Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Pyrrhic Victory
Just a few minutes ago, Tang Cheng, who had been shot away by a cold gun, could only huddle in the crater with his head in his arms, but now that the 1st Company had completely controlled the battlefield, there were sporadic gunshots on the side of Sun He, and there were no Japanese soldiers alive on the battlefield covered with corpses and blood. Having just experienced a bloody and brutal melee battle, Tang Cheng, exhausted, could not find the manpower to support Sun He's side, because almost all the soldiers who were still alive were helping each other to bandage their wounds, otherwise, just bleeding would have made them another corpse in the position.
The position was now full of corpses, and the living could find guns, ammunition, and all sorts of valuables or worthless. When Tang Cheng was in the second company, he was often taken by the veterans to clean the battlefield, because the money that the veterans drink and smoke on weekdays is all from cleaning the battlefield.
Tang Cheng, who was staggering, found his steel helmet on the battlefield, and regardless of the blood stains on the steel helmet, he directly buckled the steel helmet that saved his life on his head. In the entire garrison regiment, there are only three German-style steel helmets, one each for Liu Goat, Tang Cheng and Jiujin, but unfortunately Jiujin doesn't like to buckle this dead thing all day long, so he gave the steel helmet to Lao Xu. At first, Tang Cheng also thought that this German-style steel helmet was too heavy, but now it seems that it is better to sink a little, the key is that it can save lives.
Finding a few bullet bridges from several soldiers of the 1st Company who had died in battle, and picking up a Mauser rifle that had run out of bullets, Tang Cheng, who was staggering, walked towards Sun He and them while reloading the rifle. His head was dizzy from the strong smell of blood on the battlefield, and his stomach was churning faintly, but he still carried a loaded Mauser rifle and his shell gun, and ran towards Sun River with a bowed waist.
Many of the corpses on the battlefield were lying face down, Lin Tangcheng didn't have the courage to look through those corpses, and stumbled for a while, and he finally came to the Japanese position where sporadic gunfire rang out. The Japanese troops on the ambushed side did not have trenches like the 1st Company, and their position was simply to dig out some shallow pits with sapper shovels, and then build a layer of earth and stone outside the shallow pit or directly pile up the corpses of their own people, but now there are more craters left by the explosion.
Tang Cheng saw the corpses of the Japanese soldiers, but there were not as many as he imagined, and there were no corpses everywhere, and most of the corpses that appeared in Tang Cheng's sight maintained the integrity of their bodies. Tang Cheng recognized the military uniforms of these corpses, but he also did not turn over these corpses, because he did not want to find the faces he knew from these corpses, so he raised his foot and stepped over a bayonet, and Tang Cheng, who entered the Japanese position, saw Sun He.
"We're going to kill all these damn little devils." Tang Cheng, who entered the Japanese position, saw Sun He sitting on the edge of a wooden stake, and the other party also saw Tang Cheng and shouted. It could be heard that Sun He's voice was excited, Tang Cheng walked forward quickly, Sun He's left arm was tied with a circle of cloth, and the strip of cloth had oozed out of the outer side of the arm, and it seemed that he had been injured by the Japanese army's bayonet.
Sun He, who was sitting on a wooden stake, looked at Tang Cheng with a grin, although this expression looked very awkward, it was the truest emotional embodiment of the rest of his life after the catastrophe. It's a pity that Tang Cheng couldn't hear the words muttered behind Sun He, so he had to pretend to smile easily. Sun He's eyes are turning with tears that men are most reluctant to shed, and death is a hundred, hovering, hesitating, and suffering on the edge of life and death, watching one familiar face after another lose their blood, which may be the greatest pain in the world.
Sitting down beside Sun He, Tang Cheng looked around, and then he figured out why there were still sporadic gunshots here, it was the surviving soldiers of the 1st Company who were replenishing the guns of the Japanese corpses. If it were in normal times, Tang Cheng might have stopped this kind of behavior of Lang Fei bullets, but now Tang Cheng didn't want to do that, he was willing to give those soldiers a chance to vent, and he himself wanted to pull out a gun and sweep the corpses of the Japanese soldiers.
Two soldiers of the 1st Company, wrapped in strips of cloth, carried a seriously wounded man from the front trench, and the seriously wounded who was already dying was covered in blood, except for low moans, and did not scream for death, such a scene set off the sadness and heaviness after the tragic battle. Tang Cheng didn't know if the seriously wounded man had any chance of survival, and the two soldiers who carried him out of the pile of dead people didn't know either, they just didn't want their robes to die with the Japanese soldiers, that is, they died, and they also hoped that their companions could die cleanly, and not have anything to do with the little devil.
Tang Cheng counted carefully, and only 12 of the 50 soldiers of the 1st Company who followed Sun He were still alive, and among these 12 people, there were also three seriously wounded, and the others were all wounded. "We killed two devil officers, this command knife is for you, and I keep the other one for myself." Sun He, who had been muttering in a low voice, handed over a Japanese command knife from his side, and the bloodstained command knife was held in Tang Cheng's hand for a few seconds, and then Tang Cheng vigorously pulled it out of the scabbard.
Although he had never really dealt with the Japanese, Tang Cheng had seen a lot of Japanese Lang people fighting in the streets when he was in Shanghai, and this knife was not so much a command knife as it was similar to the katana worn by the Japanese Lang people all year round. The two Chinese characters engraved on the handle of the "Qiushui" knife made Tang Cheng can't help but read it out, it seems that the elders are not right, the Japanese not only stole a lot of things from China, but even they stole Chinese characters.
Putting the long knife in his hand back into its scabbard, Tang Cheng took the cigarette handed by Sun He and stood up, "Tell the brothers to clean up the battlefield, maybe there will be Japanese troops appearing, we must prepare in advance." He didn't light a cigarette, Tang Cheng just held it to his mouth, and then walked around the position with his Mauser rifle and the command knife. After half a cigarette, Sun He, who was sitting with his head bowed, finally got up and stood up, beckoning his soldiers to clean up the battlefield and collect weapons and ammunition.
207 vs. 203, Tang Cheng exchanged 207 lives of the 1st Company for the lives of 203 Japanese soldiers, and the result was that the 1st Company was disabled, and there were less than 40 wounded soldiers left under his command. If it weren't for the shells stacked on the mortar positions of the Japanese army, and if it weren't for the fact that these shells killed more than 30 Japanese soldiers for Sun He, maybe this tragic victory would not have belonged to the 1st Company. : What should we do next? I'm afraid that people won't be able to hold this place. Sun He, who had recovered his soberness, spoke to Tang Cheng in a low voice, with worry and sadness in his words.
"We don't guard, first separate the wounded and send them to the tunnel, and then some of the captured weapons and ammunition will be hidden, let's go back to the county seat." Tang Cheng had already come out of the remorse of repeated mistakes. The 1st Company, which has less than 40 people left, can't hold this place no matter what, rather than fighting hard with the Japanese army that may appear, it is better to return directly to the county to help in the battle, but Tang Cheng ordered to hide some weapons and ammunition, and even he couldn't understand how he suddenly had such an idea.
"We won, but we were also disabled by the Japanese army, and the county side should have exchanged fire with the Japanese army, I know that everyone is tired and wounded. But we can't let these brothers who died in the war die in vain, we have to go back to the county to help the war, I need people to return to the county with me, but I don't want to force you, and those who are willing to stay must take care of the seriously wounded. "Gather the remaining soldiers together, and Tang Cheng, who has a calm face, wants these soldiers to choose whether to stay or return to the county seat.
Jiujin, who had been listed as a seriously injured person by Tang Cheng, struggled to stand up, but was held down by Sun He, "I am your platoon commander, and the only platoon commander who survived, how can I be without me when I go back to the county seat." After Sun He, the few bandits who were still alive in Qingyun Village also followed Heizi and stood up. Excluding a few guys whose leg injuries affected their mobility, Tang Cheng finally chose only 14 people, plus exactly 15 people to form a combat squad, and he, the company commander, has now become a squad leader.
"You have injuries on your body, it's not enough trouble to take you back to the county seat, I still have important things for you to do." Jiujin had to return to the county seat with Tang Cheng, but Tang Cheng had no choice but to make up a reason to stabilize Jiujin first. "These weapons and ammunition we have seized, I will leave a part in Beishan, you are your own person, so I will leave this matter to you, you have to take care of these weapons and ammunition, maybe we can use them in the future." Tang Cheng's reason made Jiujin dumbfounded, and finally agreed that Tang Cheng and those wounded soldiers would stay in Beishan first.
In fact, the logarithm carried by the 15 of them in Tang Cheng was still the original weapons and ammunition, but there were just two more Japanese light machine guns and three Japanese grenadiers, and the remaining Japanese rifles and ammunition were all left in Beishan by Tang Cheng, and they who needed to rush back to the county seat as much as possible could not carry so many weapons and ammunition back to the county seat together. "This thing is my lifeline, you must take it away, and you must not give it to others or lose it." Before Tang Cheng left, he handed over the passport and gold bars that he had collected close to him to Jiujin.
The passport is not just a pass for Tang Cheng to go to the United States, it is the only thing he misses Robert, those gold bars are the life-saving money that Tang Cheng has prepared, these two things are no different from Tang Cheng's life. Knowing that returning to the county seat is no different from breaking into the tiger's den in Longtan, Tang Cheng has no way not to go back, because Liu Goat is still in the county seat, but he also knows that he may not be able to protect his passport and gold bars well, so it is safest to hand over the nine catties that are out of his body.