Chapter 52: Nomura is demoted and humiliated

  "Matada-kun, are you alright?!" Ikeda rushed over to support Matada, who was in agony, and at the same time ordered the nearby orderly, "Immediately go notify the military doctor to come over. Tell him that Matada-kun was injured while pursuing the Chinese army and have him hurry over to examine Matada-kun's injuries!"

  "Ah hai!" The orderly didn't dare delay and immediately responded, then went to find the military doctor at the back.

  "Nomura, Suzuki, report to Lieutenant Matsumoto!" At this time, a military vehicle appeared in the enemy army and suddenly stopped beside Matsumoto. Two enemy officers got out of it. These two people were none other than Nomura and Suzuki. They saluted in front of Matsumoto and handed over a command from their hands, "This is an order from the Ministry of War, please take care!"

  "Captain Nomura!" Matsuda, gritting his teeth against the pain in his foot, stretched out his injured leg and stepped on the ground, carefully sizing up Nomura before saying with a sneer, "To deal with just a few Chinese devils, you, a proud captain, have been reduced to a lieutenant colonel. I don't know how the military uses people!"

  "Hah! You actually dare to look down on us!" Suzuki said, unable to stomach Matsuda's condescending attitude.

  "You two are already forgiven by His Majesty the Emperor, but since you let the first shot wound Baron Taro Honda, you should commit seppuku to apologize to His Majesty!" Matsumoto didn't give these two guys a good face, in his eyes they were completely useless trash sent by the military department, he couldn't be bothered with them.

  "Hah! You're insulting the Nomura family!" Nomura couldn't bear it anymore. If it weren't for the unsuccessful pursuit of Chen Shaocen and others, which led to Yamamoto Tarō's injury and hospitalization, he wouldn't have been demoted from lieutenant colonel to major now, let alone be assigned to work under that scoundrel Matsuda, making him a tiger fallen into a ditch being bullied by dogs. Thinking of this, his whole body was filled with grievances, but he had no way to vent them out.

  "It's you who are disgracing the Nomura family, not me, got it?" Matsuda yelled at Nomura, then lowered his voice and continued, "The Matsuda corps is the strongest unit in the entire 3rd Brigade, we don't keep useless people around, you two deal with it yourselves!"

  After finishing speaking, Matsuda left with Ikeda's support and walked towards the military doctor. At this time, Matsuda's foot was in severe pain and he couldn't hold on any longer, so after saying all that to his opponent, he hurriedly went to see the military doctor about his injury.

  Chen Shaoqin was knocked unconscious and then taken into the woods behind the mountain by Xue Yumei and several brothers. Because this forest is relatively large, it's full of miasma and very difficult to move around. Just at that time, one of the brothers suddenly fainted to the ground, foaming at the mouth, and within less than half a moment, he died with his eyes rolled back.

  "It's miasma! Everyone be careful!" Xue Yumei saw the situation and noticed that there were many fog-like things rising around them, so she immediately determined that they had encountered miasma. The brother who died earlier was poisoned by the miasma, so she urgently reminded her brothers to be cautious.

  "Xue sister, this miasma is invisible to us, how can we defend against it?" A brother asked, his expression clearly somewhat flustered, apparently because of the previous brother being poisoned to death by the miasma, he still had lingering fears, which was why he anxiously asked Xue Yumei how to defend against it.

  "Miasma usually appears in the morning and evening, and it will naturally disappear when the sun rises. Now what we need to do is find a well-ventilated place to rest, we can't march anymore!" Xue Yumei looked at the sky that was about to darken and clearly they wouldn't be able to leave this forest for the time being, so she made this decision on the spot.

  "There's a small hill over there, and occasionally a gentle breeze blows by. Why don't we choose that place?" A brother carefully observed the surroundings and found that on top of a large stone at the mountain pass, there was often a gentle breeze blowing, so he thought that place was more suitable for them to rest.

  "Alright, that one!" Xue Yumei immediately decided to choose that place for everyone to rest and continue on the next day, trying to catch up with Liu and his three companions.

  The brothers all helped to lift Chen Shaoqin onto the stone slab, and then they all sat down on the ground with a tired look, planning to take a good rest. After all, they had not rested for the whole day, either marching or fighting. Even if they were made of iron, there would be times when they couldn't bear it, let alone these people? So one by one, they sat down and didn't want to move anymore.

  "Brothers, hurry up and find some firewood to build a bigger fire. This way, we can avoid the wild beasts in the forest from attacking us, and also effectively guide Old Liu's group through the darkness so they can find us faster!" Xue Yumei had no intention of resting now that Chen Shaoqin was unconscious, and with the team leaderless, she felt it necessary to instruct her brothers on what to do, or else something might go terribly wrong.

  "Alright!" Upon hearing Xue Yumei's words, several brothers felt that she was right. Although no one wanted to move, for the sake of everyone's safety, they quickly got up and went to find firewood to start a fire according to Xue Yumei's instructions. After all, this was in the forest, where there were many ferocious beasts, not to mention snakes, insects, and rodents. Therefore, they had to be careful and cautious, or else no one could guarantee that they would still see tomorrow's sun.

  In less than a moment, the fire rose up, and the brothers all gathered around the bonfire to warm themselves. The deep night forest was especially cold, making it unbearable for people. With this pile of fire, they could get warmth and hope, and their confidence in meeting with Liu's group also increased significantly.

  At this time, Chen Shaoqin slightly opened his eyes and suddenly sat up from the stone, asking: "Where is this? Why am I here?"

  "Just now you refused to leave, Old Liu knocked you out and we took you away first. So..." Xue Yumei said with a mix of surprise and worry as she saw Chen Shaoqin wake up, her heart was worried about the safety of Liu and the others, after all, the three of them had to face so many little devils attacking, it was already a miracle that they could survive!

  "This old Liu is a damn it!" Chen Shaoqin scolded someone for the first time in his life, but he didn't feel any pleasure from scolding him. Instead, his face showed more worried expressions. It was clear that he was concerned about Lao Liu and others, hoping they could escape from Xiao Gui's encirclement and reunite with them!