The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 458 Accident
The moment that terrified scream reached my ears...

The three men closest to the screams—Hu Biao, Hei Xing, and the thug—charged towards the sound with their submachine guns, safety engaged.

While running, the three instinctively executed a tactical maneuver.

Hu Biao was positioned at the very front, with Huang Adi and his two henchmen following a few steps behind, one on the left and one on the right, forming a standard triangular battle formation.

Annie and the others also picked up their weapons and prepared for battle.

Depending on the situation, they planned to either go up to support Hu Biao and his men, or cover their retreat.

Five or six seconds later, Hu Biao, who was leading the charge, saw a female student named Song Jie, whose delicate face was deathly pale.

It was stumbling and running towards them, clearly terrified.

But behind her, she saw no Japanese pursuers; even with Hu Biao's keen hearing, he couldn't hear the footsteps of the pursuers.

So what kind of danger did this girl encounter that made her scream so loudly?

Therefore, Hu Biao signaled the two people behind him to be on guard, grabbed Song Jie's arm, and said in a low voice:
"Don't be afraid! We're here for you. What happened?"

Perhaps it was Hu Biao and the others' calm demeanor that calmed Song Jie down a bit.

He stammered, "A dead man... I was looking for a place to relieve myself, but... I ended up seeing a dead man at the beacon tower."

Upon hearing this, Hu Biao immediately relaxed, but also felt a bit amused and exasperated.

Thinking that Song Jie must be some kind of young lady from the capital, she reacted so strongly to seeing a dead person.

Then, before Hu Biao could say anything to Song Jie, telling her not to shout over such trivial matters in the future, otherwise she might scare people to death.

The thugs standing nearby spoke up, saying some good things for Song Jie: "Old Hu! Let's hurry up and go see what that dead man's identity is."

Song Jie was probably traumatized a few days ago and may still have some psychological scars, so her reaction is understandable.

After hearing what the thugs said, Hu Biao quickly exchanged a glance with Hei Xing, their eyes revealing a hint of understanding.

However, he didn't say anything, including his admonition to Song Jie not to yell over trivial matters in the future.

He then quickened his pace and ran towards the beacon tower that Song Jie had pointed out.

Soon after, they found a dead body leaning against the wall in a beacon tower that bore the marks of time.

Upon seeing the body, Hu Biao and his two companions suddenly had a strange intuition.

Knowing the identity of this corpse, it should be the messenger who Fang Youcai and the other comrades from the 7th Company went through so much trouble to come here and make contact.

Because he was wearing the uniform of the 18th Group Army, the fatal wound came from a gunshot wound to the chest, and blood stained half of his body red.

Even so, he still clutched an old-fashioned handbag tightly to his chest, as if it contained something incredibly precious.

Indeed, it took Hu Biao a great deal of strength to take the bag out.

The first thing I noticed was an envelope in the handbag.
After opening the envelope, which was almost completely stained red with blood, they found an order issued to the 7th Company in the name of the Jirecha Advance Army.

However, the letters inside were also stained with blood in several places.

Hu Biao and his men stared wide-eyed, even holding the characters up to the sunlight in an attempt to decipher them, but they could only barely make out some fragmented handwriting:

Your unit is hereby ordered to advance westward along the Great Wall at Dalongmen to the highway by 10:00 AM on [date], at all costs...

After all that effort, they could only discern a rough mission route; the specific mission location and content, and even the time, remained unclear...

This outcome inexplicably irritated Hu Biao, and he was about to utter a curse.

Just then, Black Star suddenly tugged at his arm; when he turned his head, he could see that his experienced teammate was conveying a message to him with a simple tactical hand gesture:
Something's up! On the other side of the beacon tower, in the opposite direction from where they came from, a number of people are quietly approaching.

Hu Biao listened intently and indeed heard some rather light footsteps.

He immediately made a judgment in his mind: the Japanese soldiers who killed the communications officer must have followed the blood trail and were now sneaking up to make their move. Perhaps influenced by his agitated state of mind, Hu Biao's impulse to kill was extremely strong.

After giving Black Star and his henchmen some hand gestures and briefly outlining the tactics, he...

The three men suddenly stretched out their submachine guns from the gate and observation window of the beacon tower, ready to fire. They planned to unleash a burst of bullets to kill some Japanese soldiers and vent their pent-up anger.

But a second later, Hu Biao raised his gun in a split second, emptying the magazine and preventing a tragedy.

Because the people who came were not Japanese soldiers, but their own comrades.

More accurately, they were a group of young comrades, a group with virtually no weapons, wearing Eighth Route Army uniforms that were either ill-fitting or deliberately altered to be smaller.

The oldest was only fourteen or fifteen years old, and the youngest was only seven years old, a little girl with two braids.

What a tragedy! That burst of bullets just now terrified the youngest few.

******
Five or six minutes later, looking at Fang Youcai, the second platoon leader, who was holding a piece of red-stained paper in his hand, with no expression on his face and no words coming out, he saw Fang Youcai.

After organizing his thoughts, Hu Biao slowly began to offer his advice:

"Platoon Leader Fang, since you don't even know the specific time, place, and content of the mission, it means that this result is also a matter of fate."

Besides, there are still these children here. If we don't take care of them, their chances of survival are slim.

So let's abandon the mission and break through together.

It's getting dark soon, let's rest here for a while and have something to eat.

We'll set off as soon as it's light tomorrow. We'll bury the excess supplies and come back for them later. We'll see if we can find reliable villagers to temporarily take care of the seriously wounded and the children.

In this way, although the Japanese encirclement is tight, as long as we are careful, we still have a very high chance of breaking through.

After hearing Hu Biao's statement, Xin Huo, Sister Yi, Xiao Ding, and other newbies almost cheered.

The main thing is that I can finally get a good night's rest and eat something. The key is that I don't have to carry the wounded around all the time. I can see some hope of relief.

Even Annie and the others showed obvious signs of relief.

Having finally traveled through time, they certainly didn't want to waste such a small force dealing with the Japanese.

If we really want to counter the mopping-up operation, we should break through the encirclement, find a way to contact the base in Pingding County, and directly pull out 30,000 to 50,000 people to carry out a big operation. Wouldn't that be more efficient than this small-scale skirmish?

As for Fang Youcai's apparent reluctance to abandon the mission, they weren't particularly worried.

Because not far away, there were nine children sitting together; they had coincidentally gathered together when our army broke through the encirclement, due to various reasons such as being scattered.

In their hasty evacuation, they happened to run into them.

We haven't had a chance to ask about more specific details or his identity yet, but he's definitely one of our own.

Just as Hu Biao said, given the current situation where the Japanese are surrounded by a tight encirclement and are conducting a large-scale search by numerous troops, they would not survive without the care of adults.

Therefore, even for the sake of these people, Fang Youcai had no choice but to accept Hu Biao's suggestion to abandon the mission.

And so, under everyone's gaze, Fang Youcai's originally expressionless face grew increasingly helpless, seemingly even though he was unwilling in his heart.

But for the sake of these nine children, they still had to abandon the mission.

Just before Fang Youcai was about to speak, the oldest of the children...

At the age of fourteen or fifteen, the only boy among the children carrying a weapon—a Hanyang rifle whose number of hands was unknown—stepped out.

He raised his arm and solemnly gave Hu Biao and the others a standard military salute.

Faced with this military salute, Hu Biao and his men felt a sudden jolt in their hearts, vaguely sensing that something unexpected was about to happen.

(End of this chapter)