Chapter 18: Outsmarting and Capturing the Enemy

  As they talked, the two gradually drew closer together. From Li Yuanyuan's mouth, Dong Limao learned that she was born into a military family. Her ancestors were small generals who led troops in the Qing Dynasty. Her parents followed Sun Yat-sen to participate in the Xinhai Revolution and both died on the expeditionary journey of the Northern Expedition in 1927, when Li Yuanyuan was only twelve years old.

  After the end of the Northern Expedition, Li Yuanyuan was raised by the government along with other orphans of the Northern Expedition Army. After growing up, she entered a special military academy for training and became an intelligence officer after rigorous training. When the war broke out, she played a significant role on the second front line together with those who received special training.

  This time, the Burmese expeditionary force, like Li Yuanyuan, a spy, had arrived at the Sino-Burmese border a year ago. She speaks Burmese, Japanese and English, directly under the command of Chongqing's highest intelligence agency, but except for her department, she hardly knows about other intelligence agencies and personnel planted along the Sino-Burmese border.

  It was past three in the morning when they entered Myanmar. Li Yuyuan fell asleep, resting her head on Dong Limao's right shoulder. The sailboat-like hat on her head slipped off and landed at Dong Limao's feet. He couldn't pick it up for her, so to make her sleep more comfortably, Dong Limao drove as smoothly as possible.

  The temporarily built highway was rugged and winding, with many vehicles on the dirt road, all of which were transporting ammunition and supplies to the front line. These transport vehicles included both military trucks and ordinary cars, driven by soldiers as well as local drivers. From time to time, they would also encounter vehicles transporting wounded personnel to the rear. To avoid being bombed by Japanese planes, the convoy could only move at night, and even then, they dared not turn on all their headlights, instead proceeding slowly under the faint starlight. There were many vehicles that broke down on the road, while others fell off cliffs because they couldn't see clearly.

  Dong Li Mao drove with extreme caution, closely following the truck in front of him on a temporary mountain road without lights at night. Even Dakar Rally drivers might not dare to drive like this, but Dong Li Mao, who had only learned to drive less than a year ago, was actually driving a World War II-era British military truck, slowly and laboriously making his way along the rugged mountain path. He himself found it unbelievable. Although he knew he wouldn't die, at least not here, that didn't mean the others in the car wouldn't.

  The tenth person in the back seat, who had been with him for less than two days, but had gone through a life-and-death test together. Probably nothing in the world can replace this kind of brotherly affection on the battlefield. Dong Li Mao was deeply moved by Zhang's daring act of running to the backyard to protect him at the risk of his own life.

  So Dong Li Mao made a silent vow: 'I cannot let these brothers die here, I have the responsibility to bring them back alive.'

  The car had just turned into a mountain pass when the sound of intense gunfire suddenly erupted, followed by the explosion of hand grenades. Several cars ahead were attacked and two caught fire. The car in front of Dong Li Mao slammed on its brakes, and Dong's truck nearly crashed into it before he stomped on the brakes.

  Li Yuanyuan's head, after the truck came to a stop, bounced off Dong Li Mao's shoulder and hit the steering wheel: "What's going on..." She didn't have time to feel the pain, opened her eyes to see the car in front of them on fire, and also heard gunshots. She roughly understood what had happened, immediately pulled out a gun from her waist and said: "Quickly get out of the car! There's an ambush!" After saying that, she pushed open the car door and jumped down.

  Dong Li Mao also jumped off the truck, seeing Zhu Yong Sheng and others jumping out of the carriage. He shouted loudly: "Old Zhu! Let the brothers prepare for battle!" As soon as he finished shouting, bullets came flying towards the truck, and he quickly crouched down.

  The bullets were coming from the front right hillside, Zhu Yongsheng and others used the truck as cover and had already started to return fire. As long as they didn't open fire, it was fine, but once they did, even more intense shooting came their way. Dong Limao saw that things weren't going well and loudly shouted: "Don't shoot! Nobody shoot..." He crouched down and made his way over to Zhu Yongsheng and the others: "We'll sneak up quietly, if we open fire, it will expose our position!"

  Zhu Yongsheng then ordered all his brothers to stop, and indeed, after the ceasefire on this side, the enemy on the mountain waist did not shoot here again.

  Dong Li Mao roughly observed the terrain, and found that the vehicles attacked were mainly those entering the mountain pass. The vehicles in front and behind were not attacked, indicating that the enemy was concentrated on the middle of the mountain pass, about 500-600 meters away from Dong Li Mao's position.

  "Bring all the weapons, get out of the truck and use the terrain as cover." After finishing speaking, Dong Li Mao ran to the side of the road near the mountain and lay down.

  Zhu Yongsheng and others, including Li Yuanyuan, rushed to his side one after another, some squatting down, some lying prone on the mountain slope taking aim.

  "Old Zhu, take a closer look, they don't have much firepower, just a small squad of about twenty people, but with a machine gun. You bring five brothers, from here go up the mountain, circle around to the enemy's rear, remember, unless absolutely necessary, never open fire and expose your position! In the first moment, take out that machine gun's firepower, after firing, you just guard the enemy's retreat route up the mountain, don't charge down. I'll bring the remaining brothers to launch a feint attack at the foot of the mountain to cover for you!" Dong Li Mao quickly and accurately made the combat deployment.

  Zhu Yongsheng, before leaving, entrusted Zhang Dali and Wang Jiagui: "You two must protect the company commander." He deliberately left the two most combat-effective people to Dong Li Mao.

  Dong Li Mao watched as Zhu Yong Sheng led his men up the mountain, and only then did he tell Zhang Da Li and the others: "At intervals of five meters, follow me from the highway flood control ditch forward, shooting upwards while walking. Remember to fire in bursts! Hu San, you stay here to protect Miss Li's safety!" He glanced at Li Yuan Yuan crouching beside him and ordered Hu San to stay behind to take care of her.

  "I don't need protection, I want to take action with you!" Li Yuyuan said firmly.

  Dong Li Mao hesitated for a moment, then told Zhang Da Li: "Give her an assault rifle." He selected an assault rifle from the weapons they had brought down from the car, and also took two magazines which he inserted into his waistband. This time he remembered to release the safety catch before pulling back the bolt: "Let's go!" He led the way, sprinting forward a few steps before firing a shot at the enemy on the mountain slope. The enemy returned fire in their direction, so Dong Li Mao crouched down and used a small embankment by the roadside as cover, continuing to advance a few more steps before firing again.

  Others followed Dong Li Mao's example, one after another, following him. After Wang Jia Gui fell, he didn't fire blindly, but aimed at the position where the flames emerged and shot.

  The enemy on the halfway up the mountain probably thought that Dong Li Mao and his men were just drivers in the convoy making sporadic counterattacks, so when Dong Li Mao and his men walked and fired at the same time, they directed their firepower towards them, and even, except for the machine gun fire point, the other fire points began to move down, intending to rush down the mountain.

  This was exactly what Dong Li Mao had expected, which meant that the enemy had been attracted and trapped. In this way, Zhu Yongsheng and his men could more easily sneak up behind them.

  Dong Li Mao could hear the whizzing of bullets flying over his head and past his ears.

  Li Yuanyuan followed behind Zhang Dali, and behind her was Hu San.

  A few hundred meters away, Dong Li Mao and his men arrived at the roadside below the enemy in about two or three minutes. The slope here was relatively gentle, with dense forests on the hillside, which could be used as cover. Dong Li Mao ordered everyone to disperse and hide behind trees, exchanging fire with the enemy halfway up the mountain, but not charging forward. He was waiting for Zhu Yong Sheng and his men to launch a surprise attack from behind the enemy's back, knocking out their machine gun firepower and causing the enemy to retreat in disarray.

  Less than a minute later, the sound of gunfire and hand grenade explosions finally came from behind the enemy's back. The machine gun that was spitting out flames fell silent, and the enemy's firepower on the mountain suddenly decreased by half. The remaining ones began to retreat to both sides of the mountain and down the mountain.

  The situation was turned around, the originally passive convoy now took the initiative, and some military vehicle drivers also joined the battle, firing at the retreating enemy.

  "Dong Li Mao shouted loudly towards Wang Jia Gui who was not far away: 'Second brother, the left and right sides are yours to manage!'"

  Wang Jiagui understood Dong Li Mao's intention, and with the help of the burning truck's light, he shot one by one, like a hunter hunting, first knocking down the enemies running to both sides, while Dong Li Mao and others were responsible for shooting at the enemies retreating downhill.

  Dong Li Mao worried that the drivers joining the battle from down the mountain would hurt Zhu Yong Sheng and his men up on the mountain, so he shouted loudly: "There are our own brothers up there! Everyone stop firing wildly!"

  After Wang Jia Gui knocked down the last enemy, the battle came to an end. Zhu Yong Sheng and others shouted as they came down from the mountain, shouting to inform the people below that they were their own people. All the people at the foot of the mountain stopped firing.

  As Zhu Yongsheng and others approached, Dong Li Mao smiled, went up six, came back six, none missing.

  Zhu Yongsheng handed a Japanese-style light machine gun to Zhang Dali: "Heavy machine gun, although this is not the kind you like, its power is no worse than that of a heavy one. It's yours now!" Then he laughed and said to Dong Limao: "Company Commander, this battle was really beautiful. Those little devils probably won't even understand how they died when they get to the underworld!"

  Zhang Dali caught the Japanese-style light machine gun captured by Zhu Yongsheng, and happily held it in his hands.

  Li Yuanyuan walked over to Dong Li Mao's side, and Zhu Yongsheng tactfully stepped aside.

  "Dong Lianchang, you're a first-rate commander." Li Yuanyuan gave a thumbs up and smiled as she finished speaking, then leaned in close to Dong Limao's ear, almost touching her lips to his ear, and whispered: "If I were Commander Du, I wouldn't have made you a company commander, but a regimental commander instead."

  Dong Li Mao's ears felt warm and itchy, extremely comfortable, while Li Yuanyuan's words made him feel refreshed to the bone, indicating that she also appreciated his organization of this counterattack.

  Men all hope that beautiful women will affirm themselves, just like women who are very fond of men praising their beauty in front of them. Li Yuyan's actions and words earlier made Dong Limao uncontrollably associate with her, as if his ears still lingered with the warmth of Li Yuyan's breath. He reached out to touch his ear, indulging in the praise of beautiful women.

  Li Yuanyuan loudly told the other drivers who participated in the battle: "You all remember! Just now it was Dong Jiacheng, the commander of the 5th Army Special Operations Brigade, who led his brothers to save your lives and protect the military supplies on the vehicle!"

  (Favorites! Flowers! are the best rewards for me!)