Chapter 41: The Farce Begins

  As night fell, the soldiers emerged from their hiding spots on the left side of the village and slowly gathered at the Land Temple. Many of them stretched their waists lazily as they walked, sighing: "This sleep was really refreshing!"

  In front of the temple on the land, Ouyang Yun and Li Tieshu were discussing something in a low voice.

  Five minutes later, the two deputy company commanders gathered the recruits and the original third company soldiers respectively, loudly reporting to Ouyang Yun: "Commander, the first company of the first battalion (the second company of the second battalion) has assembled, please instruct."

  Ouyang Yun returned a military salute to them, then faced the crowd and said loudly: "Attention! At ease! Sit down."

  The recruits all sat down on the spot, Ouyang Yun scanned everyone with a glance and nodded: "It seems that everyone has rested well - Huang Jiaoyun, what's wrong with you? Your nose is dirty, did you catch a cold? Chen Guanghua, how are you doing as a medical officer? Hurry up and give him some medicine, don't let it spread."

  Ouyang Yun didn't say a few words and reported the names of two student soldiers, Chen Guanghua was okay, after all, he was an official, but Huang Jiaoyun was not recognized by many people in the audience.

  Everyone looked around and soon found that a tall guy was picking his nose, and they all burst out laughing.

  Li Tieshu looked at Ouyang Yun and once again admired this young officer - with about 400 people in the entire regiment, he could actually call out everyone's name; this kind of ability and attention to detail wasn't something that just anyone could do. Just based on this point alone, it was impossible for the recruits not to admire him.

  Huang Jia-yun indeed caught a cold, his speech was muffled, he muttered: "I like to turn over when I sleep, in the morning I get up and take a look, I've gone into the grass...".

  Ouyang Yun also laughed and said, "Then this habit needs to be changed. In the future, if we need to stay hidden on the front line for a long time, and we're only tens of meters away from the enemy, you little scamp might accidentally roll into their trenches."

  Everyone burst out laughing, amidst the laughter, Chen Guanghua handed over the medicine, Huang Jiaoyun took out a water bottle and swallowed it, then said: "Captain, I'm fine now."

  "Are you all right? Why don't you lie down for a while longer, you might feel drowsy after taking the medicine."

  "Boss, really nothing's wrong, I'm in top physical condition."

  "Alright, let's proceed with the post-battle summary of last night's raid - Li Tieshu."

  "Arrived!"

  "You are the company commander of the second battalion, and you are also responsible for the battle at the main gate. Please summarize it first," said Ouyang Yun, taking out a notebook and pen to record.

  The current student army is severely understaffed, and many formations are incomplete. For example, there is no dedicated archives department, so Ouyang Yun has to temporarily take on the role of secretary.

  "Yes!" Li Tieshu gave a military salute to Ouyang Yun, then turned to the crowd and said: "The summary after the war is nothing more than summarizing gains and losses. Next, I will start with the gains. Everyone knows that last night's battle was a brilliant victory for our student army from the perspective of casualties. We annihilated 136 devils and only sacrificed eight people, with twenty-one wounded, including three seriously injured and eighteen lightly injured. The loss can be said to be minimal. Perhaps some brothers think it's nothing, think it's very ordinary, but old soldiers who have fought against the Japanese know that since the September 18th Incident, every Sino-Japanese war has ended in defeat for our army, even if we win, it's a Pyrrhic victory. The casualty ratio between China and Japan is generally three to one, with ours being three and theirs being one, and the highest is as high as ten to one. So this victory is especially precious in my eyes.

  I attribute our army's brilliant victory to three points: first, we anticipated the enemy's move, and the "message tree" battle plan formulated by the team leader before the war proved to be very effective, turning the enemy's sneak attack into a siege; second, our firepower deployment was very appropriate, using searchlights to make the enemy have nowhere to hide, measuring the firing parameters in advance made the artillery fire very accurate, and burying explosives at the right position made the enemy's heavy weapons useless, all of which caused great damage to the enemy and destroyed their firepower; third, because our army was united, although many brothers were on the battlefield for the first time, no one was afraid of the enemy, so we could take advantage of the situation to expand the results and win a decisive victory.

  Next, I will talk about the losses, which can also be summarized in three points: first, I think we still need to strengthen discipline. When I gave the order to charge, I clearly specified which troops would participate in the charge, but many student soldier brothers did not follow orders. Everyone's bravery is commendable, but on the battlefield, bravery is not the only key to victory, experience is the most important thing. Of course, this also includes my responsibility, and I blame myself for not explaining it clearly beforehand."

  He looked at Ouyang Yun and said: "Team leader, in view of this, I request punishment!"

  Ouyang Yun waved his hand and said: "Whether it's punishment or reward, we must wait until the summary meeting is over. Moreover, this matter cannot be decided by one person alone. In order to achieve fairness and justice, I suggest electing a soldiers' committee to assist the battalion in handling discipline inspections, combat merit evaluations, and other related issues. This is just my initial idea, but to fully play the role of the soldiers' committee, we need to further improve its rules and regulations. Commander Li, please continue."

  ……

  After Li Tieshu finished his summary speech, Ouyang Yun asked the soldiers to talk about their feelings. He said: "Many people are on the battlefield for the first time, and it's inevitable that they have some special or unique ideas. Don't be afraid of being embarrassed, say whatever you want, even if you were so scared that you peed your pants at the time, you can still say it out loud, let others learn from experience! Whoever dares to mock me will have their pants pulled down and get spanked on the spot!"

  Of course, the last sentence was a joke, and after saying it, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  The students followed with a loud laugh, and the serious atmosphere that Li Tieshu had created immediately relaxed a lot. Many people also dared to speak freely and reported their own mistakes.

  "Comrades, Captain Li, brothers, let me tell you about my situation at the time. When we started fighting, I was very excited, but as a result, my gun became unstable and the three-point-one-line technique I practiced didn't work. Alas, it's really embarrassing to say that in my first battle, I didn't even fire a shot, not a single enemy soldier was killed."

  "The Virgin's Token", this adjective is quite ambiguous, he didn't finish speaking, including Ouyang Yun and Li Tieshu, many people showed a knowing smile.

  "I'm fine, I killed three devils, one with a bullet and two with hand grenades. At that time, it was so exciting! But afterwards, for some reason, when I saw those colorful fragments, my stomach couldn't take it and I threw up everything."

  Upon hearing this, Ouyang Yun said to Li Tieshu: "It seems we must quickly establish a specialized archives department. The brothers' military achievements must be recorded; otherwise, once the war of resistance is won and as meritorious officials they don't know how many devils they killed, that would be too unjust for these heroes."

  Li Tieshu nodded in agreement.

  Then, before the summary meeting was over, Ouyang Yun selected four soldiers with good handwriting and certain shorthand skills from the whole regiment through voluntary registration to form the Wen Shu Chu of the Xue Bing Tuan, which is responsible for conference minutes, battle achievements records, martyrs' name lists and other written work.

  The summary will continue, as everyone becomes more and more open, the result of Ou Yang Yun's shocking event finally happened - a certain soldier, perhaps too confident in his own abilities, actually dared to say that he was so scared that he peed his pants. In the end, Ou Yang Yun couldn't manage to pull down the pants of the person who mocked him and spank their butt, not because what he said didn't count, but because there were just too many people laughing at the time. If they really had to pull down each person's pants one by one to spank their butt, it would be an extremely daunting task.

  He had no choice but to secretly reward the soldier with a rifle, as compensation for his special "bravery". As a result, it led to other soldiers being envious and deeply regretting why they hadn't wet their pants in the first place!

  It's worth it, for a shotgun, even wetting one's pants has become a glorious thing.

  The recruits finished sharing their feelings, and more than an hour had passed. Many people hadn't eaten lunch yet, and their stomachs were growling loudly, causing Ouyang Yun to frequently pause mid-sentence, smiling wryly as he understood everyone's difficulties. In fact, he was also starving. He cut to the chase, first re-analyzing the factors that led to this victory, pointing out that the Japanese army hadn't deployed aircraft, tanks, or heavy artillery, which were their usual advantages in China. Therefore, this small-scale battle victory didn't prove anything. Finally, he emphasized two words: Discipline! A soldier's duty is to obey orders! If the recruits wanted to become a formidable force, they had to resolutely follow orders and maintain discipline, only then could they truly transform.

  The summary meeting lasted for nearly an hour and a half before it ended. After the meeting, after dinner, Ouyang Yun kept all the team's on-duty officers above the rank of squad leader to discuss and adjust common training, sentry duty, patrol and other issues.

  In the next few days, the student army conducted training while gathering materials on the spot and built fortifications on Tudi Mountain, quietly waiting for the arrival of Shi You San and other Han traitors.

  On May 10th, in Wanping, at more than 9 o'clock in the morning, a lively drama was being performed on the main street in front of the county government.

  The three main characters of the farce are Shi You San, Bai Jian Wu and Pan Yu Gui. Shi You San is undoubtedly the protagonist among the protagonists. He wears a half-new and half-old National Army general's uniform that has been washed clean, standing upright at the county government gate, giving a speech with a serious face. At first glance, it seems like some National Army general has returned.

  Below the three men's platform, a crowd of about two thousand people stood densely. Those in the front row were dressed uniformly, with mortars, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns placed in front of them, and Hanyang rifles and Zhongzheng rifles slung over their shoulders, looking quite majestic. They had a certain military air about them, and anyone with discerning eyes could tell at a glance that they were the so-called Wing North Security Team; but those standing behind them were really not up to par, with their clothing styles all over the place and their weapons and equipment also varied, among whom there were oily-faced, powdered, sharp-mouthed, and monkey-cheeked individuals. Some elderly people who witnessed this couldn't help but think to themselves: one look and you can tell they're not the real deal. Those who recognized them couldn't help but exclaim in surprise: So-and-so, isn't that our local hoodlum? What are they doing here?

  Those who listened carefully to Shi Zongyi's words said: It seems that they want to create some kind of "Beiping Autonomy".

  "Beiping autonomy? Them?" The tone was clearly full of doubt, but when Shi You San pulled out a large flag with the words "Beiping Autonomy" written on it, he believed it and couldn't help but exclaim: "My god, they're actually serious!?"

  Men of insight shook their heads and sighed in a low voice: "The National Army had just left, and these jumping clowns jumped up. Heaven is destroying my North China!"