Chapter 33 Chapter 3 The Greatest Soldier in the World (Battle of Nanchang)

Wuhan fell, and Changsha to the south was immediately under the serious threat of the Japanese army.The 74th Army was ordered to defend Changsha, and the 51st and 58th Divisions were rushed to the outskirts of Changsha by car and train for deployment. On the night of November 12, the Seventy-Fourth Army arrived near Changsha, and the military headquarters was stationed in the southern suburbs of Changsha. But what they didn't expect was that Changsha was burned down the next day, and the people who set the fire were not Japanese, but mistook them for the Japanese. People have already approached their own people under the city.

Even if the Japanese army entered the city, would it be possible to burn a thousand-year-old city to the ground and make the people displaced?When the Chinese command center encounters possible dangers, it always habitually shows blindness, passivity and extreme irresponsibility for the lives and property of the people.This scene is almost the same major tragedy as the bursting of the Huayuankou embankment, which is enough to chill people's hearts.From the perspective of a bystander, Ateli said some very bitter words: "Danger always exists among those nervous elements in the rear. They are eager to retreat and dare not take the risk of being killed. What they say may be worse than The generals at the front are more patriotic, but they themselves don't want to die."

The Seventy-Fourth Army, which was supposed to face the Japanese army, temporarily changed its mission and was transferred to Changsha City to deal with the aftermath.Because of strict military discipline, the Seventy-Fourth Army has a good relationship with the local people, and has left a good reputation when helping Changsha residents restore their homes. Knowing that the anti-Japanese heroic troops had arrived in Changsha, some anti-enemy drama teams from the rear came to Changsha to perform condolences.After being taught and sung by the theater team, those anti-Japanese and national salvation songs began to reverberate in the barracks: "The Exile Trilogy", "March of the Great Sword", "March of the Volunteers", "The Sacrifice is at the End"...

During the performance, the famous dramatist Tian Han who led the performance visited the 51st Division admiringly.Through extensive collection of materials, he wrote the drama "De'an Great Victory" based on the battle between Zhang Lingfu and Zhang Gushan.After the repertoire was performed, Zhang Lingfu and his Seventy-Fourth Army became more famous and became familiar and understood by Chinese people. As the author of "March of the Volunteers", Tian Han also splashed ink and wrote a military song for the 74th Army himself.In the loud and clear singing, the officers and soldiers of the 74th Army were inspired by the glorious and glorious military history of the troops. They sang together, chorused, and roundly sang, inspiring themselves and their comrades over and over again: "We are the country's armed forces, we are the nation vanguard!"

To play a pioneering role, it is impossible without sufficient strength.The Seventy-Fourth Army suffered a lot in the battles of Nanxun and Wanjialing. Due to the lack of a mature and perfect conscription system in China, it often takes a long time for a troop with heavy casualties to be transferred to the rear to recover or get close to its original state. There is a level, and some ace troops become weaker and weaker because of this reason, until they fail to recover. Obviously, if you want to prosper forever, you must strive for full blood resurrection in the shortest possible time.Fortunately, as the strategic general reserve directly under the Central Military Commission, the 74th Army enjoys unique conditions in terms of recruiting troops, and can give priority to some Whampoa students as the backbone.

In view of the reality of the urgent need for personnel during the Anti-Japanese War, the Whampoa Military Academy has already expanded its enrollment. It is stipulated that everyone can apply for the exam two years after graduating from high school, and then the military academy will be recruited from high to low according to the test scores.In the first phase, only six to seven hundred people were usually recruited, but by the thirteenth phase, more than 1,400 people had been recruited, more than doubled.The school system was also shortened from the original three years to two years. As soon as the graduation ceremony was over, the students went to the front alone with their graduation certificates and notices of assignment to various units in various theaters.

The unit that Qian Zhigen, a student of the 13th batch of Whampoa, was assigned to was the 74th Army.The senior officials of the Seventy-Fourth Army also valued these Huangpu students very much. After Qian Zhigen arrived in Changsha, Yu Jishi and Wang Yaowu personally received them and arranged them appropriately. At that time, the 51st Division had just recruited a group of new recruits, and the training time was not long. The 51st Division adopted the method of grasping the backbone first and leading from the point to point, and set up a training class for sergeants.The sergeant training class is composed of recruits with good physical fitness, a total of less than 200 people, and they are organized into a brigade with four teams, with Qian Zhigen as the team leader.

The teaching of the sergeant training class is very serious from the beginning.From physical training, instilling military knowledge, to assassination, bombing, blasting, shooting skills training, and then to the education of "Four Disgraces of Soldiers" and "Four Joys of Soldiers", all can be carried out in an orderly manner, especially live ammunition shooting training , because it needs to be used as soon as it goes to the battlefield, so it is very strict, and the sergeants have to criticize each other after training. On March 25, 1939, the Seventy-Fourth Army, which was resting in Hunan, received an urgent order to join the ongoing Battle of Nanchang and quickly reinforce northern Jiangxi.

The four-week sergeant training class came to an end, and the dormitories where everyone lived immediately became empty.Trained sergeants are assigned to companies, most directly serving as squad leaders.Because Qian Zhigen was born in Huangpu, he became the platoon leader.