Chapter 151: Open Fire!

Under the slanting rays of the morning sun, a solitary watchtower stood proudly atop the ancient city wall. Yet, the sunset brought no warmth; the howling wind said it all, biting and bitterly uncomfortable. Right in front of this watchtower stood two figures, a man and a woman. The man wore a Japanese military uniform, complete with a steel helmet and a sabre at his waist, clearly an officer of high rank. The woman, bound tightly with thick ropes, wore an expression of profound despair.

This was none other than Yamamoto Ichiro and Xiuqin, and the force they faced was the artillery of the Eighth Route Army positioned below!

"Yamamoto! If you damn well are a real soldier, walk down here and face me! Stop using a woman as a bloody shield!" Standing directly in front of the Italian-made artillery piece his troops had just captured, Li Yunlong roared furiously at Yamamoto Ichiro atop the watchtower.

Up on the watchtower, Yamamoto Ichiro kept the tightly bound Xiuqin by his side, hoping to use her as a bargaining chip to secure a safe passage for his retreating troops.

"Li-san! I have only one request. I hope you can order your men to open a path and allow my subordinates to return safely! In exchange, your wife's life will be spared. As for me! You may deal with me however you wish. If I break this oath, may the Sun Goddess bring down her wrath upon me!"

Yamamoto spoke in heavily accented Chinese, with no interpreter by his side.

"Talk is cheap, you bastard! Yamamoto! We are professional soldiers! Don't throw this bullshit at me! You've only got two choices now: either you crawl out and surrender, or I'll blow you and your men to pieces and feed you to the dogs!"

"Li-san! Since 1937, have you ever seen a soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army surrender voluntarily?! Even if I, Yamamoto Ichiro, must shatter like jade, I will never do such a thing! Your wife is right here, and your enemy—myself—is at your mercy! Think it over, Li-san!"

Yamamoto's terms were still quite calculated; knowing he could not escape, he merely hoped to salvage the seeds of his special operations unit so they could carry on. He was a soldier through and through.

"Fire the cannon!" Stung by the provocation, Li Yunlong flew into a rage and prepared to pull the lanyard himself.

"Commander! Commander! You can't fire!" At that critical moment, Monk Wei rushed forward and threw his arms around Li Yunlong's knees, dropping to the ground.

"Commander! Let the brothers charge one more time! Let me lead the boys in for another charge! If I don't rescue Sister-in-law Xiuqin, I won't come back! I swear I won't come back, Commander!" Baoqiang spoke in his thick Hebei Xingtai dialect, delivering lines so emotional they brought tears to the eyes.

"No! I cannot let my brothers risk their lives for my woman!" Naturally, Li Yunlong could not agree.

"Commander! You can't fire! You really can't fire!" This time it wasn't just Baoqiang; Chief of Staff Xing and Zhang Dabiao hurried over as well.

If they couldn't fire, what else could they do?

Right at that moment, Sister-in-law Xiuqin raised her voice from the top of the watchtower, "Li Yunlong! I, Xiuqin, am a member of the Li family in life and a ghost of the Li family in death! Fire the cannon, you spineless coward! If you don't fire, you're nothing but a coward!"

"Ah!" Realizing that Xiuqin had no intention of living, Yamamoto Ichiro immediately raised his sabre.

"Fire!" Li Yunlong himself pulled the artillery lanyard!

Boom! With a deafening roar, the watchtower... remained standing.

Naturally, this wasn't the actual destruction of the watchtower yet. There was an explosion, a carefully choreographed mini-explosion with precisely measured gunpowder designed not to harm anyone, yet powerful enough to create a convincing illusion of immense destructive force.

This scene was essentially a sequence Wu Xiang had edited together from previously shot footage to give everyone a preview. Digital cameras made editing possible, but the equipment required wasn't cheap.

The primary issue of the era was the exorbitant cost of hard drives. Compared to later generations, hard drives then were astronomical in price, offering pitifully small capacities while costing a fortune. A television series, especially in high-definition format, generated massive amounts of data. Completing a series required at least tens of thousands of gigabytes of storage, forcing Wu Xiang to edit the footage in batches.

As it turned out, even high-tech gear didn't necessarily save money!

The sequence they had just filmed—Li Yunlong and Yamamoto's ultimate showdown—had turned out exceptionally well. Lu Peng's portrayal of Yamamoto, in particular, was spot-on, requiring almost no retakes. Wu Xiang was thoroughly satisfied. However, the emotional weight of the scene...

"Wuwuwu..." Baoqiang was weeping uncontrollably, crying so miserably. "Brother, why do all these plays end up like this? I never expected it would turn out this way. Why couldn't they let Sister-in-law Xiuqin live? It hurts so much, it hurts!"

The young man was utterly pure-hearted, and precisely because of that purity, his performance had been overwhelmingly genuine.

In truth, it wasn't just Baoqiang; everyone else's eyes were glistening with moisture. Anyone watching that scene would feel a tightening in their throat.

"Qiangzi, you did a great job, really good. Keep going like this, and you're bound to succeed." Wu Xiang didn't over-explain, simply offering words of comfort. Most of the crew consisted of seasoned professionals who knew how to adjust their emotions independently.

"I wasn't acting! I wasn't acting!" Baoqiang cried so hard his nose was running.

"I know, I know." Wu Xiang could certainly tell. "You weren't acting, yet you were acting. That's the highest form of acting, understand?"

"I don't understand!" Baoqiang refused to give face.

"Fine, if you don't understand, you don't understand." But Wu Xiang was now certain that when they filmed the scene where Li Yunlong visited Xiuqin's grave, he wouldn't need to say much at all—Qiangzi would undoubtedly cry even harder.

In fact, Wu Xiang had streamlined a lot of the dialogue in this segment, cutting out the unnecessary dragging and even removing the interpreter character from the original version. Sometimes, to truly move an audience, less melodrama was more powerful. While the older version had been a massive success, this new version possessed an even more striking impact!

With Xiuqin's scenes concluded, Wu Xiang told Ni Ni she could head back to rest. Ni Ni, however, replied that she had nothing better to do anyway and preferred to stay on set to watch them film.

How could Wu Xiang chase her away? If she wanted to stay, she was welcome to stay.

Once the scenes involving the watchtower on the city wall were finished, the structure itself had to be blown up; it needed to be completely reduced to rubble. To be honest, the set design for this location had cost Wu Xiang a considerable sum. This section of the city wall was pre-existing, maintained by the local county town, alongside a few pseudo-antiqued buildings. It could be considered a minor filming location, though not quite a full-fledged studio.

The watchtower alone had cost over 800,000 yuan to build and modify. Who would ever dare let you blow up a genuine ancient architectural heritage site? Even if they permitted it, Wu Xiang wouldn't dare; doing so would brand him with eternal infamy.

Furthermore, for the pyrotechnics, they had hired highly experienced demolition experts from the August First Film Studio. Their methods were extremely reliable; the explosions looked terrifyingly realistic yet carried virtually no actual destructive power. But this time would be different.

With a thunderous explosion!

The makeshift watchtower built atop the city wall instantly dissolved into rubble. The blast carried substantial force, and before detonation, thorough checks had been conducted to ensure no one was anywhere near the danger zone.

For camera angles, they used one wide shot and one overhead shot. The wide shot was positioned behind Li Yunlong, while the overhead shot was achieved by renting a crane.

Equipment like that was cheap; renting it for a day cost a mere thousand or so yuan. Toss the driver a pack of good cigarettes, and the job was done.

Of course, this wasn't Hengdian, so conditions were somewhat more rudimentary. They literally hoisted Ning Hao up into the air—just him and a camera.

"Hey Xiangzi, did you buy life insurance for me?"

"I bought insurance for the camera, so you can go with peace of mind!"

"Screw your ancestors!"...

That was the parting banter between Ning Hao and Wu Xiang before being 'hanged' aloft, giving off an unmistakable air of tragic melancholy...

With that scene wrapped up, it moved on to Wu Xiang's favorite part: mounted cavalry combat!

"Cavalry company! Charge!"

"Cavalry company! Charge!"...

These weren't shouted by just one person. Wu Xiang yelled first, and Jiang Shui, playing Sun Desheng, echoed the cry. Even before filming started, they had to project that raw intensity through their voices.

What kind of intensity? Hoarseness, a hoarseness pushed to absolute extremes!

Jiang Shui was a remarkably talented actor, though at the time he possessed no fame whatsoever, nor had he graduated from a prestigious drama academy. His appearance was somewhat intimidating, but he was easy to find—he regularly hung around the gates of the Beijing Film Studio, waiting for scouts to pick him as an extra.

Regarding the role of the cavalry company commander, Wu Xiang had told him simply: play the part well, and you will make a name for yourself. Though the screen time was limited, he had to pour everything into it.

And pour everything into it he did, shouting until his face turned red and the veins in his neck bulged, which, combined with his makeup, looked genuinely terrifying.

"Alright! Action!" Wu Xiang waited until Jiang Shui's voice had been tortured from a baritone into a hoarse, ragged roar before finally feeling satisfied.

"Got it!" Jiang Shui possessed impressive physical agility, leaping onto his horse without a trace of hesitation. To prepare for this role, he had spent countless hours learning from the cavalry battalion soldiers.

"Episode 7, Scene 18!" Shen Yuxing clapped the slate.

"Action!"

"Cavalry company! Charge!" Jiang Shui roared.

"Ooh-ooh-ooh!"... The cavalrymen surged forward valiantly.

Clatter, clatter... The two opposing horse troops quickly collided in a head-on charge, brushing past each other in a blur!

Numerous riders tumbled from their saddles, never to rise again.

"Cut! Clear the field." Since they were still filming in this location, the fallen riders had to get up. Otherwise, someone might get trampled in the subsequent mounted charges, and anyone injured needed medical attention.

"Action!" Back on the horses for another take.

"Cavalry company! Charge!!" As the ranks thinned out, Jiang Shui's roar grew even more powerful.

"Charge!" Facing death without a backward glance, not a single man retreated or fell behind!

Clatter, clatter... A handful of horses charged toward the dense mass of Japanese cavalry, and the inevitable outcome followed...

Riders fell, horses collapsed, until finally, only Sun Desheng remained standing alone!

"Cut! Bring out the makeup department!"

According to the script, Sun Desheng had lost an arm by this point, which naturally required some visual modification since they couldn't actually sever a limb for the sake of art.

The method was actually quite simple: tuck the arm that was supposed to be missing behind the back and bind it with gauze. However, Jiang Shui's physique was somewhat robust, boasting excessively well-developed muscles, which made the concealment rather tricky.

"Look at you, why did you have to grow such massive shoulders?" Wu Xiang teased Jiang Shui, who was struggling to strip off his coat.

"Director Wu, your shoulders aren't bad either. Want to compare sometime?" Jiang Shui was immensely confident in his physique, spending his downtime between acting gigs working out at the gym.

"As if I'd be scared of you!" Wu Xiang was in similarly good shape, but he had business to attend to. "Old Jiang, here's the deal. Since you're missing an arm, you need to simulate that physical state—you need to shake. On one hand, it's due to blood loss; on the other, given the battlefield conditions, by the time the fighting reaches this point, the human body is flooded with massive amounts of adrenaline. You're hyped up!"

"Well, how am I supposed to just conjure that up? I can shake, sure." That was the truth; physical autonomic responses were notoriously difficult to control consciously.

"Want to try a trick?" A peculiar smile crept across Wu Xiang's face. Anyone familiar with him knew that expression meant he was cooking up another one of his devious ideas—though Jiang Shui had no way of knowing that yet.

"Sure!"

"Alright! Bring out the Red Bull!" Wu Xiang had prepared ahead of time—a whole case of the blue-can variety.

"..." Only then did Jiang Shui realize this director was exceptionally wicked; was this a trap?

No choice now—drink up!

Glug, glug, glug... He chugged the cans down rapidly, but that wasn't the end of it!

"Ah!" Jiang Shui let out a sharp cry as a basin of cold water was dumped straight over him in the freezing late-December cold. How could he not shake after that?!

After dressing Jiang Shui back up, Wu Xiang's scheme was finally complete.

"Done! Get on your horse now! You won't even need to force the shaking!"

"Fine!" His physical state matched Wu Xiang's exact specifications—embodying the adrenaline-fueled, slightly frantic, and feverish condition of the battlefield.

"Cavalry company! Cha... rge!!"

With his body and face smeared in blood, riding alone on a single horse, Sun Desheng raised his sabre and charged directly into the sea of enemies under the glowing sunset!

"Wuwuwu..." Watching from the sidelines, Baoqiang burst into tears once again, completely unaware of why he was crying. It was obviously fake!