Rise From Eight Hundred

Morning of February 17, 1939!

The 29th day of the twelfth lunar month in the Chinese calendar!

The Four-Line Regiment Merit Awarding Ceremony was held on the large playground of the recruit training camp.

All the officers and soldiers of the Four-Line Regiment arrived at the venue, except for the two infantry companies of the guard battalion who were still armed and on alert outside the garrison and around the garrison and the venue.

The entrance ceremony still maintained the unique style of the Four-Line Regiment. The four major infantry battalions and the various units directly under the regiment headquarters entered the venue according to the order that had been set long ago. The only difference was that this time, the entire army took off their armor and rarely entered the venue with firearms.

The first row of the venue was filled with the divisional, brigade, and regimental commanders of the 921st Division, the 38th Army, and the 104th Division of the 22nd Army, who had arrived in advance at the invitation of Tang Dao and his wife in the past two days. The four major commanders of the Four-Line Regiment headquarters, headed by Lei Xiong, all sat beside them.

Although Tan Tai and Yun Shu were also invited to attend, the old couple did not want to sit with those officers who were sitting in a serious manner. In the words of the old Tan Tai, "Except for Brigade Commander Cheng, these guys are a bit interesting. Everyone else has a serious face as if others owe them money. What's the point of sitting with them? I would rather listen to Director Xiao He nagging me about the allocation of funds."

The old Tan Tai went to sit with his own students in the military factory, and Mrs. Tan Tai went to the medical company seating area.

During the time she arrived at the Sihang Regiment's base, she often went to the medical company where her daughter worked to help, and she had already become friends with the young nurses. Seeing her coming, the young nurses in white coats surrounded her in the middle, using their frail bodies to shield Mrs. Tan Tai, who was nearly fifty years old, from the biting cold wind.

No matter how cold the north wind in Taihang Mountain was, even if Mrs. Tan Tai's face was frozen red, her heart was warm.

She knew that these girls, who were two years younger than her daughter, had also come to the anti-Japanese front away from their hometowns and parents. The main reason they treated her like this was probably not because she was the mother of Captain Tan Tai, but because they also remembered their own mothers.

Just like the girl named Zhuang Damei she met in the medical company two days ago, she was a little absent-minded when changing the gauze for the wounded, and the seriously injured soldiers who had not recovered were sweating profusely. However, Tan Tai Mingyue, who was always strict in her work state, rarely criticized her, but just asked her to take a rest first.

Mrs. Tan Tai asked and found out that this girl from northern Jiangsu, who joined the Four Lines Regiment more than a year ago, had an only brother whose life and death was still unknown half a month ago.

Her brother was a sergeant in the third battalion. In just one year, he was promoted from a recruit to a sergeant. He was definitely a brave soldier.

But this sergeant, who was already a deputy squad leader, was seriously injured in the battle of Jiulong Mountain. He was trying to cover the soldiers in his squad and was injured in the internal organs by a mountain artillery shell that exploded three meters away.

Although the regiment had tried every possible way, even using a horse-drawn carriage to transport him across the Yellow River to the best hospital in Chang'an and accompanied him by a doctor and nurse throughout the journey, no good news came until yesterday.

This girl who lost her grandparents and father in the war is about to lose her brother because of the war. She doesn't know how to face her mother who is still waiting for her in her hometown.

"Poor child!" Mrs. Tan Tai, who knew what happened to the female nurse, gently hugged the dazed Zhuang Da Mei in her arms. "Good people have their own blessings, I believe your brother will get better."

"Aunt, I miss my mother so much!" Zhuang Da Mei was in tears and curled up in her warm embrace, like a stray kitten.

The uncertainty of her brother's life and death and her longing for her mother made this strong woman who joined the army for revenge no longer able to hide her fragility.

"Just call me Tan Tai Aunt! You will all be my children in the future." Mrs. Tan Tai hugged the female soldier and comforted her gently.

The comfort from maternal love created a miracle. Only one day later, a call came from Chang'an that Zhuang Damei's brother Zhuang Chenglin finally woke up from a coma, which meant that the sergeant of the Four-Line Regiment was gradually recovering.

Zhuang Damei's smile reappeared, and the title of "Tan Tai A Niang" became the exclusive title of the female nurses in the entire medical company. Mrs. Tan Tai was also proud of it. At this time, she naturally preferred to sit with her daughters.

The pampered housewife of a large family may not realize that her change in her view of the Four-Line Regiment was not only due to the presence of her husband and daughter and son-in-law, nor was it just because the Four-Line Regiment was strong enough.

After everyone sat down in the designated areas, the Four-Line Regiment Merit Awarding Conference officially began.

The first to be announced was personal military merit.

There were as many as 160 people in the first batch of third-class military merit winners. It was necessary to read out both the organization and the name. As the host, Tang Tuanzuo read for half an hour.

But only 90 of the 160 people were able to go on stage and wear the medals in person. The remaining 60 or so people were injured or sacrificed, so they could only be worn by their squad leaders or platoon leaders.

The 160 people were divided into 8 rows, filling up the huge rostrum made of logs.

The people who awarded them the medals were mainly the chief officers of several battalion-level units of the Four-Line Regiment, headed by Colonel Lei Xiong, plus two other lieutenant colonels and five majors, each responsible for one row.

The medals of various levels issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs to the Four-Line Regiment were also brought by the white-haired generals of the 38th Army after their arrival this time. Those who won the medals in the Four-Line Regiment also had medals issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs, so they simply wore two medals per person.

This is the honor they want.

Obviously, no matter what the material is, judging from the appearance, the Eagle Head Military Medal made by the Four-Line Regiment is a perfect winner.

Brigade Commander Kong, who was sitting in the audience, heard Colonel Ye Chenghuan introduce to him: "The military medals in the regiment are all designed by Master Tan Tai himself."

The dignified Major General Brigadier General almost let out tears from the corners of his mouth.

Tan Tai Yunshu is a famous calligrapher and painter in Jiangnan. Not to mention the material and commemorative significance, this design alone is worth a lot of money.

At that moment, Brigade Commander Kong probably had the urge to quit his brigade position and come to the Four Lines Regiment to be a company commander.

The Four Lines Regiment stipulates that no matter how many levels of military merits, those above the school level will not be awarded!

In Tang Dao's view, no matter how amazing the battle examples of the school level officers leading the troops are, that is what they should do as the chief officers, that is just their duty.

And the real support for all this is the grassroots officers and soldiers. Without their sacrifices and efforts, no matter how awesome the military chief's tactical arrangements are, it is just talk on paper.

In other words, if you want to win military merits in the Four Lines Regiment, the highest military rank is captain.

For example, Li Jiujin, the captain of the company standing on the stage, played a flexible and maneuverable role to the extreme in the battle of Wangwu Mountain and Sizhou Mountain. It was his interlaced movement that wiped out the artillery unit of the Guoqi Detachment in one fell swoop, and used those artillery to directly bury the last confidence of the Guoqi Detachment, and also allowed the main forces of Leng Feng and Shangguan Yun to be preserved, laying the foundation for the final victory of the Jiulong Mountain Battle.

If they had fought to the death with the Guoqi Detachment in Wangwu Mountain, even if it was a miserable victory, not to mention that there would not have been the miracle of conquering Yuncheng and completely destroying the logistics base of more than 100,000 Japanese troops and the Jiulong Mountain defense battle, even the Sizhou Mountain where the Tang Dao was located might have been in danger of being annihilated.

Captain Li, who made such a great contribution, was originally rated as a first-class military merit by Ye Chenghuan, but the old soldier oiler changed his previous style of taking advantage of everything this time, and volunteered to only have a second-class military merit, as long as Ye Chenghuan approved the first-class military merit of several officers and soldiers of the seventh company he reported.

After Tang Dao found out, he called him over and scolded him: "The evaluation of military merit is not a market. You are bargaining and exchanging your own merit. You are not embarrassing me, but you are making a joke of the regiment's military regulations. Since you want to lower your military merit, don't say second class, just get a third class military merit."

The old soldier who was severely criticized for his military merit being directly reduced from first class to third class was not depressed at all. The number of first class military merit personnel originally approved by his 7th company did not change much, but there were four more second and third class military merits than before.

As a company commander, he can finally give an explanation to those brothers who died bravely in battle.

Yes, the army is not a market, but he is the company commander of those soldiers. If he can't even get a medal for dying bravely, then what's the point of being a company commander.

In addition to Li Jiujin, the company-level cadres who won the third-class military merit were Tang Li from the Fourth Battalion. He led two infantry companies to attract the main force of the Japanese infantry on the high ground. It was also a battle to take grains from the fire, and it was also the one that suffered the greatest losses in the Battle of Wangwu Mountain.

Captain Tang, who was originally rated as a second-class military merit, made the same choice as Li Jiujin. Although his vision was not enough, he finally won benefits for his brothers.

"Salute to the superiors and comrades!" Led by Li Da, the captain of the company, who was awarded the third-class military merit, the people on the stage saluted in unison.

"Return the salute! Salute to the heroes!" Liu, the commander of the 921st Division, stood up solemnly and saluted.

Although these soldiers of the Fourth Battalion were not his soldiers, as the Chinese army, this famous general still showed his respect.

"Shua!"

All the officers and soldiers stood up in unison and saluted the third-class military merit winners who were wearing two medals on the stage.

Tan Tai Ming Jing, who was standing on the side of the stage with Xia Dayu, was stunned to see the soldiers on and off the stage saluting each other. An indescribable impulse surged in his young chest.

The decision he made earlier seemed to be correct.

Especially when he looked at the young instructor Xia Dayu beside him, with his face tensed, his body straight, and his eyes fixed on the moment on the stage.

If one day, he could become a member of the stage, and let the young instructor who always laughed at him for being a little bitch look at him so solemnly and seriously, even if he was carried up, it would be worth it.

The number of winners of the second-class military merit was reduced by half, about 80 people.

And there was another feature, nearly half of the people whose names were read by Tang Dao did not stand out on the spot.

Everyone present knew that many of these soldiers who could not stand out on the spot would not appear in the queue.

Some of them have been lying forever under the cold mud, and these golden medals of military merit can only be placed in their relics, and when the war is over, they will be sent to their homes by the Four Lines Group.

Others had to retire from active service due to physical defects, and these medals were their last memories of the war.

In the end, the sparse crowd of award recipients was filled by the squad leaders who received the medals on their behalf.

In the slightly silent atmosphere, there were also points that surprised the officers and soldiers present.

More than 30 of the second-class military merit recipients were new recruits. The Sichuan Army's new recruits were so tenacious in the battle of Sizhou Mountain that it was unbelievable. Even the veteran general of the 921st Division thought it was a miracle.

An army with only 1% of veterans actually blocked the fierce attack of a regular infantry brigade of the Japanese army with a one-to-two force comparison.

Although the 21st Infantry Brigade has the word "reserve" in front of it, the 921st Division, which has dealt with it, knows that its combat effectiveness has nothing to do with reserve. It is definitely the strength of a Type A division.

Otherwise, how could Itagaki Shiro break the defense line of nearly 300,000 troops with 70,000 troops! No matter how fragile the shield formed by 300,000 troops is, if there is no sharp enough sword, it will take a long time to chop it!

The thousands of new recruits of the Sichuan Army New Recruit Corps have won such military merits, which is well deserved.

But what is the matter with a new recruit who has been in the army for less than a month and won the second-class military merit? If the time when the Japanese New Year's Day offensive started is counted, the time when this new recruit joined the army was a few days after the battle started.

The new recruit Adong stood on the stage, looking at the golden wolf head military medal hung on his chest by Deputy Regiment Commander Lei himself, as if in a dream.

A month ago, he was just an ordinary mountain village youth. Now, he is not only a Chinese soldier, but also a glorious second-class military merit winner.

As the new recruit with the shortest time in the entire Sihang Regiment, Adong was assigned to speak on behalf of all the second-class military merit winners.

"I promise everyone here that when I fight the Japanese in the future, I will run faster with my squad leader on my back!" The young soldier with a red face made a promise in front of tens of thousands of people.

Not to mention that Brigade Commander Kong was confused, even the knowledgeable white-haired general was stunned.

Could it be that this soldier who won the military merit was running fast? What's more outrageous is that not only did he run, but he also had to run with his squad leader on his back, which was obviously inconsistent with the style of the Four-Line Regiment that always liked to fight head-on!

It was not until Li Jiujin, wearing two medals, explained to the generals with a happy face that they knew why the recruit said he ran faster with his squad leader on his back.

The first infantry squad of the Four-Line Regiment, with the squad leader Tiancan Dique and the deputy squad leader, showed unparalleled combat effectiveness in the battle of Wangwu Mountain and Sizhou Mountain. Under the command of Tu Yunsheng, the whole squad was like the sharp arrows shot by Li Jiujin, the archer, and was almost indestructible.

A 20-man infantry squad killed 69 enemies in the frontal breakthrough battle and 58 in the pursuit battle, ranking first among the three infantry companies.

And Adong, a new recruit, was not only the most important guide for the three infantry companies to successfully bypass the Japanese artillery position, but also the man-shaped small tank that ran wildly with Tu Yunsheng on its back in all the battles. In the later battles, the small tank, which had not even put on a military uniform, killed 6 Japanese soldiers with a Black Star pistol given by Tu Yunsheng.

But his actual kill record was 7 people. That was a Japanese soldier who covered himself in blood and hid in a pile of corpses, waiting for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack on the officers of the Four-Line Regiment who had already occupied the position. The target of the sneak attack was the company commander Li Jiujin who was not aware of it because of the dark sky.

The Japanese were only two meters away from Li Jiujin. If nothing unexpected happened, Li Jiujin, who was caught off guard, would inevitably be severely injured by the Japanese holding the Type 38 bayonet even if he did not die.

As a result, the new recruit Adong happened to carry Tu Yunsheng to report to Li Jiujin. Several veterans just reacted. The mountain village youth who had been living in the mountains since childhood actually had a sharper intuition than the veterans to sense the murderous intent. At the moment when the Japanese stabbed Li Jiujin with a bayonet, he kicked fiercely.

The human-shaped small tank is really not called for nothing. That kick actually kicked the Japanese sergeant who suddenly jumped up. The new recruit who was still carrying his squad leader was not satisfied. He pounced on him and punched him. When several veterans came over, the stimulated new recruit just beat a strong Japanese sergeant to death with his fists.

Good guy! At that moment, Li Jiujin, who had just escaped from the gates of hell, looked at the somewhat silly Adong with twinkling eyes.

With this reaction, physical fitness and courage and fearlessness, he only needs to be trained by Mingxin or the gun instructor Uncle Han, and he will be a super warrior!

Moreover, the record of killing 7 Japanese soldiers in just one week after joining the army is probably unique even in the history of the establishment of the Four-Line Regiment.

Niu Er, the new recruit at that time, was awesome. Under the guidance of Tang Tuanzuo, he was like a cheat with a gun and killed countless Japanese invaders, but Niu Er had been in the army for more than three months.

Mingxin, who had joined the army for a month, fought for the first time with a sword and killed most of the Japanese infantry squad on the bank of the Bi River. That was also an existence that was beyond reach, but Mingxin was known as the only guy in the Four-Line Regiment who could compete with Tang Tuanzuo in hand-to-hand combat. Who could still regard him as a normal person for such a weird-level sergeant?

Of course, there were always awesome new recruits in the Four-Line Regiment, such as Boss Cao, who had been in the army for several months and killed dozens of Japanese invaders by throwing grenades with a human mortar, but compared with Adong, who had only joined the army for a week and had a record of killing 7 Japanese invaders, he was still inferior.

In summary, Adong's second-class military merit was well deserved!

"Your Lieutenant Li's soldiers are this!" Brigade Commander Kong gave Li Jiujin a thumbs up sincerely, and looked at the Eagle Head Medal on Li Jiujin's chest with envy, expressing his ambition without hiding his ambition. "I have the Blue Sky Medal here, let's exchange it?"

"Captain Kong, don't hurt me, if I wear your medal, I'm afraid that my head will not be worth 5,000 yuan in the Japanese, but will be worth a zero." Li Jiujin's emotional intelligence leveraged, and he refused directly without embarrassing Brigade Commander Kong.

"Okay, okay, I won't ask you stingy guys, I'll ask you Tang Tuanzuo, even if I exchange it for equipment." Brigade Commander Kong complained angrily.

The white-haired general on the other side glanced at him fiercely, and it was a pity that this guy could say such a thing. With the current equipment of the Four Lines Regiment, your broken copper and rotten iron should be appreciated by others.

But the white-haired general didn't expect that if it was someone else, maybe Tang Da Tuanzuo would roll his eyes, but this guy! You have to look at the face of the Buddha, and the battle of Jiulong Mountain also proved that he was worthy.

Wang Xiaoqiang, who was eavesdropping silently over there, rolled his eyes, and had a kind of intuition telling him that what this brigade commander Kong said casually seemed to work.

A brigade commander of a major general is not enough. If he adds his own brigade commander Cheng, and his own small-sized dish,