Volume 1: The First Battle Chapter 26 Bluffing
Let's fight! The two hundred puppet soldiers in front of us will crush the eight of us to death. Let's not fight! How can I live with my subordinates just watching them escape without firing a shot? If I were alone, I would do it without hesitation, but now...
"What should we do?" the old squad leader finally asked.
"Let's fight!" Hu Zi waved the rifle in his hand and said, "We can delay as long as we can. The worst that can happen is that we will sacrifice ourselves and wait for our main force to come up and avenge us!"
A large force! I suddenly had an idea when I heard that.
"Huzi," I ordered, "You take two comrades and walk fifty steps to the west. Old squad leader, you take two comrades and walk fifty steps to the east, and the remaining comrade follows me.
Ten minutes later, as soon as I fire my gun, you throw all your grenades out, blow your trumpets loudly, and shout " Kill!"
"Yes! We must complete the mission resolutely!" Hu Zi and the old squad leader understood each other and left with two soldiers each.
At this moment, I couldn't help but secretly praise in my heart that the quality of the volunteer soldiers was good. Eight people faced a war with more than a hundred enemies, and they just fought without asking any questions or frowning.
I was thinking, if the same situation happened to the South Korean army now, and they were asked to execute the same order, I'm afraid they would be so scared that their legs would go limp.
I pulled out the only two grenades from my chest, unscrewed the safety cover and placed them on the open space in front. These two grenades were the supplies distributed before departure. It would be better if I had a little more. If I had a few more, then my bluffing plan might be more convincing.
After making these preparations, I silently raised my rifle and aimed at an officer who was burning documents.
Five minutes left! I calculated silently in my mind. Through the sight of my rifle, I saw that the officer's handsome face was full of anxiety, but there was a hint of joy between his brows.
Did he think about going home? Did he think about his parents who had prepared meals for him? Did he think about his wife who was waiting for him at home? Did he think about his newborn child who he had not had time to see?
Two minutes left! My finger on the trigger tightened involuntarily. Although the biting cold wind blew past my ears, I still felt a little sweat on my forehead.
Uh! It's almost time! I swallowed and said to myself, "Wait a minute. Maybe the old squad leader and the others are not ready yet. Anyway, this minute won't make any difference."
Time seemed to have passed! Are we really going to shoot? The scene of this handsome officer's brain bursting out after being shot flashed through my mind, and I couldn't help but take a deep breath...
"Platoon leader!" The soldier lying next to me whispered, "Platoon leader, time is up!"
"Uh, oh..." I nodded, gritted my teeth, raised my rifle and fired a shot...
"Boom boom..." Almost simultaneously, the sounds of grenades, trumpets, and shouts of killing were heard from the east, west, and north of the village! The enemies in the village immediately became a mess and fled to the south without any prior agreement.
But I was stunned. Actually, I was stunned after firing that shot. The two grenades I prepared in front of me were thrown by the clever comrade next to me, because I knew very well that the shot just now missed. It was such a short distance, and the target was completely exposed, but I still missed. What's wrong with me? Why am I so accurate sometimes, but so bad at other times?
"Platoon leader, chase them!"
"Oh, chase." After being pulled by my comrade-in-arms, I came to my senses and chased after him along a small path outside the village.
But what I didn't expect was that although this path did not pass through the village, it was a shortcut. My comrade and I turned a corner and just entered a "Y"-shaped intersection, we found that we were running in a daze among the puppet troops.
In the darkness of the night, the puppet soldiers were in a panic and did not notice the volunteer soldiers who ran into their team. They just ran away. There were constant snapping sounds along the way. The puppet soldiers casually threw their large and heavy M1 rifles to the side of the road. Only the soldier and I looked at each other in bewilderment, sandwiched between them and followed the crowd.
Just when I was wondering what to do, a machine gunner in front of me suddenly dropped his machine gun to the ground. I saw it and secretly shouted, "God help me!" I hurried over and grabbed the machine gun and fired a burst of bullets into the air, shouting in Korean: "Stop, we are the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. If you surrender your guns, you will not be killed. The Volunteer Army treats prisoners well!"
The puppet soldiers who were running were stunned for a moment. When they reacted, they scattered, some lay down, and those who were a little far away ran away desperately, which made me a little at a loss.
Damn it, they aren’t afraid of death. They’re not afraid even though I’m holding a machine gun. I cursed in my heart.
"We are the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. You won't be killed if you surrender your weapons!" I repeated it while holding my machine gun. My comrades beside me also held their rifles and stood ready. But at this time, even I felt that my words were not confident enough.
If I had been facing them with a machine gun just now, it would have been a deterrent. But now, they were all lying in the dark around us, with only the two of us standing in the middle of the road. As the saying goes, the enemy is in the dark and I am in the light. If one or two of them didn't drop their guns and secretly shot us twice, I would be on the honor roll... I couldn't help but break into a cold sweat when I thought of this.
"You...are you Chinese?" A puppet soldier asked in a low voice in stiff Chinese in the darkness.
Eh...it was then that I realized the problem was with the Korean I spoke. I used fluent Korean to ask him to surrender and say that I was Chinese, which made them suspicious.
Oh! There is no way! Who told me that I was a three-good student in college? Why do I speak Korean so fluently? But don't get me wrong, the three-good students I'm talking about are good at eating, sleeping and picking up girls!
The Korean People's Army and the South Korean puppet army are at loggerheads with each other. They even kill civilians who support the other side, let alone prisoners. So if they think I am the North Korean People's Army, they will never surrender.
"That's right!" Thinking of this, I shouted loudly in Chinese: "We are the Chinese People's Volunteer Army, and the Chinese do not kill prisoners!"
The soldier next to him was smart enough to shout, "Drop your guns and surrender. We are Chinese !"
Seeing that we both spoke Chinese, the man seemed to finally feel relieved, raised his hands and slowly stood up, and used Korean to ask the puppet soldiers lying around to stand up and surrender. Those puppet soldiers were obedient, one after another dropped their weapons and squatted on the ground obediently. A rough count showed that there were more than twenty of them.
"Sir." The man who could speak Chinese walked towards me slowly. I was dumbfounded when I saw him. Wasn't this the handsome officer that I aimed at but missed?
"Sir!" The handsome officer said timidly in Chinese: "We surrender. Please abide by the Geneva Convention and ensure our safety!"
"What...what Geneva? Convention?" The comrades beside him were stunned when they heard this.
The officer shuddered at the reaction of his comrade, and a hint of fear immediately appeared in his eyes. Then he casually glanced at the puppet soldiers squatting around me.
I secretly cried out, "Oh no! If this guy feels unsafe, he will probably let his subordinates fight us."
So I lowered the machine gun a little, laughed and said, "Please rest assured, we will give you humane treatment and protection in accordance with the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. The Volunteer Army treats prisoners well."
The puppet army officer breathed a sigh of relief and his expression immediately relaxed a lot.
At this time, Hu Zi and the old squad leader also followed, and they were happy to see a large group of prisoners squatting in front of me.
"You are so damn lucky!" Hu Zi laughed, "I just saw you two running into the puppet army. I was about to pull you out but I couldn't get in time. I cursed in my heart, thinking that this time you are in big trouble. I didn't expect...haha..."
"Luke Cui is so lucky!" The old squad leader also grinned and said, "Just now, Hu Zi pulled me over here and asked him what was going on. He said that the platoon leader was captured by the puppet army and he was going to get you back. I didn't expect that it was you, the platoon leader, who captured them!"
Hearing this, I couldn't help but look at Hu Zi and the old squad leader with emotion. I knew that if I was really captured by the puppet army, then with only six of them and six guns, it would be undoubtedly a suicide mission for them to try to snatch me back from the hands of more than two hundred puppet soldiers!
"Sir!" the handsome officer spoke again, "I have some brothers hiding nearby. Please allow me to call them over to join your army!"
Is there such a good thing? But he didn't look like he was lying, and I thought that even if you ran away, I would still have a prisoner, so I nodded doubtfully.
The officer really lived up to my high hopes. After only a short while, he came back with more than 20 people. This time even the old squad leader was dumbfounded.
"You are such a lucky kid, I'm convinced!" Hu Zi just smiled foolishly and shook his head.
…
(This chapter pays tribute to Zhao Hengwen, the squad leader of the first squad of the first platoon of the fourth company of the 372nd regiment of the 124th division of the 42nd army of the Volunteer Army. During the third battle, Comrade Zhao Hengwen led a squad of Volunteer soldiers to launch a surprise attack on hundreds of puppet troops and captured more than 50 puppet soldiers.)
