Chapter 75 rescue boat

During the defense of Changde, the Cairo Conference was held. On December 1, Chiang Kai-shek flew from Cairo to Chongqing. After learning about the battle in Changde, he called Yu Chengwan specifically, saying that the 57th Division's heroic deeds in annihilating the enemy in Changde had "caused the greatest respect from all friendly countries in the world." To be able to gain the attention and respect of the whole world is of course a great thing, but the problem is that the 57th Division can no longer hold on.The focus of the meeting was not on whether to break through, but on the fact that everyone couldn't break out, and someone had to lag behind to cover.At the same time, because the 57th Division withdrew from Changde, it had not been reported to the theater and received permission, so a small part of the force had to be left behind to explain.

It is said that at the beginning of the meeting, Yu Chengwan ordered the head of the 169th regiment, Chai Yixin, to lead his troops to break out of the siege, and he himself led a reinforced company that was contained and repaired to continue street fighting with the enemy.However, in the army, such a method can also be understood as, among all the regiment leaders, Chai Yixin is the one Yu Chengwan admires and is closest to. The meaning of staying behind. Chai Yixin was unequivocal, and immediately said: "The division commander is the hope of the whole division. I hope that the division commander will break through the siege as soon as possible. I will stand here and wait for the division commander to lead the reinforcements to rescue the siege."

The meeting finally decided that the rest of the 169th Regiment and the first part of the 171st Regiment, with a total of 51 members, would be commanded by Chai Yixin and be responsible for containing the enemy. Everyone knows what staying behind means.Chai Yixin had only been married for seven months at the time, and it took a lot of courage and a truly selfless and fearless spirit for him to do so.When Wu Rongkai was the captain and secretary of the 69th Regiment, Chai Yixin said to him: "You also go (referring to breaking through), and head Sun (Sun Jinxian, head of the 170th Regiment), and Duan Zhang (head of the 171st Regiment) Du Ding) they are together."

Wu Rongkai was extremely unhappy leaving his regiment leader alone in the city, so he shook his head: "I won't go." Chai Yixin was in a hurry: "I'm trying my best here, I order you to leave the city immediately!" Wu Rongkai had no choice but to say: "Leader, then I will obey the order and leave." He saluted Chai Yixin before he turned back and took two steps. Chai Yixin stopped him again: "Tell you, be careful along the way." Saying that, he pointed his hand forward. At that moment, Wu Rongkai's tears fell from his face. Due to the fall of the Confucian Temple, those who are not near the meeting place can no longer be notified directly, and can only be notified by firing signal flares.There are also scattered troops who learned of the decision to break out of the siege only after calling the regiment command post on their phones to no avail.

The retreating personnel boarded the ladder and crossed the city wall of the south gate, that is, punted and left the shore.Before the war, the 57th Division hid a few wooden boats under the hanging towers along the Yuanjiang River. There were not many of them. A wooden boat for officers with guards.The moment the boat was about to leave the shore, Jin Dingzhou jumped onto the boat. Seeing this, dozens of people on the shore also jumped into the water and swam towards the boat. Everyone quickly grabbed the edge of the boat.Due to the small number of people on the boat, the boat gradually lost its center of gravity, tilted to one side, and was about to capsize, and the people on board suddenly became a mess.The guards found something was wrong, swung a captured Japanese command knife and chopped it towards the side of the ship.Immediately, one person sank into the water with his severed hand.Others who hadn't boarded the boat hurriedly begged, saying that I was the adjutant of the division, or the military supply of the division, but it was useless to say these things at this time, unless you were Yu Chengwan.

The guards continued to swing their knives, and the people sank into the water one by one, crying and cursing. The situation was horrible.Jin Dingzhou found that his adjutant was also in the water. Seeing that the guard's knife was about to hit the adjutant's head, he hurriedly stopped him: "He is the adjutant I brought, please let him come up!" The guard put away his command knife after hearing this.Jin Dingzhou grabbed the adjutant's hand and pulled it up desperately.The adjutant was already exhausted, if Jin Dingzhou hadn't saved his life, he would have died even if he hadn't been stabbed.

There were no oars on the boat, so they had to use wooden planks instead. With the help of the strong northeast wind, they rowed to the opposite bank and joined the friendly forces in Tokuyama. This is the last lifeboat.The latecomers and some wounded officers and soldiers could only lie on their backs or wander around the river. Some of them groped along the north bank of the Yuanjiang River and escaped from the danger before dawn, but more people faced the fate of either being sacrificed or being captured. On the morning of December 3, Chai Yixin led his troops to defend Huajing Glass Factory.They repelled the enemy's attack many times, and after shooting out all the bullets, they took up the bayonet and made a suicide charge.During the charge, Chai Yixin was killed by four bullets, and all 51 people in his unit were also killed.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Changde fell.A total of three batches of nine Chinese bombers launched an air strike on the city. At dusk, Iwanaga had to withdraw most of his troops to the outside of the city, leaving only one force to guard the city. Now that Changde has been occupied, Yokoyama is ready to retreat, but his boss, Commander of the "China Expeditionary Force", Hata Shunroku, persuades him to take a long-term view and make changes to the retreat plan.