Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 28 Lijia Village under the Fire

When Wang Gensheng heard this, he hurriedly climbed up a crooked tree and started observing with the Type 13 telescope that he had just seized from the Japanese yesterday.

Although this kind of telescope was not a good thing in the era before Wang Gensheng traveled through time, it is still very good in this era, at least much better than observing with the naked eye.

Looking in the direction of the gunshot, Wang Gensheng discovered that a young man wearing ordinary people's clothes and holding a homemade gun was being chased by several Japanese soldiers wearing puppet army uniforms.

And more importantly, they were coming towards the path where Wang Gensheng was.

Seeing this situation, Wang Gensheng naturally didn't say anything. He climbed down the tree directly, and then ordered his men to disperse and hide in the bushes on the side of the road, and set up an ambush there.

"Remember, you are not allowed to shoot without my order!"

Naturally, no one dared to disobey the orders of the battalion commander Wang Gensheng, and soon two groups of people came over, one chasing and the other catching up.

Just after the man in front holding a homemade rifle ran past, Wang Gensheng suddenly stood up and threw the throwing knife in his hand towards the several Japanese devils who were chasing him.

He was already frightened by the sudden appearance of Wang Gensheng, and before he could react, he was taken away by Wang Gensheng's wave of flying knives.

Of course, Wang Gensheng's sudden appearance also scared the man with the homemade rifle who was running in front. However, he felt relieved after seeing Wang Gensheng take action to deal with these traitors. However, before Wang Gensheng could ask, Li Xiu beside him said in surprise:

"Hey! Brother Baili, why is it you? Why are you being targeted by these traitors?"

Li Xiu introduced Wang Gensheng to the side.

"Captain, this man is Baili Xiu from Baijia Village. He's a hunter and has excellent marksmanship..."

But before Li Xiu could finish, the man called Baili Xiu interrupted him and said:
"Li Xiu, it's just right. You should hurry back. Something big is going to happen in your Lijia Village. Just now, at least a thousand Japanese soldiers and thousands of traitors were heading towards your village. I was just about to take a shortcut and inform your village!"

Sure enough, when Li Xiu heard this, his face changed immediately, and he looked at the battalion commander Wang Gensheng with a look for help.

Wang Gensheng also understood that the reason why these Japanese soldiers went to Lijia Village was probably because of the Japanese squadron that was wiped out by the New Second Regiment yesterday.

After all, a Japanese squadron of nearly two hundred people disappeared so quietly. It was impossible for the Japanese to not make any noise at all. However, Wang Gensheng did not expect that the Japanese would make such a big noise. There were thousands of Japanese soldiers and thousands of second-tier Japanese soldiers who were dispatched together.

With such a posture, they are planning to massacre the entire village like they did Lijia Village and Wangjia Village!
So Wang Gensheng made a quick decision and decided not to go to Baijia Village. He immediately said to Li Xiu:
"Let's go! Go back to Lijia Village quickly and tell everyone in Lijia Village to leave. We killed so many Japanese yesterday. These Japanese will definitely massacre the whole village in revenge!"

Fortunately, this path was very close to Lijia Village, so within half an hour, Wang Gensheng brought Li Xiu and Baili Xiu back to Lijia Village. Then, at the entrance of the village, they met Li Xiu's sister Li Xue. At this time, Li Xue was carrying a wooden basin to the well at the entrance of the village to wash clothes. Seeing Li Xiu coming back so suddenly, she asked curiously:
"Li Xiu, didn't you say yesterday that you would only come back once a month? How come you're back today after leaving yesterday?"

Li Xiu was extremely anxious at this moment. She snatched the basin from Li Xue's hand and threw it to him, saying, "Sister, hurry, hurry! Get everyone in the village together! The Japanese are coming to massacre the village. If we're any later, our Lijia Village will be the same as Wangjia Village!"

After saying that, he ran to the village and shouted loudly without waiting for Li Xue's reaction. Soon, under Li Xiu's shouting, the villagers gathered together. After Li Xiu's narration, an old man in the village immediately said:

"That can't be! Those devils were killed by the Eighth Route Army, not by people from our Li Village!"

Wang Gensheng was immediately amused by this naive old man and said:

"The incident in Wangjia Village happened only last year. How could you forget it so quickly? Moreover, the bodies of those little devils are buried in the bunker near your Lijia Village. Do you think your Lijia Village can escape responsibility?"

Following Wang Gensheng's words, the expressions of all the villagers in Lijia Village changed. At least except for the old guy, most people chose to escape into the mountains first.

However, Wang Gensheng became furious when he saw that they wanted to take this and that. After all, how could they escape if they did that? By the time they had packed up their things, the Japanese had already reached the village entrance.

Finally, under Wang Gensheng's strong request, the group ran out of the village with only the main food, clothes, and some precious jewelry, and ran towards the mountains outside the village.

Less than an hour after the villagers of Lijia Village left, at least a battalion of Japanese soldiers and a regiment of Japanese soldiers surrounded Lijia Village. As Wang Gensheng guessed, the Japanese soldiers first went to see the bunker not far from Lijia Village, and then naturally found the bodies of the Japanese soldiers buried on the spot.

So they immediately surrounded Lijia Village, preparing to find out the situation first and then massacre the entire village as a burial companion.

However, when the Japanese lieutenant colonel captain surrounded Lijia Village, he found that Lijia Village was deserted.

Wang Gensheng looked at the billowing smoke that he could still see even though he was more than ten miles away, and he knew that the Japanese soldiers had not found anyone, so they chose to burn the village to vent their anger!

Although the houses in Lijia Village were all built with earthen bricks and earthen walls, the roofs of the houses were still made of wooden beams. What was more important was that there were large amounts of firewood, bedding and other things in Lijia Village that had not been taken away in time.

So these things have now become good materials for starting a fire. Otherwise, an empty house alone is not so easy to ignite.

Looking at the burned houses, Wang Gensheng understood that if the New Second Regiment wanted to take root in this land and let the people here live a stable life, it must have a complete plan to deal with the Japanese raids and village burnings.

At least if the firewood and other things in the village could be hidden in advance, it would not be so easy for the Japanese to burn the village. In addition, several hidden granaries should be built to store food. Otherwise, it would be very troublesome to run away with a large amount of food every time.

Of course, what is more important is that the militia system in the village must be established as soon as possible. With the militia, they can take turns on guard and promptly notify the villagers to evacuate in an organized and planned manner, rather than a chaotic retreat like this.

Wang Gensheng, who had watched a lot of anti-Japanese war dramas, had already remembered the tunnel warfare used to deal with the Japanese devils' raids and village massacres.

(End of this chapter)