Chapter 4 The Flag Flutters (Part 2)

  "Little devil!" Zhang Songling gritted his teeth and cursed, his voice not very loud, his facial expression also not very agitated. There was some hatred that didn't need to be vented immediately. The longer it was suppressed in his heart, the clearer his head would be when he took revenge.

  This made the golden ring look at him with new eyes. According to this person's reasoning, after hearing the news of Lao Tuo Bei's death in battle, the white and plump young master of the landlord's family should have shouted loudly and demanded revenge for the old man! At least, he should have cried bitterly and asked himself to take him back to see the old man's body. But unexpectedly, the young man just cursed softly and accepted reality, as if he had already seen life and death many times before.

  If he knew that in just two months, Zhang Songling had experienced two life-and-death separations, he wouldn't think it strange. Someone who has rolled through the Ghost Gate twice in a row, even if their heart was weak before, should have been toughened up by now. Lying on the sack of wheat, thinking silently for half a minute, Zhang Songling made an effort to lift his head and said with eyes shining like golden rings: "I owe you my life, I dare not thank you! If Commander Ji's troops are still short of soldiers... I am willing to be your vanguard!"

  "Ah! How did you know my surname is Ji?! Were you awake just now?!" Jin Zhi's eyes widened in shock, his thick eyebrows jumping up and down before quickly furrowing into a knot.

  "I once heard Xiao Er say that there was a Ji team leader who helped the Iron Blood Society!" Zhang Songling smiled and explained briefly, "I'm in charge of the accounting room. These grain sacks are almost counted every day."

  From the previous conversation, Zhang Songling had already guessed that this person was related to the two batches of Hanyang-made goods and the Iron Blood Society. The burlap sack being pressed under him now was identical to those in the warehouse behind the ancient temple where the Iron Blood Society existed. Connecting the dots to the price the Iron Blood Society paid for the two batches of Hanyang-made goods, the answer had already become obvious.

  After listening to Zhang Songling's words, Ji Team Leader's face suddenly became very embarrassed. He looked around for a while before turning his head back and explaining in an awkward tone: "When I led the brothers to arrive at Wei Family Village, there were no Chinese people left in the village. Those little devils hated that Old Man Wei had pulled them down just before he died, and they were stabbing him with bayonets. The brothers rushed over first and killed them with their big knives, avenging Old Man Wei. Then, under the rocky slope, we dug you out!"

  He smiled and continued, "You still have a breath of life left in you. I was thinking of finding a local to entrust you to, but after searching the entire village, I couldn't find a single living soul! Instead, I found this batch of grain in the backyard of that broken temple. I thought to myself, even if I didn't take the grain away, it would still end up benefiting those little devils later on. So I went ahead and found several horse-drawn carts and over ten head of livestock that hadn't been taken away yet, and brought all the grain back. Oh, and there are also those bullets, the boxes haven't even been opened yet, sigh!"

  "Alas!" Zhang Songling also let out a sigh, making an effort to lift his head higher, peering through the gap left by the people in the car, looking back. He saw that there were more than ten large carts following behind, some pulled by horses and others pulled by ropes, rumbling forward. On each cart, there were neatly arranged sacks of grain and wooden boxes. Around each cart, many soldiers stood guard with guns at the ready. Whenever a cart slowed down or got stuck on a rock, an officer would lead a team of people to rush over, bending their waists, pulling from the front and pushing from behind.

  In comparison, the large vehicle that Zhang Songling was in was actually the most relaxed one. The cart only carried half a load of hemp bundles, and the horse pulling it had three sturdy horses harnessed to it. The people sitting on the carriage had stars or stripes sewn onto their shoulder pads, clearly indicating that they were of a different status from the others.

  Although Zhang Songling couldn't make out the meaning of the stars and bars on the epaulets, he could guess that he was riding in an officer's special train. He quickly made another effort to straighten his body a bit more and said loudly: "Thank you, thank you all for the trouble. I'll get off in a moment and walk myself!"

  "Take a good rest! You were injured fighting the devils, you have the qualifications to sit in this vehicle!" Ji Battalion Commander stretched out his fat big hand and forcibly pressed Zhang Songling down. "No need to be polite! In my lifetime, I only admire people with guts. I've checked the bodies of those little devils, your six men took down six and a half of them. If all our troops had this kind of achievement, we would have driven the devils back home long ago!"

  When mentioning the achievements of his fellow soldiers, Ji's face turned even more sullen. He sighed and continued: "You want to follow me? I couldn't be happier. But let's get one thing straight, life in the army is notoriously tough! Don't regret it later!"

  "I'm not afraid, I was originally going to be a soldier anyway!" Zhang Songling smiled and ignored Colonel Ji's warning.

  Ji Tuanzhang was unaware of Zhang Songling's past, so he didn't realize the meaning behind his second sentence. He thought it was just a young man being stubborn, shook his head and smiled: "When you haven't tasted bitterness, everyone says that. But when they really taste bitterness, one by one they go crying to their fathers and mothers. However, since you've seen blood before, you should be different from them!"

  As he spoke, he quickly turned his head to Zhang Songling's left side and shouted loudly: "Old dog, this fat kid is handed over to you. Haven't you been muttering that I should find a helper who can write and calculate for you?"

  "Ah!" An officer with three triangular copper buttons on his shoulder, and a gold stripe under the buttons, raised his hand in salute, answering repeatedly.

  "When you arrive at the barracks later, take him to the medical camp first and have Dr. Li give him a thorough examination to make sure he doesn't have any internal injuries." Captain Ji thought for a moment before continuing his instructions.

  "Don't worry, he's definitely not going to die!" The officer nicknamed "Old Dog" replied somewhat impatiently and very rudely.

  Ji Tuanzhang didn't get angry, and with a smile, he turned his gaze back to Zhang Songling, "Is there anyone else at home? Do you want to leave them a letter? The troops aren't far from here, even if we have to move out immediately, it'll still take a few days. You write it yourself, I'll send someone to deliver it to Wei Zhuang. By that time, they should be running back down the mountain too!"

  "There's no Wei Zhuang!" Zhang Songling shook his head gently, but soon the old military advisor's humble smile flashed before his eyes again. He sighed and added sorrowfully: "That hunchbacked old man is my grandfather. I was on summer vacation and came to visit him specially! Who would have thought..."

  "Old man is a hero!" Ji Team Leader patted Zhang Songling's shoulder to comfort him, "Don't worry, when we left, we had already buried him. He was laid to rest alongside your comrades on the hillside behind the village, and the little devils' heads were also cut off and placed in front of their graves."

  He did not deceive Zhang Songling. In fact, when he found that a small squad of devils had been wiped out by six villagers, Colonel Ji had already decided to give them a good burial. In this era, there were too many survivors and traitors, and those who were willing to die for their country were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. He dared not let those who died for their country be exposed in the wilderness again!

  "Thank you!" Zhang Songling rubbed his eyes and quickly wiped away the tears that had flowed out.

  "Don't be polite!" Commander Ji shook his head, his eyes gleaming with a deep intensity.

  Zhang Songling knew that the other party might have thought of something again, and tactfully closed his mouth. His only concern for Weijiazhuang was Old Military Advisor Wei Ding. Now hearing that the old military advisor had already entered the ground as a peaceful soul, and even had the head of a ghost child buried with him, his spirit relaxed, and his consciousness quickly became blurred again.

  "Hey, hey......" The officer bent down and gently patted Zhang Songling's face with his hand.

  "Let him sleep!" Commander Ji said in a low voice, stopping the old dog's attempt to wake up Zhang Songling. "Didn't you come out? He was holding on just now?"

  The old dog stuck out its tongue and then put away its smile, lowering its voice to ask Captain Ji, "Then what do we tell the higher-ups when we get back?!"

  This issue involves a lot of things, and it's indeed a bit troublesome. But for Ji Duanzhang, who has been through thick and thin in the military for over a decade, it's just a small matter. Furrowing his brow for a short while, he made a decision that was beneficial to all parties involved: "When reporting to our superiors, we'll say there were over 100 devils with over 2,000 traitors trying to sneak past Wei Family Village and attack us from behind. The Iron-Blooded League refused to let the devils and traitors pass through, and after a fierce battle that lasted half a day, most of our key personnel sacrificed themselves! At the critical moment, we arrived just in time and defeated the devils' and traitors' troops. After the battle, we counted over 700 enemy casualties, and on the battlefield, we found 13 devil corpses that they didn't have time to take away."

  "Hmm!" The old dog pulled out a string of bloody human ears from beside him, recounted them, and nodded heavily. "The little devils never leave behind corpses unless they have to. When we get back, we'll hand these things in as proof that we're not exaggerating our military achievements! But he's not one of us!"

  The latter half of the sentence was clearly directed at Zhang Songling, who had fallen into a semi-comatose state again. Captain Ji furrowed his brow in anger and lowered his voice to scold, "You consider him one of us, then he is one of us! Later, go down and brief the squad leaders and team leaders, let everyone memorize our conversation just now, just in case. As for this kid, I'm the one who saved his life, will he undermine my authority?"

  "That's right!" The officer nicknamed "Old Dog" thought for a moment and nodded slightly. "But we haven't received orders, and we can't just leave our post..."

  "Didn't we go to collect grain?" Captain Ji frowned and quickly gave an answer, "If we relied on the higher-ups to allocate grain for us, all of our brothers would have starved to death by now. If we bring back these tens of thousands of kilograms of grain and put it in front of Old Camp Commander, what basket will he not give us? Besides, let's get back to the point, we were originally going after Old Xiao's grain! We just happened to take care of a few little devils along the way!"

  "That's right!" The old dog continued to stick out its tongue, as if there were really sweat glands on it.

  This morning, he and Ji Tuanzhang were checking the troops' old Han Yang rifles that had been eliminated. Suddenly, he thought of Xiao Er Dangjia from the Iron Blood Society again. They both felt that the transaction between them should continue as much as possible. After all, if the old Han Yang rifles were taken back by the higher-ups, they would be secretly resold to those black-hearted merchants, and the money would be divided among people with connections, without bringing any benefits to the army. But selling to the Iron Blood Society, although the transaction price was far lower than the black market price, in return, they got grain and meat that the army urgently needed, which were tangible benefits that everyone could see and touch.

  But the business of secretly selling old military equipment carries a huge risk, that is, the fear that the goods will fall into certain taboo hands. Although since last December, the central government and the other side have shaken hands and made peace. But if they are caught in the act by the people from the Organization Department's Investigation Bureau, everyone will still be in trouble.

  So Ji Tuanzhang and Lao Gou decided to take a chance, before the troops were pulled up, they would bring their main forces to Wei Jia Zhuang to investigate the Iron Blood Association. If the Iron Blood Association was indeed an officially recognized civilian self-defense team as Xiao Er Dangjia said, then everyone's business could continue to be done on a large scale. But if Xiao Er Dangjia and his Iron Blood Association had been tainted with certain special colors, then they would have to apologize, not only would the previous transactions of Hanyang Arsenal be recovered in full, but all the stored grain and remaining funds of the association would also be taken as spoils of "suppressing bandits" along with Xiao Er Dangjia's head back to the military.

  What Commander Lian and Old Dog least expected was that when they led the troops into the village, six wounded Japanese soldiers were desperately prodding a corpse with bayonets. The old man had clearly been dead for some time, his entire body mangled by shrapnel.

  No need to ask, Captain Ji could also guess the general situation and immediately ordered his brothers to launch an attack on the devils. The six wounded little devils went crazy and, regardless of the difference in numbers between them, fiercely launched a counterattack against **. Then they were led by Lao Gou and his brothers to charge forward, using big knives to chop them all into two segments.

  Afterwards, the brothers found a total of thirteen devils' corpses at the entrance of Wei Village. Six were killed by Old Dog and others with big knives, one was seriously injured and unable to escape, and pulled the hand grenade to kill himself. The remaining six corpses all died at the hands of the old man and his brothers around him. The old man and his brothers together had only six people, including a young boy who was not yet fifteen years old.

  This made Commander Ji respect the deceased elder and his subordinates, and after admiring them, he didn't want to pursue the matter of the Iron Blood Society's defeat without a fight. On the contrary, considering the long-term interests of all parties, he even planned to actively cover up for the Iron Blood Society, exaggerating the resistance of six people as the awakening of thousands. The number of resisters was magnified by hundreds of times. At the same time, the number of enemy troops was also magnified by hundreds of times.

  This is a survival wisdom off the battlefield, only those who have been in the army for many years will understand. He looked at his brothers around him again, and took another glance at Zhang Songling, who was half dazed, Old Jianghu Ji Shaowu smiled slightly, whispering to himself, "I won't tell you actively, but one day, you'll understand why I did this!"

  Note: The Investigation Department of the Organization Department, the predecessor of Zhongtong, was renamed Central Investigation and Statistics Bureau in 1938.