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"The comrades of the Cavalry Regiment really blew up the Yalu River Bridge?" Mu Husan simply repeated this sentence, but said nothing else.

But the comrades in the 18th Corps Headquarters became excited. Blowing up the Yalu River Bridge directly cut off the Japanese army's fastest transportation line. If all troops were assembled, especially if the 14th Corps behind the 18th Corps could send troops to support, taking Shenyang would not be too difficult.

"Don't think like that," listening to the comrades' discussion about the continuously expanding future war situation, Mu Husan finally replied. "If we followed the original military plan, we should have already occupied Shenyang and blockaded the China-Korea border by now. But the actual situation is that we only possess control of the Panjin area, and it's not even complete control. The Japanese army can launch attacks on us from several directions. In fact, the original plan has already failed."

Amidst a series of great victories, Mu Husan actually uttered the word "failed," which couldn't help but make the comrades feel stunned.

Mu Husan said with a serious expression: "We indeed fought a series of victorious battles, but the result of these victories is merely allowing us to gain a foothold in Panjin. Without this series of victories, we would very likely have to retreat back to Jinzhou by now. Comrades, the plan everyone was just discussing already failed when we conquered Jinzhou due to changes in the external situation."

Only a few people in the Corps Headquarters could truly understand Mu Husan's words. Although after setting out from Jinzhou, the general operational route was basically the same as the original plan, in essence, this was already a new battle completely different from the original plan.

"Now all battles and actions revolve around the goal of us being able to persist in the Panjin area this winter. This is by no means an easy thing. I hope comrades make full psychological preparations." Mu Husan knew that some things were not so easily fully understood, but these matters were not urgent right now. While the troops could still maneuver fully, no problems were too big. Only when entering winter would the troops truly encounter problems.

"So now, kill all the people of Mantetsu!" Mu Husan ordered.

Many years later, the elderly Duqiu Dongren lying in the hospital would surely recall that distant afternoon of October 22, 1915, when he was tied up and taken to the execution ground. At that time, Dujiatun was already a relatively lively town by the railway. Rows of earthen houses dared not get too close to the railway, but were closer to a river not far from the railway side. The river surface wasn't wide, but the water was very clear. Occasionally, one or two stones were exposed in the river. There was no bridge on the river, only some wooden piles driven into the riverbed. As long as it wasn't the rainy season, these wooden piles would be exposed above the water surface. Pedestrians could walk back and forth on them.

The attack launched by the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was extremely swift and violent. Dujiatun was a small station of Mantetsu. Including troops, Mantetsu staff, technical personnel, and a small hospital where Duqiu Dongren acted as the director, all were in this area.

Before Mantetsu personnel arrived in the Northeast, they all had to undergo military training, regardless of gender. Formations, basic shooting—this was Japan's colonial department, and they could face resistance from locals at any time. Mantetsu members were educated this way, and their own fear of a strange country also reinforced this perception.

But the attack they truly encountered was not launched by locals. The People's Party, which had fought its way into the Northeast from the distant south of China, suddenly directed its spearhead completely at Mantetsu. This was something Mantetsu members had never thought of originally.

The battle began in the early morning. Sudden explosions woke Duqiu from his sleep. These days, Mantetsu was on full alert, so Duqiu slept with his clothes on.

This Mantetsu concentration area also had small cannons and machine guns, but the quantity was not large. At the beginning, Duqiu still felt that Mantetsu's firepower withstood the People's Party's attack. However, the People's Party's firepower only paused for a moment, and then the battle situation underwent a complete and drastic change. Only a long time later did Duqiu know that the battle that seemingly repelled the People's Party at the beginning was just his illusion. In military terms, that was a firepower probe implemented by the People's Party. A means to determine the enemy's firepower configuration and firepower intensity through exchanging fire. After the test ended, the People's Party would make targeted combat adjustments based on the enemy's strength. Generally speaking, no one could withstand the attack launched by the People's Party after they finished adjusting. Mantetsu was no exception.

The subsequent situation could only be described as bloody. Medical personnel like Duqiu were not sent to participate in the frontline combat. Mantetsu's desperate resistance only produced more wounded. And after the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army occupied the rooftops, the machine-gun strafing from high above turned the battle into a massacre. Duqiu could not forget that while he and the few female nurses were simply treating a dozen wounded Mantetsu members in the backyard, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army machine gunners, who had maneuvered over from the roofs at some point, opened fire on the people filling the courtyard. The luckiest among the yard full of wounded only changed from wounded to dying, while those female nurses coming and going were even more miserable. They were walking back and forth in the yard and were more easily hit by bullets. Three or four female nurses were instantly gunned down on the ground.

One of the female nurses was shot in the back of the head, and the bullet went straight out through her forehead. That stunned look and the strange large hole in her forehead seemed branded into Duqiu's mind. Many years later, as long as Duqiu tried to recall, he could realistically remember that nurse's look of shock and incomprehension frozen on her face, before she fell straight down in front of Duqiu. Duqiu was squatting on the ground examining the injury of a wounded man shot in the belly at the time, surviving this storm-like attack. But by the time Duqiu realized what happened, he had changed from a squatting posture to a kneeling posture.

This massacre did not last too long. The sluggish Duqiu clearly remembered hearing someone shout in Chinese: "These inside are not combatants. Next courtyard." With a burst of footsteps on the roof, these people started the next battle.

Until the people outside rushed in, Duqiu didn't recover from the shock. Even when being tied up with ropes, Duqiu didn't resist. The only thing he understood was that he had actually escaped with his life from the hands of the Grim Reaper covering the battlefield.

When Duqiu was brought out from the courtyard inside Mantetsu, he saw blood everywhere on the ground. Bullets and shells had turned the originally level ground pitted and uneven. A corner of the yard was piled with a large heap of Japanese corpses; their unnatural limb postures proved they had all breathed their last. The bloody water flowing out from under the corpses gathered into a shell crater, accumulating a deep pool of red liquid.

All captured Mantetsu members were tied up and taken away. Most of them were wounded. There were a dozen who were seriously wounded and couldn't move; they were simply carried by others. Mantetsu members had all received military education and were unwilling to show the slightest weakness before "Shina" people, so surprisingly no one groaned. However, some people refused to follow the Chinese honestly. The Chinese said nothing at all; the wooden sticks in their hands just rained down blows on the head and face, beating those people until their heads broke and blood flowed. Under such brutal treatment, those few guys who tried to maintain their backbone had to submit.

The march this time wasn't long; the destination was the nearby Dujiatun. The villagers were all gathered. The person leading the shouting to the villagers spoke the local dialect. His speech was fast and his accent heavy; Duqiu only understood a few words like "bully," "resist," and "overthrow." And the emotions of those common people became more and more excited. However, in Duqiu's view, there was a feeling of disbelief in this excitement.

At the end, Duqiu saw the person speaking in front suddenly turn around and point at the captured Mantetsu members, saying something loudly. This time Duqiu roughly understood. "Folks, these Japanese who bullied us Chinese should all be killed! But there might be one or two among them who have done good things for the common people. So, folks, whoever can point out who among them shouldn't die, and state the reason why they shouldn't die, we won't kill them."

Duqiu saw excitement in the eyes of some common people. They looked at this bunch of Japanese with an expression of completely watching a show. Duqiu had seen this kind of expression and look when these people occasionally watched an opera. Expectant, anxious, hoping for stimulating scenes to invigorate and please their nerves. Killing Japanese was just a big show to them. So much so that they didn't care at all that this was about killing people!

Just then, an old man walked out of the crowd. Duqiu's eyes lit up. For epidemic prevention work, Mantetsu occasionally treated sick Chinese people in the surrounding area who they frequently contacted. Although the fees were not low, and it was mainly to monitor epidemics. Speaking from the heart, Duqiu and the others didn't do it to treat the Chinese at all.

The old man pointed at Duqiu and said, "My kid fell ill, and this Japanese saved his life. And I haven't seen him do anything bad. I think he can be spared death."

Although Duqiu didn't understand very clearly, he could roughly guess what this old man said. A hope suddenly rose in his heart. From the battle to being tied up and brought to Dujiatun, the cold style displayed by the People's Party made Duqiu understand that these people had no intention of letting the Japanese off.

But this old man's performance clearly moved these people of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army. When facing Chinese people, the attitude of these Chinese troops was so amiable. There were even smiles on their faces.

"Then who else among the folks has a grudge against this Japanese? Is there anyone?" The person who shouted at the beginning continued to shout.

The people below wanted to say something, but dared not, so they laughed embarrassedly and awkwardly.

After waiting for a while, two soldiers from the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army came over, pulled Duqiu up, and dragged him to the side.

No one else came over to plead for mercy. A moment later, the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army dragged the Japanese to the front one by one. Executioners holding big broadswords came over and chopped off the heads of the Japanese one by one.

Every time a Japanese was beheaded, a burst of exclamation erupted from the onlookers. Seeing that the People's Party was actually playing for real, killing Japanese like chopping melons and vegetables, the Japanese who originally didn't struggle began to try to struggle, and those who had struggled now tried to resist. However, every attempt by the Japanese failed; they were quickly subdued.

The Japanese resistance triggered bursts of laughter and mockery from the onlookers. The voices erupting from the crowd were full of ridicule, even a kind of dissatisfaction. They were all condemning these Japanese for why they refused to obediently submit to fate.

The captain of the Mantetsu security team knew he was undoubtedly going to die. Originally, he wanted to maintain the dignity of a samurai, but the heavy pressure of death finally made him unable to maintain his original reserve. He suddenly shouted at the Chinese common people in front of him: "When the army of our Great Japanese Empire comes back, you will all die! You will all pay with your lives for us!"

The masses were initially a little fearful, but a moment later someone started cursing back, "Fuck your mother, you're the one who's going to die!"

"You... however many of you come, we'll kill that many!"

"We'll kill you right now!"

The masses' unilateral angry scolding quickly drummed up their emotions. Young men already rushed up and kicked the Mantetsu security team captain kneeling on the ground in the head. With someone taking the lead, more Chinese youths rushed up from behind and began to beat those Japanese kneeling on the ground. First fists and feet, and soon people came up holding sticks and stones.

The Chinese soldiers stood by and watched at first. Seeing that the masses were really going to beat people to death, they came up to pull the masses away. Soon, the beheading continued. With the conflict just now, before every Japanese was beheaded, the masses shouted slogans together: "Kill him!" "Kill the Japanese!" "Kill the little Japanese devils!"

After the Japanese heads were chopped off, all the masses erupted in a burst of cheers in unison.

Unknowingly, the masses changed from onlookers of beheadings to people on the same front as the Chinese army. This wave of sound and the intense hostility and killing intent behind the sound made Duqiu Dongren feel a fear he couldn't fight against. The Chinese soldiers in front were only two or three hundred, while the common people numbered as many as four or five hundred. Facing the hostility and killing intent of six or seven hundred people, Duqiu, who barely escaped with his life, could only kneel on the ground and lower his head deeply to feel he could avoid it a little.

After the execution ended, the Japanese corpses were inspected again, then piled up and burned with a fire. Duqiu didn't see this scene. Just as the execution assembly ended, he was taken away by the Chinese army. In Duqiu's chaotic mind, he didn't even notice one thing: a batch of personnel was actually missing from this Mantetsu stronghold.

It must be explained that even if Duqiu knew, he wouldn't take it to heart. After all, compared to Duqiu himself basically surviving, whether others were missing really wasn't any big deal.

Not only in Dujiatun, but such things were happening along the entire Mantetsu line. The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army pulled out Mantetsu strongholds one by one. As long as no Chinese agreed that a certain or some Japanese could be spared death, the captured personnel were all executed.

In the 18th Corps Headquarters, the comrades felt quite surprised that some Japanese doctors could actually survive. "It looks like what Chairman Chen said is really true! Could it be that killing every one we catch really wrongs some?"

The Political Commissar of the 18th Corps laughed. "Humph! It's not to say they can be spared death. We just handed the power to decide their life and death to the common people to control. This shows that our Chinese common people are very kind. Once there is a justifiable reason, everyone still doesn't want to kill too many people."

This judgment received unanimous approval from the comrades.

After the Political Commissar finished speaking on this issue, he continued: "Our next work is to see if we can hold on until next spring."