43: Chapter 43 Even If We Can't Win, We Have to Fight

Before heading to the front line, Wang Ye went to Li Yan's grave and buried the handkerchief beneath the headstone.

This way, even if he died, he could come back to find the handkerchief.

"Why are you burying things here?"

Huang Jingchang followed him over.

"If I don't die, I'll come back to dig it up."

Afterward, the two of them left.

Returning to the unit, they rushed to the battlefield.

On the front line, the first light of dawn appeared.

Wang Ye watched the early morning light in the east.

Huang Jingchang stood beside him.

"I wonder if I'll be able to see a sun like this again tomorrow?" Huang Jingchang sighed.

"You will, Big Brother Huang."

As Wang Ye spoke, he didn't know if he was saying it to comfort Huang Jingchang or to comfort himself.

Because even he wasn't sure if he would survive.

"Yeah, I'll survive, and live to fight my way back to my hometown." After Huang Jingchang finished speaking, he picked up the arisaka type 38 rifle captured yesterday.

This rifle was something they had captured themselves and hadn't turned in.

Yesterday he was still a company commander, but today he was just a private again.

If the unit structure remained, the battlefield was the place where one could be promoted the fastest.

As long as you lived, being promoted to a regimental commander in a single day wasn't out of the question.

The position they were defending today wasn't outside the town, but inside it.

Before the sun had fully risen, the whistling of the Little Devils' planes came from the sky.

Wang Ye quickly found a trench to hide in; there was a simple air-raid shelter here.

Though it couldn't withstand a direct bomb hit, it could reduce the damage from the blast's shockwave.

The town was covered in ruins; yesterday's bombing by the Little Devils had damaged most of the buildings.

As the bombs whistled down once more, they densely blanketed the town.

From the distant coast, Japan's naval guns were continuously shelling the town.

The Little Devils' naval guns were incredibly powerful; the largest caliber among them could level an area the size of a football field with a single shell.

The smaller calibers could level a basketball court.

Even the smallest ones could blast a crater several meters wide; for infantry, it was a nightmare.

There was simply no way to fight back.

Wang Ye was left dazed and shaken by the explosions.

He wondered, where are our own planes? Why haven't they come to intercept?

But then he remembered that they didn't seem to have many planes at all.

The Little Devils' planes outnumbered China's many times over.

Not only that, the Little Devils had naval guns and tanks.

While China had nothing.

A sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart.

He had thought about changing the game's ending, but how could an individual change an outcome like this?

This was a contest of the comprehensive national strength of two countries.

It wasn't something he could reverse alone.

Unless a modern army transmigrated back with all their equipment.

Otherwise, defeat was almost certain.

How was one supposed to fight a battle destined for defeat?

Wang Ye felt lost.

Beside him, Huang Jingchang noticed Wang Ye's unusual behavior.

With the sound of explosions continuing outside, he patted Wang Ye on the shoulder.

"Wang Yuan, what's wrong?"

"Big Brother Huang, tell me, can we win?"

"The Little Devils have tanks, planes, and artillery. We have nothing. How can we win?" Wang Ye said dejectedly.

When he knew this war was destined to be unwinnable.

He didn't know how he was supposed to keep fighting.

What did it matter if he could redeploy? Even resurrecting five times wouldn't change anything.

Hearing Wang Ye's words, Huang Jingchang felt a heaviness in his chest.

He took a deep breath and spoke: "Even if we can't win, we still have to fight."

"This is our home, our motherland."

"Now the Little Devils have come here to burn, kill, and loot, wanting to destroy our nation and exterminate our people."

"Even if I die, I'm going to bite a piece of flesh off those Little Devils."

"If we don't fight, are we supposed to let our descendants fight?"

"If we don't fight, where can we even run to?"

"If we don't dare to fight, China really will be lost."

Huang Jingchang's words were like a giant hammer striking Wang Ye's heart.

They dispelled the confusion in his mind.

"Even if we can't win, we have to fight. At worst, it's just death."

Inside the livestream room, the Chinese Netizens sent a flurry of bullet comments upon hearing Huang Jingchang's words.

"Well said! We fight even if we can't win, because behind us are our country and our homes."

"This is how the sons and daughters of China should be. There is no home without a country. If the country is gone, what home do we have left?"

"If war ever breaks out, I'll go even if we can't win. I don't want my children and descendants to experience war."

"This is a blood feud. If Japan really dares to make a move, I'll definitely enlist to wipe them out."

The Netizens already disliked Japan; after all, they had a long history of atrocities.

Every time a Chinese dynasty declined, they would come to the coast to burn, kill, and loot.

Many local Netizens from the coastal areas wished they could eat their flesh raw; their ancestors had suffered greatly at their hands.

Especially after seeing the videos of this game, their hatred for Japan reached a peak.

"Big Brother Huang, thank you for waking me up," Wang Ye said gratefully.

He hadn't experienced the loss of his own home and family, but he had experienced many life-and-death partings in the game.

He wanted to take Li Yan's belongings home.

If possible, he also wanted to take Li Yan's body home.

Chinese people value returning to their roots, but how many have died in foreign lands because of war?

Especially those like them who had rushed to the battlefield from thousands of miles away.

The bombing lasted for nearly half an hour.

The already dilapidated town became even more desolate.

Explosions set buildings on fire, and ruins were everywhere.

Wang Ye and Huang Jingchang crawled out of the simple air-raid shelter.

Looking around, many corpses lay on the ground, with flames burning on the bodies.

They were the unlucky ones caught in the explosions, meeting a tragic end.

There was no telling how many casualties this round of shelling had caused.

But they had to defend. If they didn't, the Little Devils could drive straight through to the rear.

Even if they had to use human lives to stack up a defense, they had to stop the Little Devils here.

At this time, the surviving Chinese Soldiers crawled out of the trenches.

Seeing the hellish scene around them, many were stunned.

The surrounding buildings were teetering, nearly leveled.

With such indiscriminate bombing, how many days could they hold out?

"The Little Devils' tanks are coming!"

Someone shouted from the distance.

Hearing 'tanks', everyone's expression changed.

Because tanks meant massive casualties.

The tanks advanced slowly through the town's streets.

A young soldier saw a tank and, clutching a homemade Molotov cocktail, nervously crouched in wait on the second floor of a building on either side of the alley.

Other than that, he had no other weapons on him.

The Little Devils' tank approached, with infantry following closely behind it.

The alley was narrow; a single tank almost occupied its entire width.

A soldier poked his head out, attempting to intercept.

But with one shell from the tank, that soldier was instantly killed.

As the Little Devils' tank continued to advance.

Seeing this, the young soldier holding the Molotov cocktail immediately threw it into the crowd of Little Devils.

The bottle shattered on the ground, and the kerosene inside splashed out, creating a sea of fire on the pavement.

The cautious Little Devils spotted him immediately and fired, but they missed.

Instead, as the Molotov cocktail shattered, quite a few Little Devils were splattered with kerosene.

The flames followed the oil and set several Little Devils on fire.

For a moment, the alley was filled with the continuous screams and wails of the Little Devils.

The young soldier, having escaped death, ran to another building in one breath, then picked up more Molotov cocktails from the floor and threw them continuously at the Little Devils below.