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"Fellow villagers, I know you have all suffered from the Japanese bullying. Please believe us, sooner or later we will make the Japanese pay with blood!"

Xu Leyi said in a deep voice, then looked at Xu Da: "During the military training before, didn't I ask you to bring everyone in the village who is free to follow and learn? I left some guns for you. You must hide the guns at ordinary times, and take them out for self-defense when you encounter danger."

At this time, several guards carried in several wooden boxes. General Xu opened them one by one, and inside were neatly arranged brand new Mauser 98K rifles.

During World War II, the Eagle Sauce developed a pistol called FP45, which was extremely low in cost and fast to produce. More than 100 million pistols were produced in less than a year and then airdropped to Europe to support the Allied guerrillas.

Xu Le borrowed this method to enable ordinary people to protect themselves.

But unlike the Eagle Sauce in his previous life, what he gave was not a crudely made single-shot pistol, but Germany's current standard rifle, the Mauser 98K, which is considered the ultimate manual bolt-action rifle.

Because this gun was released very early and is fully manual, the price of the system is only 1 military merit point.

Xu Le directly purchased 1000 of them.

Of course, 1000 guns may seem like a lot, enough to equip a small regiment of the Tang army, but they are still not enough for every citizen in the several villages around Fanzhuang to have one.

He deliberately did not get so many, and kept the number to one for each household. After all, these were ordinary people, and the Japanese and puppet troops would come to search from time to time.

In other words, the 176th Division has been causing trouble recently in the transport team and Zhaozhuang, leaving the Japanese with no time to spare. Otherwise, they would have sent people to search near Fanzhuang long ago.

Guns that are only given to civilians for self-protection are also easy to hide. Otherwise, if they are discovered by the Japanese, it would be a big problem.

The bullets were very easy to hide, so Xu Le directly purchased 100 million rounds of 7.92mm Mauser rifle bullets, with each gun equipped with 1000 rounds.

If one day the people and the Japanese completely fall out, the people will have enough ammunition to deal with them!

After explaining some things at the end, Xu Le and some members of the guard team also left, leaving some guards behind to help distribute guns and ammunition to the people, and to teach some shooting techniques and how to hide guns.

Two days later, just as Xu Le had expected, the 114th Division in Fencheng gathered the forces of two reorganized regiments and began a carpet search of the Huoyan Mountain area.

They did not dare to march towards Zhaozhuang easily, but no matter what the troops in Zhaozhuang were like, their main force and headquarters were definitely hidden in the mountains.

So the Japs turned their attention to the mountains!

However, all traces of the 176th Division were wiped out, leaving no clues.

After the Japs extended dozens of kilometers into the mountains, they also searched several villages, but to no avail.

The Japs today are no longer killing civilians as wantonly as they did when they first invaded China. It's not that the Japs have laid down their butcher knives and become Buddhas.

Just like bandits, bandits go down the mountain to burn, kill and loot, but they will not kill everyone, unless in special circumstances. At most, they will kill a few people to establish their authority. Anyone can tell the difference between a one-time transaction and a long-term transaction!

Especially the Japs, their resources are already scarce, and as the fighting continues, local resources have become insufficient, and most of their resources are obtained by plundering the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, the Japanese army issued an order to try to integrate with the people of the Tang Dynasty, and called it "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". In fact, they wanted to assimilate the people of the Tang Dynasty and use them to provide them with a steady supply of logistics.

"Baga, did I guess wrong? The Tang army is not in Huoyan Mountain, so where are they hiding?"

The commander of the 114th Division, Tokushige Numata, scratched his head.

Okamura Katsumi, the commander of the 66th Infantry Regiment, said, "Your Excellency the Division Commander, I would like to make a bold guess that all of the Tang army is hiding in Zhaozhuang. There is no other possibility!"

He was one of the regiments participating in the mountain sweep. Another regiment was the 115th Regiment in Hsin-hsiang, whose commander, Endo Torapira, also spoke up:

"It's not that there is no third possibility, that is, the main force and headquarters of the Tang army are hiding further away, but in that case, they are isolating the Zhaozhuang troops, which is a dead end!"

"Endo-kun, this is a powerful Tang army, at least the size of an army. Do you think they would make such a low-level mistake?"

"Mr. Okamura, I am only analyzing and stating all the possibilities. I am not saying that this Tang army is like this. Please do not make a conclusion for me at will!"

"As a soldier of the Empire, a commander appointed by His Majesty the Emperor, can't you come up with some practical plans? If it's useless, why do you say it? Are you trying to show off your talents?"

...

Because the search yielded nothing, the two brigade commanders pushed the blame onto each other, believing that the other party's search was negligent. Otherwise, how could a troop of tens of thousands of people disappear out of thin air?

Because of this, the two quarreled several times.

"Okay, stop arguing. We are all soldiers of the empire, we should unite! I feel something is wrong. Zhaozhuang alone cannot accommodate an army, and its surroundings have been blocked by us. Where do they get their logistical supplies?"

Numata Tokushige gave a light shout, and the two squadron commanders immediately shut up, then both secretly revealed a smug smile.

They are old friends, how could they fall out over such a small matter? They were probably afraid that the division commander would use this as an excuse to punish them, so they acted out this drama in unison.

Now that the division commander hasn't mentioned any punishment, he's trying to get away with it!

"Forget it. The more I think about it, the more I feel something is wrong. Zhaozhuang can't wait any longer! Tomorrow, the two of you will lead your troops to advance towards Zhaozhuang at the same time. I will send snipers to cooperate with you to fight against the enemy's snipers!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

.....

On the sixth day after the 176th Division withdrew, the Japanese 6th Infantry Regiment and the 66th Infantry Regiment set out from Fencheng and Xinjiang respectively and advanced towards Zhaozhuang Armed Forces. In order to prevent the vanguard infantry from encountering snipers, the Japanese mobilized 115 armored vehicles and 114 tanks of the 20th Division and rushed to the front to test.

It might be because the three Japanese battalions that had previously fought around Zhaozhuang were all wiped out, or it might be because the Jishan commando team has not been found yet.

The Japs' attack speed was very slow. It took them most of the day to cover a distance of more than 20 kilometers, but they did not find anything unusual.

The fortifications are still there, and there is no trace of the Tang army.

It was not until a tank ran over a Type 58 mine and its tracks were blown off that the Japanese finally stopped and sent engineers to clear the mines.

However, the structure of the Type 58 mine is very simple. Its biggest advantage is its good killing effect and it is difficult to be detected by mine detectors.

When the Japanese got lucky and cleared a few mines and felt safe, the infantry continued to advance and a massacre began...