Chapter 40: The First Special Task (6)

  "You..." Dong Li Mao looked at Xu Hong Ming with some hesitation, he was white and clean, not like a man who could fight, but rather like a bookworm: "Can you do it?"

  "Hmm... does Captain Dong think I'm not capable of killing the devils because I look like a softie? Although I'm a businessman, born and raised in Burma, I've been following the horse caravan since I was young, traveling all over the south and north. I've had dealings with bandits several times, even been kidnapped by them before, but I've also killed quite a few of those bandits!" Xu Hongming said with a smile as he made his preparations for departure. "Captain Dong can rest assured, when it comes to killing devils, I, Xu, will not be any softer than when I'm killing bandits!"

  Dong Li Mao had several timed explosive grenades on him, specially prepared by the resistance organization. He patted Xu Hongming's shoulder and said: "Shanxi men have integrity! Let's go!"

  Four people crouched down, using trees and shrubs on the hill as cover, moving quickly towards the warehouse.

  The Japanese army had set up a wooden frame tower at each of the four corners of the station warehouse, with searchlights on top of each tower that were sweeping back and forth, dazzling people's eyes.

  All trees and shrubs within a radius of about one thousand meters around the warehouse were cleared, leaving only some large boulders and uneven earth mounds that could be used as cover, with almost no place to hide.

  Dong Li Mao observed the terrain for a moment, and between the two searchlights on their side, there was a blind spot. He took the lead, with Li Yuanyuan following behind him, then Xu Hongming, and Gou Hao bringing up the rear.

  The first 500 meters is a place where the searchlight can't shine, so the speed of the four people is still relatively fast. However, the last 500 meters is within the effective range of the light.

  In the brief interval before the searchlight's beam swept over them again, they had to find a place to hide.

  The four people's movements slowed down.

  Half an hour later, they finally crawled to the edge of the warehouse's barbed wire fence. Dong Li Mao, Xu Hong Ming and Li Yuanyuan crouched behind a raised earth mound as the searchlights swept over, then quickly ran forward, nimbly cutting open a hole large enough for a body to pass through. Before the searchlights came again, he had already crawled into the hole in the barbed wire fence and quickly hid behind a wall of a warehouse.

  Dong Li Mao, Xu Hong Ming and Li Yuanyuan, bent down as much as possible to avoid the searchlight. After it passed, Li Yuanyuan quickly stood up and ran towards the hole in the cut wire mesh, crawling inside. Then, after the searchlight had swept past again, Dong Li Mao patted Xu Hong Ming on the back, telling him to go first. Xu Hong Ming indeed moved swiftly and lightly, almost as agile as Gou Hao. Dong Li Mao secretly admired him. Finally, Dong Li Mao was the last one to crawl through the wire mesh hole.

  Four people gathered behind a warehouse wall. Dong Li Mao said in a low voice, "The garrison here may not know the inside story, we need to find someone wearing protective gear to ask."

  Li Yuyuan added: "It's best if we can see with our own eyes whether what they're moving is the thing we're looking for."

  "Alright, let's go to that warehouse that is transporting weapons." Dong Li Mao agreed with Li Yuanyuan.

  Just then, the goods were unloaded and the train blew its whistle and slowly started moving.

  Dong Li Mao and the others took advantage of the thick smoke spewing from the train to cover themselves, running at their fastest speed towards the iron rails under the platform, which were more than half a person's height away from the platform. They followed the train, bowing their waists as they moved in the direction of that target warehouse.

  A warehouse that had just finished unloading goods was guarded by two Japanese soldiers with guns on either side of the entrance.

  Dong Li Mao and others arrived at the platform outside the warehouse door. He used his hand to gesture to Gou Hao, meaning that he wanted Gou Hao to take care of the one on the left, while he himself took care of the one on the right.

  But Gu Hao shook his head, stretched out two fingers, and tapped himself on the chest. Dong Li Mao understood that Gu meant to let him handle both matters. Dong nodded in agreement, trusting this martial arts expert of a partner.

  The smoke emitted by the train that had just started was still not dispersed, and the warehouse door was about ten or twenty meters away from the platform where Dong Li Mao and others were hiding.

  Gu Hao got Dong Li Mao's consent, pulled out the military knife from the right boot sheath, took a deep breath, stood up suddenly, and jumped onto the platform. He saw that with a swing of his right hand, the military knife was inserted very accurately into the left chest of the soldier on the right. Before the soldier on the left could react, Gu Hao had already taken advantage of the smoke to cover himself and rushed behind the soldier like lightning. With a twist of both hands on the soldier's head, the Japanese soldier fell down like a puddle of mud.

  Gu Hao's series of actions was so fast that it only took a blink of an eye, leaving Dong Li Mao and the other two staring in amazement.

  Gu Hao pulled the military sword out of the Japanese soldier's chest from the right, waved his hand at Dong Li Mao and the three of them immediately climbed onto the platform. Taking advantage of the smoke that had not yet dispersed, the four of them rushed into the brightly lit warehouse.

  Inside, two people in white protective suits were doing inventory. When they heard footsteps, they turned their heads and before they could see who it was, one of them had his neck twisted by Gou Hao. The other, holding a notebook, let out a loud cry, but because he was wearing a mask, the sound was muffled. Dong Li Mao rushed up to him and slammed the butt of his rifle into the left side of his face.

  Li Yuanyuan and Xu Hongming drew their swords, pried open one of the boxes with a skull emblem, and examined it. Li Yuanyuan exclaimed: "No! This isn't what we're looking for!"

  Dong Li Mao handed the one that had been knocked over to Gou Hao, then stood up and examined the box opened by Li Yuanyuan. Inside were some medicinal products: "Not these?" Dong Li Mao reached into the box and picked up a box, opening it.

  "This is an anti-inflammatory drug, what we are looking for, must be stored in a stainless steel canister and refrigerated, otherwise it will spread and trigger an epidemic in such hot weather." Li Yuanyuan replied.

  "Let's take a look at the other boxes." Dong Li Mao said, and together with Xu Hong Ming, they opened several boxes one after another. Inside were either medicines or bandages and other medical supplies. Infuriated, he turned around and walked back to the person wearing protective gear who had not yet come to, Ge Hao had already removed his gas mask and was slapping his face with his hand, trying to wake him up.

  Dong Li Mao used his military knife to cut a small slit on the face of the person who had lifted their mask, and a line of blood immediately appeared on the face of the person wearing the protective suit. This was the most effective way to wake them up.

  As expected, the man winced in pain and opened his eyes, opening his mouth to shout again. But Dong Li Mao covered his mouth with his left hand and pressed the tip of his military knife against the man's left eye socket, asking in a low and stern voice: "Speak! Where are the germ bombs? Otherwise, I'll dig out your left eye first, then dig out your right eye..."

  The person lying on the ground had his left eye pressed against the sharp tip of a knife and couldn't open it, while his right eye was wide open, looking very frightened.

  Li Yuyuan crouched down and translated Dong Limao's words into Japanese. The person blinked his right eye twice, hummed with his mouth, and Dong Limao released his left hand.

  He only heard that person mutter a few sentences, and Li Yuanyuan translated to Dong Limao: "He said these are bacterial bombs."

  "Nonsense!" Dong Li Mao pressed the knife tip of his right hand downwards, and the man's left eye socket had already been pierced by the knife tip and was bleeding.

  Li Yuyuan then said a few words in Japanese, and the person shook his head, seemingly thinking of something, and opened his mouth to speak.

  "He said the train was supposed to arrive at 2:30, but for some reason it's late by more than half an hour... At a small station about ten kilometers ahead of this one... It's a station used for passing trains... Maybe the train stopped there..."

  Dong Li Mao understood that the Japanese army had unloaded the bacterial bombs at a small station ahead of time, and used medical supplies as a cover to deceive the enemy. Even their own people didn't know about it, so those who were unloading thought they were really bacterial bombs, which is why each of them wore protective suits.

  "I've been cheated!" Dong Li Mao blurted out.

  "What should we do?" Li Yuanyuan said anxiously: "Time is probably running out!"

  "Go bring in the two corpses outside, we need to borrow their clothes." Dong Li Mao ordered Gou Hao and Xu Hongming, then pointed at the people wearing protective suits with his knife and said: "Quickly take off your clothes!"

  Li Yuyuan took off another person's chemical protective suit whose neck was broken by Gou Hao.