Not only the 172nd Division, but also all six infantry divisions of the 21st Army, which stretched along the 7-kilometer-long highway, plus the troops directly under the Army, respected this military order.
"Captain Liu, I'll see you and your brothers off." The Army Major General didn't wait for Liu Lang's refusal and jumped directly into the first car in the lead.
Thinking about it, the deputy division commander still felt a little regretful that he could not go to the Battle of Songjiang with Liu Lang, and wanted to make up for it in this way.
Liu Lang did not refuse. With this division commander-level general of the 21st Army as his escort, it would be much easier to travel this way. He wanted to make up for the lost time.
It is easy for people to get off the roadbed. Although the fields are muddy, they are basically passable. However, it is not easy to lift the mountain cannon, which weighs more than 700 kilograms, into the wilderness. Moreover, there are more troublesome horse-drawn carriages and horse-drawn carriages.
It was obviously extremely difficult to carry hundreds of kilograms of various supplies. It was obviously extremely difficult to rely solely on baggage troops and artillery. However, the military order was issued, and ordinary soldiers were yelled at by superiors at all levels to come to help.
The several-thousand-meter-long road was in turmoil, but the independent regiment's convoy began to move forward slowly.
After coming to look for his son Aunt Chang, the morale of the 172nd Division, which was originally chaotic but barely maintained its structure, has been much better than before coming here, and it can basically abide by military laws. In addition, there is a major general deputy division commander at the end.
The commander at the front saw him off, and soldiers from the 172nd Division Headquarters Guard Company on both sides ran in front to maintain order. The first 1,000 meters were fine, but at the back, there were complaints and complaints from soldiers and officers one after another.
Moreover, it is becoming more and more serious.
After all, it was the 172nd Division that was persuaded by Liu Lang. When the headquarters of the other divisions issued orders based on the military orders from the group army headquarters, they did not include the harsh words "engage in battlefield military law".
Think about it! Both the Independent Regiment and the Guard Regiment are now equipped with cars and three-wheelers. Everyone does not have to march on foot, and there are painted Japanese tanks leading the charge. Just by looking at them, you can tell that they are elites.
Troops, even troops in the national army that are more elite than the Central Army's German Arms Division.
This is also a big irritation for the officers and soldiers of the 21st Group belonging to the Guangxi faction. If they had such equipment, perhaps many fewer people would die on the battlefield.
To put it bluntly, in their view, it was quite pretentious to ask their entire army to give way, while they marched arrogantly on the road, which could be described as an elite force with equipment. Although there was no such term in that era, it was just a warning to these defeated troops.
That's what it feels like.
When most people see someone showing off, they have the urge to beat him, let alone a group of soldiers who have killed people and seen blood.
"The Central Army was born to our own mother! We, the Gui Army, were raised by our stepmother, and we deserve to be the last to die."
"Don't look at the fact that they are dragging you away for 2,500,000 to 80,000 yuan, just like an uncle. Who knows if you are scared like a grandson when you see the Japanese?"
"I grabbed your old mother and went to the battlefield, making it look like no one has been on the battlefield. Who are you fooling?"
"Perhaps, it won't be long before you can run faster than us, but who wants people to have cars? Tsk, tsk, and tanks!"
...
The road was only so wide, and there were people and temporarily piled materials on the roadside, so the convoy couldn't pick up speed at all. The officers and soldiers in the convoy could only listen to many Guangxi soldiers with their arms folded and looking at them with disdain.
Be sarcastic about yourself.
Originally, many people in Guangdong and Guangxi spoke with a Cantonese accent, which most people could not understand. However, the veterans who had been in the Independent Regiment and the Guard Regiment for more than five years were all from the 19th Route Army and were from Guangdong and Guangxi themselves. That was not what they heard.
Seriously, my lungs are about to explode.
Anyone can not understand when they go to the battlefield, including their own parents, wives and children, but there is only one kind of people who cannot understand it, and that is their comrades. They are also soldiers defending the country, but they are sarcastic towards their comrades who are about to rush to the battlefield. This is really
The officers and soldiers of the Independent Regiment were furious. If it were not for the strict military laws of the Independent Regiment, there would probably not be a few people who would jump out of their cars and fight with these Guangxi soldiers.
But fortunately, the veterans had enough sense to suppress their anger while suppressing the new recruits. No one got off the car and no one spoke back.
Liu Lang's face turned gloomy.
He led thousands of soldiers to die and to be reborn in the most dangerous battle of this era. It was his own choice. He wanted to leave a trace of vitality for the entire nation, and it had nothing to do with wealth or glory. Even if the thousands of people in the entire convoy, even if
They all died in battle, and there may not be more than ten people who can leave their names on the future heroes' commemorative plaque. In fact, no one, including him, Liu Lang, is qualified.
More likely, this is just a sentence left in the history of war: The two infantry regiments of the 23rd Army, with thousands of officers and soldiers starting from the two colonel commanders down, were wiped out in the battle of Songjiang.
However, they still made this choice. Just like the choice Liu Lang made, they shrouded their bodies in horse leather, just for the sake of the motherland and the nation, not for glory and wealth, and not for leaving a name in history.
But their choice is by no means ridiculing, and they are comrades who once fought bloody battles with the Japanese invaders on the Songhu front line. Their battles were also fierce and tragic.
If it weren't for war, according to Liu Lang's temper, he would definitely get off the bus, defeat these thorny soldiers, and let them know that the reason why he was able to swim against the tide of the entire retreat was because he was strong enough and independent.
The group is strong enough.
Only soldiers with the strongest will dare to choose to forget the fear of death and swim against the current in the direction of the scythe of death.
But Liu Lang also knew that he had to endure it. Through the mental state of the 172nd Division just now, he already knew that the 21st Group Army had reached an extremely dangerous edge. A single introduction might cause this unit to be psychologically depressed to the limit.
The army collapsed completely.
The Army Major General was apologetic, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was the deputy commander of the 172nd Division, not the commander of the following infantry divisions. Besides, even if people gave him the respect of the Army Major General, they still gave way to the supplies.
We've moved away too. You can't let people stop complaining, right?
Until Liu Lang saw a wounded soldier placed on the edge of the roadbed, closing his eyes in vain to resist the dust stirred up by the wheels as the convoy passed by. It was even difficult for him to even close his eyelids.
Liu Lang was completely angered. With a wave of his hand, he ordered the entire convoy to stop, jumped out of the car, strode up to the wounded soldier on the stretcher, glanced at the dead end, and asked sternly: "Who did this?
"
Perhaps because of Liu Lang's power, or because the ranks of an army colonel and an army major general were high enough, no one answered Liu Lang's words for a while.
"I have seen many armies, the Central Army, the Sichuan Army, the Northwest Army, the Jin Army, the Northeast Army, including the Japanese Army. Some of them have strong combat effectiveness, and some have mediocre combat effectiveness. Like our Sichuan Army, many of them are nicknamed by you because they like to smoke big cigarettes.
The two-gun army, some are even called the beggar army because of their poor equipment, but their common characteristics include that the Japanese army, which we call the Japanese soldiers, never abandoned their wounded comrades, even if they were carrying or carrying them, they would never abandon their wounded comrades.
We should carry him back and carry him back instead of abandoning him on the roadside like now." Liu Lang's voice was like gold and stone, and the faces of a group of officers and soldiers of the 21st Group turned pale.
"Sir, he is dying. The doctor said there is nothing we can do!" came a timid voice. "We just want him to lie down in a dry place!"
A thin soldier stood up wiping tears. Thinking about it, he was unwilling to leave his injured comrade in this place. However, he probably had no strength, especially after running wildly for three days in this state.
, if you don’t want to put your dying comrades in the cold and wet mud, you can only put them on the side of a relatively dry road.
Liu Lang knew that this was just the beginning of abandoning wounded soldiers. As the Japanese troops on the ground began to pursue, and the Japanese planes in the sky began to bombard without interruption, when the retreat was inevitable, the abandonment of wounded soldiers would become more and more frequent.
Not only the 21st Army, but almost the entire Songhu Army, as many as 100,000 wounded soldiers died silently on both sides of the two 300-kilometer roads.
Originally, they could have gone home; originally, they could have returned to the team after recovering from their injuries; originally, they would have had the opportunity to continue firing bullets from their guns at the ferocious Japanese invaders; originally, they could have become an army
The backbone of the army.
However, they lost this opportunity. The mistakes of the headquarters, the desire of their comrades for life, and the collapse of military morale caused them to lose this opportunity.
Liu Lang gently pushed aside a military uniform covering the wounded soldier, and couldn't help but twitching slightly at the corner of his eyes. The wounded soldier's injuries were indeed very serious. He lost everything below his knees, so he wrapped them with dirty bandages.
, the blood kept seeping out through the not thick bandage.
The pale face of the wounded soldier has shown that, let alone bacterial infection, a large amount of blood loss has quietly taken away his young life. If nothing unexpected happens, the wounded soldier will die soon, just like what the soldier just said.
, perhaps, there is no need to wait until all the convoys have passed.
Yes, he was going to die. However, Liu Lang felt that he had to do something for this wounded soldier, or to be more precise, for all wounded soldiers.
Liu Lang raised his head, looked at the soldiers around him who were silent and no longer talking, and tried to calm his voice: "He is about to die, but this is not a reason for you to give up on him. For soldiers, death in battle
On the battlefield, death is just a destination and there is nothing to fear; however, what a soldier fears most is the betrayal of his comrades. When he defends his comrades from the enemy's attack, his comrades flee; when he is injured, he needs the help of his comrades.
When he was helping, his comrades left him...
There was a song in "Qin Feng --- Wuyi" that sang like this:
How can I say that I have no clothes? I share the same robe with you. When the king raised an army, I repaired my sword and spear. I share the same enemy with you!
How can I say that I have no clothes? I am in the same boat with you. When the king raised his army, he repaired my spear and halberd. I worked together with you!
How can I say that I have no clothes? I wear the same clothes as you. The king raised his army and repaired my armor. I went with you!
What a good person to walk with. Is this how you walked with Pao Ze? You took Pao Ze away from the battlefield, but then left him alone in the cold wind, letting him die alone and cold, just because the doctor said he couldn't live.
?”
Many years later, the soldiers of the 21st Group Army who survived the battle still remembered this scene. Liu Lang, who was not tall, stood on the road in front of many robes. His face was not handsome, but his eyebrows were beautiful.
His temples seemed to be glowing all over, and although his voice was low, it was deafening.
Among the people present, for the rest of their lives, no one ever abandoned their comrades, even if they themselves would die as a result.
A crystal tear burst out from the corner of the wounded soldier's eyes with his eyes closed, and he exhaled his last breath of hot breath in the cold wind.
He was unfortunate. He lost his young life on the way home. At the same time, he was also lucky. At the last moment of his life, there was no cold wind and sand hitting his face, and a comrade was cheering him up.
call.
Sensing the loss of young life, Liu Lang took off his military uniform, gently covered the young soldier's pale and sallow face, and saluted solemnly.
The autumn wind is bleak and silent.
More than a thousand soldiers watched silently as Liu Lang, who was wearing only a white shirt and stood as straight as a green pine, took off his helmet and saluted the soldier, who was no more than a private.
That's not a colonel saluting a soldier, that's a salute from Pao Ze to Pao Ze.