Episode 46 Chuan Ding Sanqin (4) Bloody Battle Pontoon

The distance between the Longmen pontoon bridge and the nearest airport controlled by the Ming army - Zhengzhou Airport has also reached 300 kilometers, and only sending dive bombers to support the pontoon battlefield without escort is not possible, because it is less than 100 kilometers northeast of the Longmen pontoon bridge, which is Linfen Airport. There was also a fighter squadron of the Qing army.

Although there is only one squadron, although it is not a new Haidongqing, it is a fighter after all, and it can still pose a mortal threat to the dive bombers of the Ming army.

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th, the vanguard of the Ming army, the Sixth Division of the People's Guard, that is, the First Mechanized Division, had just rushed through Tongguan for half an hour, had entered Huayin County, and advanced to the foot of Huashan Mountain. In the westerly sun, you can see the majestic figure of Huashan Mountain in the distance. At this time, he received an urgent order from Li Gensheng of the General Headquarters to suspend the westward advance, immediately turn around and go north, and seize the Longmen pontoon bridge.

The situation was urgent, and the First Mechanized Division of the People's Guard, in order to reinforce the Taihang Mountain Column in Longmen as quickly as possible, directly ordered the armored reconnaissance company of the reconnaissance battalion in the vanguard to exempt itself from the reconnaissance mission, break away from the reconnaissance battalion and advance at the fastest speed, and urgently rush to the Longmen pontoon bridge, which was 120 kilometers away.

At the same time, the 1st Mechanized Division drew a light tank battalion, a mechanized infantry battalion, and an air defense company from the main force behind the marching army column to temporarily form a mixed regiment, which followed up in the rear and took over the armored reconnaissance company in front.

In particular, air defense companies are indispensable. In the more than 100 kilometers north from there, the Ming army would fight for the first time with the Qing army in control of the air. In order to reverse this unfavorable situation as soon as possible, the First Mechanized Division of the People's Guard Corps immediately set about finding a temporary place in the north of Huayin County, transferring the entire engineer battalion behind it, and using bulldozer tanks to start tidying up the airstrip.

……

120 kilometers north of this is the Longmen pontoon bridge. The west bank of the Yellow River here is Shaanxi, called Longmen Town. On the east bank is Shanxi, called Hejin County. Longmen Town is located at the natural junction of northern and southern Shaanxi. To the south of Longmen, it is still the Great Plain of Guanzhong. However, north of Longmen, the terrain rises steeply, and it enters the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi. The plateau and the plain are naturally bordered here, and there is a clear distinction. The traditional concept of "Guanzhong" ends here.

The Yellow River north of Longmen is narrow and thin, bound by the high loess on both sides, meandering, on both sides is the loess Grand Canyon, the middle water is turbulent, the angry waves are rolling, quite a bit of the feeling of the southwest Wujiang River, the Nu River, and the Dadu River. But to Longmen, the loess plateau abruptly terminated, there is no high loess layer on both sides of the constraints, the river rushed into the gentle Guanzhong Plain, the river suddenly became very wide, the water flow immediately became soothing, is showing the Ming soldiers in Tongguan to see the kind of "kind old woman" feeling. Therefore, down from the dragon gate, there are more pontoon bridges on the Yellow River.

Now, a company of the Taihang Mountain Column is fighting fiercely with the pontoon bridge garrison battalion of the Qing army in Hejin County.

Although the Taihang Mountain Column has reached more than 30,000 people and has eight brigades, its strength is widely scattered in the two major mountain systems of Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain...... There are so many things to juggle. The Nanming Command received information and learned that there was still a pontoon bridge that had not been blown up, so it immediately ordered the Taihang Mountain Column to go to control it, and the Taihang Mountain Column could only send a company to grab the bridge for a while.

There was only one company in the Taihang Mountain Column, but the Qing garrison in Hejin County had one battalion.

However, the combat effectiveness of the Taihang Mountain Column was stronger than that of the Qing garrison.

Most of the Taihang Mountain Column is composed of local mountain people who are unbearable to be oppressed by the government, and there are many local green forest bandits, who usually bear hardships and stand hard work, and are extremely brave. And those garrison troops of the Qing army are loose and sloppy in peacetime, eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling, rampant and domineering, and their combat effectiveness is naturally not at the same level.

However, after all, there was a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides, and the Qing army was several times larger than the guerrillas. The most important thing is that air supremacy is in the hands of the Qing army. The Qing fighters flying from the Linfen airfield continued to dive and strafe, and the guerrillas could not raise their heads. The garrison of the Qing army, which had a very low combat effectiveness, was greatly boosted by the morale of the air force, shouted "crackling" and opened fire, narrowing the encirclement step by step, and pressing on the side of the guerrillas.

Originally, there were only a few Qing army sappers on this pontoon bridge, who were slowly pretending to be **, preparing to blow up the bridge. At this time, the guerrillas suddenly appeared and grabbed the pontoon bridge at once. The escaped sappers ran back to report the news, and then the garrison of Huayin County poured out, ready to recapture the pontoon bridge. The battle began at noon and had been fought for half a afternoon, and the Qing garrison fought more and more, and the guerrillas fought fewer and less, and now the casualties had reached 20 percent, and the number of people was less than 100. And the garrison of the Qing army is still coming from the two nearby counties in a steady stream.

The position controlled by the guerrillas is the small wharf on the east bank of the pontoon bridge, a small piece of several thousand square meters, which is being reduced little by little. That is, there are some small buildings on the wharf, bungalows, low walls or something, which can barely be maintained.

Neither side had heavy weapons, but the guerrillas were stronger than the Qing army. This is also an important reason why they can barely hold on when they are suppressed by planes overhead. A battalion of the Qing garrison was full of rifles and only one light machine gun. The partisans had only one company, but six light machine guns. This gave the guerrillas an overwhelming advantage in firepower.

But the guerrillas also had a fatal disadvantage, and that was the limited ammunition. They did not follow with baggage, and all supplies were carried on their backs. Therefore, despite the large number of machine guns, the bullets had to be spared. Fortunately, the Qing army was also afraid of death, and no one charged, so it was such a shootout, relying on the fact that there were more people squeezing into the middle, and quickly moving forward a few steps forward under the cover of every strafing shot by the plane. This, in turn, gave the partisans the opportunity to aim carefully. Otherwise, if the Qing army charged in unison, the guerrillas would have to shoot out bullets like water.

……

The biplane fighters in the sky swayed and dived down, three machine guns blew up three pieces of smoke and dust on the guerrilla position, and everyone in the guerrillas lay down on the spot to hide. The Qing army on the opposite side seized the opportunity and rushed forward a few more steps with a shout.

Several light machine gun crews of the guerrillas took advantage of the gap between the plane's strafing fire, and immediately stood up on their knees, mounted Czech light machine guns on the stone wheels, and aimed at a point shot, and immediately the two Qing soldiers on the opposite side fell to the ground in blood. One of them was killed instantly, and the other was shot in the thigh and lay on the ground howling miserably.

The sound of machine guns and screams immediately made a large number of Qing soldiers lie on the spot, each looking for a place to hide, and nearly half of the Qing soldiers turned around and ran back, giving up the position they had just captured.

After the Qing soldiers were lying on their stomachs, they slowly raised their heads, pulled the big bolt and opened fire, and the bullets flew over the guerrilla positions with a whistling bullet.

Immediately afterwards, another "Jebe" fighter staggered and swooped down, aiming at the machine gun group of the guerrillas, and three pieces of smoke and dust swept by, and another guerrilla machine gunner was killed. But a guerrilla next to him rolled over and filled his vacancy.

That's the benefit of the Czech machine gun. Easy to pick up, with straight ballistics and very precise, novices will find a feel for it quickly. Moreover, in the usual training of the Taihang Mountain Column, everyone is required to be able to use machine guns at least regardless of whether they are machine gunners or not. For now, these two advantages are working. The machine gunners of the partisans seemed to be "dead and dead".

Looking at the tragic scene on their own position, the corpses of their comrades-in-arms lying in pools of blood, the hearts of every guerrilla were full of tragic feelings.

……

The Qing army on the opposite side was reinforced more and more, and the garrison battalions in the two nearby counties also came to reinforce in requisitioned cars, bicycles, and horses. The Qing army has grown from one battalion at noon to more than two battalions. At this rate, it will increase to a mass before dark.

And the guerrillas, there are only so many people. Now it is said that it is a company, but in fact there are only more than 80 people. On the opposite side, there were more than ten times the Qing army.

The six machine guns of the guerrillas jammed several key points, and dozens of other rifles were also firing outwards with great podity. Everyone saved ammunition and basically fired only when the Qing soldiers were very close. These guerrillas usually practice hard every day, but now they aim carefully, so the hit rate is very high, and they can basically kill a Qing soldier with three or five shots.

The planes in the sky were another round of dive strafing, and the Qing soldiers on the opposite side seized the opportunity and threw grenades one after another.

During the strafing and explosions, several more partisans were killed on the spot. The morale of the Qing soldiers on the opposite side was greatly boosted, and they rushed over with shouts, until several machine guns on this side spewed out tongues of fire at the same time and put down more than a dozen people at once, so that the Qing soldiers fell to the ground again and dodged separately.

The company commander of the guerrillas shook his head on the ground, shook off the dirt, spat a few more spit out, held the rifle in his arms, touched the tin horn, raised his head and shouted:

"Brothers, come on! Hold the pontoon! Our army is already in the customs, and our tanks will be there in two or three hours! When the time comes, avenge the dead brethren! Kill all the bunnies on the other side! …… Hey, the bunnies on the other side of the street listen up! Don't look at your fun now, be careful to pull the list in the future! This is not the future, tomorrow the army will cross the river and pull the list for you! Acquaintances quickly surrendered, the army is coming, we will intercede, and leave you a dog's life! Otherwise, they will all be killed......"

On the opposite position of the Qing army, another loudspeaker was also shouting:

"Hahaha...... Let the gentlemen surrender? You're all stupefied, aren't you? Now it's up to you to surrender! Hurry up and put down your gun, walk over with your hands raised, and spare you a dog's life! The Ming army can't cross the Yellow River! Just a few of you, can you keep watch for another hour? Soon we will be coming from Houma with cannons! When the time comes, even the pontoon bridge will take a few of you, and all of them will be bombarded into the sky! Hahaha......"

Then, the voice shouted to the Qing soldiers:

"Brothers, fight hard, Beijing has sent another telegram, and the reward has been increased again! The emperor personally promised to blow up the Longmen pontoon bridge, and my surname is Earl Feng, who is surnamed Ma, to carry the flag, promote the official to the third level, and reward 50,000 oceans! Each of the brothers will be promoted to two levels and rewarded with 5,000 oceans! Hahaha...... Brothers, fight hard, fight for this hour, blow up the pontoon, and you will be able to fight for wealth in the second half of your life! …… Brethren, you have heard the shouting from the other side, saying that as soon as the army arrives, they will kill us all! Those who want to surrender to the Ming army should think clearly, is there still a way out? Therefore, whether it is for the emperor or for ourselves, we can't let the Ming army enter Shanxi! ”

This agitation was very useful, and there was another round of cheering on the Qing army's position. During these hours of fighting, a telegram came from Beijing almost every few moments, raising the reward by a cut. As a result, these usual rotten troops are now alive and well, and they all want to fight for the rest of their lives.

On the side of the guerrillas, the company commander shouted loudly again:

"Brethren! Hold on for two more hours! It's dark in two hours, and these planes will have to go! Our machine guns will be deployed! Our tanks are almost there! ”

The Qing army on the opposite side immediately shouted:

"Nonsense! Two o'clock later the plane was gone, and our artillery came! Damn, blow up the pontoon bridge directly, and a few of you will die without a place to bury! …… Acquaintances quickly surrender and spare you from dying......"

……

"Surrender? Hahaha......"

There was a loud laugh from the partisans. Many people also laughed along with Yang Tian.

These people in the Taihang Mountain Column can kill officials and rebel, and go up the mountain to fight guerrillas, because everyone has a deep blood feud with the Manchu court. At the beginning, they were either occupied by the land and could not be negotiated, but they were arrested and killed, and their way of life was cut off; Either because the local police lack money to spend, the family members who took them away extorted "fines", because they couldn't pay it or couldn't pay enough, their relatives were tortured to death; Either because of the collusion between the local government and bullies, the family was ruined; Either because he couldn't bear all this, he went to the county to complain, but because the officials were sent back to the local area, they were ruined by the local government...... If there were no Taihang Mountain Column, these wronged people would only be able to drink a scoop of brine according to the traditional "handling method", and they would have been gone.

These people have already "died once", not to mention that there is still hope now, even if they are completely in despair, they will never surrender, but will only resist desperately, fight one to make money, fight two to earn one.

Behind the low wall, a machine gunner was bleeding from one shoulder, and with the other hand he was still pulling the trigger to shoot, his eyes carefully aiming. As he striking, he shouted:

"Brethren, let's sing!"

Immediately, the positions responded in unison. There was no need to connect in series, several people sang in unison:

……

"We're all sharpshooters, every bullet kills an enemy,

We are all flying troops, even if the mountains are high and the waters are deep.

In the dense woods, camps for comrades-in-arms are arranged everywhere,

On the high hill, there are countless of our good brothers.

……

We grew up here, and every inch of land is our own,

Whoever wants to take it by force, we will fight him to the end! ”

……

"Whizzing" bullets passed by their ears, and from time to time some team members fell screaming, or were shot in the chest or face, and fell to the ground without saying a word...... However, the song on the battlefield has already reached the second stanza, and it is singing louder and louder:

"Even if the government and the court are fierce, our brothers are so brave in battle,

Even if the officers and soldiers are ruthless, they can't find our people.

Let the enemy rampage, our positions are built behind the enemy's flank,

The more arrogant the government bullies, the more our ranks expand.

For light, for freedom, 40,000,000 people are armed,

For the sake of the children and grandchildren, for the sake of future generations, everyone will resist.

The more we fight, the stronger we become, the evil court will surely perish,

Look at the last victory day, the dawn of the land of China! ”

……