"We have spent so much time in Lingao to handle the affairs of the country and done so much work. Of course we are in peace. This is not Lingao." Yu Zhiqian said, "I don't think you can take this matter too lightly."
While they were talking, a soldier suddenly rushed in:
"Report" he saluted anxiously, "Something may have happened to the work team in Zhaopu Village."
"What?" Two people shouted at the same time.
The information was provided by a long-range patrol team. When they were performing routine patrols, there was now a large amount of thick smoke in this direction.
Now is the rainy season, the climate is humid, and wildfires are rare. Therefore, the captain sent forward soldiers to investigate, and encountered a large number of manually cut and piled trees on the mountain road to Zhaopu Village. The captain judged that there was a serious trouble in the direction of Zhaopu Village. While trying to open a way, he sent people back to ask for emergency help.
"Quick, beat the assembly drum," Yu Zhiqian quickly ordered, "The entire light infantry company assembles."
Liu Yixiao ordered that a health team be immediately dispatched to accompany the army. He himself girded up his armor.
"What, you want to go in person?"
"Yes, I have to go and see for myself." Liu Yixiao realized something was wrong. He was eager to find out what happened at the scene.
"The situation is unknown, so you can't go." Yu Zhiqian stopped him, "You are the number one commander here in Danzhou and have a heavy responsibility. Let the company commander bring the walkie-talkie."
So it was decided that Lin Shenhe would lead the team. He was discussing some work issues in depth with confidential personnel in the tent, and was about to enter Hong Kong. The messenger coughed outside the tent:
"Company Commander"
"What's the matter?" Lin Shenhe leaned half out of the officer's personal tent for a long time.
"The battalion commander asks you to go there, there is an order issued."
"I'll go right away."
Ten minutes later, he arrived at the headquarters wearing a neat and elegant uniform.
"Trouble is coming." Yu Zhiqian explained the task to him, "Take the light infantry company to check it out. If there is any situation, report it immediately through the walkie-talkie."
"Where is Teruura Village?"
"Here," Yu Zhiqian drew a circle on the glass plate of the large map, "the road is very difficult to walk, so be careful of being ambushed along the way."
"Okay, I'll get ready and I'll be out in fifteen minutes."
Lin Shenhe led the light infantry company for more than ten miles, and then opened a path in the mountains to move wood. Finally, he opened a passage and arrived at Wangpu Village.
The large cloud of smoke had dissipated, but black smoke was still rising in the camp. The observation tower was completely burned down, leaving only the charred remains of wooden pillars still standing. The camp was littered with corpses. The corpses were all wearing uniforms, and some had their heads chopped off. Lin Shenhe held back his nausea and looked around, seeing all the heads hanging on the gate of the camp.
There were more than a dozen corpses neatly dumped in the center of the camp, but it seemed that they had no traces of fighting. Could it be that they were killed after being captured? Although there were marks on his body from being stabbed with spears and slashed with knives, not much blood was shed.
A woman in a gray uniform huddled in the trench, her head hanging on her chest. A terrible gash opened in her throat, and a bloody bayonet fell from her hand. This is probably Liu Bin - she is the only woman on the task force list.
"Did you survive?"
"No." Sergeant Lian reported, "But the number of corpses is not high. Only twenty corpses were found in total. There should be thirty-five people in the task force."
Did someone escape? Lin Shenhe quickly denied this idea. If he escaped, he should have appeared by now. Maybe he was taken away. At this time he noticed traces of soil being turned over on the ground.
Soon, they excavated another fifteen corpses. Lin Shenhe took a cursory look and found that except for a few people, there were no external injuries on the corpses.
Then, some buried personal belongings of the work teams and soldiers were found. Lin Shenhe noticed that there were a lot of paper ash scattered in the camp, which must be the remnants of burned documents.
"Report to the company commander that we found the remains of 18 rifles, and all other rifles and pistols are missing."
"Where's the ammunition?"
"There is no trace of any ammunition left. It was probably all taken away."
There were no custom-loaded ammunition for the one-mini rifle at the scene. Lin Shenhe didn't think that the work team would have time to consume all the 100 ammunition rations per person. Most of them were taken away by the attackers.
"Now we're in big trouble." He sighed.
17 mini rifles, if each had 5o bullets, would be enough to cause them a lot of trouble. Lin Shenhe didn't think that the opponent would never be able to learn the Mini rifle - many natives had seen the loading method during the shooting practice.
"Company Commander, there are a lot of mini bombs on the ground," a soldier suddenly shouted.
Lin Shenhe knelt down and paid attention. Sure enough, there were many Mini warheads scattered on the ground. He picked up one and looked at it. The projectile had no trace of friction from the rifling, but it was scorched. He searched around further and finally found the place where the ammunition was lit. There were still many mini bombs in the ashes that had not been blown out.
"Fortunately," he secretly exclaimed, "Luckily" - these soldiers faithfully followed their original oath of enlistment: "Never leave weapons to the enemy."
"Pack up everything as soon as possible, even the remains. As long as our bodies can be recognized, take them back and cremate them."
He sent a squad to search nearby villages, but only found a few old men and women who had not escaped. They were so frightened that they could not say anything. It took a while before Lin Shenhe learned the general story from their mouths. of the process.
But he still couldn't understand that with a platoon's strength, relying on a defensive camp defense, it would not be a problem to withstand 10 times the number of enemies. Why was the entire army wiped out in less than half a day?
He called over the old man who stayed in the village:
"Go and find the villagers right away. I have something to ask."
The old man said timidly: "The younger ones don't even know where they are."
The sergeant had long been burned with anger by such a tragic situation. Seeing these old men pushing back and forth, he slammed the rifle with the bayonet upwards and pressed it against the old man's chest:
"Go quickly"
"Even if you kill the villain, the villain won't be found." The old man seemed to have put life and death aside.
"Don't be like this." Lin Shenhe stopped the sergeant's move and slowed down: "I just want to ask the villagers. You should know that our Fubo Army never kills people indiscriminately."
"Yes, yes, my deputy, Qiu, has done nothing wrong and loves the people like a son..."
"So you have to find me all the people, even one less." Lin Shenhe said slowly, "Listen, I will give you half an hour. If the villagers don't come back by then, I will set fire to the village. ." Lin Shenhe pointed to the fields outside the village, "If you don't come back after burning the village, I will burn all the crops in the fields and block the springs and wells here. Then I will plow the fields three times, and sprinkle them with water each time. Add salt. You should know: Lingao’s private salt is very cheap.”
Several old men stared at each other with frightened eyes. They were prepared to die, but they did not expect that the other party's methods were so vicious and did not use killing as the purpose of venting their anger.
If you don't comply, all the material basis for the existence of the village will be gone, and Zhaopu Village will be completely wiped out.
"Yes, yes, I'll go right away." The old men panicked and ran away one after another.
When Liu Yixiao heard Lin Shenhe's report, he couldn't sit still anymore. This accident was so serious that I couldn't explain it to the Senate - a work team protected by force was wiped out.
"...Things don't seem to be that simple." Lin Shenhe's voice came from the walkie-talkie, "There are many doubts in it, and I can't explain it at the moment. I suggest that a special investigation be conducted on this."
"Who was the attacker?"
"Currently we only know that they are bandits." There was an interfering crackling sound from the walkie-talkie - the signal in the mountains was very poor. "We are searching for the bandits' graveyard, hoping to find something."
Liu Yixiao said: "It seems that we have to send another task force to Zhaopu and figure out this incident as soon as possible." He sighed as he said that he could almost foresee himself sitting in the hearing room of the Senate and being questioned by others. It's like taking turns to bombard.
"Strengthen security measures from now on." He slammed his fist on the table. "Each work team must have a complete platoon to protect all work teams. As long as they all carry walkie-talkies within the communication range, it is too remote and cannot be effectively fortified. The local government will not send any work teams for the time being."
Lin Shenhe, a villager who returned to the village from Luxu, knew the complete story. I also understood why many people had no external injuries - they were poisoned to death.
This shocked him extremely.
"Where is the village liaison officer?" he asked bitterly.
"Run away," an old man said quickly. "He did such a thing and no longer dared to stay in the village, so he ran away with the bandits."
"The family members don't want it either?"
"My mother would have died long ago before he got married."
"He can't run away." He said, looking at the numb faces of the villagers. There was only a kind of undifferentiated fear on their faces, and their eyes were ignorant and confused. They just watched indifferently as the work team that came to improve people's livelihood for them was poisoned, besieged, and the last one was killed. No one even thought of reporting a letter.
As long as we could come an hour or two earlier, we might be able to save some lives. Lin Shenhe breathed hard to calm down his anger.
"You guys, go back to the village first. But you are not allowed to go out. We are always at your disposal."
The mass grave where the bandits had hastily buried their own dead was found the next day. Lin Shenhe ordered civilian workers to be mobilized to dig, and in the end more than 70 corpses were dug out. The top one is the missing liaison officer. Hu Lanyan was reluctant to part with the twenty taels of silver he had been given, and when he was leaving, he simply killed this man who had lost his use value. v! ~!
