Chapter 34: Shaking Off Pursuers (Part 1)

  Nakagawa and Takahashi conferred with each other, neither of them daring to make a judgment easily. They had no choice but to let the troops temporarily stop and rest while reporting the tense situation to Watanabe in Kunshan.

  Watanabe Taisa who stayed in Kunshan also couldn't figure out Bao Shan Tuan's true intentions.

  After all, this is Chinese territory. Although the Japanese army has occupied major cities and controlled key points along highways and railways, the vast countryside is still under Chinese control. Without air reconnaissance, it's indeed very difficult for the Japanese to grasp the specific movements of the Baoshan Regiment.

  If the Bao Shan gang was still lingering around Kunshan, the special agents of the Special High Police would easily be able to track their movements. But no one expected that the cunning Bao Shan gang had actually boarded a train and in the blink of an eye had escaped over 100 miles away, rendering all the arrangements made by the Special High Police around Kunshan useless.

  In the end, Lieutenant Colonel Watanabe had no choice but to report this situation to the headquarters of the military.

  General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Japanese Central China Area Army, however, reprimanded Watanabe in his reply and sternly stated that this was a matter for the three colonels, Watanabe, Nakagawa and Takahashi, and all he wanted from them was results.

  There's nothing to say, General Shōsuke Sugiura kicked the ball back.

  Watanabe's order was to split and pursue, with Takahashi leading the Kempeitai battalion south, Nakagawa leading half a brigade north, and the remaining half-brigade led by Deputy Brigade Commander Honda continuing west along the Shanghai-Nanjing railway, while the Special Warfare Battalion rushed to Suzhou on standby.

  …………

  Thirty miles north of Wuxi, more than a thousand officers and soldiers from the Baoshan Regiment were rushing northwards in the drizzle.

  The Baoshan Regiment abandoned their vehicles in the distant suburbs, twenty miles from Wuxi. After a half-hour emergency reorganization, they began to turn north and advance rapidly. The sudden and continuous winter rain caused great difficulties for the Japanese reconnaissance and pursuit, and also had a serious impact on the march of the Baoshan Regiment.

  Those who have been through battles know that new recruits fear cannons, while veterans fear machine guns!

  There is one thing, however, that both new and seasoned soldiers fear, and that is long-distance forced marches, especially those conducted under adverse weather conditions. This is a test of the willpower and quality of an army like no other.

  After the 25,000-mile Long March, the Central Red Army's remnants were equipped to the extreme limit, with only one rifle for every two men and fewer than five bullets per rifle. However, their combat effectiveness reached its peak in the history of the Red Army, making it impossible for the Northeastern Army, known as the elite of the National Army, to find a way to retreat. Why was this?

  The reason is simple, because the Central Red Army has gone through an unimaginable ultra-long-distance forced march, in this unprecedented cruel march, all those who were weak-willed and physically weak were eliminated, leaving only strong and robust, iron-blooded warriors whose willpower surpassed steel, so their combat effectiveness was so powerful!

  The Baoshan troops, however, were far from having such a high morale. These defeated soldiers had been imprisoned in the Japanese concentration camp less than 24 hours ago, living a miserable life without sunlight. They were not prepared for long-distance rapid marching either physically or mentally.

  How easy is it for such a mob to make long marches in such bad weather?

  However, every disadvantage has its advantage. Under such harsh weather conditions, the long-distance forced march can also greatly temper the will of this group of defeated soldiers. As long as they can arrive in Jingjiang within the time predicted by Yue Weihan, their willpower will become strong enough, although it is still impossible to compare with the Central Red Army, but the three words "can't be dragged down" are completely deserved.

  If they can win a few more battles in Jiangbei, annihilate several small Japanese troops, and restore the morale of these defeated soldiers, boost their confidence, then the Baoshan regiment can be considered as an elite troop. After all, this group of defeated soldiers is not bad at all, it's just that they have lost their spirit due to too many defeats.

  Of course, this is just Yue Weihan's idea, and whether these defeated soldiers can complete this journey is still an unknown number.

  In fact, the forced march was less than ten miles away, and the entire team began to show serious straggling. The Central Army's defeated soldiers performed better, whether it was military discipline or physical strength, they could barely keep up with the intensity of the Baoshan Camp veterans, but the Taxation Police Corps and the Sichuan Army defeated soldiers were not good enough. Many Sichuan Army defeated soldiers walked and fell to the ground and did not want to get up again.

  Yue Weihan had no choice but to kick these defeated Sichuan soldiers back into formation one by one.

  To ensure the speed of the march, Yue Weihan even came up with a rather "cruel" trick, deliberately letting Hua Hanlin lead some soldiers from the guard squad to pretend to be vanguard, then secretly return them to the back of the entire team, disguising themselves as Japanese vanguard, shouting and firing cold guns.

  This trick really worked, and no one dared to lie down and rest again. However, there was a side effect: some of the fleeing soldiers were chased by the "Japanese army" behind them, and when they thought they couldn't catch up with the main force in front, they began to think about deserting, which started to test the leadership skills of Yue Weihan and several battalion commanders.

  Yue Weihan was now fully in the zone, entering a state of extreme excitement, like a hyperactive monkey, jumping and running around the entire team.

  A defeated Sichuan soldier was so tired that he had just sat down to rest for a while when his buttocks immediately received a ruthless kick.

  The defeated soldiers of the Nagawa army were furious, and just as they were about to start cursing, they found a fierce and sinister figure standing behind them with an air of composure. And wasn't this person none other than Taisa-sama?

  "Are you dead? Wait for the little devils to collect your corpse? Get up!"

  The defeated soldiers of the Sichuan army hastily scrambled up and started chasing after the main force with a slap on their buttocks.

  Two deserters from the Taxation Police Brigade stopped to catch their breath, and a shrill voice suddenly rang out in their ears: "Are you from the Eight-Nation Banking Sharpshooters' Brigade? From Yangzhou, right? Your hometown is now under fierce attack by the devils, I'm not trying to scare you, but if you're late getting back, your sisters might fall into the hands of those little devils."

  "We were hit by a hammer and our family is in Chongqing, far away." A defeated Sichuan soldier retorted.

  "Hey, from Chongqing?" Yue Weihan suddenly turned his head around, his sharp eyes already fixed on the face of that defeated Sichuan soldier. "The stick-wielding men from Chongqing are quite formidable, aren't they? Carrying over a hundred catties on their shoulders, running for hundreds of miles without even panting, how could you, a mere rookie, fall down after just walking a few miles? You're disgracing the people of Chongqing!"

  The defeated soldiers of the river army rolled their eyes and quickly buried their heads and ran away.

  Yue Weihan snatched a rifle and fired it into the air, shouting: "You're just a bunch of good-for-nothings! Look at you, what a sorry sight! You've only run a few miles and you're already panting like this. You've disgraced China completely! What do the little devils call us? The Sick Men of East Asia! That's exactly what you are - a bunch of Sick Men of East Asia!"

  All the defeated soldiers who heard this remark at this moment hated their regimental commander so much that they wished they could strangle him to death.

  Yue Weihan, however, seemed to have not seen them at all, and continued to use some intense and even vicious language to stimulate and provoke these routed soldiers who had once been brave but now had their morale crushed. Yue Weihan was very clear that in order to keep these routed soldiers with enough marching momentum, he must constantly stimulate their nerves, keeping them angry all the time!

  Sorrow can be transformed into strength, and anger can also be transformed into strength!

  For these routed soldiers, you can't expect them to have a strong will, nor can you expect them to persevere for the sake of national mission or military honor. However, you can stimulate them, humiliate them, and thereby provoke their most ferocious anger, making them revert to being fierce warriors.

  The journey is long and arduous, marching is still fraught with difficulties, but Yue Weihan will never give up lightly.

  As far as the eye can see, the roads are muddy, the mountains and rivers are desolate, and the dilapidated Jiangnan water town is shrouded in a gloomy mist, while the cold winter rain continues to drizzle endlessly.