I used the Mo Dao (a type of long-handled sword) to fight the Japanese.

"Damn it, it really is the Japanese! What are we going to do?" Cheng Fengzi was surrounded and panicked before he could even fire his gun twice.

"My God! Why did these bastards target us? They've set a trap here for us to fall right in!" Shao Bing said, bent over and clutching his wound in his right thigh, his face filled with obvious agony.

Luo Hao, also wounded in the shoulder, was in so much pain his teeth were chattering. Looking at the cabinets that were closing in, a chill ran through him. Luo Xiang and Wu Zi, who were at the front, had already been shot and lay on the ground, their fates unknown. The five men were easily taken down by the Japanese in a single round, with virtually no effort.

"Hahaha, Chinese soldiers are nothing special! Just the five of you? Tell me how you incited the miners to cause such a big incident?" Inoue Masao stepped out from the crowd and looked at the five men with a sigh. He spoke Chinese very well with a strong Northeastern accent, and if you didn't see his clothes, you would think he was a pure Chinese.

"..."

The three standing there exchanged bewildered glances, completely baffled by what this guy was saying. Okay, the train incident was indeed serious, but those miners weren't instigated by them, were they? It was all a spontaneous act; didn't they know the mess they'd created?

"Hmm? Looks like you won't learn until you're faced with the truth! Take them away, interrogating a tough nut is a skill!" Inoue Masao said excitedly, his eyes lighting up. He loved using torture devices on prisoners; watching them struggle in agony and hearing their helpless cries was like listening to music!

Without a word, a group of Japanese soldiers stepped forward, seized the weapons of the three men, and tied them up. With dozens of guns pointed at them, the three men had no courage to resist and could only watch helplessly as they became prisoners again.

After the two Japanese soldiers checked Luo Xiang and Wu Zi on the ground and confirmed that they were dead, no one paid them any more attention. Dozens of men escorted the three Nationalist soldiers away from Huluzui, and the forest quickly returned to tranquility.

……

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Tianma Village became lively again that morning.

After searching high and low in various villages to gather the tools needed by the carpenters and blacksmiths, everyone finally assembled their own weapons-making project under the guidance of several master craftsmen. To put it simply, they were just assistants to the craftsmen; most were farmers with basic farming skills, capable of handling simple tasks like sawing and hammering.

"Uncle Cang, is it really true that this swarm of bees can shoot over a hundred feet away, just like you say? Isn't that farther than a hunter's musket?" Li Dadi, a farmhand, often accompanied the landlord's youngest son on hunting trips in his spare time. He greatly admired the landlord's musket and occasionally even got to fire a shot or two. He found it unbelievable that a swarm of bees could have such a long range.

"Haha, we'll know once we build it and try it out, right? Seeing is believing. If it's really like what Uncle Cang said, then we'll go all out and make it. Anyway, this thing doesn't take too much effort and it's very cheap." Dog Hair was very curious about this swarm. Not only does it have a long range, but it can also shoot down a large area. It would be so awesome to use it to fight the Japanese!

It's no wonder they didn't understand. Bows and arrows, crossbows, and hidden arrows were at least familiar to them, even if they hadn't seen them. But they had never even heard of a swarm of bees, a ballista, or a long-handled broadsword. With their pitiful imaginations, they couldn't possibly figure out what they were. Looking at Zhao Mancang's drawings only gave them a general impression, no different from looking at a New Year's picture.

"Don't worry about anything. If Master Cang has his eye on something, how could he be wrong? Just get to work, and when you're done, just follow orders and train. Fighting the Japanese is all about brains! Master Cang is good at that." Da Zhao said, pulling the large saw while giving a thumbs up.

Having escaped this time and brought back so much food from Wang Shuanzhu's house, this former puppet soldier was utterly impressed by this young man! Don't be fooled by how easily he did it; anyone else would have been completely unable to accomplish any of it!

“That’s right, don’t worry about what Uncle Cang is thinking. We’re just farmers, we know fewer words than we have fingers. Uncle Cang has studied in a private school and is more knowledgeable than us, so you can’t go wrong by listening to him!” Tiger said, polishing a few arrowheads.

While the group was discussing, Zhao Mancang gathered around the blacksmith's forge, helping the blacksmith and his apprentice forge a hoe into a long-handled sword. After repeated folding and forging by the three of them, the iron had become much purer, and the rough blank they pulled out showed layers of dark patterns like small earthworms.

"A Cloud-Stacking Blade! This is a Cloud-Stacking Blade!" the blacksmith exclaimed in surprise as he saw the dark patterns on the rough blank.

"Huh? What's the Cloud-Stacking Blade?" The apprentice and Zhao Mancang looked at their master, puzzled, waiting for an explanation.

"Hahaha, this is a real treasure! Legend has it that during the Ming Dynasty..." The blacksmith recounted a legendary story from the blacksmithing trade.

During the late Ming Dynasty, General Yuan Chonghuan was ordered to defend the frontier. Upon arriving at his troops, he discovered that the soldiers' swords were very old, with many blades chipped and nicked. He then ordered the forging of a new batch of swords. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were waiting for their swords, and the quartermaster department couldn't provide them immediately, so he allocated silver to help them find their own solution.

So the old general summoned skilled craftsmen from all over the country to forge swords for the army. Among them, the swords forged by blacksmiths in the Lu region had this kind of hidden pattern, and were extremely sharp and tough. When two swords clashed, they could always cut off the opponent's sword, leaving it chipped or even broken, while their own sword remained sharp and undamaged.

The old general was overjoyed upon hearing the news, stroking the subtle patterns on the blade and praising it repeatedly. He named this type of battle sword "Stacked Cloud Blade" and bestowed it upon the brave soldiers. Thus, the Stacked Cloud Blade became famous, and the craftsmen from that group were recruited to the military headquarters to forge weapons specifically for the troops.

This is precisely why the crafting method of the Stacked Cloud Blade was lost after the Qing army entered the pass. Later generations had no idea how it was made, and it only became a legend through word of mouth among blacksmiths...

After hearing the story, Zhao Mancang was deeply moved. As a college student, he could roughly deduce the reason. During the repeated folding and forging of the iron block, a small amount of carbon dust was intentionally mixed in. After repeated forging, the carbon dust fused with the iron block, forming these subtle patterns. The increased carbon content in the iron block increased its toughness and hardness, making the sword sharper and more resilient easier to understand. This was a method modern people discovered while recreating their ancestors' weapons, unexpectedly leading to a legend.

However, the story of the Cloud-Stacked Blade is quite vivid, and the fact that his Mo Dao (陌刀) has such a story is also an encouragement.

"Good! From now on, our Mo Dao (陌刀) will be made according to the standard of this Dieyun Dao (叠云刀), inheriting the spirit of our ancestor, bravely fighting the enemy and protecting our hometown and elders from being bullied by the Japanese devils!" Zhao Mancang was also moved by the story of the "Dieyun Dao" and was somewhat excited at this moment.

"Great! I'll die with a sense of pride in being able to forge the Cloud-Stacking Blade myself! Not only the Mo Dao, but also arrowheads and daggers will be made from this kind of iron. Everyone can fight with peace of mind and not let the swords ruin our mission!" The blacksmith's face flushed red, clearly overwhelmed with excitement.

"These words are inspiring; having a handy weapon to fight the Japanese gives us confidence!"