622: Chapter 615: Tough Bone Second Company 622: Chapter 615: Tough Bone Second Company The fight was proceeding smoothly, but very slowly.
Street fighting required capturing houses one by one, and with several thousand people involved in a melee, it could not progress very quickly.
Yet the Skull Gang gradually but irreversibly advanced from the northeast of Gazaley City.
Some buildings had to be fought over several times, but with reserves deployed and the local numerical advantage, even superiority at times, the territory the Skull Gang captured was unlikely to be lost again.
The battle started in the morning, reached noon, and then continued into the afternoon.
By that time, the Skull Gang had taken control of one-third of Gazaley City.
Apart from initially participating in capturing four fortified positions—and the defenders were obviously not pirates—the Satan Mercenary Corps didn’t engage in combat.
A squad of ten, in the scale of the conflict that involved thousands on both sides and in this type of building-to-building struggle, could not play a significant role.
Besides, the primary task of the Satan Mercenary Corps was command.
Unless it was necessary to intervene, they did not need to, nor would they personally enter the fray.
A real street fight is synonymous with high casualty rates.
It’s important to emphasize a real street fight because the kind where the fight takes place in the city but both sides are blindly firing without seeing each other certainly cannot be considered street fighting.
To be exact, that doesn’t even qualify as combat.
This time, the Skull Gang faced a genuine street fight, and heavy casualties were inevitable.
The Instruction Platoon suffered over one-third casualties; the Instruction Platoon suffered over one quarter; but the heaviest losse were with the Second Company, which lost more than half.
Generally speaking, if a unit suffers over 10 percent casualties, it will affect the soldiers’ morale.
If the casualty rate exceeds 20 percent, it’s considered heavy losses; at 30 percent, the unit must be withdrawn for rest and recuperation.
They would not return to battle anytime soon unless absolutely necessary.
As for over 50 percent, such a unit is generally on the verge of collapse.
Fighting isn’t just a matter of numbers.
It’s hard to maintain good morale and a high spirit when soldiers see their comrades getting wounded or dying around them.
The Second Company’s losses were extremely heavy.
The company commander was killed in action; one platoon leader was killed, another severely injured, leaving only one platoon leader commanding the remnants still in combat, always at the forefront.
“The platoon leader of the Second Platoon, Second Company is killed in action!
He is dead, and now I’m taking command of the Second Company.
My name is Mosal, I am the deputy platoon leader of the Third Platoon.”
A hoarse voice came through Gao Yang’s headset, the report not quite standard, but at this point in the battle, being clear was all that mattered.
Hearing that the platoon leader of the Second Platoon, Second Company, was also killed in action, Gao Yang felt a surge of sorrow.
The last platoon leader of the Second Company was gone.
“Mosal, take your men and withdraw from the battle!
The Fifth Company will take over the Second Company’s position!”
The Second Company could not continue fighting.
Gao Yang issued an order for their retreat.
The Fifth Company, which was in reserve, had already been deployed in combat and could take over the Second Company’s position.
“Report, we can still fight, we will not retreat!
Sir, we simply will not retreat!
Either we all die, or we fight until the battle’s end, but we definitely won’t fall back, not at all!”
Mosal disobeyed orders, he roared over the radio, expressing his resolve.
Everyone could hear Mosal’s roar; at that moment, no one spoke.
Gao Yang clenched his fists, furrowed his brow, and gritted his teeth, yet he didn’t know what to say.
Disobedience from the Second Company was absolutely forbidden on the battlefield, but Gao Yang couldn’t possibly reproach Mosal, who was now commanding the Second Company.
On the contrary, he felt a profound respect for the Second Company.
The stubborn defiance of the Second Company was rare to see.
Their combat strength might not be exceptional, but their courage was admirable.
Worldwide, any unit that continued to fight despite over half of its members being casualties, without willing to leave the battlefield, no matter how poor their equipment and training, was an ace force—a true ace, one that could hold its head high against any comparison.
After a moment of silence, Gao Yang sighed and said in a deep voice, “Mosal, you may continue to fight.”
Having said that, Gao Yang, feeling a need to vent further, again spoke solemnly, “Mosal, please convey my respect to all members of the Second Company.
You are true warriors.”
Holding his gun and sitting to the side, Li Jinfang suddenly said, “The men of the Second Company are tough as nails.”
Gao Yang nodded but said nothing, whereas Li Jinfang continued in a low voice, “The Second Company has soul now.
As long as one man remains, the Second Company’s formation can’t be disbanded.
Even if only one survived, the soul of the Second Company would remain.
Even if filled with new recruits, the Second Company would still be the Tough Bone Second Company.
That’s soul, the spirit of a unit.”
Li Jinfang spoke in Chinese, using words only the Huaxia People would understand.
Even Eileen, who was proficient in Chinese, might not grasp the meaning of “soul”.
However, after Li Jinfang finished, Glolov, who was lying nearby, said, “The men of the Second Company are all good soldiers, spiritually strong.”
Different national strengths require different criteria for a strong army, but the spirit of the strong is the same worldwide.
In Somalia, unless one is surrounded and unable to escape, there is not a single unit willing to retreat even with casualties over five percent.
In the whole of Africa, it’s truly hard to say if there is any unit that would voluntarily request to keep fighting after suffering casualties over ten percent.
Africans may excel at genocide, but when it comes to fighting, specifically tough battles, they really don’t measure up.
Beyond ordering the Second Company to shrink their battle line, narrow their attack surface, and offload some of the attack assignments to other units so the Second Company’s casualties might be reduced, there was little else Gao Yang could do.
As Gao Yang was reflecting, he received another report from Mosal.
“Report, I am Mosal.
Our target has surrendered.
They want to surrender, and someone claims to be a pirate leader.”
“Get him to me, and make it quick!”
Gao Yang was overjoyed.
After fighting for so long and capturing quite a few prisoners, totaling over a hundred, he had been unable to get any worthwhile information.
The captured prisoners knew nothing but the orders they had received, and nothing useful had been gleaned.
But having a pirate leader was a different matter.
Gao had assumed that, like before, the surrender would come from a small group of a few or a dozen men.
What he hadn’t expected was that over three hundred people were escorted down from the battlefield.
This time, one of several pirate gangs from Gazaley City had surrendered en masse.
(To be continued.
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