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

In mid-September, the brigade headquarters completed the translation of the subsequent classified telegrams.

The 5,500 men of the 36th Division were just the vanguard; behind them were independent mixed units, puppet troops, engineers, and transport corps. Nine thousand men were on the eastern route, eight thousand on the western route, and eight thousand on the northern route, totaling approximately twenty-five thousand men.

The three arrows point from Pingding to Xiyang, Heshun to Liaoxian, and Shouyang to Mengxian, respectively, toward Ping'an District, covering a frontal distance of over 100 kilometers and a depth of 60 kilometers.

Inside the Heshun command post, the four maps that had been pieced together were replaced with one large map. Zhao Gang spread the coded message out on the table, with a newly inspected mortar shell casing pressed down on the edge of the paper.

"At least thirty mountain guns and more than two hundred vehicles."

Zhao Weiguo first asked about the time.

The eastern route is scheduled to depart at dawn on the 19th, the western route two hours later, and the northern route will first clear both sides of the Zhengtai Railway before advancing south. There will be only one final meeting point for the three routes.

Harmony.

Zhi Zi then laid out three thin sheets of paper. The first was from Pingding, the second from Liaoxian, and the third was a train formation note copied down by a railway worker at Shouyang Station. Each of the three messages was incomplete when viewed separately, but when placed on the same map, the destinations of the cars, artillery, and provisions matched up.

The Japanese army didn't want just one or two strongholds. They wanted to drive the Ping'an district out to the vicinity of Heshun, and then use railways, highways, and mountain passes to seal people off inside.

The old Xigou Factory was listed at the very top.

The enemy knew the routes to the waterwheels, chimneys, and mule carts at night, but they were unaware that the machine tool, gauges, and key production lines had been relocated. The old factory continued to emit smoke as planned, the waterwheels ran idle, and people entered and exited during the day. The two cartloads of spent shell casings, thirty empty wooden crates, and one hundred old bullets were all left there.

The bait had been laid, but the village was the first to pay the price.

On September 12, the advance team of the eastern route entered a remote village south of Pingding. Most of the people had been evacuated in advance, leaving only seven elderly people and two children in the village. A militia member's family member returned to get medicine, but was blocked in the courtyard by the Japanese army and forced to identify the grain cellar.

He didn't speak.

The house was immediately set on fire.

When the sentry arrived, they only managed to rescue three elderly people and two children. Four people died inside the courtyard. The militia members' families who returned to get medicine, along with five villagers who were blocked outside the village, were arrested and all collapsed by the roadside the next day.

The news arrived two days before the enemy's main force was mobilized.

The brigade headquarters' coded telegram also contained the suppression orders issued by Okamura after he took office. Burning houses, looting grain, and killing people—these were only a few lines long on the paper. Zhao Gang pressed those few lines together with ten names from the village, and no one regarded "Three Alls" as a frightening slogan anymore.

Zhao Gang separated the dead and the rescued before adding words to the evacuation order. All villages on the outskirts were to be evacuated in advance, livestock first, grain scattered and hidden, and the elderly and children moved into the second rear area. The remaining militia were only responsible for alerting the enemy; they could not guard the village entrances and fight the enemy head-on.

Someone asked what to do about the house.

Zhao Gang looked at the casualty report.

"People need to survive first. Houses can be built later."

The number of officially organized members of the Independent Regiment also increased to 9,500 before the war.

From June to August, a total of 730 new recruits completed basic training and were interning in batches at supply depots, transportation, and guard posts. After the six casualties from the last factory relocation escort mission were written off, 506 outstanding recruits were selected from the replenishment units to return to service, resulting in a net increase of 500 on the books.

The remaining 224 people remained in the supplementary team, and were not prematurely added to the main team in order to inflate the numbers.

The newly recruited personnel will first fill the gaps in the six main battalions, with additional personnel also being added to the artillery, communications, medical, and transportation units. Duan Peng's three battalions of nine hundred men and his cavalry battalion of three hundred men will remain in the middle as a reserve force of one thousand two hundred men.

Old Zhou stared at the two sets of numbers for a long time.

"25,000 against 9,500, how can we defend?"

"Not defending a single city."

"Even peace and harmony are not upheld?"

Zhao Weiguo picked up the red and blue pencils.

"The command post can be moved, the civilians can be evacuated. Houses can't stop the artillery."

The first line is drawn in Xigou.

Since the enemy has made the old factory their primary target, let them waste time surrounding the empty factory, fake chimneys, and discarded molds. The defending troops are only responsible for leading the enemy in; once the factory area is surrounded, they should retreat step by step, not leave a row of houses behind.

"Xigou Tuo".

The second route falls on the Third Ridge. All three mountain roads eventually have to squeeze through that narrow ridge. Once it is completely cleared, the eastern route can go straight into the heart of Heshun.

"Three beam nails."

The third route detoured to the outskirts of Yangquan. The 8,000 men on the northern route relied on railways and highways to transport grain and haul artillery. They did not compete with the main infantry force for positions there, but instead focused on attacking bridges, convoys, and forward supply depots.

"The outer perimeter of Yangquan has been breached."

The final stroke lands on Sanglin'ao. It's not directly in front of the three roads, but it blocks the side and rear of the west and north roads after they turn.

"Sanglin'ao"

Old Zhou asked which place was the main battlefield.

"Not now."

"The cannon should be given an extra place."

"The six mountain guns were split into three groups of two guns each."

Three infantry guns were assigned to the three embankments, with one additional infantry gun left to maneuver and not be stationed there. Mortars were distributed to each line, and no single location could afford to empty its shells all at once simply because it spotted the enemy first.

Zhao Tieshan pressed the ammunition tent against the edge of the map.

The six-shell standard is still short half a shell. The new factory's three-shift system can only cover daily supplies. If they fight continuously for twenty days, they will have to rely on conservation and captured shells for the last ten days.

From late August to mid-September, the four small warehouses gradually received about 40% of the base stock, reducing the original 15% shortfall to half. The warehouse receipts showed three reworks and two batches of detonators being scrapped; there was never a single day when an extra warehouse of shells suddenly appeared.

"We'll divide it into four storage sites," Zhao Weiguo said. "If we blow one up, the other three can still supply ammunition."

The old factory left behind nothing more. Two truckloads of spent shell casings, thirty empty wooden crates, and one hundred old bullets were enough to convince the search team that they had found the right place.

Zhao Tieshan still felt bad about those hundred bullets. He pressed his finger on the ledger page for a while, but in the end, he didn't cross it out.

Zhao Gang began to break down the four-line plan into battalion-level orders. Each line had to specify four things: where to hold the position, at which line casualties must be withdrawn, what to use for communication after telephone lines are cut off, and under what circumstances a counterattack is permitted.

These markings couldn't just be drawn on a map. Zhao Weiguo and Zhao Gang spent two days walking all around the area. They meticulously recorded in their notebooks where artillery vehicles could pass, which slopes would rot after rain, which ditch the stretcher would exit through, and where the telephone lines were most likely to be severed by bombs.

The first slope of Xigou is three miles from the old factory. When the factory area was surrounded, they retreated slope by slope, abandoning the water turbine house and the chimney; when they retreated to the second slope, they burned the telephone code, and only left the observation post on the third slope.

Zhao Tieshan surveyed the old factory grounds. He knew that once the shelling began, the water turbines would collapse first, and the chimneys wouldn't hold for long either. The garrison must leave before the first round of shelling; the old bullets and empty wooden crates would be left for the enemy to search, and no personnel could remain to prove the decoy was real.

The Sandaoliang position has three levels. The first level can hold two companies, the second level is a narrow ridge, and the third level leads to the road to Heshun. Old Zhou squatted on the beam for a long time, still wanting to place all six mountain guns here.

"Once this place is breached, Heshun will be exposed."

"If all the cannons are placed here, what's the point of using them in Xigou and the outer areas of Yangquan?" Zhao Weiguo asked.

"Mortar top."

"Why did the road suddenly turn north?"

Old Zhou stopped talking, and after a while he held up four fingers.

"Two mountain guns and four infantry guns."

"Three gates".

"Four gates".

Zhao Gang wrote in his notebook: "Three infantry guns are fixed at the three beams, and one mobile gun is left."

Old Zhou cursed and pulled his fourth finger back.

The retreat from the outskirts of Yangquan was not based on mountain peaks, but on the mission objectives. Two bridges, thirty vehicles, and a forward transport warehouse were required; once two of these three tasks were completed, the move would begin. The final execution order would be confirmed that evening by the commanding officer in person; for now, the border was to be firmly established.

The roads in that area ran alongside the railway. If bridges, warehouses, and vehicles were all blocked at the same time, the vanguard on the northern route could still advance south, but the artillery shells and supplies from the rear would be cut off. Therefore, the mission log only recorded the destruction of targets, not which village or section of road was captured.

Sanglin Pass can hide two thousand people, but there are only two exits. The engineers should first dig a reverse retreat route, and then retreat south after the ambush fails, so that the entire ambush force is not trapped in the pass.

"Even ambush troops need to leave an escape route?" someone asked.

Zhao Weiguo used a pencil to add a thin line to the south side.

"The ambush, with no way out, has been laid."

The four lines were nearly 80 kilometers apart at their furthest point, and field telephones could only reach three locations. Sanglin'ao relied on shortwave radio, cavalry, and short codes for communication. The three radios were tested separately, and the cavalry communications officer put the replacement codes into an oilcloth bag, because if any one lost contact, the overall situation could not be judged solely by the sound of gunfire.

The telephone exchange first connected to Xigou, Sandaoliang, and the outskirts of Yangquan, labeling each line individually. Spare cable reels were carried separately, not all piled up at the command post; each cavalryman also identified an alternative route, so that if the main road was blocked, there would be no need to ask for directions.

The medical team set up six aid stations behind the fourth line. The seriously wounded were transported along the North Mountain Road, Heshun, and Xiyang lines. Food was distributed among the villages, with three days' rations carried on each route. Stretchers, medicine boxes, and pack animals were all first traversed the route; it would be too late to find the mountain pass after the shooting started.

The six aid stations were not located on a straight line, and the medicines were not concentrated in one area. If one station was destroyed, the wounded would be transferred to the next one. Wooden signs were used to mark the directions at the evacuation points. In the dark, one could only feel the engravings on the wooden signs and could not read the words, but still know which way to go.

The enemy's plans depended on a tight schedule. The eastern route was to hold down Sandaoliang, the western route was to destroy Xigou, and the northern route was to block the railway southward; if any one route was delayed by half a day, the other two routes would be exposed.

The anticipated sweep wouldn't end in just three to five days. If calculated over twenty days, the Independent Regiment's current artillery ammunition would only cover the first ten days; the remaining ten days would depend on captured artillery and reduced firepower. This shortfall wasn't hidden in the reports; it was still recorded in the last column of the Siku General Ledger.

The risks for the Independent Regiment are also shown on the same map. The four lines are too far apart; if the phone line is cut off, the command post cannot see the scene; if gunfire erupts in one place and the mobile reserve is towed away in advance, another position will be left unattended.

Zhao Weiguo inserted four small flags into the map, without writing down the final number of troops. Tonight, after all the battalion commanders have arrived, the troop strength in Xigou, Sandaoliang, the outer perimeter of Yangquan, and Sanglin'ao will need to be recalculated, and who will be responsible for which line will need to be clarified in person.

Zhao Gang wrote a line on each of the four blank command sheets: evacuation scale, line cut signal, counterattack conditions, and casualty line.

Zhao Weiguo put away his pencil.

"The battles should be fought separately."

"All battalion commanders are present tonight."

"I will divide my forces in person."