Across the river to the west of Baguazhou, the plowshare mouth was filled with dust and smoke, and the south side of the more than 400-meter-long circular ditch was riddled with holes. The roaring shells did not stop for more than ten minutes, and the area within a radius of 500 meters was scorched.
Trees and crops dried by the airflow burst into flames
There was a huge fire in the sky, and the splashing sand and gravel rose into the sky layer after layer, overwhelmingly pouring on the land that was extremely heated by the heat wave. Bursts of thick gunpowder smoke, accompanied by huge explosions, evaporated and twisted, soaring into the sky, ten miles away.
The outside is still clearly visible.
At this time, An Yi's division no longer distinguishes between generals and soldiers. Every gun and every person was used to the maximum extent. More than 700 fragmented and unrecognizable corpses of soldiers were densely covered in a field more than 300 meters long.
On both sides of the arc-shaped ditch, brothers died in battle one by one.
The bodies of the dead soldiers were piled together and used as bunkers and machine gun bases. The blood-soaked soil under the red gun barrels was hardening, and dense rain of bullets flew over heads with singed hair.
In the sky above, there were bursts of sharp breaking sounds.
It is precisely because of this dry ditch, which is more than 300 meters long and 2 meters wide, that the more than 2,000 soldiers of An Yi's remaining army can sustain themselves until now under the bombardment of tens of thousands of enemy troops and more than 30 artillery pieces.
The origin of this ditch, which no one usually pays attention to, is very ordinary. The drought for half a month has brought the crops along the coast to the verge of failure. The people of Liuhe Town hastily dug this ditch, which is more than 400 meters long, on the riverside.
Set up a pedal waterwheel
The river water is introduced into the dry land. As the plum rains move northward in advance, the water level of the Yangtze River drops. This water diversion irrigation ditch, which took nearly a hundred people and more than ten days to build, was abandoned, but now it has become the life-saving ditch for An Yi and his brothers.
lifeline.
In order to firmly occupy this lifeline that allowed thousands of people to survive, An Yi Division paid an extremely heavy price. It gritted its teeth and withstood two rounds of enemy artillery fire, repelled three enemy charges, and sacrificed more than 700 people in battle.
The price was narrowly defended.
It was thanks to the protection of this ditch that more than 700 sick and wounded officers and soldiers were able to evacuate to Baguazhou on the other side in more than 30 small boats and bamboo rafts, temporarily saving their lives.
The pedal waterwheel on the riverside had been blown to pieces and was gone. On the upper reaches of the river, brother Ding Zhicheng of the special brigade, who was greatly admired by An Yi, was desperately controlling the boat and was responsible for carrying it back across the Jiajiang River to transport the injured brothers.
heavy responsibility.
During the hour-and-a-half-long struggle, seventeen hard-won fishing boats, large and small, were hit by overwhelming enemy artillery fire. As many as seventy elite special forces team members were buried at the bottom of the river. However, they had superhuman will and tenacious vitality.
The soldiers of the special force were still working fearlessly amidst the huge waves caused by the shells and the death that could be torn apart together with the boat at any time.
Ding Zhicheng, who had just sent more than two hundred injured brothers to climb Baguazhou, was lucky enough to collect 17 fishing boats in the upper reaches of Baguazhou. All the brothers in the special brigade were in high spirits and quickly rowed the fishing boats to the rear of the position, thinking that the fishing boats
The greatly increased number and capacity will surely bring half of the endangered brothers back to the relatively safe Baguazhou, and bring more than
Thousands of enemies were left far away at the plowmouth on the other side. However, when they were more than 20 meters away from the shore, another burst of enemy artillery fire exploded behind the Zhongzuo position on the riverside.
On the two fishing boats on the shore, the eleven battle-hardened brothers disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye, and the shattered planks of the boats were scattered on the boiling river.
Ding Zhicheng's eyes were red and his liver was splitting. He howled and ordered all the ships to follow him to the back of the right-wing blocking position more than fifty meters downstream. After avoiding the enemy's shelling and struggling to reach the shore, he found that the position of the Second Regiment on the right-wing had been swarmed.
On the right-wing position that had been breached by the incoming enemy troops and had not been attacked by the enemy, more than 600 soldiers of the second regiment and the teaching company, which were the most intact, were engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.
Ding Zhicheng knew very well that if the right-wing position between the Yangtze River main road and Jiajiang was breached by the enemy, An Yi and the surviving main force of the division on the center and left positions would be empty behind, and they would be completely defeated by the enemy. In desperation,
, Ding Zhicheng roared and led more than 180 well-equipped brothers under his command to rush into the fierce fighting position to join the battle, using machine guns and shell guns with dense and flexible firepower, hitting the enemy with corpses all over the ground and fleeing in terror.
The red-eyed Ding Zhicheng did not stop, shouting and pursuing bravely. His soldiers and more than 500 soldiers from the second regiment and the training team roared in unison and marched forward bravely. He chased more than 1,000 remnants of the enemy for more than 300 meters and defeated them.
Then he quickly collected the guns and ammunition discarded by the enemy and rushed back to the position, taking a breath while preparing for the next battle.
Ding Zhicheng, whose clothes had been torn into strips by the flames of war and hot air, pulled Chen Zhibiao, leader of the Second Regiment, and Chen Kan, captain of the teaching brigade, to his side, and shouted loudly amidst the deafening explosions and gunfire:
"Hold the position. There are more than 20 ships behind you. I asked the brothers to leave all the machine guns and ammunition. We must hold it! I will go to the main position to find the teacher's seat and evacuate the injured brothers and some brothers first. You
We must hold our position to the death!”
"yes!"
Chen Kan, who had a dark face and bleeding head, answered loudly.
The loud shouts of killing rang out again. After the center and left-wing positions were bombarded by intensive artillery fire, the enemy troops once again launched a fierce charge from two directions, but the right-wing position did not receive any attack.
Chen Zhibiao looked at the deafening shouts and the black rushing enemy troops in front of the center position. He wiped the dust from his face, turned to the twenty-odd boats dangling on wooden piles on the shore behind him, and looked to the south in the distance.
The towering towers of Nanjing City were so close yet seemed so far away. His eyes had complicated expressions, shining with incomparable desire. The thoughts of life and death were rapidly changing in his mind.
"Boom-boom, boom-boom-boom-"
Chen Zhibiao shouted to hide, and he jumped up to hold down Chen Kan, who was standing up, and threw himself heavily into the crater. After the earth-shattering explosion, the two climbed up from the thick soil. Chen Zhibiao, who was like a clay figure, rushed to the position and looked to the northeast.
Seeing more than 2,000 enemies gathering nervously hundreds of meters away, Chen Zhibiao gritted his teeth and shouted hysterically:
"The master's command, all retreat -"
Some of the more than 500 surviving brothers were bandaging their wounds, and some had just loaded their weapons and ammunition and were ready to fight. When they heard the regiment leader Chen Zhibiao shouting "Retreat" continuously, they were stunned for a moment, and they all followed the more than ten soldiers who took the lead in withdrawing their positions.
The brothers rushed to the boat on the shore behind them.
Chen Kan rushed over in panic and hugged Chen Zhibiao: "Zhibiao, what's wrong with you? Are you crazy? If you run away from the battle, you will be beheaded!"
Chen Zhibiao suddenly grabbed Chen Kan's chest and shook it violently: "Open your eyes wide and look to the east, and then look at the tens of thousands of enemies to the north. How long can we withstand it? The enemy is firing artillery and mortars again and again.
How many of our brothers have died in the attack?
If you look to the south again, the city of Nanjing is right in front of you. Why did we work so hard to escape and escape? Isn’t it just to return to Nanjing safely? Look at Baguazhou, thousands of brothers have all passed safely, and Master and the others will soon do the same.
They want to retreat, but they leave us here. As long as the enemy charges again, we will be completely dead!
Chen Kan, you listen to me! There are artillery fire and bullets on three sides, and there are enemies rushing towards us with our lives. If we don’t leave, we will lose our lives. Do you understand? Commander-in-Chief Jiang is the commander-in-chief of the division and the others, not you and me.
Commander-in-Chief, do you understand?
Evacuate quickly! If it's too late, it's too late. With your and my abilities, are you worried that they will be useless? Do you really want to be buried with them? You idiot..."
Chen Zhibiao pushed Chen Kan down and rushed down the river bank. Chen Kan scrambled to his feet, looked at the fierce battle in the middle and the left wing that could no longer withstand it. Suddenly he howled like crazy and rushed down the river bank, leaping up to the final exit.
A ship on the shore fell down and quickly got up and turned around. Facing the scorched earth battlefield with blazing fire getting farther and farther away, he knelt down with a weak "thud", bent down, hit his head heavily on the deck, and cried loudly...
…
The exhausted An Yi braved the hail of bullets and rushed to the left position. A fish jumped on the brother who did not know whether to live or die. He raised the machine gun and fired fiercely at the charging enemy. An Yi's hair and eyebrows had been singed, and two
The sleeves have long since disappeared, and the uniforms whose colors cannot be distinguished are stained with the blood of the brothers. Only eleven of the thirty-six guards around him are alive. No matter where An Yi goes, these loyal men will follow An Yi to the death without hesitation.
Suppressing the enemy's frontal attack, An Yi, who could no longer find the magazine, threw away the machine gun, took off the rifle from his back, and specifically targeted the charging enemy officer holding a short gun and broadsword. His precise marksmanship, agile movements and
The efficiency brought by his steady arms frightened the enemy and instilled great confidence and courage in the hearts of the surrounding brothers.
Not far away, Qu Tongyuan, commander of the Second Battalion of the Independent Regiment, and his brothers saw An Yi's bravery and became energetic. Qu Tongyuan opened his broken gong and loudly praised An Yi to boost morale, but the fancy machine gun in his hand did not matter.
He paused and shot down one enemy after another. It was precisely because of the sudden burst of great potential and the tenacious attack of the officers and soldiers that they were not afraid of death. The enemy's offensive was blocked and they once again withdrew like a tide.
Watching the enemy retreat quickly, An Yi wiped the dust from his face and took a long breath. Suddenly he saw Qu Tongyuan maintaining the shooting posture, standing motionless and staring straight ahead. An Yi knew something was wrong and quickly bent down.
He ran over and hugged Qu Tongyuan, who was still twitching.
He pulled his body back hard and found that his fellow countryman's left eye had been shattered. Black juice, white brains and red blood were pouring out of the black hole-like eye socket. Qu Tongyuan's other intact eye
He opened his eyes wide, as if he couldn't believe that he had been shot.
An Yi hugged Qu Tongyuan's head and hugged him tightly. He lowered his head and choked silently. Zhan Huanqi, who arrived quickly, had no idea who was in An Yi's arms and knelt down in front of An Yi.
, wailing loudly: "Brother, go quickly! Deputy Master Hu is dying..."
An Yi silently raised his head, suddenly put down Qu Tongyuan's body, and rushed towards the main position as fast as he could. He rushed to a group of brothers who were running towards the river bank with their beards and yelled to put it down. He saw Hu Jialin on the ground with his eyes closed and blood on his abdomen.
A section of his intestines had flowed out along with blood. An Yi quickly knelt down and called for "tie" with his already hoarse throat. He hurriedly covered Beard's abdomen and cried sadly:
"I'm going to fuck you, Mr. Hu, please open your eyes! Lao Yang has fallen, Jinan's leg is broken, Fang Jing is gone, Cheng Guang is dead, you are such a bastard, and you abandon me again... you let me
How can I live? What’s the point of living alone..."
"Master, get out of the way! The deputy commander is still alive! Master, get out of the way..."
The young man pushed An Yi away, quickly bandaged Hu Jialin's abdomen, and loudly ordered the bearded guards to carry him and run with him. A group of people were in a hurry, stumbling and carrying Hu Jialin as they flew towards the shore.
Ding Zhicheng rushed to An Yi at this moment. Before he arrived, he had already knelt down and slid for several meters. His eyes were bleeding and he had bitten a big gash on his lip. He lay heavily in front of the stunned An Yi and kept kowtowing.
Wailed:
"Master, Chen Zhibiao and Chen Kan led their troops to escape downstream in a boat. The right wing is empty and in danger. I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry for my brothers. Master..."
Ding Zhicheng suddenly raised his bruised head, looked up to the sky and howled like a wild beast. A stream of blood foam flew out of his open mouth. Amid the wailing sound, Ding Zhicheng quickly pulled out his gun and pointed it at his temple...