readx;

Chapter 1271: The Battle of Wanping

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Beiping, the building of the Jicha Political Affairs Committee. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The major streets in the city of Beiping have never been so depressed and silent as they are today, because of the great panic caused by the war, the frightened citizens closed their doors tightly, the shops were closed, the trams were closed, the garbage and confetti were everywhere under the scorching sun, and the dust brought up by the patrol officers and soldiers with stern expressions swirled up, and soon disappeared with the wind, returning to calm.

Qin Dechun, vice chairman of the Political Affairs Committee, mayor of Beiping, and former deputy commander of the 29th Army, led several attendants to politely send the British and American ministers out of the building.

Qin Dechun watched the convoy go away, gently wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, subconsciously loosened the wind and discipline buckle of the pine spruce robe, sighed faintly, and turned around and walked into the building.

In the chairman's office, Song Zheyuan, still dressed in a military uniform, was standing by the wide window, the armed belt around his waist had just been unfastened, and the open placket was swaying slightly in the hot wind blown by the fan.

On the hottest day of the year, Song Zheyuan still wore shiny long riding boots on his feet, with a slightly curved neck back and slightly messy hair, showing that the famous general of the Northwest Army, who had been in North China for six years, had lost his former brilliance.

Qin Dechun entered the office, waited for the attendant to pour tea, waved his hand to signal everyone to stand down, glanced at Song Zheyuan, who was still standing silently in front of the window, and sat down to drink tea after thinking about it.

Song Zheyuan had already known from the footsteps who was coming, and he didn't want to be silent for a long time, so when he looked back, he saw Qin Dechun drinking tea without saying a word, and he barely cheered up, turned around and returned to Qin Dechun, sat down and took a sip of the teacup, feeling that the tea was a little wrong, he frowned slightly, and gently put down the cup: "Shaowen (Qin Dechun), what did the United States and Britain say?" ”

"It is still the same face, requiring us to ensure the safety of the lives and property of overseas Chinese and diplomats from various countries, strictly prohibiting the squadron from engaging the Japanese army within three kilometers of Dongjiaomin Lane, and once again asking us to withdraw the officers and men of the garrison force blocking the exits of Dongjiaomin Lane, and to inform them at any time of the recent situation of the fighting between the Chinese and Japanese troops in the Pingjin area." Qin Dechun's Shandong accent is very thick.

Song Zheyuan nodded, was silent for a moment again, shook his head and showed a wry smile: "Shaowen, do you accept the position of director of the Military Commission Review Committee and general staff of the First Group Army given to you by Chairman Jiang?" ”

Qin Dechun's body was a little weak and leaned on the backrest, he reluctantly raised his hand, straightened the thick beard on his upper lip, and asked rhetorically: "Brother Mingxuan, you say, does the junior brother have any other choice?" You can't follow Qi Xieyuan's gang and flee to the Japanese in Tianjin, right? I can't do this kind of thing of forgetting my ancestors! ”

"Alas......"

Song Zheyuan sighed involuntarily, this general who has been famous on the battlefield for 20 years, has sighed more and more recently, and it has almost become a habit, he is now very remorseful for the continuous reuse of Qi Xieyuan's batch of civilian officials in the past two years, especially after the Fifth Army won the victory in Langfang with the cooperation of the 38th Division, his once famous anti-Japanese general has been dimmed, and his former subordinate Zhang Zizhong, through the Battle of Huangcun and the Battle of Langfang, has replaced his position as Song Zheyuan and become the hero of the people's praise.

What's even worse is that Song Zheyuan himself also made frequent stupid moves, and in the adversity of the Japanese invaders, he actually sacrificed the plan of "retreating as advance", and came to "resign", but this previous countermeasure that had been tried and tested by all the local princes suddenly failed, but was put on the spot by Chiang Kai-shek, and threw out the establishment of three armies and the number of several divisions at once, which easily made Song Zheyuan fake it and made it true, and the various departments under his command that had been suppressed also quickly collapsed, and went their own way, and now Song Zheyuan almost became a loner.

The 29th Army used to gather 150,000 elites under its command, but after Song Zheyuan's strategy of "retreating as advance" was implemented, it lost control in just three days, and the middle-level generals who had long been unbearable for the Japanese army's humiliation led their troops one after another, under the leadership of Zhang Zizhong, Feng Zhi'an, and Liu Ruming, and the 29th Army, which had been monolithic, quickly split into three camps.

Today's Song Zheyuan, in addition to the two big hats of the member of the Military Commission and the deputy commander of the First Theater on his head, only has two brigades and a guard regiment left in the Beiping garrison, and the total strength adds up to less than 13,000 peopleThe Ninth Division.

Qin Dechun saw Song Zheyuan's depressed look, and after thinking about it, he still said what he wanted to say in his heart: "Brother Mingxuan, the two armies of Wei Lihuang and Tang Enbo have achieved a great victory at Nankou, and now they have firmly held the barrier north of Beiping, and the Japanese army retreating north will not be able to form a threat in a short period of time; More than 3,000 Japanese troops on the front line of Changxindian and Fengtai in the south have collapsed under the heavy attack of the independent division of the Anjia Army; Yu Changhai's 132nd Division counterattacked on all fronts under the strong echo of the Anjia Army, and drove the Japanese army in Nanyuan to Wanping City in only three hours; The 28,000 men and horses, including the elite independent brigade and the 37th Division, which has the "model battalion", a landmark combat unit, have besieged the main force of the riverside brigade in Wanping City, annihilated the riverside brigade that lost nearly half of it, and took Wanping County by chance. In such a situation, Brother Mingxuan should have made a decision as soon as possible, otherwise, once Lao Jiang ordered Wei Lihuang or Tang Enbo to lead his troops into the city and take over the mess of Beiping, we would be even more passive. ”

Song Zheyuan only felt a splitting headache, pressed his temples with both hands unconsciously, slowly stood up and walked back, and seemed to stop after a difficult choice: "Shaowen, what is your opinion?" ”

Qin Dechun finally stood up, smiled bitterly, and spread his hands: "Do we have any other choice?" Brother Mingxuan, there is no one under me, the mayor, the order of the entire Beiping has been completely paralyzed, the situation is almost out of control if the government decree is not passed, even the police station is closed, and there is no choice in the face, except to compromise with Lao Jiang, you can only be a traitor. ”

"Alas, I regret not being at the beginning......"

Song Zheyuan looked up to the sky and sighed, and after a long time, he turned to Qin Dechun: "Call back to Nanjing, just say that you and I will go to Baoding as ordered, obey the leadership and command of Cheng Songgong, the commander of the theater of operations, and ask Chairman Jiang to appoint the new commander of the Beiping garrison as soon as possible." ”

"Understood, little brother, let's go."

"Wait!"

Song Zheyuan stopped Qin Dechun: "Add a message at the end, no matter who serves as the military and political chief of Beiping, it is best to let our old department Feng Zhi'an lead the troops to garrison Beiping, we will have this little face left, if Wei Lihuang or Tang Enbo are allowed to come in, our old Northwest Army will not even have the last piece of crotch cloth......"

......

The sound of cannons inside and outside Wanping City has stopped, but the sporadic gunfire is still continuing, and Wanping City, which has stood for hundreds of years, is already full of holes and dilapidated, and billowing smoke can be seen everywhere. More than 100 houses in the west gate of the city have become burning ruins, and the city is full of mutilated corpses and blood stains of Japanese soldiers.

What is surprising is that the majestic and quaint city tower on the west gate is still unscathed and stands majestically.

Wanping City is 640 meters long from east to west, 320 meters wide from north to south, it is the barrier of the south of Beiping since ancient times, it was built in the late Ming Dynasty Chongzhen ten years, the Ming Dynasty called the "Gongji" city, the Qing Dynasty changed its name to "Gongbei" city, it was not called Wanping at that time, after the Xinhai Revolution, it was located in the Wanping County Office near the drum tower in Beijing, moved to this place, and was assigned to the jurisdiction of Hebei Province, so it was renamed Wanping City. The shape and structure of Wanping City is different from the ordinary county seat, there are no streets, alleys, markets, bell and drum towers and other facilities of the general county town in the city, there are only two gates in the whole city, and there are urn cities and city towers, the city wall is thick and solid, it is very conducive to defense, there are battlements and lookout holes on the outside of the city wall, there are shooting eyes under it, and each battlement has a cover plate.

After withstanding four rounds of bombardment by two artillery battalions of the 37th Division and a mortar battalion of the Independent Division, almost all of the 22 92 guns that the Japanese army had painstakingly carried to the head of the city were destroyed, and most of the auxiliary facilities on the city wall had been destroyed by artillery fire and dense bullets, and the light and heavy machine guns of the Japanese army suffered heavy losses under the heavy artillery fire, and the rest could only withdraw from the city head and shoot outward through the shooting holes and lookout holes on the city wall.

It has been four hours of fighting, and it was not as fierce as the Japanese expected, but it was intermittent, after the clever squadron completed the encirclement, it did not launch any charge, except for the beginning of the artillery bombardment that lasted for more than 20 minutes, and the infantry immediately launched a fierce attack and swept away the Japanese fortifications outside the city, there was no large-scale charge to attack the city that the Japanese expected to see, but retreated to the area about 1,500 meters away from the city wall, and arranged the position in an orderly manner with the regiment as a unit, Put on a posture of besieging Wanping City for a long time.

As a result, the Japanese machine guns completely lost their effect, as long as the remaining artillery in the city was fired, it would soon attract dozens of shells to retaliate, the Japanese artillery trapped in the small siege completely lost its effect, and repeatedly attacked down, only sixteen guns were left intact, but the shells were almost exhausted, not to mention that the ammunition replenishment warehouse set up in Fengtai had long been occupied by the new third brigade of the Anjia Army, even if it did not fall, the Japanese army could not transport ammunition supplies into Wanping City, after the small city lost its peripheral strategy, It's completely a lonely city.

Before the war, the commander of the Japanese North China Garrison Brigade and Regiment, Kawabe Zhengsan, who was full of ambition and tried his best to provoke the Lugou Bridge Incident, carefully climbed the city wall again and used a telescope to observe the Zhengyang Gate of Beiping City, which was 3.5 kilometers to the east, and really saw the black bodies of 36 125 howitzers in the sunset, and the muzzle of each artillery was aimed at Wanping City, and a team of more than 6,000 people was marching in front of the artillery position and advancing in the southeast direction along the flat carriage road, and the flaming red battle flags in the ranks were very dazzling.

"Hebian-kun, it must be the Anjia Army, you look at their clothing and equipment, their helmets do not reflect in the sun, because the surface is covered with a layer of camouflage cloth of the same color as the clothes, as well as the open-top personnel carrier and the assault vehicle with machine guns in the middle of the team, which is the standard equipment of the infantry brigade of the independent division of the Anjia Army; There is also the position of more than 30 large-caliber towed howitzers, which is undoubtedly a heavy artillery regiment directly under the 17th Army, which is likely to drive over from the direction of Fengtai. Brigade staff officer Yoshito Matsui lay beside Major General Shozo by the river, holding a telescope and whispering his observations and inferences.

"Yes, I also judged it this way, if it is really the two brigades of the Anjia Army Independent Division that attacked Fengtai and Changxindian, then this means that the Kurosawa Brigade, Ishino Engineer Brigade, and Ito Combat Convoy in Fengtai have all been shattered......"

"Hebian-kun, the shelling of the Chinese army has just ended, it is estimated that it will not take more than half an hour, and the shelling will start again, we have already suffered heavy losses on the city, if we add the shelling of this heavy artillery regiment that has just joined the battlefield, we have no room to resist at all, we can only passively wait for death." Yoshito Matsui, who was thin and small, looked sadly at the riverside Shozo.

Kawabe Shozo put down the binoculars, gritted his teeth and said viciously: "The sun is about to set, in order to compete for a one percent chance of survival, we have only one last choice!" ”

"What do you mean......"

"Don't worry about the east side for now, the west side is Song Zheyuan's thirty-seventh division, let's go down immediately, and take the master Huiyuan and a few monks of the Xinglong Temple in the city to the west city tower, I want to negotiate with that Feng Zhi'an!"

"Hey!"

......

In the trench outside the West Gate, Han Changxing, commander of the 223rd Regiment of the 37th Division, did not dare to slack off after receiving the urgent report, and immediately rushed to the forward position, passing through the dusty officers and soldiers on the battle line, and ran all the way to the trench of the first battalion at the forefront. It is estimated that in order to attract people's attention, the great monk actually put on a big red robe, which is particularly eye-catching in the sunset. A Japanese officer, holding up a flag with a red cross emblem, kept shaking.

A gust of east wind blew, and at the front of the empty position, pieces of dust were raised, Han Changxing looked a little inexplicable, put down the binoculars, turned around and bent down to spit out a mouth full of sand, rubbed his eyes, and asked loudly: "First battalion commander, tell me the fuck to Lao Tzu, what does little Japan mean?" ”

"It is estimated that little Japan waved its flag and wanted to negotiate with us, but it was worried that it would be shelled by us, so it simply took the great monk of Xinglong Temple in the city to the city as a hostage." The commander of the first battalion of Hei Zhuang happily expressed his speculation.

Han Changxing thought about it, raised the binoculars and looked at it for a while, nodded thoughtfully, turned around and punched the right shoulder of the first battalion commander:

"Your kid has grown, and he can use his brain, yes, yes, it must be like this! Little Japan of the dog day, if you can't beat us, you want to play the trick of negotiation, delusional! How about today, our 37th Division is also going to eat the riverside brigade on the day of the dog with Brother An Jiajun! ”

"In that case, we should rush into the city! More than 10,000 of our brothers lay on this bare ground all day, not to mention the scorching sun, and they had to endure the bombing of the little Japanese planes, which is not a problem, regiment commander. ”

The commander of the first battalion shouted aggrievedly, and the more than a dozen platoon commanders who surrounded the surrounding area also shouted one after another.

"What for, what? Get back to your place! Holy shit, just a few shots and a few shots can't bear it? We have just finished expanding the army, we are fully equipped, what are we eating and drinking all day long? The Japanese are full of energy to compete with us, and there will be many tough battles in the future, and you grandsons are still afraid that there will be no fight? Hum! After beating the little Japan in Wanping City, there will be little Japan in Xianghe, Tangshan, Tianjin and other places waiting for us to fight, worry about a fart! ”

Han Changxing loudly scolded the officers and soldiers under his command, his dirty face became darker and darker, but his cunning eyes showed joy, saying that it was a reprimand, but it was better to cheer up.

The platoon commanders of the company immediately dispersed when they heard the sound and returned to their posts, and the first battalion commander took off his cotton military hat and smiled: "Regiment commander, did you launch a general attack tonight?" ”

"Little Japan's marksmanship is very accurate, plus we are a tough battle, after entering the city will also start street fighting, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, it was originally set like this, but now there is a big monk in the city, I don't know how many people in the city are taken hostage by the enemy, I'm afraid the division will not dare to order the shelling. Later, after I finish calling and reporting, I will go to the back headquarters to take a look, you kid will show me closely, and report to Staff Officer Tang immediately if there is any situation, understand? ”

"Yes!"

......

Three kilometers southeast of Wanping City, Dujiazhuang, the front headquarters of the Independent Brigade of the Independent Division.

The last rays of the sun finally faded, and on the half-scorched mountain after the enemy plane's air raid in the afternoon, more than a dozen soldiers stood on the waist, all holding binoculars, carefully observing the dead east gate of Wanping City in front of them.

Zhang Lingyun, chief of staff of the 77th Army, and Lu Xiong, commander of the Independent Brigade, were stunned after receiving Feng Zhi'an's urgent telegram, and they were all stunned, originally thinking that Wanping City, which had escaped, still had more than 400 civilians and more than 20 monks who had not evacuated, but now they were all used as life-saving human shields by the shameless riverside brigade, and the general attack originally scheduled to be launched on time at eight o'clock was forced to be canceled, and the commander of the Japanese brigade, Kawabe Zhengsan, actually asked to negotiate with Feng Zhi'an.

Zhang Lingyun felt that things were very difficult to do, and quietly approached Lu Xiong, who was five big and three rough: "General Lu, have you ever encountered this situation in the An Jiajun before?" ”

"Well, I have encountered it twice, and all of them were handled by our Commander An personally, and the final result was that the other party surrendered. However, this little Japan is very cruel and resilient, and usually does not surrender when it dies in battle. Lu Xiong scratched his head and replied in a low voice. Ten years ago, the reckless ruffian went all the way to the position of major general and brigade commander, and his personality was also honed and calm, and his resourcefulness also increased a lot.

Zhang Lingyun likes Lu Xiong's character very much, and he also knows that this man around him, who is five big and three thick and has a particularly accurate machine gun, followed An Yi step by step to fight a country, and after a ten-year journey, he was promoted from a veteran ruffian to a general, and he was a tiger general that An Yi loved and valued very much. After listening to Lu Xiong's words, Zhang Lingyun thought for a while and then asked: "General Lu is reasonable, if General Lu is replaced to deal with it, I don't know what decision will be made?" ”

Lu Xiong glanced at Zhang Lingyun and grinned, "Chief is trying to ask how our Senior Commander Yang will react, right?" ”

"Haha! I really can't hide it from General Lu with this careful thinking, that's right, I want to know how our military seat and your division commander Yang will deal with it at this moment. Although this battle is said to be under the full command of our military seat, in fact, from beginning to end, our two armies are fighting side by side, regardless of subordination. I think that at this time in the Chengxi Command, our military seat will definitely seek General Yang Guan's opinion on this, and we need to make a decision in the shortest possible time, because we all know very well in our hearts that the Japanese army will never obediently lay down its arms and surrender out of the city, what does General Lu think? ”

Zhang Lingyun no longer said polite words, but got to the essence of the problem.

Lu Xiong understood what Zhang Lingyun meant, thought about it and replied truthfully: "Since the Japanese are cheeky and do such a thing, it is certain that they will negotiate with each other and meet each other, no matter what happens in the end, we must first occupy the word 'morality', otherwise the Chinese people will not accuse the Japanese, but will complain that we don't care about the lives and deaths of civilians." Nearly 30,000 brothers from our two armies surrounded Little Japan, and Little Japan will definitely not dare to mess around, and I believe that Commander Feng's opinion will be the same as that of our Division Commander Yang. In fact, meeting and saying a few words is just a scene. ”

Zhang Lingyun nodded: "It seems that this can only be the result, but General Lu, An Jiajun has the reputation of being a benevolent and righteous teacher, will he have another choice because of the safety of the lives of the hundreds of civilians in the city?" ”

"If you change to your army, will you stop fighting?" Lu Xiong did not answer the rhetorical question.

Zhang Lingyun was a little embarrassed, shrugged his shoulders and said self-deprecatingly: "Fight!" Definitely going to fight! However, you also have to consider the impact and worry about being criticized by outsiders. ”

Lu Xiong smiled faintly and approached Zhang Lingyun's ear: "Sir, there is no need to be polite when you whisper these words to your junior brother." I still remember that our commander An said such a sentence: There can be no kindness of women on the battlefield, and more soldiers cannot be killed because of unbearability, regardless of men, women and children, those who die on the battlefield should be counted as sacrificing their lives for the country. ”

Zhang Lingyun's eyes widened and he looked at Lu Xiong in great surprise, Lu Xiong nodded slightly, walked away with a smile, and ordered his chief of staff to immediately give orders to each regiment to prepare for battle.

"Good! What a sacrifice for the country! ”

Zhang Lingyun looked at the tall body of Lu Xiong leading his subordinates down the mountain, and admired the decisiveness of An Jiajun's killing in his heart.

Indeed, during the war, the lives of soldiers are more important, and we cannot indulge the enemy because of scruples, let alone use more soldiers' lives to do any so-called moral righteous deeds; in any case, destroying the enemy and preserving ourselves is the greatest goal, and what the victor says is reasonable, otherwise it will only harm others and himself.