The warm east wind in early spring blew gently, and the broken willows and weeds were swaying slightly on the riddled Jiangwan battlefield. On the scorched earth on the bank of the river, little bits of new green seemed to have sprouted overnight, and the broken germs rustled in the moist breeze.
Move, try your best to straighten your young body, trying to cover up the vicissitudes of life as soon as possible.
The long trenches were empty. The officers and soldiers of the 87th Division, like the divisions of the 19th Route Army and the 88th Division of the fraternal army, shouldered their guns, ammunition boxes and all equipment, and lined up in three rows.
The long queue of several hundred meters retreated westward.
On the grassless hillock to the north of the position, more than a dozen generals including Zhang Zhizhong, commander of the Fifth Army, Wang Jingjiu, the new commander of the 87th Division, Yu Jishi, the commander of the 88th Division, and Sun Yuanliang, the deputy commander, stood in the wind full of worry and indignation.
Looking at the retreating team in the distance, I was silent.
After An Yi once again humiliated the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese armistice negotiations two days ago, the Japanese walked away and refused to negotiate again. A group of pro-peace newspapers represented by the "Republic of China Daily" began to criticize An Yi, because An Yi
Yi secretly ordered to launch counter-espionage investigations in more than 80 counties including Nanchang, Jiujiang, Hukou, Hankou, Jingzhou, Yichang, western Hunan and eastern Sichuan, arrest spies and suspected traitors on a large scale, and launch tax evasion operations against all trading houses and trading companies that deal in Japanese goods.
According to the investigation, offended businessmen and leftist forces also continued to slander An Yi through newspapers and magazines, such as "Oriental News", "Shenbao", "Ta Kung Pao" and "Oriental Outlook", "Military Observer", "Times Youth"
"Newspapers and magazines represented by "Immediately spoke up and launched a strong counterattack. For a time, all kinds of voices in China were noisy, and a large-scale ideological debate was in full swing.
Song Xilian, commander of the 261st Brigade of the 87th Division, suddenly shouted: "Look to the north, Junior Brother An's convoy has stopped on the west bank of the Nongqian River... The two people who got off the bus first were Deputy Commander Hu and Twenty-Fourth
General Ye Cheng of the army."
Everyone turned and looked north, and finally saw An Yi jumping out of the convertible 300 meters away, walking to the river and squatting down. He did not move for a long time. A dozen generals and colonels around him also squatted in a row, looking towards the east where the bomb craters were connected.
The land where the blood of thousands of brothers once flowed remained motionless. Dozens of mottled chariot wreckage lay quietly in the scorched earth, silently proclaiming the past battlefields and lonely records of the tragic battles that had passed.
Zhang Zhizhong took off his glasses and wiped them gently with a handkerchief. After sighing, he raised his right hand and whispered to stop the general who wanted to shout out An Yi:
"Don't disturb them, let them be quiet. This time, under the pressure of the European and American mediators and the Japanese, the central government took the initiative to retreat ten kilometers and abandon the Zhabei, Jiangwan and Wusong positions, regardless of the strong opposition of our frontline officers and soldiers.
, what An Yi and his soldiers couldn't imagine the most. When someone from the Military Commission came to announce the order, he and I were both in the headquarters of the 19th Route Army. He immediately became angry, broke a dozen teacups, and kicked over five or six tables.
, if Adjutant Shen hadn't hugged him, General Lin Wei, who came to announce the order, might not even be able to get off the stage.
This is the first time I have seen him angry in all the years I have known him. He was like a crazy lion that was stabbed. It frightened us at the time. Just as we dragged him into the back room, a group of generals from the 19th Route Army outside started making trouble again. Finally,
Under the scolding of Commander-in-Chief Cai, everyone shed tears of humiliation. Alas... After dozens of days of fierce fighting, An Yi's men achieved a remarkable record of annihilating more than 10,000 enemies and injuring countless others, but they also sacrificed more than 10,000 lives and wounded.
They paid a heavy price of over 10,000 yuan. How can we not make them sad and humiliated by ordering a retreat at this time? The same is true for the 19th Route Army. Isn’t it the same for each of your divisions and brigades? This kind of pain is unbearable!"
Everyone was sighing, and Sun Yuanliang shook his head and said: "I don't know how the central government will deal with Japanese prisoners of war, captured warships, merchant ships and overseas Chinese. Junior Brother An made it clear during the negotiations with Japan that the Japanese army will never release a single prisoner of war until the Japanese army withdraws its troops.
They would never exchange a ship. The Japanese hated it with gnashing of teeth but had no choice but to apply for arbitration. Various countries and the International Red Cross organized a joint inspection team to visit the expatriates and prisoners in the Yichang Jiangnan Village and the Luzhou Prisoner of War Camp in southern Sichuan.
It is confirmed that Junior Brother An’s subordinates did not mistreat the prisoners.”
Yu Jishi sighed: "The only way we can convince Junior Brother An is to ask the principal to come forward. If he doesn't agree to go to the League of Nations, it will be useless. You are not unaware of his temperament of accepting the soft but not the tough. Don't look at his face.
He wears a smile and is happy to suffer losses, but it depends on the person he is with, his brothers or the teachers he respects can do it, no one else can take advantage of him, even the king of heaven will not give him face, if the enemy is worse,
He can swing a knife without blinking an eye."
Everyone laughed softly, and Zhang Zhizhong said worriedly: "This guy is too clear-eyed about love and hate. The things in the settlement area mentioned in newspapers from various countries in the concession are true. More than 2,000 Japanese nationals were imprisoned by him behind the Yichang Military Station."
In the Xinjian Reclamation Village, people worked at sunrise and rested at sundown. If they didn't work, they would go hungry. The originally arrogant Japanese were manipulated by his military station garrison into submission, and no one dared to resist.
No outsiders could enter the prisoner-of-war camp, and even local officials in Luzhou were not allowed to enter or observe from a distance. Judging from the situation in the reclamation area, it is surprising that the Japanese were not in a hurry to jump up and down in the prisoner-of-war camp.
The central government wanted to send people to inspect the prisoner-of-war camps in southern Sichuan several times, but he refused them all. Most of the military commission officials were seniors who had a close relationship with him. General Jingzhi wanted to ask several times, but he couldn't ask him. He was afraid of An Yi.
If you say something unpleasant to someone, he will become disgraced and look like a bad person both inside and outside.
But precisely because of this, he offended many people. Last time he returned to Nanjing, he took the initiative to take responsibility for bombarding the Japanese community. Alas! I felt that I owed him. I called the Military Commission three times to say that it was me who gave the order, but
The military commission officials did not believe that I would issue such an order, saying that I was protecting my students, and the principal also warned me not to excuse An Yi, which made me find it difficult to explain, and I couldn't laugh or cry."
Yu Jishi comforted him: "Teacher, you don't have to blame yourself too much. According to the students' understanding, Junior Brother An had been staying with Commander Cai and his gang a few days before the bombardment, and they conducted close-up visits to the entrances of the Japanese overseas community and the public concession more than once."
From the field survey, it showed that Junior Brother An had already planned to bombard the Japanese concession. In addition, most of the Cantonese generals of the 19th Route Army were strong-tempered people. Commander Cai, who had fought so hard, was also full of resentment. An
Junior Brother can make people angry with just a few words of teasing. I guess Junior Brother An was too embarrassed to make suggestions and asked the 19th Route Army to make suggestions. Under the urgent situation, we can only support and share the same hatred, so he got what he wanted."
Yang Bufei, commander of the 264th Brigade, asked in surprise: "No way? Junior Brother An actually dares to scheme against the teacher?"
Song Xilian chuckled: "This guy has always used any means to achieve his goals. Brother Bu Fei was fooled by his seemingly straightforward and open-minded smile. If you think carefully about the battles he fought since the Northern Expedition, you will know how treacherous he is.
Ha ha!"
Zhang Zhizhong waved his hand tolerantly: "Those who achieve great things do not stick to trivial matters, let alone the fight against the Japanese invaders. The results obtained were so good. Although they were criticized by some people, no one can deny that it was precisely because of this bombardment that the opening of the
A proactive situation also eliminated the Japanese aggressors' unscrupulous arrogance, which is a good thing!"
"Look, Junior Brother An has seen us, and he is waving to us." Wang Jingjiu waved to An Yi in the distance, and a group of Huangpu colleagues also raised their hands to greet An Yi.
An Yi put down his hand and turned to Huang Yingwu: "Parrot, and Liu Qing, you two will be the referees. If the Japanese invaders seize the position after our team leaves, let Xia Jian and Brother Zhang each lead a division to fight on the front line.
If it takes ten hours to win or if I can't win, I win. If I win within ten hours, I lose."
"You will definitely lose. I am still hoping that the Japanese will come soon." Zhang Cunzhuang said with full confidence.
Ye Cheng calculated for a long time and finally expressed his opinion: "My estimate is eight to ten hours, and it must be a night battle. If the Japanese aircraft are deployed during the day, it will be difficult. Fortunately, this position is within the range of naval guns.
In addition, each unit can make some money by relying on its firepower advantage and familiarity with night battles. As for the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers, I guess the Japanese army is not weak, and each has its own merits."
"I said, Lao Ye, don't let the enemy's prestige destroy your own morale, okay? It's not like I haven't fought against Little Japan. I went up to see it at Liuhekou that day. Just because Little Japan is generally short, our Thirty-ninth Division
Brother can pick him up with one hand, how can he be as scary as the previous rumors? Aren't we still going to defeat him? Haha!" Xia Jian said coaxingly.
The brothers laughed, but An Yi seriously corrected him: "When it comes to individual combat effectiveness, we don't have much of an advantage. Especially when fighting hand-to-hand, Japanese officers and soldiers often have good positions. They work in groups and are well-trained.
We are not as good as them in this regard, and we must admit it humbly.
If the equipment and firepower were not superior to the opponent, I would even consider giving each soldier a sword. During the Central Plains War, the Northwest Army's sword team made all the divisions of the Central Army talk about it. There is indeed something about his superiority.
at.
From now on, in addition to capturing and fighting, each division will also need to practice more assassination. The Nanchang Military Academy has organized the Jiangxi Jingwu Association and our seniors from the Cangzhou Martial Arts School to help, and they will soon come up with a simple and practical assassination training method.
, then compile it into a book, print it and distribute it to every officer and soldier in each division. Practice it at least three times a week, and hold regular observation competitions at all levels just like grappling and fighting. As long as you persist, it will be useful."
"Alas... Japan's stupid little country has made it impossible for us to carry out the selection of special forces for the whole army this spring. It seems that it will have to be postponed." Zhang Hao, deputy commander of the 39th Division, was worried.