Chapter 40

  A Yi awkwardly waved the flag language that he had learned but never used, and the other side immediately responded without hesitation. Although A Yi usually had a wooden expression, his face couldn't help but show a bit of bitterness. "Not allowed," he said. "While knowing defense is crucial, we also know that cannonballs are limited, and without cannons, there's no defense."

  "Tell him that he is the one I have always admired, and we'll settle the score later. The priority now is to make these thousand brothers die with some value." Said with a stern tone. Ah Yi couldn't help but look at him strangely, and then the guy started showing his evil side, "Get back!"

  I couldn't help but speak coldly, "Lord Yu is probably as young as a juvenile delinquent."

  But he ignored me and waved the flag in his hand very simply, just one movement, no need to explain what it means, but I've never been so flexible.

  "Not allowed."

  He let out a deep sigh, and then did something that left us all agape. It was already quite difficult to stand firm on this steep slope, but he found a protruding rock to step onto, and then knelt down. He started kowtowing, his palms flat on the ground, and then knocked - I was born in an era where kowtowing had been abandoned, so I had only seen filial sons who kowtowed to their deceased ancestors with such sincerity and reverence.

  I looked through the telescope, and Yu Xiaoqing in the telescope seemed a bit hard to see, frustrated and restless. The dead knock on the head and the subsequent long kneeling did not get up, no doubt disturbing that guy's usual iron plate thinking. He finally waved his hand and said something to He Shuguang who was waiting.

  The interpreter immediately began to translate the flag language that came from the other side: "The artillery team will fire half a base after our signal, and the supplies are scarce. This is to pay for your dying wish with the blood of your brothers, and I hope you die in vain."

  Another head hit the ground, and such thanks didn't need to be translated. When Ah Yu was translating, Yu Xiaoqing, who was watching from the other side of the mirror, said something again, and He Shuguang's hands moved once more.

  "No matter who you are, take a step forward first. Yu will follow suit afterwards. When a man dies, his military rank is not considered, only whether he has no regrets in his heart."

  Then the cannon fire started again to cover the top of the mountain above us, this crazy bombardment, the amount of ammunition used was probably the sum of several previous firepower preparations, we were shocked and fell down, and the smoke and dust that rose from our heads completely covered us.

  Smoke and explosive dust made the clear sky above us seem to have entered a deep twilight, not far away was probably hit by an explosion of stones, a head full of blood suddenly appeared in our field of vision.

  "He yelled: 'Seventeenth time!' and then suddenly turned around and disappeared beyond the mountain ridge. We were stunned, but then jumped up dead silence, extremely familiar gun extremely familiar cry, 'Kill him!' Only down to A Yi Duo cold calm to extreme incoherent sentence, 'Wait here! See order fire!'"

  We once again crawled upwards with our hands and feet, facing the surging dust and smoke, a half-exploded gun almost blew me to pieces.

  As we climbed, the cannonading ceased, and then came a sound even more terrifying than the cannonading: the mountain-shaking, sea-echoing howl of the wolves in the mountains and valleys, seemingly everywhere, but very clearly coming from the entire mountain range directly in front of us, from this mountain to that, almost every mountain within our field of vision.

  I'm crawling for my life.

  The mountain is like a finger. I suddenly have this strange feeling - we are the small piece of fingernail on the tip that's about to be cut off."

  When we climb to the top of the mountain and our line of sight is no longer blocked by the peaks, we can see the battle situation we are about to face. What we will face is not only the surging tide of cheers, but also the dense human shadows flashing between the trees. Now we can only see their heads, but even if we use our toes, it's hard to stop this attack, even when we're still a fully intact and powerful army.

  We didn't fire a shot, nor did we launch any missiles. One reason was that the distance was still too great and we had to conserve our ammunition; another reason was that we were stunned with fear.

  Then I heard a familiar sound, this time I was certain that I had not mistaken it, because I not only heard it but also saw it firing at us - the tank came out of the woods and became the spearhead of an attacking formation after making a big arc turn, forty-seven millimeter tank gun shells exploded among us.

  I started screaming, and my tank phobia was exposed again, "TANK!!!"

  Die, die, grab my collar, let my weak body not fall down or become a deserter that I myself despise. He shook me violently twice to wake me up, then shouted: "Fire! Our front line is 300 to 200 meters!"

  I turned to Ah Yi, and I was a little envious of him. He stood at the foot of the slope, his view still blocked by the peaks, he didn't have to watch Death's final display of power in front of us.

  "I shouted at him: 'Fire! Three hundred to two hundred meters in front of the position!'"

  I didn't see him finish the semaphore, and turned back, the machine guns had already started firing, this was simply stupid behavior - perhaps not for other troops, but for our rifle squad who had to crawl on the ground to pick up bullets one by one.

  "Don't waste bullets!"

  He's dead, he's dead, doesn't care about me, starts yelling at everyone: "Fire! Keep them 200 meters away!"

  So we were heartbroken to open fire, with a low hit rate, but for the Japanese army, they didn't need to compete with us broken bows and leftover swords, they started hiding, and that slightly hindered their advance.

  Then I heard the sound of cannons - I had been hearing the sound of cannons all night, but this time it was different. It wasn't coming towards our position, but from a certain artillery position on the east coast, passing over our heads and exploding in the midst of the Japanese army that we were blocking. The effect was far better than we had imagined, even the Japanese Type 95 tanks were at a loss in the bombardment, with the tank commanders being blown to death as they exposed themselves at the hatch - A unit that had relied on bolt-action rifles as its main force in the previous sixteen defenses suddenly seemed to have artillery support in the seventeenth, and the Japanese didn't even take basic anti-artillery measures.

  I didn't fire, but watched as the Japanese tank turned its body around, its turret still firing wildly and ineffectually at us. It sped away in full retreat, leaving behind the infantry it had been covering, who scattered to escape its crushing tracks.

  This is probably the most beautiful view we can see before we die, right?

  For my nearly cured tank phobia, I said to Dead or Alive: "Sold to you."

  Dead dead refused me, "No."

  Then he raised his rifle, which had become a symbolic gesture and signal flag in our day-and-night battle. I loaded my bayonet, crouched down, took the charging posture, and learned to sing that bandit song "Die La Die".

  "Charge! Charge his mother! If we can charge up, Yang..."

  I was caught by that guy and almost fell to the ground, he kicked my knee pit with one foot to stop my momentum, making me kneel on one knee.

  "Die, die! He yelled: "Are you going to rush to death? The Naihe Bridge is going to collapse today!" Then he shouted loudly at everyone except me: "Run!"

  I stared at him, and so did many others who had made up their minds to take a bold step like me. We all stared at him. The guy put his gun under the feet of us brave but brainless guys.

  "Escape! Retreat! There's a raft at the crossing! Nothing can be done here except death, so let's change places! Run! Once this wheel cannon is finished, there will be no chance! - I said I'd take you guys home!"

  We hesitated, and this hesitation was brief. A colleague decided to try first, but when he slid down the hillside from beside him, nothing happened, and instead got an encouraging look. The second one was a snake's butt.

  It's all over now, we've been saying unclearly what has been supporting us to stay here, now it seems that nothing exists anymore, so we feel that staying one more second is a hardship. Only three words are left: a swarm of bees.

  We swarmed towards the mountain ridge, perhaps we had fought bravely before, but no matter what, it couldn't compare to the bravery of running away. Who cares about getting hurt and bleeding, with broken bones and tendons, as we jumped down the mountain slope at an angle of over 70 degrees, raising dust that was more intense than the explosion of artillery shells hitting the ground.

  I haven't run yet, but I'm shouting loudly: "Run!"

  But that guy didn't move, when we were escaping with our lives he fell down staring in the direction of the Japanese army, and I only noticed him after I called out to him, his expression was one I was very familiar with, it was the same as when he saved us from the burning British warehouse, or when he decided to retreat in Burma, or when he made us see the nonexistent dead bodies on the mountain ridge.

  I was infected and looked in the same direction as him, over the pockmarked surface of the moon, over the countless corpses scattered on the ground, the Japanese army in the distance now resembled a "dispersed" character, not at all like the troops that had driven us to desperation before. The vanguard retreated backwards, while the rear continued to charge forward, and the two sides merged into one group. A tank stopped at the edge of the forest and dragged down a corpse, which was killed by shrapnel from a shell. That guy had been shouting wildly with half his body exposed outside the turret during the charge.

  I am very clear that all this is temporary, and more than half of the way down to Nanjing, they will recover to be that fierce and powerful army. I notice the dead expression more than the Japanese army.

  I know what he's thinking, because I once thought of being a commander-in-chief, a generalissimo. If he had an entire division or army, this time we could have defeated the Japanese army that has been repeatedly defeated and frustrated. But he didn't, all he had was over a hundred of us with tear-stained faces. We wailed: "I want to live, I want to live."

  Then the dream was over, and he let go of his best chance to die as a soldier. He survived, owing a debt, and pulled himself together again, but his entire unit had been wiped out, with thousands dead.

  I said to him: "Run! Can a few rounds of 75mm cannon and half a base of shells hold back the Japanese for one day?"

  Dead dead still a bit run god, "...what a pity."

  In fact, the Japanese army had already recovered and at least the vanguard's retreat had stopped. I finally found an opportunity to kick him and he also came back to his senses, focusing on joining the fleeing crowd.

  Apart from those who were already wounded and couldn't escape, we were the last two living people to roll down the hill.

  A Yi was climbing up with his hands and feet, he was really going against the current, because we were like a landslide pouring down from beside him, and the rolling rocks and mud were also like a landslide.

  "What's going on? What's going on?"

  Almost no one had time to answer him, so he could only crawl two meters and slide three meters to persist.

  I slid down from beside him, "Run run run run!"

  "Why? Why?" he continued to ask.

  I chased after the one in front who was dead tired, that guy had already come over with all his might, and the latecomer took the upper hand, leaving A Yi to ask the vast sky why he went.

  That little guy is not stupid, he at least knows to turn around and look at what we're doing, so Ah Yi's third climb near the summit became a loud shout as we rushed down.

  Now we no longer sit on the slide, it's gone, if we continue to sit down, our buttocks will be ground off. We drag, pull and pull towards the ferry terminal that has already approached a lot.

  Hand grenades burst among us, machine guns swept across our ranks, the Japanese recovered faster than we had imagined. I hastily turned back and already saw their silhouettes on the mountain top. They were a bunch of guys who had gone crazy with rage, supporting firepower lined up at the top and near the top of the mountain, lightly equipped infantry also rolled down like dumplings, it seemed they didn't plan to let any of us go.

  Our troops are constantly falling down. We're so exhausted that we can't even run faster than the Japanese who seem to have four legs, and compared to their energetic soldiers, our running speed is like that of a ten-year-old kid.

  Die die die! While running, he yelled loudly: "I've been hit, don't mind me! The wounded can't cross the Nujiang River! Throw away your guns! Throw everything away! Even if you throw your gun into the water, it's useless!"

  We were running and throwing away everything on our bodies, I was vomiting against the rocks, but I saw a confused dragon running past me, he had thrown off his upper body and was still dragging a half-dead bean pancake, so I vomited while chasing after them.

  Guns and cannons were fired among us, and there was only one road leading to the ferry terminal, so the Japanese army's shooting was quite concentrated.

  We threw down our weapons, supplies and corpses all along the way. We were the most pathetic troops in the world.

  We had prepared the bamboo raft but didn't use it, and it was left at the ferry terminal. The people who arrived first were already directing others to let it float on the water. In the turbulent river current, we had to hold tightly onto the ropes on the raft so that it wouldn't be washed away.

  But we hesitated to go down, as the Heavenly Ford now has a broken bridge and two snapped ferry ropes, none of which can sustain our fragile lives. We looked at him, looking at the ferry rope floating in the water, originally the one that was broken on the east bank, and the one that was pulled over by the dragon on the west bank.

  "Come on! Get on the raft! Follow the current and we'll reach the east bank!"

  It's useless, for a river like the Nujiang, lying on a raft to cross the river and lying on a leaf to cross the river is no different. We continued to climb ashore, shells exploding on the beach.

  "Die, die! I won't swim! The Nujiang River is nothing, I don't know how to swim but I dare to jump down!"

  He jumped into the water, and from the way he entered the water, it was clear that he wouldn't be able to swim. He basically just sat down in the water with a big splash, and immediately sank to the bottom. Luckily, he managed to grab onto a rope that was tied to the dock, and held on for dear life.

  We swarmed onto the raft, and there were still a few left that couldn't be seen, but it felt like people were piled on top of each other in multiple layers. Those who got on first grabbed the rope and pulled the guy out of the water, he had been submerged underwater by the river current as soon as he entered, now his belly was full of water, weak and lying on the raft board, we immediately piled on top of him in all directions.

  I said to him: "Aren't you dead?"

  That guy was exhausted, weakly spitting out river water, "It's nothing... I'm not dead."

  The dragon died, holding the rope head tightly, fixing the bamboo raft full of people on the shore. He and the two guys helped him load the rice cakes onto the raft, but they were also exhausted, only enough to put the rice cakes on the edge of the raft.

  "Is anyone else there?!"

  Hao Shouyi hastily said: "There are more! There are more!" But he saw that the few who had fallen behind were shot down by the Japanese machine guns at the junction of the mountain road and the beach, so he changed his words: "None left!"

  Then the dragon wrapped the rope around its body twice and plunged onto the raft.

  The raft, which had been pressed down into the water by us, shook slightly and then sailed away from the riverbank like a kite with its string snapped in a strong gust of wind.

  Chapter 9

  Everything you do is useless, we watch helplessly as the train rushes away from us at a desperate speed, our flow is so fast that you don't even have the heart to feel dizzy, and only worry about where it will crash.

  Die die die muttering something under me.

  "What?" I asked.

  "...This is indeed a case of 'a single reed can hide the entire ocean'...I'll never set foot in this river again in this lifetime."

  I shouted loudly, "Why didn't you say so earlier!"

  I didn't have time to scold him, the Japanese troops who had rushed onto the beach had already started firing at us, and the east bank was also firing at them. I couldn't tell if it was good or bad because we were caught in between the two sides. Our raft didn't even have a single long gun, just a bunch of useless stuff like a Wang Ba box that nobody had ever used before, using those suicidal guns to fire at the Japanese troops, something that would make us laugh ourselves to death.

  So we endured the shooting, our only cover being the swift river current.

  Then we drifted away from this ferry terminal which had become a battlefield with crisscrossing gunfire.