Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

"Commander, the prisoner-of-war camp is heavily guarded. The outer wall alone is over ten feet tall and made of brick and stone. It would be difficult to blast it down without placing explosive charges directly against it. Furthermore, the area around the prisoner-of-war camp is flat and open for at least two or three hundred meters," Wei Heshang said to Li Yunlong without any sign of timidity, carefully recalling everything he had seen at the prisoner-of-war camp.

"Each wall has multiple Type 96 light machine gun emplacements, as well as searchlights. It’s difficult to approach the prisoner-of-war camp undetected, day or night."

"Inside the prisoner-of-war camp, brick and stone walls also divide it into several areas. The living quarters for the Japanese soldiers and the prisoners, as well as the training grounds, are all separated. Each gate inside is guarded by at least two Japanese soldiers."

"The number of Japanese soldiers defending the camp isn't too high. Besides the dozen or so Japanese soldiers carrying MP 40 submachine guns, the rest are about the size of a squad. Because some prisoners help in the kitchen, judging by the amount of food prepared, there are probably only fifty or sixty of them."

Li Yunlong frowned as he listened to Wei Heshang's orderly description of the prisoner-of-war camp.

"Heshang, tell me again how you escaped?" Li Yunlong asked, looking at Wei Heshang. "Be detailed, as detailed as possible."

"At the time, I was taken to the training ground by the Japanese soldiers. These Japanese soldiers training us didn't carry any guns; they only had a dagger on them. Even so, when they chose us prisoners for practice, they tried not to use daggers, preferring to use bare-handed, ruthless moves to beat the prisoners to death or cripple them!" Wei Heshang closed his eyes, as if returning to the day he escaped.

"That day, I and a few other prisoners were selected by the Japanese soldiers as training targets. Before me, two brothers were beaten to death, fist by fist, in one-on-one fights with the Japanese soldiers. To be honest, if we weren't so underfed, even if we couldn't beat them, we wouldn't have been so easily abused to death."

"When I saw this, I knew the situation was bad, so I became more observant. I first surveyed the walls around the training ground and observed the blind spots of the two Japanese machine gun emplacements. At that time, I was determined to escape.

For me, a wall over ten feet tall wasn't a big problem. I could run over, use the momentum to squat and step twice to grab the top of the wall, and then climb over. The main threat was the two machine gun emplacements on the wall, so after choosing a good spot to escape, when the Japanese soldiers chose me to spar, I didn't hold back. I quickly and ruthlessly killed the Japanese soldier, then got up and rushed straight towards the wall I had chosen. I sprinted over, stepped against the wall, grabbed the top, and then hung from the wall and flipped down."

"After I ran fifty or sixty meters away from the prisoner-of-war camp, the Japanese machine gun emplacements reacted and started firing. However, the angle I chose happened to be where the two Japanese machine gun emplacements couldn't see clearly, so I was able to escape."

Li Yunlong's eyes lit up after Wei Heshang finished speaking.

"You're really a talent, your brain works well. Heshang, how about becoming my bodyguard?" The more Li Yunlong looked at Heshang's physique, the more he liked him.

Although Huzi was also considerate, he was too weak compared to Heshang. He couldn't even beat himself!

Huzi couldn't help but pout when he saw Li Yunlong openly disliking him.

"Huzi, what's with that attitude? I'm giving you a chance to go down to the company and be a platoon leader. Don't be ungrateful!" Li Yunlong glanced at Huzi and said angrily.

"Hey, Commander Li, isn't it appropriate to poach my people in front of me like this?" Zhao Gang didn't expect Li Yunlong to start poaching so openly, seriously underestimating Li Yunlong's shamelessness.

"Political Commissar Zhao, I'm not poaching your people, but rather optimizing the manpower configuration of our Independent Regiment. Someone with martial arts like Heshang should of course be placed by my side to charge into battle." Li Yunlong said plausibly.

"Let's stop this. Commander Li, let's go back to the matter of the prisoner-of-war camp. The Japanese are inhumane, using the lives of our friendly forces to train their commando troops. Now that we know this, we must rescue our friendly forces. It seems that this Japanese prisoner-of-war camp is heavily guarded, and attacking such a fortified Japanese stronghold won't be easy. It will be difficult for us to take it down."

"As for military matters, having me, Li Yunlong, is enough." Li Yunlong rudely interrupted Zhao Gang's words. He hadn't approved of Zhao Gang in the first place, and now that he saw him trying to interfere in military matters, Li Yunlong was even more displeased.

Zhao Gang's face stiffened at Li Yunlong's words.

Although the brigade commander had told him earlier that Li Yunlong was difficult to get along with, and Zhao Gang had prepared himself, he didn't expect Li Yunlong to be so uncooperative. These blunt words almost made Zhao Gang unable to accept it.

However, he remembered what he had said to the brigade commander. No matter what, he, Zhao Gang, had to consider the overall situation and do a good job in the Independent Regiment. Zhao Gang hadn't had much contact with the current Independent Regiment, and he didn't know what the actual situation was like.

Li Yunlong, based on Wei Heshang's description, drew the approximate location of the prisoner-of-war camp on the map. Seeing that it was fifty or sixty li away from Yang Village, this distance was not short for the Independent Regiment.

It would take the troops at least a day to travel such a long mountain road. Next to the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, there was also a highway, one end connecting to the county town and the other connecting to a Japanese blockhouse stronghold, with a maximum distance of no more than 10 kilometers. Therefore, this battle had to be swift and decisive, otherwise, they might be surrounded by Japanese reinforcements from both sides.

The stronghold was fine; at most, twenty or thirty Japanese soldiers and fifty or sixty puppet troops would come out. It might be possible to intercept and eliminate them, but dealing with the Japanese soldiers coming from the county town would be difficult.

If a company of Japanese soldiers plus a battalion of puppet troops came out, the Independent Regiment would only be able to hold them off if they pulled over their main force.

However, the Independent Regiment was guarding the headquarters, so it was impossible to mobilize the main force and create a void in the defense of the headquarters. Therefore, in this operation, the maximum force that Li Yunlong could mobilize was at the company level.

This meant that the attack on the prisoner-of-war camp had to be swift and decisive, preferably taking it down with lightning speed and then quickly withdrawing!

There were many problems facing Li Yunlong now: how to break through the solid walls of the prisoner-of-war camp and quickly eliminate the machine gun emplacements. Given the current strength of the Independent Regiment, these were all major headaches.

The 'flying thunder cannon' definitely had to be used, but how to use it? Now that Old Li hadn't observed the situation on the ground, he had some ideas based on Wei Heshang's verbal description, but they weren't very mature, and most importantly, they were time-consuming.

The biggest problem with the 'flying thunder cannon' was the long preparation time. During the long process of digging a hole and adjusting the angle, he had to consider how to suppress the enemy's fire.

Li Yunlong wasn't sure whether the sniper squad could suppress the Japanese machine gun emplacements with cover.

A sneak attack might kill the first wave of Japanese machine gunners, but the Japanese weren't stupid. The machine gunners weren't unique; if one died, another would quickly take their place, making it difficult to sneak attack the second machine gunner.

Therefore, sneaking attacking the machine gunners could only create a temporary gap in the enemy's firepower output. This gap wasn't even enough for the soldiers to advance a hundred meters.

Third update!