Zhu Tian: Beginning to Cross the Changjin Lake

"Withdraw~!"

Song Weiguo did not dare to delay and immediately threw away the machine gun. Before leaving, he threw a grenade under the machine gun and turned around and ran.

The other soldiers also withdrew from their positions, and a group of them started running wildly.

Li Guotao led everyone to retreat northward. After running just over 200 meters, they ran into a group of Japanese soldiers head-on.

As it was still dark and visibility was poor, the Japanese did not notice Li Guotao and his men at all.

But Li Guotao had already spotted the Japanese in advance. Before they could react, Li Guotao shouted, "There are Japanese ahead. Hit them hard."

As he spoke, Li Guotao raised his submachine gun and started shooting at the Japanese devils fiercely.

Other soldiers also raised their guns and fired. There was a burst of gunfire and a large number of the Japanese who were caught off guard were instantly wiped out.

Li Guotao shouted loudly: "Follow me!"

As he said this, he led his brothers into the nearby woods. With Li Guotao as a living map, they were not afraid of getting lost and could more effectively avoid the Japanese.

Li Guotao led his soldiers and ran all the way, finally avoiding the Japanese devils.

Li Guotao raised his hand and pointed, saying, "Our position is ahead."

"Blow the bugle, charge forward."

"Yes!"

The bugler immediately blew the horn, which was a secret signal set in advance.

The defenders heard the horn and immediately reported it to the battalion commander on the position.

The battalion commander hurried to the front line and saw a group of people rushing towards him in the darkness.

The battalion commander immediately ordered: "They are our people, no one is allowed to shoot, let them come over."

At this time, the battalion commander raised the telescope and saw a group of people rushing towards this side in the distance, and these guys were chasing and shooting at the same time.

Obviously, the person behind is definitely a Japanese devil.

The battalion commander made a prompt decision and shouted, "Open fire with the mortars, and hit the Japanese behind us."

"Yes!"

The order was quickly conveyed to the artillery position at the rear, and four mortars immediately opened fire.

"Chirp chirp chirp~!"

Amidst the piercing whistling sounds, one shell after another quickly cut through the night sky and landed among the Japanese troops behind.

Violent explosions continued to ring out, and several Japanese soldiers rushing in the front were blown away in an instant. The other Japanese soldiers were so scared that they lay down in a safe place to avoid the artillery fire and dared not continue to pursue.

Li Guotao and his men took advantage of this opportunity and finally rushed into the defenders' position.

……

Headquarters of the 10th Army.

Sun Mingyu walked quickly to Commander Fang and said, "I just received a report from the 3rd Division's frontline. Li Guotao and his men are back."

"what?"

Commander Fang said in surprise: "They really came back."

"Ok!"

Sun Mingyu nodded.

Commander Fang sighed and said, "This Li Guotao finally got out, why did he come back to die?"

Sun Mingyu said: "But we were not wrong about him."

Commander Fang frowned and said, "This guy is really good, but unfortunately..."

"Forget it, we're already back, there's no point in saying anything more."

Commander Fang and his men had guessed before that Li Guotao and his men might come back, but in fact, he still hoped that they would not come back.

After all, coming back would mean death. Since they had already broken out, why would they come back? If they could save these brothers, it would at least leave some seeds for the 10th Army.

"Chief of Staff, let's go! Let's go see Li Guotao."

"Yes!"

Commander Fang hurriedly left the military headquarters and rushed to the front line.

We met Li Guotao and his group on the way.

Li Guotao and others quickly stood up and saluted.

Commander Fang stepped forward quickly, grasped Li Guotao's hand, and said sincerely: "Thank you for your hard work."

Li Guotao said somewhat disappointedly: "Commander, I'm really sorry, we failed to complete the mission. When we arrived at Wuliting, the reinforcements had already withdrawn."

"We have searched the area carefully and have not seen any signs of reinforcements."

Commander Fang sighed helplessly and said, "I understand. The reinforcements were threatened by the devils in the rear and have taken the initiative to retreat."

"It's my fault that you took this risk and made this trip in vain."

Seeing that Commander Fang was somewhat discouraged, Li Guotao quickly persuaded him, "Don't worry, Commander. Even without reinforcements, we will definitely be able to hold on to Hengyang."

"The reinforcements didn't arrive in time this time, but they will come eventually. As long as we hold on for a while longer, we will definitely win this battle."

Commander Fang smiled and said, "You are quite confident."

"Actually, you shouldn't have come back. You've already broken out. Why bother going back to Hengyang?"

"You must have encountered many obstacles along the way!"

Li Guotao said: "We will definitely come back. We can't abandon our brothers in Hengyang."

"We were lucky along the way. We didn't encounter any major troubles. We fought a battle with the Japanese before and broke through during the chaos. Although we lost more than 20 brothers, most of them returned safely."

"Well done!"

Commander Fang exclaimed: "Guo Tao's courage is comparable to that of Zhao Zilong of Changshan!"

"You are too kind, Commander."

Commander Fang thought about it and couldn't help but get angry. He cursed: "A small force of 100 people like us can pass through the enemy's defense zone and enter Hengyang."

"Of the 100,000 reinforcements outside the city, not a single one can enter Hengyang to provide support. This is really absurd."

It’s no wonder that Commander Fang was angry. After all, the 10th Army is now at a critical moment of life and death.

Commander Fang went on to say, "If those reinforcements had one tenth of Guo Tao's courage, they wouldn't have not had a single soldier enter Hengyang right now."

"We won't have to fight so hard."

Li Guotao said: "The commander doesn't have to be angry. Although their rescue efforts were unsuccessful, they won't just sit there and do nothing. I believe they will definitely come to reinforce us again."

"As long as we keep holding on, there is always hope."

"The reinforcements have temporarily withdrawn. As a result, the Japanese will definitely continue to concentrate all their efforts on besieging Hengyang."

"On our way back, we also saw the Japanese mobilizing their forces."

Commander Fang nodded slightly and said, "Yes, the Japs have paid such a huge price and are determined to take Hengyang. They will definitely not give up."

"It is estimated that they will launch a new round of offensive today. This is the final decisive battle."

"We must hold on no matter what, stop the Japanese attack, and try to hold out for a while longer until reinforcements arrive." Although the principal promised to organize troops to continue to reinforce Hengyang as soon as possible, Commander Fang did not dare to have too high expectations for this, but this was their only hope.

If there were no reinforcements, the fall of Hengyang would only be a matter of time.

After all, the fighting lasted for so long, and the 10th Army suffered heavy casualties and was almost wiped out.

After a few more words, Commander Fang said, "You have all worked hard. The remaining people, whether they were from your first battalion or not, are now all under your command."

"Take these brothers back and rest."

"Yes!"

Li Guotao responded quickly and then returned to the base with his brothers.

Li Guotao asked the soldiers to take time to rest, because the Japanese may launch a new round of offensive at any time, and there will be big battles to fight in the future. Naturally, they must recover their physical strength as soon as possible and maintain enough physical strength to persist longer.

When Yang Jihe heard that Li Guotao had returned, he hurried over.

Yang Jihe looked Li Guotao up and down, and confirmed that the boy was safe and sound, then he was visibly relieved.

"You know what? During the two days you were gone, I was worried that you would never come back. Fortunately, you are back now. It's good that you are back."

Li Guotao asked, "Do you know everything?"

Yang Jihe nodded and said, "I've heard about it."

"Are you stupid? You didn't receive any reinforcements, but you broke out. Why do you have to come back and die?"

Li Guotao smiled and said: "I can't bear to leave you, can I?"

Yang Jihe said unhappily, "Don't try that on me."

Yang Jihe observed the surroundings and saw that there was no one nearby. He whispered, "The reinforcements have not arrived this time. If this trend continues, I'm afraid we really won't be able to hold on for much longer."

"So I don't want you to come back, but it's too late to say anything now."

"I still say the same thing. If Hengyang really cannot be defended in the future, you can break out if you can. It can also be regarded as preserving some strength for the war of resistance. There is no need to really bury all of you here."

Li Guotao smiled and said, "Captain, don't worry, we will definitely not lose."

"Reinforcements will definitely arrive. We will definitely win this battle. As long as we hold out for another half a month at most, we will win."

Yang Jihe asked curiously, "Are you so confident?"

Li Guotao smiled and said, "My intuition is always accurate, just trust me."

"All right!"

Yang Jihe said helplessly: "I'll trust you once more."

In fact, Yang Jihe also understood that these were just words from Li Guotao to comfort him, and Yang Jihe was just saying it casually.

Li Guotao didn't care. After all, it was too difficult to make people believe such words.

It was impossible for Li Guotao to tell the truth. Since things had come to this, the defenders had no choice but to continue fighting the Japanese with the expectation of death.

Li Guotao looked up into the distance and said, "It is estimated that the Japanese will soon launch a new round of attacks. This time, the Japanese will definitely do their best to attack Hengyang fiercely."

Yang Jihe nodded and said, "We have received the order from the military. Now that things have come to this, we can only fight the devils to the death."

Li Guotao nodded and said, "Persistence is victory. We must hold our ground no matter what. As long as Hengyang is not lost, there is still hope."

Yang Jihe said: "Okay, you are all exhausted, go and rest quickly and recover your strength as soon as possible. I'm afraid we will have to go to the front line again soon."

"Hmm~!"

Li Guotao nodded without saying anything more and went back to his residence to catch up on some sleep.

……

In the front-line command post of the Japanese, Lieutenant General Wang Iwanaga said into the microphone: "Mr. Kono, according to the instructions of the commander, we must launch an attack as soon as possible."

"Your squadron should be responsible for attacking Tianma Mountain. We don't have much time left."

"The Commander is getting anxious, and has already rushed to Hengyang in person. He will probably arrive tomorrow."

"So we have to work harder. If we still fail to make any progress after the Commander arrives, we will all be in big trouble if he gets furious."

"Hayi~!"

Takano Jiro responded respectfully: "Please rest assured, General, we will do our best to capture the Tianma Mountain position as soon as possible."

"Yoshi~!"

Lieutenant General Yan Yongwang nodded with satisfaction and said: "Now that the enemy's reinforcements have been repelled by the locust army, the enemy's morale will inevitably be seriously affected. This is our best opportunity."

"We must defeat them as soon as possible, those Hengyangs."

"Hayi~!"

Takano Jiro responded respectfully: "Our regiment is ready for battle and can be deployed at any time."

"After this period of fighting, the enemy's losses are also considerable."

"Judging from the current trend, they won't be able to hold out for much longer."

"The Imperial Locust Army will surely achieve the final victory and capture Hengyang in one fell swoop."

"Yoshi~!"

Iwanaga Wang smiled and said, "In that case, I will wait for good news from Kono-kun."

"I will also fully cooperate with your attack."

"Thank you, General."

Jiro Kono thanked him and hung up the phone.

At this moment, the old Japanese soldier also had a frown on his face, and was not as confident as he had just said.

A Japanese lieutenant colonel said cautiously: "Sir, according to your instructions, our attacking force is ready for battle."

"Once the artillery preparation is completed, the locust army will launch a new round of attack."

Takano Jiro nodded slightly and said, "Now that things have come to this, we have no better solution. We can only go all out and try to take Hengyang."

"And our regiment has only one goal, and that is Tianma Mountain. As long as we take Tianma Mountain, Hengyang will be in the hands of the locust army."

The Japanese lieutenant colonel said confidently: "Please rest assured, Commander, I don't believe these hateful enemies can hold out for much longer. This time the locust army will definitely defeat them."

Takano Jiro said seriously: "You don't need to promise me anything. I just want results. If I don't see the results, I won't believe anything you say."

"Hayi~!"

Soon, the Japanese launched artillery bombardment again.

The Japanese artillery began to concentrate their firepower and fiercely bombarded the 10th Army's front-line positions.

In particular, the Tianma Mountain position, as the Japanese's main attack direction, naturally received priority attention from the Japanese artillery.

The shells hit Tianma Mountain continuously like hail.

There were loud explosions and artillery fire covered the entire position.

At this moment, the defenders on the position could only hide obediently in the anti-artillery fortifications and silently endure the Japanese artillery fire.

The defenders were originally short of artillery fire, and their ammunition was also very precious, so it was naturally impossible for them to fight against the Japanese. (End of this chapter)