Sword: Heart of Iron

Chapter 230 Military Law
On a muddy country road.

The routed soldiers walked forward in small groups, with some timid recruits occasionally looking back.

"Brother, are we just going to abandon our position and run away like this? What if the supervisory team catches up with us?"

The veteran pulled a crumpled pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit it, and took a puff: "Look at you, so pathetic. What's the rush? Once the battle starts, the first ones to run away will be the supervisory team."

The new recruit was stunned: "Then what will happen to the defense line if we all run away?"

The veteran chuckled: "You've already escaped, why are you still worried about this?"
"If you were really thinking about fighting the Japanese, you shouldn't have run away just now!"

The recruit's face flushed red as the events of half an hour earlier flashed through his mind.

At that time, everyone was lying in the trenches, bolting their guns, preparing to resist the Japanese landing. Before they could even see anyone, a shell suddenly hit, killing or wounding twenty or thirty people.

He and several soldiers huddled together in the trench, their bodies curled up. After his comrades were killed by the bomb, blood mixed with unidentified substances splattered on his face. The fear of death gripped his heart, making his legs tremble uncontrollably.

My memories of what happened after that are not very clear.

All I remember is that as shells landed one after another on the position, my brothers began to retreat one after another.

Initially, the battalion commander even shot and killed several of the ringleaders who were deserting.

But as the number of people increased, the officers were no match for him, and he somehow managed to sneak into the ranks.

After running for several miles, he saw the battalion commander, dressed in an ordinary soldier's uniform, in the bustling ranks.
The veteran exhaled a puff of smoke: "It's normal to have these thoughts when you're a first-time deserter. You'll get used to it after a few more times."

"Joining the army is nothing more than carrying a gun and getting paid. Sometimes I wanted to fight the Japanese to the death, but everyone around me was running away. What use would it be if I stayed behind alone, except to throw my life away in vain?"

The recruit nodded: "Brother, where do we go now?"

Veteran: "If you go any further, there should be an officer who can take in the fleeing soldiers."

------

About forty li west of Anqing.

Wang Feng rode a white horse at breakneck speed on the muddy road, followed by his adjutant Jin Lei and more than forty cavalrymen.

Jin Lei spurred his horse forward: "Sir, we've already traveled more than twenty miles. If we go any further, we should reach the temporary garrison of the 44th Army."

As he spoke, he glanced back again: "We've become separated from the infantry!"

Wang Feng: "Ignore it, keep moving forward!"

Jin Lei clenched his horse's flanks: "Yes!"

"Keep up! Quickly!"

Behind them were soldiers from the guard battalion, not specially trained cavalry, and their horses were of inferior quality, making them a little slow.

------

Thirty minutes later.

Wang Feng rode swiftly into a village.

"Shut up!"

The white horse raised its front hooves, then trotted a couple of steps before stopping in place.

Jin Lei immediately followed, jumped off his horse first, and picked up his Thompson submachine gun.

On the military map, this is a village, but now, due to the ravages of war, all the civilians have fled. The people in these houses are now defeated soldiers who have just escaped from the battlefield.

The sight of a group of people charging in so conspicuously instantly attracted the attention of most of the routed soldiers.

But whether out of guilt or for some other reason, the curious deserters only dared to sneak glances in this direction and did not dare to openly watch the spectacle.

Jin Lei glanced around, then randomly walked up to a fleeing soldier, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him up.

"What are you doing!" the terrified fleeing soldiers shouted.

The shrill sound immediately attracted a group of people, but when they saw Jin Lei's colonel's collar insignia, they all silently took a step back, and no one dared to rush up to "stand up for him."

Jin Lei pulled him to Wang Feng's horse and asked, "Who is your superior?"
"where are you now?"

The routed soldier fell to his knees with a thud: "I don't know, I really don't know!"

"Sir, spare me! Sir, spare me!"

Wang Feng, mounted on his horse, glanced down and said, "As long as you tell the truth, I will absolutely not make things difficult for you."

Jin Lei: "Sir, he's just a common soldier. He doesn't seem to know anything. How about I bring you another officer?"

Wang Feng waved his hand: "No need. Since he won't come out, I'll wait a little longer!"

Even before arriving, he had already located Liao Zhen, the commander of the 44th Army, on the map. Liao Zhen was in a nearby house, no more than 50 meters away as the crow flies.

He was currently hiding in a corner, secretly observing the situation. Jin Lei nodded.

After a while.

Liao Zhen appeared in the crowd, dressed in a tattered military uniform and covered in dust.

The fleeing soldiers made way for them.

Wang Feng gripped the reins tightly: "You're Liao Zhen?"

Liao Zhen hurriedly nodded and bowed: "Commander Wang, it is indeed me."

Wang Feng raised an eyebrow: "You know me?"

Liao Zhen grinned: "Commander Wang's reputation is known throughout the entire National Army. I even saw you once at the Wuhan Military Conference half a month ago."

Wang Feng said "Oh":
"I don't remember."

"Let's not talk about that for now. Tell me, how exactly did your army lose its positions?"

While the two were talking, Zhang Hu arrived late with four battalions of infantry.

Liao Zhen replied without hesitation: "Sir, you don't know this, but the Japanese naval guns are really too fierce. A battalion sent up could not even last half an hour before half of them were wiped out."
"The Japanese even fired artillery shells near my command post, sir! The war against Japan is tough!"

Wang Feng: "So, this is why you led your troops in a reckless retreat?"

Liao Zhen shuddered: "No, absolutely not!"

"Commander Wang, you may not know this, but on the left side of Anqing, the 26th Army Group was stationed at the Qianshan defense line. The Japanese 6th Division attacked this area, and after encountering the Japanese army, they withdrew from the battlefield in less than two hours."

"With the loss of Qianshan, Anqing's gates are wide open. Continuing to defend it is pointless. As the Chairman said at the meeting, in this battle, we should not be concerned with the gains or losses of a single city or place. The key is to preserve our strength and fight a protracted war against the Japanese invaders!"

"Your answer is truly flawless and watertight!" Wang Feng sneered. "Then when your unit was fighting the Japanese invaders, as the commander of an army, instead of thinking about how to deploy troops, you focused on sending reconnaissance soldiers towards the 26th Army Group. What was the reason for that?"

Upon hearing this, Liao Zhen stammered incoherently, "Sir... I... Sir, it was the 26th Army that lost Qianshan first."

Wang Feng jumped off his horse, and Jin Lei, who was beside him, immediately stepped forward and, together with two guards, restrained Liao Zhen.

"do not move!"

"be honest!"

Liao Zhen knelt down with a thud, trying to struggle, but he was no match for the two guards.

The soldiers behind him looked frightened and retreated one after another.

Liao Zhen looked up at Wang Feng, who was walking towards him step by step, and stammered, "Sir, this... if we save the land but lose the people, we lose both! This subordinate is also acting on the Chairman's orders!"

“If we lose the land but the people, we lose both the land and the people,” Wang Feng muttered to himself.

He never imagined that a sentence that encapsulated the essence of protracted warfare would one day become an excuse for deserters.

How ridiculous!

From the moment the battle for Anqing began, he had been observing the situation on the front lines from an overhead perspective, with the 44th Army bearing the brunt and naturally being the "key target."

Wang Feng saw Liao Zhen's every move clearly.

He thought he had done everything perfectly. The scouts he sent out were actually his trusted men, reliable and efficient. They wouldn't leave any evidence against him.

During the few hours of the battle, he spent most of the time not in command, but waiting for news from the 26th Army.

He knew very well that the 26th Army Group was reorganized from local militias. Although it was designated as an army group, its actual strength was less than that of a corps, and its military equipment and supplies were in short supply. Such a force was no match for the 6th Division.

The defenses collapsed in the blink of an eye.

As long as the 26th Army Group withdraws, he will have a legitimate reason to retreat, and can openly withdraw to the rear under the pretext of "preserving manpower".

Wang Feng drew his sidearm and pressed it against Liao Zhen's forehead:

"Is there anything else you want to say?"

Liao Zhen was so frightened that his jaw trembled: "Commander Wang, you can't kill me! You have no reason to kill me!"

Wang Feng: "I told my subordinates before that in large-scale operations, military discipline must be strict. No matter what, if your subordinates desert the battlefield without authorization, you, as the army commander, cannot escape responsibility."

"You will not die unjustly, so go in peace."

"Now, as the garrison commander, I hereby execute you on the spot for desertion, desertion in the face of battle, and violation of military discipline, as a warning to others!"

Liao Zhen's pupils contracted, and he was about to speak: "Chief..."

"boom--!"

Wang Feng pulled the trigger, and the bullet pierced his forehead and exited from the back of his head.

(End of this chapter)