Chapter 9 The First Drop of Tears

  The sky was slightly bright, and the devils who had been hiding for a night began to move.

  The plane whizzed through the sky, and the bombs rained down heavily on the 88th Division's defensive position. The dust filled the air, and the mud stirred up by the explosions covered people from head to toe, making them look gray and dusty.

  Like all the soldiers defending their homeland, this group of warriors were also well-treated. After the smoke and dust dissipated, You Fei couldn't help but loudly curse: "Damn it, the Qing dynasty has been disturbing your grandfather's good dreams for a long time, kill your family's old mother!"

  Ding Dang patted the dust off his body and shook his head at You Fei, who glared at him and shouted: "Hey, big oaf, what's with the head-shaking? Are you dissatisfied with me, your brother? If so, spit it out, don't hold back! It's not good for your health to keep it in!" With that, You Fei didn't wait for Ding Dang to respond and turned around to unzip his pants and start urinating.

  Ding was stunned and speechless, unsure whether to be angry or amused.

  You Fei and his brothers were also carefree, urinating on the spot, when a shell landed at the front of their position, exploding with a loud noise. You Fei and several others fell to the ground. Seeing that his pants were wet with urine, he grabbed a nearby gun, cocked it, and fired a shot towards the enemy's position. You Fei gnashed his teeth and roared: "Little devils, I'm going to take you down! Either you die or I do, damn your mother!"

  Hu Weiyue couldn't take it anymore and shouted: "You Fei, be quiet! If you make another sound, I'll kill you!"

  If anyone had dared to speak to You Fei like that in the past, he would have rushed up to find that person and fight him to the death. But now he couldn't do so, because he was already in the army. In these days, he hadn't learned much, but he knew what discipline meant.

  "After the plane comes the artillery, and then the enemy infantry will arrive. Come on, little devils!" Ding Bing opened the safety catch, gripped the gun tightly, and stared intently at the front.

  "Listen up, new recruits! Remember what I taught you before? First, you need to know how far 50 meters is. Then, you need to judge how many 50 meters are between you and the enemy in front of you. Get it accurate, then take aim and shoot them dead! I want to see the enemy's head blown off, not your guns all firing at the seams! Did you all hear that clearly?!" Hu Weiyue's loud voice rang out again.

  "Yes!" The crowd responded in unison, including Ding Bing. On this small battlefield, Hu Weiyue was the highest commander, and naturally, Ding Bing regarded him as his superior officer.

  You Fei's gun was pressed against his shoulder, but he suddenly tensed up. The fearless You Fei was actually sweating profusely from his palms. Ding Zhen said in a low voice: "Nervous, huh?"

  "Who's nervous? I'm excited! Can't wait for the little devils to come out and be my live targets, so I can practice my marksmanship. Before this, it was just shooting at wooden boards, how boring!" You Fei said with a hard mouth.

  "Concentrate, relax, and you'll hit your target. When shooting at one of those devils, it's best to use the ones next to it as a reference, that way you can shoot accurately." Ding Ling said calmly.

  This time, You Fei didn't talk back anymore, but just quietly listened and silently remembered it in his heart.

  After a while, people's shadows finally appeared from the horizon in the distance, slowly growing larger from small black dots. When the people slowly approached, the commander with binoculars first saw that those walking in front were ordinary civilians forming a chain-like human wall, mainly consisting of the elderly, women and children, with Japanese soldiers crouching behind them.

  Yi Anhua and Feng Ping also discovered this situation, with a look of grief and indignation on their faces. Feng Ping's steel teeth clenched with a "kaka" sound, as he furiously shouted: "Bastard! Bastard!"

  Yi Anhua would rather have a steel knife held to his throat than face this situation, the little devils closing in step by step, and yet they couldn't fire their guns. A sense of powerlessness he had never felt before arose from Yi Anhua's heart.

  The devils are getting closer and closer, only 800 meters away from the front line. The soldiers can already see those unarmed civilians being driven like cattle, slowly moving forward. All the soldiers were stunned, they quietly waited for their commander to make a decision, no matter what the decision was, they had to execute it, because they were soldiers.

  Bo Le himself admitted that he was a ruthless and cunning person, but even he couldn't help feeling extremely indignant and furious at the despicable behavior of the little devils. Bo Le clenched his teeth so hard that his gums bled, and he swallowed the blood along with his saliva. The metallic taste filled his mouth, and in his mind, there was only one voice - he wanted to kill, he wanted to annihilate the little devils, tear their corpses apart and drink their blood to quench the raging fire of anger that burned within him.

  The heavy atmosphere weighed on the hearts of every soldier on the battlefield, making people feel extremely uncomfortable. Time passed minute by minute, and the distance was getting closer and closer, 700 meters, 600 meters, 500 meters... As the distance narrowed, the faces of fellow human beings became clearer, those thin cheeks, lifeless eyes made people unbearable to look at, but the soldiers had to watch, it was a kind of cruel torture.

  "Anhua, you'd better come up with a plan. We're only 300 meters away now. We can't let them get any closer or we'll have to give this position to the little devils!" Feng Ping urged.

  Yi Anhua could only smile bitterly: "Feng Ping, brother, do you want me to let the brothers open fire? Open fire on those unarmed civilians? In the classrooms of Huangpu Military Academy, I didn't learn how to deal with this situation as a soldier. I wish there was someone who could teach me what to do now!"

  Feng Ping let out a deep sigh, if he were the one who had to make the decision, he probably wouldn't be able to make it either.

  The human wall was still slowly moving forward, the warriors guarding the position were extremely tense and terrified, they didn't know what would happen next, and no matter what happened, there wouldn't be a good outcome. Time slowly flowed by, the distance was compressed bit by bit, and soon something unexpected would happen, their hearts were all raised to their throats.

  In the long queue, a white-haired old woman suddenly knelt down on the ground, as if by tacit agreement, the people around her also fell to their knees one after another. The young children who didn't know better followed suit and squatted down too. In an instant, the wall of people in front of the Japanese soldiers vanished without a trace.

  The exposed Japanese soldiers saw the situation and kicked the civilians lying on the ground with their feet, and some even slammed them with gun butts. The "lepers" in front of them were like tempered steel at this time, enduring the poisonous beating without making a sound.

  Nagase Jirō saw all this through his binoculars and shouted loudly: "Hokage-ro! Order the execution of those sick men, not a single one is left!"

  Looking at Hachisuka Heizo, Ozawa Takehiro shook his head secretly.

  The order was quickly passed down to the front, and the Japanese soldiers who received the order were no longer polite. The muzzles of their guns were aimed at the ordinary old people kneeling on the ground waiting for execution, and it was a sweep shooting.

  The mournful cries of the wounded soldiers struck at the hearts of the defenders like a merciless drumbeat.

  Blood dyed the sky red and pained the hearts of the defending soldiers on the battlefield.

  You Fei only felt that his ears were filled with the sound of mournful and urgent cries, surging back and forth, unable to be shaken off. His palms rubbed the gun handle fiercely, the muzzle aimed at the devils, his fingers locked onto the trigger, his heart only thinking about annihilating the beasts in front of him.

  Hu Weiyue wiped his face with his hand, which was full of tears. He only then realized that his entire face was covered in tears. After wiping away the tear stains on his face, Hu Weiyue stopped his wild and fanciful thinking. On the battlefield, there is no room for tears to appear, as they can only make you weak. A soldier's job is to eliminate the enemy and then live like a dog. This was a principle he had long understood.

  The devils were now only two hundred meters away from the front line, Ding Jiao stuck the butt of the light machine gun tightly to his cheek and whispered: "When the little devils rush within one hundred meters, they will crouch down and move forward, no need to aim with the gun on their shoulder, even shooting flatly with a Type 38 rifle is guaranteed to hit. So newbie, it's better for you to keep your head down!" You Fei glared at Ding Jiao and coarsely said: "Big guy, take care of yourself, I've always had good luck, won't die so easily."

  He Tianhao was crouching in the trench at this time, collecting the steel helmets of the dead soldiers from the 87th Division and placing them on the earthwork at intervals. Hu Weiyue saw it and scolded loudly: "He Tianhao, what are you doing? Just stay still honestly."

  He Tianhao sneered, speaking in a strange tone: "I'm setting up fake targets, the Japanese devils' bullets will fly towards these helmets instead of flying towards my brothers' heads!"

  "What a freak!" Hu Weiyue muttered under his breath and stopped paying attention to He Tianhao, letting him make a scene.

  You Fei looked ahead and saw that the devils were slowly advancing, he swallowed his saliva and said: "Why haven't you opened fire yet? Have the officials been scared silly? Damn it, every day they talk about dividing and conquering, but now they're just standing there like wooden stakes. What's the difference between this and stripping naked and waiting for someone to come up?"

  Ding Bing turned his head and looked at You Fei, who was tense with beads of sweat the size of beans on his forehead, and shook his head with a smile.

  The gunfire finally erupted, the guns on the position spewed fire tongues into the piles of Japanese soldiers, the rattling gunfire was so loud that it was annoying, You Fei didn't wait for a moment to aim before pulling the trigger, and he didn't know if he hit or not, but the devil he aimed at was indeed lying on the ground like a puddle of mud.

  Overjoyed, he quickly pulled the bolt and re-aimed at the next target. This time, he finally managed to hit a living person, tall or short, fat or thin. The more You Fei shot, the more excited he became. When the bullet pierced through the enemy's skull for an instant, he felt an intense thrill throughout his body, just like when he was with the prostitute. At this moment, he had completely forgotten the sorrow of the civilians being killed earlier and was only immersed in the extreme pleasure of killing.

  The 259th Brigade, which held its ground, consumed a large amount of ammunition yesterday and suffered significant casualties. However, after a night's time, the firepower was even more intense than yesterday. The devils had not yet had time to prepare psychologically, and were already swept away by suppressive dense fire in a large area.

  Nagare Jiro, with his big belly, couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in his heart seeing the damage was so great. The flesh on his face twitched as he turned to Ozawa Takeo and shouted angrily: "Takeo, there are reinforcements from Shina! Your reconnaissance work is extremely poor, you must take full responsibility for today's failed attack!"

  "Yes, Colonel. Your rebuke is well-deserved, I was remiss in my duties. I will do my best to make up for it and prevent other Chinese troops from coming to support them. As long as we cut off their supporting forces, the 259th Brigade will soon be exhausted!" Lieutenant General Ozawa replied humbly with his head bowed.

  The situation has changed, and the soldiers' morale is no longer stable. Nagase Jiro sighed helplessly and ordered the signal corps to issue a withdrawal order.

  Looking at the Japanese army retreating like a tide, Yi Anhua and Feng Ping let out a sigh of relief. Yi Anhua saw that Feng Ping's military uniform was soaked with sweat, and burst out laughing: "Brother Feng, you're so tense! Haha, don't worry, those little devils can't do anything to our over 7,000 soldiers!"

  Feng Ping chuckled and said: "Brother Anhua is a veteran of many battles, I used to be just a secretary, this is my first time as a general!"

  "Haha, it's not bad at all!" Yi Anhua burst out laughing loudly.

  Feng Pingle said, "It's not their fault." His tone sank: "Those civilians who refused to be the enemy's human shields and were killed by them, we soldiers couldn't save them but could only watch as they died. It's really... it's really..."

  Yi Anhua's heart also became heavy, and she let out a deep sigh. The two of them fell silent.

  The soldiers drove the devils back, and they all cheered with joy, especially the warriors of the 259th Brigade, who finally got relief from yesterday's suppressed anger, hugging each other and shouting loudly.

  Like other warriors, You Fei's heart was also proud. Just a moment ago, You Fei clearly remembered that he had killed 5 devils, and he really didn't think that his shooting could be so accurate, the little devils were so easily knocked down by him.

  "Haha, Jiang Pangzi, I've taken down 5 devils, how's your battle record, kid!" You Fei buckled up his seatbelt and turned around to excitedly shout at Jiang Zhuang. However, Jiang Zhuang's chubby face was streaked with two lines of hot tears, he didn't even bother to wipe them away, but instead looked at You Fei with sorrowful eyes.

  You Fei glanced to the side and saw that Ye Zhi Ming and Liu Yun Qing were already lying in a pool of blood. For an instant, You Fei's heart stopped beating. He slowly walked over and saw that Ye Zhi Ming's eyes had rolled back, showing only whites. The wound on Liu Yun Qing's chest was still bleeding profusely. His face was deathly pale, his lips devoid of any color, but he still managed to smile faintly as he looked at You Fei.

  Liu Yunqing's lips moved slightly, as if saying something. You Fei hastily leaned in, only to hear Liu Yunqing weakly say: "Big brother, I'm going to hang up, unfortunately... unfortunately, I haven't taught you the Thousand Character Classic yet!"

  You Fei felt his eyes getting wet, took a deep breath and swallowed the tears. He gritted his teeth and said: "You stupid bird, didn't you say you were going to teach me? Before, I ignored you, but now I'll reluctantly agree to your terms. So, you stupid bird, you must hold on tight, otherwise I'll still be a useless person in the future."

  Liu Yunqing quietly looked at You Fei, with a calm smile on his face, as always filled with respect for You Fei, looking at the big brother in his heart. Slowly, he closed his eyes. You Fei panicked when he saw this, grabbed Liu Yunqing's clothes and shook him violently, shouting: "Useless thing, you fake scholar, wake up for me, wake up!" As he spoke, two lines of hot tears finally burst out. Liu Yunqing had already closed his eyes forever, and his once fiery body was slowly cooling down.