Chapter 72 Bloodletting

(... What the veterans who are fighting to the death care the most is whether there is anyone who cares about their life or not. As long as they can still feel a little pitiful warmth from the decision to go up the peak, the soldiers on the front line will be very moved, but most of the time we are in the trenches, we only feel cold... Excerpted from "Grandpa's Memories of the War of Resistance")

"Jingfang...good guy, I guess there must be a brigade of the Japanese on the other side..." Zhang Lingfu, whose face was covered with mud and dust, suddenly appeared in front of Zhou Zhidao with a heavy breath: "The third camp has been recovered... Guangyu is seriously injured, Liu Desheng dies in his country..."

The third battalion was also disabled, but no one took the initiative to retreat until Zhang Lingfu went up to ask them to reclaim their positions and move closer to the model battalion.

It is a big blow to the morale of the soldiers from the entangled battle: many brothers who are entangled with the enemy cannot be taken back. Sometimes you and a brother stayed in a trench for a day and fought each other for a day. At this time, you suddenly received an order to retreat; but he, your brother who has been in firepower and spiritual support may not be taken back, and you can only watch him stay there and cut off your back for you...

There were not many brothers recovered from the Third Battalion, with a total of about one hundred people. At least hundreds of them were left on the position, and they would eventually die in battle or be captured... The morale of the soldiers who came back was obviously much lower, and everyone's eyes were full of resentment and grief. From time to time, they would look back at the position in the southwest and listen to the gunshots coming from there.

"Everyone knows that there are too many enemies opposite us, and once we are entangled, we have no chance of retreating..." Zhou Zhidao said to the brothers of the retreating third battalion: "Maybe each of us will die here in the end, but we have to persist for a longer time... For every extra hour, the brothers on the Xicheng line will prepare for one more hour, and for every extra Japanese killing, ten less Chinese people will be killed!"

The soldiers of the retreating third battalion quickly occupied the new defense line. Now more than half of the entire position have been lost. Except for the front line behind and the sudden position centered on the large iron bridge, they have basically become melee zones.

"Why, I really want to die here in battle?" After Zhang Lingfu and the soldiers dispersed, they leaned on the trench and lit a cigarette: "I have a feeling that we can't die this time..."

"Is that so good...Who doesn't want to live, why do you think so? Is there a chance?" This was the first time Zhou Zhidao and Zhang Lingfu met together after the war started at night, but unexpectedly they were talking about life and death together.

"When I came back, I met a small soldier in the trench, the guard of Xiaomin..." Zhang Lingfu's dirty face showed a layer of glory: "It is said that the soldier could not even cut off his head in the past, but he killed nine Japanese soldiers!...I always feel that God will not defeat our group of student soldiers. This may be a test. If they pass the test, we will have two or three hundred learned and good soldiers who have fought bloody battles. If we send these people to the military academy, they will be hundreds of company platoon leaders... God is the God of China, and it will help us; do you think Xiaomin will do anything big in Suzhou and ask the Japanese to withdraw their troops?"...

Perhaps because of the fall, even God is dark. Suzhou has been so cold these days that it makes people tremble. The pale sunshine shines on people without feeling any heat. Many soldiers, Chinese Democratic Party soldiers, came in from outside Suzhou; but they were all prisoners.

The Kuomintang army had five or six hundred prisoners, all lowered their heads and slowly advanced under the sluggish gaze of the people; there were not many Japanese escorts them, only twenty, but these soldiers who had lost their spirits by failure were like obedient flocks, walking across the streets slowly but in an orderly manner. If it weren't for the Japanese in the hospital who were in a hurry to need plasma, the Japanese would be happy to take a few more turns before going to the hospital.

Because there were thousands of wounded people all at once, the Japanese occupied all the houses near the hospital. Although Suzhou Hospital was temporarily expanded by the Kuomintang army, it could only put down four or five hundred beds!

The residential houses near the hospital were filled with bedboards filled with wounded. Like the Kuomintang soldiers injured on the front line in Shanghai, the Japanese suffered the same pain after being injured. In just half a day, four Japanese who could not bear the pain and could not face the future disability committed suicide. There were not many defenders here, but in order to prevent the wounded soldiers from committing suicide, the Japanese forced to transfer thirty people from elsewhere, but more service personnel were people from Suzhou Maintenance Association.

The people who maintain the society lower their heads when doing things for the Japanese, not afraid of the Japanese, but afraid of the eyes of their compatriots who came from afar.

When twenty Japanese soldiers escorted hundreds of Kuomintang prisoners to the hospital, they were immediately warmly received: a young Japanese lieutenant immediately brought a few traitors who maintained the meeting to greet them for dinner, and told them that they had prepared authentic Japanese wheat rice and delicious Taihu Lake fish...

The captives of the Kuomintang army were taken to a large yard and squeezed together densely. Perhaps because of the crowds, they felt warm, and everyone's pale and panic faces gradually began to turn bloody.

"I didn't expect these Japanese to let us go to the hospital... Actually, I was not hurt... Brother, where are you?"

"I? It's okay, I'm just hungry. If I eat enough, I can kill a cow..."

"It's strange. Many people who were cut off from our Seventh Army were injured. Why didn't I see one here?"

"Your Seventh Army? So are our Central Army? The camp is full of wounded soldiers. Why are we uninjured going to the hospital?..."

The door opened and a Japanese officer walked in. Everyone shut their mouths and looked down at the Japanese officer secretly with their heads down.

The Japanese officer didn't say anything, but waved his hand and followed a few Japanese soldiers behind him, carrying more than a dozen corpses in the ground in and out - the corpses of the Kuomintang soldiers, each with white and blue hair, with a very terrifying expression on his face...

"Did you see it? Look at their expressions before they died. Guess what happened to these brothers!?" The Japanese officer actually spoke Chinese and said one brother at a time. This tone was not as good as a Japanese!

"The Japanese and Wangting's 74th Army fought very badly. Now the hospital is full of wounded soldiers..." The Japanese officers were actually called Japanese devils. The prisoners became more and more confused.

"Their plasma was used up, and the soldiers were waiting for emergency assistance, so they no longer massacre prisoners, especially those who were healthy." The Japanese officer swept his eyes across his surprised face and continued: "They brought the healthy Kuomintang brothers to the hospital and drained their blood alive. This is how the brothers in front of you were drawn to death by blood. Look at their expressions..."

"I *fuck* him a little Japanese..." "Fight!..." Some of the prisoners started to clamor, but they did not move. All fools knew that something was wrong. This "Japanese" officer was...

"When Wang Ye, the guard squad leader of the 305th Regiment of the 74th Army of the Kuomintang Army, followed the special operation team to rescue everyone, and everyone stay calm!" The Japanese officer was indeed his own person!

...What the veterans who fought desperately care about the most was whether there was anyone caring about their life or not. As long as they could feel a little pitiful warmth from the decision to go up the peak, the soldiers on the front line would be very moved, but most of the time we felt cold in the trenches... Cao Xiaomin caught the thoughts of these prisoners from the memoirs of Grandpa. As long as the prisoners knew that they were representing the military and the country to rescue them, they would die, and they would become suicide squads again! The Kuomintang soldiers in the yard could not hide their excitement, and many people began to cry: the country did not forget them, and sent a special operation team to rescue them!

The Special Operations Team was lucky enough to stop a Japanese truck transporting wounded from the front line back to Suzhou on the road. After killing the Japanese driver, two guards and a whole vehicle of wounded people, they unexpectedly easily sneaked into Suzhou Hospital!

Because the Japanese were not in enough staff, the Maintenance Association asked a large number of Suzhou citizens to help, and the hospital was very chaotic. Cao Xiaomin, who had always been worried that he would speak Japanese and reveal his strength, felt relieved after entering. Then they stole the anesthetic smoothly. Cao Xiaomin dressed up as a greedy officer and easily broke into the kitchen where only two soldiers kept the door. Unconsciously, he put medicine in the lunch in the entire hospital...

"Now, the Japanese guards have been numbed with anesthetics. There are thousands of Japanese soldiers there, thousands of Japanese soldiers who are preparing to suck your blood. If we don't kill them all, they will drain the blood of other captured brothers after we leave!" Cao Xiaomin completed the final task and also put down the Japanese who were escorted out of the captives with wheat rice. He walked into the yard: "I am the commander-in-chief of this operation, Cao Xiaomin, the model camp of the 74th Army. Now I order everyone to dispatch in an orderly manner and kill all the Japanese in the hospital without leaving any chickens and dogs!"
Chapter completed!