Chapter 42: Reporting for Duty (Please follow and vote)

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...Nowadays, in web novels about time-traveling to the War of Resistance, the protagonists basically all possess some overpowered cheat; it’s as if they couldn't survive without one.
However, based on my, Hu’s, long-term experience with time travel, having an overpowered cheat is naturally better if you have one.
But if you don't, it’s not the end of the world.
Because the cultural knowledge possessed by every modern person, which is far ahead of the cognition of that era, is actually the greatest cheat of all, allowing them to make a name for themselves.
The premise is that one must be able to adjust their mindset as quickly as possible, and live long enough...
...Excerpted from the Hu Biao diary collection, "Hu Says"...
"Damn it! One died not long after we traveled here; what kind of mess is this?" After they resumed their journey, Hu Biao grumbled to himself.
They didn't bother with the auntie's body, because Zhu Cong had said that there was a specialized corpse-collection team nearby, so she wouldn't be left lying there unattended.
But then again, this typical square-dancing auntie didn't die in vain.
On one hand, at the cost of her life, she allowed Hu Biao to secretly confirm one thing:
Never think about escaping or changing the course of history, otherwise that mysterious existence will take direct action and kill you through various "accidents."
Then the question arises: changing the fate of small-scale events or minor characters should be okay, but how much leeway is there?
On the other hand, after witnessing a fellow traveler die in a nonsensical and perfunctory manner right before their eyes, the remaining six travelers immediately behaved themselves.
As for Hu Biao’s explanation, if they had only believed half of it before, they now believed at least 80%.
As for believing it 100%? Impossible. With the suspicious nature of modern people, they would never completely trust others just like that.
Because of this, Hu Biao later found an excuse to send Zhu Cong ahead to scout the path, and finally asked:
"Brothers, since we have nothing better to do.
Why don't you introduce your names, ages, hometowns, and specialties? This way, we can divide tasks accordingly in the future and make the best use of everyone's abilities.
If you don't want to use your real names or say where you're from, you can pick a codename. Otherwise, we can't just keep calling each other 'you there,' right?"
Faced with Hu Biao’s reasonable request, the six newcomers did not delay further and introduced themselves one by one.
Hu Biao could fully believe that even if these guys were hiding some details due to caution—this was evident from the fact that they all chose codenames instead of real names—the contents of their deception shouldn't be too vast, and their key specialties were likely not fabricated.
And the situation of these five people was as follows:
Codename: AT, also known as Old Tang from earlier.
From Tianjin, 29 years old, currently unemployed. His specialties include playing a lot of video games, as well as mechanical design and industrial drafting.

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He is also good at staying up late to draw blueprints and making PowerPoint presentations—if that counts as a specialty.
He has no actual military experience, and due to years of working overtime, not only is his hairline in danger, but he even has minor issues with his liver and kidneys.
In short, this guy is a weakling, a total "combat level five" scrub.
Codename: Uncle Bo, 40 years old, a native of Guangzhou, though currently living in Uncle Sam’s country.
He is a veteran military enthusiast with a decent level of knowledge regarding defensive tactics, the use of various light weapons, and the repair of some equipment.
Because of his age, he is also quite savvy about the ways of the world.
Truth be told, after hearing Uncle Bo’s introduction, Hu Biao felt quite pleasantly surprised, as this middle-aged man is versatile and should be able to play a significant role in many aspects in the future.
The premise is, of course, if he can live long enough.
However, based on Hu Biao’s years of experience mingling in the odd-job world, he knew this guy was hiding a considerable amount of information.
But that’s not a big problem; once everyone has been together for a while, he will naturally reveal his true colors.
Codename: Chaozi, 28 years old, surprisingly a native of the Daxing district in Beijing; his home is not far from Majuqiao, about twenty kilometers away.
Unfortunately, Hu Biao has no intention of telling him that for the time being.
Right! He is a factory worker, quite burly, with decent stamina and strength.
He is also a military enthusiast who likes to collect all sorts of information, so he knows a lot of bizarre knowledge. Parenthesis: limited to theory, and not necessarily able to remember it all.
Codename: Black Star, 31 years old, 180 cm tall, a sturdy man from the Central Plains.
He served in the Armed Police Force for two years. Aside from the basic skills expected of an ordinary soldier, he has certain specialties in mortars and grenade throwing, and he can also drive armored vehicles.
I have to say! After hearing Black Star’s introduction, Hu Biao was quite pleasantly surprised.
Mainly because last time they were able to hold Position No. 7, the PLA veteran Wang Peng played a huge role; he had already developed the psychological cognition that "anything produced by the PLA is a quality product."
Codename: Brother Huang, from the provincial capital of Fujian, a 175 cm tall fat guy, weighing around two hundred pounds.
He worked as a construction worker for two years, so he knows a bit about civil engineering.
He used to work as an extra in Hengdian, which is the famous wholesale production base for anti-Japanese "silly dramas." He played Japanese soldiers and corpses of Japanese soldiers many times, so he can speak a bit of "broken Japanese."
So, on the battlefield, this guy can at least lead people in building fortifications.
Codename: Sledgehammer, 35 years old, from Dujiangyan in Sichuan, a gas delivery man for a liquefied gas station; he has a lot of strength from years of manual labor.
He looks very honest, even taciturn, the kind of person you wouldn't notice if thrown into a crowd.
In short, the six remaining travelers this time are better off than Hu Biao’s group was; plus, with Hu Biao’s experience, hopefully, they will perform better this time...

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******
As long as they don't think about running around, Hu Biao and his group are relatively safe at the very beginning.
Think about it: no matter what the purpose of that mysterious entity was in bringing them here, if they all died at the very start, what could it possibly gain?
In the time that followed, the group of eight headed towards the rear area of the 67th Division near Jiangqiao without encountering any danger.
However, upon arriving and seeing the scale of the 67th Division’s camp from a distance, Hu Biao derived a heartbreaking statistic:
Before the war, the 67th Division had a total strength of seven or eight thousand men, but now it’s hard to say if the remaining personnel could even form a full-strength regiment.
Those who were missing had either died on the battlefield, like young Master Feng and others—not knowing where they were buried or if they could even rest in peace—or were lying in field hospitals lacking medicine, their survival depending entirely on luck.
Thinking of this, Hu Biao felt extremely depressed.
Fortunately, in this situation, it wasn't all bad for them. That Division Commander Huang was currently in dire need of men, especially veterans returning from recovery, so Hu Biao and his group received preferential treatment.
Even though among these eight veterans, a full five were total "water goods" (fakes); even Hu Biao, the platoon leader, was half a "water good," they were still valued.
And so! Hu Biao had only just arrived at the division headquarters gate and said a few words while holding the discharge papers from the hospital.
Soon after, a captain staff officer surnamed Liu came out and enthusiastically led them into a room at the headquarters, asking the eight of them to wait there for a moment.
Because the newly appointed Division Commander Huang had specifically instructed Staff Officer Liu:
Once he finished the matters at hand, he would come to chat with Second Lieutenant Hu and the veterans, and only after the chat would he make assignments.
In short, the 67th Division is currently preparing for reconstruction, and they will definitely be put to good use.
Hu Biao and the others naturally had no objections and readily agreed. After the staff officer left, they picked up some old newspapers in the room to read.
They wanted to use this method to better understand the current situation of the Songhu battlefield.
And because of this, they triggered a chaos they had not anticipated.
Although newspapers in the Republic of China era were written vertically and used traditional characters, the seven people who traveled from the modern era found it merely a bit of a struggle to read.
For example, Black Star, when encountering traditional characters he didn't recognize, could basically figure out the meaning by combining it with the surrounding context.
It was precisely for this reason that after Black Star roughly flipped through a few pages, the mood that had improved because of the Division Commander’s appreciation vanished into thin air, and instead became even worse.
The others, except for Zhu Cong who was dozing off, were all the same...