Songhu: Never Give Up

The preparation for this encirclement and annihilation battle took a long time, but it ended very quickly and without suspense. Under the siege of thousands of main forces, the Japanese almost had no chance of escaping the net;
The few Japanese soldiers who managed to escape were surrounded and killed by the militiamen outside, which gave them a chance to see some blood.

"Leave the cleaning of the battlefield to the militia, and the main force will immediately be on alert on both wings and prepare for a new battle!"

After eliminating the Japanese in the encirclement, Liao Jianping quickly made adjustments. After all, there were still four groups of Japanese, and he could not be careless.

After learning that the main force had won a great victory, militiamen from a ten-mile radius all came to the battlefield of Xiaowangzhuang excitedly to help the troops clean up the battlefield.

Militiaman Wang Erxi was from Xiaowang Village. They were the first militia unit to arrive at the battlefield.
Many people were carrying stretchers and searching among the corpses on the ground for Kuomintang soldiers who were killed or injured. They were easy to identify because they were different from the Japanese soldiers' shit-yellow uniforms.

Although this was a one-sided battle, there were still many casualties in the process of encircling and annihilating the Japanese. After all, there were hundreds of Japanese soldiers, so there were still dozens of casualties.
The militia was divided into two parts, one part was responsible for finishing off the Japanese and preventing any fish from escaping the net, and the other part was responsible for rescuing their own wounded.

Wang Erxi was assigned a lucrative job, helping the Japanese to finish off the enemy. When he first saw the densely packed corpses, he felt nauseous and almost vomited, which made him feel very ashamed.

When he saw the first dead body of a Japanese soldier, his hidden fighting spirit seemed to awaken instantly. He pointed his rifle at the back of the Japanese soldier and stabbed him with his bayonet.

At the moment he pierced the enemy's body, every hair on his body felt refreshed. Although the enemy's "corpse" struggled for a while, he was not frightened.

After pulling out the bayonet, he stabbed the enemy's back several times until the enemy was completely motionless. Only then did he stop, realizing that his palms were wet.

He looked around guiltily, and when he saw that no one was paying attention, he breathed a sigh of relief. If other people knew about this, they would definitely laugh at him.

When he thought about how he was almost embarrassed to face people, Wang Erxi's eyes sparkled with blood again. He stabbed another Japanese corpse several times before he returned to normal.

After seeing the blood, militiaman Wang Erxi completed his transformation and became a real soldier. When he stabbed the Japanese corpse again, he was very calm, just like stabbing a pig to death.

(Apologies to Second Brother, how can the devils compare with you!)
After stabbing the Japanese corpse, villagers from the surrounding villages also gathered around. They assisted the militia in collecting all the Japanese weapons and equipment. They also stripped off the Japanese uniforms, leather shoes, hats, etc., leaving only a disgusting loincloth.

"Erxi, the troops don't want this thing anymore?"

Wang Erxi's fourth uncle obviously took a fancy to the Japanese's loincloth. The villagers were very conscious. As long as the troops wanted it, even if it was just a shell or a bullet, they would collect it for the troops and save every grain of grain.

Not to mention the worthless bullets, even the gold teeth pried out from the Japanese soldiers' mouths would be voluntarily handed over to the troops. No one kept anything privately.

But the troops did not want loincloths, as they thought it was disgusting, so Erxi shook his head after hearing this and said:

"Fourth uncle, the army said they don't want this thing."

"Erxi, this is top-quality foreign cloth. It would be a pity to throw it away. After washing it, it can be made into shoe soles. Can I take it?"

Erxi turned his face away, and the fourth uncle understood immediately, and pulled off the loincloth on the devil's body, revealing a small earthworm, which was disgusting to look at;
In order not to offend the young girls and wives, the fourth uncle picked up a bayonet and waved it lightly, and the little earthworm disappeared into the soil, which looked much more pleasing to the eye.

The other fellow villagers also followed suit and took off the Japanese's loincloth. The Chinese have always been thrifty and never waste anything.

The last bit of samurai dignity of Major Yoshino was also stripped away. The Chinese people don’t care what a shitty samurai you are. Since you dare to come to China to burn, kill and loot, you must be prepared to be killed and stripped naked. This is the end of the invaders!

If the Chinese were not worried that the bodies exposed outside might cause plague, they would hardly even bury them, and would have preferred to feed them to wild dogs.

Since it was a total annihilation, the battle in Xiaowangzhuang did not attract the attention of the Japanese. They did not realize that the Yoshino Battalion had been completely wiped out and continued to attack and advance.

Originally the five armies were coordinating with each other, like a fishing net, but now a big hole has been cut in it and no fish can be caught.

After the Japanese entered the base, they became blind and deaf and had no understanding of the battlefield environment. Liao Jianping prepared to give the Japanese a time difference and attack another part of them before they discovered that the Yoshino Battalion had been annihilated, thus completely hurting the Japanese.

This time he aimed at the 19th Battalion, which was closest to the Yoshino Battalion and the most aggressive. Liao Jianping did not use the tactic of a second ambush, but decided to annihilate the enemy in the movement.

The company responsible for blocking the 19th Battalion was the first company of Zhao Kun's third battalion. They fought well in the battle of Tianjia Town and were very good at blocking battles.
Even though they only had one main company and one garrison battalion, they fought calmly against more than 1 Japanese soldiers.

Major Ichiro Inagaki was so angry that smoke came out of his nose. The minefields and harassment everywhere gave him a headache. They were now far behind the Yoshino Battalion, which he could not tolerate.

He cursed angrily:
"Bakayaloo, the damn guerrillas are too cowardly and despicable than rats. This is not the job of a samurai!"

It was no wonder that he got angry. Every time he punched, it was like hitting cotton. The guerrillas were as slippery as loaches, making it impossible for him to use his strength. He was so angry that he could only curse.

"Captain, we are being blocked by guerrillas in front of us again, there are hundreds of them." Inagaki Ichiro was numb and could not arouse his interest. They would be defeated in one blow anyway, so he casually sent a squadron to reinforce and defeat the blocking force together with the vanguard squadron.
He himself led the other two squadrons to set up camp on the spot, thinking that he would soon defeat the defenders, so he did not even dig defensive positions, but only sent some guard troops to the two wings.

At the company's blocking position, rows of Japanese soldiers rushed over in a huge mass. The company commander Sun Yuandong commanded the soldiers of the entire company to fight back, while the soldiers of the Tianjia Town Garrison Battalion of the Military Sub-district cooperated with them in the battle.
After fighting a few successful battles, the soldiers of the garrison battalion gradually adapted to the battlefield atmosphere. They found that the Japs were not as scary as rumored and could still be killed by one bullet.

Elite troops are made through fighting. After the battle at Lijia Valley, the garrison battalion was no longer a unit that would collapse at the first blow.

With this backbone company, they fought properly. At least they were not intimidated by the Japs' momentum. They dared to shoot at them and killed a few of them from time to time. This made their self-confidence soar and their morale grew as the fighting went on.

The attacking Japanese troops were two squadrons, one on the left and one on the right, advancing side by side. Although their strength was reduced by half, they still charged forward with a roar.

Both sides killed people and left corpses all over the ground, but neither could do anything to the other. The Japanese had a slight advantage, but they could not defeat the defenders in a short time.

This aroused Ichiro Inagaki's interest. The Chinese people, contrary to their usual practice, fought to the death with the Japanese. This was the fighting style that Major Inagaki liked.

They were not afraid of fighting with the guerrillas, but they were afraid that they could not catch them. Just when Ichiro Inagaki was considering whether to add another squadron, faint military trumpet sounds came from both wings.

Major Inagaki had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation. He just frowned and said coldly:

"What kind of work?"

Soon he got the answer. The troops on guard on both wings sent people to report one after another that a large number of Chinese people were coming to kill them on both wings, as many as several thousand.

Major Inagaki didn't know where these thousands of people came from, but he was sure that the Inagaki Battalion was in danger and could be destroyed at any time.

He now understood why the Chinese resistance had suddenly intensified; it was to buy time for flanking attacks from both wings.

The only way out for him now was to retreat. There were Chinese people on the left, center, and right. He had no choice but to retreat.

But retreating would mean being defeated, with many casualties. Squadron Leader Takahashi Sho urged anxiously:
"Captain, the Chinese are coming soon, make a decision quickly!"

Inagaki also knew that indecision on the battlefield was a taboo in military strategy, and said unwillingly:
"Turn in and start working!"

When Sun Yuandong saw the devils were about to run away, he shouted:

"Brothers, our reinforcements have arrived. The Japs have lost. Kill them!"

When the soldiers of the garrison heard that it was another favorable battle to chase the Japanese, they excitedly rushed out of the trenches and chased after the Japanese.

At the same time, the three infantry battalions commanded by Liao Jianping also came in an overwhelming force, with the main force being the two battalions of the Luzhong Military Sub-district on the left wing.

After annihilating the Yoshino Battalion in the middle, they quickly surrounded the Inagaki Battalion from the west;

At the same time, the Second Battalion of the Ludongnan Military Region penetrated into the junction of the two Japanese routes on the right wing and launched a pincer attack on the Inagaki Battalion from the east.

The tactics used by the guerrilla column this time were frontal blocking and pincer attack on both wings. Not only did they defeat the Japanese in a short time, but they also cut off a large area and then surrounded them.
At the same time, a part of the army was sent to continue hunting down the remaining Japanese troops. Major Inagaki tried to organize resistance several times, but was dispersed by his own defeated soldiers.

Now is the time when the defeat is overwhelming and it is a competition of who has longer legs. Major Inagaki can only flee for his life.

The guerrillas' combat focus was not on the defeated Japanese soldiers, who could not be captured in a field battle. Instead, they focused their main efforts on the more than 300 Japanese soldiers they had surrounded.

Most of these were the Japanese who had attacked the front before. Before they could escape, they were cut off by the pincer attack from both wings and were surrounded in a small area, where they were struggling to survive.

In a field battle, neither side had fortifications, and the guerrilla column would not give the Japanese time to repair fortifications, and would attack from all directions;
A melee ensued between the two sides. Although the surrounded Japanese fought tenaciously, they could not withstand the beating from the crowd.

The ten-fold difference in troop strength made the battle a foregone conclusion. The Japanese soldiers in the encirclement disappeared visibly, and finally all turned into cold corpses.
The guerrillas also suffered hundreds of casualties, but fortunately most of the wounded were able to receive medical treatment, so the absolute losses were minimal.

This was a battle of encirclement and annihilation in a field situation. It was a battle of time. It was inevitable that heavy casualties would be incurred.

But the results of the battle were also brilliant. The previously invincible Inagaki Battalion was crippled, leaving behind more than 400 corpses, and one army was eliminated.

(End of this chapter)