The south side of the 400-meter-long annular ditch is full of holes, the whistling shells have not stopped for more than ten minutes in a row, the trees and crops that have been dried by the scorching air flow within a radius of 500 meters have ignited a sky-high fire, and the splashed sediment and gravel have risen layer after layer into the air, and they are overwhelmingly sprinkled on this land that has been burned incomparably hot by the heat wave, and bursts of thick gunpowder smoke are transpired and twisted with the sound of a huge explosion, rising to the sky, and are still clearly visible ten miles away.

At this time, there was no distinction between generals and soldiers, every gun and every person was used to the maximum, more than 700 fragmented and unrecognizable corpses of soldiers were densely scattered on both sides of the 300-meter-long arc-shaped ditch, and the corpses of brothers who had died in battle were piled up together by the soldiers who had killed the red-eyed soldiers, and were used as bunkers and machine gun bases.

It is precisely with this dry ditch, which is more than 300 meters long and more than 2 meters wide, that the more than 2,000 soldiers of An Yi's remnants have been able to support themselves until now under the bombardment of tens of thousands of enemy troops and more than 30 artillery pieces.

The origin of this ditch that no one usually cares about is very ordinary, and the drought of half a month has brought the crops along the coast to the verge of extinction, so the people of Liuhe Town hurriedly dug this ditch more than 400 meters long, and set up a pedal waterwheel by the river to bring the river water to the dry land. As the rainy season moved northwards and the water level of the Yangtze River dropped, the irrigation ditch, which took nearly 100 people more than 10 days to build, was abandoned, but now it has become a lifeline for An Yi and his brothers.

In order to firmly occupy this lifeline, which can keep thousands of people alive, An Yi's division paid an extremely heavy price, gritted its teeth to resist two rounds of enemy artillery bombardment, repelled three enemy charges, and paid the price of more than 700 people killed in the battle to hold on to the danger.

It was with the protection of this ditch that more than 700 wounded and sick officers and soldiers were able to evacuate to Baguazhou on the other side of the river in more than 30 small boats and bamboo rafts, and temporarily saved their lives.

The treadmill by the river has been blown apart and destroyed, and on the upstream river, the brothers of Ding Zhicheng's special brigade, who were desperately caught by An Yi's treasure, took control of the boat and took on the heavy responsibility of crossing the river and transporting the injured brothers.

In the hour-and-a-half-long struggle, 17 hard-won fishing boats, large and small, were hit by the enemy's overwhelming artillery fire, and as many as 70 elite special forces members died at the bottom of the river, but the officers and men of the special brigade with superhuman will and tenacious vitality were still working fearlessly in the huge waves stirred up by shells and the death that could be torn apart with the boat at any time.

Ding Zhicheng, who had just finished sending more than 200 wounded brothers to climb Baguazhou, was fortunate enough to collect 17 fishing boats in the upper reaches of Baguazhou, and all the brothers of the special brigade were in great spirits, and they quickly rowed the fishing boats to the rear of the position, thinking that this great increase in the number and capacity of fishing boats would definitely bring the precarious half of the brothers back to the relative safety of Baguazhou, and leave tens of thousands of enemies far away at the plowshare's mouth on the opposite bank. Two of the shells struck two fishing boats that had not yet docked, and the eleven battle-hardened brothers disappeared in an instant, scattering the boiling river along with the shattered planks.

Ding Zhicheng's eyes were red, his liver was broken, and he howled and ordered all the ships to follow him to the rear of the right flank blocking position more than 50 meters downstream, and after evading the enemy's artillery bombardment and landing with difficulty, he found that the position of the 2nd Regiment on the right flank had been broken by the swarming enemy troops, and on the right flank position, which had not been attacked by the enemy's key attack, more than 600 officers and men of the 2nd Regiment and the Teaching Company, which had been preserved in the most complete condition, had already engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

Ding Zhicheng knew very well that if the right-flank position between the main road of the Yangtze River and the Jiajiang River was broken by the enemy, An Yi and the surviving main forces of the whole division on the middle and left positions would be empty and would be wiped out by the enemy.

Ding Zhicheng, who killed the red-eyed, did not stop, shouting and bravely pursued, and the soldiers under his command and more than 500 soldiers of the Second Regiment and the teaching team roared in unison, and marched forward bravely, until more than 1,000 remnants of the enemy were chased out of more than 300 meters and defeated.

Ding Zhicheng, whose clothes had been torn into strips by the flames of war and the blazing air, pulled Chen Zhibiao, the commander of the second regiment, and Chen Kan, the leader of the teaching group, to his side, and shouted loudly amid the deafening explosions and gunfire:

"Hold your position, there are more than two dozen ships behind you, I told the brothers to leave all the machine guns and ammunition, you must hold it! I will go to the main position to find the master's seat, and withdraw the wounded brothers and some of the brothers first, and you must hold the position to the death! ”

"Yes!"

Chen Kan, who had a dark face and a bleeding head, replied loudly.

The earth-shattering shouts of slaughter sounded again, and after the positions on the center and left flank were bombarded with dense artillery fire, the enemy once again launched a fierce charge from both directions, but the right flank positions were not attacked in any way.

Chen Zhibiao looked at the earth-shattering shouts in front of the middle position and the enemy troops rushing in under the black pressure, wiped the dust off his face, turned to the more than 20 ships dangling on the wooden stakes on the shore behind him, and looked at the towering tower of Nanjing City, which was close to the south but seemed to be far away, his eyes were complicated, flashing with incomparable longing, and the thoughts of life and death quickly changed in his mind.

"Boom, boom, boom—"

Chen Zhibiao shouted to hide, flew and jumped to suppress Chen Kan, who stood up, and threw himself into the crater, after the earth-shattering explosion, the two got up from the thick layer of soil, Chen Zhibiao, who was like a clay man, rushed to the position, looked to the northeast, and saw more than 2,000 enemies hundreds of meters away were nervously assembled, Chen Zhibiao gritted his teeth and shouted wildly:

"Commander's order, all retreat—"

Some of the more than 500 surviving brothers were bandaging their wounds, and some had just picked up their weapons and filled them with ammunition and were ready to fight desperately, when they heard the regiment commander Chen Zhibiao chanting "retreat" continuously, they were stunned for a moment, and all of them rushed to the small boat on the shore behind them with the more than ten brothers who took the lead in withdrawing from their positions.

Chen Kan rushed over in horror and hugged Chen Zhibiao: "Zhibiao, what's wrong with you?" Crazy? Flee from the battle, this is going to kill the head! ”

Chen Zhibiao suddenly grabbed Chen Kan's chest and shook violently: "You look at the east with wide eyes, and then look at the tens of thousands of enemies in the north, how long can we hold on?" The enemy has been attacked by artillery and mortars again and again, and how many brothers have we died?

If you look at the south again, the city of Nanjing is right in front of you, what are we trying to escape back for? Isn't it just to return to Nanjing safely? Look at Bagua Zhou, thousands of brothers have all passed safely, and they are about to retreat, but they have left us here, as long as the enemy charges again, we will be all gone!

Chen Kan, listen to me! There was a rain of artillery shells on all sides, and all of them were enemies rushing in without their lives, and if we didn't leave, we would die, you know? Commander-in-Chief Chiang is the commander-in-chief of the division, not the commander-in-chief of you and me, do you understand?

Evacuate! It's too late, with your and my abilities, are you still worried that there is no place for it? Are you really going to be buried with them? You idiot......"

Chen Zhibiao pushed down Chen Kan and rushed down the riverbank quickly, Chen Kan hurriedly got up, looked at the middle of the bitter battle and the left road that could no longer stand, suddenly howled like crazy and rushed down the riverbank, flew and jumped on the last boat offshore, and quickly got up and turned around quickly after falling, facing the scorched earth battlefield that was getting farther and farther away, kneeling weakly, bending down, and slamming his head on the deck and crying...... An Yi, who was in a hurry, braved the rain of bullets and rushed to the left position, a fish jumped on the brothers who didn't know whether they were alive or dead, picked up the machine gun, and fired fiercely at the charging enemy, An Yi's hair and eyebrows had been scorched, the two sleeves had long since disappeared, the military uniforms that could not be distinguished were stained with the blood of the brothers, and only eleven of the thirty-six guards around him were alive, no matter where An Yi went, this group of loyal men followed desperately without hesitation.

Suppressing the enemy's frontal attack, An Yi, who could no longer find the magazine, threw away the machine gun, untied the rifle behind his back, and specifically aimed at the enemy officer holding a short gun and a big knife in the charge.

Qu Tongyuan, the commander of the second battalion of the Reading Force Regiment not far away, and his brothers saw An Yi's bravery, and their spirits were greatly lifted, Qu Tongyuan tore open the broken gong and praised An Yi loudly to boost morale, but the flower machine gun in his hand shot down the enemy in front of him without stopping, and it was under the sudden burst of great potential of the officers and soldiers and the stubborn blow that they were not afraid of death, the enemy's offensive was blocked, and they withdrew like a tide again.

Seeing the enemy retreat quickly, An Yi wiped the dust off his face, let out a long breath, and suddenly saw Qu Tongyuan maintaining a shooting posture, standing motionless and staring straight ahead, An Yi knew that it was not good, and quickly bent down and ran over, hugging Qu Tongyuan's still twitching body and pulling it back hard, he 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 was round open, as if he couldn't believe that he had been shot.

An Yi hugged Qu Tongyuan's head, hugged it tightly in his arms, lowered his head and choked silently, Zhan Huanqi, who arrived quickly, didn't know who An Yi was holding in his arms, knelt in front of An Yi with a "bang", and wailed loudly: "Big brother, go quickly!" Deputy Division Commander Hu is no longer good......"

An Yi raised his head silently, suddenly put down Qu Tongyuan's body, and rushed to the main position as if flying, rushed to a group of brothers who ran to the riverbank with their beards and yelled to put it down, seeing Hu Jialin on the ground with his eyes closed, blood gushing from his abdomen, and a section of intestines had flowed out along the blood, An Yi quickly knelt down, called "tie" with his already hoarse throat, hurriedly covered his beard's abdomen, and cried sadly:

"Fuck your uncle, beard, open your eyes quickly! Lao Yang fell, Ji Nan's leg was broken, Fang Jing was gone, Cheng Guang didn't know if he was alive or dead, you dog said and then leave Lao Tzu...... How are you going to let me live? What's the point of me living alone......"

"Get out of the way! The deputy division commander is still alive! Master, get out of the way......"

Xiao Langzhong pushed An Yi away, quickly bandaged Hu Jialin's abdomen, and loudly ordered the bearded guards to carry people to run with him, and a group of people were in a hurry, stumbling and carrying Hu Jialin towards the shore.

Ding Zhicheng rushed to An Yi at this time, before he arrived, he had already knelt down and walked for several meters, his eyes were bleeding, and his lips had bitten a big hole at some point, he lay heavily in front of An Yi, who was stunned, and kept kowtowing and wailing:

"Shizuo, Chen Zhibiao and Chen Kan led their troops to flee downstream, the emptiness of the right wing is in danger, Lao Tzu is sorry for you, I can't help the brothers, Shizuo ......"

Ding Zhicheng suddenly raised his broken head, raised his head to the sky and let out a beast-like howl, a stream of blood droplets flew out of his open mouth, and in the wail, Ding Zhicheng quickly pulled out his pistol and aimed it at his temple......

(To be continued)