Sergeant Mark had never considered dying in battle. Although he had brushed shoulders with death several times on the battlefield, he had been promoted from Corporal to Sergeant within these four days. The fighter planes of the Chinese army strafed like the god of death every day. Sergeant Mark, based on the methods he summarized, led his squad to survive the bombing and strafing of fighter planes time and again, continuing to engage in desperate battles.

At 8:00 AM on March 8, the battalion commander's messenger asked Sergeant Mark to rush to the battalion headquarters immediately. Sergeant Mark obeyed immediately. At this time, it was the 'Cool Season' in Burma, and the temperature was not high. The most comfortable thing was that because the dry season was coming, the humidity had indeed dropped a lot. However, walking on the position, Sergeant Mark still wanted to cover his mouth and nose.

The air on the battlefield was already unpleasant, and the closer to the center of the position, the more unpleasant the smell. The stench emitted by rotting corpses was already very disgusting. What was even more disgusting was the stench brought by the water that had soaked the corpses leaking out after they were buried.

The current front of the defensive position was the second defensive line built by the British army four days ago. Sergeant Mark didn't know why they had to treat this as the first line of defense after fighting. If it were before, the smell inside the defensive position would be better because there were fewer dead. Now, because of the constant bombing and strafing by Chinese fighter planes, the wounded and the dead piled up in the core position of the position, gathering a stronger stench.

Just as Sergeant Mark walked into the regimental headquarters, he did not know that he was less than 10 kilometers away from the nearest British reporter in a straight line. In the early morning of March 8, a large number of reporters went straight to the front line on the grounds of 'interviewing the crime scene in the southernmost part.' Since the public reason was to interview the crime scene, although the Republic National Defense Force knew that these reporters wanted to get close to the battlefield, they pretended not to know and still provided transportation protection to the reporters.

Many European reporters had covered wars, and many of them had even been soldiers. They were very clear about the difference between getting close to the battlefield and interviewing on the battlefield. They requested to interview the Chinese army one after another. After being rejected, they proposed whether they could cross the position and interview the surrounded British army.

The request to interview the British army was approved. The Chinese side informed these British reporters that they could only be sent to the edge of the British position, and once the battle broke out, these reporters could only pray for their own blessings. As the saying goes, wealth comes from danger; a few reporters still summoned up their courage, followed the passage provided by the Chinese army, holding their national flags, and set off towards the British position.

Sergeant Mark was standing in front of the regiment commander at this time. The regiment commander dismissed the others, asked Mark to stand in front of him, and asked, "Sergeant, do you remember the corpses placed on the position to increase the infection of the Chinese?"

The Sergeant was stunned; he didn't expect those orders were given by the regiment commander. However, not only corpses were abandoned. During several short-distance retreats, many corpses of British soldiers and wounded soldiers were 'tacitly' left on the positions about to fall. And Sergeant Mark was the one who realized the tacit understanding. The unit he belonged to personally left the severely wounded soldiers on the position, letting them be captured by the Chinese army.

Seeing Mark not answering, the regiment commander was not angry. He asked, "Sergeant, do you know that your platoon leader has been killed in action?"

Sergeant Mark didn't know which platoon leader the regiment commander was talking about. In these four days, three of his platoon leaders had been killed in action. But the Sergeant still nodded, "I know, Colonel."

"Sergeant, ordering the abandonment of wounded soldiers is not glorious. But sometimes such a choice must be made." The regiment commander continued.

Mark nodded, expressing agreement with the regiment commander's view. Since Mark himself was the executor responsible for abandoning the wounded soldiers, he naturally didn't want to think that what he did was wrong.

The regiment commander nodded. "If the Sergeant has such an understanding, he is qualified to become a platoon leader."

Because he had been traversing death these days, Sergeant Mark did not feel very excited. But he still felt a little better about this news. After all, there is a world of difference between NCOs and officers. Platoon leader is the lowest level officer.

Of course, the Sergeant knew that such 'grace' must have a price, so the Sergeant did not answer. If ordered to charge, the Sergeant wouldn't want to either. When the Sergeant first arrived in Burma, he thought about killing Chinese people, not coming to be killed. Now the Sergeant felt that if he could return to his hometown alive, surrendering to the Chinese was not an unacceptable choice.

Seeing Sergeant Mark silent, the regiment commander could only speak his thoughts, "If someone asks Platoon Leader Mark why he abandoned the wounded soldiers, how would you answer?"

"I want them to live," Sergeant Mark replied.

The regiment commander originally had an expression of earnest teaching. Hearing this answer, his face was full of joy. In the regiment commander's view, his teaching enlightened Sergeant Mark. Unexpectedly, Sergeant Mark himself was thinking of surrendering at this time, and what he said was actually his own heartfelt voice.

While Platoon Leader Mark was accepting the promotion order, the British division headquarters received news that European war correspondents requested an interview. The Chief of Staff looked indifferent and decisively asked his subordinates to refuse these European reporters who had nothing better to do.

After giving the order, the Chief of Staff continued to propose his suggestion to the division commander, "General, can we request the power to decide on our own from the General Command?"

The division commander did not answer immediately. The so-called deciding on one's own meant probing whether the higher-ups allowed the British troops to surrender. Although judging from his expression, the division commander looked like he had been whipped. But with a distorted expression, the division commander was still thinking very seriously.

According to the triangular organization, an infantry division has 81 combat platoons. In this division, only 19 platoons suffered no losses, and the remaining 62 platoons all had attrition. Among them, 21 platoons had to be incorporated into other combat units due to excessive losses.

According to military regulations, if a unit suffers more than 30% casualties, it is considered to have completely lost its combat effectiveness. Not to mention more than 30% deaths.

Finally, the division commander just nodded to the Chief of Staff. The Chief of Staff was very familiar with various military regulations. Seeing the division commander's acquiescence, he wrote a telegram and asked the communications officer to send it out.

Almost at the same time, Lieutenant General Macbeth, Commander of the Yangon Command, successively received telegrams from three divisions asking 'Can our unit decide the next move on its own.' This news made the Lieutenant General feel very lost. If there was any chance, Lieutenant General Macbeth wanted the troops of the three divisions to continue fighting, but he couldn't do it.

Just as the Lieutenant General was considering how to answer, the sound of machine gun strafing and explosions came from the peripheral defensive positions of Yangon again. After consecutive days, the Lieutenant General understood just by listening to the sound that the Chinese Air Force had come again. Not long after, another phone call came in. Like the previous days, Indian soldiers fled again, and some Indian soldiers failed to escape and were caught.

The first few times, Lieutenant General Macbeth asked the Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army to line up and watch those Indian soldiers who failed to escape receive flogging in public. Seeing the Indian deserters with naked backs beaten until their skin was torn and flesh gaped, other Indian soldiers were too scared to utter a sound, at least appearing to be deterred.

However, every time the Chinese Air Force carried out an air raid, Indian soldiers continued to flee. This forced Lieutenant General Macbeth to understand that the Indian soldiers had lost their will to fight. So the Lieutenant General had no mood to punish these Indian deserters anymore. If this situation continued to develop, let alone Indian soldiers, Lieutenant General Macbeth would have to consider whether to withdraw the headquarters.

Finally, the Lieutenant General made up his mind, "Send a telegram to the General Headquarters, asking if the Yangon Command can retreat."

Inside the Joint Command, Lieutenant General Lawrence finally met Lieutenant General Ishiwara, Commander of the Japanese Expeditionary Force 15th Army. Just when the senior officers of the Joint Forces finally gathered together, Lieutenant General Lawrence received the message from Lieutenant General Macbeth. After thinking for a moment, Lieutenant General Lawrence sighed and handed the telegram to Lieutenant General Ishiwara.

After reading the telegram, Ishiwara was not surprised at all, and even felt that Lieutenant General Macbeth had made a very wise choice. And revealed his views completely, "General Lawrence, I agree with General Macbeth's view. The current Yangon is completely detached from the defense system. Deploying so many troops in Lower Burma is just a political statement. From a military point of view, this is placing troops in a very dangerous environment. If we had chosen to leave Yangon earlier, we would have at least three more divisions to defend India now."

Hearing such frank criticism, Lieutenant General Lawrence admired Ishiwara a little, because Ishiwara held this view when he was in London. He clearly believed that the main point for the British army now was to defend India and minimize losses. How could Britain at that time accept such a view? Even if someone really accepted it, they dared not say it.

Now Lieutenant General Lawrence did not feel regret either. After all, battlefield reality is not spoken, but fought out. Presumably, other British generals held the same view.

"General Ishiwara, do you still support withdrawing from Yangon now?" Lieutenant General Lawrence asked.

Ishiwara answered decisively, "I think withdrawing all troops from Burma immediately is the wisest choice at present."

Lieutenant General Lawrence thought for a moment, then asked someone to send a telegram to Lieutenant General Macbeth, "Agree that your unit decides on its own according to the current situation."