Volume 1: First Battle Chapter 5: Unexpected Mistake
Others may flee, but not us; other troops may retreat, but never the 29th Army Training Regiment.
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I remember reading about a historical event in modern times: In the early days of the War of Resistance, the National Army deployed nearly 30,000 troops to defend the South Gate and Nanyuan area of Beiping (now Beijing). Among them were two regular armies and a military training corps. The two regular armies included an infantry division and a cavalry division, while the military training corps was made up of newly recruited student soldiers, numbering around 5,000 or 6,000 people.
It may seem strange that untrained student soldiers would appear on the front lines, but at the time it was a normal thing because the National Army's convention was to assign new recruits to the front line for training. It is unknown whether this was done to speed up training or for other reasons, in any case, this newly formed student army directly faced the Japanese army's attack on the battlefield.
According to common sense, the student soldiers had no training and no combat experience, so the heavy responsibility of defending Nanyuan naturally fell on the shoulders of those two regular armies. However, what everyone did not expect was... a wave of Japanese aircraft and artillery bombardment scared away the two regular armies! They didn't even notify the military training team when they retreated!
If the student soldiers of the military training corps were also bombed by the Japanese planes and artillery like regular troops, it would be okay! But the problem is that most of these student soldiers voluntarily went to the battlefield with the belief of sacrificing their lives for the country. As a result, a heartbreaking scene appeared... Thousands of student soldiers did not know that the friendly army had withdrawn, and they fought alone in Nanyuan against the well-trained Japanese army, which was several times larger than their own side. In the end, they were inevitably surrounded in Nanyuan and annihilated. Among the martyrs was Tong Linhe, the deputy commander of the 29th Army and also the commander of the Nanyuan Military Training Corps...
I remember his name so clearly because he was one of the first generals to fall in the War of Resistance!
"Sir!" I couldn't help but ask: "You... aren't our captain Tong Lin Ge?"
Chi Pai Chang didn't answer directly, but instead looked at me unexpectedly and asked, "How did you know him?"
"Hmm! I also heard it from someone else..." I casually made an excuse to cover up, while my heart sank further down. Now things are clear, the unit I'm in is indeed this military training corps that's about to be completely annihilated!
What can I do? I couldn't help but fall into deep thought. As the saying goes, "not a single egg remains unbroken under an overturned nest", if this entire military training team is annihilated, how can I possibly keep my life intact under the enemy's bayonet?
"Captain!" I thought of this and immediately stopped Captain Chi, who was about to leave, saying: "Don't you feel... that something seems to have gone wrong somewhere?"
"What else could possibly be wrong?" Chi Pai Chang responded somewhat impatiently: "I'm telling you, kid, just focus on fighting the devils and that's enough, what's with all these questions..."
"Sir!" I interrupted the company commander's words and said: "Don't you feel that... the little Japanese devils' artillery fire is always aimed at our heads, do they think there are no other troops besides ours?"
"Huh?" Chi Pai Chang couldn't help but take a deep breath, and after a long while, he nodded solemnly and said: "Now that you mention it, something doesn't feel right. You stay here and keep watch, I'll go check out the situation!"
"Yes!" I nodded in response, while secretly thinking to myself that I had succeeded. In fact, when the devils fired their cannons, I only thought about how to save my life, and wouldn't have had time to care about anything else.
Everyone says that there are two kinds of godly marksmen. One is "aim where you shoot", and the other is "shoot where you aim". It's clear that I belong to the latter category.
Before long, I saw Chi Pai return with a worried look on his face. I hastily went up to him and asked.
Chi Pai shook his head and replied, "The situation is still unclear, the phone can't get through, Lian Zhang has already reported the situation to the team leader! His grandma, these guys won't be..."
Chi Pai Chang stopped talking at this point, his face turned very ugly. Seeing this, I felt a little relieved in my heart. Chi Pai Chang is a veteran, he must be clear about the quality of the friendly troops. Looking at his current attitude, it's likely that he has guessed that the friendly troops have already retreated without reporting. The reason why he didn't say anything was just because the fact had not been confirmed and saying it out would affect the morale of the whole army.
Now all I can do is wait, I cautiously stuck my head out and looked in the direction of the Japanese army, it was eerily quiet everywhere, except for some wounded soldiers who were moaning in the no man's land between the two armies.
But I knew that this was a sign of the storm's arrival. The reason why Little Japan has not attacked until now is probably because we are already within their encirclement, and they are just waiting to gather their forces to launch a fatal blow against us!
I shrank back with a dazed mind, leaning against the trench in a state of utter exhaustion. Even now, I still dare not believe that all this is real; looking at the fresh blood and corpses nearby, looking at the fully armed National Army beside me, and then looking at the rifle in my hand which has been loaded with bullets... everything seems like a dream, yet it's so real...
Come what may, let's just accept it. After a long time, I finally sighed: even if this is a dream, I don't want to become a soul lost under the guns of Little Japan, do I? So now the wisest thing to do is to adapt to all this as soon as possible and make every effort to preserve my own life!
As I thought of this, my gaze fell on the rifle in my hand. Actually, I was not unfamiliar with this kind of gun, because I had seen its shadow many times in movies and TV shows. It was about one meter long and weighed around seven or eight kilograms. However, until now, I still couldn't call out its name, and after feeling it for a while, I saw the two characters "Zhongzheng" on it, only then did I know that this was the Zhongzheng rifle, a famous anti-Japanese gun...
"Qi Pai Zhang!" Just as I was fiddling with the rifle in my hand, Xu Lianzhang furrowed his brow and beckoned Qi Pai Zhang over with a wave of his hand, so I knew something must have happened.
Sure, here is the translation:
As expected, after a while, I heard the soldiers around me whispering:
"Have you heard? The 9th and 132nd Cavalry Regiments on our left and right flanks have already withdrawn!"
"What? Impossible! They are regular troops, with over 20,000 men and horses... The battle has just begun..."
"What's impossible? All our scouts are saying so!"
"That's right, I heard it with my own ears. The messenger Wang Dacheng said that in the military department, apart from one disheveled wounded soldier, there wasn't even a single feather!"
"How could they retreat without saying a word?"
"They retreated first and left us behind as cannon fodder, I'm not doing it!"
"Right! I'm out of here!"
……
The murmurs grew louder and the news spread like a plague through the troops, in no time the soldiers were all furious, some even stripped off their uniforms, threw their rifles to the ground and shouted that they wanted to go home and farm...
It wasn't until then that I realized I had unintentionally done something bad, how could I be so stupid? These student soldiers were originally fighting the Japanese with a passion, if they didn't know that the two wings of more than 20,000 regular troops had escaped it would be okay, but once they found out wouldn't their morale be greatly affected?
This won't do! Seeing this, I couldn't help but think that if things are allowed to develop like this, our troops will probably disperse before the little devils even arrive, and my life...
"Brothers!" I thought to myself, and involuntarily waved my hand towards those indignant warriors, shouting: "Brothers, have you all forgotten why we came here?"
As soon as I shouted, the voices of the warriors decreased a lot.
I saw that there was a chance, so I took advantage of the situation and continued to shout: "That's right! There are indeed many people in our team who are afraid of death and only want to protect themselves, but brothers, why don't you think... it's because our country has these kinds of people that Japan, a small island nation, dares to bully us on the land of China. Do you also want to become one of them?"
The warriors stopped their movements one after another, looking at each other without a word.
I knew they were struggling with their thoughts, so I shouted at them again: "Today you can leave, you can escape, but brothers, think of your parents and relatives, think of the loved ones who died under the Japanese army's bayonets, and then think of the country groaning under the iron hooves of Little Japan. Do you feel worthy of them? Do you feel worthy of yourselves?
"Brothers!" I shouted wildly, waving my hand at them: "What are we? We are Chinese soldiers! We are the 29th Army Training Regiment! Others may flee, but not us; other troops may retreat, but it will never be our 29th Army Training Regiment! Rather die in battle than live as a slave to a lost nation!"
"I would rather die as a war ghost than live as a prisoner of a conquered nation!"
……
"With enemies, I have no self; with self, I have no enemies!"
"With enemies, I have no self; with self, I have no enemies!"
……
As I watched the warriors repeat after me, shouting slogans, I knew I had succeeded.
At this point, I couldn't help but sigh, student soldiers are indeed just student soldiers... so easily deceived by others.
