Chapter 10 fire the first bullet

It is not all dark before dawn, the crescent moon recedes quietly, but the clear morning star hangs above the reeds, shedding a clear brilliance.There are already gray lead-colored clouds floating in the eastern sky, swimming back and forth with the cold morning wind.The first ray of white light seemed to be still brewing, competing with the black for the last bit of weight, ready to burst out at any time. The earth is extraordinarily quiet, and the water surface is extremely gentle.Looking from the river beach position guarded by the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 169th Regiment, the vast Tujia Lake was covered by faint water vapor or fog, like a boundless transparent gauze. "Hula" screamed, and the waterfowl holding fish broke the silence of the lake, and gradually, it returned to the original silence.

It was the early morning of November 18th. Li Youwu's platoon of the 9th company had been guarding here for 10 days, and there had been no movement from the Japanese army.As usual, the sentinel on duty was lying in the bunker, motionless, with his eyes wide open, using binoculars to monitor the movement of the lake ahead.Suddenly, the sentinel pricked up his ears, and faintly heard the screeching sound of a motor coming from a distance.Looking towards the horizon, I saw a cluster of black shadows speeding towards the shore of the lake beach at the forward position with the waves. "Platoon leader! Platoon leader!" The sentinel immediately woke up Li Youwu who was dozing against the earthen wall of the fortification, "The enemy is coming!"

Li platoon leader looked at his pocket watch. It was a few minutes before 5 o'clock in the morning. He immediately ordered the entire platoon of soldiers to enter the fortifications and bunkers built by the lake embankment and prepare for shooting. He walked forward by himself, and came to a high place on the lake embankment to observe.From the binoculars, more than 10 Japanese motorboats can already be seen coming fiercely.He retreated quickly again, and while notifying them to prepare for battle, he asked the orderlies to rush to the company headquarters stationed at Niubidan to report the enemy's situation here.

"Quack quack -" the Japanese machine guns fired at the reeds on the west bank of the lake, which was a fire search.The bullets flew over the heads of the Chinese soldiers. The veterans acted as if nothing had happened when they saw the situation, but the recruits, including Platoon Leader Li, were a little nervous.Li Youwu had just graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy, and was assigned to the 9th Company as a platoon leader for less than two months. In terms of real combat, this may be the first time.He realized that nervousness might be detrimental to his command of the battle, so he tried to calm himself down, and used the decisiveness and bravery he learned in the military school to influence the soldiers who were watching him. "Brothers, don't panic," he said. "Listen to my password. When I say fire, shoot all at once!"

Now I can see clearly that the first batch of 16 motorboats of the Japanese army dragged some sampans. In the dim morning light, they used machine guns to shoot blindly for reconnaissance and searched back and forth with searchlights. They entered the waters in front of the position. Force login here. "Fight!" Li platoon commander gave an order, and the whole platoon fired at the Japanese motorboat in unison. The guns rang loudly, the searchlights on the Japanese boat immediately went out, and the machine guns became dumb in an instant. But within a few seconds, the Japanese began to fight back.Part of the Japanese commando jumped into the water "plop plop", and they wanted to land by boat.

Li Youwu commanded the only Czech-made light machine gun in the platoon, immediately blocked the beach where the Japanese army was trying to climb ashore, and then fired with rifles.This method worked very well, and all the dozen or so Japanese soldiers who had just climbed out of the water were wiped out. This sudden head-on volley made the Japanese army a little dizzy, and the stalled motorboats started up again, and after getting rid of each other's entanglement, they all retreated at full speed. "Damn it!" Li Youwu cursed happily, he was very excited to win the first battle.

After receiving a call from the 9th Company, Long Chuyun, Chief of Staff of the 57th Division, went to the basement to report to Commander Yu Chengwan.The new division headquarters is located in the central bank at Xingjiekou. Walking past a row of bungalows, half of a reinforced concrete air-raid shelter goes deep into the flat ground. Layers of bulletproof netting.There are two doors diagonally opposite the air-raid shelter, and the inward door follows the descending ramp. A telephone switchboard is installed at the corner, and the operator is working nervously.Walking into the air-raid shelter, it looks like a small room, about 10 square meters, with two beds facing each other, a small table, and two telephones.

Yu Chengwanzheng, deputy division commander Chen Xiaoyun, and commander Zhou Yizhong stood in front of a map on the wall to study tactics.After listening to Long Chuyun's report, Yu Chengwan thought for a moment, then said to them: "It seems that our first bullet to defend Changde was sent at 5 o'clock this morning. However, it was not the 116th Division that hit the gate of Changde first, but the 68th Division..." Yu Chengwan had a deep meaning He smiled gently, "Yan Yongwang is very cunning. He may be imitating Yokoyama Isamu's tactics, making a lot of noise and asking Sakuma to attack the beachhead in the southeast first, so as to cover his main attack route." Yu Chengwan restrained himself. Smiling, "We must not be fooled by him! Tell Commander Chai, it doesn't matter now, the enemy's main force is still in the Linli area, and the Japanese army mobbing in Tujia Lake today is just supporting, we have to send more Focus on dealing with the bigger fight."

"Yes!" Director Long turned around and left. Li Youwu lined up here, except for a small number of people to guard and monitor the enemy's situation, the rest of the troops were ready to fight. At dawn, three Japanese planes flew over Tujia Lake, circling at low altitude, as if looking for Japanese soldiers missing in the morning battle.At the same time, there was a dense roar of motors on the lake, which indicated that the Japanese army was increasing its troops and was planning to retaliate on a large scale. The afterglow of the setting sun casts a golden circle of light on the lake, forming an intoxicating picture, but in the face of cruel battles, no one has the heart to appreciate this beauty.More than 20 motorboats of the Japanese army, carrying more than 300 Japanese soldiers, rushed towards the lake embankment position under the cover of powerful firepower.The shells set off a water column ten feet high, splashed smoke-like dust, and rows of reeds bowed down one after another.

Li Youwu led the entire platoon of soldiers, making full use of the favorable terrain of the lake embankment and the established fortifications, bravely and calmly, and fought bloody battles. The battle lasted for an hour. Due to the weak strength of the Chinese army and insufficient distribution, the Japanese army landed on the lake beach.The Japanese soldiers who landed shouted and attacked the Chinese positions. After repelling the enemy's several charges, Li Youwu led the remaining soldiers in the platoon to retreat to a high embankment to resist.When the battle was in full swing, Li Youwu was unfortunately shot four times in the head and leg and fell into a pool of blood.Deputy platoon leader Liu Honghai rescued Li Youwu from the line of fire, and then continued to direct the battle at the front line.

At the age of 20, Li Youwu's wound was bleeding, but he was unable to bandage it. He felt that his life was getting away from him step by step. He looked at the dark sky, and a meteor fell to an unknown place... At the same time, the Japanese army in Tujia Lake split another group of about 200 people, went around the northeast lake embankment of Niubitan, and launched an attack on Niubitan Town.Instructor Gu Jinfang acted as the company commander and led the main force of the 9th company to resist bravely and repel the Japanese army.Just a few minutes after the Japanese army retreated, the artillery bombarded the main position of the No. 9 Company, causing dust to fly and the sky to be dark. After the first shot of the Battle of Changde was fired on the outskirts of the city, Wang Yaowu, the commander of the 74th Army, deeply felt that the task of defending the city of the 57th Division was arduous and the strength was weak. The telegram ordered the 188th Regiment of the 63rd Division of the 100th Army to be assigned to Yu Chengwan's command as the Deshan garrison to take over the defense of Deshan and the south bank of the Yuan River. Yu Chengwan felt happy after receiving the call, because the 188th regiment is currently stationed in Deshan, and he originally wanted to mobilize the regiment, but it was not clear that he had command authority, and it was inconvenient to give orders. A few days ago, I heard that the regiment was about to withdraw If they left, he was very worried. If they left, he would send at least a battalion of troops to take them over.Now that Wang Yaowu allocated the regiment to him, wouldn't it support him a lot!He hurriedly ordered chief of staff Pi Xuanyou to invite Deng Xianfeng, head of the 188 regiment, to the division headquarters to discuss defense matters. However, the head of Deng Xianfeng arrived uninvited, and before he had time to exchange greetings, he informed Yu Chengwan that he was going to lead his troops to transfer to the south, and the troops were already on their way.Yu Chengwan was really unprepared, staring at the pampered leader, he was stunned.Not only Yu Chengwan, but other officers of the 57th Division present also seemed to have been poured with cold water. Deng Xianfeng seemed to have noticed that Yu Chengwan's face had become ugly, and wanted to open his mouth to explain something, but before he could speak, Yu Chengwan slapped the table with his palm and angrily reprimanded: "Deng, you should know the military discipline of my 57th Division. Since your regiment is transferred to my command, it is equivalent to a regiment of the 57th Division. When Tujiahu and Niubitan were fighting fiercely, you Transfer troops to the south, can you tell the reason for the transfer to the south?!" "This, this..." Deng Xianfeng muttered. "What is this?" Yu Chengwan seldom gets angry, but this time he seemed really angry, "If you don't have a valid reason, I, Yu Chengwan, can kill you!" Seeing that the quarrel was very tense, Chen Xiaoyun, the deputy division commander, stood up to smooth things over. He said, "Commander Deng, now Division Commander Yu can give you a chance to restore your honor as a soldier. Pull yourself together, and we will have a good fight together." Let's do this battle!" After a while of silence, Deng Xianfeng answered with his head down: "It was my mistake to withdraw to the south, and I am willing to accept the new order from the division commander." "Well," Yu Chengwan paused, "you have to know that Deshan is the main point of contact with the reinforcements on the south bank, and it is also an important stronghold on the East Road of Changde City. It has a lot to do with the whole battle situation. Now you are limited to 1 hour Inside, enter the original designated place. If you can’t do it, I won’t be polite to you, you should think about it with your brain and reply me within a time limit.” "Yes, yes." Deng Xianfeng obediently agreed to withdraw. After Deng Xianfeng left, Yu Chengwan pointed to his back and said, "This person cannot be trusted!" In order to prevent accidents, Yu Chengwan made partial adjustments to the deployment of troops.He decided to keep the 2nd Battalion (reinforced battalion) of the 171st Regiment to defend Hefu, the other two battalions were the city wall defense team, and the 3rd Battalion of the 170th Regiment was the division reserve.At the same time, he strictly ordered the regiments, battalions, companies, and platoon leaders to stick to their combat positions and lead their troops to fight calmly. At dawn on November 20, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army was in the East Binhu District of Changde City. The backup force increased to more than one regiment. With the help of aircraft and artillery cover, they stormed Niubitan again.The battle was very fierce. The 9th Company of the 169th Regiment fought repeatedly with the enemy until noon of the next day. More than half of them were killed or injured. Just when a small group of Japanese troops copied from behind to the vicinity of Haozhou Temple, and the 9th Company was almost attacked from the front and back, and all of them were successful, the commander of the 7th Company, Zhang Fengge, was ordered to lead two platoons to arrive.Company Commander Zhang charged as soon as he came up. The Japanese army did not expect that a new force appeared in the Chinese army that was almost losing its resistance.The Japanese commander didn't know the truth, so he retreated temporarily. The 9th company received this relief, and then moved to Majiapu to join the 7th company.Company Commander Zhang and Instructor Gu did a roll call, and the two companies removed Li Youwu's platoon from Tujiahu and a platoon left in the rear, which was less than a company.The number of Japanese troops was clearly overwhelming.As soon as the two officers discussed, they decided to take the team to Shigong Temple. At the same time, Gu Jinfang ordered Li Youwu's platoon to retreat, to the vicinity of Haozhou and Tanjiahe. The deputy platoon leader Liu Honghai led the remaining 6 or 7 soldiers in the platoon to retreat. When he was about to carry Li Youwu there, he was found dead. The pair of dark eyes on the young face were not closed, and they were still looking at the lake where the gunpowder smoke was floating.He still seems to be nostalgic for the picture of this world, even though there are burning embers, collapsed trenches, broken guns, and abandoned bullet casings...