Chapter Nineteen: Divide and Break Through

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  "Alright, this way, with so many of us together, the target is too big. Now I declare that you and I will be the vanguard, we three will split our troops to break through the siege by myself attracting the enemy's firepower!" Liu Zhenfeng began to explain his breakout plan, this time losing 4,500 soldiers, which was also a huge blow to him, he did not want this branch of the army to end up with no hope of breaking through.

  "No! General, you are the backbone of the 77th Army, you absolutely cannot have anything happen to you, let me cover the rear instead!" Ji Xingwen heard that Liu Zhenfeng was going to cover the main force's retreat and suddenly became anxious. He had promised Vice Military Commander Zhang Zizhong and Chief of Staff Xu Zhongqiang before departure that he would safely escort General Liu out of the encirclement and rendezvous with the main force in Chizhou. If he let him appear alone in Chizhou, wouldn't Vice Military Commander Zhang and Chief of Staff Xu skin him alive?

  "I'm asking you, Ji Xingwen," said Liu Zhenfeng, "who is the commander of the 77th Army?"

  "It's you." Ji Xingwen replied.

  "What? I didn't hear clearly, say it again!" Liu Zhenfeng said loudly.

  "Report, the commander of the 77th Army is General Liu Zhenfeng." Ji Xingwen replied loudly.

  "Now that you know I'm the commander, carry out the orders and stop dawdling!" Liu Zhenfeng said with a wave of his hand.

  "Yes!" Ji Xingwen reluctantly accepted the order.

  They launched a three-pronged attack in the Yixing area, with Ji Xingwen leading 2,000 men to break through towards Huzhou, Zhejiang, then turning to fight at Tianmu Mountain and entering Anhui; The chief of staff led 1,800 men to break through towards Huangshan, Anhui, then turning to fight in Chizhou; Liu Zhenfeng, on the other hand, led the most elite 700 warriors, with the goal of attracting enemy fire, loudly and openly breaking through towards Xuancheng.

  "All right, you can set off first. To send someone a thousand miles away, we must eventually part ways, hurry up!" I said to Ji Xingwen and Shi Canmou.

  "General, you must be extra careful now. Also, General, no matter what, you must break through and meet up with us." Ji Xingwen said with a choked voice.

  The Chief of Staff walked up to the commander of the guard battalion, Yu Zhenhai, and said: "The safety of the Commander-in-Chief is now in your hands. If anything happens to him, I will ask you for an explanation!"

  "Yes, don't worry, Chief of Staff, I will definitely ensure the safety of the army's seat!" Yu Zhenhai gave a military salute to the division chief of staff.

  "Everyone, let's set off!" After Ji Xingwen gave the order to depart, the troops he led began to break through in the direction of Huzhou. The division chief of staff also saluted me and then led his troops to set off.

  "Alright, comrades, you are the elite of the 77th Army's elite. Our mission this time is to harass the enemy as much as possible, disrupt their defensive deployment, and make them follow our pace forward. Now, I'm changing the action plan, we're all heading towards Shanghai!" Liu Zhenfeng loudly announced his battle plan.

  "General, shouldn't we break through to the west? Advancing on Shanghai is too risky, isn't it?" Yu Zhenhai asked, not understanding my intention.

  "Haha, fighting is all about having the spirit of adventure! This time we're marching towards Shanghai, and we'll advance with boldness and let the enemy know that I, the commander of the 77th Army, will lure them all in with this small force. We'll ensure that General Zhang Zizhong's troops and Ji Xingwen's men can break through the encirclement smoothly. As for me, having fewer men is an advantage - our target is smaller, and we can shake off pursuing enemies at any time as long as we're not surrounded!" Liu Zhenfeng said with satisfaction.

  "But General, this is too risky. If it were a covert operation, that would be one thing, the enemy might not expect us to march into the occupied zone in the southeast. But if you're going to do it openly, won't that just make it easier for the enemy to surround us?" Yu Zhenhai seemed to want to persuade Liu Zhenfeng to change his mind.

  "This kind of true and false, false and true play, I think Ryōsei Sekine would also have some concerns, he would send troops to surround us, but now our goal is smaller, they want to annihilate us, it's not that easy. I just don't want him to be at peace, thinking that he can easily occupy the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, no way!" Liu Zhenfeng said with a clenched fist.

  "Alright, General, I'll go make the arrangements. But General, I promised the Chief of Staff that I would ensure your safety and bring you to Chizhou to rendezvous with the main force, I..."

  Listening to Yu Zhenhai's murmurs in his ear, he couldn't bear it and impatiently said: "Nothing! As a soldier, one's lifelong wish is to die on the battlefield, wrapped in horsehide, sacrificing for the country, dying with honor, it's worth it! Let's set off!"

  All the way, Liu Zhenfeng was afraid that the enemy did not know they were in the Taihu area, and loudly shouted: "The 77th Army of the National Army is here! Don't miss it if you pass by! You bastards, aren't you going to wipe out my 77th Army? Come on if you dare!"

  "General, General Liu, this is too showy, isn't it?" The head of the guard unit, Yu Zhenhai, couldn't take it anymore. If Liu Zhenfeng weren't the military commander, he would have knocked him out a long time ago.

  "It's nothing, the Japanese aren't fools either. The more we show off, the more suspicious they become. They don't know what kind of formation we've set up and don't dare to come over and deal with us." Liu Zhenfeng said with a pat on his chest.

  When they approached Wuxi, Liu Zhenfeng ordered his troops to march stealthily. Even if he had the courage, he would not dare to parade in front of the city of Wuxi with two enemy infantry brigades at hand.

  They secretly crossed the Wuxi defense line and arrived at a small town, which was once quite prosperous before the Japanese invasion, but now it looks very desolate and deserted. Perhaps the Japanese army had looted this place many times, leaving almost no one behind, not even a single Japanese soldier in sight. It seems that the Japanese have lost interest in this small town!

  "Let's take a break in town before setting off again!" Liu Zhenfeng ordered his troops to rest and regroup in this town.

  "Kurosawa-san, where should we go now to find those Chinese people?" Takeda Yoshio said as he walked beside Kurosawa Nobuyuki.

  "Bastard! You're the one who said that if you hadn't fired wildly at me, my squadron wouldn't have lost an entire squad for no reason." Just thinking about that night made Kuroba's teeth ache with anger.

  "You're telling me, you didn't fire at my troops, did you? I suffered minimal losses. I also lost a whole squad of soldiers. This time we've caught these Chinese devils, and we'll definitely cut them alive." Takada Yoshio said fiercely.

  "Hey, there's a small town ahead. Let's go in and rest before looking for that group of Shinra people." After one of Hazuki's communication soldiers ran back to tell him about the small town ahead, Hazuki proposed going into the town to rest.

  "Report to Commander, our outpost outside the town has discovered a large number of devils' soldiers, at least as many as a regiment." A communication soldier reported to Liu Zhenfeng.

  "Grandma's, can't even let me rest for a bit? Brothers, get the bayonets ready, prepare to charge!" Liu Zhenfeng shouted loudly.

  All the warriors sprang up at once and put their bayonets on their rifles, with an expression of readiness to sacrifice themselves generously.

  "Brothers, let's get out of here!" Liu Zhenfeng shouted loudly.

  "What? Retreat, retreat?" Yu Zhenhai originally thought that Liu Zhenfeng had ordered the soldiers to fix bayonets in preparation for a fierce battle with the enemy, but he never expected him to order a retreat instead.

  "What's wrong? Are you stupid? My orders aren't being executed? Listen up, my order is: retreat. The front line reports that the enemy has at least a regiment of troops, and possibly more. With our limited forces and no heavy weapons, how can we fight them head-on? We're not going to engage them directly, we need to play it sneaky, got it? Hurry up and withdraw!"

  Yu Zhenhai was really at a loss for words regarding this military commander. How to put it? He had all sorts of weird ideas, and when it came to fighting, he never followed conventional tactics. He would just do whatever he wanted, and then justify it by saying: "They fight their way, we fight ours." What kind of logic is that? It's really hard to figure out this commander. Sometimes, with just a few words, he could get the entire army fired up and eager to rush into battle, willing to die for the cause. But other times, he seemed to be afraid of the enemy soldiers, always hiding and dodging around. This commander was really impossible to understand.

  Liu Zhenfeng led the troops to withdraw from the town and continued to advance towards Suzhou, but their whereabouts seemed to have been discovered by the enemy. The brigade following them appeared to have quickened its pace, desperately chasing after them.

  "The south of the Yangtze River is nothing special, just a dense network of rivers and numerous lakes, which makes it unfavorable for large-scale tank attacks. However, with our current troop strength, if we still need the enemy to mobilize their armored forces, that would be giving us too much credit!" Liu Zhenfeng said with a smile to Yu Zhenhai beside him.

  "General, this terrain in Jiangnan is unfavorable for our concealment. We must think of a way to retreat to a safe area," Yu Zhenhai said to Liu Zhenfeng.

  "Hmm, yes, right, how long has it been since we parted ways with Commander Ji and Chief of Staff?" Liu Zhenfeng asked.

  "There are only two days left, today is December 28th of the Republic of China's twenty-sixth year." Yu Zhenhai said.

  "It's been two days? It's pretty fast, I reckon they've already broken through the enemy's defenses. Hopefully! The 28th of the twelfth lunar month, tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I said to Old Yu, I reckon we'll be spending our new year on the march." Liu Zhenfeng said with a bitter smile to Zhenhai.

  "Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat" came from the front, the sound of machine gun fire, a scout ran to me and reported: "Commander, it's not good, a small group of little devils were found in front, crazily slaughtering the common people."

  "Liu Zhenfeng's eyes widened in anger, and he cursed: "Damn it, those little devils are killing us Chinese again, it's too much! Brothers, follow me and kill them, lure the enemy to our side so that our villagers can escape, hurry up!"

  "General, behind us, there are still pursuing soldiers!" Yu Zhenhai said to Liu Zhenfeng.

  "We can't take care of so many things at once! First priority is to save the ordinary people!" Liu Zhenfeng said loudly.

  They rushed to the village where the Japanese army was massacring, and Liu Zhenfeng ordered everyone to launch an attack on the devils. A group of wolf-like warriors, with their rifles at the ready, launched a fierce attack on the devils who were caught off guard. The devils were quickly defeated and scattered all over the place, but they were well-trained after all, and after the initial chaos, they quickly regained their composure and organized a strong defense.

  "Quick battle and quick decision! After the safety of the people is ensured, we will immediately transfer." Liu Zhenfeng said to his brothers.

  The battle was very intense, and although the number of little devils was small, they resisted quite stubbornly. The sky also dropped a drizzle at this time, and Liu Zhenfeng's unit was still desperately engaged in an intense gun battle with the little devils.

  "Enemy troops are approaching from behind, sir," a communications soldier reported to Liu Zhenfeng.

  "Eight o'clock! Grandma's, it's really a wolf in front and a tiger behind. It seems that we can't leave now. Brothers, let's fight the enemy to the death, charge for me! Signal officer, blow the charge horn, everyone, get up!" Liu Zhenfeng led seven hundred strong men, charging towards those little devils in front of him, those little devils also held guns and charged towards them, both sides started fighting each other on this vast field.

  Liu Zhenfeng killed a devil with his left hand and pierced another devil with his right, killing them with ease. However, he didn't expect a little devil to shoot him with a cold gun from behind. The bullet went through his right shoulder, and he endured the pain, wanting to find that devil who shot him. But that damn devil shot him again, and the bullet made another hole in his calf, causing blood to gush out.

  "Hey, you little devil, if you've got the guts, don't shoot from behind! Come out and fight me!" Liu Zhenfeng roared with gritted teeth. At this moment, a Japanese soldier appeared in front of him, holding a bayonet. Surrounded by hatred, Liu Zhenfeng pulled out his pistol and fired wildly, turning the Japanese soldier into a corpse.

  But Liu Zhenfeng was no better off at this time, and he was stabbed in the thigh and arm by several devils with bayonets one after another. He already felt that he had no strength left, and his soul seemed to have left his body again. Was he really going to die here? The Anti-Japanese War had just begun, and was he going to die so soon? It's really unbearable, it's really unbearable~~

  Although unwilling, the massive blood loss still made Liu Zhenfeng lose consciousness and fall to the ground. Before completely losing consciousness, he only heard Yu Zhenhai shouting loudly: "Junza! No, Junza!"

  Author's note: These few chapters are written in a more depressing tone, the great escape after the bloody battle of Nanjing makes the originally iron-blooded 77th army seem very disheveled. However, the 77th army is indeed outnumbered by the pursuing troops and far inferior to the Japanese army in terms of military strength, so heavy losses are unavoidable. Of course, the Japanese aren't really like pigs, if they were as stupid as pigs, we wouldn't have been fighting them for eight whole years, no, it's fourteen years if you count from the Mukden Incident. I will try to end this breakout chapter as soon as possible and enter the next stage of writing, maybe in these few chapters, the feeling isn't very satisfying, I'll try my best to write more excitingly in future chapters, hoping everyone will pay attention to my "Iron Blood Resistance", your attention is the greatest motivation for my writing!