Holding the original shares, they fought all the way to the Korean War!

69th Regiment Command.

Naoki Nakajima sat at the table, not closing his eyes all night.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his gaze returned to the telegram he had read countless times.

The orders from headquarters were very clear.

Stand by, halt the advance, and send out reconnaissance troops to ascertain the troop deployment of the 386th Brigade.

This is basically consistent with his own judgment.

The risks of continuing the advance are too great; the annihilation of the 107th Regiment has already proven that the enemy's combat capabilities far exceed expectations.

He couldn't gamble the same fate on the more than three thousand men of the 69th Regiment.

But then he remembered something.

Chief of Staff Colonel Ono has already led the 4th Battalion out, heading southwest.

Based on the timeline, they should have already traveled nearly twenty miles.

During this period, the Fourth Battalion will penetrate deep into enemy territory in a completely isolated state.

Naoki Nakajima's gaze darkened slightly.

Without hesitating for long, he picked up the pencil on the table and quickly wrote a few lines on a blank sheet of paper.

"Withdraw immediately and cease all operations."

"Execute immediately upon receipt."

He handed the paper to the communications soldier who had been waiting at the door.

"Send this to the chief of staff and tell him to withdraw as quickly as possible."

"Don't ask why, don't linger, collect the report and leave immediately."

Without asking any further questions, the communications soldier took the paper, turned around, and quickly ran towards the radio station.

Naoki Nakajima stood by the window, his gaze fixed on the still heavy darkness to the southwest.

He didn't know where Colonel Ono was at that moment.

I don't know if he encountered any Eighth Route Army scouts, or how long it would take him to withdraw after receiving the telegram.

All he could do was wait.

Time passed by, second by second.

……

4:40 a.m.

On a mountain road to the southwest, a troop is advancing rapidly.

Colonel Ono rode on horseback in the middle of the column, slightly ahead of the others.

His gaze swept across the mountain road ahead and the bushes on both sides from time to time, and his fingers tightened slightly on the reins.

The more than 1,000 men of the Fourth Battalion advanced rapidly along the mountain road in the darkness, arranged in two columns.

Although they had been marching for several hours.

However, the queue remained in good order.

His main purpose in this trip was to contain and harass.

But now everything has changed.

A few minutes earlier, he had received a telegram from the regimental command.

Withdraw immediately and cease all operations.

After reading the telegram, Colonel Ono remained silent for a long time before turning around and giving orders to the troops behind him.

"Turn around and go back the way you came."

There were no explanations, no further questions.

The group of over a thousand people turned around within minutes and quickly headed back along the mountain path they had come from.

No one spoke on the street.

The soldiers didn't know what had happened.

But from the commander's tone and those brief, urgent orders, they could sense that something was changing in the situation.

No one dared to ask, and no one wanted to ask any more questions.

7:20 a.m.

It was already daylight.

The fourth brigade finally turned out of the dirt road at the village entrance.

Colonel Ono, riding his horse in the middle of the procession, saw a figure moving in the direction of the village entrance.

He slowed his horse and recognized the person waiting at the village entrance.

Naoki Nakajima stood there, calmly watching the team returning to their ranks, without saying a word.

When Colonel Ono walked up to him and dismounted.

He first glanced at the other person's face, which showed a mixture of fatigue and alertness, and then said something.

"Thank you for your hard work. Let's get the troops settled in first."

Colonel Ono didn't ask any further questions, but simply nodded and turned to give orders to the troops behind him.

The soldiers began to return to their positions, quietly and orderly.

Naoki Nakajima turned and walked back into the house, with Colonel Ono following behind him.

After the two entered the adobe building of the command post one after the other, the door closed behind them.

"The 107th Regiment is gone."

Naoki Nakajima walked back to the table and sat down, getting straight to the point.

"When Lieutenant Colonel Fukuda's Third Battalion arrived at Rugaya overnight, all they found were mountains of charred corpses."

Colonel Ono sat down opposite him.

He had just walked dozens of miles of mountain road and was catching his breath when he heard those words. His pupils contracted slightly, but his expression did not change much.

He remained silent for a few seconds before asking a question.

"What did headquarters say?"

"Stay put, halt the advance, and make further decisions after assessing the enemy's situation."

Naoki Nakajima's answer was very short.

"I have already ordered Fukuda's Third Battalion to conduct reconnaissance on the outskirts of Lugu."

"At the same time, scouts were sent to surrounding villages to gather intelligence on the troop deployment of the 386th Brigade."

Colonel Ono nodded and didn't ask anything more.

The two sat there in silence.

……

The 772nd Regiment is more than 30 miles away.

Cheng Shifa held up binoculars and peered towards the mountain road to the north.

His gaze moved back and forth along the winding dirt road.

He was surrounded by staff officers from the regimental headquarters and several company-level officers. No one spoke; everyone was waiting for his judgment.

Cheng Shifa put down the binoculars, his brows slightly furrowed.

He noticed a problem starting this morning.

The 69th Regiment did not conduct its usual sweep this morning.

Cheng Shifa handed the binoculars to the staff officer next to him.

He reached out and drew a few lines on the rough soil, marking the terrain in front of his defense zone and the positions of the Japanese soldiers.

Something's not right.

"Has something happened to the Japanese?"

He looked up at the communications soldier beside him.

"Go check with the New First Regiment and ask Li Yunlong if there's any movement on their end."

The communications soldier ran out immediately.

More than half an hour later.

A soldier on horseback dismounted at the entrance of the village where the New First Regiment was stationed.

He tossed the reins to the approaching sentry and strode toward the regimental headquarters.

Li Yunlong watched as the communications soldier, sweating profusely, walked into the courtyard.

"What's wrong?"

"Commander Li, our commander asked me to come and ask you something."

"Did you notice anything unusual about the Japanese this morning?"

Li Yunlong thought for a moment, then spoke.

"There's no movement."

The communications soldier's eyes lit up.

"It's the same where I'm from."

"The Japanese didn't move at all this morning."

Li Yunlong remained silent, his gaze fixed on the distant, rolling mountain shadows, and he remained silent for a long while.

He was indeed confused.

Based on the previous pace, the Japanese 69th Regiment should be in the advance phase of its mopping-up operation.

"We should continue to advance south as soon as it gets light."

He called out into the courtyard.

"Wang Desheng!"

"arrive!"

Wang Desheng, the battalion commander of the new regiment, ran over from the neighboring courtyard.

"Take two men and sneak a few miles north to see what the Japanese are up to."

Wang Desheng didn't ask any more questions, turned around and ran out quickly.