Volume One, Chapter Six: Underlying Currents Surge—Target: The Pale Scholar!

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Ping’an County Town, headquarters of the Japanese Military Police.

Ichiro Hirata clenched a secret report tightly, his knuckles whitening from the pressure. The report had just arrived from an undercover source.

The content was simple, yet it made his heart race wildly: the Independent Regiment recently welcomed a young “pale-faced scholar,” shrouded in mystery and highly esteemed by Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang.

“Pale-faced scholar… secret weapon…” Ichiro connected the two phrases, his eyes flashing with a greedy and ruthless gleam.

He was nearly certain that the destruction of the Yang Village watchtower was caused by this very man!

“Relay my orders!” he bellowed at the Special Intelligence Section Chief beside him. “Target locked on Li Yunlong’s Independent Regiment, especially this ‘Mr. Lin’! I want everything on him! At any cost, obtain his photograph or detailed information!”

A Japanese spy disguised as a peddler, carrying a rattle drum and sewing supplies, silently slipped into the villages surrounding Zhaojiayu.

His eyes were like those of a hawk, catching every whisper about the Independent Regiment.

…

Unlike the ruthless tactics of the Japanese, Chu Yunfei’s approach was far more “civilized.”

Inside the 358th Regiment’s command post, Chu Yunfei placed a polished bullet on the map marking the Independent Regiment’s location and said to his trusted staff officer, Sun Ming, “Staff Officer Sun, prepare a generous gift—medicine, cloth—we urgently need these, but they need them even more. You will visit the Independent Regiment under the pretext of military exchange.”

Sun Ming stood at attention and asked, “Regimental Commander, is this to test their strength?”

Chu Yunfei smiled faintly, his gaze penetrating. “No, it’s to make acquaintances with experts. Li Yunlong may be a grassroots hero, but he couldn’t possibly have invented such an effective assault device on his own. There must be a skilled individual behind him. When you go, don’t pry deliberately; just observe and listen. Pay special attention to whether there’s a newcomer in their ranks who looks like an intellectual rather than a farmer. If you find one, be humble and try to make a friend.”

Meanwhile, the other two corners of the “Iron Triangle,” Ding Wei and Kong Jie, were nearly ready to slam down their phones after being blustered and tricked by Li Yunlong’s boastful ramblings. Yet, reconsidering, each began to hatch their own schemes.

Two days later, two clever radio operators, carrying their stations, cheerfully appeared at the Independent Regiment’s headquarters.

“Commander Li! Our Commander Ding says since we are brother units, we should visit and communicate more often. He has specially sent me to stay and learn!”

“Commander Li, Commander Kong feels the same! He says you have rich experience fighting the devils, so I’m here to learn from you!”

Li Yunlong looked at these “study group” members, fully aware of their true intentions, but smiled broadly nonetheless. “Good! Welcome, welcome! You’re family once you’re here! Zhang Dabiao, take these comrades and settle them in. Let them watch and learn from our Independent Regiment’s training as they please!”

At the research institute, Zhao Gang reported these new developments to Lin Mo, his expression serious. “Chu Yunfei sent a staff officer, Ding Wei and Kong Jie sent trainees, and of course, the devils won’t give up easily. The research institute has become a target; security must be heightened!”

Lin Mo, dismantling a captured Japanese crooked-handle machine gun, did not look up. “Open threats can be avoided; hidden dangers are harder to defend against. Besides obvious and covert sentries, we can set up chemical warning devices around the perimeter.”

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He picked up a packet of yellow powder. “For example, this sulfur powder, mixed with a specific plant juice and dried, is colorless and odorless. But once someone steps on it, their shoe soles pick it up, and when they encounter alkali water we’ve sprinkled on the path, it turns a conspicuous red. No one will know how it happened.”

Zhao Gang’s eyes lit up. “Excellent idea! I’ll arrange for our most reliable veterans to handle this immediately.”

Lin Mo frowned as he looked at the pile of complex machine gun parts on the table.

Though the crooked-handle gun had many flaws, it allowed for automatic fire.

The Independent Regiment, however, only had bolt-action rifles firing one shot per pull, putting them at a disadvantage in firepower density.

“If we could develop semi-automatic rifles, or even submachine guns…” Once this thought ignited, it grew wildly in Lin Mo’s mind.

Several days later, Chu Yunfei’s staff officer Sun Ming, accompanied by Zhang Dabiao, toured the Independent Regiment’s camp.

He acted appropriately, spoke politely, and constantly praised the regiment’s disciplined formation and high morale.

When they reached the back mountain, Sun Ming “casually” pointed to a heavily guarded valley in the distance and asked, “Captain Zhang, what is that heavily secured area?”

Zhang Dabiao immediately became alert, giving a laugh. “Oh, nothing, just a warehouse for miscellaneous items.”

Sun Ming did not pursue the matter, but his nose caught a faint chemical scent drifting on the wind, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

From afar, he also spotted several people dressed unlike ordinary soldiers, carrying oddly shaped metal components.

His heart sank.

“Commander Chu’s judgment is correct!”

Elsewhere, the two trainees sent by Ding Wei and Kong Jie were being dragged into drinking contests by the Independent Regiment’s veterans, who boasted about Commander Li Yunlong’s “divine” leadership and how he led them to blow up the watchtower with cluster grenades. The two trainees were baffled and could not glean any truthful details about the “big artillery.”

Li Yunlong listened to the report at headquarters, slapping his thigh joyfully and winking at Zhao Gang. “Old Zhao, see? This is how you deal with opportunists! Those who want to take advantage of old Li have no chance!”

Just as he was basking in his triumph, Lin Mo emerged from the research institute, his face and clothes covered in black soot, eyes expressing a trace of frustration.

“What’s wrong, Brother Lin?” Li Yunlong hurried over.

“Failed,” Lin Mo’s voice was hoarse. “I tried to improve the steel refining process using a primitive furnace to produce better steel, but I couldn’t control the temperature and proportions. Ended up blowing up a batch of scrap iron.”

This was Lin Mo’s first direct technical setback since arriving in this world.

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He knew that without qualified steel, making gun barrels and precise components was impossible.

Materials science was the foundation of military industry.

Lin Mo locked himself inside the research institute, ignoring Li Yunlong’s comfort. He took out a piece of a Japanese grenade launcher fragment retrieved from the ruined watchtower and tirelessly analyzed and tested it.

He filed, corroded with acid, heated, and hammered it like a mad craftsman, trying to uncover the material’s secrets.

At the same time, the Japanese spy disguised as a peddler successfully bribed a notorious thug near Zhaojiayu with some silver coins and tobacco.

The thug leaned close, lowering his voice with a greedy smile. “Sir, I’ve heard the Independent Regiment has a Mr. Lin, very precious! Rumor says he’s a university student from a big city. Even Li Yunlong treats him politely. It must be him who made that fancy gadget that blew up the watchtower!”

A sharp glint flashed in the spy’s eyes as he quietly slipped more coins his way. “Good work! Keep watching. I need to know what he looks like, his age—everything, the more detailed the better!”

Night deepened.

Zhao Gang looked at Li Yunlong, half amused, half exasperated, and revealed the true intentions behind the “undercover students” sent by Ding and Kong.

Li Yunlong’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Old Zhao, this is easy! Tomorrow, have Brother Lin give them a ‘hand grenade power enhancement class.’ Just teach how to tie grenades more securely! Core secrets, not a single word leaked!”

Meanwhile, under the dim oil lamp in the research institute, Lin Mo gazed at his spread-out analysis notes and finally exhaled deeply.

He had reverse-engineered the approximate carbon and manganese content of the Japanese steel from the grenade launcher fragment.

Though he couldn’t replicate it yet, it was like a guiding light in endless darkness.

Lin Mo did not know that on this very night, an urgent telegram had already been sent from Ping’an County directly to the North China Expeditionary Army Headquarters.

The contents made Ichiro Hirata tremble with excitement: target confirmed—the Independent Regiment’s technical core figure, surnamed Lin, a young scholar.

An invisible net had completely ensnared Lin Mo.

A storm revolving around him—spying, protection, apprenticeship, and assassination—was about to rage fiercely over the barren lands of northwestern Shanxi!