Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 27: Thousands of Gold to Buy Horse Bones

Seeing Song Xilian's suspicious gaze, Su Yaoyang's heart tightened.

Since Chiang Kai-shek introduced German-equipped troops and instructors, German-equipped divisions have become synonymous with China's elite forces.

The Training Corps was a benchmark among German-equipped troops, and all officers who could serve in this unit were outstanding graduates of the Whampoa Military Academy.

As a senior member of the first class of the Whampoa Military Academy, Song Xilian could not say that he knew all the alumni serving in the German-equipped divisions, but he should at least have some impression of them. When he first saw Su Yaoyang, a complete stranger, his first reaction was to become suspicious.

Seeing Song Xilian's suspicious look, Su Yaoyang quickly said, "Commander Song, the instructor is not from the Whampoa Military Academy. He is an instructor temporarily recruited by Captain Li Gaoyuan of the Instructor Battalion. He is mainly responsible for the logistical support of the Instructor Battalion of the First Regiment. This is the temporary appointment document issued by Captain Li. Please take a look."

After saying that, he took out a document and handed it over with both hands.

"Li Gaoyuan?"

Song Xilian took the document and glanced at it. The suspicion in his eyes then disappeared: "I know Li Gaoyuan. He is a top student who graduated from the Munich Military Academy in Germany. I heard that Brother Zhenqiang (the commander of the First Brigade) values ​​him highly."

After saying that, he continued, "I remember your First Brigade was responsible for the defense of the Zhonghua Gate area. How is it now?"

Su Yaoyang paused for a moment, then said, “Sir… I’m not sure about the situation in the other units of our brigade, but there are only a dozen or so brothers left in our regiment.”

"What..." Song Xilian exclaimed in shock, "How is this possible? Where is your commander?"

Upon hearing this, Su Yaoyang turned to look at Xu Dapeng behind him.

Xu Dapeng whispered behind him, "Commander Song, our regimental commander was killed in action while retreating to Yuhuatai."

"Where is Deputy Regiment Commander Wu?"

"They were also killed in action."

Song Xilian's body trembled. This was supposed to be a model unit of the Central Army. It was wiped out just like that?
If this gets out, how much of a blow will it be to the morale of the National Revolutionary Army?
He forced himself to stay alert and looked at Su Yaoyang, Xu Dapeng, and the other soldiers again. "Since you only have a dozen or so left, why isn't Li Gaoyuan with you?"

Xu Dapeng replied, "Reporting to the commander, we encountered a group of female students and civilians during our retreat, and they are now surrounded by the Japanese devils in St. Paul's Cathedral."

Seeing that he couldn't lead the civilians to evacuation, Instructor Li sent Commander Su and us to the riverbank to see if we could gather some reinforcements.

"Rescue?" Even though Song Xilian was in a bad mood, he shook his head helplessly after hearing Xu Dapeng's words.

"Nonsense... What was Li Gaoyuan thinking? The riverbank is in such a mess now, how could anyone possibly be willing to go into the city to rescue people? That's just... Never mind... I won't say anymore..."

Seeing Song Xilian shaking his head repeatedly, Su Yaoyang said, "Commander Song, that's not necessarily true."

"Major Su, do you perhaps have another brilliant idea?" Song Xilian narrowed his eyes.

Su Yaoyang shook his head: "I dare not presume to offer such a brilliant opinion, but the department believes that a generous reward will surely attract brave men. The department has recently made a windfall, and since it's useless to keep it in Nanjing anyway, we might as well spend it all. Perhaps we can even recruit some fearless warriors."

After saying that, Su Yaoyang waved his hand. Xu Dapeng behind him understood and walked to a sidecar motorcycle behind him. He pulled open the canvas covering the cloak, and then a series of exclamations rang out.

"Oh my God!"

Even Song Xilian gasped in surprise.

Despite his rank of major general, he had never seen so many silver dollars piled up in a whole basket before.

Without wasting words, Su Yaoyang pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the sky. The muffled gunshot instantly attracted the attention of everyone around him.

"Brothers!" Before anyone knew it, Su Yaoyang had a tin megaphone in his hand.

"I am an instructor in the First Regiment of the Training Corps. I am now recruiting some brothers who are not afraid of death to follow me back to Nanjing to rescue some people."

Of course, I wouldn't let my brothers risk their lives for nothing.

At this point, he pointed to the basket of silver dollars on the rickshaw's cloak and raised his voice:

"Anyone willing to go will receive a reward of fifty silver dollars on the spot, paid immediately without delay."

If any brother is unfortunately killed in action, his family will receive an extra one hundred silver dollars as compensation. Anyone who wants to go, stand before me now.

After he finished speaking, he walked to an open space and stood there.

Meanwhile, the fleeing soldiers around them began to discuss among themselves. Many of them looked at the basket of silver dollars that gleamed dazzlingly in the sunlight with greedy expressions. However, when they saw the officers and soldiers of the 36th Division with their guns and the training team soldiers who were watching them with their rifles, they suppressed their thoughts.

Time passed slowly, but no one stepped forward. The surrounding soldiers seemed to be observing something. Song Xilian crossed his arms and watched with a half-smile, seemingly having no intention of intervening.

"Sir..."

Just as Su Yaoyang was getting anxious, a slightly timid voice rang out, and a thin, ragged soldier stepped forward, "Look... do you think someone like me is okay?"

Su Yaoyang sized him up and asked, "What's your name? Where are you from?"

“Sir… my name is Qiao Erdan… I’m from Guiyang, from the 103rd Division.”

"103rd Division...you're from the Guizhou Army?"

"Hmm." Qiao Erdan responded with his head down, then asked, "Sir, do you think I'm suitable?"

After saying that, as if afraid that Su Yaoyang would look down on him, he quickly added, "Sir, don't look down on me because I'm thin. I can do all sorts of things. I can chop wood and feed horses. I can also wash clothes for people, even socks."

"Hahaha……"

A burst of laughter erupted around them, and someone shouted, "Is this kid stupid? The officer spent fifty silver dollars just to have someone wash his socks?"

"me……"

Qiao Erdan lowered his head even further, his face flushed red, though it wasn't very noticeable under his dark skin.

"Xu Dapeng!" Su Yaoyang suddenly called out.

"road!"

"Give him the silver dollar!"

"Yes!" Xu Dapeng was slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered, counted out fifty silver dollars from the basket, walked up to Qiao Erdan and handed them to him.

"This...this is for me?" Looking at the silver dollars in his hand, Qiao Erdan seemed a little incredulous. He didn't take the dollars right away, but looked at Su Yaoyang instead.

"Nonsense, do you want it or not? If not, get the hell out of here." Xu Dapeng didn't give the kid who barely reached his shoulder a friendly look. In his opinion, this kid from the Guizhou Army was just trying to swindle money from his superior.

But Song Xilian, standing to the side, smiled slightly and murmured, "Interesting... Is this how you buy a horse's bones with a thousand pieces of gold?"

(End of this chapter)