Chapter 1427: The First Battle

After some turbulence, the plane finally climbed above the cloud layer and flew steadily.

The tremendous noise did not dampen the cannon fodder's immense curiosity; they all vied to look out the window at the blue sky and the white clouds below, chattering and laughing as usual.

"Lord Wang, you're truly top-notch," Snake-Butt said, giving a thumbs-up. "We were all stunned just now. That was a Major! Not only did you hit him, you nearly tore down his ancestral hall, and you held a gun to his head. Awesome!"

"Are you not planning to go back?" Meng Fanle asked. "That Major didn't look like someone who would let matters rest. When we return, there will be no shortage of trouble."

"That depends on whether we can return first," Wang Yan said with a laugh, waving his hand. "What's so special about a Major? It's one thing to scoop up money usually, but even coveting a common soldier's watch—is he still human? If we really can return, I'll fight him to the end; let's see whose life is harder."

"Lord Wang, you are alone, while their Law Enforcement Squad has over a hundred men..." Kang Ya spoke up.

"Bu La, hit him for me."

Hearing Wang Yan's words, Bu La said nothing more and directly punched Kang Ya in the stomach with moderate force.

Wang Yan nodded in satisfaction: "You bastard, you know I'm alone? Didn't you think to shoulder a rifle and stand beside me? Damn it, were the cigarettes smoked in vain, the wine drunk in vain, the meat eaten in vain? 'Climb mountains of knives, plunge into seas of fire'—you said those words, didn't you?"

"No, Lord Wang, but we can't just rush off to die."

"You turtle-grandson, so lacking in ambition!" Bu La gave him another blow. "Fight! We'll fight! If we can return, Lord Wang, I'll listen to you. If that Major dares to cause trouble, we'll blow his bastard head off."

"Look at this, the meat wasn't eaten in vain," Wang Yan laughed.

So the group began chattering and boasting again; one wanted to smash the Major's head, another wanted to break the Major's thigh, and some even wanted to take on Yu Xiaoqing directly, saying they should pull down this man named Yu and let Wang Yan become the regimental commander of the Sichuan Army Regiment, and so on.

"Enough, boasting a little is fine, but I wonder when real trouble comes, whether you'll dare to step up."

Wang Yan scolded them with a laugh, and everyone turned back to watching the clouds outside, speaking words that would sound naive a hundred years later...

Soon, the pilot came out and said a few useless things; Fanla rattled off a few words of foreign language.

At this moment, Bu La shouted loudly: "Planes! Planes! They've caught up, hahaha..."

Fanla took one look, then immediately turned back and urgently shouted to that foreign pilot: "Japanese fighter! Japanese fighter!"

The pilot hurriedly ran back to his seat and, together with the captain, maneuvered the plane to evade.

The aircraft they were riding was a transport plane; it carried no weapons and was not as fast as the Japanese fighters.

Before long, bullets poured down; the pilot who had just been speaking was riddled with holes like a sieve, the plane's fuel tank was blown up, and within the blink of an eye, it began to plummet rapidly.

The other pilot, still retaining some sanity, struggled to control the plane, hoping to achieve the safest possible landing.

Amidst this world-spinning turmoil, Wang Yan sat steadily beside Fanla and the Veterinarian. He had wanted to try saving them, but seeing the plane's condition, he was basically certain the situation was beyond redemption; even if he took over, he could not have done better than the current pilot.

With no power and the fuselage disintegrating, twenty or thirty people still managed to land safely. None died from the crash itself; all deaths were caused earlier by bullets from the fighter penetrating their bodies. This result was already quite good.

Thus, Wang Yan honestly maintained his position, waiting for the plane's semi-safe landing.

In just a moment, the plane crashed down; the pilot gritted his teeth, gripping the controls to maintain flight attitude. Immediately followed violent shaking of the fuselage as it touched ground, rumbling forward as it skidded. Then, accompanied by the creaking sounds of shattered mechanical structures and rolling dust, it finally came to a steady stop.

"Everyone up, those who aren't dead get out quickly," Wang Yan shouted, kicking open the cabin door and climbing out.

"Don't, Lord Wang, jumping down will kill us!"

"Are you stupid? We've already landed! Hurry! If the plane explodes, all of us brothers will be done for here."

The crowd scrambled out of the plane. The team then dragged the pilots out; since they were beyond saving, everyone dug a pit and buried them.

As for the pilots' pistols, they ended up in Wang Yan's hands, rather than being given to A Yi as in the original drama.

A Yi currently cannot even hold a gun properly!

"Lord Wang, what do we do? We can't make sense of this map." Fanla studied the map for a while. "We can't even tell north from south; who knows where eleven-thirty is?"

"Over there." Wang Yan pointed in a direction. "They said nine kilometers?"

"Eight and a half kilometers."

"Then it's not far; we can get there in less than two days."

Bu La laughed heartily: "Nine kilometers? We can cover that in a few hours; why would it take two days?"

"Hey!"

At this moment, a relaxed greeting sounded. Everyone followed the sound and froze in shock.

Japanese!

There was a short dwarf carrying a rifle, muttering gibberish as he approached to survey the situation.

The cannon fodder just stared blankly, unsure what action to take.

When that little Japanese devil reached their side, Wang Yan raised his hand, curled his four fingers, and struck the enemy's throat with his knuckles.

A crisp crack was heard; the little Japanese devil's throat shattered, and he was instantly dead.

Wang Yan lifted the corpse and removed the Type 38 rifle slung over the Japanese soldier's shoulder. Fanla and the others quickly scrambled up, wanting to strip the body.

With his hands now free, Wang Yan racked the bolt to chamber a round with a click, then kicked Mi Long angrily: "Damn it, scatter quickly! Do you think a Japanese devil comes out alone? Hide the body, everyone get behind the plane! Hurry! A Yi! What the hell are you standing there for?"

While speaking, he kicked A Yi and pulled him backward to take cover.

Snapped to attention by Wang Yan's shouts, the cannon fodder quickly lifted the Japanese soldier, ran behind the plane to scatter, and only then began searching the body.

Mi Long pulled the bullets from the Japanese soldier's pocket, hurried to Wang Yan's side, and prepared to supply ammunition.

Glancing over, there were roughly twenty-plus rounds; Wang Yan took several into his hand for rapid reloading.

The cannon fodder scattered nervously around, lying prone on the ground, awaiting an unknown fate.

"How many do you think there are?" Dou Bing asked.

Fanla pondered for a moment and replied: "Probably just a small squad, ten-plus people. The noise of the plane crash earlier must have been too loud, attracting them; this Japanese soldier ran ahead to scout."

Just so, after a moment of silence, more than ten Japanese soldiers emerged from the nearby jungle, separated left and right, staggered front and back, holding their rifles.

As they walked, they called out to each other, raising their guns to guard against their surroundings.

They were not stupid; the plane was right here, and their comrade had come to check it. Now that they had all arrived but saw no sign of their companion, clearly something was wrong.

Wang Yan peeked from behind the plane, pulled the trigger, and with a bang, one Japanese soldier fell.

The trajectory was off to the left!

After that first shot, Wang Yan basically calibrated the trajectory. He then rapidly worked the bolt, firing four consecutive shots—bang, bang, bang, bang—emptying the Type 38's magazine and taking down five more on the opposite side.

At the first gunshot, the remaining Japanese soldiers alertly tried to locate the source and instinctively fired back in this direction; but after the subsequent four shots, they began a frantic retreat.

Wang Yan quickly loaded the bullets in his hand, grabbed another dozen from Mi Long, and dashed out clutching the rifle.

"Grab weapons, fast!"

he shouted, firing as he pursued the little Japanese devils. After dropping three more, the remaining little Japanese devils successfully hid in the jungle, protected by the trees.

Yet they had no chance to catch their breath; over a distance of more than a hundred meters, Wang Yan had already sprinted over and was hot on their heels...

By the time the cannon fodder arrived with their guns, they saw Wang Yan already looting the corpses.

"What the hell are you all standing there gawking for? Put on whatever fits, take everything you can carry," Wang Yan cursed. "Move faster! The little Japanese don't operate in isolated squads; other squads must be nearby. Gunfire here means reinforcements will arrive immediately."

So everyone quickly scattered, with some running back to loot the corpses.

Fan La pulled on a jacket and watched Wang Yan stuffing bullet pouches onto his body: "Lord Wang, did you always fight like this in the past?"

"More or less."

"And fighting like that, you never got promoted?" Fan La's eyes widened in shock.

Kang Ya, swapping into Japanese military boots and putting on a watch, chimed in: "That's right, Lord Wang, your marksmanship is incredible; every shot hits home, every bullet kills. You're amazingly skilled."

"Am I not a second lieutenant and platoon leader?" Wang Yan asked counter-intuitively, puzzled. "Isn't a platoon leader an officer?"

"No, someone like me has already made it to company commander; how is it that you're still..."

Wang Yan waved his hand and said with a smile: "There are many reasons. For one, the terrain; I fought from north to south, mostly on plains, in trench defense battles and large-scale confrontations involving thousands or even tens of thousands. No matter how awesome I was, how many could I kill? At most, at most, I could only lead a platoon to take out a company.

Then, while I fought fiercely on my flank, the rest were defeated, the frontline collapsed, and my unit was encircled from behind. Tell me, what could we do? Run, of course; we couldn't just wait to die, could we? But once we ran, our merits ran away with us, didn't they?

After I recovered from my wounds and was reorganized, I ended up in a new unit. What difference is there between broken soldiers like me and us now? Do you think they would give us important roles? We were all thrown onto the battlefield as cannon fodder. Then we'd fight again, fight fiercely again, the frontline would be broken by the little Japanese again, and I'd flee in defeat again. Repeating this over and over, it's already not bad that I could become a platoon leader."

A Yi spoke up from the side: "That's just bad luck on your part; otherwise, in situations like that, you should have at least become a battalion commander, a field officer by now."

"Are field officers any use?" Mi Long, having put on a pair of trousers, said irritably. "Let me ask you, is a major any use? Bullshit! Surviving on the battlefield depends on real skill. My brother isn't a field officer, but does that mean you, a battalion commander, don't listen to him, is that it?"

"I..." A Yi stammered, ultimately unable to say anything.

Because he truly dared not disobey, and because Wang Yan had already proven his correctness through combat prowess and insight.

Wang Yan shook his head with amusement: "Alright, stop your 'I's. Here's a gun for your self-defense; don't play with the long rifles for now. Be careful, don't let it discharge accidentally."

"Yes!" A Yi responded happily; he had a gun!

Wang Yan turned to look at Bu La, who was fiddling with a gun: "Now do you understand why we have to walk for two days?"

"I get it now; I've spent so long at the collection station that I forgot the little Eastern Oceaners aren't easy to fight, haha." Bu La was still smiling. "Lord Wang, you're truly awesome; I'm convinced."

"What, does that mean you weren't convinced before?" Wang Yan scolded with a laugh, delivering a moderate kick.

Everyone chuckled, but their hands and feet were nimble; in less than five minutes, they had secured all the resources of this full-strength squad.

In total, they captured eight Type 38 rifles, one light machine gun, one submachine gun, five Nambu self-defense pistols, several grenades and rounds of ammunition, and four watches. There were also some simple first-aid supplies and individual rations.

Wang Yan, Fan La, Snake Butt, Kang Ya, Li Wula, and others each took a rifle. Yes, Li Wula had also followed Wang Yan onto the plane and survived, instead of boarding a second plane as in the original drama, only to be tortured to death by the little Japanese devils practicing their marksmanship.

Mi Long strongly insisted that he was a machine gunner, so the light machine gun was handed to him, while Dou Bing, who had always stuck close behind him, became the loader.

The machine gun was a treasure, an ancestor; in this Japanese squad's configuration, four men served one gun. Mi Long's setup wasn't much different; besides Dou Bing, there was another unnamed soldier serving it.

Taking this opportunity, the team took roll call; including Wang Yan himself, there were thirty-four people. There had been over fifty when boarding the plane; twenty or so had been mowed down by Japanese fighter planes, and a few more after the crash died because they were in bad positions.

A Yi asked: "Lord Wang, what do we do next?"

"Run, of course; the little Eastern Oceaners will be here any minute, we..."

Wang Yan slapped Bu La on the shoulder: "Fight!"

"Fight?" the Veteran Doctor asked.

Mi Long wore a look of disgust: "Look at the sorry state of you all. My brother alone wiped out a whole squad of Japanese devils. We now have eight long rifles, one light machine gun, plus pistols, and enough ammunition for a fight. Even if two more squads come, we won't fear them. Let's kill them all!"

"That makes sense," Fan La expressed his agreement.

"Also, there are those brothers still in the plane; we can't abandon them." Wang Yan looked at the Veteran Doctor. "Old Sir, we rushed out earlier and didn't attend to the brothers. You take those without guns back, get everyone out, and assess their injuries. Those severely wounded surely won't make it; give them a quick end, dig a hole, and bury them all."

"Alright, I'll go then. You all be careful; we'll wait at the plane." The Veteran Doctor didn't dawdle; he agreed and immediately left with those without guns.

Wang Yan assigned positions to everyone and instructed: "Everyone knows the three-man tactic, right? Even if you don't, it doesn't matter; it just means three people covering each other, observing all directions. Scatter and arrange yourselves; there are exactly twelve of you. Hold this position; don't let them break through. I'll go hide over there. Once you hear my gunshot, open fire. If you hear no sound, absolutely do not shoot.

I estimate there are two more squads nearby; let's try to annihilate them all. That way, all our brothers will have weapons and some combat capability. Alright, that's it, scatter, scatter!"

With that, Wang Yan grabbed his Type 38 rifle and dashed out, vanishing into the jungle in the blink of an eye...

"A god among men," Fan La sighed with emotion.

Bu La also wore a look of reverence: "Without Lord Wang, who knows how many of us would have died just now."

"Enough, stop spouting useless nonsense, scatter quickly." Mi Long waved his hand, took Dou Bing, grabbed Li Wula, and left.

Fan La and the others also scattered to set up ambushes.

The jungle returned to an eerie silence...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who generously donate, cast monthly votes, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support!

? (End of Chapter)