Chapter 17: The Shocking Story of Li Baoguo (Part 2)

  Li Baoguo led the troops to garrison in Kangjiatun, Li Baoguo only brought his own special forces of 500 people into Xiaozhouzhuang to defend Yan'an work team. The troops were scattered and deployed at key positions around Xiaozhouzhuang five miles away. The local guerrilla force originally responsible for sentry duty was "invited" by the special forces members to various outer sentry posts.

  Xiao Zhou Zhuang, in Li Fusheng's living room.

  Li Baoguo was working with the head of the political work team from Yan'an, Liao Xudong, chief of staff of the 8th Route Army's Operations Department, and deputy head Geng Xiaoming, chatting and laughing, when suddenly a team member ran in, standing at the door, loudly reporting to Li Baoguo: "Report to the captain, the political commissar, captain, and deputy captain have arrived."

  Then, a loud "Attention! Salute!" was heard at the door. The guards standing in the courtyard immediately raised their heads, puffed out their chests, and raised their hands to their eyebrows. A long-forgotten sense of majesty quickly spread, causing the people inside the house to feel a sudden surge of reverence.

  Li Baoguo rushed into the courtyard somewhat rudely and saluted Yang Jisheng and Li Ying, who had just entered the gate, shouting loudly: "Special Warfare Team Li Baoguo has been ordered to receive the Yan'an guests, complete the task, and report for instructions."

  Yang Jie knew that Li Baoguo was doing it for the sake of the team members, and indeed, when the team members saw Li Baoguo's momentum, it seemed like a thousand horses and ten thousand soldiers.

  Yang Jie returned the courtesy: "Let's meet together with the leaders from Yan'an."

  Liao Xudong and Gong Xiaoming were just walking out of the house, hearing Yang Jiong say this, Liao Xudong smiled: "We are not what leaders, from today on, we are all under Captain Yang's command."

  Yang Jie found that the two people in front of him were not very old, Liao Xudong was about thirty-five or six, with a square face and thick lips, looking honest and straightforward. Gong Xiaoming looked younger than Liao Xudong by several years, with a clever and capable scholar's appearance.

  Chen Zhihao walked over from behind, laughing loudly, and tightly held Liao Xudong's and Gong Xiaoming's hands, saying: "Old Liao, Old Gong, I've been waiting for you guys. This is Old Liao Liao Xudong, a famous expert in battle; this one is Old Gong Gong Xiaoming, after the political work is handed over to him, not only does he have rich experience, but also his talent alone is enough to make us old rough men learn from him."

  Yang Jiong hurried forward and grasped the hands of both men: "Welcome, you have come to guide our work. Was your journey smooth? This is Commissar Li Ying."

  Li Ying stepped forward and saluted, saying: "Comrade Commander, good."

  Liao Xudong looked at Li Ying carefully and smiled: "Comrade Li Ying, don't say that. From now on, we are comrades-in-arms who will fight side by side. When we came here, the Chairman and the Old General specially held a farewell ceremony for us and told us that we were coming to participate in revolutionary work, not as leaders, but under the leadership of Captain Yang." Everyone only understood then that the Chairman and the Old General had made arrangements long ago, and they all burst out laughing.

  Yang Jie introduced the people behind him and then asked Liao Xudong and others to return to the base. On the way, Liao Xudong talked about his experiences on this trip, which was indeed full of danger. From Yan'an to Wei County, it took almost three months to walk less than a few days. Finally, Liao Xudong sighed and said that the anti-Japanese situation in Wei County is good. Since meeting with the Li family village and Wei County guerrilla team east of Datong, the comrades from Yan'an have opened their eyes. The guerrilla team walked past the enemy's artillery tower with impunity, and the enemy did not dare to disturb them. The comrades of the guerrilla team told them that in Wei County, as long as the guerrilla team does not provoke the enemy, the enemy will not dare to act rashly. The puppet army even regards doing things for the guerrilla team as an opportunity to establish merit.

  Originally, after receiving a telegram from Yan'an, the political work team was blocked in the enemy-occupied area. Yang Jie and Chen Zhihao ordered Li Baoguo to lead his troops westward towards Datong. At first, Li Baoguo only led his 50-man special operations team to infiltrate the western region, scouting out the situation, leaving the main force to continue fighting against the enemy in Yu County and south of it. The Japanese had basically given up on the area north of Yu County, putting most of their manpower and resources into plundering the southern region. Towns and villages south of Yu County suffered unprecedented bloody massacres and looting. Before receiving Yang Jie's order, Li Baoguo had been active around Yu County, making the Japanese puppet army and secret agents aware that there was a certain "Li" from the Eighth Route Army. Even among these people, bets and vows were made to encounter "Li" when going out.

  Li Baoguo also unintentionally learned about the situation south of Weixian, and was about to send troops there when Yang Jie's order arrived. He then ordered Kang Jiabao and Zhao Wenyu, a regimental commander from the Northeast Army, to lead their troops to develop forces in southern Weixian and attack the Japanese devils. The task of defending Weixian County was left to Wu Linchang, who had been performing well since the Battle of Kangjiatun, while Li Baoguo himself led a special operations team of 50 men to head west.

  There is a place called Zihua Mountain at the junction of Weixian County and Yangquan County, where the terrain is extremely dangerous. A gang of over 800 bandits has entrenched itself there, with their leader Hong Jiren being notoriously cruel and ruthless, earning him the nickname "Chicken Master". The local villagers are terrified of him, and traveling merchants are even more fearful, as they risk losing everything if they're not careful. However, since Zihua Mountain is a crucial passageway for entering or leaving Datong from Yangquan and Weixian, merchants have no choice but to take this route.

  Li Baoguo lay in ambush in the dense forest of Zihua Mountain, monitoring the bandits stationed at the Huajia Temple. Two nights later, before 9 o'clock, Li Baoguo led a surprise attack on the temple, killing all the leaders of Hong Ji's gang who were negotiating with the Japanese representatives, and successfully incorporated this bandit force.

  The Zihua Mountain area was boiling, and even some landlords took out money and grain to entertain this newly established army. The common people were overjoyed because Li Baoguo had been educating these peasant-born bandits with the traditional ideas of the Eighth Route Army from the very beginning, and launched a large-scale political offensive, making the ordinary people truly feel that this army was extraordinary.

  What made Li Baoguo famous was the surprise attack on the devils' logistics supply station in Xubao, a small logistics replenishment station that mainly supplied materials and equipment to various strongholds deployed east of Datong in Shanxi Province.

  A merchant who had passed through Zihua Mountain reported this news to Li Baoguo and volunteered to guide the way.

  Li Baoguo reorganized the more than 800 bandits into three battalions, and selected Xu Meiyu, Zhao Xiren, and Jin Fu, three experienced team leaders from the special warfare team as battalion commanders. The three men reluctantly took office only after Li Baoguo agreed to let them return to their original unit later. What Li Baoguo lacked most at present were political commissars and instructors.

  Each squad leader was selected from among the bandits and were all capable fighters, but they didn't understand political work.

  Li Baoguo couldn't bear to part with the special warfare team members, so when he was about to set out to fight ghosts and provide supplies for the station, the local underground party organization found him on orders and asked if there was anything they could help with.

  Li Baoguo was overjoyed and immediately proposed to assign personnel as instructors and political commissars to each class, platoon, company, and battalion. The local party organization, which was preparing for armed struggle, had a batch of young party members undergoing training and awaiting orders, so they were sent to Li Baoguo. In return, Li Baoguo promised that after occupying the supply station, he would unconditionally provide some weapons and equipment to support the local armed forces.

  Li Baoguo conducted a simple assessment of these young party members and talked about the work matters that should be noted, and then assigned them according to their assessment results.

  That night, Li Baoguo ordered to set out with three days' worth of food. By the third day's dusk, Li Baoguo had led his troops to the vicinity of Xubao, and with local farmers as guides, he quickly dispatched reconnaissance special warfare soldiers to clarify the surrounding terrain and enemy firepower distribution situation, and the drawn map was already placed in front of Li Baoguo and several regimental commanders.

  Xu Village is a small village surrounded by mountains, where the devils brutally slaughtered the villagers and occupied this place. They took advantage of the strategic location and geography to stockpile large quantities of supplies and ammunition, making it an important supply depot for the strongholds east of Datong. The devils built fortifications on the hillsides of the south, north, and west mountains, placing the entire supply depot under their powerful firepower control. Behind the fortifications on the western hillside, they also built a artillery position. Within a radius of ten miles around Xu Village, no one was allowed to move about. Patrol teams frequently patrolled the area.

  Li Baoguo listened to the report of the special warfare team member, and was shocked in his heart. This is not a small supply station at all, but a large-scale material transfer station.

  "How many devils are there?" Li Baoguo asked.

  "In each bunker, there is at least one squad, and in the supply depot, about a company of devils are stationed." The special warfare team was already familiar with this reconnaissance mission and was extremely familiar with the various levels of organization of the devils.

  Several battalion commanders and company commanders looked at Li Baoguo, especially the company commander who was originally a bandit. His heart was racing with so many devils and such a terrifying firepower deployment. Could it be done? Several battalion commanders were extremely relaxed, they were all old special warfare team members under Li Baoguo's command, and they knew Li Baoguo's temper.

  As expected, Li Baoguo began arranging tasks without hesitation.

  "In this way, the entire battle was divided into three steps. The first step was to capture the fortifications on each mountain, which was completed by the special warfare team and the 1st battalion. One platoon from the 2nd battalion was temporarily transferred to the 1st battalion to prepare for the acceptance of the artillery position on the western mountain. The 2nd battalion was responsible for guarding the supply station against the enemy and suppressing any possible supporting actions. The 3rd battalion was in charge of the entire retreat route, and once the 1st battalion failed, it had to ensure the safe withdrawal of the 1st and 2nd battalions."

  The second step, if the first battalion succeeds, the second and third battalions must push the front line to 100 meters in front of the supply station and wait for orders. The special warfare team will find a way to deal with the firepower at the entrance of the supply station, then the second battalion will be responsible for occupying the supply station, and the third battalion will guard against possible support from outside.

  The third step is for the three battalions to organize and follow up on the transportation of supplies by the people, with the first battalion providing cover and the second battalion keeping watch over a radius of ten miles for devils.

  Li Baoguo glanced at the crowd and continued: "The key to the entire battle is that the special forces must not make too much noise when dealing with the devils. To achieve this combat goal, each unit will immediately recruit soldiers who know martial arts to assemble and wait for orders. It's best if they have killed people before, no matter what they did in the past, as long as they can kill devils, all their past crimes will be forgiven."

  Li Baoguo finished speaking, seeing that everyone understood their respective tasks, he waved his hand to the crowd: "Fifteen minutes later, the special warfare team will gather under this old elm tree, and the recruits from each unit should also hurry over. The first battalion will move in the direction of South Mountain, be careful not to disturb the enemy patrol along the way."

  Fifteen minutes later, the temporary special warfare team members recruited by each unit arrived, with more than 40 people. Li Baoguo selected a dozen or so of them who had killed before and incorporated them into the special warfare team, while the others followed the special warfare team in action.

  Li Baoguo's special forces are one in a hundred miles. Under Li Baoguo's training, everyone is a master of hand-to-hand combat and an expert in killing people.

  "Departure!" There was no pre-battle mobilization, no promises of wealth or material goods, nor any words of encouragement. This special unit had already become accustomed to the tense and stimulating life of battle, their tacit cooperation with each other could no longer be conveyed through language, not even a glance of encouragement was needed, because they had long since entrusted their lives to one another. This was true friendship forged in blood and fire. Even new recruits could feel this mysterious atmosphere of camaraderie.

  Li Baoguo walked in the front, behind him were the captains of each squad. They quickly weaved through the mountains and forests, dodging the enemy's patrol troops, and soon arrived at the front of the Nan Shan fortifications.

  The beacon towers of Nanshan are facing the direction of Shibao, and Li Baoguo and his men are now behind the beacon towers. However, Li Baoguo, with rich experience, knew that these beacon towers must have hidden gun holes for shooting at the back, but they were used as watchtowers in peacetime.

  "Xu De, Fu Mali, Zhang Xiaoqun, Liu Er Dan, Wang Xiao, Zhu Da and..." Li Baoguo began to call the roll. The people whose names were called took a step forward and stood out, a total of fifteen people came out. "Later we will sneak in first and occupy the fort in front, Zhang Weiqun, you organize the team members to follow up afterwards, and then divide into small teams to wipe out the devils in these forts."

  Li Baoguo finished speaking, and silently glanced at these team members who had lined up. Although they looked different in height and weight, they were all elites of the special forces, each with their own unique skills. Li Baoguo made a V-shape gesture with his hand towards the team members, who although didn't understand what it meant, knew from long battles that this was a sign indicating certain victory.

  With a wave of his hand, Li Baoguo led the team to sneak towards the enemy. Zhang Weiqun saw that the team members had already set up their guard posts, so he beckoned to several team members and followed them. It turned out that Zhang Weiqun was an excellent sniper, and the few team members he chose were also extremely skilled snipers. Leading a few snipers, Zhang Weiqun quietly crept forward.

  Li Baoguo suddenly stopped and shouted softly at the back: "Zhang Xiaqun, demine!" Zhang Xiaqun climbed up gently and felt his way with Li Baoguo side by side.

  The devil's landmine is also very clever, with a reasonable distribution that is beyond expectation. Zhang Xiaoguo was the best technician among the team members sent by Li Baoguo to learn mine-laying and demining techniques from Gao Junping.

  Zhang Xiaogun took out a small wooden stick from his body, and gently wrapped the thin thread of La Lei around the small wooden stick. Li Baoguo pressed a landmine with his hand, watched Zhang Xiaogun finish, and slowly handed over the landmine to Zhang Xiaogun. He then took over the small wooden stick from Zhang Xiaogun's hand, tied the other end of the thread well, and carefully cut off the detonating cord, removed the pull ring, and disarmed the fuse. He handed it over to Xu De behind him.

  The two carefully explored the surroundings again and found several plum blossom mines. Since they were not linked, both of them could dismantle them at the same time. Not long after, the two crawled forward for over ten meters. Just as Zhang Xiaogang was about to lift his head to catch a breath, he was pressed down by Li Baoguo, "Above!"

  Zhang Xiaogun slowly retreated, discovering that a very thin thread was suspended above his head earlier. He stuck out his tongue at Li Baoguo and the two exchanged a glance, each stretching out their hands to grab the thread. Li Baoguo cut the thread off and then carefully wound it around a nearby short wooden stake. In this way, the two of them spent an hour crawling through less than fifty meters of minefield before reaching the bottom of the bunker.

  Li Baoguo carefully removed the tin cans hung on the barbed wire by the devils, placed them one by one, lay down on his back, cut through the barbed wire and slipped in quietly.

  Because it was summer, the devils hadn't gone to sleep yet, and they were shouting and doing who-knows-what. Li Baoguo quietly crawled past the bunker along the wall. Because the devils' bunkers were arranged very cleverly, with each one able to observe and support the others, Li Baoguo didn't dare stand up. Even so, if at this moment a devil happened to glance in this direction, Li Baoguo and his men would immediately be exposed. However, perhaps the devils were too confident in their defenses, or perhaps they had been numbed by the long period of nothing happening.

  The real reason was that the devils had caught a few women in a nearby village and were venting their beastly desires.

  Li Baoguo slipped into the communication trench between the enemy pillboxes before his comrades arrived, and crept towards a pillbox. Inside this pillbox were over a dozen devils, completely naked and surrounding a girl, venting their frustrations. Some devils urinated on the girl's chest, while others squatted on the ground, pinching and pulling at her private parts. The girl seemed to have lost all consciousness, remaining wooden and unresponsive.

  Li Baoguo's body moved, and with one knife, he threw the devil facing him to death. At the same time, he punched the devil next to him unconscious, lifted his leg and kicked the devil who was about to get up, smashing it against the wall. The corpse slid down along the wall without any strength. When the devils came back to their senses, the bunker was already packed with special warfare soldiers.

  Don't leave any survivors, don't let the devils make a sound, this is the most important principle of this battle. The team members selected by Li Baoguo executed it very well. More than a dozen devils were already a pile of corpses when Li Baoguo turned his head back.

  Xu De ordered his men to add another slash to the bodies of the devils and pile them up on one side. Some comrades had already changed into the devils' uniforms.

  "Xu De, you lead eight brothers to take care of the left bunker, the rest follow me to take care of the right bunker, and then the brothers in the back can come up."

  "What's she doing?" Xu De pointed at the girl.

  "First tie him up and gag his mouth, then leave him here." Li Baoguo said without hesitation.

  There are team members who will execute the command immediately.

  "Go!" Li Baoguo also put on the enemy uniform, swaggering to the right bunker with several team members quickly following behind. Without encountering any resistance, they walked into the bunker. The devils were gambling inside, surrounded by smoke and alcohol fumes. With a wave of his hand, several team members pounced like hungry tigers, easily resolving the battle.

  "Wang Xiao, go take a look at Xu De's place and see how it is, then bring up the brothers from behind."

  "Yes!" Wang Xiao went out.

  Soon Zhang Weiqun led the soldiers up. "There are a total of ten pillboxes, each team leader will lead the men to attack immediately, be careful not to make any noise, act!"

  Fifteen minutes later, each team reported back with smooth progress. Only Li Muzi's squad had two injured members because Li Muzi attacked the bunker where the Japanese squad leader was located. It turned out that not all Japanese bunkers had more than a dozen devils; some had only three or five, and some even had one or two devils. However, in the bunker where the Japanese squad leader was located, although there were only seven or eight devils, there were two devils standing guard at the entrance of the bunker, and the devils inside were on duty, resting, and not at all like those in other bunkers.

  Li Muttou, although he looks like a block of wood, has a unique skill - hand crossbow - a hundred shots with a hundred hits. Since Li Baoguo modified his bow and arrow into a hand crossbow, Li Muttou hasn't put it down.

  Li Muzi's subordinates also had two special members who liked crossbows - Wang Jinxin and Li Wangchuan. Facing the two sentries outside the bunker, Li Muzi showed his cleverness by wearing a Japanese uniform and walking directly towards the sentry post. When the sentry shouted loudly, he was already within range of the crossbow. Without saying a word, he raised his hand and shot an arrow, which accurately hit the Japanese soldier's throat. Behind him, Wang Jinxin almost simultaneously shot an arrow into the other Japanese soldier's throat.

  But it was the sound of the sentry's voice that made the devils in the bunker vigilant. When Li Mu-tou kicked open the door, some of the devils inside actually picked up their guns to shoot. Li Mu-tou was quick and swift, his crossbow arrow instantly taking care of the devil with the gun. By the time the other devils tried to pick up their guns, it was too late. The team members had already taken out various weapons - some used blow darts, some used lassos, some used flying daggers, some used knives, and all sorts of cold steel appeared. The most impressive one was a team member who actually used a throwing arrow.

  The little devil captain was actually a martial arts expert, and he emerged unscathed from the numerous sneak attacks. However, he didn't have a chance to draw his gun and could only pick up the command knife on the table to resist. Two team members were injured in this way. Fortunately, Song Yanchun, who had just been recruited, was an expert in Wing Chun boxing. He fought against the little devil captain, using three moves and two postures, and managed to disarm him with his bare hands, taking away the devil's war knife. With one kick, he sent the little devil flying out, and before he even landed, the war knife in Song's hand had already been thrown, piercing the little devil captain through the heart.