Chapter Fifty-Seven

  August 1st, the Army Building Day of Longwei Country. The Chairman delivered a nationwide broadcast speech: "Fellow countrymen, comrades! Now the Green Empire has launched an aggressive war against our neighboring brotherly country again, trampling on life, and the people of the brotherly country are plunged into a sea of fire, women, children, and the elderly have all been slaughtered by the imperialist state. As their brotherly country, we should help them for the sake of justice and peace in the world, we should take practical action, we should fight shoulder to shoulder with them, now our people's sons and soldiers have entered Chaoxian and Afghanistan to resist the Green Empire! Fellow countrymen, comrades, we must believe that justice will ultimately triumph over evil, imperialism will come to no good end! Let us pay high respects to the warriors, the people's sons and soldiers who are fighting!" As soon as the Chairman finished speaking, students, workers, peasants, and garrison troops who were listening to the broadcast all shouted: "Long live the Communist Party! Long live the Chairman! Down with imperialism!" The voices rose and fell, this scene was being staged in cities, villages, factories, military camps, and even in the trenches on the front lines across the country.

  August 3, Kota Bharu. Lai Pak was a local policeman in Kota Bharu who had just come out of his village home. He heard the humming noise in the sky and looked up to see rows of planes flying over from the sea. He was stunned for a moment before realizing what it was, then took another look at the star-shaped emblem on the planes shining brightly under the sunlight. He hastily rode his bicycle while shouting: "Enemy planes! Enemy planes! Air raid! Air raid!" When he arrived at the district office to make a phone report, he heard the sound of explosions one after another and froze - it was too late, the enemy had begun bombing!

  At that time, the port of Jidagang was bombed with dense smoke everywhere, and the civilians were crying, shouting, and hiding in all directions. However, some people rushed to the air defense position to help. Qin Gang was a skilled anti-aircraft machine gunner, and he was frantically firing into the sky. Bombs fell around him from time to time. Within 2 minutes, only his machine gun was still firing out of the 12 anti-aircraft machine guns in the entire position. Soon, he ran out of bullets and habitually shouted "Load! Load!" But immediately realized that he was the only one left, and just as he was about to load the ammunition himself, a sentence in broken Chinese entered his ears: "Is this it? If so, I'll bring it over." Qin Gang turned around to see a 15- or 16-year-old boy and two girls of similar age dragging a box of ammunition behind him. He hastily opened the box, loaded the bullets while shouting: "It's dangerous here, leave quickly!"

  That little boy walked to another anti-aircraft machine gun, and soon pulled the trigger. The recoil of the machine gun almost knocked him down, but two other girls rushed over to help him hold onto the machine gun, and another burst of bullets was fired out. Qin Gang looked at them and didn't have time to persuade them, only saying: "You've got guts!" After that, he loaded the ammunition belt and opened fire on the enemy plane.

  The 115th Division's division commander Tong Jianghai said: "Immediately dispatch troops to counterattack and organize an air defense network!"

  "Yes."

  "Report! Enemy, enemy warship approaching!"

  "How much?"

  "Many, all of them."

  "Order First Regiment to take cover behind warships and bombard them. If casualties are too heavy, withdraw into the city and fight a street battle."

  "Yes."

  The first wave of enemy planes flew away, followed by the second wave. At the same time, the main guns of the battleships, cruisers and destroyers anchored at sea rose up, and a barrage began.

  At 9:07 on the evening of August 3, in a building in the southern part of Jidagang City. The captain of the first battalion, Li Kewei, opened his eyes and said, "Is the position still there?"

  The guard hastily said: "It's still in our hands, Captain, I'll carry you down, you need to be treated immediately!"

  Li Ke shook his head and said: "I have promised our superiors that as long as people are on the battlefield, they will be there."

  The guard said with tears: "Captain, now withdrawing who will not say anything! Our regiment has held out for 13 hours and has completed the task."

  "Now if we can hold the enemy back for one more minute, it will give Commander and his men one more minute to prepare their plan, and we will win." After saying that, he struggled to get up, and the guard rushed to support him. Lei Kewei slowly walked to the window, looking out at his soldiers who were still firing and fighting back tenaciously, and smiled.

  After a while, the guard whispered: "Captain, why don't you take a rest?" The captain didn't respond. The guard said again: "Captain, Captain." Still no response. The guard sensed something was wrong and immediately approached the captain's body, looking at him to find that his eyes were already closed as if he had fallen asleep. After checking his breath, the guard loudly wailed: "Captain, Captain!"

  "Order D?ll to attack at once, damn it! We've been stuck here for 13 hours, 13 hours!" Generalleutnant York von Wartenburg, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, exclaimed loudly while looking through his binoculars.

  "Alright, now 1st Battalion is at the department store in the southern part of the city, 2nd Battalion is at the train station in the southwest, and 3rd Battalion is at the agricultural market in the southeast. They've all withstood the enemy's attack for 13 hours and completed their tasks. However, as you all know, we can't withdraw yet. I received orders to hold out for 24 hours because the Western Allied Forces have just launched an attack on the north side of Xiliugou. We're now facing enemies on two fronts. HQ has ordered us to buy time for our rear defense troops to build a deep defensive line. As long as we can hold out for 24 hours, we'll withdraw from combat. Does everyone understand?"

  "Got it."

  "Alright, pass down the orders."

  "Yes."

  At 3:00 am on August 4th, a staff officer rushed in and said, "Commander, the position of the 1st Regiment has been lost."

  Tong Jianghai slammed his hand on the table and roared: "What kind of person is Lei Ke?! LZ killed him."

  "Commander Li, he...he sacrificed himself."

  Tong Jianghai was taken aback and said: "Then who is commanding the 1st Regiment now?"

  "Commander, the 1st Regiment is finished, all martyred! All martyred, the entire 1st Regiment is martyred!"

  "What?" Tong Jianghai's face was shocked, he hastily said: "Where is the enemy now?"

  "The Chief of Staff has already taken the Guards Regiment up there."

  Tong Jianghai listened and threw his military cap, shouting: "All personnel of the division headquarters, get up for me, each with a gun, get up for me." After finishing speaking, he rushed out of the house.

  After everyone finished firing, Tong Jianghai said: "Comrades, the battle situation is urgent now. We will immediately support the chief of staff and take back the 1st Regiment's position. Now listen to my order, turn right and start marching!"

  At 5:00 on August 4th, Shilong Tong Jianghai looked at the time and shouted: "Comrades, hold on for another hour."

  "Yes." The sparse response came through. Tong Jianghai felt a pang in his heart, not many comrades were left, so many good comrades and good fighters had sacrificed!

  At this time, a whistling sound came from the sky, Tong Jianghai shouted: "Take cover! Artillery fire."

  "Boom!" "Boom!" ...

  On August 4th at 6:00 am, the 115th Division successfully completed its defense mission and withdrew from the already devastated Jidagang Port. The entire division had 12,086 people, but only 1,023 soldiers remained after the battle. According to later statistics by the Green Empire, their three divisions lost nearly 15,000 out of almost 50,000 troops, rendering them unable to continue attacking and forcing them to rest for three whole days, what a precious three-day break!