Upon hearing the intelligence staff officer report that an Allied corps had been discovered in Gunan City with an unknown objective, Jiang Kai immediately relayed this information to the subordinate units that might potentially face an attack from this corps.
Meanwhile, back at Hu Hao’s position, the battle raged on. The Allied forces were still trying to construct a pontoon bridge, but they hadn’t succeeded.
In the Santong County command center, Abusai and Ren Kefu were growing increasingly anxious. They never expected that, after fighting for so long, the Eastern Spirit troops would actually manage to hold the line and successfully prevent their forces from building the bridges. This left them both shocked and furious.
Between their two corps, they had suffered over 30,000 casualties since the attack began last night. Adding the previous losses and the artillery casualties, the total exceeded 40,000. Combined, they only had the equivalent of seven divisions, meaning they had already lost over half their strength.
“Damn it!” Abusai angrily slammed his fist onto the windowsill in front of him.
“We need to retreat. Continuing the attack is useless. My 7th Corps is practically crippled. We truly cannot underestimate this opponent!” Ren Kefu sighed, standing beside him.
“Order the troops to retreat! Artillery, provide cover fire!” Abusai roared.
“Yes, sir!” The Chief of Staff nodded and began relaying the orders to the staff officers in the back: infantry to retreat, artillery to provide covering bombardment.
“We probably won’t be able to break through the frontline positions; it’s time to request reinforcements! Furthermore, we can say with absolute certainty that there is far more than just one division on the opposite bank. We’ve been deceived. They have at least a full corps! Because we didn’t receive accurate intelligence from the start, we made flawed decisions!” Ren Kefu told Abusai.
“Exactly! The intelligence sent from Command was completely wrong. Just look at our attack today—their casualties alone exceed an entire division’s strength! Yet our superiors told us…
“…that this was just the 27th Corps’ 87th Division! Isn’t that deliberately misleading us?! Damn it, if we had known we were facing an entire corps, we never would have fought like this!” Abusai yelled furiously.
“Let’s send a joint telegram to Command requesting fresh troops to take over the attack. Our units can’t fight anymore. Even if we miraculously punched through the Eastern Spirit defensive line, we have no strength left to exploit the breakthrough. Who knows if the Eastern Spirit Empire has more defending troops waiting in the rear?” Ren Kefu suggested.
“Alright!” Though unwilling to accept defeat, Abusai nodded. He knew his troops were incapable of breaking the enemy line now.
“Let’s head down. Damn it!” Ren Kefu cursed as he turned to leave.
Hearing this, Abusai turned and prepared to follow. They had just gone up to a three-story building to observe the opposite bank. Now that the troops were retreating, there was no point in watching anymore.
Just as Abusai reached the stairs, he suddenly stopped. Ren Kefu, walking behind him, looked puzzled.
“Say… do you think our intelligence on the opponent is also wrong? The commander defending the opposite bank shouldn’t be Li Jingsong, the son of the 27th Corps Commander. Those young master generals would never fight this desperately. Is it possible that piece of intel is also false?” Abusai asked, standing on the stairs.
“That… we can’t be sure. Based on the Eastern Spirit Empire’s previous military hierarchy, even if the commander isn’t Li Jingsong, it’s likely a son, nephew, or relative of Li Tianyuan. They would still be considered young master generals.
“However, I think it’s true. If it weren’t true, there’s no way they would have so many troops on the opposite bank. If he wasn’t Li Tianyuan’s son, how could he possibly command such a massive force?” Ren Kefu pondered for a moment before sharing his thoughts.
Hearing this, Abusai stood there, thought about it, and nodded. It made sense. Without Li Tianyuan’s backing, it would be impossible for the opposite bank to have so many troops.
“By the way, the unit attacking the 27th Corps is from your Limaguo, right? I think it’s the 11th Corps. You should call and ask about their situation. See if they’re facing a large number of enemy troops!” Abusai suggested, turning to look at Ren Kefu.
“Mm, I should ask. If they aren’t facing many troops, that would prove the main force of the Eastern Spirit 27th Corps is concentrated right here in front of us.” Ren Kefu nodded, agreeing to make the call.
Soon, the Allied artillery began to fire, bombarding Hu Hao’s defensive positions once again. The soldiers in the trenches, however, had anticipated this the moment the Allied forces turned to retreat. Grabbing their weapons and dragging the wounded, they sprinted into the air-raid shelters.
Barely two minutes after they sat down, the Allied bombardment hit. Inside the shelters, the soldiers tended to the wounded. If someone was critically injured, they held them in their arms, comforting them as they took their last breaths.
The booming of explosions echoed outside. Wang Yao sat in an air-raid shelter, lighting a cigarette. Less than an hour into the second wave of attacks, he had returned from the hospital and thrown himself back into the fight.
“Motherfucker, we lost over half our men!” His Company Commander walked over and sat down beside him.
“How many dead?” Wang Yao asked softly.
“About a hundred!” the Company Commander replied. Out of the over 400 men in their company, more than a hundred had died, and over a hundred were severely wounded.
Wang Yao fell silent, lowering his head.
“But we fought well. Against an Allied attack like that, we didn’t lose out; we actually came out ahead. The Allied casualties are massive. Just look at the bodies in the river—they’re everywhere, the water is dyed red. We’ll have to fish those bodies out later. Otherwise, in this heat, the stench will be unbearable by the afternoon,” the Company Commander continued.
“We have to clean it up?” Wang Yao asked.
“Of course we do. Do you think the Allied forces dare to come over? When we go out to clean up, they won’t dare shoot. They know the rules. If the bodies aren’t cleared, no one will be able to stay here,” the Company Commander turned and explained.
“They won’t shoot?” Wang Yao asked in disbelief.
“They won’t. We’re the defending force, and we didn’t lose the position, so it’s our job to clean up. It’s an unspoken rule. If they had broken through and occupied this area, it would naturally be their job to clean it up!” the Company Commander explained.
“Mm, that makes sense!” Wang Yao nodded, crushing his cigarette butt beneath his boot, and listened to the explosions outside.
“We’ll rest a bit later. There won’t be any more fighting today. I don’t know about tonight, but probably not. We crippled several of their divisions; attacking again would just be suicide. We still have combat capability, and our actual fighting strength hasn’t diminished by much!” the Company Commander said, sitting next to Wang Yao.
“Hasn’t diminished by much? We’ve suffered over fifty percent casualties!” Wang Yao turned and looked at his commander in shock.
“We have more veterans now!” the Company Commander replied. Wang Yao heard this, understood, and nodded.
“You’re not bad. You just lack experience. If you had enough experience, I’d recommend you for Company Commander,” the Company Commander remarked.
“How could that be? I just got here a few days ago!” Wang Yao chuckled, shaking his head.
“It’s not about how long you’ve been here. It’s about whether you have the guts to fight and the ability to command!” the Company Commander pressed.
“Still, it wouldn’t work. According to you, we have plenty of troops anyway!” Wang Yao continued to shake his head.
“Plenty of troops? Ha!” the Company Commander laughed.
“Aren’t there?” Wang Yao asked, confused by his reaction.
“In our battalion, out of five company commanders, three are dead! I bet the other battalions are in similar shape!” the Company Commander said, staring at the ceiling.
“What? So many dead?!” Wang Yao stared at his commander in sheer disbelief.
“What did you expect? What is a company commander? A company commander is the lowest-level frontline commanding officer! Platoon leaders don’t have to do much commanding for their small units. But a company commander has to patrol his section of the defensive line, order the troops to attack, and direct their fire!
“Company commanders are the enemy’s primary targets, you know? Taking out the company commander throws the entire company’s command structure into chaos. That’s why company commanders have the highest casualty rate. Did you think being a company commander was easy? Neither platoon leaders nor battalion commanders suffer casualties as high as company commanders do!” the Company Commander explained.
“Oh!” Wang Yao nodded numbly.
…
“Hao-ge, Hao-ge! A telegram from Command! They’ve discovered an Allied corps in Gunan City!” a staff officer ran up to Hu Hao and reported.
“What?!” Xiao Quan stared at the staff officer in shock.
“I knew it!” Hu Hao muttered, his tone heavy.
“Fuck me, they’re sending more?! What is wrong with them? We only have one division here, why are they committing so many troops against us?!” Xiao Quan exclaimed, looking at Hu Hao.
“Report to the Deputy Division Commander: the telegram didn’t say they were coming to attack us!” the staff officer clarified.
“Nonsense! The Allied forces across the river have been crippled by us. If they don’t come here, where else would they go?!” Xiao Quan glared at the staff officer and yelled.
“Oh!” The staff officer nodded in realization.
“In Gunan City!” Hu Hao muttered, staring at the map.
“It takes ten hours to march here from there!” Xiao Quan noted.
“There won’t be any fighting tonight!” Hu Hao concluded.
“The Allied forces will give up attacking?” Xiao Quan asked, looking at Hu Hao in disbelief.
“Nonsense, do you think the Allied forces are a monolith? Everyone wants to preserve some of their own troops! Our current opponent wants to conserve his strength too!” Hu Hao stood up and walked over to the map, studying it intently.
“This won’t do… if they don’t attack, this won’t do!” Hu Hao muttered, standing in front of the map.
“Hao-ge, if the Allied forces refuse to attack, what can we do?” Xiao Quan asked, overhear his muttering.
(End of Chapter)