The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 6 Air Raid
...Many of our ancestors were ordinary farmers or small craftsmen before joining the army. In their ordinary lives before joining the army, the farthest place they had been to might be the county town dozens of miles away.

Before leaving my hometown, I had only seen cars, but I had never seen or heard of the Japanese planes.
So when they encountered an air raid and the Japanese planes began to dive and strafe, they had no idea how to respond correctly; they often stood there like frightened geese, allowing the planes to knock them to the ground.

Even if you instinctively know you need to run, you will just run stupidly in a straight line.

I never thought that no matter how fast I run, I can never outrun the planes and bullets in the sky?
Every time we encountered an enemy air raid during a march, the consequences would be horrific... Excerpt from Hu Biao's diary collection "Nonsense"...

Speaking of which! When he was saying, "I'm willing to trade ten years of my life for a chance to escape,"

None of Hu Biao and his friends had expected that this opportunity would come so soon.

However, this opportunity definitely did not come in the way they expected; therefore, the final result far exceeded their expectations.

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, the members of the 3rd Replacement Company were marching in two columns on a dirt road.

Bei Hubiao suspected that it was Wang Peng, a veteran of the PLA. He was at the back of the team, moving mechanically to follow the team.

Throughout the whole process, he kept his head down, had a bitter look on his face, and had no energy at all, just like a dejected little rooster.

You know what! Even though Hu Biao is lying down, after so many years of hanging around, he is still pretty good at judging people.

Wang Peng was indeed a retired veteran of the PLA, and he retired as a first-term non-commissioned officer of a combined brigade, and he deliberately concealed this fact from Hu Biao and several others.

Why? Because for a period of time after his discharge from the army, he had always firmly believed that if there was a war, he would return if called.

But recently, he has been a little confused.

To be more precise, after retiring from the army and working in society, I witnessed too many bad things and my originally firm beliefs began to waver.

For example: A veteran was beaten by a woman driving a luxury car.

With the professional training he had received at the time, he could have subdued the opponent with just one move, but he did not do anything at all. He allowed the opponent to beat him until his face was covered in blood, deformed and turned black and purple.

The main reason is that the veterans believe that this is an internal conflict within their own family and that the training they have received should not be used for this. The relevant departments will also give reasonable handling afterwards.

Then what? The person who hit the victim paid 1000 yuan in compensation and was detained for ten days, and that was it.

Many veterans, including Wang Peng, continued to speak out for their comrades online during that period, but nothing changed.

The account was almost lost on several platforms.

Apart from this one, there are many other heart-wrenching things...

In short, after seeing and experiencing all the bad things mentioned above, Wang Peng couldn't help but have a huge doubt in his heart: If a fight really breaks out, why should he go there alone?

With the behavior and faces of those bastards and bitches, why should I risk my life to protect them?
This was also the reason why Wang Peng decided to run away quickly after he came here; because he had been holding back a huge amount of anger and unwillingness in his heart.

Even though he had decided to run away, Wang Peng couldn't be happy and even felt inexplicably irritated.

Not only had so many days passed, but even when he saw the Third Replacement Company was about to reach the Magic City, he didn't even find a chance to escape.

The key point is that he has clearly decided to run away.

But why did he feel inexplicably ashamed whenever he thought of the expectant eyes of his fellow villagers, their encouraging words, and the chicken, duck, fish, and military supplies that they were reluctant to eat?

I feel that many things are not what I thought...

*****
As Wang Peng was carrying an inexplicable complex emotion and the team continued to advance, suddenly someone not far in front of him shouted loudly with fear in his eyes:
"Oh my! What the hell is that in the sky?"

Subconsciously, Wang Peng raised his head and looked at the sky in front of him; he immediately saw two old propeller planes flying towards him.

Because when it was discovered, it was already very close to the marching column and had even begun to dive.

So on the wings of those two planes, the huge, red emblems that looked like a bunch of things were so eye-catching; there was no doubt that these were Japanese planes, and the model should be the Type 96 dive bomber.

This thing has a maximum speed of only 310 kilometers per hour, flies slowly, and has basically no protection.

If we switch to the battlefield of the modern dimension, it can be said that anyone who dares to take off into the air to fight will be immediately shot down by numerous weapons as easily as shooting a turkey.

But the 3rd Replacement Company, with only a dozen or so Hanyang rifles and a few Mauser pistols, was completely defenseless against the three 7.7mm aircraft machine guns and the three 3kg bombs mounted on the fuselage and wings.

More importantly, when they saw the plane starting to dive, the new recruits in the replacement company stood still and looked up with curiosity. They had no intention of opening fire in air defense, let alone dodging.

After seeing the old Japanese plane, Wang Peng's first reaction was:

"Oh no! It's a Japanese air raid. We must get off the road and hide immediately. It's best to hide behind obstacles like rocks or trees on the side of the road."

Then he realized: "No, what are you hiding for?
This is a chance to escape that I've only gained by sacrificing ten years of my life. I can't let it go to waste like this."

After all the above thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, Wang Peng immediately ran towards the left side of the road.

After hesitating for a moment, he shouted loudly: "That's the Japanese plane, everyone run!"

After seeing this scene, Hu Biao, Zhou Kun, Gao Yi and Zhang Wei were only a second slower.

After they realized what was happening, they all started shouting, "The Japanese planes are coming, everyone run!" Even while shouting, they followed Wang Peng's footsteps and joined the escape.

The expressions on their faces, besides being ecstatic, also clearly showed what these guys were thinking:
"If I had known that God would be so helpful this time, I would have promised a few fewer years of life. Five years! No, three years would be enough."

As the group of five people ran out of the dirt road, the officers and veterans behind them also reacted and shouted "Japanese planes" and "Hide immediately".

Unfortunately, at this point, it seems like it's already too late.

As the officers and veterans shouted, the engines of the Japanese planes became louder and louder, and the roar of machine gun fire began to resound.

Suddenly, the sound of bullets hitting the ground was heard, and the screams of the soldiers of the replacement company after being shot were heard.

For a moment, the scene was in great chaos, with all kinds of sounds heard, but there was no sound that prevented Hu Biao and his friends from running so far, or the sound of gunfire shooting at them.

It was obvious that at this moment the officers and veterans of the supplementary company had no time to care about their escape.

So, the ten years of life expectancy lost per capita was not a loss, and it actually bought them a great opportunity to escape.

Because about forty or fifty meters to the left of the main road was a large orchard of peaches, already harvested but still lush and leafy. He figured if he could get into the orchard, he'd have a very good chance of escaping.

It was only a distance of forty or fifty meters, but Hu Biao and others only took six or seven seconds to run there.

Just as they were about to plunge into the peach forest and escape, they didn't know what happened. Every one of the five of them looked back as if they had telepathically understood each other.

Then he saw what was happening behind him, and his soul trembled.

In a very short time, the two Japanese planes in the sky had completed the strafing, and they increased their altitude again and circled around, preparing to dive and straf again.

After just one attack, the ground became a hellish scene, and the 3rd Replacement Company suffered heavy casualties.

Facing the dive and strafing of the planes, except for a few veterans and recruits who knew to run to the side of the road and find an obstacle to hide behind, the other recruits were completely at a loss for what to do for a moment.

They either stood there like geese and let the bullets knock them to the ground.

Or they would run wildly along the dirt road in fear, but no matter how fast they ran, could they outrun the planes and bullets in the sky?
In the blink of an eye, he was caught up by bullets and killed.

So after the plane dived once, even if it only used machine gun fire.

There were still more than twenty people fallen on the dirt road. Most of them had not died immediately. They lay on the ground struggling and screaming, their voices extremely shrill.

But the Japanese planes still refused to give up. After turning around, they dived down again.

Perhaps the huge casualties among his men had irritated him to the point of his eyes turning red. The company commander whipped his horse and charged towards the Japanese flying planes, firing his Mauser pistol continuously.

This was also the only counterattack made by the 3rd Replacement Company during the entire air raid.

Then, under the tremendous power of a 100-kilogram bomb, a huge deep crater appeared on the ground. The company commander, his beloved warhorse, and several soldiers from the replacement company were thrown into the air like toys...

(End of this chapter)