Chapter 175: Awakening
Consciousness returned to Li Gaoyuan’s body. He wanted to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt as heavy as if filled with lead. After struggling for a long time, he finally pried them open a crack.
Dazzling white light stabbed into his pupils. He instinctively wanted to raise his hand to shield them, but found his arm fixed immovably by plaster.
The smell of disinfectant mixed with a bloody odor rushed straight into his nostrils. Transparent liquid from the IV bottle dripped one by one into his vein through the tube, icy cold like some silent countdown.
His blurry vision gradually focused: the rough walls of the unfinished room looked as ugly as a dry riverbed. A suppressed cough came from the neighboring bed. He painfully turned his head and saw a bandaged wounded soldier staring blankly out the window while coughing nonstop.
He had just tried to prop himself up when a sharp pain hit his chest. He curled up in a ball on the bed in agony, unable to hold back a muffled groan.
His groan startled the wounded soldier beside him. After turning to see Li Gaoyuan’s movements, he immediately shouted in alarm: “Nurse… Nurse… come quick, Regiment Commander Li is awake.”
Accompanied by his shouts, hurried footsteps soon approached. Then a crisp, pleasant voice tinged with surprise rang in his ear: “Regiment Commander Li, you’re awake? Doctor Song… come quick… Regiment Commander Li is awake!”
In no time, Song Mei hurried into the ward with a stethoscope.
After quickly checking Li Gaoyuan, she let out a long breath of relief and smiled sweetly at him: “Regiment Commander Li, congratulations… you’ve finally clung to life.”
………..
Gun smoke still lingered over the position. Old Cao leaned against the broken earthen wall and sat down. The machine gun barrel was still glowing with scorching red heat.
He pulled out a crumpled half-pack of cigarettes, put one in his mouth, rubbed his muddy jacket with his fingers, and then fished out a lighter from his pocket.
“Ding…”
With a crisp metallic click, a flame sprang up. Blue smoke rose immediately. A private first class nearby immediately leaned over, his dirty face lit with amazingly bright eyes: “Old Cao, you actually have private stock. Let me take a puff?”
“Go go go…”
Old Cao laughed and cursed: “Two cigarettes a month aren’t enough for you kid? How are you still bumming off mine?”
The private second class’s face scrunched up: “How can two cigarettes a month be enough? I usually smoke two packs a day. You calculate how many that adds up to in a month.”
“You kid…” Old Cao laughed and cursed as he pulled out the cigarette pack from his pocket. Somewhat reluctantly, he drew out a crumpled cigarette and tossed it to him.
“Kid, this is the last one. Don’t ask me for any more this month.”
“Alright…”
The young private second class was overjoyed. He took the cigarette, pulled out matches to light it, but found the matchbox empty. He could only look at him with a bitter face.
Old Cao laughed and cursed as he passed his cigarette over, then suddenly heard rustling behind him. Turning, he saw the stretcher team carrying a wounded soldier past. Under the grass curtain, half a grayish-white ankle was exposed, blood droplets condensing into dark brown spots on the yellow dirt road.
The smile on his face instantly faded. His Adam’s apple moved, turning finally into a soft sigh.
“Mess call… Mess call…” Old Wang’s hoarse voice from the field kitchen suddenly rang out in the trench.
Hearing this, Old Cao immediately raised his hand toward Old Wang.
“Catch!”
Old Wang tossed over a bag. Old Cao caught it, opened it, and a bag full of steaming steamed cornbread came into view. Inside the bag were also several canned lunch meats.
Old Cao took two pieces of cornbread and one can, then casually tossed the bag to the soldiers nearby. The soldiers divided up the bag of cornbread. Soon white steam rose from the golden-brown crumb, mixing with the gunpowder smell into their nostrils.
“Cough cough…”
The young private second class nearby suddenly coughed violently after two bites of cornbread. Crumbs sprayed onto Old Cao’s treasured M1919 Browning machine gun.
Old Cao’s eyes widened. He raised his hand to hit, but glimpsed a glimpse of white bandage at the other’s collar. He finally just snorted lightly and gently wiped it with his own sleeve.
The Japanese 20th Division had arrived yesterday afternoon, but only launched their attack this morning. The intensity was truly beyond everyone’s expectations.
This time, the 20th Division started by deploying two infantry regiments, supported by the field artillery regiment and eighteen aircraft, launching a full-scale attack on Wild Wolf Valley.
The battle heated up immediately. Both the Shanxi Militia and the 20th Division found the opponent’s combat strength beyond prior expectations.
The 20th Division went all out from the start, using aircraft, heavy artillery, and infantry for a three-dimensional, all-around attack on Wild Wolf Valley.
This offensive also let the Shanxi Militia and Su Yaoyang witness the true combat power of the Japanese Army of this era.
Unlike the previous Taierzhuang Battle and Nanjing Defense Battle—which were essentially urban warfare where complex and narrow terrain greatly limited Japanese firepower—the Japanese air force had superior numbers but couldn’t fully utilize them due to terrain constraints.
The Wild Wolf Valley battle was a true field battle. Various weapons rotated in, tens of thousands of troops engaged in desperate fighting across more than ten square kilometers of land. The great battle raged from morning to evening until both sides were exhausted, and the Japanese reluctantly halted.
In this great battle, both Chinese and Japanese sides paid a huge price.
“What… how many did you say?”
In the command post, Su Yaoyang stared wide-eyed at the operations staff officer in front of him.
Seeing Su Yaoyang’s ferocious expression, the operations staff officer stammered: “Commander… today we had a total of 1,067 casualties, including 478 killed and 221 seriously wounded.”
“Damn… how can it be so many?”
Su Yaoyang felt his head buzzing. How many men did he have? Over a thousand casualties in one day. At this rate, his two regiments would be completely wiped out in at most ten days or half a month.
“Mainly caused by Japanese aircraft. Our anti-air fire is still too weak.” The operations staff officer explained weakly.
“Alright, I know. You can go now.” Su Yaoyang waved him off. The staff officer nodded understandingly and left the area.
Su Yaoyang had watched today’s battle the whole time. He had to admit that the Japanese Army of this era, claimed unbeatable across Asia, lived up to the hype.
Their multi-branch coordination was indeed far more proficient than the Shanxi Militia, which had only trained for a few months—especially their air superiority widening the gap.
Today, sixty percent of the Shanxi Militia’s casualties were caused by Japanese air force. The anti-aircraft battalion couldn’t protect over ten kilometers of positions with just over thirty anti-aircraft guns, allowing Japanese planes to bomb the positions wantonly.
What could be done?
Su Yaoyang fell into deep thought…
