Chapter 51 3. The Little-Known Massacre

The 22nd Group Army is a Sichuan Army unit. This unit came to Zou County and Teng County in Shandong Province in early spring to guard the north gate of Xuzhou. After the bloody battle in Teng County, the officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties.In order to continue the War of Resistance, the people of Sichuan carried forward the heroic spirit of Wang Mingzhang and sent a large number of outstanding young people from Sichuan to the front line of the War of Resistance, especially the place where the 22nd Army fought—the Fifth Theater of Xuzhou. Chengdu, the division of cadets with German equipment.

More than 2,000 outstanding Sichuan youths arrived in Xuzhou at the end of April and the beginning of May after a bumpy journey.The cadre training teams of the 4 divisions of the 22nd Army received a battalion of recruits each, and concentrated in Shitun and Jing'anji on the outskirts of Xuzhou for training.Until May 17, the Japanese Northern Front Corps had occupied Huangkou, and a part of the Japanese army invaded from the south of Fengxian County, approaching Shitun and Jing'anji.Sun Zhen, commander-in-chief of the 22nd Army, ordered the recruits to quickly retreat to the rear in units of battalions.

The recruits from Sichuan hadn't finished their training, hadn't been on the battlefield, and hadn't even fired their guns, so they followed their respective troops, took advantage of the gaps, and retreated to the rear.More than 500 recruits from the 731st Regiment's new battalion, led by the 3rd Battalion Commander Luo Jun, moved from the Jing'anji training ground along the Lianghan, Tangzhai, and Xiayi routes east of Dangshan to Bozhou, Anhui. The route chosen by Battalion Commander Luo Jun is said to be relatively safe.After reconnaissance beforehand, and with the help of the division and regiment headquarters, they set off after analyzing the enemy's situation.The Sichuanese in the new barracks are all good seedlings. Half a month of military training has cultivated their collective concept and they are very organized and disciplined.Along the way, Battalion Commander Luo Jun was very vigilant. He was under great pressure. A group of unarmed recruits could not make any mistakes.Marching and avoiding the Japanese army are the two major tasks of the whole battalion.

There is no place to hide in the plains, so they marched in low-lying places as much as possible. If there were trenches, they would walk in trenches. If there were no trenches, they would walk in the woods. it is good. Before the new barracks had walked a hundred miles, it was discovered by the Japanese cavalry brigade.Two scouts reported that the cavalry brigade of the Japanese army had spotted this unit and was encircling it in three directions in this direction.Battalion Commander Luo Jun's heart tightened, how could the unarmed recruits be able to deal with the cavalry?Not to mention recruits without weapons, even combat troops are difficult to deal with.

Luo Jun suddenly jumped onto a ridge. He asked the commander of the armed squad and platoon to stand up and block the Japanese cavalry with him. The old way hides itself.Hurry up, hurry up! Deputy Battalion Commander Tang Shaobin took out his pistol and waved his hand and said, recruit brothers, come with me.As he spoke, he took the lead and ran forward, followed by a team of hundreds of recruits.Battalion Commander Luo Jun glanced at the team running past, and the recruit team was a bit chaotic.The recruits are in chaos, so I can't be in chaos.Luo Jun thought. The recruits ran in the direction of the old course of the Yellow River.Luo Jun hastily divided the platoon and company commanders into three groups of fifty or sixty people. He said to be calm. In the past when fighting cavalry, we hit the horse first. Now it is different. We have few people and we are not a combat force. The Japanese army fought and blocked the Japanese army as much as possible, leaving enough time for the recruits to escape.The three of them form a character, with their backs facing the old course of the Yellow River.

The Japanese cavalry raised a cloud of dust around them, which could be seen hundreds of meters away, like thousands of troops galloping towards them.Luo Jun looked back and saw that the recruits were still running and did not run to the old course of the Yellow River. Battalion Commander Luo leaned over a small soil slope and aimed his gun at the Japanese soldiers who were rushing forward. As soon as Battalion Commander Luo Jun's gun fired, the guns of the others also fired, and five or six Japanese soldiers fell off their horses.The Japanese cavalry spread out while running, and rushed towards the Chinese army's position with their swords raised.There was a small group of cavalry, they quickly passed through Battalion Commander Luo Jun's position, and went straight to the unarmed recruits running behind them.Luo Jun suddenly understood, they turned around and shot, but it was too late.

The rest of the Japanese cavalry got off their horses and started a gun battle with Luo Jun and the others.The light machine gun fired so fiercely that Battalion Commander Luo and the others couldn't lift their heads.The Japanese soldiers rushing to the front were close to the position and threw grenades at them. Battalion Commander Luo and the others couldn't resist, how could fifty or sixty people resist a cavalry brigade of the Japanese army?So people left the position and retreated, adopting the method of fighting and retreating to join the recruits.When the Japanese cavalry saw that the Chinese army had only a few dozen people, they became even more unscrupulous. A commander brandished a long saber, and then hundreds of horses rushed over together.They were so fast that they rushed to Luo Jun and the others in the blink of an eye. The Japanese cavalrymen brandished long sabers on horseback and waved them over the heads of a group of Chinese soldiers.Some had their heads chopped off, others were split in half, and still others had an arm chopped off and rolled on the ground.

More than 20 officers and soldiers were hacked to death by the Japanese cavalry, and Luo Jun and his 30 or more were surrounded by hundreds of Japanese troops.Battalion Commander Luo Jun put down his gun and rushed forward to chop off the heads of several Japanese cavalrymen.Resistance was useless, they smashed their guns to the ground.Behind them, hundreds of recruits were escorted by the Japanese cavalry. The Japanese army began to search them, asking for everything, a few yuan, ten yuan. The Japanese soldiers looted, and finally everything was robbed, so they escorted the recruits and prisoners to go forward, the direction is Tangzhai.The Japanese cavalry were impatient, and they back-lashed the captives with their swords to make them go away.Battalion Commander Luo Jun protested, demanding that the Japanese army abide by public international law. They were prisoners, let alone unarmed and without weapons.

A lieutenant officer of the Japanese army was riding on a horse, arrogant and arrogant. He put a saber on Luo Jun's neck, which meant that he would not be allowed to speak.The Japanese army escorted them to the old course of the Yellow River, and then ordered them to stop advancing. They arranged the captives in three rows and sat neatly under the embankment on the north bank, surrounded by Japanese sentries. Luo Jun saw several Japanese lieutenant commanders, major commanders, and sergeants meeting together, as if they were discussing something. Judging from their expressions and gestures, they seemed to be arranging how to carry out the massacre.Several machine guns were called in, and the machine gunner kept nodding his head, and walked towards the front where the captives were sitting, selected the terrain, and set up the machine guns.

Battalion Commander Luo Jun and Deputy Battalion Commander Tang Shaobin looked at each other. They knew what the Japanese bandits were planning to do. These guys, who were crueler than beasts, wanted to quietly massacre these Chinese soldiers in the old course of the Yellow River, and then went to carry out their tasks. To resist is to die, and not to resist is also to die.Anyway, if it is death, then resist and fight hard, maybe there is still a glimmer of hope for life, even if one person rushes out, it is a victory.Battalion Commander Luo Jun and Deputy Battalion Commander Tang Shaobin exchanged glances with several company and platoon leaders respectively.Behind them is the embankment, on which there are four or five Japanese soldiers, most of the Japanese soldiers are on the opposite side of them, a group of war horses are gnawing on the green grass in the old course of the Yellow River, relaxed like their masters.Luo Jun seized the opportunity and suddenly stood up and shouted to his soldiers, rush out!Fight with the enemy!

Tang Shaobin led the recruits to turn around and climb the embankment behind them, and climbed up in just three or five steps.The Japanese army didn't react. Seeing these prisoners suddenly climbed up the embankment, they began to shoot with their guns. Many Japanese soldiers hurried to lead their horses. Battalion Commander Luo Jun hugged a Japanese soldier on the embankment, and someone grabbed the Japanese soldier's gun. Seven or eight of them fought against each other with their fists and kicks.Fifty or sixty people fell down, but most of them had already gone down under the embankment. Hundreds of them scattered under the embankment and ran to the field. up.The guns of the Japanese army behind them rattled, and some soldiers fell to the ground, while those who were not hit were still running desperately. The Japanese cavalry stepped on their horses, brandished sabers, and chased up from behind.Battalion Commander Luo Jun was carrying a rifle he had snatched from the Japanese army. Two of his fingers were cut off by the Japanese soldiers, and the blood kept flowing. He didn't care so much, and led thirty or forty people into the woods on the river bank.The woods can conceal themselves, and can also resist cavalry. It was inconvenient for tall horses to enter the woods on the river line, and Battalion Commander Luo used the woods to shoot at a Japanese cavalry rushing forward.The Japanese soldier fell off a big horse, and Tang Shaobin ran over to pick up the Japanese gun.He wanted to lead the horse, but the horse refused, so he jumped up and ran away.Another Japanese cavalryman raised a knife and slashed at Tang Shaobin. Tang Shaobin rolled on the ground on the spot, and shot the Japanese soldier off his horse. The Japanese cavalry rushed to Tang Shaobin in a swarm, and the horses surrounded him tightly.Battalion Commander Luo Jun had no choice. When the Japanese soldiers were entangled with Tang Shaobin, they turned around and ran back.People can't outrun the cavalry, so they have to go through the woods and go down the ditch.The guns behind them shot at them intensively, and another ten or twenty people fell down.The dozen or so people around Luo Jun had no choice but to disperse and hide in a large wheat field. At that time, the wheat in the wheat field was about to mature and was as deep as thighs. It was almost dusk, and the Japanese cavalry was still searching, and the dense gunfire had become sporadic.Luo Jun and the others lay down in the wheat field without daring to breathe. More than a dozen people had only two guns. If the enemy found him, they had to fight the enemy. He would not be a prisoner if he died.The Japanese would slaughter unarmed captive soldiers, Luo Jun wept in the wheat field. When it was dark, they heard the Japanese cavalry yelling, and they didn't know what they were doing.Luo Jun looked out through the cracks in the straw, and in the open field in the distance, the enemy was gathering.The enemy is leaving and the battle is over.Was a battle over so quickly?Luo Jun's heart tightened. After the Japanese cavalry left, Battalion Commander Luo and the others quietly walked out of the wheat field.Are the boot camps still alive?Are there just a few of us left?They looked forward very cautiously, and there were soldiers' corpses everywhere. There were more than a hundred people lying under the embankment of the old course of the Yellow River, and there was another piece of land lying there.What angered Battalion Commander Luo and the others the most was that at the bottom of a ditch, the Japanese used machine guns to massacre more than two hundred soldiers in the new barracks at once. More than 500 Sichuan recruits were unarmed, but they were brutally massacred by the Japanese army. The inhumane Japanese soldiers lost their conscience.Battalion Commander Luo and a dozen or so living soldiers mourned silently in the wilderness. His hands hurt like hell, and his heart felt like being stabbed by a knife. Battalion Commander Luo Jun led more than a dozen soldiers, and it took half a month to reach Huangchuan, Henan, and find his own troops.