The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 341 Brilliant Results
As the setting sun slowly spread across the eastern sky, the Advance Column's encirclement and annihilation operations against the vanguard battalion of the Japanese Hata Detachment had ended. Both inside and outside the village were in a mess. Although it could not be called a sea of ​​blood and corpses, it was certainly extremely tragic.

This encirclement and annihilation operation ended with a great victory for the Advance Column. The vanguard battalion of the Japanese Hata Detachment was completely annihilated under the Advance Column's tactics of luring the enemy deep into our territory - dividing and consuming the enemy - and mobile encirclement and annihilation.

After the fierce battle, the officers and soldiers of the advancing column completely dominated the battlefield and began to exercise the right of the victors to clean up the battlefield.

Zhao Zhanhai, commander of the Advance Column, strolled in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army outside the village. He felt pleased at the tragic scene around him. Under the repeated charges of the cavalry platoon of the Advance Column, most of the troops in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army were killed or wounded, or died or collapsed. Wherever Zhao Zhanhai looked, he could see corpses of Japanese soldiers who were killed by sabers or trampled into mud by war horses. There were dense layers of corpses, at least two hundred of them were scattered all over the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army.

Rifles, helmets, grenades, equipment, as well as shells, mountain artillery parts, observation equipment, artillery cartridges, and fuses from the Japanese artillery squadron in the makeshift defense circle were scattered all over the battlefield under the repeated attacks of the advancing column's cavalry platoons.

On the devastated battlefield, the officers and soldiers of the horse infantry company of the Advance Column shuttled among the piles of Japanese corpses and discarded equipment and weapons, cleaning the battlefield, picking up various equipment and supplies left behind by the Japanese army, and from time to time they shot or stabbed the dying Japanese soldiers amid sporadic gunfire and cries of pain.

Zhao Zhanhai looked at the miserable scene of the Japanese troops around him and smiled with satisfaction.

The disgusting and choking smell of gunpowder and blood spread everywhere, but Zhao Zhanhai's nostrils kept twitching, and he sniffed the pungent air with an expression of greed and enjoyment. The stench was extremely strong, and the smell of gunpowder mixed with blood made Zhao Zhanhai feel extremely comfortable.

The sound of gunfire as the officers and soldiers of the mounted infantry company shot and killed the wounded Japanese soldiers in the pile of corpses, and the sound of bayonets piercing the flesh of the Japanese soldiers, also poured into Zhao Zhanhai's ears like heavenly music.

Today's battle was the first time that Zhao Zhanhai led troops and commanded operations alone since the start of the War of Resistance Against Japan, and it was also his first battle after graduating from the Army University's Staff Class.

As a soldier, annihilating the enemy and winning the victory is the greatest affirmation of his value. Zhao Zhanhai was born in the old Northeast Army. He experienced the September 18th Incident, the Great Wall War and the Rehe War, and felt deeply the pain of the loss of troops and territory. Therefore, Zhao Zhanhai had a more urgent desire to personally command the troops on the battlefield to defeat the Japanese army and win the victory. After annihilating the enemy in this battle, Zhao Zhanhai felt like he had achieved revenge.

The result of completely annihilating the vanguard battalion of the Japanese Hata Detachment in this battle was also the first victory of the assault corps after its establishment, and it was the best reward for Zhao Zhanhai's trust and expectations for He Wei.

The Japanese soldiers' bodies were separated and scattered all over the ground, the Japanese weapons and equipment were discarded everywhere, and the Japanese wounded were wailing in despair under the guns of the mounted infantry company. In short, all the miserable conditions of the Japanese soldiers in front of him made Zhao Zhanhai extremely happy. The national hatred and family resentment that had accumulated in his heart for several years were completely vented at the moment when the battle ended. At this moment, Zhao Zhanhai's mood could only be described in two words.

happy!

"Sir, the cavalry brothers fought well. My infantry company killed two Japanese infantry captains in the village, and the cavalry brothers directly killed a major!"

Just as Zhao Zhanhai was enjoying the fruits of his command on the battlefield, the company commander of the mounted infantry company, Yang Biao, came over excitedly, followed by several soldiers carrying a door panel. On the door panel was the body of Major Hamamoto Hayashi, commander of the vanguard battalion of the Japanese Army's Hata Detachment.

It is not known whether Hamamoto Lin was lucky or unlucky. After the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army collapsed, he was not discovered by the cavalry of the advancing column, nor was he killed by the cavalry's sabers like most of his subordinates. Instead, he hid safely behind a mountain cannon and witnessed the entire process of the collapse and annihilation of the Japanese defense circle outside the village and the complete destruction of the remnants of the Japanese infantry in the village.

Of course, for Hamamoto Hayashi, witnessing his subordinates being completely annihilated and eaten by the Chinese army might be a more painful and torturous process than death.

In the end, Hamamoto Rin chose to end his life by committing suicide with a pistol.

On the door panel, a big bloody hole appeared on Hamamoto Lin's temple. Although he was lying on the door panel with an expressionless face, his wide-open eyes were full of unwillingness.

Zhao Zhanhai looked at Bin Benlin's body for a few times and said, "Search for the documents and certificates on him, leave the saber as a gift to Captain He, and throw the body in the wild to feed the stray dogs. Also, when cleaning the battlefield, pay special attention to searching for the documents left by the Japanese army, and count the results of the battle as soon as possible!"

Yang Biao replied: "Understood!"

As soon as Yang Biao left, the sound of horse hooves was heard. Zhao Zhanhai looked up and saw the platoon leader of the cavalry platoon of the advancing column covered in blood.

Although the Advance Column had completely defeated the Japanese vanguard battalion, and all the Japanese infantry in the village were killed by Yang Biao's Advance Column's cavalry infantry company, and the Japanese troops outside the village completely collapsed under the repeated attacks of the Advance Column's cavalry platoon, many Japanese soldiers still managed to escape.

In particular, the drivers, medical soldiers and service soldiers in the temporary defense circle of the Japanese army performed the worst in the battle against the cavalry platoon of the Advance Column, but they fled the fastest. Before the battle was over, the battlefield was already full of these fleeing flies. By the time the Advance Column had eliminated all the stubborn Japanese troops, many of the fleeing Japanese drivers and service soldiers had already run far away.

Zhao Zhanhai would naturally show no mercy to the defeated Japanese soldiers who had run away. You have to know that this Japanese army was the vanguard battalion of the Hata Detachment of the Japanese Army, and was originally the vanguard of the main force that had advanced a long distance. So Zhao Zhanhai had no worries about chasing the desperate enemy. So, he ordered Yang Biao's mounted infantry company to clean up the battlefield on the spot, count the results of the battle and be on alert, while the more mobile cavalry platoon would pursue, kill and capture the fleeing Japanese soldiers.

Zhao Zhanhai’s order to the cavalry platoon leader was very simple: For the fleeing Japanese soldiers, either kill them or capture them, and don’t let a single one go!
Zhao Zhanhai looked at the excited cavalry platoon leader and knew that he must have good news. He walked up to him and said, "Have you dealt with all the escaped devils?"

The blood-soaked cavalry platoon leader of the Advance Column galloped over, dismounted, ran to Zhao Zhanhai and said, "Sir, we've taken care of them all!"

Zhao Zhanhai asked: "How many were killed and how many were captured?"

"Sir, we chased and killed the Japanese all the way, and we had no time to count the number of people we killed. However, we captured quite a few prisoners, more than fifty of them. However, these captured Japanese soldiers seemed to be miscellaneous soldiers, and they had no weapons in their hands. Oh, and there were also more than a hundred Japanese cars, which we seized. I sent some people to watch them. There were also more than twenty wounded Japanese soldiers in the cars, who were also captured by me!" Just as the cavalry platoon leader was happily introducing his battle results, a large group of cavalry platoons had appeared in Zhao Zhanhai's sight.

I saw dozens of cavalrymen divided into two columns, shouting and cursing, driving dozens of Japanese prisoners who were trapped in the middle forward, while those Japanese prisoners with dazed eyes were tied together in groups of three or two, staggering forward dejectedly, and the Japanese prisoners at the end of the team were still carrying more than 20 Japanese wounded soldiers on stretchers, a tragic atmosphere.

"Sir, these devils are different from the devils who fought desperately on the battlefield. They run away when they are attacked and scatter when they are charged. They don't have any decent weapons, only bayonets, and they don't even have helmets."

The cavalry platoon leader said.

Zhao Zhanhai nodded, looked at the more than 100 Japanese trucks parked quietly on the road in the distance, and said with interest: "Let's go and take a look."

Zhao Zhanhai originally hated Japanese prisoners of war. In his original understanding, dead Japanese soldiers were good Japanese soldiers, and dead Japanese prisoners of war were good prisoners of war! So before the advance column set out, Zhao Zhanhai had no objection to He Wei's decision to incorporate the special forces composed of surrendered Japanese soldiers into the advance column, but he actually didn't care about the special forces at all. He didn't think that these two-five Japanese would play any role in the battle, and even felt disgusted with them.

However, this encirclement and annihilation battle against the Japanese vanguard battalion completely changed Zhao Zhanhai's view of Japanese prisoners of war. Several surrendered Japanese soldiers from the rangers played a very important role in interrogating the prisoners and analyzing the enemy's information based on the prisoners, making a significant contribution to the final victory of this encirclement and annihilation operation.

Therefore, after seeing the value of the commandos, Zhao Zhanhai now has a greatly changed view of the surrendered Japanese troops and captured Japanese prisoners, and he attaches great importance to them. Now, seeing the Japanese soldiers captured by the cavalry platoon, Zhao Zhanhai, who is fluent in Japanese, immediately stepped forward and began to interrogate the prisoners.

The Japanese prisoners captured by the cavalry platoon were obviously not tough men, and they quickly handed over their identities and numbers to Zhao Zhanhai.

Zhao Zhanhai learned from the confessions of the prisoners that the cavalry platoon had captured a total of 54 Japanese drivers, in addition to more than 20 seriously injured soldiers.

The Japanese soldiers who had no helmets, no weapons, and very low fighting will that the cavalry platoon leader mentioned were referring to the Japanese drivers. The vanguard battalion of the Hata Detachment adopted a complete automobile transportation method, with a total of more than one hundred vehicles, and naturally there were the same number of drivers.

During the battle, although the commander of the Japanese vanguard battalion, Hayashi Hamamoto, ordered all drivers to join the battle and incorporated them into the hastily constructed temporary defense circle, these drivers did not play any positive role in the battle except dragging their feet. Instead, they were the first to disintegrate in the battle, accelerating the collapse of the Japanese army.

As the cavalry platoon chased them all the way, nearly half of the more than one hundred Japanese drivers were shot to death or hacked to death. Except for a few who managed to escape, the remaining fifty or so drivers were captured by the cavalry platoon.

As for the more than 20 wounded soldiers, they were the wounded soldiers of the Japanese Vanguard Battalion in various battles of varying sizes along the way. All of these wounded soldiers were placed on trucks. Now that the Vanguard Battalion had been annihilated, these dying wounded soldiers naturally became prisoners of the Advance Column.

After learning the specific situation of the Japanese prisoners of war, Zhao Zhanhai first looked at the more than fifty Japanese drivers who were extremely depressed and trembling, and then looked at the more than one hundred trucks lined up in a long queue on the road. Then an idea flashed in his mind, and he immediately sent someone to call the ranger captain Liu Lu and three others over.

When Liu Lu and his two companions came over and respectfully asked Zhao Zhanhai what he wanted, Zhao Zhanhai excitedly ordered Liu Lu, "We have seized more than 100 trucks and captured more than 50 Japanese drivers. Now I will give you a task. Let these Japanese drivers surrender and drive for us. In other words, if they surrender, everything will be fine. If they don't surrender, they will be shot directly."

After hearing this, Liu Lu immediately understood that Zhao Zhanhai wanted them to coerce and bribe these fifty or so Japanese drivers to drive for the Chinese army and take away the captured Japanese trucks. This task seemed too easy to Liu Lu.

When Liu Lu served in the Japanese army, he was at least a second lieutenant in a field army regiment. He knew the quality of the Japanese army's drivers. The fighting spirit of these drivers was completely different from that of the soldiers in the combat units. He knew that as long as he frightened these guys, they would definitely obey and serve obediently. So Liu Lu immediately patted his chest and happily accepted the task, then ran forward with two rangers and began to "persuade the Japanese army's drivers to surrender."

At this time, the cavalry platoon leader asked Zhao Zhanhai again: "Sir, what should we do with the twenty or so Japanese wounded soldiers?"

After the cavalry platoon leader finished speaking, the smile on Zhao Zhanhai's face instantly disappeared, replaced by a frosty face. He said coldly: "Shoot them all! By the way, make a loud noise when you do it, to scare those Japanese drivers."

"Okay, I'll go take care of them right away."

The cavalry platoon leader laughed sinisterly twice and led his men towards the wounded Japanese soldiers viciously.

Zhao Zhanhai's idea was smoothly realized. First, the cavalry platoon leader dragged more than 20 Japanese wounded soldiers to the captured Japanese driver and shot them one by one.

Then, Liu Lu, along with two rangers, began to use threats and inducements to the more than fifty drivers who were already trembling with fear. It only took more than ten minutes for all these drivers with weak fighting will to obey, surrender and pledge allegiance to the Chinese army, and instantly became drivers of the Chinese army.

Afterwards, the results of the battle were also counted. After cleaning the battlefield, based on the number of Japanese corpses and weapons counted by the officers and soldiers of the Advance Column on the battlefield, it was judged that, excluding the more than 50 captured motor vehicle soldiers, this annihilation battle achieved the result of killing a total of 557 Japanese soldiers, including a major and three captains.

The Japanese troops that were annihilated included two infantry squadrons, an artillery squadron, a heavy machine gun team and a small number of health and communication units. In terms of trophies, 233 intact Type 38 rifles, three Taisho 11-year-old Type 99 light machine guns, eight Type 89 50mm grenade launchers, and two Type 41 mountain cannons were seized. In addition, more than 100 trucks and a batch of ammunition and supplies were seized. The results of the battle were quite brilliant, and the Advance Column also paid the price of 53 deaths and 47 injuries. For the total strength of the Advance Column, although the casualties were not small, compared with the brilliant results achieved, it can be said that the price was quite worth it.

(End of this chapter)