Volume 1: First Battle Chapter 17: The Japanese Army

  It seems that I can only watch with open eyes as Little Japan slowly ties up our hands and feet, and then sends us to the slaughterhouse in an orderly manner!

  Before dawn, we did two things.

  The first thing was to post notices on the streets of Beiping that read "Each person should mind their own business and not disturb others." I think Zhang Zizhong did this in order to maintain peace and order in Beiping and prevent the people from panicking, but I don't think this is realistic at all. The people of Beiping are going to become slaves of a conquered nation, how can they not be in an uproar?

  But this task seems easy for us, just carry a stack of notices and stick them on any wall.

  The second thing is to build a temporary defense line with Beiping as the center...

  What's the point of building a defense line? It's to prepare for the little devils' entry into the city, isn't it? The area north of the defense line is left for the little devils, while the area south of it is reserved for us, the ones who stay behind.

  It doesn't seem difficult to do this, after all, it's just a temporary defense line, not some kind of reinforced concrete fortification. We only need to put up a barbed wire fence on the main streets and pile up a few sandbags. Of course, these can't withstand the Japanese artillery and tanks, and the Japanese can surround us from all sides at their leisure. In other words, we are now an army without defense, I finally understand what it feels like to be "a knife to the throat and fish on the chopping board".

  It was only later that I learned that Zhang Zizhong had done far more than this. He secretly ordered the officials of the Beiping government to open the granaries and distribute the grain to the people before the Japanese arrived; he secretly transferred troops who had not yet withdrawn, buried the officers and soldiers of the 29th Army who had died in battle, dispersed and hid wounded soldiers who could not be evacuated in time, and specially sent people to provide relief and resettlement for the families of the 29th Army who remained in Beiping... Of course, these things were not something that I could have known at the time.

  For us little soldiers, it's not these things that are difficult...

  With a few crowings of roosters, Peking gradually woke up in the thick fog.

  At first, the houses nearby lit up a few more lights and there was some commotion. Before long, there were several pedestrians on the street. When they saw us with our guns at the ready, they couldn't help but pause... followed by a few friendly greetings:

  "Good job, brothers!"

  "Thank you for your hard work!"

  ……

  But we didn't dare to respond, and just nodded at them woodenly. It's a very strange feeling, facing the same questions from the people, last time I felt proud, but this time... I've completely lost my confidence!

  It was unclear who first discovered the notice, but soon the entire city of Beiping was in an uproar: "What? The 29th Army has already withdrawn from Beiping? What are we going to do?"

  "The 29th Army has left, then who are they?"

  "I heard that General Chang Tso-chung is still in Peiping preparing to negotiate with the Japanese!"

  "What? Negotiate with the Japanese!"

  "What negotiation! I'm afraid it's just a betrayal, and we'll be handed over to the Japanese as gifts!"

  "I guess it was Zhang Zizhong who forced Song Xianzong out, in order to plot for North China!"

  "I heard he had a secret deal with the Japanese long ago. The Japanese gave him money and even a gentle Japanese beauty!"

  ……

  I have to admit, people's imagination is infinite, and some non-existent things are also spread in a vivid and logical way. Isn't it said that the people's eyes are bright? I once believed this sentence, but now I feel that what is circulating among the common people is more rumors and misunderstandings.

  The disturbance quickly got out of control, with angry citizens rushing to the streets shouting slogans such as "Down with Zhang Zizhong" and "We will never be slaves to a lost nation". They tore down posters and replaced them with various attack and insult signs against Zhang Zizhong. One slogan even used Zhang's name to mock him as "self-proclaimed loyalty".

  It wasn't until then that I truly understood what Zhang Zizhong meant when he said "I'm afraid I'll become a traitor". We were no better off, with countless rotten vegetables, stinky eggs and stones flying towards us. In no time at all, the defensive line we were guarding turned into a garbage dump...

  But I didn't move, nor did the soldiers. We all stood like stone statues, allowing the civilians to beat and scold us, allowing those foul-smelling "unidentified flying objects" to pelt us with abuse. The reason was simple: facing these unarmed civilians, facing our fellow villagers who had once helped us at all costs, we soldiers felt guilty! At this point, it would be better for them to beat and scold us, and our hearts would feel a little better!

  "Damn it!" Chen Dalie's face turned iron-green as he cursed: "I came to be a soldier and fight, just to bring glory to our ancestors and win honor for us Chinese people, who would have thought that we'd end up in this situation... being treated as traitors!"

  "Exactly!" The other warriors also started to complain: "If this gets out and our families hear about it, then...then we'll be too ashamed to show our faces in public?"

  "How can we go back and face our fellow townspeople and elders in our hometown!"

  "Brothers, let's be patient!" The old squad leader advised: "We soldiers are all acting on orders from above, aren't we? Our fellow villagers can understand..."

  "Can you understand?" Chen Dalie fiercely grabbed a handful of rotten vegetables on his body, interrupting the old class leader's words: "Is this the understanding of our fellow villagers?"

  Then he said to me in exasperation: "Paichang, think of a way! Are we going to end up like this..."

  "Not bad, huh!" I didn't let Chen Dalie continue, and after scanning the warriors, I said: "I can see that our fellow villagers are still quite enthusiastic, sending us so many breakfasts early in the morning!"

  The warriors were taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing with a loud "haha".

  My personality is: since it's an unchangeable fact, then try to accept it!

  Just then the rioting of the common people suddenly subsided, and the objects thrown at us also decreased a lot and soon completely disappeared. What followed was a wave of neat footsteps and the rumble of tanks...

  "Here!" Li Wenxi gritted his teeth and looked solemnly at the opposite side of the street.

  The warriors all knew what Li Wenxi said, that is, the Japanese army had entered the city. So, without waiting for my order, they raised their rifles and loaded bullets as if they were facing a great enemy, while I stood still in the middle of the street.

  It's not that I'm brave, it's just that I'm a bit clearer: our army is showing its sincerity in negotiations and the main force is all hiding in the barracks. If Little Japan wants to start a fight at this time, even if there are ten of me, I will be finished. So instead of being tense and hiding back and forth, it's better to stand proudly in front of them with my head held high.

  Although I am not a good man, I will not bow my head in front of Japanese people!

  Several soldiers under my command also seemed to be infected by me, and they stood up with some embarrassment, holding their guns and sticking out their chests. The only thing that was very inconsistent with us was... the garbage thrown by the civilians everywhere around us!

  "With a rustling sound, a team of Japanese soldiers with helmets and 38-style rifles on their backs appeared in front of us in neat formation. From the formation of their ranks and uniform movements, as well as the coordination between them and the ugly tanks in the team, it can be seen that this is a well-trained unit. However, all of this could not intimidate me and my soldiers, the more we saw them like this, the straighter we stood, without even blinking our eyes."

  I don't know if the Japanese were trying to scare us or show off to us, they ran all the way forward without any intention of stopping until they reached a place only a few meters away from our defense line. Then, with a strange cry: "Ki o tsuke (stand at attention)", the whole team suddenly stopped. The dust under their feet quickly rolled and surged in front of us.

  "Hey!" A military officer with a samurai sword appeared from the Japanese army, looked us up and down, then leisurely took off his white gloves and walked towards us in high boots, shouting at me in stiff Chinese: "Your... what unit?"

  I saw unexpectedness in the eyes of this Japanese military officer, perhaps because he had long been accustomed to the squadron fleeing and abandoning their armor before them, but we dared to confront him head-on!

  I smiled scornfully at the Japanese military officer and replied, "You have no right to know our unit number, but I can tell you that we are the ones who burned several thousand of your people to death in Nanyuan!"

  "Ah! Eight strokes!" The Japanese military officer was so enraged by my words that he went to draw his command sword from his waist, but stopped halfway and then slammed the sword back into its scabbard. He sneered coldly and said: "Oh, I see. So the Military Training Regiment that inflicted heavy casualties on the Imperial Army is also in Beiping. This great gift has already been delivered, and we will accept it sooner or later!"

  He finished speaking and didn't wait for me to respond, instead bursting into loud laughter as he returned to his team, directing his subordinates to build a defensive line just tens of meters away from us.

  Although what this little Japanese said was a bit incoherent, I could still understand his meaning, which is that anyway we are now surrounded by them in Beiping and they don't want our lives for the time being.

  I think this is mainly because Little Japan has not yet stabilized its foothold in Beiping, and the surrounding encirclement is not so tight, so they do not dare to act rashly for the time being.

  The current situation is indeed just like what the Japanese military officer said, they can pretend to negotiate with us on one hand and deploy their encirclement in an orderly manner on the other, waiting until everything is secure before swallowing us up in one gulp...

  But even if I knew all this, what could I do? It seems that I can only watch as Little Japan slowly ties up our hands and feet and sends us to the slaughterhouse in an orderly fashion!

  No! I won't let all this happen, even if it's not for the sake of these comrades around me, but also for my own life, isn't it?