Chapter 8: "Speed of Life and Death" (Part 1) in the Anti-Japanese War Edition

  Yu Juncai brought up reinforcements of about 300-400 men, who charged forward in a dense formation, putting pressure on the remaining Japanese soldiers. At this time, the two Japanese companies had been fighting for over an hour and had almost annihilated the Chinese defenders, but they had also suffered heavy casualties in close combat. Additionally, the Japanese had taken significant losses from the Chinese electric-controlled mines and automatic firearms. As a result, there were only about 167 Japanese soldiers left on the battlefield at Qianzhuangkou, and they were already exhausted. These weary troops could not withstand the impact of the fresh reinforcements, who outnumbered them by more than two to one. In less than ten minutes, the Japanese again abandoned dozens of bodies and retreated towards Zhuangzi.

  Cheng Jiaji was quite lucky in this bloody battle, not a single hair was lost, but his body was covered with other people's blood, which looked extremely frightening. He and Yu Juncai, who had just led the charge, exchanged a glance, and with a "thud", Cheng Jiaji collapsed to the ground, exhausted from the unprecedentedly intense battle that had greatly drained his physical strength.

  Yu Juncai didn't seem to mind his superior's discourteous behavior, instead, he walked up to Cheng Jiaji with a hint of respect in his eyes and the two began talking on the ground.

  "Your timing is great, but I have a question for you. How can you be sure that I will be among the few dozen survivors? What if I die, how will you explain it to Commander Jun?" Cheng Jiaji asked directly and to the point, no longer in the mood to joke around with Yu Juncai after his narrow escape from death.

  "If you're afraid of death and want to retreat, no one will say anything to you. After all, you've already fought against the enemy on the front lines, that's enough. As a battalion commander, with just an excuse to take care of the overall situation, you can retreat with dignity. If you want to be a hero on the first line, then you must pass the test. If you can't hold on, we'll all be finished. What's the point of me waiting for someone else?"

  Yu Juncai's implication is that since Cheng Jiaji himself wants to take the lead, he must get through this hurdle of the devils; otherwise, it would be a dead end. And once Cheng Jiaji dies, the front line will immediately collapse, and the Japanese plot will succeed. At that time, the defenders at Dawangzhuang will be at a loss for what to do, and there won't even be a chance to hold on until dawn.

  "I had already guessed that you saw through the Japanese trick of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west, otherwise you wouldn't have come at this time. Since you've already seen through the Japanese tactics, I'm sure you won't go and praise their distant troops. So where did these three or four hundred people come from?"

  Perhaps the exercise just now was too intense for Cheng Jiaji, he panted heavily while saying the above long passage to Juncai, and even asked two more questions.

  "Except for less than two hundred people who are my own soldiers, the other two hundred or so people are lightly wounded soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers borrowed from Commander Pang's Third Army Corps. Even those old guys in the brigade headquarters who wield pens were forced to join with guns. Fortunately, the devils have already crippled you, and now it's nighttime, the Japanese don't know our true situation. If we really fight, I'm not sure if we can drive away these little devils."

  Yu Juncai answered Cheng Jiaji's question while taking out two cigarettes from his shirt pocket, handing one to Cheng Jiaji and lighting the other himself.

  Cheng Jiaji took the cigarette from Yu Juncai and lit it with the remaining fire on the ground, saying to Juncai: "You have a big nerve, you're so sure the little devils won't dare to fight hard."

  "If it weren't for these two shots, I would have wasted a whole month in the Luo store's bloody waters. The little devils looked fierce at first, but actually they didn't have two heads; They fought for over an hour and were already exhausted. With so many people charging up with me, unless he was a god, there was no reason not to panic."

  Yu Juncai responded to his young superior's words while fiercely puffing on the cigarette in his hand. He had picked up this habit of smoking from a few old soldiers during the Battle of Luo Store, and since then he had formed a habit: normally he wouldn't touch cigarettes, but once he was on the battlefield, it would be one cigarette after another without end.

  "Deputy commander, I want to ask you a question. Why would someone like you, from a wealthy family, come to the battlefield to fight to the death? In fact, you don't have any reason to risk your life like this! " Yu Juncai had originally thought that Cheng Jiaji was only on the front lines because of personal ambition, but earlier, Cheng Jiaji's heroic performance on the battlefield didn't seem like it was just for the sake of getting ahead. After all, after the Japanese army broke through their defenses, officers from wealthy families like Cheng Jiaji would usually retreat and wouldn't receive severe punishment. But Cheng Jiaji's actions were too unusual - not only did he not retreat, but he even charged forward against the enemy's bayonets.

  It can be said that if it weren't for the fearless and daring actions of Cheng Jiasheng, which greatly boosted the morale of the defending troops, these two companies would not have been able to withstand the Japanese army's fierce attack for so long.

  Such behavior for a young master, if only for power, isn't the cost too high? Yu Juncai couldn't help but ask Cheng Jiaji about this question in his heart, and finally he couldn't bear it and asked him directly.

  "You also know that I wasn't a good person even when I was in my hometown. The kind of things a bully should do, I basically didn't do any of them. Someone I highly admire once said something that made me think deeply, and of course, he's not a good person either, but I really appreciate what he said. He said that if someone wants to move up or live a better life, they inevitably have to do some things that go against their conscience, and wanting to live a happy life means doing things that make others unhappy. However, there are some things in this world that you just can't do no matter what, and that's being a traitor or a slave to a foreign country. In his words, he's not afraid of anything except for the fact that after he dies, he won't be able to rest in peace in his ancestral tomb."

  Cheng Jiaji finished speaking in a rare, decisive tone and stood up from the ground, walking towards the crowd clearing the battlefield with large strides, leaving only Yu Juncai sitting on the ground, motionless as if he had been struck by a acupuncture point.