Chapter 352: Want to Escape??

Yichang dock, the morning mist cleared, but the smoke of gunpowder had already faded.

On the floating bridge over the River Surface, laborers were hauling food and medicine; the wounded lay on stretchers being carried to the rear field hospital; soldiers sat or lay under the broken wall, gnawing on rations, their faces full of fatigue yet unable to hide the smile in their eyes.

Yichang, after all, has returned.

In this brief calm, a signalman stumbled forward, his cap askew, face covered in dust, rushing straight to the command post's temporary tent.

"Commander! Emergency intel!" he croaked, "Within the city, the 13th Division Commander Uchiyama Eitaro has not been found! General Hu Lian reports that last night a small Japanese unit broke out from the North Gate, possibly a senior officer!"

Inside the tent, Jiang Anguo was leaning over the map, and upon hearing the words, he snapped his head up.

His eyes were rimmed with blood vessels, his stubble disheveled, his uniform smeared with mud and ash.

Two days without sleep, sustained only by sheer will.

But at this moment, the last hint of laxity in those eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a hawk‑like sharpness.

"North Gate?" he hurried to the map, his finger pressing heavily on the "North Gate" spot, his complexion darkening abruptly.

Damn it!

His heart sank.

The troops were stretched thin, a predicament he had long foreseen. Yao Quanyi's Independent Regiment main force was committed to a fierce assault and street fighting at the South Gate, Hu Lian's 11th Division spearheaded the West Gate, only a rd Battalion was left to guard the East Gate. And at the North Gate, there was no spare manpower to deploy! Not a single soldier was stationed!

Because intelligence judged that the Japanese Army would die defending the south, attempting to cross the river and flee to Wuhan, no one expected Uchiyama Eitaro to go the opposite way, breaking out from the most unlikely direction!

"Uchiyama Eitaro… what a 13th Division Commander." Jiang Anguo muttered through clenched teeth.

Jiang Anguo naturally did not know that this was a decision made by the 13th Division's Chief of Staff Kobayashi Nobuo himself.

The man was calm and decisive, even willing to defy the Division Commander's "break like jade" order, solely to preserve the last spark of the 13th Division. If he were allowed to bring Uchiyama back to Dangyang, rebuild the remnants, the western Hubei front would likely face new variables.

More ironic, even if Uchiyama escaped Yichang, he would still not escape death.

In the Wuhan direction, A Naganuma was already swamped with trouble and unlikely to tolerate a "city‑abandoning" defeatist; even if he survived, he would bear the stigma of "disgracing the Imperial Japanese Army," a fate worse than death.

The Japanese Army's headquarters would not let Uchiyama go easily.

Uchiyama's true "glory" should have been to slit his own abdomen at the Salt Administration, perishing together with the 13th Division, washing away the sin with blood. Yet he lacked even that ounce of courage.

"Xiao Si!" Jiang Anguo snapped around, his voice like iron, "Relay the order to Jiang Xingxue: all personnel of the Guard Company, assemble immediately! Everyone northward, pursue Uchiyama Eitaro!"

"Yes!" Xiao Si stood straight, turned and sprinted.

He knew that the Young Master at this moment had no time for fatigue; only by chasing the enemy could the lingering threat be cut off completely.

Jiang Anguo thought the same, for he believed Yichang had already been secured, the 13th Division reduced to roughly seventy‑seven or seventy‑eight percent, leaving only the last big fish, which could not be spared.

Unfortunately, when the 13th Division invaded Nanjing, its Division Commander Di Zhou Libing led the assault, took part in the Nanjing Massacre, rendering the 13th Division heinously guilty. As for the Nomonkan incident, Di Zhou Libing was reassigned to Kanto, later defeated by Zhu Kevu, and after the war was placed in reserve.

It is precisely for this reason that Jiang Anguo does not intend to let the Little Devil 13th Division get away.

Jiang Anguo called another signalman: "Go tell Yao Quanyi to sweep the battlefield, inspect every house, leave no survivor! Also set up a relief team, register civilian losses, distribute rations, post notices to calm the people. Yichang has just returned home; we must not let the elders be disturbed again."

"Understood! Commander." The signalman saluted and left.

In less than ten minutes, shadows of people swarmed on the open ground east of the dock.

The Guard Company should have had five hundred men, but only three hundred and forty were present.

The remaining 160 were assigned to the Independent Regiment's First Battalion commander Quan Zong, now stationed toward Baiyang Town, defending against a Japanese counter‑push from Zhijiang and Jingmen.

At this moment, those gathered were the elite of the elite: equipped with Mauser k Rifles, MP40 Submachine Guns, MG42 machine guns. Three days' rations, first‑aid kits, and hand grenades hung at their waists.

Jiang Anguo stood at the front of the formation, hat off. He scanned the troops, his voice low yet each word hammered like a hammer:

"Brothers, we just seized Yichang, we should have taken a breath. But a big fish got away, Uchiyama Eitaro, the 13th Division Commander. If he returns alive, the devils will rise again tomorrow. So—" he paused, a cold glint in his eyes, "today, I want his head hung on the Dangyang city gate!"

"Back then, Zhang Fei, Zhang Yide, at Changbanpo, drove back Cao Cao's hundred‑thousand troops; today we'll do the same, capture the Little Devil at Dangyang!"

If Uchiyama Eitaro wants to run, he can only head north to Dangyang; if he goes toward Xiaoting, Xu Guozhang's 150th Division is there.

"Kill!" The 340 shouted in unison, their cries shaking the riverbank.

"Advance!"

The unit quickly reformed into three columns, moving from Yichang dock toward the Jingmen Mountains north of Yichang at a rapid pace.

Jiang Anguo led the troops himself; he glanced back at Yichang City, the blue‑white flag fluttering proudly atop the Drum Tower, civilians already sweeping debris in the streets.

Yichang City, northwest corner.

"No wonder..." Hu Lian slammed a fist into the broken wall, blood seeping from his knuckles, "No wonder this Japanese firepower is so fierce, the tactics so brutal!"

Hu Lian had received intelligence from Yao Quanyi's Independent Regiment that no Little Devil division commander or staff officers had been found inside Yichang City.

Just two hours earlier, his 34th Regiment's vanguard had encountered a Japanese squad of about a hundred men at Wuli Slope outside the North Gate. The enemy was well‑equipped: Type 99 light machine gun, grenade launcher, even two flame‑throwers; the soldiers were stone‑cold, and even after being hit they still rushed our positions, detonating grenades in a mutual kill.

In just ten minutes of firefight, the 34th Regiment suffered over seventy casualties—a loss not of a routed unit but of core elite!

"Even 'slapping his own thigh' cannot describe his regret."

Hu Lian initially thought it was just a remnant Japanese force, paid it little mind, and first aimed to expand the gains inside Yichang City.

If he had known it was Uchiyama Eitaro and Kobayashi Nobuo's breakout team, he would have gladly given up!

"Relay the order!" Hu Lian sprang up, a cold glint like a blade in his eyes, "34th Regiment First Battalion, assemble at once! Staff Department Guard Company, Recon Platoon, Engineer Squad, all merged! Form a Reinforced Camp, I will lead it personally, to pursue the north‑fleeing enemy!"

The adjutant was startled: "Division Commander, you just finished street fighting, haven't rested all night, should the troops take a break?"

"Now you want me to rest?" Hu Lian sneered, "Let Uchiyama Eitaro escape back to Dangyang? Deliver the order quickly!"

He hurried to the Ammo Box, grabbed ammunition to resupply, while ordering, "Find out exactly which direction they went—footprints? Tire tracks?"

"Capture Uchiyama Eitaro." Hu Lian said.