This Move Was Brilliant

The smell of gunpowder mingled with blood, swirling in the mountain wind, so pungent it made you want to throw up.

Zhang Xueming pinched out the cigarette between his fingers and casually stuffed it into his pocket, not even glancing at the wreckage of the battlefield below the slope.

That wasn't a battlefield.

It was a slaughterhouse.

Chu Shixin came jogging over, the excitement still written all over his face, his voice as booming as ever.

"Reporting, Battalion Commander!"

"We wiped out nearly three thousand enemy troops! We... we suffered no casualties!"

By the end, even his voice was filled with incredulous joy.

What kind of immortal feat was this?!

No one would believe it if they heard!

Zhang Xueming nodded, his expression calm, as if this were only to be expected.

"Have the men search the battlefield and count the spoils of war."

"Also, bring the prisoners over. I have questions for them."

Dai Xiansheng soon came over, escorting a middle-aged man in a silk shirt with a goatee, his legs shaking like a sieve with fear.

The moment the man saw Zhang Xueming, he dropped to his knees with a thud and kowtowed like a pestle pounding garlic.

"Spare me, sir! Spare me, Commander!"

"I'm just a bookkeeper they forced to come up the mountain. I'm a good man!"

Zhang Xueming ignored his cries and simply took a captured rifle from Dai Xiansheng.

The chrysanthemum crest on the rifle's body stood out in the sunlight.

"Type 38 Rifle, currently in service with the Japanese Army."

He tossed the rifle in front of the man who called himself Master Wang. The clank of metal hitting the ground made him shudder violently.

"Master Wang, is that right?"

Zhang Xueming crouched down to meet his gaze, a warm smile on his face.

"You're a bookkeeper. Do you recognize this thing?"

Master Wang looked at the rifle on the ground, then at Zhang Xueming's unfathomable eyes. Cold sweat broke out on him instantly.

He knew the young officer before him was no pushover.

"I... I..."

"Think carefully before you answer."

Zhang Xueming's voice remained gentle.

"I'm not a very patient man."

"You have two choices."

Dai Xiansheng chimed in at just the right moment, his voice cold as ice.

"One: go down there and join your brothers right now."

"Two: answer our Battalion Commander's questions honestly and atone for your crimes."

Master Wang trembled even harder, and a foul smell wafted from his trousers.

He completely broke down.

"I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

"It was the Japanese! They gave us everything!"

"They gave us money and guns every year, and told us to fight the Feng Army!"

Zhang Xueming's eyes narrowed.

"What did they want?"

"Maps... They wanted maps..."

Like beans pouring from a bamboo tube, Master Wang spilled everything he knew.

"They called it... field surveying! Every year, every year, a hundred or so Japanese men dressed as merchants would come into the mountains carrying strange boxes. They'd stay for ten days or half a month!"

"Our boss would send men to guide them and protect them!"

"They know the mountains around Hunchun better than we locals do!"

Zhang Xueming and Dai Xiansheng exchanged a look, both seeing the gravity in the other's eyes.

Those Japanese devils had quite an appetite.

They were preparing for a future invasion!

Zhang Xueming stood up and brushed the dirt off his trousers.

"Fine. I understand."

He turned to Dai Xiansheng.

"Go tell the rest of the prisoners."

"If they want to live, they can make up for their crimes."

"Aren't they familiar with the mountains? Don't they know how to guide people?"

The corner of Zhang Xueming's mouth curled into a cold smile.

"Starting today, we're forming a Forest Protection Squad."

"Their job is to catch those Japanese spies who come into the mountains to survey the land!"

"Catch one, and there'll be a reward!"

"Anyone who dares to cozy up to the Japanese again will end up just like those men on the slope today!"

Dai Xiansheng's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh.

"Battalion Commander, that's brilliant!"

"That's using their own methods against them!"

The captured bandits were more than willing to join the Forest Protection Squad when they heard they could live and earn rewards for catching Japanese men.

One after another, they clamored to join, vowing to mend their ways and serve the Feng Army.

The enemies who had been shouting threats to kill one another just moments ago had become "one of their own" in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Xueming even appointed Master Wang captain of the Forest Protection Squad on the spot. Grateful beyond words, he kowtowed several more times.

The command post's telephone line was connected soon after.

Yang Yuting's hearty laughter came through the other end.

"Xue Ming, you've done well! That was a beautiful fight!"

"You wiped out three thousand bandits without a single casualty. Are you trying to reach the heavens?"

Zhang Xueming leaned back in his chair and rubbed his brow.

"Uncle Yang, there's no need to flatter me."

"I got some information out of them. Those Japanese devils are still bent on destroying us."

He recounted, word for word, the intelligence he had extracted from Master Wang.

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.

Yang Yuting's tone turned serious as well.

"What a masterstroke!"

"Turning bandits into hunters to catch their former masters—that was a brilliant move!"

"Xue Ming, I think your idea of turning 'using Chinese to control the Chinese' on its head will work!"

"I'll report this to the Marshal at once and put you in for a commendation!"

Just then, an aide hurried in, looking flustered, and handed Zhang Xueming a telegram that had just arrived.

Zhang Xueming glanced at it, and his brow immediately furrowed into a deep knot.