Chapter 001: Back to the Battlefield Shrouded in Gunpowder Smoke

  In a daze, Murong Wudi slowly opened his eyes from the midst of confusion, feeling his whole body as if being roasted by the edge of a furnace, with waves of thick smoke drifting before his eyes, mixed with that pungent smell of gunpowder.

  "Where is this?" The scenes in front of him were unexpected, and he couldn't understand them. He clearly remembered that he was attending a military strategy discussion meeting with friends who loved the military, drinking too much afterwards, and falling asleep on the spot due to intoxication. When he opened his eyes, what he should have seen was his bed, and those friends would have helped him settle in first. How could he see so many thick smokes mixed with gunpowder? Was it like the TV news said, that this place had been attacked by fugitives and ended up in this state?

  The first thing he thought of was to get up and dial 110 to report the crime, or call 119 for help. However, he couldn't find his mobile phone, but instead discovered that he was wearing a bright orange Nationalist Party lieutenant's uniform, which added to his confusion and made him even more bewildered. Just as he was lost in thought, he heard a loud noise of boots rushing towards him from afar, and from the number and complexity of the sounds, it was clear that many people were frantically running towards him.

  As the sound of boots drew closer, someone shouted loudly: "The devils are coming, we can't hold on! Retreat, retreat quickly!"

  As soon as the sound fell, a group of soldiers wearing military uniforms, German-style helmets, and holding Mauser rifles that had not been thrown away in time suddenly rushed to his front, but it was clear that they were not charging, but fleeing.

  Devil? Is this a battlefield? A World War II battlefield!

  A clear phrase appeared in his mind, as if everything in front of him had been confirmed. Although he had done some research on China's War of Resistance against Japan and became good friends with British friend Shelton who specialized in World War II case studies due to their shared hobby, this time it was because of the foreign friend's invitation that he came to the hotel to attend this discussion conference, but did he really have to go to the battlefield himself? Good heavens, was God playing a joke on him?

  "Halt! The devils are behind you, why aren't you running away?" Murong Wudei seemed to have figured out his current situation and when he saw those people wearing World War II military uniforms escaping, he shouted at them with a patriotic sentiment as a Chinese.

  "We can't run? No one will survive if we don't run!" A military officer-like person came forward and smoothed things over with a sentence, then planned to take everyone away from here. It was clear that this person should be the direct superior of these soldiers, but didn't want to say much more to this meddling person.

  Murong Wudi looked at the other's military rank and only then did he know that this guy was a captain, so he blocked his way forward and roared at him: "You eat the military rations paid by the common people, is this how you run around in the mountains like rabbits for the devils on the front line? Are you worthy of the military uniform you wear? No wonder others say that you only know how to bully the common people and can't do real things!"

  "Shut up! I don't have time to waste words with you here, Seventh Brother. Follow me!" The young man was extremely arrogant, and with a push, he sent Murong Wuji flying back, ordering the soldiers beside him to retreat, completely ignoring the lieutenant colonel rank on Murong's body.

  Just at this time, a loud explosion suddenly occurred, and a shell fell beside them and exploded, several soldiers who were huddled together were blown to pieces. Murong Wudi poked his head out of the dust raised by the explosion, slowly got up, and only then did he realize that the danger on the battlefield was far beyond what he could have imagined, those devils were using real stuff, and this time he himself was also stunned.

  At this moment, those soldiers heard someone crying out loud: "Company Commander... Company Commander..."

  The shell just blew up the lieutenant colonel who was bullying him, and at this time the soldiers under the lieutenant colonel were wailing in front of the pile of dead bodies like headless flies.

  "What the fart, with your backsides facing the enemy, who else would you shoot if not them? Why don't you hurry up and face the enemy?" Murong Wudi was really anxious for this large group of people. Now that their company commander was dead, it was as if they had lost their souls, all stupidly crying there, big men with no backbone at all.

  "Brothers, we've been fighting against the enemy for seven days and nights, our reinforced company of over 200 brothers is now less than 100 men, all our guns are empty, we haven't eaten in three or four days... What are we supposed to be welcoming? Are we supposed to welcome death?! If you want to welcome the enemy, you go ahead!" A lieutenant officer stepped forward and said this to Murong Wudi, seemingly unimpressed by his passionate words.

  "Go, brothers! Those who don't want to wait for death, follow me!" The lieutenant said after finishing his words and actively walked towards the direction of retreat, and once again conveyed the order not to stay behind and use their own bodies to fill the enemy's artillery fire.

  "Halt!" Murong Wudei immediately stopped him, "You can't get out this way, you'll only become live targets for the enemy's artillery fire. Have you forgotten how your company commander died?"

  "What can we do?" The lieutenant knew that what he said was true, but the enemy's attack was too strong at the moment, and there were no good troops in hand, and there was no support. Staying behind to resist was just being cannon fodder. After seeing the company commander die, it was even more unclear what to do next.

  "What else can we do? Fight!" Murong Wudei knew this was the only way out at present. He didn't know why he suddenly appeared here, but since he came here, he had to survive. He didn't want to die mysteriously in this place for no reason.

  "Alright, how do you plan to fight?" The lieutenant heard Murong Wudi's words and thought he was joking. He deliberately walked in front of Murong Wudi and asked, wanting to see what kind of skills this guy had that could keep so many people alive.

  "How far is the enemy from here?" Murong Wu Di knew that hoping for these timid ** to save himself was just a luxury, so he could only rely on his own abilities to solve the problem. Fortunately, he was a military enthusiast and had studied all the battles of the past, although he had never been on the battlefield himself, but he didn't think he was a useless person either.

  The lieutenant saw Murong Wudi and asked him a question. Without saying another word, he immediately handed the binoculars hanging on his body to Murong Wudi's hands.

  Murong Wudi picked up the telescope and took a closer look at the foot of the mountain, seeing the Ri army swarming like locusts. It seemed that it was indeed as they said, there was no way to survive without retreating. However, if they retreated now, all these people would die under the enemy's artillery fire. Therefore, he thought carefully about it.

  Then he turned to the lieutenant and said, "With this formation, it's impossible to win, and if we want to retreat safely, there is only one way. Do you see that? The enemy rushing from the northwest corner, judging by their numbers, they are probably a small team of devils, about 70 or 80 people. We can only start with them!"

  "What a joke, we now have less than 100 people in our team and have an advantage in numbers, but the other side is a fully established regular army company. Don't mention their Type 38 rifles, just their grenade launcher squad and heavy machine gun squad can annihilate us in one charge, not to mention that our guns are out of bullets! Commander, this isn't a battle, it's a slaughter. The lieutenant thought that Murong Wudi was joking, with their current abilities going up against a fully manned Japanese army company was simply a fantasy."

  "Force won't work, but we can outsmart them. As long as you all listen to me, I can safely lead you out!" Murong Wudei seemed to have already made up his mind, but was worried that these soldiers wouldn't follow his orders, and would mess up the entire battle plan, or even lose their lives.

  "There's no other way, let's just treat a dead horse as if it were alive!" The captain said, upon hearing that Murong Wudi could take everyone out, but only agreed for the time being. Anyway, there was no other way now, so he stood up and asked his brothers, "What do you guys think?"

  "Brothers, as long as we can get out, we'll all listen to Officer Mu!" Those soldiers seemed to have reached an agreement and completely obeyed Mu's command.

  "Alright, brothers first check the weapons and equipment on your body, see what else can be used!" Murong Wudei gave the first order. As the saying goes, know yourself and know others, if you don't even know what you have, how can you fight this battle? So he handed down this first order.

  "Report, nine bullets fired, ten hand grenades remaining!" In less than a moment, they all immediately checked the ammunition situation and reported to Murong Wudi.

  "Alright, that... you're the squad leader, take twenty-odd soldiers with you, and bring these ten hand grenades. Wait for us to pass by, then bury booby traps along the way. Remember, between the first and second groups of booby traps, space them out 20 meters apart and bury two hand grenades each time. Don't pull the strings together, separate them! Between the third group and the second group, increase the distance to 50 meters and bury two hand grenades again. The fourth group will be even farther away, and so on, until all the hand grenades are buried." Murong Wudi began assigning tasks.

  "I'm not that Zhao, my name is Zhao Changyou. And what's this 'Guilei' thing you're talking about?" Pai Zhang looked confused, staring at Murong Wude with a puzzled expression, and simply introduced himself before waiting for Murong Wude to explain what he meant by "Guilei".

  "Zhao Pai Zhang, how can you not even...” Murong Wudei was really surprised, he didn't understand how these soldiers could be so clueless about booby traps. But this wasn't the time to argue with them, so he continued, "Forget it, what I mean by booby trap is that we place hand grenades in hidden spots, tie a string to them, and wait for the enemy to step on the string and trigger an explosion!"

  "It's clear what you're saying!" Zhao understood his meaning and immediately responded with a "Yes!", then commanded, "First and second squads, get ready to follow me!"

  "Others get bayonets, follow me to the northwest corner, wait until nine bullets are fired and then go up for a bayonet fight. I don't want everyone to go one-on-one, but rather three people in a group, one person responsible for fighting with the enemy, the second person responsible for sneaking up, and the third person responsible for observing, paying attention to the approaching enemy. The tasks of the three people can change at any time according to the situation on the battlefield, but they must strictly follow their own tasks. Does everyone understand? Mu Rong Wudei formulated a battle plan, this time the main task is to engage in close combat with the devils, he requires a quick solution to the battle without too many casualties, which is why this method was adopted."

  "Understood! The soldiers all understood the task handed down by Murong Wudi, and they quickly mounted their bayonets on their standard-issue rifles, waiting for Murong Wudi's order."

  "Action!" Murong Wudi saw that the soldiers were all ready for battle, so he quickly gave orders. The soldiers were very obedient and put on their guns, rushing to the front line. When they arrived at the northwest corner of the mountain pass, Murong Wudi handed over nine bullets to a few soldiers who were good at shooting, asking them to specifically target the enemy commander, while he himself had never fired a gun and didn't need any bullets anyway, since there were so many people fighting for him now.

  As the battle began, none of the nine bullets were wasted and hit the commander's head. The Japanese army was in disarray, throwing grenades and machine guns into the valley, but at this time, Mu Rong Wudei had already ordered his soldiers to prepare for close combat and ambush from both sides.