Chapter 149: Outwitting the Yamazaki Battalion, Part 106

"Brigade Commander! Our regiment is going up, but I demand that the brigade's direct artillery battalion be placed under my command! That is my only condition, you figure it out!"

"What! You're rebelling now! The direct artillery battalion is more precious than my own life, if you brat get it wiped out, won't I have to go hang myself?"

"Anyway, that's my condition! If you don't agree, I won't go up! That's throwing my brothers' lives into the grinder, I won't do it!"

"If you don't do it, I'll relieve you of your post!"

"Then I still won't do it! Brigade Commander! Just give me the artillery battalion, and I'll take the position for you! If I can't take it, you can just shoot me!"

This was equivalent to a military pledge, and the commander of the 386th Brigade over there was truly out of options.

"Get out, get out, get out! Get out of my sight! Take my artillery battalion and get lost! If you can't take down the Yamazaki Battalion, I'll use your head, Li Yunlong, as a nightstool!"

"Hahaha, thank you Brigade Commander! Thank you Brigade Commander! I'm kneeling down to you!"

This dialogue was actually Li Yunlong asking his superior for fire support. However, since Li Yunlong had already gained his superior's consent, this fellow...

"What the hell kind of artillery battalion, it's just four mortars, and two of them are broken, how do they even have the nerve to call it a battalion?!" He turned hostile and refused to acknowledge anyone!

"Cut! Not bad! But for this very last line, Teacher Li, could you say it with a bit more sarcasm, how about it?" Wu Xiang offered his suggestion from the side.

Naturally, this was filming. Moreover, to help Li Yunlong and his brigade commander superior get better into character, this scene had them speaking on the telephone. In reality, however, the two actors were standing merely three or four meters apart. In other words, the two of them were simply having a face-to-face 'dialogue' rather than an actual phone call.

The telephone wires and everything else were props, and they were just shouting at each other, so the emotional delivery was naturally fine. It was just that Wu Xiang wanted to add one more touch at the end; he felt that according to Li Yunlong's personality, adding a bit more sarcastic bite would make it even better.

"Director, I thought these lines of mine were already sarcastic enough. Turning around and changing faces like this, isn't that a bit too morally bankrupt?" Teacher Li joked with a smile. To be honest, he had thoroughly studied the script, but this character truly had no precedent. In previous films of this genre, there was definitely never a commanding officer with such behavior acting as the protagonist.

"It's fine, Teacher Li. Just go for it. This part is meant to be a bit comedic and also highlights some flaws. So go ahead, cast away your moral integrity, Teacher Li!" Wu Xiang's fallacious arguments were truly endless.

"Alright! Let's go!" Teacher Li didn't mind being even more sarcastic.

After finishing this retake, the dramatic scenes were basically done. This segment was a scenario Wu Xiang had designed himself; he hadn't followed the TV series' plot, but rather the original novel. The problem, however, was that the novel didn't contain this specific detail—it only mentioned that Li Yunlong could command the direct artillery battalion. Thus, Wu Xiang exercised his subjective initiative and created this scene from scratch.

Of course, following this, Wu Xiang had also designed a scene where the brigade commander cursed up a storm, naturally blaming Li Yunlong for wasting too much ammunition. They were going to shoot it right away.

The comrade commander of the 386th Brigade was looking through binoculars at the distant Independent Regiment's position.

"Damn that Li Yunlong! Why can't you brat use it more sparingly?" He cursed as he lowered his binoculars.

At this moment, an adjutant at his side interjected, "Brigade Commander, should we issue an order for Li Yunlong to cease artillery fire?"

"Bulls**t!" Who could have imagined that the great brigade commander would be so devoid of civility and courtesy, "Is there any business where you stop halfway through? I'm risking it all! To hell with it!"

"Cut! OK!"

That's right, Wu Xiang had successfully brought this scene back on track. One had to say that this fellow's research into this television series was truly thorough.

Next were a few dramatic scenes on the frontline. Once those were finished, the time was about right as the sun was setting, and they were ready to begin "Taking the Yamazaki Battalion by Wits."

The tunnel prop had actually been completed long ago; they only needed to shoot a few shots of kicking up dust, followed by hurling grenade after grenade!

This sequence needed to be spectacular. Don't forget, Wu Xiang had previously worked on *The Emperor Han Wu*, which contained arrow-rain sequences similar to those later seen in *Hero*. Of course, Wu Xiang hadn't quite achieved Director Zhang's visual effect, but this time...

Wu Xiang felt that this time he could shoot it a bit better and capture that specific sensation. Because these were grenades, they weren't as numerous as arrows, but should they still use computer special effects?

Of course not!

It had to be live-action shooting, but live-action shooting this time around carried risks.

How did Wu Xiang design this shot? He placed the camera right at the impact zone of the grenades to capture the feeling of being pelted by a barrage of grenades, resembling the end of the world!

However, let's not forget that the camera used this time was no ordinary equipment; it was a precious item costing 5,000 per day in rental fees. If it got smashed, Wu Xiang would be ruined.

Still, they had a trick up their sleeve. Wu Xiang's first thought was tempered glass, using it to form a protective shield in front of the lens, and then modifying the tips of the grenades to be made of rubber.

Yet even so, Wu Xiang was still uneasy. In the end, this fellow stayed behind alone next to the digital camera with an expression of resignation to his fate.

"Come on! Just hurl them right at me!" Having uttered these bold words, Wu Xiang's momentum made it seem as though they could smash him to death, as long as they didn't damage the machine!

"One, two, three! Throw!"

Swish, swish, swish... The entire sky was filled with grenades, looking just like a swarm of migratory locusts!

The camera was pointed diagonally upward at the sky, and so was Wu Xiang. He felt that there was nothing else left in his field of vision; the sheer volume of objects gave him a sense of vertigo.

Crackle, bang... "It worked! I'm fine! I'm completely fine! Hahaha..." This shot was successfully completed.

"Charge!"

Having tossed the grenades, the natural next step was to charge. However, the charging formation this time was particularly bizarre: some carried broadswords, some carried rifles, and crucially, some even carried ladles and spatulas. True to Li Yunlong's order, even the mess squad had to join the combat.

Wu Xiang gave it a prominent close-up because he felt this scene would definitely turn out hilarious...

"Hey!"

"Ya-ta!"

"Da-mei!"...

Baoqiang once again charged out with his wooden stick, and then began laying into a few little devils. Not bad at all; this time he exercised some restraint, as Wu Yue had given him plenty of guidance.

"Use guns wherever possible to quickly resolve the battle." This was Zhao Gang's line, and consequently...

Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat... "Charge! Little devils! Kill!"

Our lovely comrade Baoqiang, wielding the light machine gun he had 'captured,' started firing in an endless sweep.

"Qiangzi, what are you doing?" Wu Xiang wasn't even filming at this point. He had already finished shooting the take, so what was there left to film?

Rat-a-tat-tat...

"I'm killing little devils!" Baoqiang acted as if he had overdosed on adrenaline and couldn't stop.

"Is shooting guns that thrilling?" Wu Xiang had long since seen through the kid's real motive.

"Thrilling!... Oh, um, no, no I'm not!" Baoqiang scratched his head, having been found out.

"Forget it, you brat, stop pretending!"

"Hahaha..." Everyone had actually stopped working long ago and burst into laughter upon hearing this.

You have to admit, Wu Xiang's crew was quite a joyous bunch. As for whether it fit the saying—people with mental illnesses have broad minds, and intellectually disabled children have more fun—Wu Xiang would definitely never admit to that!

"Hehehe, Brother, I really love acting." Baoqiang finally put down the weapon in his hands. "Brother, why is our filming done in such fragmented pieces, stopping every now and then? What's the fun in that?"

"That's just how filming goes. You'll see when it's all edited together." Wu Xiang was truly quite patient with the naive Baoqiang.

Indeed, looking at it now, most of these shots were independent, isolated entities standing on their own. Wu Xiang hadn't used many long takes this time because this was a war sequence; if you were to invest as heavily as they did in *The Decisive Engagement*, you'd use long takes, but since they didn't have sets of that scale here, they naturally had to rely on a montage of shots.

Although he didn't use long takes in certain places, Wu Xiang still employed them in others, such as...

"...This Yan Laoxi, this Officer Yan, his commanding skills are truly mediocre! His boasting is earth-shattering..."

"Brother Yunlong, watch your tongue, he is my former superior. He, too, has his difficulties. However, it's not just my Northeast Army that loses battles. What about the Central Army? The Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain lasted for over a month, the Central Army lost 80,000 men while the Japanese lost fewer than 3,000—a ratio of 26 to 1! It was regarded by the government as the greatest blunder and the utmost shame of the War of Resistance!"

"National strength is weak and impoverished, and equipment is inferior. These are all facts, but the biggest problem is still the people! Just think about it, the Battle of Nanjing deployed 120,000 Nationalist troops. The slogans shouted were quite grand—co-exist and co-perish with Nanjing, fighting to the very last man! But what was the result? After holding out for merely three days, the city fell, the army was defeated, and tens of thousands of soldiers were captured. This tells us a lot. What was actually lacking? In a word, it is the courage to burn the boats and the momentum of facing the enemy without fear for oneself! If the perimeter cannot be held, we should fall back into the city to fight urban warfare. Squads fighting independently, individuals fighting independently, turning the city into a fortress! Even if killed in action, we must deal the enemy heavy blows before our dying breath! We must make the invaders pay a bloody price for every single step forward!"

"Regarding the Battle of Nanjing, I, your brother, also have my views. In a word, it breaks my heart..."

This scene was the exclusive encounter in the TV series where Chu Yunfei visits the Independent Regiment. According to the storyboard script, this marked the first appearance of Teacher Zhang Guangbei, who portrayed Chu Yunfei. Although plot-wise he should have appeared in the first episode, that clearly had to wait until filming the engagement with Yamamoto's force, since both took place in the county town.

Chu Yunfei, Li Yunlong, and Zhao Gang—the three major characters in this television series—were meeting for the very first time. Of course, in the plot they had already competed in martial arts, but the scene they were shooting now was genuinely their initial encounter.

"OK! That's a wrap!" The performances of the three veteran actors were quite good. Wu Xiang only gave a few notes, and after two takes, it was in the bag. This sequence actually demanded very high standards due to its lengthy dialogue.

Ofccourse, this sequence was extremely simple for Wu Xiang because he was completely replicating the material from the TV series. Thanks to his thorough research, he could remember almost every single line.

However, as the two cameras were rolling, there was a rather eye-catching prop on set.

A bottle—a glass bottle—except that the label on the bottle bore two large characters: Fen Wine!

That novel seemed to feature this wine as well, didn't it? Fen Wine. Wasn't Wu Xiang strictly following the plot of the novel?

No, this was a case of product placement. This was Wu Xiang's pioneering move. Who said historical films and anti-Japanese dramas couldn't feature product placement? He could pull it off brilliantly!

This matter actually came about because the manufacturer of Fen Wine had proactively sought them out. This county of Wei was not too far from Shanxi, and when word of Wu Xiang's large-scale production got out, the Fen Wine factory heard about it.

Xinghuacun, after all, was a famous place that produced fine liquor. There was a poem that went...

Never mind, let's skip the poetry for now and talk about the present Xinghuacun Winery, whose days were actually quite difficult.

This situation stemmed from a truly bizarre event. In 1998, in Shuozhou, Shanxi, a fake alcohol case occurred that shocked the entire nation. Counterfeit liquor brewed with methanol had poisoned and killed quite a few people.

This case was originally engineered by criminals seeking illegal exorbitant profits, but the aftermath was utterly bizarre—bizarre enough to evoke sighs and lamentations.

What was the outcome? The legitimate wineries across all of Shanxi plunged into a severe depression because of this case!

Why did Wu Xiang know about this? Because he studied the liberal arts, and this incident was a textbook example of severely malicious fake news.

At the time, media reports stated that a major case had occurred in Shanxi resulting in deaths from alcohol poisoning, but their reports hadn't clarified the details. The label of that fake liquor carried a production location name called Xinghuazhen (Xinghua Town), whereas the Fen Wine brand was Xinghuacun (Xinghua Village). Ah, it differed by just that single character, and "Town" was even larger than "Village," which triggered the disaster!

Some media outlets were conscientious and reported it correctly, but many media organizations assumed it was the famous Fen Wine manufacturer.

Consequently, a chorus of condemnation against Fen Wine arose nationwide. The company had nothing to do with it, yet they faced this outcome—it was truly sigh-worthy.

This was a mandatory case study for liberal arts students taking journalism courses, illustrating that news reporting must be truthful, as truth is journalism's most vital principle!

Since Wu Xiang was a liberal arts student, the moment the winery approached him, he understood their intentions entirely: they wanted to reshape the current image of Fen Wine and do some advertising.

To be fair, things weren't easy for them. They had originally held the top market share nationwide, but now they were struggling just to survive; if not for being a state-owned enterprise, they would have gone under long ago.

Look at how difficult things were for them—could Wu Xiang refuse to lend a hand?

Therefore, Wu Xiang pitched this product placement method to the winery representatives. My word, the person in charge was overjoyed, repeatedly praising Director Wu for his ingenuity and resourcefulness!

Just look at this sequence: it subtly took a jab at the Chiang Kai-shek faction while maintaining a scale that completely satisfied everyone, and on top of that, it seamlessly integrated product placement—the characters for "Fen Wine" were large enough that you'd have to be blind to miss them.

A win-win! A thoroughly guaranteed win-win!