Chapter 39: The First Special Task (5)

  Dong Li Mao's feet touched the treetop, thinking that he was done for, and would be hung from the tree. In the past, he had seen in WWII movies and TV shows that if a paratrooper got hung up in a tree, and couldn't get down in time, the ultimate outcome was either being shot dead by searching enemy soldiers or being taken alive.

  What's coming is what's feared, Dong Li Mao was hung on a red pine tree that was over ten meters high, he couldn't go up or down, he swept his eyes around his feet, it was dark and gloomy, he couldn't see anything, didn't know how far from the ground. He perked up his ears and listened for a while, confirmed there was no one around, then shrunk back his right foot, on the outside of his boot, he had tied a military knife. He stretched out his right hand to pull it out, cut off the parachute rope on the left side, with several crisp sounds, his body quickly fell down a segment, and stopped again. He didn't dare use the knife to cut off the rope on the right side, fearing that if he fell too high, he would break his legs. So he pulled hard downwards, with a loud ripping sound of fabric, Dong Li Mao's body slid down again, this time the speed was slower, he looked down at his feet and laughed.

  About a dozen centimeters below his feet was a large stone. Dong Li Mao decisively cut the rope on the right side of the umbrella with his military knife, stood firmly on both feet on the stone, and immediately pulled out the Browning pistol from his waist holster, cocked it, squatted down, looked around cautiously, and listened carefully in all directions. Except for the intermittent insect sounds, there was no other movement around him. He jumped off the stone and crouched under it like a frog, making a few croaking sounds. Two more croaks came from his left side.

  "Who's there?" Dong Li Mao asked in a low voice, responding to the password from above.

  "It's me." Li Yuanyuan's voice came over.

  Dong Li Mao half-squatted, grasping the gun with both hands, quickly moving to the location where Li Yuanyuan's voice came from, seeing that she had just opened the parachute on her body.

  "Sister, are you okay?" Dong Li Mao asked in a low voice, leaning against Li Yuanyuan as a lookout.

  Li Yuyuan walked forward and patted Dong Limao's back: "Sister was almost scared to death, if I were to push you from behind, you would know whether anything is wrong or not!" The words carried a tone of blaming Dong Limao for pushing her earlier.

  "I didn't jump down with my sister too? I've been protecting her from behind all along." Dong Li Mao said with a sly smile.

  "Your little mouth is getting sweeter and sweeter, making me want to slap you but can't bear to." Li Yuanyuan smiled and stretched out her hand to gently pinch Dong Limao's cheek.

  "Stop messing around and let's go!" Dong Li Mao knew in his heart that this was not the time for flirting.

  "What about the parachute? It will be discovered by the Japanese patrol." Li Yuanyuan said with some worry.

  "Don't worry, by the time the little devils' patrol finds the parachute, we'll have already blown the warehouse to kingdom come." Dong Li Mao said, his eyes fixed on the place outside the forest where the bonfire was burning brightly, as he moved forward with a bowed waist.

  Li Yuyuan held the pistol in her hand and closely followed Dong Li Mao to move towards the bonfire location.

  The rest of the raiders, after landing relatively smoothly, have gathered around the bonfire with the help of the resistance organization personnel who came to meet them. Each person is very experienced, with their back to the fire and facing outward in a half-crouching position, holding guns in their hands and being extremely vigilant.

  Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan walked out of the woods, immediately someone pointed a gun at them, Gou Hao asked in a low voice: "Is it Lian Zhang?"

  "Are we all here, brothers?" Dong Li Mao asked after answering.

  The assault team members aiming at Dong Li Mao and Li Yuanyuan put away their guns and stood up, while Gu Hao and two men dressed as locals came forward: "Everyone is here, they are here to pick us up." Gu Hao introduced to Dong Li Mao.

  "Why haven't you put out the bonfire yet? It will attract the devils' patrol team." Li Yuanyuan said, looking at the bonfire.

  "Don't worry, the mountains are high and the forests are dense here, and it's not within the range of the Japanese army's patrol. Moreover, to ensure this airdrop, our guerrilla forces have been deployed around this mountain, so if there's any movement, we'll be the first to know."

  "Are you from Shanxi?" Dong Li Mao was a Shandong native and could tell that the man's accent had a strong Shanxi flavor.

  "I am from Datong, Shanxi." The man replied and stretched out his right hand: "My name is Xu Hongming, you are Dong Jiacheng, Commander-in-Chief of the Dong family, aren't you?"

  Dong Li Mao stretched out his hand and shook hands with Xu Hongming, saying: "I am Dong Jia Cheng, how far is it from here to the devils' railway warehouse?"

  "It's about ten kilometers away, and it can be reached within an hour." Xu Hongming replied.

  Li Yuyuan looked at her watch and said to Dong Limao: "It's now 2:25, we can reach our destination before 3:30."

  "Brothers, put out the bonfire and get ready to set off!" Dong Li Mao said to the other assault team members.

  At three points, Dong Li Mao and others arrived at a hill less than two kilometers away from the train station warehouse. From here, they could clearly see the train station sentry and patrol team with binoculars. More than 100 people were hiding in the forest on the hill, led by a thin and dark Burmese man. Through Xu Hongming's translation, Dong Li Mao knew that more than ten minutes ago, a train had stopped at the station.

  Dong Li Mao used binoculars to see that people wearing white protective suits were carefully unloading boxes with human skulls from a train car and carrying them into an open warehouse.

  "Sister, look, are those boxes?" Dong Li Mao handed the binoculars to Li Yuanyuan.

  "Judging from the appearance of the movers and the boxes, it should be our target." Li Yuanyuan said while looking.

  "How many devils are garrisoned here?" Dong Li Mao asked Xu Hongming beside him.

  "A small team, less than one hundred people." Xu Hongming replied.

  "So, it's not a company or a battalion, but just a platoon?" Dong Limao was somewhat incredulous. Such an important ammunition transfer station, how could it be guarded by only one Japanese platoon? "Isn't that a mistake?"

  Xu Hongming then communicated with the leader of that local resistance organization and replied, "We have been monitoring this ammunition depot for over a dozen days, and indeed only a small team of Japanese troops are guarding it."

  "Are there still large Japanese troops nearby?" Dong Li Mao wasn't disbelieving, but rather felt that there must be a problem with this.

  "About ten kilometers away from here, there is a garrison of a mechanized brigade," Xu Hongming replied.

  "It's over ten kilometers away, which means that if something unexpected happens here, they'll need at least ten or more minutes to arrive." Dong Li Mao said, seemingly to himself.

  "What's wrong? Do you suspect it's a trap?" Li Yuanyuan asked.

  Dong Li Mao shook his head: "No, I suspect your intelligence is wrong. Such an important ammunition depot, if I were a Japanese military commander, would not be guarded by only one small squad of troops. Moreover, at the time when the Japanese are transporting such important weapons, there should be increased manpower for defense. Is that possible?"

  "Maybe they didn't want to attract the attention of our intelligence personnel, so they deliberately arranged it this way." Li Yuanyuan expressed her opinion.

  "Are there any other ammunition depots around here?" Dong Li Mao asked Xu Hongming who was crawling beside him.

  "It seems to be gone, this is the largest ammunition depot of the Japanese army in the suburbs of Yangon, almost half of the military supplies were transported from here." Xu Hongming replied after a moment of silence.

  Dong Li Mao thought for a moment and said: "Now it's still three hours away from six o'clock, let's do this, I'll sneak over with Gou Hao, grab someone and ask them."

  "No way! Neither of you understands Japanese, how can we ask? Li Yuyan immediately said: "I'll go with you, no need to bring people back, it can save some time."

  "Dong Li Mao thought for a moment: 'Gu Hao, follow me! The rest of you wait until we enter the station warehouse, then quietly move forward to a position where the searchlights can't reach. Stand by without moving, no one is allowed to act without my orders! Unless... unless we exchange fire with the devils!'"

  After finishing speaking, Dong Li Mao was about to set off.

  Xu Hongming hastily whispered: "Wait a minute! The warehouse is surrounded by barbed wire, we can't do it without tools!" Then he said a few words to the leader of the resistance organization. Before long, someone ran over and handed a pair of pliers to Xu Hongming: "I'll act with you!"