Chapter 22: Shooting in the Wheat Field (1)

  Where did these Japanese soldiers come from in Japan? Utsunomiya? Nagano? Hokkaido? In their hometown, they should also be ordinary Japanese people. Now, for the sake of their Emperor, for their "sacred" Greater East Asia War, they rushed to the central plains of China, burning, killing and looting. When they faced Chinese civilians with bared teeth and claws, did they ever think that they would become targets for Xu Liang's shooting training?

  Chen Hao's dispatched messenger soldier failed to reach Xu Liang. Fortunately, he was quick-witted and encountered the enemy early when meeting with the devils, immediately turning his head and running wildly, the soldiers sitting on the side of the car turned their heads and shot fiercely at the Japanese army. The motorcycle sped westward under the devil's firepower, circling around Lanfeng from the southwest and catching up with the troops, both of them were slightly injured.

  The Shangqiu defense line was breached, and Xu Liang received reports that the enemy had appeared on both the eastern and western fronts. He was also somewhat surprised: "The devils have arrived so quickly!" He immediately ordered his troops to execute the breakout plan that had been approved by the higher-level party organization. At this time, most of the railway equipment at the station had already been dismantled by Geng Zhongyue and others, and all the railway employees and their families had retreated westward. The burnt-out residential area for railway workers was still smoldering. The brutal and arrogant Japanese invaders absolutely did not anticipate that the Chinese people, who had partially organized themselves, would put up a strong resistance at any cost and with any sacrifice. Xu Liang ordered his troops to break out in the northeast direction, directly into the enemy's attacking direction. Before leaving, they blew up the station building.

  This was their first long-distance march away from the main traffic arteries. The troops tried to avoid highways, even village dirt roads, and proceeded along narrow paths between fields. Li Wuming took two soldiers ahead of the team and opened up a distance, serving as scouts. Reconnaissance personnel were dispatched on both flanks. Several mules that had been purchased with great effort carried heavy supplies in the middle of the troops.

  Willows shade, wheat waves roll, lotus ponds croak, elm and cypress surround the village. The beautiful rural scenery of the lower reaches of the Yellow River was shattered by the rumbling sound of cannons. The iron hooves of the invaders rushed into our hometown, and the five-foot-tall men of China would not allow the Japanese bandits to be arrogant! Xu Liang thought that he would soon return to the fighting life under the direct leadership of the party, and his thoughts were flying high.

  "Bang!" A gunshot rang out, very close by. The procession halted its advance.

  "Scouts report: 'Enemy spotted about 200 meters to the left.'" The tall sorghum field on the left, which was as high as a person, blocked our line of sight.

  "How many enemies?" "No... didn't see clearly, there's a big road over there, and on the other side of the road, in the wheat field, someone was harvesting wheat, then gunshots rang out, I saw several devils, so I hurried back to report."

  Xu Liang did not blame the scout, these soldiers were in dire need of training. Although they had been avoiding major roads while marching, this place was densely populated with villages close together and crisscrossing paths, with no great distance between each road. The "major road" referred to by the soldier was actually just a dirt path that could be traversed by large carts in rural areas.

  Xu Liang ordered Liang You Tian to lead the troops in hiding, and Li Wei Ming, who had arrived, also stopped advancing and sent a soldier back to make contact. Xu Liang told them to stop advancing and be on high alert, and he personally led a squad of brothers to sneak quietly towards the west through the reed screen. As they approached the road, they heard the Japanese shouting and cursing. The scout pointed forward, and Xu Liang raised his binoculars: hundreds of civilians were harvesting wheat under the threat of the Japanese bayonets. On the side of the road, near the reed screen, a 15 or 16-year-old boy was lying on the ground, having been beaten down. Xu Liang understood that this was an enemy "foraging" team, forcing civilians to harvest mature wheat and taking it away as military rations. The child had probably tried to escape and was killed by the Japanese. Xu Liang's anger surged to his head, but he suppressed it and continued to observe. There were 23 Japanese in total, including a guy who was clearly a traitorous interpreter. Two Japanese were guarding the wheat stacks, while the others were scattered around, monitoring the civilians at work, occasionally beating them with rifle butts and boots. Ten Japanese were standing back-to-back along the road, about 10 meters apart, probably to prevent any other civilians from escaping towards the reed screen.

  "Fight or not fight?" Xu Liang thought quickly, "This should be a small team of devils, and there should be some devils responsible for transportation, and the grain storage place shouldn't be too far away. There might also be other devils nearby who are robbing grain." He soon made up his mind: "Fight! As a Chinese soldier, how can I just sit back and watch the Chinese people being bullied by the devils? With my own strength, I can take out these devils, as long as we fight quickly and decisively, there won't be too much of a problem. The devil's military strength is insufficient, their main force is on the front line attacking, the rear guard points have limited troops, even if they come to reinforce, it's not a problem, and the devils responsible for guarding the grain depot won't dare leave their posts easily. Other grain-robbing teams that come won't have too many troops either, and they won't have heavy weapons. If they come, they're just looking for death. And the ordinary people can take advantage of the opportunity to escape." Xu Liang's mind was made up, he let the scout continue to monitor, and he himself retreated, beckoning to Yan Xuewen: "Quickly, go find Liang Yinglong and a few battalion commanders!"

  Everyone is here, even Li Weiming has been replaced. Xu Liang informed everyone of the situation and the decision to eliminate this enemy force. Xiaowangzi listened: "Easy, Deputy Regimental Commander, I'll arrange the light and heavy machine guns in a row, one sweep and these devils will be almost finished off. The remaining ones want to lie down and hide, I'll use mortars to name them, guaranteeing a quick battle!"

  "Go, go, you wasteful kid! With just over twenty devils, do we need to waste so much ammo? We're in a breakout battle, and it's hard to resupply. Once your heavy machine guns and mortars run out of ammo, they'll be nothing but scrap metal!"

  Xu Liang: "More importantly, this will mislead many ordinary people."

  "What kind of ordinary people, traitors!"

  "What is a traitor?"

  "Working for the devils isn't being a traitor?"

  "Haven't you seen that they were forced? Our... a soldier's responsibility is to protect the common people." Captain Three argued.

  Xu Liang waved his hand: "Stop arguing. I'm going to have a quick and decisive shooting training."

  Everyone was excited and eager to listen.

  "Gather all the brothers with good marksmanship, including me, Liang Battalion Commander, Nian Company Commander, and Wang Company Commander. Choose 23 people, assign a shooting target to each one, and then assign two assistant shooters to each shooter. Three people form a group to shoot at the same target simultaneously. Take aim, listen for my gunshot as the signal, and fire together, striving to take out most of the enemy with one volley."

  "What about me?" Li Weiming asked.

  "Do you see the willow forest to the south? Take a squad and sneak past quietly, after the shots are fired on this side, if there are any remaining enemies hiding and counterattacking, you'll surround them from the side and take care of them." "Yes."

  "Everyone must pay attention to concealment and cannot let the enemy discover us. Emphasize discipline, without my signal, you absolutely cannot fire! We are already in the rear of the enemy, we must fight quickly and decisively!"

  23 shooting teams were selected, quietly moving forward, hiding into the firing position, each team was assigned different targets. There were several auxiliary shooters who had just learned to aim with three points and one line, new recruits who had never fired live ammunition before, they were all paired up with veterans.

  The sun sets in the west, dazzling. The devils in the wheat field move from time to time, while the 10 devils by the road are all holding guns and standing upright. Xu Liang secretly praises: "These devils are not simple, their military posture is even better than the targets on the shooting range."

  Where did these Japanese soldiers come from in Japan? Utsunomiya? Nagano? Hokkaido? In their hometown, they should also be ordinary Japanese people. Now, for the sake of their Emperor, for their "sacred" Greater East Asia War, they rushed to the central plains of China, burning, killing, looting and plundering. When they faced Chinese civilians with bared teeth and claws, did they ever think that they would become targets for Xu Liang's shooting training?

  Xu Liang took aim at the devils by the haystack with his 79 rifle, he and Xiao Wangzi had divided up the two targets. He thought to himself: "Why do these devils only stare at the civilians in the wheat field, but have no vigilance against this patch of green reeds which poses the greatest potential threat? Probably they really think this is already their rear base? These guys will pay the price for their arrogance."