Chapter 76: Choice

(...Once one of our brothers was ordered to block the attack. Each of them had only five bullets. All the soldiers fled in the middle of the night. The next morning the young company commander went crazy. He was really crazy. He was attacking the Japanese position with a pistol... Excerpted from "Grandpa's Memories of the War of Resistance")

Maybe it was too tired, maybe it was because "Zhezi"'s hands were too heavy, and Cao Xiaomin woke up at dawn and woke up from cold.

The cold dew wet his collar and half of his clothes. Half of his body was already numb and very uncomfortable.

Cao Xiaomin stretched out his hands and feet, and the frozen left arm joints began to cramp. The sweat shed during the battle had marinated various small wounds and hurt in a trembling and trembling pain.

In front of him were two small sweet potatoes - the kind of egg-sized sweet potatoes left in the field after the farmers harvested the sweet potatoes. The raw, cold sweet potatoes seemed to exude a burst of warmth - the brothers still did not abandon him!

He turned around, and the brothers were still sleeping behind the leeing little earthblock. Everyone was cold, tired and shivering in the dead grass, still trembling in their sleep.

This little landlord Cao Xiaomin is very familiar with him. He has hundreds of brothers sleeping under the little landlord, those brothers who were blown up in the Shao family war...

Come back, we are back again! Are you okay, brothers... Cao Xiaomin felt uncomfortable, and there were waves of roars of "I will die in the country" in his ears, and the angrily scolding "Call Zi" sounded: How many more brothers do you want to kill...

Yes, I thought that to be an iron-blooded soldier, and being a good iron-blooded soldier, Grandpa would bring himself back to his original time and space; so all his actions and plans were considered in the most "reasonable" way, and he wanted all his brothers to be the same as him. But is this right? Do these veterans who roll on the edge of life and death on the battlefield do not even have the right to choose life and death? As a commander, he deprived many brothers of the right to survive!

Are the hundreds of souls that were broken into pieces willing under the cold soil? The only glory of their lives was displayed when they could not be present; they had a meal of the best delicacy in their eyes before going to war, but that was just the leftovers of the superiors... Are the dead souls left in Suzhou City willing? They were just taken out of hell and finally looked at the world where they were infinitely attached, and then ruthlessly threw them back; many of them had even been destroyed in the Japanese hospital at the last moment of their lives, and lost their faith in the identification of those people...

Cao Xiaomin shivered again, and he remembered his mission again, the 350 cans of poison gas...

The driving force of hunger made Cao Xiaomin unconsciously pick up the two small pieces of sweet potatoes, wiped the mud slightly and stuffed them into his mouth; he did not dare to chew, for fear that the slight sound would awaken the extremely sensitive brothers...

The Shao family, a once peaceful and comfortable small village in Jiangnan, has now become unrecognizable: the ashes have been blown away by the north wind, there are only black charcoal piles and charred mud piles. I accidentally saw broken farm tools scattered on the ground showing that the people here have tried their best to defend their homes.

The bluestone in the village is covered with blood, but it is all dried up, and will soon be wiped out by moss marks. No one will remember that there was a village here, a group of people who fought for their homes; no one will remember that the heroes of this nation are buried under the mound at the entrance of the village... Shouldn't they live? Just to preserve these unknown memories and to prevent these memories from really dying, they may not be a martyr; but to live, to live for these memories, it is so tiring!

Cao Xiaomin walked alone in the burned farmhouse in Shao's house. The dark burning traces seemed to show the faces of every ordinary person he remembered: the sister-in-law holding the child was still smiling at him; the old village chief looked at him with compassionate eyes, and seemed to be spitting out the words: The people in a hundred miles all know that there are 682 martyrs buried here, which we will guard for them for generations... One by one, the honest faces who were busy when building trenches for them, the eyes of curious and timid looking at their rifles with a little timidity, and the crying of seeing the martyrs off as sad as they were... Slowly, Cao Xiaomin felt dizzy and he had to sit down.

After touching his forehead, he knew that he had a fever. His body couldn't withstand the sweat of a fierce fight for a day and the cold wind for a night.

"I'm not afraid of death, but I'm afraid of this injury?" He said to himself with a wry smile.

There was a time when he had been seeking death, hoping that he could travel back to his original time and space after death; now he began to think of death again - he was not a very strong person at first, and he wanted to give up and give up his right to survive in this time and space.

This is a time and space that makes him feel sad the more he lives. This is a time and space that exists in a nightmare. Even if he dies, even if he cannot travel back to his original time and space, it doesn't matter.

He checked his Japanese military backpack: strong explosives and gas masks are there, his rifle has five bullets, seven bullets in his pistol and spare magazines, and two Japanese "little melons"... enough, that's enough for him to find several Japanese men to do their backs!

...Once one of our brothers was ordered to block each other, and each of them had only five bullets. All the soldiers fled in the middle of the night. The next morning the young company commander went crazy. He was really crazy. He was attacking the Japanese position with a pistol... What was the crazy company commander mentioned in Grandpa's memoir? He was probably still blaming his brothers for being greedy for life and fearing death... But don't he understand that everyone has the right to survive?

I am different from him. I am not crazy. I just do something that must be done. I don’t want to bring a group of brothers to die, so I go by myself... Cao Xiaomin didn’t know whether he was just thinking or talking to himself. His mind was very confused. At this moment, he was walking towards Suzhou alone in the Japanese military uniform. He just wanted to blow himself up in the poison gas reservoir to pieces. He just wanted to turn his soul into one of the lonely souls wandering in Suzhou... He just hoped that he could use his death to comfort the dead souls abandoned in Suzhou!

Cao Xiaomin dragged his heavy steps alone and quietly advanced along the road in the wilderness towards Suzhou. He was only one fighting and he had to blow up the poisonous gas.

Suddenly, a sound of footsteps came from behind, very quickly... Cao Xiaomin vigilantly loaded the rifle bullets and turned around to look...

"Call the son", "Crooked son", "Drunk", Wang Ye, Li Bin, Liu Junling, "Pancake wrapping son", "Xiao Zhangsheng".

Eight people and eight people in Japanese uniforms caught up.

"We seem to be nine people, can we be considered the new Nine Hell Kings, right?"

"Situ and Xie Zhong took them to wait for us at the Shao family, and they will wait until tomorrow morning..."

"Without us, can you blow up those poisonous gases alone?!..."

"Don't think it would be great if you can say a few Japanese words. Without us, you can't enter the city. Do you believe it??..."

They are brothers, a brother who shares life and death in the trenches. Although they can quarrel and fight, no one can do without them when they decide on life and death! At this moment, Cao Xiaomin's eyes were tide again...

"If I die this time, it will be killed by you..." "Jiuzi" said coldly.
Chapter completed!