Chapter 17 of 100

Chapter 17

10 min read2,598 words

The transportation of Japanese personnel and ammunition mainly went through Incheon Port. Garallin Bay, located to the south of Incheon Port, was only a temporary anchorage for the Japanese Combined Fleet, so the port was small, and the garrison was not large. Otherwise, Lin Yuan would not have dared to issue the order to capture the port with just the marines on the Beijing warship.

Two helicopters crossed the sea and landed on a remote beach. Thirty marines, led by Chen Fei, escorted Matsushima Eiko and set off towards the port.

The marine squad launched two reconnaissance drones to survey the situation ten kilometers ahead. In modern warfare, the defending side would use various counter-reconnaissance techniques, including setting up numerous decoys and laying heat-insulating nets for real targets. However, in 1894, no one would have thought of these things. Thus, everything was visible in the infrared images.

Chen Fei and his team had already established their combat objectives on the ship: to annihilate the Japanese troops in the barracks, occupy the coastal artillery positions, repair yards, coal warehouses, and ammunition depots, and rescue the Qing army prisoners.

For the Japanese, this area had become a rear base, so their defenses were much laxer. Even the checkpoints on the roads had been removed. Therefore, Chen Fei and his team approached the port without any hindrance.

The Japanese fleet left on September 14th, so the night was quiet. Only two sentries were chatting at the gate, and the searchlights on the watchtowers lazily illuminated the surroundings.

Matsushima Eiko was puzzled by the lack of any Japanese personnel along the way. At this moment, Chen Fei asked her, "Where are the Qing army prisoners held?"

Matsushima Eiko did not want to tell the truth, but she had never told a lie in her life. After hesitating, she pointed to a cluster of houses in the northwest of the port. Chen Fei looked at the houses through his binoculars. They appeared clean and tidy. How could a prisoner camp be so well-maintained? He became suspicious.

The houses Matsushima Eiko pointed to were actually the Japanese barracks. She wanted the thirty marines to attack the wrong place and be killed. Chen Fei nodded and said to his men, "We will attack those houses. After we circle around to the west, Class 1, you take care of the sentries at the gate."

Then Chen Fei casually asked Matsushima Eiko, "How many Qing army prisoners are there?"

Matsushima Eiko replied, "About a hundred or so."

Chen Fei's eyes widened, like two sharp arrows. He said fiercely, "You dare to lie to me! Those houses are not a prisoner camp. Would you give a hundred people such a large area to live in?"

Although women's status was low in Japan at that time, Matsushima Eiko's parents had always doted on her. No one had ever spoken to her so harshly. She was frightened and almost cried. She quickly said, "I, I made a mistake. Those are our barracks. The prisoner camp is in the few houses to the north."

Chen Fei thought, "This must be the truth." He then reorganized the tactics: Class 2 would maneuver to the enemy barracks and use a laser designator to guide the ship-based aircraft to strike; he would lead Class 1 to rescue the prisoners; Class 3 would provide cover on the perimeter.

Chen Fei led Class 1 and Matsushima Eiko through the forest and slowly approached the prisoner camp. He then issued the command to guide the attack. Class 1 called a J-24 fighter, which was on standby in the nearby airspace. Under Class 1's guidance, two laser-guided bombs accurately hit the Japanese barracks. Since this area was far from the front lines, most of the Japanese troops were resting in the barracks at night. The two high-explosive laser-guided bombs eliminated most of the Japanese troops.

The explosion of the Japanese barracks shook the entire port. The repair yard, coal warehouse, and ammunition depot garrisons were mobilized, but they were confused about what was happening. The marines had cut the communication cables between Garallin Port and Incheon and Seoul, and the J-24 fighters in the nearby airspace were conducting strong electromagnetic interference. Thus, communication between Garallin Port and the outside world was cut off.

After the explosion, a small garrison of the prisoner camp rushed out of the barracks in a hurry. A Japanese small garrison, roughly equivalent to a platoon, consisted of about twenty men. Since the elite Japanese troops were on the front lines at the Yalu River, the remaining troops were not very combat-effective. Therefore, this small garrison was quickly eliminated by Chen Fei and his team.

Matsushima Eiko felt both sad and guilty when she saw her compatriots being killed. She felt that she had caused their deaths and glared at Chen Fei with hatred.

The marines entered the Japanese garrison barracks without any resistance. As soon as they burst through the door, they saw young girls, naked and huddled together, trembling.

Chen Fei asked in Japanese, "Who are you?" No one answered. Then he heard one of the girls speak in Korean. Although Chen Fei did not understand Korean, he recognized the word "seumnida," which is a polite particle in Korean with no practical meaning.

Chen Fei immediately realized that they were local villagers captured by the Japanese. He asked the soldiers to find some Japanese soldiers' clothes and hand them to Matsushima Eiko, then turned and left.

Matsushima Eiko handed the clothes to the girls. She saw the bruises on their bodies and knew that the Japanese soldiers had not only abused them sexually. She could not believe that her compatriots could be so brutal. In her mind, such acts should have been committed by the Qing army soldiers. Thinking of her compatriots, she immediately thought of the Japanese soldiers killed by the marines. She secretly took an iron candlestick and hid it behind her back.

She opened the door and saw Chen Fei standing at the entrance, talking to a soldier in Chinese, which she did not understand. She swung the candlestick at Chen Fei's neck. As a doctor, she knew that if the cervical vertebrae were broken, the person would be paralyzed.

Chen Fei was fully focused on the conversation and did not notice the situation behind him. The candlestick hit his neck, but fortunately, Matsushima Eiko was not strong, and the candlestick was not sturdy. Chen Fei only stumbled, and his cervical vertebrae were not injured. Despite this, the intense pain made him speechless.

The soldier who was talking to Chen Fei saw the Japanese female doctor dare to launch a surprise attack and swung his rifle butt, striking her arm and knocking her to the ground. Matsushima Eiko, who had never been hit before, realized that being hit was so painful. Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

The soldier raised his rifle butt, ready to hit her again. Chen Fei, gritting his teeth, said, "Enough, don't hit her." Chen Fei walked to her side, bent down, and asked, "Is your arm okay?"

Matsushima Eiko did not know why he was asking and did not know how to respond.

Chen Fei slowly moved his neck, took his gun off his shoulder, and held it in his hand. He said to the soldier, "Lock her up. We need to complete our mission first."

The captured Qing army soldiers had suffered abuse and mistreatment from the Japanese during their captivity. Now that the opportunity had come, they all wanted to take revenge. They picked up their guns and followed the marines, quickly eliminating the confused Japanese garrisons in various places. By dawn, the marines had occupied the port of Garallin Bay, while the nearest towns, Seonhwan and Incheon, were still unaware of what had happened.

On the vast sea, Ito Sukenobu was still thinking: "Once we reach Garallin Bay, we will destroy Lin Yuan's warship!"

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