Black Flag Army

Chapter 152: Feyak Warrior

Di Xiong said, "There is no navy at all, so where will the navy commander come from? When the German instructors arrive, officers above the brigade commander level who want to be in the navy will go to study, and after they finish their studies and take the exam, the one with the best score will be the navy commander."

Jiang Hongyu said: "This is the best way! It is fair and reasonable, and no one can complain."

After returning to the Vladivostok headquarters, Di Xiong convened a meeting of officers above the rank of division commander and formulated a combat plan for the Battle of Sakhalin Island, which was "five-way iron wall encirclement and paratroopers attacking in the middle." This plan was formulated after fully considering everyone's opinions.

Di Xiong finally said: "The Chief of General Staff said that the Japanese army might withdraw on their own initiative, so there is no need to fight this battle. Up to now, more than 20,000 people have been killed or wounded in the Outer Manchuria Campaign. I don't know how to explain to the families of the martyrs when I go back. I also want to win Sakhalin without fighting, but if the Japanese don't leave, this final battle must be fought, otherwise the territory of Outer Manchuria will be incomplete."

Leng Hanbing said: "So far, the Japanese army has shown no signs of retreat."

Wu Chunlei said: "Then be prepared to fight. The longer the night, the more trouble there is. Let's fight tomorrow!"

Di Xiong smiled and said, "It's too hasty to fight tomorrow. The fishing boats haven't been collected yet! Let's wait three days! The airborne division should focus on parachuting training in the next three days. We can't fail at the critical moment."

Wu Guozhu, the commander of the Seventh Division, said: "Please rest assured, Commander-in-Chief, whoever shows fear during the actual parachute jump will be shot immediately."

It was Wu Guozhu who took the initiative to invite Ying to temporarily become a paratrooper division.

Guard Di Chun came in and reported: "Commander! There is a platoon leader from the First Division who claims to be a Feyak warrior from Sakhalin Island. He requested to join the Paratrooper Division so that he can serve as a guide for everyone."

The Feyak people of Sakhalin are the oldest indigenous people of Sakhalin and the most determined resistance against foreign invasion. They have fought against the Tsarist Russians and the Japanese. Although their weapons are backward, they have never stopped resisting. Di Xiong had an idea. The Feyak warriors are familiar with the terrain of Sakhalin. With him as a guide, the paratrooper division will be able to adapt to the battlefield more quickly.

He immediately asked Di Chun to bring in the platoon leader.

After the platoon leader entered the room, he saluted and introduced himself: "Commander-in-chief, my name is Tana, and I am the platoon leader of the First Division. We, the Feyak people, have a blood feud with the Japanese. I am willing to fight for our country. Please approve my joining the paratrooper division!"

Tana is a tall man with a yellow face and dark complexion. He joined the Black Flag Army only three months ago and has become a platoon leader. It can be seen that he is very brave in combat.

Di Xiong nodded with satisfaction. "Very good, Brother Tana, welcome to join the Paratrooper Division. You should report to Division Commander Wu Guozhu first, and he will arrange your work."

Tana burst into tears of gratitude, "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief!"

Wu Guozhu enthusiastically took Tana out of the room, and the two began to discuss the next action plan.

With the addition of Tana, the paratrooper division became more powerful. The soldiers' confidence increased and they looked forward to the decisive battle three days later.

Three days later, the Japanese did not withdraw their troops. Instead, they strengthened their defense. Deep trenches were dug in the barracks and residential areas. As for the coastline, it was too long. Their commander, Sato Kosaburo, knew that he could not defend it, so he did not defend it. Sato Kosaburo was the younger brother of Sato Kojiro, the commander of the Japanese Tianjin Garrison. He had only two brigades under his command. There were originally three brigades. The last time the Japanese attacked Temple Street, they took away a brigade. As a result, this brigade was completely destroyed in Talley Port, and not a single person escaped. Although he now has 20,000 people under his command, half of them are young and strong Japanese immigrants who were pulled out to make up the number. There are only 10,000 truly trained soldiers. Because Sakhalin is too cold, there are three winters in a year. Many soldiers have frozen to death. Some were attacked and killed by the Feyak guerrillas when they went out on patrol or on guard. Therefore, the two brigades are seriously short of half of their personnel.

Sato Kosaburo had no confidence in defending Sakhalin Island, but the headquarters in the rear ordered him to hold on to it, so he had no choice but to do so, and could only drown his sorrows in sake every day.

When the two brigade commanders, Aomori and Aoki, came to him and asked him to ask the headquarters for reinforcements, he was drinking sake and angrily said to his two subordinates: "I have asked the headquarters for reinforcements a long time ago, but the headquarters has not given me a reply so far. What can I do?"

As they were talking, the air defense alarm rang out shrilly. The battle to retake Sakhalin Island had finally begun. Aoki said, "Commander, it must be the Chinese planes coming. Where are our anti-aircraft guns? Fight back!"

Sato Kosaburo drunkenly said, "What a counterattack! Our anti-aircraft guns have all been transferred to Vladivostok for defense. Now they have become spoils of war for the Chinese. There are no anti-aircraft guns here."

Aomori said: "What about our planes? We can't just watch the enemy bombers coming!"

Sato Kosaburo said: "All the planes were used up in Vladivostok. Now there are only a few broken planes at the airport."

As soon as he finished speaking, a bomb fell next to the command post, blowing up dust. Aoki shouted, "Protect the commander!" Several guards rushed over and protected Sato Kosaburo with their bodies.

At this time, there was a burst of fierce gunfire outside, and it was obvious that the Black Flag Army had begun its attack. Aoki said palely: "Commander, what should we do?"

Sato Kosaburo stood up shakily and said, "What else can we do? Hold on! We must not let the Chinese army break through our defense line!" After that, he picked up a pistol and walked into the command post in the air-raid shelter.

The Seventh Division parachuted into the jungle less than three kilometers away from the Japanese military camp. Many people's parachutes unfortunately got caught on the trees. Everyone helped each other, cut the ropes and landed. As soon as Tana landed, he was as agile as a monkey. He jumped up and down and quickly helped many people get down from the trees.

Tana looked around and saw that everyone had come down. He shouted, "I'm the guide! Everyone follow me. The Japanese military camp is over there!"

Commander Wu looked at the other soldiers with a serious face and said firmly: "Everyone, obey the command, follow his steps, and attack the Japanese camp immediately!" His voice was sonorous and powerful, like a sword piercing the sky, making everyone feel the tense atmosphere of the battle. The soldiers clenched their weapons in their hands, and their eyes revealed determination and courage. They knew that this would be a life-and-death battle, but they were not afraid, because they were shouldering the heavy responsibility of recovering the country. Under the encouragement of Commander Wu, everyone's confidence doubled, and they were determined to break through the Japanese camp in one fell swoop and win glory for the country and the nation.

When they were still one kilometer away from the Japanese camp, they were discovered by the soldiers on the enemy's sentry tower. The Japanese heavy artillery and infantry guns opened fire. A dozen paratroopers in front fell in a pool of blood, and the others quickly lay down. In addition to pistols and rifles, the paratroopers only had rocket launchers and mortars. In addition, in order to cooperate with the paratrooper division, Di Xiong assigned the First Army's special forces regiment to them. The regiment commander Shi Zhu saw that the Japanese soldier on the sentry tower was still shouting, so he raised his sniper rifle and shot him down with one shot.

Tana, who was lying on the ground, said to Commander Wu, "Commander! There is a ditch ahead that is five meters wide and ten meters deep. We can't get through it! We need to move soil to fill the ditch before we can get through."

Division Commander Wu made a prompt decision and issued an urgent order to Brigade Commander Pan Donghe without hesitation: "Lead your troops to dig the soil immediately!" His voice was sonorous and powerful, with an unquestionable majesty. After receiving the order, Pan Donghe knew that he had a heavy responsibility and did not dare to delay for a moment. He quickly gathered the team and personally directed the soldiers to pick up tools and start digging the land. The sand was put into bags and filled into the trench.

How could the Japanese army let them dig the soil so easily? A group of Japanese soldiers rushed to the bunker opposite the trench like hungry wolves, and quickly raised their guns and fired. In an instant, the sound of gunfire was deafening. Unfortunately, the Black Flag Army soldiers who were trying to dig the trench were shot and fell in a pool of blood with screams.

Seeing this, Shizhu was extremely anxious, but he did not panic. He made a prompt decision and commanded the snipers in the special forces regiment to launch a counterattack. These snipers were all experienced and had superb marksmanship. Although the Japanese soldiers cunningly hid behind the bunkers and only slightly poked their heads out, this did not affect the performance of the snipers at all. With the sound of crisp gunshots, the Japanese soldiers who thought they were safe were shot and fell one after another, and died on the spot. Seeing this, the rest of the Japanese soldiers were terrified and dared not act rashly anymore, and even dared not raise their heads.

At this time, Division Commander Wu had already ordered the telegraph operator to contact the Air Force. Soon, after receiving the order, more than a dozen bombers of the Black Flag Army roared towards the dilapidated Japanese military camp like birds of prey.

With deafening roars, precision-guided bombs rained down one after another. In an instant, the Japanese camp was engulfed in flames and thick smoke, with bodies and limbs torn to pieces everywhere. Faced with such a fierce bombing, the Japanese army had no power to fight back and could only flee or be killed.

Taking advantage of the chaos of the Japanese army, the brigade commander Pan Donghe seized the opportunity and quickly organized his soldiers to fill a ten-meter-wide road. Then, at the command of Division Commander Wu, all the officers and soldiers of the paratrooper division rushed forward like a tiger descending from a mountain, crossed the deep trench, and successfully broke into the Japanese camp.

However, after entering the barracks, they found that although many Japanese soldiers were seriously injured, they still fiercely waved their bayonets and rushed towards them fearlessly. Thus, a thrilling, life-and-death hand-to-hand combat began!

The two sides fought hand to hand, swords flashed and shadows crossed, shouts of killing rose and fell. Every swing of the sword could mean life or death, and every moment was full of endless dangers and challenges. In this bloody and cruel battlefield, there is no retreat, only courage to move forward; there is no fear, only to face death with equanimity!

When the bayonet in the hands of Division Commander Wu fiercely pierced the body of the last resistance fighter and pinned him to the ground, he noticed that he had many scars on his body. Especially the deep knife wound on his leg, which was bloody and fleshy, and even the bones could be seen. Blood continued to flow out of the wound, staining the ground under his feet red.

Seeing this, the military doctor rushed over, quickly opened the first aid kit, took out medicine and bandages, and nervously and skillfully treated the wound for Division Commander Wu. They first used disinfectant to clean the blood and dirt around the wound, then carefully applied hemostatic powder, and finally bandaged it carefully with a thick bandage.

At the same time, a staff officer rushed over and reported to Division Commander Wu: "Report to the commander, we found the body of Commander Sato Kosaburo in the Japanese headquarters. According to the prisoners, he chose to shoot himself after knowing that the defeat was inevitable. In addition, the two brigade commanders Aomori and Aoki have also been killed by our side. This battle is finally over!"

Hearing this news, Division Commander Wu's tense nerves relaxed a little, but the determination in his eyes did not diminish. He knew that although they had achieved a staged victory, the war was far from over. There were more challenges waiting for them in the future, and he had to lead the troops to move forward and win greater glory for the country and the nation.

After the five Black Flag troops landed on the island in fishing boats, they only wiped out some of the Japanese stragglers. When they rushed to the largest city on Sakhalin Island, Smi City, the resistance they encountered was just a militia consisting of more than a thousand young Japanese men. After a fierce exchange of fire, these militiamen surrendered after dozens of people were killed. Everyone couldn't help but wonder: Where did the main force of the Japanese army go?

Just when everyone was puzzled, Tana, who was in charge of the liaison, brought important news, and everyone suddenly realized. It turned out that the main force of the Japanese army had already been defeated by the Seventh Division. Wu Chunlei, commander of the First Army, said to Deputy Commander Liu Zhendong with embarrassment: "Several of our commanders and deputy commanders went to the island to participate in the battle, but in the end, the one who made the first contribution was a division commander. This is really embarrassing!"

Liu Zhendong responded disapprovingly: "It was said before that the Japanese were weak and one division was enough to deal with them. It was because the commander-in-chief was too cautious and overestimated the strength of the Japanese army. In fact, there is nothing to be ashamed of."

After receiving the telegram from the front, Di Xiong did not feel embarrassed. He thought that winning a battle was always a good thing, so he asked the telegraph operator to send a message to the Beihai Provincial Government and Zhang Shaozeng in Beijing to report the victory. The Outer Northeast had been completely recovered. The telegram to Beijing suggested that the Outer Northeast be established as Beiling Province, and recommended Jiang Hongyu as the commander-in-chief and Zhang Shaozeng as the governor.

During the process of recovering Outer Manchuria, President Xu Shichang was under tremendous pressure. He was not only worried about foreign powers, but also worried that warlords such as Duan Qirui and Cao Kun would drive him out of office in anger.

After Zhang Shaozeng showed the telegram to Xu Shichang, Xu Shichang breathed a sigh of relief and said to Zhang Shaozeng: "Brother Zhang! I listened to you and supported the Black Flag Army, but I was unsure! Who told me that I was a president in name only? Now that Outer Manchuria has finally been taken over, even Sakhalin Island has been recovered, and I am relieved."

Zhang Shaozeng said: "You will know later that your choice this time is not wrong. Brother Di is a loyal man. In the future, the Black Flag Army of Beihai and Beiling will support you to become a real president."