Li Hao shook his head and replied: "As long as you follow what I say and make no mistakes, the impossible will become possible."
"Chief of Staff, you have to do one thing now."
"Inform the battalion commanders that from now on, each battalion must put on a posture of heavy casualties and low morale, and let the puppet troops we captured see it."
The prisoner camp of the third battalion is right next to the battlefield. Nearly five hundred prisoners are either half-crouching or sitting on the ground. Most of the prisoners have an expression of confusion and worry about the future, even mixed with some fear.
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A very small number of prisoners were mixed in the middle, and the expressions of fear and confusion on their faces were all fake. From their eyes, you could clearly feel a trace of rebelliousness and unwillingness.
These are all captured puppet army officers. Many of them are hard-core traitors and die-hard elements.
The garrison surrendered in order to survive. As long as they had the chance, they would definitely find a way to escape, rejoin the puppet army, and continue to work for the Japanese.
"Everyone stand up and line up..." A voice suddenly sounded in the prison camp. It was shouted by an Eighth Route Army cadre holding a box cannon.
Being held at gunpoint by nearly a hundred black holes, with many light machine guns and submachine guns inside, and nearly five hundred puppet army prisoners, regardless of whether they had second thoughts or not, under the threat of death, they could not even think of resisting at all, and they followed the instructions slowly.
Slowly line up.
At this time, the cadre with the box cannon on his waist spoke again: "Two people form a team, prepare to help us carry the stretcher and evacuate this place."
"The stretchers are filled with the remains of the soldiers who died in our battalion and the lightly or severely wounded who were unable to march normally. Two people are responsible for one corpse, and three people are responsible for one of the wounded. We must ensure that the wounded and the remains are safely returned to our Eighth Route Army station."
"Whenever an accident occurs to one group, I will find that group responsible and deal with them as little Japanese spies who are causing damage."
A total of 105 people from the third battalion were killed, and 29 people were seriously injured and lost combat effectiveness. Less than 300 prisoners were needed to carry them on the march.
In order to create an image of the Third Battalion suffering heavy casualties, Huang Sheng directly found more than a hundred corpses of puppet soldiers from the battlefield, put them into Eighth Route Army uniforms, and asked puppet prisoners to carry them. Moreover, only more than a hundred Eighth Route Army soldiers escorted them, and the other Eighth Route Army soldiers
All returned to their bases in advance.
"What are you looking at? Lift the body on the stretcher. They all died fighting the Japanese and are heroes. If there is any accident on the way, I will ask you!" an Eighth Route Army soldier who was escorting pointed a gun at a puppet army officer and reminded him.
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"Don't worry, Commander of the Eighth Route Army, I will deliver them safely to your station." The puppet army officer bowed his head and replied, and did not forget to add after he finished speaking.
"I didn't expect that this battle would be so tragic. Not only did the Japanese suffer heavy casualties, but your Eighth Route Army also suffered such heavy losses. You can't even see the end of the stretchers carrying the wounded and corpses."
There was a clear look of solemnity on the soldier's face, and he said with a low expression: "It's a bit big. There are only two of me and the squad leader left in the entire squad of ten. The whole battalion has only fought one company. If it weren't for too many casualties, we would be here now."
They have already entered Laiyuan City."
Following the change of subject, he continued: "However, even if we suffer heavy casualties, the little Japanese are no match for our defense group."
"We have heavy artillery. If the little devils dare to attack us, we will blow them up to pieces."
"And you guys, don't try to play any tricks."
"Although there are only over a hundred of us left, we are all elite veterans and well-equipped. We are equipped with more than a dozen light machine guns alone."
"If you make any move, these light machine guns will definitely kill you as soon as possible."
"The battalion commander gave us an order. If someone disobeys the command, we can kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. I hope you won't be that chicken."
The puppet army officer quickly replied: "Sir, don't worry, we will definitely obey the command."
After saying that, the puppet army officer lowered his head and looked like he was concentrating on carrying the stretcher.
Looking at his face at this time, you can clearly see that the corners of his mouth were raised, showing a proud smile, but he quickly hid this smile.
The same thing happened in every main battalion of the garrison.
When the troops returned to their garrison, most of the puppet troops knew that the garrison regiment had suffered heavy casualties and the total strength of the regiment was less than one-third of the pre-war strength.
At ten o'clock in the morning, the prisoners who had had breakfast were resting, and the cadres who appeared last night came again.
"Everyone, get up, I have something to say!"
"You once served as puppet soldiers, sold your lives to the Japs, fought against our anti-Japanese army, and many of you even had the blood of innocent people on your hands."
"According to national law, you should all be taken out and shot."
"However, our garrison decided to give us a chance to change our ways."
"Sign up to join the garrison, fight the Japanese with us, and atone for the crimes you committed in the past."
"As long as there is no life in hand and anyone who has not done evil to the little devil can sign up to join our garrison."
"In addition, you don't have to worry about our Eighth Route Army using big guys on the battlefield as cannon fodder."
"Although our garrison suffered heavy casualties last night and was in urgent need of reinforcements, we killed several times the number of Japanese and puppet troops."
"Furthermore, we were fighting a melee last night, and the heavy artillery did not exert its full power, so this situation occurred."
"After you join the garrison, you must undergo at least one month of running-in training before going to the battlefield."
"When the time comes, our garrison will need heavy artillery, heavy artillery, and machine guns. We will definitely not use everyone as cannon fodder!"
The strength of the garrison was well known to the Japanese, and many of the soldiers in the garrison were prisoners. Coupled with the garrison's battlefield performance last night, no one knew this better than these prisoners.
Therefore, the enthusiasm of the prisoners to join the garrison was very high, and nearly 300 people signed up in less than an hour.
After the prisoners who were willing to join the garrison were taken away, there were only more than a hundred people left in the prisoner camp in Noda, including some die-hard elements loyal to the Japs.
These people will be sent to the garrison headquarters to atone for their sins by serving different periods of hard labor according to the crimes they committed.
Due to limited troop strength, the Third Battalion only sent two squads to escort them.
Of course, these were all things the garrison told the prisoners openly. Huang Sheng's real intention was to let some prisoners go on purpose during the escort, so that they could send the news to Laiyuan City that the garrison had suffered heavy casualties and had temporarily lost its ability to attack.
In front of the enemy headquarters of the garrison, Hong Linfeng hurried in with a list, very happy.
"Captain, the statistics are out. There are 1,054 prisoners who have taken the initiative to join our garrison."
"After review, 983 people met the requirements to join our Eighth Route Army."
"How about adding them to the army immediately? With their addition, although the several main battalions are not yet at full strength, they are almost there."
Li Hao shook his head and refused: "Nearly a thousand people. On average, each main battalion is supplemented by two hundred people. It is too many, and it may affect the combat effectiveness of the army."
"You know, according to my plan, we will attack Laiyuan City again in three days at the latest, and we will fight street battles with the Japs."
"The army's recruitment of so many captive soldiers will definitely affect the army's combat effectiveness and increase casualties."
Hong Linfeng was anxious: "Commander, each battalion is waiting for new recruits to replenish the troops. We finally managed to get a thousand additional soldiers. Are we just putting them there as decorations?"