Chapter 213 The story of six donkeys and a speedboat
The southern front troops of the South China Front abandoned Wencheng County and took Ruian, Pingyang, and Cangnan to directly attack Fuding. The guerrilla columns in these towns gave up resistance and fled to Wencheng County and Jingning. They gathered in these two places to form local superior forces and relied on the terrain. The dangerous fortress not only preserved its own strength, but also frequently attacked the Japanese supply lines, causing great trouble to the Japanese logistics troops. Matsui Iwane originally planned to concentrate his forces for clearing after capturing Fuding and Longquan, but now, with the southern front, The entire army was defeated, let alone wiped out. Now he had to worry about the other party's harassment.
Matsui Iwane's worries were not unreasonable. He had just breathed a sigh of relief because of the departure of the Cadet Army Air Force. Major Okubo Harukawa, the commander of the cavalry brigade leading the way, sent someone to report that the simple engineer bridge above the Ao River had been blown up. ,
The Aojiang River originates at the southern foot of Wudi Mountain in the South Yandang Mountains. What flows through Xiaojiang Town is its northern main stream. At that time, there were no bridges on the main stream of the Aojiang River. Local residents relied on ferries to travel to both sides of the bank. The southern front troops of the South China Front When attacking Cangnan, a simple pontoon bridge was built on the river section where the Huangdu Ferry was used by local residents to facilitate transportation, and a brigade was stationed for defense.
Wencheng County currently has three guerrilla columns assembled: Cangnan, Ruiping, and Wencheng. These three guerrilla columns are under the unified command of Tian Wenfeng, the former captain of the third brigade of the Xinghuo Brigade. When the Japanese army first started building a bridge over the Aojiang River, Tian Wenfeng sent They were targeted, and when Hisao Tani launched the first attack of the New Year's Day last night, he also sent the Ruiping (Ruian, Pingyang) guerrilla column to sneak attack Huangdu Ferry and killed more than a dozen Japanese. At ten o'clock in the morning After he received Jiang Guangnai's order to harass and snipe the Japanese troops fleeing eastward, he immediately thought of this pontoon bridge. When the war was stalemate, the significance of this pontoon bridge was not that important, but now it determines whether the Japanese troops can escape pursuit. His lifeline was because the Meixi brigade of the Ruiping guerrilla column closest to the pontoon bridge was also in Meixi Township nine kilometers away. It would be too late to rush there. In desperation, he had to send the three guerrilla column captains , asked them what they could do, he said to the three column captains: "The Huangdu Floating Bridge must be blown up. Once the Huangdu Floating Bridge is blown up, the Japanese army's escape route to the east will be cut off, but the Meixi Brigade, which is closest to the Huangdu Floating Bridge, will It will take two hours to get there, so let’s think about what we can do.”
Everyone was thinking hard about countermeasures, and just when they felt that there was no way they could win in terms of time, Chen Yao, the captain of the Taoyuan Guerrilla Brigade of the Ruiping Guerrilla Column, who was squatting at the door, said: "If there are fast horses, I have a way."
Everyone looked over, and his immediate superior, Huang Ma, the column leader of the Ruiping Guerrilla Column, said: "Don't be so pretentious, tell me what you can do."
Chen Yao stood up and said, "Didn't we hide a speedboat in Taoyuan? If there is a fast horse that can rush there within twenty minutes, bring some explosives and use the speedboat to go down the river to blow up the pontoon, it will definitely be in time."
This method is feasible, but another problem is posed in front of everyone, where to get the horse, and one horse is definitely not enough, because it requires explosives, and operating speedboats and explosives requires professional people, so at least three people are needed. horse,
When everyone was scratching their heads and unable to do anything, Gu Baofu, the commander of the Cangnan Guerrilla Column, had an idea and said: "Without horses, donkeys can't make it. Don't we have several donkeys in our logistics department?"
There was really no choice but to use donkeys if there were no horses, so Chen Yao led a team of four guerrillas with six donkeys, four of which carried people, one for explosives, and one for gasoline. , and set off on the road under the earnest gaze of Tian Wenfeng and others,
Tian Wenfeng and others all realized the importance of the Huangdu Floating Bridge to the Japanese army. Matsui Iwane would not be unaware of it. This is why he asked Okubo Harukawa's cavalry brigade to rush to the Huangdu Floating Bridge before the larger troops. However, Okubo Harukawa In the end, it was still a step too late. When Chen Yao and others lit the fuse of the explosive and jumped into the gasping Aojiang River, the Japs from the Okubo Cavalry Brigade had just arrived to the west of the Huangdu Floating Bridge. With this burst of speed, Okubo and others also Tired enough, he stood up straight and moved his almost numb buttocks. He heard one of his men shouting: "What is that?" He hurriedly followed the sound, and then his face changed, "No." The little devil shouted urgently. ,,Too late, the speedboat hit the pontoon and was trapped. A few seconds later, a row of huge waves rose into the sky. With the "rumbling" explosion, a gap of more than ten meters was opened in the middle of the pontoon. Then, The pontoon bridge that was broken into two parts swayed downstream under the impact of the river water, and then was slowly pulled apart. Amid the exclamations of the Japs, it seemed like two strings of duckweed clinging to the shore...
"Bah..." The kid guarding the pontoon finally reacted and started shooting towards the river. However, the gunfire sounded more like naked irony to Okubo. The kid was furious and drove his horse to the commander guarding the pontoon. In front of Major Kimura Ichiro, he picked up the whip and whipped it down. As he whipped it, he cursed: "Ba Ge, it's over, it's over. Kimura Ichiro, the pontoon bridge was bombed. You have to take full responsibility. You bastard, what responsibility can you bear?" …”
When Hisao Tani took the people of Cannan hostage and launched the third attack of the New Year's Strategy, neither Matsui Iwane nor Okuichiro, including Hisao Tani himself, did not expect that the Xuebing Army would reverse and would take advantage of the situation to launch a counterattack. Meaning, it’s just a floating bridge,
Liu Yuqing, Pang Deya and Jiang Guangnai did not expect that the fight would end like this, so they did not realize the significance of this floating bridge.
Therefore, the bombing of the Huangdu Floating Bridge actually had a strong sense of drama. Who would have thought that six donkeys and a speedboat would change the outcome of a battle?
Tian Wenfeng, the initiator of the bridge bombing, did not realize that his decision would have such a huge impact. When Okubo Harukawa was frantically whipping Kimura Ichiro, who was at the same level as him, with a riding crop, he was leading the main force of three guerrilla columns. Running on the mountain road of Nanyandang Mountain,
Perhaps just because the horse was replaced by a donkey, Tian Wenfeng did not have enough confidence to blow up the pontoon bridge before the main force of the Japanese army arrived. He led his troops down the mountain and rushed to the front lines of Pingyang and Ruian, just to resolutely carry out Jiang Guangnai's order, fearing that he would not be beaten in time. At this opportunity, the guerrillas were running wildly through the mountain roads. At this time, Matsui Iwane was vomiting his blood again because he received Okubo's urgent military intelligence report, "Ba Ge, Kimura is a stupid ass." The old Japanese really did. He was filled with worry and anger. He cursed with trembling lips and his legs became weak, frightening the Japanese officers around him.