Chapter 6: Bombarding Chen Family Village

  "Master, master." Hu Zi gently shook Chen An. Dazed and confused, Chen An rolled over on the hay-covered ground and continued to sleep. After fighting mosquitoes all night yesterday, he only fell asleep a little in the morning, and now he was feeling drowsy again.

  Wu Ziyu came up and said in a low voice, "The Russians are coming." Chen An finally woke up and immediately got up, almost forgetting that he was not at home.

  Wu Ziyu glanced at Hu Zi with a proud look, indicating that he still had a way. Hu Zi was too lazy to pay attention.

  It is said that they are looking for an opportunity to ambush the Russians, Wu Ziyu immediately followed up with a dead skin and face, must participate in this action, Chen An also followed him.

  Climbing to the observation post, Chen An took over the binoculars handed over by Wu Ziyu and looked towards the distant road. Wu Ziyu said softly, "It seems there are three or four hundred cavalrymen, and a cannon too. Look at the middle of the troops."

  Chen An shifted his gaze in the direction indicated by Wu Ziyu. Two horses were pulling a sturdy cannon, followed by a four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage, likely an ammunition cart.

  Chen An's heart sank, good guy, the Russians had made a big investment and were preparing to launch a long-range artillery bombardment directly.

  "The Russians knew you had withdrawn a Maxim machine gun, fearing an attack would be dangerous, and actually used big guns on a small village." Wu Ziyu smiled lightly.

  Chen An also looked at the Russian with a bit of foolishness, just one submachine gun, no need for such a big fanfare.

  Suddenly, Chen An thought of a question and turned to ask Wu Ziyu, "How much time does it take for them to set up the artillery?"

  "It's hard to say, it could be anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, depending on the ground conditions and visibility ahead."

  "Houzi, how long will it take for us to dismantle the Maxim machine gun?" Chen An asked Houzi again.

  "Hu Zi replied on the horseback, 'If Kowal takes action to dismantle it, it should only take a few minutes.' Kowal was that surrendered Russian soldier, or rather Polish. Because Kowal claimed he was fighting against the tyranny of the Russians, and learned Chinese in Harbin, an interesting guy."

  Poland is also a country with many disasters, sandwiched between several major powers, especially the greedy Russian nation in the east, which has repeatedly been destroyed and rebuilt. From 1772 to 1795, Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed three agreements to divide Poland, leading to Poland's third demise. Since then, Poland disappeared from the European map for over a hundred years. Countless Poles formed underground organizations to fight for independence, engaging in open and secret struggles against the Russian Empire. Kowal had bad luck and was forcibly conscripted into the Russian army, only to be sent to the Far East.

  "What about Koval?" Chen An asked.

  "Just wait behind." Hu Zi pointed to the back.

  Chen An immediately said, "Let him come up and act with us."

  Wu Ziyu had already guessed what Chen An was going to do and quickly interjected, "Master Chen, let me be the main shooter, I used to play this in the army."

  Chen An glanced at Wu Ziyu, and after a moment, "Alright, you take the lead shot, Hu Zi assists, Koval is ready to dismantle at any time, I'll command. Take advantage of the Russians not having set up their cannons yet and give them a burst, then withdraw."

  A few people responded and went to prepare immediately. Not far away, there was a good shooting position, only needing to fix the machine gun and wait for the Russians to come forward. The rest of the villagers gathered their things and waited at the foot of the mountain, ready to run as soon as Chen An and the others retreated.

  The Russians were very cautious and always had a skirmish line about a mile in front of the main body. The skirmishers were also spread out, with no valuable cluster targets.

  Wu Ziyu shook his head, "No good targets, let's withdraw, it's not worth wasting bullets."

  Chen An gazed at the artillery company through binoculars, responding casually, "Fire away, it's okay if you can kill one or two, and don't worry if you run out of bullets."

  Wu Ziyu shrugged and thought to himself, "You don't even care about the bullets, why should I bother?" He remained silent.

  The Russian vanguard finally entered the range of the Maxim machine gun, and Chen An said viciously, "Fire." Wu Ziyu pulled the trigger, and the sound of "da-da-da" suddenly rang out in the quiet mountain forest. Several Russian vanguards fell to the ground, and others shouted and fell to the ground.

  Chen An and his men were on the mountain, shooting down at the Russian soldiers from a height, and even though they were lying flat on the ground, they had no cover and were hit one after another, letting out mournful cries.

  Wu Ziyu became more and more excited as he fired, letting out strange cries of "Ahhh", wishing he could fire all the bullets at once.

  The Russian vanguard saw that things were not going well, didn't even take their guns, quickly got up and immediately scattered in all directions.

  The Russian troops in the rear were also in a state of panic. Soon, after a few officers shouted angrily, they barely formed a defensive formation to receive the vanguard who retreated from the front line. A Russian officer quickly took out binoculars to search for firepower points, the artillery team unloaded the cannons, set up terrain, took out ammunition, and prepared to destroy the machine gun firepower points with cannons.

  Chen An, who was observing, saw that the other side had started setting up cannons and immediately ordered, "Stop firing, dismantle, retreat!"

  Wu Ziyu, who was completely caught up in the heat of battle, didn't even notice Chen An's order and continued to fire wildly, forcing Chen An to repeat the command several times before Wu finally stopped. In reality, he wasn't able to stop voluntarily - an entire box of bullets had been depleted, leaving him no choice but to cease firing.

  Chen An, who was frightened out of his wits, kicked Wu Ziyu hard and said quickly, "Disarm." The Russians were not slow in setting up their cannons. If Wu Ziyu fired a few more shots, they probably wouldn't have time to retreat from the danger zone.

  Wu Ziyu, who finally came back to his senses, looked embarrassed and muttered, "First time shooting a Maxim gun, didn't think about the bullets, got too excited?" Chen An almost fell over, realizing that this guy had been talking nonsense all along and wasn't actually a machine gunner. Just as he was about to turn around and scold him, Wu Ziyu realized his mistake and quickly grabbed the gun mount, rushing down first.

  Not long after leaving, several loud explosions fell on the original machine gun firing position, knocking down a lot of flowers and grasses on the mountain. Chen An and others looked back, still having lingering fears, silently speeding up their departure.

  Send the cavalry to take a shortcut to chase after the Chenjiazhuang personnel who had already withdrawn. Chen An took Hu Zi with him, and behind them was Wu Ziyu, who followed closely. They quietly circled back to the high mountain near Chenjiazhuang. Chen An wanted to see how the Russians would destroy his village, and he would definitely make them pay for it later.

  "What comes out must be paid back." Wu Ziyu murmured to himself and distanced himself from the matter.

  Chen An glared at him with a bad temper, turned his head to look at his beloved Zhuangzi. The memories of his childhood were already somewhat blurred, and the happiest time was spent in this Chenjiazhuang, which was nestled between mountains and rivers, the inner courtyard of his own home, Mr. Lin's study, the heavy gate, and the spacious martial arts arena, every detail was here.

  Now it's going to be ruined by the evil Russians, Chen An's eyes slowly overflowed with crystal tears, and he fiercely punched a hard rock, causing blood to ooze out of his hand. Hu Zi didn't make a sound, but only stared at Young Master with tension. Wu Ziyu sighed and gently patted Chen An's shoulder.

  "The national power is weak and the military strength is feeble. The generals are afraid of death, and the civil officials are greedy for wealth." Wu Ziyu's heart was filled with sorrow.

  The Russian troops have arrived.

  This time they learned their lesson, setting up the big cannons at a very distant position before sending soldiers to slowly search forward. However, when the searching soldiers walked to a distance from the village and saw that it was flat and open with no cover, they all stopped moving, refusing to advance even when officers punched and kicked them.

  The Russian military officer had no choice but to signal the main force in the rear to directly bombard them with artillery fire.

  At the sound of the order, the Russian army ordered the artillery to fire. With a loud bang, a shell hit the Chen family compound, and a house collapsed instantly. Immediately afterwards, continuous shells hit the compound, the gate wall, private school, more houses, etc. were all destroyed, with rubble and broken walls everywhere, in a state of complete chaos. Amidst the continuously rising smoke, faint flames could be seen. Soon, the entire Chen family compound was engulfed in a sea of fire.

  The Russians cheered as if they had won a great victory themselves.

  No one was seen running out of the village, presumably the people of Chenjiazhuang had already escaped, and the Russians didn't even bother to search, they simply turned around and withdrew.

  Chen An suddenly stood up, looking at the Chen family village burning fiercely below the mountain, with anger in his eyes.

  Chenjiazhuang was completely destroyed.

  Wu Ziyu pulled Chen An and comforted him, "Young Master Chen, let's go. There will be a chance to take revenge in the future."

  Chen An suddenly turned his head and asked Wu Ziyu, "Lord Wu, aren't you a Beiyang military officer? Can you help me train troops? I must avenge this grudge."

  Wu Ziyu suddenly felt a chill on his head, not one but many crows flying over, "You're crazy, secretly training troops, equivalent to treason, the imperial court will behead your entire family."

  "This court? Ha ha, this court" Chen An said with a sigh and didn't continue. The Japanese and Russians are fighting to divide our land, and the court can actually declare neutrality, regardless of the death and injury of its people, is there such a court?

  Wu Ziyu touched the back of his neck, feeling that it was still there, and let out a sigh of relief. After a brief pause, he said, "I have a task at hand and don't have time to fool around with you guys."

  After a while, he suddenly said, "This is the place where the imperial court rose to power, and the surveillance is very strict. Now it's occupied by the Russians, they are strong and powerful. On this land, you can't do anything unless you're willing to be a traitor."

  Chen An didn't make a sound, took one last look at Chenjiazhuang which was still engulfed in flames, then turned and headed down the mountain.

  Zhuangzi is ruined, but people are still here, everything has hope, and everything is possible.