Chapter 71

In the light of dawn, Shanzi found the location of the secret campsite marked on the map, and the eight people safely converged.

After setting up a simple shelter, Dongku arranged for everyone to rest while he turned on the radio and listened to the increasingly dense messages.

An hour later, he had a rough understanding of the Japanese army's current movements and the impending encirclement, an encirclement specifically targeting his Soviet-Russian squad.

"Is it enough just to have wolf dogs?"

Dongku turned off the radio and smiled wickedly. Wolf dogs, it would be difficult for them to find their trail, and even the few places where supplies were hidden might not be discovered.

However, he knew they were now surrounded on all sides. Once the Japanese caught up, it wouldn't just be a dense forest or a mountain ravine; only a high and dense mountain like Lao Tuzi Mountain or a complex terrain like Jiapi Gou could help them escape the Japanese encirclement. Although this area was also a forest, it was too small, divided by the Qitaihe highway, with the narrowest part of the forest being only about thirty miles wide, making it easy to encircle and conduct a thorough search.

Dongku sat there, carefully pondering. He knew that in at most a couple of hours, the place where they had abandoned the vehicles would be swarming with almost all the Japanese troops. This was the time for him to jump out and lead the combined search team into Jiapi Gou. This way, apart from the inability to practice with the mortars, even the sound of grenade explosions wouldn't be heard. Besides, grenades didn't necessarily need to be pulled to detonate.

While Dongku was quietly pondering, over twenty kilometers away at the abandoned vehicle site, the Japanese troops on the road discovered the tracks of the truck that had turned into the forest...

With a loud explosion, the thirty-odd Japanese soldiers surrounding the truck were cut in half, with over a dozen either injured or killed outright, becoming the victims of the trip mines left by Dongku.

The explosion drew a large number of Japanese troops. After confirming that the six trucks, which were not significantly damaged, were indeed the missing ones, the Japanese officer in charge of the encirclement, Kawashima Koshiro, received the report.

"Order the area within thirty kilometers of the explosion site to be sealed off. Conduct a grid search with standard squads, and then a thorough search once the general area is locked down."

Following Kawashima Koshiro's orders, the Japanese troops near the fork began to move, rushing towards the direction where the trucks were found. Troops were also gathered at both ends and moved into the mountains, and it was estimated that in at most three to four hours, the area could be completely encircled.

The sleeping group did not hear the distant explosion, but Dongku did. He turned on the radio again to listen to the news.

A few minutes later, he smiled. The Japanese, as he had expected, had begun to gather, coming from the directions of Mishan and Baoqing. On another road in Qitaihe, the road was also sealed off for twenty to thirty kilometers opposite the explosion site, clearly preparing to encircle him.

The most interesting part was a report on the reconnaissance of a blocking position, which stated that there were about a hundred people, and the traces of lying down confirmed this.

"A hundred people..."

Dongku's eyes narrowed as he calculated, deducing the possible forces the enemy might deploy and the route they needed to take.

Half an hour later, he woke up the sleeping group, arranged for the campsite to be cleaned up, and called everyone over, saying, "The Japanese have deployed about a regiment. We have some work to do."

"Captain, how many people are in a regiment?"

Huzi asked while packing his backpack.

"If it's a standard configuration, a regiment would have about three thousand people."

"Three thousand people..."

Huzi stopped packing, calculating, and then looked up in surprise, saying, "Oh my, three thousand people, that would take a long time to deal with!"

"Deal with..."

Dongku was speechless. Even if the Japanese stood there, it wouldn't take a machine gun long to finish them off. With one shot from each, you wouldn't even have a chance to raise your head. To put it bluntly, a mouthful of spit from each could drown these few people.

Mengzi patted Huzi's head and said, "Three thousand people could shoot your gun to pieces, just like Brother Zhong's Han Yang rifle, which would be smoking. What are you talking about dealing with them..."

The others didn't speak, finishing packing their backpacks and looking at Dongku, waiting for his orders.

"Shanzi, send a message to Sun Tao, telling them they can start practicing shooting. Ten days of full-load shooting, and then send them a message to be extra careful."

After a pause, Dongku continued, "Each person gets a long gun, two Mauser pistols, and ten grenades, all modified to delay for one second. We'll set out in twenty minutes."

While Dongku and his team were busy, over a dozen wolf dogs were already in position. On the six trucks, apart from some auxiliary supplies like milk powder and sugar, not even a pair of shoes was left behind, everything was moved very cleanly.

The on-site commander had already been replaced by Shinzan Yumi. He flew to Baoqing and headed straight to the scene of the ambush on Yanagita. However, before he reached the fork between Mishan, Hulin, and Baoqing, he heard a loud explosion. By the time he arrived at the scene, it had already been surrounded by Japanese troops following orders.

Shinzan Yumi got off the truck, took command, and walked to the six trucks parked in the bushes, carefully observing them. He concluded that this unit was in the mountains, and their base was also there.

The reasons were that the supplies on the trucks were gone, and even the large amounts of sea salt were moved, along with nearly half of the milk powder and sugar, which were not even considered food. Clearly, there was a place nearby to store these supplies. Another point was that the traps left behind were not on the trucks, which were not significantly damaged. This led Shinzan Yumi to conclude that the enemy did not dare to blow up the trucks to avoid starting a forest fire in the dry season, which would burn their base.

He was not wrong in this judgment; Dongku was indeed worried about starting a forest fire, so he did not leave traps on the trucks.

"Follow the footprints, spread out a kilometer."

"Hai!"

The Japanese troops spread out, leading the wolf dogs into the forest to search the mountains.

A team of over two hundred soldiers followed Shinzan Yumi, avoiding the obvious footprints and searching along the sides.

Shinzan Yumi followed the footprints behind the wolf dogs, occasionally squatting down to examine the ground, ensuring that the footprints were from a person carrying a load, to confirm whether the direction of the pursuit was correct.

The team slowly disappeared into the forest, following the footprints straight to a mountain ridge. Here, they had to rely on the noses of the wolf dogs, as the ground was covered with a layer of dry leaves and thin soil, making the footprints hard to see. Fortunately, the wolf dogs' noses were sensitive enough to follow the scent without losing the trail.

In the distance, Dongku and his team were spread out, quickly moving through the forest, occasionally stopping to set traps or trip mines, heading straight for Lao Tuzi Mountain in the southwest of Baoqing.

Each of them held a stick, with a bundle of something at the tip, like a cane, which they occasionally planted on the ground.

Further away, teams of thirty or so Japanese soldiers moved through the forest, heading towards the Qitaihe to Baoqing highway.

Shinzan Yumi carefully examined the slight marks on the leaves and the light scratches on the bushes, following the footprints up the mountain ridge. It was clear that Shinzan Yumi had a unique skill in tracking and finding trails, as he did not lose the trail even in the forest covered with dry leaves. Even without the wolf dogs, he would not have lost the trail.

On the mountain ridge, Shinzan Yumi carefully picked a tuft of hair from the bushes and examined it with a magnifying glass.

The thickness and color of the hair led him to conclude that it was not from a horse but from a roe deer in the mountains.

He threw away the hair and ordered the team to continue forward. He observed the terrain and continued to track the trail.

At this moment, the wolf dogs spread out and began to find the trail, panting and trying to break free from their leashes.

At the same time, Shinzan Yumi encountered a problem. The trail he was following became chaotic, with hoof prints everywhere, as if the ground had been plowed by wild boars. The leaves were curled, and the soil was scattered, destroying all the tracks.

How could this be? Could this unit have trained roe deer and sika deer to carry their supplies?

Looking at the fresh droppings on the ground, Shinzan Yumi raised his head suspiciously, looking at the surrounding forest.

In his line of sight, a soldier ran towards him, and another figure was running from the right. The wolf dogs were sniffing the ground, growling low, clearly finding suspicious traces.

"Report!"

The soldier on the left stood at attention.

"Speak!"

Shinzan Yumi said with a cold gaze.

"Hai!"

The soldier nodded and said, "Report to Lieutenant Colonel, the six squads on the left have all found the trail. Please instruct the next action, whether to follow."

"Six squads have all found the trail?"

Shinzan Yumi frowned. He looked at the soldier on the right and asked, "What about your side?"

The soldier stood at attention and said, "The six tracking squads on the right have also found the trail. The wolf dogs have detected a special scent."

"Hmm?"

Shinzan Yumi was taken aback, looking at both sides of the mountain ridge, quickly analyzing in his mind, "Could they have moved along the ridge to both sides?"

"Follow the wolf dogs to find the trail, spread out!" Shinzan Yumi ordered sternly.

"Hai!"

The two messengers stood at attention and ran back to convey the orders.

As the search teams spread out, Shinzan Yumi waved his hand, ordering the two hundred soldiers following him to continue forward, following the curled leaves to see where they led.

The Japanese soldiers led the wolf dogs down the mountain ridge, following the chaotic trail. As they moved forward, the trail became even more chaotic, indicating that it would be difficult to create such a large area of disturbance without dozens of roe deer or sika deer.

This made Shinzan Yumi very angry, cursing the animals for coming to join the party, destroying all the tracks on the ground.

However, anger was of no use. He could only patiently search the ground, trying to find the trail left by the team.

After the search teams spread out, the wolf dogs stopped moving, growling low, sniffing the ground that had been trampled or dug up. Clearly, they had found the scent of the roe deer and sika deer.

"Damn!"

Shinzan Yumi was furious at the large area of trampled ground on the mountain ridge. The wolf dogs, having detected the scent of animals, stopped moving, losing their ability to track the trail, and were now useless due to the interference of the animal scents.

"How could so many animals come here?"

Shinzan Yumi, in a rage, looked at the fresh soil on the ground. Although he was angry, he did not lose his keen observational skills. He could see that these tracks had only left after dawn, meaning that the animals had been gathered here until the explosion scared them away.

How could so many animals gather here? Could this Soviet-Russian squad have trained reindeer? It didn't feel right. The two explosions in Jiamusi city and its outskirts were carried out by the same group, using black powder, indicating that they might be local Chinese armed forces. However, the ability to drive vehicles and set traps was not something the Chinese commoners could do; this was definitely a group of well-trained elite soldiers.

Shinzan Yumi was confused. Reindeer, the Soviet Russians could not have brought a herd from the Soviet Union to this side, so it must be the work of local mountain people. However, the use of crossbows and traps indicated that this was not something the mountain people could do.

PS: Bowing in gratitude to Nuo Nuo Fei Fei for the tip, thank you, thank you!

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