Chapter 25: Troop Strength Issues
“Chirp chirp… smooch smooch…”
After the unique sound of the Type 11 light machine gun rang out, it immediately caught Su Yaoyang’s attention.
He pointed at the distant firing point that was shooting in a gasping, out-of-breath manner and curiously asked: “Old Li, is that the little devils’ crooked-neck machine gun?”
“Crooked-neck?”
Li Gaoyuan couldn’t help but be slightly stunned, then seemed to remember something, couldn’t help laughing, and said with a grin: “What you said is actually pretty spot-on; that thing really does look like a crooked neck. But its official name is the Type 11 light machine gun.”
“How’s the performance of this thing?”
“Well, its performance is really pretty terrible, far inferior to our Czech ZB26 light machine gun. The advantages of our Czech machine gun are way better than the Japanese crooked-neck…”
Perhaps because this small-scale battle couldn’t pique Li Gaoyuan’s interest, or for other reasons, Li Gaoyuan was now seizing every opportunity to instill some basic knowledge about the battlefield and firearms into Su Yaoyang.
Under Li Gaoyuan’s explanation, Su Yaoyang also realized his past misconceptions about war or firearms.
Take the Czech light machine gun, the most commonly equipped for Chinese forces during the War of Resistance, for example: it uses a 20-round magazine feed, and the magazine is straight from beginning to end.
Those in later film and TV works hugging a Czech light machine gun equipped with a long curved magazine simply don’t exist.
The magazine on the Czech light machine gun like the one in the picture above is actually from the Type 56 submachine gun, because after the 1950s and 1960s in our country, 7.92mm bullets were no longer produced, so the Type 56 submachine gun magazine was used as a substitute.
The two watched the battle while chatting idly, but what surprised them was that even after the Japanese Type 11 light machine gun joined the fight, the four defenders on that city wall faced the Japanese assault without falling behind at all, still fighting vibrantly.
Seeing this, even Li Gaoyuan was taken aback. He observed carefully for a while and muttered: “Good grief, impressive. Brother Su, the firepower of this rifle you got is really fierce.”
“It’s a semi-automatic rifle,” Su Yaoyang reminded.
“Alright, whatever kind of rifle it is, in short, with this rifle, we’ll have no problem repelling the little devils’ attack.”
But Su Yaoyang was still somewhat unsatisfied: “Right, Brother Li, the little devils’ machine guns are firing; shouldn’t our machine gun get moving too?”
“What’s the rush?”
Li Gaoyuan shook his head and patiently explained: “Haven’t you noticed? Right now, the little devils have only used one machine gun; their other machine guns and grenade launchers still haven’t moved. They’re all waiting for us to move first.
As soon as we expose our firing points, I guarantee the little devils’ grenade launchers and other machine gun fire will hit us right away.
The battle has just started; if our firing points suffer heavy losses, how are we supposed to fight next?”
“Oh… there’s so much to it.” Su Yaoyang scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly. They say different trades are worlds apart; when he used to watch films and TV, he always went with mindless charges without a care, turns out that stuff is all fake.
Watching the lively gunfire ahead, Su Yaoyang’s mind stirred again.
His biggest problem right now was still too few troops; over a hundred men were not even a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of thousands of Japanese in Nanjing city. Once the Japanese reinforcements arrived, their annihilation would just be a matter of time.
Where could he recruit more people?
“No… there are still many scattered routed soldiers in Nanjing city, and even quite a few captured soldiers. It’d be great if he could pull some over.”
Thinking of this, he asked Li Gaoyuan: “Old Li, where did you run into Lu Shaobin and the others last night?”
“Near the Japanese embassy.” Li Gaoyuan looked at him in surprise and explained: “They were being chased by a squad of devils at the time; my brothers and I went to help, and after getting to know each other, I brought them over.”
“So, do you think our battle here might attract other National Revolutionary Army brothers over?”
“This… hard to say.” Li Gaoyuan slowly shook his head and smiled wryly:
“You have to know, this battle we’re fighting is too grueling; many units routed back from the front lines, and there were even several firefights just to escape. Seeing fighting here, they’d run the other way, let alone come over on their own.”
“Yeah!”
Su Yaoyang also let out a long sigh; even he wasn’t single-mindedly wanting to escape this city that was about to turn into hell?
However, he wasn’t willing to just watch the Japanese reinforcements arrive, surround, and wipe them out.
His mind raced, and Su Yaoyang suddenly remembered a scene from a movie he’d once seen.
At that time, thousands upon thousands of troops from various units that had routed from Nanjing city arrived at the Xiaoguandu ferry, where they were stopped by officers of the 36th Division, and the two sides even got into a brawl, nearly sparking infighting.
In the end, these people were mowed down by machine guns and bombs from Japanese patrol boats and planes, their blood flowing like rivers, dyeing the entire riverbank red.
If he wasn’t mistaken, there must be a large group of routed soldiers gathered at Xiaoguandu right now, right?
Thinking of this, Su Yaoyang’s heart immediately pounded with excitement.
Right now, with so many people gathered in the church, especially those female students and women like Yu Mo from the Qinhuai River banks, breaking out from the church to the Xiaoguandu ferry was definitely unrealistic.
But what if he took people to the Xiaoguandu ferry to recruit some routed soldiers over?
He immediately patted Li Gaoyuan’s shoulder and said in an excited tone: “Old Li, I’ve got an idea; let me tell you, see if it’s feasible?”
He immediately laid out his idea to Li Gaoyuan and finally said: “Old Li, with so many civilians and routed National Revolutionary Army brothers at Xiaoguandu ferry and along the riverbank, we don’t need to bring them all here—just pull over a portion, and it’ll be a huge boost to our strength. What do you think?”
Li Gaoyuan pondered for a moment. “Your idea is feasible, but what authority are you going to use to recruit those routed soldiers?”
“I…”
Su Yaoyang was suddenly dumbfounded; after all, before today, he was just an ordinary civilian—why would those routed soldiers believe him or listen to him?
Seeing Su Yaoyang’s stunned expression, Li Gaoyuan couldn’t help shaking his head; this Young Master Su had too little experience and came up with ideas on a whim.
He thought for a moment. “How about this: I’m at least the captain of the Whampoa Military Academy Cadet Brigade Instructor Team, so in an emergency, I have the authority to appoint an instructor.
I’ll issue you a temporary appointment document right away, appointing you as the major deputy captain of the Instructor Team. That way, when you go recruiting, you’ll have legitimate authority. What do you think?”
