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

On October 3rd, eight tables were set up in the courtyard of the Heshun Regiment Headquarters.

The two desks were borrowed from the school; one was missing a leg and was propped up with half a brick. A line of text was written on the door panel: "No information, location, time, or source of information will be entered into the general ledger." Zhao Gang traced this line twice in red pen; this was the rule, not just a slogan.

The first table held the roster of the strongholds. The second table held the verification materials for the first batch of 1,200 reinforcements. The third table held the roster of the second batch of 2,500 reinforcements. The remaining five tables were divided into those for the highway, the railway branch line, Yangshuling, Qiaokou, and the 20-kilometer mopping-up operation. The list of prisoners of war was in a wooden box; a signature was required to borrow it.

The monk walked in carrying four booklets. Three hundred and ten prisoners, four booklets. Zhao Gang flipped through them and pointed out that the three hundred and ten prisoners of the first batch of reinforcements had already been recorded at the second table.

"The booklets you brought are only for verifying names; we can't add any more." Zhao Gang pushed the four booklets back. The monk paused for a moment, then scratched his head.

"So all those four notebooks of mine were for nothing?"

"It's not just for show. It's for cross-checking. Only if the names match does it count. If they don't match, we need to find out whether the prisoner gave a false name or if there was a mistake during registration." Zhao Gang opened the booklet on the second table and compared the names one by one with the monk's booklet.

Account reconciliation takes seven days.

Corpses were categorized by location of discovery, rank, weapon, and enemy designation. Prisoners were checked against a roster. Escapees were recorded via telegrams to the enemy, local intelligence, and records of mopping-up operations. Each corpse was required to have a provenance, including where it was found, what clothes it was wearing, what weapons it was carrying, and what was in its pockets. Corpses without a provenance were not entered into the master ledger but listed separately as "pending verification."

A body was found at the bridge crossing, reported once by each of the northern and southern battalions. Zhao Gang circled it in red and ordered each battalion to send someone to identify it. The northern battalion claimed responsibility, and the southern battalion also claimed responsibility. Zhao Gang asked where the body was found—south of the bridge crossing. The southern battalion's position was south of the bridge crossing, while the northern battalion's was north.

"The bodies on the south side of the bridge belong to the South Camp. The North Camp reported a duplicate; cross it out." Zhao Gang drew a red line on the North Camp's report. The people in the North Camp were unhappy, but they didn't say anything.

On the first day, the clearing operation yielded one less report. On the second day, a militiaman leading the way from the "Shigou" direction said he had seen more than a dozen Japanese soldiers disappear into the ravine the day before. On the third day, twenty-seven prisoners were delivered via the railway branch line. The escort list listed twenty-eight, the extra one being a seriously wounded prisoner who had stopped at a medical station halfway through the journey; the escorts forgot to note this on the list. On the fourth day, two pages of the monk's book were reversed, and three names appeared on the wounded soldiers' page of the next book. On the fifth night, two of the last eleven stragglers did not return to the unit; the general ledger stopped recording them, and the missing persons column was marked "two".

Zhao Gang didn't rush to cover it up. He had someone write the two men's names and last known location next to the missing persons column. The next morning, the two men helped a wounded local soldier into the valley. It turned out they hadn't gotten separated; they had encountered an injured militiaman during the pursuit and helped him walk for two days before returning. The missing persons number was changed from two to zero, the original "two" was not erased, and the return time and verification person were written next to it.

On the sixth day, a bag of military tags was delivered from outside. They reported forty-seven tags, but forty-six were counted. Zhao Gang had someone search every crack in the brickwork, and they found the tag hidden in a crack under the table leg. The tag had bounced into the crack when it fell, and no one had seen it.

Seven days. The four columns are settled.

The first batch of 1,200 reinforcements: 820 dead, 310 captured, and about 70 deserted.

The isolated stronghold originally had about 900 people: 610 were ultimately confirmed dead, 270 were captured, and 20 escaped. The more than 30 corpses found during the probe on the north side on September 3rd are already included in the 610 and are not counted separately.

The second batch of reinforcements numbered approximately 2,500: 1,800 died, 550 were captured, and 150 escaped.

The number of troops deployed to the outer perimeter and local defenses was approximately 9,000: 7,070 died, 970 were captured, and 960 escaped.

Total: 10,300 dead, 2,100 captured, 1,200 escaped. Total expenditure: approximately 13,600. The abacus beads are moved to the last position, neither more nor less.

Of the 1,200 who fled, over 400 returned to the outer outposts, over 300 were continuously monitored by local armed forces, and the rest lost their organizational structure. Those who died from their wounds were counted as deaths based on a comparison of enemy hospital records and prisoner testimonies, not as combat injuries or illnesses, but as deaths from their wounds. Zhao Weiguo signed the summary report. The battle report was issued in separate columns: it could state "12,400 killed or captured," but it must be followed by the numbers for the dead, captured, and scattered.

Our casualty report was the last one to be served, and it was also the most difficult to verify.

The same wounded soldier could be registered once at each of the forward hemostasis points, aid stations, and field hospitals. The same name was written differently; Wang Tongshan was written as Wang Tongshan and Wang Tongsan on three forms. The old burn scar on his left arm and the platoon number confirmed that it was the same person. The number 846 wounded was only sealed two days later than the enemy corpse inventory.

Our side suffered four casualties: 12 killed and 37 wounded in the initial siege phase; 44 killed and 117 wounded in the ambush by the first reinforcements; 28 killed and 69 wounded during the laying of the lines; and 146 killed and 389 wounded during the midnight encirclement. The total casualties for these four events were 230 killed and 612 wounded. Adding to this the casualties from the three outer lines of defense, the seven-day clearing operation, the escorting of the wounded, and the mine clearance at the bridgehead, 82 killed and 234 wounded.

Final battle results: 312 killed, 846 wounded, 0 missing.

Zhao Weiguo placed our casualty report on top of the enemy's battle results.

"This will be read first at the victory celebration. First the people, then the battle."

A victory celebration was held in early October. Representatives from each battalion and local allies attended, while the main force remained to defend the five counties. Zhao Gang stood on the platform and first read out our casualties: 312 dead, 846 wounded, and zero missing. Then he read out that the enemy had committed approximately 13,600, with 10,300 confirmed dead, 2,100 captured, and approximately 1,200 deserters.

Finally, Zhao Weiguo read out the list of the fallen. Names, ages, hometowns, units, and places of death. Three hundred and twelve names—it took a long time. When he read the name of an eighteen-year-old communications soldier, someone in the audience coughed. It was his fellow townsman.

Post-meeting debriefing. Old Zhou mentioned that during the second probing of the southwest gap, a forward platoon was nearly crushed; if the second trench had been dug half a day later, casualties would have doubled. Duan Peng acknowledged that after the two battalions on the southern front lost contact, they converged on the same spot of gunfire, crowding into the middle of the valley, and were nearly wiped out by a single artillery shell. Monk believed that the special forces were better suited for charging than holding positions, unable to capture over two thousand prisoners; in the latter half of the night, two companies were temporarily withdrawn, thinning the defenses at the valley's edge.

Zhao Gang divided the issues into five categories: cadres, communications, artillery mobility, sanitation, and prisoner handling. The official, authoritative figure for those on the payroll remains 15,500.

Some suggested continuing to expand the workforce. Zhao Weiguo shook his head.

"First, build up the framework." He wrote five words on the paper: communications, transportation, medical services, artillery traction, and grassroots cadres. "Don't stuff prisoners in, and don't add a name to the existing battalion."

After the enemy intercepted the battle report, the North China forces reassessed the situation in central Shanxi. The operations department confirmed over 10,000 deaths, verified the sources three times, and requested that at least one division be transferred from Central China to North China. The troop transfer order has not yet been implemented.

Zhao Gang asked his fellow villager, the 18-year-old communications soldier, to go to the pension office tomorrow to verify his home address: father, mother, and a seven-year-old sister.

Three hundred and twelve names were then sent to the next room. The cold numbers were settled, but the hot names still had to be sent back one by one.