Bright Sword: From Border Region Manufacturing to Major National Heavy Industry

Chapter 328 Vanished in a flash

a few days later

"Gao Liujin, what kind of son of a bitch did you do? How did you manage to alert the Japanese?"

Li Yunlong grabbed Gao Liujin's clothes and cursed, "Now we can't hide anymore."

Li Yunlong and his troops no longer impersonated Japanese soldiers; instead, they impersonated puppet troops.

These past few days have continued to torment the Japanese, providing strong cover for the underground transportation lines.

Last night, Gao Liujin went to work and the Japanese discovered that we were impersonating puppet soldiers.

Now that the Japanese have discovered this, this game is pretty much over, and we have to retreat.

Gao Liujin was also very annoyed: "Who knew that the Japanese devils were so cunning? I fell into their trap by accident."

Having fallen into their trap, the Japanese are now surrounding them from all sides.

Ding Wei tried to smooth things over: "Forget it, forget it. It's too late to blame each other now. Fortunately, thanks to our cover over the past few days, the underground transportation line has transported the equipment in batches to a relatively safe place. If we just put in a little more effort and manage to get some more cover, they can move the equipment to a relatively safe place. That's not bad."

“That’s the only way.” Li Yunlong nodded, then turned to look at Gao Liujin. “Gao Liujin, you made a mistake. You’re in charge of breaking through and fighting the Japanese. You continue to lead the charge.”

"No problem, I've always been at the forefront, no one can take my mission." Gao Liujin said he had no objections, and cursed, "Damn it, I'm going to beat these Japanese devils badly, otherwise, those little devils won't know how many eyes the King of Hell has!"

"Gao Liujin, I'll give you three thousand men from this puppet army you've developed," Ding Wei said to Gao Liujin. "You'd better hurry up and prepare for battle."

In recent days, they have gained control of approximately 4,500 puppet troops.

Gao Liujin is to be the vanguard, so we should definitely allocate more troops to him.

"Ding Wei, why don't you give me all these puppet troops? I'll just charge straight at those little devils," Gao Liujin said valiantly.

"Look at how capable you are," Li Yunlong cursed. "The Japanese troops surrounding us are a brigade, and more are coming quickly. Our equipment will be transported to a relatively safe place via underground transportation lines. We don't need to fight the Japanese head-on now. We can break out, lead them around a couple of times, and then we can go back."

"Damn it, let's do it your way." Gao Liujin obeyed Li Yunlong's orders.

The battle soon began.

Gao Liujin led his troops and three thousand puppet soldiers, and immediately launched a fierce counterattack under the cover of night.

All kinds of weapons were unleashed in a volley, and the shells illuminated the night as if it were daytime. With the flash explosions, the Japanese defenses were breached.

Although the Japanese army had a brigade, the encirclement dispersed their forces.

Gao Liujin led his team out smoothly.

Seeing that Li Yunlong and Ding Wei had also come out, Gao Liujin shouted that they should just continue to fight the Japanese head-on, that would be more exciting.

"Gao Liujin, you son of a bitch, don't act recklessly." Li Yunlong forcibly dragged Gao Liujin away.

After breaking through the encirclement, the troops quickly withdrew.

The Japanese soldiers were chasing desperately from behind.

……

"Commander, the Eighth Route Army that we surrounded has broken through." The staff officer walked over and reported to Yoshio Shinotsuka.

"Baka! Chase after them! Don't let them escape! They're carrying equipment, they can't move fast!" Yoshio Shinotsuka roared.

Thanks to Sato Haruno's reminder, it was discovered that this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers had once again impersonated puppet troops.

They also mobilized troops to surround them.

Unfortunately, before the follow-up troops arrived, the Eighth Route Army broke through the encirclement.

But with so much equipment, the Eighth Route Army couldn't possibly move very fast.

The staff officer's tone was not good: "Commander, judging from the traces on the battlefield, it seems that the Eighth Route Army troops did not carry any equipment, and they fled very quickly."

"Didn't the Eighth Route Army carry any equipment?" Yoshio Shinotsuka was immediately taken aback upon hearing this.

If the Eighth Route Army doesn't take the equipment back after getting it, wouldn't all their efforts have been in vain?
Miyano Michiichi, who was standing nearby, said, "It's obvious that the Eighth Route Army also knows that carrying a lot of equipment is a burden."

"So?" Yoshio Shinotsuka turned to look at Miyano Michiichi.

“There are only two explanations. The first is that the Eighth Route Army has temporarily hidden the equipment somewhere and plans to retrieve it when the opportunity arises,” Miyano Michiichi said. “The second is that the Eighth Route Army probably destroyed the equipment.”

“Baka, that’s impossible!” Yoshio Shinotsuka immediately rejected the second possibility, saying, “The Eighth Route Army is so poor that they would treasure even a rock. How could they be so willing to destroy the equipment? They must have hidden it away.”

With so much equipment destroyed, it's impossible that we wouldn't find the debris.

Yoshio Shinotsuka immediately stared at the staff officer and roared, "Tell those idiots in the military police department to thoroughly investigate all the places where the Eighth Route Army had been, especially the local people. They must find out where the Eighth Route Army hid their equipment."

"Hai!" The staff officer hurriedly ran to relay the order.

Miyano Michiichi said to Shinotsuka Yoshio, "Commander, since the Eighth Route Army did not take the equipment with them, I think our top priority is to find the equipment as soon as possible. So, we don't need to pursue the Eighth Route Army that has already broken through and escaped."

Although Miyano Michiichi really wanted to kill off the Eighth Route Army soldiers who had already broken through the encirclement one by one, reason told him that finding the equipment that the Eighth Route Army had hidden was the most important thing.

The cabinet was furious about the loss of the Taiyuan Arsenal.

If the equipment can't be found, I don't know how many people will have to commit seppuku.

"Baka! We must not let these damned Eighth Route Army soldiers get away with this! We must not let them get away with this!" Yoshio Shinotsuka said, clearly unable to tolerate it.

"Commander..." Miyano Michiichi was about to say something.

Yoshio Shinotsuka interrupted him: "Baka! These bastards have even reached into the heart of my First Army. This is an absolute disgrace to our First Army. I must eliminate them."

Miyano Michiichi kept quiet.

In a way, Yoshio Shinotsuka wasn't wrong either.

Severely punishing the murderer can be considered a way to save face for the First Army.

Since the equipment wasn't taken away by the Eighth Route Army, we can deal with them first, and then use all our forces to search for the equipment.

Thus, under Yoshio Shinozuka's orders, a large number of Japanese soldiers relentlessly pursued and attacked the troops led by Li Yunlong, Gao Liujin, and Ding Wei.

The fight lasted for three days.

"Damn it, luckily we let the Japanese take over the airport, otherwise, we probably wouldn't have been able to get back." After breaking through again, Gao Liujin sat on a large rock, panting heavily.

These past three days, leading the Japanese soldiers in circles has been a difficult task.

The main problem was that those damned Japanese planes were circling overhead, which allowed the Japanese to know our whereabouts. In addition, the planes were working with the Japanese on the ground to intercept us.

For the past three days, we've basically been constantly surrounded and then constantly breaking through.

Fortunately, Taiyuan Airport is gone, so there are only a few planes overhead.

Otherwise, if a whole swarm of planes came crashing down on us, we'd probably be wiped out.

"We've gained another three days. The underground transportation line should have already transported the equipment to a relatively safe location by now," Gao Liujin said, turning to Li Yunlong.

Gao likes to fight, but he prefers to fight exciting battles rather than the frustrating ones like the one in front of him.

The casualties were too great; nearly two-thirds of his three thousand puppet troops were dead.

He had only seven or eight hundred Eighth Route Army soldiers left.

"As long as this equipment hasn't been transported to a relatively safe place, we have to continue this work..." Li Yunlong gritted his teeth, with an attitude that he would persevere even if it meant sacrificing the entire army.

The main reason we fought this battle so humiliatingly was that we lacked air defense weapons.

Those damned Japanese planes were flying high in the sky, they could see our Type 92 infantry guns, our hell cannons, clearly. The hell cannons and Type 92 infantry guns in our hands were all destroyed by the planes.

Then the Japanese planes targeted our mortars and grenade launchers, and our machine gun positions were also attacked.

This greatly reduced our firepower.

If we had anti-aircraft weapons to stop the Japanese planes, we wouldn't be fighting so helplessly!
Once this batch of equipment is transported back, Li Muzhi will be able to manufacture seamless steel pipes.

Now that he can manufacture seamless steel pipes, he can make more of these hell cannons and infantry guns for us.

More importantly, we can now manufacture anti-aircraft weapons. Therefore, even if we fight the Japanese to the death, it's worth it, so that our arsenal can produce anti-aircraft weapons!

Before Li Yunlong could finish speaking, Ding Wei came over: "Old Li, I just received two pieces of news, one good and one bad. Which do you want to hear first?"

"Old Ding, what time is it? You still have the nerve to talk nonsense with me." Li, who was in a bad mood, glared at Ding Wei. "Spit it out if you have something to say."

"The underground agents have sent word that the equipment has been moved to a relatively safe place..." Ding Wei didn't finish his sentence.

Li's angry expression instantly changed, and he beamed with delight: "Old Ding, you're not kidding, are you? The equipment has really been transported to a relatively safe place?"

Gao Liujin's expression also improved considerably, and he asked happily, "Ding Wei, have they all been moved to a relatively safe place?"

Once the equipment is in a relatively safe place, we can stop playing with the Japanese.

Under the cover of darkness, they could disappear quickly, unlike the previous three days when, in order to cover the transfer of equipment and buy time, they not only could not disappear, but also had to let the Japanese continue to harass them.

“Yes, the goods have been transported to a relatively safe place.” Ding Wei nodded, and then said, “The underground agent also told us that on our way back, there were elite troops lying in ambush there. The exact number and motive are unknown.”

Upon hearing that his elite troops were lying in ambush on the way back, Li immediately turned hostile: "What the hell do you mean by unclear motives? These bastards are definitely trying to intercept me and steal the equipment I have!"

Gao Liujin was also furious: "Damn it, we were beaten so badly by the Japanese, and not only did their elite troops not help us, but they also kicked us when we were down. It's too hateful. It's just that I don't have enough troops right now, otherwise, I would have wiped out this elite army as well."

Ding Wei remained calm and solemnly said, "I judge that the purpose of this elite army is probably not just the equipment we have."

"What else is he after?" Li Yunlong and Gao Liujin both looked at Ding Wei.

"Think about it, if the Japanese hadn't been chasing us, where would we have taken the equipment?" Ding Wei said.

Gao Liujin and Li Yunlong exchanged a glance, and both of them immediately felt a chill run down their spines.

Li Yunlong cursed, "This move by the elite troops is too insidious. They're trying to undermine our foundation and extend their reach into our border region's arsenal!"

Gao Liujin also angrily retorted, "I hate it! I don't have enough troops on hand, otherwise I would definitely teach these bastards a lesson."

Ding Wei calmly said again, "Gentlemen, please calm down. You can look at this issue from a different perspective."

"What do you mean?" Li Yunlong and Gao Liujin both looked at Ding Wei with suspicion.

"Treat them as friendly forces covering our retreat," Ding Wei said.

Upon hearing this, Li Yunlong immediately understood and said, "Old Ding, you little strategist really knows how to come up with bad ideas at crucial moments. You leave this to me, I guarantee I'll screw over these bastards."

Gao Liujin understood that Li Yunlong wanted to divert the trouble caused by the Japanese to these loyal troops.

When the Japanese and their elite troops start fighting, we can take the opportunity to retreat without worry.

Gao Liujin asked, "Li Yunlong, what are you planning to do?"

“It’s very simple and easy. We’ll run over there and tell them that the equipment was just taken back by the Japanese. If they send troops, we can still take it back.” Li Yunlong said casually, “Right now, the Japanese are full of anger. As long as our elite troops dare to go over there, we’ll definitely vent our anger on them.”

“What if these loyal soldiers don’t believe it and don’t go and rob it?” Gao Liujin said.

After all, while the elite troops are despicable, they are not stupid.

"That's easy. The Japanese are chasing us right behind us, so I'll just head straight for their elite troops." Li Yunlong glared. "Then the enraged Japanese won't mind wiping them out as well. Even if there's some trouble later, they can't blame me. Who told them to stay on my retreat route? Can't I just run around on my own land?"

“Yes, that’s right.” Gao Liujin completely agreed.

……

Directly affiliated 217th Regiment

"These Eighth Route Army soldiers are really something else. They've been bombed by Japanese planes and surrounded by ground troops, yet they've managed to hold out until now." Feng Zhihui still admired the Eighth Route Army's capabilities.

With only a few thousand men, bombed relentlessly from the sky and pursued and intercepted by Japanese troops on the ground, any brigade of the elite army would probably have collapsed long ago.

"It's highly likely that these Eighth Route Army soldiers were carrying equipment, and the Japanese were hesitant to use lethal force," the deputy regimental commander said to Feng Zhihui.

The Eighth Route Army, numbering only a few thousand, was surrounded by the Japanese.

The Japanese had airplanes; if they had gone all out, the Eighth Route Army would probably have been wiped out long ago.

The reason the Eighth Route Army was still around must be because they had confronted the Japanese.

If the Japanese had gone all out, the Eighth Route Army would have taken their equipment and perished together. This is most likely the reason why the Eighth Route Army has survived to this day.

“Yes, that’s possible…” Feng Zhihui nodded.

"Commander, Commander, Commander!" At this moment, someone rushed into Feng Zhihui's forward command post and shouted like a pig being slaughtered: "The Eighth Route Army troops are retreating! They're retreating!"

"What's all the fuss about?" Feng Zhihui said calmly. The Japanese had airplanes, and in Feng Zhihui's view, the retreat of the Eighth Route Army was inevitable.

Immediately afterwards, Feng Zhihui asked, "Do these Eighth Route Army soldiers have any equipment?"

"I didn't see it," the visitor replied.

"Didn't you see it?" Upon hearing this, Feng Zhihui paused immediately, his tone becoming more forceful: "What do you mean?"

"I didn't see any equipment on the Eighth Route Army," the man replied. "Their firepower seems to have weakened considerably; they've basically lost their artillery and machine guns. They suffered a crushing defeat. I estimate that they've most likely destroyed their equipment. Otherwise, why would the Japanese be chasing them so relentlessly?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible, the Eighth Route Army would never destroy the equipment." Feng Zhihui panicked immediately upon hearing that the equipment was destroyed.

We're lying in wait here, hoping to reap the benefits.

If this equipment is gone, then all our expectations have been for nothing.

"Commander, let's look into this right away," the deputy commander suggested.

"I'll go ask," Feng Zhihui immediately said to the deputy regimental commander. "You report the situation to the division commander right away."

"Yes."

……

"Commander, the scouts ahead report that Feng Zhihui, the commander of the 217th Regiment, wants to see you." Zhang Dabiao reported this when Li Yunlong's unit was halfway through their retreat.

"I knew this bastard wouldn't be able to hold back," Li Yunlong cursed, then said, "Let's go take a look."

Soon, Li Yunlong met Feng Zhihui.

Li Yunlong immediately put on an extremely friendly expression and looked at the other party: "Commander Feng, did you come here specifically to reinforce me?"

Instead of answering Li Yunlong's question directly, Feng Zhihui asked, "Commander Li, I heard you acquired equipment from the Taiyuan Arsenal, is that right?"

"Yes." Li Yunlong nodded.

"Where's the equipment?" Feng Zhihui asked quickly when he saw Li Yunlong nodding.

"Commander Feng, you've come at the right time," Li Yunlong said hurriedly. "Just now, the Japanese seized the equipment back. I couldn't defeat them, so I was forced to retreat. Since Commander Feng and your elite troops are here, then come with me immediately to retrieve the equipment."

Upon hearing that the equipment had just been stolen and hadn't been destroyed by Li Yunlong, Feng Zhihui asked suspiciously, "Commander Li, you're not joking, are you?"

Are you Eighth Route Army soldiers as stupid as the Jin-Sui Army, who didn't destroy the equipment when they lost it, but instead returned it to the Japanese intact?
"Brother, this is a matter of life and death! I don't have time to joke with you. The Japanese will definitely hurry up and transport it back. If you delay any longer, it might be too late." Li Yunlong gripped Feng Zhihui's hand tightly, extremely anxious.

"I still need to report to my superiors as soon as possible." Feng Zhihui could tell that Li Yunlong's expression didn't seem to be faking it.

"Hurry up, you need to hurry! The military situation is urgent, we can't afford to delay!" Li Yunlong said. "If I turn back now to continue fighting the Japanese, your elite troops need to hurry up and send reinforcements."

“Okay, no problem.” Feng Zhihui nodded.

Li Yunlong turned back and continued fighting the Japanese. Feng Zhihui quickly reported the situation to his superiors. When the superiors saw that Li Yunlong had indeed gone back and was fighting the Japanese again, and was fighting very fiercely, they were shocked.

It seems that these Eighth Route Army soldiers genuinely want to take the equipment back; they don't appear to be faking it.

Therefore, the elite troops did not hesitate and quickly dispatched their forces.

The final result was no surprise.

The elite troops clashed with the Japanese.

Taking advantage of this precious cover, Li Yunlong, Gao Liujin, and Ding Wei led their troops to quickly leave the battlefield and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)