Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

"Commander, when we retreat across the wooden bridge at Wangjia..." A staff major beside Zhou Zhenqiang, who was also haggard and had his left arm tied to his chest with a dirty strap, added in a choked voice: "Brothers of the supply team, in order to stop the pursuit of the Japanese.

Push the last few trucks carrying ammunition and the carts full of seriously wounded soldiers that were taken from the battlefield to the bridgehead, and then... set fire to them..."

His voice grew lower and lower, filled with great sorrow: "The fire kept the Japanese infantry out of the wall of fire, but the wounded in the vehicles...we could only hear...

We had no choice. The Japanese chased us all the way. The wounded told me... that rather than dying on the way to escape, it would be better to stand in the way of the Japanese attack on the bridge...

He did not continue.

But in front of everyone in the ancestral hall, the scene of hell on earth emerged at the same time, with flames licking the wooden bridge surface, vehicles and painfully twisted human figures on it.

The heart-wrenching screams were drowned out by the billowing smoke and crackling sounds of burning.

They used their own lives as fuel to ignite a desperate and tragic wall of fire, buying the last bit of breathing space for the retreating remnants.

A suffocating silence enveloped the ancestral hall.

There was only the uncontrollable and bloody gasping sounds of Zhou Zhenqiang and the staff officer.

At this moment, another communications soldier, his body covered in wet mud and his uniform no longer recognizable as its original color, stumbled in.

The telegram paper he held tightly in his hand was dripping with muddy water, and his face was ashen: "Commander! A Japanese tank squadron has crossed the river!

The defense line cannot be held. The main force of the Japanese is moving along the river fork towards Luodian!"

"Click!" A crisp sound.

The red pencil that Zhang Zhizhong had been holding tightly in his hand was broken by him!

The tip of the pencil pierced the palm of his hand, and bright red blood oozed out, dripping onto the map, quickly spreading a dark red.

But he couldn't feel this insignificant pain at all.

Three! In just one day!

The three major landing sites at Zhanghuabang in Wusongkou, Chuanshakou, and Shizilin were all lost!

The Second Division at Chuanshakou and Shizilin, and the Twelfth Division at Wusongkou, were like two huge red-hot iron pliers, charging in from the northeast and east!

He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the huge Songhu situation map hanging on the wall. His gaze seemed to penetrate the back of the map, looking for a glimmer of hope for a turnaround in the desperate situation.

We must defend Luodian!

Someone has to plug the gap!

Someone must stop those two unstoppable butcher knives!

But... who's going?

Who still has soldiers?

Who can stand it?!

. . . . . .

August 1937, 8, the darkest hour before dawn.

The road leading to Liuhe Town is no longer a road.

Several days of continuous rain and the repeated trampling and crushing of tens of thousands of troops and baggage carts turned this once prosperous land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River into a muddy swamp hell.

A huge army, like a gray steel torrent struggling hard in the sticky mud, but silently and firmly, is forcing its way forward in the darkness before dawn!

The soldiers were all covered in black mud from head to toe, and only the bright red number logo on the epaulettes showed that this was a powerful force.

The rain mixed with sweat washed out muddy grooves on their tired and numb faces. Everyone's eyes were filled with wolf-like tenacity and deathly silence.

18st Army!

The backbone of Chen Cheng's career is known as the ace force of the "Civil Engineering Department" iron-blooded force!

At this moment, Chen Cheng himself was standing in the front seat of an open jeep. The rain wet his military cap and coat, but he didn't care.

After receiving the order from the Nanjing Headquarters to replace Zhang Zhizhong in commanding the overall situation in Songhu, he immediately led his subordinates on a rapid march.

But is it really too late? Can Zhang Zhizhong still hold on?

Thinking of this, he suppressed his anxiety.

With one hand firmly grasping the door frame to steady himself, he leaned forward with the other hand holding the whip.

A pair of hawk-like eyes, as if about to spit fire, stared at the low and blurry outline of Luodian at the end of the road, which was outlined by the low rain curtain and the sky illuminated by distant artillery fire!

"Hurry! Notify all divisions to move faster! Are you dawdling and waiting for the Japanese to start their feast?!" Chen Cheng's roar was still clear and piercing amid the roar of the engines, the heavy breathing of the soldiers, and the splashing of mud and water.

Look around at the soldiers struggling to advance in the mud.

Chen Cheng raised his whip abruptly and pointed to the low skyline in the east, which was vaguely outlined by the blood-red light: "Liuhe is ahead!

After crossing the river, we'll reach Luodian! The Japanese thought that if they cut off Chuansha, they could wipe out tens of thousands of our elite troops in Songhu?!

"Dream on! Damn it! I'm going to poke a hole in the devil's head today!"

He turned around suddenly, and his voice was like a thunderclap, clearly piercing through the rain and rolling over the heads of every soldier: "To all the soldiers of the 18th Army!"

The team, like a muddy flow in the rain, paused for a moment, and thousands of pairs of bloodshot eyes looked at the general in the car!

Chen Cheng's voice was filled with a resoluteness that could tear the sky apart: "You are the pillars of the country! You are the backbone of the nation!

What awaits you ahead are jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards!

They are the Japanese pirates who want to swallow up our land!

Behind Luodian is Shanghai! Millions of fellow villagers!

We have no way out! We don’t need any way out! "

He suddenly pointed the whip towards Luodian, the veins on his arm showing from the force:

"Charge forward! Gnaw with your teeth! Dig with your nails! Use human lives as a cushion! We must stop the Japanese pirates!

The 18th Army, live and die! We are invincible!

After a brief silence.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!!!" The soldiers around him suddenly burst into an earth-shaking roar with heavy breathing!

The sound waves broke the rain curtain!

It was like the underground fire that had been suppressed to the extreme erupting!

This iron stream, forced into a corner by military orders and cruel reality, suddenly burst out with a violent force!

The soldiers no longer cared about their feet being stuck in the mud, and burst out at an astonishing speed, rushing towards the battlefield ahead that was destined to be stained with blood and flesh!

Rushing at the forefront of the 18th Army's long column is the 11th Division!

Division Commander Peng Shan led the charge, even leaving his beloved chestnut warhorse behind the marching team as the horse could hardly move in the mud.

The general, who was famous for his bravery, was now as wet and covered in mud as an ordinary soldier. He held his rifle in one hand and tore open a bag of dry food with the other. He stuffed a few handfuls of food into his mouth and chewed hard to replenish the calories that were almost exhausted, but his eyes were scanning the front as sharp as a falcon.

“Hurry up!” Brigadier General Hu Lian’s roar was like a hammer, hitting the hearts of the soldiers of his 33rd Brigade: “Do you see the shadow of Luodian?!

"That city is full of little devils now! What are we here for?! To stuff those bastards back into their mothers' stomachs!"

The rain soaked everyone's clothes, the cold was biting, and fatigue weighed on everyone's shoulders like a mountain, as if their bones were groaning under the heavy burden.

The forced march lasted more than 20 hours with almost no proper rest.

My legs had already gone numb and I had lost all feeling, so I just moved forward instinctively.

The military boots on his feet had rubbed blisters on his feet, and he limped forward in the mud.