Chapter 17: The Classic War of Attrition

  "How is this possible? The 317th Regiment of the 200th Division of the National Army is stationed at Shiyingzi, and yet so many Japanese troops have appeared out of thin air?" Ye Zhenhua's expression became even more astonished as she stepped forward to ask, clearly questioning the accuracy of Shangguan Ruyun's message.

  "They were stationed there, but only three regiments had a head-on confrontation with the devils and fought a battle. The other three regiments were hit by the devils' heavy firepower as soon as they came into contact, and they retreated in disarray. Ma Longfei's position was breached in less than two hours, and now they have withdrawn to Nanxun County, leaving the Jianguo Pass to the devils. The reason why the devils are not attacking now is not because of the National Army's defense, but because it is unfavorable for a night battle. If my guess is correct, tomorrow at dawn will be their best opportunity to attack. You should take advantage of the time you have now and retreat early!"

  "Why don't you leave?" Murong Wudei's eyebrows immediately furrowed upon hearing the news, he firmly believed that the other party would not joke with him and these few thousand people. However, he had never thought that the devils would arrive at Cuijia Village so quickly. But all of this was not enough to overcome his curiosity, he didn't understand why Shangguan Ruyun told him to bring people away while she herself didn't mention leaving.

  "Our Eighth Route Army guerrilla troops are the people's army, we must protect our fellow villagers. We cannot let the devils burn, kill and loot in Cuojia Village!" Shangguan Ruyun replied firmly, this has always been their principle, she would not have any hesitation, especially at a time when the great enemy is present. After saying this, she glanced at Murong Wudi with her entourage and said, "Forget it, you Nationalist troops won't understand anyway. Since I've delivered the message, there's no point in staying here anymore. You'd better take care of yourselves!"

  Shangguan Yun spoke with grand righteousness in front of Murong Wudi, saying something like this, and then led the few guerrilla fighters to leave the streets where Murong Wudi's army was stationed, walking into the darkness.

  Murong Wudi originally wanted to clarify himself in front of the girl that he was not a member of the Nationalist Party, but before he could say anything, she had already left. This made him feel like something was stuck in his throat. However, thinking again about how he was wearing a Nationalist Party army uniform and being addressed as "Commander" or "Superior Officer" by his comrades, it was no wonder that people would think he was a member of the Nationalist Party. So, he shook his head at himself, feeling that even if he tried to explain, it wouldn't make much sense.

  "Commander, shouldn't we retreat from Cuojia Village first?" Wild Orchid had indeed taken that intelligence to heart. After seeing Shangguan Ruyun leave, she walked up to Murong Wudi and asked, actually having already had the intention to retreat in her mind, but wanting to see if Murong Wudi was thinking the same way.

  "What do you guys think?" Murong Wudei didn't directly answer Ye Sangchu's question, but instead turned around to look at Zhao Changyou, Hu Pai Fu, Meng Xiangfei and Guo Erwazi, the backbone of these teams, wanting to hear their opinions first. After all, they were all members of the leadership team, and naturally had a say in the direction of the troops. This was something he was very clear about, so on such an important matter, he naturally hoped to gather everyone's ideas.

  "I agree with Ye Lü Chang's opinion. Now, there are two battalions of devils heading towards Chuijia Village. Let's not mention that their light and heavy weapons are more advanced than ours, and they have more bullets than us. Just from the perspective of their organization, they must exceed 4,000 to 5,000 people. We fought the battle at Shimenxia, although we won, but killing one thousand enemies would also result in our own loss of three thousand. Although we didn't lose that many, adding up all the troops, we don't even have three thousand people left. Moreover, most importantly, we don't have logistical support, no medical personnel, medicine, or stable medical facilities. The number of heavily wounded soldiers is increasing, and after everyone came down from the battlefield just now, both physical and mental strength need a recovery process. I think this time we can't fight again!" Zhao Changyou saw Mu Rongwu asking for his opinion, so he proactively analyzed all sorts of unfavorable factors and expressed his own proposal.

  "I also think that this battle can't be fought, our troops have just been pulled together with great difficulty and can't be completely wiped out here. Moreover, the excellent equipment of Captain Ma's team and the bunkers were unable to withstand the enemy's attack, let alone us now, it's really hard to imagine what the outcome would be!" Deputy Commander Hu also agreed with Zhao Changhe's opinion that they must retreat.

  "Murong officer, I think what they said makes sense, we can't fight this battle!" Meng Xiangfei heard everyone's opinions and immediately expressed his own thoughts, it was clear that he didn't plan to fight this battle either.

  "Don't look at me, I'm listening to the master!" Guo Erwa saw Murong Wude's inquiring eyes looking at him and immediately replied. Although he didn't know whether this battle was good or bad, he knew that listening to Master's words would definitely not be wrong. He was very sure of this, so when answering, he didn't hesitate at all.

  "I know that fighting this battle is not easy and may even come at a great cost, but it can guarantee the safety of our people. You tell me, is this sacrifice worth it or not?" Murong Wudi's attitude was clear: he had no intention of leading several thousand men in a retreat from the little devils; instead, he wanted to take the initiative and strike back at them, giving them a show of strength.

  "But..." Ye Zhen wanted to say something in opposition, but before he could even open his mouth, Mu Rong's words immediately shut him down.

  "There's no such thing as a good fight, now is not the time for that. We can't always have an easy battle, and which of our previous two battles was easy? The only difference is that those two battles were necessary for us to survive, but this one we can escape like deserters if you want to be deserters, I won't say anything!" Murong Wudi saw Ye Zhanhua still had the intention to retreat, so he interrupted her and continued speaking.

  "Who wants to be a deserter and run away!"

  "Right, hit!"

  As Murong Wudi said these words, the several of them were stirred up, and no one mentioned retreating again. Then Murong Wudi immediately said to Zhao Changyou: "The map!"

  "Yes!" Zhao Changyou pulled out a map from his body and unfolded it for Murong Wudi to see. After careful examination, he pointed to the location of Cuijiacun and said: "Here is Cuijiacun, the devils can only enter Cuijiacun through two roads, one is the main road, which is conducive to the devils' large troops and heavy weapons, if we fight here, we will definitely suffer from the devils' heavy firepower. The other is a small path, the key is that there is a narrow pass at this location, with two small hills on both sides of the pass, and there are many such passes and hills on this road, although each hill can't hide many soldiers, but here is not conducive to the devils' large troops deployment, heavy weapons are even more useless. Therefore, this is the best place for us to ambush."

  But I will hide a battalion of troops in the first hill to ambush, fight for 15 minutes and then quickly retreat to let the devils come in. When the devils arrive at the third hill, I will have already hidden another battalion on the third hill, and after contacting the devils, we will fight for 15 minutes and then retreat again. At the fourth hill, I will secretly deploy a fourth battalion of troops to ambush, using this method to exhaust the enemy through small-scale battles, and I believe that the devils will not be able to continue and will definitely withdraw their troops!

  "But the devils won't be so honest and follow the specified path to death, will they?" asked Ye Zhanhua. Mu Rongwu's designated ambush point was not bad, but the enemy would not listen obediently and act according to their wishes. She really couldn't figure out what Mu Rongwu was planning this time.