Chapter 12 5. The fierce battle for Gwanghwamun

At the same time as the bloody battle at Yuhuatai, fierce battles broke out at various city gates in Nanjing. December 9th, Nanjing Guanghua Gate. At dawn, the Ninth Division of Yoshizumi Yoshizumi began a tentative attack on Gwanghwamun.Nine tanks drove to the moat and bombarded the city gate violently. After dawn, Japanese planes repeatedly bombed and strafed Gwanghwamun. Guarding Guanghua Gate was the First Battalion of the Second Regiment of Zhou Zhenqiang, the first brigade of the Teaching Corps. The officers and soldiers leaned on the city wall and fired at the enemy calmly.At noon, a regimental deputy came to the tower to supervise the battle. After carefully observing the position, he saw a small wooden flour mill more than a hundred meters to the left of the Guanghuamen tower, less than 10 meters away from the city wall. The city wall is more than 1 meter high. If it is occupied by the enemy and shoots from the heights, our guarding officers and soldiers are in danger of being wiped out.The deputy of the regiment explained to everyone the dangerous situation of our army, and then ordered the battalion headquarters to organize a death squad to burn down the flour mill as soon as possible.At that time, more than a dozen soldiers stood up from the team. The first soldier brought matches and straw down from the battlements with a rope. He was shot and killed by the enemy when he was just over one meter away; the second soldier did not let go. A few meters later, he also died a heroic sacrifice; the third soldier bravely stood up and said, I am the third, and now it is my turn, but I can't use the old method, first change a stack, and then tie the rope around my waist, It is estimated that the length is more than two-thirds of the city wall, and it will be quickly lowered to the ground after jumping down.At this time, the enemy had discovered our army's intentions, organized troops to seize the flour mill, and blocked the crenels of our city wall with firepower. The situation was extremely critical.The third soldier jumped out of the crenel while taking advantage of the enemy's shooting, and quickly fell to the ground. Our firepower cooperated and fired together, suppressing the enemy's firepower and blocking the way for the enemy to occupy the flour mill.Our soldier lay motionless on the ground. The enemy thought he was killed, and the shooting gradually relaxed.After a while, the soldier suddenly jumped up, rushed into the flour mill as fast as he could, and lit the straw and planks. With the billowing thick smoke, the blazing flames rose into the sky, and cheers of victory resounded from the Guanghuamen tower. .

On December 10, the battle at Guanghuamen in Nanjing became more intense. The basement of Fugui Mountain near Guanghuamen, where the teaching corps and the headquarters of the 71st Army are located.In the morning, the bleary-eyed Commander Wang Jingjiu came to the office. Due to poor sleep, he sat on the rattan chair, lit a beautiful brand cigarette, and smoked in a daze while half awake.After a while, the chief of staff hurried in and reported that the engineering school had fallen, and the 260th Brigade guarding the engineering school had withdrawn into the city at midnight last night.Wang Jingjiu was taken aback, and his sleepy eyes opened wide: "Who ordered them to retreat?!"

"The troops retreated into the city by themselves," replied the chief of staff. Wang Jingjiu was furious: "Bastard! Call me Liu Qixiong immediately!" After the chief of staff left, Wang Jingjiu felt that this was a serious matter. He immediately stood up from the wicker chair, moved his fat body, and dialed the phone of the Garrison Command: "Report to Mr. Tang, the engineering school has fallen!" "What? What did you do?! Is it the army that has been wiped out?" General Tang Shengzhi, who had always been calm, was shocked when he heard the news that the engineering school had fallen, and his tone seemed very dissatisfied.

Wang Jingjiu didn't dare to hide it, so he had no choice but to say: "The troops couldn't hold on, so they withdrew to the city." Tang Shengzhi was even more annoyed, and reprimanded on the phone: "Why didn't you follow the command of the headquarters?! Why didn't you stick to your position?! Who ordered them to retreat?! General Rao Guohua lost Guangde and could kill himself. Why are your subordinates greedy? Afraid of death?!..." Wang Jingjiu had no choice but to listen and put down the microphone, just as Liu Qixiong, the brigade commander of the 260th Brigade, walked in.Liu Qixiong was wearing a gray cotton military uniform with a soldier's belt around his waist. He was of medium height and strong. After entering the door, he stood at attention and gave a military salute to Wang Jingjiu.

Wang Jingjiu said sternly: "You are told to guard the engineering school, do you know the importance of the engineering school?" Liu Qixiong replied: "The engineering school is the last barrier of Guanghuamen." Wang Jingjiu said angrily, "Then why did you throw away the engineering school?!" Liu Qixiong replied: "After retreating from Shanghai, the whole brigade accommodated less than half of the troops. After the recent continuous hard fighting, the troops guarding the engineering school are only left with more than a company, and they are exhausted, so..."

Wang Jingjiu retreated from Shanghai and has been on the front line. How can he not know the situation of his subordinates?Looking at Liu Qixiong again, his military uniform was covered with dust, and his full face became thin and tired, half of his anger disappeared, so he changed his tone and said, "Go back quickly and organize the rest of the people, and wait for orders at any time. " In the morning, Liu Xing, the deputy commander of the Garrison Headquarters, came to the Guanghuamen Headquarters, and Gui Yongqing, the head of the Teaching Corps, also returned to the basement. Everyone discussed nervously about the defense of Guanghuamen.

At 1:00 p.m., the Japanese army launched a general attack on Nanjing City. Fierce artillery fire destroyed several gaps in the city wall of Guanghuamen. At 3:00 p.m., Japanese death squads rushed in under the cover of tanks.When Gui Yongqing heard the report, he looked very nervous, and immediately brought a platoon of soldiers from the guard company to the Wuchao gate to supervise the battle. The soldiers of the teaching team and the Japanese soldiers fought hand-to-hand repeatedly. Under the cover of intensive firepower, more than 100 Japanese troops occupied the houses on the two streets with a depth of more than 100 meters in Guanghuamen as their stronghold, and the situation was extremely critical.Tang Shengzhi was even more nervous when he received the report, and ordered Wang Jingjiu's troops of the Seventh Army to wipe out the enemies who broke into Guanghuamen as soon as possible.After intensive discussions, Liu Xing and Wang Jingjiu decided to hand over the task to the 259th Brigade and 261st Brigade of the 87th Division.Wang Jingjiu sternly ordered on the phone: "If you can't complete the task, come and see me!"

Yi Anhua, commander of the 259th Brigade, was born in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, and graduated from the third phase of the Whampoa Military Academy. After the "July 7th Incident", Yi Anhua was ordered to participate in the defense of Shanghai, and immediately made preparations to sacrifice for the country.He sent someone to send his wife and children back to his hometown, and said to his wife Shi Dequn: "You should be ready to receive my pension and take care of your family." He also gave his wife a few words: I will never destroy the Japanese pirates, and vow not to return alive.

If the country will not be protected, why should the family do it? After retreating from Shanghai to Nanjing, Yi Anhua took on the task of guarding Guanghua Gate and Tongji Gate.After receiving the task of eradicating the Japanese army that broke into Guanghuamen, Yi Anhua immediately ordered a reinforced regiment to prepare for the attack. He gathered all the officers and soldiers and said: "The Japanese invaders occupied the northeast, north, and Shanghai of our country, and besieged the capital of our country, Nanjing. The country will perish forever." Now! Now is the time for our soldiers to serve the country, and we must follow the example of General Fubo's horse shroud! Brothers, let us express our determination to our compatriots in the motherland!" As he said, he led the officers and soldiers to cry out tragically:

"Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world! Rather smash your head and give me back my country!" After shouting the slogan, Yi Anhua glanced affectionately at the team in front of him, which was actually less than a battalion in strength, and then waved his hands; "Brothers, let's go!" He personally led the team from Tongji Gate to the northeast, and launched a fierce attack on the Japanese army that broke into Guanghua Gate. At the same time, Chen Yiding, brigade commander of the 261st Brigade, led two reinforced battalions to attack the enemy from Qingliangxiang and Tiantang Village.The Japanese soldiers resisted steadily by relying on the houses they occupied, and our officers and soldiers rushed into the enemy's line without thinking about their own lives.All of a sudden, inside and outside Guanghuamen, the sound of killing was loud and bullets were flying everywhere. Our soldiers and the enemy fought hand-to-hand together, performing the most tragic, intense and thrilling scene in the Nanjing Defense War.

During the fierce battle, Yi Anhua, the brigade commander of the 259th Brigade, suddenly felt his left arm tremble, and a bullet passed through his arm, bleeding profusely. The guards quickly bandaged him.While directing the battle with his wounds, Yi Anhua dialed the phone of Brigadier Chen Yiding of the 261st Brigade, and loudly encouraged him on the phone: "Brigade Commander Chen, well done! Our two brigades are attacking back and forth, and we must wipe out the troops inside Guanghuamen. enemy, defend Nanjing!" Soon, however, a piece of shrapnel wounded Yi Anhua's head again, and a sharp pain penetrated into his heart. The adjutant advised him to go down immediately. Yi Anhua held his wound and said firmly: "I am a dignified Chinese soldier. The country loses its people! Brothers are here to fight bloody battles, as the leader of the brigade, how can I just survive?!" The Chinese soldiers and the Japanese soldiers fought bloody together, and there were bursts of killing sounds, and Yi Anhua was directing the battle on a nearby stretcher.During the fierce battle, a flying shrapnel wounded Yi Anhua's waist again, and blood stained a large area of ​​the stretcher red.His face was pale, and enduring great pain, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket with great difficulty, handed it to the adjutant, and said solemnly and firmly: "If I die for my country, please help me to send this poem to my wife." The adjutant opened the paper with a heavy heart, and saw that it read: The names of strong men are not allowed to be self-serving. Die one's life to go to the country in disaster, regard death as home suddenly. After reading it, the adjutant said with tears in his eyes, "Brigade Commander Yi!..." Yi Anhua shook his hand, and said with difficulty: "Lu Fangweng in the Song Dynasty wrote a poem "Shower" before he died, and this is also my poem "Shower"..." As he spoke, the wound felt a sharp pain, and he cried out in pain. Press your waist tightly with your hands. In the evening, the flanking troops finally wiped out the Japanese troops who invaded Guanghuamen. When the good news came, a smile flashed across Yi Anhua's pale face, he nodded with difficulty, and then slowly closed his eyes.The cold wind blows, as if weeping for the loyal and brave man of the Chinese nation; the cloud curtain hangs down, as if bowing his head for the young general who died in the Anti-Japanese War. The 38-year-old young brigade commander Yi Anhua finally died for his country on the banks of the Qinhuai River.In addition to the sacrifice of brigade commander Yi Anhua, Ni Guoding, chief of staff of the 261st Brigade, two battalion commanders, and more than 30 company and platoon commanders were also sacrificed in this battle. The brutality of the battle is evident. Although the enemies who broke into Guanghuamen City were eliminated, the hidden dangers were not completely eliminated. Some Japanese troops hid in the city gate holes, threatening the safety of Guanghuamen at any time.Gui Yongqing convened his subordinates to discuss, and the head of the regiment, Xie Chengrui, suggested that they should be burned with gasoline first, and then send death squads to destroy the enemy. In the middle of the night, Commander Xie led the soldiers to carry the gasoline barrels to the watchtower on the city wall, opened the lid and threw them into the opening of the city gate.Afterwards, Commander Xie personally led a platoon of death squads, and suddenly opened the city gate. More than a dozen light machine guns fired at the same time, and finally wiped out all the Japanese soldiers hiding in the city gate.While cleaning the battlefield, they found a wounded Japanese soldier still groaning, and immediately carried him on a stretcher to the entrance of the command department in the basement of Fuguishan, taught the general team to treat prisoners preferentially in accordance with the international convention, and immediately called the medical officer from the wounded station Give bandaging treatment. December 11, Nanjing Zhonghua Gate. After the Japanese army failed to attack Gwanghwamun, they shifted their attack focus to Chunghwamun the next day.Luo Zhuoying, the deputy commander of the Garrison Headquarters, who was supervising the battle on the front line of Zhonghuamen, saw that the 88th Division was gradually unable to support, so he hurriedly called Deng Longguang's 154th Division to rush to help. The fierce battle at Gwanghwamun on the 10th will be reenacted at Chunghwamun on the 11th.At the same time, fierce battles also took place at Zhongshan Gate, Tongji Gate, Yuhua Gate, Shuixi Gate and other places in Nanjing.The artillery shells of the Japanese army howled, blasting flowers of evil on the city walls around Nanjing.Crazy Japanese soldiers howled and swarmed in from the breakthrough. Thousands of fearless Chinese soldiers bravely greeted them, fought desperately with the enemy, and repelled the enemy's attacks again and again.They used sacks, sandbags, and even their own fearless bodies to block the breakthrough, and wrote a touching chapter in the defense of Nanjing.