The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

“Ha…ha…huh…huh…”

After strenuous exercise, there will naturally be heavy breathing.

Shinichi Takeda slumped in a dense bush, trying desperately to expand and contract his alveoli. Sweat dripped from his forehead, stinging his scratched face.

He covered his chest tightly with his hands, as if trying to press back his heart that was about to jump out of his throat.

He could hear faint shouting in the distance, and the group of pursuers waving sickles, hoes and holding torches were approaching step by step.

He held his breath and pricked up his ears, trying to determine how far the fire was from him.

"Is this the fifth batch today?"

Fire flickered outside the bushes, and the sound of branches being split made Shinichi Takeda break out in a cold sweat on his back.

He took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the gasping sound that was about to get out of control, and the taste of blood surged in his throat.

He looked down at his tattered uniform and couldn't help but smile bitterly - this uniform that once made him proud was now nothing more than a messy camouflage in the jungle.

"Takeda Shinichi, a descendant of a samurai, how did you end up in this situation?" He laughed at himself in his heart.

Shinichi Takeda was instilled with the spirit of the samurai since childhood.

His father always liked to say that the family name came from Takeda Shingen, a daimyo of Kai Province during the Warring States Period.

Although that glorious era has long been buried in the dust of history along with the Muromachi shogunate, the bloodline of the Takeda family has never been cut off.

Taking advantage of the outbreak of World War 14 years ago, the Japanese army experienced a post-war boom under the leadership of Showa's father Taisho. Takeda Shinichi's father also took advantage of this favorable situation, took out a loan to open his own textile factory, and became a respected "urban bourgeoisie".

(At the same time, the Beiyang Republic of China took this opportunity to export and earned a lot of foreign exchange.)

"Restore the glory of the samurai" is the slogan his father often shouted, and it is also the greatest expectation for Shinichi Takeda.

However, things are impermanent.

However, when Takeda Shinichi attended the Army Elementary School and vowed to restore the glory of the samurai, his father's textile factory went bankrupt due to the economic crisis transmitted from White Eagle. His family began to go downhill and living conditions became increasingly difficult.

By the time Takeda Shinichi entered the Army Academy, his family was completely ruined. His father, who once dominated the Edo business world, had turned from an indomitable businessman into an alcoholic. His two younger brothers had to work in factories, and his older and younger sisters also went to Southeast Asia.

The burden of the whole family fell on Shinichi Takeda, and then he failed the exam and was not admitted to the Army University.

"How ironic." Takeda smiled bitterly.

He originally wanted to bring honor to his family by becoming a soldier, but he could only go to the battlefield of Pegu as an ordinary grassroots officer with the shadow of failure.

The sound of footsteps outside the bushes gradually faded away. Takeda breathed a sigh of relief, leaned against the tree trunk, and recalled the fierce battle of the previous few days.

It was a defensive battle with almost no chance of fighting back.

Their squadron was ordered to garrison in a mountainous area north of Bamao. They originally thought that they could easily block the enemy's attack and inflict heavy casualties on the enemy by relying on the terrain.

However, when the group of steel monsters equipped with bulldozers appeared, their "easy to defend and difficult to attack" position instantly became a "turtle in a jar".

The Type 94 37mm anti-tank gun assigned to the position was useless. Takeda Shin watched helplessly as the armor-piercing shells fired by the gun crew hit the enemy's heavy tanks many times, but it was unable to stop the enemy's rapid advance.

Fortunately, they had dug an anti-tank trench in advance. After inspecting it, the commander of the regiment praised them for their good work and named it the "Anti-tension Trench".

However, when the enemy's bulldozer covered with armored steel rushed up, Shinichi Takeda could only watch the enemy fill up the anti-tank trench, and the Type 99 rifle in his hand could only tickle the bulldozer's cab covered with steel plates.

As for the anti-tank guns, they had already been blown up by the enemy infantry's small-caliber mortars accompanying the attack.

From beginning to end, apart from the artillery bombardment from the sky and various armored vehicles of the Anmin Army, the squadron where Takeda Shinichi was located did not see many infantrymen of the Anmin Army, and naturally did not cause much casualties to the Anmin Army.

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

At that moment, he launched a human bomb charge with his remaining soldiers.

They rushed towards the tanks, braving the sudden appearance of infantry automatic fire.

However, when they desperately placed the anti-tank mine under the tank, the expected violent explosion did not come as expected.

The highly anticipated anti-tank mines only damaged the enemy's running gear, and then the stopped tanks became fixed firing points, continuing to spit out tongues of death at them like a small bunker.

In the end, their position was easily breached, and the entire squadron was routed. He fled into the mountains with his only two remaining soldiers.

However, the escape did not last long. One soldier fell off a cliff while climbing, and another ate poisonous mushrooms and died of convulsions.

Now, Takeda Shinichi is alone.

------

Running away is shameful, but it works.

As night falls, the only sounds in the forest are the whisper of the wind through the treetops and the chirping of insects.

Shinichi Takeda tightened the lieutenant's saber in his hand and walked as lightly as a cat.

Although he still had a pistol on him, he never thought of turning back to fight.

When he abandoned his position and fled the hell torn apart by the flames of war, Takeda Shinichi lost the courage to "fight to the death". He didn't know how long he could live, but he was sure that he didn't want to die here, in this nameless jungle.

In the distance, the light of torches could be vaguely seen. They were the peasants searching for the defeated Japanese soldiers.

Takeda held his breath and slowly squatted down against a tree.

His heartbeat was pounding against his chest like a war drum, and he could even hear his blood roaring in his ears.

"Isn't this the warrior hunting in the Warring States Period?" Takeda Shinichi smiled bitterly and muttered to himself.

He stepped on the soft rotten leaves and stumbled forward in the mountains in the thin moonlight.

"Lone warriors, hunting down their farmers..." He thought of the scenes described in history books, and his heart was filled with a sense of absurdity.

Once upon a time, he was proud of his motherland's "warrior spirit" and obsessed with the heroic legends of the Warring States period, but now he has become a laughing stock in these stories - a fleeing Japanese soldier.

It’s just that the Japanese peasants in the Warring States period hunted the warriors for their armor and weapons, and as for the remaining warriors, they simply beheaded them and buried them.

"They won't even kill me outright."

Shinichi Takeda, who was fluent in the Qian language, recalled the words shouted by the farmers and could barely understand their meaning - to capture lone Japanese soldiers in exchange for rewards.

"Yes, in the final analysis, everyone has to do their best to survive." Takeda suddenly understood the farmers who were chasing him.

Capture a lone Japanese soldier, bring him back, and exchange him for a few bags of rice or a few silver dollars, and you can support your family for a few more days.

"If it's for money, you won't kill me right away if you catch me, right?"

Shinichi Takeda thought as he took a few bow-legged steps.

His steps were unsteady, his knees ached, and his trouser legs were torn by the thorns.

He suddenly tripped and fell to the ground, his mouth full of dirt.

"Hiss..." He raised his head and was about to get up when a big net fell from the sky and covered him tightly.

"What!" he shouted and struggled desperately, and the scabbard and military cap were knocked aside.

However, the net was getting tighter and tighter, and his struggles only made him look more miserable, like a captured prey.

With the sound of footsteps, four or five villagers rushed out from the bushes, waving rough wooden sticks and hoes, their eyes filled with the joy of success.

"It's a Japanese devil, catch him!" a middle-aged man shouted loudly, his voice trembling with excitement.

"Finally caught him. The commander of the Anmin Army said that each Japanese soldier is worth 5 dollars." Another young man grinned, revealing his teeth yellowed by tobacco.

"Let me go! You..." He tried to threaten in stiff Chinese, but before he could finish his words, a young man raised a wooden stick and hit him hard on the back.

"Shut up! You beasts have killed so many of us, and you still dare to be stubborn?" The young man's eyes flashed with fiery hatred.

His arms trembled with anger, and he almost wanted to deliver another blow.

"Don't beat him to death," the leading villager stopped him. "Saving him alive can be exchanged for money. Five knives is more than ten dollars. Just imagine how much food that is."