Chapter 174: Arrival
No wonder the veteran said that. Although the Shanxi militia issued cigarettes and matches to the soldiers, lighters were the exception. If one wanted a lighter, they had to buy it themselves out of pocket, and the price was ridiculously expensive.
This also meant that those who could afford ZIP lighters were either wealthy or lieutenant colonel-level officers.
“What, am I not worthy of using a lighter?” The person beside him laughed.
“Of course not, I mean…” The veteran said as he looked up, immediately seeing the bright yellow triangular star on Su Yaoyang’s shoulder.
“My goodness.” The veteran jumped up in fright and saluted, trembling as he shouted loudly: “Commander-in-chief, sir!”
“Don’t panic.”
Su Yaoyang waved his hand, signaling the veteran to calm down. “So, preparing to fight the Japanese, are you scared?”
The veteran shouted loudly: “Report to the officer… Not afraid!”
“Nonsense, who isn’t afraid.” Su Yaoyang scoffed at his words. “Fear of death is human nature. Even I’m afraid, so how could you be an exception.”
The veteran grinned sheepishly after hearing this.
Looking at the somewhat nervous veteran and the cigarettes dropped at his feet, Su Yaoyang took out a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes from his pocket, handed him one, and then took out another to put in his mouth.
He then instinctively reached for his lighter, only to realize his lighter was still in the veteran’s hand.
The veteran was quick-witted. Seeing this, he hurriedly lit Su Yaoyang’s cigarette with the lighter in his hand, lit his own, and then returned the lighter to Su Yaoyang.
Su Yaoyang waved his hand. “It’s yours.”
“Thank you, sir!” The veteran was overjoyed and, under the envious gazes of the surrounding soldiers, happily stuffed the lighter into his pocket.
Su Yaoyang plopped down in the trench and beckoned to the veteran again. Once he sat down, he asked: “Brother, what’s your name? Where are you from?”
“Report to the officer, my name is Cao Dawang, from Tongzhou. I’m a machine gunner! Everyone calls me Old Cao, you can call me Old Cao too.”
“Hey… I didn’t expect you to be an old Beijing native from under the imperial city walls.”
After two puffs of smoke, Old Cao’s originally tense mood had clearly eased a lot.
Su Yaoyang continued: “We’re all soldiers, so I won’t go into big principles.
The little Japs have come right to our doorstep. If we still act like turtles hiding in our shells, are we real men?
Death isn’t scary. What’s scary is being pointed at and cursed by the little Japs over our corpses after we die—that would really lose face for our ancestors.
Besides, you don’t want your descendants bowing and scraping to the little Japs calling them ‘superior,’ generation after generation as their obedient subjects, right?
So, if you want your descendants not to be slaves to the Japs, you have to fight them. Even if we die, when we meet our ancestors under the nine springs, we can stand tall with our chests out. Isn’t that right, everyone?”
Old Cao shouted loudly: “The officer is right. We’re all just two shoulders carrying one head against the little Japs—who’s afraid of whom?”
“Hahaha… As long as you think that way, it’s good.” Su Yaoyang burst into laughter.
“Commander-in-chief!”
At this moment, a staff officer hurried over and said loudly: “The forward ambush post reports that the Japanese vanguard has approached within less than five kilometers of us. Chief of Staff Wu requests you return to the command post immediately.”
“Alright… I’ll head back now.”
Su Yaoyang tossed away his cigarette, stood up, and patted his shoulder. “Hold the line well. After this battle, I’ll treat the brothers to drinks—plenty of meat!”
“Yes, sir!”
Not long after Su Yaoyang returned to the command post, the Japanese vanguard appeared in front of the positions.
With a command, the militia soldiers who had been digging trenches all shrank back into their anti-artillery holes, leaving only a few observation posts. In an instant, the previously bustling position became deserted.
After the Japanese vanguard arrived, they did not attack immediately but stopped to dig simple defensive positions.
“Eh… The little Japs are being so cautious—they’ve even learned to dig trenches?” Su Yaoyang said in surprise from a concealed observation post.
“A lesson learned makes one wiser.” Huang Guantao, standing behind him, said, “That shelling the day before yesterday cost the 20th Division over half a regiment’s worth of troops. If Ushijima Soshun still doesn’t learn his lesson, he doesn’t deserve to be division commander.”
“That’s true.” Su Yaoyang nodded.
“The main positions are mostly built up. We’re not afraid of the little Japs’ frontal shelling or flank attacks. The only worry is their planes, so you must pay attention to air defense.”
“On that… the department can only do its best.” Huang Guantao said helplessly.
“Eh…” Su Yaoyang shook his head helplessly. Though in these two days they had relied on the air defense troops to stubbornly shoot down several enemy planes, the air defense regiment had also suffered losses.
If the Japanese disregarded casualties and bombed even at the cost of mutual destruction, he really had no good countermeasures.
Originally, Su Yaoyang thought that with the troop expansion, the air defense battalion upgrading to an air defense regiment would be sufficient, but once real combat started, it was still stretched thin.
It seemed the most effective way to truly solve the aerial threat was to form their own air force.
He had considered poaching from the central air force, but after careful weighing, he gave up.
Not to mention whether it would anger Old Jiang, the current central air force had been nearly wiped out after over a year of losses. Even with great effort to poach, he’d get few people and just offend Old Jiang for nothing—too low return on investment.
Better to honestly poach from the Americans. After all, they were in the Great Depression now. As long as he was willing to spend money, what talent couldn’t he get.
But that was only for these couple of years. After Pearl Harbor, America’s war machine would fully rev up, and poaching would become much harder.
After observing a bit longer, Su Yaoyang put down the binoculars. “Old Huang, let’s go… Looks like the little Japs won’t fight us today. Hurry back and get some sleep, or once the battle starts, there’ll be no time to rest.”
Wutai County Field Hospital
Though called a field hospital, it was really just five or six rows of hastily built flat-roofed houses. As required, it could accommodate five hundred wounded.
Of course, in emergencies, tents could be temporarily set up here to house more wounded.
The smell of disinfectant mixed with blood permeated the room. Bandages and gauze piled into a small mountain in the nearby trash bin, and bloodstained enamel trays clanged sharply from time to time.
Nurses hurried back and forth in mud-stained cloth shoes, the hems of their white uniforms stained with dark brown blood.
Suddenly, urgent footsteps approached from the corridor outside, and the stretcher bearers’ hoarse shouts pierced the air: “Hurry… This is an abdominal through-and-through wound!”
With the sound, a group of nurses also rushed over…
