The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression Begins in Songhu

Chapter 26 Old Smoker

...Almost every veteran I know is a heavy smoker; especially in the intervals between battles, they always have smoke coming out of their nostrils like chimneys.

In fact, I am also a heavy smoker. The longer I serve in the army, the more I smoke.

As a modern person, I am not unaware of the harms of smoking.

Instead, smoking can relieve the tension and irritability in your heart, fool your nose into ignoring all kinds of bad smells on the battlefield, and make you feel a little warm in the cold.

Compared to all the above benefits, shortening one's life by a few years or even more than ten years doesn't seem like a big deal, as if many of them can survive this war...

...Excerpt from Hu Biao's diary collection "Hu Shuo"...

During the entire process of the attack launched by the Hisaki Company, Captain Oguri Sasaki did not go to the tent at the rear to shelter from the rain; instead, he stood in the heavy rain, leaning on his family heirloom samurai sword, and watched the battle silently.

By the time a group of defeated soldiers from Jiumu's squadron fled in a panic, he was soaked all over.

Suddenly a gust of night wind blew over, and even at the end of August, Oguri Sasaki still felt cold.

But in real comparison, what was even colder was Captain Oguri's heart; at this moment he felt as if his heart had fallen into an ice cave, making his whole body tremble.

Nothing else! Having watched the entire attack, he knew clearly that it only lasted about ten minutes.

But in these ten minutes, out of the more than 120 imperial warriors of Jiumu Squadron, only about 30 escaped back; the rest all stayed in front of that damn position.

Even the squadron leader Jiu Mu, two squad leaders, and almost all the sergeants were killed in the battle.

Such heavy casualties occurred on such a small battlefield, and the casualty rate was so alarming. This was the first time he had encountered such a situation in all his years of military service.

Even though he has a complete Black Mouth Squadron behind him, he can always join the battle.

However, these subordinates who had also watched the entire attack were now silent, and their morale had also suffered a huge blow.

At the same time, today's long battle has made them exhausted and their combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced.

In short, Oguri Sasaki clearly understood that even if he led them to charge personally, these people's attack would not be able to exert half of their normal combat effectiveness.

In this situation, there is no way to capture the opponent's position except to increase casualties.

More importantly, he felt a fear of death; he might die like Jiumu in this small place that had no name on the map.

This was a feeling he had never experienced since he set foot on this land.

After some deliberation, he called a signalman over and gave the order he least wanted to say:
"Send a telegram to the commander immediately, inform him of the latest situation here, and tell him that unless the heavy rain stops,

Otherwise, the Oguri Battalion will need to adjust and it will take at least four hours to recover its combat effectiveness and launch an attack."

The sending of such a telegram was equivalent to Captain Oguri Sasaki tacitly agreeing to the regiment commander to replace them with other battalions.

He tacitly acknowledged that he, the descendant of a noble warrior, was actually inferior to the descendant of a farmer.

To his surprise, the brigade commander responded quickly, agreeing to his request to launch the attack four hours later.

Suddenly, Oguri Sasaki almost cheered and his fighting spirit was rekindled.

"Black Mouth Squadron, immediately go to the residential area behind and find an uncollapsed house to rest in. Take the time to dry your clothes, eat something, and then rest immediately.

Because in four hours, I need you to launch an attack in top form, capture the position in front of you in one fell swoop, and kill all the Kuomintang troops. Can you do it?"

I don’t know if it’s because I fought all day on an empty stomach and finally got to eat and rest.

In response to Oguri Sasaki's question, "Can you do it?", the Japanese soldiers of the Kuroguchi Squadron responded loudly, one by one:

"If we can do it, we will definitely kill all those nationalist troops."

Under such circumstances, Position No. 7 had four precious hours...

******
When Captain Oguri Sasaki asked the signalman to send a telegram to the regiment commander, he did not know that the situation at position No. 7 was also very bad.

As long as he took the risk and led the Black Mouth Squadron to a desperate charge, he might be able to capture the position.

With a loud 'bang', Hu Biao slammed the receiver in his hand back onto the phone.

Then, he shook his head at Zhou Kun, Zhang Wei, Gao Yi and others who were looking at him expectantly, and said in an extremely bitter tone:
"The phone line is broken, maybe it's been blown up."

After hearing this answer, Dr. Zhou Kun slumped down in the mud like an old farmer whose crops had failed, as if all his strength had been drained away. Zhang Wei and Gao Yi opened their mouths to speak, but ultimately held back their words in frustration. They puffed on their cigarettes, their recently lit cigarettes fading in the blink of an eye.

Wang Peng closed his eyes.

The reason why everyone reacted like this was that after only ten minutes of fighting, the casualties on the battlefield were still heavy.

The only professional among the five, PLA veteran Wang Peng, was disabled. After being shot in the chest, it was unknown how many ribs were broken or how much damage was done to his internal organs.

Anyway, I didn't even have the strength to stand up, so there was no way I could continue fighting.

Of the twenty baggage soldiers, three were dead and six were seriously injured. Not to mention the minor injuries, every one of them had various scratches caused by bullets, flying shrapnel and stones.

This means that after the first battle, their limited combat capability was reduced by almost half.

Although these rookies who looked unreliable at first glance, with the right time and place, they achieved a brilliant victory that they could brag about for the rest of their lives.

But they also understood that if the Japanese attacked again, they would definitely not be able to withstand it.

So, except for two baggage soldiers who continued to brave the heavy rain and stay in the trenches where the water was ankle-deep, they were on guard against the Japanese sneak attacks.

All the remaining people came to the company headquarters.

Although there was water on the ground here, at least there was a place above my head to shelter from the rain, and I could also light a lantern.

Although the brightness of lanterns and other lights was dimmed a lot in order not to reveal the position, people still instinctively felt some warmth after seeing it.

Under the dim light, everyone began to hurriedly bandage the wounded including Wang Peng.

Then, Hu Biao began to shake the handle of the field telephone, wanting to use the phone to contact his superiors, ready to ask them for reinforcements, machine guns and ammunition, artillery support, and everything that could be used.

Otherwise, they really have no confidence in being able to withstand the next attack from the Japanese.

But no one could have imagined that the telephone line of this thing would be cut off by the explosion.

After a long sigh, Hu Biao glanced at the rest of the group, pointed at the youngest among them, a baggage soldier who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, and asked:
"Little brother, what's your name and how old are you?"

"Zhu Cong, I'm eighteen this year." The pale-faced young man quickly answered after hearing this.

"Okay, Zhu Cong, you retreat now and tell the superiors the situation on the battlefield and ask them to send reinforcements as soon as possible." Hu Biao instructed Zhu Cong.

After hesitating for a moment, Hu Biao added, "If no reinforcements come, you can stay there. It will also be considered as leaving some seeds for our special forces company."

The baggage soldier named Zhu Cong nodded, gritted his teeth and rushed into the rain.

Looking at the figure that had completely disappeared, everyone in the company fell silent, mainly because they could not think of any other way to survive the next attack from the Japanese.

Under such circumstances, Wang Peng suddenly opened his eyes and said with difficulty:
"I have a way that may allow the few people in this position to withstand the next attack of the Japanese."

The last battle was able to achieve such good results. It can be said that Wang Peng’s tactics of using tanks as the core firepower point played the most critical role.

Now, after hearing that this PLA veteran had a new idea, Hu Biao and the others immediately became excited and hurried over to ask:
"Tell me, tell me what the solution is."

However, Wang Peng did not answer directly. Instead, he made a request: "Give me a cigarette, light it up."

Although he knew that Wang Peng was in a bad condition and it was better for him not to smoke, Zhang Wei, who was anxious to find a solution, still took out a cigarette and lit it.

Then, Wang Peng coughed and smoked greedily, as if he would never be able to smoke again after finishing this one...

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(End of this chapter)