Although this area is still thirty kilometers away from the front line, there are quite a lot of broken troops who have fallen here. It is no wonder that the 36th Infantry Brigade has to separate many small teams into the countryside to search.
Only two guard squads entered the village where the Japanese troops had not yet arrived, and received more than a dozen wounded soldiers left behind by the hastily retreating troops, as well as seven or eight soldiers who had no time to leave and were forced to stay.
But the guard platoon was looking for fighter planes to beat the Japanese, and they couldn't carry the seriously wounded soldiers who couldn't move, so they had to leave them to the villagers. However, considering that the villagers wanted to flee south and had to carry the seriously wounded soldiers, Lao Hei
Compensation was still made.
The property robbed from the countryside carried by the ambushed Japanese soldiers really realized "taken from the people and used by the people". Whether it was food or gold and silver, Lao Hei handed it over to the villagers according to the number of wounded soldiers to take care of, and asked them to
Retreat to Jiujiang, Jiangxia and other places and hand over the wounded to local hospitals.
As for the stranded soldiers, Lao Hei did not forcibly recruit them into the army. Instead, he asked them about their wishes. Those who were willing to join the independent battalion would be fired and immediately joined the army. If they were not willing, they would be given a few pieces of silver to pay for their travel expenses.
Go south to find his old troops.
Tang Dao mainly emphasized the issue of recruiting new soldiers at the military meeting. What the independent battalion needs are real soldiers who are dedicated to working with the Japanese, not numbers.
Lao Hei and a group of lower-level officers faithfully carried out Tang Dao's wishes.
After most of the defeated troops experienced this cruel war and suffered the bitterness of their troops being scattered and living alone in the countryside, where they lived in fear all day long, they had completely lost their fighting spirit and were unwilling to face the Japanese invaders again. Most of them chose to take advantage of them.
Shang Yinyang and the villagers retreated south, carrying bedding and food on their backs.
But in the end there were still people willing to stay and fight with Lao Hei and the others, even if Lao Hei's two guard squads had less than 30 people.
The young man named Deng Guihai was just a sergeant, with an ordinary face and an ordinary military rank. But what made Lao Hei extremely happy was that he was a member of the military.
Deng Guihai was a tank gunner of the Central Army, and he was also an elite gunner. During the Battle of Songhu, his tank had a record of destroying two Japanese tanks.
This is a rare talent!
The independent battalion now has rifle-level marksmen like Niu Er, machine gun shooters like Heizi, machine gun shooters like Cheng Tieshou and Mo Songzi, and a group of veteran gunners represented by Da Dahai, but tanks like this can whine.
There is no such thing as a running iron turtle gunner.
Although the officers and soldiers of the Independent Battalion often dealt with the Japanese Type 89 or Type 94 tanks, they were not in vain in the defensive battle. The 20mm machine gun was specially prepared for them, but it was a defensive battle after all, big guy.
There is time to build a strong fortification for the machine gun, and then you can shoot against it.
What if it's an encounter or a field battle? The iron-cased tanks that can roam around are naturally incomparable to machine guns, especially the 57mm tank cannon of the Type 89 tank. With one shot, even the three-layer sandbag fortifications can't stop it.
, often the fortifications and the people behind them are blown up together.
But the officers and soldiers of the independent battalion with machine guns knew better that they were pretty good. At least they had machine guns that could fight the Japanese tanks, especially the veterans of the former 43rd Army. They were fighting in Dachang Town at that time.
During the First World War, the Japanese army had very few machine guns, let alone machine guns, and even mortars. Facing the Japanese tanks that were charging ahead, they had nothing else to resist.
Only flesh and blood!
Hold explosive packs or cluster grenades and use the demolition team to blow up tanks.
But the machine gun equipped on the tank and the Japanese infantry following it are not vegetarian. How can the infantry get close to the tank so easily?
If you want to blow up a Japanese tank, you often have to lose several demolition teams or even more.
Perhaps the most painful thing is not how many people were sacrificed, but watching helplessly as the Japanese tanks rolled over the remains of the brothers who were once so close to each other, even though they risked their lives but could not stop them.
It can be said that tanks are the nightmare of light infantry, and the psychological damage they cause to those who are still alive is no less than that of heavy artillery.
What a wonderful thing it would be if your own army had tanks that could rival the Japanese army!
Of course, China is not without tanks. In the Battle of Songhu, China sent its only tank battalion. Although all the tank equipment was eventually destroyed due to tactical and other reasons, it also gave the Japanese invaders a hard time when they entered the battlefield in the early stages.
A heavy blow from the infantry.
In front of the steel behemoth, the flesh and blood bodies of the Japanese army were also vulnerable.
However, with a night attack organized by the Japanese army, the last tank of China's only tank battalion disappeared into the flesh and blood mill, becoming the first Chinese military branch to withdraw from the battle.
But what is unexpected is that this elite tank gunner would end up living in the countryside.
After Lao Hei's surprised, happy and cautious inquiry, he learned that this Fujianese top student who graduated from Xiamen University continued to fight with the 87th Division after the tank battalion equipment was destroyed, and guarded the ferry in the Jinling Defense War that broke out not long ago.
In the end, the whole army was defeated before the city fell. The sergeant, who was born on the seaside and was proficient in water, floated nearly ten kilometers in the roaring river and escaped with his life. When he arrived here, he was already exhausted and had a high fever. If it were not for the local villagers who took him in for training.
After two days, he probably died of illness and starvation in the countryside.
"Sir, I chose to go to the southeast to join the army right after I graduated from college, just to protect my family and the country. In this battle, as a Chinese soldier, I failed to defend the city and caused trouble to the Jinling elders. I am deeply ashamed. Please give me a reinstatement, sir.
An opportunity for honor." This is how the young sergeant stated his determination to Lao Hei.
Without any further hesitation, Lao Hei immediately decided to recruit this 'big baby' into the independent battalion. He also believed that Tang Dao would like this armored sergeant.
Not only was he a rare soldier, Lao Hei and the soldiers in the guard platoon had always had beautiful dreams of tanks, but Lao Hei vaguely saw the shadow of a commander in him.
Not only is he knowledgeable, but he is also determined.
Failure is not terrible. What is terrible is that the person who failed will lie in the pit where he fell and cannot recover.
Tang Dao once said that it is difficult for China to defeat Japan, which has strong industrial strength. The most likely outcome is that it will suffer repeated defeats!
This is actually an extremely despairing argument. How many lives had to be sacrificed in that battle? But we still had to lose. Are those lives so worthless?
But Lao Hei still remembers what Tang Dao added: If we fight repeatedly and lose, then we will fight again and again! The Japanese have strong industrial strength, and we in China have 100 million people and 9.6 million square kilometers of land.
One day, they will be so exhausted that they will have to smelt their own kitchen knives to make bullets.
China will definitely win this war! This was Tang Dao's final concluding speech, which undoubtedly gave the officers and soldiers of the Independent Battalion enough confidence.
In other words, Tang Dao is the first commander to anchor a psychological goal for his soldiers. He is not at a loss and moves forward firmly. He is the current independent battalion officers and soldiers and the Chinese soldiers who are frustrated by successive setbacks at this time.
The biggest difference is not just being well-equipped.
But Lao Hei didn't know at this moment that what Tang Dao said was not groundless. By the end of the war in Japan, even kitchen knives had really turned into wood.
The armored sergeant performed very well. Even without a tank, he was given a rifle and was able to kill two Japanese soldiers in the next two days of fighting, keeping up with the average level of soldiers in the guard platoon.
In addition to this armored sergeant who could help the independent battalion in the future, Lao Hei actually met an 'old acquaintance' in a large village with a population of more than 300 people.
It was a child wearing an old cotton robe. Just after Lao Hei explained the stakes to the villagers and urged them to leave their hometown as soon as possible and go south, the child timidly pointed at Lao Hei and said to the woman beside him: "I have seen these uncles.
!”
Lao Hei and the soldiers were slightly startled by these words, and then they realized that this child might have seen soldiers wearing the same color.
However, the child's next words stunned Lao Hei: "Uncle is in that big house, a big, big house. Daddy went to heaven because of that big house."
That big house? In Lao Hei's memory, except for the building of Sihang Warehouse, there is no bigger house than that, and there is no battlefield more desperate than that, but there is no more exciting place than that.
battlefield.
They fought bloody battles on the battlefield surrounded by three sides, and tens of thousands of people cheered and shouted for them on the other side of the river.
That was Lao Hei's most desperate and glorious moment. How could he forget it?
But, how does this little kid know that he is in that big house? Even in the independent camp, only the old comrades in the Sixing Battalion and his guard platoon soldiers know. Also, why did his father die because of the Sixing Warehouse?
Yes, could it be that he is the orphan of that comrade?
Seeing the change in Lao Hei's face, the woman in a coarse cotton coat next to the child became very nervous and quickly apologized: "Boss, my son is young and has been frightened by the military disaster recently. He often talks nonsense. Please don't blame me, boss!"
"Madam, please rest assured, I don't mean to blame him, but I also think he looks very familiar!" Lao Hei's heart moved even more when he saw the woman knowing the book and being polite, and the originally fuzzy memory in his mind became clearer.
His mind was so excited that he strode up to the child, squatted down, and asked softly: "Since you have met uncle, can you tell uncle your name?"
"My name is Yue Yiman, and my father often called me Nan'er when he was still here!" The child stared at Lao Hei's dark blue military uniform that was already somewhat tattered. "Uncle, I have really seen you. There are many uncles like you.
You are fighting the Japanese in that big house, and I want to give you sugar cakes, but my family is gone, and my parents have no money."
"Haha, I think I know who you are." Lao Hei suddenly laughed loudly. "Your father's name is Yue Changqing, right."
Lao Heiyuan belonged to the third platoon of Tang Dao, and they were basically stationed on the other side of the building. He rarely had the opportunity to go to the side facing the concession, nor did he have the opportunity to see the little boy who bowed to the army stationed at Sihang Warehouse.
He didn't see his brave father who was the first to jump into the river to retrieve the body of his comrade, but this did not prevent the entire defenders of Sihang Warehouse from knowing Yue Changqing's story.
The article Tantai Mingyue published in the newspaper was transported by the death squads together with the supplies through secret transportation lines at night. When the soldiers in Sihang Warehouse heard about this, they were all excited.
Since they dared to enter Sihang Warehouse, they had already put life and death aside. Death was no longer the most feared thing for Lao Hei, but he was still afraid. He was afraid that he would die in obscurity here without anyone knowing.
But since I heard the voices of the people in the concession on the other side of the river, those fears that I once had have disappeared.
They know, they know they are fighting for China in that grave!
Of course, what moved Lao Hei and the soldiers even more was that they were fighting for the country, and the people led by Yue Changqing also dared to risk their lives to fight for them. They were not only soldiers and civilians, but also soldiers, and the whole of China stood behind them.
Behind them, they have nothing to fear.
Yue Changqing's name has been stationed in the hearts of everyone in Sihang Warehouse. Even after leaving Sihang Warehouse, Tang Dao, who has become the commander of Sihang Battalion, specifically asked Tantai Mingyue about Yue Changqing and learned that he
His wife and children have been properly arranged, and he has been adopted as an adopted son by a very powerful lady. Tantai Mingyue even accepted him as a disciple on behalf of his father, and he was relieved.
When the veterans from the Sixing Camp heard the news, they were relieved that Yue Changqing's widow and only son could receive such care.
But, shouldn't they be in the concession at this time? Why did they appear on this chaotic battlefield? Could it be that those celebrities who were seeking fame and reputation went back on their word and abandoned these two orphans and widowed mothers?
"No, our battalion commander specifically inquired about you mother and son. Shouldn't you be in the concession at this time? Why are you here? Who could do such a good thing?" Thinking of this, Lao Hei couldn't help but get angry.
He asked sharply.
Based on his current battlefield experience, even if he is not a murderer! His subordinates have also taken the lives of at least ten or twenty Japanese people. Under this anger, he is naturally murderous.
The little child was so frightened that his face turned pale, and the woman couldn't help but hold her son's hand tightly.
"Boss, Mrs. Yue and Young Master Yue have always wanted to bury Master Yue's coffin in their hometown, so the war slowed down a bit, so my master asked the old man and me to accompany him. Unexpectedly, after handling the funeral affairs, they encountered the Japanese army, and the old man was forced to
He took his wife and young master to the surrounding areas of Jinling.
As a result, Jinling City was destroyed a few days ago, so he lived here. Fortunately, the villagers are honest, and the wife and young master were able to have the opportunity to meet the bosses of the world-famous 88th Division." An old man in his sixties who had been standing behind the woman stood up.
, Chong Lao Hei slightly cupped his hands and told him the reason.
"You guys." Old Hei glanced at the old servant who had half a hair and beard, and whose body looked quite strong. He could only feel angry for it.
During this time of war and chaos, he unexpectedly arranged for an old servant who could only serve tea and water and make some vulgar remarks to return home with the mother and son. This master either disliked the mother and son as a burden, or he was an unreliable master.
.
However, the old servant was shrewd enough to protect the mother and son in such troubled times, and even quietly tested the identities of Lao Hei and others.
Even if he directly said Yue Changqing's name, it wouldn't work.
"Our battalion is no longer part of the 88th Division. It has been reorganized from the Sihang Battalion into the 43rd Army Independent Battalion. It is now going to Xuzhou for rest and reorganization under the order of the military headquarters. I used to be a sergeant squad leader in the Sihang Battalion, and now I am a guard of the independent battalion.
Platoon commander, these are all soldiers from my guard platoon." Lao Hei introduced himself formally.
It was also a reassurance for the old servant and the woman.
However, no matter how good your mind is, on this battlefield, your mind will never be as effective as force.
He was determined to take the mother and son away, but it wasn't because he wanted to take them away, they would follow him. The famous Si Xingying title should still be useful.
"Uncle, don't be angry. With Grandpa Han protecting me and my mother, Nan'er won't be afraid of more Japs!" The child also came back to his senses at this time, knowing that the big black-faced uncle in front of him was just because of him.
He was angry here and said boldly. As he spoke, he pulled out the wooden pistol hidden in his cotton robe: "Besides, Nan'er still has this."
Seeing the child's innocent appearance, Lao Hei's previous anger disappeared instantly, "Okay, good boy! He knows how to fight Japanese at a young age. Our battalion commander will definitely be very happy if he knows that I can meet you mother and son. He is the most capable.
, I will definitely teach you how to fight the Japanese. By the way, you will definitely feel very happy when you go to our military camp. There is also a little brother and little sister there."
"Okay! I want to go. I want to learn how to fight Japanese invaders. I don't want to study." The child was naturally very happy when he heard that someone was playing.
"But boss, I still have to escort my wife and young master back to the Songhu Concession." The old man in his 60s had a troubled look on his face.
"Uncle Han, I'm not looking down on you. There are hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops around Jinling, and they are killing people without distinction between soldiers and civilians. It is no longer possible for you to go to the southeast. The only way is to follow my independent battalion to the north. In the future
How about we wait until the war situation stabilizes a little and find a way to send you back to the concession?" Lao Hei didn't want to embarrass this loyal old servant, so he simply stated the situation at this moment.
"Okay then!" The old man surnamed Han could only nod helplessly.
In addition to insisting on her own opinion that her husband should be buried in her hometown, the woman mostly obeyed the old servant named Han. She looked at the old man in his 60s, but saw him nodding helplessly, then she stopped talking and just bowed slightly towards Lao Hei.
Body, it can be regarded as expressing one's gratitude.
After all, without the arrival of Lao Hei and others, they, old and young, would not be able to go further. But with Japanese troops everywhere here, the outcome can be imagined.
"Come here with a few people, accompany the sister-in-law and the others to find Platoon Leader Lu and the others, and ask them to safely send the three sisters-in-law back to the first company station, and tell that guy Lu Sanjiang that if the sister-in-law and nephew are short of hair, he will be whipped by the commander.
!" Lao Hei immediately ordered.
Lao Hei, who was quite surprised by the unexpected encounter, focused his attention on the mother and son, which led him to make a minor mistake.
The woman who adopted Yue Yiman as her adopted son was a great person in Songhu. How could she make such a low-level mistake and rashly entrust a child who was so valued by celebrities in the concession to an ordinary old man?
And how can an ordinary old man protect a frail woman and a small child in the midst of war and chaos?
However, as he watched the old man put the child on a wheelbarrow filled with bedding and utensils, and then left with a few soldiers, Lao Hei could only feel lucky that he had met the mother and son.
Little did he know that compared to the armored sergeant who would later become the commander of the first tank in the independent battalion and the future president of the China Charity Foundation, the old man who was still unknown at this time was the one who stunned Lao Hei.
That was the biggest gain from his trip...
PS: Today is Feng Yue’s birthday, so I went out with my parents for a walk, and then came home in the evening and started typing. It was a bit late, so I just combined the two chapters into one, and it is another 5,000-word chapter.
This chapter has been completed!