Volume 1 Deserter's Bloodbath Chapter 21 The Brave Way!
After Feng E returned to the camp, he collected his military uniform, found a haystack and lay down. All he wanted to do now was sleep. He felt very tired, more tired than ever before!
“Huff…”
No one came to disturb him. In fact, many of the remaining soldiers were already snoring loudly. Those who were not sleeping looked at the sky with lifeless eyes, recalling the tragedy in Luodian. Even Chief of Staff Mei Chunhua came to visit them, but did not get any response from them!
"It's over! It's over!"
A remnant soldier squatted on the ground and muttered to himself. He covered his eyes with his hands, and his shoulders kept shaking. Occasionally, a low twitching sound was heard. It seemed that this was a remnant soldier who was about to collapse.
The army is a place where rules are followed. Even if there are only a few people left in the Death Squad, they must still be reorganized according to their original structure unless they receive an order to reorganize.
The First Company of the Death Squad fought the most miserable company from the beginning to the end. All the officers were dead, leaving only a dozen or so remnants. They were now huddled on the haystack with their eyes closed, but some of them were obviously pretending to sleep because they couldn't sleep at all. As soon as they closed their eyes, they would see the bloody and miserable state of their brothers!
"You're back? Are you okay?"
As Feng E just lay down on the haystack, he heard a surprised voice beside him. It was Li Chenglin, the old soldier who had been protecting Feng E on the battlefield.
"It's okay. The Japanese cut a wound on my arm and the nurse sewed it up!" Feng E had a blank expression on his face. He muttered and closed his eyes.
"It's good that you're alright. Let's take a good rest now! We don't know when we will be sent to the frontline again. Who made us cannon fodder?" Li Chenglin sighed and shut up.
In fact, Li Chenglin couldn't sleep at all. He was thinking about how to survive. Now the number of twenty kills was no longer in his consideration. What he was thinking about was how to survive the next bloody battle, if the battle in Luodian was counted as one.
There was a hustle and bustle in the camp. Feng E closed his eyes and soon fell asleep. He hadn't closed his eyes for more than thirty hours since he entered Luodian last night.
It seemed like it was still Luodian. The sound of gunfire continued. Bullets rushed at him like a tide. Feng E lay on the ground, dodging the bullets. The ferocious faces of the devils kept appearing in front of Feng E...
"Click!" Feng E wanted to push the bullet forward, but found that the rifle in his hand seemed to have changed, becoming familiar yet unfamiliar. No matter how hard he tried, the bullet always slipped out of the barrel.
"Kill him!"
The roar of the Japs was right in front of him, and the bayonet on the rifle kept shaking in front of Feng E, getting closer and closer!
"Grenade! Grenade!" Feng E kept muttering, then took out a grenade from behind his waist.
"Damn? Is it fake?" Feng E took out the grenade and found that it had turned into a stone at some point!
"ah!"
In Feng E's eyes, the hideous faces of the Japanese became clearer and clearer. As the gleaming bayonet stabbed towards him, Feng E found that he could not even move. He let out a shrill scream, as if the bayonet had already pierced through his body!
“Huff, huff, huff…”
Feng E sat up suddenly, breathing violently. The remaining soldiers of the company lying together were awakened by Feng E's screams. They opened their eyes and saw Feng E's appearance, knowing that this man was having a nightmare, and then they lay down again muttering to themselves!
Feng E looked out the window of the dilapidated house and found that it was already dark.
“Boom, boom…”
"Da da da……"
“Bang, bang…”
There were continuous sounds of gunfire coming from the direction of Luodian. It seemed that the Japs had started to attack again. The early autumn night breeze came into the house and blew on Feng E's sweaty forehead. Feng E felt much more comfortable.
"What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare? Do you want to go out for a walk?"
Li Chenglin did not lie down. In fact, he wanted to talk to someone. He was not sleepy at all.
“How many Japs did you kill?”
After the two men left the door, Li Chenglin found an excuse and asked.
"I don't know how many there are, but there should be more than ten!" Feng E said, shaking his head with a pale face.
"No, you'd better think it through now. The staff officers from the division headquarters should be here soon to count the achievements of those of us who survived. After all, we are still criminals." Li Chenglin reminded.
"What about the brothers who died? How do we count their achievements?" Feng E asked.
"Dead? If they are officers, they will naturally receive government compensation. If they are criminals like us, then we can only consider ourselves unlucky. No one will care! After all, we deserved to die!"
Li Chenglin smiled bitterly and reminded Feng E and the others that they were still criminal soldiers.
"They all died fighting the Japanese invaders, why don't they get any compensation?" Feng E asked.
"Why not? If we hadn't come here, we would have been executed. Would it be any different if we died there? Perhaps dying on the battlefield against the Japanese would be the greatest mercy to us and would atone our sins!" Li Chenglin sighed.
Feng E didn't know what to say. After all, he was also a criminal soldier and was charged with the serious crime of desertion.
"How does it feel to kill the devils? Why do you still have nightmares after such a battle?" Li Chenglin asked.
"Brother Li, don't you have nightmares?" Feng E asked back.
"That's the reaction of a new recruit. Me? I've waded through the blood on the battlefield countless times, and I've become indifferent to it!" Li Chenglin was stunned for a moment, as if he was recalling what happened when he was a new recruit.
In fact, every recruit will have this reaction. Some recruits will even self-harm to escape, and serious ones will go crazy. What is the purpose of the military supervision team? In wartime, they prevent the troops from retreating. In the camp, they are specifically responsible for dealing with these collapsed soldiers. They will not let this emotion spread wantonly in the barracks, which would be detrimental to the entire army.
"You are lucky. It's just a nightmare. If you had just woken up and started attacking the brothers in the room, I'm afraid you would have been..."
Li Chenglin made a shooting gesture to remind Feng E.
"Brother Li, I see that the brothers in the Death Squad are not afraid of death on the battlefield and are very brave when fighting. Do you have any secret?" Feng E felt sad for his cowardice and now wanted Li Chenglin, a veteran, to teach him the secret.
"What's the secret? Just treat yourself as a dead person. After a battle, if you still feel pain and fear, then you should thank God for letting you live one more time. If you don't know anything, then you are liberated!"
Li Chenglin's words were filled with sadness, a sadness shared by all soldiers of this era. Their fate was never in their own hands; it was officers, politicians and enemies who controlled their fate.
"Dead?" Feng E thought about what Li Chenglin said and fell into deep thought...
At this time, Li Chenglin began to talk about his history. From Northeast China to Shanghai, Li Chenglin had a lot to brag about. Of course, the most important thing was how many women he had seen, both plump and thin. When he told these stories, the atmosphere of the battlefield was diluted a lot.
