Chapter 6: The Great Wall Ballad (Part 4)

  A small train station master can detect the problem with the deployment of the Niangzi Pass defense line, but the high-ranking officials in the entire Second War Zone headquarters are all blind to it! After listening to Station Master Xu's explanation, the brothers immediately turned upside down and rushed forward, asking in unison: "Isn't this playing dumb?"

  "Defend Shanxi, you all Jin Sui army retreat, let the Sichuan Army, Shaanxi Army and our 26th Route Army go up, what does Commander Yan mean?"

  "Your Shanxi doesn't have an arsenal, does it? Why not get a few big cannons and place them at the Niangzi Pass? Use the big cannons to blast downwards, no matter how many devils there are, they won't be enough to withstand the bombing!"

  "I, I really can't get along with the top, I'm just a train conductor. Nothing to do every day, sitting in the station thinking wildly! All the superiors, all the superiors, don't look at me with this gaze, don't look at me with this gaze!" Station Master Xu was looked at by everyone and felt hairy in his heart, he retreated backwards while making a bow.

  "Never mind!" Old Gou also knew that bullying a small train station master wouldn't solve anything. He waved his hand, ordering his brothers to back off, "Don't bully him, he's not some big shot from the Second War Zone."

  "Let's not fight anymore!"

  "Let's go, Commander! No more sacrificing our lives for Yan Xishan!" The brothers were furious to the extreme, even directly shouting out the nickname of the commander-in-chief of the Second War Zone, Yan Xishan.

  He pressed his hands down and shook his head with a bitter smile: "I don't know which bastard made this defensive plan! To be honest, from top to bottom, every official in this country is a bastard! The literati are greedy for wealth, the military are afraid of death! Those who can't even do their jobs properly might as well surrender to the devils and hope for a change of dynasty, so they can wear the black hat and have a chance to plunder everything!"

  Looking at the distorted faces of his comrades due to anger, he continued to add, "To be honest, I've been carrying this gun for so many years, what kind of scoundrel haven't I seen?! If because there are scoundrels above, I'll just pull my legs and leave, I'm afraid that by now, I would have run to some unknown country!"

  It's rare to hear Commander Gou speak so candidly, and the brothers were all stunned, perking up their ears and waiting quietly for his next words. Commander Gou of the Special Operations Unit shook his head again, with a slight curl at the corner of his mouth. "Just last month, our special operations unit risked our lives to blow up the enemy's cannons, but all we got in return was a **complete rout**. I thought to myself at the time, 'I'm really not doing this anymore! Who wants to do it? Anyone can just muddle through life! Who can't drink blood and eat flesh? If I just use some underhanded tactics, I'll definitely get more out of it than they will!' I lay in bed for half a month, thinking about it day and night. From Nanjing all the way to our 26th Route Army, I came up with thousands of reasons not to do it..."

  Perhaps it was the first time he spoke out his mind in public, his emotions were a bit excited, with a sense of tragic heroism and helplessness. "But then I suddenly thought of something, if I did that, wouldn't I become a scoundrel too?! If people like me all became scoundrels, wouldn't the country be doomed?! You tell me, am I right or not, right or not?"

  He wiped his face with his hand, wiping away tears and humiliation, leaving only sunshine and a smile. Facing that sunny smile, the brothers who were just filled with righteous indignation gradually calmed down, smiled wryly, and their smiles still carried a hint of shame.

  "So!" Guo Yide took a deep breath, pulling all the tears out of his eyes. "So I myself can't be a scoundrel. So even though this combat plan set by the Second War Zone Command is despicable, I still can't lead everyone to be scoundrels and run away with our tails between our legs!"

  "If we leave today because of the idiotic war plan made by the Second World War, tomorrow we will see an even more idiotic war plan, and the day after tomorrow, we will see an even more idiotic war plan, with even more idiotic people and things. In this era, isn't it easy to find idiotic people and things? We just need to look, and we can grab a handful of them easily. Then we'll keep walking, keep walking, until one day we reach our own doorstep. And then we still have to walk, because there are just as many idiotic people and things at our doorstep as there are here. We'll keep walking like this, until finally we can't walk anymore, and we reach the seaside! There's no road ahead! What will we do then? Surrender or jump into the sea and kill ourselves?"

  No one dared to answer his questions, nor did anyone dare to look him in the eye. The scorching flames in those eyes were enough to burn out all the impurities in the blood of the person looking at him, exposing them under the bright daylight.

  "We are insignificant, we can't control those bastards, but at least we can ensure that we don't become one of them!" It's the same old saying he's repeated countless times before, but today it sounds particularly pleasant to everyone's ears.

  The stationmaster Xu had been quietly listening on the side, initially with a hint of fear on his face. As time passed, the fear gradually turned into admiration, and then the admiring expression also slowly disappeared, replaced by a resolute and solemn look that had never been seen before on his face. Taking advantage of everyone's attention being drawn to Commander Gou, he sneaked back to the station dispatcher room, looked around, quickly dialed the phone, "Dispatcher room, I'm Old Xu, get me connected to Taiyuan Telecom!"

  "Taiyuan telephone bureau, may I trouble you to transfer..."

  “…….”

  Almost at the same time, in the small village where Shi Liangcai bought a horse yesterday, several "old guests" with special missions also gathered together. The mountain villagers lived in poverty, and every household had no paper on their windows, let alone glass. In order not to be noticed by outsiders, the "old guests" lowered the thick grass curtains that blocked the window openings in winter, and immediately, the room turned from daylight to night.

  The owner of the house lit an oil lamp and, in order to save money, only put one wick in the oil bowl. The light that came out was dim and flickering, sometimes bright and sometimes dark.

  "It's already been verified through the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army Liaison Office!" As everyone's eyes gradually adjusted to the light in the room, a man dressed as a leather goods peddler pulled out a neatly folded letter from his pocket and handed it to the "wool merchant" sitting across from him with both hands. "The troops that arrived yesterday are the direct lineage of General Sun Lianzhong, numbered the 27th Division Special Operations Brigade of the National Revolutionary Army. The division commander is named Feng Anbang, who is a relative of Sun Lianzhong's children. The brigade commander's surname is Gou, and he used to be Sun Lianzhong's guard captain! It seems that Chinese generals have this tradition of selecting people from their inner circle as low-level officers!"

  "That's why they always lose!" The "wool trader" opposite him smiled and commented calmly, as if he had long been accustomed to it. The needle thread trader sitting on his left raised an eyebrow slightly, with a hint of doubt in his tone, asking, "Shouldn't it be another team? How did it become the 27th Division?"

  According to Colonel Fan from the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Liaison Office, it was the superiors of the Second War Zone who made a mistake, but it's also possible that higher-ranking officials messed things up! The leather goods peddler shook his head and explained to several fellow vendors in a joking tone, "One is the 27th Army, with Commander Feng Qinzai! One is the 27th Division, with Commander Feng Anbang. The unit designations differ by only one word, and the surnames of the commanders are also the same, so it's no wonder they got mixed up!"

  "Hahahaha..." Listening to his explanation, except for the "Wool Seller" sitting in front of him, several other "sellers" sitting on the side burst out laughing with contempt. "That's how Chinese people are, they don't take anything seriously. Hah, back then, their army of hundreds of millions was conquered by the Manchu people who only had a population of tens of millions. Now it's the Empire's turn to conquer them!"

  "Where did Feng Qinzai's troops arrive?" After laughing for a while, the "Sewing Needle Seller" put on a serious face and continued to ask.

  This action seems a bit overstepping, the "wool seller" furrowed his brow and scanned him with his eyes. The "needle seller" keenly sensed the other's dissatisfaction, hastily stood up, bowed his waist to apologize, "Mr. Mura, don't be angry, I didn't mean to offer courtesy. As a military man, what I care about most is the deployment of the opponent's troops!"

  "It's all for the empire, I can forgive you this time." The "Wool Dealer" called Kimura looked at him again, his voice carrying a hint of superiority, "However, if you do it again next time, I will directly file a complaint with your superior!"

  "Hey, hey!" The needle seller bowed several times in a row to show his sincerity. However, his eyes inadvertently revealed a hint of resentment.

  Afraid of being implicated, the "leather goods merchant" hastily reported all the intelligence he had gathered. General Feng Qinzai actually arrived at dawn today! He is now stationed in Yangjiatun, not far from Longquan Temple. He seems to be very dissatisfied with the chaotic command of the Second War Zone, so he has been reluctant to deploy his troops. Even radio and telephone communications have not been set up immediately, using the excuse of preventing the disclosure of military secrets!

  Several disguised Japanese spies, dressed as small merchants, exchanged smiles with each other, and their confidence in the outcome of this battle grew. If General Feng Qinzhai's actions were to be judged by the Japanese military, he would have been court-martialed long ago. However, within the National Revolutionary Army, no general has ever been publicly rebuked for deliberately failing to maintain contact with his superiors.

  According to Colonel Fan of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Liaison Office, General Feng Qinzai and General Zhao Suishan, who is currently stationed at Niangzi Pass, have a great deal of conflict between them. The two had previously worked together near Xi'an, but last year when Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched their coup, General Zhao chose to support Zhang and Yang, while General Feng issued a telegram supporting the Nanjing government!

  "Is there still someone who dares to let them fight side by side?!" This time, even the wool merchant couldn't keep calm, standing up from his seat with a face full of astonishment. "Ikeda-kun, are you sure your information is correct?"

  "No mistake, I've verified it many times!" The leather goods vendor nodded his head, guaranteeing solemnly, "I even suspect that the Second War Zone Command has our people helping to formulate this battle plan. That's why there are so many loopholes in this plan. But..."

  "The Chinese..." Several spies shook their heads together, the expressions on their faces illuminated by the lamp light.

  Note 1: Feng Anbang, a fierce general of the 26th Route Army and son-in-law of Sun Lianzhong. During the Battle of Taierzhuang, he almost exhausted his entire 27th Division but did not allow the Japanese army to break through his position. Later, he persisted in resisting at Zhongtishan for many years and was finally wounded by a Japanese aircraft, sacrificing himself for the country.