Chapter 117: Adjusting Battle Deployment

  Dong Li Mao lay on the bed and carefully reviewed in his mind the reconnaissance, tracking, ambush, and annihilation tasks he had set up for the Japanese army last night. The latest intelligence provided by Li Yuanyuan made him dare not to be careless, as this was a matter of life and death for more than 100 brothers in the special operations team. How could he both annihilate the 300-strong Japanese elite vanguard and minimize casualties among his comrades?

  "Wild Wolf Dare to Die Team... Operation Pangolin... Wild Wolf..." Dong Li Mao's hands were clasped behind his head, muttering to himself: "Kill the wolf... kill..." He suddenly sat up straight: "That's right, kill the wolf! Before the little devils can even retrieve their weapons from the mule..."

  Dong Li Mao thought of this and forgot it was late at night, loudly shouting: "Little Beard..."

  Hu San was not summoned, but the sentry ran up to report at the door.

  "Go and get the quartermaster for me!" Dong Li Mao shouted loudly as he got out of bed and put on his shoes.

  He lit the lamp and spread the map on the table, holding the lamp with his left hand and sliding his right hand back and forth over the location of Songshan where he was preparing to set an ambush.

  "Report..." Pan Guangzu yawned and shouted "report" outside the door.

  "Come on in, fatty." Dong Li Mao didn't raise his head and remained bent over the map.

  The door creaked open and a voice asked, "Lian Chang, what brings you here so late?" Pan Guangzu rubbed his eyes as he walked over to ask.

  "You must prepare over a hundred sharp cleavers for me before dawn." Dong Li Mao put the lamp on the table and looked at Pan Guang Zu.

  "In the middle of the night, you want me to go find over a hundred machetes?" Pan Guangzu replied with a thud as he sat down on his chair.

  "You're my quartermaster, now I need to equip each brother with a machete, you're the magician, and you must get it done before dawn!" Dong Li Mao said with wide eyes.

  "I said Lian Chang, we are a special task force, the best equipped battalion in the entire expeditionary army. Are our brothers not loggers, why should we equip cold weapons to a mechanized battalion? Is it suitable? Can it be used? This is not the era of cold weapons." Pan Guangzu couldn't understand why Dong Li Mao wanted to chop knives.

  "Kill him!" Dong Li Mao replied coldly.

  "Kill... kill wolf... haha..." Pan Guangzu laughed: "Brothers have submachine guns, pistols and grenades on their bodies. Those are not the tools for killing wolves. Battalion Commander, you wouldn't abandon these advanced modern weapons to use a machete..." Pan Guangzu seemed to think of something, slapping his forehead and saying: "Oh, I know! Last time you used a machete to kill a wild wolf, didn't you find it very useful? So..."

  "This time it's not killing wild wolves, but chopping off the little devil's head!" Dong Li Mao interrupted Pan Guang Zu's words.

  Pan Guangzu was even more shocked, stood up and blinked his small eyes twice, asking: "You mean, to ask the brothers to use machetes against the little devils..."

  Dong Li Mao immediately took over and said: "That's right, we must use a machete to kill the little devils!"

  Pan Guangzu reached out and touched Dong Limao's forehead: "Lian Chang, you're not talking nonsense, are you?"

  "Go! You're just talking nonsense!" Dong Li Mao pushed Pan Guang Zu: "You go find Ma Ge, he's a local, let him accompany you to find the chopping knife."

  "You really want to use a machete to kill the little devils?" Pan Guangzu refused to believe that Dong Li Mao would think of using a machete to kill the ghosts.

  "Fatty, where did you get so much nonsense! If you can't find the number of cleavers I told you before dawn, I'll chop you up like a little devil first!" Dong Limao bellowed with wide eyes.

  Pan Guangzu was indeed afraid of Dong Li Mao's anger, and he obediently walked out the door, but his mouth muttered: "So many powerful weapons are not used, how many devils can be killed with a machete?"

  Grumbling aside, Pan Guangzu still followed Dong Li Mao's orders and brought along Guangtou Ma and a soldier who could drive. Before dawn broke, they had indeed found over a hundred of the local people's machetes.

  Dong Li Mao looked at the jeep's shiny machetes and laughed, asking: "Fatty, you're indeed my quartermaster, how did you get your hands on these machetes?"

  Pan Guangzu pointed at Bald Horse and said: "If it weren't for Brother Ma, even if I had the skills of a heavenly craftsman, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get these machetes."

  Bald-headed Ma replied: "These knives, every household in the local area has a few of them. When they heard that we were going to use these knives to chop up the little devils, they were all very happy and almost every household was willing to give us all their chopping knives. Dong Ge, are we going to use these knives to chop up the little devils like you led us in chopping up the wolves last time?"

  Pan Guangzu muttered on one side: "The little devils are not wolves."

  "Quartermaster, you don't understand this, do you? Brother Dong and Instructor Gou once used this kind of chopping knife to split eight little devils in half." Bald-headed Ma picked up a chopping knife and tested the sharpness of the blade with his thumb: "They're all very sharp, no need to sharpen them before using."

  "Distribute these machetes to each brother, and from now on, this kind of machete will become a special equipment for our Special Forces. Tell the brothers to keep their machetes sharp at all times." Dong Li Mao instructed Pan Guang Zu.

  Liu Yudong's scouting team, all dressed in local attire, also found some mules and donkeys, which were loaded with weapons and ammunition. If necessary, they could ride the mules to hurry along the road.

  Zhao Yong's main assault team and Zhang Dali's machine gun team, according to Dong Limao's previous arrangement, were also ready to go, preparing to head to Songshan to find a suitable location for an ambush.

  Before departure, Dong Li Mao called Zhao Yong and Liu Yu Kang aside separately and clearly entrusted them with the new countermeasure he had thought of last night.

  Dong Li Mao's judgment was correct, the Japanese army vanguard, codenamed "Chuan Shan Jia" action, departed from a Burmese town on April 26th at noon, divided into six routes, taking the treacherous mountain path. The only difference was that they didn't drive too many mules like the horse teams did, each small team used only a dozen or so mules to transport light and heavy weapons and ammunition. To avoid drawing attention, they wore the clothes of mule drivers, with rain cloaks on their backs, wearing bamboo hats, and carried short knives for general self-defense, but no guns. This was also to prevent the attention of the local people along the way, and even more so to guard against the expeditionary army's undercover scouts. Their purpose was very clear: to rush straight to the Nujiang Huitong Bridge.

  When night falls, a gentle rain falls from the sky, continuous and unending.

  The Wild Wolf Dare-to-Die Corps led by Matsushita Nagayoshi started crossing the Gaoligong Mountains from six treacherous small paths and successively passed through the Sino-Burmese border around midnight.

  The scout team's report was transmitted to Dong Li Mao, who added up the number of people passing through each mountain road, totaling 358 people, which matched Li Yuanyuan's latest intelligence. Moreover, these six troops were advancing rapidly in one direction without stopping horses or resting their feet.

  Dong Li Mao used a red pen to mark six arrows on the map, and said to Wang Jia Gui and Gou Hao: "The wolf pack is heading into the pocket we set up for them, recall all brothers at the traffic checkpoints, it's time for us to take action!"

  Dong Li Mao made some adjustments to the previous battle deployment. The squad led by Wang Jia Gui no longer flanked from behind, but instead joined Zhao Yong and Zhang Da Li's squad in an ambush on both sides of the mountain road that the Japanese vanguard must pass through. After the Japanese vanguard entered the ambush circle, the reconnaissance squad was responsible for blocking their retreat route. Wang Jia Gui led the sniper team to take cover in the trees and shoot at the enemy, while the rest of the special operations soldiers charged towards the Japanese from both sides of the woods. Before the Japanese could even draw their weapons, they were eliminated at close range with pistols and bayonets.

  This plan seems stupid, but it's actually practical. It doesn't give the Japanese army a chance to take out their guns from the mules. As long as the Japanese don't have a chance to pull out their firearms, the casualties of the special forces will be greatly reduced. Otherwise, once the gun fires, the Japanese will definitely organize a counterattack immediately, which will prolong the battle. The longer the delay, the more unfavorable it is for the special forces, after all, the Japanese have an advantage in numbers.

  Using a crazy-like tactic of rushing up close and engaging in hand-to-hand combat has a better effect than using firearms. With pistols and knives working together, I believe each soldier can take on ten enemies, suddenly disrupting the Japanese devils' formation. Meanwhile, Wang Jia Gui's sniper squad is monitoring the enemy from the trees. Anyone who tries to grab guns from the mules or poses a threat to the special forces brothers will be shot dead. Those who try to escape will also be killed, and those who retreat will be intercepted by the reconnaissance team.

  The special agent team has another advantage, that is, they can use the idiom "to wait for labor", the Japanese army vanguard day and night long-distance trek, no matter how elite troops, can not withstand such a long time fatigue march, when the Japanese vanguard walks to the point of exhaustion, legs sore and weak, the combat effectiveness of single-handed combat will naturally be greatly discounted. This is also one of the main factors why Dong Li Mao considered using close-quarters combat.