Chapter 85: Someone’s Looking For You
Su Yaoyang’s words quickly spread throughout the entire regiment, and everyone was stunned by his words.
It must be known that since the late Qing Dynasty, the land of China has been in constant turmoil, with warlords emerging endlessly, truly a case of one side stepping down as another takes the stage, either you fighting me or me fighting you.
In such chaotic times, human lives are like weeds, and soldiers are even more so.
In this era, if a soldier is wounded or disabled, the unit would generally give them a bit of money and then send them away.
If killed in battle, there wouldn’t be much compensation either, usually around 3,000 fabi, which in this time of rapidly rising prices was equivalent to the price of just a few bags of rice, with extremely low actual purchasing power.
Yet even such compensation would be deducted by local governments and army officers, and many families wouldn’t receive anything at all.
Now, Su Yaoyang had actually shouted the slogan of “never abandon, never give up,” which in this era when soldiers were treated as consumables was truly unprecedented.
After hearing Su Yaoyang shout “never abandon, never give up,” the wounded were all deeply moved, and morale soared straight up.
Just as the soldiers were moved by Su Yaoyang’s words, some people were displeased.
The setting sun dyed the temporary command post tent blood-red. When John kicked open the half-closed wooden door, the red and blue pencils on the campaign map rolled to the ground. The cuffs of his rolled-up sleeves were stained with engine oil, and his brown hair was stuck to his flushed forehead by sweat.
“Boss… how can you do this?”
John smashed his fist on the ammunition box, causing the helmet on the box to clatter loudly.
Accompanying John’s voice, the roar of tank engines faintly came from outside the tent, and air mixed with gasoline smell surged in through the door crack.
He stared at the collar of Su Yaoyang’s military uniform, his Adam’s apple rolling violently: “You can’t not understand that my Renault can match the firepower of an entire company!
But you actually want me to blow it up!”
“We don’t have boats big enough to take that eighteen-ton beast across the river!” Perhaps due to explaining too much, Su Yaoyang’s voice sounded a bit hoarse.
“Now the Japanese are right on our tails. The only reason they haven’t attacked immediately is because they’re afraid of the special ammunition we have.
Once they find a way to counter the special ammunition, they’ll swarm over like locusts, do you understand?”
“But… but what a great tank that is.” John Miller retreated two steps dejectedly, his eyes full of reluctance.
“John, we Chinese have an old saying: out with the old, in with the new.
I promise you, after crossing the river, I’ll find a way to get you a batch of tanks again. This time, I’ll get you a tank platoon.”
“Really?” John suddenly looked up, two gleams flashing in his eyes.
“Of course, I keep my word.” Serious light shone in Su Yaoyang’s eyes…
As the sun set, the sky began to darken.
At the riverbank, more than twenty small boats fully loaded with a company’s soldiers left the dock, slowly heading north across the river.
On the reed edge of the south bank, that Renault tank which had killed countless Japanese devils in the Nanjing campaign stood quietly there.
Qiao Erdan, Zhuang Xiaoman, John, and five other tank crew members just stood beside it, looking at it reluctantly.
Gunpowder smoke mixed with gasoline smell rolled in the dusk. John’s knuckles brushed over the tank’s cold rivets, his palm full of rust and oil.
After a while, John waved his hand with a pained expression, and only then did Zhuang Xiaoman pick up an explosive pack from the ground and stuff it into the tank’s undercarriage.
Accompanied by a “boom,” the Renault tank was lifted into the air by the powerful shockwave, its turret even detaching from the chassis, the barrel pointing obliquely at the sky like a broken eagle’s wing.
And almost at the same time, more than ten trucks in the distance were doused with gasoline by the truck drivers and set alight, soon bursting into raging flames as well.
The firelight illuminated the dock brightly, orange-red flames licking the night sky, casting flickering light and shadow on the soldiers’ faces.
The wooden boats rocked gently in the river water, the deck planks creaking under the heavy load. The soldiers silently boarded in formation, the dull thuds of their leather boots on the wood drowned out by the crackling of the flames.
River wind carrying soot blew head-on, stinging their eyes to tears.
The boatman poled with a long pole, and the wooden boat slowly left the shore.
The outline of the opposite shore loomed vaguely in the firelight, like a crouching giant beast.
The lantern at the bow swayed in the wind, casting flickering light spots that illuminated one tense face after another…
Morning mist like gauze enveloped the north bank of the Yangtze. The damp, cold air mixed with scents of soil and river water; soldiers stepped on the soft shoal, their boots sinking into the mud with sticky sounds.
Someone bent down to scoop up the murky river water to wash his face, water droplets leaking through his fingers gleaming lead-gray in the morning light.
After a night of tense transport, Su Yaoyang finally used more than thirty small wooden boats to ferry the soldiers of the New Security Regiment to the north bank.
Su Yaoyang stood on a high rock outcrop, his gray uniform dampened by dew. Looking at the dark silhouettes of the transport boats not yet dispersed on the opposite shore, he couldn’t help sighing: “We’ve finally made it across!”
“Yeah, we’ve finally made it across.” Huang Guantao, standing beside him, also couldn’t help sighing.
“The little devils showed some face, actually not sending ground troops to pursue us. Otherwise, we might have had to fight bitterly with them on the south bank.”
Li Gaoyuan glanced at Su Yaoyang and smiled: “Isn’t it because they were scared by our regiment commander’s special ammunition?
They’re also afraid we’ll give them another round. I reckon the barrage of special ammunition we fired the night before took out no less than ten thousand from the 6th Division, and we even captured the regimental flags of the 13th and 47th Regiments—how could they not panic?
I bet that Prince Asaka Yasuhiko is still jumping mad right now.”
“Hahaha…”
The three burst into laughter.
Amid the laughter, behind the three, the cooking squad was setting up iron pots to cook rice, wisps of white steam rising, the aroma of rice mixed with reed scent wafting everywhere.
Half an hour later
“Young master… Deputy Regiment Commander Li, Deputy Regiment Commander Huang, come eat!” Xiao Lu’s crisp voice rang out from not far away, her clear call startling sparrows in the reed thickets.
“Oh… it’s ready so soon?” Su Yaoyang smiled at the two: “Let’s go, eat breakfast quickly. After that, we still need to hurry on.”
“Young master, come quickly, or the rice porridge will get cold.” Xiao Lu ran over on the damp muddy path, dewdrops still glistening on the end of her braid.
She took Su Yaoyang’s arm, about to pull him over.
Seeing this, Li Gaoyuan and Huang Guantao exchanged smiles and tacitly quickened their steps, giving the young couple some alone time.
But sometimes things just don’t go as wished. Suddenly, from not far away came the crisp sound of leather boots crushing dry twigs.
A guard ran over panting, saluting the three.
“Report, sir, someone is looking for you.”
