Chapter 105: Reputation Spreads Far and Wide

  Dong Li Mao walked over to Liu Yu Zhen's side, bent down and picked up the twenty yuan that had been dropped on the ground, handing it back to him.

  "Bring your people and follow me." Dong Li Mao said, turning around and walking away.

  Hu San held a latest American radio in his hand and smiled to Liu Yuzhen and others, saying: "Come on, the company commander wants you."

  "Who are you?" Liu Yudong put the twenty rounds back into the cartridge box, showing no intention of leaving.

  Dong Li Mao didn't turn his head and didn't stop walking, answering: "Dong Jia Cheng."

  Liu Yuzong and the twenty or so soldiers under him were shocked, exchanging glances with each other, and involuntarily blurted out: "Dong Jiacheng..."

  "Brothers, let's go! Following Captain Dong to kill the devils is the right thing to do!" Liu Yuzhu ran a few steps and caught up with Dong Limao.

  "How did you get here?" Dong Li Mao turned his head and asked Liu Yu Dong who ran up.

  "We are acting on the orders of General Sun, searching for General Qi." Liu Yudong replied.

  Dong Li Mao stopped in his tracks, facing Liu Yu Zhen, and said word by word: "General Qi was injured and captured by the little devils."

  "Dong Lianchang, how did you know?" Liu Yutang seemed to be taken aback.

  "It's heard from the Japanese population." Dong Li Mao patted Liu Yucong's shoulder and said: "You new 38th division, from generals to soldiers, each one is excellent." After hesitating for a moment, he continued: "We are going to carry out a very special task, there are not enough people, I need your help. If you're unwilling, you can leave with your brothers."

  "No, we are willing to follow Dong Lianchang." Liu Yuzhen glanced at the twenty-odd soldiers behind him and said: "Now, none of us know where the new 38th Division is."

  "If you follow me, perhaps all of you will lose your lives." Dong Li Mao stared at Liu Yu Teng and said.

  "If it weren't for you, Dong Lianchang, my brothers and I would have lost our lives long ago." Liu Yuzhen said with a bitter smile: "Those so-called regular troops, their supplies and equipment are all better than ours, they always treat our new 38th division as irregular troops, but when it comes to fighting..." Liu Yuzhen suddenly realized that the Dong Limao in front of him also belonged to the regular army, and swallowed back his next words.

  "Haha... let's go, when you see the brothers of Special Forces, you'll understand what a motley crew is."

  The Special Operations Company was a motley crew, composed of junior officers and volunteers from various branches of the military. These soldiers, who were considered misfits by others, became fierce warriors under the leadership of Dong Li Mao. The Special Operations Company gained a reputation as one of the star units of the Burma Expeditionary Force, with the highest number of enemy kills and lowest casualties. The name "Dong Jia Cheng" became synonymous with excellence, not only well-known among the officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force but also striking fear into the hearts of Japanese soldiers who heard it.

  To be a member of such a team, Liu Yuzhen and his twenty-odd brothers, how could they not be willing.

  During the two-day rest at the Bao Shi Kong military supply station, Dong Li Mao formally assigned Liu Yu Gang's platoon as a reconnaissance platoon under the Special Service Company, and selected over a dozen men from the thirty or so scattered soldiers who had come to join them, incorporating them into the reconnaissance platoon, expanding it into a full-strength platoon of 36 men. In addition to their basic American equipment, each squad was also equipped with two binoculars and a wireless radio for calling and communicating during combat, forming an elite reconnaissance unit that operated independently in squads.

  Dong Li Mao spent a lot of effort transforming Liu Yu Zhen's squad, which made the special agent and others somewhat dissatisfied, especially Zhao Yong. He thought it was unnecessary to recruit Liu Yu Zhen and his men, in his eyes, the new 38th Division were just a motley crew with no combat effectiveness at all.

  "Commander, why must you insist on getting new recruits from the 38th Division? We need to replenish our troops, and we have plenty of capable men in our own Fifth Army. But those people from the 38th Division are either bandits or local rascals. If we incorporate them into our special forces unit, they will bring a lot of trouble to our team in the future." Zhao Yong said with discontent, finding Dong Li Mao and saying irritably.

  "It seems you still don't understand what kind of task we've taken on." Dong Li Mao had already briefed Zhao Yong on the mission: "This vanguard unit of the Japanese army, where exactly are they? We don't have a single clue, only knowing that they're disguised as a horse team. But with the mountains being so high and the forests so dense, they could be taking any mountain path, even crossing through the virgin forest to evade our reconnaissance planes and troops' surveillance, arriving at the Nujiang Bridge without anyone noticing. To face such a mysterious long-range sneak attack unit, we don't have a well-trained and well-equipped reconnaissance unit, how can we do it? In a short amount of time, how can I train such a unit? Since there's already an existing one, why not make full use of it? No matter if it's a white cat or black cat, as long as it can catch mice, it's a good cat! Who cares if they're the miscellaneous troops of the new 38th Division or the regular army of the 5th Military Region, as long as they can fight against the little devils, they're the people I need!"

  "But you're so biased, giving them such good equipment, the brothers are not convinced." Zhao Yong's words were also true, Liu Yucong and others' joining made some of the original special forces soldiers a bit prejudiced.

  "First of all, it's you who doesn't agree, right?" Dong Limao said sternly with a straight face: "In the future, we may have to fight alone and won't be able to replenish our equipment and food at the military supply station like in the past. Perhaps in the next one or two years, most of our ammunition will have to be provided by the little devils, and our food will have to rely on the local villagers." Dong Limao looked around the cave: "This place will become our last refuge for a long time to come. We may have to live with wild beasts as companions and mountains and forests as our home, living like bandits. At that time, it will be difficult for us to find someone to help us, so why not expand our manpower now?"

  Zhao Yong seemed to understand and yet not understand, however, he trusted Dong Li Mao, which if it were before the breakout of Ren An Qiang, he would never have believed.

  "When are we leaving?" Zhao Yong asked.

  Dong Li Mao unfolded the map he had obtained from Kong Xueri and said, "It's almost time. After resting for two days here, our brothers have also regained their spirits, and we've replenished enough troops." Pointing at the map, he said, "If I haven't miscalculated, the Japanese vanguard will cross over the Gaoligong Mountains between the 26th and 27th of this month, arriving in Tengchong. On the night of the 28th, they'll seize control of the Nujiang Bridge. We must find them before they reach the bridge and thoroughly eliminate them! Today is the 24th. Before the 26th, we need to arrive within the borders of Tengchong. We set out at 8 o'clock tonight."

  "How could Lianzhang think that this vanguard of the Japanese army would enter from the direction of Tengchong?" Zhao Yong asked, looking down at the map.

  "Except for a kind of instinctive intuition, I have carefully studied this map. If it were me, I would also choose the Gaoligong Mountains as natural cover and secretly cross over the mountains and canyons, because it's worth it. As long as we take down the Nujiang Bridge, not only can we cut off the expeditionary army's retreat route and lifeline, but we can also prevent them from blowing up the bridge. As long as this iron chain highway bridge is still standing, the Japanese mechanized troops can occupy Baoshan within two days, and it's entirely possible to take down Dali and Kunming within a week, achieving the goal of threatening the Chongqing government."

  Zhao Yong was like listening to a myth, and he also thought that the main purpose of the Japanese army's vanguard blowing up the bridge and cutting off the expeditionary force's supply line should be the main purpose. Because he didn't know at all that Laizhou would be broken through by the Japanese army on the 28th like a heavenly soldier, if he knew that the Japanese had successfully launched a sneak attack on Laizhou like Dong Li Mao, then he would have thought of the importance of Nujiang Bridge to the Japanese.

  At this time, Pan Guangzu walked over: "Report to the company commander! The company's equipment supplement is complete!"

  "Are all the trucks loaded?" asked Dong Li Mao.

  "Heh heh...... As per your orders, everything is ready." Pan Guangzu replied, rubbing the back of his head.

  "It's only you, the quartermaster, who has this kind of skill. Go and take a look." Dong Li Mao indeed admired Pan Guang Zu's quickness in fetching things, and his meticulous attention to detail, never taking more but sometimes less.

  "Hehe... if Liu Yuzhen hadn't given that surname Wang a gun, and didn't have your illustrious reputation as company commander, it probably wouldn't be so easy to accomplish." Pan Guangzu said with a foolish smile.