March 16, 1944. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Nanshan Road, Zhuolu County.

The Japanese army had been leaving Beiping for two days.

Since the decision was made to take the initiative to retreat from Beiping, the Japanese army began to move early, in addition to strengthening the forces of Changping and Yanqing, and also transferring some baggage early. It was too late for the Japanese expatriates to learn the news of the Japanese army's retreat, and a large number of Japanese expatriates came to Yanqing by train with their children and daughters.

The large Japanese army in front of them had more than 70,000 people, and they did not carry much baggage, and the food was only enough to eat for a few days.

It backfired, leaving Yanqing, and the railway was completely demolished. The demolition of the railway was obviously calm and orderly, only the rails were removed, even the road nails were removed, but the sleepers were well placed there, not moving.

The command demanded that the vanguard go to the next station to reconnoiter and see if there were any trains available in front. The results of the reconnaissance of the vanguard gave bad news to the North China Garrison Army Command: there were no trains at the two stations in front. Every few miles, a section of track is removed by removing the rails and studs, leaving the sleepers.

To Datong, there is only walking. The command gave the order, and set off.

The arduous journey of the Japanese army began. The entire army was transported to Yanqing by train, and several trains were transported hundreds of times, but because they were too hasty, only two cars, dozens of pack horses, and war horses were transported. Only a few high-ranking officers, such as commanders and chiefs of staff, were allowed to ride in cars, and the vast majority had to walk.

The unit that served as the blocker had a brigade, and they were stationed directly in Yanqing. In the past few days, the blocking troops only saw the people who were struggling to move forward with the large army, and there was no Eighth Route Army and the Northeast Coalition Army chasing after them.

So, didn't the Eighth Route Army do anything? No. Almost everyone can feel that the Eighth Route Army is around, on the side of the road, on the mountains on both sides of the road.

There are two roads to Datong, one is along the railway, and the other is along the highway. Sometimes, the road and railway are on one side of the railway, and some are far away.

By the 16th, it had been four days. At first, more than two dozen wagons were found in two more villages, and in no time, the villages along the way were empty, with no people, no livestock, no food, not even water, and the wells were either filled in or thrown in with dung.

The road became worse and worse, and a ditch was dug every few tens of meters on the road, and at the beginning, the sappers were able to build the road to ensure the passage of vehicles, but later, in order to catch up with the schedule, the Japanese command gave an order to scatter the grain and carry it, except for the artillery, all other baggage was abandoned.

It's a mountainous area, sparsely populated, the people have retreated cleanly, almost all the firewood and grass in the village have been removed, and there is still no water. Because there was no firewood and grass, some people drank raw water, and gastrointestinal problems increased dramatically.

In order to drink water, in addition to digging ice in the ditch, it is to go to distant villages. The villages in the distance are not completely fortified, and you can still find drinking water and even food.

The march of large troops, with these verbosity, is very slow.

Along the way, the most unbearable thing is the cold gun.

The troops left Yanqing and began to have cold gun attacks. After a few days, the Japanese army figured out the law, and the ambushes on both sides were all dirt roads. The number of these dirt roads is small, the marksmanship is accurate, and they will be withdrawn after one shot. At the beginning, they also sent search troops to pursue, and sent reconnaissance troops to search on the mountain beams on both sides, and later, in order to speed up the march, they simply narrowed the search area, aimed at the sides, and fired their guns indiscriminately. The valley was wide, and the army, regardless of the road or the road, dispersed and advanced along the valley.

Since the day before yesterday, mines have appeared on the road.

There are mines of all kinds. Some are made of grenades, some are regular mines, and some are made of stone. Grenade mines are not very powerful, but some mines are very powerful, and a lot of stones and nails are placed in the mines, and one explodes, and several people are injured.

The wounded increased, and the march slowed down.

The most annoying time, passing through a village, a lot of chili noodles were put in several mines, and none of them died, but the eyes of dozens of people were damaged.

When we were about to arrive in Zhuolu County, the valley was open, and the command headquarters ordered that multiple teams should be parallel, speed up, and march towards the county seat.

Finally arrived at Zhuolu County.

The command understood that the sharp increase in harassment in the past few days was to delay the entry of troops into the county town and buy them time to clear the wilderness. Otherwise, how could this large county town be emptied.

In Zhuolu County, the sappers dug wells to get water, and the troops finally drank water, and the headquarters asked all the troops to strengthen their supplies and move forward immediately. They refused the command's request to rest for a day and continued their march. Why? This county seat is likely to be a trap.

After leaving Zhuolu County, he walked dozens of miles, and then entered the ravine, because the terrain near the county seat was open, and the terrain here was narrow, and the troops were crowded at the mouth of the ravine.

On the main road north of Zhuolu County, in the fields, the Japanese expatriates who followed the Japanese army rushed up in dense numbers. They saw the county seat from afar and didn't want to leave, so let's take a rest.

In the ravine in the south of Zhuolu County, there are dense soldiers, one team after another, some along the railway, some along the road, some at the bottom of the ditch, some at the foot of the mountain, and some by the river.

At this time, the sound of airplanes was heard in the sky.

The Japanese army didn't pay much attention to it, because in the past few days, planes from Taiyuan have been coming to check non-stop, and they have also airdropped letters and parcels. However, when the number of planes is clearly seen, experienced veterans see that something is wrong with the planes, feel bad, break away from the crowd, and flee for their lives.

The Great War began.

The planes began to drop bombs, or simply strafe crowded areas.

The first wave was dropped with submunitions. After the submunitions were dropped, several aircraft dropped incendiary bombs. The Japanese army did not know that this incendiary bomb was newly successfully tested, and the number was not large, only nine bombs, and this was a test.

A few years later, one of the surviving Japanese soldiers wrote in his memoirs: "When I saw the plane coming, I desperately tried to get out of the crowd and run towards a slightly slower hillside." A few of the recruits saw me running away and ran up with me. Jun Cao shouted at me and fired a few shots. I didn't stop at all, and when I saw the plane dropping the bomb, I lay down on the hillside.

The devilish submunitions exploded just a dozen meters in front of me, and the whole valley was like thousands of grenades thrown together, walking evenly on every foot of the ground, exploding together. When the explosion stopped, I looked up and saw a dozen places in the valley, full of dead bodies. It's hell.

A field of shells flew from somewhere in the east, and from a distance, the shells dragged a white line, and soon the shells came, hundreds of shells, neatly falling in the crowded ranks on the flat ground on our north side.

I could see clearly on the hillside that there was a dead man at the point where every shell landed. Hundreds of shells were fired together, it was terrible.

But the nightmare wasn't over, and the plane came again.

The three planes dropped bombs on a mountain road south of me, where there were several thousand people. This time it was not a submunition, the bomb exploded after it landed, and the power of the explosion was not very great, but every place where it exploded was a fire. This devilish flame sticks to the body and burns. I have seen with my own eyes some living people being burned and running around, burning their own fire on others.

It was the first time I had seen an incendiary bomb explode with my own eyes.

I was scared, really scared.

So I kept running up the hill, and the mountain was too steep, so I climbed.

The recruits who followed me also survived, and when they saw me going up the hill, they followed me. They always follow me, and they obey my commands.

When I got to the mountain, I found that something was wrong, because there were dozens of people on the hillside, and it was the Eight Roads. I wanted to shoot, only to find out that the gun had been thrown away without knowing when.

On the back of the hillside, thousands of Northeast Eighth Route Army, dressed in green uniforms, scattered up the mountain.

The recruits didn't see me shoot and didn't shoot.

So a few of us were taken prisoner.

I'm glad I lost my gun at the time. Then I was sent to the Chita Mine. Because I was a worker, I was assigned to work in a machine factory until I brought my family to Chita after the war. At that time, I heard that my hometown in Kanto was very bad, and when I went back to pick up my family, I realized that my hometown in Kanto was too backward. I love modern Chita, and so does my family.

The bombing came every hour, and although the effect was not as good as the first one, the number of casualties per bombing was still very large.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Japanese planes from Shanxi and Shandong came to reinforce them.

Because the number of aircraft reinforced was small, there were only five aircraft. Even the army on the ground could see that the vast majority of the pilots who came to reinforce were newcomers, and they flew unsteadily and did not make any moves. The pilots of the Northeast Coalition Army were not afraid of death, they flew up and down, constantly moving, and fought with their lives, and after the reinforced Japanese planes were shot down four, one ran away.

Half an hour later, another wave of reinforcements came, and after being defeated again, the reinforcements never came again.

After that, it may be that the bombs of the Eighth Route Air Force are gone, and the planes are not coming.

The entire Hutuo River valley is full of corpses, wounded soldiers, traces of burning, and craters. The Japanese troops advanced lightly, and the wounded were thrown down. This time, in a few hours, the troops ran more than ten miles of mountain roads.

Because the ridges on both sides were very steep, it was difficult for the search troops to climb up, so they fired at the ridges to search.

Two reconnaissance planes were hovering over the team at all times.

Seeing that this was a reconnaissance plane, the Japanese did not pay any attention to it and quickly passed through the valley.

Suddenly, the two reconnaissance planes flew across and made very strange movements.

Two minutes later, figures appeared on the mountain beams on both sides. When the Japanese reacted, they began to shoot from both sides, and the bullets rained down.

This is standard ambush warfare. The Japanese army, which had only machine guns and mortars, fell into passivity, and the other side fired mortars from a high place, which was much more effective and more lethal.

Several Japanese troops who had seized the high ground were repulsed. There were too many bullets in the Eighth Route Army.

After the ambush lasted for twenty minutes, the Japanese felt that the Eighth Route should charge, and began to prepare for a white-handed battle.

This time it was different, the Eighth Route Army continued to fire, it is not known how many bullets they had.

By two o'clock in the afternoon, the eight roads on both sides were dropped together, and the entire mountain road was shrouded in the smoke of grenade explosions.

The shouts of killing rang out on the mountain.

It's a charge.

On the west side of the mountain is the dirt 8th road in gray military uniform, and down the east side of the mountain is the northeast 8th road in green military uniform, and in the middle is a devil in yellow clothes.

The devils all saw the power of submachine guns this time, and many people from the eight roads who rushed down were holding submachine guns with bayonets, and many of them were killed before fighting with bayonets.

In the valley, which was more than ten miles long and 100 meters wide, as many as 300,000 troops were gathered, tumbling and killing together.