Chapter 8: The Raid (3)

  As the bandits retreated, the sound of gunfire in front of the village became less frequent, but the sound of gunfire on the small hill grew more intense. Song Zhe Wu clearly heard that there were several machine guns on the other side of the small hill firing at a row of houses on the hill, and even a heavy machine gun. Sure enough, there was regular army, bandits absolutely did not have such strong firepower. Suddenly, several explosions sounded from the small hill, and the enemy had mortars. After the explosion, Song Zhe Wu clearly heard that a heavy machine gun on the small hill stopped firing.

  "Fourth Company Commander," the Fourth Company Commander loudly responded as he ran to the front of the house, "Immediately dispatch a platoon to reinforce Little Gao's high ground." "Yes. First Platoon assemble, target is the small high ground in front of the village, depart." The Fourth Company Commander loudly relayed the order.

  At this time, the sky had already lightened slightly, and more than a dozen people rushed out of the front yard to the small hill.

  The 2nd company on the back mountain had a perfect view of the open area in front of the small hill, making it an ideal point for fire support. However, due to the darkness and unclear visibility, they were afraid of mistakenly injuring their own troops and didn't dare to open fire. As soon as dawn broke, the 4 heavy machine guns on the mountain immediately began suppressing the bandits who were attacking in front of the small hill. The artillery company also discovered the enemy's artillery position and immediately fired two rounds of rapid shots, causing the enemy's artillery position to fall silent instantly.

  "Let's go down," Song Zhe Wu descended the ladder to the courtyard, seeing Wang Xing Gang still on the rooftop looking at the small high place with some reluctance, couldn't help but laugh and shout: "Come down, the fight has reached this point, as long as the opponent's leader is not a fool, he should have run away."

  Ye Changgui's signalman ran over to report: "The enemy attacking the small high ground has been repelled by our counterattacking troops, and a large number of enemy soldiers have started fleeing. Battalion Commander Ye asks for instructions on whether to pursue."

  "Tell Ye Yingchang, do not pursue, send out a reconnaissance team to track and monitor the enemy, best to capture a prisoner. At the same time, clean up the battlefield and rescue the wounded."

  "Chu Feng, the Chief of Staff must be on his way now. Send someone to report the battle situation immediately, otherwise those kids from the First Battalion will get him into trouble."

  Victory was won, and everyone's mood was very pleasant. Chu Feng smiled and ran to make arrangements. Song Zhe Wu took Wang Xing Gang and the guards to a series of arrays, he wanted to figure out how the Northwestern Army could be with the bandits together.

  The ancestral hall in the village has been converted into a temporary battlefield hospital, and most of the wounded have been sent there. The wounded who were brought in succession were mostly from the Security Brigade, with few wearing military uniforms, and some were even mixed with people wearing gray Northwest Army uniforms. Song Zhe-wu hesitated for a moment in front of the ancestral hall before finally going to the first company's position.

  Only the machine gunners were still on high alert behind their shelters, while the rest of the personnel were clearing the battlefield in front of the position. When Ye Changgui saw Song Zhiwu arrive at the position, he immediately ran over to report: "Report to the brigade commander, this battle, two positions of the first company, a total of 529 enemy killed, 164 wounded, and 52 lightly injured. The wounded and captured personnel were all sent to the medical team for treatment according to regulations." Seeing that Song Zhiwu was silent, Ye Changgui knew what he wanted to know most, and continued to report in a low voice: "Our troops suffered 16 deaths, 28 serious injuries, and 34 minor injuries. One company had relatively heavy casualties."

  "What's with the huge difference in the number of casualties and wounded?" Wang Xinggang asked in surprise.

  "The enemy wanted to make a breakthrough at Zhuangzi. So there were many charging personnel. The two waves of front and back had about 1,500-1,600 people. Among them, more than 300 people were killed by the recoilless gun. As soon as the enemy retreated, all the wounded who could move ran away. These 200+ enemy wounded were all within 200 meters in front of the position. If they also ran, they would have been mowed down by machine guns."

  The casualties of the two sides are ten to one, which Song Zhe Wu thinks is normal. One side charges without any preparation, while the other side ambushes with superior firepower. It would be strange if it weren't this way. The mortar killed more enemies, and this result isn't strange either. According to statistics after World War II, 50% of casualties on the European battlefield were caused by mortars. This is also why Song Zhe Wu configured a large number of mortars in his troops.

  "What's going on with the Northwestern Army?" Song Zhe Wu was most concerned about this issue. If Yan Xishan and Shang Zhen had a falling out, sending the Jin Sui army to attack him was very possible. But he remembered that in history, the two men never clashed in battle. Had his own time-traveling changed history? The Northwestern Army was even stranger. As far as he knew, there were no Northwestern Army troops stationed in Hebei now, they were all in Henan.

  Ye Changgui pointed to a vacant lot in front of the array, where dozens of corpses were lined up: "When the enemy attacked, there were 200-300 people wearing Northwest Army uniforms among the bandit troops. After sweeping the battlefield, we found 45 corpses wearing gray uniforms. There were also more than a dozen wounded men. I asked the prisoners, and they said it was the 12th Division of Sun Dianying's Central Army. The 12th Division was ordered to go to the Songshan area to suppress bandits. They were going to western Henan. The uniforms were changed after entering the mountain."

  Sun Dianying. Song Zhiwu suddenly remembered that in June 1928, Sun Dianying had stolen the Eastern Mausoleum and the Yu Mausoleum. The theft was not reported in the newspapers until early August. Because Sun Dianying used to be a bandit from western Henan, he was sent to suppress the bandits this time. But why did he send troops disguised as the Northwestern Army to secretly return to western Henan? Was it because he was afraid that the theft would be exposed and wanted to leave a way out for himself in advance?

  At this time, a soldier came to report to Ye Changgui that the enemy had retreated southward in large numbers. The reconnaissance team surrounded a group of enemies wearing gray uniforms at a small mountain pass about 5 miles south. They actively contacted the reconnaissance team and wanted to surrender on condition that we agreed to treat their wounded deputy regiment commander. They wanted our superiors to agree before they would surrender.

  "Deputy Regimental Commander must know the purpose of this unit. 'Leaf Regimental Commander, you go immediately in person, agree to their conditions and bring the people back.'"

  Ye Changgui led a row, following the scout running and walking. Seeing that the battlefield had been swept away, Song Zhewu ordered Deputy Regimental Commander Liang Bang to bury all the bodies under Xiaogao Mountain, and the people of the Security Brigade were buried separately, with a monument erected.

  Half an hour later, Ye Changgui and his two companies returned with over 80 people wearing Northwest Army uniforms, carrying a stretcher. "Report to the regiment commander, they said this is their deputy regiment commander. Shot in the abdomen, I took a look, it's a through-and-through wound, mainly due to excessive blood loss."

  A big fellow captive walked out of the crowd, anxiously asked Song Zhe Wu: "Officer, please you must save our battalion commander." Another young soldier in his seventeen or eighteen rushed out of the captive group and knelt down on the ground, crying loudly: "The battalion commander was injured to save me, officer you are so kind, please save our battalion commander!"

  Song Zhe-wu took a look at the middle-aged military officer who was pale and unconscious on the stretcher, and immediately ordered Liang Bang: "Liang Deputy Regimental Commander, you personally lead people to send him to the medical team for immediate treatment. At the same time, unload all the materials from the truck and use the truck to send the wounded to Laiyuan." Song Zhe-wu had a good field hospital in Laiyuan, with several experienced surgeons. Liang Bang stood at attention and responded, turning around to call out to people to take over the stretcher and send it to the medical team.

  Song Zhe-wu asked the big soldier, "You surrendered just to save your battalion commander?" The big soldier hesitated before answering, "Yes." He pointed to the captives behind him: "We used to be under General Sun's command and were later incorporated into Sun Dianying's forces. Our former battalion commander, now our deputy battalion commander, was wounded while trying to rescue Dogzi today." His face gloomy, he continued, "From General Sun's side, only we are left now. If we had taken the battalion commander with us on the run, in these mountains where medical supplies are scarce, his life would have been lost."

  Among these people, only a few were lightly injured and could have run away. In order to save their company commander, they voluntarily took the risk of surrendering. This moved Song Zhe Wu somewhat. "Don't worry, your company commander will be fine." He then asked the big guy: "What is your position?"

  The big man saw Song Zhe Wu treating their camp leader and spoke in a gentle tone, very grateful to Song Zhe Wu. He stood at attention and replied: "Reporting to the officer, I was a platoon leader in the 12th Army."

  "How many of you are there this time, and what is the task in western Henan?" Song Zhe Wu asked. The battalion commander should know, but the big guy, the platoon leader, may not be clear, and he still has some doubts.

  "We are a regiment, with over 500 people, only knowing to go to western Henan, but unclear what the task is." "How did you end up with the bandits?" Song Zhe-wu continued to ask. "We encountered these bandits on the road, and initially fought a battle, but later the regiment commander who ran away had an old relationship with the leader of this group of bandits. So they joined forces, the bandit said, you have taken hundreds of millions of dollars and also have an iron box of gold bars, so the regiment commander brought us here."

  The gold bars weren't brought, and the ocean didn't have that much either. There was an iron box, which was the one used to hold colorants. Could it be that someone had been eyeing the colorants?

  Song Zhe-wu saw that there was nothing to be gained from questioning, so he changed the subject: "Do you want to go home or follow us? If you go home, I'll give you travel expenses right now."

  The captives all looked at the big man, and it seemed that the big man had great prestige among the captives. "Officer, you saved our regimental commander, you are our benefactor, if you don't despise us, we will follow you."

  "Alright, Ye Yingchang, these men are temporarily under your custody. Once you reach the origin, send them to the new recruit squad." Song Zhe Wu had a good impression of these prisoners who valued loyalty and righteousness.

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