Chapter 24 Where are the reinforcements?

"I'll go and inspect a few city gates. I'll leave the responsibility of the division to you for a while." Commander Yu Chengwan stood up from his small camp bed and said to the deputy commander, Chen Xiaoyun. "Master, are you going to patrol the city?" Deputy Master Chen asked with some concern.Right now, it is safe to stay in the reinforced concrete basement of the central bank, but when you go out into the street, shell shrapnel is flying around like locusts, so it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no accidents. "Master, forget it, don't go, if you really need to go, I'll go for you!" Deputy Master Chen said, and walked to the door first, trying to block Yu Chengwan with his body.

"No, I'm still going. If I don't go, I feel uneasy." Yu Chengwan told Chen Xiaoyun frankly. Indeed, from dawn to midnight on the 26th, for 24 consecutive hours, the Japanese army's artillery, planes, poison gas, fire bulls, and infantry charges took turns without stopping.Under the unprecedented fierce attack of the enemy, Changde's east, west, north, and city gates have reached the verge of fragmentation.As the top general defending the city, Yu Chengwan couldn't help feeling extremely worried.On this day, he received several telegrams. Xue Yue, the commander of the Ninth War Zone, called and said: "Our army has launched a fierce attack on the enemy. I feel that we will arrive at Deshan on the (27th) and order the soldiers to stick to it." Later, Chief Xue called again. : "Our army has indeed attacked the southern suburbs of Deshan and is fighting fiercely." Afterwards, he called again for the third time and said: "Our army has felt that the Japanese have attacked the suburbs and fought fiercely with the enemy. I shook hands with my brother, and the headquarters has ordered the plane to deliver ammunition to my brother.” Sun Lianzhong, the acting commander of the Sixth War Zone, also called and awarded Guangyang 100,000 yuan as an encouragement.

Then, Commander Wang Yaowu of the 74th Army also called to inform: "1. The Zhou, Zhang, and Tang divisions of the Army Yuyou have assigned drilling detachments to drill into Zoushi, Hefushan, and Changde to attack the enemy's back. Get in touch; 2. The main force of our army sent Rike to attack from Zoushi and Hefushan." Although these telegrams sounded good, they could only be used to boost the morale of the troops, and they could not comfort Yu Chengwan at all.Because he has received too many telegrams about the reinforcements. The specific time and location are clearly stated, but they have never been realized. He is no longer going to pin his hopes on the telegrams. He wants to listen to them with his own ears. Only when I heard the gunfire of the reinforcements and saw the charge of the reinforcements with my own eyes, did I believe it.As for money, it is not a matter of money now, life and the city are at stake, so what is the use of those Guangyang?These complicated thoughts troubled him, and he could no longer sit in the basement of the headquarters. He had to go around the frontier and take a look, so that he could feel at ease.

Yu Chengwan wrapped himself in leggings, carried a short gun on his back, asked four guards to follow, stepped out of the division headquarters, and walked towards the city wall.The so-called city of Changde, in fact, only faces the Yuanjiang River from the south, and the rest of the north-east, northwest, and north sides of this character are all city foundations.The highest city base is six or seven feet, and the lowest is basically a ridge.The moat outside the city would have been long and wide in spring and summer, but now it was late winter and the water was mostly dry, exposing the riverbed, which just provided the conditions for the Japanese army to attack.The fortifications of the 57th Division used these city foundations as the backbone. Barbed wire fences were hung on the flat ground from the city foundation to the moat. Foxholes, foxholes, and machine gun bunkers were built everywhere on the city foundation. Many small bunkers.But these fortifications were all made of earth and stones, without reinforced concrete. On the 26th, the Japanese army surrounded the entire city in an arc from outside the east gate to outside the west gate, and placed 300 square meters. All kinds of artillery above the gate bombarded the gate and the city wall.The untouched bricks of the south wall were battered all over with cuts and bruises, all of which were scars with a diameter of one foot. The city foundation on three sides was even more horrific. It's almost all ruined.

Yu Chengwan walked and watched, his heart was very heavy, he thought, the war has developed to this point, and the fortifications can no longer be considered. The key is personnel and ammunition. If these two are preserved, there is still hope of sticking to it.But what about personnel ammunition?There were 8,315 combatants, and it is estimated that there are only more than 3,000 left. The original rifle bullets and those captured by the enemy totaled 1 million rounds, and now more than 51% are consumed. The grenade is the main weapon against the Japanese army. The original 20,000 , now there are only seven or eight thousand left, and the mountain artillery mortar shells have all been exhausted.To be honest, Yu Chengwan hoped that Commander Xue Yue would drop ammunition to Changde by air, which was more urgent than looking forward to the arrival of reinforcements.However, although telegrams are sent to the headquarters of the commanders in various theaters every day, asking for the relief of shells and bullets, this kind of echo is much more distant than the echo of reinforcements.He took a deep breath of the fresh and cold night air, and he was a little reluctant to think about it any longer. Although difficulties existed even if he didn't think about it, thinking about it a little more would affect his mood and state of mind.At this time, he couldn't show the slightest decadence, not only couldn't show it, but he had to encourage the fighting spirit of his subordinates a hundredfold.

When we arrived at the west gate, it was the time when the Japanese army attacked most intensely. Light and heavy machine guns had been moved to the embankment on the other side of the moat. There was one machine gun every 50 meters, forming a half circle along the moat embankment. There were more than 500 machine guns. Spit tongues of fire on the city foundation.On the flat ground outside the city, it is as if a fireworks halo was drawn around the city. In the moat with water, this halo is reflected, and the upper and lower two virtual and real jets of fire are a spectacle.The cannons, mortars, and flat-firing guns of the Japanese army pulled this high and low line of fire, firing each ball of fire or white light towards the city, like a hurricane in the sea, with earth-shattering noise, rolling back into the city.Looking at the scene in front of him, Yu Chengwan sometimes forgot his own existence, thinking that he was in an illusion.

In the direction of Daximen, the Japanese army is still west of the North Bus Station, and the base of the city is quite stable.The enemy army outside Xiaoximen was separated by a moat, and could not approach for a while.When Yu Chengwan walked to the north gate, the enemy at the north gate captured Jiajia Lane, and then rushed to the main street outside the north gate. Under the cover of layers of firepower nets, more than 400 wave-shaped Japanese troops were rushing towards the city base. .Battalion Commander Wu Hongbin of the 1st Battalion of the 171st Regiment guarding the base of the city led the 3rd Company Commander Ma Baozhen to personally supervise the battle here.No matter how close the shells and bullets fell, they all fell down in the shelter pit, their eyes fixed on the front outside the city.In the light of artillery fire like daylight, the enemy rushed over, getting closer and closer, until the appearance of every Japanese soldier could be clearly seen, and Battalion Commander Wu shouted "Fight!"The machine guns swept across, and if there were enemies who rushed to the barbed wire, Company Commander Ma led a group of brothers to throw grenades and bomb them.When Yu Chengwan arrived at the gate of the city, Battalion Commander Wu reported that the Japanese had repelled four charges.

Seeing the ferocity of the enemy on this road, Commander Yu sat in the command post of the regiment at the foot of the city, waiting for the fifth Japanese charge.The command post was a small bunker that was halfway above the ground. The bombs above the head were trailing and flying, and the bombs emitted smoke and dust from time to time.Du Ding, the head of the regiment, saw that the division commander came to the front line to supervise the battle, so he climbed to the base of the city and conveyed the words to his brothers.Sure enough, more than 10 minutes later, the Japanese army rushed up again with wave-shaped troops.Commander Du climbed to the outer edge of the city base and dropped three grenades with his own hands. Driven by him, all the brothers were desperate and climbed to the edge of the city to throw bombs. In less than half an hour, the Japanese army who rushed in Just flinched.Yu Chengwan was very happy. After Du Ding came to the command post to report the victory, he repeatedly praised Guangyang and rewarded Guangyang with 3,000 yuan (orally or in writing for the time being, because Guangyang would not be able to implement it until after the war). After a few instructions, he followed the base of the city and went to the east gate to inspect.

The Japanese army outside the east gate also followed the attack method outside the north gate. They rushed to the base of the city three times, and once brought a big ladder to climb the city.The head of the 169th regiment, Chai Yixin, personally went to the city to supervise the battle and ordered the machine guns to shoot at the attacking enemy.The platoon leader Zhang of the 5th Company of the 2nd Battalion saw that the machine gun had lost its effect, so he led his brothers to pick up wooden sticks and stones, crush the enemy who climbed the city to death, and then threw down them with grenades.However, the artillery fire of the Japanese army was extremely fierce, and it was intended to support the climbing action. After a while, a large number of Japanese soldiers climbed the city.At this time, the platoon leader Pan who came for reinforcements led a platoon of transport soldiers to the top of the city. Seeing that the situation was critical, he didn't even have time to use stones and sticks. Fall to death.

When Master Yu arrived at the east gate, it was already one o'clock in the morning on the 27th.Listening to the sound of cannons outside the city, it was too sparse to fight. The sporadic rifle sounds that were covered up by light and heavy machine guns can now be heard slowly. This climax of the Japanese attack has obviously weakened.With some consolation, Yu Chengwan praised the regiment leader Chai Yixin and the brothers of the 169th regiment, and then rewarded Guangyang with 3,000 yuan as usual. After seeing all these city gates, he secretly rejoiced that the day came safely after all, so he took a breath in his heart and walked back to the division headquarters with the guards.When we reached the intersection of Daxi Street and Zhongyue Street, suddenly, from the rear of the south bank of the river, there was a faint sound of gunfire like frying broad beans.At first, Yu Chengwan didn't pay attention, but one of the guards yelled: "There are gunshots in the south!" There are gunshots in the south?The south is full of enemies, how could there be gunfire from their own side?Yu Chengwan was still muttering to himself.what!Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he came to an epiphany, isn't the south bank of the Yuan River the direction where my reinforcements are coming from?The direction to the south bank is Deshan. Didn't Chief Xue say that the reinforcements will arrive at Deshan on the 27th?Could it be that reinforcements have really arrived?Yu Chengwan was pleasantly surprised, waved and said:

"Come on, go up to the south wall by the river and have a look, maybe the reinforcements are attacking!" He and four guards ran up the south wall like a gust of wind, and leaned on the railing to look at the distance on the south bank of the Yuan River.Indeed, there were pieces of gunfire blowing in with the river wind, blowing into my ears, but they were very slight, so light that I couldn't tell which types of guns were firing. If it was a Hanyang-made rifle or a Czech-style light machine gun, It must be the national army, but it is difficult to distinguish.Yu Chengwan and the guards all pricked up their ears to listen, but as they listened, they heard the gunshots recede farther and farther away, and after a while, they disappeared completely. Yu Chengwan couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.A gust of cold wind blew from the river, tearing at his face. He looked up at the sky, and the red clouds woven by the gunfire had gradually faded, and turned into a thick and dark night.He looked, looked at the mysterious distance, and asked in his heart: Where did the reinforcements go?Where are they?