The islands in the Irrawaddy Delta are complex, with large islands and small islands connected continuously. The area is very large. The terrain changes every day after the tide rises and recedes, making it easy for people to get lost in it.
There are dangers lurking everywhere in the jungle, and expeditionary force planes are circling in the sky.
In this way, a group of them set out on the road, having to avoid threats from the air during the day and enduring hunger and cold at night.
Unconsciously, three days passed. On the way, they met a dying comrade. The man said to Onozuka Jin... The weather is really nice today, so he detonated the grenade.
With an explosion, the soldier was instantly blown away with only one foot and half of his head left, without any pain.
The scene was so disgusting that Onozuka Jin, who was already timid, almost vomited, but other members of the team seemed to be used to it.
But as time went by, Onozuka Jin became accustomed to it.
Because the further they walked, they saw more Japanese soldiers, all of them were like zombies. They either followed the team and moved forward mechanically, or fell on the roadside waiting for death to come, or picked up the weapons in their hands. The weapon kills itself.
The jungle was filled with such tragic scenes. Slowly it began to rain heavily, and the sweet potatoes were all eaten. However, the team was still moving forward, as if the road to the meeting point had no end.
The sergeant always walked at the front without saying a word. When faced with doubts from others, he always said: We are almost there, please try harder...
When encountering stragglers from other troops, the sergeant would walk up to them with a smile and use his sharp tongue to trick more people into joining the team.
In this way, the original team of seven people has now been gathered by the sergeant to have twenty or thirty people. However, everyone's situation is not very optimistic. From time to time, someone will fail to hold on and fall, and the consequences of falling behind are self-evident.
No one will be kind enough to help, and falling down means death.
Onozuka Jin couldn't help but began to wonder, was he right or wrong to follow them? But now that he has embarked on this path, there is no room for him to regret it.
Unknowingly, perhaps even Onozuka Jin himself was not aware of it, his state of mind began to slowly change.
Just today, another corpse was found on the road. The eyes were wide open with a horrified expression. Under the tattered clothes, a large area of pale skin was exposed, covered with white maggots.
Onozuka, on the other hand, was not afraid at all. He had gotten used to seeing it along the way and didn't feel sick at all.
Even when he saw the still intact arm, he whispered, it would be delicious when grilled...
The terrible hunger can drive people crazy, as if everything they look at can be imagined as food.
Finally, that afternoon, the group of them passed through the jungle that blocked the sky.
Ahead is a depression with indescribable tall reeds growing in it, swaying with the breeze, and the salty sea breeze can be smelled from a distance, proving that the place is not far from the destination.
The comrades in arms all accelerated their pace in excitement, except Onozuka Jin, who had trouble with his legs and feet, lagging behind.
"Sacks for feet! Please wait for me!"
No matter how he shouted, his comrades seemed to be unable to hear him and ran forward on their own.
Onozuka Jin could only limp to catch up, fearing that he would be left behind by his comrades, but soon his comrades disappeared from sight.
About ten minutes later, Onozuka dragged his heavy steps through the reed forest, but the scene that came into view at this moment set off a huge wave in his heart.
The open space in front was filled with the mutilated mummies of Japanese soldiers, densely packed in a large area, and the smell of putrefaction was so disgusting that people felt sick.
Looking further ahead, there is an endless coastline. Due to the low tide, the seawater separated from the island gradually reveals the shoals and depressions underneath. The water is less than ankle deep. If you run faster, you can reach the other shore in less than ten minutes, but that's it. The distance of a hundred or ten meters seemed to have become Shura Hell.
This... this is no southern seaside... and there is no so-called navy warship waiting to take them home.
Onozuka Jin was shocked by the scene before him. It turned out that the meeting point mentioned by the commander... was actually the northern part of the archipelago, where they landed on the island!
For fear of being discovered by the enemy on the opposite side, he quickly retreated into the reeds and ran away without thinking.
"Hey! Jin! Here!"
Before he ran far, he heard a shout from the reed forest. Onozuka Ren looked to the side in search of the sound, and saw a head protruding from the bushes waving to him.
Onozuka was stunned, and after a moment of hesitation, he ran over. With the help of his companions, he struggled to push aside the two-meter-high reed and got in.
It turned out that hidden inside were several comrades from the team who had just lost their way.
"Over there...over there..." Onozuka Ren pointed behind him in shock.
The sergeant lay lazily beside the tree stump. He was not too surprised when he saw Onozuka Jin appeared. He just glanced at him and said lightly: "Keep your voice down, find a place to rest, and wait until night before going out."
"Get out? Where to go? The opposite side is surrounded by Chinese people, how can we get out?"
Onozuka Ren asked angrily. He really couldn't figure out why the chief would bring them to this ghost place.
"Baga! If you want to go out and die, no one will stop you. If you yell again, I will make it happen for you now!"
At this moment, the sergeant put away his usual amiable disguise and glared at Onozuka, his expression ferocious like a wild beast.
The veteran who had just helped quickly pulled Onozuka Ren to sit down and signaled him to stop talking, so as not to cause trouble.
The movement here quickly attracted the attention of others, who all popped up to see what was going on.
It doesn't matter, good guy... There are countless Japanese soldiers hiding in the reeds on the edge of the jungle. They gather here in twos and threes. There are at least several hundred people.
After calming down, Onozuka Jin learned the truth from the veterans. It turned out that the meeting point mentioned by the officers was the place where they first landed on the island. The reason why I came here was purely because I couldn't survive on the island without any way out.
The squadron commander the sergeant mentioned was actually not the commander of their 13th Squadron, but seemed to be a lieutenant general and staff officer of the Honda Regiment.
He gathered all the available soldiers around him and said that he had contacted the higher-ups through the radio station of the wing headquarters, and the higher-ups agreed to send some warships to pick them up and retreat.
However, the evacuation point cannot be located in the southern waters of the Irrawaddy Delta Islands, because there are British submarines and destroyers cruising there, and they can easily be bitten by the opponent, and the gain outweighs the loss.
Evacuation plans can only be carried out in the coastal areas of Thong Gedun between Yangon and Ayeyarwady Region.
And this also means that the Japanese soldiers trapped on the Delta Islands must first pass through layers of enemy defense zones, break through the tight encirclement, and then march eastward to Tongge Dun.
The sergeant only told this information to a few trustworthy soldiers, and also warned them that they were not allowed to leak it. Among the hundreds of people here, no more than two people knew the inside story.
Onozuka Jin was so shocked that he couldn't speak. Let's not talk about the authenticity of these news. Is there a navy warship waiting to pick them up for retreat? This crazy plan sounds like a suicide.
But ordinary soldiers don't know so much, or they don't want to think about it. They only know that the commander said that the warship is coming, and they can go home if they break through the enemy's blockade and go east.
If you don't want to, then there is no difference between staying on the island and waiting for death, so why not give it a try. Officers took advantage of this mentality and successfully gathered a large number of demoralized soldiers.
In fact, in the final analysis, they are just used as cannon fodder to break out of the encirclement, and Onozuka Hitoshi is also one of them.
