Chapter Twenty: A Grand Opening

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  Let us now shift our lens to Yan'an.

  The time travelers first received the news that Wei Yuankun and others were ambushed by the Japanese special forces and their plane crashed. Later, they received a telegram stating that everyone on board was killed in the explosion when the plane hit the ground. This news immediately plunged everyone into grief. It can be confirmed that these four comrades did not betray the country and nation, as deciphered telegrams showed that they fought bravely on the plane and once controlled it, but ultimately made the ultimate sacrifice. A grand but secret memorial service was held in Yan'an to mourn the four martyrs - three laptops and an MP4 were placed in a cave, displaying large photos of the four. Later, Wei Yuankun was very dissatisfied with this memorial service because his photo was played on the MP4 and was much smaller than the other three, which was not grand enough. At the memorial service, Comrade Kong Deying, who had been a close comrade-in-arms of Wei Yuankun's since university and had spent four years in the same dormitory and class, read out the eulogy. The eulogy recalled the ordinary yet great and somewhat stifling lives of the four comrades - Wei Yuankun, Wang He, Zhang Xin, and Wang Fangyuan - and praised their heroic behavior in fighting to the end against a strong enemy at the critical moment. Due to the difficult times, the time travelers and future national leaders who attended the memorial service offered wildflowers to the "martyrs" instead of wreaths. During the farewell ceremony for the bodies, many people were moved to tears by the sight of the so-called "bodies", which were actually just a pair of Wei Yuankun's insoles, Wang He's vest, Zhang Xin's green beret, and Wang Fangyuan's favorite SpongeBob toy. As the saying goes, "true feelings are revealed in times of hardship". At this moment, a person's relationships were perfectly revealed, especially Wei Yuankun, who received the most people's nostalgia - the vast majority of people wailed and cried in front of Wei Yuankun's coffin.

  "Old Wei, how come you left so early? Are you not going to pay back the 200 yuan you owe me?"

  "Wei Yuankun, you heartless guy, last time we made a bet and you owed me a week's payback but still haven't invited me..."

  "Wei Yuankun, you drank the last bottle of Coke I had a few months ago, hurry up and return it to me......"

  On one side, the memorial service and debt collection meeting were in full swing, while on the other side, Wei Yuankun's oath-taking ceremony was also lively. In a small village called Wulanbai, Guo Wenlian's Righteous Army and another anti-Japanese armed force led by Li Fengchun, the Anti-Japanese Salvation Army, successfully joined forces. Over the next few days, according to the agreement reached at a secret meeting of 13 people on August 28th at Tiegou Huang's house, several other anti-Japanese armed forces in Chaoyang, including the Red Gun Association, gathered in this small village, totaling over 200 people. That night, Guo Wenlian and the leaders of several anti-Japanese armed forces, Li Fengchun, Ming Meiting, Wang Chunrong, Zhang Yi, Zhang Yongliang, and others, including Wei Yuankun, Wang He, and Zhang Xin, made a blood oath and raised the banner of the "Kill the Rich to Help the Poor Self-Defense Army". Due to the arrival of travelers from another time and space, this time and space underwent great changes. Originally, in their native time and space, their uprising had been exposed before they could gather their forces and was suppressed by the enemy. However, due to various reasons, what should have been a failure became a success. But Wei Yuankun did not tell them about this, as such things would be too astonishing for these people, and it was better not to mention it.

  In this motley crew of anti-Japanese troops, the travelers received unanimous respect from these heroes who rose from humble beginnings - after all, with the name "Eighth Route Army" on their heads, even a hero like Guo Wenlian, who had nearly eight years of anti-Japanese history, couldn't help but give them face. After all, in this area, when it comes to the Eighth Route Army fighting against the devils, who wouldn't stretch out their thumbs and say "good job!" As a result, the four travelers quickly took on important roles in this unit.

  As for why they could do so, the reason was that the good men in this benevolent army had long heard that there were two people in the Eighth Route Army called "Political Commissar" and "Instructor", who were said to be all-knowing and all-powerful. They were said to be able to "know victory or defeat by listening to the wind, know gain or loss by smelling the earth, use troops like Sun Wu, and deploy troops like Zi Ya". Their power was boundless, and they were very formidable.

  However, when it came to asking these people to specifically talk about what the Political Commissar and Instructor did, apart from the legendary images of 3+N heads and 6+X arms, no one could say clearly. Then came Wei Yuankun and others, and everyone hurriedly asked around - what does this Political Commissar do? Wei Yuankun first corrected a mistake, that is, the Political Commissar and Instructor were two positions in the Eighth Route Army, not two people.

  As for what these positions did, Wei Yuankun couldn't explain clearly at the moment, so he simply said, "It's equivalent to your 'accountant'!" This made everyone suddenly enlightened. Everyone felt that since the Eighth Route Army had a Political Commissar, their own unit should also have one, otherwise it wouldn't be like a proper army.

  Wei Yuankun spoke eloquently, and his words were full of classical allusions - "Zi Yue" and "Confucius said" flowed from his mouth (next to him, Wang Fangyuan thought to herself: when did he come up with this stuff?). The peasants-turned-heroes felt that they were far inferior to Wei Yuankun in terms of culture. Later, when they heard that the four travelers were all university graduates, they couldn't help but look at them with reverence - university students, weren't they all cultured and refined? How could they come to this poor place?

  As a result, everyone elected Wei Yuankun as the unit's "military advisor" (a colloquial term for strategist or consultant), while Wang He became the Instructor. Zhang Xian had studied hospital management, and after explaining his profession to everyone, he quickly became the unit's quartermaster. Wang Fangyuan, a female comrade, was theoretically not suitable for fighting against the devils, but when everyone heard that she had killed two devils before, they all looked at her with newfound respect.

  Since she could write beautiful calligraphy, everyone decided to let her be their "scribe".

  Since you are the political commissar, you should fulfill your duties as a political commissar. There were several members of the Red Gun Will in the team who asked Wei Yuankun with extreme piety: "Commissar, this devilish yellow skin is chasing us too miserably, can you calculate for us where their pursuing troops are now?" After finishing speaking, they also presented Wei Yuankun with a few large coins. At that moment, Wei Yuankun was moved to tears and thought to himself: I am the political commissar, not a fortune teller, what do you want me to do with these big coins? However, although Wei Yuankun did not understand things like Zhou Yi divination, physiognomy, palm reading, or eight-character astrology, he understood some things very clearly. That night, Wei Yuankun and Wang He sneaked out quietly, and early the next morning, they brought back news of the enemy:

  "Everyone, the devils are going to raid our village tonight. This time they've got over 50 people, and the yellow skins have brought more than 70. They've also got two machine guns, one mortar, and two grenade launchers."

  Everyone was confused after hearing the news, but seeing the political commissar and instructor full of confidence, with an air similar to Zhuge Liang's "I stand on the city wall, listening to the chaos below", it's hard to say anything. After all, you let them be in charge, this is their responsibility, especially when the enemy is surrounding us tightly now, such news is better to believe than not, after all, safety first, being ambushed by the enemy is no trivial matter.

  According to the views of several big shots, when encountering this situation, our team should resolutely - run away. Although those 70 or so yellow skins didn't take the heroes and good men seriously, after all, this time the devils came with a small squad of troops, and there were also heavy machine guns and small cannons. Our team had more than 200 people, but only one machine gun and dozens of rifles, among which more than half were old models. As for others, they could only be equipped with bird guns, large lift rods, or even big knives and red tassel guns. Except for the equipment brought by the four Eighth Route Army, the most powerful guy was a copper cannon that would come out of the ground during the Red Gun Will period. Using these guys to fight against the devils who were armed to the teeth was clearly suicidal.

  However, some people disagreed with their views. After all, the team had just started, and they should at least get a "good start" for the business, right? Just as the team was founded, they encountered the devils and ran away. How could they survive in this place in the future?

  The two groups of people held different views and quarreled endlessly, slapping the fire kang with a loud noise. Finally, Li Fengchun and Guo Wenlian, the two big shots, overturned the table: "Do you still have any king's law? Now we are discussing the important matter of resisting Japan, not going to the temple fair to pick cattle!"

  This move was indeed effective, and everyone looked at the two of them when they saw that the pillars had gotten angry. However, unfortunately, these two were also indecisive at the moment. Fortunately, there were those four Eighth Route Army members, who were all educated people, so it wouldn't hurt to let them come up with some ideas.

  Soon, everyone's attention was focused on these four, and they were all without a mainstay, usually doing other things one by one. Wang He and Zhang Xin, two of them, were researching stamps and computers respectively, but in this era, these things were useless. Wang Fangyuan, a female student, was studying painting, which was naturally even more useless.

  Therefore, when it came to fighting, they still had to rely on Wei Yuankun. After all, among the crowd, only this kid had been studying military strategy and tactics since childhood.

  At this moment, Wei Yuankun became the focus of everyone's attention. If eyes could emit light, Wei Yuankun would have been ignited by the heat generated by the spotlight at this moment. Although Commissioner Xin was also in a dilemma at this moment, he saw that everyone was waiting for his opinion, and if he didn't say a few words, it would be a bit unbearable. After hesitating for a moment, Wei Yuankun shook his head and said, "In my opinion, there is reason to fight, and not fighting also has its reasons." Everyone heard him say that what he was saying were all nonsense, and saw the contemptuous gaze in the eyes of the people around him. Wei Yuankun gritted his teeth, "But in my opinion, we must fight this battle!"

  As soon as this was said, the main war faction was overjoyed, while the retreat faction was indignant. "You say fight, but with these broken pieces of junk, how can we fight against the devils?" "The devils use Eastern-style quick-firing guns and heavy machine guns, small cannons, while we're all using old-fashioned muzzle-loaders, how can we fight them?"

  Wei Yuankun waved his hand and said, "I naturally know these things, but Chairman Mao taught us that weapons are an important factor in determining the outcome of war, but not the decisive factor. The key to winning or losing a war is people, not one or two advanced weapons. As long as we can utilize our own advantages, it's not impossible to defeat or even annihilate the devils!"

  Although Wei Yuankun's previous words were not understood by everyone, as soon as he mentioned annihilating the devils, everyone's spirits lifted. "I say Commissar, can you explain it in more detail? What are the main factors and whatnot, we don't understand what's going on. Can you tell us how to beat those devils back?"

  Actually, Wei Yuankun wasn't sure if they could win or not, but he knew that if they didn't fight or were defeated and retreated, the fate of this troop would be the same as in history - being scattered by the devils and then being attacked one by one. The outcome for these people would be extremely terrible, and he and Wang He would definitely become prisoners of the devils again, which was the last thing he wanted to see. For himself and for the heroic Rui Yiming Army in history, he had to make a desperate effort. Thinking of this, Wei Yuankun calmed down, and suddenly, countless ideas popped up in his mind.

  "Now that you've asked, I'll tell you. The meaning of what I said earlier is that just because the little devils are tough, it doesn't mean they're useful. They have too many tricks up their sleeves. After all, this is our territory, and they're outsiders. Think about it, in terms of terrain, these guys can't compare to how familiar we are with this place. We know every nook and cranny, every blade of grass and every tree around here. We can walk around the mountains with our eyes closed, but can those devils do that? We've been running around these mountains since we were kids, so when it comes to navigating the terrain, can those little devils be our match?"

  "Right! The little devil is competing with us to climb the mountain ditch. I'll lend him two legs, and if he dares to chase me, I'll run so fast that he can't even get on the kang!" said a man named Yang Guansan, whose words triggered a burst of laughter from the crowd.

  "You're right, and besides, although the enemy's guns are powerful, we have more people. In a gunfight, we may not be a match for them, but if it comes to hand-to-hand combat, they won't be our match either. Three of us can't even beat one of them, so what's the point? We might as well go back home and drink milk from our mothers! So as long as we're not afraid to die and fight bravely, the enemy is nothing special."

  After hearing this, everyone was outraged. We are all dignified Chinese men. If we can't even beat him with three of us, then it's better to just go home and drink milk from our mothers' breasts.

  "We've also got some heavy stuff," said Wei Yuankun, picking up a shotgun. "You might think this thing is not very useful, but don't forget, within 30 steps, it can take out a whole group at once. And as for the big guns, that's even more terrifying. We wouldn't trade this for an anti-aircraft machine gun!" Putting down the shotgun, Wei Yuankun picked up his AK74 again. "Some of you might say these are just local toys, but we've also got foreign ones. This thing is called an AK74, with a range of 400 meters and a firing rate of 600 rounds per minute." The crowd gasped in amazement, "This is like a mini machine gun!" Next, Wei Yuankun picked up his M21 sniper rifle. "Look at this, it's got a scope on it. We can take out the enemy's heads from 800 meters away, no problem!" The crowd cheered again. And as they thought about it, although the enemy was fierce, their own team had some "straight-shooting" gunners too. If it came down to a simple shootout, the enemy wouldn't necessarily have the upper hand. Plus, the Eighth Route Army had just sent them two machine guns and two submachine guns. Although the machine guns didn't have stocks or tripods, they still packed a punch, and in terms of firepower, they weren't inferior to the enemy's, maybe even better. At this moment, Wei Yuankun was speaking eloquently, his words pouring out like a fountain, turning weaknesses into strengths with his "silver-tongued" skills. Although it seemed like he might be exaggerating, it still boosted morale greatly.

  "With these guys, if we still can't beat the devils, then we're really useless!" Finally, Wei Yuankun concluded with a sentence, "Whoever doesn't dare to do it is a mama's boy!"

  Overall, Wei Yuankun's pre-war mobilization was very successful. Under his mobilization, the newly formed Kill the Rich and Help the Poor Self-Defense Army, which had been established for less than a day, was full of morale. After all, no one wanted to be a burden on others, and the national hatred, ethnic hatred, family honor, and personal reputation made every member of this 200-strong army a dead soldier. Since they decided to fight, their morale was not a problem, so next they should study where to fight. In order to set up an ambush, everyone actively contributed their ideas and strategies, and Wang He's specialty was to create some small mechanisms that could kill people. As for Zhang Xin, he fully utilized his medical knowledge, although the medicine he prepared couldn't cure illnesses, but it could certainly harm people. At this time, he prepared a poisonous liquid to be used with the foreign cannon and iron sand, which would cause severe injuries even if it didn't kill - unless one wanted to die from poisoning or rotting flesh. As for Wang Fangyuan, as an old lady, she naturally couldn't go onto the battlefield, but Wei Yuankun's M21 sniper rifle was assigned to her, and she played the role of a sniper - because ordinary people would feel dizzy looking at the scale on the scope, which made it a safe task for her. After all, hiding in a concealed location hundreds of meters away and shooting at the enemy with a black gun was a very comfortable thing to do, as long as the other side didn't have snipers and one's own people weren't defeated - otherwise, it would be difficult to hurt this young lady. In short, everyone had their own tasks, and the entire army was ready to fight, since they were going to start fighting, they wanted to make a good start, after all, their team had just been established, so they had to make a good beginning!

  ………………

  In the afternoon, by the river, the weather was fine and cloudless. Although the mountains had already turned autumnal, there were still green pines scattered among them. From time to time, the sound of frogs jumping into the water could be heard from the reeds by the riverbank. The sorghum field near the shore had not yet been harvested, and the sorghum stalks stood upright. If it weren't for the description of over a hundred people hiding in the sorghum field, this would have been a standard pastoral scene found in countless poets' and writers' works.

  "Commissar, do you think the devils will come this time?" A soldier who couldn't bear the feeling of being covered in wild grass and lying on the wet ground anymore asked Wei Yuankun in a low voice.

  "Don't move, be careful not to expose the target" Wei Yuankun said very confidently "Don't worry, they will definitely come." Just as Wei Yuankun was speaking, he heard Wang He's voice in his earpiece "Old Wei, the devils are here." After hearing this sentence, Wei Yuankun clenched his fist at the person next to him - this is a signal that the enemy has arrived and preparations for battle have been made. The person seeing this, quickly also clenched their fist at the person next to them, and soon more than 100 people hiding in a field of corn all made preparations for battle.

  At this time, Shi Zhe Sanlang, who was riding a tall horse, was leisurely admiring the scenery along the way. In front of him were more than 90 Manchu soldiers opening the road, and behind him were more than 50 fully armed Japanese soldiers. As for this clearing operation, Shi Zhe Sanlang did not take it to heart. After all, his opponents were the so-called Righteous Brave Army, which was like a bandit, rather than the Soviet Red Army on the Manchurian-Mongolian border. They had no artillery or other heavy weapons, nor advanced rifles, and they could not have received regular military training. In fact, they did not even have enough food to eat... Anyway, they did not possess the basic conditions for maintaining a combat force. Therefore, he came out this time with a "hunting" mentality. After all, he had more than 100 people, although there were only more than 50 Japanese soldiers in the Great Japanese Imperial Army, which was the most powerful armed force within hundreds of miles, and it was not comparable to the Chinese rebels. However, he did not notice that on the side of the road he was advancing on, a new grave had been added, and he would not know that more than 100 people were hiding in the cornfield ahead, waiting to give them a fatal blow.