Chapter 21: The Battle Situation Takes a Sudden Turn (Part 1)
May 6th at 7:00 AM
Still under that small hill. The gunfire had stopped. The victors were busy counting their casualties and clearing the battlefield.
The bodies of the dead Japanese soldiers and their deceased war horses were neatly laid out in an open space by the soldiers of the Independent 100th Regiment. On the opposite side of this open space, the bodies of the fallen officers and men of the Independent 100th Regiment were also placed not far away. The officers and men who had been fighting to the death just a moment before lay quietly on the same piece of land, and the faces of the hundreds of young people from two countries that had been at odds for several hundred years now only had one expression - serenity. Perhaps it is only at times like these that humanity has no strife or hatred.
Cheng Jiashi stood in front of a dead Japanese military officer's body accompanied by a group of traveling officials.
This was the corpse of a slightly plump middle-aged Japanese military officer, whose upper body had been riddled with bullets, but his face was still clean, with a neatly trimmed mustache and a remaining danian, only to have long lost its luster of life.
"Tian Jiafu, you must know this person, he is Lieutenant Colonel Kuwada Teizo, the commander of the 10th Brigade of the Japanese Army."
At this time, Cheng Jiaji was majestic and dignified, wearing a yellow woolen uniform with not a speck of dust on it, paired with snow-white gloves, and highly polished military boots. Perhaps because he had already fought several tough battles, the flames of war had tempered him into a seasoned soldier. In any case, standing there, he exuded an air of confidence and authority, like a general who had been through a hundred battles.
"From the items found on him, it's clear that this person is none other than Sanada Teizo, the leader of the Japanese invaders." Tanaka Tomi, who didn't care about having Yamato blood flowing through his veins, had completely become Chinese in speech and behavior within less than a month. Even when referring to his former comrades, he used the same terms as regular Chinese military officers. Tanaka repeatedly claimed that his ancestry (one of his maternal ancestors eight generations ago was an overseas Chinese) and nationality were both purely Chinese. Although the officers of the 100th Independent Brigade looked down on this little Japanese man's character, they didn't make things difficult for him on the surface due to his current usefulness to the brigade.
After the battle, Tian Jiafu and his seven or eight former Japanese soldiers were responsible for searching and identifying the belongings of the Japanese military officers. They selected valuable items to report upwards. In the eyes of Gao Shiying and others, it was also a case of making use of materials, and the 100th Independent Brigade couldn't just support these lost sheep who had abandoned their dark past (Tian Jiafu's words).
"Then, it's the 10th Cavalry Regiment's regimental flag!" a loud and clear voice interrupted.
The one who said this is the culprit of today's battle, the greatest disaster star of the 10th Cavalry Brigade, Wen Songyuan. His luck was not ordinary, after several bloody battles, he was still in the eye of the storm, and he only had a few minor scratches on his body. After safely obtaining the flag of the 40th Regiment, it seems that our Commander Wen is now thinking of the flag of the 10th Cavalry Brigade again.
Cheng Jiaji, who had been annoyed by Wenyongyuan's unauthorized actions and still remembered the little devil's military flag, immediately gave his sworn brother, who had grown up with him since childhood, a big white eye, blocking Wen Yongyuan's mouth as he was about to continue asking questions.
"Report to all officers, the flag has been found on an officer's body, but it was torn to shreds. The people below are mending it, and it will be ready soon." Tian Jiafu said with a smile at Wen Songyuan, who had just eaten a whole plate of food. His fawning attitude made the Chinese officers nearby feel disgusted.
However, Wen Songyuan still took the lead in comforting Tian Jiafu. With a gentle encouragement from Wen Songyuan, Tian Jiafu felt as if his entire body had become several pounds lighter. Tian Jiafu understood that being the only one to hold onto Wen Songyuan, Cheng Jiaqi's first confidant, was equivalent to indirectly becoming a trusted subordinate of Cheng Jiaqi. This was extremely important for Tian Jiafu, who was now determined to make a name for himself in the Chinese army.
"Traveling, the statistics are out after the war." Gao Shiying said to Cheng Jiaji as he took a piece of rice paper from an officer who had just run over.
"Go ahead." Cheng Jiaji said calmly.
"In this battle, except for more than 30 cavalrymen who escaped, the main force of the Japanese Tenth Cavalry Brigade was annihilated. A total of 587 enemy soldiers were killed, and 78 were captured. Seven howitzers, 436 various firearms, 229 war horses, 633 sabers, and eight military flags of all kinds were seized."
"After finishing the report on the number of enemy troops killed and captured, Gao Shiying paused for a moment, cleared his throat, and continued: 'Our military casualties, including the cavalry company of the 200th Regiment, were 192 deaths, 69 serious injuries, and 281 minor injuries.'"
Cheng Jiaji felt a chill run down his spine after hearing Gao Shiying's report. The infantry, equipped with heavy weapons, had encircled and annihilated the cavalry, which only had light weapons, yet the casualty ratio was almost one to one. This achievement was not something to be celebrated.
Cavalry is no longer the main force in this era. As long as infantry are equipped with heavy weapons, they can easily defeat their opponents in equal numbers. With an absolute advantage of nearly four times the number of troops and vehicles as firepower points, the result was still like this. This can only be said that the current team has not yet had the strength to fight against the Japanese army on the plains.
Cheng Jiaji secretly blamed himself in his heart, he had been slightly complacent since the start of this battle because he thought victory was within his grasp, if only he could have made better use of the army's firepower advantage, the casualties should not have been so severe.
It's not entirely Zhang Jiaji's fault, as the 100th Regiment has had several battles with the Japanese army and never been at a disadvantage. However, upon closer inspection, these victories were either due to advantageous terrain or nighttime sneak attacks. In fact, they have never clashed with the Japanese in similar terrain conditions.
Having won many battles, they had just eliminated 2,000 devils the night before, so they didn't take these few hundred devils seriously.
The result was a head-on collision with the Little Devils, and although they annihilated an entire enemy cavalry brigade, their own losses were also heavy.
Cheng Jiaji knew in his heart that Gao Shiying had not said another sentence just now, that is, after this battle, the number of combatants in the Independent Hundred Regiment was less than 2,000 people. The current Independent Hundred Regiment urgently needs to rest and regroup.
This victory is a great triumph on the surface, but Cheng Jiaji has his own bitter thoughts. This time, to put it nicely, he took the initiative to launch a full attack and annihilate a Japanese cavalry brigade, which would be a great achievement. To put it badly, however, it was an act of disobedience and unauthorized attack, affecting the overall plan. By that time, if the war zone commander's office could give him a fair evaluation of his merits and demerits, it would be a blessing!
Thinking of this, Cheng Jiaji couldn't help but glare at Wen Songyuan, who was proudly playing with the newly assembled flag of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the Japanese Army. He thought to himself that he must strictly discipline this guy in the future, or else if something like today's incident happens again, he would really lose ten years of his life.
Under the gaze of his elder brother's "not-so-good" intentions, Wen Songyuan hastily handed over the flag in his hand to Tian Jiafu beside him, and then quickly lowered his head like an ostrich, as if this way, Cheng Jiaji would not continue to bother him.
Just as Cheng Jiaji was about to take this opportunity to teach Wen Songyuan a lesson, that guy who didn't know his place.
A messenger who rushed from Tai'erzhuang just in time to rescue Wen Songyuan also made all the officers present hang their hearts, after all, this attack by the 100th Independent Brigade was not approved by the war zone, but was only a handwritten order by Ma Sanbao with a gun pointed at Commander-in-Chief Xie, which read "act according to the situation on the battlefield".
If the warlord's headquarters really wants to get serious, then everyone's fun will be even greater!
Cheng Jiaji took over the telegram copy from the messenger sent by Xie Hong, which was forwarded from the vanguard command post of Tai'erzhuang and originated from the headquarters of the Fifth War Zone Commander-in-Chief.
