Chapter 21 Last 5 rounds

According to the adjustment of the deployment of troops by Commander Yu Chengwan on the morning of the 26th, Sun Jinxian's 170th Regiment, which had been bombarded by Japanese artillery fire for two days and two nights and had lost three-quarters of its combat personnel, returned to the city for reorganization, and Du Ding's 171st Regiment took over Ximen. The gate of the west city was handed over to the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion to guard.The company commander of the 9th company, Song Weijun, was the company commander who knew martial arts and pretended to be a holiday army by the river. After the death of the battalion commander Zhang Zhaopu of the 3rd Battalion, he was promoted to be the acting battalion commander. The actual company commander of the 9th company was 1 Platoon leader Li Shaoxing.

This Li Shaoxing is not someone to wait for.He is an old brother of the 57th Division. An old brother is in the unit as soon as he joins the army, or he is in the unit as soon as it is established. He likes to play basketball and is the main player of the 57th Division basketball team. Like Song Weijun, he is also a master of Chinese martial arts. It can be seen from his strong and powerful physique that his skills are extraordinary. "Battalion Commander, don't worry, leave the west gate to me, and he won't be able to come in unless I die." Li Shaoxing said to Song Weijun, patting his chest.Although Shandong people speak carelessly, they seldom brag.In fact, when Li Shaoxing was still alive, the Japanese soldiers did not take half a step into Ximen, and the city was destroyed and lost only after he died heroically.He kept his promise.

Li Shaoxing led a group of people to set up a position at Dingxin Electric Lamp Company.From dusk, more than 7,000 people from the 120th Regiment of the Japanese Army gathered outside the northwest corner of the city, and lined up more than 40 large and small artillery pieces to bombard the city gates and walls.After more than an hour of bombing, the Japanese reconnaissance plane hovering over the city gate found that the 170th regiment of the national army had transferred into the city. It was estimated that the defenders were changing defenses, so they conveyed this information to the Japanese infantry on the ground.The captain of Heerlian thought it was a good opportunity, so he mobilized more than 400 people, from the small west gate, along the outer dike of the moat, to the big west gate.

Changde City is roughly a triangle. If the north gate is taken as the top corner and along the city wall of the Yuanjiang River, it will be the base of the triangle.There are still some city wall foundations left on the two wings of the opposite angle, which are about ten feet high.The moat outside the city is like a large pond, with a width of more than 100 meters and a narrow area of ​​30 to 40 meters. It is about 2 Li in length. It is like a natural barrier, tightly protecting the northwest line of this diagonal.It should be said that Ximen's defensive conditions are quite ideal, no wonder Li Shaoxing dared to guarantee it.

The Japanese army seemed to realize this, so they decided to take advantage of their artillery fire to capture Ximen.From the evening onwards, the 120th Regiment set up three artillery positions on the front of Xida Road, the northwest corner, and the southwest corner of the West Front, and carried out large-scale and deep artillery bombardment on the area around the Dingxin Electric Lamp Company.There are more than 50 guns in these 3 positions alone, plus the fixed guns bombarding the city wall in the northwest corner, there are at least a hundred or more.Not to mention the bullets of machine guns and rifles, the shells fired by these more than a hundred guns have enough ballistic trajectories in the air to form a net.In the smog, the sound of the cannonball firing, the sound of stimulating the air, and the sound of the explosion on the ground made it impossible for people to tell where the sound came from.It was also impossible to distinguish whether the sound was from a cannon or a gun. The sound had already caused a world-shattering momentum.Under the cover of such artillery fire, the Japanese infantry began to charge in a dense wave.

In Li Shaoxing's position, there were two small bunkers and several stone fortifications vertically and horizontally. He and his brothers in the platoon hid inside and fought desperately.He guarded the two blockhouses with two machine guns, and he himself held a rifle, and led most of his brothers to make a close-range counterattack in the first trench.Every attack of the Japanese army was repelled by him in these two stages: in the first stage, the machine guns in the bunker fired crosswise, and a group of them were killed first; Go to melee and drive them off. After two hours of fierce fighting, there were more than a hundred corpses left by the Japanese army in front of the battle.Captain Heer clearly knew that there were not many Chinese defenders at the west gate, but he caused them to suffer such a big loss, and he couldn't help but feel a little shivering in his heart. Not only Heer, but all the Japanese commanders who participated in the Changde battle talked about the 57th Division , have reached the level of all discoloration.So He Er stopped this method of attack and dispatched a group of backup troops to attack from the vicinity of Yufu Middle School in the northwest of Dingxin Electric Lamp Company.Although this direction is also a rice field, it is not easy to stand, but there are still some scattered farmhouses that can be used as cover.

This is a gap between the 1st and 2nd platoons of the 9th Company.Li Shaoxing discovered this loophole, and quickly dispatched a squad from his own platoon to intercept it. In this way, the front he was defending had a sharp decrease in troops, and he was greatly threatened. The Japanese army deployed 4 flat-firing guns from behind and approached Li Shaoxing's bunker to bombard in turn.This kind of flat-firing gun was originally intended to be used by the Japanese army to exert its power in street fighting, but seeing that the defenders at the west gate were resisting so tenaciously with the bunker, they used all their tricks and did not hesitate.

The bunker was bombarded several times with flat fire, and then it collapsed.Li Shaoxing took the brothers around him and moved into the foxholes, but the foxholes were also flattened by the Japanese artillery, and they could only lie in a few deeper craters.Shrapnel and bullets hissed in his ears, Li Shaoxing counted the soldiers with him, and he was a little surprised, there were only 6 of them!One of them was the orderly of the battalion.The messenger was originally sent by acting battalion commander Song Weijun to ask Li to lead the rest of the 9th company to retreat. Li Shaoxing twisted his neck and said, "Retreat? I, Li Shaoxing, have never learned to retreat in battle from Shandong to Hunan. Keep it up, keep it up." A moment is a moment!" He ran to the ruins of the bunker, dragged the machine gun out of the masonry, patted the body of the gun and said, "It's still usable, and I can defend it even more with it." He told the orderly Said: "Go back and report to the battalion commander. I count myself as 6 heroes here. Both the battalion commander and I are from Shandong. I didn't embarrass the Shandong people! Go."

The orderly saluted and said, "Report to the platoon leader, you have too few people, I am willing to stay here and help!" Li Shaoxing was stunned for a moment, showing a little appreciation, nodded and said: "Okay, okay, one more person will work harder!" He thought to himself, anyway, there is nothing to pass the order back, so I will It is nailed here and does not move vertically. While speaking, the three wave-like troops of the Japanese army shouted and attacked again.Li Shaoxing personally held the machine gun and swiped at the enemy vigorously. The brothers nearby also threw grenades at the densely populated areas of the enemy. While beating, they cursed frantically:

"Dog Japanese Bandit!" "Little Japanese eggs!" "Go and see your Oriental lady!" "Blow up you bastard!" "Bastard, you are going to die!" While fighting happily, suddenly the Japanese army fired a few mortar shells from the side, "Boom!" It exploded right in the middle of them, and a few puffs of burnt white smoke rose, and the five brothers were killed in the fireworks immediately. . Only Li Shaoxing and the messenger are still alive in the bomb crater.The enemy in front of him was still crawling forward in the dry rice field.Li Shaoxing said hoarsely to the messenger: "You are useless, go and report to the battalion commander, and say that I am killed. I will cover you and go, go!" Seeing that the messenger didn't move, Li Shaoxing threw his fist at him: "Go, You fucking want to avenge me alive!" The orderly couldn't bear it, so he ran back.

The orderly crawled out of the foxhole where the corpses lay, crawled along the broken traffic trench, and walked about 30 meters backwards. He heard the sound of a grenade exploding behind him. When he turned his head, he saw Li Shaoxing throwing his arms and With a grenade, he had already jumped out of the shell crater. Dozens of enemies swarmed up. He fought with the Japanese army. a grenade. "Platoon Leader Li!" The orderly cried and knelt on the ground, clenched his fists and smashed violently into the mud.Ordinary people are either awed by wonder or ashamed with regret before great deeds, and this orderly was both. The sun flag was planted on the front position of the west gate, and this Japanese army merged with the Japanese army attacking from the direction of Yufu Middle School. The other platoon of the 9th Company, which stood firm at the gate of Daxi, immediately felt very strenuous.More than a hundred Japanese artillery on the ground continued to bombard, and six planes in the sky circled and bombed non-stop. Under the cover of smoke bombs, the wave-like Japanese troops charged again.If this critical situation is not rescued in time, Ximen may be invaded by the Japanese army immediately. Song Weijun, who was extremely anxious in the battalion command post, asked for help from the commander of the artillery regiment Jin Dingzhou: "Have we finished shooting all the shells in the mountains? Can you give me a few rounds to relieve the siege?" At that time, Jin Dingzhou took his 8 Soviet-made mountain cannons and concentrated them in the direction of the west gate.Since the start of the war, although Commander Jin's mission has not been as clear as that of the infantry regiment; but in fact he is a spare fist of Commander Yu Chengwan, who can be stretched out and punched hard whenever there is an emergency.So he is like a guerrilla mobile artillery group.Although he only has 8 cannons and thousands of shells, he has played a very impressive role. From bombarding the wave formation, to blocking the south bank of the river, especially preventing the Japanese army from reinforcing the Mercury Tower, he has made great military exploits.But the cannonball is fired every time, and it is impossible to lay "eggs". In the end, it is finally at the end of the rope.Yu Chengwan knew the family background of the 74th Army, and these cannons were Wang Yaowu's precious lifeblood. When he was assigned to the 57th Division to guard Changde, Commander Wang even said this to Jin Dingzhou: It is better to kill everyone than Save these cannons!Therefore, at that time, it was estimated that there might be a gap in the direction of the west gate to break out, so Yu Chengwan ordered Captain Jin to lead the whole regiment to gather here and wait for the opportunity to evacuate first, all in order to preserve these cannons.But when they arrived at the west gate, the battle for the city wall had already begun, and they were already unable to fly, and no one could escape, not to mention these huge and heavy Soviet-style mountain cannons! The infantry's desire for artillery support has almost become a subconscious complex. Looking at the cannon barrels under his nose, Song Weijun knew that there were no cannonballs, and they had become "blind", but when he was anxious, he blurted out habitually and asked: Was there any shelling? But Song Weijun never expected that the head of the regiment Jin Dingzhou replied: "I still have the last 5 shells. I have not fired them all because I have to save them until the most critical time." "What?" Like a miracle, Song Weijun's eyes widened and brightened, and he almost lifted Captain Jin up and shouted long live. "Oh, my lord, you are really good. You still have 5 shells, and you saved your life!" Song Weijun shook his shoulder: "Then call me, don't wait any longer, fire the cannon!" Bar!" Jin Dingzhou didn't dare to call the shots, because the last five shells were actually controlled by Commander Yu, and no one could use them without his order, including Jin Dingzhou.He picked up the phone to ask for instructions.It happened that Yu Chengwan himself answered the phone. Hearing Ximen's dangerous situation, he ordered without saying a word: "Hit!" Putting down the phone, Jin Dingzhou went to the artillery position to direct the launch in person. Song Weijun was so excited that he left the command post and ran to the frontline skirmishers.He thought that as long as the artillery broke up the enemy's wave formation, he would immediately lead his brothers to fight hand-to-hand, pushing back the Japanese assault line by at least 50 meters. The hunched Japanese soldiers were jogging and approaching the position. Song Weijun held his breath, waiting for the shells to explode and explode among the enemy crowd. The soldiers under him also opened their eyes wide, staring at the front, as if their eyes were about to burst out. fire. But he waited and waited, but he couldn't hear the cannon fire for a long time. Seeing that the enemy team was getting closer and closer, Song Weijun couldn't help shouting anxiously: "Fire the cannon! Commander Jin, why don't you fire the cannon!" It turned out that when Jin Dingzhou arrived at the artillery position, the artillery observer measured the distance and reported to him that the distance was too close, and the enemy's position was within the shortest distance limit for artillery shells. If he had to fire the artillery, he would not be able to guarantee the effect.It could be seen that the observer was already a little frightened, he hesitated to give orders to the gunner. Jin Dingzhou said I would come, so he observed by himself. Indeed, the distance was too close, so he had to shoot at zero distance.The so-called zero distance is to reduce the range of the gun to the point where it cannot be further reduced at the front line, and the degree of the muzzle is also reduced to the scale where it can no longer be reduced.This shooting method is very dangerous. If it is not used effectively, not only the gun itself will explode, but if the observation is not accurate, it may also blow up your own people in the position.To fight or not to fight?Jin Dingzhou thought about it for a few seconds, and his thinking for a few seconds was directly related to life.hit!In the end, he made a resolute decision: "I will be responsible for all the consequences!" Commander Jin personally commanded the two mountain cannons to be reloaded. He first observed the accuracy of one cannon very carefully. Issued the command for the first time - "Fire!" "Boom", white smoke shot into the sky. He kept his eyes on the spot where the bullet hit. He estimated that it was the Dingxin Electric Lamp Company coming over, the North Bus Station passing by, and the dry rice field where the Japanese army's assault team was densest.The phone next to him rang. He squatted on the ground, picked up the phone, and heard Song Weijun happily say, "Commander Jin, well done! The shooting was very accurate, and the first wave of enemies dispersed." Jin Dingzhou put down the phone, followed the previous method, and fired a second shot.This kind of zero-distance surprise attack seemed very unexpected to the Japanese army. They did not expect that the gunfire of the national army, which had been silent for many days, rang again inexplicably.While hesitating in suspicion, Song Weijun's counterattack troops rushed up, screaming for killing and beating. Captain Heerlian was furious and scolded the Chinese as "cunning and cunning".But in spite of his anger, he was extremely cautious. The deaths of the two captains, Funoue Teruichi and Nakahata Moriichi, reminded him that he must not show his courage for a while, and he must be patient and spare no effort to deal with this national army defending the city. He didn't believe that a division of the Chinese army had been fighting for seven or eight days, and how much time and strength they could have to grind on. "Well, stop attacking first." He ordered.He asked his entourage to bring a big armchair that the headmaster of Yufu Middle School sat on, put it on the high viewing platform of the school playground, and looked at the Great West Gate of Changde City in the distance. He wanted to watch the gate disappear from his eyes, and he ordered artillery: "Boom, give me a boom!" "How long is the bombing?" the staff officer asked. "Undecided time, until it is flat." He Er replied coldly. The two artillery shells fired by Jindingzhou attracted retaliation from the Japanese army with hundreds or thousands of shells.The Daximen area suddenly burst into flames and white smoke. If you took an aerial photo at that time, you would think it was a spectacle of a crater erupting. The gate and wall of Daximen were indeed flattened by the bombardment of the Heer United Team, but the 8 Soviet-made mountain cannons in Jindingzhou were not destroyed by the Japanese artillery at that time. The brothers of Jindingzhou and the artillery regiment destroyed the cannons. DIY. In 1992, the author's interview in Changde was over. Before leaving, I suddenly saw Li Fenglin's name in an unrelated literature and history book.There are a few lines of text in his introduction, to the effect that he was a lieutenant-colonel adjutant of the 74th Army Artillery Regiment of the Kuomintang, participated in the Changde city defense battle, and is now a retired worker of the Changde City Transportation Company. It is not easy to find a survivor who participated in the Battle of Changde. I quickly dialed the number of the moving company. The chairman of the trade union told me that there is indeed such a retired worker. I don’t know much about his experience. If you want to find him, you can Ask in the alley opposite the cemetery, he once set up an air gun stand at the intersection, and many children know him. There were still a few hours before the air-conditioned bus back to Changsha. Without hesitation, I stopped a "slow tour" and drove to the cemetery in the east of the city. "Swim slowly", what a nice name, the environment in Changde City is elegant, there are no operating motorcycles and rentals spraying oily smoke everywhere, and there are no minibuses stopping and shouting indiscriminately, which can be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys surrounded by phoenix trees The most popular is this kind of manpower pedal tricycle.Because of the pedals, it is slow, so it is called "swimming slowly", but the box on the car body is extremely beautifully decorated, with wallpaper on the walls, curtains, small windows, and even pictures of beauties.At dusk and night, handsome men and beautiful women in Changde like to sit in "Slowly Traveling" and talk about love, enjoying the street view while being affectionate, which is very romantic. I sat "swimming slowly" to find the old man Li Fenglin, thinking that this is the overlap of two eras, and the effect produced by the overlap is often a surprising contrast. According to the guidance of the chairman of the trade union, I found Mr. Li Fenglin easily.He was quite surprised that I, a writer in the uniform of the People's Liberation Army, came to visit, but he quickly got used to it, and asked me to sit on a low stool, which was the only low stool in the room that allowed me to sit.Although I don't want to use "slums" to describe Mr. Li Fenglin's residence, it is actually more appropriate to use this name. Li Fenglin is 72 years old, from Jinzhou in Northeast China. After the "September 18th" incident, he escaped to join the Kuomintang army. He has been in the artillery regiment of the 74th Army and has been serving as an adjutant with Jin Dingzhou.People in Northeast China are articulate and expressive, so I seldom ask questions and let the old man drive a "trolleybus". "You ask me why I didn't go back to my hometown in Northeast China? Oh, I married Changde's daughter-in-law. At that time, I was a majestic artillery officer. I was young and wore American military uniform. Everywhere I went, there were girls who were affectionate with me. I accompanied the army artillery I have been stationed in Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuchang, Nanchang, Changsha and many other big cities, and I have dated many girls, but I have never really liked it. It's not that my qualifications are high, but that I don't think there is any suitable one. Strange, I followed Tuanzhang Jin and took a battalion of the Artillery Regiment to Changde to assist the 57th Division in defending the city. I was stationed in a private house of the people in Nanzhan. After only a few days, I helped evacuate the landlord and met my wife. I thought she was a nice person, so I liked her, and she seemed to have a good impression of me, but at that time there was going to be a war, and we broke up after saying some homely things in a hurry. "During the war, we rolled in the pile of shells and bullets every day. Who knows if we can survive today and tomorrow? After we ran out of shells, we changed into infantry. In the end, there was no distinction between officers and soldiers. At night, I can’t see anyone, and sometimes I reach out to touch the person wearing a cotton cap, and the person wearing a steel helmet is the Japanese. Stabbing the other party to death, you say, in such an environment, what kind of wife do we still want? Unexpectedly, I survived and drove the Japanese away. After Changde was liberated, ordinary people returned to the city one after another, and my wife also When we came back, we met on the street. She opened her mouth in surprise and asked, why, you didn’t... I knew what I wanted to say without saying anything later. Did you die? She was very happy that I didn’t die, so we went Met her parents. The witness of our marriage was the head of the regiment, Jin Dingzhou. The head of the Jin said to my wife that if you marry an artillery officer, you can’t stay at home, and you have to run away with the army. Back to the Northeast. My daughter-in-law said to my face, yes. But at night, she told me that the two brothers were all killed by the Japanese. Who would take care of her parents when she went to the Northeast? I said I also have parents. After hearing that, she didn’t know He said nothing, then gritted his teeth and said, I will go to the Northeast with you. This is the first time I have said that I want to go back to the Northeast after I came out. "In 1948, our artillery regiment fought against the People's Liberation Army in Shandong, but we lost. All of us who were alive became prisoners. The People's Liberation Army divided us into those who wanted to stay and those who didn't want to stay. My daughter-in-law and I received the travel expenses and arrived in Xuzhou. At that time, we were faced with another choice: whether to go to the Northeast or her home in Hunan. I asked her, and she whispered, let’s go to the Northeast. But when I finally bought the ticket, I I didn’t open my mouth several times, but in the end, I decided to buy two tickets back to Hunan. Since I was disarmed and returned to the fields, it’s okay to live in Changde for a while. But within a few years, I was caught out as a reactionary Kuomintang officer. He was locked in a black room for several months of review, and finally kicked out and became a "four types of elements" under control. "I have no job, and I can't rely on my wife. She has to take care of a few young children. How can she make a living? I just wander around the city, looking for the dirtiest, tiring, and hardest jobs that no one does. But when people heard that I was a "four types of elements", they dared not accept them. Later, I pulled fiber for the boatmen on the edge of the Yuan River. Because I was an artilleryman and had pulled cannons, I was able to pull fiber. At that time, I sat on the river bank all day long. On the rock, wait for the boat people to call you, first give you two dollars, then rush home to hand it to your wife, and then pull the boat upriver for two days and two nights. When I ran out, I had to go to the riverside to pull it. It was too hard to live, so my wife said to me, forget it, my parents are dead anyway, go back to your hometown in Northeast China Maybe I can live better there than here. I said yes, let’s send a letter to my hometown first. This is the second time I want to go back to my home in the Northeast. "When I implemented the policy, my daughter-in-law just passed away. She followed me and lived a peaceful life. She endured hardships and fears all her life. Even when she died, I didn't have the money to bury her. I just sent her to the crematorium for hasty cremation. , I pooled my money to buy the cheapest urn and brought it back as an offering at home. There is no way, this is fate, and we cannot resist. I often sit half the night with my wife’s urn, and my two daughters come to persuade me, Dad, please take us back to our hometown in the Northeast! I really had this thought at the time, Ye Luo returns to its roots. This is the third time I have thought about going back to the Northeast. "I want to go back to the Northeast, and I've said it more than a few times. I keep saying I want to go back, I want to go back, but I can't go back. Why?" The old man Li Fenglin paused at this point, and a kind of expression appeared on his face. With a confused expression, his thoughts seemed to be grabbed by an invisible force, and slowly came out bit by bit.Although I have fully entered into the memories he provided me, at this moment I am still faintly shocked by his slowly solidified expression. I have a premonition that he will show me a period of our life Rare life exposure. "Blast the cannon, you know? Blow the cannon!" I nodded heavily and said, "I know, you blew up all 8 cannons in Changde's defense battle by yourself, didn't you?" Yes, when Commander Jin ordered the artillery to be blown up, the dozen or so brothers on the artillery field disregarded the order and resolutely resisted.But I know that it cannot be done without bombing. Withdrawal, it cannot be withdrawn, and it is not a small project to bury it in the soil. The battle is fierce and it cannot be carried out. I proposed to Commander Jin to push it to the Yuanjiang River. The water in the river is very shallow, transporting the cannon to the center of the river to sink, not to mention the time of battle, is also very difficult at ordinary times, and they are all denied. In the end, in order to prevent the cannon from falling into the hands of the Japanese army, Commander Jin made a cruel decision to blow up the cannon. Everyone cried, I cried, and Commander Jin also cried. Cannons are the lifeblood of our artillery.Commander Jin ordered me to carry out this mission. I felt like a knife was twisting my heart, but I am an adjutant, and I should understand the basic principles. Cannons must never fall into the hands of the enemy. If the enemy is allowed to use Chinese cannons to hit Chinese again, Then we are sorry for the country, sorry for the nation!So I wiped my tears and sent someone to prepare explosives. The explosives were installed, and the fire was about to be ignited. I asked Commander Jin, and he turned his back and waved to me.The fuse squeaked, and at this moment, I never expected that the dozen or so brothers suddenly rushed towards the cannon and hugged the cannon tightly. At first I thought they were trying to pull the fuse. But soon I understood what was going on. Before I could react, the explosives exploded, and the soul of the cannon and the souls of the brothers rose into the sky together... Why don't I leave Changde and go back to my hometown in Northeast China?In fact, since the bombing, I don't want to go back. I want to stay in Changde until I die.Here are my brothers and my guns, I can't go, I go, who will accompany them? The old man sighed deeply. I sat with him in the twilight, the room was very dark, and I only saw the cloudy white cloud in his eyes, which made me imagine that he was like a decaying old tree that had been eroded by wind and rain. He was unwilling to relocate, and he rejected both his homeland and his new house.He lives in this "slum", opposite him is the cemetery, in which are buried the loyal bones of the soldiers who died in the Changde battle, and the wreckage of his artillery regiment cannon.He is a true guardian.He is a lonely guardian.