Chapter 11: The Tusi Official's Stockade

  Dolan Xiang turned around and looked at Dong Li Mao with a shy glance, then lowered her head and replied in a low voice: "N...nothing...Brother Dong is injured..."

  "It doesn't matter, one by one calling Dong Gege, it's still smooth. Li Yuanyuan smiled on her face and gently pinched a handful of Jian Lanxiang's smoky face: "You're too naive, you can't talk about emotions with these soldiers, especially during wartime, who knows when he'll die on the battlefield, at that time, the one who will be in pain is you."

  "Sister, please, just let Brother Dong and the others come to my house, I promised Dean Jin that I would take him to my home to recover." Dao Lanxiang grasped Li Yuanyuan's left arm with both hands, shaking it as she pleaded.

  "Good grief!" Li Yuanyuan poked a finger at the center of Dao Lanxiang's forehead: "I really don't know what to do with you." After that, she walked back in front of Dong Limao and his brothers, staring at Dong Limao for a moment before speaking.

  "Listen up, everyone! Once we enter the Knife household, you must change out of your military uniforms and are not allowed to wander around or ask questions recklessly. You're also not allowed to fire your guns unless absolutely necessary! Does everyone remember?"

  "Did all of you brothers hear what this beautiful sister said?" Dong Li Mao stared at Li Yuanyuan's two phoenix eyes and loudly asked the eleven brothers behind him.

  "Loud and clear! Comrade Company Commander!"

  Li Yuyuan's stiff face relaxed slightly, turned around and threw out a sentence: "From now on, don't call me little sister, you should call me big sister." She swayed her hips and walked towards the American military jeep she had driven.

  Dong Li Mao smiled, feeling happy about what she said as she turned around. From her tone and words, it could be heard that she had a good impression of herself. Dong Li Mao thought to himself, only to hear Zhang Da Li behind him making jokes: "Her butt is plump and perky, if I can touch it once, even if I die tomorrow at the hands of the little devils, I'll still be a charming ghost."

  "You're dreaming! With that foolish look of yours, the toad wants to eat swan meat now!" Wang Jia Gui's words brought a burst of laughter.

  Dong Li Mao turned around and said seriously: "Get in the car, all of you! A few old men, can't even tell what's appropriate to say, haven't you seen Lan Xiang is still here?"

  Wang Jiagui stuck out his tongue, Zhang Dali scratched his head and smiled foolishly at Dao Lanxiang, while Zhu Yongsheng slapped him hard on the buttocks: "What are you dazing about? Hurry up and get on the bus."

  Li Yuanyuan turned the jeep around and led the way, while Dong Li Mao drove the truck behind her into the bamboo forest and entered the Knife Family's Tusi Official Stockade.

  The official village is very large, surrounded by bamboo forests and big banyan trees. From the outside, it looks like a dense thicket of bamboo, and ordinary people can hardly know that there is a cave heaven inside.

  The houses in Guanzhai are all bamboo buildings, and the roofs are not covered with green tiles, but with thick grass. Due to wind and sun exposure, the surface of the thatched roof is grayish black.

  More than two meters high bamboo was tied together to surround the official stockade, with the top cut sharp, which served as the wall of the official stockade. Inside and outside the bamboo fence, there were sword hemp plants that were more than half a person's height, standing upright with thorns pointing towards the sky. It would not be easy for ordinary people to climb over the bamboo fence.

  The only entrance and exit of the official village is a bamboo gate where Dong Li Mao drove in, with two sentry posts built high on both sides of the gate using bamboo, each post manned by people dressed as Dai minority members holding carbines.

  From Dou Lanxiang's mouth, it was learned that Guanzhai is divided into two courtyards.

  The front yard, that is, the courtyard at the entrance, has a bluestone pavement and four bamboo buildings surrounding it. Each building is about one meter high from the ground and has two floors. The yard is very spacious, with a large banyan tree in the center that several people can't surround the trunk. Its branches and leaves are umbrella-shaped, dense and lush, almost covering half of the courtyard.

  Dong Li Mao parked the car under the banyan tree next to Li Yuanyuan's jeep, and there was also a military truck parked beside it. In this way, even if the Japanese reconnaissance plane flew over their heads, it would be difficult to discover the military vehicle parked under the tree.

  The backyard is where the Dàolánxiāng family lives.

  Dong Li Mao and Dao Lan Xiang had just gotten off the bus when a man in his forties, wearing Dai ethnic minority men's traditional tube skirt, with a dry tobacco pipe in his mouth and bamboo slippers on his feet, walked over with a clattering sound.

  Dolan Xiang immediately ran up and shouted "Father", then took the man's arm and walked to Dong Li Mao's face, saying: "Father, this is Dong Lian Chang, an anti-Japanese hero. He and several wounded soldiers need to recuperate at my home for a few days."

  Dolan Xiang's father, with piercing eyes, looked up and down at Dong Li Mao, took two puffs of his dry pipe, slowly exhaled a mouthful of choking smoke, opened his mouth to reveal a full set of black teeth, and slightly bowed his head, saying: "Welcome to Guan Zhai as our guest, sir."

  "Thank you for the kindness of Master Tusi." Dong Limao bowed his head in return.

  At this time, more than a dozen children ran out chattering and surrounded Dong Li Mao and the others with curiosity.

  Li Yuanyuan walked up to Tusi: "Tusi, would you please find them some clothes that fit? They can't wear military uniforms here, it will attract the attention of Japanese spies."

  Dawan nodded in agreement and ordered a servant to go and make arrangements immediately, reminding him to prepare food.

  Zhu Yongsheng and the other ten people were arranged in a room on the left side of the front yard in a bamboo building.

  Dong Li Mao was arranged in a bamboo building on the left hand side of the back door, his room just happened to be next to Li Yuanyuan's.

  Dao Lan Xiang had specially brought him a Dai ethnic minority male costume, he took off his military uniform and first put on the blue satin jacket, but couldn't find the pants, only a piece of grayish-yellow satin sewn into a tube shape, like a woman's skirt. He knew this was called a men's tube skirt, he put it on like a woman would wear a skirt, then tied a knot at the hip position, and considered himself dressed. Suddenly, from the soles of his feet upwards, a cool breeze blew up, extremely comfortable. Only then did he understand that in such a humid and sweltering environment, men wore tube skirts like women to feel comfortable.

  Dong Li Mao was delighted, and he buckled the belt with a pistol on his waist. He put his feet into a pair of slippers made of bamboo boards and grass ropes, pulled open the door and stepped out. Just then, the door to his right creaked open, and from inside walked out Li Yuanyuan, who had changed into another outfit, also traditional Dai ethnic minority clothing, but her hair was no longer tied up, instead it was loose and naturally fell behind her back, shiny and black.

  "Sister, the Dai costume suits you very well, it's beautiful." Dong Li Mao didn't call her sister again, but instead changed his mouth to call her sister and sincerely praised Li Yuanyuan.

  Li Yuanyuan smiled and looked up and down at Dong Limao several times, then burst out laughing: "You look like a bandit!"

  Dong Li Mao felt a bit embarrassed, his face burning with embarrassment. For the first time wearing a skirt, he was seen by a beautiful woman, and it made him feel awkward inside. Adding to that was Li Yuanyuan's teasing, making him even more uncomfortable. So he self-deprecatingly chuckled and replied: "But I think I look like a country bumpkin."

  "Judging from your accent, you're a northerner, right?" Li Yuanyuan was still trying to hold back her laughter, her eyes fixed on Dong Limao's Dai ethnic minority attire.

  "I am from Shandong." Dong Li Mao replied, not daring to look into Li Yuanyuan's eyes. Her enchanting and beautiful eyes made him feel like his whole body was on fire, he couldn't bear it. He leaned against the handrail of the stairs, looking out at the courtyard.

  The backyard is wider than the front yard, and the bamboo buildings around it are also more spacious and magnificent than those in the front yard. The main building opposite is the tallest, which is the residence of Qiao Lanxiang's family. Dong Limao saw Qiao Lanxiang walking out of one of the rooms, she had changed into Dai nationality costume, her whole body was wrapped in pink, where it should be bulging, it bulged freely, and where it should be concave, it was also unscrupulously concave. The soot on her face had been washed clean, her figure was slender, although she was not as tall as Li Yuanyuan, but she was small and delicate, with a unique charm.

  She saw her gently lift the long skirt that reached her feet and walk down the stairs of the bamboo building, glancing over at Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan as she walked.

  "Isn't Orchid really beautiful?" Li Yuanyuan asked with a tone of jealousy as she saw Dong Limao staring blankly.

  "Ah, very beautiful, like a fairy." Dong Li Mao said what was on his mind, he didn't care what Li Yuanyuan would think.

  "Dong Gege, sister, come down and eat quickly." Nao Lanxiang walked down the bamboo building and stood in the courtyard paved with bluestones, shouting.