Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

"Hehe~!"

Li Guotao chuckled and said, "You are already a platoon leader. It is not easy to become an official these days."

"Many people who are more experienced than me can't even become squad leaders now."

Yang Jihe said: "So, you are quite content?"

Li Guotao just smiled slightly and didn't say much, because he knew that the previous Li Guotao was not so powerful.

Yang Jihe rolled his eyes and then asked, "Have you ever been to a military academy?"

Li Guotao shook his head and said, "I joined the army for a relatively short time and never attended any military academy. It was only when I was promoted to platoon leader that I participated in an officer training group organized by the army."

Yang Jihe asked: "Where did you attend the training? When?"

Li Guotao answered casually: "It was in Hunan! Last winter!"

Yang Jihe rolled his eyes and said, "If someone asks you in the future, just say that you graduated from the 18th class of the Whampoa Military Academy."

"what?"

Li Guotao opened his mouth in surprise and said, "This is not good."

Yang Jihe said, "Don't tell me, we just recognize this one."

"Just say you are a student of the 18th class of the Second Branch School, and you are receiving training in Wugang."

"From now on, you are my deputy battalion commander. I will report to the military and promote you to captain deputy battalion commander."

"Deputy Battalion Commander?"

Li Guotao felt that his CPU was about to explode. This was a bit too fast.

He really didn't expect that Yang Jihe would value Li Guotao so much that he would spare no expense to keep Li Guotao.

"Hehe~!"

Yang Jihe laughed and said, "With your ability, you are more than qualified to be a deputy battalion commander."

Li Guotao frowned and said, "But from what I know, this rank seems difficult to be promoted, right?"

Yang Jihe said, "It doesn't matter. Who cares about these things now? I'll give you a rank of captain first. It's just a matter of a word from above."

"With your achievements and abilities, you are more than qualified to be a captain."

"But you have to remember, if someone asks you next time, just say you graduated from the 18th class of Huangpu Second Branch."

"do you understand?"

Li Guotao nodded, not quite understanding, and then asked, "Battalion Commander, is this how you got your Huangpu status?"

Yang Jihe said, "What are you talking about? I am a graduate of the main school, a student of the 15th term."

Li Guotao nodded slightly and said, "It has been four years since the 15th class graduated. In four years, you have become a lieutenant colonel battalion commander. You are quite impressive."

Yang Jihe waved his hands and said, "That's nothing! But I am quite content. In the face of national crisis, it is already quite difficult to survive."

"As far as I know, more than half of the students in our class have died."

When Yang Jihe said this, he smiled bitterly and shook his head.

During the fourteen years of arduous and arduous War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, countless martyrs sacrificed their lives on the battlefield and gave their precious lives for the country and the nation.

Li Guotao naturally knew the cruelty of this war and the heavy casualties paid by a generation.

Li Guotao will never forget this blood debt.

This blood debt will be repaid by these beasts sooner or later.

Without waiting for Li Guotao to say anything, Yang Jihe waved his hand and said, "Forget it, let's not talk about these unhappy things."

"Anyway, from now on, you are the deputy commander of our first battalion."

"From now on, this battalion commander is also yours."

"If I die in battle someday, you will be the battalion commander of the first battalion. Or if I get promoted by chance, then the position of battalion commander of the first battalion will also be yours."

Li Guotao said a little embarrassedly: "I'm new here, this is not a good idea."

Indeed, Li Guotao had only been here for half a day, and now Yang Jihe trusted him so much that Li Guotao felt a little embarrassed.

Yang Jihe smiled and said, "There's nothing wrong with that. The country is in crisis, and the most important thing for us now is to fight the devils. Whoever has the ability to fight the devils has real ability."

"If you have the ability to lead everyone to kill the devils, then you must be the battalion commander."

“Nothing else matters.”

"Our 10th Army is not like your th Army that wastes talent. You will definitely be valued here."

Li Guotao smiled and nodded, saying, "In that case, I will agree with all my efforts, but I hope other people won't have any objections."

"They dare?"

Yang Jihe's face turned serious, and he said in a serious tone: "Don't worry, I will handle this matter for you. Chen Jianghe's guys dare not have any objections."

Yang Jihe was still confident about this, because in the First Battalion, Yang Jihe had absolute authority. If he said that Li Guotao would be the deputy battalion commander, no one else would dare to raise any objection.

After a while, a soldier ran in and shouted, "Report to the battalion commander, the Japanese on the other side are gathering more and more."

Upon hearing this, Yang Jihe came to the observation post, raised his telescope and observed for a while, and said, "The Japanese on the other side have increased their troops."

Li Guotao said: "The enemy's large forces will continue to rush over. With just our few men, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold the Leishui defense line."

Yang Jihe nodded slightly and said, "Fortunately, the commander only asked us to delay the enemy as much as possible. If we win the first battle, we will have completed our mission."

Li Guotao said: "In this case, we must do our best to delay time."

"It has to be postponed until tomorrow anyway."

Yang Jihe said: "It is getting dark now. Even if the enemy's main force arrives, they will probably wait until tomorrow to launch the attack."

Li Guotao reminded: "That may not be the case."

Yang Jihe immediately came to his senses after hearing this and asked, "You mean the Japanese might launch a sneak attack at night?"

Li Guotao nodded and said, "These little devils are not easy to deal with. They will not give up after suffering such a big loss during the day."

"A surprise attack at night is not a bad idea. After all, our forces are limited. With such a long line of defense, there are always places where we can be careless."

"Especially at night, it would be much easier for the enemy to sneak across the river."

Yang Jihe said thoughtfully: "The vision is limited at night, and we don't have enough troops to fully defend such a long river bank."

Li Guotao said: "If you trust me, why not let me take care of the night defense."

Yang Jihe asked excitedly: "Do you have any good ideas?"

Li Guotao answered honestly: "Not yet."

Yang Jihe couldn't help but roll his eyes, but he completely trusted Li Guotao and said, "Okay then! I believe you." Li Guotao asked curiously, "Do you trust me so much?"

Yang Jihe smiled slightly and said, "I trust my intuition."

"intuition?"

Li Guotao smiled bitterly and shook his head, then asked, "I think your intuition is very accurate."

Yang Jihe smiled and nodded, saying, "That's right. So far, there haven't been any mistakes."

……

At the same time, large Japanese troops were rushing to the other side.

Major General Shima Genkichi, commander of the 68th Infantry Brigade of the 57th Division of the Japanese army, has arrived at the Quanxi front.

Inside the command center, the old Japanese soldier Shima Genkichi sat on a chair, staring coldly at a group of young Japanese officers below.

"Can anyone tell me what's going on?"

"In just half a day, one of our elite battalions lost more than 400 elite soldiers, and even the captain died!"

"This is simply a great shame."

Jiro Matsuda stepped forward cautiously, lowered his head and said, "General, calm down. Captain Maeda's death was just an accident."

Major General Shima Genkichi frowned and asked, "Yoshi, was it an accident?"

"Then who should be held responsible for the failure of the attack?"

Jiro Matsuda lowered his head and said tremblingly: "General, please calm down. I deserve to die."

"We really didn't expect that these cunning enemies actually had several anti-tank guns. Moreover, they waited until the locust army was halfway across the river and suddenly attacked. The locust army was caught off guard and suffered heavy casualties."

Shima Genkichi frowned slightly and said thoughtfully: "Attack when the enemy is halfway across the river. It seems that the enemy understands the art of war."

Jiro Matsuda lowered his head, too scared to say anything.

Shima Genkichi then asked, "How many troops does the enemy have?"

Jiro Matsuda replied: "According to preliminary estimates, there should be a battalion of troops."

"There are probably about three or four hundred people at most."

Shima Genkichi said angrily: "Humph, a mere battalion of three or four hundred people killed more than four hundred of our locust warriors. How dare you say that?"

"Hai!"

Jiro Matsuda quickly responded, "I deserve death, Your Excellency General, please calm down."

Shima Genkichi said angrily: "You really deserve to die. Because of your mistake in command, so many Locust Army warriors died tragically on the battlefield. You should commit seppuku to apologize."

Matsuda Jiro was so frightened that he almost collapsed on the ground. He gritted his teeth and said bravely, "Your Excellency the General is right. I am indeed guilty of a thousand deaths."

"It's just that I really can't accept this. This disastrous defeat was entirely caused by my carelessness."

"I am not convinced. I want to wash away this shame. Please give me another chance, General."

Shima Genkichi stared at Matsuda Jiro for a while and asked, "How do you want to avenge yourself?"

Jiro Matsuda said confidently: "The enemy's strength is only one battalion at most. We were tricked by them during the day and were caught off guard, which is why we lost some troops."

"I plan to launch a night attack tonight. I am willing to personally lead the special forces team to sneak across the Leishui River and attack the enemy positions on the opposite side."

"As long as we can land on the other side, it will be easy to destroy those guys."

"If I cannot take the enemy's position, I would rather die on the battlefield. Please, General, give me this chance."

Shima Genkichi sneered and said, "Night attack? Not bad!"

"The enemy has limited manpower. As long as we can sneak across, we will definitely be able to achieve a surprise victory."

"I can give you one chance. Tonight, I will give you a squadron to sneak across the Leishui River. If you cannot capture the enemy's position, you don't have to come back."

"Hai!"

Jiro Matsuda was overjoyed and said quickly, "Thank you, General. Please rest assured that we will definitely capture the opposing position and cut all those hateful enemies into pieces to avenge the fallen Locust Army warriors."

Shima Genkichi waved his hand impatiently and said, "Go, go back and get ready. I hope to hear good news from you tomorrow."

"Hayi~!"

Jiro Matsuda fled as if he had been pardoned.

After Jiro Matsuda left, Lieutenant Colonel Mototaka Hashimoto, the chief of staff, said, "General, Jiro Matsuda is a fool with courage but no strategy. He killed so many Locust Army warriors."

"Even if we launch a night attack, we may not be able to capture the enemy position opposite us."

Shima Genkichi said: "Of course we can't put all our hopes on Matsuda Jiro."

"Although the disastrous defeat of the Maeda Battalion was caused by Matsuda Jiro's carelessness, it also proves that the enemy was well prepared."

"It may not be that easy to break through the Leishui defense line."

"We let that idiot Jiro Matsuda launch a surprise attack this time just to tie down the enemy's forces and draw their attention."

Hashimoto Mototaka frowned and pondered for a moment, still unable to understand what Shima Genkichi meant, so he asked, "What does the general mean?"

Shima Genkichi pointed to the map and said, "The enemy already knows that we will cross the Leishui River at Quanxi, so they have already prepared for this."

"If that's the case, why do we have to cross the Leishui River here? We can just make a feint to the east and attack in the west."

"Take advantage of the night and choose a more suitable crossing point from the south, quietly cross the Leishui River, make a detour and outflanking move, and directly take Wuma Guicao."

"By that time, the enemy on the other side was attacked from all sides. It was meaningless to continue to hold the Leishui defense line. They could only retreat."

"So we can easily take down the opposing position."

Hashimoto Mototaka suddenly realized, "Your Excellency the General is wise. You sent the Songshan Battalion to the south to outflanking in order to break through the enemy's Leishui defense line?"

Shima Genkichi sneered and said, "In fact, we have already obtained accurate intelligence. The enemy's defense focus in Leishui is in the Quanxi area. As long as we bypass Quanxi, it will be easy to break through Leishui."

"And tonight, the Songshan Brigade can cross the Leishui River from the south and attack their rear directly, returning to the stable."

"This is called repairing the plank road in the open and marching through Chencang in secret!"

Hashimoto Mototaka said: "Your Excellency the General is wise."

"In this way, the locust army will win."

"So, Matsuda Jiro and his men's sneak attack tonight was just to attract the enemy's attention?"

Shima Genkichi sneered and said, "Not entirely. If Matsuda Jiro and his men can really break through the enemy's defenses, it can be considered as his merits atonement for his crimes."

"Even if they can't, the Songshan Battalion will cross the river from the southern defense zone. In any case, the Leishui River alone cannot stop the locust army of our empire." (End of this chapter)