Chapter 28 7. The county magistrate broke through

Since November 18, soldiers and civilians in the city have heard gunshots. Since the residents were mobilized to evacuate during the Battle of Western Hubei half a year ago, but Changde was not reached in the battle, some residents just shook their heads and refused to leave during the mobilization and evacuation this time.It wasn't until the intermittent gunshots and grenade explosions came from the outskirts of the city that I panicked and didn't know what to do. When people have something to do, they naturally go to their parents and officials.At that time, Changde was a county, and most of the people and county government agencies left. The county magistrate led the county police squadron and dozens of civilian husbands, doctors and nurses to stay in the city to assist the troops in fighting.The people found the county magistrate and begged him in every possible way, asking him to decide with the people and find a solution quickly.

Dai Jiufeng, the county magistrate, is from Anhui, and was originally the county magistrate in his hometown. In 1939, when the Japanese army attacked his hometown, the army disappeared in a flash.He led a group of people and took the post of commander of the "Anti-Japanese People's Self-Defense Army". After dealing with the devils for a year, he was still kicked out.Worked in a small agency of the Chongqing Nationalist Government for a year, and came to Changde in 1941 to fill the gap.He is generous and sympathetic to the people, and is loved by the people of Changde. On the 21st, the suburbs on the east, north, and west sides of the city were in full swing, and the atmosphere in the city became increasingly tense. These people who were in a hurry to evacuate chased the county magistrate's ass and asked him to find a way, but Dai Jiufeng had no choice.At 10 o'clock in the evening, he came to the strongest building in the county - the 57th division headquarters of the Central Bank, found Yu Chengwan, and asked for instructions on how to deal with it.

Yu Chengwan was furious, and when the county magistrate said the situation, the pimples between his brows tightened even more.It turned out that at 4 o'clock in the afternoon that day, Wang Yaowu ordered the 188th Regiment of the 63rd Division of the 100th Army commanded by Yu Chengwan to withdraw from the position without authorization before the Japanese offensive.The combat staff officers sent by the division headquartered repeatedly dissuaded them, but the head of the regiment, Deng Xianfeng, even said that the 57th Division had no control over them, and that the 100th Army only obeyed the command of Chairman Jiang.When the staff officer called to report to the division commander, he found that the telephone line had been wound up on the reel.The staff quickly returned to the division headquarters to report, and when the deputy chief of staff led the supervising team to rush, the 188th regiment broke up into pieces and scattered, and ran away without knowing where they were going.

Regarding the escape of the 188th Regiment, there is only one sentence in the KMT's war history: "The Japanese troops of the 188th Regiment of the Deshan Garrison, infiltrated Deshan City at 16:00 on the 21st, and attacked in groups. Communication was interrupted at this time, and then the The group's status is unknown." The decision to evacuate without authorization, and what was abandoned was a position that was crucial to the overall situation of the city defense. Yu Chengwan was very anxious, and the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division hated it to the bone.Such a major event, but in the history of the war, it is such an understatement that "the situation is unknown", and there is no further investigation into the matter or any explanation of the whereabouts of the regiment and the regiment leader.According to common sense, in any case, it would not be until the Kuomintang withdrew to Taiwan and began to write war history that it would not be able to figure out this uncomplicated matter, right?

Is it because of the status of the 100th Army in Chiang Kai-shek?Or is it the background of the leader Deng Xianfeng? Is it because the writer who wrote this period of war history happened to be from that regiment or has something to do with the person involved?The author is also "unclear" in the same way! The 188th regiment fled, and the main point of Tokuyama was immediately occupied by the Japanese army.The passivity brought about by the fall of Deshan was first reflected in the matter raised by the county magistrate Dai Jiufeng. Since there was no other choice, we could only decide to break out, and we could only decide to go in the direction of Deshan, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese army had just arrived, the situation was unfamiliar, and there were not many people there.

From the map, Yu Chengwan pointed out the route from the city to the Yuanjiang Ferry, and after crossing the river, he walked close to Deshan without disturbing the enemy, and then went south to the rear.Dai Jiufeng said that he immediately arranged a police squadron to lead the civilians to break out of the siege, and he brought medical staff and civilian husbands to help in the battle. Yu Chengwan tightly held the hand of this kind and sincere county magistrate, and solemnly asked him three things.First, after breaking out of the siege, go to the 100th Army Headquarters in Guancang to find the commander Shi Zhongcheng, and ask him to order the 188th Regiment to return to Changde, otherwise it will be difficult to pass both emotionally and legally; No one came to contact me, so I asked him to urge it on my behalf; third, half of the mortar shells stored in the city did not match the caliber of the mortar shells in the division, so I asked my superiors to try to transport shells into the city.

Yu Chengwan said: "This battle is too difficult, and I don't know what will happen in the future. It is the duty of the soldiers, and the people should not be dragged down. Please go on the road!" Tears welled up in Dai Jiufeng's eyes, and he repeatedly expressed that he would stay and live and die together.Yu Chengwan refused him to stay in the city on the grounds of the three major events entrusted to him, and asked him to take all the local personnel away.Dai Jiufeng had no choice but to say goodbye with tears. There were more than 300 people who went out of the city. Dai Jiufeng led them like a sheep, and quietly touched the south of the city to the South Gate Ferry at midnight, and took three large boats to cross the Yuanjiang River back and forth.

Creeping to the foot of Gufeng Mountain, that is, near the Deshan position lost by the 188th regiment, a man holding a child tripped and stumbled. The child was frightened and cried, waking up the devil.The rapid sound of machine guns immediately shattered the silence of the night, and bullets whized above and around people's heads. In the darkness, after hearing someone being shot several times, "Oh!" There was a sound, and there was no more sound. Xiang Nan couldn't forcefully go, after all, most of the people in the group were ordinary people, Dai Jiufeng hurriedly turned west, walked five or six miles away, and the gunshots stopped behind him.I thought it was the devil who returned the gun when he didn't see it, knowing that it was not a night attack by the Chinese army, and lost his target in the dark, so that's all.

Based on his experience as the commander of the "Anti-Japanese People's Self-Defense Army", County Magistrate Dai divided the chaotic 300-odd people into 4 teams.Sergeant Zhang led 13 pioneers first, followed by 20 police officers, police chief He led more than 100 people as the third team, and the last team consisted of the rest of the personnel and more than 30 police officers in the rear.After the team was compiled, the distance was widened, and the distance was dragged for nearly half a mile.Everyone didn't dare to breathe, but just walked quickly at night. The next target is Doum Lake, and it is planned to turn south from here.But the plan will never catch up with the change. Doumhu Town has been occupied by the Japanese army on the evening of the 21st. How would the group know?Walking to only 50 meters away from the enemy sentinel, the vanguard vaguely saw a dark shadow shaking on the embankment on the lake bank. Sergeant Zhang shouted: "Who is it?"

The breakout team was walking on a low-lying path lined with water, and they could neither disperse nor hide.Bullets came, and people moaned and shouted from time to time.In the latter two teams, the police officers were still stable, but the people ran around in a panic, and many were shot and fell into the water.Most of the 20 police officers in Dai Jiufeng's team were killed or injured. When they escaped from the enemy's fire, they greeted them a few times with lowered voices. When the sky was twilight, they encountered enemy soldiers again, and when they broke through again, they dispersed again. Only Director He, Captain Wu, Inspector Wu, and Sergeant Lei remained beside the county magistrate.When the sky was bright, I could see the Japanese army's brigades and squads in the distance, and enemy planes were flying in the sky.Dai Jiufeng suspected that he had gone the wrong way to Japan in the dark.

Fortunately, there were few people and the target was small, so the few people only chose river ditches and secluded places in the grass, and arrived at Huangshi Harbor around noon before reaching a safe place. The county magistrate later learned that the lost people were unable to get out, and went back again, but there were still ghosts on the way back.Inspector Chen led more than 40 police officers and civilians to be blocked in a ditch, followed by pursuers, so he had to organize people to break out in the direction of returning to Changde, and more than half of the victims were killed on the spot.Inspector Chen himself was wounded and captured. Among the returnees, only Clerk Deng led more than a dozen people to flee to South Station, where they were followed by more than ten soldiers from the 57th Division.When crossing the Yuanjiang River, both boats were sunk by the Japanese army. Among the dozen or so people, only the platoon leader Meng and the police officer Lei, who were led by the army, swam to the opposite bank, and the rest were shot or drowned to death. County Magistrate Dai calculated that only 20 people survived a breakout, and he blamed himself endlessly. Because he was a parent official in the midst of the greatest war, Changde people remember Dai Jiufeng.When the Anti-Japanese War was won, Dai had resigned and returned to his hometown in Anhui to become a county magistrate. People in Changde still named a school "Jiufeng Primary School". Until the "Cultural Revolution", Fu Mou, the person in charge of the largest rebel organization in the province, "Geizao Zong", came to Changde to make a revolution. Passing by the school, he said: "Jiufeng, drunk people messing around is the "drinking madness", reform, it is called "Xiangyang Primary School "!"So "Xiangyang" has been so far.