Insufficient balance

  The new prisoners of war arrived at the camp on the second day, a total of six people. From their attire, it was clear that they were tank soldiers. The mental state of several of them was very poor, with bruises all over their bodies, obviously from being beaten. This kind of situation had become normal for everyone, as almost every new person sent in was like this. Vietnam was almost a country where every citizen was a soldier, and no one knew if an ordinary civilian would suddenly become a fighter. On the battlefield, it might be better to be captured by Vietnamese soldiers, but what people feared most was being caught by those civilians who were both soldiers and citizens. If caught by these people, they might be beaten to death.

  It was clear that these armored soldiers were captured by Vietnamese soldiers. Nguyen Ngoc Nha ordered Bao Yukun to take two people to arrange accommodation and receive living supplies for the armored soldiers. For some reason, Wu Hongdai was not seen today. But this is a good thing for Bao Yukun.

  Wang Xiaodong is a "pack of listeners", and on the way to arrange accommodation for tank soldiers and receive living supplies, he has already inquired about the situation of these armored soldiers.

  They were originally from a certain army tank regiment. Since entering Vietnam, the tank regiment had been responsible for the main task of large-scale penetration and mobile annihilation of the enemy. On March 13th, they had successfully completed their penetration mission and arrived at the designated location. According to the battle plan, after supporting the brother units in completing their attack tasks, they should head towards Hanoi, preparing to launch an attack on Hanoi. However, just before the troops took action, the tank commander Li Yifei discovered that his tank's engine had malfunctioned and the onboard radio was also having issues. The scheduled attack time could not be changed. The tank regiment commander made a swift decision, ordering Li Yifei's team to repair the tank on the spot and wait for the follow-up troops to arrive before taking action together. This command didn't seem like a big deal, as our army's follow-up troops were advancing quickly and would arrive soon. Moreover, with sufficient ammunition and the protection of the tank armor, even if they encountered small groups of Vietnamese soldiers, there was no need to worry.

  Unfortunately, Li Yifei and his team were not very lucky. In less than two hours, they had already repaired the tank engine. The soldiers who went to the front line all wanted to make achievements and receive rewards, so staying behind with the follow-up troops meant that the opportunity for achievement and reward naturally fell on their comrades at the front.

  So Li Yifei and several comrades in the car discussed it and decided to continue advancing in the direction of the main force, as long as they were fast enough, they should still be able to catch up with their comrades ahead and fight a battle. The problem was that at this time something unexpected happened.

  The tank regiment reported their position to Li Yifei and the others behind them, feeling very relieved that they would be fighting together with the follow-up troops. They boldly advanced forward, choosing small roads for their advance route in order to maintain secrecy. However, just as the tank regiment was about to reach its designated combat position, a sudden order came from headquarters: the combat mission was cancelled and all troops were to withdraw. The self-defence counterattack had already achieved its objective, and all units would be returning home!

  Since they were going back anyway, the tank regiment didn't need to hide anymore. With a single order, the tank regiment drove onto the main road and marched back in an open and upright manner.

  Li Yifei and his comrades' radio on the vehicle was broken, so they didn't know about this message. At that time, they were still following the plan to rush to the designated combat area. By coincidence, when the follow-up troops arrived at the designated location of the tank regiment to welcome Li Yifei and others together, they found Li Yifei's note and knew that they had gone to participate in the war with the main force of the tank regiment, so they didn't pay much attention to it.

  No one had expected that the error in communication between the two sides would make Li Yifei and his men become fatherless children. When they arrived at their designated combat position, they found that there was no artillery fire as they had imagined. The whole place was quiet, and the tank regiment was not here at all. This made Li Yifei and his men stunned. The tank's fuel was already scarce, and they had hoped to replenish it after arriving here. Who knew that there were no logistics vehicles here, let alone a single tank!

  The three gunners finally managed to fix the radio into a receiver, but what was transmitted was the news that Li Yifei and his comrades least wanted to hear: China had begun to withdraw its troops! Their tank regiment was the most advanced unit, which means they were now left behind by the entire army!

  Looking at the fuel gauge of the tank, Li Yifei knew that it was impossible for them to catch up with the main force in the tank now. After a brief discussion, they decided to drive as far as they could and then hide the tank and return home on foot!

  So, Li Yifei and the others also started to retreat. They didn't run for long before the tank's fuel was about to be used up. So they found a big thorny bush, drove the war vehicle in, then found some fallen leaves and twigs to cover the tank, after that, took up individual weapons and set off on foot.

  Although the Chinese army withdrew suddenly, the Vietnamese side also reacted quickly, and several divisions that were originally stationed in Hanoi to garrison duties swiftly followed up, filling the blank areas left after the Chinese army's withdrawal.

  Li Yifei and the others hid and dodged, but they didn't get very far before being discovered by the Vietnamese army. Although they had a few Type 54 handguns in their hands, facing hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers with automatic rifles, Li Yifei's resistance seemed very weak, and they were all captured soon after. Because of their resistance, several people on the Vietnamese side were also injured. This time, grabbing Li Yifei and the others, a group of soldiers rushed up and beat them severely. If it weren't for the fact that there were very few Chinese prisoners at the time, who knows what they would have been beaten into?

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  From the tank soldier, everyone knew that China's withdrawal was true, and they all became anxious. Zhang Xihang and Lu Kai took advantage of the opportunity to discuss it hastily, both thinking that escaping from the prisoner-of-war camp had to be done quickly, otherwise it might not be possible to leave later.

  Ruan Yuanjia arranged the work, Bao Yulin suggested that the toilet enclosure was not yet in order, and besides, a few tank soldiers needed to familiarize themselves with the environment. Why not let them follow along to clean up the septic tank? After two days of getting familiar with the situation and their injuries healing a bit, they could go work in the sugarcane field.

  Ruan Yuanjia didn't have much of an opinion, he just hoped that the POW camp would be peaceful and quiet, without any incidents. After all, the names of these prisoners had been reported to the Red Cross, if something unexpected happened, it would be hard for the Vietnamese government to explain. Besides, these few prisoners really did need a rest, so he didn't say anything else and agreed.

  After fetching the tools such as the feces bucket and feces spoon from the tool room, Bao Yulin led a few people to the septic tank. Before all the covers of the septic tanks were opened, Bao Yulin first went down into the first septic tank, after filling two buckets, Bao Yulin's whole body was covered in filth. Seeing himself in this state, Bao Yulin didn't show any restraint, and directly said: I'm going to take a break, then he walked far away and found a patch of grass, lay down on it.

  Li Yifei found it strange and asked Zhang Xihang (Zhang Xihang was the oldest, looking like a cadre): "Who is that administrator? Why did he say he wouldn't do it and then didn't?"

  With a disdainful glance at Bao Yulin lying far away on the grass, Zhang Xihang replied: "He's a big shot, his anti-war declaration has been to the United Nations, you'll hear about it at noon, now he's just showing off, putting on an act for the Vietnamese, I reckon he won't be coming today. Don't mind him." As he said this, he stretched out his hand: "I'm Zhang Xihang, former deputy company commander of a certain company, currently the highest-ranking cadre in the POW camp."

  Li Yifei hastily shook hands with Zhang Xihang and introduced himself, also introducing the other comrades. Seeing that the sentry in the distance hadn't noticed, Zhang Xihang pulled Li Yifei's hand, indicating for him to follow. The two didn't speak, one after the other walking into the toilet.

  After all, time is limited, and Zhang Xihang didn't have much nonsense to say, so he directly asked Li Yifei: "Are the few comrades with you reliable?"

  Li Yifei certainly understood that he was going to confess to him, but didn't know what Zhang Xihang wanted to say: "No problem, all passed!"

  "That's good!" Zhang Xihang nodded and said: "Now this prisoner-of-war camp is mainly composed of three units, originally my company had more than a dozen people, then there was Lu Kai's squad, and then there were you six. The rest are just a few scattered ones, and then there's Bao Yulin. All the other comrades are easy to talk to, basically everyone is still on the same page, only Bao Yulin, it's hard to say what's going on with him, but the Vietnamese people attach great importance to him, so you have to tell your people to be careful around him."

  Li Yi Fei nodded and said: "I understand, don't worry, I will pass it on."

  Zhang Xihang didn't say much about this matter, and continued: "I'm here today to ask for your opinion. We've thought of a plan to escape from the prisoner-of-war camp. I don't know if you're willing to join us?"

  As soon as he heard this, Li Yifei's face lit up with joy and he hastily expressed his willingness: "Of course I'm willing! The past two days we've thought of many ways, but unfortunately couldn't escape. The enemy is guarding very strictly. Just now I also observed that it's really difficult to run away from this prisoner-of-war camp, I don't know what methods you have?"

  Zhang Xihang nodded: "That's all right, let's go and take a look." The two of them walked out of the POW camp toilet again.

  Back to the edge of the septic tank, Zhang Xihang gestured to Lu Kai, who naturally understood and opened the cover of the fourth septic tank. Zhang Xihang didn't say a word either, and took the lead in jumping down. Li Yifei followed suit and jumped down as well.

  After arriving downstairs, Li Yifei suddenly understood. Zhang Xihang explained to him: "This tunnel leads directly to the sugarcane field behind us. We've taken a look and it hasn't been dug through yet, but it's already over ten meters long and has avoided the minefield inside the barbed wire fence. We thought that if we extend it a bit further, deeper into the sugarcane field, then at night, everyone can go down to the septic tank through the toilet squatting hole, and from there enter the tunnel. This way, everyone can escape together."

  Li Yi Fei's interest was piqued at once, who wouldn't want to escape being taken prisoner and sent back home. If they could get out, that would be the best, even if not, at most they'd just be caught again and suffer a bit of physical pain.

  "This method is good, but why don't we take advantage of the night and go straight down to this septic tank, instead of going through the toilet?" Thinking about the smell in the toilet, Li Yifei was indeed uncomfortable.

  Zhang Xihang sighed and said, "We don't want to come out from the squatting position either, but we can't. The location of the septic tank is just within the range of the sentry towers on both sides, so many people will definitely be discovered, so we can only drill out from the squatting position."

  "But there are so many of us, and we all go to the toilet at night and don't come out. The enemy's sentry will definitely discover it. When the time comes, just take a look in the latrine and it will be exposed." Li Yifei expressed his opinion.

  "We've thought of that, we can only take advantage of the sentry change to slip out. The sentries here are changed in pairs of two. When it's time, usually the two sentries at the back go back first, wake up the changing sentries, then all four sentries come out together, exchange with the front two, and then go on duty simultaneously. During this period, there is a 5-minute gap. At that time, only a few meters from the gate are within the surveillance range, as long as everyone's movements are quick, we should be able to run past that distance."

  Zhang Xihang revealed his plan to Li Yifei and Pan Duo. Time waits for no man, they had to escape as soon as possible. The longer they waited, the more likely it was that the enemy would arrange their domestic defense situation, even if they escaped from the prisoner-of-war camp, the hundreds of kilometers back home wouldn't be easy to run either. Especially since everyone didn't dare take the main road.

  "I think this mixed rice is okay, but if we run out like this and they have dogs, with the smell on our bodies, we won't be able to escape," said Li Yifei, expressing his concerns.

  "Dogs? They've all been eaten by them! This is no big deal!" Ever since Zhang Xihang entered this prisoner-of-war camp that day, he had been thinking about how to escape and was familiar with the situation.

  "But what if..." Li Yifei hadn't finished speaking when he heard Lu Kai whispering on the side: "Be careful, Ruan Yuanjia is coming!" More than 20 meters away, Ruan Yuanjia turned around and was walking over, probably also wanting to take a look at how the prisoners of war were doing.

  Just as Yuan Yujia was about to step onto the grass, Bao Yulin got up from the grass with a drowsy look in his eyes, rubbing them as if he had just been woken up. He saw Yuan Yujia at once and stood at attention: "Report to Captain Yuan, the prisoners of war are clearing the manure pits and fertilizing the vegetable fields, please instruct."

  Bao Yulin's position was right on Ruan Yuanjia's way to the septic tank, and if Ruan Yuanjia wanted to go to the septic tank, he had to pass by Bao Yulin. Bao Yulin was the first person to go down to the septic tank, his clothes were wet and smelly beyond recognition.

  Seeing him standing upright, Ruan Yuanjia lost interest in passing by to check on the feces pool prisoners of war labor. From a distance, pinching his nose, he asked: "How's the progress? Why aren't you working? What are you doing here?"

  "Reporting to Director Ruan, the progress is going well. Probably in one or two days, we can finish cleaning up the septic tank. I worked for a while just now and am taking a rest. The smell over there is too bad, so I'm lying down here."

  Ruan Yuanjia snorted, neither affirming nor denying, muttering to himself, "Is that smell over there unbearable? In any case, it's not as bad as the smell on you!" He didn't take another step forward, but instead tossed out a sentence: "Hurry up and do it." Then he hastily walked away. Indeed, standing next to Bao Yulin was also unbearable.

  On the side of the septic tank, everyone saw that Ruan Yuanjia didn't come over again, and everyone let out a sigh of relief. Lu Kai put down the carrying pole in his hand. Originally, he was still prepared to wait until Ruan Yuanjia came over, then pretend to trip and fall, splashing Ruan Yuanjia with a whole body of feces. That way, Ruan Yuanjia would definitely not come again. However, that might mean these people wouldn't have anything to eat. But no matter what, it was better than letting Ruan Yuanjia discover the secret of the fourth-level septic tank.

  。。。。。。

  After Ruan Yuanjia left, Bao Yulin lay down on the grass again and continued to rest. On this side, Zhang Xihang and several others took turns working. First, they had to scoop out as much of the sewage water from the septic tanks as possible, so that the connecting holes between the tanks could be exposed. Then, they had to use yesterday's iron shovel to dig these connecting holes bigger, so that people could crawl through them. Finally, they had to speed up and extend the tunnel as long as possible, to make it safer. Of course, in the middle of this process, they also had to dig several ventilation holes inside the tunnel, otherwise, with such a small tunnel connected to the septic tank, the methane gas would be deadly. Fortunately, the problem of ventilation holes was easy to solve, and digging two holes as big as mouse holes would suffice.

  。。。。。。

  Wu Hongying returned to Hanoi early this morning. This morning, Hanoi called to say that General Wu was seriously injured in the battle against China and died after emergency treatment in Hanoi was ineffective. Wu Hongying had to rush back to see General Wu for the last time.

  For the next two days, Wu Honglian was in a daze. With Uncle Wu's death, she had lost her last relative. Moreover, due to the Chinese army's fierce attack, General Wu's regiment was defeated, almost annihilated. Even he himself was seriously injured. Fortunately, he died, or else he would have been tried by a military court for losing an entire regiment. After General Wu's death, Wu Honglian was at a loss as to what to do next, she had no one to rely on anymore. Perhaps in the future, she could only stay in the army.

  。。。。。。

  For two days, Bao Yulin did the same as before, every day being the first to go down to the septic tank and fetch two buckets of feces, then pour them into the vegetable field, after which he would lie on the grass and rest. As for Zhang Xihang and his gang, they could do whatever they wanted. Bao Yulin knew that they had already lost confidence in themselves. However, from the excited look on Lu Kai and others' faces, it was not hard to see that their work was probably done. After observing for another two days, watching with cold eyes as Zhang Xihang and his gang intensified their connections, Bao Yulin understood that they were about to take action.

  Bao Yulin knew that in this situation, when they really made their move, they wouldn't call on him to join them. They would be afraid he might betray everyone. The most likely thing was that they would tie him up or get rid of him directly and then make a collective escape. He should think about himself now. He had to run away before the prisoners escaped because only if he ran alone would he not implicate others. Wu Hongying had said that if he ran, the prisoner-of-war camp would announce that he had been transferred to Hanoi. These two days Wu Hongying was not around, as long as he got rid of the others and made a solo escape, the prisoner-of-war camp wouldn't take it out on the other prisoners.

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