When the scheduled time came, Zhang Tianhai really ran away with his brothers.
The Japanese army attacked again an hour later. The Japanese army, which was well prepared and very excited, arrived at the south bank position and it was already empty of people and there was a bomb...
The officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 216th Regiment had already completed their retreat forty minutes ago.
At this time, the remaining officers and soldiers of the Thirty-sixth Division were retreating towards Kunshan. Along the way, the roads that were pockmarked by Japanese aerial bombs were filled with broken troops and small units that had been separated from their superiors. Most of them had already been with the division-level and regiment-level troops. The unit has lost contact.
There was a mess everywhere, and there was no order at all. The Japanese planes were still hovering in the sky, like a howling vulture, waiting for the death of people on the ground.
The defeated soldiers who lost their organizational structure probably had only a few endings - either as deserters, or being recruited by other troops, or dying under the butcher's knife of the Japanese. Without their organizational structure, they cannot form combat effectiveness at all!
Despair, haste, and chaos are all happening here, and Zhang Tianhai and his troops are chasing the 36th Division. Division Commander Song Xilian has already taken the remaining 3,000 officers and soldiers to Kunshan. Well, according to the order of the former enemy commander-in-chief Chen Cheng, they had to rush to Kunshan first before giving instructions.
Zhang Tianhai was hurried to Kunshan with the remaining 300 officers and soldiers of his battalion. If he had to use one word to describe Zhang Tianhai at this moment, it would be embarrassing, and extremely embarrassing. There were tears in his eyes, but his expression was extremely determined: the dead brothers were dead, and he wanted to lead these living brothers to live on.
The officers and soldiers behind Zhang Tianhai more or less had tears in their eyes, but they followed the battalion commander extremely firmly. Only the battalion commander can lead them to survive and lead them to avenge their dead brothers!
The camera returns to the forty-five minutes before the Japanese army captured the south bank of the Suzhou River...
The smoke of the battlefield is still there, not diluted at all by the rain. The officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 216th Regiment still have an incomparable fighting spirit. The passage of time has not diluted their hatred of the Japanese invaders. On the contrary, it has It was getting heavier and heavier. Even though they were about to retreat, before they evacuated, the southern position on the south bank of the Suzhou River was still an iron wall that the Japanese invaders could not break through!
Before evacuating, Zhang Tianhai asked the officers and soldiers to gather all the seriously injured people together, and then distributed a grenade to each person.
Behind a huge reverse slope, two rows of severely injured people were lying on the ground still breathing. In this era of lack of drugs and antibiotics, the only thing waiting for them was death.
Standing in front of this relatively safe backslope, Zhang Tianhai's eyes were filled with tears. He said in a hoarse voice: "Brothers, I believe you also know why I, Zhang Yulin, gathered you here... That's right. , I am distributing glory mines to you. This grenade is for you to use after the Japanese army occupied the position. I'm sorry, brothers, it was my incompetence, Zhang Tianhai... who failed to bring you home alive. I can only die on the battlefield, and I can’t take you home..."
When talking about the latter part, Zhang Tianhai's voice was choked with sobs. It is said that men don't shed tears easily, but they are not sad yet.
A man who has always attached great importance to friendship is now forcing the robes who have gone through life and death with him to die. Moreover, he personally gave this order. One can imagine how he feels.
Just when the scene was so quiet that you could hear the drop of a needle, a weak but firm voice sounded: "Battalion Commander... stop talking, we are honored to be your soldiers. Before going to the battlefield... ahem... ... We knew... we knew that we were here to die, and it was worth it to fight against Japan under the battalion commander's command... Battalion Commander, please take the brothers away, we are still here, from now on... from now on, Kill more Japanese for us..."
After saying that, the seriously injured man grinned and gasped, and a smile uglier than crying appeared on his face. Everyone present burst into tears. Only the seriously injured men had firm eyes, but were speechless. , they just looked at each other, as if to say: Brothers, we also have company on the road to hell. If we die, we will have to drag a few little devils along with us.
Zhang Tianhai held back the tears that fell and said with a slight choke: "Brothers... salute the veterans!"
After saying that, Zhang Tianhai took the lead in saluting a standard military salute, and the rest of the officers and soldiers did the same. The scene was very touching, but unfortunately no one else saw this scene except the officers and soldiers present.
At this moment, the brothers who had already forged deep feelings in the battle were once again twisted into a rope, an unbreakable steel rope!
Before the evacuation, Zhang Tianhai asked the uninjured officers and soldiers to place the seriously injured soldiers individually in relatively safe places, and then evacuated.
Forty minutes after the main force of the first battalion withdrew, the excited Japanese troops arrived at the south bank. What awaited them was the glorious thunderbolt that killed them all...
Explosions sounded one after another on the southern front positions on the south bank of the Suzhou River, taking away the lives of almost a hundred Japanese soldiers...
…
When Zhang Tianhai and others rushed to the former enemy headquarters in Kunshan, they found that there was no trace of the main force of the 36th Division, let alone Chen Cheng's former enemy headquarters. There were only scattered skirmishers and superiors. A small unit that lost contact.
In fact, at this moment, Zhang Tianhai and others don't look like a small force that has lost contact with their superiors?
Fortunately, among the crowd, Zhang Tianhai discovered Guo Qiliang, his old classmate from Huangpu, and the two soldiers beside him, so he hurriedly walked over.
It turned out that Guo Qiliang and others were ordered by the regiment and division commander to wait for Zhang Tianhai and others. Guo Qiliang informed Zhang Tianhai that when the division commander led his troops to Kunshan, Chen Cheng's former enemy headquarters had already evacuated and there was no one behind. It was the iron heel of the Japanese army, so he took most of them to Suzhou first, and asked Zhang Tianhai to lead the troops to rush to Suzhou immediately to join the division group and the others.
"Thank you for your hard work, brother Qiliang. If you hadn't been waiting here, our brothers in the first battalion would have died in Shanghai." Zhang Tianhai's words were a heartfelt thank you. If Guo Qiliang hadn't been here to point the way, Even if they didn't die under the iron heel of the Japanese army, they would still starve to death. Even if you have to ask the common people to borrow some food, you have to ask the common people to get it. The common people around here have already run out!
Guo Qiliang nodded and said: "Okay, Brother Yulin, there is no need to say anything. Now is a special period, so hurry up and take the brothers to Suzhou!"
…
PS: Another chapter.
