Chapter 2: The Starry Sky of 1941

  Chu Si Nan leaned against a sturdy white birch tree, sitting quietly there, looking up at the starry night sky, his mind was a mess, he couldn't even sort out what he should consider first.

  Not far from him, fifty or sixty soldiers in tattered uniforms were lying or sitting around, exhausted and worn out. Through the past two days of contact, he knew that this was a remnant of the Soviet army who had retreated from the front line. They belonged to the 11th Army of the Northwestern Front of the Soviet Red Army under the command of Lieutenant General Sobennikov, originally an entire regiment with over a thousand soldiers. Seven days ago, they and the entire 103rd and 109th Infantry Regiments of the 11th Army were deployed to defend the area around Telsiai and Siauliai in Lithuania. Later, they clashed with the German Northern Group Army that came to attack, and within just two days, both regiments were thoroughly defeated and battered. The entire team was able to retreat down to these people in front of him.

  Chu Si Nan was originally a soldier and belonged to the Guangzhou Military Region's Special Forces Brigade, which had a loud name - "South Country Sharp Sword". As one of its members, Chu Si Nan not only excelled in various military skills but also had a good grasp of military history. In his mind, he clearly remembered almost every battle of the Soviet Patriotic War and knew how to deal with the situation he was facing.

  General Sobennikov was the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Front of the Soviet Union during the early stages of the Patriotic War. Under him were the 8th, 11th, and 27th Armies, totaling 31 divisions and two brigades. At the beginning of the Battle of Leningrad, this army group directly confronted the German Northern Army Group. Facing a powerful enemy, the Northwestern Front suffered heavy losses in this extremely asymmetrical frontal collision, with 22 divisions losing more than 50% of their combat effectiveness and basically losing their fighting power.

  Precisely because of his extensive knowledge of military history, Chu Si Nan could roughly infer the era he was in. It was 1941, just after the outbreak of the German-Soviet War. He had somehow unknowingly arrived at this place and what he saw before him was the starry sky of 1941... What the hell was going on?

  Just as Chu Si Nan was stunned, a rifle suddenly appeared in front of him. He recognized the gun as a Mosin-Nagant bolt-action M-91/30 rifle, a standard-issue firearm for ordinary Soviet soldiers during the early stages of World War II.

  "Take it." Suchekov's voice sounded beside him.

  With a dazed withdrawal of his gaze, Chu Si Nan's eyes fell onto the face of the person beside him. The past few days of interaction had made him quite familiar with this Soviet military officer, who was called Sushkevich, a senior lieutenant instructor; the three red squares on his shoulder insignia indicated that he was currently the highest-ranking officer in this defeated army.

  He took over the rifle in a daze, and Chu Si Nan's emotions calmed down slightly. Although this rifle was the oldest one he had ever touched, as a special forces soldier, as long as he had a gun in his hand, he would feel fearless.

  "Will it work?" Suchekov sat down beside him, patting his shoulder with one hand as he spoke.

  Chu Si Nan nodded and simultaneously cocked his gun with a "click".

  "Did I hit it?" Sutchekov nodded and then asked another question. After asking this sentence, he handed over a bullet.

  Chu Si Nan silently took over the bullet, filled it into the empty cartridge, then topped and hooked.

  "What's wrong?" Chu Si Nan said softly.

  "Ah, let's just knock down that pole over by the bonfire," Suchekov looked around and then laughed, "If not..."

  Bang!

  Before Suchekov could finish speaking, a crisp gunshot rang out, and the branch twenty meters away snapped in response.

  "Ah!" Suchekov was startled by Chu's accurate shooting, hitting a branch with a diameter of two to three centimeters at a distance of twenty meters. It wasn't particularly impressive marksmanship, but the Chinese man in front of him, who looked foolish, didn't even make an aiming motion, and yet he fired so casually, the gun rang out and the branch broke off. This was no ordinary feat for any soldier.

  "Chu, what were you originally doing?" Looking at Chu Si Nan silently putting down his gun, Sushkevich couldn't help but ask. He had been wanting to ask this question for days, only the expectation had never been as strong as it was now.

  "Hunter," Chu Si Nan almost didn't think about it, and found a good career for himself. He put down the gun he was holding horizontally, hugging it vertically in his arms, and said lightly, "Hunt down the ferocious wolves."

  "Hunter?" Suchekov nodded, thinking no wonder he had such good marksmanship. In the Red Army's troops, there were many soldiers who came from hunting backgrounds, and almost all of them had exceptional shooting skills.

  "I see you speak Russian well, when did you come to our great Soviet country?" Suchekov continued.

  "It's been many years," Chu Si Nan continued to fabricate his vague and unsubstantial lies.

  "Are you here to escape? I heard the Japanese are quite rampant in your place, similar to the German devils across from us." Suchekov pulled out a flat metal bottle from his pants pocket, shaking it in his hand as he asked.

  "They are more inhumane than the German devils." Chu Si Nan said fiercely. Although he had not experienced it personally, he still knew some things about the anti-Japanese war, and as a soldier, his deep-seated hatred for Japan was not trivial at all. The look of gritted teeth could be clearly seen from his expression at this moment.

  "There's nothing good about invaders," Suchekov apparently believed Chuson's words, he twisted the cap off and put what was inside to his lips for a drink, then handed it over to Chuson, "Take a sip."

  "Thanks," Chu Si Nan took over the bottle, knowing that it was Russia's most common vodka, and he was also a drunkard, so he wouldn't refuse this thing.

  "Tomorrow we will continue to head north, and by noon we should arrive in Vyazma," Suchekov said with a smile, nodding his head as he downed a large shot of vodka. "That's where the third defensive line of our Northwestern Front is located. Once we get there, we'll regroup and then launch a counterattack against the Germans behind us."

  Chu Si Nan nodded silently, he knew that before the German army arrived under Leningrad, the Soviet army had not won a single victory. Riga was what kind of place, where it was, he didn't know, but he knew that this so-called counterattack mentioned by Sushkov would probably end in a miserable defeat for the Soviet army.

  "Chu, maybe after we get to Vigee, we'll have to part ways. What are your plans for the future?" Sukhov asked suddenly after a moment of silence.

  Chu Si Nan's eyes flashed with a hint of confusion, and after a while, he shook his head woodenly, apparently, he didn't know what to do next either.

  "Why don't you join us?" Suchekov exclaimed excitedly. "I'll introduce you to our company as a senior lieutenant instructor of the 11th grade."