Spy Wars: I am the Captain of the Military Police

In the following days, the fighting entered a more brutal phase.

In retaliation, the Japanese army launched an even more frenzied attack.

On the battlefield, the corpses of both our own and the enemy were piled up like mountains, so that the follow-up troops had to step on the corpses to advance.

Outside the city of Wuxi, the soil was dyed red with blood. The bodies of the fallen soldiers were too numerous to be buried in time and began to rot in the autumn temperature. The entire battlefield was filled with an indescribable smell.

On November 30, after five consecutive days of bloody fighting, the Japanese army finally opened a narrow breakthrough in the Xicheng defense line.

But the price paid for this was staggering. After only advancing five kilometers, they suffered more than 5,000 casualties, including many senior officers such as Yoshida Sadakatsu.

Once after a battle, Yang Dashan stood on the battlefield and looked at the devastated battlefield.

His company had 120 men before the war, but now only had less than 30 men left.

Li Tiezhu was seriously injured in yesterday's hand-to-hand combat and was sent to the rear hospital.

"Captain, what are you thinking about?" asked a young soldier.

Yang Dashan did not answer immediately, but looked up at the blood moon in the sky.

In the moonlight, his sword flashed with a cold light.

"I'm thinking, when the war is over, I'm going to plant peach trees all over this land. When spring comes, the peach blossoms will surely bloom beautifully."

The soldier was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Captain, I'll help you plant the crops when the time comes."

Yang Dashan turned his head, looked at the young soldier's tender but determined face, and nodded heavily.

The blood moon is still hanging high in the sky, witnessing this tragic war and the indomitable will of the Chinese soldiers.

In the following battles, every inch of land on the Xicheng defense line will continue to be soaked in blood.

In early November.

A sudden cold wind blew across the Xicheng defense line, raising clouds of smoke.

The once fertile land of Jiangnan has now been repeatedly plowed by artillery fire and has taken on a sickly charred color.

On the battlefield, a tattered flag of the Republic of China fluttered in the cold wind, and the bullet holes densely covered on the flag silently told of the cruelty of the battle.

Li Xiaodou wrapped himself tightly in his worn military uniform, and the white breath he exhaled quickly dissipated in the cold morning wind.

His fingers were covered with bloody wounds from holding the gun for a long time and engaging in occasional close combat.

But what was even more unbearable than the physical pain was the mental torture of watching his comrades fall one after another.

"Xiaodouzi, count how much ammunition our company has left." The new company commander Zhou Hai limped over, dragging his injured right leg.

The former company commander Zhao Dahu died, and Zhou Hai was originally the deputy company commander of the third company. Due to heavy casualties, the companies were forced to merge and reorganize.

Li Xiaodou silently counted the ammunition boxes, his expression growing increasingly serious. "Company Commander, each of us has less than twenty rounds of rifle ammunition, only five boxes of grenades left, and even fewer light machine gun ammunition, only enough for two magazines."

Zhou Hai nodded heavily, looking at the dense pile of Japanese corpses in front of the position: "The Japs are not much better. Their attacks are getting weaker and weaker."

Indeed, the entire Xicheng defense line fell into a strange stalemate.

Since the end of November, although the Japanese army still launched several attacks every day, the scale and intensity were much less than before.

As for the Nationalist army, due to heavy casualties and shortage of ammunition, it was unable to organize a large-scale counterattack.

The two sides were like two exhausted boxers, knowing that the other had reached its limit, but neither had the ability to deliver a fatal blow.

Inside the army's forward command bunker outside Wuxi, the glow of kerosene lamps cast flickering shadows on the damp walls.

The deputy commander-in-chief of the Third War Zone and commander-in-chief of the Third Army Group stood in front of a huge military map with a frown.

On the map, red and blue arrows are densely intertwined, symbolizing the extremely fierce tug-of-war over the past month.

"Everyone, the situation is very clear." The voice of the army commander-in-chief echoed in the low bunker, with a hint of fatigue that was hard to conceal.

He looked around at the senior generals present, including the commander-in-chief of the 9th Army, the commander-in-chief of the 19th Army, the commander-in-chief of the 15th Army, and the commanders of various armies and divisions.

Outside the bunker, sporadic artillery fire could be heard occasionally in the distance, reminding everyone that they were only a dozen miles away from the front line.

The commander of the 15th Army Group spoke first, pointing his finger at the location of the Xicheng Line of Defense on the map: "Our army, relying on the existing national defense fortifications, has been fighting the Japanese for nearly 20 days.

According to statistics from various units, our army's casualties have exceeded 90,000, but the Japanese army's losses are no less than 40,000.

The battlefront is generally stable at the moment, but…” He paused, his gaze sweeping across everyone present: “But our ammunition reserves are nearly depleted, and many units have less than twenty rounds of rifle ammunition per person.”

A crushing silence fell over the bunker.

Yu Jishi, commander of the 74th Army, coughed lightly, breaking the silence: "It is also extremely difficult to replenish our troops.

Of the more than 200,000 elite troops who retreated from Songhu, there are now less than 110,000 combat-ready soldiers.

Although all provinces are urgently recruiting soldiers, and the Ministry of Military Affairs has ordered security forces to be drawn from various provinces to supplement them, these new recruits are inadequately trained and are not up to the task.

"More importantly," the commander of the Ninth Army said, pointing towards the Yangtze River, "Although the Jiangyin Fortress is still holding, the Japanese army has already controlled most of the Yangtze River waterway.

Our supply lines were severely compressed, while the Japanese were able to obtain supplies continuously by sea."

At this time, the commander of the 15th Army, who had been silent all this time, suddenly stood up, walked to the map, and pointed to the northeast: "Everyone, the most worrying thing is this. The intelligence I just received shows that the 4th Division of the Kwantung Army has completed its assembly in Lushun and is waiting for the Japanese Navy's transport ships.

There are also reliable signs that the Japanese 4th Division is only the vanguard, and the main force of the Kwantung Army shows signs of moving south. They are adjusting their deployment and replacing those Type A divisions with new divisions.

A suppressed cry of surprise suddenly rang out from inside the bunker.

Several division commanders showed expressions of disbelief on their faces.

"Kwantung Army? The Japanese are really going to fight to the death!" Sun Yuanliang, commander of the 88th Division, exclaimed in surprise.

The oppressive atmosphere was almost suffocating.

The commander of the 87th Division, Wang Jingjiu, could not help but slam his fist on the table. "So, we've withstood round after round of Japanese attacks here, and not only are they not stopping, they're escalating the situation?"

“The Japanese army has clearly shown real fire.

Our tenacious resistance on the Xicheng defense line completely disrupted their strategic deployment.

Their original dream of annihilating China in three months was shattered by us at Songhu, and now they are suffering heavy losses at the Wufu and Xicheng lines. It seems they are hurting and ready to fight to the death.

"Since that's the case, we can't let them off easily! If the Japanese army sends more troops, we can also request more.

The troops in Guangxi are ready to go, and some of the troops in Hunan and Jiangxi can also be transferred north."

"The problem is time. The Japanese army can quickly increase its troops by sea transport, but our troops mainly rely on walking. It will take at least a month to get here from Guangxi and Hunan.

During this period, we can only rely on the existing forces to hold on."