Chapter Fourteen: Class Monitor

  In the army, as long as you can lead them to victory on the battlefield, they are willing to follow you and obey your orders.

  But even if he didn't say it, I could guess what he was going to say next. Zhang Zizhong is just a division commander, and his thoughts can't represent Song Zheyuan's thoughts. At this time, Song Zheyuan was blinded by the four words "save strength" and thought that Japan would stop after gaining some benefits, so he couldn't listen to anyone else's words...

  "This time..." Zhang Zizhong looked at the teacup in his hand and muttered to himself: "I'm afraid I'll become a traitor again!"

  Zhang Zizhong's words were incoherent, but I could understand them clearly. When Song Zheyuan withdrew from Beiping, he left Zhang behind to negotiate with the Japanese, so public opinion and the media would soon push him to the forefront of criticism, and the common people would naturally regard him as a traitor and a national thief...

  I wanted to comfort him with a few words, but after thinking about it, I swallowed the words that were on the tip of my tongue. The reason is simple, what I know may not be considered confidential, but at least it's not something a small soldier like me should know, so it's better for me to say less at this time!

  After being stunned for a while, Zhang Zizhong instructed me: "You return to the team, and after going back, don't mention what shouldn't be said, so as not to cause unnecessary disturbance, understand?"

  "Yes!" I stood up and bowed, then turned around and walked out of the study room.

  "Paichang is back!" As soon as I returned to the barracks, I was surrounded by the soldiers, who didn't even wait for me to speak before they started asking questions in a flurry of voices:

  "It's okay! Nothing happened!"

  "What does Master want you for?"

  ……

  "What's wrong?" I said: "Just ask me about the situation when Vice General was sacrificed!"

  This is an excuse I thought of on the way here.

  "I told you so!" Chen Dalie laughed and said: "Our squad leader is a meritorious general, how could the higher-ups possibly hand our squad leader over to the little Japanese?"

  "Exactly!" The monkey chimed in, "Even if the superior is willing to do so, we won't agree! To kill the little Japanese and then hand them over to the little Japanese, who would dare to go on the battlefield to kill the enemy again?"

  ……

  My excuse was reasonable, so the warriors didn't suspect anything, but there was one thing they thought wrong, if I were in Song Zheyuan's hands now, it's possible that he would have handed me over!

  "It's all right!" Commander Xu nodded at me, he seemed to have stayed behind on purpose to wait for my rest. Now that he knew the situation, he ordered the soldiers: "Everyone eat something and take a good rest, who knows when the little devils will come looking for us again, let's build up our spirits to fight the devils!"

  "Yes!" The warriors responded with spirit.

  Looking at the warriors one by one, clenching their fists and wiping their palms, eager to go on stage and fight against the devils, I couldn't help but sigh: The Nationalist Party's troops are like this. In fact, many times it's not that the soldiers don't want to resist Japan or fight against the devils, but rather because of the complex internal factions and relationships, many officials have missed opportunities to fight against Little Japan due to political factors or other reasons...

  Just like the military training team in front of me, most of them are students who voluntarily joined the army, and their high cultural level has determined that their ideological awareness and enthusiasm for war will be slightly higher than other troops. However, they were defeated at the Marco Polo Bridge due to Song Zheyuan's wrong command. Now they want to fight against Japan? It seems not so easy, but what they don't know is that Song Zheyuan has already decided to withdraw from Beiping tonight!

  But these seem to be none of my concern, I'd rather withdraw from Beiping and not fight the little Japanese. History has already been like this, hasn't it? I never thought of changing it, so let's think more about how to keep our own lives in this chaotic world!

  As I thought of this, I leaned my rifle to the side and grabbed a few corn breads on the table with hot water and stuffed them into my mouth... The taste of these corn breads was not bad at all. They were absolutely handmade, and I didn't have to worry if they used black-hearted flour or gutter oil in them... This seemed to be the first good thing that had happened to me since I came to this era!

  He wolfed down two large flatbreads, patted his nearly full belly and let out a belch. Just as he was about to find a place to lie down... the soldiers made way for him and shouted: "Squad leader, over here!"

  "There's an empty seat!"

  "Just sleep here!" Chen Dalie stood up and pulled me onto a bed: "I'll go squeeze with the monkey, anyway the monkey is as thin as a bamboo pole and won't take up much space!"

  "With a 'haha' sound, all the warriors were amused by Chen Dali's words."

  At this point, I realized that although I was still a new recruit and couldn't even shoot well, the soldiers had already recognized me as their squad leader. Of course, I knew it wasn't because of my good looks (although I always thought so, and my roommates tactfully advised me to be "objective"), but because of my performance on the battlefield today!

  In the army, as long as you can lead them to victory on the battlefield, they will be willing to follow you and obey your orders. From this point of view, soldiers are also very pragmatic, it's just that this pragmatism doesn't seem to be a bad thing, because no one wants to follow a stupid officer, that would only get the whole troop killed!

  After thanking Chen Dali, he slowly lay down on the bed, and only then did he realize that his whole body was sore! In modern times, I also like to play ball and run, but it's not as intense as today... The physical exhaustion is one thing, but the few seconds of tension when facing life and death are enough to make me choke, so now that I've relaxed, I feel like I'm almost fainting!

  "Just as I closed my eyes and was about to fall asleep, the old squad leader came over to me and said: 'There's something...'"

  "What's going on?" I asked drowsily.

  "That... our class monitor..."

  "Uh!" I forced my eyes open again.

  It's actually quite funny, as the leader of a row, I still don't know how many people are under me or who the class monitor is! No, wait, I think I do know one, that's the old class monitor.

  "Who is the class leader?" I said with a yawn, "Come out and get to know each other, just in case we need to give orders when fighting!"

  "It's just me!" The old squad leader's response made me stunned: "I was thinking of telling you about this, except for me, the other two squad leaders were killed in a bayonet fight with the devils at Nanyuan. Platoon Leader, are you going to choose two people..."

  A moment of silence in the barracks, the soldiers seemed to have remembered those comrades who had sacrificed on the battlefield, but I didn't have anything to think about because I didn't even know what they looked like!

  "Old class leader!" After a while, I replied: "You are more familiar with the people in our row, you choose! And then tell me!"

  "Right!" The old class monitor nodded.

  I lay back on the bed and let out a sigh: When will this damn war finally end... No! I think I know when this war can end, isn't it eight years of resistance? This war is going to last for eight years, and now it's just beginning, I don't even know if I can hold on until the moment of victory!

  But what's the point of worrying about all that? As long as there's no immediate danger, I'll just wait for the opportunity to retreat with Song Zheyuan! In this sense, following a commander like Song Zheyuan does have its advantages!

  It's just that I never thought things wouldn't be as simple as I thought...