When Ouyang Yun returned to the headquarters, it was already past one o'clock in the morning. At this point, Menquilli finally couldn't hold on. The quality of the individual soldiers of the 18th Division was actually not bad, and the weapons were not weaker than those of the other divisions, but the Jewish soldiers could not adapt to the Japanese style of fighting at all, so they had an overwhelming superiority in weapons but could not drive the Japanese down from the top of Lion Gate Mountain. As a result, what should have been a relatively simple defensive battle turned into a war of attrition - the 52nd Brigade has been completely wiped out at this moment, with more than 3,700 people in the brigade, and now there are no more than 50 people left, and among them, more than 100 people were killed on the spot by Montare's military law.

The Jewish soldiers' will to fight is still too bad.

The 53rd Brigade was also disabled, and only the 185th Regiment of the three brigades still had the strength to fight. As for the troops directly under the division headquarters, 2,500 people went up, and now only about 600 people of the Reedan Guard Regiment remained. The 54th Brigade is a mechanized brigade, and it has already lost a battalion of tank troops before, but now, Menquery is reluctant and afraid to fill them in.

As if they couldn't finish the fight or were not afraid of death at all, the Japanese were still coming up with a steady stream of reinforcements through the blockade of artillery—Menquieri had no choice but to call the general headquarters for help.

The battle at the Lion Gate, Ouyang Yun had expected it to be very tragic before, but when he listened to Menqueri's report, he was still shocked - the casualties of the Eighteenth Division were indeed too great, although he had a faint intention in his heart to use this to hit the Jews, but such a large battle loss was more than he could accept. Shaking his head, he thought of a crucial question and asked, "What about Japan's war damage?!" ”

"It will not be less than us, the top of Lion Gate is now a meat grinder, we have the advantage of weapons, and the Japanese will not die in a war. It's just that I don't know how effective the artillery bombardment is, Commander-in-Chief, the Japanese are really crazy, our shelling almost blocked their mountaineering path, but they still replenished it in a steady stream——"

"Zhilu said, withdraw it! Let the chariot brigade take cover and withdraw to Meiling Town! ”

Menquery was very responsible, knowing that once the troops of the road had withdrawn from the Lion Gate, then the friendly forces of Qianhu might be attacked by the Japanese army from both sides, so he asked embarrassedly: "Commander-in-chief - Qianhu, I don't know the battle situation in Qianhu of Ludao——"

"Our army already has an overwhelming advantage, and the destruction of the enemy's Eastern Route Army is inevitable!"

"Then I will immediately lead my troops to retreat to Meiling!"

"Do a good job of organizing and don't turn the retreat into a rout!"

"Yes!"

After hanging up the phone, Ouyang Yun said to Huang Hua, the commander of the Special Operations Section: "The command headquarters must be transferred to the front line of Qianhu immediately, and you let the brothers help you, and the speed must be fast." ”

Huang Hua heard the conversation between Ouyang Yun and Menqueri just now, and when he heard this, he asked, "Commander-in-chief, in this case, what if Okamura Ningji concentrates his forces to attack Qianhu?" ”

"I'm free to arrange!"

"But!"

"It's nothing, I can't let the Eighteenth Division be wiped out. It's remarkable that they've been able to hold on until now. So decided! ”

"Yes!"

Huang Hua commanded his subordinates to help the civilian personnel of the headquarters carry the documents and equipment, and Connor squeezed over and said to Ouyang Yun: "Commander-in-chief, I am curious, how did you manage to make the selfish and greedy Jews so obedient. ”

Ouyang Yun grinned, took out a cigarette, handed him one, picked one up himself, lit the fire, took a beautiful puff, spit out a smoke ring and said: "There has never been a selfless person in the world, so selfishness is actually not a bad deed. So, if you want to make a selfish person selfless, the first thing is not to despise them for it. You've probably heard of this before, right? ”

Connor thought for a moment and laughed: "Commander-in-chief, you can deceive me when I first came to China, but now—I don't want to hear your perfunctory behavior!" ”

Ouyang Yun Xiaoxiao didn't dwell on this topic anymore, but looked left and right and asked, "What about those reporters?" Why didn't you see them? ”

"I didn't see it, but they're being taken care of by your people!"

"What? They're not with you? Ouyang Yun's face changed. The order he had given to Jiang Huangyong was for the cadets to keep Connor and a few foreign reporters firmly on him. And now that Connor was alone here, the reporters were gone, which made him wonder who they really were.

Where did the foreign correspondents go at this time?

Before the headquarters was ready to evacuate, Ouyang Yun had two flares fired, and then he saw a line of messy footprints heading southwest. Seeing those pairs of footprints that were obviously larger than ordinary cadets, the answer became clear. He fiercely criticized the guards who stayed behind, then thought about it, forced himself to suppress the urge to send someone to pursue, waved his hand, and led the command headquarters and the special operations section to get into the car and drive towards the front line of Qianhu.

At the headquarters of the Eighteenth Division, Menquery put down the phone with a bad face, and said to the staff officers who were staring at him: "There are no reinforcements, but the commander-in-chief allows us to evacuate." ”

Among these staff officers, five or six out of ten understood the conversation between him and Ouyang Yun, and at this time, his face could remain calm when he said this, while the others were overjoyed.

"Can you evacuate to Meiling? That's great! Someone said. As soon as he finished speaking, Menquille's next words were extinguished with joy. They didn't have much actual combat experience, and they couldn't understand the risk of retreating in a fierce battle. "It's good to be evacuated," said Menquilly, "but we have to give up some of the soldiers at the top of the hill—no, perhaps, they all have to stay." ”

The staff officers were shocked, and someone immediately shouted: "What are you doing? ”

Menquelli glanced at him coldly and said, "Because it is absolutely necessary to leave troops to snipe the Japanese army, otherwise, if the Japanese take advantage of the situation, how can we retreat?!" ”

No one spoke—it was a cruel decision.

Menqueri sighed, gritted his teeth, and said, "There is another way to take away as many troops as possible, but someone has to volunteer to stay as cannon fodder!" I'll give it a try! Pack up and get ready to evacuate! ”

"Yes!"

Menquiri picked up a phone, thought about it, gritted his teeth and shouted, "Reedian! Please reply when you hear it! ”

More than ten seconds passed, and Reed'an's voice came back: "General, I'm Reedian, where are the reinforcements!" ”

"Reedian, I'm Menquary - no reinforcements, repeat, no reinforcements!"

Silent.

Menquery gritted his teeth again, but he still couldn't stop the tears from spilling out of his eyes, and he said in a deep voice: "Reedian, the commander-in-chief told us to withdraw to Meiling, and now, I need a force to stay." They must be brave enough and mentally prepared to be shelled by their own people! ”

"General, I know what to say, I, I'll find someone to stay. We just have to hold back the Japanese, right? Well, one company is enough! General, there is a reluctant request from the lowly position, my sister is still young, I hope you can take care of her on my behalf, and when she grows up, please help her find a Chinese man! Please! ”

"Reedian—I promise you!"

"General, thank you!"

"No, it's me who should thank you!"

……