Chapter 6: The First Date with War (Part 2)

  As an experienced battlefield commander, Yamaki still had his own set of tactics. After the first attack failed, he quickly withdrew the two battalions in front and re-adjusted his forces to prepare for a full-scale assault on the small village of Dàwángzhuāng. In his view, there were at most only one regiment's worth of combat troops within the village, and with his 700 Japanese soldiers, he believed that even a frontal assault could crush the Chinese army. He knew that it would take at least six to seven hours for reinforcements to arrive from the Chinese side, unless they dared to directly withdraw troops from the already shaky defenses of the 40th Army in Linyi. If not, the reinforcements from the 59th Army would not be able to arrive before dawn. Withdrawing troops from the 40th Army's defenses, Yamaki believed that as long as the Chinese commander still had a shred of rationality, they would not consider this proposal, and he would have at least six hours to use. Since the surprise attack had failed, then let's have a decisive battle with the Chinese army! As long as they could eliminate the annoying enemy elite troops in Dàwángzhuāng before the reinforcements from the 59th Army arrived, even if it meant that his own battalion would be surrounded and annihilated by the Chinese reinforcements later on, Yamaki thought it was absolutely worth it.

  At this time, Cheng Jiaji was inspecting the front line of Yu Juncai's position. His luck wasn't bad, and he had just arrived at the front when the Japanese ended their first attack and retreated. Although this allowed Commander Cheng to avoid any danger, he still suffered a lot in his first battle. The Japanese may have withdrawn, but during the brief and intense fighting, the Chinese military also lost many men. After all, it was the early days of the war, and the Japanese had an absolute advantage in terms of equipment and troop quality.

  When Cheng Jiaji arrived at the front line, the area was already filled with the bodies and limbs of dead Chinese and Japanese soldiers, a bloody scene that was all too real. This wasn't some movie set for a heroic battle story; the intense smell of blood alone was enough to make someone who wasn't used to it react strongly.

  What's more, the scattered remains of those Japanese devils who had been directly hit by Chinese mortar shells and blown to pieces were even more nauseating to Cheng Jiaji. The physical reaction was so strong that he vomited up everything he had eaten the night before.

  Knowing that this was his first time on the battlefield, and that he was in charge of this unit, the officers and soldiers around him didn't laugh at their commander's lack of fortitude. The new recruits who were also experiencing their first battle had already vomited up everything they could.

  "How many casualties do you have here? How many little devils did you take down?" Cheng Jiaji looked at Yu Juncai, who had just led the charge and personally manned a heavy machine gun, taking out at least seven or eight devils, his body still covered in fresh blood, and said.

  "In front of the village, more than 20 brothers were killed, and over a dozen were seriously injured. The little devils didn't gain much advantage either, with no less than 30 corpses left at the entrance of the village. This group of little devils has quite strong combat power. If our arrangements weren't effective, I'm afraid the village would have fallen into their hands by now." Yu Juncai had seen his fair share of battles on the Songhu battlefield, and he recalled the bloodshed at Luodian, where an entire regiment was consumed every day, a scene far more brutal than this one. He had grown numb to such scenes, and hadn't even bothered to clean off the bloodstains from the previous battle, figuring that the Japanese would launch another attack soon, and it would all be for naught."

  Yu Juncai didn't mind the wretched state of his junior officer, as he himself hadn't performed much better when he first went into battle. He was already impressed that this young officer had made it to the front lines so quickly. However, he still had some reservations about the order Program Jiaji had given earlier not to counterattack while the enemy was retreating. After reporting on the casualties of both the Japanese and their own troops, he expressed his somewhat veiled dissent regarding Program Jiaji's previous order.

  "If we had counterattacked just now, maybe we could have left behind a dozen or twenty devils."

  "If there were only us in this village, it wouldn't be a big deal to fight the little devils ten or eight times and exhaust them. However, at present, there are five or six military officers above the rank of lieutenant general in the village alone. If we really want to use our current strength to fight the little devils to the end, if the village is breached by the little devils, it's not just a matter of losing the entire village, even if we lose one or two important places, even if we kill all the little devils in front of us, it won't make up for this loss."

  Cheng Jiaji didn't think that Yu Juncai, an old soldier who had participated in the Great Wall War, would not understand this truth. Otherwise, he wouldn't have executed Cheng Jiaji's order to retreat and regroup without attacking. Yu Juncai's problem was that he still hadn't fully accepted Cheng Jiaji as his new superior. As a military officer from a regular army background who had received formal German-style military training, Yu Juncai was a rare elite in the Central Army. Cheng Jiaji didn't think that he could win over this veteran general with just one or two words. This wasn't like some YY protagonists who would swear allegiance to someone as soon as they showed their authority and never harbor any dissenting thoughts again. He knew he didn't have that kind of charm."

  "If you had really charged out just now, the Japanese might have dared to launch a barrage of artillery attacks on you, and as long as they were willing to sacrifice some men, they could have torn open a hole in the village. You are an old veteran, and this is a trick that the Japanese often use, especially on the battlefield of Shanghai and Nanjing." Yu Juncai didn't say anything else, but his face still showed a hint of discontent. Cheng Jiaji further explained to Yu Juncai the reason why they were not allowed to launch a counterattack earlier. After all, among his subordinates, only Yu Juncai was capable of taking charge on his own. It was necessary to communicate effectively with him. Indeed, after listening to these words, Yu Juncai's face no longer showed any discontent, but instead, he had more respect for this young superior officer. He had come from the great battles of Shanghai and Nanjing, and he knew that the Japanese were not to be underestimated when they were desperate."

  Cheng Jiaji wanted to say a few more words to Yu Juncai when the Japanese heavy howitzer fired, and Kinoshita's unit began its second attack on Dawangzhuang at 12:42.