Chapter 45: The Reason I Must Go to Jinling. If I Cannot Return, Then I Shall Never Return

"Good grief!" Su Changqing's junior schoolmate touched the pork carcass, which had been pierced with a large hole, and said with great excitement.

The triangular bayonet, designed and refined by Su Changqing, perfectly adapted to the modified version of the M1910 Mosin-Nagant rifle, making it much better suited to the physical stature of the Great Xia soldiers.

During close-quarters combat with the enemy, it would allow Great Xia soldiers to better unleash their capabilities.

Although in the era of firearms, the proportion of close combat involving cold weapons was not high, this did not mean that bayonet fighting was completely useless.

After all, on the battlefield, when a fight reached its climax, it might ultimately come down to a duel of cold weapons.

Whoever could gain the upper hand would be the one to survive.

"And this too!"

"These are the assassination techniques I've compiled over this period. I call this style of close combat the 'Liberation Thrust'. As long as our soldiers can master the Liberation Thrust, they will never fall behind when engaging in bayonet fights with the Japanese devils in the future."

With these words, Su Changqing handed the small compiled booklet in his hand to his junior from the fifth cohort of the Whampoa Military Academy—Chief of Staff Song.

This Liberation Thrust technique originated in 1948, when instructors at the Northern Military and Political University compared and researched the actual combat close-combat maneuvers of our army, the Eastern Ocean army, and the Polar Bear army. They further integrated traditional Great Xia martial arts techniques, combined them with the experience and specialized strengths of our army, and compiled a combat technique named the "Liberation Thrust."

Due to the unique combined structure of the rifle and bayonet, bayonet techniques, compared to other traditional martial arts spear and sword techniques, incorporated several distinctive auxiliary techniques of their own, such as rifle-butt side strikes and ammunition-clip strikes.

It ranked alongside shooting, grenade throwing, demolition, and field engineering as one of the "Five Major Techniques" of our army's infantry.

The Liberation Thrust was a martial art created by the Great Xia soldiers—a genuine Great Xia martial art tested by the blood of Great Xia soldiers on the battlefield, refined through relentless tempering of their close-combat skills.

Its movements were swift and efficient, entirely devoid of any superfluous display; it was a true battlefield technique for life-and-death combat.

Chief of Staff Song took the booklet handed over by Su Changqing and read through it carefully.

A hard-to-conceal joy welled up within his eyes.

"Senior... Commander, where did you get all these assassination techniques?"

"Why haven't I ever heard you mention them before?"

"Every single one of these close-combat techniques is lethal and extraordinarily practical."

Hearing Chief of Staff Song's inquiry, Su Changqing touched his nose.

Where did they come from?

Naturally, they came from the system.

However, Su Changqing certainly could not tell Chief of Staff Song about the system.

Even if he told him, he probably would never believe it.

"These are the summary of my experiences over the years, integrating numerous close-combat techniques. If you have the soldiers train according to this, it will yield twice the result with half the effort."

From the triangular bayonet to the Liberation Thrust, everything Su Changqing brought out possessed extreme practicality.

These were the preliminary preparations he was making for future engagements with the elite troops of the Japanese devils.

"Junior Song!"

"Following the conclusion of the Xi'an Incident, the Azure Sky Party has, under pressure, agreed to a truce with our Party to jointly counter the Japanese invasion."

"To resist foreign aggression!"

"Our army will likely undergo a new round of reorganization."

"Seeing this situation, I imagine the Eastern Ocean people will not sit still either."

"I predict that by July at the latest, the Japanese devils will be the first to launch an attack against our army in the Lugou Bridge area."

"By then!"

"An all-out war will erupt rapidly."

"If I am not mistaken, the Japanese devils will rapidly advance upon the Northern Xia region."

"At the same time, they will choose to launch another amphibious landing operation from the Shanghai region."

"Launching the Songhu Battle and pressing upon Nanjing..."

"With the intent to force a surrender..."

Su Changqing walked forward while analyzing the impending situation and changes with his junior.

Once the war began!

Su Changqing would request the headquarters leadership to lead troops in supporting Nanjing.

As for the construction of the Wutai Mountain base and the heavy responsibility of maneuvering against the Japanese devils, it would mostly fall upon the shoulders of his junior here.

"Senior, do you mean to say that you want to go to Nanjing?"

"To withdraw twenty thousand troops from the base and deploy them in the direction of Nanjing?"

"But why?"

"The Wutai Mountain base and the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei region are also crucial."

"We can fight the Japanese devils just as well from within the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base area."

Chief of Staff Song no longer addressed Su Changqing as senior at this moment, asking with extreme puzzlement.

Su Changqing merely shook his head, "Junior."

"You don't understand!"

Su Changqing sighed; he did not know how to explain everything that was about to happen.

After all, if he were to speak of the Nanjing Massacre at this moment, how many people would believe it?

If he had transmigrated into this world yet could not change anything about the Nanjing Massacre, then what would be the point of this transmigration journey?

Three hundred thousand—three hundred thousand unarmed civilians of Nanjing City.

To die miserably under the butcher knives of the Japanese devils, yet do nothing despite knowing it would happen—Su Changqing felt like giving himself a couple of fierce slaps across the face.

Even without a hundred percent certainty of preserving the lives in that city, Su Changqing was willing to wager his own life to try, to fight for it.

Even if he were to die in battle at Nanjing!

He would have no regrets left.

"Junior, I keep having the same dream lately."

"In the dream!"

"It seemed I saw the fall of Nanjing City. For a prolonged period thereafter, the beastly machine of the Japanese devils rolled relentlessly into Nanjing City, crushing the flesh and blood of the Great Xia people beneath its treads with every single inch it advanced."

"The river water was dyed red with blood, and the surface of the river was choked with corpses—a true scene of a million floating corpses and a sea of drifting oars."

"Nanjing in those days witnessed mass atrocities on a collective scale almost daily..."

"These beasts searched every corner of Nanjing for disarmed soldiers and civilians..."

"Those soldiers and civilians were in rags, their hands bound behind their backs, grouped in fours in four columns, driven by the Japanese devils to pre-arranged execution grounds."

"Once everyone had arrived, two heavy machine guns were set up on the riverbank's sandy beach..."

"When the chatter of the machine guns rang out, chaos erupted in the crowd, only to be suppressed again shortly after..."

"The gunshots were deafening, and those Great Xia compatriots were harvested recklessly like patch after patch of ripe wheat by the machine guns of the devils..."

"As night deepened, the corpses on the riverbank piled one upon another, the stench of blood reeking to the heavens..."

"A few stray dogs moved elusively, weaving back and forth through the mountain of corpses, gnawing on the flesh and blood of the victims, their chewing sounds echoing from time to time, making one's scalp tingle..."

"I dreamed of grinning Japanese devils holding killing contests, these beasts raising the samurai swords in their hands to sever the heads of hundreds of Great Xia compatriots..."

"I dreamed of the women of Nanjing City being wantonly defiled and trampled upon by the Eastern Ocean Japanese devils..."

"I dreamed of hundreds of thousands of Nanjing compatriots dying a tragic death under the frenzied slaughter of the devils..."

At this point, tears welled up in Su Changqing's eyes.

Junior Song had never seen Su Changqing lose his composure to such a degree before.

It seemed!

It seemed as though everything Su Changqing was describing had actually, truly happened.

If all of this were truly to happen...

Then what manner of tragic and desolate purgatory would Nanjing City become?

And which Great Xia soldier could possibly tolerate the occurrence of all this?

Su Changqing patted Chief of Staff Song on the shoulder, "Junior, the Wutai Mountain base is entrusted to you and Ding Wei henceforth."

"I will handle the work with the headquarters leadership."

"If I can return in the future, we will develop the base together and fight the Japanese devils together."

"If I cannot return!"

"Remember to kill a few more of these beasts in my stead."

Chief of Staff Song looked deeply at Su Changqing and said nothing more.

Straightening his torso, he snapped a crisp, rigid military salute to Su Changqing.