At midnight, Yang Ling, who was in charge of breaking up the rear, led the exhausted officers and soldiers of the Lieyan Special Warfare Brigade to repel the Japanese's last attack, and then voluntarily withdrew to Yichang, and Zhijiang fell.
The city shrouded in flames of war was filled with thick smoke. Under the continuous bombing and strafing by Japanese planes and artillery fire, Zhijiang was dilapidated in the dark like the ruins of the apocalypse.
All the people had been evacuated during the day, and the wounded had all survived and left with the Zhijiang defenders in the evening, so Yang Ling and the others evacuated very quickly.
When a suicide squad organized by the Japanese broke into several buildings where Yang Ling and others were guarding, they found that there was no one there.
Everywhere in Zhijiang City, Japanese soldiers covered in gunpowder smoke and holding bayonets were searching the battlefield. Under the illumination of flashlights and firelight, they looked particularly ferocious.
These Japanese soldiers had been fighting continuously for more than a month and were exhausted. After capturing Zhijiang, they were no longer able to pursue the retreating Yang Ling and others.
Therefore, they only sent a vanguard force of more than fifty people to pursue a symbolic pursuit north for a few kilometers before withdrawing into the city and participating in the operation to clean up the battlefield.
"The Japanese have withdrawn into the city."
The investigation team of the Lieyan Special Warfare Brigade that stayed near the highway quickly reported to Yang Ling and the others after confirming that the Japanese pursuers had returned to the city and did not launch a pursuit.
Yang Ling and others were worried that the Japanese would not let go of them, so after withdrawing from the city, they did not go straight to Yichang. Instead, they hid in a forest with dense vegetation, preparing to ambush the Japanese pursuers.
Hearing that the Japs only chased them a certain distance away and then turned back into the city, the brothers of the Lieyan Special Forces Brigade who were ambushing in the woods all breathed a sigh of relief.
Although they were not afraid of fighting with the Japs, they traveled all the way to the Fifth War Zone and participated in the two-day and two-night battle before even taking a break. They were already exhausted and in urgent need of rest.
"Eat some dry food and then rush to Yichang overnight."
Yang Ling did not dare to let his brothers stay here for a long time. After all, the Japanese divisions were fleeting. If they fell behind the Japanese, it would be troublesome. They had to enter Yichang before the Japanese.
The battle was temporarily over, and the brothers all relaxed. While eating to replenish their strength, they looked at the fire-lit Zhijiang River and cursed the eighteenth generation of the Japanese's ancestors.
The brothers of the Lieyan Special Warfare Brigade assisted the Zhijiang defenders in fighting for one day and two nights. After excluding the dead and wounded soldiers who had evacuated to Yichang with the Zhijiang defenders, there were still 80 brothers who could be considered capable of fighting. Although there were not many battle losses,
It's big, but it still makes Yang Ling's body hurt.
These were all carefully selected elites from the Northern Jiangsu Guerrilla Corps. They had suffered so many losses in just the first battle back on the frontal battlefield, which made him feel bad.
But as a commander, he naturally knew the cruelty of war, and there would be casualties in fighting. Although he was sad when facing the dead and injured brothers, he could not show it to avoid affecting morale.
Some of the brothers who worked together day and night were killed or injured in battle. Although the brothers in the Flame Special Warfare Brigade were used to life and death, their morale inevitably became lower.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to replenish his strength by eating dry food, Yang Ling gathered the commanders of each special operations team for a short meeting, asking them to pay attention to the status of their brothers and encourage them to ensure that it would not affect the subsequent battle.
The commanders of each special operations team are promoted by veterans with rich combat experience, and they have their own unique skills on how to boost the morale of their brothers.
After the short meeting, the commanders of these special operations teams returned to their respective teams.
Some of them gathered the brothers together and instilled patriotic ideas in them, and some recalled the bloody battles with the little devils, which made the blood in the brothers' chests surge. Some even talked about dirty jokes, and from time to time there were The brother let out a low laugh.
Although the methods of these special operations team leaders were different, the effect was immediate. When Yang Ling ordered the brothers to go on the road again, the slightly low morale had been restored a lot.
The brothers marched along the road. Behind them was Zhijiang City shrouded in flames. The Japanese who entered the city were busy cleaning the battlefield among the ruins, collecting some valuable things and preparing to take them away.
The operational scope approved by the Japanese base camp was the area east of the Han River, but the new commander of the 11th Army has now commanded the troops to cross the Han River and march towards Yichang, the gateway to Chongqing.
The current battle went beyond the operational scope established by the base camp, and the Japanese knew very well that the newly captured areas would not be included in the occupied area until there were new orders from the base camp.
Because expanding the occupied area is not just military occupation, it also requires a lot of other work, such as supporting the maintenance association to assist in the maintenance of order, forming puppet troops, etc., and the current combat operations go beyond the scope of combat, and for the newly captured towns , the Japanese haven’t made any plans yet.
Therefore, there is a high possibility that these newly captured areas were only occupied for a short time. After completing the combat mission of annihilating the main force of the Chinese Army, they will withdraw to the original defense area.
Precisely because they had no plans to occupy them for a long time, the Japanese implemented a three-guang policy for these newly occupied towns. They took away whatever they could and destroyed whatever they couldn't take away. Anyway, they couldn't leave it to the squadron.
Even if the Chinese ** team counterattacks by then, they will still face dilapidated ruins, and reconstruction will take a lot of time, money, manpower and material resources.
It was precisely because of Yang Ling's resistance that they bought time for the people in Zhijiang to evacuate and transfer important supplies. In fact, the Japanese who captured Zhijiang got nothing more than an empty city.
Yang Ling and the others are no longer too lazy to guess what the Japanese will do in Zhijiang City. They won't do anything good anyway.
What they were concerned about now was the situation in Yichang. It was sixty or seventy miles from Zhijiang to Yichang. Before Yang Ling and the others got close to Yichang, harsh flashes of light illuminated the thick clouds from time to time, and the roar of cannons came from the north.
Yang Ling didn't know where the Japs were attacking now, and was worried about running into the Japs and causing an encounter, so they were extra careful when marching. Because of this, the marching speed was not very fast.
At dawn, they were still some distance from Yichang. They fought with the Japanese in Zhijiang in the first half of the night and marched against exhaustion in the second half of the night. The brothers were also very tired.
Therefore, while Yang Ling sent a reconnaissance team to Yichang to investigate the enemy's situation, he ordered his brothers to hide in a mountain col with lush vegetation to rest.
When Yang Ling and others were heading towards Yichang, on the Yangtze River not far away from them, a Japanese fleet was also heading up the river, heading straight for Yichang.
Among these transport fleets, led by the Japanese gunboats and transporting hundreds of tons of ammunition and materials for the frontline troops, the Wolf Squadron under the Japanese mainland advance team also accompanied the fleet towards Yichang under the command of commander Makino Kanichi.
.
Japanese commander Makino Kanichi stood on the bow of the ship, looking at the fleet of ships stretching upstream for several miles, smelling the fresh morning air, and felt particularly comfortable.
The performance of their Wolf Squadron was astonishing. From Xiangyang to Yicheng, although they attacked the city all the way from Xiangyang to Yicheng and defeated the squadron, they even received a telegram award from the headquarters. This was recognition of them.
It made him feel extremely honored.
Although the Wolf Squadron was exhausted from the successive battles, they had high fighting spirit, did not rest and took the initiative to become the vanguard of the attack on Yichang.