boyutpedia Chapter 118 Prisoners of War Miners
Chapter 118 Prisoners of War Miners
In a corner of the Xiaoqingshan Coal Mine, near the mountains, there is a cluster of dilapidated wooden huts.
Inside one of the larger wooden cabins, more than a hundred people were crammed together, anxiously peering through the drafty wooden walls at the flames caused by the explosion outside.
"Battalion Commander Liu, the Nationalist government has finally come to rescue us!" A young man, dressed in a tattered military uniform and with a sallow complexion, almost burst into tears upon hearing the sounds of gunfire outside.
These men were all soldiers of the Central Army who had been captured by the Japanese during the last Battle of Taiyuan.
The Japanese didn't follow any prisoner-of-war treaty; they assigned these prisoners to different coal mines, and the people from the wooden house were assigned to the Xiaoqingshan mine.
In the mine, the Japanese soldiers didn't treat them like human beings at all. They would whip them out and send them into the mine to work very early in the morning, only letting them go back to rest when they were half dead from exhaustion.
The food they were given for three meals a day was not only small in quantity, but also tasted like pig swill, making it difficult to swallow.
Under the brutal torture inflicted by the Japanese soldiers, the prisoners of war, weakened by illness, were the first to fall ill. The Japanese not only refused to provide them with medical treatment but also considered them useless wastes of food. The Japanese cruelly murdered all the prisoners who couldn't work.
When this group of prisoners first arrived, there were more than 200 of them. In less than six months, only half of them remained. The others were either tortured to death by the Japanese or shot.
As for the rest of them, they were all injured, and it was unknown how much longer they could hold out here.
The sour, rotten smell that filled the room seemed to foreshadow the fate of this group of people.
"Battalion Commander, the officers still remember us! They've finally come to rescue us!" Another soldier exclaimed excitedly, his words tumbling out incoherently.
"Battalion Commander, while the troops are fighting the Japanese ahead, let's launch a surprise attack from behind and take them down. Killing one is enough, killing two is a bonus," a scarred man said fiercely.
"Battalion Commander, Biaozi is right. Let's give it a shot. This is our only chance. If our troops can't get through, we'll never have another chance."
"Alright, since everyone says so, for the country, for our freedom, brothers, let's fight!" Liu Hao said resolutely.
"Brothers, grab everything you can, and flank the Japanese devils from behind to give them a good beating and create opportunities for our troops." After saying that, Liu Hao lifted his stinking bunk and pulled the bed board out the door.
"Brothers, charge!"
Liu Hao took the lead and rushed out.
"Let's do this, brothers." The others pulled out bed boards from under the bed.
Liu Hao kicked open the door that the Japanese soldiers had locked and rushed out. The Japanese soldiers who had been guarding the door were nowhere to be seen.
"Brothers, charge!"
Just as Liu Hao was about to lead his men to fight the Japanese soldiers defending the mountain with wooden planks, he ran into Niu Dali and his group, who had just sneaked in from the back of the mountain to launch an attack.
"Who goes there?" Niu Dali shouted, raising his gun as he saw a group of people suddenly appear in the road ahead.
"Your government's army?" Liu Hao asked hastily upon seeing Niu Dali and his group surrounding them.
“Yes, we are the Jin-Sui Army Anti-Japanese Independent Militia. Why are you miners out here? It's so dangerous. Go back quickly,” Niu Dali said, putting down his men’s guns.
During his previous reconnaissance, Niu Dali noticed the miners at Xiaoqingshan Coal Mine and marked their living area. He then instructed the artillery company not to fire on the area to avoid accidentally injuring the poor miners.
"We're on the same side! We're from the Central Army. We were sent by our superiors to rescue us!" Liu Hao said hurriedly.
"I haven't heard of any prisoners of the Nationalist government here. You all need to step aside and not interfere with my mission," Niu Dali shouted angrily as the people blocking his way continued to block his path.
"Zhong Di, you take one squad and keep an eye on them. The rest of you, charge!" Without saying a word, Niu Dali pushed past Liu Hao and charged towards the Japanese soldier Fang Yu.
"What are you standing there for? Go hide over there. Bullet casings don't have eyes." Zhong Di looked at the group of people in front of him with annoyance. His plans to fight the Japanese with the battalion commander had been ruined by these people.
"What's wrong? Can't you move your feet or what?" Zhong Di nudged Liu Hao, who was staring blankly at the screen. Only then did Liu Hao snap out of Niu Dali's thoughts.
"Squad Leader Zhong, are you sure you weren't rescued by people sent by the Nationalist government?" Liu Hao asked, looking shocked.
"You just said you were prisoners of war, but we haven't heard of any prisoners of war being held here," Zhong Di asked again.
"Squad Leader Zhong, we really are prisoners of war. We were captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Taiyuan. We are hoping that the Nationalist army will come to rescue us."
"Hehehe, you're hoping the Nationalist army will come to your rescue? Who knows when that will be? This is enemy-occupied territory now, and the Nationalist army has long since disappeared." Zhong Di said to the Nationalist government with a disdainful look.
"You mean we've been abandoned by the Nationalist government?" Liu Hao looked disappointed when he learned that they hadn't come specifically to rescue them, the prisoners of war.
"What's so strange about that? They were all struggling to resist the Japanese, how could they have the energy to rescue you? You prisoners of war were just lucky to run into us, so we rescued you."
"Let me tell you, when you see our commander, you all need to thank him properly. If anyone disrespects our commander, I, Zhong Di, will make sure they know why the flowers are so red," Zhong Di said earnestly to the people in front of him.
"Please rest assured, Squad Leader Zhong, your regiment saved us. We are extremely grateful to your regiment," Liu Hao hurriedly expressed his gratitude.
"Squad Leader Zhong, didn't your commander just say that you are an independent militia of the Jin-Sui Army?" This time it was Liu Hao's turn to be curious.
“Our battalion commander said that it was because our militia fought the Japanese so well that the Jin-Sui Army begged us to join. Our militia didn’t think much of the Jin-Sui Army, but in order to fight the Japanese better, our regimental commander reluctantly agreed.” Zhong said this with a face full of pride.
"Is that so? That's strange," Liu Hao said curiously.
"Alright, once you meet our commander, you'll know just how amazing he is." Zhong Di spoke of his commander with a face full of admiration.
At this moment, Zhong Di saw three red signal flares suddenly shooting into the sky ahead and hurriedly said to Liu Hao and his group.
"Everyone hide, our general offensive has begun." After saying that, Zhong Di directed everyone to take cover. He led his squad to keep watch on the perimeter to prevent the fleeing Japanese soldiers from rushing over and harming the prisoners of war.
By this time, Tang Weiguo had already arrived at the front line and was overseeing operations. When the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion saw their commander arrive, they roared with excitement, their martial spirit brimming.
When Long Wenying saw the three new red signal flares rising from the Xiaoqingshan Coal Mine, she knew that Niu Dali had succeeded, and immediately issued the order.
"Launch a general offensive."
The mortar positions, which had been quiet, resumed firing shells at the Japanese positions after receiving orders.
The reconnaissance battalion soldiers in charge of the attack charged forward under the artillery fire. Among them was an artilleryman carrying a walkie-talkie who charged alongside the militia soldiers, immediately reporting his position so that the mortars behind him could continuously extend the trajectory of the shells.
The infantry-artillery coordination tactics that the reconnaissance battalion had been training for a long time were demonstrated for the first time at the Xiaoqingshan coal mine.