Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 55 The Final Showdown (Part 5)

"Even if it's difficult, we have to keep going." Li Qingxiang's eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown, but he remained resolute. "The regimental commander and the brothers are waiting for us to call for reinforcements. How can we turn back halfway?"

"Remember this: even if only one person is left, you must deliver this message to the officer in charge at the Shimonoseki dock! Do you all understand?"

"Understood!" everyone replied in unison.

After giving instructions to everyone, Li Qingxiang led the entire company of soldiers to sneak past from both sides of the street. However, they had only gone halfway when something unexpected happened.

"Bang..." The distinctive sound of the Type 38 rifle rang out, and a soldier in the vanguard squad at the front fell to the ground without a sound. Soon after, a series of crisp machine gun shots rang out, and several soldiers were instantly hit by a hail of bullets.

"Rooftop...the Japanese are on the rooftop!" The soldiers next to them looked in the direction of the gunfire and saw that on the rooftop to their right, a Type 11 light machine gun was raining bullets down on them.

"beat!"

The soldiers of the company immediately raised their rifles and fired at the firing point.

As the highest-ranking unit in the security regiment, the individual combat skills of the soldiers in the First Company are among the best compared to other battalions and companies.

When dozens of rifles and machine guns fired at the same target, that firing point was instantly overwhelmed by a hail of bullets.

"Good fight!"

Seeing that the Japanese strongpoint had been destroyed, Li Qingxiang waved his hand, and the entire company continued to advance rapidly along the street towards Xiaguan...

"Commander... do you think the First Company can get to Xiaguan?" Huang Guantao suddenly asked Su Yaoyang in the church command post.

"Who knows? We can only do our best and leave the rest to fate."

Su Yaoyang answered casually while looking down at the NJ city map on the table.

In the past, when Su Yaoyang was watching TV shows and movies, he didn't understand why the commander always stared at the map, and for an entire day at a time.

Now he understood a little: when you are just a soldier, you only need to follow orders from your superiors on the battlefield, and you don't need to think about anything else.

But a commander is different; he has to consider the overall situation of the entire battlefield and the safety of all his soldiers.

He was already feeling overwhelmed just commanding a force of less than two thousand men; he couldn't imagine the pressure on the shoulders of marshals commanding hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops.

Just like now, although it is only a battle involving several thousand people and lasts only four or five hours, battle reports from the front lines come in every now and then. Just processing and analyzing these messages has already made him feel like his body has been hollowed out.

Fortunately, Li Gaoyuan and Huang Guangtao were there to help him with most of the trivial matters, which allowed him to find time to think about the problem.

He stared intently at the map, his mind racing to process the battle reports coming from the front.

The instructor once said that we should learn war through war.

Now that I've come to this time and space, if I want to live better, I have to keep learning and do my part for this country and people who have suffered so much. Otherwise, wouldn't I be wasting the golden finger that God gave me?

“Report…” a loud voice came from outside the door.

"Come in!"

A communications soldier strode in, snapped to attention, and saluted. "Reporting, sir," he said, "just over ten minutes ago, the Japanese suddenly stopped their attack and even sent someone over."

"Oh... is that so?" The three exchanged glances. Su Yaoyang said to the communications officer, "Bring the person over." "Oh, and don't forget to blindfold him and walk around him a few times before bringing him over," Li Gaoyuan added from the side.

Su Yaoyang suddenly realized, "Right, right... do as Deputy Commander Li says."

Shortly afterward, a Japanese captain who was blindfolded was brought in.

After the two guards removed the blindfold from his eyes, the captain immediately saw Su Yaoyang and the other two standing in front of him.

The captain glanced at the three men, his eyes filled with arrogance, and walked up to Su Yaoyang, saying loudly, "Captain Fukuda Takeo, staff officer of the Kunisaki Detachment of the Imperial Japanese Army, greets the three gentlemen from China."

"boom……"

As soon as Fukuda Takeo finished speaking, he saw a large foot kick him in the stomach almost simultaneously. The force of the kick sent him staggering back four or five steps before he landed hard on his backside, a sharp pain shooting through his body.

This sudden kick not only caught Fukuda Takeo off guard, but also stunned Li Gaoyuan and Huang Guangtian.

Before the two could react, they heard Su Yaoyang stride forward, and before Fukuda Takeo could even stand up, he slapped him across the face, followed by angry curses:

"You son of a bitch, you little devil! If you call us 'China' again, believe me, I'll rip your guts out!"

"Commander, please calm down."

"Young Master Su..."

Li Gaoyuan and Huang Guantao, who had just realized what was happening, quickly stepped forward to stop him.

Huang Guantao whispered in his ear, "Commander, even in war between two countries, the messenger is not to be killed. No matter how much you hate the Japanese, you can't hit their messenger."

"I bother!"

Still furious, Su Yaoyang glared at Fukuda Takeo and roared, "What kind of messenger is he? Even if he really is a messenger, he can't insult us right away. I'm already being very good-natured by not shooting him dead."

Upon hearing Su Yaoyang's words, Li Gaoyuan and Huang Guantao also frowned slightly.

Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan generally referred to China as "Qing Guo" and Chinese people as "pig tails" and "pig-tailed slaves." After the establishment of the Republic of China, the Japanese stopped calling it "Qing Guo" and instead used "Shina" instead.

Prior to 1930, the diplomatic notes sent by the Japanese government to the Beijing and Nanjing governments disregarded basic international etiquette, referring to the Republic of China as "China Republic" instead of "Republic of China".

By 1930, the Nanjing Nationalist government could no longer tolerate Japan's contemptuous attitude and protested by refusing to accept diplomatic documents. The Japanese government reluctantly agreed to use the official name of the country in diplomatic documents to China. However, on other occasions, the Japanese still referred to China as "Shina-koku" (支那国).

For example, the Japanese troops stationed in North China were named the "North China Garrison Army," which was expanded into the "North China Area Army" after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The Japanese troops attacking Central China were designated the "Central China Expeditionary Army" when they captured Nanjing, and so on.

The terms "North China Area Army" and "China Expeditionary Army" found in later Chinese historical records and online are merely Chinese translations that have been embellished.

Therefore, the term "Shina" is a highly insulting word used by Japan to insult the Chinese people.

Su Yaoyang slowly took two steps forward, walked up to Fukuda Takeo, and snarled, "You little devil, if I hear the word 'China' again, I'll shoot you dead right now, you hear me?"

Seeing Su Yaoyang's murderous gaze, Fukuda Takeo knew that the other party really meant what he said. Although he was still unconvinced, under the threat of death, he quickly stood up and bowed.

"Hai... I'm so sorry, I was rude just now."

(End of this chapter)