Rise From Eight Hundred

"Captain, I have something to say!" Lei Xiong glanced at Tang Dao.

"You said that military meetings are supposed to let everyone speak freely." Tang Dao smiled calmly and looked at Zhou Dunhou over there.

"But Captain Zhou, I was surprised that you still have a pack of private cigarettes! I remember that I went to your place last night and smoked a cigarette from you. You felt so painful that I thought you had run out of stock and finally smoked all the cigarettes from my pocket!"

"Haha, sir, you know it now! Old Zhou is the most stingy person. When he meets us, he always smokes our cigarettes to death, but he is reluctant to take out his own cigarettes." Seeing Tang Dao teasing Zhou Dunhou, the officers laughed so hard that their teeth were popping.

"That's right, I strongly suggest that the rich man Old Zhou give out cigarettes. Damn, I didn't have half of my cigarettes at that meeting? I smoked them by the number when I went back." Someone was also cheering.

"Bah, you guys are shameless. You just like to think about what's in other people's pockets. Last time in Songjiang, I saw you put a lot of Japanese cigarettes in your pockets. I ask you, where are the cigarettes? Did the dog smoke them?" Zhou Dunhou, who was teased, jumped up and fought back.

"Woo woo!" Hammer, who was lying on the side, whined twice, and stared at Zhou Dunhou with a pair of dog eyes.

Four sharp teeth were exposed on his lips.

What's wrong, did the dog provoke you? Jiangnan people are gentle by nature, but it doesn't mean that dogs are also, Hammer has a bad temper.

"Hey, little Hammer, I don't mean to scold you, come, come, get a piece of jerky. Don't show your teeth, don't show your teeth." Zhou Dunhou was startled, and with some pain, he took out a piece of jerky from the inner pocket of his military uniform and threw it over.

Originally, Hammer, who was wearing a military vest, was a joke to the officers and soldiers of the 67th and 43rd armies who joined the advance group. It was fine that Commander Tang raised the guard dog as a military dog, but he even gave the dog a private badge.

But a few days ago, in the battle against the Japanese bombing formation, Hammer was the first to hear the roar of the enemy plane and issued a warning, which at least bought the whole army one more minute.

No one dared to underestimate that minute, perhaps that minute saved hundreds of lives.

Moreover, even when Tang Dao led a team to harass the main force of the Japanese army, he had to bring the scout Hammer with him. That was a battlefield where any mistake would lead to eternal damnation, which fully demonstrated that Hammer was a unique dog.

Not to mention that it can understand human language now, it is not surprising that it can understand Japanese.

"Fuck, Old Zhou, you are so thrifty that you even have meat!" A school officer looked at the 'Hammer' who forgave Zhou Dunhou without even a sniff and ate with his hearty mouth, his eyes a little straight.

In order to give the Songjiang army enough strength to fight, the Songjiang Command also made great efforts to collect all the meat in Songjiang, including the Japanese war horses killed in the Songjiang wilderness that day, and boiled them with boiling water and salt, and then drained the water with a native method. Soldiers and officers were treated equally, and each person carried a pound of dried meat and five bread with them.

In case of emergency, these are their energy supplements, enough for an adult to survive for three days and still have enough physical strength.

Ten days have passed since the Battle of Songjiang. Most of the soldiers have eaten up the meat and bread long ago, thinking that they would rather die than starve to death.

Even if they were a little frugal, they still ate everything after the six days of extremely energy-consuming rapid march. To replenish their energy on the way, they really had to rely on the broth made from the horse meat of all the dead war horses and pack horses that Tang Dao ordered at that time. Otherwise, they might not have been able to stay ahead of the 36th Infantry Brigade, which had canned meat to eat.

Unexpectedly, the stingy old Zhou still hid a piece of bacon close to his body.

However, the major battalion commander who accidentally cursed the dog could only appease the most special "soldier" of the advance regiment with the dried meat distributed by the pre-war command to everyone to supplement nutrition.

"Nonsense, why can't I have it? I've been relying on this piece of meat to eat these days." Zhou Dunhou answered his colleague unhappily.

"The meat is still there! How to eat with rice?" The colonel was stunned.

"Watch it! If it doesn't work, smell it. If it doesn't work, I'll lick it! That smell is delicious!" Zhou Dunhou answered as a matter of course.

‘Uh’ Tang Dao couldn’t help but grin.

It seems that Zhen Teliang is a good method, worthy of promotion throughout the army. The only drawback is that it’s a bit disgusting.

‘Hammer’

It seems that this bacon is not so fragrant anymore!

But we are dogs, what are we afraid of! Isn’t it just the saliva of an old man?

This is probably the not-too-complicated psychological struggle deep in the heart of Hammer, who froze in eating meat at that moment but soon continued to eat heartily.

“Haha!” Everyone laughed.

Invisibly, it eased the atmosphere of the two majors who were a little bit angry before.

At the same time, the tension caused by the 18th Division’s transfer of an infantry regiment was not as strong as before.

The generals are the courage of the soldiers. If they are not panicked, the soldiers will naturally not be afraid.

These veterans on the battlefield are using their own way to ease the fear caused by the rope slowly being put around their necks.

“Come on, Lei Xiong, you say.” Tang Dao patted the map with his hand and pulled a group of off-topic officers back into the military meeting.

"I just said that Old Zhou was naive, of course I was joking." Lei Xiong's face straightened. "However, we can know from the map that our current location is not far from Jiashan's national defense line. Don't the Japanese know that?"

"Of course they know. In fact, I dare to conclude that they have come to the conclusion that my troops are approaching my main force after they monitored my marching route through the reconnaissance plane in the sky two days ago."

"Of course I know this, but the field space is so large. Unless someone deliberately leaks our whereabouts, how can the Japanese block us at night?" Zhou Dunhou frowned.

The reason why the Japanese army can bite the advance group is 80% due to the reconnaissance planes of the Japanese Navy that fly twice a day, but that is only during the day. If the advance group still insists on marching at night, the Japanese will never know their movements.

"If we can abandon all the baggage, including the wounded, and travel light and fast, without traitors, the Japanese will certainly not be able to do anything to us." Lei Xiong sighed. "But not only do we know it, but even the Japanese know it, and we won't."

Zhou Dunhou was stunned.

What Lei Xiong said was the weakness of the advance group. Although the advance group is composed of elite troops, they are not a strong army used to fight in the vanguard. Their original mission was just to be abandoned and attract the abandoned pieces of the Japanese bombing formation and the 10th Army.

Their mission has been completed, and now they are fighting for their own survival, but it does not mean that they can abandon all the baggage, especially the seriously injured in the continuous battles.

Not only the newly injured, but also the medical team of the original 43rd Army and hundreds of wounded.

As Lei Xiong said, they can run into the wilderness with light equipment, bypass the main battlefield in one night, enter the defense line and join the main force, but can they abandon these wounded and baggage? Obviously not.

"And, Lao Zhou, you said that you hope the command will send an infantry regiment to meet us." Lei Xiong's expression became more serious. "Don't even count on it. If I were the Japanese, I would definitely attack with all my strength, forcing my main force not to transfer even a single soldier."

"If I'm not mistaken, the Japanese 18th Division must have attacked with all its might in the past two days, forcing our main force to respond with all its might and just barely hold the defense line."

"The command sent me a telegram at noon, saying that the 18th Division had deployed its reserve for the first time in the past two days. Not counting auxiliary arms such as cavalry, artillery, and engineers, there were 11 infantry battalions of infantry alone. Our defense line was forced to retreat four kilometers, and we are currently defending the second line of defense." Tang Dao's voice was low.

The officers all showed sorrow in their eyes.

It wasn't because they knew that the main force under such heavy pressure was unable to send even a single soldier to support them, but because there were only a few lines of defense in Jiashan's national defense line. Now that the first line of defense has been broken and the entire army has retreated to the second line, how long can the entire line of defense last?

Although the Japanese army only had one division of 30,000 people, they also had a heavy artillery brigade and the assistance of Japanese bombers in the sky. Without six infantry divisions or even more troops, they would definitely not be able to stop it.

Now, the Songhu army has retreated frantically. The Chinese army at the gateway of Jiangsu and Zhejiang only has these three infantry divisions and no backup.

Even if these two or three thousand people return desperately, facing such a corrupt war situation, not only will they not be able to help, but they may even have a counter-effect.

Behind them, there is still an infantry brigade with 8,000 troops chasing them, which is almost the strength of half a division.

It's simply desperate!