Chapter 27: Journey to Europa (I)

  Liu Xun's hometown was in Shenyang. When he was 14 years old, the Japanese arrived and his family fled with refugees to Beijing to find his father in the Northeast Army. As they crossed a river, the Japanese on the other side suddenly set up mortars and fired wildly at the crowd. Liu Xun witnessed his grandfather, grandmother, and sister being killed by the bombing. His mother dragged him to Beijing, where they were lucky enough to meet his father, who was preparing to go to Xi'an under orders. Liu Xun followed his mother with the army to Shaanxi, where he saw how the Northeast Army was bullied and humiliated by the Japanese. He vowed to take revenge on the Japanese and recover the Northeast. Unexpectedly, in 1937, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China, and more land fell into enemy hands.

  In June 1938, after graduating from the Southwest Associated University, Liu Xun was admitted to the Huangpu Military Academy, which had moved to Chengdu, Sichuan, and became a member of the 16th class. After graduation, he joined the Fifth Group Army as a deputy company commander with the rank of lieutenant. When he entered the army, the Anti-Japanese War had already entered a stalemate phase, so he did not fight against the Japanese army. The young Liu Xun yearned to wash away the shame of the Northeast Army with the enemy's blood, and when he saw the recruitment notice for the Air Force Marine Corps, he resolutely signed up. With his Huangpu Military Academy background and excellent military and physical qualities, he smoothly joined this mysterious team.

  In the intense training, Liu Xun quickly mastered the skills of parachuting and direction recognition. In the five-person parachute training, he jumped into the designated circle every time and arrived at the designated gathering place smoothly. This way, he became the platoon leader of the 2nd Platoon, 3rd Company, 1st Battalion of the Airborne Troops. To be honest, the average military rank in the airborne troops is very high. With his background and rank, it would have been enough to be a company commander elsewhere, but here he still had to compete for the position of platoon leader. The other squad leaders were mostly former platoon leaders, while ordinary soldiers were all senior sergeants or above. Some of them, like Liu Xun, yearned to join this elite combat team to prove their strength, but it cannot be denied that some old veterans came for the double pay.

  The night before last, Liu Xun led them to complete the designated task very well in the drill and received verbal praise from the company commander. Now Liu Xun is leading them to occupy a good spot on the edge of the apron, which is just by the porthole, not only is the location relatively wide, but also has a great view.

  Yesterday, during the day, Liang Jiangjian required everyone to write a will and hand it over to him. Liu Xun thought that since live ammunition was issued to the first battalion this time, he guessed that they were going on a mission. Looking at the strong and powerful third platoon, Liu Xun felt proud in his heart. In the Chinese army, there is no other team that can compare with the Airborne Special Warfare Brigade. This elite special forces team, which was created with a large amount of money, surpassed the Taxation Police Corps in terms of personnel and equipment. Just this one platoon alone had rifles, machine guns, submachine guns, and several grenade launchers, while the battalion headquarters was equipped with heavy machine guns and mortars.

  The current floating base moves in a strange way, running freely at night and hiding in thick clouds during the day. At first, Liu Xun was curious and stuck to the porthole to look at the white clouds outside, but soon lost interest and went to take a nap on the side. However, last night when the floating base was moving at high speed, Liu Xun occasionally saw lights below, and seemed to have passed through a large city. Liu Xun couldn't help but wonder if they had arrived in Shanghai, as he didn't know there were so many lights in the southwest.

  Today, just as the sky was lightening up, the floating base once again hid itself in a thick layer of clouds. Nearly a thousand people on the apron were waiting idly, occasionally chatting with each other. Fortunately, the conditions on the floating base were not bad, and they could eat hot meals. The officers could also go to the living quarters to enjoy good accommodation.

  In the late afternoon, Liu Xun lay down for a while out of boredom and then got up, putting his submachine gun behind his back, preparing to stretch his muscles, which had been suffocated for two days. At this time, he saw their company commander coming out of the living area and beckoning to several platoon leaders. "Hey, it's time for a mission!" Liu Xun thought to himself secretly.

  "Tonight at 8 o'clock, we will parachute into this place." Pai Zhang unfolded a map, or rather, a photo. Liu Xun had never seen a map that was drawn so meticulously before.

  "The first row is responsible for occupying the bridge on this route, the second row occupies the high ground, and the third row is responsible for clearing and defending this house." The company commander assigned. "Tell everyone that we are fighting abroad this time, don't panic when encountering other people, and there will be no prisoners in this battle!"

  Liu Xun was secretly shocked, it turned out that they had flown abroad, no wonder it took two days. Not leaving any captives means everyone has to be eliminated, it seems the confidentiality level of this mission is very high.

  "The entire operation will not exceed 7 o'clock on the second day. After seeing three red signal flares, everyone must return to the starting point within 10 minutes. Reminding everyone that if they exceed this time, they can only return home by themselves." Captain Jiang Jian emphasized, and when he heard the battalion commander arrange the task in this way, he was also shocked.

  "Alright, there's still an hour left, everyone hurry up and have your meal, and get familiar with the task!"

  "Yes!"

  Liu Xun returned to Pai Li, called over several class leaders and instructed them for a while, then hastily took the boxed lunch prepared for him.

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  7:50 pm, Floating Base.

  Liu Xun has already clearly felt the decline of the floating base, and the ground crew has come to inform that the floating base will open the flight deck, please be careful of the airflow when the plane takes off, and make way. Then the red lights around lit up, and the alarm sounded. Eight "Jian-1" aircraft with elegant shapes accelerated and took off one after another, flying into the dark night sky. Liu Xun envied these pilots very much, the sky is high and the birds fly freely, when can he be so free too?

  At eight o'clock, Liu Xun and more than 300 people from the first battalion were already standing at the parachute exit of the floating base. This parachute exit was strange, every time Liu Xun jumped, he would think about this problem. The square exit seemed to match perfectly with that garbage truck, and the two steel cables used for opening parachutes seemed out of harmony with the environment. (Okay, He Juncai admitted, it was actually a garbage exit, just modified.)

  Liu Xun was lost in thought as he hooked the parachute ring to the steel cable, he would be the first one to jump out of their squad. Battalion Commander Zhong Mingda stood at the exit, nervously glancing at his watch.

  "Let's move!" The battalion commander waved his hand. More than 300 soldiers jumped out one after another, and white flowers bloomed in the night sky. As they jumped out, the parachute ring fixed on the steel rope opened the main parachute, and Liu Xun was pulled violently. After the parachute opened, Liu Xun quickly observed the ground landmarks and matched them with the task route in his mind. The night sky was filled with a warm and humid wind, it was a clear night! The lights on the ground were very strong, and the landing destination could be clearly identified.

  Liu Xun quickly removed the parachute after landing and held a submachine gun in his hand, starting to gather troops. The special operations company of the regimental headquarters was the first to land, they had cleared the outer sentry posts without hearing any gunfire, their movements were neat and efficient. After Liu Xun's three squads gathered, they began to rush towards the house they were going to occupy, on the way he saw several corpses lying by the side of the road, wearing German military uniforms. Although when he entered the Whampoa Military Academy, there were no longer any German instructors at the academy, only a few Soviet instructors, but he still recognized the German uniform, especially the distinctive steel helmet.

  Through the vacant lot filled with materials, Liu Xun did not stay and took three rows to rush towards the target. The three rows were responsible for a village about 3 kilometers away from the material base. A small road ran through this simple village, and the villagers seemed to have been dispersed by the German army, and the houses were used as barracks by a class of German soldiers. Liu Xun and his team spent about 10 minutes rushing to these places, quickly distributing combat tasks across the night. The three classes entered the village from three directions, and Liu Xun pointed out several possible firepower points on the map to several class leaders.

  The German troops stationed here never thought that the enemy would invade from the base, and the sentries were all on high alert in front. First, the door of the house where the German army was stationed was kicked open, several hand grenades were thrown in, and the German army who was having a meal flew up to the sky with their eyes wide open. When the sentry at the front turned his gun around, several bullets hit them, turning them into corpses.

  "Beautifully done!" Liu Xun praised, although the first kill made him feel somewhat uncomfortable, but in front of these old soldiers, he had to pretend to be calm, otherwise it would be difficult to convince them.

  "Deploy the vanguard, arrange defense immediately." Liu Xun commanded while taking out a flashlight and drawing circles in the air above. The crisp sound of gunfire kept coming from afar, with occasional flashes of explosions appearing, it seemed that attacks had begun from other directions as well.

  "Something's up here!" A squad leader ran over, "We've found a basement."

  Originally, the squad leader was cleaning up various houses when he found that a house's basement seemed to have someone. Following the squad leader to the door of the basement, Liu Xun asked: "What's the situation?"

  "Report, there's someone below us, I heard a noise," said one of the soldiers guarding beside him.

  "Let's just use a hand grenade to solve it directly." Another soldier said.

  "It sounds like I heard a baby crying. If we don't have a long queue, let's go down and take a look, the two of us." Class leader suggested to Liu Xun.

  "Alright, be careful and return immediately if anything happens." A squad leader received the platoon leader's order and led two submachine gunners down the stairs of the basement with caution.

  After a commotion, Liu Xun heard the voice of a squad leader, "Squad leader come over, it's just a few common people."

  Liu Xun walked down the stairs to the basement, where two women dressed in French clothes were shivering among the hay, one of whom was holding a baby. It was clear that the commotion earlier had been caused by him. Seeing this situation, Liu Xun felt extremely embarrassed. The order he received was not to take prisoners, but facing the women and children, Liu Xun hadn't reached such a ruthless attitude yet. A squad leader looked at several other soldiers, "Squad leader, what do we do?"

  At this time, a young girl stood up and walked to Liu Xun's side, chattering away in an unintelligible language. However, no one could understand her. During his time at the Whampoa Military Academy, German instructors had already left, so Liu Xun only knew simple Russian and English.

  "Do you speak English?" "Yes" replied the young girl excitedly. After a simple exchange, supplemented by gestures, it turned out that the girl's name was Jacqueline Bourgeois. When the German army arrived to secure their material base, they expelled all the French people from here, and Jacqueline Bourgeois and her sister-in-law got separated from their family while fleeing to relatives' homes, and had to sneak back into town to pick up some essentials. As a result, as soon as she entered the hut today, she heard gunfire, hastily hid in the basement, and the cry of her little nephew attracted the soldiers.

  Jacqueline is only 17 years old, but with her European ancestry, she already has a voluptuous figure that attracts the opposite sex. The traditional French dress makes her originally full chest even more prominent, and with her slender waist and plump buttocks, it constitutes a considerable lethal force for the several soldiers present. When Jacqueline speaks, the hormones that come rushing forth make Liu Xun, this hot-blooded "initial brother", involuntarily take a step back.

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