Chapter 31: Obstruction on Taking Office

  Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan fell asleep in each other's arms on the bumpy truck, and when they were woken up by the loud noise, the truck had already stopped.

  The driver is not in the car, and the rain continues to patter down. Outside the window, there are the rumbling sounds of trucks, people shouting, and the splashing sounds of feet trampling through muddy water...

  Li Yuanyuan put on Dong Limao's outer garment and pushed open the car door to get out, Dong Limao followed her with his upper body bare, jumping down to see a large square, rows of parked trucks, possibly some local residents mixed with soldiers unloading supplies from the carriage.

  "Dong Lianchang, you and the female officer slept so soundly, I didn't have the heart to wake you up..." The truck driver led a few people over, seemingly preparing to unload cargo.

  "What place is this?" Dong Li Mao looked around and wiped the rain from his face as he asked.

  "This is a logistics transfer station for the Fifth Army's supplies. You should be close to where you're headed." The driver replied.

  Zhu Yongsheng and the others jumped down from the rear compartment one after another. Zhang Dali seemed to be carsick, squatting beside the rear wheel and vomiting, while Hu San was patting his back.

  "Second, you go and ask how to get to the military department? It's best to find a guide and arrange for a vehicle." Dong Li Mao gave orders decisively: "Old Zhu, take a few brothers and go find the person in charge here, get some raincoats... The others first find a place to take shelter from the rain..."

  The driver opened the rear compartment door and let people unload the goods. He walked to Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan's side and said: "Dong Lianzhang, lead your brothers to kill more devils! Beat them to death! If I were twenty years younger, I would also follow you to kill devils... After unloading the goods, I still have to rush back to the Baoshikeng military supply station tonight..."

  In this weather, it's impossible for the Japanese planes to come and bomb us. Lanterns are lit everywhere, some wounded people are being carried onto trucks that have just finished unloading goods, while other trucks have already started driving on the road. The entire transfer station is in a mess, with mud splashing up from the wheels of passing vehicles as high as a person, spattering onto the people transporting supplies, but not one person pays attention to the mud on their bodies. It seems like everyone has gotten used to it, or maybe they've just become numb. Compared to death, what's a little mud on your body?

  Before long, Wang Jiagui led a soldier running over: "Company Commander, the Military Department Guard Corps is stationed in Dongguacheng, still ten or more miles away from here. I found someone to lead the way and he agreed to drive us there."

  Zhu Yongsheng and several brothers not only brought raincoats but also brought some compressed biscuits and water bottles filled with drinking water.

  On the way to the guard unit, no one spoke, everyone's mood was heavy and suffocating, like a rainy night, damp and stifling.

  This was a small truck without a canvas top, Dong Li Mao had Li Yuanyuan and the driver sit in the cab, he stayed in the back with eleven brothers, wearing raincoats, and didn't feel cold.

  Dong Li Mao looked at everyone's solemn face, he could feel their emotions at this moment, and understood why they would be like this. More than 100 people from the nine rows had died in battle in this very place.

  The car drove on the muddy road for about an hour and entered Dongguacheng. From the rubble and debris illuminated by the headlights, Dong Li Mao could feel how brutal the fierce battle that had taken place here not long ago was.

  This is where Taigong led the nine brothers to break through the Japanese defense line.

  Dong Li Mao's mood seemed to be infected by the emotions of others, gazing at the city ravaged by war and scorched earth, he deeply felt the fear that shrouded him in the midst of war.

  This transportation hub in Myanmar is now under the control of the expeditionary force, but Dong Li Mao knows better than anyone that they can't stay here for long. He glanced at the eleven brothers who were hanging their heads in silence one by one, and a sense of responsibility he had never felt before seemed to weigh heavily on his shoulders, making him feel heavy all over, although he knew he couldn't change the course of defeat, but he had a duty to do his best to protect them, let them follow him, tenaciously and cleverly fight against the Japanese army, minimize casualties as much as possible, and let more people survive.

  Dong Li Mao made a silent vow in his heart: Not for anything else, even if it's just for the sake of Tai Ye's sworn brothers, I must hold on!

  Dong Li Mao is no longer the Dong Li Mao who had just woken up in the hospital, he was just a spoiled child from the 21st century who crossed over to the 1940s. Now, he has been transformed into a man by Li Yuanyuan, a female special agent, overnight. In just one night, he transformed from a boy scout to a brave and intelligent man who is not afraid of death. Even he himself can't believe it's real, but what he experienced that day and night told him that this is not a video game or a dream in his warm bed, but a real-life battle with the Japanese. This is something that people of his age at that time cannot experience.

  Just as he said to Dongguapang Guangzu: Killing people is inherently one of the most disgusting things in the world, but what's even more disgusting is that after you've killed the first person, an urge to kill more people will unconsciously arise in your heart!

  Such a philosophical remark, without personal experience, can't be spoken by anyone, even those who have experienced it may not be able to express it, otherwise, it wouldn't be Dong Li Mao's turn to say this.

  The melon city on a rainy night has no living breath, under the shroud of darkness, it's like a dead city.

  Where the vehicle passed, there were no signs of human presence, only rotting corpses visible everywhere. Judging from the scattered clothes, most of the rotting corpses were soldiers, and a small number were civilians.

  How many Japanese and expeditionary forces were there? Dong Li Mao thought, from the limited historical materials he knew that in the Donggua campaign, more than 5,000 enemies were killed and over 400 people were captured. Although the historical data did not find any information on the casualties of the expeditionary army in this battle, it can be roughly estimated from the Japanese casualties that the expeditionary army would not have fewer casualties than the Japanese in this battle. In any siege war, the attacking side will never suffer less losses than the defending side, which is an undeniable fact since ancient times.

  The wild dogs that were tearing at the rotting corpse yelped and ran away in fright as they were illuminated by the car headlights.

  Dong Li Mao's nostrils picked up a stench that was stronger than the last, thousands and hundreds of times more pungent than the smell of dead mice.

  Li Yuanyuan was also constantly retching from the stench, covering her mouth and nose tightly with her palm. Perhaps she had never seen such a miserable scene or smelled such a foul corpse smell before.

  Fortunately it was on a rainy day and in the car, otherwise this stench would have suffocated people.

  After more than ten minutes, the stench of corpses finally disappeared, and the car drove onto a street lined with houses that were lit up.

  The car stopped at the gate of a large courtyard at the end of this street, with two soldiers standing guard on either side of the gate, one of whom stepped forward.

  "Which part are you from?"

  "It's Special Agent Lian!" Zhu Yongsheng stood up and replied.

  The sentry suddenly raised the bolt, aimed at Zhu Yongsheng with his gun, and scared him into squatting down. Another sentry also knelt on one knee, aiming at the people in the car compartment with his gun, a posture that would shoot without hesitation if anyone moved.

  "Everyone stay in the car and don't move!" the sentry shouted.

  Dong Li Mao looked at the situation and felt something was off, he raised his hands above his head, slowly stood up, and loudly said: "I am Special Agent Captain Dong Jia Cheng! I have come to report to the headquarters..."

  "Do you think we're dead? Who are you trying to cheat? Doesn't everyone know that the Special Operations Brigade has been disbanded and reorganized? And there's no company commander surnamed Dong in the regiment!" The sentry didn't believe Dong Li Mao.

  "Disband? Reorganize?" Dong Li Mao was bewildered and thought to himself: A dignified commander of the five armies wouldn't make such an international joke, would he?

  "Shut up! Stand still! Otherwise I'll shoot!"

  Dong Li Mao couldn't bear such humiliation, being pointed at by a soldier's gun muzzle. He suddenly became furious, jumped off the car with a loud shout: "Come on! Aim at Grandpa me! You dare not shoot, you are my grandson! Come on..." He patted his chest loudly, like an outlaw, and stepped forward towards the soldier pointing the gun at him.

  "You... stop right there... take one more step forward... I... I'll really shoot... don't come any closer..." The soldier was intimidated by Dong Li Mao's aura, his hands shaking slightly, and he stuttered as he spoke. Dong Li Mao took a step forward, the soldier retreated a step, all the way back to the entrance, where he tripped on the threshold and landed with a thud on the rain-soaked stone floor.

  Zhu Yongsheng and the others, as soon as Dong Limao jumped off the car, picked up their tools and stood up. Wang Jiagui took aim at the sentinel kneeling on one knee, his rifle pointed at the man's forehead. As soon as Dong Limao gave the order, he would be the first to take down that guy.

  Li Yuanyuan also got out of the car, pulled out a pistol and prepared to shoot at the sentry who was retreating backwards, she was protecting Dong Limao.

  The two sentries were frightened out of their wits by this sudden turn of events and for a moment did not know what to do.

  Suddenly, a hurried footsteps came from the yard, followed by a group of soldiers wearing steel helmets and carrying carbines rushed out of the gate, surrounding Dong Li Mao and the people on the truck.

  "Nobody is allowed to move..." Zhu Yongsheng shouted loudly.

  Zhang Dali held the Japanese-style light machine gun in both hands and shouted loudly: "Whoever dares to move Commander Lian's hair, I'll shoot him to pieces!"

  Hu San jumped off the carriage, blocking Dong Li Mao's path, with a posture of wanting to save his master. His eyes stared at the several soldiers surrounding Dong Li Mao, without any fear.

  "Everyone, don't be impulsive." Dong Li Mao waved his hand loudly and said: "We are all brothers of the same family, our gun barrels should be consistently aimed at the Japanese devils! Not at our own brothers!" He was deeply moved by Hu San's actions and patted him on the head, saying: "Little Hu, don't worry about me, I won't die." He felt that calling Hu San 'Little Hu' was very affectionate, just like calling his classmate Tu Hongbo 'Winter Melon', without any sense of distance.

  Hu San didn't leave, turned his head back to face Dong Li Mao with a sly smile and said: "Boss, you've also given me a nickname. All the brothers have nicknames, but I was the only one without one. Now it's great, I'm just like the brothers, I've got a nickname too, hehe..." With an innocent look on his face, as if Dong Li Mao giving him a nickname was a sign of respect.

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