Chapter 15 Toshiro Diary (13)

December 4th. The weather is cold.On the march, the wind was biting cold.When staying in the house, everyone wants to surround the fire to warm their bodies as much as possible, and they can't wait to hold the fire in their arms. The quiet and cold night was getting deeper and deeper.I always feel heavy and tense. In the last five minutes, the attack on Nanjing will begin.Death was ahead of us, sneering greedily, waiting.My twenty-six is ​​only a few days away.No!Maybe only a few hours.From time to time, my father and fellow countrymen come to my mind. My father is in front of me, my mother is smiling, my younger brother is watching me silently, and my younger sister is calling me.

"Line up!" Finally set off, the hour hand points to exactly nine o'clock. In the darkness, the cigarettes were snuffed out one by one. "One, two, three, four..." There was a low counting sound. The No. 4 Squadron led the way, sometimes walking on small trails and sometimes on field stalks. The time passed minute by minute, and the cold became more and more pressing. We seemed to be walking on a plateau, surrounded by darkness.Fatigue, cold and drowsiness were tormenting us. Suddenly, there was a gunshot in front of us. The sound of gunshots was continuous, like the sound of a cattail fan being pressed against a rapidly rotating bicycle wheel.The sound of machine guns from the fourth squadron of the enemy and friendly troops intertwined, breaking the tranquility of the night.Our advance was halted when the vanguard engaged the enemy.

As soon as the advance stopped, we felt the cold start to engulf our bodies from all directions. The body was tortured by the cold, and sleepiness made us very nervous.When the hand touches a metal object such as a gun, it will even hurt from the cold.After a while, the troops turned to a side road. The enemy is still shooting into the dark.Bonfires can be seen here and there, presumably lit by enemies shivering with cold. The troops marched around the enemy's position, as if they were afraid of encountering the enemy. Our task is to avoid the small group of enemies and drive directly to Nanjing.In the dark, I walked for a long time on the winding and bumpy field ridge.The cold was getting heavier and heavier, and it felt at least ten degrees below zero.The bitterness of the severe cold was so unbearable that I couldn't help but shed tears.My hands and feet were so cold that I couldn't move them, as if my limbs were about to leave my body. I'm afraid this is the coldest I've ever experienced. I was crying and gritting my teeth.

After passing through the bamboo forest, the troops stopped on the road.In the dark night, a few families could be seen faintly. The superior ordered us to guard the road and set up a formation in the depression beside the road.The cold was so cold that our hearts almost stopped beating, and our lungs seemed to have frozen in the icy air.I couldn't lie down in the narrow ditch, so I had to sit and wait for the dawn. I still felt very cold after putting on the leggings I brought from the mainland.In the summer in North China, in order to reduce the weight of the backpack, I once wanted to throw away the woolen sweater and woolen trousers, but I kept them with me because I was not willing, and now they come in handy.At that time, because of the heat, fatigue, and toil, it was a relief to throw away even a single page, but I carried them on my back during the march, from September, October to November, for three months.Is this greed unique to me, or is it common to all people?

Whenever I feel drowsiness pulls my body like a rope, and the cold pulls me back desperately from the other end of the rope.What a cold night!Sleepy night! When I was walking in the dark, I picked a bundle of straw on the ground and distributed it to several comrades in arms. Each of them put only fifteen or six straws under their buttocks.From this point alone, everyone felt as warm as sitting on a radiator. My bent knees looked like they were exposed to something cold, and they ached from the cold. I leaned against the slope and sat on a dozen straws, huddled up and waiting for the dawn.However, this cold night that even the blood vessels were about to freeze turned out to be a long night, as if it would never dawn.

The night sky gradually turned white, and I also woke up. I couldn't help but feel that my blood was heating up all over my body. I wanted to smoke a cigarette comfortably.Not to mention the backpack, all other items carried with him were covered with frost, and there were bayonet-like frost columns all over the place.Fortunately, there was no wind. Although the weather was cold, it was still bearable. Otherwise, it would not be able to stop the cold. Looking at it after dawn, I feel very regretful that the night seems to have blinded us. On the road in front of the two rooms, the people left a lot of clothes and bedding when they fled. If we had known this, we would not have been cold last night. up.

We immediately raided the village and captured five men and one woman.First, five men were tied to a tree, and the other was released because she was a woman.But this woman tightly hugged a twenty-six or seven-year-old fair-skinned man and refused to leave.She looked twenty-two or three years old, and she might be the man's lover or beloved wife, so she couldn't bear to leave, expressing her fierce love for this man.The scene was horrible.At this time, someone pulled her away and told her to run away alone, but she hugged the man tightly and refused to let go.Two enemy radio transmitters were found in their home.Either they carried out espionage activities, or enemy soldiers carried out activities in their homes.In short, with all the physical evidence, there is no doubt that he will die.This man can only speak one sentence in Japanese: "Thank you!" Maybe he thought the Japanese "Thank you" he said meant "please forgive me".Even if we said "Kill you" to him, asked him "Is this woman your wife", asked him "When did the enemy in the village escape", "Are you engaged in espionage", he would only Reply in Japanese: "Thank you!" Although he didn't mean it, we always felt like he was playing us and it was annoying.

Some of the people tied to the tree were stabbed to death, some were hacked to death, and some were shot to death. We were very interested in this pair of young men and women, so we put them to death last. "Pull the woman away from the man!" ordered the squadron leader. A soldier wrenched the woman's hand away and dragged her away.Another soldier plunged his bayonet into the man's chest with a "dark" sound, and the woman yelled: "What the hell..." rushed over madly, hugged the man tightly and cried.She howled and cried, as if she was about to vomit blood.It was a very touching and dramatic scene.After a while, she raised her tear-filled face that was tightly buried in the man's chest, and looked at me. She had deep feelings for the man who was dying in a pool of blood and was about to lose his life. Love, with deep hatred for us, pointed to his own chest and said: "Prick it! "No, it should be said that she ordered us sternly.

An ordinary woman is like a general ordering us with her great majesty! "Prick" "Hi!" "Ming——" She fell down, falling on the man's chest like protecting a lover. This is martyrdom!It is martyrdom for love!The crimson blood of love and hate flowed from her plump chest, flowing on the man's body, as if still protecting him. This tragedy really moved us, and we all commented: "There is also a great woman in China!" "It turns out that the power of love is stronger than death." We immediately set fire to the village, and then moved on to another village.

Lately, setting fires has become commonplace for us, more fun than children playing with fire. "Hey! It's so cold today!" "Then how about burning a house to keep warm?" This is who we are today.We have become the murderer, the arsonist! When the sun rose to the tip of the bamboo pole, we were ordered to have breakfast, and our team went into a Chinese family to eat.But the rice of the Chinese family is as frozen as ice, chewing in the mouth like raw rice.Fortunately, there are also sweet potatoes, which the coolies cook to fill their stomachs.Chinese yams are as white as radishes.

After breakfast, when I was dozing off drowsily, the cry of "start" sounded in the distance.The endless hills are almost barren, layer upon layer, like waves rising and falling.The apex of the ups and downs in front is the enemy's position. The second and third battalions of our army are the vanguard troops, and our first battalion is the reserve team. I served as a scout and went to the location of the frontline troops with the squadron leader.All the squad leaders of my squadron have been killed. The conveners of each squad are the Sergeant in the first squad, the sergeant in the second squad, and the corps leader in the third squad.Therefore, the so-called officer scouts must be sent by the squadron leader himself.Speaking of squadron cadres, the warrant officer was killed, Chief Cao was wounded, the second lieutenant was also killed, another second lieutenant was seriously injured, and the only remaining cadre was the squadron leader. We three scouts followed the path.A Chinese man in a long robe came in front of him. He held hands in a unique way of Chinese people - his hands were inserted into the long sleeves of navy blue.The squadron leader suspected that this person had a pistol in his hand, so he was a little timid and stopped walking. I thought how could such a thing happen?So they went forward and searched him. Nothing suspicious was found and he was released. However, we regretted it afterwards, why did this Chinese man wander around the battlefield alone?That guy should be killed. The place we arrived was the ambush site of the second brigade. Most of the soldiers were lying on the slope at the dead end of the enemy's shooting, and a few soldiers were shooting at the enemy with heavy weapons at the front of the position.The enemy is also fighting back fiercely, and their figures are clearly visible. The artillery of the regiment exploded, and with the violent explosion, the enemies scattered around like ripples.We can clearly see the ugly appearance of them panicking and scurrying around.Here I met Maruyama Shiro-kun, who gave me some Chinese wine and gave me three cigarettes. Recently, it will not be bright until after seven o'clock.At six o'clock in the morning on December 6th, we set off before dawn.I saw mountains in front of me.After crossing an avenue that is said to lead to Nanjing, there is a stone structure house surrounded by railings not far away. Some say it is a military academy, while others say it is a barracks.There is also a simple warehouse built with reed mats on the square, which stores military equipment such as horse gear.Almost all the equipment, such as harnesses, kettles, and lunch boxes, are exactly the same as Japanese military supplies, and there is also a "Infantry Manual", whose content is almost the same as ours. Here I learned how the enemy investigated our army and prepared to fight our army when this war began.It is a pity that the book was burned by the warrant officer at that time.This book has a certain degree of reference significance for the Japanese army in the future. On the blue cover is written "Extremely Confidential Document" in five red letters. "Judgment on the Secret Expansion of the Japanese Army's Forces" April 26 "Judgment on the Soldiers and Formation of the Japanese Army in Wartime" March 25 "Judgment on the New Organization and Equipment of the Japanese Army" April 26 (the above three The dates of the two documents are all in the period of the Republic of China, referring to 1937, 1936, and 1937 respectively.) Starting in the afternoon, our No. 1 brigade was organized into the right-wing first-line unit and marched in dispersal.The enemy set up a formation in front of the high ground, relying on firepower to resist tenaciously. The day's fighting almost ended with the sound of infantry artillery and heavy machine gun fire, while we fell asleep to the sound of shelling and machine gun fire.At night, the enemy began to shoot blindly, and we continued to move forward, braving the unbearable cold, marching unsteadily on the field ridges in the dark.It's cold, it's cold!The nerve endings in the hands and feet seemed to have lost consciousness.Because I ate glutinous rice for dinner, I feel uncomfortable in my stomach and have a dull pain.I wanted to take medicine, but when I put the kettle to my mouth, the water couldn't come out because it was frozen.However, the water is not completely frozen, but only a layer of ice on the surface, so when you shake it vigorously, the ice breaks and the water comes out. At around 2 o'clock in the morning, the captain of the second brigade sent someone to discuss with us a place to camp, so our brigade also decided to find a village for accommodation. We were so happy. It is a great happiness to escape the bitterness of severe cold at this moment.We found a village.The farmers panicked when they saw us entering the village.We first snatched the quilts they covered, and they hugged desperately like a wall wind and did not let go.A woman came angrily and yelled loudly to take the quilt back. This woman was so arrogant that she was too rude to us Japanese soldiers.We kicked her to the ground in a fit of rage, and the sloppy middle-aged woman turned around like a tumbler, and after a while without a word, slipped into the night muttering and exasperated. . Whenever we camp, we first sweep the village, kill the peasants, and then sleep.The death of the peasants keeps us safe in sleep. We tend to let many farmers die just to sleep peacefully for three hours before dawn.It is also a tragic scene on the battlefield. On December 7th, I got up at 7:00 in the morning and set off.The first brigade is the wing reserve team, and the second and third brigades are the front-line troops.When we came out of the village and advanced about 150 meters, we met the enemy's tenacious resistance. The battle was going on fiercely. The heavy machine gun bullets in the line of fire were insufficient, and there were only six infantry shells left. Relaxed and well rested.The battle line failed to advance at all. It is said that the 35th Regiment attacked the enemy at night and occupied their positions.Our reserve team got a full rest because the frontline troops failed to advance.It was a blessing in disguise.However, the delay in rushing up to seize the enemy's position is really anxious.The second and third teams are all useless!We smoked and talked. "If you run out of bullets, you have to charge like the 35th Regiment!" we said. "If it were us, we would definitely charge forward and take down the enemy's position in two hours, and show them!" Some people said bravely. Soldiers in the field troops always feel that only they are fighting bad battles, have suffered all kinds of hardships, and only they are the real trump card army.Even people in the same squadron think that their squad is better than other squads - this kind of arrogant thinking is common among squadron soldiers. "I heard that the guys from the 35th Regiment scolded the 2nd and 3rd Brigade, you guys, do you know what an attack is? Guess what, they didn't get angry after hearing that." Someone else said seriously. There is a large pond with hundreds of ducks swimming up and down the water.Since the landing in Central China, we have never received food supplies from the heavy soldiers, and the food has been settled by expropriation.This is because the roads are bad and it is difficult for the heavy troops to advance.Every time we go camping, we must first get the rice for the next day.Seeing the duck, everyone raised their voices for joy and chased after it.The enemy is chasing the enemy on the line of fire, but at the rear of this two hundred meters away from the line of fire, they are desperately robbing ducks.We shot and clubbed and got twenty-five ducks, and the fat and tender ducks, cooked with salt and sugar, were a feast, and they were delicious. Soldiers packed the only five or six houses to the brim, and the soldiers who couldn't fit in the houses went into the haystacks outside the houses to keep out the cold and sleep.I also got into the haystack.The climate in December is freezing cold.Although we were cold, we did not light a bonfire, which would have informed the enemy artillery of our position.We spent the night in the haystack. On the 8th, the first brigade replaced the second and third brigades from the line of fire.The second and fourth squadrons are the front-line troops, and the first and third squadrons are the reserve team.Our squadron is a reserve team, so we are free and easy. At noon, I fell asleep in the haystack, and Taro Kinoshita was carried over on a stretcher.It is said that when he was cooking, he was injured by a stray bullet on his right thigh. The bullet penetrated the flesh.There was no dressing on his wound, so he asked me if I had any good medicine, and I gave him a kind of external medicine called "Asdam" and made him duck soup.While expressing his thanks, he gulped and drank very fragrantly. "Are you on life insurance?" I asked. "Yeah. So I went to the hospital. I was hit by a bullet. I feel very lucky. This injury is nothing! Although you are not injured yet, more intense battles are yet to come. I heard that the positions near Nanjing are very large. From today's Judging from the situation, just because you are not injured, the danger is greater. I was injured, but I was safe because the hospital is a safe place. You must pay more attention." "Thank you. I'm not hurt yet. I still have to move forward. I don't know whether the bullet went through my thigh or through my heart. Everything is left to fate! The mysterious force of fate is dominating me, so don't be careful, and use it Don't pay attention. Entrust your life to fate and march towards Nanking!" "Then, take care!" "goodbye!" A soldier came to get a stretcher and said that four or five people had been killed in the line of fire. As they advanced to Nanking, the fighting reached a fever pitch.The power of life and death is in the hands of God. I think, this time life is lost!However, I always want to give full play to my role before I die.If you can't fulfill your wish, you will leave a thousand years of regret and die with regret. Can you break through the final line of death?I no longer have the slightest fear.There is only one thought in my heart, I just want to be energetic and go forward bravely, we have been possessed by the god of war.Not afraid of difficulties and dangers, not afraid of any sacrifices. Our strength is boundless, our morale is high, and we are invincible. Suddenly there was a fierce gunshot, machine guns were firing blindly, and the sound of the guns was like waves, ups and downs.About 30 minutes later, the order to advance was received, and a fierce gun battle just now captured the enemy's position.We braved the enemy's raindrops of bullets and rushed into the enemy's second line of defense with lightning speed. The Second Squadron had more than 20 casualties during the charge, but only occupied one firepower point of the enemy, and the battle was in a stalemate again. The sun was about to sink without a trace of warmth in the cold weather, and we dug trenches to prepare for sleep.When night fell, we were ordered to go to the rear to gather food.We searched every corner of every household in the village, not even a single grain of rice was spared.Then I had to cook quickly and give it to the wounded of the second squadron and the officers and soldiers who were fighting.After filling their stomachs, we will do ours, and then we have to find rice. In the end, all we get is sweet potatoes.Because time was tight, they were brought back to the camp without cooking, and they gnawed on the raw ones like mice. Each charge cost many lives.Charge is our most powerful weapon.It is greater than cannons, planes, and any modern weapon, and the fiercer the battle, the more decisive the charge. My life may end here.It should be time to attack to the death.I'm going to charge!I will take the passion and strength I possessed to attack Nanking as my lifelong pride and honor.Before dying for my country, I will put aside all selfish thoughts.A good soldier must face death without hesitation.I am determined to be such a soldier. I wrote suicide notes to my mother, brother and sister respectively. At this moment, with a heart full of sorrow, I have made up my mind to die.In the evening, Morisaki's troops finally arrived.The supply corps also arrived, and each of us was assigned twelve cigarettes and a small amount of liquor. December nine.At seven o'clock in the morning we captured the enemy's position.The enemy had already fled into the mountains, leaving behind a solid reinforced concrete bunker, camouflaged with earth and grass, with shooting holes seven inches high and two feet wide in front.There is a thick iron gate on the back side of the bunker, which is locked inside and out, and devices are added. In order to communicate with other bunkers, traffic ditches have been dug.The shooting holes and iron gates are only closed as a last resort. As long as the bunker is safe, people staying inside will be safe and sound.We hurriedly marched in pursuit of the enemy, across the plains and over the mountains, and found that the 35th Regiment was swaggering forward on the road ahead. The squadron leader shouted: "Quicken your pace! Don't let the 35th regiment occupy Nanjing first!" This shout aroused our scrambling emotions, and we were determined to be the first to rush into Nanjing city. Our blood is boiling, our strength is strong, we are not afraid of hardships or tiredness, and we stand up and stride forward with hope burning in our hearts. We climbed a rocky hill with nothing but weeds on it.On the top of the mountain, we looked down at the highland that we just walked over, which was as vast as the ocean, and stretched into the infinite distance like the ups and downs of the mountain.A huge red sun rising from the east, colorful, dazzling and magnificent.The mountains are stretching, and there are many cockroaches.We went down the mountain and up the mountain, up the mountain and down the mountain, and climbed over three mountain tops.At this time, I was shot by machine guns on the mountain on the right. A soldier walking in front of me died on the spot and three were seriously injured. Where is Nanjing?I set up a pergola with my hands, and looked around with my hooves and feet.But there is nothing like Nanjing in the field of vision.All I could hear was the bombardment of friendly planes coming from under the clouds in the distance. The general attack on Nanjing has begun! We put death and pain on the horizon and ran forward like hungry wolves. While resting on the top of the last mountain, I found that the 35th Regiment was still passing through the path down the mountain.It seems that they are going to enter Nanjing before us. "But..." Corporal Araki said, "Maybe these guys arrived in Nanjing first, but Nanjing is the enemy's last defensive position, and it is the largest. The defense line will not be easily broken through, and there will be a fierce battle. At about the same time, wouldn’t it be better for us to rush into the city by surprise? So, it’s still uncertain who will advance into Nanjing City!” We started descending, sliding like monkeys down the narrow gravel path. When we reached the flat ground, several remnants of the defeated soldiers who were suddenly attacked by us escaped like frightened birds from two or three dilapidated houses at the foot of the mountain, and were shot dead by us on the spot. Two or three comrades took out cigarettes from the arms of the corpse and smoked them greedily, as if saying, "It's been a long time!" Some even searched for money.I hate looking for cigarettes from dead people to smoke. I always feel that smoking their cigarettes means death, so I don't touch them.After advancing for about two miles, I saw the words "Nanjing City" written on a stone road sign. As if we had run into an enemy who had been tracking us for five or even ten years, our spirits lifted, and we couldn't help shouting: "Long live!" This foot-long stone road sign is simply the crystallization of our hard work, death and blood . We walked more happily.There is a big mountain on the right. The squadron leader checked the map and said it was Zijin Mountain. There is a majestic white pagoda at the foot of the Zijin Mountain. It was later discovered that it was the tomb of Sun Wen.Starting from Yao and Shun in ancient times, China, the largest country in the world with a history of more than 4,000 years, was rich and prosperous. The Opium War broke out between Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty and Britain. The British army attacked and blocked Guangdong, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai. And other places, forced to Nanjing, just like that, Hong Kong was occupied by the British.The second time was when the Eight-Power Allied Forces including Britain and France launched a war of aggression. Beijing culture was destroyed, ancient cultural treasures were looted, the Kowloon area was ceded to Britain, and Christian missionaries obtained the right of residence, expanded their influence, and penetrated into every corner of China. jihad.The Anglo-French invasion of Asia is truly abhorrent.The British invaded India and changed dynasties. Queen Victoria became the emperor of India, conquered Pakistan, and annexed Burma.France annihilated Vietnam and merged Annan, Tokyo, and Cochinchina into French Indochina.Russia occupied Siberia and took advantage of the "Aihui Treaty" to occupy the area north of Heilongjiang and east of Ussuri River.In order to bully the Qing, the great powers launched the Sino-Japanese War one after another. Beijing Incident.The Russo-Japanese War, etc., the Qing Dynasty perished in the Xuantong period.Sun Yat-sen, a man who worried about the country, launched a revolutionary movement to establish an ideal country. He joined forces with Zhang Zuolin and Duan Qirui to defeat Zhili warlords Cao Kun and Wu Peifu, and achieved revolutionary success.Before his death, Sun Wen left a will: Yu devoted himself to the national revolution for forty years, and his purpose was to seek freedom and equality in China.With 40 years of experience, I know that in order to achieve this goal, we must arouse the people and unite the nations of the world who treat us equally and work together.Now that the revolution has not been successful, all my comrades must continue to work hard in accordance with Yu's national founding strategy, national founding outline, the Three People's Principles and the Declaration of the First National Congress in order to implement it.Recently, it is recommended to hold a national assembly and abolish unequal treaties, especially to promote their realization in the shortest period of time.