Bright Sword: From Northwest Shanxi to Changjin Lake, a Hundred Battles, a Hundred Victories

Chapter 254 Chen Ming is shocked! Do I have such a powerful subordinate?

"Er Leng, Hu Zi, it's me, Xiao Hu."

"Little Tiger, is that really you?!"

The two prisoners were both surprised and delighted to see Little Tiger.

"It's me. It's been so many years. I never expected to see you like this when we meet again."

"Now that you're captured, I'm asking you a question out of consideration for our past service together: do you want to live or die?"

Little Tiger spoke up, trying to scare them.

Hearing Xiao Hu say this, the two puppet soldiers were terrified and desperately tried to grasp at any straw.

"I want to live, Xiao Hu! We used to be brothers in the same company, you have to save us!"

The two spoke urgently.

Xiao Hu calmly said, "You can live if you want. I know you surrendered to the Japanese out of necessity. Now you have a chance to redeem yourself. All you need is..."

Xiao Hu explained the situation.

"No, if we do that, my parents and my son will definitely be killed by the Japanese!"

After listening, Erleng began to speak.

He cared more about his family than his own life.

People are complex. A person may surrender, but it is undeniable that he is a person who values ​​emotions.

After listening, Xiao Hu said:
"Just don't let the Japanese know. Later, find a corpse to replace your ID tag, and you'll look like you've 'died in action.' That way, the Japanese won't know you joined the army and will make things difficult for your family."

"Once the Japanese have lowered their guard, we'll bring your family over."

"Otherwise, given that the armored battalion has already been wiped out, even if you manage to return safely, the Japanese will not let you go."

"You must know how brutal the Japanese Kwantung Army was, right?"

This situation did indeed exist in the puppet Manchukuo forces; the Japanese Kwantung Army was far more brutal and ruthless than the Japanese troops inside the Great Wall.

For a vital unit like an armored battalion, significant losses will inevitably lead to accountability.

Given the current situation of the complete annihilation of the armored battalion, even if these puppet troops are able to escape, they will only be met with the merciless slaughter of the Japanese Kwantung Army.

As for surrendering directly, they would be held accountable by the Japanese Kwantung Army.

One reason why the Japanese Iron Stone Unit was the most powerful among the puppet Manchukuo army was that their families were under the control of the Japanese.

If the Japanese find out they surrendered, their families would suffer at their hands.

This is also why the puppet Manchukuo army had stronger combat effectiveness and fighting will than the puppet army inside the Great Wall.

The Japanese occupation of Manchukuo lasted longer and had a deeper foundation, while the resistance was weaker, giving the Japanese greater control over the region.

Meanwhile, the area inside the Great Wall was relatively weak due to the resistance from our army behind enemy lines and the fact that the Japanese occupation period was short.

At the same time, the strong resistance forces inside the Great Wall posed a greater threat to the traitors and puppet troops who had sided with the Japanese. Under the pressure of fearing the consequences, the traitors and puppet troops were more inclined to surrender.

Xiao Hu's move was inspired by Chen Ming's policy on prisoners of war, and it's equally applicable here.

By changing their names, the Japanese could reduce the chances of the puppet troops being discovered after surrendering and joining our army, thus retaliating against the families of the surrendered puppet troops and weakening their will to resist.

Sure enough, the two of them wavered after hearing what Xiaohu said.

They were unwilling to surrender because they feared the Japanese would retaliate against their families.

Now, by pretending to have been killed in action and changing their names, the Japanese soldiers will think they have died, and their families will be safe.

Even if the Japanese Kwantung Army was cruel and ruthless, it wouldn't go so far as to seek revenge on the families of fallen puppet soldiers.

If your family is implicated if you die on the battlefield, who would be willing to risk their life for the Japanese?

If Xiaohu agrees to bring their families over after the war ends, they will have no more worries.

"I promise, I will behave well, please be sure to rescue my parents and son."

Erleng was the first to speak, trying to grasp at this lifeline.

“Me too,” Tiger said.

"Alright, I will report to the commander and give you a chance. I hope you will seize the opportunity and stop being so stubborn."

"Back then, our Northeast Army abandoned the Northeast without resistance and was already cursed to death by our fellow countrymen. This time, we cannot let them down again."

Xiao Hu spoke solemnly.

He wanted to prove that their Northeast Army was not spineless!
Xiao Hu reported the situation to Liu Tengjie.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Tengjie nodded in agreement.

However, he did not let his guard down completely and had explosives installed on the tanks. If the two men made any unusual movements, the soldiers watching them would immediately detonate the explosives.

After all, they just surrendered, so talking about trust is definitely just empty talk.

You can only entrust your back to your own comrades; you can never fully trust a puppet army that has just surrendered.

After making the arrangements, Liu Tengjie gave the order:
"I ordered the troops to split into three groups. One battalion, escorting some of the puppet army prisoners, drove the captured tanks westward. After reaching the Laoha River, they sank all the tanks into the river and destroyed them."

"After the bombing, we immediately broke up into smaller groups, took the prisoners and fled into the mountains, looking for an opportunity to return to our camp in Yingzi Village to regroup."

"Second Battalion, advance south toward Ningcheng, make noise along the way to attract the attention of the Japanese, and then immediately disperse westward to infiltrate back into the mountains."

"The Third Battalion, with most of the puppet army prisoners, will break out to the east and enter the Qilaotu Mountains. Be careful to cover your tracks along the way."

Liu Tengjie issued three orders.

One battalion, along with some surrendered puppet army tank soldiers, drove the captured tanks westward to attract the attention of the Japanese.

This was intended to make the Japanese think that their main force was heading this way, and to use tanks, an important weapon, to contain them.

Finally, all the tanks were sunk into the river to destroy all traces, preventing the Japanese from immediately knowing the number of tanks destroyed.

This created an opportunity for Xiao Hu and the two surrendered puppet soldiers to secretly drive a tank back to the base.

Otherwise, if the Japanese found out that the advance team had captured the tanks and driven them away, they would definitely pursue them relentlessly.

Tanks are heavy weapons, and even the smallest Japanese tanks can play a significant role. The Japanese would not allow them to be captured by the advance team.

Therefore, Liu Tengjie decided to refer to Chen Ming's strategy of using infantry gun models to confuse the Japanese, and to destroy all the evidence by directly destroying the tanks and sinking them into the river.

As for the Second Battalion, they also made a commotion to the south to attract the attention of the Japanese and make it difficult for the Japanese to understand the intentions of the advance team.

As for the Third Battalion, they took the puppet army prisoners and tanks and took advantage of the Japanese troops being distracted and left vulnerable, directly traversing into the mountains.

They returned in triumph with their spoils and three tanks, and then contacted the main force to plead for them to send someone to retrieve the tanks.

After the order was issued, the three battalions immediately began to act accordingly.

During the war, Liu Tengjie was the decisive person in the advance team, and his word was law.

Each unit had only one option: to obey orders.

at this time.

The Japanese Kwantung Army had just received intelligence that its advance team had launched an attack on Yuanbaoshan Town.

The Japanese immediately contacted the Iron Stone Unit, demanding that they gather intelligence.

However, at this time, the Iron Stone Unit's liaison department was also unable to contact the attacked Iron Tiger Unit, which was the puppet army's armored battalion.

The phone call went unanswered, the radio station gave no response, it was as if the other party had vanished from the face of the earth.

Upon learning of this situation, the Japanese soldiers knew that this armored battalion was likely to suffer heavy losses, or even be completely annihilated.

In cold weather, armored units have limited ability to resist an attack. Tanks need at least half an hour to warm up, which is enough time for the enemy's elite forces to break through the armored unit's defenses.

Moreover, it has been ascertained that the advance team consists of more than a thousand people, while the puppet army's armored battalion has less than five hundred men.

Given the combat effectiveness demonstrated by the advance team in previous battles, the probability of the puppet army's armored battalion successfully resisting after being suddenly attacked was extremely low.

Therefore, the Japanese immediately ordered all their troops to surround Yuanbaoshan Town.

First, we must compress the encirclement and eliminate the vanguard's manpower.

Secondly, to recover the lost tanks and prevent the Eighth Route Army from taking the captured tanks away and forming combat power.

The Japanese knew that the Independent Detachment had an armored battalion.

They had no doubt that the Eighth Route Army had the ability to take away the tanks.

After all, it had been determined that this advance team was a unit dispatched by the Independent Detachment.

The puppet army armored battalion that suddenly attacked the heart of Rehe was definitely up to something.

It is very likely that their target is this batch of tanks, and they want to recreate the scene of capturing a large number of tanks in the Battle of Jining.

The Japanese would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen.

An armored battalion can already play a significant role on the battlefield.

Under certain circumstances, it can influence the course of a battle, making it extremely important.

however.

Liu Tengjie's choice of attack time was very deliberate; he chose midnight.

At this point, the Japanese planes became ineffective.

In the pitch-black night, the infantry's visibility was limited, making it impossible to effectively obtain information about the enemy.

The Japanese could only adopt a wide-net approach, forming an encirclement from the outside and gradually compressing inwards.

At the same time, heavy troops were deployed in the direction from which the advance team could easily escape to block their breakout.

After two hours, the Third Battalion, escorting prisoners of war and puppet troops in tanks, arrived at Laoha River.

The puppet troops were very cooperative, letting the tanks pass without saying a word or even thinking of escaping.

Because Liu Tengjie told them that given the complete annihilation of the armored battalion, even if they escaped back, they would be executed.

The Japanese soldiers could not accept being captured, and they applied this same concept to the puppet Manchukuo army.

Any puppet troops who dare to surrender instead of fight to the death will face torture that is worse than death.

The commanders of the Iron Stone Unit were all Japanese, and the puppet troops were already familiar with the nature of these Japanese officers.

Moreover, even if some hot-headed puppet troops wanted to escape in tanks, they wouldn't have a chance.

Each tank was strapped with explosives. If there was any unusual movement, the soldiers would not hesitate to ignite the explosives and blow the tank to smithereens.

Anyway, the purpose of the first battalion was to destroy tanks and draw the Japanese's attention. The fact that some tanks were destroyed on the way did not affect anything.

As long as the tank tracks eventually extend into the Laoha River, letting the Japanese know that a tank has been sunk in the water, that's enough.

As for the insufficient tank markings, just drive around a couple more times and it will be fine.

Due to a combination of factors, these puppet troops cooperated very well.

"Battalion Commander, are we going to blow up all these tanks and armored vehicles?"

Upon arriving at Laoha River, the company commander of the first battalion asked with concern.

The tanks they had captured with great difficulty were not without tank units in the independent detachment behind them.

If so many valuable tanks were transported back, they could form a combat force.

The company commander of the first battalion was heartbroken to see it blown up like that.

"What else can we do but blow them up? If we don't blow up these tanks, will the Japanese give up so easily?"

"We can't possibly break out with these things. There are more than 20,000 enemies around us. If we're not careful, we could be wiped out."

"Since the captain has given the order, we should just carry it out."

The battalion commander spoke up.

"Sigh." The company commander glanced at the tanks with regret and began to order his men to prepare to blow them up.

The Laoha River has frozen over, but the ice is not thick enough to support a tank driving directly onto it.

Fortunately, the tanks they brought this time were all Japanese Type 94 ultralight tanks, weighing only a little over three tons.

The soldiers laid planks, bundles of branches, and straw mats on the ice to increase the contact area and distribute the pressure. With the weight of the Japanese small tanks, driving on them was not a big problem.

After another hour of hard work, with the soldiers working together, six tanks and three armored vehicles reached the ice.

“Explode it!”

With a command from the battalion commander, the explosives placed on the tanks and armored vehicles detonated, causing the ice surface to crack.

The tank, engulfed in flames, sank into the river, bubbling and gurgling.

"Sprinkle the extracted oil on the ice and set it on fire to confuse the Japanese soldiers. At the same time, blast several holes along the way to increase the Japanese soldiers' search time."

The battalion commander gave the order again.

Before the order to destroy them was given, the fuel inside these tanks was drained.

Now sprinkle them on the ice and set them on fire. Use the heat generated by the burning to melt part of the ice, and then thaw it again under the influence of the cold weather.

By utilizing the special traces that appear when the ice is thawed and then re-thawed, traces can be created.

This would conceal the tank's tracks on the ice, preventing the Japanese from quickly locating the tank and thus increasing their search time.

However, diesel fuel cannot be ignited directly on ice with an open flame.

But this was no challenge for the clever soldiers.

The soldiers soaked cotton cloth in diesel fuel and then lit it with an open flame, using the cotton cloth as a combustion medium to provide the conditions for the diesel fuel to vaporize, thus making it ignite.

It's the same principle as kerosene, which cannot be directly ignited, but can be lit to provide illumination when a wick is inserted.

After doing all this, the battalion commander immediately ordered the captured puppet troops to disperse and retreat.

The fire at night will definitely attract the attention of the Japanese soldiers, and they will surround the area soon. We must seize the time to disperse and break out.

The progress in the other two areas is equally encouraging.

The Second Battalion successfully advanced towards Ningcheng, drawing the attention of many Japanese soldiers, and finally broke through in small groups.

The battalion, along with most of the puppet troops captured and the spoils, successfully entered the mountainous area.

As for the safety of the first and second battalions, there's no need to worry.

They were expanded from the top three elite reconnaissance battalion of the independent detachment. As reconnaissance soldiers, they were best at infiltrating with small groups.

In the pitch-black night, the scouts were in their element, outmaneuvering the Japanese soldiers.

Upon entering the mountainous area, Liu Tengjie immediately reported the captured goods to Chen Ming's command post via telegram.

"Report, advance team reports: During last night's attack, the advance team captured three tanks, which have now been transported into the mountains. Please provide instructions from headquarters."

A communications soldier carrying a telegram entered the command post and reported to Chen Ming.

Chen Ming was shocked: "What? The advance team captured all three tanks?!"

(End of this chapter)