Chapter 7 The First Battle of Dongyang Bridge

  The northern plains are suitable for mechanized troops to maneuver, but also not suitable for concealment. Because on the plains, people's vision is broad, and without any instruments, they can see activity targets more than four kilometers away. Fortunately, it was the season of high corn irrigation at this time, and the endless green canvas provided cover for Cheng Ziqiang's small team. Even so, they stopped a few kilometers away from Dongyang Bridge.

  Constable Jiang Zhi, following Cheng Ziqiang's arrangement, ordered the soldiers to dismantle the roofs, doors and tops of the two trucks, fill the sacks with wet soil and pile them up on the vehicles, turning the trucks into mobile fortresses. Corn stalks with leaves were also cut and inserted on top as camouflage.

  Just then, a rustling sound came from the high sorghum field. The squad leader hastily grabbed his rifle and loaded it, shouting "Password!"

  "Counterattack!" The voice of Lang Yiweng came from the green silk tent, and it turned out that Junior Officer Lang Yiweng and Cheng Ziqiang had returned from reconnaissance.

  Jiang Zhi originally didn't think much of this suddenly appearing ugly country army officer, and even thought he was a swindler at one point. However, after interacting with him for several hours, he discovered that the man's demeanor and work methods were basically no different from those of the foreign advisors he occasionally met in the division headquarters, and his work was also meticulous and flawless. Although he still couldn't understand why Cheng Ziqiang had fallen to doing hard labor, he gradually acknowledged Cheng Ziqiang's superior status.

  "Second Lieutenant." Cheng Ziqiang had just emerged from the cornfield, and without even catching his breath, he said to Lang Yiweng, "Get everyone over here except for the sentry."

  "A typical ugly national style." Lang Yiwu muttered to himself, but still went ahead with it. This is not surprising, in the Huaxia army, especially in this kind of motley local army, it was rare for tasks to be assigned to soldiers in the form of meetings before battle. The existence of soldiers in the eyes of officers was only cannon fodder and actual strength, no one paid attention to bringing out the personal abilities of soldiers, everything was decided by the officers. Therefore, a European officer once wrote in his diary: "Huaxia soldiers are the best and bravest soldiers in the world, but the premise is that there must be an equally excellent and brave officer commanding them. Otherwise, they are no different from a group of civilians wearing military uniforms."

  The summoned soldiers formed a large circle, Cheng Ziqiang held a hardcover file folder in one hand and drew the plane map of Qiaotou Town on the ground with a branch in the other hand. The drawing was very detailed, even the specific position of each Japanese soldier was marked clearly, it seems that the previous close reconnaissance was not covered.

  Although the soldiers were not used to this way, they still listened very carefully, because Cheng Ziqiang had said before that only in this way could everyone have a chance to live and see victory.

  Cheng Ziqiang drew while pointing and explaining: "I used to work in Qiaotou Town, so I'm quite familiar with the terrain here. I hope you all remember this, it might save our lives. The main buildings of Qiaotou Town are north of the bridge, and there are only a few scattered small houses south of the bridge, which I've numbered accordingly. Earlier, we learned from refugees on the road that since this morning, the East Yang Bridge Garrison's militia has been forcibly driving away townspeople who were trampling high cornfields on both sides of the bridge, resulting in a 400-meter open area north and south of the bridge head. This is exactly within the effective range of rifles, which also means we'll have to advance 400 meters under enemy fire during our surprise attack on East Yang Bridge. Of course, we could launch a night attack or wait for Major Yuan's main force to arrive before attacking, but that would miss the opportunity and fail to capture East Yang Bridge on schedule as ordered by the division headquarters. Therefore, we must launch an immediate attack."

  "According to the refugees, there are not many people left in the town now. Most of them have been driven away by the Japanese pirates. Only a few people, including the former toll collectors and some local residents, remain. The refugees from Linhai City also took a detour. From our reconnaissance with Vice Officer Cheng just now, we found that the enemy's forces are distributed as follows: 5 people south of the bridge, 7 people north of the bridge, and the rest should be in the town. So we have made an attack plan." He finished speaking and looked at Cheng Ziqiang, implying it was his turn to speak.

  Cheng Ziqiang didn't mince words and immediately said: "The most difficult part of the entire attack is how to get through this 400-meter open area and the alley battles in Qiaotou Town. All of you lack training, which means we can only have one chance at attacking. If we fail, we can only switch to defense on the spot, and the completion rate of our mission will be discounted. Therefore, in the first stage, we must use the fastest mobile speed to get through the open area. We have cars, which is our advantage, and we also have a firepower advantage with machine guns. I plan for me and Sergeant Jiang Zhi to follow one car, with a Slovak rotating turret machine gun on top of the car, 65 Battalion using two machine guns, and all 20 crew members; The second car will be equipped with a Slovak rotating turret machine gun, 65 Battalion using two machine guns, and 10 crew members. When we set out, I'll lead four people to form the vanguard, while the rest of you use manpower to push the truck forward to the predetermined assault point near the open area."

  "What if we're discovered while making a detour?" Jiang Zhi was after all a superior soldier and had some military sense.

  "Then immediately switch to a strong attack." Cheng Ziqiang replied to Jiang Zhi's question without thinking, "In any case, once the charge is launched, vehicles cannot be turned off under any circumstances. Machine guns must alternate fire, and infantry must alternate firing in single and double numbers according to the queue report number, maintaining continuous firepower. When the vehicle arrives at the south of the bridge, Lang Shao Wei will lead your combat team to get off the bus and clear out the remaining enemies. Immediately after that, bring heavy machine guns to the highest building on the south head of the bridge to suppress the town with firepower and support the north of the bridge. I'll lead people to break into the north of the bridge, clear out the remaining enemies at the north head, divide into two combat teams, led by me and Jiang Zhi respectively, enter the town for street fighting. If the attack fails, we will retreat back to the bridgehead fortress in the north of the bridge, prepare for the next attack under Lang Shao Wei's support. The key to the entire action is high mobility and firepower. Does everyone understand?"

  The soldiers were dizzy from Zhang Ziyang's lengthy speech, looking at each other in dismay. Lang Yiweng saw this and couldn't help but feel a little schadenfreude, thinking to himself: "Things are different in our country, your approach won't work in China."

  Cheng Ziqiang also immediately realized his own problem, he smiled slightly awkwardly and said: "It seems that everyone still doesn't quite understand, actually everyone doesn't need to remember the entire plan, you only need to remember the part assigned to you, now we will proceed with the battle grouping."

  Although Lang Yiwu was not used to Cheng Ziqiang's rough tactics, he didn't know what to do at the moment. If it were a normal operation, they would use machine guns for cover and then have everyone line up in a skirmish line to launch an attack on the bridgehead. But after charging across 400 meters of open terrain, who knows how many of these thirty people would still be left? Moreover, given their current morale and combat effectiveness, they might not even make it past 400 meters before the troops dispersed. Therefore, he could only follow Cheng Ziqiang's plan. Anyway, if anything went wrong, Yuan Shijiang would take the blame.

  When Lang Yiwu and Jiang Zhi were making pre-war preparations, Cheng Ziqiang held a hardcover file folder alone, writing and drawing, humming and muttering. After the combat team was formed, Cheng Ziqiang gave each combat team a piece of paper. It turned out that earlier, Cheng Ziqiang had turned each group's predetermined tasks into rhyming couplets, although the time was urgent and some sentences didn't quite rhyme, but it was still very useful for strengthening memory.

  "Each group has five minutes to memorize these." Cheng Ziqiang said. Immediately, the surroundings were filled with buzzing sounds such as "Zhang San enters the bunker, Li Si raises his gun, and Wang Wu retreats to the left side".

  "Where did you learn all this?" Lang Yiweng, after all, was a trained officer and immediately admired and was surprised by Cheng Ziqiang's approach.

  Cheng Ziqiang smiled and said, "Do you think those European farmers and Uighur rascals are really better than our Han soldiers?"

  "I hope your method is useful." Lang Yiwu did not hide his suspicion of Cheng Ziqiang's ability at all. But the fact proved that Cheng Ziqiang's tactics were successful.