Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 20 The Japs are coming
"Old Lu... come here for a second..."

Su Yaoyang left the church and waved to Lu Shaobin as he looked at the busy crowd.

Upon seeing this, Lu Shaobin quickly put down what he was doing and ran over excitedly, giving him a military salute: "Sir, you called me!"

Seeing Lu Shaobin respectfully saluting him, Su Yaoyang remembered Li Gaoyuan's words. With a thought, he put down the box in his arms, took out a pack of Lucky cigarettes from his pocket, and handed one to Lu Shaobin. "Here... have a smoke first."

"Thank you, sir!" Seeing Su Yaoyang offer him a cigarette, Lu Shaobin quickly wiped his hands, took the cigarette with both hands, and then took out a match to light Su Yaoyang's cigarette before lighting his own.

Su Yaoyang took a deep breath before asking, "Old Lu, how's our defensive setup coming along?"

"It's almost done." At this point, Lu Shaobin pointed excitedly to the surrounding walls and said, "Don't worry, sir. Of the ten M1917 heavy machine guns you distributed, I have already deployed eight around here, and the remaining two are for backup."

M1917 water-cooled heavy machine gun
The other five Russian Degtyarev anti-tank rifles were also deployed. If the Japanese tanks came, they'd be in for a world of hurt.

Looking at Lu Shaobin's confident face, Su Yaoyang asked, "After the deployment is complete, how large an offensive by the Japanese can our church withstand?"

Lu Shaobin thought for a moment: "An offensive at the squadron level should be no problem."

Su Yaoyang then asked, "What if it's a large brigade?"

“This…” Lu Shaobin said with a wry smile, “That definitely won’t work. The Japanese battalions are usually equipped with infantry guns.”

"We only have a little over a hundred men at most; how could we possibly withstand such a large-scale offensive?"

"Um……"

Su Yaoyang threw away his cigarette butt: "Company Commander Lu, I've gotten a batch of landmines. Quickly send a team to set them up, and also put up the barbed wire. Try to get it done before dawn. Can you do that?"

"Um……"

Lu Shaobin was slightly taken aback. He looked up and saw Su Yao with a faint smile on his lips and bright eyes looking at him.

The two stared at each other for more than ten seconds. Su Yaoyang's smile gradually faded, and his eyes became sharp.

A few seconds later, Lu Shaobin slowly straightened his chest and snapped to attention, saluting: "Yes, sir... I guarantee I will complete the mission!"

After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave.

"and many more……"

Su Yaoyang called out to him, picked up the box from the ground, and casually threw it at him. Startled, Lu Shaobin quickly caught it with both hands, only to find that the cardboard box was surprisingly light.

As soon as he looked up, he saw Su Yaoyang's faint smile: "I know you guys are all heavy smokers. When you go over there, give the brothers some of the cigarettes inside so they can relax."

Lu Shaobin was slightly taken aback, then grinned from ear to ear: "Eh... thank you, sir!"

Watching Lu Shaobin excitedly walk away with the box in his arms, Su Yaoyang's smile slowly faded, and he could even feel a layer of fine sweat seeping out from his back.

In fact, the order he just gave Lu Shaobin to send people to lay landmines and set up barbed wire was a typical obedience test. The purpose was to test whether Lu Shaobin's defeated soldiers would obey his orders, which was very important.

If Lu Shaobin refuses or makes excuses to avoid it, then it proves that what Li Gaoyuan just said to him was wrong.

Conversely, if Lu Shaobin obeys his orders, it means he can try to raise a force that obeys him, which is crucial to whether he can break out of Nanjing. Now it seems the outcome is good; therefore, the next step can be taken…

On the other side, when Lu Shaobin started distributing a box of cigarettes to all the soldiers, it unsurprisingly drew cheers.

There's no way around it; every soldier likes to smoke.

On the battlefield, soldiers need to maintain a high level of alertness and concentration. Nicotine in cigarettes stimulates the nervous system, helping soldiers stay alert and energized during prolonged, intense combat. This energizing effect is especially important on the battlefield.

According to postwar statistics, many new recruits learned to smoke after joining the army, and it remained a lifelong habit for them.

Standing on the wall, looking at the two packs of Camel cigarettes he had just received, Xu Dapeng was as happy as a 150-pound child.

He took a deep, satisfying drag, savoring the strong smell of smoke, and said to Li Gaoyuan with a smile, "Instructor Li, this Commander Su is really generous. He even gave us two packs of cigarettes at once, and they're American brand."

Li Gaoyuan nodded, a faint smile appearing in his eyes as he looked at Su Yaoyang, who was squatting on the wall chatting with several soldiers not far away.

The sky was already bright, and from his high vantage point in the church, he could take in the entire surrounding landscape.

After a busy night, the soldiers squatted in their positions, eating heartily the sorghum rice and Spam luncheon meat that the female students had brought them.

This food, which would later be loathed by American soldiers, was a delicacy to the Nationalist soldiers of today, who devoured it with happy smiles on their faces.

A young private ate so much that he burped several times in a row, which startled him so much that he quickly gulped down several mouthfuls of water before he could swallow the food in his throat.

Seeing this, an old soldier next to him kicked him in the butt in anger, saying, "Sixth Brother, why are you eating so fast, you idiot? Nobody's going to steal it from you."

The private chuckled, "Uncle Qin, I don't know how long it's been since I've had meat, that's why I ate it a little too fast."

And after this meal, we don't even know if we'll be able to eat the next one.

Upon hearing this, all the soldiers around paused in their eating, and a complex expression flashed across the veteran's face before he began to curse:

"You silly goose, why think so much? We soldiers are just doing the job of licking blood off the knife. We live one day at a time. Even if you die, Commander Su will send your two hundred silver dollars to your mother."

"That's true." The private, nicknamed Six, chuckled and lowered his head to eat again.

"Look, guys! It's the Japanese devils!" At that moment, a sentry on lookout duty suddenly shouted.

"Wow..."

As the sound rang out, everyone looked in the direction the sentry was pointing...

High up in the church, the thick stone walls appeared even more desolate under the cold sunlight.

In the distance, where the streets had been reduced to ruins, a large contingent of Japanese soldiers in uniform were marching rapidly toward the church, their synchronized footsteps echoing in the empty space.

Several military vehicles in the center of the formation stood out conspicuously, their metallic surfaces gleaming dazzlingly in the sunlight.

(End of this chapter)