The Courtyard House: The Little Red Devil Returning from the Peninsula

Tuanbugou, 10:00 AM.

Zhao Weiguo stood in the command post, a charcoal pencil in his hand. Three circles were drawn on the map: Heisonggou, Ganhegou, and Tuanbugou; the first two were already checked.

On the third circle, the charcoal pencil is still there, not yet falling.

The communications soldier ran in.

"Reporting to the regimental commander, the main force of the Japanese army has entered the regimental headquarters ditch, and the rear guard has just crossed the ditch mouth."

Zhao Weiguo put down the charcoal pencil and made a checkmark on the third circle.

"Sapper Company. Bomb."

Tuanbugou is surrounded by mountains on three sides and has a gentle slope on the other. The entrance is narrow and the exit is even narrower. There is a dirt road at the bottom of the gully, and cliffs on both sides, which are more than two people high and covered with shrubs.

The ditch was filled with gravel and dead branches, and the mules and horses walked on it, their hooves making a crunching sound.

Yamazaki rode in the middle of the column. He looked tired; two consecutive ambushes had cost his men over two hundred men, but the main force was still intact, the cannons were still there, and the machine guns were still there.

He tightened the reins in his hand.

There won't be a third line of defense ahead. The Eighth Route Army has deployed all the troops they can.

His staff officer didn't think so. He walked beside the horse, a map in his hand, marking the location of the three ravines. He looked at the cliffs on either side; the cliffs were too quiet, unnaturally quiet.

"Lieutenant Colonel," the staff officer said, "This place?"

The staff officer's voice trembled slightly. Yamazaki glanced at him but said nothing.

Before he could finish speaking, a loud bang came from the mouth of the gully.

The engineering company detonated the explosives as pre-set. The explosives were buried at the base of the cliffs on both sides of the gully entrance, consisting of twenty kilograms of black powder and three detonators, with the fuse stretched for fifty paces.

The engineering company commander squatted behind a rock outside the ditch mouth, clutching a hemp rope in his hand. Hearing the communications soldier shout, "The rear guard is crossing the ditch mouth," he pulled sharply.

In the instant of the explosion, half of the cliff collapsed, and boulders and earthen walls tumbled down, smashing the mouth of the ravine into a chaotic mess. Dust billowed up, forming a wall that blocked out the sunlight.

Yamazaki's horse was startled; its front hooves left the ground, and it neighed. He grabbed the reins and looked back. The ditch was blocked.

The boulders were piled higher than a person, and some of them were still rolling down, hitting the supply wagons behind and breaking their wheels.

His expression changed.

"withdraw?"

Before the second word could be uttered, firepower was unleashed from three sides simultaneously.

The Third Battalion held the main position, perched high at the end of the gully, overlooking the terrain. Rifles and light machine guns fired down from the cliff face, bullets sweeping across the gully floor, sending sand and gravel flying everywhere.

Old Qian led three battalions of five hundred men, divided into more than a dozen firing points. Each firing point would fire three rounds and then change positions, making it impossible for the Japanese army to figure out where the main force was.

A new recruit from the 3rd Battalion fired three shots and hurriedly scrambled down the next ditch. He slipped and tumbled down the slope.

The squad leader next to him grabbed his trouser leg and dragged him into the pit.

"Don't look up! Load!"

The recruit's hands trembled as he loaded bullets into the gun chamber.

The regimental guard company guarded both sides of the gully entrance. Liu Dashan led a hundred men from the guard company, opening fire from both sides of the collapsed gully entrance, blocking the Japanese troops' path as they tried to crawl out from the pile of rubble.

A Japanese sergeant and a few men tried to crawl out from the crack in the rocks, but as soon as they poked their heads out, Liu Dashan's machine gun swept them out.

A shower of sparks flew from the crevice in the rock, and the figures shrank back, remaining silent thereafter.

Liu Dashan changed the magazine and spat into the ditch.

"It's easy to get in, but hard to get out."

The artillery company set up its mortars on a small hill behind the ditch. The two mortars and twenty-three shells were all refitted from Zhao Tieshan's arsenal.

The gunner crouched beside the cannon, his hand gripping the shell, waiting for orders.

Zhao Weiguo raises the flag.

"Mortars, fire at the Japanese artillery positions."

The first shell flew out and landed about ten paces away from the Japanese artillery. It missed.

The gunner adjusted the angle, and the second shot landed on the Japanese artillery's carriage. The carriage exploded, the Type 92 infantry gun's barrel tilted to one side, and the wheels flew off and smashed into rocks.

The third, fourth, and fifth mortar shells landed one after another on the Japanese artillery positions.

Of the twenty-three shells fired, three misfired, but the remaining twenty reduced the two Japanese infantry guns to scrap metal.

The shell exploded, the ammunition box burst open, flames shot into the sky, and shrapnel and metal fragments flew dozens of meters away.

Yamazaki fell off his horse.

A mortar shell exploded nearby, startling the warhorse and throwing him off. He landed on a rock, his right shoulder hitting the ground, and the pain made his vision go black.

The staff officer rushed over and dragged him behind a large rock.

"Commander! Commander!"

Yamazaki pushed the staff officer aside, propped himself up on a rock, and looked down into the ditch.

His troops were in complete disarray. The artillery was gone, and the two infantry guns were now scrap metal. The machine gun squad had barely set up when they were spotted by snipers, and the gunners fell one after another.

Gardenia lay prone behind the cliff at the end of the gully, while Mosin-Nagant's gun barrel protruded from the bushes. She fired seven shots, hitting six: two artillery observers, three machine gunners, and a supervising military policeman.

The seventh shot went astray, the bullet grazing the ear of a machine gunner, who was so frightened that he lay down on the ground and didn't move.

Yamazaki drew his military sword.

"Machine gun squadron! Keep watch on the east flank! Forwards, charge up the slope!"

The remnants of the machine gun squad set up their last two heavy machine guns and opened fire on the eastern cliff face. Bullets struck the cliff, sending debris flying. At the same time, military police, bayonets at the ready, forced the infantry at the front to charge up the slope.

The infantry didn't want to charge. The two previous ambushes had already shattered their courage, and now they were trapped in the ditch, attacked from three sides. Everyone knew that charging forward would mean certain death.

But with military police holding guns behind them, they would die if they didn't charge.

A young infantryman was shoved by the military police and stumbled forward a few steps. His bayonet trembled violently in his hand.

He hadn't run ten steps when a bullet struck his right leg. He fell, sprawling on the ground, his gun lying to the side. He didn't pick it up; he just lay there, face buried in the dirt, his shoulders trembling.

Another infantryman beside him saw this and stopped. The military police called out from behind, but he didn't move. The military police called out again, and he turned around to look at them.

Then he threw the gun on the ground and raised his hands.

surrender.

When Yamazaki saw this, all the color drained from his face.

Old Zhou led a battalion to press up from the flank and rear.

The First Battalion fought a battle at Heisonggou, losing seven men and eleven seriously wounded, leaving more than four hundred men still capable of fighting.

Old Zhou led them out through a small ditch on the side of the regimental headquarters, blocking the Japanese army's escape route from the side.

Li Dazhu led the Second Battalion out from another ditch and blocked the other side.

The troops that withdrew from the first two lines of defense completed the encirclement at the third line.

Yamazaki wanted to regroup his remaining troops. He stood on a rock, raised his sword, and shouted.

"Assemble!"

A mortar shell exploded five paces away from him. Shrapnel flew over, grazing his right arm, and his saber flew out of his hand, landing with a clang on a rock.

He knelt on the ground, his left hand covering his right arm, blood gushing from between his fingers.

He saw the military knife lying in the mud, the tassel on the hilt still trembling. He tried to reach for it, but his right arm wouldn't lift.

His staff officer rushed over and dragged him behind a rock. The staff officer's face was covered in blood and mud, and his lips were trembling.

"Lieutenant Colonel, we can't fight anymore."

Yamazaki didn't speak. He leaned against a rock, looking down into the ravine. His soldiers were surrendering en masse. Some threw their guns on the ground, raising their hands;

Some lay motionless on the ground, it was unclear whether they were dead or just pretending; others ran around in the ditch, unable to find a way out, and were forced to squat together by the Eighth Route Army soldiers at gunpoint.

Eight hundred people, that's it.

The battle is nearing its end.

Zhao Weiguo walked out of the command post and to the mouth of the gully. The mouth of the gully had been bombed and was littered with huge rocks, some of which still bore bullet marks.

He stepped on the stones to the bottom of the ditch, where the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood. The smoke had been half blown away by the wind, but the smell was still there.

Chen An led the medical team in. They started from the edge of the ditch, checking the wounded one by one. They checked their own men first, then the Japanese soldiers.

There weren't enough bandages, so some wounded soldiers had to use torn pieces of their uniforms as makeshift bandages.

A young medic squatted down next to a wounded Japanese soldier who had been shot in the stomach; blood had soaked through his uniform.

The young medic's hands were trembling slightly, so Chen An went over and took the bandage from him.

"Hold on tight. Don't panic."

The young medic nodded and took a deep breath.

Zhao Gang organized the escort of the prisoners. He made the prisoners squat in a row, disarmed them, searched them, and then led them to the rear in batches.

Some prisoners had blood on their faces, some were trembling, and some had vacant eyes, as if they hadn't yet recovered from the gunfire.

Zhao Weiguo walked up to Yamazaki.

Yamazaki leaned against a rock, his right arm wrapped in the staff officer's bandage, blood seeping out and staining the white cloth dark red. His face was expressionless, his eyes fixed on Zhao Weiguo.

Zhao Weiguo squatted down and looked at him.

"Taigu County supply team, Taigu County garrison, the deployment of the 36th Division, you can say as much as you can."

Yamazaki didn't answer. There was hatred in his eyes, but more than that, something indescribable. He stared at Zhao Weiguo's face for three seconds.

Zhao Weiguo is too young, too young to be someone who can command three lines of defense.

Yamazaki suddenly laughed, a very unpleasant laugh. He turned his head to the side and closed his eyes.

Take stock of the results.

Li Dazhu reported the numbers. Eight hundred Japanese soldiers came, more than seven hundred were killed, and forty-three were captured.

More than 400 rifles were captured, eight light machine guns, two heavy machine guns (one destroyed), and one infantry gun was also destroyed. A considerable amount of ammunition was also seized.

The price was twenty-three lives lost, and thirty-one people lying on stretchers.

Zhao Weiguo looked at the numbers.

Twenty-three lives. Adding the four who succumbed to their wounds, that makes twenty-seven in total. They were exchanged for over seven hundred Japanese soldiers. The score wasn't bad, but every single life was real.

He folded the battle report and put it in his pocket. His fingers paused at the pocket opening, as if pressing something.

He turned from the edge of the ditch and began to walk down the gravel. The smoke of battle hadn't completely dissipated. He walked slowly, each step landing on pebbles and spent shell casings. Behind him, someone was calling for a stretcher, the sound drawn out by the wind.

A stretcher was carried past him, carrying a soldier from the Third Battalion, his chest bandaged and blood still seeping out. Zhao Weiguo stopped and reached out to steady the stretcher pole.

"Take it easy."

The two soldiers carrying the stretcher responded and slowed their pace.

Zhao Weiguo watched the stretcher walk away before continuing toward the command post.

Zhao Gang followed from behind, holding the list of prisoners in his hand.

"Yamazaki isn't saying anything. Should we have Chen An bandage him up first?"

Zhao Weiguo did not turn around.

"A bag is worthless once it's dead."

Zhao Gang nodded and turned to make the arrangements.

Zhao Weiguo walked to the entrance of the command post and stopped. He glanced back at the regimental headquarters ditch.

In the ravine, prisoners were being led away in strings. The medical team was still searching for people among the rocks. On the distant hillside, several soldiers were carrying down their fallen comrades and covering them with quilts.

A soldier carrying a stretcher slipped, causing the stretcher to tilt. Those nearby quickly steadied it, and a corner of the quilt covering the stretcher slipped down, revealing a pale foot.

The wind blew the smoke towards the mouth of the ditch, making people's faces sting.

Zhao Weiguo lifted the curtain of the command post and went inside.