Chapter 28: The First Battle of the Student Army

  Around 11 o'clock in the evening, at Shipeng Village, three miles away from the Tianjin Nankai University military training camp, a sudden roar of engines was heard on the highway at the village entrance, and five trucks came one after another.

  The weather is bad tonight, the thick dark clouds cover the moon and stars, in the pitch-black night, the light from the truck's headlights is particularly dazzling.

  On both sides of the road, near the village, the fields were filled with rapeseed, while on the other side were vast wheat fields. On the edge of the wheat field, Gotō Ichirō lifted his head from a pile of thatched grass, narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of the truck, suppressing the excitement in his heart, he said in a low voice: "Everything is ready, prepare for battle!" Then, he withdrew his head, his right hand took out a grenade (round-shaped hand grenade) and twisted off the cover, his left index finger hooked on the pull ring, making preparations for the attack.

  Around and opposite him, in the oilseed rape fields, thirty-four companions were lurking. These people were all elite members of the Japanese North China Garrison Kempeitai, each with a hundred battles under their belt, with exceptional martial skills. They thought about the enemy they would face today, and their hearts were filled with pent-up anger. Upon receiving Lieutenant General Goto's order, one by one, they gripped their weapons tightly, closely watching the advancing convoy.

  Higashino Yujin... The model ship maker, Kiyoshi and the villagers of Kaname were all his close friends. Just a few days ago, they had all been drinking together, but last night, they were all killed by a Chinese man named Ouyang Yun. Thinking about this, his teeth clenched tightly, and he looked forward to the upcoming ambush - "Anti-Japanese Heroes" or whatever? After tonight, that title will be history! Hmph, those who look down on the Imperial Warriors will never have a good ending!

  The truck was getting closer and closer, the lights piercing Hou's eyes again, he felt the hot blood in his chest boiling up, a surge of strength filling his entire body - this feeling was wonderful, he thought: Maybe, at this moment, Fu Qing and the villagers were watching him, giving him strength!

  At last, the truck drove in front of him, and the two figures in the driver's cab were clearly visible. Sato's left hand suddenly pulled hard, his right hand threw a grenade at the driver's cab, almost simultaneously shouting "Fire!" and then drew out his pistol.

  With a loud "boom", the hand grenade hit the driver's cabin and exploded immediately. After the explosion, the truck engine stopped roaring instantly, and under inertia, it rushed out for several meters before slowly coming to a stop.

  The moment the explosion was over, Matsumoto and all the Japanese who were in ambush stood up almost simultaneously and opened fierce fire towards their respective predetermined targets. For a time, the people in the driver's cabin, who were being specially taken care of, were almost hit at the same time.

  "Charge!" With a loud roar, Hou Feng rushed forward. After the truck exploded, he clearly saw a figure rolling out of the driver's cab. In his judgment, only one of the "Anti-Japanese Heroes" could have such a reaction and agility.

  The rest of the ambushers, as planned before the war, also rushed towards the target truck. After all, this is Tianjin, and nearby is a garrison of the 25th Division. They must quickly resolve the battle and leave with the spoils of victory. This time, blocking Ou Yangyun or "Anti-Japanese Heroes" was just one purpose, and another goal was these military supplies.

  Having obtained intelligence that Ou Yangyun had purchased a large quantity of arms from the 51st Army and was transporting them to the training class, the Japanese military leaders were all overjoyed, thinking it was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Therefore, Lieutenant General Gotō Ichirō, who was eager to avenge his good friend, volunteered for the task and reluctantly brought dozens of Imperial Army elites to carry out the ambush.

  Hou Feng was reluctant because he felt that too many people would dilute the credit, and in his opinion, since it was a private transaction between the 51st Army and Ou Yang Yun, for secrecy reasons, this batch of military supplies could only be secretly transported, and the number of escorts would not be too many. As long as they were properly arranged, ten people would be enough to complete the task. Although Ou Yang Yun was an extremely powerful existence, and Chu Tian Ge might also be in the convoy, Hou Feng did not believe that bombs and bullets could not take down the "Anti-Japanese Heroes" off guard.

  It turned out that Hattori made a serious mistake; the special agents of the Japanese North China Garrison Command's Special High Department who planned this ambush also underestimated Ouyang Yun.

  They did not expect that the training class of the 25th Division had become the 29th Army's student brigade. Ouyang Yun, in order to smoothly receive this batch of military supplies, changed his previous style and let all the personnel of the reconnaissance platoon who stayed behind come over to escort the vehicles.

  Ouyang Yun is so cautious, on the one hand, because he fears that someone in the 51st Army will see wealth and start playing tricks of black eating black. On the other hand, it is due to the professional habits cultivated by his special forces career.

  It's worth mentioning that we should also thank Captain Sun Jian. Those who have served under him know that he always has a phrase on his lips: every action should be treated as an opportunity to train soldiers, even if you're just visiting your family at home.

  The armed escort of military supplies was naturally the last time for training, and Ouyang Yunzheng was based on this idea to strictly order all the recruits in the reconnaissance team to carry live ammunition and escort the vehicle, and must always be vigilant. "Treat it as a combat mission!"

  The recruits have this advantage, under the impulse of hot blood, they execute orders quite decisively. So when the convoy was suddenly attacked, they immediately stood up from the carriage and driver's room, jumped off the car and fired their guns.

  Twenty-five people participated in the escort mission, with five people in each vehicle. Four of them hid in the carriage. Due to professional habits, Ouyang Yun did not let the recruits stand openly in the carriage, which effectively paralyzed Houfeng and others. The Japanese completely ignored them and focused their attack on the personnel in the driver's cabin. As a result, although they killed or injured all the drivers and recruits in the driver's cabin in the first round of attack, they lost the initiative and advantageous position in the subsequent battle.

  The students stood up from the carriage, shooting down at a high place. Although most people fired empty shots due to tension, because Ouyang Yun had set up a light machine gun on each car, as a result, the light machine gun rang out, and the balance of victory or defeat in the battle immediately tilted towards the students' side.

  What is the concept of five light machine guns firing simultaneously at close range? Even if four of them lost their marksmanship due to the gunner's tension, with the enemy being so close and assisted by the lights, the target was too big, even without accuracy, they could still hit two.

  Hou's men were instantly wiped out by half, and the others saw that something was wrong and hastily dodged everywhere. However, don't forget that there is still a so-called "Anti-Japanese Hero" Ou Yang Yun.

  The first car was driven by Ouyang Yun, and due to the poor road conditions, as the lead car, his spirit remained highly concentrated. When Hou Feng threw out a hand grenade, he saw a round object flying towards him and instinctively opened the door and flipped over.

  Someone else hadn't landed yet, the grenade exploded, and the air wave blew him out several meters away, just hitting a Japanese man aiming his gun in the oilseed rape field. This Japanese man was unlucky, he immediately fainted. Ou Yang Yun didn't know that the person under him had fainted, both hands grasped his neck and twisted, then kicked sideways at another Japanese man who was half-standing up, hitting him on the head. That Japanese man was kicked flying away, knocking down a comrade. At this time, Ou Yang Yun's pistol was already in his hand, seeing Hou Feng rushing over, he fired two shots.

  Hou Teng was quite unlucky, thinking that Ou Yang Yun would at least be injured in the grenade explosion, and he chased after him with a mixture of fear and anxiety, only to end up delivering himself to the enemy's gunpoint. He took one bullet to the chest and another to the head, and with an excited heart, he went to meet the great god of heaven - or perhaps not, because after the battle ended, Ou Yang Yun discovered that the ones who had ambushed the convoy were Japanese, and out of anger as well as to test the reconnaissance platoon's recruits, he ordered them to behead all the Japanese.

  You Japanese aren't afraid of being beheaded? I'll behead you! It was out of such a simple idea that the student army, after its formation, became the archenemy "devil" troops in the eyes of the Yamato people during battles with the Japanese because of their love for beheading Japanese heads.

  That's another story.

  The battle ended quickly, but the sound of gunfire and explosions was still too piercing in the night, and soon attracted the attention of the army. What delighted Ouyang was that the first to arrive were the patrol troops of the Xuebing Corps, which made him look at Chen Shichang, the leader of the team, with new eyes.

  In this battle, all four drivers of the 51st Army were killed, six student soldiers died and nine were injured. Thirty-five Japanese troops were killed with no survivors, and all their bodies were beheaded.

  Chen Shichang arrived with the patrol team, and the surviving student soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon were tending to the wounded and unloading ammunition from the first truck onto several other vehicles.

  The Japanese were overconfident and thought the ambush would definitely succeed, so they only blew up the lead car, intending to leave the other four behind to take back, but as a result, the loss of the student army was greatly reduced.

  The battlefield has been cleaned up, the bodies of the student soldiers are concentrated on a truck, the devils' bodies are scattered all over the ground, and their heads are arranged together to form a small pavilion.

  The student soldiers of the night patrol, as soon as they saw the miserable scene on the battlefield, all eight of them vomited on the spot. Many people saw that among the dead student soldiers were their own classmates and friends, and remembered that everyone was still training and chatting together during the day, and suddenly burst into loud wailing.

  Ouyang Yun understood them, this was the normal reaction of new recruits. The recruits in the reconnaissance squad had killed people with guns and didn't feel anything, they had all cried and vomited afterwards. He patted one on the shoulder, touched another's head, without saying a word. Because he knew that at this time, any words were superfluous.

  The first battle of the student army took place on such a dark night. The scouts of the student army grew rapidly through this battle and became the backbone of the student army.

  Real soldiers are always born in battle.