Songhu: Never Give Up

The charge of Komiya Battalion looked good in terms of momentum, but it was no different from committing suicide. In the face of the impenetrable hail of bullets, every batch of Japanese soldiers who rushed forward died. Not to mention breaking out, they couldn't even touch the edge of the guerrilla column's position.

Seeing that most of the Japanese soldiers were dead, Ai Jian ordered a charge and began to close the net;
Facing the overwhelming Nationalist troops charging at him from both wings, Major Komiya knew that his end was approaching.

After looking around, he said:
"Warriors, the time has come to serve the Emperor. Kill the chickens!"

"Itaya!"

"Kill the chicken and give it to me!"

Under the leadership of Major Komiya, the hundreds of surviving Japanese soldiers screamed and rushed towards the Nationalist troops, but were soon overwhelmed by the Nationalist troops, which were more than ten times their number, and became a pile of corpses.

Major Komiya was stabbed more than a dozen times and was stabbed like a hornet's nest. After half an hour of fierce fighting, more than 700 Japanese soldiers who broke into the encirclement of Komiya Battalion were completely wiped out.

After arriving in Xuzhou, the supplementary detachment won the first battle and wiped out the most aggressive group of Japanese soldiers. The other Japanese soldiers were so scared that they immediately retracted their positions and waited for the main force to arrive.

The battle situation in the Xuzhou direction was temporarily stable, and there was no ridiculous incident of a single Japanese squadron occupying Xuzhou.

The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Supplementary Detachment sent a large number of reconnaissance personnel to monitor the movements of the Japanese in the eastern and northern directions;

The main force buried a large number of mines along the main roads and railway lines, blocking the main roads. The troops were deployed in echelons, ready to block the Japanese at every level.

Wang Jianfei was very excited about the victory in the first battle. There were still two days before the main force arrived. He was fully confident that he could hold out until the main force arrived. By then, he would not be afraid even if a division of the Japanese came, because the tens of thousands of troops of the guerrilla column were no pushovers.

One day after losing contact with the 106th Regiment of the 111th Brigade of the 113th Division, the vanguard Komiya Battalion gradually saw a small number of Japanese soldiers who had broken through the encirclement return to the headquarters, bringing bad news that made the regiment commander Tanaka Seidō furious, and he cursed:
"Bakayaro, this bastard Komiya didn't listen to my orders. Now he has lost the entire team. He is unworthy of the Emperor's trust and should commit seppuku immediately to apologize!"

The senior staff officer of the regiment, Major Ozawa Asaichi, pretended not to hear it, because it was he who gave the order to urge the Komiya Battalion to speed up and seize Xuzhou first.

Now that something has happened, they are trying to pass the buck. This is also a common practice for superiors. Seeing that the commander was getting more and more abusive, he still had to have basic respect for the warriors who died in the battle, so he gritted his teeth and said:

"Your Excellency, the captain, the young prince has served His Majesty faithfully, facing an enemy force ten times his size, and died very heroically."

Colonel Tanaka's expression became better. He thought that he would be laughed at for fussing over a man who died in battle, so he snorted coldly and said:
"Yoshi, the matter of Xiaogong Battalion cannot end like this. Now the 30-strong empire army is chasing the defeated soldiers. The few defeated soldiers in the direction of Xuzhou are nothing to be afraid of!

Have you found out which unit it was?"

Major Ozawa quickly replied:
"According to the intelligence we have obtained, the one who stayed behind in Xuzhou was Liu Ruming's 68th Army, a local force composed of the 29rd Division of the 143th Army in North China and the 40th Independent Brigade.

It has the 143rd Division and the 40th Independent Brigade under its command. Intelligence shows that the main force of the 68th Army has already fled, and the attack on the Komiya Battalion should be a rearguard unit of the 68th Army. "

When Colonel Tanaka heard that it was the Northwest Army, he immediately felt relieved and said nonchalantly:
"Yoshi, the work of the 29th Army is just a ragtag group that can't even be equipped with rifles. In the battlefield of North China, their 10-man army was defeated by a detachment of Lord Sakagami.
Even an entire army cannot stop the attack of the 113th Regiment with such a mob. Order the troops to attack Xuzhou immediately and annihilate the remaining enemies in one fell swoop! "

After a hasty understanding of the enemy situation, Colonel Tanaka arrogantly launched an attack on Xuzhou. The 68th Army had only one and a half divisions, and the main force had already fled, so the remaining rearguard troops were not to be feared. The capture of Xuzhou was a great achievement, so he was naturally unwilling to share it with others. It was common for the Japanese to rob each other of their credit.

The main force of the 113th Regiment advanced rapidly along the railway line, completely ignoring the troops left behind in Xuzhou. However, what they did not know was that the defenders had been replaced by a more difficult guerrilla column, so they soon suffered a heavy loss.

The 2nd Battalion on the left wing encountered a minefield and more than a dozen people were killed or injured. This made the battalion commander very angry, so he immediately sent out engineers to clear the mines, but they were shot and killed again. The loss of the engineers was very heavy.

The battalion commander, Hirota Jisaburo, had to send out heavy firepower to drive them away, and at the same time sent out a squadron to encircle them away from the railway, and only then was the small number of harassing troops dispersed.

The Japanese engineers started the arduous task of mine clearance, but as the minefield was very large and the number of engineers in the 113th Regiment was limited, the progress was extremely slow, like a snail crawling.

"Bakayarō, Hirota-kun is not fit for a job as a samurai. A few land mines blocked their path. Is this still the invincible Kumamoto Division?"

Colonel Tanaka had obviously lost his patience. At this rate, they would not be able to reach Xuzhou in eight or ten days.

Ozawa Asaichi understood the hidden meaning of Colonel Tanaka's words and suggested:
"Sir, Captain, why don't you let Hirota-kun search for Chinese civilians along the railway and drive them to help the Imperial Army clear mines."

Tanaka immediately agreed with Major Ozawa's suggestion. There was no better tool for mine clearance than the Chinese people, and they could also steal some things by the way.

In the minefield, Major Hirota was already exhausted by the mines. He was delighted by the order from the regiment headquarters, as this was his favorite thing to do. He immediately sent a squadron away from the railway to capture civilians.

The Japs' tricks naturally could not be hidden from the guerrilla column's scouts, and were quickly reported to the battalion headquarters. Battalion Commander Deng Zhuxiu knew what the Japs were up to at a glance, and sneered:
"Damn it, you really think that a squadron can just walk around like that? I'll make sure you never come back this time."

Captain Liao excitedly asked for a fight:

"Captain, just hand over the hundred or so Japanese to our Second Battalion. We will make sure they never return."

Deng Zhuxiu immediately agreed to Liao Tao's request to fight. He did not take a squadron of Japanese devils seriously. Instead, he hoped that they could split up their forces so that it would be easier to deal with them.

After Liao Tao came out of the battalion headquarters, he led several hundred brothers to Majialing, which was the only way for the Japanese to go to Majia Village.

As the Japanese attacked, it was too late for Liao Tao to set an ambush, so he could only run to help and compete with the Japanese in speed.

They were about 6 kilometers away from Majialing. Due to the Battle of Xuzhou, the people along the railway had already fled. If they wanted to capture enough people, they could only go to the villages far away from the railway.

The Japanese are closer to Majialing than Liao Tao's battalion, and the soldiers have to run to make up for this gap. There is no shortcut.

Liao Tao ran in the front. The guerrilla column had previously carried out forced march training, and armed 10-kilometer cross-country running was their compulsory course, so the six-kilometer run was not difficult for them.

A large group of mules and horses were also equipped, which made their forced march very fast. However, Liao Tao was still not satisfied and urged loudly:
"Brothers, run! We must not let the devils harm our fellow villagers!" (End of this chapter)