Chapter 3: The Jungle Ablaze with War

  When the morning sunlight dispersed the misty fog and shone on the vast land again, Chu Si Nan, who had just fallen asleep for less than an hour after a night of mental struggle, was suddenly startled by a faint humming engine sound. He jumped up from the ground, looked around, and then suddenly crouched down, pressing his ear tightly to the ground.

  "Not good!" He stood up again after listening for less than half a minute, muttering to himself.

  "What's wrong? What did you just say?" Sukhov also woke up with a start, and asked drowsily.

  "A large tank formation is coming from the southwest and has already arrived outside the forest." Chu Si Nan said with a frown.

  Sukhekov's expression tightened, at this time the tank troops coming from the southwest would not be their own, on this line, only a few divisions of the Northwestern Front were fighting against the German army. Sukhekov was just withdrawn from the front line, he knew that his tank troops had been almost destroyed by the Germans at the beginning of the war, so it seemed that the ones coming now could only be German devils.

  "What should we do?" Suchekov was somewhat flustered, he was an instructor, usually only responsible for the ideological education of soldiers in the troops, and he was not good at fighting, let alone understanding strategy and tactics.

  "Don't panic," Chu Si Nan said calmly, "This group is moving very quickly, I estimate they are a fully mechanized unit. At their speed, infantry can't keep up. And we're in the woods, they won't be able to come in and search, at most they'll just do some probing artillery fire."

  "Hush!"

  "Hush!"

  ……

  As soon as Chu Si Nan finished speaking, a series of explosions erupted in the woods. Since they were deep in the forest, they were not threatened by these artillery attacks. However, the deafening sounds still startled everyone awake. The Soviet soldiers who had just experienced defeat subconsciously gathered together, each with fear and dread written all over their faces. Chu Si Nan thought to himself that this was what the Soviet Union's so-called brave and fearless Red Army looked like - those who were supposed to stare death in the face without flinching. It seemed that there never existed any heroes who were not afraid of death in this world. Those so-called heroes were no different from ordinary people, they too did not want to die and were unwilling to easily give up their lives. In the face of war, everyone was the same - when a shell came down, whether you were a hero or a coward, you would still die an ugly death: missing arms and legs, brains splattered everywhere, belly ripped open... God wouldn't let someone die a heroic death just because they were a hero.

  Chu Si Nan said that the Germans would not enter the forest, Sushkevich let out a sigh of relief, but immediately his face changed again, and he worriedly said: "I think these German tanks must be heading in the direction of Vizy, where our next gathering point is. At their speed, they will probably arrive before our troops can finish assembling."

  Chu Si Nan Xin said you basically can't complete the gathering, is the German Blitzkrieg a joke? That's Hitler's genius thinking of the best way to fight, it's one of the earliest modern warfare methods, and it's milestone. Speaking of which, even if the Soviet 11th Army regrouped after being defeated in that place called Vitebsk, what can they do? A army that has lost its morale and suffered heavy losses, when facing planes and tanks combined with armored lions, what role can they play?

  However, Chu Si Nan could only think about these words in his heart and it was impossible for him to say them out loud. What he needed to do now was not to strike down the defeated soldiers around him, but rather to boost their morale. Otherwise, relying on himself, who had a limited understanding of the current Soviet situation, would make it impossible for him to escape.

  "Comrade Captain," Chu Si Nan said resolutely after a brief moment of consideration, "what we need to consider now is probably not the military gathering of Vigee, but how we should get out of this damned place."

  "Oh?" Suchekov looked at him and uttered a monotonous note, apparently wanting to hear what Chusinan had to say.

  "Now the situation we are facing is very critical," Chu Si Nan looked back at where the cannon sound came from earlier, and now the movement over there has gradually become sparse. He guessed that the German tank troops who had been leading the charge were probably about to pass by quickly. "At present, the German tanks must be advancing towards Weiji, and behind them, probably infantry and motorized troops. In terms of speed, we can't surpass those oil-eating tanks, so it's impossible for us to arrive at Weiji before they do. Moreover, there are only a few dozen people here, most of whom lack equipment. Even if we could catch up with them, it wouldn't have any effect."

  "Comrade Chu, what do you mean?" Su Chekhov's pale blue eyes stared unwaveringly at Chu Si Nan.

  "Do you have a map? Let me take a look." Chu Si Nan said after some deliberation.

  "A map?" Suchekov said with some difficulty. "I only have a military map here, which is top secret and cannot be shown to ordinary soldiers under normal circumstances, otherwise I will be punished."

  "Comrade Suchekov," Chu Nan said, his tone now identical to that of the passionate and fervent Red Army soldiers, "I think this is no longer a normal situation. Currently, German fascism is launching an all-out attack on the great Soviet power along thousands of kilometers of front lines in the west. Although our great Soviet Red Army is fearless, the enemy's strength is real; they are much stronger than us in terms of both personnel and weaponry. Therefore, under these circumstances, we must prioritize preserving our strength while effectively eliminating the enemy's living forces."

  Chu Si Nan finished speaking, turned his head to look at the exhausted and frightened soldiers, then shook his head and continued: "You see, now we still have so many comrades stuck here, this is our revolutionary strength. In the face of the fascist enemy's mechanized troops outside the forest, what you need to do is lead them out of the encirclement as much as possible. Of course, as a revolutionary warrior, sacrifice is sometimes unavoidable, but we cannot let our comrades sacrifice in a meaningless place, just like now, any of our sacrifices are meaningless..."

  "Comrade Chu, I understand what you mean," Sushkevich said without waiting for Chu to finish. "Now is indeed not the time to follow established conventions."

  He said, taking out a folded map from the pocket of his khaki uniform and spreading it out on the ground in front of him, "This is the military defense map issued by our division before the war."

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