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

4:20 a.m.

It was still dark. A grayish-white light shone from behind the eastern ridgeline, highlighting the mountain's outline in the darkness. Zhao Weiguo crouched behind an earthen slope outside the north gate, facing the Type 92 infantry gun, its barrel pointing diagonally forward. Gunner Sun Desheng lay prone behind the gun, his eyes pressed against the sights, his left hand gripping the gun carriage handle. The Type 92's wheels were stuck in the frozen ground, and the wooden wedges beneath the gun carriage had been hammered in firmly.

Zhao Weiguo looked at the city wall through binoculars.

The firing ports on the north gate tower looked like eight dark holes in the morning light. The Japanese and puppet flags on the top of the tower remained still, their surfaces glued to the flagpole, as there was no wind. The outlines of the sandbag fortifications on the city wall were visible, and occasionally the arc of a leather helmet would flash behind them.

He put down the binoculars and exhaled a puff of white breath.

"Three test shots in the first round. Even if they're inaccurate, we have to fire."

Sun Desheng turned around and glanced at him.

"If you're shooting at the top of a city wall from 500 meters away, even missing by one meter can cause problems."

"Fight. Fight wherever you want."

Sun Desheng turned to look at the cannon barrel and pushed the brass cartridge case inside. The brass casing gleamed in the morning light.

"put."

A burst of fire shot from the cannon muzzle, and the cannon recoiled slightly. The shell, trailing a plume of white smoke, flew over the top of the city wall and struck a house thirty meters behind it, exploding into a cloud of bricks and black smoke.

The second shot. Slightly to the left. It hit the middle of the outer wall, blasting away a chunk of brick.

Third shot. Hit.

The shell exploded slightly to the left of the top of the city wall, overturning a crenellation along with the sandbags on top. Broken bricks fell from a height of eight meters, crashing into the frozen soil beside the moat. Short shouts from the Japanese soldiers echoed from the city wall.

"Correction. Move two mils to the left."

Sun Desheng didn't turn around, his left hand turning the wheel on the gun carriage. The ammunition handler beside him loaded the second shell into the breech, the breech closed, and the sound of metal clashing was muffled.

The second round of three shots.

The first shot landed slightly to the left of the top of the city wall, ripping up a large section of bricks, stones, and sandbags. The second shot blasted along the outer wall, only chipping away a piece of gray brick.

The third shot still couldn't be suppressed; it grazed the top of the city wall, and the antenna mast behind it snapped in two.

"Lower. Lower still."

Zhao Weiguo squatted beside the cannon, looking at the city wall through binoculars.

Cracks appeared in the gray bricks of the city wall at the site of the explosion. The cracks extended from the crenellations to both sides, reaching a length of nearly three meters. The sound of Japanese soldiers running on the city wall, their leather boots treading on the broken bricks, could be heard across the moat.

Round three.

Zhao Weiguo did not change his password in this round.

"Three shots. Focus on the base of the city wall."

Sun Desheng pressed down half a circle with his left hand.

The first shot landed on the base of the city wall, slightly to the right. It blasted up a cloud of frozen soil and bricks, leaving a crater at the base of the wall, slightly larger than a washbasin.

The second shot. The crater widened.

The third shot.

The shell went into the crater from the second shell.

The thud was louder than the previous two. A fan-shaped section at the base of the city wall was blasted open, bricks and stones flying to both sides, revealing the rammed earth layer underneath. The rammed earth layer immediately began to collapse, and the brick surface above, losing its support, followed suit.

A gap appeared at the bottom of the city wall.

The gap wasn't large. It was a little over a meter wide and about half a person's height. The smoke and dust hadn't yet cleared.

"That's enough."

Zhao Weiguo stuffed the binoculars into his pocket.

"Messenger."

Chen An ran over from behind the earthen slope.

"Tell Lao Zhou to send in the first group."

The sound came first from the east gate.

Li Yunlong set up his binoculars behind an earthen wall 200 meters outside the East Gate.

He deployed all the light machine guns and mortars of the new regiment to the front of the east gate, with twenty grenade launchers scattered on both sides. The machine gunners lay prone behind the earthen walls, their muzzles aimed at the two barricades at the city gate; the mortar barrels were pointed diagonally at the gate tower. This setup didn't look like a feint attack; it looked like they were really going to take over the county town.

"beat."

Li Yunlong waved his hand.

The first volley of mortar shells landed twenty meters in front of the city gate tower, blowing up several wooden pillars. The second volley pushed forward and landed behind the barricades. The third volley fired forward and landed on top of the city gate opening. The Japanese heavy machine guns immediately returned fire, bullets sweeping down from the city tower, hitting the earthen walls with a sound like popping beans.

"Hit again."

Li Yunlong's order was very short.

He didn't need to break through the east gate. What he wanted was for the Japanese soldiers on the city wall to think that he was going to break through the east gate.

The light machine guns of the New First Regiment first swept across the city wall, bullets grazing the gray bricks and exploding in a trail of sparks. The Japanese soldiers on the city tower immediately turned their heavy machine guns, pressing their muzzles against the firing positions behind the earthen wall. Two grenade launchers were then pushed out, grenades slamming into the earthen wall, mud covering Li Yunlong's face.

"My men are not dead."

Li Yunlong said to the messenger beside him.

"Tell the three battalions of the New First Regiment to take turns attacking. Change positions every five minutes. Make them think we're amassing a large force."

The messenger ran down.

Li Yunlong wiped the dirt off his face and grinned. The wall at the east gate was too hard; he hadn't originally planned to crawl through it anyway. As long as the Japanese soldiers on the city wall started sending their reserves to the east gate, this barrage of artillery fire wouldn't have been in vain.

Ding Wei was on the position of the New Third Regiment.

The New Third Regiment's positions were not located within the city. Ding Wei positioned his troops on both sides of the highway leading from Ping'an County to Taiyuan. His engineering platoon had already planted explosives under the stone bridge fifteen li west of Ping'an County. The stone bridge was the only way for the highway to cross the river.

The engineering platoon leader climbed up from under the bridge, his cotton-padded coat covered in mud.

"The explosives are planted. 150 jin (75 kg)."

How long is the lead wire?

"Fifty meters. That's enough."

Ding Wei nodded.

"Where is the blocking position at Yangshuling?"

"Wang Huaibao had already dug fortifications on the mountain. The highway cuts through the middle of the mountain ridge, giving him an advantageous position."

"What about Kong Jie's new Second Regiment?"

"Five li behind the New Third Regiment's position. They are in position."

Ding Wei jotted down the time in his notebook: 4:20 AM.

He looked through his binoculars toward Ping'an County. Flames and smoke were rising from the east of the city; a new battle was raging near the east gate.

"Kong Jie's ambush will last six hours. Do we have enough ammunition?"

"That's enough. Eight hours is no problem."

Ding Wei nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

North Gate.

The monk squatted outside the gap.

Behind him were twenty assault team members, each armed with a pistol and a machete. This was standard equipment for urban warfare. The machetes were handpicked by Zhao Tieshan from captured Japanese supplies, and the blades still bore Japanese markings.

Half of the smoke and dust in the gap had already settled.

The monk touched the edge of the broken brick with his left hand; the brick was still warm.

"superior."

His voice was very low.

Twenty men crept along the base of the city wall toward the breach. The monk was the first to reach it. He didn't go in immediately; he first peeked inside.

Wengcheng (outer walled city).

The north gate's barbican was surrounded by three city walls, leading into a semi-circular dead end. Inside, sandbags and planks were piled up to waist height, with temporary fortifications blocking the center.

Two light machine guns were pointing directly at the gap, their muzzles as black as two holes.

The monk pulled his head back.

"Two machine guns."

The people behind him didn't move.

The monk pulled two hand grenades from his waist. The grenades were made in Jin Dynasty style with wooden handles, and a few characters on the warheads had chipped off. He fastened the rings to his fingers and glanced at the person beside him.

"I'll throw first. You roll to the left."

He didn't wait for a reply.

The monk slammed the grenades to the ground, then flicked his arm, sending two grenades flying one after the other through the gap. The grenades traced two arcs in the air before landing behind the sandbag fortifications.

The first explosion.

One sandbag was knocked away, sending dirt and wood chips flying to both sides. A second shot followed immediately. The machine gun fire stopped.

The monk stood up.

He rushed through the gap. The brick ground beneath his feet was uneven, and his shoes slipped on the broken bricks, causing him to stumble. He didn't stop; he grabbed his machete with his left hand, crouched down, and ran behind the sandbags.

The second machine gun was still firing.

The bullet flew over his head and hit the brick wall of the city.

The monk lunged behind the sandbag.

The machine gunner was three steps to his left, about to cock his rifle. The monk's machete didn't stop; he flicked it upwards. The blade sliced ​​into the Japanese soldier's arm, and the machine gunner screamed as his rifle fell from his hand.

The people behind the monk followed.

There were only four Japanese soldiers inside the barbican. One was killed by a grenade, and two were shot down by the assault team's pistols. The remaining one tried to escape through the other gate of the barbican but was shot in the leg by Zhao Weiguo's Mauser pistol and fell on the threshold.

The barbican has been cleared.

Zhao Weiguo entered through the gap.

He didn't linger in the barbican. What he wanted was the gate behind the barbican.

The wooden door of the city gate had been blocked from the inside by the Japanese soldiers, with seven or eight logs propping it up horizontally. The monk and two others kicked it three times, and the door, along with the crossbars, fell inward and crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

The doorway is now open.

Sunlight streamed in through the north gate, illuminating the dust on the ground. Beyond the gate lay the city's main street. The street was narrow, lined with earthen walls of houses and shops. The Japanese had built sandbag fortifications opposite the main street, and Japanese soldiers were seen running behind them.

"Machine gun cover."

Zhao Weiguo said to Chen An behind him.

Chen An crouched behind a bombed-out house, set up a machine gun, pointed it at the opposite side of the main street, and pulled the trigger. The machine gun fired a burst, bullets hitting sandbags and sparking. The Japanese troops were suppressed by the fire and retreated behind their fortifications.

Zhao Weiguo scanned the depth of the street with his binoculars.

Further down the street was the intersection. Only half of the roof of the small building in the northeast corner was visible, with a heavy machine gun hidden under the camouflage netting; the grain store in the southwest corner had been bombed and collapsed, with a layer of sandbags piled between the broken beams and the pile of bricks.

The main force of the Japanese army was at the crossroads.

"Messenger."

Chen An turned his head from behind the machine gun.

"Tell the First Battalion to go through the houses on the left and circle around to the west side of the intersection. The Second Battalion will advance from the front."

The messenger ran down.

Zhao Weiguo inspected the magazine of his Mauser pistol. Several scratches marked the wooden case, remnants of the incident at Huanghuaigou. He tucked the pistol back into its holster and glanced at the Type 92 infantry gun. The gun was still mounted outside the city, its barrel pointing diagonally to the sky.

He pointed his telescope deep into the city.

Five hundred meters down the street, there's a cluster of low, gray-tiled houses—that's the old county government office. You can see the tip of the antenna mast on the roof of the old county government office. The brigade headquarters is there. The prison is to the west of the old county government office, near the city wall.

Yang Xiuqin is there.

He put the binoculars down.

"Old Zhou."

Old Zhou ran up from behind, his clothes covered in broken bricks and dirt.

"You'll lead a battalion to fight at the crossroads."

"Yes."

"I led the assault team to enter from the side. The alleys in the west of the city are narrow, and the Japanese machine guns can't be deployed effectively."

Old Zhou didn't ask Zhao Weiguo where he was going.

he knows.

The battalion passed through the houses on the left.

The soldiers used bayonets to pry open the mud walls of the houses and crawled into the holes one by one. The one in front had just poked half his body out when gunfire erupted from the yard. Bullets pierced through the mud walls, and plaster rained down.

The battalion commander fired a shot close to the cave entrance, and the courtyard immediately fell silent.

The battalion passed through two rows of houses and reached the west side of the crossroads.

The Second Battalion pressed forward from the front.

A dozen light machine guns opened fire simultaneously on the Japanese fortifications at the crossroads. Japanese heavy machine guns fired down from the rooftops, bullets striking the earthen walls of the houses and embedding themselves in the soil. The earthen walls crumbled and fell away.

The first battalion flanked them from the west.

Finding themselves surrounded on three sides, the Japanese troops began to retreat. The heavy machine gun was left on the roof, and the gunner fled into the alleyway to the west. Someone below lit a fire; the flames leaped up to waist height, blackening the entire street with smoke.

Old Zhou did not send the First Battalion to pursue them.

"First, secure the intersection."

The crossroads were controlled by the First and Second Battalions.

Zhao Weiguo stood at the northeast corner of the intersection. He looked west through binoculars.

The streets to the west became blurred in the smoke and dust. The smoke was set off by the Japanese army. The Japanese army retreated westward into the city through the smoke.

He saw several Japanese soldiers turn into a narrow alley from the street corner. The alley was very narrow, with the gable walls of houses on both sides. The Japanese soldiers disappeared from sight once they entered the alley.

"First Battalion."

The battalion commander ran over.

"Chase them through this alley. But don't chase them into the old county government office. Just hold the alley entrance."

The battalion commander led his men into the alley.

Zhao Weiguo turned to look in the direction of the old county government office.

The roof of the old county government office was only outlined in the smoke. The tip of the antenna mast was still there. The regimental headquarters should still be transmitting radio waves. The Japanese regimental commander was still there.

His gaze shifted slightly southward.

The west side of the old county government office.

The prison.

The prison roof was flat and gray, shorter than the surrounding houses. There was no one on the roof.

He put the telescope away.

"Monk."

The monk ran up from behind the sandbags. His machete was stained with blood, and he had a scrape on the back of his hand.

"Come with me."

Zhao Weiguo didn't speak again. He pulled his pistol from its holster and held it in his hand. The monk followed behind him. The sound of their footsteps pattered softly on the broken bricks.

They walked into the alley to the west.