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

"I...I can make clothes...I think...I could do business..." Wang Chunhua said timidly. Although she was already quite familiar with everyone, her past experiences still made her reserved.

"Look at you two, the girl doesn't even care, what are you two being so coy about? Are you even grown men?" Mancang said, looking at Li Dadi and Gou Mao, who were putting on airs. He resisted the urge to kick them one by one and directly ordered, "It's settled then. You four discuss how to divide up the business. Each of you pick a dog to carry back and forth to deliver intelligence. If you find any information, write a note and hide it in the dog's collar so it can bring it back on its own. That way, you won't have to run back and forth. Get ready in the next couple of days, and you'll all set off the day after tomorrow."

This was the solution he came up with in the middle of the night. In an era where communication relied mainly on shouting, the only option was to let the dogs run around more! In ancient times, there were carrier pigeons to deliver messages, so it's not unreasonable to use hunting dogs to deliver intelligence now, is it?

Hmm! The efficiency should be quite high!

"Huh? I can't read! Can you read?" Dog Hair looked at the other three with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know either!" Li Dadi shook his head.

"...I can only draw..." the two women said in unison.

In those days, women had to learn needlework from adults when they were young. When Er Nu was little, she often drew flowers, birds and animals on cloth and embroidered them. Her skills were quite good.

"Uh..." Zhao Mancang was really at his wit's end! He had finally come up with the brilliant idea of ​​using hunting dogs to deliver messages, but before he could even implement it, he encountered an even bigger problem: teaching four people to read was not something that could be done in a short time!

"Drawing?...Drawing is fine too!..." Zhao Mancang could only reluctantly accept it. Teaching them to read from scratch was impossible, so he could only focus on their drawing skills, hoping their paintings could clearly convey their meaning.

"You two stay here and we'll draw together, so you don't get confused later. Dadi and Gou Mao, each of you pick a dog to practice with, do all the long-distance running, dodging obstacles, smuggling intelligence, and whatever else you can think of. Don't let us down!"

"Also, this must be done secretly, and you can't tell anyone. Just contact me. Train in the mountains, and don't let anyone else see you. Understand?" Mancang said solemnly.

"This... can't the two vice-captains say anything?" Li Dadi asked when he saw Man Cang speaking so solemnly.

"No! The fewer people who know you're doing things right under the Japanese devils' noses, the safer you'll be!"

"Okay! Understood!" everyone nodded.

"Go ahead! Think more about the details to avoid mistakes."

Dadi and Goumao went to select dogs for training, while Mancang took the two girls to begin their painting project. Using paintings to transmit information was as difficult as creating a set of telegraphic codes; just thinking about it gave him a headache.

Fortunately, the two girls were quite skilled at drawing. The three of them locked themselves in the house for three days and three nights and managed to come up with a set of pictorial codes! The Japanese were represented by a circle and a small mustache, the traitors by a circle, the rifle by a chopstick, the mortar by two concentric circles, and the cannon by two concentric circles and a support...

Numbers are even simpler. Even if the two women can't read, they know how to count money, so using Arabic numerals is a piece of cake. Representing time with numbers is much more convenient. Three days is 3 plus a sun symbol, dates are simply written as numbers, quantities of things are represented by numbers plus corresponding symbols, and directions are indicated by arrows: north at the top, south at the bottom, west on the left, and east on the right.

The most difficult part was the place names. The three of them painstakingly numbered all the nearby towns and villages. Qili Township was represented by a small triangle with the number 7 inside, Xiahou Town by a small triangle with the number 8 inside, and villages by squares with numbers inside. Numbering and memorizing all nine towns and more than twenty nearby villages was no small task!

After completing this set of picture codes and memorizing them all, one has to admire the two girls. They were able to memorize them because they knew the pattern, but for the two girls to be able to recite them all without missing a single one, they must have really put in a lot of effort!

The four of them stayed in the village for two more days, discussed everything, and gave each group two hundred yuan. Before dawn, they were quietly sent out of the village.

That's all he could do; he didn't know anything else, so the four of them had to figure it out on their own. Initially, the requirements for them weren't high: they just needed to be able to set up shop in the market within half a month and figure out the exact locations of the Japanese strongholds in two townships within a month. More effective intelligence would have to wait until they were more comfortable with it.

That morning, Da Zhao returned, bought a horse-drawn carriage, and brought his parents, along with the furniture and clothes they couldn't bear to throw away. The journey was smooth and without any trouble. The two elders were very pleased to see that their son had truly stopped being a dog of the Japanese and was now wholeheartedly fighting the Japanese to avenge them, and settled down in the village with peace of mind.

Two days later, the carpenter, blacksmith, and groom all returned with their families, settled down in the village, and happily began their new lives.

Tiger was the only one missing, and by the seventh day, he was still nowhere to be seen, causing everyone to worry. Then, that evening, they saw Fujimoto Huang running breathlessly into the village, pacing back and forth around Zhao Mancang. Everyone was shocked; something had happened to Tiger!

"Big move! Gather the brothers and go rescue Tiger! Blacksmith, carpenter, and the two women stay here to watch the house. Everyone else, get your gear ready and head out tonight to rescue him!" When we were forming the team at the mine, we established a rule: never abandon a brother! Now that Tiger is in trouble, especially the brothers who came from the mine, they can't sit still.

"Yes! Hitch over all three vehicles, it'll be faster that way!" Da Zhao replied.

"Okay! Bring a few more dogs!" Zhao Mancang instructed.

While working at the mine, Hu Zi mentioned that his home was in Mafang Village, which borders Qili Township and Chimei Town. It was a flat area not far from the county seat, and Japanese soldiers frequently passed through there. It took half a day to get there from Tianma Village, and traveling by horse-drawn carriage at night meant there was no need to worry about being discovered by the Japanese.

Soon, everyone packed their gear, boarded the carriage, and left the village. The two drivers and Third Master were all experienced and skilled at driving, and the speed wasn't too slow under the flashlight beams. By a little after 11 o'clock, they had already left the Funiu Mountains and were in front of a wide-open space.

"If you run along the road for another half hour, you'll reach Mafang Village. After passing the village, there's a Japanese pillbox about five or six miles ahead. We need to be careful," Da Zhao reminded them, as he was quite familiar with the area.

"A Japanese pillbox? How many people are inside? What's their firepower like?" Upon hearing about the Japanese pillbox, Man Cang became alert. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Japanese pillboxes were a tough nut to crack; countless heroes sacrificed their lives trying to take them down! With their current numbers, they couldn't possibly capture one!

"At that time, there were only a dozen or so Japanese soldiers stationed there permanently, and a platoon of puppet troops with two Type 11 light machine guns. It was one of the stronger outposts with a relatively large number of troops stationed nearby," Da Zhao explained.