Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

Erwazi seemed to see through his lies and smiled bitterly: "If I can't go back... help me send a message to Mom..."

"If you want to take the message, go back and get it yourself!" Li Chang interrupted him and forced a piece of beef into his mouth. "Eat! This is an order!"

Erwazi chewed mechanically, with no spirit in his cloudy eyes.

Li Changshun looked around and found that there were less than thirty soldiers still able to move on the position.

Some of them were huddled in bomb craters, chewing on dry biscuits, some were wiping rifle bolts with rags, and more were staring at the gray sky like statues.

Everyone's face was filled with fatigue and numbness, and only the occasional movement of their eyes proved that they were still alive.

This is a force that has been pushed to its limit.

The 3rd Company of the 1st Battalion of the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division should have had 120 people at full strength, but now, including the wounded, there are only more than 30 people who can still fight.

They had held this position for four weeks and repelled dozens of Japanese attacks.

Li Changshun still remembers the scene when he first entered the position. At that time, this was still a row of relatively intact two-story buildings. They built fortifications on the first floor and set up firing points on the second floor.

Now those buildings have long been razed to the ground by artillery fire, and they can only rely on craters and ruins as shelter.

"Flare!" someone suddenly roared.

Everyone immediately retreated deep into the bunker. A flare exploded right above their position, illuminating everything with a blinding white light. Li Changshun clung to the bunker wall, holding his breath, fearing that any movement would draw artillery fire.

Just then, a sharp whistling sound tore through the silence.

"Bombard! Get down!" roared the big guy Hu.

Li Changshun threw himself on Erwazi without hesitation.

The next moment, a deafening explosion swept across the entire position.

Mud, gravel, and shrapnel fell like heavy rain, and the huge shock wave made his internal organs tremble.

A shell landed right on the next bunker, and a shrill scream was heard from there. It was Douzi's voice.

Li Changshun raised his head and saw through the thick smoke that the 17-year-old recruit was struggling in a pool of blood. His lower body had been blown to pieces and his intestines were spilling all over the floor.

"Medic! Medic!" someone shouted at the top of his lungs, but soon realized that it was meaningless as there were no medics on the battlefield.

Douzi's screams gradually weakened and finally disappeared completely.

Another wave of shells fell, completely engulfing his mutilated body.

The bombardment lasted about a quarter of an hour, but to Li Changshun it seemed like a century.

When the last explosion faded away, silence returned to the battlefield temporarily, with only the tinnitus continuing.

He slowly raised his head and shook off the dirt on his body. Erwazi was still groaning under him, and it seemed that he had not suffered any new injuries.

"Is anyone still alive?" Hu Da's voice came from the right.

"I'm fine!" Li Changshun replied.

Several responses were heard from the battlefield.

A rough estimate is that three or four more people did not survive the bombardment.

It was already bright outside, but the sunlight was obscured by the thick smoke, casting only a dim light.

Li Changshun cautiously stuck his head out to observe the enemy situation.

There seemed to be no unusual movement on the Japanese position, only a few wisps of smoke slowly rising.

Suddenly, he noticed something reflecting light in the distance.

Looking closely, I saw a Japanese flag slowly rising.

At the same time, a vague loudspeaker sound came from the direction of the Japanese position.

"What are the Japs shouting?" asked the big guy Hu.

Li Changshun listened intently for a moment, his face suddenly turning pale. "They're shouting... for us to surrender... They're saying Jinshanwei has landed, the Nationalist army has been completely defeated... We've been abandoned, so we should surrender."

There was a sudden silence on the battlefield.

"Bullshit!" Big Hu suddenly yelled, "This is the Japs' psychological warfare! They're trying to shake our morale!"

But his voice lacked confidence. In fact, since the day before yesterday, they had noticed that the supply from the rear had been cut off and the artillery support was getting weaker and weaker.

All signs indicate that the situation is deteriorating.

Li Changshun silently took out a wrinkled photo from his pocket. The photo showed a middle-aged woman with a kind face, who was his mother.

He took that photo before leaving home and has always kept it with him.

He still remembers the day he left home.

With tears in her eyes, his mother gave him a pair of new cloth shoes and told him to come back soon.

His father patted him on the shoulder silently and stuffed a few silver dollars into his pocket.

At that time they all said that the war would end soon and the national army would definitely win.

Now the cloth shoes have long been worn out, the silver dollars have long been spent, but the war is getting more and more tragic. The comrades around me have been replaced one after another, and many familiar faces have disappeared forever.

"Kuaizhe, are you missing home?" Erwazi's weak voice interrupted his thoughts.

Li Changshun quickly put the photo away and shook his head: "Think about what to eat tonight."

Just then, there was a sudden commotion on the battlefield.

Li Changshun looked up and saw the company commander Fang Xiaoshu crouching down and walking through the ruins towards their location.

The arrival of Company Commander Fang Xiaoshu was like a huge rock thrown into stagnant water, and ripples of tension immediately appeared on the battlefield.

He crouched down and quickly moved through the ruins with standard tactical movements, sometimes nimbly leaping over craters, and sometimes suddenly lying down to observe the front.

His once straight officer's uniform was now tattered, with dark brown blood stains on his epaulettes, but his belt was still tied neatly, and the pistol at his waist beat rhythmically against his thigh as he moved.

"Everyone assemble! Division headquarters has given the order!" Captain Fang's voice was so hoarse it was practically breaking.

The soldiers struggled to crawl out of their bunkers and foxholes, like a group of ghosts emerging from the ground.

Some were dragging their injured legs, some were using their rifles as crutches, and some needed the support of their comrades to stand.

In the end, only more than 30 people gathered, while the full strength of the company should have been 120 people.

Everyone's face was filled with fatigue, hunger and an almost numb expectation.

Fang Xiaoshu stood on a relatively flat piece of ruins, his eyes sweeping over the faces of those who had followed him in bloody battles for months.

His Adam's apple rolled, and he seemed to have difficulty speaking, but in the end he used all his strength to shout out the order that would change everyone's fate:

"Other divisions have already begun retreating last night, and the division commander has decided... our division must also begin retreating! Move towards Qingpu! My company will be involved in the rearguard action!"

Deathly silence enveloped the position, with only sporadic gunfire in the distance seeming to serve as a footnote to this terrible order.

The soldiers looked at each other, seemingly unable to understand the meaning of this sentence.

For three months, they were accustomed to hearing the orders of "live and die with the position" and "never take a step back". Suddenly, when they heard the word "retreat", they were at a loss.

Suddenly, veteran Hu Dagou slammed his fist into the broken wall beside him, tearing the flesh apart. "We've been defending for three months! So many brothers have died, and you're just going to retreat? My platoon leader and squad leader are buried in this ruin!"