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

Although the clan chief had agreed that many young men were willing to follow Zhao Mancang in fighting the Japanese, only eight managed to secure the support of their families to join their ranks. The others remained in Wanrendong to care for their families for one reason or another.

That's good too. With someone taking care of their families and relieving their worries, they can focus on fighting the Japanese to the death.

The group spent the next day at Wanren Cave. On the morning of the third day, the eight young men bid farewell to their families and returned to Tianma Village. Mancang and Third Master's families did not return with them. As the old man said, they could not help fight the Japanese and would not be a burden to them. The two had no choice but to leave the five silver dollars they had each received last time to their families and depart with reluctance.

……

During this time, Luo Hao and Shao Bing lived a very comfortable life. After being captured in the battle of Huluzui, the three of them, along with Li Fengzi, were determined to die and sought an opportunity to take the Japanese soldiers down with them. However, they were mistaken. Along the way, the Japanese had them bound like dumplings and gagged with burlap. Forget about dying together, even suicide was impossible!

Once they were taken back to the prison and handcuffed and shackled, there was no chance of survival. Inoue Masao was a madman; he used branding irons, hooks, and electric chairs on the three of them one by one. Li the Madman, already injured, was tortured to death right in front of them. His eyes, as wide as a bull's, stared at the two of them, instantly breaking their guard!

The two men recounted their actions in detail. Inoue Masao was quite surprised to learn that it wasn't these prisoners of the National Revolutionary Army who had planned and carried out the incident at the mine. After repeated questioning, the two men explained that they had discovered another thatched hut was already empty when they escaped, and speculated that the people in that hut had carried out the operation, and that they had simply taken advantage of the chaos to escape.

Inoue Masao, after careful consideration, also felt it was highly likely, so he recruited the two men to join the puppet army to secretly investigate the whereabouts of those people. The two were overjoyed and readily agreed. Thus, the two transformed from Nationalist soldiers into puppet soldiers, dressed in yellow uniforms and swaggering through the towns and villages all day long. They would sit in this shop, take things from that stall, and live a carefree life. The shopkeepers dared not speak out and had to force smiles, secretly seething with resentment!

"Haozi, it's been almost a month and we still haven't made any progress on the task that old devil Inoue gave us. How are we going to explain ourselves when he asks?" In the Furong Teahouse, the two of them were drinking tea and looking at the passersby when Shao Bing asked.

"How am I supposed to explain this? We've been wandering the streets all day and haven't seen a single familiar face. Where am I supposed to find someone in this vast sea of ​​people?" Luo Hao said irritably.

I finally had a few good days, but this matter is making me extremely annoyed! When I was in the mine, I rarely had contact with those poor people because I had served in the army. I only occasionally saw the people in the other houses and couldn't tell who was who at all. It's really asking too much of me to find someone based on just a vague impression!

“Anyone who can cause such a commotion at the mine must be someone who isn’t unknown. They’ve been out for so long, why haven’t they made a sound? Don’t they want to kill the Japanese devils and avenge themselves?” Shao Bing racked his brains to analyze.

"Kill the Japanese devils to avenge ourselves? That's hard to say! Didn't you hear that old Japanese devil Inoue say that those dozens of Japanese devils at the mine have all been taken down? They've already gotten their revenge!" Luo Hao said impatiently.

"...That doesn't count, does it? You've already killed the Japanese, so why not let them seek revenge? Killing more Japanese would save more lives, wouldn't it?" Shao Bing himself didn't believe it. Why kill Japanese when you're already out? Wouldn't that expose you?

"You really think of them as heroes who fought the Japanese? They're all just poor, downtrodden men. Once they escaped and settled down with their wives, kids, and warm beds, who would risk their lives to fight the Japanese? Just wait and see. Didn't Inoue have Chairman Cao ask around in the villages to find out which men have just returned? We'll just wait to identify them," Luo Hao said leisurely, taking a sip of water.

"That's the only way..." Unable to reach a conclusion, the two stopped dwelling on it and continued to enjoy themselves.

……

The villagers followed Zhao Mancang back to Tianma Village and immediately fell in love with the place. The tall village walls, the rugged buildings, and most importantly, the various weapons made the young men very happy.

Unfortunately, their curiosity didn't last even a day before they were overwhelmed by the heavy training tasks. Not to mention, the fact that they had to spend the night alone in the cemetery made the timid ones complain endlessly. Then, the morning's weighted cross-country run left them so exhausted that they were foaming at the mouth!

Several people didn't understand why they were doing all this unnecessary training instead of focusing on weapons training when fighting the Japanese. But when they saw that the four girls had completed their training, everyone couldn't sit still anymore. After all, they were men, weren't they? So what if they spent the night alone in a cemetery? Could a grown man let a woman outdo him?

As a result, the complaints stopped, and everyone trained with all their might.

That morning, Tiger came back from outside with a pack of mongrels following behind him. There were more than a dozen of them, including yellow, black, and white ones, big and small. They followed him obediently without running around, just like a well-trained army.

"Uncle Cang, what do you think of this pack of mongrel dogs we've assembled? They've got some presence, don't they?" Tiger said, pointing at the pack of dogs.

"Not bad, not bad! You've found so many dogs in just one morning, that's great! You have a fang, which gives you an advantage in training dogs. Keep up the good work and try to train a hunting dog team that will strike fear into the hearts of the Japanese!" Mancang encouraged.

As soon as he got back, Tiger told him he wanted to learn from Second Master and train a pack of dogs so that he could lead them into battle and make the Japanese run for their lives! Mancang naturally gave his full support and even gave him some silver dollars to buy dogs from a nearby village. And sure enough, he brought back a huge pack in just one morning!

"Haha, don't worry! They can't be any worse than Second Master! I plan to build a hunting dog training ground on that open space and train them to be top-notch!" Tiger said, pointing to an open space near the western stockade wall.

"Sure, tell the kitchen to save all the tough, chewy meat for the dogs, and let the brothers feed them more to build a bond. Just thinking about working together with the dogs on the battlefield is exhilarating!"

"No problem, please go ahead! But you need to give it a catchy name, so it'll leave a mark when you fight the Japanese, right?"

"Huh? Our human team doesn't even have a name yet, and you're already thinking about naming the dogs? Isn't that a bit premature?"

"It's getting late! We should have a name! Making a name for ourselves will attract more people to join us," Tiger said with a smile.

"Hmm... it's not impossible, but we can't leak our information. Making a fortune in silence is what we should be doing right now!"

"Of course! Growing stronger secretly, what's that called? Well, once it's called... everyone knows it!"

"That's called 'silent until it cries out, then it astounds everyone!' You should learn to read some more when you have time!"