Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 4 The True Burial of Martyrs

One of the very young soldiers saw Kong Jie coming and immediately said:

"Captain, I want to follow you. Let's go together!"

After this soldier spoke, the other soldiers also echoed and wanted to leave together.

Kong Jie glared at this and said:

"What are you doing? What are you doing? You're fighting the Japanese for me, Kong Jie! You're fighting for your fathers, your mothers, and for those fellow villagers who died unjustly!"

After saying that, Kong Jie said no more. He called the guards, asked them to pack their luggage and prepare to leave!
All of this was naturally seen by Li Yunlong who came after them. So, after Li Yunlong arrived at the regiment headquarters, he immediately called the general manager to plead for Kong Jie, asking him to stay and serve as deputy regiment commander.

In particular, it was said that this group of Japanese devils were not simple and were equipped with bulletproof vests, so they were an elite force of the Japanese devils. So with Li Yunlong's intercession, the higher-ups finally agreed to let Kong Jie stay as deputy regiment commander.

After Li Yunlong successfully pleaded for mercy, he immediately went to Kong Jie's room, otherwise it would be too late and Kong Jie would have really left. However, after arriving at Kong Jie's room, Li Yunlong did not say that it was because he pleaded for mercy on Kong Jie that Kong Jie stayed.

Instead, he said to Kong Jie:

"Lao Kong, when I first came here, I forgot to tell you that you have been appointed to stay and serve as the deputy commander of the independent regiment!"

Just when Kong Jie looked up in surprise, Li Yunlong said with a smile:
"Actually, we're on good terms with each other! Let's discuss it!"

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While Li Yunlong was pleading for Kong Jie, Wang Gensheng, led by Second Battalion Commander Shen Quan, came to the cemetery outside Yang Village and began digging graves for the comrades who had died in the Second Battalion.

In fact, the first and third battalions were originally going to come to help, but they were rejected by the stubborn commander of the second battalion, Shen Quan. In the words of the second battalion commander, the soldiers of the second battalion were not all dead yet! Therefore, it was not the turn of the brothers from the other battalions to collect the bodies of the soldiers of the second battalion.

Wang Gensheng watched the second battalion commander digging with a shovel, and naturally understood that he could not sit idle either. Although he had not slept a wink since the attack by Yamamoto's special forces last night until this morning.

But Wang Gensheng was not the only one who hadn't slept all night, so even though his hands were covered with blisters, he didn't complain.

However, the process of digging the graves to bury the fallen soldiers was different from what Wang Gensheng had imagined.

Because in many anti-Japanese war films and TV dramas that Wang Gensheng had watched, when the martyrs were buried, after the bodies were buried, a tombstone would be erected on the grave, made of stone or wood, and then engraved with something like "Tomb of a Certain Martyr".

But what Wang Gensheng saw now was completely different from what he saw in movies and TV dramas. When the bodies of the soldiers were buried, the second battalion commander Shen Quan did not erect even a wooden tombstone for any of the soldiers.

There were only mounds of earth, but every time a soldier's body was buried, Second Battalion Commander Shen Quan would take a notebook and write down where the soldier's hometown was and in which row and which grave he was buried.

Because he had doubts in his heart, Wang Gensheng asked the Second Battalion Commander Shen Quan after he had buried all the soldiers:
"Second Battalion Commander, shouldn't we erect tombstones for them?"

In response to Wang Gensheng's question, Second Battalion Commander Shen Quan glanced at Wang Gensheng, the youngest platoon leader in their entire independent regiment. Although Wang Gensheng was only seventeen years old, Wang Xikui had actually deliberately reported his age as two years older in order to ensure Wang Gensheng's smooth enlistment.

However, Shen Quan had no objection to Kong Jie appointing Wang Gensheng as the platoon leader of the first platoon of the fourth company, because if it were not for Wang Gensheng, it is very likely that not a single Japanese soldier would have survived the battle last night.

So Shen Quan patiently answered Wang Gensheng's question:

"It's not that we don't want to erect a monument, but we can't. We are now behind the Japanese. If they find us, they won't be able to rest in peace in the underground. Moreover, this is only a temporary burial. After we send the death notice and the death compensation to the families, the families will come to claim the bodies and take them back to their hometowns for burial. Of course, there are also soldiers who have no one at home. In that case, we can only erect a monument after we drive away the Japanese!"

After hearing Shen Quan's explanation, Wang Gensheng nodded silently. Just when Shen Quan was about to take the soldiers of the second battalion back to the village, he saw two people on the road leading to Yang Village, each riding a fast horse and galloping towards Yang Village.

Just as Wang Gensheng was guessing who these two people were, Shen Quan frowned and said:
"Why are you here at this time, Chief? Let's go back to Yang Village and see what's going on!"

After hearing Shen Quan's words, Wang Gensheng finally realized that the person who came was actually the head of the 386th group. However, when Wang Gensheng followed Shen Quan into the courtyard of the regiment headquarters, he heard a very rough voice coming from the house:
"I don't care what's under this dung spoon, but that's not a reason for you, Kong Jie, to lose the battle!"

Wang Gensheng heard this voice, and with this tone, he knew it was the voice of the headmaster. Then the voice paused for a moment, and then after the tone became slightly calmer, it continued:
"I transferred you, Li Yunlong, to the Independent Regiment not to ask you to be a good teacher. You must avenge the entire 386th Army. Even if they are the Japanese Tianhuang guards, you must choke them to death in the cesspool one by one! How you do it is up to you!"

Wang Gensheng, who was outside the house, felt that the commander's words and tone were very domineering and he was very happy to hear them. But at this moment, a pottery bowl was inexplicably stuffed into Wang Gensheng's hand, and then a soldier came with a pottery wine jar to pour wine for Wang Gensheng.

Wang Gensheng instinctively picked up the bowl and received the full bowl of wine. Only then did Wang Gensheng realize that the soldiers standing in the yard were holding a clay wine bowl in their hands.

Wang Gensheng looked at the wine in the bowl, hesitating whether to take a sip first, when Kong Jie's voice came from the room:

"Master, please have some. Master, if you don't drink, I will just hold it like this!"

As soon as Kong Jie finished speaking, the chief's voice came again:

"Then just keep holding it like this!"

After a pause, the chief's voice sounded again:

"I've handed the independent regiment over to you, Li Yunlong. If I hear the word 'sourdough' from the general manager again, they'll be talking about me again. Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

This voice should be Li Yunlong's, and then the chief's voice sounded again:
"Deputy Captain Kong, your arms must be sore from lifting all that weight! But that's better than feeling sad!"

As soon as the commander finished speaking, the door of the house was opened by him. At this time, the yard outside the house was full of soldiers from the independent regiment, including soldiers, platoon leaders, and even battalion commanders. However, without exception, they all held up their wine bowls and had no intention of making way for the commander.

(End of this chapter)