Chapter 19 Mercury Building Dangerous Situation

At 4 o'clock in the evening on November 24, a thrilling scene happened outside the South Gate.At the South Station, more than 500 Japanese troops, about two brigades, used motorboats and civilian boats, a total of more than 20 ships, covered by artillery fire and 4 bombers, in an attempt to forcefully cross the Yuanjiang River.The national army suppressed the enemy violently with mortars and light and heavy machine guns, and sank half of the ferry. Seeing that the river bank defense line was not easy to break through, the Japanese retreated back. After hearing the news, Long Chuyun, the chief of staff who rushed to supervise the battle, returned to the division headquarters to report to Commander Yu Chengwan after seeing the Japanese army's flags and drums dying down.

Yu Chengwan was still sitting at the small table in the turbulent sea, carefully reading a precise map of Changde City under the kerosene lamp.Seeing Long Chuyun coming in, he motioned for him to say.After finishing speaking, he pondered for a moment alone, and then gave instructions: "The climax tonight will not be at the periphery, but will be at the South Station. The enemy will not try to force them during the day, but they will definitely try to sneak in at night, so pay close attention." While speaking, Zhang Zhaopu, the battalion commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 171st Regiment, came to report for duty at the call of Commander Yu.Battalion Commander Zhang was originally defending in the western suburbs, but he was transferred into the city yesterday. His battalion was holding the Jiang'an area in the south city. record.

Battalion Commander Zhang walked into the office, saluted, and stood upright with a flushed face.Yu Chengwan said: "This time you have cooperated very well with the artillery regiment, and the brothers are also very loyal and brave. However, we must do everything for the good, and at the same time, we must also be prepared for the extremely bad situation. The enemy will not succeed , I won’t give up this attempt, probably tonight, the enemy will definitely come to smuggle people, you have to keep a close watch on Jiang Fang at all times.” Speaking of this, Yu Chengwan waved his hand and asked Battalion Commander Zhang to come closer, “How many people do I have here? I leave it to you to deal with the enemy. It’s a secret, so I don’t need to dictate it.” A somewhat mysterious smile appeared on Yu Chengwan’s face, and he continued, “It can also be called the tricks of the ancients, but it’s not good. It depends on the effect." He took out three small white envelopes in his pocket and handed them to Battalion Commander Zhang, with numbers 1, 2, and 3 on them.Battalion Commander Zhang looked at it and asked for instructions: "The job has been executed, can I report by phone?" Do it quickly.

Zhang Zhaopu saluted and withdrew. He looked at the envelope first in a secluded place, and saw that envelope No. 1 read: Leave the headquarters and open it immediately.So he opened the envelope first, took out a piece of paper, and wrote on the order: "The Chief of Staff currently has more than ten sets of captured enemy uniforms and caps, which he secretly took away and kept in the battalion headquarters." Battalion Commander Zhang saw it, and although he was a little puzzled, but the order was like this, he naturally followed the instructions.Immediately, he quietly transported these clothes and hats to the battalion command post, piled them on the corner of the bunker, and covered them with tarpaulins.

At 5 o'clock, it was already dark, and the phone in the battalion command post rang quickly. Battalion Commander Zhang picked it up and listened. It was Qiao Yun, the commander of the 7th company.Company Commander Qiao said: "Report to the battalion commander. Opposite the small pier, there are enemies on the bank of the South Station River, making an attempt to smuggle in. There is a thick smoke screen there, and we can't see clearly how many ships there are." Zhang Zhaopu ordered: "Use machine guns to closely monitor and not allow the enemy's ships to move." After speaking, he put down the phone and asked Lei Zhengmin, the deputy battalion commander, to station at the command post, and ran to the city wall to observe.

The city wall of Changde was originally a "pin"-shaped outline, but the city walls on the northeast, west and west sides have been demolished long ago, leaving only the wall foundation as high as one person.On the south side along the bank of the Yuanjiang River, the city wall is still preserved, and this area is usually called the South Wall.The south wall is not very high, only more than two feet. The newly built houses along the outside of the city, as long as they have more than three floors, are higher than the city wall.Therefore, although the south wall has a city, it cannot be regarded as a solid line of defense.Battalion Commander Zhang found an exposed section of the city wall and looked out. Sure enough, the side of the river was filled with smoke, covering a large area.Today is the first month of the lunar calendar, the night of the end of the moon, the clouds are thick and the wind is strong, and there are no stars. When moving, from the gap blown by the northwest wind, I found a ship sailing.

Zhang Zhaopu immediately ran back to the battalion command post, ordered Company Commander Qiao to shoot by phone, and then reported to Commander Yu. After Yu Chengwan got the report, he heard the sharp roar of the machine gun. He immediately called Du Ding, the commander of the 171st Regiment in the Xiefang District, to intercept him, and ordered Kong Yiyu, the commander of the mortar battalion of the Artillery Regiment, and Tu Tianfeng, the company commander. Lead two platoons under the command of head Du.After the reinforcements received the call, they gathered at the Xianan Gate within 10 minutes, and Du Ding personally led them to the He Street outside the Xianan Gate.

At this time, the enemy crossing the river has entered the small dock in the middle of the river.The 1st Platoon of the 7th Company of the 3rd Battalion stationed here at Jiang'an was commanded by the company commander Qiao Yun himself.The fortifications along the river were half-man-deep trenches dug along the river bank. The trenches used the stone slabs on the street to make some shelters.The first platoon is equipped with 4 light machine guns and 1 heavy machine gun from the machine gun company.After Zhang Zhaopu gave the order to shoot, the machine guns here all violently swept towards the river.The mortar mounted on the city wall of the south gate also observed the distance at the same time and fired shells towards the center of the river.In an instant, the waves and flames in the river merged into one, and when the gunfire burst into flames, two or three pinches of flames rose up. It could be judged that this was a Japanese ship burning after being bombed.

As soon as the boat burned, the surface of the river was bright red, and the smoke screen could not cover the boats crossing the river.Originally, the Japanese army intended to smuggle in. At first, the guns were silent, but now they have all been discovered, so there is no need to hide it.The artillery of the Japanese army, across the river, aimed at the small docks and the river bank fortifications of the wooden docks, and violently bombarded them with artillery fire.The shells "swish" landed on the position of the national army, blowing up stones and iron pieces. In the section below Mercury Building on the south wall, the platoon leader Tang Guodong of the 3rd Machine Gun Company was stationed.Platoon leader Tang opened his eyes and saw the enemy ships rushing towards his defense line, so he ignored the fierce enemy artillery and directed two machine guns to intercept them on the river.

The target of the Japanese army was the Mercury Building, so they also concentrated more than a dozen large and small artillery pieces, and bombarded the small position below the Mercury Building.The cannonballs fell in clusters with a dull explosion sound, and it only lasted for a few minutes.It became a sea of ​​fire. In the sea of ​​flames, a machine gun was still firing "chug-chug". Finally, there was a shout of "Long live the Chinese nation" from there, and the sound of the machine gun was silent. Knowing that the situation was critical, Zhang Zhaopu was about to make a phone call to inquire, when a sentry from an observation post ran over, and the one from afar stood at attention and reported, "Report to the battalion commander, under the firelight, we saw more than a dozen enemy ships approaching the small pier. , Four or five hundred enemies swarmed ashore. Some of them ran into River Street and attacked the foot of Mercury Tower."

"Go and tell the brothers upstairs in Mercury Building that if the enemy climbs the city and bombards them with grenades, I will come right away!" After ordering the sentinel to leave, Battalion Commander Zhang immediately took out the second envelope of Commander Yu from his body to read.write on: "When the enemy lands, carry out the order inside." It reads: "A group of fine and brave officers and soldiers, wearing enemy uniforms and hats, went around the streets behind the enemy to ambush. When the enemy advances, try to harass as much as possible behind, and when you encounter the enemy As soon as you pass by, attack immediately. Tonight, we will use this night’s password as a sign, and at dawn, we will wear our military cap to the left as a record.” The reserve team that Zhang Zhaopu stayed with at this time was the 9th company. The company commander Song Weijun was burly, good at martial arts, and an expert in charge.He called Company Commander Song and told him the division commander's order. Song Weijun accepted the order, and immediately sent a group of brothers to put on the prepared enemy uniforms, still carrying their respective rifles and grenades, and marched along the city wall. Running to the east and disappearing. Another platoon of the 9th Company followed Battalion Commander Zhang directly to Mercury Building.The Mercury Building has been hit by several shells one after another, the house is burning, and a cluster of violent flames rushes towards Yunhan. From a distance, it looks like a torch covering the sky, illuminating the whole city red.Zhang Zhaopu led the team and ran forward in the firelight. While running, he took out the third envelope given to him by Commander Yu. It read: "When it is judged that the enemy has signs of entering the city, follow this." Cluster grenades." The Mercury Tower is an old archery tower on the southeast city wall. The south wall gradually rises from here to the west and falls to the east.It is the tallest building in the city. If the Japanese occupy the building, they can set up artillery on the upper floor to directly bombard the division headquarters of the 57th Division.In particular, there is a large amount of ammunition hidden in the Mercury Building, which is directly related to the life and death of the defenders.So in this fierce fight, everyone from the commander to the miscellaneous soldiers desperately uttered slogans that they vowed to win.When the battle was at its most intense, division commander Yu Chengwan carried a short gun, took two adjutants and four guards, and went to Nancheng to supervise the battle in person. In a shelter only three or four hundred meters away from the Mercury Tower, Yu Chengwan listened to reports on the battle situation from all sides, and knew that more than 500 enemies had crossed the river and landed, and after fierce fighting with the defenders, almost 300 of them had been wiped out.There are about 250 enemies left in the Mercury Building area. Since the defenders along the river are closely monitoring the river with mortars and machine guns, the enemy on the other side cannot reinforce them. Hearing this situation, Yu Cheng Wan was not at ease, because he was thinking about the overall war. Now that the outer lines of the city have been narrowed and tightened by the Japanese army, the battles are basically fiercely unfolding near the city walls. When the enemy is unable to reinforce, it must be eliminated as soon as possible.So Yu Chengwan ordered Commander Du Ding, who was fighting under the city, to rush up from Hejie, encircle the enemy, contain or destroy the machine gun positions built by the enemy after occupying the Mercury Tower.He also appointed Battalion Commander Zhang Zhaopu, who was fighting on the city wall, to lead three squads armed with grenades to charge towards the Mercury Building from the top of the city and under the corners inside the city. "At any cost, try to end the battle within 2 hours!" Yu Chengwan issued a death order. It was Battalion Commander Zhang Zhaopu who made the first contribution in the battle of Mercury Building.Battalion Commander Zhang has been fighting from the afternoon of the 24th to the morning of the 25th, and has not had a rest for more than ten hours, let alone drink water and swallow food.He was both ashamed and full of anger. Commander Yu entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of guarding the south wall, but his subordinates, Company Commander Qiao Yun and Platoon Commander Tang Guodong, both died in battle, causing the Japanese troops to cross the river and land on the ground. After that, they occupied the Mercury Building in one fell swoop.Although this was not a fault of his command, he always felt that the gap was torn on his body, or in his heart, and he had to fill it up with his own hands.Only when you make up for it will you feel at ease in your heart, and your heart will not bleed. Even if you die, you will rest in peace.Therefore, as soon as he received the order from Master Yu, he immediately led the brothers in three classes to rush from the slope in the city to the abandoned foundation of the Mercury Building.Where does his infinite strength come from?Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party, once said in his capacity as a military commander that using spiritual power to defeat the enemy, and he even invented the term "spiritual atomic bomb", seems not unreasonable. The two machine guns of the national army on the roof of the city were condescending, and they aimed their muzzles tightly at the Mercury Building. When they saw the figure move, they immediately fired.Those Japanese soldiers under the cover of bricks and stones in the foxholes of the city wall were subdued and unable to move.When Zhang Zhaopu slowly approached 30 to 40 meters, he ordered the whole squad to throw grenades at the enemy formation in turn, "Boom, boom!" Waves of air spread.Du Ding's men under the corner of the wall charged for the first time and were stopped by enemy grenades. When the national army on the city approached about 20 meters, they took advantage of the violent explosion of the grenade on the city and shouted to kill!Holding a rifle bayonet, he rushed forward in one breath. Although the Japanese army threw grenades at random, there were still seven or eight brothers who grabbed the city wall. Once they climbed the city wall, they were only a few meters away from each other, and they could no longer throw grenades. past. Those who approached the pile of bricks jumped onto the pile of bricks and stabbed them obliquely downward with a bayonet.The Japanese soldiers also jumped up to resist, but the gap in the slope had been blasted open. Zhang Zhaopu's men and Du Ding's men all jumped in one after another, looking for the enemy in front of them, with red eyes that stayed up all night, and raised their bayonets. Fiercely slashing and stabbing. At this time, the enemy and the enemy were too close together, and the troops in the distance did not dare to shoot to help each other. They only heard the sound of "choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, choking, shattering" the tip of the gun butt.The so-called "Where spears and short soldiers meet, kill people like grass without hearing a sound", this is really the state. The Japanese army went deep alone, knowing that there was little hope of surviving, so they felt guilty.There was a hand-to-hand fight, the dead, the injured, and those who were not dead or injured all fled to the back of the two enemy-occupied bunkers in the Mercury Building.Seeing that the two armies had separated, the Japanese soldiers in the bunker fired machine-gun grenades into the crowd of Chinese soldiers and exploded. The soldiers of the national army fell down and could not charge any more. They hid under the occupied foxholes and piles of bricks and stones, waiting for fire reinforcements. Zhang Zhaopu didn't dare to delay, he personally led a group of people, and approached 10 meters in a snaking manner.The firepower distracted the attention of the Japanese army. As Battalion Commander Zhang crawled, he heard the whispers of the Japanese soldiers in the bunker. They were using walkie-talkies to communicate with the other side of the river, anxiously asking if reinforcements could come across the river.After careful inspection, Zhang Zhaopu was overjoyed to find that his position was a blind spot for the enemy to shoot. He quietly ordered his brothers to sneak behind and fetch some long bamboo poles and long ropes.During the interval between fetching the bamboo pole, he used gestures to order the three brothers to approach him in a snaking manner. He told each of them the method of attack in a low voice.After waiting for less than a quarter of an hour, the first class soldier who had fetched the bamboo poles crawled back and dragged the 8 bamboo poles to Battalion Commander Zhang.Zhang himself took one, and with light movements, tied a grenade to the end of the bamboo pole, and then tied it to the safety of the grenade with a rope. He signaled for the other three brothers to do the same.When he was ready, he raised the bamboo pole and poked it straight into the hole of the blockhouse. As soon as the bamboo pole reached the hole, he hurriedly pulled the tail of the safety rope, and the grenade rang inside. Only one of the four bamboo poles stretched out a little bit and failed to enter the hole, and the other three successfully entered the bunker.I saw fireworks spraying out inside, and there was a loud bang, not only the Japanese soldiers inside, but also light and heavy weapons were shattered and scattered with the bunker. Seeing this, the enemies in the Mercury Building were in a state of confusion, thinking that the national army had fired heavy artillery, and ran around.Taking advantage of the opportunity, Zhang Zhaopu approached the second bunker, fetched 4 bamboo poles and ropes, picked 4 grenades and stuck them in to blow them up.Although it was also a burst of fireworks and a loud noise, it was much larger than the previous one. Looking from a distance, a thick mushroom cloud shot up into the sky. Yu Chengwan ignored the dissuasion of the guards and moved forward hastily when the soldiers of the national army rushed into the area of ​​Mercury Building and were fighting the enemy.When blowing up the bunker, he was already at the position where Zhang Zhaopu attacked for the first time, only 40 meters away from the Mercury Building! "Not good! Hurry up and save Battalion Commander Zhang!" He was surprised.He saw that something was wrong with the mushroom cloud. It was estimated that the ammunition depot was set up there by the Japanese army who robbed them. If the ammunition box was detonated, then Zhang Zhaopu's brothers might all die together. At this time, with the sound of shouting and killing, the national army soldiers rushed forward like a storm with their bayonets and rifles in hand.The remaining dozens of Japanese soldiers on the city did not dare to confront each other, so they turned around and ran towards the river. Company Commander Song Weijun, dressed as a Japanese soldier, was gearing up to guard the riverside. When he saw the enemy fleeing, he lined up and rushed forward.The Japanese army mistook them for their companions and ran forward to join them without warning.Almost like shooting a target, Company Commander Song ordered the soldiers to raise their weapons and fire their guns.The Japanese soldiers opened their mouths wide in hatred, not knowing what to shout, and they all fell into a pool of blood.Company Commander Song was not satisfied with this way of fighting, so he picked up his pistol and kicked the Japanese soldiers in the head. It took a long time for the smoke to dissipate, and there was not a whole body to be seen on the ruins of the bunker.A few guards came to look for Battalion Commander Zhang Zhaopu under the order of Commander Yu, but they searched all corners, but there was no one. "The division commander is here!" The soldiers stood at attention with their guns in hand. Yu Chengwan's steps were a little stumbling, probably because of the foot injury left in the high school battle, which was tormenting him again.He stood by the ruins and listened to the guard's report without showing any expression.He searched the tiles with his eyes.Suddenly, he pedaled hard, and found a piece of letter paper covered in blood and flesh among a pile of rubble.Yes, there is his own handwriting on it, which is the "tips and tricks" he handed over to Zhang Zhaopu. Yu Chengwan carefully put the fragment of the envelope smeared with Zhang Battalion Commander's flesh and blood into his corset pocket, then turned around and walked into the city wall. His steps were very heavy.