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

At midnight on September 25th, the first flare was launched on the northern front.

A flare hung above the northern ridge, its stark white light illuminating the forty-kilometer battlefield for a fleeting moment. In that instant, the barbed wire, pillboxes, trenches, and the densely packed vehicles and figures in the valley were all exposed to the light. Then the light went out, and darkness returned.

On the northern front, Lao Zhou's 7,000 men converged. Two battalions advanced from the northwest to press the trenches, two battalions sealed the eastern side of the stronghold, and the remainder controlled the southwest gap and the rear roads. On the southern front, Duan Peng's 6,500 men were divided into three sections to press the bridgehead and river valley. He Shang's 2,500 men at the valley's end sealed the exit. At midnight, the first round of closing the gates would be centered around 18,000 men, with another 4,000 reserved for key positions to be deployed as needed. The total mobilization reached 22,000 men within sixteen hours. Another 8,000 men guarded the rear.

The main encirclement consisted of approximately 9,000 men, 2,200 of the second batch of reinforcements, 870 remnants of the stronghold, and about 6,000 men who had entered the main battle zone from the outer perimeter. Another 3,000 men were tied down on the outer lines by Li Dingkong.

The twelve mountain guns were deployed in three firing ranges: the bridgehead, the outer perimeter of the stronghold, and the southern high ground. The false breach in the southwest was maintained with the first trench forcing a halt, the second trench for suppressing fire, and a disarmament passage on the left. The white flag procedure was implemented before the battle, with wooden signs indicating: those who lay down their weapons will not be killed; the disarmament passage is on the left; those holding white cloths can pass.

At 1:30 a.m., the main telephone line on the south line was cut off. Duan Peng followed the pre-arranged plan and blew up the first bridge, destroying only one end, while the second bridge was preserved. Two explosions rang out on the south line, breaking off a section of the bridge deck, and rubble from the bridgehead flew into the river.

At 2 PM, approximately 400 enemy soldiers used the wreckage of vehicles to rush to the western high ground. A forward battalion was pushed back half a mile. Duan Peng requested reserves for the first time, but Zhao Weiguo refused.

"There are two more battalions behind you."

Duan Peng gritted his teeth and pulled up a battalion from the last two levels. A little over ten minutes later, the cavalry reported that the machine gun positions on the high ground had been lost; the enemy had stormed the high ground and captured both machine guns. Only then did Zhao Weiguo dispatch a battalion and an engineer company, but only to reinforce the high ground, not to the valley. The engineers shoveled over the wreckage of vehicles to reinforce the battalion, pushing up from the flank and recapturing the lost high ground.

At 3:00 AM, a dangerous situation arose in the direction of the stronghold. The remnants of the stronghold, along with a second wave of reinforcements, mustered over 500 men and charged towards the southwest breach. The first trench was ordered to retreat. In the second trench, three machine gun teams opened fire simultaneously, their crossfire sealing the breach as a wall of fire. Mortars were used only against the rear, preventing follow-up forces from reaching the breach.

When the enemy rushed to the prisoner passage, the white cloth was raised and then fell down; some people wanted to surrender, but those behind them pushed them down. Old Zhou ordered the front line to stop for two breaths. Two breaths later, the first batch of more than twenty people fell into the passage. They were disarmed, searched, registered, and treated, and processed in four groups. The disarmed guns were piled at the entrance of the passage, and those who had been searched squatted on the other side, while the registerers wrote down names one by one in a notebook.

Monk Guwei first encountered more than a dozen cars trying to make a U-turn. The first car was started, the driver of the last car was killed, and the cars in the middle wanted to make a U-turn but the road was too narrow to do so.

"Lead the way and leave the middle ones open," the monk shouted from a rock at the end of the valley. The mountain passes on both sides were blocked, preventing the pursuit of stragglers who had fled into the forest. His men guarded the passes, ensuring that those inside couldn't get out and those outside couldn't get in.

After 4 a.m., artillerymen were mobilized and prepared to be deployed in batches. It wasn't a simultaneous charge of 4,000 infantrymen, but rather a phased deployment according to designated timeframes. The twelve mountain guns were divided into three groups, each firing three rounds before stopping, changing positions, and firing again. Mortars fired at close-range trenches and vehicle positions, without mixing their fire with the mountain guns.

The three outer lines attacked simultaneously. Li Yunlong dragged enemy vehicles and flanking infantry along the northern highway, fighting and retreating to pull the enemy away from the main road. Ding Wei kept watch on the railway branch line, waiting for the enemy engineers to repair the tracks before cutting off a small section, rendering their efforts futile. Kong Jie's first firing point at Yangshuling was destroyed by enemy artillery, so he moved his reserve machine gun to the second level to continue firing. The three lines held off approximately three thousand men, with casualties and spoils recorded separately.

At six o'clock in the morning, the enemy within the encirclement lost unified command. The stronghold requested reinforcements to retreat into the city, the river valley commander ordered the remnants of the stronghold to break eastward, and three units at the bridgehead simultaneously requested artillery fire. Three orders from three directions, none of whom listened to the others. The captured radio was still sending misleading text messages, and the telephone lines were being cut section by section by engineers.

"First the bridgehead, then the valley end, and finally the outer perimeter of the stronghold," Zhao Weiguo ordered at the regimental headquarters.

At 8:00 AM, a white flag was raised in the middle of the East River Valley. At 9:00 AM, more than two hundred men at the end of the valley laid down their weapons. At 10:00 AM, the outer perimeter of the stronghold shrank to the last two trenches. Old Zhou did not force a charge, but instead fired artillery at the radio room and officers' bunkers; the prisoner passage remained open. Before noon, the garrison command was out of control, and the remaining men surrendered in batches.

Tanaka was watching the southwest breach from inside the pillbox. His adjutant had already infiltrated among the first to surrender, a fact Tanaka was unaware of.

Tanaka squatted in the corner of the pillbox, pulling half a steamed bun from his pocket. The bun was left over from yesterday and had hardened. He took a bite, chewing for a long time before swallowing. Outside the pillbox, shells were exploding, and dust fell from the ceiling into the bun. He brushed the dust off and took another bite.

After finishing the half-eaten steamed bun, Tanaka stood up. He unfastened his military sword and placed it on the ground, then walked to the entrance of the prisoner passage. When he raised his hand, the registrar next to him paused, surprised—this was the outpost's garrison captain.

"Put the gun on the ground and raise your hands," the registrar said, his voice trembling slightly.

Tanaka unfastened the pistol from his waist and placed it on the ground. The registrar asked him for his name, rank, and number, to which he answered in detail: Tanaka Ichiro, garrison captain, and he recited a string of numbers for his number.

Then he asked, "Was that half-eaten bun left to me by one of your people?"

The registrar didn't answer. He didn't know. But yesterday evening, Old Zhou had someone place a bag of steamed buns and a jug of water in the trench outside the stronghold. Not out of mercy, but because if Tianzhong didn't surrender, the people in the stronghold wouldn't stop. One more bag of steamed buns meant one more moment of peace.

On the southern front, some enemy units still retreated into the mountains and forests. Duan Peng requested that the cavalry pursue them.

"Within 20 kilometers, we only pursue groups with weapons and flags," Zhao Weiguo said. Beyond 20 kilometers, local armed forces only monitor but do not cross the line.

The four medical lines had been operating non-stop since dawn. The first aid stations were the first to reach full capacity. The stretchers from the two bridgeheads on the south line, whose route along the riverbed to the Sanliqiao intersection had been destroyed by bombing, had to cross the riverbed, stepping on stones to get across. The second medical station had over twenty stretchers, but only three operating tables had their doors removed and laid on the kang (heated brick bed); those with severe abdominal bleeding were prioritized for treatment. The third medical station needed sulfonamides, and Zhao Gang dispatched two boxes. These were used first for penetrating wounds and abdominal injuries.

The main battle ended at 4 PM. From midnight to 4 PM, sixteen hours had passed. The encirclement front stretched approximately forty kilometers, with the pursuit and mopping-up line extending twenty kilometers beyond.

Preliminary statistics: The enemy suffered approximately 4,800 deaths, 1,450 captured, and about 500 scattered into the mountains and forests outside the lines. Our army suffered 146 killed and 389 wounded. Artillery shells have been used up to 30% of the campaign reserves. Zhao Gang wrote "preliminary" after each number. The outer lines, the interior of the strongholds, the bridge ruins, and the 20-kilometer clearing line were not fully verified. Subsequent deaths and duplicate reports of wounded soldiers were not deduplicated.

The number of monks captured was twelve more than at the receiving station. After checking for a long time, it was discovered that twelve wounded soldiers had been transferred to the medical station but had not been deregistered in the valley register. Both sides then added a new record.

Someone delivered a battle report, the title already written: "Over 10,000 enemy soldiers annihilated."

Zhao Weiguo flipped the page. "Don't send it yet."

He drew a line across the four characters "annihilated over ten thousand enemies," and wrote two characters next to it: "awaiting verification."