under fire

The gentle slopes outside Guantao City are not completely flat and endless plains.

For some reason, the Japanese did not launch a large-scale autumn mop-up.

After more than a dozen busy days and nights, folks from all over the country hurriedly harvested the sorghum, and even cut most of the sorghum stalks that could be used as cattle and sheep feed and firewood and took them home.

Perhaps due to the rush of time, there are still more than ten centimeters long root stubbles left in the fields, so densely packed that it looks like a row of bayonets planted in the ground.

Three miles northwest of the city, at the highest point of a gentle slope only two or three meters above the ground, several gray figures were crouching.

In the sunlight, the eyes under the military cap wrapped with camouflage straw were all focused on the north city gate.

One of them held a telescope in both hands and the lens slowly moved around.

“…Why is the observation position in the west?”

"It's afternoon now. We won't be spotted by the enemy in the west due to the reflection of the telescope."

"Will the enemy really come out?"

"It shouldn't be wrong!"

"We are so close to the county town. What should we do if the enemy reinforcements arrive after the battle begins?"

"The puppet troops of the garrison have all dispersed. There are no more troops in the city at all."

"Then why don't we just attack the county?"

"I say, can you please stop asking questions all the time?"

"All right."

After a while, the voice sounded again: "If the enemy doesn't come out, won't we have waited in vain?"

"What is the origin of the Wang Shun unit that the battalion commander sent to Monkey?"

Listening to the two people's questions and answers, the man holding the telescope with a sunburned back became very annoyed and finally couldn't stand it anymore.

He freed his right hand and slapped the man who was asking the question on the neck: "Damn it, are you two done yet?"

Time continues to pass slowly.

"Squad leader, there is movement..."

The telescope was quickly pointed at the north gate, and the puppet soldiers of the guard team on duty were lifting the barricades across the south side of the suspension bridge.

After a while, several figures appeared from the city gate.

Then, a large number of security guards and puppet soldiers trotted out of the city gate like ants.

Then a group of bicycle detectives came out.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of an engine was heard from afar, and a three-wheeled vehicle and a truck rushed out of the city gate one after another.

When no one came out of the city gate, the puppet soldiers of the guard team guarding the city gate once again moved the barricades across the suspension bridge.

The gray shadow holding the telescope whispered: "There are about 300 puppet soldiers in the city garrison... six Czech light machine guns... close to the size of a full-strength battalion."

"The detective team has twelve bicycles... and twelve people!"

"The Japanese troops at the back of the team have a tricycle and a truck. There are more than 40 of them. We can see three light machine guns and no grenade launchers. We can't see any mortars. They should be a squad."

The gray shadow lying next to the squad leader put away the paper and pen, twisted his body and quietly retreated nearly fifty meters along the slope. Using the gentle slope to block the enemy's sight of cars on the road, he crouched down and ran northward.

The substitute communicator then took his place next to the observer.

From the first observation point, follow the gentle slope to the north to the second location about three miles away, which is also a gentle slope.

A long line of figures were lying on the side away from the road.

After reading the information sent by the communicator who was running out of breath, the bandit Qi quickly picked up the telescope and focused his eyes on the southernmost part of the road in the lens' field of view.

The horizon at the end of the road was a little blurry in the sunlight.

The figures of puppet troops are vaguely visible.

"Order: First platoon, first squad, wait for the puppet army's vanguard to pass the five-mile road sign. After the explosion, open fire and harass as planned."

"Order: First Platoon, Second Squad, after the puppet army launches a counterattack against First Squad, the machine gun group will open fire to support and cover their retreat." "Order: First Platoon, Third Squad, after the puppet army changes its direction and moves underground, detonate the second minefield."

"Order: After the second minefield explodes, the second platoon will attack from the left wing, and the third platoon will attack from the right wing. Disengage after three minutes of engagement."

As the old bandit Qi gave orders one after another, the soldiers standing next to him kept waving the signal flags in their hands.

...

The highway runs north-south.

Every mile, there is a road sign carved from Taishan stone planted on the roadside. I don’t know how many years it has gone through, but it still has a sense of antiquity and vicissitudes.

The 15-centimeter-thick five-mile road sign is missing a corner, and the number "five" the size of a watermelon is engraved on both the north and south sides.

There is an old grave on the side of the road about fifty meters away from the signpost.

The vanguard of the puppet army was getting closer and closer to the Wuli boundary marker.

The puppet soldier in the lead suddenly stopped and shouted, "Something is wrong. The road seems to have been newly excavated!"

More than a dozen puppet soldiers immediately half-crouched and stood guard with guns in hand.

It was quiet all around.

One of them looked away, looked at the new soil on the road ahead, and whispered, "Squad leader, could it be that the Eighth Route Army has buried mines?"

"It's possible. A few days ago, the brothers from the Second Battalion were chasing Chen Baji and were ambushed by a landmine from the Eighth Route Army."

"Be careful, I'll go over and take a look." The pseudo squad leader in the middle of the team stood up. This guy was quite brave.

He moved his feet as cautiously as a quail, stepping each step on a solid and uneven surface of the road, and slowly approached the loose soil on the road.

This man had obviously received mine clearance training and quickly discovered that there were no mine detonating devices such as rope mechanisms near the loose soil.

To be on the safe side, I lay on the ground and slowly dug away the loose soil with my bare hands, but there was nothing underneath.

Then I repeated the same action at the second suspicious location of loose soil, but still found nothing.

A false alarm…

Because of the delay of the puppet army's vanguard, the large group of puppet troops behind them had already approached.

The pseudo platoon leader trotted forward to ask about the situation, looked at his men digging the soil in front, then turned around and looked around.

There was nothing unusual in the fields.

Apart from the occasional coughing of the puppet soldiers behind him and his own breathing, he could not hear anything else.

The pseudo squad leader who had been lying on the ground in front of him and finished digging up the last bit of loose soil stood up and looked back: "Report to the platoon leader, it's safe!"

The pseudo-platoon leader hesitated for a moment, then shouted, "You are suspicious, hurry up and leave."

The vanguard team took the lead and moved forward again.

He didn't walk far before he stopped again.

"What's the matter again?" The pseudo platoon leader trotted forward again.

"There's a landmine ahead!" The pseudo squad leader squatting on the road had a solemn expression on his face and raised his hand to point forward.

The pseudo-platoon leader looked forward in the direction pointed by his squad leader.

My heart sinks...

On both sides of the dirt road, there were sorghum stubbles everywhere that seemed to have been discarded at random.

If you look closely, you will see that one end of some of the stubble is inserted into the road surface, with thin ropes tied to the stubble on the left side of the road and the other end tied to the stubble on the right side, and the middle part of each rope is buried just in the loose soil in the center of the road.

"A standard trip mine." The pseudo squad leader frowned and explained, "Looking at the technique, it's most likely the Eighth Route Army."

"In the early years, the Eighth Route Army passed through our territory and held a party together. How dare they do something under our noses?"

"At that time, we had not surrendered to the Japanese, so they were quite polite to us. Now..."

"These days, if you don't surrender to the devils, you have no way to survive. The leader has no other choice." (End of this chapter)