Chapter Thirty-Four: Leading the Horse with Ease

  The warehouse at the entrance of the 25th Army's logistics department, Chang Zhen and others were anxious, thinking that if Ouyang Yun didn't come, the things in the warehouse would have to be blown up, which would be a real pity. Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard the distant roar of engines, looked up and saw five trucks coming from the direction of the barracks, knew it was Ouyang Yun and his men who had arrived, couldn't help but laugh foolishly, and joked when they met: "Ouyang, your appetite is really not small, if these five trucks are all full, I'm afraid our 25th Army's warehouse will be emptied by you."

  He was naturally joking, how could five trucks possibly carry away all the property of the 25th Division? However, thinking back to when Ouyang Yun spent 15 taels of gold to take away three trucks of military supplies at an extremely favorable price, this time he actually brought five trucks. It's clear that he had ulterior motives, and if you put it bluntly, it was a case of "a snake swallowing an elephant" - hoping to get as much as possible, after all, it was a gift. When Chang Zhilin said this, he himself thought about it and felt it was quite excessive, his old face turning red, and then with a flattering expression, he said: "Old brother Chang, I have no choice, you know that the 29th Army is poor!"

  Chang Zhilin led him to the warehouse, heard this and laughed, turned his head and said: "I know that the 29th Army is poor, but I can assure you that your training brigade is now rich and overflowing."

  Ouyang Yun's face lit up with a smile, his eyes scanning the empty warehouse, but his expression soon turned awkward - it seemed that the 25th Division's gift was quite limited, as the warehouse was almost empty. However, when he followed Chang Zhilin through an iron gate into the inner warehouse, he saw high-quality anti-aircraft machine guns, gas masks, and a long-barreled gun with an unknown name on the shelves, although they were sparse. His mouth opened involuntarily, as if he was about to drool.

  Chang Zhilin turned on all the lights in the warehouse, and when he saw his own appearance, he couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. He said: "Alright, stop drooling now, let's get moving, brothers! These are all specially left for you guys. Hey, I say, kid, you really have foresight, I thought you'd only bring two trucks over, so I had a few horse-drawn carriages prepared, but... haha."

  Ouyang Yun's attention was completely absorbed by the firearms, and upon hearing his words, he thought he had actually drooled and quickly wiped his mouth with his sleeve, saying: "No wonder I saw several horse-drawn carriages at the door, it turns out they were prepared for us. Thank you so much, Brother Chang."

  His action made Chang Zhi Lin and others burst out laughing. Laughing, Chang Zhi Lin whispered to him: "Let your subordinates hurry up, the Revival Society has buried many nails in our division, and many of the guns here are secretly hidden by me for you, if they see them it won't be good." After finishing speaking, he looked at his watch, then shouted: "This broken watch isn't working again, Ouyang, what time is it? We must set off on schedule at 10 o'clock."

  Li Tie Shu followed Ouyang Yun into the warehouse, and after feeling around, he heard Chang Zhi Lin say that everything here belonged to the student army. He was a connoisseur, and immediately picked up a rifle with an unusually long barrel, saying: "Anti-tank gun, great stuff!"

  Ouyang Yun glanced at his watch and told Chang Zhilin that it was just past eight o'clock. Upon hearing Li Tieshu's shout, his eyes lit up, and he looked at Chang Zhilin again, thinking that he was the most lovable person he had ever seen in his life. He couldn't help but hug him tightly and say: "Brother Chang, you're too good to our student army!" Then, he took off the military watch from his wrist and handed it to him, saying: "I don't have anything valuable on me, this watch is an American brand, its quality is quite reliable, not only is it waterproof, but also has night vision and direction indication. Brother Chang, keep it as a memento!"

  Chang Zhilin was a very traditional old-fashioned Chinese officer, who felt awkward about the Western custom of shaking hands. His face turned red at that moment. When he handed over the watch, Chang took a look and found it to be exquisite and obviously very valuable. He was also moved, but declined, saying: "No, no, we are all fighting against the enemy, the 25th Division is about to leave the front line, these things can only play their greatest role if left with you. A gentleman does not rob others of their beauty, this watch must be your treasured possession, I cannot accept it."

  Ouyang Yun's face turned red with anger: "What? Look down on me?"

  Chen Shaohua took it seriously and obviously enjoyed this set, reluctantly taking the watch over, but the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, until he couldn't bear to part with it.

  Ouyang Yun saw him like this, smiled and thought that the latest high-tech product of the 21st century could not even fool people from the 20s and 30s. The scientists of later generations might as well jump off the building collectively. He had originally prepared two gold bars to give to Chang Zhilin as a thank you gift, but now seeing him so fond of this military watch, the gold bars were saved.

  Although Chang Zhilin often said that this was his hidden treasure left for the student army, Ouyang Yun knew that he must have obtained Guan Linzheng's consent, and couldn't help but feel a lot of goodwill towards Guan Linzheng - perhaps because the predecessor of the student army was the training class, out of affection for their own children; or because of the close personal relationship between Chang Zhilin and Ouyang Yun, he had made arrangements in private, and this time 25th Division's gift was too generous, totaling five high-altitude machine guns, ten anti-tank guns, two 75mm mountain cannons, five mortars, over three hundred standard rifles, over four hundred gas masks, one radio station, five kilowatt searchlights, ammunition, medical supplies, and clothing. As a result, the five trucks were not enough to carry everything, so Ouyang Yun had to thicken his skin and take over those few horses, loading each horse with as much as it could carry, barely managing to transport everything away.

  Of course, this is just Ou Yang Yun's own words. The students who were lucky enough to participate in this trip had a different version of the story when they talked about it privately. They obviously found it hard to understand why the team leader did what he did - "Five trucks could have fit everything, but for some reason, the team leader insisted on leaving some behind." Li Tie Shu happened to overhear this and immediately kicked him, saying: "Idiot, the team leader did that on purpose. If not, how would we get those few horses back?" The students suddenly understood, and the one who got kicked looked foolish, his eyes wide with surprise, and said: "I didn't think our team leader was so cunning." As soon as he finished speaking, Li Tie Shu kicked him again - nothing else, since the 25th division's trip, Li Tie Shu had somehow gotten it into his head that following Ou Yang Yun would bring great benefits, and from then on, he became one of his loyal followers. Whenever he heard someone speak disrespectfully about Ou Yang Yun, he would naturally not let them off easy.

  Ouyang Yun led a convoy of five trucks and six horses, loaded with supplies, back to their base. It was already past 9 pm. Seeing that the Japanese had not arrived yet, he first transferred the goods from the horses to the trucks, concentrated the trucks in one place and hid them well. Then, he pulled Li Tieshu over and summoned Chen Shichang, Chu Tiange, and a few other key personnel to discuss possible battles that night.

  Li Tie-shu had the most dealings with the Japanese devils and thought that they would definitely come to take revenge tonight, so it was necessary to prepare for battle in advance.

  Chen Shichang added that even if the Japanese devils didn't come, they could just treat it as a drill.

  Ouyang Yun's idea was roughly the same as Li Tieshu, so everyone started discussing the deployment of troops for tonight on the premise that the little devils would definitely come to launch a surprise attack. It was also decided that regardless of whether the little devils came or not tonight, the entire regiment would set out for Wan Village at dawn tomorrow.

  "The moon is so sharp tonight! Just like the one in my hometown!" Li Tieshu exclaimed, lying in the oilseed rape field and awkwardly raising his head to glance at the moon above him for the nth time.

  Today is May 6th, Lunar Calendar April 4th, crescent moon.

  After a sigh, Li Tieshu looked at the diligent soldier Guo Xiaojiang on his left, who was holding his rifle tightly and staring straight ahead at the end of the road without blinking. From the start of the ambush to now, his posture had not changed at all. He couldn't help but secretly admire his tenacity. Then he sighed again: It's better to be a regular soldier, just execute the task and that's it, unlike himself, who has to consider many things besides fighting.

  The commander and his men should have left Tianjin long ago, shouldn't they? Thinking that he might never see them again, his heart felt a pang of discomfort - from the age of 16 when he joined the army, he had always followed the commander, slowly transforming from a young soldier to a squad leader, platoon leader, and company commander. Over the years, he had grown accustomed to glancing at the commander's window before falling asleep. Alas, this habit would take some time to break. He himself was also to blame - when the commander asked for his opinion initially, why didn't he speak up and refuse? If he had really spoken up, he would have stayed in the 51st Army. Ah, yes! It was because of the commander's gaze back then, which was filled with expectation and trust! But why did they have to merge the Third Company into the Recruit Brigade? The Recruit Brigade was just a full-strength company, could it be because of Ouyang Yun?

  As he thought of this young superior, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, revealing a hint of a smile that even he hadn't noticed. Ou Yang Yun, overseas Chinese? "Anti-Japanese Heroes"? Commander of the Student Army Corps? This guy has many identities, but which one is real? In the 25th Division's warehouse, he acted like a greedy and cunning merchant. However, this merchant was quite capable, not only did he get his hands on many good weapons, but also managed to bring back six horses... Li Tie Shu glanced at the "message tree" standing two meters away, and discovered another characteristic of this little officer - he was very good at coming up with strange and fantastical ideas. Some of these ideas were actually not bad... He also had a good sense of human relationships, showing considerable respect to the military commander... But in the future, would he really have to follow his orders, as the military commander had instructed?

  Li Tieshu had been hiding here since ten o'clock, and the messy thoughts in his mind hadn't stopped - perhaps because he was too open-minded and selfless during the day, so when he was alone, he couldn't help but feel particularly wronged.

  Li Tie Shu was sulking, when suddenly Guo Xiao Jiang whispered loudly: "Company Commander, there's a situation!" He was startled and quickly looked towards the end of the road, but saw nothing. Just as he was about to ask, a faint engine roar entered his ears. He was startled again, got up, and bent down to look in the direction of the sound - after a few minutes, the engine sound became clearer, and then a black shadow appeared at the end of the road. He said softly: "The little devils are really arrogant, daring to drive a truck to attack us! Do they think we don't know?" After finishing speaking, he dashed between the two men, knocked down the over 2-meter-tall "message tree", and then pulled Guo Xiao Jiang, saying: "You retreat first!" After that, he crouched down and quickly crawled forward.