Engaging with the Russians
A few kilometers is not far at all, but we do have be careful of patrolling troops and ended up taking a few hours. It is just the right time, the first beam of sunshine is rising from the horizon. Not long after we got close to the barracks, there are many civilians captured and was about to be executed."We gotta save them!" "Quiet! We must and we must save them, but running in barehanded is never going to end up well." I berated.
The campsite is on top of a hill, all sides exposed with little cover. To prevent trespassers sneaking up, the Russians have chopped and burned all vegetation. Though there is no cover, but there is a trench leading to the camp where one can hide in, maybe the Russians didn't even think that someone is going to be so brave, so there are only one sleepy soldier guarding the trench. "Shou Quan, did you see that rusky?" I asked "Yeah, do you want me to chop his head off?" "Not necessarily chopping his head of, but get rid of him, remember to cover his mouth so he don't scream and alert other people or cut his windpipe, it works either ways." Shou Quan laughed "Damn that sure is very savage."
Just as Shou Quan sneaking up the trench, I grabbed out my gun and started observing through the PSO-1 with 4x Magnification. That is when I realized the ones captured by the white army are not civilians, they are a part of the Qing army, they are a good source of troops considering the Qing government is training their troops to use firearms so if they were to follow me they will need very minimal training before they are combat worthy.
Just as I falling into my imaginary world, Shou Quan returned to me. "All done!" he whispered "It is now time to move in."
Suddenly many soldiers are left from the campsite and headed to the city of Blagoveshchensk. Then I soon realized that they were heading for executing the civilians. I deeply felt my weakness and insignificance, if I can't save the civilians in the city, then I must save this company of Qing troops. After most people is left, there are only 3 people guarding the POWs. They were smoking and sitting around a campfire chatting. I finally decided to shoot, took a deep breath, held it and lined up the uppermost chevron in my sight to one of the soldier's heart, after a crisp click a 7N1 SnPS sniper round went tumbling in his head. With no mercy and another 2 rounds, all the white army soldiers are down, all hit in the critical parts.
As we went up to the POWs, they started grabbing the white army's equipment, afraid that I'm going to kill him. I screamed "I am friendly and I'm here to save you! Please stay calm." Shou Quan noticed that this is his company when he was in the army, he sprinted to the leader as the leader also recognized him. "Shou Quan is it you?" "I'm here sir." answered Shou Quan "Sir, why are you here?" The leader replied "I heard your village got raided by the white army, when we got there, many white troops are there, we did not have any firearm all because of that stupid supreme commander, soon after many brothers died, we got captured. Also who is the guy behind you, you know him?" Shou Quan replied "He is my blood brother, I met him when I was only heading back home realizing my family is all killed, he saved you guys too! He is very a very accurate gunner and have his very special gun, did you just hear it, he shot 3 rounds in less than 3 breaths." The company commander turned to me "Really? I have not heard anything that shoot so fast and is light enough to put on one's back, I know the eh... the Max... Maxim Rapid Fire Gun, that thing shoots so fast but it is so heavy it required 3 people to carry it." "This is a gun crafted by my great grandfather and it is now handed to me, as of how it works, I don't know more than you." The commander heard I don't know much about my type 79 and stopped questioning it.
After a brief chat and all the soldiers freed, the commander offered me to return to his campsite, not far from Blagoveshchensk city. "I was ordered to stop as much white army as I could by the supreme commander, but with blades against their gun? The commander really wanted me to die, just simply because I have killed his relatives for treason." "I mean in current political situation, no one cares about the nation, all they care is themselves." I replied. "The Qing Dynasty will fall very soon, we will and we need a new government that respects freedom and human right which also cares about our nation. The Qing dynasty is like a tree, looks good on the outside, but the inside is rotted, now the tree have rotted so much from the inside, it is going to fall and die."
We discussed much more on the way but I still didn't tell him about what the Russians did to the civilians because I know he is going to go into the city, do nothing and die, I am clear that it is not the right time to tell him anything about this.