Chapter 176: Bandits? Little devils!

Near a village about seven or eight kilometers away from the outskirts of Baihuling.

Under the moonlight, several black shadows emerged from the bottom of a slope with bright and clear figures.

The several black shadows were obviously well-trained and used various tactical moves to avoid possible surveillance.

Along the way, we used various earth slopes and ridges to cover our bodies and quickly approached the village.

Soon, these figures reached the outermost earth wall of the village.

A black shadow rushed out from its hiding place and approached the earth wall, then slowly patrolled around the wall.

After the black shadow made a circle and returned to the starting point, it made a gesture to the other black shadows with the help of the moonlight that was about to set but still faintly visible.

It was obvious that the purpose of the black shadow that rushed out first was to check the surroundings of the yard to see if there was anyone around.

Obviously, the black shadow was sure that the surroundings were safe and there was no one around, so he sent a signal to signal the rest of his companions to come over.

With a gesture, the remaining shadows quickly rushed towards the earth wall from their hiding place.

The black shadow who arrived first quickly squatted down and folded his hands on his knees.

A black shadow rushed up and quickly stepped on the opponent’s palm, then was lifted up the wall by the opponent and entered the courtyard surrounded by earth walls.

After the black shadow entered the yard, two of the several black shadows that rushed over approached the edge of a dirt wall and stared at both sides.

The remaining one walked to the front of the gate and waited quietly.

The dark shadow that entered the yard carefully slid down the earth wall.

Then he quickly looked around the yard.

After confirming that there were no living creatures such as chickens, ducks, and dogs in the yard.

The dark shadow slowly approached the gate of the yard with its feet wrapped in cotton cloth.

“Dong Dong~”

Accompanied by a rustling sound from behind the gate, the dark shadow at the door picked up two small pieces of earth on the ground and threw them at the two companions who were standing guard on both sides of the earth wall.

The piece of soil picked up by the dark shadow at the door was very small, and even if it was still on the ground, there would be no sound or movement.

But if it hits a person on the back, the person hit will still feel something.

So the black shadow at the door was throwing a piece of earth directly at the bodies of the two companions, with the purpose of telling the two companions that there was no one in the yard.

Because that was the message that his companion in the yard conveyed to him.

If there is no one there, then it will just be the sound of fingers tapping on the door.

If there was someone there, then there would be the rustling sound of fingers scratching across the door panel, and the person in the yard would have been dealt with quietly.

If there are people who have not been dealt with yet, then they will naturally shout loudly and prepare to run away. There is no point in playing secret codes if they have been discovered.

If there is no one there, he will call the other two companions on guard to come over and prepare to enter the yard together.

After receiving the hint from the dark shadow at the door, the two dark shadows on guard came to the door cautiously.

And the one in the yard slowly opened the wooden door.

I have to say that the black shadow in the yard also has some skills.

Lift the bottom of the wooden door so that it is in the air, so that the old wooden door will not make any sound.

Even after confirming that there was no one in the yard, the dark shadow was still cautious, fearing that any noise would alarm the villagers in the house in the middle of the yard.

The wooden door was slowly opened, and three dark shadows outside cautiously entered the yard.

Then he carefully closed the gate.

There was no shelter in the yard, and the four shadows were not running fast.

So the true identities of the four black shadows were revealed.

The four black shadows were all wearing ordinary patched short-sleeved trousers and black cloth shoes with layered soles.

There was a towel wrapped around his head and his body was covered in dirt.

If we ignore the scar on one of them’s face, the daggers and revolvers stuck in their waists, and the cotton cloth wrapped around their feet, then these four people only need to carry some kitchen utensils, and they will be dressed like typical farmers in North China.

But these four black shadows are obviously not ordinary farmers.

They look more like a group of bandits robbing houses!

Especially those actions where several people cooperated to climb over the wall, which looked more like bandits scouting the area.

But these four bandits looked well-trained and did not seem to be ordinary bandits.

The black shadow with a scar on his face, who looked like the leader, glanced at the two earthen houses at the back of the yard and waved his hand to make two gestures.

The meaning of the gesture is simple: two people are responsible for one house.

Under the command of Scarface, the four men slowly moved towards the two houses.

Except for the two people in the middle who were staring at the houses they were responsible for, the other two were looking at the ground with their eyes wide open.

They made sure there were no obstacles on the ground so that they could not accidentally kick the obstacles when moving forward, causing a noise and alerting the people in the house.

Soon, the four of them arrived at the two houses in the middle of the yard.

Scarface made a gesture, and then he and another person stood in front of the door and listened carefully to the movements inside the house.

After listening for a while, Scarface frowned, then pulled out the dagger from his waist and carefully inserted it through the crack in the door.

He first slid up and down along the crack in the door, and after making sure there was no bolt pressing against the door, Scarface inserted the dagger into the crack at the bottom.

He used a dagger to prop up the door.

In front of another house, a man was performing the same operation as Scarface.

After the wooden door was propped up, the companion next to it began to push the door open carefully.

I slowly looked inside the house through the crack of the open door.

As the door opened wider and wider, it opened faster and faster.

After the door was half opened, the person in charge of opening the door directly opened the whole door.

“Second brother, no one!”

Words with a special North China accent came from the mouth of the bandit who was responsible for opening the door.

“There’s no one here!”

The scarred man called Second Brother stood up with a frown and entered the room.

With the help of the moonlight shining in from the door, Scarface could easily see the situation in the house. The furniture that was rummaged around in the house indicated that the owner of the house had left here in a hurry with valuables.

However, judging from the large jar in the house that was opened to store grain but was found to be empty, it was obvious that even the grain had been taken away or hidden by the owner of the house.

All the food in the house disappeared, or the people were going to a faraway place and took all the food with them.

If the food was hidden, it was most likely to avoid war. At the same time, due to time constraints, it was impossible to carry so much food with them, so they hid the food.

Scarface is more inclined to the second scenario.

It is obvious that in order to prevent the people from being harassed by the Japanese devils, the Eighth Route Army chose to relocate all the nearby residents.

In all likelihood, they were moved to the mountains near the ancient town.

The two bandits who had searched another house also came to this room.

“Team……”

A bandit was about to open his mouth to say something, but was glared back at by the scar-faced man.

“Um?!”

“Brother, there is no one in the other room, and we didn’t find anything useful.”

Scarface nodded and whispered his own conclusion to the other three people.

“The Eighth Route Army was most likely worried that the civilians here would be harassed by us, so they moved all the civilians away. I don’t think there are any civilians in this village.

I just don’t know if there are still Eighth Route Army sentries in this village.

I hope this battle plan goes well!”

The conversation between several bandits instantly exposed their true identities!
That’s right, they are the special forces soldiers trained by Yamamoto!
In order to avoid being discovered by the Eighth Route Army before the raid, Yamamoto Ikki made more than just preparations by having the soldiers change into Eighth Route Army uniforms.

Changing into the Eighth Route Army uniform was only used to deal with emergencies.

What Yamamoto Ikki actually used to deal with the Eighth Route Army were more than a dozen soldiers who were dressed in ordinary people’s clothes, carrying broadswords or broken guns such as Hanyang-made, and disguised as bandits!
Let these soldiers who have learned some dialects and know some of the bandits’ jargon serve as scouts.

Explore the route in advance, and only after these soldiers disguised as bandits confirm that there are no problems ahead, will Yamamoto Ikki lead the remaining troops to continue moving forward.

If these soldiers encountered the Eighth Route Army sentries, if they failed to defeat them and were discovered, they would immediately disguise themselves as bandits and escape.

In this case, even if the Eighth Route Army’s secret sentries discovered the scouts responsible for exploring the way, they would think that these scouts were actually a group of bandits taking advantage of the situation to rob.

With the war approaching, the Eighth Route Army had no intention of settling accounts with a group of only three or four bandits, nor would it send out troops to hunt down and kill them in a big way.

At most, we can wait until the war is over before settling accounts with the nearby bandits.

But after the war, it is not certain whether the Eighth Route Army will still be here.

Therefore, Yamamoto Ikki was not worried at all that these special forces soldiers responsible for reconnaissance would be discovered by the Eighth Route Army.

Even if they were discovered, the Eighth Route Army had fewer people and it would be impossible for them to capture these well-trained special forces soldiers.

Moreover, because of the way these soldiers were dressed and the jargon they spoke, the Eighth Route Army would only treat them as a few bandits with some strength.

After all, there are some bandits nearby who are quite powerful.

At first, a lot of the material supply trucks in Shiquan County were robbed by the bandits.

If the number of the Eighth Route Army is too large, Yamamoto Ikki will also allow them to surrender directly and see if they can directly blend into the Eighth Route Army’s base at Baihuling.

If they could sneak into Baihuling, these captured soldiers could take the opportunity to attack the Eighth Route Army from within when Yamamoto Ikki and other personnel attacked the Eighth Route Army.

Of course, if these scouts were captured, Yamamoto Ikki would be able to find out that there was a road with a large number of Eighth Route Army soldiers and they could not pass through there.

After Scarface made his own speculation and confirmed again that there were no tunnels in the house and no ears in the walls, he gave instructions to the other three Japanese soldiers.

“Remember, we are bandits now, and we are not allowed to use titles like Captain or Your Excellency in the army…

I am the second brother, and His Excellency the Colonel is the boss.

No Japanese allowed, everything had to be spoken in Chinese. If they were discovered by the Eighth Route Army, they would have to retreat.

I remember shouting, “The wind is strong, hurry up!”
Don’t shout, there are Eighth Route Army, retreat!

have you understood?
No military terms are allowed to appear in our mouths.

The Eighth Route Army is good at digging tunnels. What if there is an Eighth Route Army tunnel entrance under our feet? We started speaking Japanese or military terms.

Then the Eighth Route Army will definitely be suspicious, and our identities will be exposed!
You should know how important this battle plan is to our special forces team.

If our identities are exposed and the Colonel’s battle plan fails, we will all be ready to commit seppuku!”

“Hi!”

“Um?!
What did you say? ! “

“Brother, we got it.”

After hearing the answer from the three devils, Scarface nodded with satisfaction, and then he took a few people to search the village.

Confirm whether the village is safe. If it is safe, then notify Yamamoto Ikki to take the remaining troops to the village, and then continue to move forward.

This village is just a small village with only about ten households in total.

The four Japanese soldiers quickly completed the reconnaissance of the entire village.

Scarface sent a Japanese soldier to the rear to report the situation on his side to Yamamoto Ikki.

“Ma Niu, go inform the big boss and tell him that there is no one in this village. Many things have been taken away by the villagers, but there are still some things that can be taken away. Ask the big boss if he wants to search for them.

If we need to search, we will wait here. If we don’t, if no one comes after 15 minutes, we will go back by ourselves.”

Scarface gave instructions to a Japanese soldier, asking him to go back and report the news.

The so-called plunder actually depends on whether Yamamoto Ikki wants to come to this village and move towards Baihuling from this village.

If not, then in fifteen minutes they will follow the designated area to look for Yamamoto Ikki’s special forces team.

Yamamoto Ikki sent out two scouts. Since Yamamoto Ikki did not choose to come here, he must be on the other side.

When the time comes, I will just take the other two people to another village.

As for why they didn’t use lights or something to send signals to Yamamoto.

the reason is simple.

Not to mention that they are about one kilometer away from Yamamoto Ikki, whether Yamamoto Ikki can receive the light signals sent from their side.

This is the territory of the Eighth Route Army. If you suddenly turn on your lights and flash in one direction in the middle of the night, what if you are noticed by the Eighth Route Army in other directions?
What’s more… there were no civilians in the village, and suddenly lights appeared… The Eighth Route Army is not idiots… The appearance of lights in the deserted village clearly told the Eighth Route Army that people had come to this village.

(End of this chapter)