The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 425: The Surprise of the Battlefield Inspector
At ten o'clock in the evening, a medium-sized Yangtze River inland motorboat covered with camouflage nets, emitting black smoke, rushed out of the gloomy haze and slowly docked on a river beach five kilometers away from Banbi Mountain.

As the steamboat stopped moving with difficulty and anchored in the shallow water beside the river beach, several soldiers carrying rifles quickly ran to the bow, turned on the searchlight on the bow, and quickly flashed the weak light several times towards the river beach.

Then, several rays of light quickly came from the river beach.

On the main deck of the motorboat, a major officer strode to the command room on the main deck and said respectfully to a middle-aged officer with the rank of major general: "Sir, we have arrived. Someone on the river beach sent a light signal. It should be the assault corps troops coming to support us."

The major general nodded slightly and said, "Okay, organize the unloading of the ship and ammunition as soon as possible. The inspection team, the guard troops, and the reporters will get off the ship as soon as possible. We will quickly meet up with the assault team."

"Yes!"

The major stood at attention and immediately ran to carry out the order.

The major general looked into the distance, towards Banbi Mountain and Tianjia Town where there were flickering lights. He smelled the air mixed with the smell of gunpowder and river water. His wrinkled face showed a little doubt and worry, as well as a hint of inexplicable fear and alienation.

This major general was a member of the battlefield inspection team sent by the Military Commission to the Assault Corps. The team was composed of important personnel drawn from the Military Training Department under the Military Commission. The major general's name was Pan Yuzhi, and he was the leader of the battlefield inspection team.

The purpose of this inspection team's visit to the Assault Corps was naturally to verify whether the amazing results previously reported by the Assault Corps were true. The actual record of the Assault Corps in defeating and severely damaging the Japanese Army's Hata Detachment was already quite outstanding. After being processed, optimized, and doubled by Wang Yuanling, the results shocked the Military Commission.

Of course, as the country's highest-powerful military body, the Military Commission is accustomed to the inflated, boastful and exaggerated reports of combat results by its subordinate units.

However, the Assault Corps could only barely reach the level of a brigade-level unit even at full strength. Although the battle report stated with certainty that it had killed more than 14,000 Japanese soldiers, annihilated an entire reinforced brigade, and killed a major general and many other middle and senior officers of the Japanese army, it still made the Military Commission quite suspicious.

Although He Wei, the number one commander of the assault corps, had performed well in the battles of Xinkou and Nanjing, and had even killed high-ranking Japanese royal officials, the reported battle record was so damn horrifying that the Military Commission specially organized a battlefield inspection team to verify it.

While Wang Yuanling was sending battle reports and telegrams on battle results to the Military Commission, he also specifically requested additional 150mm howitzers and 81mm mortar shells.

Therefore, based on the principle of verifying as quickly as possible, the Military Commission sent the battlefield inspection team to follow the steamer loaded with replenishment ammunition from Wuhan to the Assault Corps to confirm the authenticity of the results of the battle through an on-site survey of the Banbi Mountain battlefield where the Assault Corps was located.

"Hurry, hurry, open the warehouse and move the ammunition."

"Be careful, turn on the lights!"

The steamer soon became busy. After the shallow-draft hull moved as close to the river beach as possible, the crew and the guards on board lowered wooden boards and small boats over the side of the ship and began to transport and unload the German-imported 150mm grenades and French 81mm mortar shells carried by the steamer to the river beach.

Boxes of shells soon filled the river beach, and the deck of the steamer was also noisy. A dozen colonels and lieutenants from the battlefield inspection team stood in twos and threes behind the team leader Pan Yuzhi. Some of them pointed excitedly in the direction of Banbi Mountain in the distance and even the Tianjia Town Fortress, while others raised their binoculars, but no one knew what they were looking at in the dark night.

On the deck, in addition to the officers of the battlefield inspection team and the guard troops, there were also several reporters in suits carrying cameras and paper and pens. Although the Military Commission had some doubts about the authenticity of the great victory reported by the Assault Corps, it still made full preparations.

If the battlefield inspection team finds, after a field investigation, that the assault corps's results and achievements are seriously inflated, concealed, or even fabricated, then the battlefield inspection team will have to report the truth to the Military Commission, and then the senior military commission will decide how to deal with such "bad behavior" of fabricating achievements.

The Assault Corps, a unit directly under the Military Commission, and its chief officer He Wei will certainly be punished. As for how to punish them, that is a very complicated issue. Anyway, if the battlefield inspection team finds that the Assault Corps has excessively fabricated and exaggerated its combat achievements, He Wei and the Assault Corps will definitely suffer the consequences.

And if the results of the assault corps are true, or there is a certain amount of water injection, bragging, and exaggeration, but they did achieve a good record and indeed won a good victory, and it was confirmed that He Wei did lead the assault corps to beat the Japanese badly, then naturally everyone would be happy.

Not only will the battlefield inspection team report the facts to the Military Commission, but the reporters who come with the battlefield inspection team will also show their skills and conduct on-site news investigation reports and collect publicity materials on the spot on the "great victory" level results achieved by the assault corps, in order to collect enough evidence and publicity materials for this great victory.

The materials obtained by the reporters will eventually become the best wartime propaganda materials, and will inevitably become the front-page headlines in wartime newspapers one day in the near future to publicize the great victory of the national army in resisting the enemy.

China's current situation in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression desperately needs a great victory. That is why the Military Commission abruptly sent a group of reporters to the front line with the battlefield inspection team.

If the Assault Corps really fought a good battle, a miraculous one, it would of course be widely publicized. Of course, He Wei and the Assault Corps would certainly benefit as well.

"Sir, let's get off the boat. Our people have already connected with the commando corps."

The major officer walked up to Pan Yuzhi, the leader of the battlefield inspection team, and reminded him.

Pan Yuzhi nodded, and led a group of officers and reporters from the inspection team onto the boat in the night breeze. They carefully stepped on the wooden boards laid on the muddy river beach and climbed onto the river bank.

As the highest-ranking officer of the battlefield inspection team, Pan Yuzhi naturally had the right and discretion to characterize the assault corps' combat results, which appeared to be at the level of a "great victory". As a second-term graduate of the Whampoa Military Academy who was over 40 years old, Pan Yuzhi's military career was not smooth.

Although he had sufficient qualifications, he had been away from the field troops for a long time and had no military power. Therefore, although he was now a major general, he was only a major general's attaché who was paid for his position in the Military Training Department under the Military Commission. He was naturally a little nervous when he was suddenly ordered to take on the position of inspector.

Pan Yuzhi knew that he was just a powerless major general, and his long-term work experience in the military training department and other rear-line agencies had enabled him to read many battle reports and results submitted by the front-line troops. He also knew that it was common for the front-line field troops to inflate, exaggerate, or even lie about their results of annihilating the enemy and even military intelligence.

Moreover, this kind of exaggeration is an inevitable norm in combat, so Pan Yuzhi did not regard exaggerating the results of the war as an unforgivable crime. As long as it was not a deliberate lie or a particularly serious inflated report, he would just turn a blind eye and let it go. Moreover, before setting off, he also used his connections to inquire and knew that the chief officer of the assault corps, He Wei, was not only a graduate of the 11th class of Huangpu Military Academy who had made military achievements, but also had a personal relationship with Minister He of the Military and Political Department. Facing such a chief officer with a background in the upper echelons, there was no need for him, a powerless subordinate, to investigate thoroughly, nor was it necessary to offend people like He Wei because of this, which would only make himself uncomfortable.

Before arriving, Pan Yuzhi had set the standard for himself for this inspection. As long as the Assault Corps did not make a big deal about a big defeat, or exaggerate the extreme incident of annihilating 14,000 Japanese soldiers when they only killed 100 or 200 Japanese soldiers, and did not go too far, then everyone would be safe, and the battle that the Assault Corps had just fought could be characterized as "truly reported".

Soon, with trepidation, Pan Yuzhi led a group of inspectors and reporters along the river bank and saw the troops coming to pick them up from the assault corps. When he was led by the pick-up personnel sent by the assault corps to an open space far away from the river beach and adjacent to a small highway, the scene he saw instantly stunned him.

Although the open space was almost silent, under the dim light, more than 50 trucks and several jeeps were parked in an orderly manner.

In the dark night, the more than fifty trucks were lined up in a neat formation, and the headlights on the front of the trucks released beams of light that were enough to illuminate but would not expose the target too much at night.

But when Pan Yuzhi looked closely, he saw that these cars were all Japanese cars, including trucks and jeeps.

This made Pan Yuzhi curious. Most of the cars equipped by the National Army's logistics units were made in Germany and the United States. No unit was equipped with Japanese cars. However, the Assault Corps was equipped with so many Japanese cars, which immediately aroused Pan Yuzhi's curiosity.

Of course, the fact that the assault corps' infantry unit was equipped with a large number of trucks was enough to surprise Pan Yuzhi. Before setting off, he had learned about the composition and general equipment of the garrisons in Banbi Mountain and Tianjia Town from the Military Commission. It seemed that there was no organized motor vehicle unit in the battle sequence of the garrison troops near Banbi Mountain. So where did all these trucks come from?

Just as Pan Yuzhi was looking at the truck curiously, he saw another captain approaching. He saluted Pan Yuzhi and stood at attention and reported: "Reporting to the commander, I am Zhao Zhanhai, the chief of the combat training section of the staff department of the Army Assault Corps. I am here to lead my troops to welcome the officers of the battlefield inspection team and receive the newly arrived ammunition. Please give me your instructions!"

Pan Yuzhi nodded slightly after returning the greeting. He did not ask about the Japanese cars, but said, "Our battlefield inspection team and the accompanying personnel are not many in number, so you don't need to worry too much. But you must protect the shells shipped on the ship. These 150mm grenades and 81mm mortar shells are imported from Germany and France. You must not be careless."

Zhao Zhanhai stood at attention and saluted again, saying, "Yes, sir! Our corps has sent a company of soldiers and vehicles to pick up the ammunition."

Then, Zhao Zhanhai waved to a staff officer not far away and shouted, "Let the company commander lead the troops to the river beach and start guarding and escorting the artillery shells."

"Yes!"

After the staff officer responded, more than a hundred fully armed officers and soldiers jumped out from the back of a dozen tarpaulin-covered trucks and began to assemble in formation following commands.

The sudden appearance of a large number of armed officers and soldiers once again attracted Pan Yuzhi's attention. With the help of the car lights and the flashlights of the officers of the assembled troops, Pan Yuzhi quickly saw the images of these officers and soldiers.

To be honest, the appearance of these officers and soldiers was not very good, but their equipment was indeed very sophisticated, neat and complete. Every soldier wore a German-style helmet and a vest-type equipment that Pan Yuzhi had never seen before. The soldiers' weapons and equipment were also relatively neat, with rifles, light machine guns, a small mortar that Pan Yuzhi had never seen before, and a machine gun with a tripod.

However, there were many scratches and even holes on the officers and soldiers' helmets, uniforms, and equipment. Their uniforms and equipment were faintly stained with dark red blood, and their shoes and boots were covered with mud. Many people were still wrapped in gauze that was oozing with blood. Obviously, this was the scene that only appeared after repeated bloody battles.

However, compared with the damaged military uniforms, the mental state, physique and spirit of these officers and soldiers were very high, the movements of the formations were uniform and powerful, the soldiers were very strong, and the orders given by officers and sergeants were skillful and accurate.

What surprised Pan Yuzhi even more was the pride displayed by those officers and soldiers and their calmness and momentum after surviving a bloody battle. This really made him, a senior officer who had been away from the front-line combat troops for a long time, feel mixed emotions.

"Align front and back!"

"Arrange your equipment! The entire company is ready to march in brigade formation, with the first platoon in front, the second and third platoons in the back, and the company headquarters following at the end. After reaching the shore, the first platoon will be on guard, the second and third platoons will carry ammunition, and the entire company will put bayonets on their rifles. We will start moving in one minute!"

An officer who looked like a company commander gave orders in front of the team.

"Yes!"

The officers and soldiers responded in unison while organizing their equipment.

Pan Yuzhi was stunned for a moment. He worked in the Military Training Department, and it was common for him to go to various units of the National Army for inspection. Pan Yuzhi had participated in the inspection of so many units, but in his impression, none of them could match the Assault Corps in front of him, whether in equipment, nutrition, physique, or basic commands, movements and mental state.

A strong army, a rare strong army.

Pan Yuzhi stared at the infantry company of the assault corps that had deployed into battle formation and was advancing towards the river beach, muttering in a low voice.

At this time, Zhao Zhanhai took a small step toward Pan Yuzhi, made a "please" gesture, pointed to a Japanese jeep not far away, and said, "Sir, please come in. You are tired from the journey, so you'd better go to Banbi Mountain as soon as possible to rest."

Pan Yuzhi was a little absent-minded, and after a moment's pause, he replied, "Oh, OK, let's go now."

After Pan Yuzhi got into the jeep, he was still thinking about the purpose of this trip, the dozens of Japanese cars that amazed him, and the excellent equipment and high spirits of the officers and soldiers of the assault corps.

Suddenly, Pan Yuzhi became more interested in the assault corps, and he was actually looking forward to verifying the assault corps's battle results and achievements.

(End of this chapter)