Chapter 49: The Price of Victory

  In the mountain area, Zhou Yulan's face was very calm.

  The Mongolian army didn't know why, but they had already begun to retreat, and even the road they chose was that path with countless bogs which led to nowhere.

  But she was certain that it must be Yang Junran's troops that made this Mongolian army have no choice but to retreat.

  Distant gunfire sounds keep coming into the mountainous area.

  "Commander, are we going after them?" Chen Qiao asked as he walked over.

  Zhou Yulan hesitated for a moment, then said to Chen Qier: "Concentrate two battalions and follow me to reinforce Commander Yang Junran."

  Chen Qieru's face clearly showed some displeasure upon hearing that reinforcements were sent to Yang Junran, but she still walked over to the side.

  Zhang Junzhe's tank corps is a hundred times more powerful than the foreign troops.

  More than 30 tanks were detained by the Japanese army for more than an hour, and never quickly reinforced the battlefield according to Yang Junran's order.

  The Japanese army's numerous troops used hand grenades and projectile tubes to continuously attack the tank corps.

  This young tank unit was somewhat nervous and frightened, with many tanks colliding with each other during the march.

  Zhang Junzhe's skills are good, but he doesn't dare to drop such a unit and go reinforce alone, otherwise these tanks will be destroyed by the Japanese army.

  After the Japanese army withdrew voluntarily, Zhang Junzhe quickly issued an order.

  Each tank kept a distance of ten meters from each other and reinforced the battlefield.

  The battle at this moment has approached its end, and the slow-moving troops of the Third Brigade have also arrived on the battlefield.

  The remaining less than a thousand devils scattered and hid everywhere, trying to stubbornly defend their positions.

  However, the cavalry's sabers were very sharp, and these mounted bandits seemed to enjoy beheading Japanese soldiers.

  Often with one slash, the Japanese soldier's head and body would separate.

  This is also one of the reasons why the Japanese army was unwilling to fight, under the attack of two regiments and a cavalry regiment of the First Division, the number of Japanese troops became smaller and smaller.

  On the heights, Jin Mingcheng also made good progress. In addition to more than 500 Japanese soldiers who escaped, many Japanese soldiers were surrounded and annihilated on the heights by two regiments led by Jin Mingcheng.

  The forty-eight cannons deployed around the city also became Jin Mingcheng's spoils of war.

  Among them, the 12th Independent Mixed Brigade's artillery regiment left behind even their equipment.

  Leaving one camp to guard the high ground, Jin Mingcheng led a camp to quickly launch an attack from behind the Japanese army, coordinating with his own unit's actions.

  Liáng Fěi's cavalry formation was like a madman, constantly snatching the devils from the infantry to slash and kill.

  The battle was gradually coming to an end, with only occasional shots ringing out.

  Looking at the setting sun, Yang Junran suddenly realized that his battle had already lasted for a whole day.

  The distant rumble of tanks had already been transmitted, and Yang Junran was dissatisfied with his face. The efficiency of these tanks was too low, seriously exceeding his expectations.

  Although this battle was won, it also exposed no small problems.

  "The first battalion will rest and reorganize immediately, the third battalion will clean up the battlefield, all spoils of war must be handed over, anyone who secretly keeps them will be expelled from the army." Yang Junran gave orders loudly.

  Deng Ziyong nodded and walked towards the troops of his third brigade.

  Kang Lianqin looked at his subordinates around him and smiled with satisfaction. After all, this time their first trip was quite impressive.

  "Commander, there are over 40 artillery pieces here. Is there any from our brigade? We don't want too many, just ten would be enough. The Type 92 infantry gun is convenient, but its power is too small, not as powerful as these mountain guns." Kang Lianjin picked up a cigarette from a nearby Japanese soldier's body, lit one, and walked over to Yang Junran.

  Yang Junran looked at Kang Lianqin, who was covered in gunpowder, and smiled: "This time you guys have made great contributions. All the captured weapons and ammunition will be given to your First Brigade first, and I'll also give you a bonus. For all the brothers who sacrificed themselves, I'll also allocate consolation money."

  Kang Lianqin heard Yang Junran's words and cracked a smile on his dry, chapped lips.

  Yang Junran suddenly tensed up, carefully tidying his military uniform and wiping the bloodstains off his face.

  Following Yang Junran's line of sight, Kang Lianqin saw Zhou Yulan riding a white horse in the distance.

  When he saw his superior, he had already gone forward with a fawning attitude.

  Kang Lianqin burst out laughing and shouted at Yang Junran: "Master, there's still blood on your face, the more you wipe it, the more it bleeds."

  Zhou Yulan looked at Yang Junran running over from a distance, and was taken aback. In her impression, this young military officer always maintained his military demeanor, never once with a face full of bloodstains, his uniform tattered and torn, only the golden star on his collar shining brightly.

  "Commander Yang, is everything all right?" Zhou Yulan quickly dismounted her white horse and asked with concern.

  Yang Junran smiled and looked at Zhou Yulan, who still had a veil over her face: "I'm fine, I just need to go back and clean up. How did you guys come here? Has the Mongolian army retreated?"

  Zhou Yulan nodded and said to Yang Junran: "You have saved us again."

  Yang Junran smiled and pointed to the distant battlefield, saying: "This time we've captured a lot of things again. This little devil knows I'm expanding my troops and has taken the initiative to send us weapons. I was worried that there wouldn't be enough weapons, but it seems that the little devils are taking care of us after all."

  The warriors beside were amused by Yang Junran, and several female soldiers beside Zhou Yulan also smiled.

  The grassland was stained with blood all over.

  A number of Japanese military corpses were gathered together.

  Everything on the Japanese soldiers was almost all looted by the warriors.

  There were even a number of Japanese military corpses, and the soldiers had stripped them bare.

  Until nightfall, the surrounding area was still clearing the battlefield.

  Chahar, Zhangjiakou.

  Inside General Renjun's headquarters, the room was already filled with officers.

  This defeat was clearly unexpected by all the officers, and since receiving the news, Renzo Tanaka confirmed it five times before believing that the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade had been heavily defeated by Chinese forces.

  In preparation for a possible propaganda campaign, Ren Zhongping has already prepared news releases and is ready to release them overnight.

  Of course, he would not admit that he had been defeated, but only declared that his troops had encountered the blocking of Chinese troops and suffered some casualties. At the same time, Naniwade did not forget to intimidate the Chinese government, claiming that he would never let go of any armed forces in Chahar.

  In the conference room, Ren Sheng's face was very unsightly.

  An independent mixed brigade, an artillery regiment, two cavalry squadrons, three tank companies, and two supplementary reserve battalions returned with less than 2,000 men. Not a single tank came back. The garrison troops in Mongolia lost more than 70 tanks, apparently more than the rest of the field army.

  "Let us observe a moment of silence in mourning for the brave warriors who died for the great cause of the Empire." Renzaburou said, looking at the officers with his head bowed.

  All the officers stood up, bowed their heads and mourned in silence.

  "Time's up, please sit down." said Ren Suzume after a while.

  Looking at the officer's face in front of him, Lianzhuo Fan hesitated for a moment, but had to painfully say: "After a day of fierce battle, my brave Imperial Army Independent Mixed Second Brigade was surrounded and annihilated by the superior forces of the Chinese troops, with no survivors. This is our shame, we must give this Chinese army a severe blow."

  The officers fell silent, and they truly began to take this Chinese unit seriously. Within a day's time, being able to devour an entire mixed brigade of Chinese troops wasn't just any ordinary unit. At the very least, it explained one thing: if you wanted to deal with this Chinese unit, without mobilizing at least a division-level force, don't even think about launching another attack on them.

  "I have already sent a telegram to Tokyo, requesting the support of the Kwantung Army. Perhaps it won't be long before they send troops over. This time we must fully accept this lesson, and each department must strictly deal with that branch of the army. The Mongolian army must actively recruit soldiers, expand its own strength, and assist us in completing the Empire's great undertaking."

  "Hello, Commander." The officers stood up and shouted loudly.

  In the mountainous area of Zhou Yulan, Yang Junran couldn't wait to send an electric report to his superiors about his achievements. As for the body of Tsuneo Noguchi, it was left behind by Yang Junran so that he could hand it over to his superiors who had never seen him before.

  Yang Junran was delighted, with just artillery capturing 48 guns, and light and heavy machine guns also captured a lot, especially light machine guns, which were captured in the hundreds. After all, the Japanese army's light machine guns were equipped to the squad level, and a battalion had dozens of light machine guns.

  However, what made Yang Junran extremely distressed was that this battle had resulted in over a thousand casualties on his side, especially the First Brigade's troops, which had suffered more than 600 casualties, meaning an entire regiment had lost its combat effectiveness.

  "Master, you're looking for me?" Zhang Junzhe walked over and said to Yang Junran.

  Yang Junran looked at Zhang Junzhe and said with some displeasure: "Why didn't you quickly return to reinforce after receiving the order? If your tanks had returned in time, there definitely wouldn't have been so many casualties."

  Zhang Junzhe looked at his superior's face and hastily began to explain, making it clear that these armored soldiers who had undergone short-term training could not possibly meet Yang Junran's combat requirements. To make Yang Junran understand this point better, Zhang Junzhe also made an analogy, saying it was like a newborn baby who had just learned to crawl being urged to run immediately, which was clearly impossible.

  Yang Junran furrowed his brow, constantly thinking about Zhang Junzhe's words. There were some things that he obviously hadn't considered thoroughly, especially in terms of training. He thought that as long as he completed the training he had received before, he could take on a hundred enemies alone. However, Yang Junran seemed to have overlooked one point: his troops had not undergone any actual combat drills for decades. A perfectly trained army that had not been tested in battle was probably just a paper tiger.

  (Votes of support, yeah...)