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

Chapter 51 Chen Ming is injured
In this battle, their New First Regiment had exhausted most of its resources. Now that they had annihilated an entire Japanese regiment, how could they possibly give up such a large amount of spoils?
"This is an order from headquarters. We must evacuate within thirty minutes. The Japanese reinforcements are arriving soon," Chen Ming said.

"I don't care, brothers, hurry up and clean up the battlefield, and take all the stuff with you!" Li Yunlong shouted.

Looking at the other party's shameless behavior, Chen Ming felt somewhat exhausted.

Without the presence of brigade commanders, division commanders, or generals, Li Yunlong truly feared nothing.

He could understand the other party's feelings. After all, the Eighth Route Army was afraid of being poor, and it would be heartbreaking for anyone to give up so much spoils.

But the situation is critical now; every minute of delay increases the danger.

Chen Ming was exhausted, both mentally and physically, to the point that he could barely stand.

"Dafei, help me up," Chen Ming called out weakly.

"Commander." Dafei quickly helped Chen Ming up, only to find that the other man seemed to have lost all his strength and slumped softly into his arms.

"Captain!"

"Captain!"

When the soldiers of the Second Independent Regiment saw that Chen Ming was unconscious, they abandoned their task of cleaning up the battlefield and all gathered around him.

Li Yunlong was also startled by Chen Ming's sudden collapse. He squeezed through the crowd to check on him and saw that Chen Ming's clothes were stained with blood.

It turned out that Chen Ming had been accidentally stabbed by a Japanese soldier during a bayonet fight.

Because the battle was so intense, the adrenaline made him feel no pain.

Now that his adrenaline has subsided, exhaustion has overwhelmed him.

"Start the rescue immediately, get out of here right now, I don't care about the equipment!" Li Yunlong shouted, pushing through the crowd and leading Chen Ming to retreat.

The medics also helped Chen Ming stop the bleeding.

Although Li Yunlong usually seems stingy and miserly, always complaining and blaming others, he is absolutely decisive when it matters.

If he keeps talking about equipment when his comrade-in-arms is critically injured, he wouldn't be Li Yunlong.

The Eighth Route Army soldiers on Cangyun Ridge began a rapid retreat, and the battle report was sent to headquarters via telegram.

Headquarters.

When the commander-in-chief and other leaders learned that the Sakata Regiment had indeed been completely wiped out and that the troops were rapidly withdrawing, they all breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

This Japanese regiment was finally wiped out.

This feat of annihilating an entire Japanese regiment in its entirety was unprecedented in all of China; the Eighth Route Army was the first to achieve it.

This was not a sneak attack, nor an ambush on the Japanese logistics units; it was a fair and square field battle in which an enemy regiment was annihilated.

Now the Eighth Route Army can finally hold their heads high and see who dares to say they are "fleeing without fighting" and only engaging in small skirmishes in the rear.

The boss also learned about Chen Ming's injury and coma via telegram.

This was his lucky general. The reason why the Sakata Regiment was able to be completely annihilated this time was that, apart from Li Yunlong's New First Regiment destroying the Sakata Regiment's command post with a single artillery shot, thus paralyzing the Japanese command system.

Chen Ming's contribution was also remarkable; he mobilized troops to infiltrate behind enemy lines and wiped out the artillery positions of the Sakata Regiment.

They also swiftly penetrated the enemy's vitals, using a regiment to block the retreat of the Sakata Regiment and hold the Niujiaoshan Cliff Pass.

The Japanese soldiers were unable to retreat, nor could they regroup and break out. They were divided, surrounded, and wiped out by the remaining regiments of soldiers.

In order to save Chen Ming, this lucky general, the commander-in-chief directly ordered the special operations regiment to bring the best doctors from the already transferred field hospital to provide emergency treatment for Chen Ming with surgical instruments and doctors.

"No matter what difficulties I encounter, I must rescue Chen Ming." Chen Ming's safety is on many people's minds.

Needless to say, the soldiers of the Independent Second Regiment were almost driven mad after Chen Ming collapsed from excessive blood loss.

Despite being utterly exhausted, he carried the unconscious Chen Ming to the field hospital as quickly as possible.

Li Yunlong of the New First Regiment also greatly admired Chen Ming's heroic performance and battlefield decision-making ability.

After Li Yunlong destroyed the command system of the Sakata Regiment, his first thought was to break out. Chen Ming keenly sensed the opportunity, reported to headquarters, and led his troops to attack the Japanese from behind.

At the same time, they immediately took down the Japanese artillery positions, blocking the Japanese retreat route.

Under the command of headquarters, their 129th Division finally annihilated the Sakata Regiment.

"Chen Ming is a skilled fighter; he can't be allowed to die so easily," Li Yunlong said.

Even Chu Yunfei, who was observing the Battle of Cangyunling from the 358th Regiment's garrison, admired Chen Ming's keen battlefield insight.

"If I have the chance, I must go and see who is leading this unit," Chu Yunfei exclaimed.

However, Chu Yunfei soon found himself speechless.

It turned out that after the Eighth Route Army withdrew, the Japanese reinforcements arrived at Cangyunling and found that the entire army had been annihilated, with Japanese corpses scattered all over the mountains.

The Japanese division commander went berserk.

Unable to find the Eighth Route Army troops who had already withdrawn, the Japanese division commander vented his anger on the Jin-Sui Army.

Who told them to break their agreement and provide the Eighth Route Army with a large amount of artillery support?

He had to find a reasonable explanation for the defeat of the Sakata United team.

Yoshio Shinotsuka would not believe that the Eighth Route Army could annihilate a Japanese regiment, nor would the North China Expeditionary Army, nor would the Imperial General Headquarters.

The only possibility is that the Jin-Sui Army got involved.

Therefore, the commander of the Japanese 36th Division immediately ordered a fierce attack on the positions of the 358th Regiment of the Jin-Sui Army.

Chu Yunfei was baffled by the Japanese army's actions. Weren't they sweeping away the Eighth Route Army?

Why did they suddenly launch an attack on him? He had followed orders from his superiors and had not participated in the battle. There was no reason for the Japanese army to suddenly attack him!
The attacked 358th Regiment immediately retaliated. Although it was a regiment, it was a reinforced regiment with more than 5,000 men and strong firepower.

In this region of Shanxi, the fighting power of the Jin-Sui Army was beyond doubt. Therefore, Chu Yunfei, with only one regiment, fought a close battle with a regiment of the Japanese 36th Division, with casualties on both sides.

Yan Gongji, the commander of the Jin-Sui Army, was also bewildered by the sudden attack by the Japanese.

Why did the Japanese army suddenly break their tacit agreement and launch an attack on its Jin-Sui Army? Could it be that the troops below launched an attack on the Japanese army on their own?

Yan Gongji immediately sent people to investigate, and the result was that the troops below did not take the initiative to attack the Japanese army. It was the Japanese army that suddenly went crazy and launched a fierce attack on them.

The commander of the 36th Division insisted that the Jin-Sui Army had struck first, while the Jin-Sui Army denied that they had struck first.

Ultimately, through secret negotiations, the battle ended abruptly and in a rather anticlimactic manner.

On the other hand, in order to cover up the truth that an entire regiment had been wiped out, the Japanese army found a few Japanese soldiers who had survived by chance in some corner of the battlefield because there was no time to thoroughly clean up the battlefield.

Another small unit was transferred, and based on these few surviving Japanese soldiers, a new squad was formed.

Anyway, the regimental flag wasn't captured by the enemy, and no one could argue that the entire regiment had been wiped out.

As long as they are not all killed in action, they are not completely wiped out and cannot be considered as an organized destruction; they can only be considered severely damaged!
P.S.: This isn't meant to be provocative; it's just setting the stage for later plot developments. It's what you all want to see, you know what I mean.
(End of this chapter)