Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 45 An unexpected encounter
Faced with Hasegawa's angry rebuke, the once unruly Nagano Yuichiro lowered his head like a defeated rooster. Hasegawa continued, "What you need to do now is retreat immediately, protect the flag and retreat, understand?"

“Alright!” Nagano Yuichiro gritted his teeth. “I will order the troops to retreat immediately, and I will personally apologize to Lord Kunisaki afterwards.”

"Yosh, now that's what a samurai of the Great Japanese Empire should look like." Seeing his former subordinate, who used to bar his fangs at him, finally lower his proud head, Hasegawa felt as refreshed as if he had drunk a big bowl of plum juice on a hot summer day, even though he knew this was not the time to be happy. But on the surface, he still nodded with feigned seriousness.

"I'll give the order immediately..."

"Whoosh... Boom..."

No sooner had Nagano Yuichiro finished speaking than an explosion rang out dozens of meters away from the two of them, followed by bursts of gunfire and screams.

Immediately afterward, a flurry of footsteps sounded around them, and soon a lieutenant rushed in, shouting, "Commander, the Chinese are attacking! The guard company is currently engaged with them, but we're afraid we can't hold out for long. You'd better retreat immediately!"

"What... how could it be so fast?"

Yuichiro Nagano's expression changed slightly. "Are our guards just sitting around doing nothing? How come they couldn't even hold out at the very beginning of the fight?"

The Japanese Army regimental headquarters was typically surrounded by two infantry squads (about 60 men), one Type 92 heavy machine gun, and several grenade launcher teams as a protective force. In wartime, they would also construct simple bunkers, set up sentry posts, and deploy booby traps.

Generally speaking, such a vigilance force would not collapse so quickly unless it is attacked by an overwhelming force, which is why Yuichiro Nagano was furious.

"This is not the time to dwell on these things, let's get going!"

In contrast, Hasegawa was much more decisive, immediately grabbing Nagano Yuichiro and running towards the gate.

Don't be fooled by the Japanese high command's constant talk of suicide and seppuku; that only applies to lower-ranking officers and soldiers. It's a different story for officers at the colonel level.

Why would someone choose to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) at the drop of a hat when they have a comfortable life? That's just stupid.

"Da da da... Boom boom..."

Just as Hasegawa and Nagano Yuichiro stepped out of the command post, a rapid gunshot rang in their ears, followed by two huge explosions.

"The Chinese...the Chinese are attacking!" Accompanied by several terrified cries, the Type 11 light machine gun mounted on the roof opened fire.

"Da da da da..."

The rapid bullets made a series of cracking sounds as they hit the road on the right.

"People are coming from the left... from the left too..."

"Quick...walk from the back!"

Hasegawa's expression changed, and he pulled Nagano Yuichiro and ran to the back.

At this moment, the two men no longer cared about their composure and fled as fast as they could. As colonels, they had bright futures ahead of them and did not want to lose their lives here.

"Faster...faster..."

Su Yaoyang led a small squad of security soldiers quickly toward the area where the gunfire was intense. When they arrived at a street, they saw dozens of their own soldiers launching a fierce attack on two houses in front of them.

The enemy's counterattack was also fierce. A barrage of bullets, consisting of a Type 92 heavy machine gun and two Type 11 light machine guns, was relentlessly raining them down, the dense bullets pinning down the attacking troops so they couldn't even lift their heads.

The platoon leader in charge organized several attacks, but to no avail except for leaving a few corpses behind. Su Yaoyang watched for a while, then said to the soldiers behind him, "We can't just attack head-on like this. Let's go around them. Follow me!"

After saying that, Su Yaoyang picked up his Garand rifle and went to the house on the right side of the street. He crawled through a mud wall that had been blown open with a large hole. The soldiers behind him followed suit.

The group had just squeezed through the wall and hadn't gone far into another street when they saw more than a dozen figures emerge from a house ahead. Caught off guard, the two sides almost collided head-on.

"Crash..."

The sound of gun bolts being pulled back rang out almost simultaneously, and everyone pointed their guns at each other. Then, a mix of Chinese and Japanese voices began to be heard.

"Don't move..."

"Put down your weapons... immediately!"

"moving くな, gun を下ろせ!"

"Weapon を SH て ろ!"

Both sides were filled with excitement mixed with fear, both were shouting desperately, and both had dark gun barrels pointed at each other, except that one side was holding a Type 38 rifle, while the other side was holding a Thompson submachine gun and a Garand rifle.

The reason neither side fired was because they were both afraid of being caught in the middle, fearing that if they opened fire, everyone would perish together.

The Japanese troops who unexpectedly encountered Su Yaoyang and his group were none other than Hasegawa, Nagano Yuichiro, and several guards.

To be honest, both sides were stunned by the sudden situation. Everyone's heart was in their throats. You have to understand that the two sides were practically pointing their guns at each other. Anyone who wasn't blind would have no chance of missing.

Looking at the excited, bloodshot eyes, Su Yaoyang felt his hand holding the gun trembling. If the Japanese soldier on the other side were to flinch, his journey through time would come to an end.

After a few seconds of standoff, Su Yaoyang calmed down. Only then did he notice that two of the Japanese soldiers opposite him had two bars and three stars on their shoulders.

"Colonel!"

Upon seeing two colonels standing in front of him, Su Yaoyang immediately realized that he had encountered a big fish. A thought then welled up in his mind: he absolutely could not let these people go.

“Hey… you Chinese over there, I think we can have a good talk.” At this moment, a colonel spoke up in a slightly awkward voice.

"What……"

When the word "Shina" entered Su Yaoyang's ears, he felt a surge of heat rush into his head.

In his more than 20-year career, he has watched quite a few films and TV series, including anti-Japanese war dramas, so he naturally knows the meaning of the word "Shina".

It is a word with extremely derogatory connotations, meaning unclean or dirty. It was also a word invented by the Japanese to describe China, carrying strong negative and offensive connotations. The word was widely used to express contempt and insult towards the Chinese.

Upon hearing that word, Su Yaoyang's initial surprise and fear vanished instantly, and his eyes turned bloodshot. He didn't even hear what the other person was saying next before his right hand pulled the trigger without thinking.

"Boom bang bang..."

As a crisp gunshot rang out, the soldiers on both sides, whose nerves were stretched to the limit, made the same movements almost simultaneously...

(End of this chapter)