The War of Resistance Against Japan: Starting with a Calm View of Life and Death

Many of the Japanese prisoners of war were wounded.

Zhao Laosi sent a squad of men to watch over them, their bayonets gleaming brightly. Anyone who dared to make a move would be stabbed immediately.

North Korean driver Kim Jae-gyu was escorted by two soldiers and brought before Zhou Jindong.

He was in his thirties, not very tall, with a dirty face and his railway uniform torn in several places. He seemed very frightened, his body trembling uncontrollably, and he kept his head down, not daring to look at Zhou Jindong.

"Raise your head," Zhou Jindong said, his tone not particularly stern.

Kim Jae-kyu shuddered, slowly raised his head, and looked away nervously.

"Are you North Korean?" Zhou Jindong asked in Chinese.

"Yes...yes...my name is Kim Jae-gyu...I'm a train driver..." Kim Jae-gyu stammered in broken Chinese, "I...I haven't killed anyone...I was captured by the Japanese and forced to drive the train...Sir, please spare my life..."

"Tell me everything clearly: what goods are you carrying, how many guards are on board, and when the next few trains will arrive," Zhou Jindong asked directly, ignoring his previous question.

"Speak! If you don't tell the truth, I'll shoot you!" Zhao Laosi roared viciously from the side, deliberately pulling the bolt of the machine gun so loudly it rattled.

Kim Jae-gyu shuddered in fright and blurted out, "This train... is a supply train specially transported from Datong to the front line of Shenchi. The first two carriages are guarded by Imperial Army... oh no, Japanese soldiers. The last ten carriages, the first four of which are filled with rice and flour, about five or six hundred bags."

The next two sections contained military canned goods and compressed dry rations. The next two sections contained firearms and ammunition, including rifle bullets, machine gun bullets, hand grenades, and artillery shells.

The last two sections contain cloth, quilts, and some medicine.

The guard... it's Captain Inoue's company... there shouldn't be any more special trains for the next three days, because this batch is for emergency use by the front-line troops. The next one won't depart from Taiyuan for another five days...

As Zhou Jindong listened, he was rapidly calculating in his mind.

It basically matched the intelligence he had previously obtained, and the supplies were even more abundant than he had expected.

"Is everything you're saying true?" Zhou Jindong stared into Kim Jae-gyu's eyes.

"Really! Absolutely! Sir, I wouldn't lie to you!" Kim Jae-gyu's legs went weak, and he almost knelt down. "I... I know the location of their warehouse in Daetong, and the duty roster... I... I can tell you everything, just please spare my life..."

Zhou Jindong waved his hand, signaling the soldiers to take Jin Zaigui away and keep him under guard. This man is still useful for now.

Just then, Wang Quanxing rushed over, his face beaming with joy. He was so excited that he stammered, "Dongzi... no, Captain! We've... we've struck it rich!"

"Don't rush, tell me slowly, what is it?" Zhou Jindong's mood improved as he saw Wang Quan's excited expression.

"Too much! I've roughly counted it!" Wang Quan counted on his fingers, his voice trembling. "Grain! Grain piled up like mountains! Rice and flour, all top-quality! Canned goods stacked like small mountains! And weapons!"

More than 800 Type 38 rifles, over 100 boxes of ammunition! 25 Type 96 light machine guns and 8 Type 92 heavy machine guns!

Most importantly, artillery shells! Over 500 infantry gun shells, over 1,000 mortar shells! And dozens of boxes of grenades for grenade launchers! Cloth, quilts, medicine… My God, the Japanese have brought us New Year's supplies!

The soldiers around them couldn't help but get excited when they heard this, whispering among themselves and smiling through their tired faces.

"Captain!" Liu Heiqi came running up, panting, followed by a large group of people. "Fellow villagers... the villagers are all here!"

When Zhou Jindong looked back, he saw that the dirt roads and field ridges on both sides of the railway tracks were densely packed with people.

Men, women, young and old were all there; some were pushing wheelbarrows, some were leading donkeys, some were carrying baskets on their backs, and even some teenagers were carrying baskets.

They stood at a distance, torches in hand, not daring to get too close, but their eyes were filled with anticipation and excitement.

"How many people?" Zhou Jindong asked.

"Duanjiazhuang, Lijia Gou, Wangjia Kiln... all the able-bodied people from five or six nearby villages have come! There are at least seven or eight hundred people!" Liu Heiqi rubbed his hands, his face beaming. "I told them what you said: fight the Japanese, seize rations! These villagers' eyes are green with envy! They're happier than during the New Year!"

"Good!" Zhou Jindong turned around, facing all the commanders and soldiers and the sea of ​​people, and raised his voice, "Comrades! Folks! We've shot down the Japanese transport train! The food, weapons, and supplies on board are all ours! We fought our way back with our lives!"

"But!" he changed his tone, becoming serious. "The Japanese won't give up easily! Reinforcements from Datong will arrive in two hours at most! We only have one hour! Within one hour, we must move everything that can be carried! Not a single grain of rice can be left for the Japanese! Whatever can't be moved, distribute it to the villagers on the spot!"

"Comrades! I order you all! Each company, begin moving supplies immediately according to the pre-arranged plan! Wang Quan, you lead the Second Company and the guard platoon to handle distribution and coordination! Liu Heiqi, have your men organize the villagers to move the supplies in an orderly manner! Anyone who loots, disobeys orders, or delays this important matter will face my wrath, Zhou Jindong!"

"Don't worry, Captain! I'll be the first to stand in for anyone who dares to mess around!" Liu Heiqi patted his chest and assured him.

"Zhao Laosi! Your company is responsible for dismantling heavy weapons, especially those two infantry guns and the heavy machine gun. Remove everything that can be removed! Blow up anything that can't be removed!"

"yes!"

"Zhang Fang! Ren Wuliu! Take your men and prioritize moving ammunition and medicine! Then food! Be quick!"

"yes!"

As soon as Zhou Jindong gave the order, the entire battlefield erupted in excitement.

The flickering torchlight illuminated faces glistening with sweat and soot.

Voices, footsteps, the creaking of wheels, the muffled groans of carrying heavy loads, and the low moans of the wounded mingled together, forming a passionate yet tense atmosphere in the cold night wind.

"First Company! This way! Ten men, please!" Zhang Fang shouted at the top of his lungs, and rushed towards the two overturned ammunition carriages.

The carriage door was twisted and deformed, and the soldiers frantically smashed it with crowbars. "One! Two! Three!" they shouted, and the door was pried open with a loud bang.

A strong smell of gunpowder and engine oil immediately filled the air. Inside, ammunition boxes painted a dark green were stacked densely.

Zhang Fang crawled inside and pried open the lid of a long wooden box with his fingers.

Separated by greaseproof paper inside were neatly arranged rows of bright yellow rifle bullets.

"Type 65 rifle ammunition, whole boxes!" he roared. "Two men per box, carry them out! Be careful, don't drop them!"

The soldiers immediately sprang into action, working in pairs, one in front and one behind, grabbing the handles on both sides of the wooden crate, and gritting their teeth as they lifted it out of the carriage.

The heavy ammunition box pressed down on his shoulders and hands, his muscles tensed immediately, and his breathing became heavy.

But no one was a step behind; the dull thuds of the boxes colliding and the scraping sounds of the truck bed scraping against the floor as it was being dragged were incessant.

Wang Quan stood next to a grain wagon, a pencil stub in his hand, quickly scribbling names on a crumpled notebook.

Several soldiers were pushing and rolling heavy sacks out of the broken section of the carriage; these were Japanese military rations, containing refined rice.

The burlap sack fell with a "plop" onto the snow-covered ground, and someone immediately picked it up and staggered to carry it onto the donkey cart next to them.

"Write this down! Rice, fifteen bags!" Wang Quan shouted to a literate soldier beside him. "Over here! Flour! A full twenty bags!" someone else shouted from the other side. Wang Quan looked up and roared back, "Understood! Twenty bags of flour! Pile them over to wheelbarrow number two!"

Sun Erniu did not participate in the moving.

He led his sharpshooter team to occupy several high points on the outskirts of the battlefield, their Type 38 rifles pointed warily into the darkness towards Datong and Yangfangkou.

He lay prone behind a rock, repeatedly wiping the aiming lens with his sleeve, his eyes scanning the hazy wilderness and road under the moonlight.

"Keep your eyes peeled, don't blink," he whispered. "If you hear any suspicious noise or see any car lights, fire a warning shot immediately."

The specially selected snipers responded in hushed tones, each choosing a concealed position, their rifle butts pressed firmly against their shoulder sockets, their fingers lightly resting on the trigger guard.

Zhao Laosi and his soldiers were dealing with the two Type 92 infantry guns and several heavy machine guns that were fixed to a flatbed truck.

"Hammer! Pliers! Use whatever you can!" Zhao Laosi circled the infantry gun, its heavy steel body gleaming coldly in the torchlight.

"Screws! First, unscrew the screws on the gun wheels and the breech mount! The gun body is too heavy to carry. First, take off the wheels, spade, sight, and breechblock!"

Those parts are small and easy to move! The cannon barrel… if we really can't move it, we'll stuff a grenade inside and blow it up! We can't leave it to those damn Japanese devils!

The soldiers, armed with tools they had salvaged from the Japanese corpses and their own, began dismantling the weapons with a clanging sound.

The wrench was caught in the nut and turned forcefully, producing a "crunching" metallic friction sound.

Some of the screws were rusted shut, and the soldiers were sweating profusely. They swung their hammers and smashed the end of the wrench until sparks flew out.

Ren Wuliu led the assault platoon, rushing across the battlefield like a fire brigade, heading to wherever the situation was most critical and urgent.

They rushed into the wagons piled with military canned goods and compressed rations.

"My God..." A young soldier couldn't help but exclaim as he looked at the tin cans stacked on top of the truck.

The box was made of wood, and inside were neatly arranged cylindrical cans of meat and fish, as well as compressed dry rations wrapped tightly in waxed paper.

"Don't just stand there! Move them!" Ren Wuliu kicked open another box, picked up two canned food crates, stacked them together, turned around and handed them to the soldiers behind him, "Quick! Move them to the donkey cart belonging to the villagers of Lijia Gou!"

The soldiers carried supplies out of the train car like ants carrying food.

Upon hearing the news, Wang Yuan rushed over and used his strengths of knowing people well and having a loud voice to run back and forth in the chaotic crowd, maintaining order.

"From Lijia Gou! Move your vehicles this way! In order! Don't push!"

"Old Wang! Your little donkey can't carry too much. Two bags of flour and two boxes of canned food are the maximum! Any more and it'll break down!"

"Zhang's wife! Keep an eye on the children. Don't let them go near the train; there might still be some Japanese soldiers who aren't quite dead!"

His voice was hoarse but effective. The hundreds of civilians, driven by hunger and hope, were in a relatively orderly manner under his command and with armed soldiers around them on guard.

The wheelbarrow creaked as it was loaded to the brim. The driver, hunched over with veins bulging on his neck, gripped the handlebars tightly as he struggled forward through the muddy snow.

The donkey had large baskets hanging on both sides of its back, filled with sacks of grain. The donkey puffed out white steam as it took small steps.

The strongest men carried sacks weighing over a hundred pounds on their shoulders, trudging through the crunching snow towards the nearest village.

Every now and then, a burlap sack would be torn by a tree branch, spilling out a little bit of white rice or flour. Immediately, an elderly person or woman would squat down and carefully gather it up with their hands, putting it into their cloth bag, not wanting to waste a single grain.

Zhou Jindong did not personally participate in the lifting and carrying. He stood like a pillar of strength on a slightly elevated section of the roadbed beside the train wreckage, his gaze sweeping over the bustling scene.

His pistol was holstered at his waist, and he held an old pocket watch in his hand, glancing at it every now and then by the light of the fire.

"Captain, the breechblock and sight have been removed, and there are six ammunition boxes!" Zhao Laosi wiped the oil and grime off his face and ran over to report, carrying a heavy canvas bag containing the key parts that had been disassembled.

"What about the heavy machine gun?" Zhou Jindong asked.

"The Type 91 light machine gun is easy to move; we can carry the whole thing. But those eight Type 92 heavy machine guns are too heavy. We'll move the guns and their frames separately, two people lifting the guns and one person carrying each tripod. There are too many ammunition boxes; we can't move them all!"

"We have to move them even if we can't finish! Only the heavy, bulky pieces that can't be moved along the mountain paths should be piled up together and used as booby traps!"

Zhou Jindong quickly gave the order, "Make sure the moment the Japanese touch it, it explodes! Don't let them retrieve a single gun or bullet!"

"Understood!" Zhao Laosi turned and ran back, shouting, "Explosives! Make booby traps! Pile up the rest of the ammunition!"

Wang Quan ran over again, panting, but his eyes were shining: "Dongzi! The inventory is almost done! We've moved nearly 70% of the grain! As for ammunition... we've moved most of the rifle bullets and grenades, but the artillery shells and heavy machine gun bullets are too heavy, so we've only moved less than half."

The cloth and quilts are mostly ready, and even the small medicine boxes are taken! The villagers are working with great enthusiasm; I think they'll have all the grain moved in another twenty minutes!

"The Japanese reinforcements have given us no more than an hour, and almost half an hour has already passed." Zhou Jindong glanced at his pocket watch. "Pass the word down, speed things up! Prioritize food and light supplies!"

The bulky ammunition should be moved as much as possible. Any unmoved ammunition must be disposed of in a unified manner starting in 25 minutes!

Tell Liu Heiqi to instruct the villagers not to be greedy and to ensure that the goods are moved at least five kilometers away from the railway and hidden in caves and cellars in various villages, dispersed and concealed!

"Yes, sir!" Wang Quan accepted the order, turned around and shouted to the crowd, "Everyone, give it your all! Time waits for no one! Move the lighter, edible items first! Push the heavier ones to the back!"