Chapter 95

When the team members had all loaded the food and ammunition, Liu Hai, Meng Zi, and Goudan started from the last vehicle, moving forward one by one, pouring out the fuel and setting it on fire.

"Captain, it's such a waste!" A hunter, holding a relatively new Type 38 rifle, said with reluctance.

"Exactly! I can carry five more, don't burn them all." Another hunter, similar in build to Meng Zi, adjusted the 150 pounds of rice and half a backpack of bullets on his shoulder.

Dong Ku looked at the thick smoke rising from the rear of the convoy, calculating in his mind. The nearest camp at Lao Toushan was only 20 kilometers away, where they could hide the guns for future use by the larger force.

"Good! Everyone, carry two more rifles. Those with better stamina can carry three."

"Yes!"

The Flying Tigers, ready to set off, quickly selected the newer Type 38 rifles from the pile on the vehicles, with the stronger ones carrying four or five, treating it as physical training. Although these guns had been phased out, they still couldn't resist their allure as steel guns.

Standing on the hilltop, they looked at the smoky road and listened to the occasional explosions, their hearts heavy with reluctance. They were ordinary people who had lived through hard times, and the idea of burning so much food and hundreds of steel guns felt like a sin.

Reluctant as they were, they knew that if they couldn't take it with them, they couldn't leave it for the Japanese to use against their own people.

Dong Ku didn't carry food; he carried a large backpack of bullets and a radio, listening to the dense Morse code messages, and handed the command of the team to Shunzi. As he walked, he translated.

By the time they reached the first camp, he had a rough understanding. In the month he had been at Yueliang Island, the Japanese had been very cautious with their food convoys, and the quantities were small, fearing another interception like the one at Lao Longtou. After several attempts, this was the second large convoy, intended to supply the Japanese along the Raohe line.

As for how the food would be transported to Raohe and how it would pass through the marshes where cars couldn't travel, Dong Ku hadn't figured it out yet.

While the team members were hiding the guns and some of the food, and scattering dry powder of horse mint at the hiding spots, an idea formed in Dong Ku's mind. He decided to take action.

Once the six students could use the radio proficiently, he could quickly form a team to cut off the supply lines, including those to Hulin, making life difficult for the Japanese at Huto Fortress, Qinglong Mountain Fortress, and along the Raohe line. He aimed to concentrate the Japanese attention here, establish a base in the Wuyi Mountains of Mudanjiang, and rapidly expand the team. Before the Japanese 99-type sniper rifles became a threat, he wanted to maximize the advantages of his current resources.

This way, he hoped to build a force capable of countering a division by next year. Even without heavy weapons, they could use sniper warfare to break the Japanese encirclement. By 1937, he hoped to slow down the Japanese advance into the interior, giving himself time to breathe.

Dong Ku was well aware of the situation in Northeast China after the Japanese invasion and the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo. He knew the Japanese ambitions and strategic priorities. At this time, they didn't take the old general seriously; they were more concerned about the Soviet Union, fearing that it would take advantage of the situation like the Eight-Nation Alliance did, invading Northeast China and dividing the spoils of war. The Soviet Union was indeed preparing for this, with the Far East Plan already in place. This was why the Japanese valued Baoqing and Hulin, as well as Raohe, setting up secret fortresses, arsenals, and supply bases along the Huto and Qinglong Mountain lines to provide the fastest logistical support and defensive strength against the Soviet Union.

The arsenals and supply bases in Raohe were already under construction at this time, and by the estimated timeline, some should have been completed. In the deep mountains, these bases could provide over a month's worth of war supplies for 100,000 Japanese troops, including weapons, ammunition, food, and fuel. They also contained all kinds of military supplies. Dong Ku knew the locations of these bases, as after the liberation, the Japanese had not had time to take them away, only destroying the entrances, which helped Wang Zhen's troops in the development of the Northeast.

Dong Ku remembered most of these locations, partly because he was from Northeast China and had grown up near Huto Fortress, listening to the stories of the surviving veterans. He also deliberately sought out information about the Japanese invasion through various channels, aiming to restore the original appearance of the three northeastern provinces, which had been occupied for 14 years, thus learning many secrets.

"Cut off their supply lines!"

Dong Ku put the radio on his back and followed the marching team, with a plan in mind. However, before he could act, he needed to settle a score with someone, Hebian Hushi, who had hung his body by the river and declared war on him.

He didn't know that this decision would bring even greater changes to the already evolving Japanese strategy in Northeast China, making the Kwantung Army Commander, Nanziro, more determined to guard against the Soviet Union, a year earlier than planned. It also brought pressure and great opportunities to his survival in this area.

When the Flying Tigers disappeared into the dense forest, the reinforcements from Baoqing and Shuangyashan arrived at the scene. Among them was a familiar face, Shin Yamayu.

Shin Yamayu's search of the mountains was unsuccessful, and he lost nearly half a regiment of soldiers. Although he wanted to commit seppuku to atone for his failure, Nanziro stopped him, ordering him to atone by achieving success. As the best detective in Japan at the time, Nanziro needed him alive to capture this Soviet team and understand the current combat capabilities of the Soviet Union, which had already overturned the Kwantung Army's arrogance from the Russo-Japanese War and needed to be treated with caution.

Shin Yamayu didn't feel sorry for the burned food or the destroyed guns; his eyes were only on the bodies that had not been consumed by the fire.

Two standard companies, nearly 400 men, were completely wiped out. From the shell casings on the ground, Shin Yamayu discovered that the two companies had been pinned down next to the vehicles until they were annihilated. There were no signs of landmines on the road, and the burned glass from the vehicles had destroyed the bullet hole marks, but the charred bodies of the drivers still revealed the reason for the stop: one car had its front end stuck in a pile of sand and gravel, and the other had a round bullet hole in the driver's forehead.

When Shin Yamayu examined the bodies that had not been burned, his heart skipped a beat.

The bullet boxes on the bodies were empty, with not a single one of the standard 120 rounds remaining. The personal belongings were gone, not even a single Manchukuo coin left. The enemy was very composed. What made his heart skip a beat was not this, but the knife wounds on each body's neck.

All the bodies without head wounds had their throats and carotid arteries cut. If they were still alive at the time, this cut would have ended their breathing.

This cut was a technique he remembered well, left by the Soviet team that had caused the massive explosion and then disappeared.

"Has it been over a month since they disappeared, and they've reappeared?"

Shin Yamayu squinted, staring at the knife wounds on the necks of the bodies, his resolve to form a powerful special forces team growing stronger.

Germany, under the leadership of the old leader, had already begun to focus on this area. After his failed search, he had reported his plan to Nanziro, who agreed and was in contact with the homeland to send officers to Munich for training.

Leaving aside Shin Yamayu's encounter with an old friend, Nanziro also received a report from Hebian Hushi.

He sat there, his eyes cold as he read the message. After a moment, he ordered, "Send a message to the Army Ministry, increase the strategic defense against Russia to Level A, and dispatch the 7th Horse Transport Division, the 11th Field Division, and the 4th Armored Transport Brigade to the Qitaihe, Mishan, Hulin, and Baoqing lines. By the end of the year, fill the fortresses and supply bases, and change the supply route to Fuyu to Tongjiang, then to Fuyuan and Raohe."

This message was not intercepted by Dong Ku, who was on the road and only locked onto one frequency, missing the encrypted message. He didn't know that his disruption of the supply lines had not troubled the Japanese along the Raohe and Fuyuan lines but had instead accelerated their efforts, filling the fortresses and supply bases in the mountains near Raohe and the original history's heavy weapons, preparing for a focused defense against the Soviet Union.

At the same time, an armored transport brigade was added to the Baoqing line, not to protect the supply lines but to eliminate his "Soviet" team.

Dong Ku hid the food from the raid in batches and did not return to Honey Mountain but led his team straight to Baoqing.

This operation was near Lao Toushan, and even if the Japanese wanted to search the mountains, it would be impractical. Lao Toushan was not like Lao Longtou; it was a high mountain with dense forests, deep ravines, and gorges. Searching the mountains would not only fail to find anyone but would also put the search teams at a disadvantage, making them vulnerable to ambush and unable to concentrate their forces for a decisive strike. It would take several divisions to search Lao Toushan thoroughly, and this was not a plain where a division could encircle and suppress a place like Zaozhuang. This was a forest, and a primeval one at that.

Baoqing, where Dong Ku had a target to hunt, a man who had sown countless sins in the Chinese sky.

He now had over 30 snipers with a range more than twice that of the Japanese, giving him the confidence to launch large-scale raids.

Hebian Hushi didn't know that someone was after him. Originally scheduled to become an air force commander in August, he was delayed by the Soviet team in Baoqing, leaving him stranded there.

However, he was a strategic thinker. After learning about the attack on Jiamusi, he fortified the original camp, turning it into a fortress with three layers of trenches, several small bunkers, and four watchtowers. Searchlights were on all night, with two per watchtower.