Chapter 28: A Slightly Playful Midnight Emergency Assembly

  As the night deepened, the students who had cried and vomited began to work silently, and the atmosphere suddenly became solemn. At this time, a patrol team from a regiment of the 25th Division stationed nearby rushed over.

  Faced with the tragic scene on the battlefield, even old soldiers who had killed people and seen blood were stunned. They were so surprised not for anything else, but for the strong combat power shown by the student army.

  The team leader, Chang Zhi-an, was a seasoned veteran who had seen it all. After glancing at the uniforms of several Japanese soldiers, he quickly identified their identities as belonging to the Kempeitai (Japanese Military Police) unit under the North China Garrison Command of the Imperial Japanese Army, an elite force within the Japanese military. The 35-strong Japanese elite troops ambushed 30 student soldiers, yet the outcome was so one-sided - how could this student army be considered "strong"?

  "Little Japan is really too arrogant, the national army has not withdrawn yet, and they dare to do this, are we the 25th Division just for show?" It can be seen that Chang Zhan'an is a hot-blooded man, after paying his respects to the martyred student soldiers, he started to get angry! The Student Army was reorganized from the Training Battalion, and its garrison is still under the jurisdiction of the 25th Division. Something like this happened in their own territory, it's a great shame for a soldier.

  Ouyang Yun smiled wryly and said: "Fortunately, fortunately, we weren't all cooked in one pot. Otherwise, this person would have lost his home."

  Chang Zhenan furrowed his brow, his eyes scanning the several trucks, and upon seeing so many weapons, he felt surprised, asking: "Were these firearms equipped to you by the 29th Army?"

  This is a sensitive issue, Ouyang Yun didn't know how to answer for the time being and could only be vague and say: "The 29th Army's garrison is too far away from here, it's extremely inconvenient to transport, in order not to delay training, we thought of ways to do some things ourselves."

  "Oh, brother, what's your surname?"

  "Under the eaves of the Osmanthus tree, I haven't had a chance to ask your esteemed name yet."

  "Are you Ou Yang Yun?" Chang Zhi'an looked at the young man in front of him, who was probably only twenty-three or four years old, and already wore the rank of lieutenant colonel on his epaulets. He couldn't help but feel a sense of shame. He glanced again at the pile of Japanese heads in front of the city wall and said, "No wonder." The "Anti-Japanese Heroes" had made a name for themselves by chopping off Japanese heads, but Song Zhiyuan was bold enough to put lieutenant colonel's uniform on this man, who was still being pursued by the authorities. Only warlords could recruit talent in such a way. "Isn't there also a Chu Tian Ge?"

  "He's gone on business, how? Have you known him for a long time?"

  Chang Zhi's face turned red, and he hastily waved his hand, saying: "What superior officer, our military ranks are the same. If you don't mind, let's address each other as brothers from now on. I've admired you guys for a long time."

  Ouyang Yun smiled and thought to himself that the term "brother" was quite popular in the National Army, so he humbly said "I don't dare, I don't dare", then took advantage of the situation and said: "Alright, from now on I'll call you Big Brother Chang."

  Chang Zhi'an shouted "Ouyang old brother" and the two of them smiled at each other. Then, he saw a truck with the words "51 Army Logistics Department" painted on it, and suddenly realized, saying: "It's actually from the 51st Army, I was wondering who would be so generous. Song Baozi is finally willing to spend some real money this time, the military equipment on these trucks is worth quite a bit."

  When he heard him call Song Zheyuan "Song the Fatty", Ouyang Yun felt somewhat unaccustomed to it, but thinking that they were from the Central Army and had always looked down on local troops, he smiled slightly and did not express his opinion.

  However, Chang Zhan suddenly had an idea and pulled him aside, mysteriously asking if he wanted some military equipment. Then he revealed a piece of information: it turned out that his cousin in the 25th Division was in charge of the logistics department. After the 25th Division withdrew, they would be replacing their equipment with German gear, so the supplies they had accumulated seemed to have lost their value.

  Ouyang Yun was truly enlightened today, it seems that the saying "all crows are black" is true. The business of stealing and selling military equipment for profit appears to be quite popular in the National Army. He even heard Chang Zhi'an use the phrase "the price can be negotiated", a term often used by merchants. He couldn't help but regret not knowing him earlier, otherwise he wouldn't have had to go to Chen Shaohua's place to waste his money. After some serious thought, he felt that they didn't need guns anymore and said: "Brother Chang, thank you for your kind intentions, we don't need any more firearms, but if your army has any surplus trucks or artillery, I'd like to buy a few."

  Chang Zhi'an listened to his tone, and it seemed that this batch of military supplies was paid for by himself. He couldn't help but look at him with a new gaze. After thinking for a moment, he said: "I'm not in charge of this matter. How about this? Brother, if you have time tomorrow, come find me and I'll let my elder brother talk to you."

  Ouyang Yun nodded in agreement and came down, the two of them bid each other farewell, then Chang Zhan led his men away, while he began to focus on driving, one by one, he drove the trucks back to their base, finally even towing back the damaged truck.

  Back at the garrison, after Ou Yang Yun led the scout platoon and night patrol to settle the wounded and fallen comrades, and move the ammunition into storage, it was already past 3 am. The students were all tired, yawning and stretching, everyone thought they could go back to sleep, but were stopped by Ou Yang Yun.

  It was Sun Jian's fault again. After each battle, a summary meeting had to be held. Now, Ou Yangyun, who had contracted this occupational disease, imposed them on the student soldiers.

  Perhaps they were too tired, or the stimulation was too great and their minds couldn't take it for a moment. After Ouyang Yun announced the start of the meeting, the students didn't utter a word for a whole minute, making the atmosphere extremely oppressive. Ouyang Yun wanted them to think more on their own, but also didn't want to throw out a question without getting a response, so he took out the flattened cigarettes from his body and handed one to each of them.

  The recruits didn't know how to smoke, but they all lit up at the same time. Many of them took a puff and immediately started coughing violently. Then, after a bout of violent coughing, many people even cried with tears streaming down their faces. It seemed that the heaviness in everyone's heart was also coughed out - a recruit named Kong Yun stood up and said: "Comrades, I'd like to say a few words. Before, you told us to treat this as a combat mission, and although I did so, I didn't take it seriously. Now it seems I was wrong. From now on, no matter what the task is, we should all treat it as a real battle."

  Someone started, and the soldiers' brains began to turn, speaking more enthusiastically.

  "Through this battle, I feel that we lack actual combat training. Don't laugh at me, Comrade Captain and everyone, I fired three shots but didn't hit a single enemy. If I could have killed one with each shot, perhaps Xu Rongyang and the others wouldn't have died," said this young soldier, his eyes welling up with tears. "Comrade Captain, I think we should strengthen our combat training from now on."

  Ouyang Yun nodded and said, "You shouldn't be too hard on yourself. To say the least, this is also my fault. Although I asked you to carry out this task as if it were a real battle, there are still some aspects that we didn't do well enough, such as not arranging for sentries or scouts. Ah, I'm doing some self-criticism - the main reason for our big loss this time is because of my own lack of consideration. You're all new to the battlefield, and it's already quite good that you've performed like this. Your proposal is pretty good, and it's very necessary to implement it." After finishing speaking, he pulled out a small notebook, asked the name of this recruit, and solemnly recorded his proposal.

  Everyone saw him blaming himself, and many people shouted: "General, you are too demanding of yourself. As the head of the vanguard said, we actually won a big victory this time. We were all on the battlefield for the first time. If it weren't for your meticulous arrangements, the consequences would be unthinkable."

  “……”

  Everyone spoke one after another, and in the end, the summary meeting turned into a personal commendation meeting for Tuan Zuo. Ouyang Yunxin said that this wouldn't do, and hastily called on Chen Shichang to express his views.

  Chen Shichang did not participate in the battle, but his views were more objective. He said: "I'm sorry I didn't get to participate in tonight's battle. From what I heard from my classmates and saw with my own eyes, many Japanese people weren't killed by a single shot. This shows that our marksmanship and psychological quality are not good, which reflects the importance of training in peacetime. Although the enemy launched a surprise attack this time, because it was at night, we had the advantage of lighting, so we were able to gain the upper hand. I think this is also one of the reasons why our side won. On the other hand, it also highlights the importance of nighttime combat training. Team leader, I think in the future we should strengthen our nighttime training."

  This suggestion is not bad, Ouyang Yun also wrote it down in his notebook. At this time, due to the enthusiastic atmosphere of the meeting, the students didn't feel sleepy anymore, and nobody knew who proposed: What are we waiting for? It's better to do it than to say it, anyway, we can't sleep now, so let's start our first nighttime training session now?

  This proposal was quite to Ouyang Yun's taste. Originally, he still wanted to wait until the team had settled down in Beiping before conducting night emergency assembly and other training sessions. Now that someone had brought it up, he could take advantage of the situation. As a result, the sleepless students were able to solve their problem of not being able to fall asleep, but they ruined things for the other students who were still sleepy - they were startled awake by Ouyang Yun's whistle and, wearing disheveled clothes and carrying their luggage, they went on a 5,000-mile wilderness trek around the campus.

  It turns out that this emergency gathering actually has a bit of a game-like flavor, but Ouyang Yun is happy to do so. Taking advantage of this opportunity to strike while the iron is hot, he compiled and distributed the "Xuebing Tuan Training Manual" which had already been drafted, marking the transformation of Xuebing Tuan from a quasi-military organization into a real army.

  "The Iron-Blooded Military Academy" has finally been established!