Chapter 112: The Infant Under the Bayonet

The three men turned their heads and saw a man and a woman running. The man wore a short shirt and held the woman’s hand, while the woman was in a cheongsam with a modest slit, running slowly. A short distance away, several Japanese soldiers were in pursuit.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and the man collapsed instantly. The woman shrieked and tripped to the ground. "Jiexin!" she cried, crawling to his side, cradling his head, and calling his name through her tears. The street was empty, save for the lonely corpse lying nearby. A gentle breeze blew, scattering leaves onto the body and covering the man's wide-open eyes.

Wei Liang and his two companions instinctively ducked into an alleyway. The Japanese soldiers finally caught up. One of them let out a howl and drove his bayonet into the fallen man. Blood splattered everywhere as he stabbed repeatedly. The man’s body twitched weakly. Two other soldiers cackled as they grabbed the woman and began tearing at her clothes.

Su Ming gritted his teeth. "Animals!"

Wei Liang shifted his feet, ready to charge out. "Wait," Li Banchuan stopped him.

A gunshot suddenly echoed. The soldier who had been stabbing the corpse slumped to the ground. The other two soldiers pushed the woman aside and scrambled for cover, searching for the source of the shot. More Japanese soldiers came running, and the trio slowly retreated.

As they reached a doorway, Su Ming suddenly felt a lightness behind him. "Get in here quickly!" a voice hissed.

The three men darted inside. The person who had let them in was a gray-haired old man in a long gown, sporting a long beard. As he locked the door behind them, he urged, "There is a cellar in the back. Hide there quickly."

The three men looked at each other. "Old sir, you should hide too; don't worry about us," Su Ming said gently. He had his phone strapped to his chest, unable to see the comments streaming in from his broadcast.

"My life is nearly over anyway," the old man shook his head. "You are still young. When the Japanese come, I will lead them away."

"No need. We came here specifically to kill them!" Wei Liang declared. Li Banchuan remained silent, his heart heavy with complex emotions. After several refusals, the old man insisted they hide. The sound of Japanese footsteps could already be heard outside.

Wei Liang suddenly grabbed the old man and forcibly pushed him into the cellar he had mentioned. He froze when he saw inside: in the cramped space, two men and a woman were already hiding, looking up in terror.

"Take good care of him; we will draw the soldiers away," Wei Liang said in a low voice. He slammed the cellar cover shut. Turning to Li Banchuan and Su Ming, he said, "We need to find a way to lure them off, then stage an ambush to get some weapons."

Su Ming nodded firmly. The scene he had just witnessed weighed heavily on him, but he was not afraid to die.

"I speak Japanese," Li Banchuan said suddenly.

"How well?" Wei Liang asked.

"Well enough that there won't be any problems," Li Banchuan replied. His goal was to earn points. Having decided to abandon that precarious island, he wanted to build a good relationship with these two. Moreover, the sights and experiences of the day had left him with emotions he couldn't put into words.

The three peered through the cracks in the door. The small detachment of soldiers had moved on, but three remained, using their rifles to smash open doors one by one. Two of them were the same ones who had chased the man and woman. Su Ming looked further down the street and saw the woman lying on the ground, drenched in blood.

From the room next door, an infant’s cry suddenly broke out, followed by a man’s roar, which was silenced in an instant. Then, only the woman’s screams remained.

The three men exchanged glances and pushed the door open. It was left ajar, as if the soldiers were not worried about anyone intruding. Li Banchuan immediately saw the man lying dead on the ground, his eyes still open in protest. One soldier hoisted his bayonet, which was skewered through an infant still wrapped in its swaddling clothes. Blood had soaked the cloth red. As Li Banchuan watched, the blood-stained bundle slowly slid off the blade. The soldier dropped his bayonet and used his foot to pry the infant off the steel.

The woman on the other side watched in despair, her eyes devoid of light. Two soldiers were pinning her to the ground...

Wei Liang’s eyes turned bloodshot. Su Ming’s breathing grew ragged. In the broadcast room, the audience was in an uproar, but with his phone strapped to his chest, Su Ming could not see their curses. Li Banchuan instinctively clenched his fists. *These men have brought nothing but shame upon us,* he thought with resentment. He had always believed that the right and wrong of war were written by the victors, but this behavior...

"Baka!" he stepped out, shouting in Japanese, "Who is your superior? Who gave you permission to act like this?"

The soldier who had just kicked the infant off his bayonet was startled and instinctively turned to salute. The hierarchy in their military was strict, and hearing this tone, he assumed he was facing an officer. But just as he turned, he received a solid slap across the face!

"Baka! Why don't you answer when I ask you a question!"

As he spoke, Li Banchuan snatched the soldier's rifle and kicked him. The other two soldiers, busy adjusting their uniforms, looked on in terror. Li Banchuan raised the rifle.

Bang! Bang!

Two shots rang out, and the pair fell to the ground. One was hit in the left chest, the other in the abdomen. Color finally returned to the woman's eyes. She let out an angry scream, rolled over, and bit into the neck of the soldier shot in the abdomen. The soldier shrieked in agony, trying to pull her away, but she only wailed and refused to let go.

Rip!

In a panic, the soldier grabbed his dagger and plunged it into the woman’s heart. Only then did she slowly release her grip. The soldier clutched his throat with both hands, gasping as blood sprayed out like a fountain. His throat had been severed.

"You little bastards, I'll kill you!" Su Ming roared, rushing forward to rain punches and kicks on the soldier. Wei Liang, his face cold, grabbed a rifle and drove a bayonet into the soldier who had been slapped and disarmed by Li Banchuan and was still standing there in a daze.

The three men stood in silence, their hearts heavy. They had broken out of Cangyun Ridge and fought in the Battle of Ping'an County; even in fierce hand-to-hand combat, they had never felt like this.

*A soldier should protect his country and expand its borders, not bully the weak!* Li Banchuan thought to himself. Even though he was also Japanese, he felt that what they were doing was inhuman.

"Let's go. With the sound of gunfire, others will be here soon," Wei Liang said.

"Wait," Li Banchuan stopped them. The other two looked at him.

Li Banchuan pointed to the three corpses. "How many can we really kill doing guerrilla warfare? Why don't we put on their uniforms and infiltrate their command post to take out some big fish?"

"That’s true," Wei Liang nodded. "The higher the rank, the more points we get."

"We could blow up their ammunition depot," Su Ming said, eager for action.

"But what if we're discovered?" Wei Liang asked.

"Death is the worst that can happen!" Su Ming said, holding his head high.

"Stay close to me. My Japanese is excellent," Li Banchuan said.

"That's right! The way you spoke earlier, I would have thought you were one of them if I didn't know better!" Su Ming exclaimed.

Li Banchuan said nothing.