With My Blood

"Zhu Shiqing, you bastard, are you really dying that easily?!" "Damn it, I told you not to let him go up front! The division commander will flay me alive for this!" "He's still breathing! Calm down, don't yell him to death!" "Are his internal organs damaged?" "How the hell should I know? He isn't vomiting blood yet, at least." ... Amid the clamor, Zhu Shiqing felt a crushing tightness in his chest. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't force a breath out, as though he were standing beneath a boundless night sky, walking down an endless path. Out of the void, images flashed through his mind one after another—the streets of Nanjing where he had run as a boy, Uncle trotting everywhere pulling his rickshaw, the desk in Jiangning County where he had worked day and night. At last, a voice echoed in his ear, rattling his brain until it felt ready to burst! "Damn it, Zhu Shiqing, are you going to die or not!" After waiting a few moments, Fang Wenjian thrust out both hands, cupped the back of Zhu Shiqing's head, and gave it a violent shake. "Urgh—hurk!" A pungent, sour wave surged straight up Zhu Shiqing's throat to the crown of his skull. His whole body convulsed. His eyes flew open, and he twisted his head aside, dry-heaving violently. "All right, he's fine." Overjoyed, Fang Wenjian let go of Zhu Shiqing's collar and shoved him aside. The scene before Zhu Shiqing grew clearer. Through the haze, Sun Yi, Tan Hai, and Fang Wenjian crowded around him. Zhu Shiqing shook his head; his skull throbbed with agony. What had just happened? Tan Hai let out a sigh. "Those little devils' infantry guns are no joke. Looks like they sighted Shagang well in advance. The moment their vanguard fired, the gunners back there were already loading." Infantry guns? Zhu Shiqing instantly remembered the moments before he had blacked out. Had he been knocked cold by a flying brick? He truly couldn't recall. Turning his head, he took in his surroundings—they were inside the village office. Still in a daze, Zhu Shiqing asked, "Who dragged me back?" Sun Yi looked as though he had just released a tremendous breath. Slowly lowering the tobacco pipe from his lips, he pointed at Fang Wenjian. "Who else? Your brother. Zhu Shiqing, from now on, you're not allowed on the front line without my order." When the shells landed, Fang Wenjian had been crouching in a nearby alley. Seeing the area ahead turn into a sea of fire and a familiar silhouette slowly collapse, he had known something was wrong at once, immediately leading several men to drag Zhu Shiqing out from beneath the rubble. Outside regimental headquarters, ragged gunfire erupted, seeming to come from every direction. "The Japanese are attacking?" Zhu Shiqing straightened up and took two steps toward the doorway. The village office had long since lost its courtyard wall, giving a direct view of the village road. Stepping to the side of the door, he heard the gunfire from the east grow deafeningly loud. It couldn't be far from the office. The others followed him out. Sun Yi's voice came from just behind Zhu Shiqing's shoulder: "Shiqing, we talked it over. We want to organize a squad to head to Wanping right now. The initial plan is for Tan Hai, you, and Staff Officer Fang to go, heading west." "What about you?" Zhu Shiqing turned back, his face tight. Sun Yi gave a bittersweet smile. "The 219th Regiment is gone. There's no point in keeping a regimental commander around. I'll stay here today and keep them company." "Nonsense! Regimental Commander, we stand and fall together!" Zhu Shiqing said resolutely. Tan Hai behind him was naturally unwilling to flee in the face of battle, immediately chiming in, "Regimental Commander, I've followed you since the day I enlisted. Today's just one death. Let the brothers stay together!" Sun Yi's eyes rimmed with red. He said no more. Compared to the gunfire echoing across the village, this corner felt hauntingly quiet. "Regimental Commander! Regimental Commander!" A soldier burst from an alley between the houses to their right, limping toward them as fast as he could. His voice cracked with tears as he shouted, "The devils have an armored car! Battalion Commander Xiang can't hold them much longer! We need reinforcements!" At those words, the men all turned their gaze toward Sun Yi. The guard platoon was his last remaining force. Sun Yi drew a deep breath and said with grim resolve, "Damn it, you're all good men. Seriously wounded stay put. Anyone who can still carry a rifle, follow me!" Out on the village's main road, the Japanese had already flooded into Shagang under the cover of a Type 91 armored car, accompanied by a large detachment of infantry. Grinding over the rutted roadside, the armored vehicle pushed deep into the village thoroughfare as if entering an empty land. Clad in six millimeters of armor, the iron shell was enough to turn away every bullet fired by Sun's regiment, which possessed no heavy weaponry. Rounds from the houses on both sides pinged and ricocheted off the steel. The ferocious fire from the vehicle's three light machine guns pinned the Chinese soldiers down so hard they could scarcely lift their heads. Sun Yi had only led the guard platoon a few paces forward when the gunfire ahead grew denser. Beneath the shooting, the wild roars of Japanese troops charging like madmen could be heard. "Spread out, spread out! Find the high ground!" Sun Yi raised a hand, deploying his remaining soldiers along both sides of the road. Lacking trenches, they had to rely on the jagged, broken buildings for cover. "Gather all the grenades! Staff Officer Fang, get up front! Tell Xiang Chengyu to fall back—let the devils come in!" "Yes, sir!" With a quiet acknowledgment, Fang Wenjian ducked low and moved along the houses on the left, rifle in hand. Tracking the gunfire from the upper floors, he reached a two-story residence. The building's outer wall had already collapsed, leaving a massive, jagged breach on the eastern face that exposed the staircase. Fang Wenjian took the stairs at a sprint. At a small window by the second-floor landing, Xiang Chengyu was hunched over, peering out at the advancing Japanese. Across the street, on the second floor of another house facing the window, sporadic rifle fire rang out. Looking closely, Fang Wenjian could see Gu Chuanning and several other men. "Staff Officer Fang, what are you doing back here?" Hearing footsteps, Xiang Chengyu's heart tightened. He turned around quickly, just in time to see Fang Wenjian coming up the stairs. "The regimental commander ordered us to pull back! We can't do anything against that armored car from here—we have to draw it in and hit it with grenades!" Fang Wenjian clamped a hand onto Xiang Chengyu's shoulder. "Have the men fight a delaying retreat!" Xiang Chengyu pulled back the machine gun mounted on the windowsill and signaled a retreat to the opposite building. Across the road, Gu Chuanning understood immediately, leading his men down the stairs to pull back. As they ran, Xiang Chengyu cursed bitterly, his face twisted in despair. "Those sons of bitches! Not only do they shoot straight, but we can't do a damn thing about that armored car! What a fucking mess—so many brothers died for nothing!" It had to be said that the individual combat capabilities of Japanese soldiers in the early stages of the war were terrifying. They had undergone systematic military training, possessed extensive combat experience, and harbored a near-fanatical devotion to their Emperor. It was said that capturing a live Japanese prisoner in the early days of the war was as difficult as ascending to heaven. And what of the armored car barreling down the road? It was hardly cutting-edge by international standards. Its mere six millimeters of armor meant it could not withstand heavy firepower, but the Japanese knew full well that the Chinese troops lacked even basic artillery, and even hand grenades were in desperately short supply. In truth, the Japanese had studied the Chinese theater with ruthless intelligence. They were exceptionally adept at leveraging their superior firepower and training to inflict maximum casualties on Chinese forces while keeping their own losses to a minimum. When assaulting fortified positions, the Japanese doctrine was straightforward: first pulverize Chinese defenses and key firing positions with artillery, then punch through the center using infantry-armor coordination behind armored cars or tanks while enveloping both flanks. Even when played out in the open, it was a strategy Chinese forces struggled to withstand. Near the village office, the men of Sun's regiment lay in wait. Firepower had been arranged across multiple levels of the surrounding houses. Like scattering beans, Sun Yi had committed his final force of fewer than a hundred men into this graveyard. With Xiang Chengyu's withdrawal from the front, the armored car advanced without obstruction, engine rumbling as it rolled forward. The Japanese infantry followed tightly behind in marching formation, scanning both sides with vigilant eyes. What the Japanese soldiers did not expect was that black rifle muzzles were already poking through holes invisible to the naked eye. The Chinese troops who had fought them tooth and nail all day had still not given up the fight. Zhu Shiqing surveyed the Japanese force pushing into Shagang. By his count, it was about two platoons, and under Xiang Chengyu's persistent harassment, they had suffered heavy casualties of their own. It was no wonder the Japanese had gone so far as to commit an armored car to the assault. Over the course of the day, the Watanabe Battalion had lost at least a full company's worth of men fighting Sun's regiment. If they kept taking losses at this rate, even if they reached Wanping City, they would hardly have enough combat power left to matter. The armored car rolled slowly closer. Gunfire throughout the village had ceased entirely; the surroundings were deathly still! Two soldiers gripped bundles of grenades bound together, lying prone and tucked behind a broken wall in the ruined two-story building closest to the road. They knew perfectly well that they held nearly all the regiment's remaining grenades. Only by destroying this armored car was there any hope! Zhu Shiqing's body still ached, and shockwaves from the artillery blast rippled through his head at intervals. Cold sweat beading on his forehead, he watched the two young soldiers ahead, as well as Tan Hai and the others across the street, their rifles and sidearms all trained on the approaching Japanese column. Every few paces, the machine gunner inside the armored car fired probing bursts into the houses on either side, shattering window glass into shards and peppering wooden walls with bullet holes. At last, the armored car reached the ambush point Sun Yi had chosen. Beneath the gloomy, chill sky, Zhu Shiqing clearly saw the two young soldiers nod toward Sun Yi. Then, the soldier on the left swiftly pulled the friction wire on a stick grenade. The shower of sparks was blindingly conspicuous under everyone's gaze. Pausing for a fraction of a second, he lunged upward, gripped the bundled grenades with both hands, arched his body, and hurled them down toward the roof of the armored car below! The bundled grenades struck the vehicle's roof, rolled toward the rear, and exploded right at the tail beneath the terrified eyes of the Japanese soldiers behind it! With a deafening roar, the massive blast wave threw the front ranks of Japanese infantry off their feet. Dust and cordite smoke billowed into the air. But in the next second, the armored car's three machine guns began to roar! *Rat-tat-tat-tat!* A dense sheet of lead swept toward the soldier's position. Caught before he could duck, the young man's chest was torn to bloody shreds. His body went limp, and he tumbled from the upper floor. "Damn it, even that didn't work?!" Sun Yi slammed a fist into the wall, his face flushed crimson. "To hell with it—fire!" At that moment, rifles and handguns erupted in unison, pouring fire straight into the Japanese infantry trailing the armored car, and a vicious firefight broke out. The soldier on the right pressed his back to the wall, his heart hammering so fast he could barely breathe. Panting heavily, he looked down at the bundled grenades in his hands, his mind filled with the image of what had just happened, listening to the roar of the armored car's machine guns below. He gritted his teeth, wrapped the pull-cord around his finger, and gathered the entire bundle into his arms. He leaped! A dark silhouette flashed before Zhu Shiqing's eyes, hurtling down from the second floor toward the Japanese ranks. The soldier landed between the Japanese infantry and the armored car. Without a second thought, he used the last ounce of his strength to scramble beneath the vehicle's hull. Seeing another attempt, the Japanese infantry in the rear scrambled backward in panic. An instant later, a colossal detonation erupted from beneath the armored car. Amid a blinding flash of fire, the howling machine guns finally fell silent. Zhu Shiqing did not know the soldier's name, only vaguely recalling having seen him around regimental headquarters. Fury was the only emotion left to the officers and men of Sun's regiment. No one cared about cover anymore. Exposed in the open, every man wanted nothing more than to empty every last round into the invaders. The Czech light machine gun chattered furiously, its barrel heating until smoke drifted from the steel, firing until not a single cartridge remained. Under crossfire from both sides, this detachment of Japanese soldiers was left forever upon that narrow village road. Suddenly, the armored car's side door blew half-open, and a soot-covered Japanese soldier tumbled out. He collapsed onto the ground, rolled onto his back, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for air. Soldiers of Sun's regiment converged from the buildings and the street. Zhu Shiqing and Sun Yi hurried over. Zhu Shiqing examined him for a moment and said quietly, "He's a machine gunner." The Japanese soldier rolled his eyes to look at the Chinese surrounding him, men furious as lions on the plain, yet he burst into hysterical, manic laughter. Sun Yi stared at him in silence, then slowly drew the signature weapon of the 29th Army from behind his back—the dadao. Gripping the hilt with both hands, his gaze hollow, he took step after deliberate step toward the sole survivor. Everyone knew what Sun Yi was going to do. Dusk was settling. Beneath the gray sky, a heavy dadao fell across the back of the Japanese soldier's neck, and then there was only silence. Shagang Village returned to stillness. Along the uneven road cutting east to west through the village, bodies from both armies lay intertwined. Blood seeped through cracks in the ground, staining every scattered piece of rubble. Sun Yi was about to send men to collect the fallen soldiers' remains when a scout came sprinting back in frantic haste, reporting breathlessly: "Regimental Commander, outside the village, another Japanese company is marching this way!" "Doesn't matter. Let them come." Sun Yi bit his lip, turning back to Zhu Shiqing with a sorrowful expression. "Brother Shiqing, I never should have brought you to our regiment. If this goes south, you'll lose your life here. You and Fang Wenjian are destined for great things. I really didn't want to drag you down with me." "Why speak of that now, Regimental Commander? Serving under you, I consider it the fortune of three lifetimes." "Regimental Commander, let's fight it out! Trading this many devils over the course of a single day—it was worth it!" ... After a full day of fierce combat, their physical strength had long since reached its limit. Many were standing on sheer willpower alone. With the resolve to die rooted in their hearts, they could look upon death without fear. "Regimental Commander Sun! Regimental Commander Sun!" From behind them, to the northwest, came a flurry of urgent shouts, accompanied by the thundering beat of galloping hooves! Sun Yi froze for a few seconds before hastily turning around. A large body of cavalry was riding hard toward them, pulling up before the men moments later. "Looks like Division Commander Zheng's boys from the Cavalry 9th Division," Sun Yi murmured, lowering his dadao as he walked out to meet them. The officer leading them had a neat mustache, chestnut-brown eyes with epicanthic folds at the inner corners, and a cape black on the outside and red within draped over his shoulders. A saber was strapped to the left side of his reins. His voice was deep and resonant: "Deputy Regimental Commander Sa Liwu of the Second Regiment, Cavalry Ninth Division, reporting under orders to reinforce." "Sun Yi, commander of the 219th Regiment, Thirty-seventh Division." Sun Yi introduced himself and rendered a salute to the Mongol cavalry officer. Lowering his hand, he said hurriedly, "The Japanese are still attacking. We must establish a defensive line at once." Sa Liwu nodded gravely, his gaze sweeping over the fewer than twenty men standing behind Sun Yi. A wave of sorrow washed over him, and he said, "Regimental Commander Sun, Division Commander Feng is waiting for you in Wanping. Leave this place to our regiment." In truth, Sa Liwu had been ordered to reinforce Fengtai. Passing Shagang, he had heard the ferocious exchange of fire and concluded that the battlefield had shifted here. Looking at the scene before him, had he arrived even ten minutes later, Sun's regiment would have been wiped out to the last man. ...