The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

The guerrillas on the hillside also disappeared into the woods in an instant.

Looking at the wounded soldiers and corpses scattered on the ground, and then at Zhou Jindong's departing figure, Fujita Hiroshi felt a surge of anger.

He dared not linger, and fled back to the county town with his remaining troops, stumbling and crawling.

An hour later, at the brigade headquarters.

"Snapped!"

Okada Tomohisa slapped Fujita Hiroshi so hard he spun halfway around, blood instantly trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Useless! Useless!" Okada Tomohisa roared in the room like a furious lion. "Over a hundred people went to scout, and they got more than twenty killed! They didn't even see how many of the other side there were!"

Fujita Hiroshi lowered his head, not daring to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth: "Captain, that Su Hao... no, Zhou Jindong, he confessed himself. Inoue Takeshi and the escort team... were completely wiped out."

The room was deathly silent.

After a long pause, Okada Tomohisa finally managed to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Zhou, Jin, Dong... if that's the case, then Yudai probably also..."

He walked to the map, staring intently at the location of Dongzhai Town, his eyes bloodshot.

"Fine, very well. They dared to eat my grain, kill my men, and swindle my money!" Okada Tomohisa suddenly drew his command sword and slashed it across the map stand, tearing the location of Dongzhai Town to shreds. "Order! First Company, Second Company, assemble! Artillery platoon, bring four Type 92 infantry guns! I'm going to raze Dongzhai Town to the ground! Leave no one alive!"

Around noon, the main force of the Japanese army set out.

Two trucks led the way, followed by more than 400 Japanese infantrymen, then a Type 92 infantry gun pulled by four horses. At the very back were two more trucks carrying ammunition and supplies.

Tomohisa Okada sat in the passenger seat of the first truck, his face ashen.

The convoy drove in a grand procession to the outskirts of Dongzhai Town.

Tomohisa Okada raised his binoculars and looked at the town.

The town was quiet; there wasn't a soul in sight.

The roadblocks at the entrance to the town were removed, and the doors and windows of the houses on both sides were tightly closed.

"Captain, something's not right," the adjutant whispered. "It's too quiet."

"Quiet?" Okada Tomohisa scoffed. "They're terrified! Issue my orders: First Company enters the town to search, Second Company maintains perimeter security. Any suspicious persons found are to be killed on sight!"

"Hai!"

Company Commander Captain Ono drew his command sword: "First Company, form battle formation and advance into town!"

More than 180 Japanese soldiers, carrying guns, cautiously entered the town.

Their footsteps echoed on the empty street as they walked on the cobblestone path.

"Sir, there's a pot of hot soup here!" a Japanese soldier shouted from inside a civilian house.

Captain Ono walked over and saw that the large pot on the stove was still steaming, filled with white rice porridge.

"Hmph, you ran off in a hurry, didn't even finish your meal." Captain Ono sneered. "Be careful, it might be poisoned. Don't touch it. Keep searching!"

The Japanese soldiers continued to advance.

The soldier at the front saw an old hen wandering by the roadside. His mouth watered, and he grabbed his gun and gave chase.

The old hen flapped her wings and ran into an alleyway.

The soldier chased after the chicken, and just as he bent down to grab it, his hand touched a thin rope at the base of the wall.

"jingle--"

A clear, crisp sound of a copper bell rang out.

Before the soldier could react, a large bamboo basket filled with pebbles suddenly fell from above.

"Bang!"

The bamboo basket hit the helmet, not killing him, but it made him see stars and fall headfirst.

Immediately afterwards, a plume of yellow smoke rose from a broken earthenware pot at the base of the wall.

"It's poison gas! Retreat!" the Japanese soldiers behind shouted in terror.

Actually, it wasn't poison gas; it was chili powder and lime powder that Zhou Jindong had prepared, which would explode when exposed to wind.

The Japanese soldiers in front were instantly blinded, tears and snot streaming down their faces. They screamed and rolled on the ground, throwing away their guns.

Before the people behind could come to the rescue, the doors on both sides of the street suddenly opened.

"beat!"

Zhang Fang led his squad out from behind the door, firing a volley of shots at close range.

Before seven or eight Japanese soldiers could even see where the enemy was, they were riddled with bullets.

"There's an ambush! Take cover!" Captain Ono roared until his voice cracked.

The Japanese soldiers frantically searched for cover. Some hid against walls, others behind millstones.

Just as a Japanese machine gunner had placed his light machine gun on the threshold of a shop, before he could even pull the trigger, the threshold suddenly moved.

That's a trapdoor!

The machine gunner fell into the pit, gun and all. The bottom of the pit was covered with a dense array of bamboo skewers; falling in meant certain death.

This is not over yet.

The two Japanese soldiers hiding behind the millstone had just breathed a sigh of relief when one of them felt thirsty. Seeing water in the water vat next to him, he picked up a gourd ladle to scoop some out.

He had just dipped the ladle into the water when the pull mechanism at the bottom of the water tank was activated.

"boom!"

The water tank exploded; it wasn't filled with water, but with gunpowder and iron filings.

With a loud bang, two Japanese soldiers were blown to pieces, their bodies riddled with holes and their flesh mangled.

The entire Dongzhai Town seemed to have become a giant killing machine.

No matter where the Japanese troops went, they would trigger traps.

Some grenades fell from the rooftops, some gun barrels protruded from the corners of walls to fire sniper shots, and some wells were even poisoned.

Captain Ono hid behind a broken wall, watching his soldiers fall one by one, and his mentality collapsed.

"Captain! Captain! There are traps everywhere! We've suffered heavy casualties!" Captain Ono shouted frantically into the walkie-talkie.

Outside the town, Tomohisa Okada listened to the screams and explosions over the walkie-talkie, his face turning ashen.

"Baka! These rats!" Okada Tomohisa slammed the walkie-talkie onto the car. "Where's the artillery? Artillery squad, get up here! Get the infantry out of here and bomb the town flat! Flatten it!"

Upon receiving the order, the artillery platoon leader immediately directed the deployment of four Type 92 infantry guns.

"Target: Town center square, Ready—Fire!"

"Thump thump thump!"

Four shells flew toward the town with a whistling sound.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A huge explosion rang out in the town, instantly blowing houses away and sending bricks, tiles, and wooden beams flying everywhere.

Houses were hit directly.

The shelling lasted for ten minutes.

The entire town of Dongzhai was engulfed in flames and smoke.

Okada Tomohisa stood beside the vehicle, listening as the commotion inside gradually subsided. He sneered, "Let's see how you hide now! First Company, take a rest! Second Company, prepare to charge! Clean up the remaining enemy!"

However, at the very moment the shelling stopped, Zhou Jindong was coldly watching everything through binoculars in a secluded patch of grass on the hill behind the town.

His face was expressionless, only the firelight flickered in his eyes.

"Dongzi, the Japanese have opened fire! Our men..." Wang Yuan said anxiously, wringing his hands.

"Don't worry, I've arranged everything." Zhou Jindong put down his binoculars. "I had the main fortifications and traps beneath the town evacuated before the shelling. Only some dummies were left there to mislead them."