Liang Jian: Commander, save some for me

"Yes, it's really not appropriate for him to stay here all the time." Xu Qingfeng nodded. They would be facing the Japanese encirclement and suppression later, and if something happened to Commander Zhang during this period, it would be difficult to explain to Commander Yan.

"That Commander Zhang is just here to cause trouble, let's get rid of him quickly," Li Yunlong said. He recalled that before Xu Qingfeng arrived, he wanted Commander Zhang to transfer soldiers from the special operations regiment to help, but the other party would most likely not agree.

"By the way, did you manage to get your hands on the Japanese radio and codebook?!" Xu Qingfeng asked Xiao Zhang. To be honest, they had never been able to capture the Japanese codebook.

"I didn't find it, but according to the Japanese's usual practice, once we launched our general offensive and they realized they couldn't resist, they had already chosen to destroy the radio and codebooks," Xiao Zhang replied. The Japanese liked to do that.

Otherwise, they would have captured countless radios from the Japanese.

"That's true, sigh..." Xu Qingfeng sighed helplessly. It was unlikely that they could capture a radio station in this kind of battle, let alone the Japanese codebook.

.........

At this moment, Commander Zhang heard sporadic gunshots and roughly guessed that the battle was over.

"Commander, the gunfire doesn't seem as intense as before," the guard beside him asked.

"Needless to say, the Japanese soldiers on the battlefield have basically been dealt with; they are now cleaning up the battlefield," Commander Zhang replied.

“That’s right, the battle is over.” The squad leader of the special operations regiment responsible for protecting Commander Zhang also agreed with what the other party said.

It couldn't possibly be that their people were wiped out by the Japanese.

"It's over so quickly?! This Japanese Class A division doesn't seem that impressive after all!" the guard couldn't help but say, wondering if the Japanese Class A divisions were really as formidable as he had heard.

"It's not that the Japanese soldiers are too weak, it's that Mu Jin's soldiers are too strong. Even the Japanese soldiers of the Class A division are no match for them," Commander Zhang said.

He even suspected that if the 33rd Brigade did not provide support within a few days, Mu Jin's troops would be able to wipe out these Japanese soldiers without their help.

"Commander Zhang, the battle is over. Shall we go take a look at the front?" the squad leader said, wanting to see how the battlefield was going.

"Alright." Commander Zhang nodded. Anyway, there was no danger now, so it would be good to go and take a look ahead.

"Have the telegraph operator send the message to the commander." Before setting off, Commander Zhang gave this instruction to his guard, and then headed towards the battlefield.

Soon, they met Chu Yunfei on the way.

"Commander." Chu Yunfei approached Commander Zhang and saluted.

"It's over, isn't it?!" Commander Zhang asked, though he had already guessed the outcome, he still wanted to know the exact news.

"Yes, the 33rd Brigade has been completely annihilated by us," Chu Yunfei nodded in response.

"Who killed that Japanese brigade commander?!" Commander Zhang asked, still hoping that they had killed him.

"He was killed by Mu Jin's men. My soldiers tried to find him, but they weren't as fast as Mu Jin's soldiers." Chu Yunfei also felt a little regretful. It was a pity that the 358th Regiment couldn't kill this Japanese brigade commander with their own hands.

"As expected, it's normal that we couldn't outmaneuver them. Anyway, it wasn't the Eighth Route Army that killed them, so it's not a big problem." Commander Zhang didn't take it too seriously.

If their soldiers could kill the Japanese brigade commander under Mu Jin's command, that would be impressive, but it was expected that they didn't.

"Commander, are you going to the battlefield to take a look?!" Chu Yunfei changed the subject.

"Yes, there's no danger now. I'll go check what's going on," Commander Zhang nodded in agreement.

"That's perfect, that's why I came here – I wanted to ask you to come and take a look together." Chu Yunfei smiled and set off with Commander Zhang.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the battlefield.

"The battle looks fierce," Commander Zhang remarked, gazing at the smoke and corpses littering the battlefield from the foot of the mountain.

By this time, the cleanup of the battlefield was nearing its end. The Japanese soldiers' weapons had all been captured, and their corpses had been mostly shot.

As for the fallen soldiers, they were also carried away. These sacrificed soldiers had to be taken to the mountains to find a place for burial. There was no other way; they couldn't keep carrying the bodies around forever.

Commander Zhang only glanced at the battlefield before Chu Yunfei led him halfway up the mountain to meet up with Xu Qingfeng and the others.

“The 33rd Brigade has been annihilated. Commander Zhang should now believe that we can draw away most of the Japanese forces,” Xu Qingfeng said directly.

The purpose of sending Commander Zhang over was to prove to the enemy that they were fully capable of holding back most of the Japanese troops, so that Commander Yan could attack the Japanese county town without any worries and expand the gains of this battle.

"I trusted you from the beginning, but as you know, our commander is rather cautious, so please forgive me." Commander Zhang gave an awkward smile.

"It's alright, it's alright. If it were me, I would have done the same. These are minor issues. Now that Commander Zhang has made his decision, can we send a telegram to Commander Yan?" Xu Qingfeng asked.

Their goal was still to get Commander Yan to send troops to help; otherwise, they wouldn't have brought along Division Commander Zhang, who was just a burden.

"Don't worry, I already sent a telegram to the commander before I came here. It won't be long before Commander Yan orders his men to attack the Japanese!" Commander Zhang replied.

In fact, this move posed no real danger to the Jin-Sui Army. After all, the main force of the Japanese army was drawn away by Mu Jin and his men, and the rest of the troops were probably dealing with the Eighth Route Army. So, their move was not only safe, but also very beneficial.

"Then thank you very much, Commander Yan. There's one more thing. Now that it's confirmed the Japanese will send a large force to encircle and annihilate us, and Commander Zhang's mission is complete, for Commander Zhang's safety..."
"I urge Commander Zhang to withdraw before the Japanese encirclement is complete. This was agreed upon beforehand, and Commander Zhang shouldn't go back on his word, right?" Xu Qingfeng said with a smile. He didn't say anything too harsh, implying that further cooperation was still possible.

"That's natural. However, there's something I'd like to know more about: you launched a general offensive against the 33rd Brigade several hours earlier than Mu Jin said, which would have delayed them by half a day."
"Have you dealt with the Japanese secret forces on Mu Jin's side?!" Commander Zhang asked, as the Japanese secret forces remained a significant destabilizing factor.

Although Mu Jin and his men were in greater danger, at least Mu Jin was willing to negotiate, while the Japanese would not. They were more likely to relentlessly pursue and attack them. Therefore, he was still somewhat uneasy until he eliminated this unit.

"Commander Zhang, rest assured, the Japanese secret unit has been dealt with. Now all that's left is the Japanese command post! I believe that will be taken care of soon as well," Xu Qingfeng replied.

"As expected of Mu Jin, he easily dealt with even the Japanese's meticulously trained secret troops. Remarkable!" Commander Zhang praised him upon hearing this, while also feeling relieved. "In that case, I should leave. As for your soldiers, I won't take them for myself," Commander Zhang continued.

He was worried that if he continued to let Mu Jin's soldiers escort him away, something might happen to him. If it weren't for him, those twenty soldiers would also be fighting the Japanese.

"Mm." Xu Qingfeng nodded.

"Commander, have a safe journey," Chu Yunfei said earnestly.

"Yunfei, this time you must kill as many Japanese devils as possible to bring honor to our Jin-Sui Army," Commander Zhang instructed.

"Don't worry, Commander, I will definitely succeed." Chu Yunfei nodded and promised. The 358th Regiment was not a large unit in this operation, but the casualties of the New 1st Regiment and the Independent Regiment were even smaller, and Mu Jin's troops suffered even fewer casualties.

"Commander Zhang, it would be best if you wore civilian clothes when you retreated. Don't wear your military uniforms, otherwise you might run into the Japanese and something bad could happen," Xu Qingfeng reminded him.

"Understood." Commander Zhang nodded.

Subsequently, a small force of several dozen men escorted Commander Zhang away from the battlefield and retreated in the southwest direction.

Given the speed of the Japanese, Commander Zhang and his men could easily evacuate before the Japanese could complete the encirclement. Moreover, Commander Zhang and his men were few in number and not in uniform. If they were to encounter the Japanese, they could simply find a good place to hide and the Japanese would not pay them any attention.

"That burden is finally gone. Without him, our battles will be much easier." Li Yunlong said with a smile, clearly pleased that Commander Zhang had left.

"It's about time we withdrew too." Xu Qingfeng glanced at the battlefield. The trenches were like a spider web, and the road, which stretched for several miles, had been dug into a crisscrossing trench network. This was all done by the Japanese. The surrounding area was full of potholes.

"We've indirectly accomplished our mission of sabotaging the roads," Kong Jie said. The key point is that the Japanese themselves destroyed these roads; they didn't have to put in much effort!
"Hey, this should count as a contribution, it has to be recorded!" Li Yunlong said immediately upon hearing this, even a small mosquito is still a contribution.

"Old Li, our Independent Regiment deserves more credit this time than your New First Regiment," Kong Jie said. They had killed quite a few Japanese soldiers this time.

"Bullshit! The New First Regiment killed just as many Japanese soldiers as you did. I can tell at a glance that when you attacked the Japanese mopping-up operations, most of the Japanese were killed by the Special Operations Regiment."
Besides, the New First Regiment may not have killed as many Japanese soldiers as you, but we carried out an important mission. If it weren't for Brother Yunfei and me holding back the Japanese, we wouldn't have achieved such a great victory today. So,

"In terms of merit, the New First Regiment deserves more credit, and the Independent Regiment can only be ranked behind!" Li Yunlong disagreed and immediately launched into a long string of grand principles.

This made Kong Jie think for a moment that what Li Yunlong said made a lot of sense; it seemed that the Independent Regiment's contributions were not as great as those of the New First Regiment.

"Stop arguing, stop arguing. Everyone has contributed. Now, let's hurry up and meet up with the commander." Xu Qingfeng quickly spoke up to prevent the two from arguing about who had contributed more.

The group then set off, quickly leaving the battlefield behind only the corpses of Japanese soldiers scattered on the ground.

.........

Huangyun Mountain.

The 6th Division Headquarters.

"Division Commander, Division Commander, something terrible has happened!" The Japanese telegraph operator rushed in, shouting.

"What's the rush? What's going on?!" Tani Hisao said irritably. He was already quite overwhelmed, and the telegraph operator kept shouting that something big was happening, which made him even more annoyed.

"The 33rd Brigade sent a telegram saying that the enemy has launched a general offensive, has broken through their positions, and is likely to be completely annihilated," the Japanese telegraph operator hurriedly reported.

"What?! The entire army wiped out?? Are you kidding me! The Northeast Army that attacked them wasn't all of them, how could they all be wiped out?!" Tani Hisao was shocked to hear this.

His previous speculation that Yamamoto's special attack force had been completely wiped out gave him a glimmer of hope that the 33rd Brigade was not the entire force of Mu Jin's attack. However, after seeing this telegram, he was completely uneasy.

"I don't know," the Japanese telegraph operator replied. He was just a telegraph operator; how could he possibly know what was going on?

"Baka! Send them a telegram immediately and have them report the details." Tani Hisao gave the order, still somewhat disbelieving that the 33rd Brigade could be completely annihilated by the enemy.

After all, they were a Class A division, and they weren't facing all of Mu Jin's forces. They should have been able to hold out until the enemy withdrew at noon!

"Yes, sir!" The Japanese telegraph operator then turned and left.

"What do you think?!" Tani Hisao asked the Japanese regimental commander beside him.

"Division Commander, I think this is very likely the case. You know the capabilities of Brigade Commander Nakajima; he wouldn't send such a telegram unless it was the last minute," the Japanese regimental commander said after a moment's hesitation.

Ichiro Nakajima was quite capable; he wouldn't have sent the telegram about the annihilation of the 33rd Brigade if he hadn't been desperate.

Hisao Tani fell silent immediately.

"Tsk, sigh..." Tani Hisao sighed deeply. He could understand why Itagaki Seishiro looked so worried and sighed from time to time.

Encountering such a strong enemy, and the key point is that there is no way to deal with them, how could he not be worried? He even suspected that if Taiyuan did not have a large number of troops, the enemy might have been able to take Taiyuan.

"Division Commander, perhaps I misjudged the situation. The 33rd Brigade sending this telegram was simply a misjudgment of the situation," the Japanese regimental commander said upon seeing this.

"You don't need to comfort me anymore. Things have probably reached their worst point," Tani Hisao said helplessly.

He was already somewhat numb. Even Yamamoto's special attack force had been wiped out by the enemy, so the complete annihilation of the 33rd Brigade was actually expected, but he still couldn't quite accept it.

After all, the 33rd Brigade was the strongest brigade in their division. I never expected it to be gone like this. Thinking about it still makes my heart bleed. It's so painful.

"Shouldn't we inform our commander about this?" the Japanese regimental commander said after thinking for a moment. They hadn't told the commander about the 33rd Brigade's situation yet.

The commander he was referring to was the one in charge of them, not Yoshio Shinotsuka. (End of Chapter)