Indeed, for Zhang Tianhai, it was already the point of no return - if he retreated on the front line at this time, it would most likely allow the Japanese army to fight all the way to Sanjiang Town. By then, it would be difficult for him to deal with the enemy.
Losing the position would be a big trouble.
As the sky slowly darkened little by little, Zhang Tianhai finally breathed a sigh of relief: at least his troops didn't lose their position on the first day.
Sure enough, the Japanese troops retreated after dark.
…
"Come on, follow me to the front line to check out the situation, and let other troops follow. Clean the battlefield when it's time to clean it. Don't let go of the little devil's weapons and equipment, and take away the things that should be touched. Also, call the special agent company , let them monitor the movements of the Japanese troops." Zhang Tianhai said in a deep voice.
"Yes, Commander-in-Chief." Xu Xun next to him silently took note of Zhang Tianhai's words.
When Zhang Tianhai reached the front line, he discovered that the land was dyed red with blood. Even the land could be turned into a light bright red color when turned over lightly.
"One general's success can lead to thousands of bones drying up..." Zhang Tianhai sighed softly.
At this moment, Lu Shaojie limped over and reported to Zhang Tianhai: "Reporting to the regiment, our battalion has honored its mission and held on to the front line. Currently, our battalion has 336 killed and 200 seriously injured. Twelve people, excluding those who are slightly injured and unable to participate in the battle, there are still thirty-six people who can fight!"
Hearing Lu Shaojie's report, Zhang Tianhai's heart trembled. This number of casualties is definitely no small matter, especially the death-to-injury ratio has reached an astonishing 95%!
He felt distressed, but Zhang Tianhai didn't show it. He just nodded slightly and said, "Okay, very good. That's it! Tell these brothers to take a good rest. I'll wait for them to lead the next battalion!"
"Thank you!" Lu Shaojie stood at attention and saluted. Under the faint light of the fire, his face blackened by gunpowder smoke was full of determination.
In this battle, each battalion of the First Guard Regiment became famous!
It was from this battle that the battalion got a nickname: "Beast Camp"!
The Beast Battalion, as its name suggests, is a battalion-level force composed of ferocious men who are as ferocious as beasts. They have a fighting will like steel and a fighting spirit like beasts!
The final results of the battle were calculated. The three battalion-level troops participating in the battle suffered heavy losses to varying degrees: the most serious was the 1st Battalion of the 1st Guard Regiment, with more than 570 casualties; followed by the Guard Battalion of the Guard Corps , with more than 390 casualties; the lightest was the First Battalion of the Second Guard Regiment, with only more than 200 casualties.
Looking at this shocking result, Zhang Tianhai sighed softly: He had expected this result, but when the result was presented to him, he still couldn't help but feel a little pity.
Behind these numbers are human lives!
For Zhang Tianhai, this result had been expected, but the casualties were also beyond his expectation. If the battle continues at this rate for three more days, the guard troops will not be able to hold on - more than half of them will be killed or injured. This is absolutely It will take a toll on one's vitality, and those who go up are mainly elite troops, not to mention these new recruits.
How long the new recruits can last is absolutely unknown.
Therefore, Zhang Tianhai began to hesitate, whether he should open up the front line and let the Japanese troops come in first, and then give them a hard blow as soon as they came in.
…
While Zhang Tianhai was distressed about the loss of his troops, Ushijima Mitsuru was also worried - was he right to choose such a hard nut to gnaw on? In one day, half of the regiment was lost, which was a casualty of more than 1,900 people.
"Zhang Tianhai is indeed a strong man in the Chinese army. No wonder he can lead the troops to make our 'Imperial Tiger' General Seishiro Itagaki suffer a big loss. An entire brigade was destroyed by people like Zhang Tianhai and Zhang Zizhong." In his hands, it seems that being able to reach this level is not in vain..." Ushijima Mitsuru sighed sincerely as he looked at the battle report in front of him.
As the commander of the southward column, Ushijima Mitsuru must have commanded the whole process, so he knew very well what the strength of the group of people on the opposite side was.
"Your Excellency, General, if we had changed our opponent, we would have captured their frontline position long ago. However, we suffered such a heavy loss and only almost captured their first line position. Do we want to continue the attack? From my humble opinion, , in the China Army, there will be no more than one unit with such combat effectiveness. If we continue to attack, we should be able to cripple this unit, so that they will not be able to fight in the next battle." A person next to Ushijima Mitsuru The Lieutenant Colonel said that this was a mid-level officer whom Ushijima Mitsuru valued very much, and he had always viewed the latter as a "think tank".
Ushijima Mitsuru nodded and said: "What you said makes sense. According to our reliable intelligence, the strength of this unit has exceeded 10,000, and the number of troops capable of fighting should be around 3,000. Our attack today should allow them to The losses were quite heavy. After all, when we fought with them, we could feel that what we encountered were the elite among them. If they were not elite, they would definitely not be able to stop our army from attacking in this way."
"Does your Excellency General mean that we should continue to fight them?" Lieutenant Colonel asked.
"Let's ask the division commander for instructions first! After all, I feel sorry for not telling him about such a huge battle plan." Ushijima Mitsuru made a decision. Although this decision was not so wise, for his subsequent operations, is absolutely beneficial.
"Hai!" Lieutenant Colonel responded.
…
Soon, a telegram was sent from Junkou Town to Yueyang.
The content of this telegram can be said to be very detailed. It tried its best to analyze the situation on both sides and analyzed the failure of the frontline troops in the battle.
If I had to translate it into a simple sentence, it would be: "It's not our army, it's the enemy's army that is too strong. Boss, should we eradicate them? After all, they are also the elite among the enemy's elite. Defeat them." , we are not afraid anymore.”
Well, yes, Lieutenant General Inaba Shiro translated it this way when he received this telegram.
Sitting on his office chair, Lieutenant General Inaba Shiro let out a long sigh: "The China Army is indeed a serious problem for my current troops... If it can be severely damaged in this battle, it will be a big loss." It’s also a good choice…”
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, are we going to implement this plan?" asked the Chief of Staff next to him.
…
PS: Updates are coming!
Good night!
