This killer star of the War of Resistance Against Japan was only 9 years old.

Tie Niu turned around and urged everyone to speed up, then walked over to Lao Xu.

"Company Commander Tie Niu, what's wrong?" Old Xu asked. He had been standing quite far away and hadn't heard what Shunzi said.

"Comrade Xu, Shunzi and his men have discovered a large number of hoofprints left by Japanese cavalry ahead. There should be a cavalry unit ahead of us. We have no cover around us now, so we can only hurry into the woods ahead."

“We explored the area when we came here. The forest is very large, and there is absolutely no problem hiding inside.”

"Okay, I'll do as you say," Old Xu said.

Then everyone quickened their pace and ran towards the woods ahead.

Bai Luo also began to pay attention to the situation on the monitoring radar.

An hour later, when everyone saw the woods 500 meters away, they breathed a sigh of relief.

They also saw a large number of hoofprints along their journey. The Blue Party had no cavalry unit in Chiayi City, let alone the Red Party.

The sudden appearance of a large number of hoofprints then makes sense.

Not long after they entered the woods, Shunzi also came into the woods.

"Company commander, we've spotted the Japanese. They've set up camp by a small river about 4 kilometers ahead of us."

Judging from their appearance, they probably aren't planning to leave today. They've even sent out quite a few small teams. It seems they're looking for something.

Upon hearing this, Tie Niu knew it was most likely about finding Bellena. His heart sank.

With cavalry, a single charge could wipe out about 20 of our men.

"How many of them are there?"

"There were probably more than 300, and with those sent out, there should be more than 400 people," Shunzi recalled.

There's a whole battalion of Japanese soldiers here.

If you take a detour, you'll end up going a long way around because there's a river ahead with a small stone bridge, and the next bridge is more than 20 miles away.

This is the best-case scenario. If we encounter another small Japanese squad, the moment a shot is fired, the main Japanese force can immediately surround us.

Thinking about this made Tie Niu a little nervous. After thinking for a long time, he could only wait until tonight to watch it.

Seeing that Tie Niu's expression was rather grim, Lao Xu came up and asked, "Company Commander Tie, have you spotted the Japanese?"

"Yes. A whole battalion of Japanese cavalry."

Upon hearing this, Old Xu's expression darkened. Once discovered, there was no way to escape.

"Is it possible to bypass them?"

Tie Niu shook his head. The two finally decided to spend the night in the woods and see if the Japanese soldiers would leave the next day.

For safety, the group walked a distance further into the woods, and the carriage was hidden in a small depression next to the woods, with only the horses brought in.

If the Japanese soldiers don't leave by tomorrow, we'll have to contact headquarters and ask them to send people to drive them away. But there are no organized troops nearby, and it would take at least a regiment to send them.

Everyone went about their own business, each with their own thoughts, and the night passed without incident.

The next day at 5 p.m., Shunzi returned to the woods and said to Tie Niu, "Captain, the Japanese are still there, and they're sending out more and more squads."

"Ten teams went out today."

Tie Niu was pretty sure that this group of people had come for them, but he didn't know how the news had leaked.

Although they didn't deliberately avoid people along the way, they avoided villages. They tried to take the less crowded roads.

Moreover, they never revealed to anyone which route they were taking, and now they've just gotten stuck here. It's unclear whether this was a lucky accident or just pure luck.

Actually, when Tie Niu and his group were on their way, they were spotted by spies who had infiltrated the area to draw a topographical map of Jiashan, and they casually reported this to them.

Then the Japanese cavalry searched in that direction, but ended up getting ahead of them.

Tie Niu didn't have a good solution either, so he could only have Xiao Yu send a telegram to headquarters.

Shortly after, headquarters replied that they should remain in place and wait for orders, as the nearest unit to them was the one in Jiashan.

However, they encountered bombing by the Japanese forces and were temporarily unable to provide support.

Tie Niu felt that they really couldn't get through this anytime soon.

Just then, Anzi ran back from outside, looking very anxious. Upon seeing Tie Niu, he hurriedly said, "Captain, something bad has happened! A Japanese squad has reached the edge of the woods. I don't know if they'll go into the forest."

Upon hearing this, Bai Luo glanced at the monitoring radar. No red dots were displayed, indicating that the Japanese squad had not yet entered.

It's already night, so the Japanese soldiers are unlikely to enter the woods. But tomorrow is another story.

Tie Niu seemed to have thought of this as well. "It's unlikely that the Japanese will enter the forest at this time, but it's uncertain tomorrow. The Japanese have sent so many people out to search. If they are searching for something else, that's fine, but if they are really coming for us, they will definitely turn back to search. They will definitely not let this forest go."

At this point, Tie Niu realized that he had to go there tonight.

Tie Niu was right. Thirty minutes ago, at the Japanese cavalry's garrison, a voice said, "Colonel, we've been waiting here for two days and have sent out more than ten squads, but we still haven't heard anything. Have they already gone over there?"

“Impossible,” Shinkawa said definitively.

"According to the information, that group of people only had one horse. Even if they had set off three days in advance, it would not have been possible for them to leave the city of Chiayi in three days. This is the closest road they can take to leave Chiayi."

“But we’ve searched this area many times and haven’t found any trace of them. Could they have crossed the bridge upstream?” the sergeant next to him said.

"Definitely not, that would take an extra day. Besides, that bridge is in the hands of the KMT, they definitely won't start from there."

Speaking of Dao, Shinkawa seemed to have thought of something. "Tomorrow, search along the route we came from. They must have discovered our trail and are hiding. Go, send a squad to circle around along our original route and see where they might be hiding. Report back to me tomorrow morning."

"Hi"

At this moment, Tie Niu gathered everyone together and shared his conjecture.

Everyone thought this was very likely, so they unanimously decided to take a detour tonight to see which side could be crossed directly by river.

The carriage was abandoned. After discussing the matter, Tie Niu arranged for several soldiers to disperse and sneak along the riverbank to see if there was a place to cross the river.

Fortunately, it was winter, so the river wasn't deep and it shouldn't be difficult to find a place to cross.

After receiving orders to return by 10 o'clock, everyone else closed their eyes to rest and prepare for the breakout that night.

Around 10:30 p.m., all the people sent out returned.

Through conversation, they discovered that the best place to cross the river was near a village more than 10 miles to the northwest, where there was a large, dead tree that had fallen right on both sides of the river.

However, the village was guarded by Japanese soldiers, and the exact number is unknown.

This put Tie Niu in a difficult position. Other locations were either too far away or the water level was above waist-deep. If everyone got sick in the dead of winter, it would be even more of a loss.

Gritting his teeth, Tie Niu decided that the group would lie in wait nearby and then investigate the exact number of Japanese soldiers in the village.