Chapter 35: He Yuzhu Rescues He Daqing

He Yuzhu's heart tightened, terrified that his old man would see him wearing this Japanese skin.

He slipped into a storage room nearby, nimbly tore off the Japanese military uniform, changed into his own clothes, and only then slipped out of the space.

He Yuzhu saw He Daqing still in the same spot, currently throwing a cigarette butt onto the ground and grinding it over and over with his foot.

He Yuzhu lunged over in a single stride, covered his father's mouth from behind, and lowered his voice: "Don't make a sound! It's me, Zhuzi!"

The moment his hand let go, He Daqing turned around and slapped him, cursing: "You little brat, do you have a death wish? You dare to barge into a den of tigers like this!"

"Dad! If I didn't come, you'd be dragged out and shot in a moment! The little devils poisoned the food; once the people eating start causing a scene, they'll execute you first to appease the public anger. Then, they'll massacre everyone! They're holding this martial arts assembly just to kill people and establish their authority!"

"You little brat, is everything you said true?" He Daqing asked, somewhat uncomprehendingly.

"Why would I lie to you? This godforsaken place is crawling with devils; one wrong move and there's a risk to your life! I came here just to save you!"

He Daqing's face turned pale as paper, and he said hesitantly: "But I brought four kitchen assistants, and they all have families to support. I can't just run off myself and leave them to the little devils, can I?"

He Yuzhu shook his head and said: "Since you have a conscience, I'll help you out. As long as you can lead them out of the tent, I'll handle the rest. By the way, are there any devils in the tent?"

"There are a few bastards who claim to be cooking for the Imperial Collaboration Army, but I don't think they're cooks at all! They're likely die-hard traitors," He Daqing said.

He Yuzhu took out two Hand Grenades, toyed with them, and said: "Dad, find an excuse to bring your people out, and leave those bastards to me and my Siqiang. Once you're out, hurry and blend into the crowd. After you escape, absolutely do not go home! Go straight to Nanluoguxiang 91; my Siqiang is there."

He Daqing looked at He Yuzhu's Hand Grenades, shivering, and asked: "You, you really know how to use this stuff?"

"I recently took on a Siqiang; he knows everything! He's lurking nearby!" He Yuzhu gave his father a hard shove, "Go, quickly!"

He Daqing gritted his teeth and ducked back into the tent.

Before long, he came out with the four kitchen assistants. Two tails followed behind them.

The two puppet soldiers never dreamed that as soon as they stepped out of the kitchen, they would be snatched into the space by He Yuzhu.

He Yuzhu rushed into the kitchen and saw two puppet soldiers drinking and eating meat.

A tall one sat on a stool and whispered: "San Ge, do you think the poison the Imperial Army made us put in will kill people?"

A Pangzi took a sip of wine, smacked his lips and said: "The devils poisoning people is truly wicked, but this is how we make our living, why worry so much?"

Before the two had finished speaking, He Yuzhu had already flashed behind them. He knew these two wretches were the ones who had poisoned the food, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. He reached out and grabbed their backs; before they could react, they were pulled into the space.

A small one dozing in the corner heard the noise, and just as he opened his eyes, he was grabbed by a large hand and instantly pulled into the space. "When an avalanche strikes, no snowflake is innocent," He Yuzhu muttered to himself, waving his hand to collect all the supplies in the kitchen into the space.

He Yuzhu saw that there was still more than half of the rapeseed oil left in a large oil vat. He took a Gourd ladle and began splashing the oil onto the firewood, then dragged the corpses of the devils and puppet soldiers from the space and threw them onto the brushwood.

After finishing all this, he fished out a match, struck it, and threw it onto the firewood.

The flames "whooshed" up half a person high, and the orange-red tongues of fire instantly licked the roof, causing the wood and thatch to burn quickly.

The north wind howled, fueling the fire, and sparks drifted toward the barracks nearby like scattered beans—dozens of barracks were connected there, and once they caught fire, the entire camp would fall into chaos.

He Yuzhu turned and rushed out of the sea of fire, rolled in the snow, found a deserted spot to change into a captured puppet soldier uniform, smeared some soot from the bottom of a pot on his face, and then limped to the guard tent at the camp gate, shouting at the top of his lungs: "The barracks are on fire! Come and put it out!"

The devil Second Lieutenant Takeda Jiro in the tent was flipping through a pictorial; hearing this, he stood up abruptly and ordered: "Maeda! Take twenty men to put out the fire. If there isn't enough water, hurry and dismantle a firebreak; you must save the barracks!"

The bespectacled Second Lieutenant Maeda immediately responded, taking twenty devil soldiers carrying wooden buckets and rushing out. He spotted the "limping" He Yuzhu and barked: "You come along too!"

He Yuzhu cursed inwardly but followed along, limping at the end of the line.

The squad had only run a few dozen paces when he took advantage of the others not paying attention and pulled the devil soldiers into the space one by one.

By the time he had collected the thirteenth man, Maeda suddenly turned back to count heads, his face changing instantly—the squad behind him was missing half its members!

"Where... where did they go?" Maeda pointed at He Yuzhu, his voice trembling.

"Sir, they went to find... find water!" He Yuzhu said.

"Baka! A bunch of cowards!" Maeda cursed, believing these men had seen the fire was too big and had slacked off.

A few people ran to the fire, only to find it was too large to get anywhere near.

Maeda was also a pampered soldier from Osaka, Japan, and an old hand at shirking; seeing this thankless task, he immediately thought of an excuse: "The fire is too big, there's no way to put it out, I'm going back to report." He ran off as soon as he finished speaking.

He Yuzhu watched the fleeing Maeda and shook his head repeatedly.

A little devil asked: "Here, why did it catch fire?"

He Yuzhu pretended to be afraid and stammered: "Sir, I went to deliver food, and when I came back, it was already on fire. I wanted to go in, but the fire was too big..."

The little devil looked at He Yuzhu with a strange expression, somewhat disbelieving.

He Yuzhu saw that no one was around, reached out, and pulled this suspicious devil into the space.

Next, He Yuzhu seized every opportunity to pull the remaining little devils into the space one by one.

Once He Yuzhu saw the mission was complete, he wiped off the soot and sprinted toward the camp gate.

By now, the main gate was in total chaos; most of the hundred or so devils guarding it were carrying buckets toward the fire, while the remaining dozen were huddled behind sandbag bunkers, guarding several dark, heavy Machine Guns.

He Yuzhu was covered in soot, his face streaked with black and gray; the devil soldiers just assumed he was a wounded soldier fleeing the fire and didn't stop him.

He Yuzhu saw a dozen Type 11 Light Machine Guns mounted behind the gate bunkers.

These things weren't meant for guarding the gate; they were clearly prepared to massacre unarmed civilians!

He Yuzhu saw the devil soldiers responsible for the guard duty huddled together chatting, completely unaware of the impending danger.

He quickly pulled out the two Box Cannons at his waist and pulled the triggers without hesitation.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

The gunfire exploded at the empty camp gate; the devils never expected "their own" to open fire, and seven or eight fell instantly.

The remaining few scrambled behind the sandbags.

A devil picked up a Type 11 Light Machine Gun and began to spray fire.

"Da-da-da!"

The machine gun bullets whizzed past He Yuzhu's ears, splashing a spray of frozen mud and snow.

He did a roll, ducked into a bunker, and then began to return fire with a Type 11 Light Machine Gun.

Once he emptied the magazine in the gun, he ducked into the space.

The three devils behind the bunker saw the gunfire stop and immediately felt they had killed the person. They jumped out of the bunker, cursing and swearing as they walked over with their Rifles, but they didn't see a shadow of a person.

"Baka! The guy ran away!" a devil kicked the bunker and cursed.

Several people searched the vicinity for a long time, but seeing no one, they slowly walked back toward their bunker.

He Yuzhu emerged from his space and happened to see the backs of those few people; he raised his Box Cannon and fired wildly.

Three devils fell to the ground in response, their fresh blood instantly staining the accumulated snow beneath their feet red.

He Yuzhu tidied up the battlefield and collected all the Machine Guns and other firearms at the camp entrance into his space.

After finishing all this, he was just about to leave when he discovered that chaotic footsteps were suddenly coming from the direction of the fire.

More than thirty devils who had been fighting the fire heard the gunfire and were running back while carrying their rifles, only a few hundred meters from the camp entrance.

He Yuzhu's eyes turned sharp; he took three Type 11 light machine guns out from his space, checked the magazines, and quickly mounted them on the bunker, aiming the muzzles at the rushing crowd.

Waiting until the devils were panting as they ran into range, he pulled the triggers fiercely.

The "da-da-da" sound of the Machine Guns instantly tore through the cold wind, and bullets poured toward the devils like raindrops.

The completely unprepared devils fell in swathes, their screams mingling with the gunfire to echo at the camp entrance; in the blink of an eye, more than twenty people had fallen onto the snowy ground.

Just as He Yuzhu let out a slight sigh of relief, dense gunfire suddenly rang out from behind him, and bullets whizzed past his shoulder.

"Is Heaven trying to destroy us? Caught in a pincer attack, what should I do? It seems the only way is to hide in the space. If I hide in there for a few days, I just don't know if Shen Guizhi will cry her eyes blind."