"Abandon those seriously injured people!" The captain understood the meaning of the adjutant's words.
In fact, this idea had already appeared in his mind, but he had never dared to put it into practice.
There were more than two hundred seriously wounded people, most of whom were from the Imperial Army.
If you throw them away without reason, it will definitely severely damage the morale of the troops and affect your prestige among your subordinates.
Seeing the constant changes in the captain's expression, the vice-captain knew what he was worried about and promptly came to the rescue: "Sir, leave this matter to me. I have a way to handle it without affecting the morale of the troops."
The captain's eyes lit up and he looked at the adjutant with disbelief.
But I soon became excited.
If the adjutant can really solve this problem without affecting the morale of the troops, and without the burden of the wounded, the troops' marching speed will definitely be doubled.
Even if he couldn't reach the no-man's land before dark, it wouldn't be too far away, and the military wouldn't hold him responsible if he knew about it.
Ten minutes later, the adjutant caught up with the group leader with an injured squadron leader.
The adjutant spoke first: "Sir, I just received a report from the reconnaissance force. There are a large number of Eighth Route Army troops chasing us behind us."
"They divided their forces into squads and platoons to pursue them. It was difficult for the aircraft covering us to threaten them. Only by leaving one unit behind to block them could the main force reach the no-man's land on time."
After saying this, the adjutant looked at the squadron leader beside him and motioned for him to speak.
The squadron leader understood in his heart and immediately called for battle: "Sir, I humbly ask for orders and direct all the seriously wounded to stay behind."
After hearing these words, the captain understood that the method just mentioned by the adjutant was to leave the wounded to rear.
Although this is a bit cruel, it is also a common method used by the imperial army to deal with pursuers. Other troops have done this before, so if you do it yourself, it will definitely not arouse everyone's disgust.
As for whether the pursuers who suddenly appeared behind him were real or fake, the captain didn't care.
All he wanted was an excuse, as long as he could keep the wounded behind and not hinder the march of the main force.
Looking at the injured captain, he pretended to be reluctant and asked: "Those wounded are all voluntary!"
"Hi!" the squadron leader replied firmly.
He was an out-and-out communist, and as long as he could serve the emperor, he would not care about death at all, so after the adjutant found him, he agreed without thinking.
As for the other wounded, the squadron leader will not care whether they agree or not.
In his opinion, serving the emperor is the dream of every imperial soldier. Now that the opportunity is presented to him, he will definitely not refuse it.
Watching the captain continue to ask for battle: "As long as it is for the empire and His Majesty the Emperor, everyone will voluntarily stay and serve as queen."
"Although we were injured and could not continue marching, almost all of us had injured legs and feet, but our hands could still continue to fight with guns."
"As long as the commander orders the troops to hide us behind the bunker, we can block the pursuing Eighth Route Army and buy time for the main force."
"Yoshi..." The captain finally showed a satisfied expression on his face as he looked at the squadron leader's order.
"I am proud of your choice. You are worthy of being the most elite warriors of the Japanese Empire. I agree with everyone's request to fight. Now I will order the troops to build a defense line for you to block the pursuit of the Eighth Route Army."
After the order was given, the captain looked at the adjutant and asked, "Is the Eighth Route Army really catching up behind you?"
The adjutant shook his head and replied: "Sir, calm down, there is no Eighth Route Army chasing after you."
"But the Eighth Route Army is definitely watching us around. As long as we leave the wounded soldiers behind, they will definitely pounce on us, and the pursuers will appear!"
The captain guessed correctly, the pursuit of soldiers was indeed a temporary excuse made up by the adjutant.
But his explanation also makes sense. As long as the wounded soldiers are left behind, the Eighth Route Army will definitely find a way to eliminate them. The so-called pursuit of soldiers will be there, and the excuse made up by the adjutant will become a fact.
He glared at his subordinates and ordered: "I won't do this again!"
Without the seriously wounded, the troops' marching speed immediately became faster, slowly increasing from three kilometers per hour at the beginning to five kilometers per hour, six kilometers per hour...
If we keep walking at this speed, we will definitely reach the vicinity of no man's land before dark.
On a hilltop one kilometer away, the commander of the second battalion of the Huaiyuan Independent Regiment witnessed with his own eyes the scene of Japanese and puppet troops abandoning seriously wounded soldiers.
"The little Japs are ruthless enough. There are more than 200 wounded people. They give up when they say they want to. Aren't they worried that doing so will affect the morale of the troops?" the second battalion commander said in a serious tone, with a very ugly look on his face.
Because after the Japanese army did this, their marching speed accelerated significantly.
If he had not slowed down their marching speed again, the Second Battalion would definitely not have been able to complete the important task of dragging the Japanese and puppet troops until dawn tomorrow.
"Instructor, how many more landmines do we have?" asked the second battalion commander.
With planes watching from the sky, he could only place his hope on landmines.
"Less than fifty!" the instructor replied.
After hesitating for three seconds, he reminded: "But the Japanese army is too cunning now. They don't use roads at all. Now that there are no wounded to drag them down, they rely less on roads. We can't figure out where they will go next, so we buried them in advance."
Landmines are very difficult for them to step on."
The second battalion commander's expression became even more solemn, and he replied helplessly: "Then we will cast nets everywhere and lay mines wherever the devils may go."
"If mines are not enough, use grenades to lay booby traps instead. If a blind cat kills a mouse, we can also injure a few Japanese."
"Order the sneak attack troops to increase the frequency of sneak attacks, use all light and heavy machine guns, and mortars, and get a few more wounded out for the Japanese."
"They just gave up more than 200 wounded people. I don't believe that the Japanese captain would dare to leave another batch of seriously wounded people alone within two or three hours."
The instructor replied helplessly: "There is only one way!"
"But if we fight like this, our casualties will definitely increase and we will lose a lot of equipment."
"Heavy machine guns and mortars are not as easy to move as light machine guns. Once targeted by aircraft in the sky, it is difficult to survive."
The second battalion commander gritted his teeth and ordered: "Just do it."
"As long as one heavy machine gun can inflict ten casualties on the Japanese, it won't hurt if it gets bombed."
"The same goes for mortars. If one mortar inflicts twenty casualties on the Japanese, we won't suffer any loss."
"We have a total of three heavy machine guns and two mortars, which add up to seventy or eighty seriously injured people."
"With the addition of mines and the results of other troops' battles, the number of wounded will definitely exceed one hundred."
"As long as the Japanese army no longer abandons them, the marching speed will definitely be affected."
"Our Second Battalion will have a luxury today and exchange equipment for the wounded."
"Tell the artillerymen and heavy machine gunners that once you are targeted by an aircraft, you must give up your equipment unconditionally to save your life."
"The regiment leader promised us that the Japanese army would blow up one of our heavy machine guns and replenish us with two more after the battle."
"So as long as people are alive, the Second Battalion Firepower Company can be rebuilt immediately."
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