Devil's Army

When the 1st Regiment was retreating to Jiujiang through Pengze County with its troops, the area had already been occupied by the Japanese army.

The soldiers of the regiment almost encountered the Japanese patrol twice. Fortunately, the golden eagle discovered the enemy in advance, and the commander of the regiment took timely measures to deal with it, so they were not discovered by the Japanese.

"Commander, fortunately our artillery withdrew to Jiujiang in advance, otherwise such a large target would definitely be discovered by the Japanese." Deputy Commander He said to the commander with lingering fear.

"In order to avoid the Japanese planes, the artillery troops were ordered to withdraw first, but they did not expect that this would backfire and they escaped the encirclement of the Japanese army."

In order to avoid encountering the Japanese army, the regiment leader and his men tried to take small paths and remote mountain roads, but problems still arose.

When turning from the mountain road to the main road that day, the golden eagle had already scouted clearly that there were no Japanese troops ahead, so the large force passed through quickly.

Before the main force had completely passed through the road, a Japanese patrol passed by from behind and discovered the regiment commander and his group who were marching quickly, and a gunfight ensued between the two sides.

It was not difficult for the regiment to wipe out this small group of Japanese patrol soldiers. However, the sound of gunfire attracted the Japanese soldiers from all around.

More and more Japanese soldiers came upon hearing the noise, so the regiment commander had to arrange for the third battalion to cover the rear while he led the other troops to retreat quickly.

Fortunately, the Dehua County of Jiujiang was not far ahead. The commander ordered the troops to speed up their pace.

What the regiment commander did not expect was that when the troops arrived at the outskirts of Dehua County, they were ambushed by Wang Qiming's troops of the 32rd Regiment of the 141st Division of the 723nd Army stationed in Dezhou at the time.

A battalion of the 723rd Regiment was responsible for guarding the outskirts of Dehua County and Pengze County. When they heard the intensive gunfire, they thought the Japanese army had already attacked and immediately blocked them. (It was all because of the military uniforms)

A regimental commander ordered his soldiers to shout to the garrison outside Dehua County, but their voices were drowned out by the sound of gunfire.

At this time, there were blocking troops in front and pursuing troops behind, and the situation was extremely critical.

"Captain, these government soldiers are too paranoid, aren't they? They just shoot without even looking or asking!"

"Pengze County has already been lost. We are using Japanese weapons and our uniforms are very similar to those of the Japanese. Now that there are heavy gunfire, it is inevitable that they will misunderstand."

“What should we do? We can’t go to war with the government forces and enter Dehua County.”

The third battalion, which was responsible for covering the rear, was unaware of the situation and was still fighting and retreating as planned. The gunfire from the Japanese troops in Pengze County was getting closer and closer.

"It is impossible to enter Dehua County. Order the soldiers in the front squad to take off their white shirts and hang them on the muzzles of their guns as a white flag."

The commander knew that the Japanese army was poisoned by the Bushido spirit and would not raise the white flag to surrender. Moreover, it was the early stage of the war against Japan when the war was going smoothly.

Sure enough, a battalion of the 723rd Regiment stopped shooting when they saw this strange scene.

The squad of the 723st Regiment that raised the white flag then shouted to the battalion of the rd Regiment.

The other party quickly replied and asked them to send someone over to explain the situation.

The regimental commander laid down his weapon and asked two guards to go with him to explain the situation.

Deputy Regiment Commander He was concerned about the safety of the First Regiment Commander and did not agree to let him go in person. He wanted to go on his behalf to contact the people of the 723rd Regiment of the government army.

The first captain patted Deputy Captain He on the shoulder and said with a smile:

"I'm going to communicate with friendly forces, not to fight the Japanese. How can it be dangerous?" After saying this, he and two guards walked towards the position of the 723rd Regiment without looking back.

Several soldiers from the 723rd Regiment quickly brought the regiment commander and others to the battalion headquarters.

The regiment commander handed over to the battalion commander a telegram sent by Yang Sen's 27th Army to the 146nd Regiment of the 872th Division, asking them to receive the First Anti-Japanese Army.

After reading the telegram, the battalion commander immediately asked the soldiers to untie them, but he was still a little suspicious.

The captain saw his doubts and said to him:

"You can call Liu Yuqing, the commander of the 26th Division. We fought the Japanese together at Hukou for more than a month."

It was impossible to call Commander Liu of the 26th Division because the battalion commander did not know where the 26th Division had retreated to in Nanchang, let alone whether his phone line was connected.

He had no choice but to call his superior, Captain Wang Qiming of the 723rd Regiment.

Soon, Regimental Commander Wang Qiming ordered his battalion commander: Let them pass immediately and pay attention to blocking the Japanese behind the friendly forces.

The battalion commander put down the phone and immediately saluted the regiment commander:

"I'm sorry, Captain!"

"It's okay. It's not wrong to be cautious during wartime."

Soldiers from the 732st Regiment quickly passed through the Dehua County outer defense line of the nd Regiment.

The 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment, which was responsible for the rearguard, also quickly passed the defense line.

The Japanese troops in Pengze County stopped at the defense line outside Dehua County of the 723rd Regiment. It was not because they were afraid of Wang Qiming's 723rd Regiment, but because they were not ready to attack Dehua County.

A regiment of more than 1000 soldiers finally managed to escape danger and retreat to Dehua County in Jiujiang.