Chapter 35 Wenchang Temple Yu Chengwan personally fights

The shell smoke and dust in Loach Lane gradually thinned out, and when the northwest wind blew across the sky, a dark cloudy sky also appeared in front of my eyes.Because the houses here have been completely blown up and burned, the shells fired by the Japanese army are just a puff of white smoke. The fire can no longer burn, and there is nothing for it to burn. Head Chai and Deputy Head Gao found a moment of relief in the bunker in Niach Lane, and sat on the ground with their hands folded on their knees, trying to take a nap.At this moment, Master Yu called and ordered Chief Chai to immediately send a squad from Huayan Lane to the Shenggong Church to reinforce the four-eye well in Xiaoximen in the northwest corner of the city.

After receiving the order, Commander Chai rushed to Chunshen's Tomb. He discussed with Company Commander Wu who was stationed at Chunshen's Tomb, and asked a platoon leader to lead a squad to head northwest immediately. When the reinforcements were running on the road, they heard the sound of machine guns and grenades, which set off a frenzy at Xiaoximen. Only then did they know that the west gate was suddenly tight. On November 30, the Japanese army focused their attack on Daximen and Xiaoximen, and the key point was Xiaoximen again.Because the Japanese army reconnaissance found that the headquarters of the 57th Division was located in the Central Bank, and the distance from Xiaoximen to Xingjiekou, where the Central Bank is located, was at most one li, which was the shortest diameter. Strictly speaking, Xiaoximen was the headquarters of the division. Therefore, in order to destroy the nerve center of the defenders in one fell swoop, the Japanese army launched a desperate attack on Xiaoximen at any cost.

The two lines of defense, Daximen and Xiaoximen, have been defended by the Communist Party since the street fighting, and the Japanese army did not rush over.The troops on the front line at Xiaoximen at the moment are the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 171st Regiment. The company commander Deng Xuezhi led the three platoon leaders Lai Daqiong, Zhao Xiangqing, and Zhao Dengyuan to the city wall to supervise the battle. Since the 28th, the enemy has continued to bombard, bombard, and wave troops to charge. By the afternoon of the 29th, the artillery positions of the Japanese army were divided into three layers. It is a mountain cannon, and the three-story cannons are firing non-stop for 24 hours. They want to blast a section of the city wall in front of Xiaoximen.At dawn on the 30th, the enemy released poison gas again.Fortunately, the national army was prepared, and they all took out the pissed cotton and covered their mouths to resist it.After letting off the poisonous gas, the Japanese army of seven or eight hundred people organized a dozen wave-shaped troops to charge towards the bombed city base.

Fang Songyao, the commander of the 2nd Company, saw that the situation was critical, so he led the soldiers of the whole company to shoot sideways on the right side of the west gate.There were only more than 30 soldiers left in Company Commander Fang's entire company. Regardless of the destruction of the fortifications, all of them were exposed outside the mound, lined up their rifles in a column, and fired at the enemy's charge team in turn. Zhao Xiangqing, the platoon leader of the first company, launched seven counterattacks against the enemy in one day on the 29th. By the early morning of the 30th, there were only 5 people left in the platoon, and all of them were slightly injured. He was seriously injured and one arm was broken, but he endured the severe pain and supported himself with tenacious perseverance.At this time the enemy rushed up. The five wounded brothers didn't think about it at all, and didn't wait for an order. They each took the last grenade on their bodies, pulled the fuse, and died together with the enemy.Platoon Leader Zhao had two grenades on him. He first threw one at the enemy's densely populated area, then picked up one and pulled out the fuse, and rushed to the enemy group to explode.

Although the soldiers of the national army fought extremely bravely and arduously, they were finally outnumbered. More than 100 Japanese soldiers rushed into Xiaoximen, stepping on the mountains of corpses of officers and soldiers on both sides. This enemy continued to attack Wenchang Temple along the street. Come. Wenchang Temple is a cross street inside Xiaoximen. The road to the south leads directly to the Central Bank. In terms of distance, it is at most 130 to 40 meters. Like the speed of the Japanese army rushing to Xiaoximen, it only takes 10 minutes to rush to the 57th. Division headquarters.

Fortunately, the national army's fortifications at Xingjiekou were layered upon one another, and they were done very carefully. At the intersection of Wenchang Temple, there was a stone bunker, and the street leading to the Central Bank was covered with corridors. Obstruct the enemy's charge route. But although the fortifications are considered stable, the troops are extremely meager.The remnants of the 3rd Battalion of the 169th Regiment were stationed near the bunker of Wenchang Temple. There were only 24 people in total, and some of them were injured. Under the aggressive attack of the enemy, it was really difficult to resist.

So Meng Jidong, the commander of the 3rd Battalion in the bunker, rushed out of the bunker to fight the enemy with hand grenades.Commander Yu received Meng Jidong's report and immediately ordered Fang Zongyao, the commander of the 2nd company, to lead his troops to go down to the city to copy the enemy's right flank. He put down the phone and ran outside the command department to quickly mobilize the miscellaneous soldiers in the troops directly under the division. More than 30 people, together with a group of artillery regiments, were handed over to Liu Kun, the deputy battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, to drill through the walls of dilapidated civilian houses, and then went to copy the enemy's left side.

After finishing the order, Yu Chengwan asked the messenger to notify Zhu Huangtang, the platoon leader of the special agent company, and sent a platoon of people to gather outside the gate of the division headquarters.He wrapped himself in leggings, took a musket, and came out of the division headquarters.When he came to the door, he saw that a row of people were already armed with live ammunition, standing upright at the base of the wall, standing in two rows and one row.At this time, the sound of gunshots and shouts of killing from Wenchang Temple came like a tsunami.Master Yu quickly inspected the posture of the brothers and said:

"I know that Platoon Leader Zhu and you have always been loyal and brave to me and the 57th Division, but the military's career will finally be seen on the battlefield. Now that the enemy is approaching the division headquarters, it happens to give you a chance to make meritorious service. It depends on each of you It’s your job, let’s do it for ourselves!” After finishing speaking, Yu Chengwan waved his hand and ran towards Wenchang Temple with a gun in front of him.Platoon Leader Zhu and the soldiers, seeing that Commander Yu went to the enemy first, mustered up their courage and rushed forward.Zhu Huangtang had an extra heart, he and the two guards followed Yu Chengwan closely, never leaving each other.

When we arrived at Wenchang Temple, the enemy's bullets rained down on the street.Yu Chengwan was protected by the platoon leader Zhu, jumped into the front section of the trench, crawled forward, and entered the bunker to hide.After the platoon leader Zhu came out, he divided the brothers into two groups, shouted "Come on -" and rushed forward along the roadbed on both sides of the street. Some soldiers threw grenades while running, and some soldiers ran Shoot and shoot, and carry out a fierce counterattack to the Japanese army. At the same time, more than 30 artillerymen, wounded soldiers, and miscellaneous soldiers led by Deputy Battalion Commander Liu Kun on the left also got out of the houses on Xiguan Street and arrived at Jiandao Lane.Deputy Battalion Commander Liu took the lead under the obstacles in the street, jumping forward layer by layer like a triple jump, and threw a grenade when he was in front of the enemy.

The Japanese army mobilized two light machine guns and fired at Jiandao Lane. Battalion Commander Liu Kun was shot in the arm, but he still stayed under the obstacle and shouted wildly: "Brothers, kill! Kill!" The more than 40 national troops following behind, braved the rain of bullets from the Japanese army, occupied the foxholes, obstacles, and shelters in Jiandao Lane, shot and dropped bombs, and tried their best to block the enemy's eastward expansion. . At this time, the company commander Fang Zongyao on the right also got out from the ginkgo tree on the north side of the west wall.In this way, the national army had three strengths. They shouted in unison and launched two charges against the enemy in succession, forcing all the enemies who spread east, west and south at the crossroads to the center of Wenchang Temple. Coincidentally, it happened that the 8 planes of the Chinese and American Air Forces that dropped bullets to the 57th Division flew from the north, and they circled the Northwest City at a low level.The soldiers of the national army raised their heads and saw the emblem of the Republic of China on the wing, so they shouted wildly, louder than the sound of guns.The escort fighter jets of the Chinese and American Air Forces also observed clearly the situation of the fighting between China and Japan, so they separated two, folded outside Xiaoximen City, and fired back and forth three times at the back of the Japanese attacking troops. The Japanese army was hit by this blow and suffered heavy casualties. They were terrified and retreated to the north in a hurry. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu Kun, who was on the base of the city, seized this good opportunity to move back. He left some brothers to shoot at the center of Wenchang Temple in Jiandao Lane. The enemy from the door attacked.The Japanese army was blocked in a narrow place and was besieged from all sides. They didn't know which side to shoot with their guns, so they had to flee desperately out of the city.But the brothers of the national army, knowing that the division commander was also supervising the battle at the front, risked their lives to rush into the enemy crowd, especially the miscellaneous soldiers with spear darts, they could not get close to the enemy and could not use their advantages. , the brothers of these copycats shouted to kill, each chased an enemy, and stabbed with guns and knives.In a scuffle, people ran like a herd of cows that had exploded their nests on the short street from Wenchang Temple to Xiaoximen. In just 10 minutes, the ground was full of corpses.At the end of the fight, there were only a dozen or so enemies left running around in the collapsed civilian houses. Deputy Battalion Commander Liu ordered his brothers to chase after each other, and if they couldn't catch up, they threw grenades and exploded them. The Japanese troops at Xiaoximen were all wiped out. In this campaign, the national army seized 6 light machine guns, 27 38-type rifles, 7 swords, and a batch of diaries and maps of the Japanese 116th Division's combat orders.In the document, it is recorded that this is the 120th Wing of the 116th Division. According to Mr. Zhou Xun's introduction in the book "Battle of Changde during the War of Resistance Against Japan", the captain of the 120th Regiment of the Japanese Army and Er Qilong were also killed in this battle, but from various other materials, including the list of dead generals published in Japan Look, He Er may not have died in the battle of Changde.The loss of a regiment leader is a major event in the eyes of the Japanese army, and they will not fail to record this in the annals of history.However, it's my turn to write this historical fact now, and I'm not sure that Erqilong and Erqilong are the survivors of the Changde Battle, because I don't have solid evidence, and I can't make an absolute judgment just by saying that there is no record.Whether He Erqilong died, or where he died, is still a mystery. White bomb smoke still enveloped the sky of Cross Street, and the smell of sulfur still condensed and did not disperse, but the boiling sound of Wenchang Temple and the throbbing crowd stopped solemnly.The ground was covered with blood-stained people in all directions, like upturned sardine cans, and the corpses were spread out in an orderly manner.In addition to nearly 100 enemies, there were forty or fifty national army officers and soldiers buried on the ground. Commander Yu Chengwan walked out of the bunker with a rifle that killed seven or eight enemies with his own hands, and patrolled the battlefield.He saw deputy battalion commander Liu Kun injured, company commanders Deng Xuezhi and Fang Zongyao injured, and platoon leaders Lai Daqiong, Zhao Xiangqing, and Zhao Dengyuan killed in battle; The houses turned into countless layers of short walls, and the rising white smoke was still lingering in the walls; he saw the slate floor exposed the tabletop-sized bullet craters, and the obstacles built by the defenders were scattered all over the street; especially in front of him Among the countless corpses, many of their own brothers were thrown up and down. They still held the spears they fought a hundred years ago. Purple blood clots were sprinkled on these ancient weapons, on the ground, and on the scattered soldiers. On the trench bomb crater, he really felt an indescribable sadness in his heart. But as a general, in front of the soldiers on the battlefield, he can't show the slightest pessimistic expression. He restrained his emotions and felt that he should say a few words of encouragement to everyone. After thinking about it, he looked at the officers and soldiers looking at him seriously. road: "Brothers, this battle was fought brilliantly, and you are very honorable! Since the enemy has offended once, he will offend the second time. We must be prepared, stick to our posts, fight the enemy to the end, and welcome friendly troops into the city. I can Guarantee, my division headquarters is still in the central bank in Xiaoximen, and will never change its position! You just follow orders and continue fighting. When leaders make meritorious deeds..." Before Yu Chengwan finished speaking, all the brothers raised their guns or raised their arms, and shouted loudly to show their response.Looking at this group of soldiers who were going through fire and water, Yu Chengwan's restrained emotions stirred up in his heart again, his eye sockets became moist, and he thought with a sigh, what else should I say?