Chapter Seventy: Agonizing Casualties

  Liu Hua arrived at the battlefield, looking at the corpses all over the ground, looking at the tired soldiers, and looking at the bodies of the martyrs who had died in battle one by one. Liu Hua shed his own tears.

  "Commissar, the soldiers are too exhausted, they should take a rest, what do you think?" Liu Hua looked back at Commissar Guan Xiangying.

  "Well, Commander, what should we do? You give the order!" Commissar Guan Xiang also nodded with tears in his eyes.

  "Communicator, order the regimental commanders to have the soldiers take a short rest in place, clean up the battlefield in the afternoon, and order the guard units of each regiment, division, and army corps, as well as the artillery units, to be on high alert. Issue immediately."

  "Yes, Commander."

  "General He, General He, the 7th Army Corps has won a great victory! The 7th Army Corps has won a great victory!" The excited shouts slowly entered the headquarters. Looking at the communications officer who rushed in hastily, General He quickly handed him a cup of water.

  "Quick, let me see." Before his advisor could react, General He snatched the telegram out of his hand.

  "Haha, Liu Hua this kid is amazing, always giving us surprises, annihilating five enemy regiments, my god, and even killing Chen Quzhen himself, now Xiangxi belongs to our Red Army." General He said with a smile.

  "Hurry, ask about the casualties of the Seventh Legion!" Although they had annihilated so many enemy troops, as soon as he thought about his own division's losses in ambushing two enemy regiments, General He began to worry.

  "Yes, General He." The aide quickly ran towards the radio station.

  "Enemy army Stone Gate County Command Center." "Colonel, Colonel, it's not good! Our contact with the commander-in-chief has been completely cut off!" The communications staff officer rushed in, panting.

  "What, how is that possible?!" "Hurry up and continue the contact, also send me a signal soldier..." The brigade commander was shocked and sat down on the ground with a thud.

  By noon, the communications officer rushed in again. "Commander, something's happened. We still can't contact the commander-in-chief and all the communications soldiers have been sent out, but not a single one has returned."

  "What? How is this possible?" The captain's forehead began to sweat.

  "Have three battalion commanders come to headquarters for a meeting." The brigade commander said weakly.

  Soon, the three regimental commanders arrived at the command center, all looking puzzled at their division commander. "Division Commander, what's going on?" One of the regimental commanders couldn't help but ask, looking at the pale-faced division commander.

  "Comrades, this morning I received news that we lost contact with the commander-in-chief through radio. This morning all communication soldiers were sent out, but none of them returned. Now I've called you over to discuss our current situation." The brigade commander said no more after finishing speaking.

  ........................................

  Soon, after fierce debate, several regimental commanders reached an agreement: it's better to save their lives first. Soon, the division commander issued his final order: all troops must assemble within two hours and bring all supplies that can be carried, withdraw from Shimen County and head towards Changsha.

  When Liu Hua's Seventh Legion was preparing to sweep the battlefield, Shimeng County had already become a deserted city. Soon, this information was transmitted to Liu Hua through the scouting camp.

  "Order: Commissar, lead the First and Second Battalions as vanguard to immediately occupy the county seat of Shimen. The remaining troops will stay here with me to sweep the battlefield, thoroughly cleaning it up and taking away all usable materials. From now on, we basically won't have any big battles, so we must collect as many supplies as possible."

  His legions immediately began operating like a machine.

  At night, at the original Chen Quzhen's command post, the Seventh Army Corps of the Red Army held a summary meeting of the 100,000-strong ambush battle. Although the battle was won, every commander who came to the meeting had a gloomy face and not a single smile. Everything was caused by that casualty report.

  Liu Hua picked up the report on the table again:

  One regiment was annihilated with 280 deaths, 84 serious injuries and over 400 minor injuries, equivalent to losing a whole battalion. It's imaginable how strong the combat effectiveness of one battalion is now...

  Two battalions, 240 people were killed in action, 110 people were seriously injured, and more than 350 people were lightly injured.

  The heaviest casualties were suffered by two regiments of the 3rd Division, with more than half of them wounded or killed.

  The entire army corps suffered a total of 3,254 deaths, 1,100 serious injuries and over 4,500 minor injuries. After this battle, the combat effectiveness of the Seventh Corps was basically lost by more than half.

  "Fortunately, there haven't been any big battles recently, otherwise we wouldn't have had time to recover!" Liu Hua sighed.

  Comrade Political Commissar, the casualty situation is already clear to everyone. Now, there are more than 12,000 people left in the entire army, excluding logistics personnel. On average, each division has about 3,000 people, and each regiment has less than 1,000 people left. Hehe, the sad things have been said, now let's talk about the happy things. Comrade Political Commissar, read out to our comrades the results of this battle. Liu Hua stood up and said.

  "Yes! Comrades, although our Seventh Army Corps suffered more than half casualties and heavy losses this time, however, comrades, we also achieved great results. So, comrades should not be discouraged, but rather boost their morale. Now I will read out the rich results we have achieved this time."

  In this battle, we totally annihilated the enemy's five divisions of troops, among which more than 11,000 enemies were killed, more than 1,000 were seriously injured, and about 3,000 were captured. After our screening, among the more than 3,000 captives, there are about 2,000 who can join our Red Army, so comrades must work hard!

  Captured: We captured a total of 42 heavy machine guns, 124 light machine guns, approximately 4,000 rifles, 8 million rounds of ammunition, 25 mortars, and 2,000 shells. The rest of the weapons and ammunition were destroyed by artillery fire. In Shimen County, we captured nearly 1 million kilograms of grain and a portion of silver coins.

  "That's all," said the commissar and sat down.

  "Comrades, this battle is the first time our Seventh Corps has suffered such heavy casualties since its formation. I know you are deeply grieved, and so am I. But we cannot be disheartened, for even more severe battles await us in the future. So let us rally, take good care of our troops."

  "After the meeting, each unit will immediately return to count the troops of each battalion and company. Tomorrow, we will prepare for a unified reorganization of the entire army, compressing our formation, training elite soldiers, and strengthening the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers. The next meeting time will be notified separately. Dismissed."