Chapter 1397 There are more important honors to uphold
It's not just bad.
As Lei Xiong led an infantry platoon standing under the four-row warehouse, on the bank of the Suzhou River, across the short Suzhou River Bridge, "Salute!" Lei Xiong roared loudly, and Lei Xiong and more than 30 soldiers collectively raised their arms.
own arms.
The Army Major General standing on the concession land felt a sudden chill. This didn't mean he was about to cross the river!
"Sir Zhang, Chief Xie, Deputy Shangguan Regiment, and Battalion Commander Yang, Lei Xiong can't help you anymore." Lei Xiong's loud voice came from the other side. "This time, I, Lei Xiong, and my brothers from the first company are here to guard.
This position."
"Lei Xiong, you bastard, do you know what you are doing?" Zhang Boting woke up from a dream and couldn't help but became furious. He pointed at Lei Xiong from a distance and shouted: "You are disobeying military orders. As a captain of the national army, you know
The consequences of disobeying military orders.”
"I'm sorry, sir!" Lei Xiong's voice suddenly became softer.
"Lei Xiong, you bitch, get over here quickly." That was the roar of battalion commander Yang Ruifu.
"Captain Lei, don't be arrogant. Retreat is not just a military order. We can also continue to return to the division headquarters to fight the Japanese." Yun Biao, the deputy commander of the major regiment, also urged.
"Brother Lei, don't be stupid! Without the heavy machine guns and mortars of my machine gun company, how can you beat the Japs! If you can't hold it, bring your brothers over!" said the face of the young lieutenant commander of the machine gun company.
Anxiety welled up.
Only Xie Jinyuan was expressionless and did not speak.
"You lead your troops across the river to retreat immediately. I can pretend that you didn't see anything..." Zhang Boting felt slightly relieved.
But before he finished speaking, several torches were suddenly lit on the other side of the river, illuminating the path in Suzhou and Hebei. Although it was still dim, it was enough to clearly see the sadness on Lei Xiong's face.
Lei Xiong sadly touched his captain's collar badge and remained silent for a long time.
Under the angry eyes of the Army Major General, and as nearly three hundred colleagues gathered in front of the Suzhou River Bridge fortifications, this famous tough guy from the 88th Division touched his captain's rank with tears in his eyes.
Yes, although he lowered his head, everyone, including the Western soldiers who were waiting in the fortifications and didn't quite understand what was happening, could feel that the tall Chinese officer was crying.
The Western soldiers didn't understand. They didn't understand why the officer who was clearly resisting the orders of his superiors cried. But the Chinese soldiers on the other side of the river vaguely understood.
It took Lei Xiong ten years to earn the rank of captain from a top soldier. He never went to a military school and still can't write a few words. He earned it entirely by fighting bravely and with his life.
Military position, if nothing else happens, this captain may be the end of his military career and the highest peak of his military career.
But the captain disobeyed the order. He blatantly disobeyed the order in front of the chief of staff who was in charge of evaluating officers in the division. This was not a question of whether the rank of captain could be saved, but a question of whether one's life could be saved.
But they are not Lei Xiong after all, and they only vaguely understand it.
In the dim light of the fire, Lei Xiong raised his head with tears streaming down his face, ruthlessly tore off his military rank, and roared: "Sir, now that I am no longer a soldier of the 88th Division, I am not disobeying the order."
!”
The cold air rose from the soles of his feet to Tianling Gai. Seeing Lei Xiong's determination, the Army Major General's face turned pale. He knew very well what this meant. This captain, who was famous for his bravery throughout the army, would rather give up his position as a captain of the Royal Forest Army.
I would rather give up the chance of survival than fight the Japanese here.
"Lei Xiong is stupid, you..." Zhang Boting, who looked pale, still wanted to make a final effort.
However, his words were silenced by the actions of the soldiers standing next to Lei Xiong.
Under the eyes of hundreds of Chinese soldiers with tears in their eyes, and in the stunned silence of nearly a thousand Western soldiers, dozens of Chinese soldiers stood tall and straight and took off their military ranks. From second lieutenants to sergeants, and then to the most ordinary privates
.
From this moment on, they were not the Chinese army, but a volunteer army. An anti-Japanese volunteer army composed of ordinary people.
They will not receive any support, nor will they receive normal warrior treatment.
Death in battle, no pension;
Victory means no military merit;
If defeated, they will be slaughtered arbitrarily;
They gave up everything just to not retreat.
"Sir, brothers, I'm sorry. I'm just a small soldier. I only know how to pay with blood. Dozens of my brothers will die in Zhabei. I can't just walk away in dejection with my tail between my legs. I'm afraid that
I can't explain to my brothers from the first company after they go underground. I have to fight with the little devils here to feel at ease." In the dim light of the fire, although Lei Xiong's face was full of tears, his eyes were different.
"Why are you doing this..." Zhang Boting stamped his feet repeatedly.
"Put out explosives!" Following Lei Xiong's roar, an infantry squad stuffed four explosive packets under the bridge near the Sihang Warehouse.
The Chinese and Western soldiers who watched all this quietly had solemn expressions on their faces.
That was the only escape route for the defenders of Sihang Warehouse. If it exploded, it would be gone.
"Brothers, see you in the next life!" Lei Xiong shouted to the other side when he saw that the squad leader in charge of blasting had laid the fuse under the warehouse.
As he roared, he and the officers and soldiers under his command raised their right hands high again.
Then, he turned around and left without any regrets.
Behind them were hundreds of Chinese officers and soldiers with their right hands raised high, including the Army Major General who was still angry just a moment ago.
Yes, as an important general of the Royal Forest Army, he certainly knew that withdrawing troops from the concession was a trick used by the Japanese army after they failed to attack. But he also knew the helplessness of the higher-ups. Who makes you weak and need help? If you don't need this group of people with the same evil intentions.
With the help of Western countries, the national government can say very arrogantly that it can seize China's territory, but you damn girl don't have the ability to fight with the Japanese?
These soldiers disobeyed the order, even abandoning their identity as imperial guardsmen and disobeying the order. In normal times, this would be a mutiny and would be punished with death. But at this moment, he could only raise his right hand high in return.
Because they violated military orders, not to survive but to die. Sihang Warehouse, which had no way out and lost most of its troops, faced the Japanese aggressors whose strength was still as high as 2,000. Faced with the Japanese invaders who had deployed heavy artillery.
Kou is the place of death and the end of despair.
But they died bravely. As a soldier, why shouldn't he express his respect for such soldiers?
Four explosive packets, or 20 kilograms of explosives, are not very powerful, but if placed in the right position, they are enough to collapse the small Suzhou River Bridge, which is mainly made of stone.
Three minutes later, amid the tears of most of the officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 542nd Regiment who retreated fifty meters, a ball of fire flashed north of the Suzhou River Bridge.
The collapse of the bridge also meant that the retreat for the brothers of the First Infantry Company was cut off. Although those company and battalion-level officers had transported the remains of soldiers and the wounded in the past two days and knew that there was still a tunnel to return to the concession, but with Lei Xiong
Whether the officers and soldiers of the first company led by them are willing to leave is the real question.
In the light of the fire, the Chinese soldiers burst into tears.
He was as hard as Xie Jinyuan, with tears in his eyes. Because he knew that he was the real instigator of the choice made by Lei Xiong and the hundreds of officers and soldiers in his company. He was sad, but he was even more proud, proud of the fact that his officers and soldiers made this almost
A fatal choice.
I'm afraid no one knows that the palm of Lei Xiong's hand, which he tore off his captain's badge, has been pricked with blood by a small three-pointed star. Not many people can suddenly give up the honor that they have guarded for more than ten years. After tearing off his captain's badge,
After receiving the badge, Lei Xiong held his hand so tightly that he didn't even notice that the three-pointed star pierced his palm.
How reluctant he was to part with these gold stars! It was the glory that he had worked hard for ten years to obtain.
But Lei Xiong knew that no matter how reluctant he was, he had to give up.
Because there is an honor more important than this honor that needs him to protect.
That is the honor of the entire Chinese nation. As long as he is still there, and he and the First Company are still there, the Japanese army will never be able to occupy downtown Shanghai, and the Chinese national flag will fly high above this position.
Back to ten hours ago, in his company headquarters, only the lieutenant colonel deputy, him and Chen Yunfa were present.
He heard the news that made him extremely angry.
The division chief of staff will come and issue the order to withdraw troops into the concession.
The officers at all levels had no choice but to retreat. He understood, but pawns as chess pieces also had dreams. The brothers under his command could not die in vain. He was holding his own, whose leg was broken by a Japanese heavy machine gun, and the blood could not stop no matter what.
When the nineteen-year-old soldier died silently and cried silently, he swore in front of the entire company that he would pay with the blood of the little Japanese, even at the cost of the lives of the entire company.
He and his infantry company have killed hundreds of little Japs in the past few days, but this is still not enough. As the company commander and the leader, he cannot forget that the infantry squad under his command sacrificed his life and blood under his orders.
The scene of a surprise attack on a Japanese tank. The soldiers holding rifles were bloody and bloody under the machine guns of the Japanese tanks. However, they did not look back. They just wanted to attract the attention of the Japanese tank crew so that the soldier carrying a cluster grenade could have a chance.
Sneak to a position five meters away from the tank.
A total of fourteen people! People who have not experienced combat will never understand Lei Xiong’s sadness at that moment. It was under his command that the fourteen people faced the Japanese invaders’ steel monsters. Facing the steel monsters, they spit out
The bullet charge represents death. The meaning of each of their deaths is just to allow the only soldier carrying a cluster grenade to advance two meters or one meter more. Lei Xiong even understood that the soldier who was already four meters closer to the tank
The soldier's thoughts at the last moment of his life were that he could have thrown fifteen cluster bombs bundled together under the tracks of the tank to blow it up, and then he would have survived by hiding in the crater.
However, the soldier barely hesitated and rushed under the tank with the cluster bomb. Lei Xiong knew that the soldier was not only afraid that his throw was not accurate enough and would not destroy the Japanese tank, but also that the cluster bomb was not powerful enough.
The six strapped to his body were enough, and he still had the urge to die with the brothers in the infantry squad. No one could watch the brothers he had been with day and night for several years, one by one, in order to protect him.
die.
Everyone is afraid of death, but on the battlefield, when adrenaline is secreted at a rapid rate, death is sometimes not so scary.
Human beings are sometimes very rational and will calculate against everyone for their own benefit, but the battlefield is the place where it is easiest to lose reason, especially for those pawns who are just numbers in the eyes of the big shots.
Comrades and brothers are the ones they would rather give up their lives to protect.
"If you want to stick to it, you are disobeying the order, and disobeying the order means death." Fortunately, when he understood his intention, the regimental deputy smiled, but there were tears in his eyes. "Unless you and the brothers in the first company
We give up our status as soldiers. From the moment you disobey the order, you are no longer Chinese soldiers. Your family members will no longer enjoy the treatment of military family members. You will no longer appear in the directory of Chinese soldiers. Are you still willing to do this?
Do it?"
Lei Xiong was stunned.
He admitted that at that moment, he wanted to retreat. Death was actually not scary, and he was not afraid of death, but he did not want to involve his family, and he did not want to be a lonely ghost.
However, when he remembered the moment when the soldier who looked pale and cried and said to himself "Company Commander, I don't want to die" died with great attachment to life, his heart became firm again. If he could pull more little Japs down,
Hell, what's so scary about that? At least he can have a good sleep from now on, and he can calmly say to the brother after death, brother, I avenged you.
The moment Commander Xie nodded firmly, his eyes shone with immense pride.
Because these are the soldiers under his command. The real Chinese soldiers are the country first and then the army.
The country is what soldiers like them should protect the most, not the big shots.
That's why the previous one came about.
Now, it was time for him, Lei Xiong, and his infantry company to keep their promise. The Japanese had tried their best to use those Westerners to put pressure on the government in the hope of removing the thorn in the side of Sihang Warehouse, but he refused to let them do so.
He, Lei Xiong, is not a big shot. He doesn't have to think so much. He only knows that my fate is up to me. I am willing to cut myself off to bring down the emperor and kill more Japanese soldiers to save the lives of my brothers who died in the battle.
It is twice as difficult for an infantry company to defend a position that was originally defended by an infantry battalion.