It was another draw, and both sides were very tired.
When the Japanese were dealing with prisoners, they deliberately dug pits in front of the battlefield. The Japanese soldiers held long bayonets and stabbed the corpses. If the corpses reacted, they would continue to stab them madly until the “corpses” were really dead.
Then there was a whistle, and the body was pushed into the big pit, and someone was filling it with soil bit by bit.
Screams, laughter, and the sounds of corpses falling to the ground were strangely intertwined, and all the scenes entered Duan Yelin’s eyes one by one.
Duan Yelin stood on a hilltop with his upper body naked and bandaged. He looked up to see the sky, looked down to see the pile of corpses, and behind him was Hezhou City. The air was very thin at high altitudes, and he had too many wounds on his body. The military doctors were too busy to handle them all, so they just let it go.
Qiao Song came back and told Duan Yelin what Xu Hang said. Duan Yelin blew out a smoke ring: “He probably wanted to stay and see my end with his own eyes.”
The wind cut through his heart like a bayonet, making it hard to breathe.
Qiao Song knelt on one knee and apologized: “Commander, I’m sorry, I failed to persuade Young Master Xu to leave.”
“You’re not to blame. I know his personality. It’s fine. If I die, he will be gone too.”
“Commander!” Qiao Song turned pale with fear.
Duan Yelin smoked another cigarette: “Why are you so surprised, Qiao Song? You are also a good fighter. You should be able to see that it is my ability to hold on until now. As a discarded pawn, I have done my best. Losing the Hezhou war zone in exchange for a national victory was still worth it.”
Qiao Song felt a pang of pain in his heart. It was so easy to say, and it seemed like a good deal, but the price was the death of all the soldiers on the battlefield. The Japanese army was not a merciful Buddha. The blood of the Nanjing Massacre was still flowing along the Qinhuai River. Only killing could stop them.
“Then… are we still going to fight?” Qiao Song asked cautiously.
Duan Yelin stuck his cigarette butt into the dirt: “Fight. Even if it’s down to one soldier, we have to fight. Delay it for as long as we can.”
He pointed to the land in front of the Hezhou city wall and said, “Qiao Song, lead them here later. There is an underground well near the city wall that leads in all directions, so the ground is very fragile. If we bury our remaining bombs there, the destructive power will be very strong.”
That shaft was abandoned in the early days. It had a complex structure and stretched over a wide area. Once an explosion occurred, it would cause the ground to collapse. Moreover, the shaft was very deep. If a person fell into it, he would be torn to pieces even if not killed.
In particular, if the explosion started underground, it would be impossible to prevent.
The idea was perfect, but there was a fatal flaw.
“But, but where do we have the time to set up an ambush now?”
Duan Yelin patted Qiao Song on the shoulder and said, “There really is no time left, so you take people to confuse them, and I’ll take the explosives down.”
Qiao Song got anxious when he heard this: “No! Commander! Let me go down!”
Duan Yelin saw the pain Qiao Song was hiding at a glance: “Only I can go! You can’t crawl down at all with your legs!”
Under the thick military pants, Qiao Song’s legs were bloody and festering.
“That… that…” Qiao Song was speechless. He didn’t have the face to ask other soldiers to die in place of Duan Yelin, and he also knew that Duan Yelin would never take other people’s lives lightly. He could only clench his fists to express his inner pain.
Duan Yelin patted Qiao Song’s back vigorously, asking him to raise his head and chest: “Don’t do this! You must behave like a soldier on the battlefield! You can die, but you must never bend your back!” After scolding, he smiled again: “Don’t be so depressed, it is a happy thing to sacrifice your life for the country.”
The hail of bullets began to cover the sky and earth again. Duan Yelin hid in the trench with explosives on his back. Duan Zhanzhou walked over and took a look. There was not much change on his face. He just said, “Should I cry a little to show my reluctance to leave you?”
Duan Yelin was gritting his teeth and said, “Come on, save your energy and kill two more devils. You can cry after you get their bodies.”
Duan Zhanzhou laughed dryly twice. It was better to have a little joke at the critical moment of life and death than to say goodbye with deep hatred and bitterness.
On this point, they still had a tacit understanding.
“You drove Kuromiya Naniwa away from Hezhou a few years ago, and now he’s making a comeback. If he knew you’d been pushed to this point, he’d be so happy.”
Kuromiya Naniwa was a general of the Japanese army. He was stationed in Hezhou and fought head-on with Duan Yelin that year.
“Whether he is or not, he is just a Japanese demon in my eyes, it makes no difference. Actually, it’s not true that I have no selfish motives at all. Zhanzhou, the Japanese have been attacking with bombs and bullets for more than a month, and they have been running short in recent days. Especially today, they couldn’t even fire a grenade, and they were fighting with bayonets. I bet that Kuromiya Naniwa must have run out of ammunition and food, so he used this human wave tactic. If this attack can severely damage them, maybe you can find a chance to take the remaining brothers away.”
Duan Zhanzhou sneered, “Why leave? Do you still expect me to go back and continue the Duan family’s lineage?”
Duan Yelin punched Duan Zhanzhou on the chest, and both of them smiled.
After finishing the preparations, they were ready to set off. Duan Zhanzhou suddenly grabbed Duan Yelin’s shoulder from behind and hugged him tightly: “…No matter alive or dead, we are brothers.”
He fished out a cigar from his pocket and stuffed it into Duan Yelin’s trouser pocket. This was his last cigarette, and he had never been willing to smoke it, so he kept it until now: “I realized I have nothing to give you as a gift, so I gave it to you. You kept asking me for cigarettes before, but I was reluctant to give them to you. Now I want to give you a few more, but I don’t have any left anymore.”
Blood is thicker than water. Blood ties are really a wonderful thing. They bring strength to people and also move them.
Duan Yelin squeezed his wrist so hard that it left a mark: “Good brother, I’m leaving first.”
Afterwards, under the cover of a team of commandos, the Japanese army approached the city gate. A figure with bandages tied around his body and explosives on his back, facing the hail of bullets, rushed towards the half-destroyed shaft exit like an arrow.
The 10:05 millimeter machine gun bullets fired frantically and powerfully, turning red and hot. In just a moment, they grazed past one side of the waist. Once they touched flesh and blood, they opened their mouths and bit, causing blood to erode wherever they went.
So Duan Yelin almost fell into the shaft, and his back hit the ground heavily, and the pain paralyzed his brain.
“Cough, cough! Damn it… hiss…”
He sat up straight with great difficulty and then used his strong arms to throw packages of explosives with fuses one by one into the depths of the shaft, from the farthest to the ones nearby, and placed the last package in his own arms.
After doing all this, he touched his waist, his hands were covered in blood, and it was fresh and refreshing. Ai, damn, this rotten war will cost us our lives.
Listening carefully to the sound coming from above the shaft, it was the sound of the Japanese soldiers being fooled and approaching step by step. The closer they got, the more violently the loess above their heads fell down and landed on Duan Yelin’s wound.
When his father died, he left behind a message saying that China will continue to thrive and will never be defeated.
He also thought so. You see now there are corpses everywhere and blood flowing like a river, but after the enemy is driven out, this place will be full of flowers, and people will walk across the river, and no one will remember that this was once a battlefield and that it was once so terrible.
So he will not regret it. He came bravely and will leave bravely as well. He does not need to leave his name on the merit list.
But there is a person who always hopes that his name can be remembered.
He is…
He reached into his trouser pocket to take out the last cigar, and when he was reaching for his lighter, he touched something else.
It was the peony sachet that Xu Hang returned to him.
It was really horrible. It had already come to this, and the burial object that would accompany him to the underworld would be this thing. Duan Yelin couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and it hurt his wound so much.
After thinking about it, Duan Yelin lit up a cigarette and smoked it carefully. It was his last cigarette. The taste was really good. After a few puffs, he felt a slight warmth in his chest, and half of his life was back.
The foul odor, smoke, and explosive smell in the well are mixed with this strong smoke smell, making people almost lose their sense of smell.
He picked up the sachet. Before he died, he wanted to relive the fragrance of Qiyuan when he first saw it. He patted the dirt on the surface of the sachet, and his eyes became much softer.
Duan Yelin placed the sachet under his nose and took a gentle sniff, then frowned.
That was not the scent of peony but more like a kind of Chinese medicine with a strong aroma and a sweet, spicy, and slightly bitter taste.
This smell was not unfamiliar to him, even most people could recognize it. It could be found everywhere, the only difference was that it had a special name.
Duan Yelin reached out to untie the sachet, but because he moved too hastily, the contents leaked out and fell all over the ground.
He gasped, grabbed a handful with his hands, and rubbed it in his palms. In the dark well, his eyes were sparkling and a little misty.
What’s in the sachet is not peony, but—angelica sinensis.
What medicine can cure the intestines? He put on his military hat and took off his military uniform. Why doesn’t Angelica sinensis return?
In ancient times, when a soldier left home, his wife would put a handful of angelica sinensis in his arms, meaning to tell him to remember to come back when it was time and for them to always remember that there was someone waiting for him.
Before leaving, he asked Xu Hang if he had anything to say to him, and Xu Hang gave him this sachet.
He told himself to go back alive.
All of a sudden, the scene in front of his eyes was no longer the well, but memories running out of his mind, running backwards in time. He chased and watched and kept chasing until he came to the gate of Jinyan Tang at that time. Xu Hang stood in front of him with his mouth open, wanting to say something but unable to.
At that time, he did say something. He opened his lips slightly and said something in a very low and subtle voice.
“Together… or apart[mfn]The completed sentence should be sth like, alive or death, together or apart, we’ve made a vow. I’ll hold your hand and spend the rest of my life with you.[/mfn].”
It was just that they were too far away, Duan Yelin couldn’t hear or see clearly. Besides, no matter how beautiful the confession was, it was always cruel to tell it to someone on the battlefield.
A handful of Angelica sinensis hides one’s thoughts, seeking protection without seeking the receiver’s knowledge.
Duan Yelin couldn’t even imagine what kind of scene it was. Under the light of a broken beam, Xu Hang carefully opened the sachet, poured out the peony, used a grinding knife to slice the Angelica sinensis thinly, and carefully put it inside.
Is his gaze gentle or serious? Are his ten fingers flexible or careful?
He… he… he’s such a deadly guy.
At the bottom of a dark well, a commander who had spent half his life in military service held a handful of angelica in his hand and laughed softly. His laughter sounded like crying, but it was not the kind of laughter that broke the heart. Instead, it was a sigh of helplessness, as if he had gotten what he wanted.
“Haha… heh… hahaha… Xu Shaotang ah, Xu Shaotang, It turns out that I, Duan Yelin’s, love for you was not in vain.”
He laughed enough and leaned his head against the wall of the well. In the smoke, his eyes were hot, and the corners of his mouth, which held the cigarette, were tilted upwards.
He could hear the clatter of horses’ hooves as thousands of troops were galloping towards him. Loess was falling and burying him. He sat quietly, stroking a handful of angelica in his hand.
He is not afraid of being torn to pieces because he has left his mark in the world.
At this moment, there was no blood and smoke in front of his eyes, only the young man in Qiyuan, who was dancing with his long sleeves, with kingfisher feathers wrapped around his head, walking with cloud-like steps and leaving a fragrance, and making a stunning appearance with a flying-like look in his eyes.
How is that Yue Opera sung?
Brother Liang ah, we are in love and respect each other. I have promised my love for you, Liang Shanbo. But Yingtai blushed and could not speak. I remember the 18-mile-long pavilion road when we said goodbye. I am speaking from the bottom of my heart.
It sounds really nice.
Duan Yelin hummed a tune in his throat, which was, of course, hoarse and unpleasant. He squinted his eyes, and then the red cigarette butt, which was almost burned to the top, fell from his mouth, rolled, and moved closer to the fuse of the explosion.
On the ground, Qiao Song roared and fired with a machine gun. The Japanese troops rushed up in waves, and finally most of the troops were led into the trap.
Now is the time when the sun is at its hottest. The sun is scorching high in the sky, and the human throat is like a desert. No matter how much water is poured in, it all escapes from the pores.
Qiao Song had just stood up when his vision went dark, and he had to use his gun to support himself to keep standing.
Then, the whole earth shook violently as if it was angry, and a wave of air that wiped out everything surged up from under the ground, broke through the earth’s crust, and rushed straight into the sky, pulling everything on the ground up violently!
It was as if a giant had thrown all the Japanese soldiers into the air and then smashed them back into the ground one by one like free fall! A huge collapse occurred on the entire ground, and loess and mud flowed back. For a while, the flying sand and rocks made it impossible for them to open their eyes.
As the Japanese soldiers fell and howled one after another, the sky outside Hezhou city was no less than a terrifying tornado and sandstorm!
Qiao Song and his companions had no way of seeing how the explosion happened. They only knew that the cracks on the ground were still expanding, and the collapse was getting bigger and bigger. The Japanese soldiers died in various ways: some fell to their deaths, some were blown to death, some were crushed to death, and some were buried alive…
This was indeed a successful and beautiful counterattack, but for Qiao Song, this success was full of sadness and could not make him happy.
He looked at the horrific scene, his knees went weak, and he fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face, and a cry of pain that struck his soul burst out from his chest.
“Commander—!!!”
If the sound has a soul, it will be transmitted to people’s dreams.
In the courtyard of Jinyan Tang, Xu Hang, who was sleeping, suddenly woke up with a start, covered in cold sweat. He turned over and knocked over the teacup and fell off the recliner to the ground.
He held his head with one hand, feeling a splitting headache, as if someone had stabbed him deeply in the head with a knife.
So noisy… Why is it so noisy?
In Hezhou City today, apart from the sound of firecrackers, something seemed different. Before he could think about it, he felt dizzy. The whole ground was shaking, and things in the room were smashed to pieces. The sound of breaking could be heard from all directions, and Chan Yi and the little monk in the room kept screaming.
Earthquake? No, it doesn’t seem like it.
After a while, the fluctuations stopped, and Hezhou suddenly fell into silence again.
Xu Hang’s heart was beating so fast that it almost jumped out. He ran to the door involuntarily, pushed open the door of Jinyan Tang, and looked towards the direction of the city wall.
After taking a look, his pupils constricted, and he couldn’t even breathe anymore.
The city wall was gone, and the Hezhou military flag also fell.
