Chapter Nineteenth: I miss my hometown so much

  Wei Yuankun was flying the plane with ease, while the three passengers were sitting on edge, their hearts racing. The reason was that although Wei Yuankun had not touched a drop of alcohol for over a month, he was flying the plane like a drunkard. Fortunately, so far they hadn't crashed, but Wei Yuankun kept asking torturous questions during the flight, "Who knows Japanese? Who knows what this instrument is used for?" Suddenly, Wei Yuankun spotted two small black dots in front of him - no, it was a Japanese plane! He immediately shouted to the back, "The two of you, mount the machine gun and load incendiary bullets!"

  One plane was missing, and it was the one carrying the most important person. The Japanese naturally wouldn't ignore this, so when they discovered that their formation was missing its most important plane, two fighter planes flew out of formation to search for it. They soon found the plane flying erratically behind them. According to the Japanese pilots' understanding, this plane must have had some mechanical failure. However, at that time, the Japanese fighter planes didn't have radios, so they couldn't communicate with each other. The 100-type transport plane did have a radio, but given Japan's electronic level at the time, such precision instruments were "theoretically always broken". Therefore, they could only fly closer to observe. But as soon as they took a look, he almost became disabled. He found that the person sitting in the cockpit of the transport plane wasn't the pilot who had taken off with him, but a big, white man waving at him. At that moment, he was shocked and turned the control stick, intending to return and report back. However, Wei Yuankun had already given the order to open fire. Soon, a string of machine gun bullets hit his plane's belly. Since they were using incendiary bullets, and Japanese planes followed their usual "frugal" principle without installing armor plates or self-sealing fuel tanks, when one bullet hit the oil tank, this Japanese 96-type fighter quickly became a ball of flames in mid-air. The other plane saw what happened and hastily climbed to avoid this four-sided aerial fortress.

  "Beautifully done, who's the hero who did it!" Wei Yuankun exclaimed excitedly in the cockpit, having shot down an enemy plane on his first flight. This was no ordinary luck! Just then, a female voice came from behind, "It was me, I did it, yeah!" Wang Fangyuan's cheers would have definitely made the Japanese pilots die of shame - after all, a proud pilot of the Great Japanese Empire had been shot down by a woman using a rear-mounted machine gun. This would be a very embarrassing thing to spread around. But Wang Fangyuan also lost face, and almost got herself and others killed because of this embarrassing incident. Just as she was cheering about shooting down a Japanese plane, Wei Yuankun's words made everyone's souls fly out: "Damn it, how did we lose control? Wang Fangyuan, you stupid girl, what kind of shooting is that?"

  Mistakes in war are inevitable. Look at the US military, known for its advanced technology, still occasionally bombing their own allies on the battlefield. And this is just a little girl who has hardly ever fired a gun? Just now, Wang Fangyuan heard Wei Yuankun's order to open fire and immediately swept past with her machine gun, shooting down the enemy plane while also opening several holes in the tail wing of her own plane.

  The rudder is out of control, but that's not the worst news. The worst news is that another Japanese plane in the sky seems to have received an order to shoot down Wei Yuankun's plane, possibly thinking that if we can't get it, you Eighth Route Army won't either. Soon, the Japanese plane dived from the sky and with just one burst of fire, set one engine ablaze and stopped the other from turning. "Brothers, prepare for a forced landing!" Wei Yuankun shouted in the cockpit.

  "How confident are you?" Wang He was now gripping the chair in the cockpit, and at this moment everyone was clear about their situation: the rudder was out of control, two engines were damaged, and to make matters worse, the pilot was Wei Yuankun, a super second-rate pilot. The probability of survival could be imagined.

  "How confident? Don't worry, brothers, you can rest assured! When I played 'Defender of the Eagle' back then, out of ten times, I could successfully land seven times." Wei Yuankun gripped the control stick tightly at this moment, looking full of confidence.

  Wei Yuankun was confident, but that didn't mean others were. After hearing Wei Yuankun's words, everyone's heart sank: this kid was notorious for being unreliable, and although he claimed to be an ace in the game, in reality, when it came to flying a plane, everyone had seen his skills firsthand. And now that the plane was damaged, according to his "70% success rate of landing" (note: not emergency landing), everyone estimated that they would have to go report to King Yama soon.

  Although Wei Yuankun often complained about his bad luck from childhood to adulthood, after the explosion of his personality, good luck was not a little bit. At this moment, in front of him, a large flat land appeared among the dense mountains, "Brothers, prepare for landing!"

  Because it was an emergency landing, the plane did not put down its landing gear and instead used its belly to land (in fact, Wei Yuankun's ears were ringing so loudly that he wouldn't have been able to hear even if they had). Everyone inside the plane was shaken. When the plane finally came to a stop, everyone felt like they had just escaped from the gates of hell. "Brothers, hurry up and move out all the usable things from the plane, who knows when it will explode!"

  Everyone mobilized at an unprecedented speed upon hearing this, the backpacks, weapons and ammunition inside the plane were all moved out and piled up on the ground. Wei Yuankun saw that everything had been moved out, took out a hand grenade from his backpack, tied a long rope to it and pulled it from a distance. Soon, the plane was blown into a fireball.

  "Oh my, how are we going to carry all this stuff?!" Zhang Xin looked at the pile of things in front of him and said with a long face. Indeed, although these things might make most crossers drool, they were not a small burden for the four young masters and mistresses. First of all, each of them had brought many things, except for Wang Fangyuan, who had to carry three long guns and one handgun, not including the aircraft machine gun and other weapons and ammunition that had been moved out of the plane.

  Just then, a group of people emerged from the nearby woods, and upon seeing Wei Yuankun and his companions, they all lay down on the ground. Committee member Wei pulled out binoculars and took a look, discovering that these people were all wearing civilian clothes from this era, but each was holding a weapon - including three-eight large covers, Hanyang-made guns, Mosin-Nagant rifles, box cannons, old-style tubes, and even bird guns with raised stocks. The most advanced weapons were two Czech-style machine guns and one "crooked handle" gun. Most of the others were carrying big knives and long spears.

  However, a large flag among these people caught Wei Yuankun's attention. It was a red flag with three large characters written on it: "Rényìjūn" (Benevolent Righteous Army). Moreover, each person had an armband with the words "Communist Army will succeed one day". Seeing this, Wei Yuankun smiled and said to his companions, "Brothers, I have some good news. We're home! This is where we'll be living in the future - Chaoyang."

  The others were all puzzled, "How did you know?" Wei Yuankun smiled and said, "Do you guys still remember that old man who came to our elementary school to tell us stories about anti-Japanese heroes like Guo Wenlian? Well, now we've met a living one!" After finishing speaking, he threw down all the weapons and walked towards the other side with his hands raised, humming and singing a famous song from this era: "When Song Lao San... two mouths selling opium... gave birth to a daughter named Song Cui Lian..."

  The other party's men saw Wei Yuankun didn't bring any weapons and walked over, among them one stepped out and shouted from a distance "Who are you?"

  "I am me." Wei Yuankun had read a booklet called "Thieves' Slang Dictionary" back then, so he still understood some of these Jianghu slang, and thus could match the two sentences.

  The other side saw Wei Yuankun was a sensible person and shouted again, "Brother, press down on his wrist."

  Wei Yuankun rushed towards Wang and them, waving his hand to signal them to put down their weapons. Then he shouted at those people, "Friends, you also put out the fire."

  At this time, Wei Yuankun had already walked to their front, with both hands clasped together and bowed deeply, "Respected seniors and juniors, may I request that the master of the house come out to speak?"

  "A wild chicken pecks at the ground with its head down, how can it see Mount Tianwang?" someone grumbled.

  Wei Yuankun thought to himself, fortunately he had read "Tracks in the Snowy Forest" when he was in school and had nothing better to do. He took off his helmet, drew a circle on his head with his finger, put it back on, stretched out his right arm and said:

  "There's rice on the ground, oh no! It's gone to waste!"

  "Alright!" At this time, a man walked out of the crowd. He was about 1.7 meters tall and in his mid-30s. He wore a linen shirt on top and black shorts on the bottom, with layered cloth shoes on his feet. A shiny metal box gun was tucked into his waistband. As he approached, people around him automatically made way for him, clearly indicating that he was the leader of the group. Upon seeing Wei Yuankun, he first bowed his head, then said, "This fellow doesn't seem to be a local." He looked Wei Yuankun up and down, taking in his unusual attire, and asked, "May I ask which mountain you hail from?" Wei Yuankun thought for a moment, realizing that the question was likely asking what he did. With a slight smile, he didn't say anything but instead stretched out his right hand and drew an "eight" character with his finger. The other man's expression changed immediately, and he hastily apologized to Wei Yuankun, saying, "So you're Eighth Master! I'm sorry for the disrespect. Let me lead the way; I'll take you to meet our master."

  "Let me ask: Is your family head surnamed Guo?" Wei Yuankun asked with a smile.

  The other party was stunned after hearing it. "Since you are the eighth master, then we will also be clear and not speak in a low voice. Indeed, our master's surname is indeed Guo."

  "Hey brother, your surname is Liu, right? Your name is Liu Chen." Wei Yuankun continued.

  The other party was taken aback after hearing Wei Yuankun's words, thinking to himself that this guy is indeed formidable, actually having the ability to predict the future. After a moment of contemplation, he said, "Eight Master is indeed impressive, knowing my name and all. I'm impressed." Wei Yuankun smiled and replied, "It's nothing, really." But in his heart, he thought, How about that? I've got you under control now. I haven't even told you that I've seen you before. Wei Yuankun had a reason to think this way because back when he was in elementary school, the person in front of him was the one who gave a report on him, and this matter was only known by Wei Yuankun, while Liu Chen would not have any idea what happened behind his back.

  As soon as he thought of meeting the legendary hero, Wei Yuankun's heart couldn't help but feel some excitement, and his mind recalled the records of Guo Wenlian in the later generations' Chao Yang Shi Zhi:

  Kuo Wenlian, originally named Kuo Wenming, was born in 1912 into a poor peasant family in Caizhou Mongolian Autonomous County. He was fearless of the strong and violent, and would take bold action when he saw injustice, earning him the deep trust of his fellow villagers.

  In 1933, the Japanese invaders arrived in Lingyuan, Jianchang and Kazuo counties, burning, killing and looting, arousing his deep hatred for the Japanese invaders. The surging anti-Japanese flames across the country further ignited his passion for resisting Japan and saving the nation. In 1935, at the age of 23, he resolutely raised the flag and launched anti-Manchu and anti-Japanese activities.

  The Righteous Army led by Guo Wenlian, after several years of fighting against the Japanese puppet army and police, had a great reputation. Many police stations and local pseudo-chiefs were afraid of them, and could only pretend to serve the enemy while secretly providing bullets and intelligence to the Righteous Army, making it convenient for their activities.

  Later, due to the betrayal of a traitor, Guo Wenlian was unfortunately captured. In prison, Guo Wenlian still maintained his heroic demeanor. To show his determination to resist Japan, he refused to eat the food provided by the Japanese puppet prison and instead had the police buy him food from the street.

  The Japanese devils tried to use soft tactics to buy him off and persuade him to surrender, but were met with Guo Wenlian's severe rebuke. They then used cruel methods, torturing him severely, trying to force him to confess. However, Guo Wenlian remained steadfast, cursing those who had betrayed him, including Ling Ruxi as a "national traitor" and the police agents as "slaves of a lost country" and "running dogs".

  When the Japanese judges tried to intimidate and bribe him, he rebuked them sternly, saying: "I am a Chinese, I would rather die than become a slave of a lost country!"

  After all their tactics failed, on May 17, 1942, the Special Security Department decided to execute Guo Wenlian. On May 18, they beheaded him in public at the north gate of Jianchang Street.

  That day was the Jianchang Festival, and the Japanese puppet police were like enemies, with strict precautions and machine guns set up on the hills and roads. They gathered all the officials from the pseudo-government offices to witness the "trial" conducted by the judges from the Jinzhou Local Court, Chengde Local Court, Chengde Regional Police Department, and the Jianchang Area Court.

  Guo Wenlian walked into the courtroom with his head held high, fearless, and sat down on a bench. When the judges asked him questions, he remained silent, showing contempt for them. When they announced their unjust verdict, Guo Wenlian stood up and cursed: "You have invaded China's territory, killed Chinese people, and committed crimes that are beyond measure. I have killed Japanese devils to avenge the Chinese people..."

  The enemy was left speechless and embarrassed, and could only use a handkerchief to gag him before taking him away in a car.

  At the execution ground, Guo Wenlian remained heroic and unyielding. After the Japanese executioner, Ishizaka (also known as "Big Beard"), took off the handkerchief, Guo Wenlian continued to curse loudly. At that moment, Ishizaka used his sword to test Guo Wenlian's neck, but Guo Wenlian turned around and bit off a piece of flesh from Ishizaka's wrist.

  Ishizaka then beheaded Guo Wenlian with one stroke, and blood spurted up five or six feet high. According to an old man, at that moment, although Guo Wenlian's head had fallen, his body remained standing upright, and the Japanese devils and traitors were so frightened that they collectively bowed three times to his corpse before it finally fell to the ground.

  Such a person, no matter where or when, is worthy of the title "hero". Soon, Wei Yuankun saw the legendary hero Guo Wenlian himself, who had only existed in legend. Unlike the image of an anti-Japanese hero he had imagined as a child - "eight feet tall and eight feet around the waist" - this Guo Wenlian looked like an ordinary person, similar to many young men of this era, not particularly tall but sturdy and robust, with a ruddy complexion and calloused hands. He wore a common outfit for this era, with two mirror-finish pistol holsters on his belt, indicating that he was a heroic figure known as "Guan Zhi" in the green woods. Although Wei Yuankun and others were also born and raised in Chaoyang, they were worlds apart from people of this era - whether it was their spirit or other aspects, there was no comparison to be made. One was a grass-roots hero who had persisted in resisting the war for nearly eight years, while the other was a young master who had grown up in a peaceful era, spoiled and pampered since childhood. If they didn't all speak Chinese, it would be hard to believe that they were from the same country or ethnic group - after all, in this era, men like Wei Yuankun, Zhang Xin, and Wang He, with faces whiter than those of good women, were extremely rare. After all, the two groups had been separated by decades of time and space, and the difference between people who grew up in the same place with the same water and soil was too great.

  The host and the guest met, and the atmosphere of their conversation was very harmonious. Wei Yuankun, although his ancestors were not from Chaoyang, spoke standard Mandarin in his daily life, but since he grew up in Chaoyang, he also spoke the local dialect. At this moment, in order to get closer, Wei Yuankun spoke with a strong local accent, "Old countrymen meet old countrymen, tears welling up in their eyes." Guo Wenlian heard the local accent of this " Eighth Route Army" and naturally felt more affectionate. Later, Wei Yuankun also showed his party membership card. Wei Yuankun, Wang He, and Wang Fangyuan were all party members in another time and space. After they came to this time and space, the Eighth Route Army decided to give them new party membership cards to avoid shocking people with their original cards - after all, if several people appeared in 1941 with plastic-wrapped, color-photographed, carbon-pen-written party membership cards from 2002 or later, it would likely cause some people to go crazy. The district military leadership unanimously decided to give them new party membership cards for this era. As for their party seniority, after careful consideration, they decided to calculate it based on their age in another time and space. As a result, these few became old party members with at least four years of party seniority, which made them feel ashamed because they had not paid party dues for many years in another time and space. However, when Wei Yuankun showed his party membership card to prove his identity today, it unexpectedly earned him the respect of Guo Wenlian, who stood up straight. Although Guo Wenlian was not very educated, he was not a country bumpkin who had never seen the world. According to historical records, during the Anti-Japanese War, he frequently traveled between Tianjin, Chengde, Changli, and Chifeng for secret liaison work and was quite familiar with some of the Eighth Route Army's secrets. Therefore, he knew the weight of the man in front of him who had five years of party seniority and looked like a university student (which was true, but he had no idea what kind of person a university student like Wei Yuankun would become twenty years later). From the perspective of a rural household, a university student was like a "scholar star descending to earth," on the same level as a number one scholar in the imperial examination. Therefore, Guo Wenlian naturally looked up to him even more. Wei Yuankun then told the story of how he was tied up by the devils and put on an airplane, how he killed the guards, and how he hijacked the plane and made it land here. The people present were all amazed and repeatedly praised Wei Yuankun as "a good fellow." As a result, while feeling affectionate, they also gained more respect for him.

  Of course, just making people feel close and respectful is far from enough. The gifts that the travelers brought to the Righteous Army were also quite generous - two 7.7mm machine guns taken from the enemy's plane, four Southern fourteen handguns, plus two special forces members' SOMI assault rifles and Browning pistols. This generous gift made the brothers of the Righteous Army overjoyed. In this era where having a gun is like being a king, any armed force has an extremely special preference for guns. Especially those few Browning pistols, which were truly original and authentic. "One gun, two horses, three flower mouths, four snakes, five dogs, and a mouthful of Zhang", whoever saw these would be excited. However, after giving them these gifts, Wei Yuankun and the others couldn't just stand there empty-handed. The enemy had also brought their modernized weapons when they were tied up on the plane, allowing them to rearm themselves. Wei Yuankun still used his AK74 with a grenade launcher and an M14 civilian version sniper rifle, plus a 06-style silenced pistol; Wang He used an M4A1 carbine with a cold-forged barrel and an Austrian-made SSG69 sniper rifle, paired with a Glock 17 pistol. Zhang Xin, being fat and big, naturally used the biggest ones - he directly carried a Russian-made PK machine gun and a Remington pump-action shotgun. Wang Fangyuan changed to an 85-style silenced assault rifle - of course, it had to be equipped with Shanghai Mengbao's non-stick stickers. She also learned from her previous battle experience where she lacked firepower, so she specially chose a 56-style semi-automatic rifle and a PPK pistol, which was the favorite among girls. In their arsenal, there was even an RPG7 rocket launcher and 20 rockets, as well as bulletproof vests, helmets, ammunition, hand grenades, water bottles, first-aid kits, night vision goggles, sniper rangefinders, wind measuring instruments, etc., making these few people truly armed to the teeth. Of course, this also came with a small price - after fully arming themselves, they had to rely on others to help them stand up and walk, because all of this was just too heavy.

  Informal Eighth Route Army members Wei Yuankun, Wang He, Zhang Xin and Wang Fangyuan, as well as the fake "Renyi Army" of the Eighth Route, met in their hometown of Lingyuan, also known as Kalaqin Left Banner (Lingyuan County was renamed Kalaqin Left Banner in January 1940), in a place called Da'erding. This meeting has been greatly emphasized in later historical accounts, with one being legendary General Guo Wenlian, known as the "Chinese Shabyang", and the other four being even more legendary figures. Such a gathering of people, if not written about, would be a lively event - where would he go to collect his manuscript fee?

  "That should be Mulan Mountain in the distance, right?" Wei Yuankun asked, gazing at the distant mountain.

  "Right, it seems you are indeed one of us Chaoyang people, even knowing Mulan Mountain." Guo Wenlian said with a smile.

  "Mulan Mountain, when I have time, we should go to the top of the mountain and take a look from the observation deck." At this moment, Wei Yuankun walked in the mountains near his old home, with an air of grandeur, he suddenly opened his throat and started singing:

  I miss my hometown so much

  Back to her side again

  Look at her gentle kindness

  Come and comfort my wounded heart

  Let me go back to my hometown

  Back to her side again

  Let her kindness and gentleness

  Come and comfort my wounded heart

  That year you set foot in a foreign land at dusk

  Do you think your ideal is there?

  You look at the unfamiliar eyes around you

  Woke up in the morning but no one was by my side

  A quiet rainy night made me think of her

  Her lingering words still echo beside my ear

  Remembering her tear-stained face at our farewell

  You couldn't help but burst into loud sobs

  I miss my hometown so much

  Back to her side again

  Look at her gentle kindness

  Come and comfort my wounded heart

  Let me go back to my hometown

  Back to her side again

  Let her kindness and gentleness

  Come and comfort my wounded heart

  …………………