As long as Gao Yidao and the Second Company arrive as soon as possible, all problems will no longer be problems. By that time, Hu Yi doesn't believe that the sixty or seventy puppet soldiers on the opposite side will dare to hide in the village and resist stubbornly. What they will do is definitely flee on the spot.
Hekouying is not too far from here, and Luoye Village is not too far from here. The only thing to do now is to wait and see whose reinforcements arrive first, who will be the winner. They may have asked for help earlier than the ninth squad, but Ma Liang's speed and the second company's marching ability must be faster than the other side, so it is still unknown whose reinforcements will arrive first.
Ma Liang went to ask for help. Liu Jianqiang was sent to the observation position on the left wing and became a sentry on the left wing. Shi Cheng became the team leader of the right wing. There were seven people, three with long guns and one with a short gun. One of them was unarmed and was sent by Hu Yi to the road where the reinforcements of the puppet army might arrive, to serve as a secret sentry to monitor the rear. The remaining six people continued to provide cover on the spot and monitor the situation on the right side of the village.
Time passed slowly and the sun approached the mountain.
Luo Fugui was lying in the ditch a few meters behind the machine gun position, snoring. Wu Shitou sat beside him, gathering the dry grass on the ground and carefully wiping the dirt off the engineer shovel. He wiped his beloved engineer shovel until it had a metallic luster again. The metal edge was rubbed to a bright shine, and the shovel surface was rubbed spotless. The engineer shovel was not like those ordinary tools in the folk. It was still a rare thing. The hardness of the material and the portability were completely different. The difference was huge. However, the Mauser pistol on his back rarely received such treatment. It had not been taken out and used until today.
The little girl began to stare at the bicycle in the middle of the field again, her eyes full of anticipation and hope rekindled.
"fox."
"Um."
“Can you ride a bike?”
"Won't."
"When will you learn it?"
"You don't know how to do it, so how can I do it? You have to teach me."
"When the time comes, I will ride on the playground in front of the whole group and make them angry to death."
"Your purpose... is very good."
"Hey hey hey"
There was a sudden noise in the bushes behind him. Hu Yi immediately turned over, pulled out his pistol and pointed it in the direction of the source.
After a while, a tired gray figure crouched down and came out of the woods. He walked a few steps to Hu Yi, fell down on the grass, lay on his back and gasped heavily. It was Ma Liang who returned.
Hu Yi put away his gun, frowned and looked into the woods for a while, then lowered his head and asked, "They didn't come?"
“They came, but they didn’t come here.”
"What's the meaning?"
"Gao Yidao said that they were only responsible for fighting the reinforcements and not for anything else. He led the second company to set up an ambush on the way to Hekouying."
"..." Hu Yi was speechless. Attack for reinforcements? It was amazing that Gao Yidao could come up with this idea. It was obvious that he wanted to continue to laugh at Class Nine and gave them an IOU to make Class Nine speechless.
The little girl lying on the side finally raised her pigtails and slammed her fist on the muddy ground: "How shameless this big bastard is!"
Luo Fugui, who was sleeping soundly, was awakened by the little girl's shout. He sat up suddenly and said in a daze: "Don't accuse me, it's definitely not me."
The puppet army company commander raised his head, looked at the afterglow of the setting sun that had disappeared below the mountain and the sky that was getting darker and darker, and felt increasingly annoyed.
It was almost dark, but this group of Eighth Route Army soldiers had not left yet, and the reinforcements had not come yet. What was going on? Did the person who went back to report the news have an accident? Even if that was the case, it shouldn't be possible. It was such a big commotion, and everyone in the village had run away. People in all directions should have known the news without even reporting it. How could it be possible that no reinforcements came
"Captain, it's getting dark soon. What should we do? Do we really have to stay in this village all night?"
The puppet army company commander paced back and forth in the yard with his hands behind his back, without even raising his eyelids. He was too lazy to pay attention to his subordinates' questions and was always thinking about countermeasures.
After a long while, he finally stopped and looked up: "Pass my order, have the first and second platoons get ready. After dark, go around from the side and knock the Eighth Route Army out with clubs."
"But... they have machine guns." The men seemed to repeat the same excuse over and over again.
"A machine gun is just a machine gun. It's not a flashlight. How can it see you in the dark? How can I take care of you, a bunch of losers?"
"But... it's pitch dark, we can't see them, right?"
"You are such a stubborn idiot, there are not many Tubalu. We can just go around them. Why do we need to fight? Can you just shoot them randomly to scare them away? You are a bunch of losers. Do you really plan to fight these Tubalu until tomorrow?"
The puppet soldiers nearby finally lowered their heads and kept silent.
The light around was getting darker and darker. Wu Shitou got a sturdy branch from the woods and handed it to Hu Yi. Hu Yi picked up one end of the rope, tied the sturdy branch tightly, and gave orders to the people around him.
"Ma Liang, go to Runny Nose's side and help with the alert."
"Yes." Ma Liang crouched down with his rifle in hand and disappeared into the darkness on the left wing.
"Mule, you are in charge of the machine gun. Listen to me, if the machine gun doesn't fire when it's supposed to, I'll kill you when you come back."
"Boss Hu, how about... let the girl use the machine gun? She shoots more accurately than me."
"Can you say that again?"
"Okay, okay, just ignore what I said... Then... When is the time for the machine gun to fire?"
“You decide.”
Luo Fugui reluctantly crawled behind the machine gun and began to check the magazine.
Hu Yi rewound the rope tied to the branch and threw it into Wu Shitou's arms, saying, "Fool, you will follow me into the ditch later. Hold the rope at the bottom of the ditch and wait for me. Don't make any noise."
"Um."
Then Hu Yi took off his shoulder bag and put it aside, then removed his backpack, water bottle, and grain bag, untied his belt, removed the three bullet boxes, leaving only the bayonet sheath hanging on it, and then tied the belt again; finally, he pulled out a Mauser pistol, pulled the bolt to check it, tucked it into the belt under his left rib, and took out two wooden-handled grenades from his bag and pinned them on his right waist behind his back. At this point, the preparations were complete, and he felt relaxed and simple to practice.
The little girl watched Hu Yi roll up his sleeves in the dark, revealing a sturdy arm. She couldn't help but say, "Maybe... the Second Company will come back after they finish the ambush. Why don't we wait a little longer?"
"The night is long and dreams are many, we can't wait. Silly girl, this is not a big risk." After a pause, Hu Yi added: "Shooting at night is different from shooting during the day. The enemy will shoot you the same way you shoot. You must change your position quickly after each shot. Remember?"
"Um."
"Fool, follow me." After saying that, Hu Yi jumped into the ditch, bent down, and tiptoed forward along the ditch that had been dug twenty meters in the afternoon.
When he reached the end of the ditch, he looked back and saw the fool holding a rope and following him in the dark, so Hu Yi quietly poked his head out of the ditch. It was pitch black in the empty field, and from the village a hundred meters away, he could occasionally hear the faint voices of puppet soldiers talking, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.
The bicycle is about thirty meters away from here. Although I can't see anything clearly, I have already memorized the location. Now all I have to do is pull the rope, sneak over in the dark, tie the bicycle to it, and then return to the ditch and pull it over with Wu Shitou.
The end of the rope was handed to Wu Shitou, who held it tightly. Then Hu Yi pulled the front end of the rope and slowly climbed out of the ditch in the dark. His body was close to the ground, his arms swung forward, and he carefully and slowly dragged his body alternately.
One foot, one meter, ten meters, twenty meters... In the darkness, I finally saw the outline of the bicycle, not far away. I concentrated and continued to move forward slowly. My plan was about to be realized.
Suddenly, Hu Yi stopped crawling. The rope in his hand was already taut and he could not pull it any further. He looked up in the darkness and saw that the target was only about five meters away.
All distances were estimated. The rope was thirty meters long, which was estimated by Luo Fugui; the ditch was twenty meters long, and the end was thirty meters away from the bicycle, which was estimated by Hu Yi; after all the calculations, it was found that there was a shortfall of five meters, which was both unexpected and reasonable.
Hu Yi took a deep breath, loosened the rope in his hand, and continued to crawl towards the target.
Finally he caught the bicycle, but Hu Yi did not dare to push or pull it. He felt around carefully and found that the bicycle was stuck on some branches. If he pulled it, the noise would be loud enough for the puppet soldiers on the opposite side to hear.
I had to move it five meters, hang the rope, and then return about thirty meters. There was no shelter for the entire distance, and the only thing I could rely on was darkness. If there was gunfire to cover it, it would be easier, but unfortunately I didn't think of this situation in advance and didn't make any arrangements. I had no choice but to try my luck in the dark.
On a mound on the left side of the field, Ma Liang and Liu Jianqiang lay in the darkness, listening silently.
Snap—there was a faint crisp sound, as if something was broken. The source of the sound was not nearby, but seemed to be quite far away.
Liu Jianqiang, who was listening with his ears perked up, looked gloomy and asked Ma Liang in a very low voice: "What is that? It seems to be in front."
Ma Liang stared at the darkness in the distance, also not knowing the answer. But in such a dark environment, if there was a crisis, it would be very difficult to react, and he had to figure out the situation as soon as possible.
Bang—whoosh—
A ball of dazzling white light, with a long sharp whistle, flew up at a low angle, then slowly drew a beautiful arc and fell to the left of the village. Ma Liang fired the white flare as a temporary flare.
Under the white incandescent light of the star burning in the low sky, the sparse forest on the left side lit up palely, and against the dark background, it even seemed that one could not open one's eyes. Dozens of furtive figures froze, staring with wide eyes in horror, looking up at this damn meteor...
When the flare completely turned into ashes and the abrupt scene fell into darkness again, Luo Fugui was unable to react for a moment, and he was still muttering, "My God, what's going on?"
Bang—whoosh—
The second white flare flew up. This time its flight path was more purposeful than the first one. It flew directly over the heads of those figures, illuminating them more clearly. Those puppet soldiers had begun to desperately look for hiding places, and the situation was in chaos.
"Hurry up, useless mule!"
When Xiao Hongying's shouting and cursing sounded nearby, Luo Fugui, who had suddenly woken up, finally twisted the machine gun and pulled the trigger. A continuous line of fire suddenly formed, cutting through the darkness and shooting at the wretched black shadows under the pale light.
Then, gunshots rang out in an instant. There were tongues of fire flashing in the village, shooting towards the howling machine gun. There were tongues of fire flashing behind the dark bushes, shooting towards the tongues of fire in the village. There were also tongues of fire flashing under the flares, shooting towards random locations in a mess.
Gunshots, whistling sounds, flashing flames, and instantly extinguished red lines all interweave in the pitch-black night, strange and spectacular...