Section 1 Tranquility

In the early morning of December 11, the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938), Jiejiawan in the southern suburbs of Changsha.

Shi carried a rifle and walked slowly in the dark alley, his speed was not fast, his steps were steady and powerful, and his military boots stepped on the bluestone road, making a burst of "snaps...... The sound of "popping ......" echoed in the alleys, and in the dark night before dawn, it was particularly harsh. However, there seems to be a strange rhythm mixed with that distinct rhythm, and listening to it too much can make people settle down and fall asleep soundly.

On the side of the stone, Cheng Yong followed closely with the soldiers of the guard platoon, they were wearing thick military uniforms, and the breath exhaled from their mouths turned into a white mist in the cold early morning, making people clearly feel the cold of winter, especially in the darkest time of the day, the cold feeling was even worse, which made them quite uncomfortable. But among the few of them, no one made a sound, no one was dissatisfied, and the regiment commander personally patrolled and inspected every day, where did they dare to complain?

After walking for a while, the stone seemed to be a little tired, and everything around him was silent and he couldn't bear to break the atmosphere, and after a little hesitation, he raised his feet and walked towards the courtyard in front of him.

The alley was not as calm as it seemed, and from time to time the group of them had to pass through a group of secret whistles to ask questions, and although their voices were very low to each other, the solemn atmosphere seemed to be somewhat incompatible with the silence in the surroundings.

Finally, they returned to the courtyard where the regiment headquarters was located after a night's patrol, the stone waved at Cheng Yong behind him, the young guard platoon commander hesitated, and then obeyed the regiment commander's order, and led the brothers of the guard platoon to a few huts on the side, which was the residence of their guard platoon, and if there was any situation, they could protect the safety of the guard regiment commander in the shortest possible time.

Standing alone in the courtyard, Shi couldn't help but slowly walked to the front steps and sat down, at this moment, his movements were unusually slow, and his steps were extremely heavy, without the agility and agility of a young man, like an old man of sixty or seventy years old.

The rifle was close to his chest, the stone took out the cigarette case from his pocket, and he sat quietly on the steps of the courtyard, looking up at the sky in the cold air.

The half-curved moon hangs above the deep sky, and the stars are shining, and the silver light wraps the earth, making the winter earth even colder.

A puff of smoke was spit out, and the stone looked at the starry sky, and couldn't help but be stupid, and in a trance, he seemed to have returned to the past, back to the scenes of artillery fire, and the familiar and vague faces crossed through the stone's mind, and the dark and kind faces made the stone tremble.

It was only in this absolute silence that he would think of his former brothers, of his robed brothers who had long since turned to dust. Zheng Pusheng, Xu Qiang, Lao Meng, Zhu Zi, Zhou Wu, Tietou, Chen Daaxe...... A series of almost endless names appeared in front of him, the hearty laughter, the roar that soared into the sky, people seemed to feel that these people were still around, however, under the cold night sky, where was there any other sound?

Gradually, a beautiful and hazy shadow emerged in the heart of the stone, the stone could no longer remember the facial features on this face, the only thing he could feel was the kind smile, although the stone did not know who it was, but the instinctive feeling let him know that it must be his mother, his dearest person.

However, as time went on, as the number of wars increased, the images in my mind gradually blurred and became more and more difficult to see, which made the stone painful and heartbroken.

"Dad, mother......, where are you? Where is my home? Only in the dead of night, the heart of the stone will have this kind of deep longing, just in the troubled times, thinking of the slaughter of 300,000 compatriots in Nanjing, his heart will keep trembling, he is afraid that his parents and relatives are in Nanjing, for fear that they will be slaughtered by the devil like those ordinary people.

Because he always remembered what Zheng Pusheng said to him, the accent of the stone is a southerner, although it is not the accent of the Nanjing City, but it must be a southerner.

The stone lay down weakly, the cold undulating steps, but it made him feel extremely comfortable, unconsciously, a drop of eyes rushed out of the eye socket and slipped from the corner of his eye, and only at this time, the stone that has always been cold and ruthless, as if he was born for war, will make people feel that he is actually just a young man who is just about twenty.

At this time, nearly two months have passed since the bloody battle of Wanjialing, and it is also five or six hundred miles away from De'an, far away from that battlefield, Shi's heart not only did not relax because of the stop of the war, but became more and more empty and lonely, it seemed that he was really born for war, and when he left the battlefield, all kinds of discomfort came one after another, making him almost suffocated.

The battle of Wanjialing, as they established a firm foothold in Zhanggu Mountain, gradually tilted in the direction of the national army, lost the geographical advantage, lost the fire suppression of the commanding heights, and the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army decreased sharply, and because the ranks of the two armies were intertwined, the Japanese army's aerial bombardment lost its obvious target.

If it weren't for the avant-garde units of the Fourth Army who missed the opportunity to discover the headquarters of the Japanese division in the dark, I am afraid that Junrokuro Matsuura and others would have been wiped out that night. However, Junrokuro Matsuura, who was lucky enough to pick up a life, did not escape the next fate, and the rolling mountains of Wanjialing became a nightmare for the Japanese army.

On the second day after the 153rd Brigade counterattacked Zhanggushan and took it in one fell swoop, the Japanese army organized a final wave of offensive to attack the belly and back areas of Changling and Zhanggushan. The Japanese army of more than 200 people was actually blocked in the canyon by a platoon of alert troops, and did not break through for a long time, but the result was obviously easy to see, and the units of the Fourth Army and the 74th Army, which had come to their senses, sent reinforcements to completely annihilate this Japanese army, completely extinguishing the last glimmer of hope of the Japanese army.

After 5 days and 5 nights of bloody battles, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army was almost completely annihilated in the mountainous areas around Wanjialing, if it were not for the continuous delivery of ammunition and supplies by Japanese planes and even the direct airdrop of officers from various divisions and regiments, I am afraid that this division would have become the first Japanese division to be completely annihilated since the start of the war.

Of course, the first time the Japanese army airdropped officers to support them, it did not have much effect, and the brave teams organized by various departments of the Nationalist Army often organized a fierce charge without waiting for these Japanese troops to land, and the Japanese officers either drowned or were killed, and there were not many that could really play a role.

Around October 15th, the Japanese reinforcements finally took advantage of the opportunity of the 106th Division of the National Army to open the first line of defense on the Ruiwu Road and rushed to the first line of Ganmu Pass.

In this battle, the 302nd Regiment lasted 22 days from the beginning of the battle to the withdrawal of the defensive line west of De'an, and the infantry regiment, which was originally close to full strength, had only 15,600 remaining troops after the war, and half of the casualties reached half. Of course, compared with the 305th Regiment, which only had about one company left, and the 306th Regiment, which only had a few hundred people left, the 302nd Regiment commanded by Shi still maintained sufficient combat effectiveness in such a long battle, and successfully completed various combat tasks.

For the 74th Army, this battle was a battle of pain and joy, the original nearly 19,000 people of the 74th Army, after withdrawing from Wanjialing, there were less than 10,000 people left, its casualties were heavy, quite amazing, especially the bloody battle of the 58th Division in Changling and the two hard battles of the 51st Division in Zhanggushan, which fully demonstrated the super combat effectiveness of the 74th Army.

It can be said that the battle of Wanjialing, without the tenacious struggle of the 74th Army, would not have had such brilliant results. After this battle, the 74th Army was recognized as the most capable of fighting tough battles, and its ability to attack tough battles without geographical advantages and advantages was vividly demonstrated in this battle, and after this battle, the 74th Army also broke away from the sequence of the 9th theater and became a strategic general reserve directly under the Central Military Commission.

After this battle, the 57th Division, which had outstanding combat effectiveness of the 2nd Army, was also transferred to the 74th Army, and its combat effectiveness was greatly enhanced.

Of course, these things, the stone does not pay much attention to, for these people, living, in fact, is already the best reward, living, is also the most painful torment, everything else, is just a mirror, the past is just a cloud. However, gradually, they also felt the benefits of becoming the general reserve of the Military Commission, first of all, in terms of the supply of weapons and soldiers, their 74th Army became the most priority and generous object, all kinds of the latest weapons, the best military uniforms and bedding were handed over to them, in the past, it took a long time to recover after the war, and in less than two months, they regained their vitality, and the best quality soldiers were replenished, so that their combat effectiveness was maintained.

Thinking about this in his head, the stone gradually closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, he was so tired, he hadn't had a good rest for a long time.