Chapter 55: The Thousand Mile Famine (Three)

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  Devils diagnose people's illnesses? Unacceptable! Devils write Chinese characters? Even more unacceptable!

  Mr. Han seems to have gotten something good, and he's so happy that he started drinking at night, and Bao Sheng had no choice but to accompany him for a whole night.

  The villagers of Xiliuzi Village quickly adapted to this group of strange devils, and except for not being allowed to leave the village, the devils did not interfere with anything else. The only landlord, Liu Baicheng's family, was not harmed either, and no devils came to disturb them, let alone ordinary commoners' homes. Liu Baicheng became restless instead, personally sending a large amount of money and meat to the devils. The devils all accepted it, without saying much, only the interpreter asked a few simple questions before sending him away.

  Liu Lao Gen's home became a hub for gathering and dispersing news. People came and went, asking about the situation under the pretext of delivering goods. However, there wasn't much useful information to be had.

  Someone asked Mr. Han, when will these devils leave? Mr. Han smiled and said: "No more than three days."

  Wang Xuehua set his sights on this remote village mainly because of the depression outside the village, where the grass and trees were lush, the willows were not tall but short and stout like shrubs, and it would be no problem to deploy several groups of soldiers in a dense formation. Also, it was less than twenty miles away from Kongjiamiao, which they planned to attack, and its remote location at the border of two provinces made it an ideal place to take advantage of the chaos.

  The Li brothers followed Wang Xuehua, who had been asking questions for a long time. Wang Xuehua was indeed a master of disguise, able to change his identity at will. Along the way, he sold off all the jewelry and jade decorations he had brought with him, transforming them into silver coins that filled two large trunks. The brothers were left to guard the trunks day and night, worried sick about being discovered. As for buying grain, not a word was mentioned, but Wang Xuehua did carefully investigate several grain warehouses belonging to the enemy along the way, sending a telegram to Li's deputy team leader. Finally, Li Xuerong couldn't bear it anymore and asked Wang Xuehua what their mission was this time. Wang Xuehua smiled and said, "Do you think we can really buy grain? In times of war, grain is more precious than gold. The key is that even with money, there's no land to buy. Most of the grain is controlled by the enemy, some is in the hands of landlords, a small amount is stored in farmers' jars, and only a limited amount is circulated on the market, and that's only allowed by the enemy in cities. For people like us, isn't it obvious that we're telling the enemy that we're guerrilla fighters?"

  "Our main task now is to grab grain!" Wang Xuehua said this with a calm face, as if he were scooping out grain from his own family's granary.

  "Rush to grain?" Li's brothers were shocked. It's easy to say, but this is the enemy-occupied area thousands of miles away from the base, Dezhou Prefecture, Shandong Province, the vast plain. If the devils find out, where can they run? Everywhere is the devil's territory.

  Wang Xuehua smiled and shook his head, "You think buying grain will keep the devils from chasing us? Don't be ridiculous! The devils won't let us off either."

  "Texas is our last stand. I'll sell the last batch of jewelry in Texas, and then we're going back home. I reckon the grain warehouses we've found along the way will be enough for us."

  The Xun Tian Battle Team discovered the enemy's grain depot at Kongjiamiao while scouting for a landing point. This place is less than 50 li from Dezhou and less than 10 li from the nearest enemy military camp. They chose to land in Xiliuzi Village.

  Li's brother arrived here and found out that Wang Xuehua had his own silver dollar keeper, who was a member of the base guard company. He originally thought it was Wang Xuehua's bodyguard, but it turned out to be someone he used to protect his money.

  "It's not that I don't trust you brothers, it's just the rules are like this. Even if the captain is here, I'm still in charge, and my people will take care of things." Wang Xuehua rubbed his head awkwardly, "Sorry, brothers."

  "Good brother, go ahead." Li Xue Rong gave Wang Xue Hua a thumbs up, "You, you should have said it earlier. I haven't had a good night's sleep since you started selling things. You tell me, how are you going to compensate me?"

  Wang Xuehua also knew that the two brothers were really working hard for this batch of silver coins, he knew that they were not so enthusiastic about the revolution in order to repay Yang Wei, but it was enough, being able to see so much money without being tempted, this friendship itself is worthy of respect.

  "Go back, I'll treat you brothers to a drink, I've got some good wine stored up!" Wang Xuehua said with a smile.

  "That's still not enough, you also have to equip our squad with a few infantry guns." The special forces team, because they need to move quickly and insert themselves, are only equipped with heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

  "No problem. I'll have Li Kewei also weld an armored vehicle for you and install infantry guns on it. How's that?"

  "Two cars."

  "Go ahead and prepare the materials yourself."

  "Hey!" Li Xuerong smiled, "I'm just in charge of providing the car."

  After entering the provincial capital of Dezhou, two brothers protected Wang Xuehua as he sold off his last batch of jewelry and collected a large sum of silver dollars. They signaled for the rest of the team to retreat. As they exited the city gate, two cars and several three-wheeled motorcycles were parked there, with Japanese sentries strictly inspecting pedestrians.

  When they entered the city, because it was early, there were no devils guarding, only a few special police officers. Wang Xuehua borrowed a noble silk changpao from Li Fusheng, with gold-rimmed crystal glasses, generous and open-handed, plus the Li brothers brought people who were all burly men, so the special agents were very knowledgeable, simply asked a few questions politely and let them go.

  Li Xue-rong gave a secret signal, ordering the troops to assemble. Wang Xue-hua pretended to smoke on the side, lighting a fire. Li Xue-hu secretly observed the terrain, whispering to the team members to seize the car, while he himself lined up for inspection, approaching the devil's machine gun hung at the city gate. When he pulled out his gun from under his puttee, Li Xue-rong's command was also issued. Li Xue-hu shot and killed the devil in front of him with one shot, took a tiger leap, and pounced on the devil's machine gun. The gun fired in mid-air, and the machine guns on both sides were simultaneously seized by the team members, killing the devils guarding the car. The team members started the car and, under the cover of Li Xue-hu and another team member's machine gun fire, rushed out of the east gate of Dezhou Prefecture.

  The devils who were pursuing them immediately triggered the landmines they had set, and the various types of mines made the devils suffer greatly, not daring to pursue again. The infantry mine jumped into the air before exploding, spewing out steel balls, iron nails, and shrapnel, enough to wipe out a small squad of devils.

  As soon as they returned to Xieliuzi Village, the base's telegram arrived, ordering them to survey the road conditions and terrain within a 200-mile radius. Wang Xuehua was somewhat worried upon hearing this, but Li Xuerong burst out laughing at Wang Xuehua, "This is nothing, scouting routes is the simplest and most relaxing task for special forces, every member of our team can draw simple topographic maps."

  "Ah Hu, go and get things ready."

  It was midnight when the team members returned, each bringing back a topographic map that marked the distance, road conditions, intersections, bridges, and whether there were enemy guards, with detailed explanations of their troop strength. Wang Xuehua was taken aback, "The special forces are really formidable, my stuff hasn't been wasted." It's worth noting that the expenses of a special forces team are even higher than those of an ordinary regiment, including ammunition consumption, and some equipment is only available to special forces teams.

  The order has been given, on October 10th, the attack will be carried out at night, and the specific time will be determined after Li Nan's second team arrives. There are six regiments gathered here, with less than 8,000 people responsible for transporting food. The main force of the attack is undertaken by the Xun Tian War Team, while other troops are only responsible for transportation. Therefore, the troops are only equipped with light weapons and some transportation tools.

  This book is launched on Starting Point and will be heavily promoted from August 19th, so please come to Starting Point to click, vote, and collect it, thank you.