Chapter 6: The Great Wall Ballad (Part 1)

  Leading a team of twelve to rescue Zuo Ci, only four survived in the end, and the rescue mission was also completed by others. No matter how you calculate it, this rescue action is probably not related to victory either. Therefore, on the way back, everyone was depressed and had no energy to speak, each with their heads down, feeling extremely gloomy.

  Who would have thought that even more depressing things were yet to come, when the group arrived at the rendezvous point with the 31st Independent Brigade on the third day in the morning. Liu Huizi and others were still waiting, but according to him, the 30th and 31st Brigades had already withdrawn to Zhuozhou a day ago.

  "What did you say...?!" Old Gou stumbled over and grabbed the collar of Liu Huozi, the commander of the 31st Independent Regiment, his eyes blazing with fury. "Tell me again, where did Chi Fengzi run off to?!"

  Liu Huazi was caught off guard, suddenly attacked, and almost suffocated. He used force to pry open Lao Gou's fingers, which were clenched into fists, by a few centimeters, and gasped in response, "What's with the running? It's the old camp commander's order! The 29th Army has been completely defeated by the little devils, if we don't retreat now, our rear will be cut off by the little devils!"

  "You, you..." Lao Gou refused to believe Liu Huazi's words, grabbing the other's collar and shaking it violently. "You say the devils' cannons are powerful, I'll go with Lao Ji to blow them up. I and Lao Ji have added all the brothers from the special operations team, but you, you..."

  His strength was great, and in his rage, he gouged out both of Liu Fu's eyeballs. The brothers of the independent regiment immediately became anxious, rushing forward to try to pry Old Gou's hands from Liu Fu's neck. Shi Liangcai and Zhang Songling saw the situation and rushed up, one tightly hugging Old Gou's waist, the other using force to pull Old Gou's arm, "Battalion Commander, Officer, calm down! Just now, Team Leader Liu said it was an order from above, an order from the old Battalion Commander!"

  Upon hearing the three words from Old Camp, the violent air in Lao Gou's eyes finally dissipated, and he slowly moved his hand away from Liu Huozi's collar. He looked lost and dispirited, "Impossible, this is impossible. The old camp commander wouldn't give such an order, he wouldn't let the brothers of the independent regiment go to their deaths in vain, he wouldn't..."

  "It's both the 29th Army and the Central Army that can't hold on!" Liu Huazi panted heavily for a few breaths, then gently patted Lao Gou's shoulder. "The devils first broke through the 29th Army's defense line, and then forced back Guan Linzheng's Central Army. Our position was originally protruding in the front, and after the little devils forced back the Central Army, they immediately moved westward..."

  "It's impossible, it's impossible..." Old Gou continued to mutter to himself, when suddenly he went dark in the eyes and fell backwards. Luckily, Liu Huozi and Shi Liangcai reacted quickly enough to catch him tightly before his head hit the ground. Upon closer inspection, they saw that Old Gou's eyes were tightly closed, and a stream of dark red blood slowly flowed out from the corner of his mouth.

  "Colonel! Colonel!"

  "Sir, sir!" Zhang Songling and the others were in a great hurry, holding onto Lao Gou and shaking him back and forth. But no matter how they shook him, Lao Gou refused to open his eyes again, his originally dark face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and his forehead was burning hot, almost enough to cook pancakes.

  "Looks like he's exhausted! Both physically and mentally!" The iron-like man beside him collapsed, and Liu Huizi, the commander of the 31st Independent Regiment, also felt a surge of sadness. He patted Stone Liangcai, the highest-ranking member of the remaining three-man squad, and said in a low voice: "Before Commander Chi retreated, he left a message for you. The old regimental commander ordered that after you return, you must immediately follow our independent regiment back to headquarters!"

  "Yes!" Shi Liangcai first stood up straight and bowed respectfully, indicating that he accepted the order. Then he changed to a pleading tone and whispered to Liu Huazi, "Captain, can you assign two brothers to make a stretcher for us? We'll carry Commander Gou on it!"

  "You guys can rest assured, Lao Gou and I have been brothers for many years, I won't abandon him!" Liu Huazi nodded solemnly, making a promise.

  He turned around and called over several tall and strong brothers, ordering them to cut down trees to make a stretcher and take turns carrying the wounded commander south. Then, he also called over the medical soldiers of the independent regiment and instructed him to clean the wounds of the remaining three brothers of the special operations team and do simple bandaging. After handling everything, he finally let out a sigh of relief and walked to Shi Liangcai's side, lowering his voice to ask: "How is it? Have you found Lao Ji and the others?"

  "Found, but nothing to bind!" Shi Liangcai sighed, gritting his teeth against the pain of the liquor pouring into his wound, and gave Liu Huizi a brief summary of the events of the past few days. When he heard that nearly two-thirds of the brothers in the Third Battalion of the Special Operations Brigade had fallen in an unnamed mountain valley, Liu Huizi's face twitched slightly, and he sighed, saying: "No wonder Old Gou is so anxious. After this battle, I'm afraid your Special Operations Brigade will be left with nothing but an empty shell. That was something that Old Ji spent several years building up... Alas, all gone in just one night..."

  "The key is that our brothers' blood was shed in vain!" Shi Liangcai sighed, adding in a low tone.

  The special operations team launched a surprise attack on the Japanese artillery position, in order to reverse the passive situation of the 26th Route Army. Who would have thought that after the special operations team destroyed half of the enemy's artillery position, the 26th Route Army abandoned their position and retreated in large strides?! If they had known it would end like this beforehand, why would the special operations team take such a huge risk?!

  "What about Lao Ji? Did you guys find out where they went after they broke through?" Liu Huozi sighed again and continued to ask.

  "Lao Ji and his men were breaking through to the south, and we also chased after them along the same road. I was planning to attack the little devils from behind and help Lao Ji's men share some of the pressure...". Shi Liangcai organized his thoughts and continued to report. Three days ago, he described the specific process of the fierce battle with the little devils in great detail, including every scene where each member of the small squad made a heroic sacrifice, without missing a single one. However, when it came to the final outcome of the battle, he tried to gloss over it, "We knew that the little devils were finished as soon as we saw the scale of the troops that suddenly appeared on the mountain slope. The little devils responsible for clearing the rear route were finished, and the ones chasing Lao Ji's men in front would not dare to take the risk of being attacked from both front and back. So, we quickly returned to report to the 31st Division!"

  "That's right, the little devil is brave and fierce, but not stupid!" Liu Xiaozi's face finally improved a bit when he heard that Lao Ji and others had turned danger into safety. After a moment of contemplation, he lowered his voice to an extremely low level, "That group, I mean the team that helped you, what flag do they fly? Do you know?"

  "It's not clear!" Shi Liangcai shook his head like a rattle drum, with a tongue-twister, "At that time, the sky was already late, how could we see what flag they were fighting? It's possible that it was bandits, or it's also possible that it was the local people who organized their own militia, they didn't want to bother with us, and we didn't dare to get close to them!"

  "Who cares!" Hu Feng stuffed a cotton ball into his cheek, speaking with a lisp, "Anyway, they're fighting the little devils and speaking Chinese too!"

  Although he knew that the two were perfunctory, Liu Hezi didn't expose them. In this era, some things are better off being muddled than being clear. The more you think about it, the more your heart feels heavy and anxious, and it can't solve any practical problems. Just like Old Gou's brother, who was originally as tough as iron... Liu Hezi lowered his head again and took a deep look at Old Gou, who was still unconscious, and the sorrow on his face grew thicker.

  That afternoon, Lao Gou started talking nonsense on the stretcher. He would shout out Old Ji's name in his sleep, and then want to take everyone to blow up the little devils' planes. The medical soldiers used hot water to give him a laxative, barely managing to calm him down. But less than half an hour later, he suddenly sat up on the stretcher again, furiously protesting, "I don't want you to save me! I'd rather die than be saved by you! Let me go die, let me go die! You red bandits, I'll never coexist with you!"

  "Sir, sir!" Shi Liangcai jumped over and pressed Lao Gou down again. "It was the Righteous Brave Army that saved us, it was the Iron Blood Society, Zhang Xiaopang found someone from the Iron Blood Society to save us. Don't be angry, don't be angry. We didn't need them to save us, we didn't need them to save us!"

  "Who are you?" Lao Gou stared at him with bloodshot eyes, his gaze extremely piercing.

  "I'm a small stone, picked up by you from the side of the road. We're with the brothers of the 31st Division, together with the brothers of the 31st Division!" Shi Liangcai's voice was already trembling with sobs, tears welling up in his eyes.

  "Oh!" Old Gou responded in a low voice, his eyes dimming as he lay back on the stretcher and fell fast asleep.

  This time, everyone knew which team had saved the lives of the small squad members at the last moment. The brothers of the 31st Independent Regiment who carried the stretcher and the officers walking beside them looked at each other, cautiously keeping silent. Hu Fengshou felt suffocated in his heart, touched the cotton on his cheek, and muttered, "What's wrong with the Red Bandits? What's wrong with the Red Bandits? Chairman Chiang has already shaken hands with them, why must we be so stubborn?"

  "Shut up! Our 26th Route Army is not the same as those Red Bandits!" Shi Liangcai turned his head from beside the stretcher, glaring at him angrily. The 26th Route Army was ordered to go to Jiangxi to suppress bandits that year, but they were defeated by the "Red Bandits" and suffered heavy casualties. Fortunately, the central government still had some integrity at the time and later supplemented some officers and soldiers to the 26th Route Army, barely preserving its designation. Otherwise, Old Camp Commander Sun Lianzhong would have become a commander without an army long ago.

  Hu Fengshou was also clear about this grudge, but he didn't hold onto hatred like Shi Liangcai and Lao Gou did. "The things that happened back then are just a mess! If we really want to hold grudges, I shouldn't be sharing the same sky as you guys either. But aren't we all still stirring the same pot?"

  "I'm too lazy to reason with you!" Shi Liangcai was originally not good at debating with people, and after giving Hu Fengshou a glance, he turned his head to the side. To be honest, Hu Fengshou's words weren't necessarily unreasonable. Back then, the Chahaer Anti-Japanese Allied Army that Hu Fengshou belonged to was annihilated by the central government in collaboration with various forces, and only after that did they incorporate its remnants into the 26th Route Army. If Hu Fengshou insisted on holding onto his hatred from back then, he shouldn't have gone with everyone to kill the Japanese devils a few days ago; instead, he should have led the way for the devils and turned against everyone!

  The situation of being able to harvest a lot, and the situation between the 26th Route Army and the "Red Bandits", seems not to be completely different either. As for what exactly is different, Shi Liangcai doesn't know. He just hopes that he will never meet those guys with patches on their clothes again in this lifetime.