Chapter 6: The Great Wall Ballad (Part Three)

  "No problem, this time let the little devils taste our strength!" "This time, we'll use the terrain to give the devils a good beating!" Most of the officers in the Special Operations Brigade, including Zhang Songling, had not seen the map of Niangzi Pass sent by the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army before. After hearing Lao Gou say that only one division's strength was needed to defend Longquan Temple, this key point on the battlefield, they immediately became confident and rolled up their sleeves, loudly expressing their determination.

  It wasn't until they started deploying the troops that they realized how far reality was from their imagination. The so-called Longquan Temple was just a general term for the defensive line on the north side of Niangzi Pass. There were also more than a dozen large and small mountain peaks and villages, with a total length of over 50 miles! Not to mention letting the special operations team go guard it, even if they dispersed the entire 27th Division, each key point couldn't be assigned an army corps.

  "Damn it, damn it!" Old Gou sat in the main hall of Longquan Temple, pounding on the table and scolding. The monks in the temple had long since fled, and a Buddha with a dusty face sat on the lotus platform, staring at him with wide eyes. "Where's the radio? Set up the radio for me, and ask Feng Anbang what kind of madness he's suffering from!"

  Fortunately, this time it wasn't a surprise attack, and the battalion brought along a radio transmitter. The communications soldier ran back and forth, busy for over an hour, before finally setting up the transmitter. However, no matter how they tried to contact the 27th Division, they couldn't get through. Even sending a telegram directly to the military department didn't elicit any response. In the end, it was Shi Liangcai who came up with a clever idea, taking his personal bodyguards down the mountain to the village, where they half-bought and half-stole two inferior horses, then rode them to the train station. Only by borrowing the phone at the station were they able to get through to the Second War Zone's Yan Changguan Command Center. As soon as the other side heard it was the 27th Division's Special Duty Battalion, they were stunned, and after a while, hesitantly asked: "Can you repeat your unit number? How can it be the 27th Division? Didn't the Longquan Temple section fall under the responsibility of the 27th Army?"

  "We are the 27th Division, the 27th Special Task Force!" As soon as Shi Liangcai heard this, his face turned dark with rage and he slammed down the phone. He quickly mounted his horse and galloped towards Longquan Temple again. After learning a lesson from the Second War Zone, Lao Gou was immediately stunned. On the surface, the 27th Division and the 27th Army differed by only one word, but their military strength differed by several times. To have a division complete a task that should be completed by an army, wasn't this just trying to get the brothers of the 27th Division killed faster?

  Fortunately, the Yan Changguan in World War II was not so unscrupulous. In the second half of the night, he bypassed the 27th Division headquarters and directly gave another order to the Special Service Regiment. Temporarily go down the mountain and wait for orders at the Xiapanshi Railway Station area. The 27th Army will arrive soon! Moreover, he also kindly informed the Special Service Regiment of some bad news: on October 8th, that is, this morning, Shijiazhuang announced its loss, and the Zhengtai Railway was cut off by the Japanese army. The 27th Division, 30th Division, and 31st Division were attacked by the Japanese army while taking the train to Shanxi, with specific losses unknown!

  "Sixth, sixth, when we left, wasn't there a fight just breaking out in Shijiazhuang?! Old Gou didn't even have time to curse, grabbing the telegram to question the communication soldier. In Shijiazhuang, there was an explosion and Hebei Province Chairman Shang Zhen led a division of troops stationed there, previously solemnly promising the 26th Route Army that they would never allow the devils to attack from behind them. Who would have thought that before this promise had even faded away, Shijiazhuang had already been lost."

  The signal corps also knew that the matter was serious and, at the risk of being blamed by their superiors, retransmitted a telegram to the headquarters of the Second War Zone, inquiring about the other troops of the 26th Route Army. The reply was almost identical to the previous one: Shijiazhuang had fallen; the 27th, 30th and 31st Divisions were attacked while traveling by train to Shanxi, with unknown losses; and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Sun Lianzhong of the Second War Zone lost contact.

  "What kind of fight is this?!". Old Gou jumped up, pacing back and forth in the Taihe Dian Hall like a furious lion. But despite his anger, he didn't have the luxury of losing his composure at this critical moment. After circling around the Buddha statue over a dozen times, he forced himself to calm down and gave a low command: "Wake up the brothers, we'll head down the mountain tonight. We'll wait for them at Xiapan Stone Station. If we still can't contact Old Camp Chief by tomorrow noon, we'll return the way we came!"

  "Go back, go back! Go to his mother's hut, whoever wants to guard it will!" Several battalion commanders were furious at the nonsensical orders from the Second War Zone Headquarters and followed Lao Gou's words, shouting in a low voice.

  The whole team of soldiers and horses wandered around the north side of Niangzi Pass like sleepwalkers, and then came down with torches. When they returned to the designated waiting point in the second war zone, the sky was already bright. A colonel in charge of logistics from the Shanxi-Suiyuan Army had already come forward, smiling and comforting: "Brothers, you've worked hard! The officer has specially ordered me to cook mutton soup for everyone to warm up, plus white buns, eat as much as you want, there's plenty!"

  "Get out of my way, you sheep's head soup!" Old Gou was extremely disrespectful to the superior officer, pointing at his nose and scolding loudly, "Are you guys playing with people or what? You made us run dozens of miles on mountain roads all night! Which idiot came up with this battle plan that can't even tell 27th Division and 27th Army apart?"

  "Then (this) one, then (this) one……." Colonel Jin Sui of the army was anxious and his speech took on a authentic Shanxi accent. "Superior officer, please forgive us. We don't know what's going on either! Orders are all issued from above. Every moment there's a change, today and yesterday never repeat!"

  "Everything is blamed on the top, don't you have a brain of your own!"

  "Then (this) one, then (this) one, which (we) are not here never came so many people?" Shanxi Army Colonel Hong was red in the face, with a look of acknowledging his mistake.

  Running into this guy, Lao Gou also had no way to deal with the other party. After scolding and complaining for a few sentences, he ordered several regimental commanders to take their brothers down to drink mutton soup. Then, he grabbed the Shandong-Suiyuan Army colonel who was about to slip away, trying to hold back his anger and ask: "Is there any news from the 26th Route Army? That is, the First Army of the newly formed Second Group Army! Where is our old superior Sun Lianzhong?"

  "I didn't know that!" Captain Jin Suijun hastily replied, seeing Old Gou's two eyebrows furrowing together again. He quickly added another sentence, "Or, you can go to the train station and ask around. They have a special railway telephone there, maybe it'll get through!"

  Upon hearing this, Old Gou dropped the Jin Sui Army Colonel and set off towards the train station. Inside, he snatched the station master's phone and made a flurry of calls, causing a commotion for nearly half an hour before finally finding the 27th Division Headquarters with the help of the switchboard operator.

  "We're almost at Jingxing Pass. Let's take a break and head towards Niangzi Pass along the railway." Feng Anbang's voice came from the other end of the phone, weak and listless.

  "What? Train? Don't even mention it! The railway has been bombed by the devils' planes into segments, the train can only move forward while waiting for people to repair the tracks! It's not as fast as our brothers' two legs running! Don't worry, Old Camp Leader and the others are fine. Only Huang Juesong's 79th Brigade and the 30th Division responsible for covering the retreat suffered heavier losses, taking a lot of bombs. Luckily, Old Camp Leader had left some leeway beforehand and didn't completely trust that scoundrel Shang Zhen. Otherwise, you'd be preparing to collect our corpses!"

  This is perhaps the only exciting news in two days, although the content inside is mixed. Putting down the phone, Lao Gou led everyone to a hidden place near Xiapanshi Station to rest and wait for the main force. As a result, the main force did not arrive, but the devils' planes came first.

  The troops had no anti-aircraft fire, so the planes came very low. The wings almost touched the roof of the station as they flew over, blowing the straw on the roof in all directions.

  After the two fighter planes took off again, four large and cumbersome bombers followed. Like flies laying eggs, they laid out a few large piles of bombs along the railway line. After dropping all the bombs in their bellies, they still had to circle twice, showing off their prowess, checking the results of the battle before flying away with a swagger.

  Because the resting place was chosen in a relatively secluded location, the devil's plane did not discover the hiding place of the special operations team. Looking at the already unrecognizable road, Lao Gou gritted his teeth and made a cracking sound, "Just let him bomb like this? You, Officer Yan, don't you think of a way?!

  "The little devil's planes have been coming every day for the past few days, and we've already gotten used to being bombed. He bombs during the day, and at night we send people to repair it. Anyway, the little devil still hopes to use this railway himself in the future, so he doesn't dare destroy it too thoroughly!" Stationmaster Xu Ziming, who had escaped ahead of time, shrugged his shoulders and adopted a resigned attitude.

  After he woke up, everyone took a closer look. Through the thick smoke and fierce fire, it was found that the enemy's bombs were mainly concentrated in the section of more than two miles long at the entrance and exit of the station, rather than targeting the entire railway line. The waiting hall of Xiuyan Railway Station also basically did not suffer from shrapnel damage.

  "That can't be tolerated! Don't you, Officer Yan, have anti-aircraft guns in your hands? Why not bring some over!" Old Gou still felt stifled and continued to question in a low voice.

  "I don't know about that!" Xu Ziming continued to shrug helplessly, "I'm just a small official in charge of the railway, how can I have anything to say to Director Yan? If you really want to teach those little devils a lesson..." He hesitated for a moment, then leaned in close to Old Gou's ear and whispered, "Have you seen that tunnel next to the train station? On top of the tunnel is a rocky mountain. It's not very good for hiding, but if we set up a few machine guns there, when the devils come again to dive-bomb, you can give them a few shots from above!"

  "Set up a machine...?" Old Gou furrowed his brow, looking around the surroundings. Sure enough, not far from the station, he discovered a tunnel. The mountain above the tunnel wasn't very high, and the strange rocks on top were steep and precipitous. If they chose a suitable location and arranged several machine guns, they could definitely catch the enemy planes off guard.

  But this person is just a train station master, how can he understand how to arrange the battlefield? With a few doubts, his eyes slowly swept over Xu Ziming. The latter continued to smile wryly and asked in a low voice: "If you want to fight, sir, just arrange for the brothers to go and fight, but afterwards, don't report to the superiors that it was my idea! I'm just a stinky train station master, managing outside the station is not good for me!"

  Note 1: Shang Zhen, a member of the Tongmenghui and an elder statesman of the Xinhai Revolution. At the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he served as the chairman of the Nationalist Party in Hebei Province, but retreated without fighting in front of the Japanese enemy, abandoning Shijiazhuang and taking Empress Dowager Cixi's flower car to "retreat" all the way to Zhengzhou, resulting in the loss of the Zhengtai Railway to the Japanese.

  Note 2: Huang Jiasong, a general, became famous for his bravery in the Battle of Taierzhuang. When the PLA besieged Taiyuan, he prepared to stage an uprising but was betrayed by his subordinate Yu Dehou and executed in Nanjing.