Chapter 10 The Soldiers of the Tenth Company

The new recruits of the Tenth Company didn't stop because they were lagging behind, nor did they slow their pace.

They worked hard to speed up, trying to reduce the gap with the veterans in front.

The combat approach of this unit was very different from before. In the past, everyone would try to appear very diligent, but the real speed had to be slow; otherwise, they would really rush to the front and become cannon fodder.

Today was different. These newly joined warriors really wanted to rush to the front and fight the Japanese devils.

Fu Yuanwei and Qiu Hongzhi's efforts were not in vain. Li Hongye had already rushed into the smoke-filled battlefield.

In the hazy smoke, his rifle could be seen thrusting out and retracting quickly.

The Japanese soldier opposite fell! It looked extremely easy.

The Japanese soldiers opposite seemed like fools, cooperating with Li Hongye's performance!

After Li Hongye stabbed two Japanese soldiers to death, Fu Yuanwei and Qiu Hongzhi had already caught up.

They personally witnessed Li Hongye stepping forward, the bayonet in his hand stabbing into the chest of a Japanese soldier like lightning.

He easily stabbed the Japanese soldier opposite down, and Fu Yuanwei and the others were all eager to try.

These new warriors all rushed forward. These new recruits were only called new recruits because they had just joined the Special Operations Brigade.

In fact, some of them were veterans with more than ten years of experience. Bayonet fighting was a basic operation trained after joining the army, and they had learned it.

It was just that they usually practiced for a long time, but they hadn't forgotten the basic movements.

When Fu Yuanwei's bayonet stabbed into the chest of a Japanese soldier opposite, he couldn't believe it: he could actually kill a Japanese soldier head-on?

I actually killed a Japanese soldier? And it was on the battlefield, face to face in a bayonet fight?

On the entire battlefield, there were many people like him who couldn't believe that they had such strength, that they could fight the Japanese head-on and even kill one.

They had heard more than once that one Japanese soldier could defeat three Nationalist soldiers in a bayonet fight.

They had also seen in the usual competitions that one Japanese soldier stabbed three puppet soldiers to the ground, causing bursts of laughter: both the puppet soldiers and the Japanese soldiers laughed together.

Fu Yuanwei didn't stand there dumbfounded. He only felt excitement and agitation, wishing he could roar at the sky and vent his emotions.

When he saw Li Hongye still the same as before, one step, one stab, one stab to kill a Japanese soldier, Li Hongye always shouted "Kill!" when he stabbed.

Fu Yuanwei finally didn't roar at the sky. He learned from Li Hongye, took two steps forward, aimed at the Japanese soldier coming up, and stabbed forward with the rifle in his hand, shouting, "Kill!"

This shout contained all the emotions he had accumulated, including all the resentment he had suffered in front of the Japanese soldiers in the past six years.

This shout meant that he could finally hold his head high and be a man from now on.

The Japanese soldier facing him was frightened by Fu Yuanwei's sudden shout, and was completely stunned by the momentum of the Nationalist soldier opposite.

The rifle in his hand didn't even lift up, and Fu Yuanwei's second kill was so successful.

Killing two Japanese soldiers in a row, and both were killed head-on. Such a record gave Fu Yuanwei great confidence.

He began to look for the next target. At this time, he saw Qiu Hongzhi pulling the bayonet out of a Japanese soldier's chest.

Seeing that his partner was suddenly so powerful like himself, Fu Yuanwei realized: it wasn't just himself who had become powerful, everyone had changed.

Uchiyama Yusuke followed the team, mixed in the middle, looking at the Nationalist army camp not far away: "As long as we rush through this unguarded trench, we can rush in."

Captain Mukai Yosuke, who was commanding these Japanese soldiers like Uchiyama Yusuke, also had a smile on his face at this time. For this former Japanese company commander who had been transferred to the reserves, today's mission was surprisingly simple. The entire team had completed the mission without any fighting.

Three years ago, he was still a company commander in the regular Japanese army, but he was transferred to the reserves for various reasons.

In the past few years, his life in his hometown had not been satisfactory, so he returned to this land where he had fought for more than twenty years.

He found a position in the Tianjia'an Coal Mine, with a good income and a comfortable life.

When the Aikuang Team (Love the Mines Team) was established, coal mine safety supervisors like him had to join.

Mukai Yosuke had a history as a company commander before, so he naturally became the captain in the Aikuang Team.

Now he was commanding these temporarily pieced together teams to charge, and the trenches in front were very close.

At this moment, an explosion sounded, and the entire ground was shaking. This period of time was not long, but Mukai Yosuke felt as if a century had passed.

When he finally came to his senses, the originally bright earth was shrouded in smoke again, becoming hazy.

In front of his team, there were bursts of shouts of killing.

Captain Mukai Yosuke was happy: the ragtag army under his command was able to rush into the Nationalist army's position under ambush and engage them in close combat.

He immediately pulled out his command saber and pointed it in the direction of the killing sounds: "Charge!"

Captain Mukai Yosuke completely ignored the Japanese soldiers who fell on the ground, screaming for help.

His eyes were now only on rushing up and killing those cunning Nationalist soldiers.

Around him, there were still some Japanese soldiers who were not injured by the bombs. Their spirits, which had been frightened by the bomb explosions, were finally awakened by the order of Captain Mukai.

These Japanese soldiers rushed towards the direction designated by the captain's command saber. As they rushed forward, they wrapped up some Japanese soldiers who had not yet reacted and rushed forward together.

The four hundred soldiers of the Tenth Company could no longer distinguish between veterans and new recruits. They were all the same:

Their feet took big strides, their mouths shouted "Kill!" and their rifles quickly stabbed into the chests of the Japanese soldiers.

Few of the Japanese soldiers in front of them could withstand the first blow. The Japanese soldiers commanded by Captain Mukai Yosuke were all sitting in teahouses yesterday, talking business, or sitting in offices doing things.

They were only temporarily gathered together, given a gun, and sent to the battlefield.

Now, they were faced with a bayonet fight that tested courage the most on the battlefield, which made these Japanese soldiers who had just come to the battlefield to make money very uncomfortable.

When they were talking about everything in the teahouse, they could be a hundred times more courageous, pointing at the sky and drawing on the ground, without changing their faces.

But when they were asked to face the warriors of the Special Operations Brigade face-to-face on the real battlefield and fight with bayonets, these businessmen were afraid.

They were so afraid that they didn't even know how to escape. All their courage had disappeared without a trace, and they mechanically raised their guns to parry.

Behind them, there was still cannon fodder who had just been encouraged by Captain Mukai to rush up.

These Japanese soldiers had not personally seen the ferocity of the Tenth Company soldiers, so they could still rush forward.

When they saw that on the real battlefield, all that mattered was courage and strength, these Japanese soldiers immediately lost heart.

Uchiyama Yusuke was not injured in the bombing, but was stabbed through the heart by Qiu Hongzhi in the subsequent bayonet fight.

Uchiyama Yusuke, who fell to the ground, looked at the hazy sky with dull eyes, unable to close his eyes no matter what.

But no one cared whether he closed his eyes or not. The villagers organized by Regiment Commander Tang Youwei were the ones who cleaned up the corpses.

When Li Dazhu and Xu Erdan took off the silk mandarin jacket worn by Uchiyama Yusuke, they looked at the Japanese soldier who died with his eyes open.

They were not even willing to reach out and wipe his eyelids. After removing all his clothes, they lifted him onto the cart.

These days, the villagers cleaned up the Japanese soldiers' bodies every day, and they had long been experienced. They no longer lifted only one corpse at a time like they did on the first day.

They used carts to load several corpses at a time and pulled them to the big pit before dumping them, which was labor-saving and fast.

Li Dazhu and the others could collect a lot of clothes and shoes to take back home every day.

They no longer found the Japanese military uniforms as rare as they did at first, but today's batch of Japanese soldiers was different.

Their clothes included suits and mandarin jackets, which could be washed and worn directly after taking them home.

It's just that these clothes were not suitable for farmers to wear in the fields. Although they were valuable, not many people actually liked them.

The longer Li Dazhu, Xu Erdan, and the others helped the Special Operations Brigade, the more they understood the Special Operations Brigade, and the more they liked it.

Especially at dinner time every day, someone would explain the principles to them, and the more they listened, the more they understood.

They understood why they were so poor, and why they couldn't get rich no matter how hard they worked.

They also understood why everyone should unite to fight the Japanese devils now.

These days, everyone in the village had been discussing the establishment of a farmers' association to unite all the poor people and help each other.

When there were difficulties, everyone would do it together, and when there were problems, everyone would help!

As for the village's guerrilla team, it already had a preliminary form, and even the Special Operations Brigade had given them a hundred guns.

While the villagers around Tianjia'an were cleaning up the battlefield, Lin Fan and Chen Sichuan had already followed the team into Tianjia'an.

After receiving the news from Captain Kenson Sohta of the Jiangyuan Military Police, Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke immediately sent people to verify it.

The first batch of verified news was even more tragic than the report from Captain Kenson Sohta of the Jiangyuan Military Police: all 5,000 Japanese soldiers of the Aikuang Team had been killed in battle.

Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke was worthy of being a veteran of many battles. He didn't continue to wait for the next news.

He just calmly issued an order: "Leave!"

At Tianjia'an Railway Station, Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro led the remaining five hundred Japanese soldiers of his regiment, guarding nervously.

When he heard the brigade commander's personal order from the telephone: "Immediately prepare the train to Xuzhou, and be ready to depart at any time," Kugu Shunsuke didn't panic.

He ordered: "The Eighthyama Takumi Artillery Company will hold Tianjia'an."

Then he rushed to the railway station with his guards, and Captain Kenson Sohta of the Military Police also followed with more than twenty military police.

When he arrived at the station, Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke just said lightly: "All officers and soldiers of the Independent Mixed Tenth Brigade at the railway station will immediately board the train, and transfer to Xuzhou in five minutes!"

When Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro heard the word "transfer," he immediately understood that the situation was serious.

He immediately ordered: "The Mizumoto Ichiro Regiment will board the train immediately!"

In fact, there were only about five hundred Japanese soldiers in this team, plus the more than one hundred guards brought by Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke, and the more than twenty Japanese soldiers led by Captain Kenson Sohta, a total of less than seven hundred Japanese soldiers.

They all boarded the train in three minutes. Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro asked Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke for instructions: "All the Japanese soldiers have boarded the train. Should we depart?"

"Leave immediately!"

This time, Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke looked at Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro differently.

This Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro's organizational ability was still very strong. He actually did what he had planned to do in five minutes in just three minutes.

Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke didn't know that Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke had left Tianjia'an. He was still waiting for good news from them behind his team.

When a large number of Special Operations Brigade soldiers appeared in front of him, Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke couldn't believe his eyes.

Although Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke couldn't accept the reality, he quickly succumbed to it.

An officer like him had a warhorse. He turned his horse around and ran, and when he returned to Tianjia'an, he learned that Brigade Commander Kugu Shunsuke had left twenty minutes ago.

When Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke led his only remaining complete artillery company to the railway station, he discovered that not only had the five hundred Japanese soldiers of the Mizumoto Ichiro Regiment stationed at the station disappeared, but the railway leading to Xuzhou had been blown up by the Japanese soldiers sent by Regiment Commander Mizumoto Ichiro for a small section.

Tianjia'an had the ability to repair this small section of railway, but it only needed a little bit of two hours.

Lin Fan and Chen Sichuan didn't give him these two hours, or even twenty minutes to Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke.

Chen Sichuan's regiment had three companies arrive at the railway station, surrounding the last batch of Japanese soldiers in Tianjia'an Town from four directions.

There were still many Japanese soldiers following Commander-in-Chief Kanoe Yosuke. An artillery company had nearly two hundred Japanese soldiers, and his guards also had one hundred.

More than three hundred Japanese soldiers were at the Tianjia'an Railway Station, relying on the already built bunkers, trying to resist stubbornly.

Although there were only three companies from the regiment at the railway station, there were as many as 1,200 soldiers. The morale of these soldiers was high and their fighting spirit was high.

Especially the new recruits who had just joined yesterday, they had just won a great victory, which gave them infinite courage.

It made them think that they were already invincible in the world. Ninety-nine percent of them had personally killed Japanese soldiers on the battlefield for the first time.

And this time, it wasn't just killing one Japanese soldier, which really made them a little inflated and a little飘 (piāo, drifting, meaning feeling lightheaded and arrogant).

If these people hadn't personally seen that the number of Japanese soldiers killed by the veterans in their company was higher than theirs, these new recruits would have long drifted into the sky. Especially some of these new recruits had also fought against the Japanese soldiers in the Nationalist army, and surrendered after being captured.

They knew even more clearly how great the credit was for killing one or two Japanese soldiers. If they were in the Nationalist army, personally killing a Japanese soldier would be meritorious and rewarded.

It's just that their merits were not worth mentioning compared to the veterans.

With the suppression of the veterans' achievements, these new recruits could be excited and agitated, but they couldn't飘 (piāo).

This was completely the suppression of strength, which forced these new recruits to be low-key.

But these suppressions could be completely released when facing the Japanese soldiers.

When they saw that there were still Japanese soldiers in the bunkers at the railway station, these new recruits were extremely excited.

Railway station! They were familiar with it. Before yesterday, many of them were guarding the railway station.

Just when Lin Fan and Chen Sichuan were preparing to transfer Feng Junya's artillery regiment over, or use the same routine as the previous two times, directly using artillery to blow up the bunkers defended by the Japanese soldiers, Fan Jinglue and Ma Lingyun suggested: they proposed to绕 (rào, detour) past the coal piles in the station's freight yard, and they could go directly to the back of the bunkers.

Going in from the back door of the bunkers, there was no need to blow up the bunkers at all.

When Company Commander Gui heard this suggestion, he immediately reported it to Chen Sichuan, and he heard that it was a suggestion actively proposed by the newly joined soldiers.

Chen Sichuan asked to bring the person over, and at the same time brought a few new soldiers from the other companies.

In the temporary headquarters of Lin Fan and Chen Sichuan, Fan Jinglue roughly drew the terrain of the railway station.

He marked at least five routes that could avoid the frontal attack of the bunkers. Lin Fan looked at these routes, compared them with what he saw, and they completely matched.

He immediately made a decision: Company One would send out a platoon to test the attack once according to the route pointed out by Fan Jinglue.

This was the first time Fan Jinglue had been a pioneer since 1931. He was at the very front of the entire team.

Because he came up with the idea, he had to lead the way at the front, of course.

Third Platoon Leader Yu Yangbing followed behind him. Third Platoon Leader was very concerned about this soldier, Fan Jinglue.

He heard from other new recruits that this person had entered the Jiangwutang Military Academy and had also been the company commander of the Northeast Army.

He was ordered not to resist, and after the entire team was incorporated into the puppet army, he didn't even serve as a company commander for a few days before he was dismissed.

Then he had been a ordinary soldier in the puppet army, but he had a high prestige in the puppet army. Many puppet soldiers were willing to follow him, saying that fighting with him would increase the chances of survival.

A person like this was obviously a veteran油条 (yóutiáo, fried dough stick, meaning a slippery, cunning person), and he was able to actively stand up and offer suggestions this time, and he didn't know what his purpose was.

The Special Operations Brigade didn't have 100% trust in anyone from the beginning, and of course, they wouldn't be completely unprepared for such a person.

Fan Jinglue himself knew this. If the Special Operations Brigade was really so easy to completely trust him, they wouldn't have been winning so many battles all along.

Therefore, he actively introduced to Platoon Leader Yu Yangbing where each road led to, which roads were dead ends, and which roads were life-saving paths.

Fan Jinglue tried his best to release his goodwill. Although the third platoon leader was only a platoon leader, he had ten squads in his hands, which was completely the equipment of a company.

Platoon Leader Yu Yangbing certainly received the goodwill of this new soldier. Although he had been on guard, he still wrote down Fan Jinglue's words.

When they passed the mountain-like coal piles in the freight yard, Fan Jinglue quietly poked his head out, signaling the team behind to stop.

Yu Yangbing followed up and looked at the two bunkers on the left and right in front of him. There were no firing holes in this direction of the two bunkers, only a closed iron door.

Platoon Leader Yu asked in a low voice, "Are there any Japanese sentries and hidden bunkers around the bunker?"

"No! This place is for storing coal, and there is no way to get these things around."

"Squad One and Squad Two, attack the bunker on the left, Squad Three and Squad Four, attack the bunker on the right," Platoon Leader Yu ordered.

"That door is usually half-closed, and it opens with a push. Our grenades are powerful. Throw a few grenades in when you push the door open. I guarantee that the Japanese soldiers will be in a world of hurt!" Fan Jinglue suggested.

Platoon Leader Yu nodded, "You can try it, but be prepared to attack hard!"

The soldiers of the four squads rushed out like arrows off a bowstring, and the soldiers of the third platoon watched their comrades who rushed out nervously.

Platoon Leader Yu stared at the soldiers rushing up. They rushed to the iron gate,贴 (tiē, stick) to the bunker, prepared a directional mine, and also wrapped iron pellets on the other side of it.

They gently pushed the iron door, and the door opened as expected. Another soldier who had been prepared immediately threw the explosive package in.

All the soldiers who had just leaned against both sides of the iron door suddenly pounced backward and lay down on the ground.

Yu Yangbing and the others, who were thirty meters away, heard the horrified and desperate screams from inside the bunker: "Bomb!"

It was conceivable how desperate the Japanese soldiers staying in the bunker were when facing the explosive package that suddenly appeared behind them.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

With two loud noises, many small holes suddenly appeared in the iron door that had just been closed, and countless iron pellets penetrated from inside the bunker.

The soldiers lying on the ground rushed in, and a dozen Japanese soldiers were lying there, crisscrossed.

Some Japanese soldiers were struggling to resist, but they were all dealt with one by one.

Lin Fan and Chen Sichuan were in the shelter of the headquarters, watching a cloud of smoke suddenly emerge from the bunker not far away, followed by a loud noise.

Both bunkers were like this, and they looked at each other with some relief in their eyes.

The new recruit just now was still reliable!

Yu Yangbing excitedly patted Fan Jinglue on the shoulder: "Good job! I knew you could do it! You took down two bunkers so easily!"

A relaxed expression also appeared on Fan Jinglue's face: "Platoon Leader! There are several bunkers that can be attacked like this if you go this way."

Kanoe Yosuke, the commander of the anxiously sitting in the dispatcher's office of Tianjia'an Station, heard an explosion from outside.

He asked anxiously, "Have the Nationalists broken in?"

When the Special Operations Brigade had just attacked the station, there had been a dense exchange of fire, and with the help of the solid bunkers around the station, the group of Japanese soldiers under his command had repelled the attack of the Special Operations Brigade.

Less than twenty minutes had passed, and such a loud explosion had occurred outside.

He was afraid that the heavy artillery of the Special Operations Brigade had come again.

"Report, Brigade Commander! It was not heavy artillery, but they used people to rush up and take down our two bunkers." Lieutenant Colonel Uehara Takuto, who had observed the situation outside, reported.