Chapter 241: The Greatest Irony
“Commander-in-Chief! Commander-in-Chief! Good news!”
The curtain of the command post was suddenly flung open, and Pi Ruoyu poked his joyful face in. He quickly came to Su Yaoyang’s side, his voice full of irrepressible delight.
“The 24th Division has completely collapsed, and that old devil Heiyan Yisheng has already retreated!
Li Gaoyuan and the others have already charged into the county seat! The remaining devil soldiers have given up resistance and are fleeing desperately toward the northern railway direction like headless flies!”
While speaking, Pi Ruoyu excitedly pointed at various spots on the map, as if he could already see the glorious victory of annihilating a Japanese regular division, one worthy of being recorded in history.
However, Su Yaoyang’s face did not show much happiness.
He merely listened calmly to Pi Ruoyu’s report, then extended his finger and lightly tapped on the map at areas outside Xinxian, broader regions.
“Ruoyu, it’s too early to celebrate now.”
His voice was calm and steady, like a basin of cold water that instantly extinguished most of Pi Ruoyu’s enthusiasm.
“Come over here and look.”
Su Yaoyang pointed at several points on the map. “Just now, the flight reconnaissance squadron sent the latest report.
The Japanese Independent Mixed 2nd Brigade entrenched in Yangquan, and the Independent Mixed 4th Brigade stationed in Taigu, have abandoned their original defensive zones and are advancing full speed toward us from south and north respectively.”
His finger then slid to the black line on the map representing the Tongpu Railway.
“On the railway side, Shinozuka Yoshio has already dispatched engineer units and is frantically repairing the railway and bridges we destroyed.
At their speed, in at most two more days, that full-strength Type A Division fresh from homeland rest and refit—the 20th Division—will arrive on the battlefield.”
Su Yaoyang raised his head, his gaze sharp as he looked at the now-calmed Pi Ruoyu.
“At that time, what we’ll face is a Type A Division and two Independent Mixed Brigades, a Japanese main force group with over 50,000 troops total.
If Shinozuka Yoshio is ruthless, he could even transfer more troops from the Kwantung Army or other theaters to pin us dead in Shanxi.
That is not the result we want.”
He drew a circle with his finger around Xinxian, the place they had just captured.
“The goal of this operation is to knock out the nail that is the 24th Division, to open the southward passage, not to fight a war of attrition here with the entire North China Area Army. Now, we have over-achieved our objective.”
A slight smile finally appeared at the corner of Su Yaoyang’s mouth. “So, we should quit while we’re ahead.”
Hearing this, cold sweat beaded on Pi Ruoyu’s forehead.
He had been so focused on the victory at hand that he almost forgot their unit was still an isolated force on this vast land.
He suddenly slapped his forehead, a bitter smile on his face.
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief is right! I got carried away with excitement!”
Pi Ruoyu scratched his head, suddenly recalling another equally important matter. “Moreover… Chongqing has repeatedly urged us most urgently to immediately rush to the aid of Yichang!”
With this reminder from Su Yaoyang, Pi Ruoyu’s victory-dazed mind instantly cleared.
The wild joy on his face faded, replaced by a belated gravity.
He slapped his thigh hard, suddenly realizing. “Right! How did I forget that! Our proactive strike this time to hit their 24th Division wasn’t to occupy this broken place Xinxian, but to knock out this advanced chess piece that could two-sided pincir us before the devils’ 20th Division arrives! Now that the goal is achieved, we…”
Pi Ruoyu’s thoughts were now completely clear. He looked at Su Yaoyang, his eyes reignited with light, and eagerly asked: “Commander-in-Chief, what do we do next?
Withdraw overnight? Or…”
“Withdraw, but not a simple withdrawal.”
A profound, fox-like smile appeared on Su Yaoyang’s face. He picked up the pointer from the table and drew a big X over the newly captured “Xinxian”.
Then, the pointer slashed southeastward and heavily tapped on the name of another county—Mengxian.
“We abandon Xinxian, the whole army turns direction, attacks Mengxian.”
“What?!”
Pi Ruoyu’s eyes instantly bulged like copper bells. He could hardly believe his ears. “Commander-in-Chief, you’re… you’re not joking, right? Abandon Xinxian? We… we put in so much effort, the brothers shed so much blood to take it! Just to… hand it over to the devils like that?”
This order completely exceeded the tactical understanding of Pi Ruoyu, this University of Virginia graduate.
“Blood is shed to achieve strategic objectives, not to dispute the gain or loss of a city or town.”
Su Yaoyang patiently explained, his gaze seeming to pierce through the map to the opponent far in Taiyuan, who must be furious right now—Shinozuka Yoshio.
“Come look.”
He gestured for Pi Ruoyu to come closer to the map. “Why is Xinxian important? Because it’s stuck at the throat of the Tongpu Railway. This is the devils’ main traffic artery in all of Shanxi. If we hold on here and don’t leave, what do you think Shinozuka Yoshio will think? What will he do?”
Su Yaoyang answered his own question, his tone carrying a hint of playfulness: “He won’t negotiate with us, won’t make any compromises.
He will only throw every troop he can mobilize at us like mad dogs, wave after wave, to fight us to the death here! Until he completely wears us down and crushes us. Because we touched his lifeline.”
Then, his pointer moved to the position of Mengxian.
“But Mengxian is different.”
The corner of Su Yaoyang’s mouth curved up slightly.
“Mengxian is also important; there are devil warehouses, coal mines, it’s a key node on our southward passage.
Losing it will hurt Shinozuka Yoshio, pain him, make him curse. But… it’s not enough for him to resolve to gather all his forces to fight us desperately.”
“So…” Pi Ruoyu seemed to grasp something but wasn’t quite sure.
“So, us abandoning Xinxian now and turning to hit Mengxian is using action to clearly tell Shinozuka Yoshio one thing.”
Su Yaoyang looked at Pi Ruoyu and said word by word, his eyes flashing with a nearly mocking light:
“‘Hey, old devil. See, your vital transport hub Xinxian, I can take it whenever I want. But, I’m not interested in fighting you to the death.'”
“‘So, I’ll give Xinxian back to you. However… I went through all this trouble to fight a battle, can’t come for nothing. So, your Mengxian to the south, I’ll politely take it as compensation from you.'”
Hearing this, Pi Ruoyu was completely stunned.
His mouth agape, he stared blankly at Su Yaoyang for a long time before squeezing out a sentence from his throat:
“Commander-in-Chief… this… this isn’t fighting a war, this is doing a distant deal with Shinozuka Yoshio, or more like forced buying and selling!”
“Hahaha… you can’t say it like that.” Su Yaoyang laughed. “Shinozuka Yoshio can refuse this deal, but we can still look for other counties to hit, this depends on what choice Shinozuka Yoshio makes.”
Looking at Su Yaoyang laughing like an old fox, all Pi Ruoyu could do was give a thumbs up.
…………
That small grove temporarily shielded from artillery fire did not become the final resting place for Haruko and Nakata Katsuhiko.
Driven by fear of death and that forcibly suppressed longing for life, they ultimately left this brief shelter.
Supporting each other, they trudged deep and shallow through the wilderness littered with shell craters and corpses, trying to find a road to escape this hell.
At that moment, they saw not far ahead a small group of figures also wearing Japanese uniforms emerging from behind a bombed-out bunker.
“It’s… our own people!”
Seeing the familiar uniforms and gear, a glimmer of hope instantly burst in Nakata Katsuhiko’s eyes.
He supported the nearly exhausted Haruko and staggered toward those figures.
However, as they got close, the faint hope in Nakata Katsuhiko’s heart was instantly doused with a basin of icy water.
That was not an intact formed unit.
That was a group of routed soldiers.
Seven or eight men, uniforms open, faces numb and crazed, eyes turbid like starving mad wolves on the wilderness.
The thick stench on them, mixed with sweat, blood, and despair, immediately made Nakata Katsuhiko instinctively stop and shield Haruko behind him.
But it was too late.
The gazes of that group of routed soldiers, like wolves spotting prey, instantly focused on the figure behind Nakata Katsuhiko—disheveled yet still unable to hide her delicate beauty.
In the eyes of these men who had completely abandoned military discipline and retained only beastly instincts, Haruko’s tear-streaked and dirtied pretty face, her tattered yet still outlining her graceful curves nurse uniform, and her fearfully heaving full bosom all became the fiercest fuel igniting the dark desires in their hearts.
“Oh? Look, there’s actually a woman here!” A private first class-like routed soldier stuck out his tongue, licked his cracked lips, and let out a hoarse, lecherous laugh.
“And a deserter!”
Another Japanese soldier pointed at Nakata Katsuhiko with the bayonet of his Type 38 rifle, eyes full of malicious mockery. “Daring to desert with a woman in the face of the enemy! This is treason! Shame of the Empire!”
This sudden absurd-to-the-extreme label completely stunned Nakata Katsuhiko.
Before he could speak to defend himself, the group of routed soldiers surged forward like sharks smelling blood!
“What are you doing! Let me go!”
Nakata Katsuhiko struggled desperately, but two fists can’t beat four hands; he was soon pinned dead to the ground by two soldiers, his rifle seized, mouth stuffed with rags, able only to watch wide-eyed as…
He watched that group of beasts extend their claws toward the desperate, helpless white figure behind him.
“No! Don’t come over! Ah…”
Haruko struggled desperately, but to no avail; that group of reason-lost Japanese soldiers had turned into beasts and pounced on her.
One finished, another pounced on.
They like a pack of wild beasts vented their lust wantonly on Haruko’s now unresisting soft body.
Time passed bit by bit, and the event reached its end.
By now Haruko no longer cried out; her eyes vacant staring at the sky dyed gray by gunsmoke, feeling her soul had been utterly torn apart.
Nakata Katsuhiko felt even more like he was seeing the world’s biggest joke, despair and rage; was there anything more ridiculous, more ironic, more despairing in this world?
Just as that sergeant, the second time climbing onto Haruko preparing to violate again, and grinning to his companions “Kill these two deserters after we’re done”…
“Da da da da da da da…”
A burst of extremely crisp, highly penetrating gunfire like the swing of the Grim Reaper’s scythe suddenly rang out from behind a nearby earth mound!
The sergeant who was on Haruko thrusting his hips had his back explode in a huge spray of blood! His body stiffened, the grin still frozen on his face, and he toppled headfirst beside Haruko.
The other few Japanese soldiers who had just vented and were sitting resting on the ground didn’t even have time to react before being instantly riddled by the bullet storm! Blood and flesh fragments splattered everywhere.
The gunfire came fast and left fast.
In just an instant, the hell that had been full of lewd talk and wild laughter returned to dead silence.
A group of soldiers in gray uniforms, holding submachine guns, rushed out from behind the mound. They quickly controlled the scene; the young officer in the lead, seeing this lewd and bloody sight, frowned tightly.
He saw Haruko lying on the ground half-naked like a broken doll, saw Nakata Katsuhiko pinned to the ground with blood tears in his eyes, and the corpses of those Japanese soldiers who had just been violating around them.
The two soldiers pinning Nakata Katsuhiko had long let go and raised their hands.
Nakata Katsuhiko struggled to his feet. He glanced at those Chinese soldiers who saved their lives, who should be “enemies”, then at Haruko on the ground like a broken doll, lifeless.
A massive, absurd-to-the-extreme grief and indignation instantly shattered all his mental defenses.
He suddenly burst into loud laughter, and as he laughed, tears surged out like a breached flood.
His own woman raped by his own people.
Yet saved by the enemy.
Greater Japanese Empire… Amaterasu Great God… Bushido…
All bullshit!
He walked to the leading vigilant Shanxi Militia officer and “thud” knelt on both knees, using all his strength to kowtow loudly.
Then, in a hoarse voice full of endless grief, indignation, and despair, in broken Chinese, he roared:
“Sirs… we… surrender!”
