"Company Commander, something happened!" the liaison officer reported hurriedly after catching up.
"A Japanese and puppet army marched towards Dongzhuang. They must have wanted to harm the people."
"In order to cover the retreat of the villagers and buy time for the guerrillas to relocate the people, our platoon leader led the main force, local troops, and supplementary troops, and had to carry out a frontal attack."
The company commander's good mood suddenly disappeared.
The nerves that had just relaxed became tense again. He stared at the liaison officer and asked: "Have anything happened to the folks?"
Protecting the fellow villagers is one of the two requirements given to everyone by the group leader, and it must be fulfilled.
If an accident happens, no matter how many little devils you kill, you can't make up for it.
"Nothing happened, everything was safely transferred!" the liaison officer replied quickly.
"As long as nothing happens..." The company let out a long breath.
But before he could be happy, the liaison officer spoke again: "But the casualties of the troops were very high."
"There were 119 troops who participated in the battle, but only 18 survived in the end, and all of them were injured. The remaining 101 soldiers all died."
"What? They all died!" The company commander's eyes immediately widened and he stared at the company commander with a look of disbelief on his face and asked.
The liaison officer answered bravely: "They all died, and the platoon leader was also injured."
"asshole……"
The company commander punched the tree trunk next to him and cursed through gritted teeth.
I originally thought that the Seventh Company had a great victory today, killing more than a hundred Japanese and puppet troops, which was a very good start. Now that a row of troops were lost while covering the evacuation of the people, the battle could be considered a draw at best.
The instructor comforted: "Company Commander, although the loss is a bit heavy, the sacrifice of the soldiers is worth it."
"There are nearly 300 people in Dongzhuang. If they fall into the hands of the little Japs, they will definitely be massacred because of how tough the Japs are."
"At that time, the morale of the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians in the guerrilla zones will definitely suffer a huge blow."
"Now that this battle has taken place, not only has the morale of the military and civilians not been affected, it has also won us a lot of popular support, allowing the villagers to see our Eighth Route Army's determination to protect them, and thus trust us and support us."
The company commander's anger dissipated a lot, and he stared at the liaison officer and continued to ask: "Where are these Japanese and puppet troops now?"
"After burning Dongzhuang to the ground, he retreated. Now he must have joined the main force of the Japanese." The liaison officer replied.
"It's an advantage for them." The company commander cursed bitterly.
Then he gritted his teeth and replied: "Let the little devil write down this account first. As long as there is a chance, we must pay with blood."
"Go back and tell your platoon leader to return to the station immediately to replenish the troops and restore combat effectiveness. The battle is not over yet, and there are many tough battles waiting for us next."
For the defending team, a tie means a loss.
The Japanese army had an absolute strength advantage on the battlefield. If the casualties between the enemy and ours were similar in every battle, the entire main force of the garrison regiment operating in the guerrilla zone would only be able to kill less than one-third of the independent mixed brigade.
At that time, their remaining troops can march straight into the base area.
In that case, the defense group would be completely defeated.
Thinking of this, the expression on the company commander's face became more solemn, and he was also full of worry about the next battle.
As soon as he returned to the temporary station, before he could take a breath, the reconnaissance squad leader who was specially watching the main force of the Japanese suddenly appeared in front of him.
The company commander's heart skipped a beat, he had a bad premonition, and then he asked anxiously.
"If you don't keep an eye on the Japanese at the front, what are you going to do when you come back?"
"Could it be that the little devil has stopped advancing and is preparing to camp and rest?"
"Probably not. There are still at least two hours until dark. A rapid march can advance ten kilometers. The soldiers are very fast, and the Japanese will definitely not waste it."
The investigation squad leader quickly replied: "Company commander, something serious has happened."
"Just now, the Japanese soldiers divided into three groups and attacked three villages at the same time."
"We only noticed two groups of Japs and ignored the third group."
"Because they had no main force to intercept them, they marched straight in. After killing one of our guerrillas, they went straight into Liuzhuang. More than 200 villagers in the village who had no time to move were all captured by the Japanese."
The company commander stood up from his chair, feeling nervous and anxious.
Protecting the safety of the villagers is what the group leader has explained level by level and must be completed.
If an accident happened here and more than two hundred villagers were killed by the Japanese, then I would be a sinner.
He stared closely at the squad leader and asked, "How are these folks doing now? Did the little devil do any harm?"
"It's safe for now!" the investigation squad leader replied.
Then I felt that the company commander's tense nerves instantly relaxed, and his face became much more relaxed.
But it didn't last long. The next words of the detective squad leader made his nerves tense again, and the solemn expression appeared on his face again.
"But the Japanese took them to their main force and marched with them. The specific purpose is still unclear."
"It's definitely not a good thing?" the company commander replied solemnly.
The more I thought about it, the more solemn my face became.
The instructor suddenly said: "Company commander, did you think of something?"
The company commander did not deny it: "Marching with the villagers will definitely affect the troop's marching speed."
"The little devils would rather not march as fast as they want to take the villagers with them. There is only one possibility. They want to take the villagers as hostages and force us to show up and fight them decisively."
The instructor was anxious: "What should we do?"
"The total number of Japanese and puppet troops is more than 1,000. Even if we include all the supplementary troops and local troops, the total strength is only "more than 600 people."
"No, minus the one platoon that was lost just now, there are now less than 600 people."
"To fight against the Japanese with just this few troops, isn't that like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth and falling into a trap?"
The company commander replied solemnly: "If this is really the purpose, we will go even if we surrender ourselves!"
"The little devil obviously knew that the villagers were the weak spot of our Eighth Route Army, so he hit them with one strike."
"If this trick is used well, it will be no less than a drain on our defense regiment."
"If we go to rescue those hostages in the hands of the Japanese, we will fall into a trap and die fighting. If we don't go to the rescue, once this news comes out, the popular support that our Eighth Route Army has finally built up will be gone."
"At that time, the Japanese will definitely make a fuss about this incident, saying that our Eighth Route Army is hypocritical and does not care about the life and death of the people, but only cares about itself, so as to alienate the relationship between us and the villagers, so that the people will no longer trust us, and shake the foundation of our Eighth Route Army."
"Of course, this is just the worst result, maybe things are not as bad as we think.
The reason why the Japanese are arresting the villagers is just to make us wary and not use artillery to attack them from a long distance."
The company commander's last words were completely self-consoling, and the instructor felt very clear.
Therefore, the solemn expression on his face not only did not dissipate, but became more and more intense.