Chapter 59: The Mysterious Chinese Fog (Part 2)

  " Ignite!" Li Baoguo didn't understand the inner thoughts of Han Jingtian, but he could still feel the sadness, conflict and hatred in his heart.

  With the dragon's guidance, the team members at each location have mastered the technique of ignition. The fire is not strong, but there is a lot of smoke. At the exit of each stove, a tall chimney is erected, and thick smoke drifts out, mixed with fog, drifting towards the direction of Kongjia Temple guarded by the devils.

  Captain Kōtarō Kawahara was a very self-disciplined person, with no vices other than his research on ancient architecture. When he arrived in China, he became extremely excited to see the golden palace buildings, the rough and majestic courtyard houses of the northern ethnic groups, and the temples with unique styles from all over the country. As soon as he entered Dezhou, he was attracted by the Kong Family Temple, a group of ancient buildings with southern style, and strongly requested to be stationed there. His superiors also knew about his hobby and didn't bother to argue with him, so they sent him to station in the Kong Family Temple.

  Kawabata Mitarō rebuilt the Kong Family Temple according to his own ideas, strengthened defensive measures everywhere, and strictly ordered the devils not to harm the local people, not to kill innocent people, and not to * women. However, Kawabata could only control his own men, while other imperial troops repeatedly appeared to massacre local civilians, leading to numerous resistance and retaliation.

  On the tenth day, he returned from a meeting in Texas at 8 pm. After dinner, he strolled out of the house, and the moonlight was so enchanting that the shadows of trees in the courtyard were swaying gently. The clear shadow of wisteria twisted and turned like an ink painting on the ground, with high mountains and flowing water, and a few remaining leaves dotting the pavilions and buildings in between. The riverbank was momentarily stunned by the sight. The tall eaves and flowing roof ridges became even more majestic in the hazy moonlight.

  It's foggy. The fake hills, house eaves, strangely shaped trees and specially designed wisteria are all half hidden in the haze.

  The enthusiasm by the river did not diminish, and there was no consideration of the news that a guerrilla force had launched a surprise attack on the meeting. Looking up at the sky, the sky shrouded in mist became somewhat like a dream.

  Huh? Where's that fragrance coming from? What is it?

  Suddenly, several bright lanterns appeared in the misty sky, floating low over the courtyard walls, and even spinning on their own? They were Chinese opera characters! With long sleeves fluttering, they danced elegantly under the light, looking like a real stage performance. Several more floated by, each with a different design! Ah, the strange charm of Chinese art, able to convey so much content in such small things.

  Is the fog too thick? Hebei shook his head, how to look a bit blurry? Hebei took a few more steps forward, trying to get a closer look at the beautiful stage art floating in the air. There was a fragrance in the fog, what a familiar fragrance, wasn't it the cherry blossoms of my hometown that had bloomed? What a beautiful atmosphere, so ethereal, isn't that Xiuer? Where's mom, why are you running around alone? Ah, dear Yanzi is here too? Isn't this Sanling Garden? What beautiful cherry blossoms, the flowers from my hometown are fragrant, fragrant to the point of being familiar.

  No! Rubbing my eyes by the river, the mother and daughter are gone, the fog is like a thin gauze. Oh, I'm watching a strange Chinese art. How did that float there? This one just came over, take a look. The riverbank sways forward, suddenly "plop", "plop" sounds fill the air.

  It's a Chinese wedding, and these Chinese people, happy events must make some noise. No, how can the noise coming from their own courtyard be? It's those peculiar Chinese art!

  Under the Kongming lantern, a pig's bladder was suspended with different lengths of incense tied to it according to the length of time. One end of the incense head was connected to the buried firecracker inside the pig's bladder. When the lantern floated to a certain point, the incense burned and automatically ignited the fuse, causing an explosion that opened up the bewildering powder inside. The artificial fog already contained soul-bewildering medicine, but Han Jing Tian feared there might be some mistake, so he specially brought out his treasured props and performed a classic "Ten Beauties" lantern array. By the riverbank, what was seen last was the seemingly collapsing flying eaves and the curved bright moon hanging above.

  Han Jing Tian looked up at the sky, not saying a word to Li Bao Guo. His mind was entangled, and he finally decided to use anesthetic instead of poison. As for the death of Gui Zi, it was certain, but not by the poison of the Poison Gate.

  "That's it." were Han Jingtian's last words, and then he left alone. Li Baoguo knew that he was going to find his Kongming lantern, perhaps something else too.

  Li Baoguo led the charge out of the hidden woods, and the soldiers immediately took cover in front with their bodies, rushing towards the Kong Family Temple. The machine gun bunker at the entrance was quiet as if the devils were asleep, Li Baoguo made a gesture, and the troops quickly spread out, carefully searching every corner, swiftly eliminating all the devils, leaving no survivors, thoroughly executing once again, even though the opponent was just a dazed dead cat, they still had to step on it.

  In the command post by the river, Li Baoguo found a large amount of gold, jade and diamonds, as well as famous paintings. When Wang Xuehua, who was in charge of transporting grain, arrived, he was overjoyed at the sight, thinking that these good things could be exchanged for a large amount of silver coins.

  The troops transporting grain, after the special forces took control of Kongjia Temple, immediately dispatched a mine-clearing expert to thoroughly search for mines laid by the enemy outside the wall and knocked down the courtyard wall, opening up several routes for transporting grain, each going their separate ways.

  Loaded with grain, in units of lian, along the predetermined route, set off immediately. Along the way, there were already special forces commanded by Nan Ren, who had done a good job clearing the road. The special forces had trained many times for this kind of road-clearing work, but had never actually used it before. This time, they tried out all sorts of methods. When there were no devils (Japanese soldiers), the special forces pretended to be devils setting up roadblocks; when there were devils, the special forces did the clearing work. Li Baoguo was the last to leave, with nearly 800,000 jin of grain being transported out of Kongjiapu by six regiments using various methods. It was rare that they managed to do this without alerting the Japanese army's camp.

  When Liu Dama returned home, Liu Laogen had not yet returned. However, there was news that the garrison here was indeed the legendary Eighth Route Army, and some people said that outside the village in the big ditch, a vast number of Eighth Route Army soldiers had arrived, with people's shadows everywhere.

  It wasn't until very late that Liu Laogen returned. Everyone who knew the news gathered at his house, waiting to hear what this Eighth Route Army was like, and how they were said to be fearless even when fighting against the devils! The first thing Liu Laogen did after returning home was to immediately have the people gathered at his house go summon everyone in the village to come, and he announced an important piece of news.

  Everyone must leave Xiliuzi Village tonight and hide outside for a month, otherwise they will be responsible for the consequences. And in front of everyone, he sorted out his belongings at home and took his wife away from Xiliuzi Village.

  It is said that those who did not hide or wanted to wait until dawn and leave after breakfast were all killed by the devils. Xiliuzi Village was restored many years later, in order to commemorate these legendary heroes, the people of Xiliuzi Village who returned home changed Dawa to Baluwa.

  Yang Jie and Chen Zhihao led the team to the west of Wei County, where they met with the Yan'an inspection team that had arrived earlier. The inspection team was protected by a small detachment of the Eighth Route Army, which had been in the jurisdiction of the Wei County guerrilla force since its entry. The soldiers of the detachment were all red-eyed, and even the local liaison guerrillas were all equipped with three eight-style big covers, and those who were slightly larger had machine guns, with each person having twenty rounds of ammunition.

  The representative of the Yan'an inspection team was unexpectedly Kang SH, and the one going to Beiping was a middle-aged man with an alias Li Mu, who had a very surprising demeanor. Chen Zhihao, because he had been working under Kang SH for a long time, was overjoyed when he saw Kang SH, rushed forward, grabbed his hand, and even forgot to salute. Yang Jie pretended not to recognize him, foolishly standing aside, waiting for Chen Zhihao's introduction.

  It was Comrade Kang who first discovered Yang Cheng from the joy of meeting, actually he knew from the beginning that the tall young man who came with Chen Zhihao was Yang Cheng, whom Chairman Mao had been very concerned about. But as an old and experienced person, he still shook hands with his old subordinate in a leisurely manner, asked about each other's well-being with a smile, and even squeezed out tears of joy from his face. Chen Zhihao was the kind of down-to-earth person who felt happy to see him, and had actually forgotten Yang Cheng standing beside him.

  Kang saw Yang Jing standing there, silently watching the lively scene with a straight face, neither smiling nor showing any signs of displeasure. For a moment, he couldn't see through Yang's thoughts. Suddenly, he remembered Chairman Mao's words before his departure, "Yang Jing, this kid looks gentle and quiet, but in reality, he is very capable of fighting and has clever tactics. Don't underestimate him. He just doesn't like to talk."