Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 134 Taking over the baton of the "Lone Army Camp"

At 11 a.m. the next day, the Concession Municipal Council sent 13 trucks carrying more than 400 foreign officers and soldiers, including Xie Jinyuan, who had rested at the Racecourse for two days, to the temporary barracks.
Citizens along the way stood on the side of the road, applauded enthusiastically and shouted slogans such as "Long live the anti-Japanese heroes". Soldiers stood on trucks and saluted the citizens solemnly. Xie Jinyuan shed tears and saluted the citizens repeatedly.

The officers and soldiers of the 524st Battalion of the th Regiment were housed in temporary barracks on Singapore Road. The concession authorities sent White Russian soldiers from the "International Merchant Corps" to guard them. The place where Xie Jinyuan and others lived was called the "Lonely Army Camp" by the citizens.

The Japanese military strongly demanded the extradition of Xie Jinyuan and others, but the concession authorities refused. However, they did not dare to release them and kept them in custody.

The experience of the isolated army camp in the concession attracted widespread attention from the people across the country. All major newspapers published and reprinted the story. Yue Qianli also held a copy in his hand. His eyes were blazing with fire and veins on the back of his hands were bulging. It was obvious that he was extremely angry.
He knew from later generations that the ending of this heroic unit was tragic. Captain Xie was stabbed to death by several traitors, Battalion Commander Yang died young three years later due to a recurrence of an old injury, and several other officers and soldiers were killed by the White Russian guards because of the flag-raising incident.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the isolated army camp was handed over to the Japanese army by the concession authorities. Most of the soldiers were tortured to death by the devils, and only a hundred people lived to see the victory.

"You damn foreigners are bullying China, no one has any of you!"

Yue Qianli slammed his fist on the table. Deputy Director Tian Yuanxi suggested indignantly:
"Captain, those foreigners in the concession dared to detain Deputy Captain Xie and his men. This is a rebellion. Why don't we send a battalion over to kill them and rescue all the brothers in the isolated army battalion?"

Yue Qianli didn't expect Lao Tian to be so fierce. He really underestimated him. He also wanted to do the same, but he couldn't do it for the time being, so he shook his head:

"The top priority for the 527th Regiment is to annihilate the th Regiment. The concession is not so easy to break into. Even the Japanese dare not do so. We need to think long and hard about this matter.
We have to rescue our comrades in the isolated army camp, but we can’t give them a chance to talk. The concessions can’t do anything to us, but they can threaten the government. Then, in order to appease the anger of the foreigners, they will have to use us as the scapegoat.”

Tian Yuanxi thought about it and realized that this was indeed the truth. People in the government, from top to bottom, were terrified when talking about foreigners. Once things got out of hand, they would all be thrown out by the government as scapegoats.

"Captain, are we just going to ignore it?"

Yue Qianli said in a firm tone:

"Of course we will. After the storm has passed, we will send a reconnaissance company dressed in Japanese uniforms to secretly rescue them. Then we will let the foreigners suffer a loss.
These foreigners are paper tigers. They only bully the National Government. Once they know it was the Japanese who did it, they can only accept it with a pinch of their noses.”

Tian Yuanxi immediately understood Yue Qianli's true intention, her face flushed, she was full of admiration for Yue Qianli, and said excitedly:
"As long as you can help me, just let me know. I will go through fire and water for you."

"Old Tian, ​​are you friends with Deputy Headmaster Xie?"

"Captain, Deputy Captain Xie is my instructor. He is from the fourth term, and I am from the fifth term."

Yue Qianli nodded to show his understanding. Almost all the students from the first few classes of Huangpu were acquaintances. Compared with Lao Xie, a student from the fourth class, he, a student from the sixth class, was promoted to the position of regiment leader very quickly.

The matter of the isolated army camp was temporarily put on hold. Yue Qianli asked about the situation of the first camp again. Tian Yuanxi hurriedly reported:
"Li Jie just sent a telegram saying that the 6th Regiment's attack on the headquarters building was repelled again, 500 tanks were destroyed, and more than Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded. The defense line has been stabilized."

Yue Qianli was relieved now. After thinking for a while, he said to Tian Yuanxi:
"Send a telegram to Li Jie, asking them to hold out for two more days, and report the victory to the division headquarters. In order to reduce the influence of the isolated army camp, we can only grab the limelight."

Tian Yuanxi immediately understood Yue Qianli's intention and happily followed his orders. Once the 527th Regiment's achievements were reported, the government would certainly publicize them vigorously and soon replace the influence of the isolated army camp. Sichuan North Road, Marine Corps Headquarters Building, filled with smoke, fierce fighting in full swing

The 7th Regiment launched another fierce attack on the headquarters building. Hundreds of Japanese soldiers, supported by light and heavy firepower, continuously attacked the defenders' positions, wave after wave, continuously exerting pressure on the defenders.

The defenders in the building also opened fire at full force, knocking down rows of crazy Japanese soldiers to the ground. Looking around, the ground was littered with shit-yellow corpses.

Since the 5st Battalion had an absolute geographical advantage and the exchange ratio between the enemy and us was over 1 to , Li Jie was not afraid of fighting a war of attrition with the th Regiment.

Although the Japs had blasted open several gaps, they were blocked by the dense firepower of the defenders and failed to even touch the door after several attacks. Instead, they almost blocked the gaps with their corpses.

Colonel Okado was like a gambler who had lost all his money, constantly driving his soldiers to attack the defense line of the first battalion. The two battalions that were the main attackers had suffered more than half of their casualties.

The Second Battalion on outer alert also suffered more than 300 casualties, and the tank squadron lost 6 tanks. The only intact unit was the Mountain Artillery Battalion, and the defenders seemed to have no way to deal with them.

Every time they launched an attack on the building, the Chinese on the periphery would launch a harassment war, bombarding from a distance and then attacking a point, making the Second Battalion busy responding to orders, resulting in huge losses in personnel and equipment, which greatly tied up the energy of the Seventh Regiment and made Colonel Okato dare not attack the headquarters building with all his strength.

"Bakayaloo, the Chinese are cunning and crafty, and this is not the work of a samurai!"

Seeing that Colonel Okado had lost his mind, Major Sugiyama gritted his teeth and persuaded him:
"Your Excellency, the commander of the wing, I always feel that the Chinese have a conspiracy. Their internal and external forces cooperate too well. The Chinese who are responsible for harassment on the periphery are as annoying as flies.

I suggest changing the tactics, feinting an attack on the headquarters building, hiding part of our strength, and then letting the outer troops show weakness to lure the enemy deeper;
Then we will concentrate our forces to defeat the enemies outside in one fell swoop, and then focus on attacking the Chinese people in the headquarters building and defeat them one by one."

Colonel Okado seemed to have heard it, and after thinking for a moment, he said:
"Yoshi, Sugiyama-kun's suggestion is very good. If we don't drive away these annoying flies, the imperial army will not be able to concentrate on the attack.

Order the Araki Battalion to continue attacking the headquarters building, the Third Battalion to hide and wait, and the Takase Battalion to pretend to be exhausted when being harassed from the outside and collapse to both sides, clear the road and let them in..."

When Major Sugiyama saw that Colonel Okafuji accepted his suggestion, he excitedly took the order and left. This time he wanted to show off his skills.

Araki's squadron was the first to attack the headquarters building, so they suffered the most casualties. After the failure of the first attack, Takahashi's squadron was sent to dig tunnels, but they had the most complete ready-made organization.
The other three infantry squadrons combined were only enough to form a reinforced squadron, and the machine gun squadron also suffered nearly half of its casualties.

After receiving the order from the regiment headquarters, Major Araki integrated the three infantry squadrons into one squadron and personally led the attack on the headquarters building;

The reason why he led the team personally was that he was worried that other squadron leaders would get carried away and turn the fake fight into a real fight. Now the Araki squadron can no longer afford to suffer any losses.

(End of this chapter)