Chapter 72

It's still the third watch of the night, and I, the 1K-per-hour struggling writer, am begging for all kinds of votes, thank you.

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Colonel Ma led the entire Independent Regiment in a grand procession to the Tiger Mouth Bandit Fort. After ordering the troops to stand by, he led several regimental officers and guards to the meeting hall, where they were all startled by the sight outside the hall.

They saw on the parade ground, four Maxim machine guns, three small steel cannons, and ten grenade launchers lined up in a row. About thirty bandits were being instructed by the fat man on how to operate these weapons.

One Maxim was even mounted on a flatbed cart, with several bandits using wood to secure the tripod base of the machine gun.

The sight of these weapons lined up on the parade ground was truly spectacular.

Colonel Ma knew that this fat man always did things that were unexpected. He was still better off, merely marveling at how many good things the fat man had, like a nouveau riche.

However, the few Eighth Route Army officers thought differently. They had only heard Colonel Ma talk about the fat man's heroic deeds, which they admired out of respect for a hero. But seeing these weapons, the Eighth Route Army officers were completely stunned, their mouths watering, wondering why their weapons were so inferior when they were all fighting the same enemy.

At this moment, Monkey walked over and said to the fat man, who was instructing the bandits on how to use the weapons, "Son-in-law, what about those five Maxim machine guns and ten grenade launchers? There aren't enough people. These weapons need over a hundred people to operate."

"Keep them, and trade them with the Eighth Route Army," the fat man replied.

Upon hearing this, the Eighth Route Army officers collectively choked. They had no money, no food, no guns, and no cannons. How could this fat man be so greedy?

The terrain of Xiabian Village in Lianshan Town had been surveyed by the fat man and Monkey. They chose this place because it had many alleys, but only two entrances and exits. By blocking these two entrances with heavy machine gun fire, even if there were more people in the village, they couldn't escape.

The prerequisite was to lure Commander Wu into the village, so there had to be someone in the center of the village as bait, carrying the Japanese Emperor's gift, the Type 92 infantry gun.

After dinner, the fat man gathered the Eighth Route Army officers and the bandit leaders to discuss the personnel allocation. He already had a plan for the tactics.

"Are you going to be the bait, or shall I be?" the fat man asked Colonel Ma.

"Since we're pretending to be the Eighth Route Army, the real Eighth Route Army should do it. I'll lead a platoon as bait, but can you share those grenade launchers with me?" Colonel Ma, who had been eyeing the grenade launchers in the fat man's hands for a long time, asked.

Even if the grenade launchers were small, they were still cannons. Even a small mosquito was still meat.

"No," the fat man shook his head, thinking that the Type 89 grenade launchers could fire up to 500-600 meters, making it very comfortable to hit machine gun positions. If it were the Type 10 grenade launchers, which could only fire up to 200 meters, he wouldn't care.

Previously, in the forest and minefield, the Japanese hadn't used these new grenade launchers. Now they were starting to widely equip them, and in the future, their heavy machine gun positions would be in trouble. They needed to train a batch of sharpshooters and grenade launcher operators to specifically target the Japanese grenade launchers.

For this battle, the bandits and the Eighth Route Army would hide in the forest outside the village. As soon as Colonel Ma's battle began, they would launch a full-scale attack.

That night was uneventful. At four in the morning, the bandits and Eighth Route Army soldiers who were ready for battle began to descend the mountain in the dim light. The fat man stood on a high ridge, watching the winding line of troops, his heart surging. This was the first time he had commanded such a large-scale battle.

Back in the day, he and his teammates had conducted drills with thousands or even tens of thousands of people, mostly involving various decapitation operations. Most of those tactics were obsolete in this era, but the principles were the same. Special operations were his way out.

No matter how many soldiers there were, could they outnumber the Nationalist Army, which had a solid foundation of graduates from military academies like Huangpu and Baoding? Could they outnumber the Eighth Route Army, which had a strong popular base?

The three small steel cannons and grenade launchers did not go down the mountain with the troops. Apart from the fat man, these bandits were just learning to operate them and couldn't even measure distances, which could lead to friendly fire, which would be no fun.

"Let's get this straight, I want war spoils after this battle," Colonel Ma said to the fat man as they parted ways.

Although the division headquarters had left him two Maxim machine guns, they hadn't given him any cannons. The division commander had brought a hundred rifles, one Maxim, three ZB-26, and ten Mauser C96, which was quite generous. However, these rifles were second-hand, replaced by other Eighth Route Army units after receiving supplies from the Second War Zone, and were given to the non-main force Independent Regiment like they were beggars.

Colonel Ma still harbored resentment, but he had already told the division commander that he would turn the Independent Regiment into a main force regiment, or it would never have a chance to turn around.

"Are you only thinking about weapons and ammunition? Do you have any ambition? Don't worry, you'll get your share of the spoils," the fat man reassured Colonel Ma. He had heard this from Colonel Ma several times and couldn't help but give him some reassurance.

He couldn't let Colonel Ma work without pay, could he? The remaining items after he picked what he needed would go to the Independent Regiment. After all, there were only a hundred or so bandits in the Tiger Mouth Bandit Fort who could fight, and dozens more were still recovering. He didn't need so many weapons.

The fat man sat in a cart driven by Monkey, with a Maxim machine gun mounted on it, which he called mobile firepower.

He sent four heavy machine guns with Colonel Ma into the village first. They negotiated with the villagers near the entrances and exits, hiding the machine guns in their homes, ready to open fire as soon as the enemy entered the village.

Colonel Ma had his soldiers pull the Type 92 infantry gun and set up positions in a courtyard in the center of the village, ready to welcome Commander Wu into their trap.

"Son-in-law, do you think Commander Wu will fall for our trap?" Monkey, bored, suddenly asked.

"Are you trying to do push-ups? What did I say about the ambush discipline yesterday? Look at the Eighth Route Army, why are you the only one talking so much!" The fat man, holding a pair of binoculars, observed the village entrance, lowered his voice to scold Monkey, and gave him a light tap on the head.

Monkey, in pain, didn't dare to speak, touching his head with a look of grievance, but didn't dare to speak. Sigh, they were all learning to be quiet like the Eighth Route Army, but were they still bandits?

What he didn't know was that when the fat man started making them do push-ups, the bandits' fate had changed—transformed.

"Chirp chirp..." The fat man puffed out his cheeks and blew, making a loud bird call.

He didn't send out scouts because it wasn't necessary.

Xiabian Village was surrounded by mountains, with winding roads, and rarely had a straight line of sight over 100 meters. Sending out scouts wouldn't help much in spotting distant enemies, so the binoculars were enough to give the warning.

All the Eighth Route Army and bandits in ambush knew that the main force had arrived.

They heard a group of puppet troops cautiously approaching the village entrance, crouching and holding their rifles.

This group of puppet troops numbered over a hundred, some approaching from the stone path at the village entrance, others from the fields, all crouching and holding their rifles, moving cautiously.

Through the binoculars, the fat man saw Commander Wu and Li Liu. He was a bit puzzled—where were the Black Wind Mountain bandits?

According to Li Liu's intelligence, wasn't the bandit leader Zhou Xiong leading the Black Wind Mountain bandits in a joint operation with Commander Wu?

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