Chapter 320: The Japanese Army with a Collapsed Will
When the Japanese army was compressed to the southeastern corner of Huludao and there was no way out, Wang Guangyu once again issued an ultimatum to the Japanese army, requiring the remaining more than 2,000 Japanese troops to surrender immediately. The Anti-Japanese Alliance could guarantee their lives.
If they continue to resist stubbornly, the Anti-League will be clean and completely annihilated.
After receiving another ultimatum issued by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, Colonel Mu Dafu looked at the sea in front of him, but slowly tore the Anti-Union ultimatum into pieces, turned around and said to a captain beside him: "
Tell those Chinese people that the empire only has soldiers who died in battle, not soldiers who live in an ignoble way."
"If they want to attack, just come. Don't try to force us to surrender like those white people. The Imperial Japanese soldiers will never put down their weapons. There is no such word as surrender in the Imperial Army.
.As an Imperial Army soldier, it is a supreme honor to die fighting for the Emperor and the Empire."
"Although our army is now in an irreversible predicament, we have made preparations for everyone to be crushed. Tell them that we will fight to the death here today. Let them know what the desperate spirit of the Imperial Army is, and what the Imperial soldiers are like
Their spirit cannot be compared with that of the Chinese soldiers."
Just after hearing Colonel Mu Dafu's answer, the captain beside him did not follow his orders. Instead, he said with a gloomy face: "Sir, we are holding on alone due to lack of supplies and hopeless backup.
I have been on Huludao for five whole days, and I have done my best for the Emperor and the Empire."
"We are now compressed to a corner of the sea. There are enemy naval guns in front of us, and enemy tanks and heavy artillery behind us. There are also a large number of enemy aircraft in the sky. And all the commanding heights around us have been controlled by the enemy.
If you keep hitting it in your hand, you will really die for it."
"Most of us are reserve officers and we have families. It doesn't matter if we are killed in battle, but what about our wives and children at home? The little pension provided by the army is not even enough to feed our wives and children.
.The war will end one day, and we still have to live for our families."
"At the end of these days, we have fought hard for so many days and have been loyal to His Majesty the Emperor. At this time, no one has the right to ask us to die in battle. The senior officers of the military headquarters have abandoned us subordinates and withdrawn. Could it be that
Are they not soldiers of the empire? Don’t they generals deserve to die gloriously for the empire?”
"They were the first to run away when the situation was bad, and now they ask us all to die here. Why is it that the lives of the imperial generals are lives, but the lives of us junior officers and soldiers are not human lives? They get salaries that are much higher than ours
, enjoying treatment that is much higher than ours, but taking the lead to escape when the situation is not good, is this the broken spirit of the Imperial Army?"
"The honor of dying for the empire can only be enjoyed by those of us at the bottom? Although we have low-level positions and not many military graduates, most of whom are reserve officers, we also have the right to live. 1
In the Battle of Qikou in the half-year battle, the navy could surrender, so why do we have to die here?"
"Sir, I don't think you have the right to issue this order, and I will not pass it on. You are prepared to die gloriously in battle and be loyal to the Emperor and the Empire. We will not stop you. But that is yours.
Please don’t drag us along with you as a funeral companion.”
The captain's words stunned Colonel Mu Dafu. This was the first time since he graduated from the Army Academy to hear someone openly say surrender. These words were spoken by an empire that has always been proud of dying on the battlefield.
Soldiers, should I speak out?
Looking at the captain in front of him, Colonel Mu Dafu wanted to give an order to arrest him after reprimanding him for his remarks as a national traitor. But other Japanese officers around him had expressions of disapproval on his determination to fight to the death, which made Mu Dafu.
Duff hesitated again. He knew that these mobilized reserve officers were far less desperate than those young officers.
So although the captain's words surprised him, he didn't think too much about it. But he didn't expect that the captain's words were obviously not his personal thoughts. He should represent a group of people.
In the past Kwantung Army, this kind of situation would never have happened.
Knowing that the morale of the remaining troops was completely depleted at this time, and he was forcing them to fight to the death, it would be difficult for him to suppress it. After hesitating for a long time, Colonel Mu Dafu said to the officers beside him: "You are not willing to fight for the empire.
If you want to die in battle, surrender if you are willing. If you are willing to stay with me and fight to the death with the enemy, then stay and fight together."
"As for those who want to betray the Empire and the Emperor, I can't force you at this time. But I hope you won't do anything that harms the country, and don't encourage others to betray the Empire with you. You are willing to be a traitor to the country.
, just go by yourself."
Having said that, Colonel Mu Tatsuo closed his eyes, unwilling to look at the group of national thieves around him. The Japanese army always called captured personnel national thieves, and Mu Tatsuo, who was influenced by Bushido, naturally also called these national thieves.
However, although the officers around him have more or less revealed their unwillingness to continue the fight, Colonel Mu Dafu still believes that there are still a few people who want to surrender.
After many years of education in the Imperial Army, even those reserve officers or veterans of the second mobilization still have a strong Bushido spirit and the idea of dying gloriously for the Emperor and the Empire. Those who want to betray can only
It can draw away a few troops, but it will never draw away too many people.
What Colonel Mu Dafu didn't expect was that after he finally spat out, two-thirds of the more than two thousand defeated Japanese soldiers who were compressed in a corner of the beach, led by officers, faced the enemy.
The anti-alliance forces surrendered. When the last two hours set by Wang Guangyu were up, Mu Dafu only had three to four hundred people left by his side.
Looking dumbfounded at the few hundred people left around him, Colonel Mu Dafu felt completely cold at this moment. He did not expect that just a few officers would pull away so many troops and surrender to the enemy on the battlefield.
Something that would tarnish the honor of Imperial soldiers. This would have been absolutely unimaginable even a year ago.
In fact, there was no need for Colonel Mu Tatsuo to be too surprised when a large number of battlefield surrenders occurred among the remaining Japanese troops in Huludao. Among the entire strength of the Fourth Army, those elites either died in Yixian or were incorporated into the Fourth Army by Shojiro Iida.
A group of retreating echelons went with the transport ship to visit the Bohai Dragon King.
Those who were left behind by Iida Shojiro in Huludao were either non-frontline combat troops such as baggage troops and engineers, or the remnants of the Japanese army that had been withdrawn from the front lines. Among them, the so-called local soldiers mobilized on the spot in southern Manchuria, or soldiers from the mainland
The veterans who were mobilized for the second time accounted for a large proportion.
Among officers at all levels, reserve officers who have been mobilized for the second or even third time basically account for the majority. These people are not young and have already brought up families and even a lot of children. They have the spirit and will to fight to the death.
, far inferior to those young soldiers and officers.
At present, the Japanese army, whose military resources are increasingly depleted, has already begun to recruit additional troops from everywhere in order to make up for the increasing war losses. A large number of Koreans and Taiwanese who have never conscripted troops have begun large-scale mobilization and even forced conscription.
Even the gangsters from the underworld all over Japan have put on military uniforms and joined the army.
And Shojiro Iida put the most elite troops among the remaining troops of the Fourth Army on the first batch of evacuation lists. Except for a few troops, the remaining troops are all composed of this kind of miscellaneous troops. You
It is simply impossible for the Japanese army, whose spirit of fighting to the death is completely different from that of those first-class troops, to fight to the death.
As for those young officers who were left behind and were determined to fight to the death, most of them had already died on the front lines. Those who survived were the reserve officers who saw the situation was not good and ran away. Let these drag their families with them.
It is difficult for an officer who has a strong mouth to compete with those young officers who are carefree and have a desperate spirit.
What's more, many of these reserve officers' family members were immigrants from the pioneering group, and their places have been captured by the Anti-Japanese Alliance. Their family members have been taken prisoner. How can these officers still fight to the death? Survive in a hopeless situation, and fight to the death.
Getting together with their wives and children is more important to these people than anything else.
So as soon as a few officers took the lead, most of the people followed and drifted behind. In the end, only three to four hundred people were left around Mu Dafu. Looking at the few people left around him, I didn't expect that he had always been
The Imperial Army, which he was proud of and known for its fearless spirit, would see such a large-scale surrender in his own hands. Colonel Mu Dafu himself completely lost his determination to fight to the end.
Perhaps it was because he was completely disheartened by the betrayal of his subordinates at the most critical moment. Perhaps it was the complete loss of the so-called decisive spirit of the Japanese Army that he had always been proud of, which caused him to completely lose his last trace of courage.
In his eyes, the Empire's army has deteriorated, leaving him, a diehard, helpless.
After the large-scale surrender incident, Colonel Mu Dafu, who was in an absolute breakdown both mentally and willfully, ordered a squadron leader to lead these people to surrender to the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and then he pulled out his weapon
Saber committed seppuku to apologize to the emperor. He did not take the remaining three or four hundred men to carry out the final resistance.
Because he also saw the desire to live in the eyes of these last few hundred people. He knew that the morale of the army had completely collapsed. And this kind of collapse was a sign of a Japanese Army soldier who had served in the Japanese army for more than ten years.
Colonel, this was the first time he saw it.
The Kwantung Army Headquarters took the lead at the critical moment and sent planes to evacuate the Fourth Army Headquarters. This made the already demoralized army even more desperate because others had withdrawn and they needed to stay and hold on.
Low. Although Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida's evacuation operation has been kept secret, this kind of thing cannot be kept secret for too long.
When the battle situation was relatively stalemate before, these people could still hold on for some time. But once the battle situation was extremely unfavorable, the spirit and will of these people completely collapsed. The reason why these people around them
There is no option to directly select their peers.
Not for any other reason, but because they were worried that if they reported the situation to the Kwantung Army Headquarters, their family members in the country would be severely punished for their actions and their deception. It was definitely not that they had followed them.
, determination to fight to the death with the enemy.
He knew that even if he reluctantly gave the order to resist, he might not be able to hold on for too long. Even these junior officers and soldiers who had no intention of fighting might just give him a shot. He was also the squadron leader and group leader along the way.
He knew that those veterans were cruel and ruthless, and they would never be vague about shooting him in the back.