to annihilate this guerrilla force's main force. Our main force will then divide into two routes, advancing along the Yang River towards Xuanhua, making a show of surrounding and annihilating the Xuanhua, Zhuolu, and Weixian guerrilla forces, while our main force secretly and quickly advances on the Wutaishan area, eliminating the Eighth Route Army's Taihang Mountain headquarters in one fell swoop."

  Yano Yuichi nodded in satisfaction, patted Okamura Masao's shoulder: "Well done, a good 'open repair of the plank road, secretly crossing the Chen Cang', you immediately arrange to go, order the engineering troops to build a pontoon bridge on the Yang River tomorrow morning, Inoue troops advance on the south bank of the river, Takahashi troops advance on the north bank, and the divisional headquarters dispatches the directly affiliated regiment to surround and annihilate the guerrilla troops."

  "Yes!" Okamura Masao stood up straight, his heels clicking together with a crisp sound.

  The moon had quietly fallen, and the surroundings were pitch black. The night insects chirped in the slightly cold autumn wind, making the night even more serene. Kangnian Mountain was sleeping soundly, snoring loudly. Suddenly, a faint footsteps came from outside the cave, and the guard at the entrance was knocked unconscious with a slap on the back of his head. A figure beckoned to others, and several masked black shadows quickly flashed into the cave, swiftly taking away everyone's guns and bullets from their bedsides. More black shadows entered, tying everyone's hands together with ropes from left to right. The leader only then walked up to Kangnian Mountain and kicked him awake with a foot.

  Kang Nian Shan suddenly sat up, a cold gun barrel pressed against his head. The other black-clad men kicked the team members awake one by one. Those still asleep opened their eyes to find themselves bound and staring at the muzzle of a gun.

  Kang Nianshan's cold sweat kept flowing down, this is the end. Before leaving, Gao team repeatedly reminded himself that no matter what situation he was in, he must arrange a good sentry post and require at least three posts for each post, which must be bright and dark. The farthest sentinel must be more than three miles away from the residence. Last night, although sentries were also arranged, because the soldiers were tired of fighting, so they arranged one less sentinel. As a result, they were blocked by others.

  The newcomer didn't take any further action, and the atmosphere in the cave was somewhat strange. After a long time, they finally heard the leader let out a long sigh.

  Kang Nian Shan immediately understood. As expected, the person who came took off his mask and it turned out to be Nan Wei Ren and Li Bao Guo, along with their Iron Blood Guards.

  "Kangnian Mountain, do you know your sin?" Nan Weiren's face was gloomy with anger as he said, "The high-ranking officer handed these brothers over to you to lead. You sleep more soundly than anyone else! When forced into a corner, instead of calmly thinking of a solution, all you know is to lose heart and give up. What kind of special forces captain are you?!"

  Kang Nianshan immediately thought of Gao Junping's previous mention of some self-rescue methods in case of capture, and indeed there was an opportunity just now, which was deliberately left by Nan Weiren and others. It is precisely this that highlights Kang Nianshan's problem.

  "Old Kang, the more we fight, the more careful we must be. Although you're very tired, the devils also know you're tired. Let's take this as a lesson. From now on, let's keep our wits about us." Li Baoguo said to all the soldiers, "Remember these words, not just for use against the devils, but others can also use them against us. 'Take advantage of your illness and take your life.' Got it?"

  "Remember." Some team members did not respond. Li Baoguo asked loudly again, "Did you remember? I didn't hear what you said!"

  "Remember!" Everyone shouted loudly this time.

  "What do you remember?" Li Baoguo asked.

  "Take advantage of your illness and take your life." The team members' atmosphere was a bit lively.

  "Right. The little devil isn't sick, we need to give him some illness and then take his life." Li Baoguo said with a smile, "Don't let the little devil take your lives away, okay?"

  Nan Ruo nodded to Kang Nian Shan, and the two walked out. Li Baoguo took the opportunity to say to the remaining team members: "Take a break for now, there's still action in the morning." After finishing speaking, he also led his men out.

  The east is white, and the morning glow will clearly outline the majestic contours of the great mountain on the sky curtain. The clear sky is a brilliant blue, with only a few wisps of white cloud floating across, dotting the misty mountains, connecting the mountains and the sky into one body. The morning glow pours down from the gap in the clouds and the mountain peaks, faintly depicting the foggy layers of the forest and the birds that suddenly soar into the sky from the dark night.

  Nan Renshan stood on a protruding mountain peak, gazing afar at the east, deeply inhaling the refreshing air unique to the mountains and forests. For a moment, he was lost in thought, his spirit wandering outside of this world. Underfoot, the wind rustled through the pines, and from time to time, birds would cry out sharply as they burst forth from the pine forest, circling several times in mid-air before shooting back into the woods like flying stones.

  "It's said that Yang team comes to Xishan for morning exercise every day, and it seems that this morning time is indeed enchanting." Nan Wei Ren muttered to himself half and spoke to Li Baoguo beside him, "If I could go back, I would apply for retirement, buy a villa in Xishan, and go to the mountain every day to watch birds fly, see flowers bloom, and listen to the wind through the pines."

  "I want to go to Yang's company, I can design game software. With our experience, the developed games will definitely be popular." Li Baoguo is a game enthusiast himself, often confusing reality with games, and often fantasizing that he is a heroic character in the game. "Legend" is his favorite.

  "Li Dui, Nan Dui, there's a new situation." Xu De said as he came over.

  "The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard."

  "According to the squad member in charge of surveillance, the devils began building a pontoon bridge on the Yang River early this morning, and at 6 o'clock, a large group of devils left their camp and came searching towards us." Xu De saw the two squad leaders walk down from the boulder and stepped forward to report.

  This time, Li Baoguo brought the latest equipment from Naner, including several short-range radios and a long-range radio. Wang Xuehua even equipped each person with 50 rounds of German-made Mp38 submachine guns, which he was reluctant to part with. The bullets were also surprisingly generous, enough for two people to carry. In fact, it wasn't that Wang Xuehua was being generous, but the bullets were really too many.

  "We must find a way to delay the devils' construction of the pontoon bridge," said Nan Weiren. "How are the guards at the side of the pontoon bridge?"

  "The guards are especially strict and can't be approached at all." Xu De said, "What about the devils who came over?"

  "Go and get all the platoon leaders here, let's have a meeting to discuss it." Nan Weiren said to Xu De.

  "It's already here." Xu De, due to the urgency of the matter, reported to the two while dispatching someone to summon each team leader. "Waiting in Li's cave right now."

  Nan Jian simply explained the situation to the people present, then said: "We must think of a way to delay the enemy's completion of the pontoon bridge, and wait until nightfall, then think of a way to blow up the entire pontoon bridge."