Bright Sword: The Flowers of War

Chapter 36 Should we send someone to contact them?
"Erdan...did you just see that? Commander Su was kissing a girl?"

An old veteran patted Qiao Erdan on the shoulder and asked slyly.

"I saw it... So what... What do you think?" Qiao Erdan slapped his hand away impatiently. "This is a matter between a high-ranking official and his family. Why are you meddling so much?"

The veteran soldier paused for a moment, then a cold smile crept across his lips: "Oh... you've only been receiving your superior's pay for a short time, and you're already protecting your lord? I wonder if your master can even... oh dear..."

Before the soldier could finish speaking, a fist came flying at him, knocking him to the ground before he could react.

"Ouch... Qiao Erdan, you bastard, how dare you hit me!" The soldier got up and pounced on Qiao Erdan, and the two started wrestling.

When the soldiers saw the two fighting, instead of stopping them, they started to cheer them on. Some of the quick-thinking soldiers even started betting, and chaos ensued.

Of course, they were fighting, but it was just a matter of fists; the rifles they carried had already been thrown aside.

This is also an unwritten rule in the military. In the army, if two people have a conflict, they can fight each other. Even if they end up with black eyes and swollen faces, they will at most be scolded by their superiors. But if anyone dares to use a gun, they will be executed immediately if discovered.

On the wall to the side, Su Yaoyang and Li Gaoyuan silently watched this scene unfold.

Su Yaoyang took out a cigarette and offered him one, asking, "Old Li... do you think this rabble can withstand the Japanese attack?"

Li Gaoyuan lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and said calmly, "Whether we can hold them off is hard to say, but at least these people have solved our immediate problem of manpower shortage."

Su Yaoyang continued, "Can we break out of Nanjing with just these people?"

Li Gaoyuan glanced at him and asked in return, "What do you think?"

"I... never mind... I'd better not say anything..." Su Yaoyang slumped against the wall.

Don't be fooled by how easily he rushed in just now; that was only because he caught the Japanese off guard. Now, breaking out will be a completely different story.

The difficulties increased exponentially, especially with the presence of a large number of female students, wounded soldiers, and other non-combatants.

"After all this effort, am I just going to die here?"

Su Yaoyang became increasingly annoyed. He spoke a few words to Li Gaoyuan, instructing him to quickly reorganize the newly arrived defeated soldiers, before descending the high wall.

After descending the high wall, Su Yaoyang arrived at the front yard. By then, the fight between Qiao Erdan and Bingyouzi had ended, with Qiao Erdan emerging victorious and Bingyouzi leaving dejectedly.

Watching the soldiers who had placed bets leave either beaming with joy or cursing, Su Yaoyang felt utterly exhausted.

Aren't soldiers supposed to be well-trained and determined? How come they look like a bunch of street thugs? This doesn't fit his definition of the army.

Let alone the armies of later generations, these scoundrels were far inferior to the dozen or so soldiers in Li Gaoyuan's training corps.

What Su Yaoyang didn't know was that the soldiers in front of him were the normal ones.

How strict could the military discipline be of a group composed almost entirely of illiterate and bankrupt farmers? How could it compare to the army of young people in later generations who had received nine years of compulsory education and witnessed the country's growing strength from a young age? Even the Central Army training corps under Li Gaoyuan were composed of elite soldiers selected from millions of troops across the country, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them the benchmark of the Chinese army today.

Just as Su Yaoyang was having a headache over the uneven quality of his soldiers, the 11th Regiment across from the church was also immersed in grief.

The sudden artillery barrage and the stab from behind caused the 11th Regiment to lose a company in just over ten minutes. Combined with losses during the attack, the 11th Regiment's casualties had exceeded four hundred men.

It should be noted that during the attack on Nanjing, the 11th Regiment, one of the main attacking forces, lost fewer than 300 men.

The fact that the losses from attacking a small church were greater than those from attacking a city made Nagano Yuichiro feel utterly humiliated, especially considering that Hasegawa was watching from behind; he felt even more ashamed.

"Commander, shall we report to General Kunisaki and request artillery support?" Major Morimura Juro, the Third Battalion Commander, couldn't help but suggest again.

"Our regiment was already down to one battalion, and we suffered considerable losses in the attack on Nanjing. Now we have lost nearly 400 men, leaving us with only a little over 1,300 men still capable of fighting. If we continue the assault, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Despite his unruly nature, Yuichiro Nagano had to lower his proud head in the face of the regiment's enormous losses.

He paced back and forth for a while, then gritted his teeth and ordered the troops to halt their attack. He then sent someone to report to General Kunisaki Sono and request artillery support.

Furthermore, you must immediately arrange for troops to monitor and surround the church.

"Hai!"

Hearing that the regimental commander had finally listened to his advice, Morimura Juro breathed a sigh of relief, responded loudly, and went down.

At this moment, neither Yuichiro Nagano nor Su Yaoyang expected that the battle taking place in this inconspicuous church had already alarmed a higher level.

General Xiao Shanling, the Major General Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Military Police Command, who had just received an order from the Capital Garrison Command to "assemble at the Huaqi Camp and await orders," heard from his subordinates that they had discovered intense gunfire coming from a location in the city, and even heard the sound of large-scale artillery fire.

"Is that so?" Xiao Shanling was shocked and quickly asked, "Which unit is this, and how does it possess such powerful artillery?"

"Reporting to the commander, the department doesn't know either." The adjutant who came to report added, "But the department just heard some news that a Central Military Academy Training Corps has apparently occupied St. Paul's Church in the city."

There were still many women and students in the church; the Central Army training unit had stayed there to protect them and hold off the Japanese troops.

"The Central Military Academy Training Corps?" Xiao Shanling pondered for a moment after hearing this.

"If it's the Central Military Academy Training Corps, then that makes sense. Only they can hold their own against the Japanese now. However, the Training Corps has already suffered heavy losses, and the troops in the church probably won't be able to hold out for long."

It must be said that Xiao Shanling had a very sharp eye and immediately saw the biggest problem with the Training Corps.

The adjutant hesitated for a moment: "Commander Xiao, should we send someone to contact the training brigade in the church? Even just giving them some support would be helpful."

(End of this chapter)