Chapter Fifteen: The Devil's Nightmare

  Hui Yi walked over, knelt down with both hands holding the small flag, and presented it to Yang Jiong: "Disciple Hui Yi thanks the messenger for saving his life. May I ask which generation of Taiqingmen is the messenger from?"

  "How is it that you are not a disciple of Qingmen? How can you break the Ghost Style Knife Technique?" Yang Jue asked in surprise.

  "The disciple is the successor of Guanzhong Hu's knife, and the disciple's master, Guanzhong's great hero, and the old master of the noble family are good friends, so I also..." Hu Yi didn't finish speaking, Yang Jie understood that either Hu Yi or his master had secretly learned a few moves. Smiling, he said: "This is actually the knife technique passed down by General Qi Jiguang, and it comes with a matching gun technique. Back then, General Qi relied on this to defeat the Japanese pirates. This knife technique was simplified from thousands of battles, and it's proven effective against Japanese warriors."

  Li Xue Rong finally understood that the knife method used by Hu Yi was originally a special ghost-breaking knife method, which had been tested in actual combat thousands of times and was not something that a martial artist like Liu Sheng could withstand.

  Yang Jiong said as he pulled Hu Yi: "You are a disciple of Hu Xue Song and Hu Shi Bo, brother is Yang Shi Jie ah." Yang Jiong couldn't help but be taken aback, because Hu Xue Song was someone often mentioned in the family chronicles.

  As expected, Hu Yi heard that Yang Jiong was actually Yang Shijie, and he warmly grasped Yang Jiong's arm with both hands, carefully examining him for a moment before smiling and saying: "Brother, I've long heard that you joined the military and became a bodyguard for a big shot. Who would have thought we'd meet here today?"

  "Big brother, I am a bodyguard for Chairman Mao, now following the chairman's order, organizing resistance against Japan in Weixian. Why don't you join me to fight the devils, how about it?" Yang said with a smile.

  "Alright, I'll follow him to fight the devils." Turning around to face He Jingxiang, "Mr. He, please forgive me for not being able to follow you anymore. I've always hoped to fight the devils with you and reclaim our great Northeastern rivers and mountains. However, in these few years, you've been running around without killing a single devil, but instead harming many Chinese people who are fighting against the devils. I've long had the intention of leaving you, but didn't know where to find an anti-Japanese army. Now my brother is truly an anti-Japanese hero, and I want to follow him. Please take care of yourself."

  After finishing speaking, regardless of He Jingxiang's reaction, he walked straight to Nan Weiren's side and stood up straight.

  He Jingxiang opened his mouth but didn't say anything.

  Yang Jigang wanted to persuade Li Xuerong to surrender, but saw Li Xuerong walk a few steps forward and give a very standard military salute: "National Army 17th Army 74th Division 30th Regiment 9th Battalion 4th Company Commander Li Xuerong, willing to lead his troops to join your army, together against the Japanese, please accept."

  Li Xue-rong later found his words to be utterly laughable, because his subordinates had already surrendered to the guerrilla troops before him. Now he was a standard commander without an army.

  Yang Jie smiled and said, "Great! On behalf of the Wei County Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Team, I extend a warm welcome. Commander Li Lianchang is indeed a dragon and tiger combination, and in the future on the anti-Japanese battlefield, he will surely be a mighty figure who kills enemies thousands of miles away. It's a pity that he's hiding here. Are these brothers also willing to follow Commander Li to fight against Japan?" As he spoke, he pointed to the people behind Li Xuerong and said, "My guerrilla team will not force anyone, those who are willing can leave with Commander Li now, and those who are unwilling, we will escort down the mountain. After going down the mountain, just don't harm the civilians." Li Xuerong also looked at the group of people, but did not persuade them to join him. However, except for He Jingxiang's personal followers, almost everyone took a step forward and shouted in unison, "We are willing to follow our commander to fight against Japan!"

  "Alright. Let's have our brothers come and take a look at our achievements." Yang Guo said, pointing behind him in an inviting gesture, while commanding, "Nan Xiren!"

  "Here!" Nan Er stepped forward and responded loudly.

  "See Mr. He off on his journey!"

  "Yes!" Nan Wen replied, glancing at Yang Wei's departing back, but caught Li Ying giving him a mysterious smile, knowing that Li Ying also understood Yang Wei's order, and made a helpless gesture.

  Yang Jie led the crowd out of the hall, and the sun had gradually climbed up to the eastern mountain top. The morning glow filtered through the gaps in the forest and sprinkled down on the stone ground, casting a glittering golden light. Yang Jie led his team up to the main peak of Lao Ye Mountain, where the entire mountain was bustling with activity. It was said that they were going to help the Eighth Route Army's guerrilla troops transport supplies, so people from villages tens of miles away had all come, and the whole mountain was filled with people. The elderly helped keep watch, children rushed around delivering messages, young women and men alike shouldered poles and pulled carts, while children ran back and forth shouting, adults laughed and called out to each other, cows, donkeys, and horses brayed in delight, all blending together with the morning breeze into a joyful melody that roused the entire mountain.

  Li Xue-rong had never seen so many civilians enthusiastically and voluntarily helping the army, and was deeply shocked by the scene in front of him. Yang Jie saw Li Xue-rong's dazed expression and said: "This is our strength, the Chinese nation will not be intimidated, how can it be bullied by those little Japanese devils? It's just that our Commander-in-Chief Chiang doesn't want these civilians to participate in the resistance against Japan, which has boosted the morale of those little ghosts."

  "We'll go take a look over here." He led the crowd to the other side of the mountain peak, and looking down, they saw that in this valley, there were soldiers cleaning up the battlefield everywhere. Some wore Japanese uniforms, some wore National Army uniforms, and some wore civilian clothes. On the ground, many Japanese soldiers were lying scattered all over the place.

  "Captain, Lao Zhou and the others have arrived." Zheng Jun reported.

  "They arrived just in time, let's hear how they fought the devils last night." Yang Jiong invited everyone to sit down and wait for Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhenhao. In fact, Nan Weiren had already briefed Yang Jiong on the entire battle process last night.

  Originally, when Nan Wei Ren led his men to support Zhou Shi Cai, Zhou Shi Cai had already controlled the entire Lao Ye Shan's high ground firepower and was talking to Wang Xue Hua. This Wang Xue Hua was originally a ** member, who got separated from his team during the fifth anti-encirclement campaign and later became the logistics chief of the 17th Army due to his kinship with Xu Ting Yao. When the 17th Army retreated, he stayed behind with this batch of supplies. After listening to Zhou Shi Cai's introduction to the guerrilla situation, Wang Xue Hua had the idea of joining the guerrillas and was about to discuss it with Zhou Shi Cai when Nan Wei Ren arrived.

  "Lao Zhou, urgent order, there is a large group of devils at the foot of the mountain, the captain orders to concentrate all firepower and annihilate this group of devils." Nan Wei Ren said hastily as soon as he saw Zhou Shi Cai.

  "What? The devils are also getting involved?" Jia Zhuohuang also came over, "How did you come back? Where's the captain?"

  "The captain was worried that you and Old Zhou hadn't fought before, so he didn't feel at ease. He called me over to take a look. The captain followed the ghost agent's men." Nan Weiren only then noticed Wang Xuehua, "This is..."

  "Wang Xuehua, also our own comrade, is the general manager here." Zhou Shicai smiled and introduced, "This is the Nan Baye you mentioned."

  Nan Wei Ren was taken aback when he first heard that he had the nickname "Nan Ba Ye". Zhou Shi Cai saw Nan Wei Ren's confusion and continued, "Haha, Eight Master himself doesn't even know his own reputation! Just now, we were sneaking up, and the brothers here asked if we were part of the guerrilla team. They said 'we've been waiting for you'! With just your name, Nan Ba Ye, we didn't have to fire a single shot or bullet, and it was all settled. As soon as they hear it's Nan Ba Ye's team, they'll surrender with open arms, like they're following the scent of food!"

  Wang Xuehua smiled and said, "It's been two or three months since we've had a full meal here. The brothers have all heard that you, Nan Ba Ye, are formidable, not only do you have a set of skills for fighting the devils, but also for collecting from the landlords, making them willingly hand over their belongings to support the troops. They've all heard that life in the guerrilla army is quite comfortable, and many people have been thinking about joining the guerrilla army."

  Nan Ren smiled awkwardly, "It's nothing much, just to a certain extent protecting the interests of the landlords. Except for the monthly collection of anti-Japanese funds, no team or individual is allowed to ask the landlords for anything under any circumstances. When soldiers go to the landlord's house for meals, there are regulations in place. If they exceed the standard, not only will the soldiers be severely punished, but the landlord will also be subject to punishment for corrupting the troops and disrupting the war effort. The soldiers even have to pay when they eat at the landlord's house. What landlord has ever seen such a team? How can he not support us?"

  "Isn't that against the rules? You're collecting a bunch of bandit troops." Jia Zhenhao couldn't help but be curious.

  "No. I also wanted to catch a few of the chicken thieves, but strangely, these guys are all well-behaved." Nan Wei Ren had also conducted surprise inspections on his soldiers before, but unexpectedly, these bandit-turned-soldiers were very disciplined and thoroughly carried out Nan Wei Ren's orders. Even some of the arrogant and unruly bandit leaders had voluntarily gotten rid of many bad habits. This was mainly because Nan Wei Ren had a tight grip on the team, not fighting meant training, and he didn't give these people any free time. Moreover, he led by example, implementing equality between officers and soldiers, causing these people to gradually forget their original identities and completely regard themselves as guerrilla fighters.

  At this time, a man came in and saluted Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhenhuan: "Report to the captain, the reconnaissance company found a large number of devils behind the main peak of Lao Ye Mountain, requesting instructions."

  "Alright, order the reconnaissance company to continue surveillance. Communicator, order the First Battalion to close in on the enemy from the front, and the Second Battalion to press in from the south. The Southern Company's troops will surround them from the northeast."

  The messenger has gone to deliver the order.

  Zhou Shicai said to Jia Zhuohuang: "It's a pity that our infantry guns didn't bring them, otherwise the little devils would have suffered."

  "Cannon?" Wang Xuehua heard that they wanted to use a cannon, and hastily said: "I have one, and there's also someone, but you'll still need to spend some money on scallion pancakes." He said with a big laugh.

  Nan Reng heard that there were cannons and was extremely excited, the modern military's firepower-oriented concept made him pay attention to collecting powerful weapons at all times.

  "What else is there besides cannons that has such powerful firepower?" Nan Weiren couldn't help but ask. He didn't think this sentence would bring out something these people never thought of in their dreams.

  "There's enough equipment here to outfit an entire German-made division, you've got everything you need. But nobody uses it." Wang Xuehua's words didn't seem too out of the ordinary to Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhenhuan, but Nan Weiren knew exactly what a German-made division's equipment meant, and he was shocked: "A German-made division? Impossible! Xu Tingyao's 17th Army is also part of the Central Army, with relatively complete light and heavy weaponry, but even they don't get to use this kind of equipment."

  "This is a secret, Xu Tingyao has someone in the palace, it is said that he sent a jade clean bottle from the imperial palace to a certain person, and after greasing up and down, there was this batch of equipment coming, but just arrived at the 17th Army in Beiping, they retreated, and this batch of equipment had to be hidden in Lao Ye Mountain."

  "Let's go, take a look at your stash." Nan Weiren couldn't help but feel itchy, you know that after the end of World War II, there were still many countries using German-made firearms from World War II, and many countries still used the Mauser M1924 rifle as their first choice for sniper rifles.

  Several people soon arrived at the cave where supplies were hidden, and guerrilla members had already accepted them. The original National Army soldiers were still eating, chatting with the guerrillas, laughing and talking. Seeing several people coming in, they hurriedly swallowed the big buns in their mouths, some of whom choked and had to find water to drink again. A team member handed him water and saluted Zhou Shicai and others.

  "Hu Kai, look at your virtue, have you not eaten for several lifetimes? Quickly open the door, these leaders want to see if there's anything good to use against the devils." Wang Xuehua said with a smile and scolding.

  "Report to the superior, this big cake is too delicious." He said, saluting several people, and took out the key from his body to hand it over to a guerrilla fighter on one side, "When will we fight against the devils? I also want to participate in the battle, I can be a sniper."

  As soon as he heard the sniper, Nan Ruo stood still and looked up and down at Hu Kai. Hu Kai was not too tall, but he looked sturdy, with a scar on his forehead that wasn't very noticeable.

  "This is a scar from a Japanese bayonet." Seeing Nan Wei Ren looking at himself, Hu Kai bowed to Nan Wei Ren and said.

  "Alright, I'll take him in." Nan Wei Ren said to Wang Xue Hua.

  "Do you know who he is?" Wang Xuehua asked Hu Kai with a smile. "He's the Nan Baye you've all been talking about."

  "What?! You're Nanbatian?!" Hu Kai was shocked, and the other soldiers beside him were also excited and surprised. In their minds, Nanbatian must be a bandit leader with a thick beard, looking extremely fierce, but unexpectedly, the young man in front of them was actually the famous Nanbatian who made the devils tremble with fear.

  "Eighteenth Master, no, Commander, look at me, I can take you in. I know martial arts and also know how to use a mortar." A tall, red-faced man stepped forward and said to Nan Wei Ren with a salute.

  "Do you know martial arts?" Nan Wei Ren was taken aback, "What's it called?"

  "Reporting to the superior officer, Liao Xisheng." Liao Xisheng said loudly, "Please instruct, sir."

  Talking about pulling the frame, Nan Wuren hurriedly stopped him and said: "Alright, I've got it. Now the devils are right under our feet, let's take a look at what kind of usable weapons we have first."

  As they entered the cave, everyone was amazed at how vast the space inside actually was. All sorts of supplies were packed in tightly everywhere.

  "There are so many things that can't be seen in a short while, or should I say you want to hurry up." Nan Wei Ren said.

  "What kind of cannon is it?"

  "82 mortars 30, 122 German-made howitzers 20, eight of which have been used for firepower defense, but not yet fired. 88 anti-aircraft guns 3, 82 German-made mortars 6." Wang Xuehua said calmly.

  "Where's the rifle? The heavy machine gun."

  "There are some Type 24 heavy machine guns, but the exact number is still unknown until they're all assembled. According to the inventory list, there should be 260 heavy machine guns, but as we all know about the Nationalist Party's affairs, it's unlikely to reach that number. There are 776 light machine guns.

  Wang Xuehua continued, "There are also 70 boxes of submachine guns, but this thing is precious and consumes a lot of ammunition quickly, usually only equipped with assault teams or guard units. The rest includes Zhongzheng rifles, shotguns, wooden-handled grenades, oh, and some original Mauser M1924 rifles, which I heard are better than the standard issue, specially equipped for snipers."

  In fact, the equipment hoarded here is not enough for a division, but in addition to these German-made equipment, there are also many other weapons equipped by the Central Army at that time. So Wang Xuehua didn't know how much stuff was here, only knowing that there were four more caves like this one on Lao Ye Mountain.

  "The eight mortars are enough, later let people take twenty light machine guns, the others are not needed. Where are the artillery deployed? Don't let the little devils get close." Nan Wei-ren said.

  "The artillery deployment is in a secret location, I know it's confidential and nothing will happen, but..." Hu Kai said with some embarrassment, "but the brothers there are just like us, they haven't had a full meal for several months, I'm afraid they don't have the strength to fire the cannons."

  "It doesn't matter, we'll send someone to assist you. Can you persuade them to surrender the guerrilla troops?" Nan Weiren asked.

  "No problem," Hu Kai said with a smile, "as long as we bring some scallion pancakes to restore their energy. When it comes to fighting the devils, our brothers have never been ambiguous. We admire leaders like you who dare to fight the devils to the death. Unfortunately, there are too few such generals in the National Army."

  "Yes, when one bear is set on fire, the whole den of bears will be set ablaze. If a leader doesn't dare to take the lead, who else will risk their lives?" Nan Weiren sighed.

  "Alright, Old Wang, I'll trouble you to go and direct the artillery to attack the devils. I will send a company to assist. It's currently 1:05 AM, we will start at 1:30, first with a 20-minute artillery bombardment, then annihilate the devils." Nan Wei Ren commanded without hesitation.

  Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhenhuan also didn't think there was anything wrong with it. With Yang Jue not being present, Nan Weiren and the others were the highest commanders, which was a fact that everyone tacitly acknowledged, and indeed because only they had rich combat experience and advanced combat thinking.

  When Nan Renhe, Zhou Shicai and Jia Zhuanghao arrived at the front line, there were still ten minutes before the artillery fire. They found that many National Army soldiers volunteered to fight in the guerrilla team. These old soldiers seemed much calmer than the soldiers brought by Zhou Shicai. An old soldier asked a comrade beside him: "How many years have you been a soldier?"

  The team member's face turned red: "Only two months."

  "Are you afraid of coming to fight in two months?"

  "Don't be afraid, we've fought against the devils before. When we had just been soldiers for five days, we already clashed with the devils, and there's nothing to fear about them."

  "It seems you're used to it, but you've never seen a big battlefield. Those little devils are everywhere like locusts, their marksmanship is accurate, and they're also fierce in close combat. However, as long as you dare to fight them, they're also afraid of death."

  "Later, when the cannons fire, remember not to close your mouth and try to protect your ears. At this time, the little devils dare not charge. As soon as the cannons stop, we must quickly prepare for battle on the battlefield. Take cover! The cannons are firing!"

  As expected, the howitzer shells whizzed over their heads and landed accurately in the enemy's gathering place. At this time, Wang Xuehua sat on the artillery position, watching the soldiers running back and forth with big buns in their mouths, feeling very moved. Originally, he also wanted to participate in moving the shells, but was stopped by Huang Kecheng, the artillery company commander: "Director General, you just watch, this little devil is not even worth our attention. The help of the guerrilla comrades is enough."

  "One shot, ready, fire!" Huang Kegong shouted loudly, "Today we'll start with the little devils."

  "Hit the target!" The excited voice of the observation post came from the walkie-talkie.

  "Sixteen rounds rapid fire, ready, fire!" Huang Ke-rong gave another order, "Guide the target!"

  "Target bearing left four degrees, no change in elevation. Fire eight rounds!"

  The howitzer's firepower was extremely strong, and the explosion was massive. This time, the devils would suffer greatly because they were hiding in a small valley, waiting for Miyamoto's fire control map. Matsuo Taisha was a very meticulous person with thick lips and sparse whiskers on his upper lip, and his narrow eyes often gleamed with ferocity, which made his subordinates afraid to speak up. At this time, Matsuo Taisha was lying on a pile of soft grass wiping his beloved samurai sword, when he heard that they were going to annihilate the remaining Chinese troops of only three hundred people, he had complained extremely bitterly about his superior, but when Miyamoto told him that there were large quantities of military supplies stockpiled on Lao Ye Mountain and hinted that he could privately keep a batch as personal property, he happily obeyed Miyamoto's orders. Therefore, when Miyamoto asked him to hide in the valley behind the main peak of Lao Ye Mountain and wait for his message, Matsuo executed Miyamoto's order with rare determination. From 10 pm to 1:30 am, without seeing Miyamoto's message, several battalion commanders under him tentatively asked if they should send someone to explore the situation, Matsuo cracked open his thick lips and smiled rarely, nodding in agreement.

  But several small teams sent out one after another were like a mud cow entering the sea, without a trace. This time not only did the team leaders become restless, but Matsutail quickly and vigilantly judged that something was wrong.