Courtyard Houses: Longevity Since the War of Resistance

"Phew~~~~"

This was the most satisfying killing I've ever done since I transmigrated. Luckily, I had the Six Strategies of Aohan, otherwise I might have become a killing machine.

Finishing touches are on.

The new reality has spread to all the people in the city. Today, everything happened at 5:10 pm: a group of armed men raided the R army headquarters and successfully kidnapped Commander Matsui Iwane.

The Japanese launched a city-wide manhunt, and fierce fighting broke out between the two sides in the city.

At 5:30, just as the main force of the R army was chasing out of the city, ten planes suddenly appeared over Nanshi. These R army planes bombed and strafed the R army positions inside the city.

At 5:45, the sound of gunfire gradually subsided.

At six o'clock sharp, the people cautiously opened their doors and found that all the Japanese soldiers on the street had disappeared. The puppet soldiers were all slumped on the ground, muttering to themselves.

"Heavenly soldiers and generals have descended to earth."

"The Japanese devils got their comeuppance."

The explosion marks in the city were also perfectly rendered by the God of Deception; it truly lived up to its name as a divine skill.

At 6:06 PM, I took out my radio and sent a message to headquarters.

"Nanshi has been captured, Matsui Iwane has been captured, and the main force of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army, numbering over 40,000, has been annihilated. There were no casualties among the civilians in the city, and we can immediately enter the city to take over."

Two hours and ten minutes after the radio wave was sent, the vanguard of the column arrived three miles outside the city of Nanshi, led by the column commander, Old Chen.

Old Chen reined in his horse, and the entire army came to a stop.

"Old Chen," the chief of staff lowered his voice, "headquarters has confirmed twice, the telegram is correct. Nanshi has indeed been captured, but not quite..."

Old Chen understood what Staff Officer Ding meant: how could Nanshi have been captured without a large-scale troop deployment? It was too outrageous.

Forty thousand people, gone just like that?

"Reconnaissance platoon," Old Chen ordered, "confirm the situation. If anything seems amiss, withdraw immediately."

"yes!"

A reconnaissance platoon of twenty men went to investigate. Old Chen dismounted and lit a cigarette. He'd fought half his life and had never seen anything so bizarre.

Ten minutes later, the reconnaissance platoon leader jogged back, his expression strange.

"Commander, the city gates are open. There's a masked man standing at the gate, saying he's waiting for you. And you can hear the cheers of the people inside the city even from outside."

"Who is it?"

He said it was from headquarters.

"Is he alone?"

"There was just one person, carrying a big knife, who said he was there to welcome us into the city."

After a three-second silence, Old Chen mounted his horse and said, "One group, follow me. The rest of you, stay put." Fifty paces away from me, Old Chen reined in his horse, dismounted, and came to within ten paces.

"Suppressing the ghost," Old Chen whispered, his voice tinged with a hint of probing.

"Commander Chen," I nodded, "You must have had a long journey."

"Nanshi?"

"Liberation has begun. All 40,000 Japanese devils are dead. Matsui Iwane is still alive, waiting for the people's judgment."

My voice was loud, and the soldiers behind Old Chen stirred when they heard it.

Forty thousand, all dead? What the hell does that even mean?

"How did you hit him?"

Instead of answering directly, I asked, "Commander Chen, what do you think is most important in our war against the Japanese right now?"

Old Chen was taken aback: "Supplies? Weapons and equipment? Personnel numbers?"

"It's air superiority," I said. "Aircraft are like a dimensional reduction attack on infantry. If you have aircraft, you can bomb wherever you want, and infantry can only hide."

"You have a plane?" Old Chen grasped the key point.

"Yes." I looked up at the sky. "Eighty planes, all of them were taken from the Japanese."

"Eighty aircraft?!" Old Chen's eyes widened. "You can fly them?"

"Yes." I replied without changing my expression. "Not only do I know how, but my team members have also undergone intensive training and can operate it."

Suddenly, the roar of an engine came from afar.

"Airplane!" a soldier shouted.

"hidden!"

The soldiers scattered, seeking cover and pointing their guns at the sky. Old Chen was also pulled to the base of the wall by his guards.

"No need to hide, it's our plane."

With a wave, the first plane landed, its wheels skimming the ground as it came to a stop in the open space. The second and third followed, landing in a neat row.

The engine stalled.

Everyone was stunned. They looked at the plane, then at me, then back at the plane, then back at me.

"There are still seventeen left. I've hidden the remaining sixty," I said.

A row of lights illuminated the western part of the city, and the sound of engines rose again. Seventeen planes taxied out and lined up in the open space. Old Chen walked over to me, looked at the twenty planes, then at me, opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"Commander Chen," I said, "I'll use these planes for three days."

Old Chen slowly turned his head: "Where...where to?"

"Zhejiang Province," I said, "will be liberated within three days. After the battle, all eighty planes will be yours."

Old Chen's breath hitched for a second. What did eighty aircraft mean to our military?

This means that tens of thousands fewer soldiers will die, and it means that the entire battle situation can be completely reversed!

"You..." Old Chen's throat was a little dry, "How are you going to call Zhejiang Province?"

"Use airplanes. Bomb them with airplanes, three days will be enough."

"But the Japanese army has over 100,000 troops in Zhejiang Province..."

"That's why I need these eighty planes." I interrupted him, "Commander Chen, are we going to fight this war?"

"I need to consult headquarters."

"I'll talk to headquarters."

He stared at me, all his emotions swirling into a single word: "Fine!"

"That's more like it. Old Chen has the air superiority and he's still not going to do it? When will he?"

I pulled a booklet from my pocket and handed it to him: "Aircraft operation manual. Find a literate soldier to learn it from. After we liberate Zhejiang Province in three days, the plane will be yours."

Old Chen took the booklet, flipped through two pages, and found it to be a combination of text and pictures, explaining how to start it up, how to take off, and how to drop bombs.

"Old Chen, I'm handing over Nanshi to you. See you in Zhejiang Province."

I turned and walked toward the planes, and twenty planes took off at the same time.

Old Chen watched the twenty planes disappear into the night sky, shook his head, and muttered, "They're truly skilled and daring."

As the troops entered Nanjing, the surrounding area was riddled with fresh bullet holes and shell craters. Wood chips were still stuck in the cracks between the bricks, and there were traces of explosions on the ground. The bluestone slabs were cracked, revealing the soil beneath.

"It definitely looks like there was a firefight," the staff officer said.

Old Chen didn't say anything, walked to a house, and knocked. The door opened a crack, revealing the face of an old woman who looked at him warily.

"Auntie," Old Chen asked in as gentle a tone as possible, "was there any shooting in town this afternoon?"

The old woman sized him up for a few moments, then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the armband: "They hit him! It was terrifying! A group of men kidnapped the Japanese commander, and all the Japanese soldiers in the city chased after him!"

"And then?"

"Then planes came down from the sky," the old woman gestured, "Japanese planes, and strangely enough, they specifically bombed their own positions! They bombed them so fiercely..."

I asked a few more households, and their answers were largely the same.

The last bit of doubt in Old Chen's heart vanished.

Nine o'clock in the evening, at the South Central Square.

Crowds of people.

For the first time in five years, the people of Nanshi have dared to gather in public like this.

Old Chen stood on a makeshift platform, holding a tin megaphone: "Fellow villagers! Nanshi has been liberated!"

The cheers were deafening.

"The Japanese commander, Matsui Iwane, has been captured!"

The cheers were even louder, mixed with cries and shouts. The old man knelt down and kowtowed, while the woman covered her face and wept bitterly.

"Today," Old Chen's voice echoed through the square via loudspeaker, "we'll settle our scores and avenge our wrongs!"

The soldiers escorted Matsui Iwane onto the stage.

Matsui Iwane remained in that dazed state, muttering, "Don't cut him." The people below the stage saw the executioner kneel before them.

"Kill him!"

"To be torn to pieces!"

"Give me back my family's lives!"

The outcry grew louder and louder.

Old Chen raised his hand, and the square gradually quieted down.

"Matsui Iwane," he stared at the kneeling man, "the mastermind behind the Nanshi massacre, shall be publicly executed today!!!"

Old Chen waved his hand and two soldiers stepped forward, pressing Matsui Iwane down onto the wooden block.

The executioner stepped forward; he was an old soldier whose entire family had perished in the massacre. He raised his knife, his hand trembling, not from fear, but from hatred.

The blade flashed.

Click!

The head rolled off, and the square fell silent for a moment before erupting into deafening cheers.

A few teenagers dug out dusty firecrackers from their homes, lit them with incense, and they crackled and popped on the bluestone pavement. At the corner restaurant, the owner had completely removed the door panels and, with trembling hands, carried out several jars of wine from the back room. The seals of the wine jars were covered in dust, and cobwebs clung to the edges.

He placed the bottles of liquor in the middle of the street and shouted in a hoarse voice, "There's plenty for the neighbors today!"

Deep in the alley, an elderly woman with a full head of white hair, her back hunched, carried a small altar table out of her house, on which were placed five memorial tablets.

She didn't cry, but lit incense and repeatedly said to the memorial tablet, "Did you see...did you see...that beast...his head was cut off..."

Several women gathered around, but instead of offering any advice, they simply stood there with her.

Further down the street, someone pulled out a red cloth that had been hidden for five years. The cloth was faded, but people had tied it into a big red flower and hung it on a telephone pole at the street corner.

The children started running wildly through the streets, laughing and playing, letting out all the wildness they had accumulated over the past five years. The bolder ones ran to the former Japanese sentry posts and spat and urinated on the empty sandbag fortifications.

Every household brought out their most treasured possessions: cured pork was sliced ​​thinly, salted fish was steamed until glossy, pickled vegetable jars were opened, and even the last bit of white rice at the bottom of the rice bin was taken out. If there weren't enough tables, door panels were removed and placed on benches.

If there aren't enough bowls and chopsticks, they borrow from one house to another, creating a long banquet procession. When the food is served, before even touching the food, they first pour a glass of wine on the ground, then pick up a piece of food with their chopsticks and place it in the empty bowl, muttering a name in their mouth.

Then they started eating and speaking, their voices gradually growing louder and their words becoming more frequent.

Five years, five years, five years.

When Lao Chen returned to the temporary command post and saw everything, the staff officer came over and said, "Commander, the literate soldiers are studying the aircraft operation manual."

"Okay." Old Chen nodded. "Hurry up. In three days, we'll have our own air force."

He looked southeast, towards Zhejiang Province.