Chapter 24 3. Why do you hate the death of a man!

The battle was played passively from the very beginning. The first line of defense was lost in 4 days, and the defenders retreated more than 30 kilometers westward, using the existing fortifications to form a second line of defense. On November 7, the Japanese army followed and focused their attack on the mountainous area centered on Nuanshui Street. Facing the superior force and firepower of the Japanese army, the 5 divisions of the defending army barely defended but could still hold on.Unexpectedly, two days later, Chiang Kai-shek, who was far away in Chongqing, had a whim, changed Sun Lianzhong's deployment, and asked the troops in that area to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army.Sun Lianzhong had just taken office as the chief of the Sixth War Zone, knowing that he was powerless to resist orders, so he reluctantly adjusted his troops and organized a counterattack.Without waiting for the troops to be adjusted, on November 10, the Japanese army took the lead and captured the defense lines of the 185th Division of Fang Jing's 66th Army and the 98th Division of Wang Jiaben's 79th Army.

They wanted to counterattack, but they couldn't even maintain their defensive position. The second-line position was shaken. The 6th Division, the core position of Nuanshui Street, was besieged by the Japanese 3rd Division. It took a whole day and night to break through. The Japanese army succeeded in the second line and continued to press southward, chasing and annihilating the Chinese army around Changde. On November 13, Isamu Yokoyama personally commanded the 3rd Division and the Sasaki Detachment to encircle the 3 divisions of Wang Zhibin's 73rd Army located in the Shimen area, with the intention of annihilating the vital forces of this Chinese army.

This battle suffered a lot for the Japanese engineers. In order to ensure that the artillery followed the infantry in the swampy area of ​​the lakeside, the engineering units laid roads, erected pontoon bridges, and sometimes simply jumped into the mud or river water and carried them on their shoulders.Yokoyama did not repeat the mistake of his predecessor Ningji Okamura who did not bring cannons due to bad roads, and the hard work of the engineers was fully rewarded-the dilapidated fortifications of Shimen, a small town, seemed useless in the face of the fierce Japanese artillery fire . The 3 divisions under the jurisdiction of the 73rd Army are the 15th, 77th, and Temporary 5th Divisions, which defend the town's east, north, and west directions respectively, with a Lishui River behind them. On the 13th, the Japanese army stormed for a day, causing heavy casualties on both sides. In the early morning of the 14th, the Japanese army carried out two hours of devastating bombing with aircraft and artillery in turn, and then divided their troops into three groups to divide and surround the defenders' positions. At 8 o'clock, all communications between the army headquarters and the divisions were interrupted. At 8:30, a group of Japanese troops went through the position and went straight to the command post of the 77th Division. The division commander urgently ordered to burn the documents and drew his guns to organize a counterattack.Fortunately, there were not many Japanese troops. Under the fierce resistance of a battalion and the division's special agent company that rushed over from the position, most of them were killed or injured.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the only way of retreat, the Lishui River, was also cut off by the Japanese army.Army commander Wang Zhibin was extremely anxious, so he decided to leave an army as a cover, and led the main force to break through to the west of the city where the Japanese army was relatively weak. The unit selected by the army commander as cover was Peng Shiliang's 5th Division. On November 17, Wang Zhibin stood at the intersection of Yanbodu Road in the southwest of Cili, watching his soldiers walking in twos and threes.The soldiers were weak and dejected, and many soldiers walked over with difficulty, wearing bandages and supporting each other.The officers of the containment team kept reporting their units: "2 from the 15th Division, 4 from the 77th Division, 3 from the 15th Division, 2 from the Military Engineering Battalion..."

There are very few soldiers from the 5th Temporary Division, let alone the division commander Peng Shiliang. An ominous premonition began to shroud Wang Zhibin's mind from the moment they parted.At this time, he had almost concluded that the misfortune had happened long ago.He knew Peng Shiliang. Peng Shiliang, named Qiuhu, 37 years old, was born in Liuyang, Hunan.After graduating from Hubei Mingde University, he applied for the Whampoa Military Academy, the fourth phase of political science. After graduation, he served as platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander in the 10th Division.During the Northern Expedition, he was promoted to the deputy head of the regiment with his bravery and skill, and then entered the Army University for further study in the 11th period. After graduation, he served as the chief of staff, head of the regiment, chief of staff of the division, and deputy commander of the division. In 1941, he served as a senior staff officer of the Chief of the Sixth War Zone and as the director of education of the cadre training regiment. In 1942, he served as the deputy division commander of the 5th Temporary Division of the 73rd Army. In early 1943, he was promoted to division commander.

In early May, the 5th Temporary Division blocked the first part of the 40th Division of the Japanese Army in the outskirts of Huarong City in the Battle of Western Hubei.Peng Shiliang personally mobilized the troops before the battle. During the battle, he went to the front line many times to encourage the officers and soldiers to fight the enemy bravely.Peng Shiliang held a stalemate with the Japanese army in front of him for nearly a month. The Japanese army suffered heavy casualties and was unable to attack for a long time.The Japanese army's radio station called the 5th Temporary Division one of the most stubborn anti-Japanese units in the Chongqing army.

Wang Zhibin looked at a small road leading to the battlefield in the distance, feeling deeply regretful and melancholy.He knew that no matter who was in that position, it was doomed to be bad luck, and Peng Shiliang had that kind of personality. On the afternoon of the 14th, Peng Shiliang led his troops to withstand the strong impact of the Japanese army rushing into the city, and the commander of the covering army led the main force to break through to the west of the city.In the evening of the battle, the Japanese army launched an offensive again after a short respite.Peng Shiliang gathered the members of each regiment and retreated to the west of the city.After counting the number of people, it was found that the casualties of the whole division had reached seventy-eight out of ten. The worst thing was that the wounded could not be treated, and they died one by one while watching the blood flow out.

At night, the Japanese army carried out intensive shelling on the positions in the west of the city, and the houses caught fire, and the flames could be seen dozens of miles away. At dawn on the 15th, Peng Shiliang spotted a gap and led more than a thousand remnants to break out to the western suburbs of Shimen. He was discovered by the "Peace Army" while wading near Yanmenkou, south of Xinguan.Dozens of light and heavy machine guns blocked the intersection, and the soldiers around Peng Shiliang fell to the ground one by one. Major Zheng Xun, the division's combat staff officer, died immediately.

Peng Shiliang commanded the only two mortars and fired more than 10 shells at the enemy's machine gun position, suppressing the enemy's firepower. When he shouted to order the troops to pass the intersection quickly, the machine gun rang again, and Peng Shiwei was shot 4 times.The deputy division commander and others lifted him up and ran, broke through the enemy's blockade, and withdrew to the southwest. At 8 o'clock in the morning, he got rid of the enemy's pursuit. In a tea forest halfway up a hill, people made Peng Shiliang lie flat on an army blanket.The military doctor told the deputy division commander that two bullets had penetrated the chest cavity, and the division commander's life was extremely dangerous because the operation could not be performed immediately.

The deputy division commander and others wept silently. Seeing Peng Shiliang struggling to open his eyes, looking around, he said to the deputy division commander: "A man who is loyal to the country and filial to the nation, why should he hate death!" The 5th Temporary Division finally broke out with less than 400 people, led by the deputy division commander, and rushed to the shelter.Due to the death of radio soldiers, he was unable to communicate with the military headquarters, did not understand the changes in the battle situation, and strayed into the area just occupied by the Japanese army.Everyone hid in a small forest for two days before embarking on the journey south to Cili.It was noon on November 18 when we arrived there.

At that time, Army Commander Wang Zhibin was still waiting at the intersection. When changing clothes for Peng Shiliang before burial, he found a last note in the blood-stained military uniform: I have devoted myself to the revolution, and I have been thinking about it for years. I have long since made up my mind to sacrifice to serve the party and the country. I have been ordered to guard Shimen.If benevolence is achieved in this battle, there will be no regrets.I only hope that all my officers and soldiers will obey the command of the deputy division commander, continue to kill the enemy, and complete the mission. Yu Lian is pure and clean, and doesn't care about property. He hopes that his wife will be self-sufficient, frugal to live, treat her husband and aunt kindly, and raise her children so that they can be educated and succeed Yu Zhi. On November 18th, Sun Lianzhong, the chief of the Sixth War Zone, received a telegram from Wang Zhibin, the commander of the 73rd Army, reporting that Peng Shiliang had died in the country and Shimen had fallen. Less than half an hour later, the confidential staff sent Chiang Kai-shek to "arrive immediately." telegraph: However, Shimen is related to the gains and losses of the overall battle situation, and I hope to pass it on to the headquarters, so we must stick to it.