The Joy of Butchering a Whole Sheep and Slaughtering an Ox (Part One)

A monument stands silent; history's depths are explored; memory endures.

Langya Mountain, originally called Langshan, lies in Ji Province, Huaxia.

Lang and wolf sound alike in Chinese, so it was also called Wolf Mountain.

Later, because its towering peaks rose in jagged tiers like wolf fangs, it came to be known as Langya Mountain. It was one of the Ten Scenic Spots of ancient Yizhou and the Eight Scenic Spots of the ancient city of Baoding, celebrated as "Wolf Mountain's Splendid Peaks."

During the War of Resistance period, Langya Mountain was one of the famous base areas.

At the time, the renowned General Yang had been inspired by the story in Water Margin of the three assaults on Zhu Family Village. Seeing how gullies crisscrossed Langya Mountain and its hills and streams connected, with winding paths looping through the mountains, he thought it resembled Pantuo Road in Zhu Family Village and asked the Taoist Li Yuanzhong to modify the area.

Of course.

The modifications here had nothing to do with Feng Shui formations. They involved the routes of some mountain paths, the trees, and hidden sentries.

The improved Langya Mountain served its purpose as a base area very well, and the Japanese invaders' repeated sweeps ended in defeat.

But General Yang did not let his guard down. He soon realized that Langya Mountain still had a major vulnerability:

If the Japanese Army gathered heavy weapons and launched a large-scale sweep of Langya Mountain, the troops and civilians in the mountains would be surrounded, with nowhere to escape.

But before he could take effective measures, the Japanese had already launched a large-scale sweep of Langya Mountain.

August 1941.

Old Ghost Ganning assembled five divisions and six brigades and launched a large-scale sweep of the Jin-Cha-Ji Region.

They first concentrated their forces