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

On the night of September 18th, the torches on the riverbank were blown about by the wind.

There were approximately 7,600 people actually standing on the riverbank. Guard posts, outposts, clinics, and factory areas in various locations could not be completely withdrawn; the remaining commanding officers and cadres above the company level remained on the telephone and radio to receive orders. Representatives of the militia from the four counties stood on the outermost edge; they had their own blue uniforms and were not officially part of the independent regiment.

The number on the red table reached exactly ten thousand that day.

The remaining 224 qualified personnel of the replenishment team all returned to their posts, and another 276 veteran backbone members were transferred into the local armed forces of the three counties. These people had all undergone six months of combat, vetting, and intensive training; there were no prisoners of war, nor were there any conscripts temporarily taken from the villages.

Zhao Gang checked the roster one by one and stamped the last seal. Nine thousand five hundred, plus five hundred, making a total of ten thousand officially employed.

There were no flags on the earthen platform, only a four-line sand table. Xigou, Sandaoliang, the outer perimeter of Yangquan, and Sanglin'ao were marked with four types of gravel. Red flags represented enemy troops, blue flags represented the Independent Regiment, white lines marked evacuation routes, and black lines led to the ditch for the evacuation of the masses.

Zhao Weiguo stood in front of the sand table, but he wasn't even as tall as Lao Zhou.

"The enemy has 25,000 men, and we have 10,000. We have fewer artillery pieces, fewer vehicles, and no aircraft."

A small section of pine wood cracked from the torch and fell into the sand with a thud.

"All four lines will eventually retreat. I only ask one question: when you retreat, do you know which way to go?"

No one on the riverbank responded.

Zhao Weiguo planted the blue flag in Xigou.

The two thousand men in Xigou were tasked with delaying the enemy up the slopes and covering the evacuation of the last batch of personnel and fake supplies. Once the old factory was surrounded by the enemy's main force, the defending troops had to leave; they could not fight to the death for an empty factory.

The officer in charge of Xigou first recited: Hold the first slope until the afternoon of the 19th; if the enemy artillery deploys, retreat to the second slope; if casualties exceed 20% or telephone lines are interrupted for four hours, retreat directly to the third gully; only when the enemy engineers and search teams are separated from the main force are counterattacks permitted.

Zhao Weiguo asked, "What happens after the third ditch?"

"Nangou, via the old road of the No. 2 military station to the outer perimeter of Sanglin'ao."

"Outpost No. 2 is gone?"

The man paused for a moment.

"Go to Greystone Ridge, burn the code, and don't wait for backup."

Zhao Weiguo removed his hand from the blue flag.

"Remember this sentence."

The 2,600 men at Sandaoliang were under Lao Zhou's command. Two mountain guns and three infantry guns were stationed there, with mortars deployed according to the positions. The position consisted of three layers, each marked with casualty and ammunition lines.

Old Zhou stood up and reported the first level first, then the second. The first level should be held until the enemy artillery is within 800 paces. The second level should be held for at least six hours. If the third level is not lost, Heshun will not be exposed.

Zhao Weiguo didn't ask how long they could hold out, he only asked what to do if the second layer suffered more than 30% casualties.

Old Zhou's Adam's apple bobbed.

"retreat."

"The cannon hasn't been finished being towed yet?"

"Retreat first. Dismantle what can be disassembled; if it can't be disassembled, remove the breechblock and firing pin, and smash the sights."

"Wait for orders from regimental headquarters?"

"I gave the order myself."

Li Dazhu was in charge of the 1,800 men stationed around Yangquan. They weren't going to defend any strongholds there, but rather focus on attacking transportation, engineers, bridges, and forward warehouses. They planned to complete two of the three tasks—two bridges, thirty vehicles, and one warehouse—and then move on.

After Li Dazhu finished reciting, he added a sentence: "When the main force of enemy infantry approaches, do not pursue."

"Is the armored train coming?"

"Don't hit the front of the vehicle, blow up the supply line behind it."

The 1,600 men at Sanglin'ao were concealed by a monk leading special forces, two main battalions, and a portion of engineers. The regimental headquarters was not to fire red flares, and even if Xigou and Sandaoliang were simultaneously under attack, no firing was permitted.

The monk frowned and asked, "What if neither the west road nor the north road turns?"

"Lie down until the battle is over."

Someone in the back row couldn't help but laugh. The monk turned around and cursed, and the laughter immediately stopped.

A total of 8,000 people work across the four lines.

Duan Peng led a 1,000-strong mobile battalion, along with 300 cavalry, 700 communications engineers, and 700 guards, totaling 2,000 reserve and support personnel.

Duan Peng looked at the blue flag on the third ridge.

"Whichever line is in danger first, that's where I'll go."

"Look at where the enemy's main force is heading, not where the gunfire is loudest."

Duan Peng still didn't quite understand. Zhao Gang squatted down, pushed a row of red flags from the east road to the front of the third ridge, and then moved another red flag around to the side.

"He can deliberately rush into one place, and then come in from another place after you hand over the mobile battalion."

Duan Peng stared at the sand table for a while, then repeated himself.

"The mobile battalion only moves according to the direction of the enemy's main force, not according to the volume of gunfire."

Zhao Weiguo did not announce the end.

"Let's say it in another way."

Old Zhou recited the outer perimeter of Yangquan, Li Dazhu recited the Sandaoliang, and the monk recited the evacuation route to Xigou. They made a mistake on the first try; Old Zhou described the conditions for the outer perimeter of Yangquan as evacuation after destroying two bridges, omitting the vehicles and warehouses.

Zhao Weiguo didn't remind him, and turned to look at Li Dazhu.

Li Dazhu added: "Two out of the three tasks have been completed. The enemy's main infantry force is pressing forward. Before the tasks are completed, retreat according to the gray signal."

Zhao Gang asked why he was talking about other people's tasks.

This time, no one rushed to answer.

"If one line breaks, the people next to it need to know where to retreat. You are guarding four lines, not four unrelated stones."

The second time it was recited, no one made a mistake.

Zhao Tieshan then deployed the artillery. Six mountain guns were deployed: two at Xigou, two at Sandaoliang, and two outside Yangquan; no mountain guns were deployed at Sanglin'ao. Sandaoliang also had three infantry guns and mortars. Each line carried only three days' worth of ammunition and rations, with an additional seven days' worth stored in the rear. The mule trains only operated at night.

The fourth infantry gun remained in the mobile equipment tent, its breechblock, wheels, and ammunition arranged in a separate row. No matter who called for help first, it couldn't be simply removed with a word.

Zhao Gang erased the words "insufficient ammunition" from the blackboard and replaced them with "proportion".

"Report 40% if there's 40% left, and 10% if there's 10% left. If anyone says 'almost gone,' the regimental headquarters won't be able to allocate any more to you."

The medical teams were also stationed along four lines. The seriously wounded were carried on stretchers, while those with minor injuries who could walk walked on their own. The order of evacuation for the masses was written after the military discipline: the elderly and children, the wounded and sick, food, livestock, and finally local cadres and militia.

Those who seize vehicles belonging to the people will be dismissed from their posts and have their weapons confiscated; those who use the pretext of moving into people's houses to rummage through grain will be treated as plunderers; those who leave the wounded in the village for the people to take care of will be placed under the responsibility of the local officials in charge.

Zhao Gang didn't shout slogans; he simply wrote three points at the bottom of the blackboard and had each battalion copy them.

The intelligence about the poison gas brought by Gardenia could not be confirmed yet. The Japanese transport manifest only showed a batch of sealed iron canisters, but it was unclear what they contained. Zhao Tieshan ordered wet cloths, alkaline water, and protective bags to be prepared, prioritizing Sandaoliang and the special operations team.

"There really is poison gas; this won't last long."

Zhao Weiguo turned the protective bag over and looked at it.

"If we can hold on a little longer, we'll go first."

After the deployment was completed, the team split up from the riverbank and headed towards four mountain roads.

The longest overnight maneuver was eighty kilometers. Torches went out one after another after leaving the riverbank, mule bells were wrapped in cloth, gun wheels were wrapped in hemp, and telephone spools were carried on people's backs. When the mountain road got wet, the soles of shoes got muddy, and the people in front stepped into potholes, so the people behind had to go around them.

An ammunition truck overturned into a ditch while going downhill, injuring eight soldiers; the shells failed to explode. Engineers carried the crates out one by one, dismantled them, and distributed them to the mule trains; the overturned truck remained at the bottom of the ditch. The wounded were taken to a nearby medical station; no ninth person was brought in from elsewhere.

By 4 a.m., 80% of the residents had been evacuated.

On the road north of Heshun, the elderly and children rode in large carts, while the able-bodied pushed wheelbarrows behind them. Each cart was only allowed to carry one quilt, one bag of grain, and one pot; anything extra was hidden in the cellar.

A child was clinging to a wooden pony and wouldn't let go. After the local official urged him twice, the child stuffed the pony into his clothes. Zhao Gang walked by, glanced at it, and didn't let anyone take it.

"Don't occupy the grain carts."

Another family wanted to load two large wooden chests onto a vehicle. The chests contained dowry items, and no one in the family was willing to part with them. However, the wheels were already stuck in the soft soil, and there were elderly people and sick people blocking the way behind them. In the end, the chests were buried in the cellar behind the yard.

When the evacuation team passed through the military post, each person received a wooden plaque with the village name written on it. If the team was scattered, they were sent to the corresponding ravine according to the plaque, so that thousands of people could not be crammed into one place.

Not all the grain was taken. Half was stored in the village granary, and the other half was broken into small bags and sent to deeper areas via different routes. The livestock caravan was the slowest; the cavalry urged them back and forth three times, but more than twenty cattle still hadn't crossed the mountain pass.

Zhao Gang ordered the militiamen to cut the cow's nose rope and drive the cow into the woods.

"If we can't find it, we can't leave it to the enemy."

Inside the underground command post, four telephone lines were connected in sequence.

At 10 p.m., 90% of the ammunition for Xigou had arrived, but two truckloads of mortar shells were missing; the Sandaoliang water station had been completed, but the engineers were short 30 shovels; only half of the cavalry reconnaissance team on the outskirts of Yangquan had returned; as planned, the location of Sanglin'ao would not be reported, only a set of short safety codes would be sent.

Zhao Gang wrote down the missing items one by one on the blackboard.

The staff officer said it could be completed before dawn.

"Fill it in before dawn, and revise it again before dawn. Write as much as is missing now."

At 1 a.m., two mule carts delivered mortar shells to Xigou. On the way, one of the drivers was injured in a fall; he was already counted among the eight wounded in the marching accident. The shells were undamaged.

Twenty-six shovels were transferred from the village granary to Sandaoliang, but four were still needed. The engineers registered the four spare pickaxes, but no one wrote "all in place" in the report.

The last group of workers from the old Xigou factory were also leaving in the dark. Gauges, cutting tools, and blueprints went first, followed by machine heads that could be disassembled, and raw materials last. Mule carts were attached with wooden tags indicating their destination and the people in charge. If they got separated, they had to go to regroup at rendezvous point number three and not try to find their way to the new factory based on memory.

The discarded molds, broken waterwheels, and empty shell casings in the old factory were put back in their original places, and the lights were still on. From a distance, it still looked like a factory was rushing to complete a project.

The water supply at Sandaoliang was the most critical. One of the two mountain springs landed at the front, and the engineers used tarpaulins and wooden troughs to divert the water to the reverse slope, and then buried water tanks on the second level. Wet cloths, alkaline water, and wind direction cloths were all sent down at the same time, and no one said what was definitely in the iron tubes.

The signalman recited the procedure for cutting the line one last time. The first route repairs the line, the second route sends cavalry, and the third route fires signal flares; if all three routes are cut off, each line will operate independently according to the withdrawal schedule.

Four fronts can be engaged in battle simultaneously; they cannot all wait for a single command post to save them.

Xigou reported that he was in position first.

Sandaoliang then reported for duty.

Short codes from the outskirts of Yangquan also entered the command post.

Sanglin'ao did not report her location, but only sent the agreed-upon safety code.

The communications soldier ran in from the cave entrance, his tarpaulin still dripping wet.

"All three forwards have moved to the flanks."

Zhao Weiguo placed his hand on the map.

"Dawn breaks."