The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

"boom!"

As the smoke cleared, three Japanese soldiers were blown away, and two others lay on the ground clutching their stomachs, groaning in pain.

"Baka! High ground! Machine gun! Suppress the fire on the cliff!" Fujita Hiroshi roared from behind a rock.

The Japanese soldiers began firing their Type 96 machine guns up the mountain, the bullets making a thud as they hit the leaves.

But Zhou Jindong simply didn't engage in a firefight with them.

Less than two minutes into the fight, he whistled, "Retreat! Retreat!"

The guerrillas moved swiftly, firing a few shots before using the bushes for cover to retreat to the other side of the mountain.

Fujita Hiroshi waited for a while and found that there was no movement above. He peeked out and saw that the cliff was empty except for a few wisps of smoke.

"Chase them! They're out of bullets! Chase them!" Fujita Hiroshi roared in exasperation.

The Japanese soldiers crawled out from behind the rocks and continued their pursuit, stepping over the bodies of their comrades.

But when they chased them to the back of the cliff, they found that there was only a narrow path leading into the deep mountains, surrounded by dense thorns and pine trees.

Zhou Jindong's men have long since disappeared.

When Okada Tomohisa heard gunshots at the valley entrance, he thought the guerrillas had been surrounded, so he excitedly rode in.

All they found were spent shell casings and a few corpses; they didn't even catch a guerrilla fighter.

"Bastard! Bastard!" Okada Tomohisa lashed out with his riding crop, striking Fujita Hiroshi hard across the face. "Three hundred men against a few dozen guerrillas, and you let them escape right under your noses! Is your brain a pig's brain?"

A bloody welt remained on Fujita Hiroshi's face, but he dared not wipe it away, only bowing and scraping: "Captain, the enemy is familiar with the terrain, and although their firepower is not strong, they are extremely cunning. Please give me another chance, I will definitely..."

"Definitely my foot!" Okada Tomohisa looked at the darkening sky. "It's getting dark; we can't stay in these mountains tonight. Send the order to leave the valley and set up camp on the flat ground outside!"

The Japanese troops began to retreat.

Meanwhile, in a dense forest three miles away from the Japanese camp, Zhou Jindong was squatting on the ground eating dry rations.

He held a cornbread in his hand and took a bite with some cold water.

"Brother Dongzi, the Japanese have withdrawn from Eagle's Beak." Sun Erniu, who was in charge of reconnaissance, crouched down and crawled back, saying in a low voice, "They've set up camp on the riverbank outside the valley entrance, put up tents, and even made a fire."

"How much baggage did you bring?" Zhou Jindong asked.

"Two trucks were parked behind, and a few horses were carrying boxes. I saw some Japanese soldiers moving the boxes; they were heavy, probably ammunition and canned food." Sun Erniu licked his lips. "Brother Dongzi, when do we make our move? I don't think there are many guards, just a small squad."

Zhou Jindong swallowed the last bite of cornbread, patted the crumbs off his hands, and said, "The Japanese devils are exhausted after a long day; they'll definitely sleep soundly tonight. But that old devil Okada Tomohisa has learned his lesson and will certainly be on high alert. Let's not launch a direct assault on the camp; let's take out those two trucks."

"Trucks?" Wang Yuan's eyes lit up. "Those are full of good stuff!"

"Yes. Wang Lei, you take the artillery platoon and those Japanese soldiers from the fourth platoon, and sneak up near the truck. Don't fire, use knives and daggers to take care of the sentries." Zhou Jindong looked at Ogawa Kosuke, "Ogawa, you take a few men, change into Japanese uniforms, and pretend to be a patrol. If you're questioned, you know what to say."

Kosuke Ogawa now both respected and feared Zhou Jindong, and quickly nodded: "Don't worry, Captain Zhou, I'll just say that Company Commander Fujita sent them to inspect the ammunition."

"Okay. Zhang Fang, you take the first and second squads and lay mines along the only route to the camp. Not the kind that explodes immediately, but the kind that will blow off your heel even if you don't break your leg."

"Wang Yuan, you take the men from the third and fourth squads and wait until Wang Lei's side succeeds. Then, set off firearms behind the camp to create chaos and draw the Japanese soldiers' attention."

Zhou Jindong stood up, his gaze sweeping over the crowd: "Remember, our goal isn't to annihilate them all, it's to steal their loot and harass them! Grab it and run! Anyone who tries to fight will be shot! Do you all understand?"

"Understood!" the crowd shouted in unison.

Late at night, the mountain wind carried a chill.

Several bonfires burned in the Japanese camp, and sentries, holding their rifles, leaned against trees and dozed off.

The Japanese soldiers were exhausted after a full day of pursuit and the ambush they had just witnessed.

The truck was parked fifty meters away from the camp, where only two sentries were smoking.

Kosuke Ogawa swaggered past with four "Japanese soldiers."

"Halt! Password!" The sentry warily raised his gun.

Kosuke Ogawa cursed in fluent Japanese, "Baka! Company Commander Fujita sent us to inspect the ammunition because he was worried about its safety! You're slacking off!"

Upon hearing that the sentry was from the company commander and seeing that the man was in uniform, the sentry's imposing manner immediately diminished: "Sorry, sir, I was just doing my duty..."

The moment he let his guard down, a guerrilla fighter behind Kosuke Ogawa suddenly sprang up and plunged his dagger into the sentry's neck.

Just as another sentry was about to shout, Wang Lei sprang out of the darkness and smashed a rifle butt into his temple, knocking him unconscious.

"Quick! Move the stuff!"

Several men quickly climbed onto the truck bed. The truck was loaded with two boxes of mortar shells, three boxes of hand grenades, several boxes of canned beef, and a box of medicine.

"We've struck it rich! We're rich now!" Wang Lei's eyes gleamed as he looked at the shells.

"Don't be greedy! Move the shells and canned goods! Take all the medicine!" Zhou Jindong's voice rang out from under the car.

Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from the camp.

"boom!"

Immediately afterwards, gunfire erupted.

"Enemy attack! The enemy has launched a surprise attack on the camp!"

Startled awake, Fujita Hiroshi rushed out of the tent, pulling up his pants.

It turned out that Wang Yuan and his men had set off a row of homemade cannons behind the camp and thrown more than a dozen hand grenades. Although not many people were killed, the commotion was terrifying.

The Japanese troops were thrown into chaos, firing indiscriminately towards the rear of the camp.

"Don't panic! Don't panic! It's a diversionary tactic! Protect the ammunition truck!" Okada Tomohisa, a seasoned veteran, reacted immediately.

But he was too late.

Seeing that the Japanese troops' attention had been drawn, Zhou Jindong immediately whistled.

Wang Lei and the others jumped out of the car, each carrying a box of ammunition, and quickly disappeared into the woods.

When Okada Tomohisa led his men to the truck, they only saw two sentries with their throats slit and an empty truck bed.

One of the wheels was torn off, and the car can't move anymore.

"Aaaaah!" Okada Tomohisa looked at the cigarette butts and footprints on the ground, and roared to the sky in anger. He pulled out his military knife and slashed wildly at the truck next to him, smashing the canopy to pieces.

That night, the Japanese soldiers couldn't sleep at all. They didn't know where the guerrillas were, or when the next attack would come.

Over the next three days, Zhou Jindong took the "mushroom tactic" to its extreme.

When the Japanese army wanted to search and annihilate them in the mountains, Zhou Jindong led his men to snipe and fire volleys from the mountain ridges. By the time the Japanese army caught up, they had long since disappeared.

When the Japanese troops wanted to rest and cook, Zhou Jindong would send people upstream to poison them or set off firecrackers nearby to harass them.

The most ingenious thing was that Zhou Jindong had many slogans written on the road, in Japanese, such as "You are surrounded" and "Surrender and you will not be killed".