Most of the fog had dissipated, but there was still some white in the valleys and low-lying areas.
The sunlight in the autumn morning jumped out of the distant mountains. People said it was golden. The dew on the dry grass leaves refracted the crystal, one string, one drop at a time, pulling at the dry yellow leaves and refusing to slide down. It still looked so cold, or it could be said that the sunlight refracted by the dew was cold.
There is also a well in the middle of the village, the well mouth is very high, it seems to be quite old. Since there is a well, there must be Luo Fugui. When Runny Nose led the second squad to kill the wounded Japanese soldiers in the village, this bear robbed the residence of the Japanese medical soldiers and broke the neck of a medical soldier, but only took out canned food. Later, he ordered Xu Xiao to light a fire next to the well mouth and serve him hot food.
Hu Yi sat down near the well, at the foot of the east wall, curled up one leg, and leaned against the wall with his rifle slanted across his body. The golden sunlight covered the entire wall and his entire body, blinding him.
I felt a shadow blocking the light, and when I opened my eyes, it was Xu Xiao who came to me, carefully holding an opened can, which was blackened by the fire: "Platoon leader, the first can is yours."
Luo Fugui's hoarse voice echoed from the fire: "Boss Hu, try it. I find that this canned meat tastes better when heated! Damn it, why not just roast it all!"
He took the can in his hand. It was still a little hot. The heat flowed from his palm to his shoulder. He pulled out the bloodthirsty bayonet and used it as cutlery, eating while basking in the sun.
A dozen puppet soldiers were squatting in a row at the foot of the wall, with two soldiers from the third squad holding bayonets and watching on both sides. Ma Liang commanded the third squad to deal with the dozen prisoners, and then sent the rest of the soldiers out to set up secret sentries outside the village entrance before heading into the village.
The smell of smoke wafted from the middle of the village, with a slight aroma of meat. Ma Liang knew who was enjoying it without having to guess. He caught a glimpse of the little girl walking out of the medic's room in front, followed by Li Xiang. The two of them were carrying and hanging, and the medical box, first aid supplies and other miscellaneous things were all taken out. She tilted her pigtail and shouted at Wu Shitou who was walking over: "I can't find you. What have you been doing? Do you want to tire me to death?"
Wu Shitou stopped at the side of the road like a child who had made a mistake, lowered his head, and held the bloody engineer shovel behind him to try to cover it up: "Runny nose... let me help."
"What the hell are you helping me with! You start to snot when I tell you to chop down the Japanese. Can you learn from him? Just wait... Come and help me get my things!"
Ma Liang turned towards the direction of the fireworks at the intersection, but he didn't see the platoon leader. He probably was at the well. Before he had taken a few steps, he saw Shi Cheng leading some of the first squad dragging a torn sack across the street. Ma Liang immediately called out, "Shi Cheng, Shi Cheng, what are you doing?"
Shi Cheng turned around and found Ma Liang staring at the torn sack. He was embarrassed for a moment: "Uh... Nothing, nothing, just burying something. I'll go get busy first." He urged his subordinates: "Hurry up?" The group disappeared outside the village like rabbits.
When they reached the place where the First Squad was crossing the street, Ma Liang looked at the bloody marks on the ground and recalled the shape of the sack, which seemed to contain a bag of carrots. He shook his head and thought that the Japanese corpses were probably headless. The First Squad was sick. Why were they so keen on the Japanese heads? They would probably wait until they had enough people from Qingshan Village, young and old, before they would stop, right? But... would there ever be a day when they had enough
When he saw the well in the village, he saw a burning fire. A bear was leading a silly boy, who was sitting by the fire eating canned food with oil dripping from his mouth. He looked up and saw it was Ma Liang, but he didn't even say hello and continued to work.
Ma Liang went to the fire and picked up a can of food. He pulled out his bayonet to pry it open while walking to Hu Yi and sitting next to him at the foot of the wall.
"Have you set up a sentry?" Hu Yi asked while eating.
"Um."
Then the two of them ate in silence in the morning sun.
After a while, there seemed to be another smell in the air, also a burning smell, but not the smell of the fire in front of Luo Fugui.
Ma Liang wrinkled his nose: "What's on fire again? Has your runny nose not stopped yet?"
Hu Yi used his bayonet to pierce a piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed it and swallowed it. Then he said calmly, "I asked Chen Chong to burn down the big house at the west end."
The big house was the one Ma Liang found, full of corpses of young and old. The Ninth Platoon would not stay here for long. There were too many corpses in the house and no time to bury them. The only person buried was the woman who was hit to death, but she was only wrapped in a Japanese military blanket, without even clothes. Hu Yi ordered Chen Chong to bury her alone at the edge of the village.
The fire grew bigger and bigger, and the smoke gradually enveloped the entire village. Black ashes began to fall around us, and the air was filled with a burnt smell. Gradually, the smell of canned food was almost gone.
More than a dozen wounded Japanese soldiers, several Japanese medical soldiers, and several Japanese sentries were all killed and turned into corpses. Some died in their beds, some died on stretchers, some died at the door, and some died on the side of the road in the village. Almost all of them had no heads.
Liu Jianqiang led the second team to turn the village upside down, and then finished his work with great satisfaction and appeared beside the fire at the wellhead. However, screams could still be heard from the village from time to time, which made Hu Yi a little puzzled.
"Who's not finished yet?"
Liu Jianqiang was about to grab the can from the bear when he heard Hu Yi's question. He stopped secretly and replied, "It seems... Chen Chong and the others are still busy."
"Chen Chong?" Hu Yi finally remembered something. He ate the last bit of the canned food, wiped the bayonet clean, put it away, stood up and walked towards the source of the scream.
…
More than twenty wounded puppet soldiers were gathered in a yard, some lying on stretchers, some leaning on crutches and shivering.
Nine puppet soldiers stood around the wounded soldier, with bayonets hanging from the muzzles of their guns, revealing cold murderous intent.
Chen Chong's face, eyes, and temples were red. She asked the person lying on the ground fiercely, "Who participated in the sweep near this village? Point them out to me now!"
"Wow... I was just helping the Imperial Army... Uh no, I was helping the Japs drive carts and transport things. I really don't know, I really don't know!"
He kicked the wounded soldier hard, and the puppet soldier curled up in pain, struggling to breathe.
"Last chance!"
"Uh... wuwu... Second Battalion... Second Battalion has... helped here... wuwu..."
Chen Chong raised her twisted face and said, "Who is from the Second Battalion? Stand out now!"
A wounded soldier could not stand and suddenly fell down. Then two soldiers from the fourth squad rushed in, grabbed his feet and dragged him out into the yard.
The wounded man cried, his pants were soaked, and he kept mumbling: "Mercy...Mercy...Mercy..."
A soldier from the fourth squad suddenly jumped over and kicked the wounded man hard in the face, almost killing him on the spot: "Spare my life? I'll spare your ancestors! I'll spare you %￥#@! If I can't kill the Japs, I'll kill your whole family! I'll fucking kill your whole family! Even if you don't join the Eighth Route Army, I'll kill your whole family... %￥#@!" He gnashed his teeth and kicked, stepped on, stomped and kicked the puppet army wounded soldier who was unable to speak and was covering his face and twitching. No one came out to stop him.
Chen Chong didn't even bother to check whether the wounded on the ground had been kicked to death. Instead, he glanced at the collapsed wounded soldiers and continued to ask, "Who else is from the Second Battalion?"
A sound of footsteps appeared outside the courtyard wall slowly. Chen Chong turned her head to look at the gate and saw Hu Yi there.
The soldier who was kicking the wounded soldier's body stopped and lowered his head silently. Suddenly, a wet spot appeared on the ground in front of his feet, followed by another little bit, and then another little bit, gradually forming a small wet spot on the dry ground. His shoulders trembled, he didn't look up, and didn't say a word.
In that burning house were the soldier's entire family and the villagers that Chen Chong cared about. If they hadn't seen it, the hatred could still be buried, but as they were burning around them and turning into ashes, their hearts also turned to ashes.
Chen Chong knew that Hu Yi condoned the Ninth Platoon to massacre the Japanese, both wounded and prisoners, so Runny Nose led the Second Squad to kill some people, and Shi Cheng led the First Squad to chop off the heads of the Japanese as a sacrifice, but they did not kill the puppet army prisoners.
Hu Yi had not made any special request in this regard. The unspoken rule of the Ninth Platoon was to clean up the battlefield without leaving any burden, regardless of the Japanese or puppet troops. However, the Ninth Platoon was still lenient to the puppet troops who had surrendered voluntarily. He did not know what the platoon leader Hu Yi would think of what Chen Chong was doing with the Fourth Squad. He did not want to explain and was willing to take responsibility for everything.
The entire fourth squad fell silent. The desperate puppet army wounded soldiers realized that the gloomy puppet army officer who appeared at the gate was the leader of this group of Eighth Route Army. The first one to react knelt down on the spot and shouted for mercy, "Sir!" Then all the puppet wounded soldiers followed suit and knelt down, crying and shouting in the black smoke that drifted over the yard from time to time.
Hu Yi frowned, and finally stepped into the gate, came to the side of the puppet soldier curled up on the ground, and kicked him over. His face had been kicked to pieces and bloodshot, and he was already dead. Then he looked coldly at Chen Chong who was hanging her head and silent, and said coldly: "What the hell are you doing? Who are you showing off to?"
Chen Chong didn't dare to look into those cold, narrow eyes, and said in a sad voice: "No matter what, if they are from the Second Battalion, I have to find them out! Didn't the villagers beg for mercy from them at the beginning? They are accomplices! This is more cruel than the Japanese! They are not bastards at all! Today's incident has nothing to do with the Ninth Platoon. We did it ourselves. I can go back to the company..."
Before Chen Chong could finish her words, Hu Yi's foot reached her and kicked her, causing her to tumble out and fall with dust all over her face.
Suddenly the whole place fell silent. This scene finally stopped the wounded puppet soldiers from crying. They saw hope.
"You're not done yet? Do you expect the whole platoon to accompany you in this mess? Either do it or get out. I don't have time to accompany you to find the Second Battalion! Is the Second Battalion any good? Rubbish!" Hu Yi cursed loudly, turned around and walked out the door. Just after leaving the door, he stopped for a moment, turned back and added coldly: "Deal with those who have just been captured by the Third Squad!"
Chen Chong, lying on the ground with a pale face, was stunned until she came to her senses when she heard a series of collapse sounds nearby.
Ma Liang, who had been eavesdropping outside the courtyard wall, saw Hu Yi walking around the corner with a gloomy face, and hurriedly went to meet him. As Hu Yi walked, he asked, "Brother, not all of them..."
“As for.”
"What?"
"We are now behind the enemy, no more than thirty miles away from the western mopping-up line. If we want to escape alive under the banner of escorting grain, we should not leave any alive! Especially those who are escorting grain. After Chen Chong has dealt with them, you hide those ten bodies."
It turned out that they wanted to escape to the east. Ma Liang then realized that if they went east from here, they would reach the blockade line without any obstruction, right
"Brother, do you mean to cross the blockade?"
"Yes, let's go home, but the road is a bit far."
"Then I'll go and notify them to pack up now!" Ma Liang ran away excitedly.
The fog dissipated, and the thick smoke billowed. The smell faded a little, but black embers were still floating in the air. Screams were heard again from the small courtyard behind, but this time they lasted only a short time. Those sounds represented periods, not ellipsis...