Volume 1 Deserter's Bloodbath Chapter 23: Hard stuff!
Peng Shan certainly did not come alone. He was accompanied by Chief of Staff Mei Chunhua and several guards from the guard battalion. Behind him, several logistics brothers were carrying two frames covered with white cloth, and no one knew what they were. But no matter what they were, it would probably be difficult to arouse the fighting desire of these remnants. They were going to die anyway, so did they really have to struggle in the posture of death?
"Report to the division commander. The Death Battalion is supposed to be here. There are 151 people. They have assembled. Please give instructions!"
As the highest-ranking officer remaining in the Death Squadron, the Fourth Company Commander saluted and reported at the same time.
"Return to the team!" Peng Shan nodded. It seemed that the military uniforms and other supplies he had asked the logistics department to allocate were not wasted. At least this team still looked like a team.
"brothers……"
Peng Shan yelled and looked up, but he didn't know what to say. He found that the words he had thought of before coming here were completely useless. What kind of soldiers were they? From their eyes, Peng Shan could see that they were a group of soldiers who had completely lost their souls. Maybe they were just mechanically executing the orders of their superiors and had no desire to struggle at all.
"This won't do!" Peng Shan thought to himself. Soldiers who have no desire to struggle will only become the enemy's prey on the battlefield. Peng Shan frowned and thought about countermeasures!
"Someone come here!" Peng Shan gritted his teeth and shouted loudly.
"arrive!"
"Take out the cigarettes I prepared and give each of them one and light them up!" Peng Shan shouted.
"yes!"
The guard spoke loudly, then took out cigarettes from the box, opened them, and distributed them one by one.
“Swish!”
As the first soldier lit the cigarette, the soldiers behind him began to take over. A string of smoke rose from the queue. As the smoke rose, a trace of vitality slowly emanated from the team.
"Relax, everyone. There are more after you finish smoking. I prepared a pack for each of you!"
Looking at the rising smoke, Peng Shan's face showed a look of relief. As long as they could recover, it would be the best. It would be worth it for him to prepare so many cigarettes.
"what are you doing?"
In the team, a soldier lit a cigarette and immediately rushed out of the queue, and a guard shouted loudly.
"Let him go and see!" Peng Shan stopped the guard 's action and stared at the soldier who ran out of the queue.
The soldier who ran out of the line did not run far, but found a pile of soft soil, stuck the cigarette in it, faced north, and then squatted down.
"Brother! Walk slowly and wait for me in front. The road to the underworld is too dark and I don't know the way!"
"Brother, don't cross the Naihe Bridge yet! How can I find you after drinking Mengpo soup?"
"elder brother!"
…
“Woo, woo, woo…”
After a few loud shouts, the soldiers who rushed out of the formation sat directly on the ground and began to cry with their heads in their hands.
"Blat!"
Peng Shan looked at the situation in front of him, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit two, and strode over!
"There is an old saying: There should be three sticks of incense in a memorial ceremony; there is no incense here, so light three cigarettes!"
Peng Shan walked up to the howling soldier, squatted down, and placed the two lit cigarettes next to the lonely cigarette on the ground.
"Why!"
The wailing soldiers caused sadness to many people. The soldiers sighed and began to smoke violently.
“Cough cough cough…”
After a while, violent coughing sounds were heard in the queue.
"Brothers, you are all great. You fought in Luodian and showed the Chinese people's bravery. Those who died are all heroes. I, Peng Shan, am proud of you!"
Peng Shan looked at the increasingly disorganized formation and shouted loudly.
"Commander, we are criminals. I'm afraid our names won't even be on the list of dead. How can you call us heroes? Don't lie to us!"
A brother muttered, refuting Peng Shan's words.
"What this brother said is very correct. You are criminals, and criminals who have committed serious crimes. But this does not affect the fact that you are still heroes. Yes, if you die here, I am afraid you will only become a pitiful number on the casualty list, because you are now making up for your crimes and your merits are not enough, so you will not be able to receive government pensions like other brothers!"
“But this is a national war, a bloody battle between the Chinese and the Japanese devils. Every brother who died in the battle will not die in vain. They are all heroes, because each of them has the word "Chinese" on his head. They died here. At least Shanghai people know that there is such a group of soldiers who fought to the death here. We did not fight for the ocean or for promotion and wealth. We have only one goal, to drive the damn Japanese devils into the sea and let them go back to where they came from…”
Peng Shan began to speak along with his brothers' mutterings, and he became more and more excited the more he spoke. Gradually, the reactions of the remaining soldiers were obviously different. With no one lining up and cigarette butts still on the ground, the remaining soldiers stood up straight one by one, with their heads held high and their chests puffed out. It was obvious that their energy and spirit had returned!
"Brothers, at noon today, the brothers in the logistics department have prepared braised pork and white flour buns for you. This is the reward you deserve. After you are full, we will go back to Luodian and avenge our dead brothers..."
"Revenge, revenge..."
Before Peng Shan finished speaking, the remaining soldiers began to shout. They were obviously inspired to fight and began to shout wildly, as if they wanted to vent the anger in their hearts since entering Songhu.
The next things were simple. Peng Shan distributed the pack of cigarettes he promised to each of them on the spot . They were reorganized into a death squad. Peng Shan transferred ten brothers from the guard battalion to the death squad to serve as squad leaders at the grassroots level. The fourth company commander Lin Yuan was appointed as the company commander of the death squad. Feng E and Li Chenglin became soldiers of the first squad of the first platoon of the death squad.
“Here you go!”
Feng E had not learned to smoke yet, and he did not smoke the cigarette that had just been given to him. When he returned to the barracks, he handed it to Li Chenglin. This old soldier had helped him a lot, and Feng E wanted to express his gratitude in this way.
"Don't smoke?" Li Chenglin asked in surprise.
"No! I'll give it to you! It will be a waste if it breaks in your pocket!" Feng E shook his head and said,
"Okay, I'll take this one. Keep the rest to yourself and don't let anyone know. This stuff is hard currency. As long as you have enough, you can exchange it for anything you want, except machine guns and mortars, of course!" Li Chenglin said.
"This isn't worth much, how much can I exchange for something?" Feng E seemed a little puzzled.
"What do you know? Where is this? It's not a military camp, nor is it a city, but the front line. No matter how much money you have, you can't buy anything. And what is this? For many brothers, this is everything. After a big war, water and food are not important. If you can smoke a cigarette, you don't know how comfortable it is!"
Li Chenglin took the cigarette given by Feng E, but did not light it. He put it to his nose and smelled it, reminiscing about the past. Even his expression revealed a sense of comfort.
"I won't tell you so much. Once you've been on the battlefield for a long time, you'll know the benefits of this thing!"
Li Chenglin smiled and then lay down on the haystack again. It was still a long time before lunch and these veterans didn't want to waste a minute. They threw their bodies on the haystack and completely relaxed. They were conserving every bit of their strength.
