Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 68 We meet again
On the morning of December 17, 1937, the cross of St. Paul's Cathedral was stuck diagonally into the charred ruins, like a sword piercing into hell.

Li Tao huddled in a building that had not yet been completely destroyed, looking at the gunpowder residue embedded in the lines of his palm.

The memory of crawling out of the pile of corpses in Xiaguan yesterday is still burning... the wooden fragments floating on the river, the soldiers torn apart by the naval guns, and the last distorted face of the officer who carried a box of silver dollars and forcibly crossed the river, when he was blown into a bloody mist by the shell.

"Commander... Commander..."

Someone pushed open the half-collapsed door panel, and it turned out to be one of his platoon leaders. The man had blood-soaked gauze wrapped around his left eye, but his right hand was tightly clutching a tin can.

"Commander, come with me quickly, that Commander Su has started distributing things on the street behind the church."

"Send something?" Li Tao asked, still a little dazed.

Li Tao numbly got up, stretched his stiff limbs, and followed the platoon leader to a street not far away. To his surprise, he found a long row of large iron pots steaming in the street.

Even more bizarrely, those defeated soldiers who were searching for corpses like wild dogs yesterday are now lining up to receive their uniforms.

The dark gray of the German-style field uniforms stood out starkly against the ruins, reminding him of the gleaming leather boots of the German advisors at the Taiyuan Arsenal.

"Commander... come with me!" The lieutenant pulled Li Tao's arm and led him to the back of the line to join the queue.

"Alright, Liang Ping'an, stop calling me Battalion Commander."

Li Tao said with a wry smile, "We're like stray dogs now. Calling us 'Battalion Commander' again will only make us a laughingstock. Don't forget, this is their territory."

"Then I'll call you sir." The lieutenant understood the pressure of the situation and quickly changed his address.

"That Commander Su is really generous. Anyone who joins his army gets a new uniform and a full set of equipment on the spot, including rifles, grenades, and even gas masks."

"Gas mask?" Li Tao was taken aback. As a fourth-term graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy, he was naturally familiar with this thing.

In Europe, this thing is just standard equipment for soldiers, but in China, due to the weak level of military industry, gas masks are an absolute luxury for Chinese soldiers.

"Is Commander Su so capable that he can even get his hands on a gas mask?"

Lost in thought, it was soon their turn.

"Li Tao, former battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion, 128th Regiment, 172nd Brigade, 51st Division?"

As the captain quartermaster, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, checked the roster, his pen paused in the remarks column for "escaped from POW camp." Li Tao noticed a small Iron Cross pinned beneath the Kuomintang emblem on his chest.

"Yes." Li Tao nodded calmly. Perhaps he was very proud of his position as battalion commander of the 51st Division before, but after the incident at Xiaguan Wharf, he found that his state of mind had become much more peaceful and he could face many things with composure.

After scrutinizing Li Tao for a while, the captain finally nodded, filled in his name on the blank document, and then stamped it.

"Take this...go down and collect your equipment!"

Ten minutes later, Li Tao received all his equipment.

He examined it closely and found the equipment to be terrifyingly sophisticated.

The M35 helmet lining has German labels sewn on it, the gas mask filter canister is marked with the production date of October 1937, and even the water bottle hook is the distinctive bluish-black color of Krupp steel.

When Li Tao touched the walnut stock of the Garand rifle, his fingers trembled; the superior quality of these weapons truly astonished him. "Commander... each man received one hundred and fifty rounds of ammunition."

The lieutenant leaned closer and whispered in his ear that the gauze on his left eye had been replaced with a brand new bandage.

Seeing Li Tao looking him up and down, he chuckled, pointed to his right, and said excitedly, "Over there... there are several pretty women and doctors who are bandaging the wounded soldiers' wounds. I went over and had those nurses do it for me."

He then pointed to the captain wearing gold-rimmed glasses not far away and said, "See that guy with the round-framed glasses? He used to be in the military police, and now he's working for Commander Su."

I heard the Japanese are launching a fierce attack on us and urgently need troop support, which is why they're distributing weapons to us. It seems they're preparing to reorganize us.

"Zhuang Xiaoman...are you scared?" Li Tao glanced at him.

"What's there to be afraid of?" The lieutenant named Zhuang Xiaoman spat on the ground. "I should have died with my brothers at Xiaguan Wharf a long time ago. I'm just lucky to have survived. I can just give it back to Commander Su."

“That’s more like it.” Li Tao nodded. “You must remember that the soldiers of our 51st Division must never disgrace the Chinese military, no matter where they go.”

"Commander Su has arrived!" Suddenly... a loud voice startled everyone around.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a young officer wearing the rank of colonel coming onto the street surrounded by more than a dozen guards.

Su Yaoyang glanced at the guards beside him, a hint of helplessness flashing in his eyes.

To be honest, this was the first time in his life he had been protected by so many people, and he was really not used to it.

However, this is probably a consequence of yesterday's events. After Huang Guantao learned that he had personally led a team to rescue prisoners of war, he demanded that a guard platoon be formed to protect him every day.

Even Li Gaoyuan wholeheartedly agreed, which led to the grand spectacle we see today.

"Commander!" The man with the gold-rimmed glasses stood up and saluted Su Yaoyang.

"Sit down." Su Yaoyang pressed his hand down, gesturing for him to sit, then walked over to him and asked.

"So, have you discovered any talented individuals?"

"Commander, after some screening and registration, we have indeed found some veterans and officers, the highest-ranking of whom is this one." The man with the gold-rimmed glasses handed the register to Su Yaoyang.

Su Yaoyang took the register. Although it was written entirely in traditional Chinese characters, he could still make out most of it by guessing and making inferences.

“Li Tao… a former battalion commander of the 51st Division? This name sounds familiar.” Su Yaoyang stroked his chin, looking thoughtful.

"Commander, this person was just here a moment ago."

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses turned his head a few times and raised his voice, shouting, "Li Tao...who is Li Tao, the former battalion commander of the 51st Division!"

"Hey... Battalion Commander... he's calling you!" Zhuang Xiaoman, who was not far away, quickly nudged Li Tao, who was inspecting new equipment, with his elbow.

Having noticed Su Yaoyang's arrival long ago, Li Tao quickly ran over, saluted Su Yaoyang, and loudly proclaimed, "Reporting to the Regiment Commander, Li Tao, former Battalion Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 128th Regiment, 172nd Brigade, 51st Division, is here to report for duty. Please give instructions, sir!"

"Oh, it's you!" Upon seeing Li Tao, Su Yaoyang immediately recognized him and couldn't help but smile and say, "Battalion Commander Li, we meet again."

(End of this chapter)