"The solidity of the golden soup is not guarded; Han Bai's bravery, no food and no war. ”

Any Chinese [***] person can easily say this sentence, and the experience of attacking and defending the domain again and again in history tells them that the role of food on the battlefield.

Even if a city is impregnable, it cannot be defended without food; Han and Bai, that is, the two great generals Han Fei and Bai Qi in ancient times, even if they are resourceful and brave like them, they can't win the battle without food. As long as the army still exists, both the army and the common people will have to eat, and the food will only get less and less.

"The people have no food to rebel, and the soldiers have no food to disperse!"

It is precisely on the basis of the understanding of this sentence that as early as more than a month ago, as soon as the Sino-Chinese conflict broke out, after the Guards formed a siege of the Manchurian Army in Tieling, although they opened a passage, the retreat of that passage would lead to a mountain area that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was a death land, and it was difficult to travel on the mountain road and difficult to transport, not to mention war materials, and it was a problem to ensure the food of the 200,000 Manchurian troops.

But even so, and for the layers of encirclement and artillery shells from time to time, as the commander of the Manchurian Army, Dashanyan had to ask for priority to ensure the supply of ammunition, followed by food, and at this time, the "hunger-resistant" training that was carried out all day was carried out by the soldiers, and the previous training finally came in handy, and the food was halved, although it was unbearable for the soldiers who had long been accustomed to hunger, it was still bearable.

But fifteen days ago, with a burst of incendiary bombs from long-range artillery, the raging fires burning in more than a dozen warehouses were finally extinguished, but the grain that had been stored by every possible means turned into coke, and then, the news of the formation of a comprehensive encirclement in China came, not to mention the food that made them hungry before, after being surrounded for ten days, there was not even half a meal for each person every day.

"The food is gone!"

Five days ago, after a telegram was sent from the headquarters of the Yue army in Tieling City, the besieged Yue Ben soldiers immediately fell into a real hunger, inside and outside Tieling City, the hungry Yue Ben soldiers saw the smoke of the chimney there and went to grab it, for a little food, the hungry Yue Ben soldiers would even beat each other, in order to cook the looted food, they would cut down trees, demolish houses, and cook rice.

But what happens when there is no food?

On the Tieling front, the two sides are only 100 meters away, and they can see what each other is eating, and those with slightly larger arms can throw a grenade into each other's trenches.

In the fields of the Ichima Plain River, the warm spring breeze blows green grass and colorful flowers. Flowers and grass shade the communication trenches leading to the front, ending in a hundred-mile-long ring ditch with barbed wire rising along the edge. The wind blew the vines onto the barbed wire, which was filled with fragrant flowers.

Lying in the damp trenches, Yoshida Fukanori knew "hunger" for the first time in his mind.

Born in a family of merchants in Tokyo, he only learned that there was a saying of hunger when he was studying, but now this empty stomach pouch really tells him what hunger is!

Perhaps this is the most uncomfortable taste!

The two legs could not be supported, the hair fluttered, and it seemed to be filled with lead, and when he moved, he was sweating profusely, and his eyes were full of hunger, and he was lying in the trench, and Yoshida Fukano remembered the city as soon as he saw the birds.

Now Yoshida Fukano often dreams that he has become a bird, flying, flying, flying over Tieling, flying over Manchuria, North Korea, flying back to Tokyo, where he was born and raised, and then at home, eating the fragrant shou food made by his mother, maybe ...... Drooling, he may feel that this is just an extravagant hope, and began to fantasize about the common people's food that his mother said, salted fish, aged rice, radishes, etc., foods that are difficult for him to swallow, and now how nice it would be to put a plate in front of him!

Why did you come to Manchuria to fight? If it's to help China? So why does China want them and surround them? Why did he and China join hands to expose the Chinese people? These question marks are like golden flowers that pop up in front of your eyes when you are faint from hunger. Yoshida couldn't figure it out, but now he recognized one thing, and it was going to be over.

If there is no more food, soon, they will all starve to death, in Manchuria in China!

Will you really starve to death here? Fear spread in Yoshida's heart, he knew that he would starve to death sooner than the others, because he was not good at fighting, and because of this, he was dying of hunger like he was now.

Maybe if I starve to death...... The scene of people fighting for corpses and eating human flesh came to his mind, and as fear spread through his heart, he saw a black dot in the air falling towards him.

"Hereby ......"

The grenade with the sound of smoke was thrown across the parabola into the trench opposite, and after a dull explosion, a scream was heard in the smoke rising, and before the smoke could be blown away, a group of hungry soldiers in tattered uniforms threw themselves into the smoke, and the groans turned into the sound of pleading, and after a while the sound disappeared.

The soldiers wielding bayonets pounced like wolves, and the soldiers rushed up in order to compete for the corpses to seize the advantageous terrain, they waved the bayonets in their hands as if they were fighting on the battlefield, and rushed to the corpses, and the hungry soldiers were instinctively driven to cut human flesh with bayonets, and the scene in front of them was more thrilling than any hand-to-hand combat, more fierce and cruel than any war.

In order to be able to grab the corpses, the soldiers forgot to hide from afar, when they tore the corpses one after another, a sneer squeezed out from the lips of the shooter with a light machine gun a hundred meters away, what they were waiting for was this moment, when the horizon flashed blue, the gunshots rang out, and when the guns rang out, there were a few more corpses and the moans of the wounded soldiers in the trenches, but in the next second, the more fierce mad robbery began again.

"Turtle son, don't remember to eat!"

Set up a heavy machine gun aimed at the heavy machine gun shooters who came out with half of their heads or half of their bodies, muttering in their mouths, how can he, who has never suffered from real hunger, know that hunger is the most insurmountable enemy of human beings, many times, it is far more terrible than death, and instinctive reactions will make people forget death and all the morality in the world.

As long as you can eat a bite of food! Even if it's just before you die, you can take a bite!

When they shot towards the trenches of the army, the noodles in the trenches were completely messed up, and the soldiers who cut human flesh with bayonets together were like hungry wolves and cut off the meat and stuffed it directly into their mouths, and even some people who came late grabbed them crazy for food, and when they were crazy to rob and beat, people were constantly hit by bullets fired from the opposite side, and a piece of fragrant meat once again became the reason for the soldiers to tear and beat, and everyone even lifted up their comrades around them for food, after he was killed by bullets, They will tear apart the bodies of the deceased.

If this continues, there will be a big mess.

An officer who was also suffering from hunger took out a Meiji Trinity revolver and fired into the air, but the soldiers still tore for a mouthful of flesh, and finally the officer who could not bear it anymore picked up the gun and fired two shots in the head of a soldier who was grabbing the corpse, and the brain was splashing, but it did not stop the chaos in the trenches, but the dead became the source of chaos again.

It wasn't until the third man was killed that the situation was finally brought under control, and in the trenches there were dozens of mutilated and scraped corpses, in addition to the bloodied soldiers, and although the soldiers were quiet, they were still chewing human flesh in their mouths, and hunger had already made them lose the last shred of their human conscience.

"If the Chinese call now!"

The scene in front of him made him almost unable to believe that this could be the work of the Imperial Army of the Great Empire, and hunger was depleting the last ...... of this army little by little Standing in the trenches, he didn't realize that he was standing there, revealing half of his head, and he didn't know that his head had been inserted into the reticle of the scope.

"Bang" a gunshot, a cloud of blood mist gushed out from the other end of the officer's military cap, the brain splattered, and the corpse slowly fell next to the skeleton that had been scraped flesh, and the eyes of those soldiers who were originally chewing human flesh once again appeared with a burning sight, it was food!

"Your Excellency, Commander, have something to eat,"

A staff officer brought a pack of biscuits, and at the same time brought a vat of tea to Dashanyan, as the commander of the Manchurian Army, now he at least did not need to eat human flesh.

After taking the bag of biscuits, Dashan Yan immediately devoured it, then drank a few cups of tea in a row, and then he walked outside the house and looked out over the fields to the northeast: full of gray-brown fields and willow forests known locally as "willow hairs", and the low farmhouses looked like a few adobe piles on the ground from a distance...... Could it be that this is the place where you are buried?

At this time, Dashanyan has completely lost the color of contentment after the end of the Fengtian Battle, if those [***] observers are still in Tieling, they will be surprised by his changes when they see Dashanyan at this time, his beard has become whiter, the same is more messy, and the person has become thinner, and even those resolute eyes are full of unwillingness, and there is a painful look hidden in the unwillingness!

What kind of eyes are these?

If Marshal Moltke of Germany were alive, he would have found that his eyes were very familiar when he saw the mountain rock at this time, and they were so similar to MacMahon, the eyes of despair, pain, unwillingness, and helplessness.

But compared with McMahon's despair, in the eyes of Da Shanyan, there is a trace of absoluteness, in fact, after half a day of discussion, the division commanders of each division have reached an agreement, if there is no optimistic news tomorrow, in order to prevent the Manchurian Army from starving to death in the northeast, in order to maintain the glory of the Imperial Army of the Great Empire, the whole army launched a "jade shattering" attack on the position of the Chinese army!

Yes!

This is the difference between the commander of the East and the commander of the West, when McMahon knew that he was surrounded and in a desperate situation, what came to his mind was surrender, but what came to the mind of Dashan Yan at this time was to use the last "brave and decisive" attack to prove to the world the bravery of the Imperial Army.

"Xiao Xinren ......"

Although he had already made a decision in his heart, this would be Dashan Yan kept muttering the name of his opponent on his lips, until now he only knew that his opponent was Xiao Xinren, who graduated from the West Virgia Military Academy in the United States, and was once the director of the professor department of the Whampoa Sports School, and the confidant of the Chinese emperor. Other than that, I don't know anything about him.

I don't even know what he looks like, and this is exactly what Oyama Rock regrets, an enemy he has never met has taken all his glory on the battlefield, and then left the endless shame to himself.

At this time, Da Shanyan, who was standing in the open space in front of the command post, definitely did not expect that when he was standing here thinking about his opponent, in a bunker in the trench of the Guards more than ten kilometers away, a general wearing a straight lieutenant general uniform was lying under the artillery mirror to observe the defense line of the army, and this person was the opponent he muttered that he had never met...... Xiao Xinren.

"Order the 3rd Artillery Division to keep five minutes of forward firing at a time, each ......"

Xiao Xinren looked at his pocket watch before raising his head.

"Two rapid-fire shots at a time, 2 hours apart! After that, add 5 minutes each time, and add 10 minutes after the third time......"

Strange order, if it were another battlefield, the observers in the bunker would have muttered so, but at this time, anyone could feel the cruelty of this order.

The vast majority of these observers were all in the face of military observers on the Chinese side a few days ago, after Tieling was completely cut off from food, waving a white flag, and after negotiating between the two armies, they passed through the defense line of the two armies and turned into military observers on the Chinese side, although they said that they had sworn in the honor of a soldier that they would never leak the intelligence of the Chinese army, but surprisingly, Xiao Xinren did not even ask, and it was precisely because of this that they called "General Xiao a real gentleman soldier."

It's just that the gentleman also has his cruel side, like this order in this matter.

"General, this order of yours will cause a massacre!"

Jan, the observer of the British [***]? Hamilton, quite dissatisfied expressed his protest, he came back from Dashanyan's side, how could he not know that the current soldiers of Yueben even fought for a corpse, and Xiao Xinren's order was to send the corpse to the army, he was not to overcome the defense line of the army, but to ...... Let them kill each other.

"Massacre?"

Xiao Xinren raised his eyebrows, and then laughed.

"Mr. Hamilton, what would you do if it were you?"

"General, you should write a letter of persuasion to Marshal Oyama!"

Ian? Hamilton said seriously.

"No!"

Shaking his head, Xiao Xinren glanced towards the position of the army, and then looked at the Western officers.

"If it were a war with the armies of other countries, I would have written a letter of persuasion a long time ago, but for Marshal Oyama!"

There was even a hint of respect in Xiao Xinren's words, whether it was false or serious, at least he showed this attitude.

"If I send a letter of persuasion to Marshal Oyama, I think it must be the greatest insult to Marshal Oyama himself, as a soldier, even though we are enemies, I still have to maintain the glory of Marshal Oyama!"

"Glory?"

"Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, whether in the army or in the Chinese army, there is a saying that "not for the life of prisoners", for the soldiers of the East, for the life of the enemy, is a shame for the soldiers, if I write a letter of persuasion, it is an insult to Marshal Dashan, I am questioning his military honor! ”

When Xiao Xinren said this, a trace of grief appeared on his face.

"As a soldier, I can only maintain the reputation of Marshal Oyama as much as possible, of course, to a certain extent, I hope that he can choose to surrender for the sake of the fate of the soldiers, at least before committing suicide to defend his reputation, and order the troops to surrender, so I can only do everything possible to put pressure on him!"

Perhaps it was because he noticed that the different colors on the faces of those military observers didn't seem to say much, but Xiao Xinren bowed to them lightly, and then whispered.

"You have all witnessed the bravery of the Yue army, and I hope that when you write about this battle in the future, you must give Marshal Oyama and the soldiers of the Yue army a fair evaluation!"

Xiao Xinren's generosity surprised everyone, they were either surprised or understanding to look at this young general who almost made him feel incredible, no one refused his request, the honor of the soldiers required them to truthfully record the heroic performance of the two [***] teams in this war.

"Please rest assured, Your Excellency General, we will truthfully record the heroic deeds of your army and the army!"

Their answer was exchanged for Xiao Xinren's sneer in his heart, when he scandalized the enemy and dwarfed the enemy, he also dwarfed himself, and described the enemy's incompetence, which would also show his own incompetence...... It was the [***] team that defeated them, and the [***] team was far stronger than the army. Mocking the enemy, that is the stupidest person, the stupidest thing to do, not daring to face the heroism of the enemy, that is the act of a coward.

On the other hand, the best way to respect your opponents is to eliminate them and use death to achieve their "loyalty"!

At this time, the explosion sounded, and the smoke of gunpowder once again shrouded the front line of the army, and the artillery bombardment came and went quickly, just like Xiao Xinren's order, just firing two shells, the purpose was just to add a little food to the army.

"Well, gentlemen, I'm sorry, but there's something else to attend to!"

After apologizing to everyone, Xiao Xinren left the forward shelter and began to prepare for the Ming Dynasty, now as the commander of the theater, he needs to coordinate the combat matters of the three corps, and he is most concerned about North Korea, which is the top priority of this war.

Just after he left the shelter, the confidential staff officer sent him a telegram that had just been taken from the Nanjing General Staff.

"The negotiations have made substantial progress, and the Yue Ben has made significant concessions, and it is possible to provide some food to the besieged Yue army at the right time and in the right name, and the necessary expenses will be handled by the Yue side......

(To be continued)