Chapter 20: The War Chariot Steals the Show

  "Wait! The car is going so fast, where are you rushing to?" Song Xiqian asked anxiously.

  An Yi calmed down, shifted the car into neutral gear: "Yeah... how can I help you?"

  "Take a look outside the car in several directions: 'Do you know where their ammunition depot is?'"

  "I know! But we can't go, the ammunition depot is behind Skinny Dog Ridge in a small mountain valley, heavily guarded and must pass through three checkpoints. If we force our way in, I'm afraid we'll be shot to pieces before we even see the courtyard of the depot. You'd better think of another plan." An Yi recalled the half-kilometer road to the ammunition depot, where there were fortifications and machine guns everywhere, and the strict checks at the three checkpoints, knowing that forcing their way in would only lead to death.

  Song Xilian looked around helplessly, gritted his teeth and ordered An Yi: "You stay in the car and wait for me, I'll climb up to the back mountain ridge to take a look at the situation and come down right away."

  "Hello?"

  An Yi hadn't finished speaking when Song Xiyou had already jumped out of the car and run off without a trace. An Yi could only wait honestly in the car, thinking to himself that Old Song's gray casual attire wasn't much different from the Yunnan army's gray-blue uniform, and if no one paid attention, nothing would happen. Besides, there weren't many people around where he was, more than 60 meters away from the main road to the north. Occasionally, a team of panting Yunnan soldiers carrying ammunition would run by, exhausted like dogs, and no one had the energy to pay attention to this originally safe direction. An Yi pulled out the revolver from his waist and fondled it lovingly, wiping the gun mechanism with his sleeve and slowly fiddling with it. Having seen Qu Bozi cleaning his gun and loading bullets on the car many times, An Yi, who was originally fascinated by mechanics, also learned a thing or two, figuring out quite a few tricks after some thought.

  Song Xiqian panted and ran down the mountain, rushed to a large pile of wood, pulled out two tree poles over three meters long, threw them into the empty carriage, opened the door under the surprised gaze, grabbed Qu Beizi's ankles and pulled out half of the body. Who knew that Qu Beizi's body rolled off the cushion, his big head and stiff left hand were stuck between the operating lever and the seat base. Song Xiqian was anxious and shouted loudly: "Niangniang's little Yi, are you watching the excitement? Don't help me!"

  An Yi hastily put away the gun, grabbed Qu Baozi's hair with one hand, and pulled his head up. He sidled over to Song Xihui and together they dragged the corpse out of the car, walked a few steps, and threw it into a shallow stone pit nearby. Just as An Yi was about to turn around, he was dazzled by a flash of golden light. Without hesitation, he squatted down and grabbed Qu Baozi's left hand, which was sticking up, and with some effort pulled off the gold ring set with jadeite from his middle finger: "Damn it, I almost forgot this treasure! Dead fatty always showed off this heirloom, a top-quality jadeite ring worth at least 300 big bucks!"

  "Xiao Yi, what are you doing? Come and help quickly!"

  An Yi responded with a sound, quickly putting the ring into his pants pocket, and then searched for more than a dozen large silver coins on the dead fat man's body and put them in his upper garment pocket. Only then did he return to the side of the vehicle, looking at Old Song in surprise as he stood high up on the carriage, tying two pieces of wood together: "What are you doing?"

  "Cut the nonsense and hand me those two flags on the ground."

  "Oh……" An Yi grabbed the two tattered flags that Quan Baozi had wrapped around his body, crumpled them up and threw them away: "There are plenty of ropes in my carriage, why bother using this broken cloth to tie up the pole? Hey... at a time like this, you should be thinking of ways to get out as quickly as possible, but instead you're messing around with this nonsense! Good heavens... Old Song, are you trying to get yourself killed? You...!"

  An Yi saw Song Xiwen tie a bright red broken party flag and a large blue sky white sun flag to the high pole, immediately scared pale, regardless of everything climbed up to remove the flag, was immediately hugged by Song Xiwen and pressed on the car's sun visor.

  "Xiao Yi, listen to me. I just went up and took a look. The battle is intense. Our brothers charged twice with ladders and were beaten back. That small river in front of the two armies' positions has become an uncrossable line of death for us. So I've decided that we'll take this car out, drive at full speed across the Yunnan army's position on this kilometer-long stretch of highway. You drive, I'll provide cover fire. The Yunnan army will definitely be thrown into chaos. Our men will seize the opportunity to launch another charge and force their way across that small river. The Yunnan army is weak against strong attacks, they absolutely won't be able to hold out under our fierce assault! Alright, no more nonsense. You get down and prepare, it's all up to you soon!"

  "No way! Without these two flags, it's fine. With them, we'll become the target of the Yunnan army. We won't even make it halfway before we're all killed. I'm not doing it!" An Yi refused.

  "Are you stupid? With just this short distance, if you rush over at full speed, it won't take a minute, can the Yunnan army react in time? Besides, without these two flags, how would the brothers on the other side know who you are? When the time comes, both sides will concentrate their firepower and 'rattle' for a while, wouldn't we two die unjustly? Listen to me, it's not wrong!" Song Xiluan's inherent cleverness and decisiveness were fully revealed at this moment. An Yi thought about it and felt deeply reasonable, and immediately crawled out of the carriage and jumped down.

  Song Xilian quickly got into the driver's cabin, closed the door, and pulled out An Yi's revolver from his waist. He checked the magazine with ease, started the car, and drove out of the sawmill. An Yi was heartbroken and loudly protested. Song Xilian said, "You drive with a gun on your back, it's a waste. I'll take it, and we can kill a few more enemies, and also cover you." He added, "Our brotherly bond isn't even worth a single bullet?" A few words left An Yi speechless, and he could only repeatedly remind Song Xilian to return the gun after use.

  The car turned east on the highway, An Yi heard intense gunfire ahead, his hands gripping the steering wheel were cramping with tension, seeing the thick smoke from explosions made him frightened and sweating profusely. Before even approaching the second line of defense of the Yunnan army, he was already scared out of his wits, and Song Xiwen yelled "stop the car" at this very moment.

  An Yi unconsciously slammed on the brakes, and before the screeching sound had faded away, Song Xilun had already opened the door and rushed out of the car. He raised two new and old twenty-shot revolvers and fired continuously, hitting three Yunnan soldiers who were unable to react in time at a half-moon shaped sandbag sentry post some distance from the position, causing them to fall to the ground like blood gourds. Song Xilun put away his guns and rushed into the sentry post, quickly unfastening four clips from the waist of the machine gunner, picking up a Browning 1918 light machine gun on top of the sandbag, running back to the car in several strides, closing the door with one foot, jumping onto the right step board, throwing the machine gun and clips into the car compartment. He stuck his head into the driver's cabin and loudly reminded An Yi, who was staring at him in shock: "I'll get on top of the car, you don't need to do anything else, just keep driving forward as fast as possible, the faster the better! It would be best if we could crash through the two wooden barriers and obstacles on the road and make it to the riverbank. Otherwise, neither of us will survive!"

  Song Xilian finished speaking, a hawk flipped over and jumped into the carriage, picked up the machine gun and quickly mounted it on the wooden sunshade above the driver's cab, pulled the bolt to find the target.

  With no choice, An Yi gritted his teeth and shifted into second gear. He floored it, and the dirty truck was like a raging beast as it crashed into the Yunnan army's position. As the speed increased, the two tattered flags on the truck fluttered wildly in the wind. Song Xiluan, with bloodshot eyes, tightly gripped the machine gun's trigger, and with one burst of fire, he silenced the heavy machine gun on the left side of the high ground. Then, he quickly turned the barrel to the right side of the position and fired wildly.

  The Yunnan army was caught off guard by this unexpected blow, and immediately fell into local chaos. The Yunnan officers and soldiers within 100 meters saw the truck flying forward with two Nationalist flags inserted, and were shocked to be stunned, forgetting to shoot for a while. Song Xiluan's machine gun did not stop, and in one breath, he finished three clips and eliminated more than a dozen enemies, which made the Yunnan army panic and shout wildly.

  On the eastern bank of a small river, eight hundred meters behind the rear of the Huangpu military camp, in a recessed area on the mountain ridge, Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek and Military Adviser Galen, under He Yingqin's loud call, exchanged a glance and stepped away from the map several steps to an observation point. Chiang Kai-shek took over the binoculars handed by his aide-de-camp Zeng Xianzhi, gazing intently into the distance, and was surprised to see unexpected chaos suddenly appear on the right flank of the Yunnan army's position, with the affected area growing larger and larger.

  "The principal noticed that on the left side of the highway in the enemy's position, a truck with a party flag and national flag inserted was rushing very fast, had already smashed through the roadblock deep in the enemy's position and continued to charge forward along the front line. I don't know which unit it is, great job! The entire enemy position is in chaos, Liu Xiang, Gu Zhutong, Jin Fuzhuang are all doing well, seizing the opportunity to launch a counterattack at the right moment!" He Yingqin, who was usually calm and composed, exclaimed excitedly while holding his binoculars.

  Chiang Kai-shek was overjoyed: "Pass on my order: launch a full-scale attack, and absolutely cannot let this fleeting opportunity slip away!"

  "Yes!"

  Chiang Kai-shek finished giving orders and raised his binoculars again, only to see the crazily advancing car crash through the last roadblock on the road. Then, under the intense firepower of the Yunnan army officers and soldiers, it crashed into a fortification made of sandbags in the middle of the road, sending two Yunnan soldiers who were unable to escape flying high into the air. The speeding car drove over the sandbags, suddenly flew off the ground, and flew sideways through the air for several meters before crashing down, kicking up a large cloud of dust. After finally returning to the road surface, it swayed back and forth like a drunken vagrant, advancing in a serpentine manner towards the small river.

  "Hero! A hero from the heavens, his arrival has broken the stalemate and created an unparalleled opportunity for us... The three battalions have successfully set up a makeshift bridge, and the charge of the second battalion's first company has also begun. Good! Very good! As long as we get the chance to engage in close combat, this brutal battle will end in our victory..."

  Chiang Kai-shek put down the telescope and turned to He Yingqin excitedly: "You go personally command, take down Longyandong immediately and pursue the victory, ride non-stop straight to Shou Gouling, use our precious intelligence to infiltrate and attack from front and back according to plan, strive to take down Shou Gouling stronghold before nightfall, after that it will be a smooth ride. The opportunity is not to be missed, if you don't go personally command, it won't happen!"

  "Yes!"

  Old Chiang made a gesture to wait a moment: "Also, after you go ahead and let the Political Department send someone up to check, see who opened the car, who is so brave to make such a meritorious achievement, I want to commend him, reward him!"

  "Yes, I will instruct accordingly."

  ……

  The shattered windshield debris scratched An Yi's forehead, and fresh blood flowed down his pale cheeks, but at this time he was unconscious, his right foot that had been stepping on the accelerator was numb, staring blankly with extremely frightened eyes, staring blankly at the countless charging Huangpu soldiers in front of him. The bullet-riddled car lost control and rushed to the riverbank without stopping, "Boom!" A loud noise, plunged into the muddy riverbed, bounced twice, splashing a large piece of mud, finally forming a stable bridge that was as perfect as it could be. Song Xiwen, who had barely held on in the carriage, was thrown high into the air by the impact, flying seven or eight meters and hitting a dense tree trunk, bouncing once and falling to the ground unconscious.

  Yan Fengyi, the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion, who was unable to build a bridge due to the enemy's frantic blocking, saw the situation and was overjoyed. He jumped out of the bunker, waved his rifle and shouted loudly: "Comrades, follow me!"

  Planks of wood were laid on top of the truck's cab and carriage, brave sappers wielded iron hammers and nails in a flurry of fierce pounding, the trucks serving as bridge piers instantly covered with temporary wooden planks, countless feet trampled on the truck's roof, charging towards the enemy position, loud bugle calls sounded incessantly, the battlefield shook with cries of killing.

  At this time, the hero in the mouth of the Russian advisor, Comrade An Yi, who was about to be heavily rewarded by Principal Chiang, knew nothing about it and had already been knocked unconscious on the steering wheel...