Chapter 41 The last minute of "Tiger Ben"

The thin round sun has risen to its most exuberant height in a day, but it still cannot feel the warmth it brings to the world under the whine of the bitter northwest wind. At this time, there were only more than 300 officers and soldiers in the 57th Division of the National Army.All the policemen who joined the battle, the warehouse guards of the 73rd Army, and the guards of the 20th Sub-Station all suffered casualties in the last 3 days of fighting.And among the last 300 people, there were only 7 light and heavy machine guns, more than 30 rifles, and less than 200 rounds of bullets.Among the national army soldiers with rifles, some only held three or five bullets, while others had exhausted them all.There are quite a lot of grenades, and the whole division counts only 150 or 60.

Under such circumstances, the regimental commander serves as the company commander, the battalion commander becomes the platoon leader, and everyone below the company commander becomes a private soldier.The troops are so weak that any line of defense has no firepower to block the enemy, and the enemy will take advantage of the situation and scatter in groups.The Japanese army in the east city joined the Japanese army in the north gate, facing the back wall of the 57th Division of the Central Bank, approaching while burning.The Japanese army on Changqing Street used seven or eight pursuit guns and four flat-firing guns to shoot trapezoidally at the bunkers and covered corridors where the national army was hidden, and gradually approached the upper south gate.Chai Yixin, head of the regiment, personally guarded the bunker at the upper south gate, and fought desperately to stop the Japanese army.However, the Japanese army from the north had copied Chai Yixin's back. The person who served as the guard of Chai's regiment commander was the platoon leader Zhu Huangtang who was guarding the south end of Xingjiekou. He controlled a heavy machine gun with only 60 bullets left. The road in front of him guarantees the back road to the south gate, and the situation collapses at the first touch.But even so, Platoon Leader Zhu gritted his teeth and resisted.

Only Daximen is still under the strict guard of Commander Du Ding, and the Japanese army has never been able to break into it.In this way, a section of the south wall from Daximen to Shangnanmen became the lifeline of the 57th Division.Then crossing the river to break through the siege is to get away from this route.Because of the importance of this lifeline, the Japanese army fled from Xiaoximen to the west in two groups, one out of Sanya Pavilion and the other out of Yang’s Memorial Archway, just like two pairs of scissors, the purpose was to directly take this life-threatening passage , and cut it off.In particular, the blade protruding from the Yang Family Archway was particularly threatening. The reason why Regiment Commander Jin Dingzhou used more than 30 people to change the position in front of the Yang Family Archway when 95% of all soldiers were killed or injured was based on this.

On the afternoon of the 2nd, the Japanese army dispatched infantry squads to attack in groups, encircling and cutting the stragglers occupying a remnant wall and a dilapidated house of the national army, and at the same time mobilized all the mountain artillery into the city, aiming at the five remaining soldiers of the national army. The fortress was bombed intensively.Each of the four dilapidated houses in the Huajing Glass Factory was hit by a hundred or so shells.The Division Headquarters of the Central Bank was also hit by more than 50 artillery pieces, because the artillery positions of the Japanese army were in the city, and the explosion point of the shells was also in the city. The speakers are all connected together, and the noise is horrible and cannot be described with adjectives.

Sitting in the basement of the central bank, Yu Chengwan felt that every shell of the Japanese army landed like a gust of wind, not only swarming into the house, but also into the basement.He sat against the wall, and the wind couldn't knock him down, but the sand, rocks and gunpowder smoke brought by the wind forced him to lower his head and close his eyes to resist. The Japanese army shelled for a full hour, and after that, the shouts of killing from the north and the south followed. The Japanese army at Wenchang Temple released poison gas downwind, and deliberately stood behind the poison gas, firing guns and screaming to kill, which made the national army panic and unable to expel the poison.Battalion Commander Kong Yiyu of the mortar battalion of the national army defending this street, led the remnants of the 2nd Battalion of the 169th Regiment, and the miscellaneous soldiers of the troops directly under the division, resisted for two days and two nights, and starved all day , in the face of the attack of cannon poison gas, still would rather die than retreat.After 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the poisonous gas became thinner, and the Japanese army threw bombs with grenadiers to prepare for the charge.The grenade launched a concentrated bombardment on every layer of obstacles on the street, and the soldiers of the national army under the covered corridor were destroyed layer by layer and the position together.Battalion Commander Kong led the surviving brothers to counterattack the rushing Japanese army. The bullets had long since run out, and each person had only one grenade on average. Everyone twisted into a ball with the enemy with knives and spears, and hacked and killed them with blood all over their bodies. , the blood can no longer tell whether it is his own or the enemy's.This kind of hand-to-hand combat will cause casualties to the soldiers of the national army. Battalion Commander Kong's men and horses have been reduced to only 10 people, and there is no way to keep defending. They have to shorten the defense line and retreat to a short section of cover 50 meters away from the gate of the division headquarters. corridors and behind barriers.

In the position south of Xingjiekou, the head of the regiment, Chai Yixin, and the deputy head of the regiment, Gao Ziyue, became squad leaders.After the bunker at the upper south gate was destroyed by Japanese flat-fire artillery, they retreated to Shuangzhong Street, which is only 30 meters south of the division headquarters of the Central Bank. In the trench, there were 7 subordinates beside them, including Meng Jidong, commander of the 3rd Battalion, and Wang Yitian, commander of the company, and they all became private soldiers at this moment.Here the enemy and the enemy are too close to each other, and casual conversations with each other can be heard clearly, so the Japanese army dare not use heavy weapons, otherwise they will be destroyed together.

The Japanese soldiers shouted: "Chinese soldiers put down their guns and come here." Gao Zi said: "Little Japan, come here, I will kill you!" When Deputy Commander Gao cursed the enemy, the Japanese army thought they had an opportunity, so they sent two soldiers to crawl forward slowly from the side of the trench.The soldiers of the national army pretended not to see them, and when they climbed out of the ditch, it looked like they were about to throw grenades. The company commander Wang Yitian jumped out with a bayonet in his hand, gave the two Japanese soldiers a bayonet, and stabbed him to the ground. Roll in the ditch to avoid the enemy's retaliatory shots.

After a stalemate like this for two hours, the Japanese army brought gasoline from the rear, dipped paper balls and wood chips with gasoline, lit them, and threw them into the trenches of the national army.In the chaos of fighting the fire, Gao Ziyue's palm was shot by an enemy bullet. Battalion Commander Meng asked him to go down the line of fire, but he growled and refused.The fire burned bigger and bigger, and the position could not be defended, so the deputy head Gao retreated to the second trench with the support of his brothers. The Japanese army was getting closer and closer to the central bank, and only the guard platoon of the special agent company guarding outside the wall was still guarding the Nankou bunker where Commander Chai was located, which was the only way out of the division headquarters.On the west side of the bunker is Qianwen Middle School, where the enemy kept yelling under the corner of the wall more than 20 meters away, shouting: "China surrenders! Chinese soldiers surrender quickly!" He jumped out of the ditch and threw a grenade towards the place where he shouted. At the same time as the explosion sounded, a bullet shot over and hit his leg. He fell to the ground and rolled back into the fortification.

The Japanese army knew that there were not many personnel left in the national army, so they used overwhelming forces to form wave-shaped troops and rushed around the headquarters of the 57th Division.In this way, the division headquarters was aimed at by the enemy on all sides. As long as the fire broke out, the central bank would undoubtedly be turned into a hornet's nest with bullet holes and scars. The guns and shells fired from either side may hurt their own people on the opposite side.The battlefield commander of the Japanese army was scratching his head, not knowing what method to use.

The brothers led by Battalion Commander Kong Yiyu had only 8 casualties, including 3 lightly wounded. He had to withdraw to the wall of the division headquarters, and took advantage of the sandbag and stone fortifications of the wall to take the rifle Shoot at the enemy. The division's electronic office was across the street, and the radio platoon was at the south end of the street. Due to the approach of the Japanese army, both communication points were lost.Only the telephone switchboard in the bend in the basement of the Central Bank remained, with limited communication, while the 57th Division's communication with the outside world was all cut off.The personnel in the division headquarters, from the chief of staff down, all took up weapons and fought to the death, leaving only the division commander in the room to command and dispatch.Pi Xuanyou, chief of staff, carried a short gun in person and monitored the fortification of the back wall.Although the chief of staff, Long Chuyun, was in pain, he couldn't sit still. With the determination to fight and die quickly, he found a rifle bayonet and ran to the yard, standing under the fence, waiting for a chance to fight.Wang Daquan, the director of political work, took two grenades that were regarded as treasures, and took a hard stick, and stood behind a temporary pile of sandbags outside the gate.If the Japanese army rushes to the courtyard, he is ready to die together.Quartermasters, secretaries, political officers, etc. all took up weapons and defended behind the wall. These civilian officials rarely even touch guns, because they are all college graduates or local professional youths, and they temporarily signed up for the army to participate in the War of Resistance Yes, they have not received formal military training, but when things come to a head, they don't distinguish between each other, it's nothing more than a dead word.There are a total of 40 people in the division headquarters. From the cook to the division commander, everyone is ready. If the enemy rushes into the yard, they will fight to the death with them.

It was 4 p.m., and the time was really counting down. The Japanese army had a wave team of about 200 people. After careful planning, it was adjusted to the street in front of Xingjiekou, and was going to use the method of flooding to rush into the Central Bank.When it was about to explode, Sun Jinxian, the head of the 170th Regiment, led more than 20 people, ran out of the fortifications on Shuangzhong Street, walked from the remaining houses on both sides of Xingjiekou to the vicinity of the division headquarters, and he discovered the dangerous situation , He immediately called all the rifles and attacked the enemy through the shooting eyes of the wall.Battalion Commander Kong Yiyu heard the gunfire from Sun Jinxian in the south, and thought it was the signal of the enemy's attack from inside and outside, so he turned around and shouted to the officers and soldiers desperately: "Charge, brothers! Charge!" So everyone jumped from the sandbags onto the fence together, and threw all the grenades in their hands violently.Deputy Battalion Commander Zhang of the Mortar Battalion raised a revolver and ran out of the wall first, followed by the cook Liu Xiangxing.Mr. Liu didn't have any weapons to get angry, he only took a practice-style big knife.Then the rest of the civil servants, such as section chiefs, chief staff members, etc., all jumped off the wall, shouted to kill, and ran towards the enemy. The dozen or so brothers led by Battalion Commander Kong and the more than 20 brothers led by Commander Sun gathered in Qianjie, brandishing knives, spears and darts, and strangled together with the Japanese soldiers who stood up to fight unexpectedly.Everyone shouted to kill!Kill!I can't tell whether it is the Chinese or the Japanese who are shouting. At this time, the pronunciation of the two languages ​​seems to be almost the same because of the closeness of the expressions. Master Yu Chengwan ran out after hearing the sound, and personally manipulated the light machine gun at the gate of the Central Bank, aiming at the enemy and firing continuously. Seeing that the Chinese were all fighting to the death, the Japanese soldiers were unwilling to risk their lives in the face of the imminent victory, so they retreated temporarily to the north, retreating more than 50 meters before stopping, and watched the central bank with lingering fear. At the gate of the division headquarters, the siege was finally cleared. The cook Liu Xiexing returned to the yard with his Guandao, which had a curved blade on his shoulder. When he saw Yu Chengwan, he solemnly gave a military salute and said, "Report to the seat of the master, the enemy has been repulsed by us!" Yu Chengwan returned the gift. He was deeply moved by the desperate behavior of these officers and soldiers, and almost burst into tears.At this moment, doesn't he know what language to use to express his feelings, say words of encouragement such as praise and appreciation?None of them are suitable, because these Chinese soldiers are no longer fighting for these personal interests, they are fighting for the dignity of China and their own dignity.