Steel Soviet Union

"Ah, how did you survive such fierce artillery fire, Mr. Ozawa? Do you have any survival skills you can share with me? To be honest, I still want to go back alive to see my wife and children. I don't want to die on the battlefield. .

""

Hearing this, Masao Ozawa's face was filled with surprise, and then he looked at the young sergeant who was staying in the cellar with him to avoid artillery fire with eyes like looking at a monster.

Although Masao Ozawa himself knew that the Kwantung Army was likely to lose and could not see the possibility or hope of victory, he was deeply shocked that the people around him could actually say such things.

"Don't you want to be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor? What about your oath under the military flag? Do you know that if the squadron leader hears this, he will kill you alive on the spot?"

"Oh, isn't there a squadron leader here? You and I are the only ones in this cellar now. Even the soldiers are hiding in other places outside, so what's there to worry about? I'm just telling you the truth, I really regard you as a good friend, senior.”

After finishing speaking, the young sergeant sat down on the ground and put away the command knife in his arms before he finished speaking. Before Masao Ozawa, who was still looking astonished, could speak, he changed the subject and continued.

"I was actually a repairman, repairing things like radios and clocks. I had a small shop of my own in Harbin. My wife and children were also there. We came here from our hometown in Hokkaido in 1941. "

"Originally everything was fine and smooth, but unexpectedly the Kwantung Army mailed me a summons for recruitment. It was really distressing, do you understand? Ozawa-kun.

"I obviously served in the military when I was just an adult. After I retired, I finally got married to Qingzi and came here to make a living. Why don't they let me go? I haven't even been on the battlefield at all. I have only seen the warehouse and the gate."

""

Masao Ozawa, who was still speechless, listened to the whistling of artillery shells overhead and from outside the cellar from time to time. He held the cigarette in his hand and continued to listen to the words of the people around him, wanting to see what this guy could say. Say something.

The young sergeant next to him didn't hold back and just continued talking like he was pouring beans through a bamboo tube.

"It just so happens that I am a guard who has only seen the warehouse and the gate, but they trained me for a while and then threw me this command knife and asked me to be a sergeant. Just because I am a veteran of the second service. Isn't this unacceptable? Laughing?"

"I was just thinking about what went wrong. If the Imperial Army was as invincible as what was said on the radio, how could they hire someone like me to be a sergeant? Why did the Imperial Army, so powerful on the radio, come to The actual situation around me is that there are only recruits who are not as good as me. Why is this? Or who is lying?"

Masao Ozawa, who found it more and more unbelievable the more he listened, blinked his eyes and subconsciously asked a question that even he thought made no sense after thinking about it carefully.

"Why do you think so? What's your basis?"

"What's the basis? Needless to say."

The young sergeant who answered the question didn't mind at all, he just smiled casually and answered immediately.

"Of course it's because top elites like your Second Division were defeated so miserably. They were defeated in less than a day of fighting with the Russians. The news spread to almost the entire Kwantung Army, and even the soldiers below knew about it.

"I feel that since your powerful troops cannot win, then our troops, which have been defeated once and then gathered up, must have no hope of fighting the Russians again, right? Since this is meaningless, then I still It’s better to think more about how to survive, my wife and children are waiting for me to come home.”

""

I wanted to refute it, but I couldn't find a point to refute it.

After thinking about it, Masao Ozawa realized that although what the guy next to him said was outrageous, he had finished his rants that were treasonous and treasonous in every sense of the word.

But if you really use your brain to think about it, you will find that everything this guy said is actually true, and there is not a single lie. What does such an ironic reality mean?

I also saw the complexity and speechlessness of Masao Ozawa's expression.

The young sergeant was still smiling, but he casually stretched out his elbow, lightly touched Ozawa Masao who was sitting next to him on the ground, and then spoke.

"Ozawa-kun must also understand, right? I know you can understand what I say, you can definitely do it."

"I have a good eye for people. I can tell the customers who come to my shop to repair things at a glance what kind of requests they will make. I know that you must be a sensible person, and you are not like those hot-headed lunatics. Same."

"Huh? This"

Masao Ozawa, who was still deep in thought, sighed even more helplessly after being touched and said this.

Some things that should be said but didn't want to be said were ultimately left unsaid, replaced by a helpless sigh.

"You only said these words to me, and you don't tell anyone what you said to me, otherwise you and I will be killed, do you understand?"

"Of course, don't worry, Mr. Ozawa! I knew you were a trustworthy person right away, so I said I was right."

Seeing that the young sergeant next to him was not demoralized at all, but was talking more and more energetically and cheerfully, as if he had finally found someone who shared the same goals with him.

At this point, Masao Ozawa, who was too lazy to care about how military morale and discipline could be so bad, and wanted more and more to return to his hometown to see his wife, finally noticed that the whistling of artillery shells outside had stopped.

After exchanging glances with the young sergeant beside him, they stood up at the same time and climbed up the ladder to the outside of the cellar one after the other.

Masao Ozawa found out after he went up to the yard outside the cellar.

It turned out that no explosion was heard just now, only the whistling of artillery shells sounded overhead. It's not because the Russian cannonballs hit too far, but because the Russian cannonballs are filled with leaflets that are all over the ground and are still falling in mid-air.

"What is this? Are you trying to persuade me to surrender?"

The young sergeant who was muttering in his mouth had already guessed what the things falling from the sky were. He bent down to pick up a piece, put it in front of him and started to look at it. He found that the content written on it in Japanese was indeed quite surprising.

"Ozawa-kun, Ozawa-kun! Look, look!"

"The Russians said in the leaflets that my family is fine, that all Japanese expatriates are now under their care, and that our families are waiting for us to go home!"

""

Looking at the excitement on the face of the brother next to him, Masao Ozawa, whose family is still in Japan, does not understand his mood, but he still has to say the words that are necessary to remind him.

"The Russians didn't send leaflets just to tell you that they are "taking care" of your family. Look at the second half of the leaflets. Don't you understand what this means?"

The paragraph pointed by Ozawa Masao clearly states, "All Japanese expatriates will have the same treatment as civilians in the city, and I hope the Japanese troops in the city will know it."

What this means is clear to Masao Ozawa.

Masao Ozawa even dared to conclude that this was specifically for the disenchanted and low-morale lower-level soldiers, not for the high-ranking generals.

"Of course I know what this means. I don't intend to die on the battlefield anyway, so I know what I should do whether I have seen this flyer or not. I believe you are the same as me, right? Ozawa-kun "

""

Masao Ozawa, holding the flyer in his hand, was speechless.

Although he hesitated, he finally put the leaflet with the words "Please keep it properly and show it when surrendering to ensure the safety of life" into his clothes under the watchful eyes of the young sergeant beside him.

After looking around and finding that no one was watching, he took the young sergeant beside him and pretended that nothing happened, and hurriedly went to direct his soldiers who were still picking up flyers on the ground.