Chapter 41: A Bottle of Wine in the Drawer

Chapter 41: There Is a Bottle of Wine in the Drawer

(I)

"Besides the radio, what else did they take? Could there be any Japanese soldiers still alive?" Li Yunlong asked.

Zhao Gang nodded and said, "It is very likely they took away a Japanese officer, though I don't know if he was dead or alive."

Guan Shan said with some regret, "Sigh! If only I hadn't been in such a rush to leave. If I had waited a little longer, I still had three hand grenades; I could have blown up a few more!"

"Enough out of you! Stop bragging!" Li Yunlong retorted. "You damn lucky bastard, you just stumbled upon a blind cat catching a dead mouse—no, not just one, a whole pile of dead mice! It's a good thing you didn't stay, or you'd be a dead man yourself!"

"That's right, Shanzi! You have no idea how formidable these Japanese soldiers are!" Zhao Gang sighed deeply and said, "In the mountains behind Chenjiayu..."

Before he could finish, Zhao Gang choked up. His face twisted with raw emotion. He took a few deep breaths, clenched his fists, and said, "I have never felt as useless as I do right now, damn it! Over a dozen soldiers, over a dozen!"

"Political Commissar! Hey, hey, Commissar, it's all my fault, all my fault!" Li Yunlong hurriedly stood up, grabbed Zhao Gang by the shoulders, and consoled him. "Old Zhao, if you hadn't risked your life to hold off those Japanese in the back mountains, if something had truly happened to the headquarters, my little victory over there wouldn't mean a damn thing!"

"That's not necessarily true either," Zhao Gang said, managing to regain some composure. "The Commander praised our spirit of taking the initiative and attacking as a form of defense."

"That's all fine and good!" Li Yunlong looked at Zhao Gang, then at Guan Shan, who was eating and drinking water nearby, and asked, "How should we report the details of this incident with young Shanzi tomorrow?"

"Details? What do you mean?" Zhao Gang didn't quite catch his drift.

Li Yunlong gestured emphatically and said, "We need to refine it, elevate it, you know? You're the scholar; you're good at this stuff!"

Seeing Zhao Gang's puzzled expression, Li Yunlong hurriedly explained, "Old Zhao, I don't mean we should deceive our superiors. Not at all. What I mean is this: look, at the battle of Yang Village, the Independent Regiment suffered a heavy blow from the Japanese, and morale is low. Although we pulled it back with the battles at Lijia Slope and Wild Wolf Valley, think about it, Old Zhao—how does the saying go? Ah, right: 'Rise from the place where you fell,' right?"

"You mean to use the elimination of those thirty-plus Japanese soldiers to boost the soldiers' morale?" Zhao Gang asked. "That's actually a bit different from what I was thinking. I was planning to approach it from the angle of 'knowing shame and thus becoming brave'."

"Don't do that! Old Zhao, I have to argue with you on this one!" Li Yunlong sat in his chair, hoisted his legs up, and said, "I've inspected the Japanese equipment: submachine guns, pistols, melon-shaped grenades, daggers—and the little backpacks everyone carries on their backs are like tiny, damn ammunition depots. Old Zhao, are soldiers like these just ordinary Japanese troops? No, they aren't!"

Zhao Gang nodded slowly.

"Look, Old Zhao, let's count on our fingers: in the entire Japanese army, how many units like this can there be? Even if they pushed it to the limit, they could have at most one battalion, and those would be hand-picked men, I'm telling you!" Li Yunlong said, his eyes widening.

(II)

In the operations room of the headquarters at Chenjiayu, the Commander and the Deputy Chief of Staff were listening to a detailed review of the battle.

"Report!"

"Come in!"

"Guan Shan, a communications soldier from the Independent Regiment, is here as ordered!"

Chen Bo finished speaking and stepped aside to let Guan Shan enter.

After entering, Guan Shan saw a room full of people he didn't recognize. Zhao Gang and Li Yunlong were both there, and a large bundle of Japanese officer swords lay on the table. Li Yunlong kept his head bowed; he had heard from Chen Bo on the way that the Brigade Commander had just scolded him over the phone for failing to report to Chenjiayu as ordered and instead going off to stage an ambush.

"Greetings, Commanders!" Guan Shan stood at attention and saluted the room. Then, he stole a glance at Zhao Gang and Li Yunlong, who were standing stiffly to the side, and whispered, "Regimental Commander, Political Commissar."

"Hahaha, let me see, let me see what this 'lucky general' looks like!" the Commander joked, a rare occurrence. The atmosphere in the operations room, which had been heavy enough to cut with a knife, instantly lightened.

"Guan Shan, this is the Commander," Chen Bo hurriedly introduced him.

"Greetings, Commander!" Guan Shan stood at attention and saluted.

"And this is the Deputy Chief of Staff!"

"Greetings, Commander!"

"Hey, you're quite efficient—one phrase covers everything, no need to memorize anything!" The Deputy Chief of Staff also joked to liven the mood. Everyone laughed, and even Li Yunlong cracked a grin.

"I heard that you, the person involved, were able to come, so I had them call you back. It's fortunate you were heading back with the unit; if you had just taken off running, I doubt even Chief of Staff Chen could have caught you on horseback!" The Commander seemed to be in a good mood; usually stern, he was cracking jokes repeatedly today.

Chen Bo brought over a tin mug and handed it to Guan Shan, following up on the Commander's words: "Commander, you're absolutely right. He really was running! I had to chase him all the way to Mopan Village to catch him! I asked him if he had some urgent business, and guess what this kid said? Hehe."

Li Yunlong looked at Zhao Gang, feeling a bit nervous. *Oh no,* he thought, *running off in such a hurry—he must have been rushing to see some young girl and got caught red-handed by Chen Bo!*