You are ordered to support the War of Resistance against Japan; China enters Level 1 combat readines

The hinterland of the Taihang Mountains in southeastern Shanxi.

Night, pitch black.

The moon was completely obscured by thick clouds, and the villages at the foot of the Taihang Mountains looked like black stones scattered in the valley.

The wind blew down from the mountain valley, carrying the chill of late autumn, rustling the withered grass on the field ridges.

Even the dogs aren't barking—at this hour, even the dogs are fast asleep.

A small team crept down the mountain path.

These people were all dressed in plain clothes, gray cloth shirts, and black cloth shoes, just like the local people.

Leading the way was a short man, around forty years old, with a round face, a small mustache, and carrying a bulging canvas bag.

The people following behind carried loads on their shoulders, with a tin bucket hanging at each end, the bucket openings sealed tightly with wax.

Some carried bamboo baskets lined with straw, and several earthenware pots could be vaguely seen beneath the straw.

Their footsteps were light, making only a soft rustling sound on the gravel path, like dust stirred up by the night wind.

"Finally in!"

Hachiro Ishii let out a long breath, then turned to the people behind him and ordered, "According to the plan, split up and proceed!"

"Hey!"

The team instantly split into smaller groups and headed off in different directions.

……

To govern the city.

The city gates were already closed, and the torches on the city walls swayed in the wind, casting long and short shadows of the Eighth Route Army soldiers on guard.

The city was pitch black, and apart from the sound of the night watchman's clapper, there was no other sound.

Since the capture of Quancheng, Zhicheng has become the busiest place in southeastern Shanxi. Arsenals, hospitals, and warehouses have all moved in. During the day, there is a constant flow of carriages and horses, and it only quiets down at night.

Unbeknownst to anyone, several figures were slowly moving along the base of the south city wall.

There are three people.

The leader was wearing a gray cotton-padded jacket and a felt hat, looking no different from the local porters.

He would walk a few steps and then stop to listen to the sounds, making sure no one was around before continuing forward.

Behind them were two people carrying loads on a shoulder pole. One end of the pole was a basket covered with a black cloth, and the other end was two tin buckets with their mouths sealed tightly.

"Right here!" The leader stopped by a well and lowered his voice.

The well was located deep in an alley, with densely packed houses on both sides, where workers and their families from the arsenal lived.

The well isn't big, but the water is sweet, and people from several surrounding alleys come here to fetch water.

During the day, long queues form by the well, where women wash clothes and chat, creating a lively scene.

At this moment, the well opening was pitch black, covered by a wooden board, with half a brick pressing down on the board.

The leader moved the bricks aside, lifted the wooden planks, and cool air from the bottom of the well rushed up, carrying a fishy smell.

"Hurry up," he urged, turning around.

The people behind put down the tin bucket and pried open the lead seal on the bucket opening.

The bucket contained a milky white, thick liquid, the color of which was not visible in the darkness.

One person picked up the bucket and slowly poured it into the well.

The liquid flowed down the well wall without sound or smell, only a faint sweetness lingered in the cool air.

Another person took a bundle of straw out of the basket. The straw was wet, half-dry, and had a sour smell of fermentation.

He stuffed handfuls of straw into the well opening and used a long bamboo pole to poke it down, continuing to poke until the straw was completely soaked in water and sank to the bottom.

"Alright." The leader put the wooden planks back on, weighed down the bricks, stood up, clapped his hands, and said, "Let's go."

The three of them retraced their steps and disappeared into the depths of the alley.

The well returned to silence, with only the occasional tiny bubble rising from the crack in the wooden planks, then bursting with a "pop."

In another direction, outside the arsenal in the east of the city, two people were squatting by the drainage ditch.

Wastewater from the arsenal flowed out from a hidden ditch at the base of the wall, down a stream, into a small river, which circled half of the city before finally flowing into the farmland.

The ditch is not wide, but the water is plentiful and flows day and night.

A man took out several earthenware jars from a basket, covered the mouths of the jars with pig bladders, and then tied them tightly with hemp rope.

He untied the hemp rope, lifted the pig's bladder, and poured the contents of the earthenware jar into the ditch.

It was a grayish-white powder, fine and it would disperse as soon as it touched water, drifting downstream with the current.

After emptying one earthenware pot, he poured out another, and then four in a row. A thin layer of grayish stuff floated on the surface of the ditch, like the ash that accumulates at the bottom of a pot.

Another person squatted by the ditch, stirred the water with his hand to let the powder sink, stirred it again, and let it sink again.

He stirred very slowly and gently, as if he were stirring a bowl of freshly cooked porridge.

"Is that enough?" the person next to me asked in a low voice.

"That's enough." The person who was squatting stood up.

……

People also came from Jinan.

Jinan had just finished fighting, and a section of the city wall had collapsed and was not yet repaired, so it was temporarily blocked off with wooden fences and barbed wire.

There were more sentries guarding the city during the day and fewer at night. They were all near the gap on the east side. There were only two people on the west side, one dozing against the wall and the other squatting on the ground smoking.

The red glow of the cigarette butt flickered, illuminating a young face, whose eyelids were drooping with sleepiness.

He didn't notice that a hole had been cut in the barbed wire behind him.

Several figures slipped in through the opening, walking close to the wall with footsteps as light as cats.

They knew Jinan well, and they knew where the grain depot, the water tower, and the wounded soldiers' hospital were.

The grain station was newly built, with high walls and thick doors, making it impossible to enter. However, there was a water storage tank behind the grain station, made of bricks and covered with sheet metal.

The reservoir is connected to the city's water pipes; water flows through it as soon as you turn on the tap.

A person climbed onto the reservoir, pried open a corner of the sheet metal with an iron bar, and lowered the bamboo basket in.

The bamboo basket contained a dozen or so paper packets, each about the size of an egg, sealed with wax. As it sank to the bottom of the water, the wax slowly melted, and the contents of the packets scattered in the water.

He counted, one, two, three... and poured all the paper packets in the bamboo basket into it in one go.

……

He County.

Two people came to He County.

One of them, dressed like a local, walked in front, bowing and scraping to everyone he met, like someone running a small business.

Another person followed behind, carrying a load on a shoulder pole with two bamboo baskets at each end. The mouths of the baskets were covered with black cloth, and there was a rustling sound under the cloth, as if something alive was moving.

Instead of heading towards the town center, they turned into a small alley.

The alley was narrow, with earthen walls on both sides. Moss grew at the base of the walls, and the ground was wet and sticky when you stepped on it.

At the end of the alley was a large courtyard where seven or eight families lived, sharing a single well.

Instead of moving the well, they released the contents of the bamboo basket.

It's a rat.

There were dozens of them, grayish-brown in color, of all sizes, surging out of the basket and running along the base of the wall, squeezing into every crack and every hole.

They darted about in the darkness, some running into the house, some burrowing into the woodpile, and some running along the wall to the neighbor's yard.

"Go! Evacuate immediately! Return to base and report back to Section Chief Ishii!"

The pitch-black night gradually faded, and the eastern sky was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn...