Bright Sword: Japs, times have changed

According to the information sent back by the scouts, the Japanese army had retreated to Laiyuan County. The county was full of people inside and outside, and many Japanese soldiers had set up tents outside the city.

Up to now, this battle that lasted for nearly half a month ended in a disastrous defeat with the Japanese losing two major generals, seven colonels, and nearly 40,000 troops.

In contrast, Lin Qiang's independent battalion, including the local county brigade, district squad, militia, guerrillas, special forces company and other comrades who participated in this battle, had a total casualty count of more than 1,700 people.

Among them, the local troops suffered the highest number of casualties. They were poorly equipped and their tactical guidance was not as good as that of the main force of the independent battalion. In addition, they encountered hundreds or even thousands of Japanese troops every time.

Faced with the huge gap in strength, local forces are simply unable to use tactics to balance the gap.

However, none of our soldiers were afraid. Even though they knew they were facing an enemy that was impossible to defeat, they still dared to draw their swords against the enemy!

The narrow road meets the brave to win!

If a team does not dare to draw its sword against the enemy, then no matter how good its equipment is, it will be just a showpiece.

Among the main forces of the independent battalion, the Second Company, which was in the most dangerous and frontline position, suffered the heaviest casualties, with more than 300 people killed, more than 100 seriously injured, and more than 200 slightly injured.

Excluding the logistics troops, the troops allocated by Lin Qiang to the six companies almost exceeded the strength of a regular battalion, and this battle severely damaged the second company.

After the situation stabilized, Lin Qiang immediately found Duan Peng and ordered the special forces to carry out a mission.

As the leader of a battalion, Lin Qiang knew that the battle was over, but there were still many follow-up matters that needed to be dealt with. He originally wanted to lead the team to carry out the task himself.

But the current situation and the orders that might be issued by headquarters at any time forced him to give up this idea.

Before leaving, Lin Qiang called Duan Peng aside and said in a heavy voice, "I can conclude that the Japanese laboratory is in that area. If you are lucky, you may run into a group of Japanese escorting prisoners of war and civilians."

"This time, I have only one request. I don't care what the consequences are or what the price is. Even if it means a poison gas leak, you must completely destroy the Japanese experiment and the people responsible for the research."

"In short, we will not allow the devils to have a second chance to conduct this experiment. If necessary..."

Lin Qiang really couldn't say the following words. He couldn't give such combat orders to his soldiers.

However, Duan Peng's eyes were firm, and he had already made a decision: "If necessary, no one in the special forces will be afraid of death!"

"Battalion Commander, wait for my good news!"

Lin Qiang patted Duan Peng's shoulder and forced a smile. "There are a total of forty-four members of the team going on this mission, forty-five including you. I hope you all return safely."

Since the establishment of the special forces, it has been supplementing its members as the number of members of the main force increases, similar to the special forces of later generations.

There are a total of 439 official members of the special forces, 370 reserve members, 623 assessment members, and 2,793 reserve assessment members.

The same process goes from brigade to squadron, then to squad, and then each squad selects the elite among the elite to form an elite group.

Each such group consists of twelve people, each with their own responsibilities and working closely together.

This time Duan Peng led his own group and three other groups, a total of four groups, excluding three group leaders, a total of 45 people.

These are the four most powerful elite teams in the special forces, which is enough to show how much importance Lin Qiang attaches to this mission.

Not only that, each team also carried ten kilograms of C4 explosives and ordinary explosives, the combined power of which was enough to raze a hill to the ground.

Duan Peng took one last look at Lin Qiang, then turned and said, "Don't worry, Battalion Commander!"

After saying that, Duan Peng shouted to the assembled team: "Let's go!"

Lin Qiang saluted the departing team until the team disappeared.

………………

Laiyuan County.

After suffering a great defeat, Yuanping Koizumi returned to the county town and had not eaten for two days. He could not get over this humiliation.

In other words, he could not accept this huge humiliation.

However, this old devil will not be depressed because of this failure. On the contrary, he is a man who knows shame and then becomes brave.

Being able to take up the position of commander of the Japanese brigade, Harahira Koizumi is certainly no pushover.

Not only is he very scheming, he also has outstanding strategic vision and tactical guidance capabilities.

In other words, you have encountered an unreasonable independent camp, and no matter what conspiracy or trick you use, you can just bombard it with bombs.

If one shot doesn't work, then an entire artillery regiment will open fire at full capacity.

He was able to hold out in such a battle for half a month, although he suffered a crushing defeat at the cost of losing half of his troops. However, if he were to face other people, Haradaira Koizumi's ability would be truly revealed.

Not all Japanese soldiers are fools, and neither is Harahira Koizumi. Otherwise, he would not have been able to break through the crowd of colonels and be promoted to brigade commander of a major general.

You know, the Japanese major general is extremely rare and it is very difficult to be promoted. It is not like the major general of the National Army, who can be appointed as long as the principal nods.

In fact, nine out of ten Japanese devils could only be promoted to colonel in their entire lives, and would never be able to become a major general until their death.

The Japanese major generals are "imperial officials", and the appointment letters are issued by Locust himself. When the Japanese meet these so-called "imperial officials", they must respectfully call them "Your Excellency".

Of course, the two words "Your Excellency" are not exclusive synonyms for the Japanese major general. They are used in most cases, but the meanings they represent are different.

It was difficult for Japanese officers to become colonels when they were around 1919 to years old. The Japanese commander-in-chief, General Okamura Neiji, graduated at the age of and immediately participated in the Russo-Japanese War. He was years old, that is, in , when he officially became a major.

In 1919, his Chinese students were all doing very well. Among them, Yan Laoxi had been the King of Shanxi for more than seven years, and Li Xiaru had already made headlines in major news such as the Second Revolution.

Among his students, He Jingzhi was the one who had the worst fate, but he was also a brigadier general.

But even so, Ningji Okamura can be considered a winner in life among the Japanese army.

In 1921, Ningji Okamura was still a major, and it was not until 1924 that he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Honjo Shigeru, the commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army during the September 18th Incident, also worked as a consultant for the old marshal when he was a colonel.

At that time, Han Qing, who was only 19 years old, already held the rank of major general.

Promotions were extremely slow during peacetime, so the young Japanese officers always seized the opportunity to make adjustments, attempting to gain promotions in this way.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many major events were masterminded by Japanese officers of low ranks. The mastermind behind the September 18th Incident, Doihara Ken, was only a colonel, Ishiwara Kanji was a lieutenant colonel, and Itagaki Seishirō was also only a colonel.

These three beasts were promoted one level around 1932 and entered the fast lane of promotion from then on.

It was not until the full-scale outbreak of the war and the Japanese army's large-scale expansion that the promotion speed of officers was accelerated.

Even so, none of the Japanese officers who were promoted to major general were simple people.

Therefore, being able to take up the position of brigade commander of the Japanese major general is not as simple as it seems.

Harahira Koizumi hadn't eaten for two days, and no one dared to disturb him because he had issued a death order that unless Commander Okamura Ningji called in person, anyone who came without his permission would be killed.

The purpose of his doing this was simply to think of a way to wash away the shame.