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

On the morning of the third day, the No. 1 passage at Beishankou was blocked once.

A mule cart loaded with artillery shells broke at a bend, its shaft coming off and blocking the road. Behind it were two stretchers, and then a water transport team. No one could get through.

The driver squatted beside the broken log, his face as white as dirt.

"Everything was fine last night."

The engineers unloaded the shells box by box to the roadside and found more timber to support the cart shafts. The stretcher team didn't wait; they carried the wounded soldier around the slope. It had just rained on the slope, and their shoes were covered in mud. One of the stretcher bearers slipped and fell to his knees, hitting a rock. He didn't let go; the others caught the stretcher, and the wounded soldier only swayed slightly.

When Zhao Gang arrived, the road was already open.

He didn't ask if the car was fixed first; he checked if the stretcher was stuck in the heavy-duty lane. Only after confirming that the two roads were still separated did he write down the time and reason for the congestion in the traffic log.

"The No. 1 lane is only two kilometers long. If one car is stuck in traffic, everyone in front and behind has to wait. If anyone wants to use the roadside as a warehouse today, they'd better come and bring a stretcher first."

On the third day, the actual number of personnel deployed was approximately 6,100 from the Independent Regiment, 3,200 from neighboring units, and 500 from local transportation, sanitation, and road repair personnel.

The enemy's core force numbers approximately 5,000, while the remnants of the outer reinforcements number about 1,800. Those who fled or were captured yesterday have been deducted from the count, but the actual number of personnel at each stronghold still needs to be verified on a site-by-site basis. Headquarters does not use a single total to report enemy activity in all four directions.

The eastward mission is to hold the two-kilometer gap and then expand to the flanks.

They continued westward, cutting off the supply route and searching for the resupply points left by the convoy the day before.

The last well that could provide water to the enemy was sealed off to the north.

Confirm the location of the southeast fortification to the south, and do not allow anyone to rush into the village to seize a few trucks.

Both armored vehicles can move short distances. The one with the damaged water tank needs to stop and refill its water tank every so often, while the other is left for the joint section. The clutch of the third vehicle is still not repaired. The infantry gun, which was taken out of service yesterday, has not been put back into service; the gun crew has been reassigned to transporting ammunition and repairing the gun carriage.

After daybreak, the North Pass was attacked first.

The Japanese troops descended from the core direction in two columns, one along the old trench and the other along the mountain ridge. Instead of breaking through the gap to the east to engage in battle, they first had their engineers close the roadblocks that had been repaired the night before, and then used two mountain guns to fire at the turning point of the mountain ridge.

With limited ammunition, only a short volley was fired at each coordinate. The machine guns only opened fire before the first group of enemies reached the trench. The men in the back tried to flank, but ran into the shallow trenches dug the night before, and their formation broke apart.

A platoon leader raised his gun to give chase, but the battalion commander held him down by the shoulder.

"The land is still theirs two kilometers away. Hold the pass."

The counterattack retreated, and the infantry advanced a short distance along both flanks to the east. Engineers first inspected the barbed wire and fuses, followed by the infantry into the trenches. After capturing each earthen slope, the signal corps erected a spare line alongside the original one. The old line was not dismantled if it was still usable, lest the new line break and both sides become deaf again.

At 10:00 AM, the two-kilometer gap was stabilized, and the left and right flanks began to connect in an arc. The core position was still outside firing range, and there were no reports of "penetrating the core" from the east.

The westward grain route was hidden behind a low-lying area.

Scouts discovered tire tracks last night and followed them this morning, finding nine abandoned vehicles and two makeshift grain piles. There were no cannons on the vehicles; under the tarpaulins were bags of grain, canned goods, and several boxes of telephone wire. The Japanese had planted explosives near the grain piles and pulled the cord around to a dilapidated building.

The engineers found the loose thread outside but didn't cut it. They first traced the thread to the detonator, then removed the detonator. A new recruit saw the tear in the food bag and reached out to help, but the squad leader blocked him with his rifle butt.

"Check the following first."

Sure enough, there was another hand grenade at the bottom of the grain sack, with the safety pin tied with a thin wire.

After dismantling, each bag of grain was inspected. Damp, muddy, and edible grains were separated. Vehicle conditions were also categorized: drivable, towable, with damaged tires, and fuel level unknown. No one listed all nine vehicles as captured and usable.

They blocked the supply lines from both ends to the west. The Japanese escort team retreated towards the core, and Lao Zhou only allowed the infantry to follow them to the outer edge of the high ground.

"The carts are here, the grain is here, the road is here. But if the pursuers escape the gun barrel, all three will be lost."

The liaison officer wrote this sentence on the reply slip, and listed the casualties of the headquarters separately, without including them in the Independent Regiment.

The one fighting to the north is for the last well.

The well was located between two stone houses, where the Japanese had set up a light machine gun. The villagers had already evacuated to the back of the mountain, and the reconnaissance team had checked whether anyone was still inside the houses by shouting and listening to the chimneys.

No explosives were thrown towards the well from the north. Mortars fired at the back wall of the stone house, and infantry approached from the side ditch. The machine gunner fled to the well and dropped a wooden box, which the engineers pulled up with hooks. Inside the box were two hand grenades and a rag soaked in oil.

The grenade was removed, and the floating oil was skimmed off little by little with a wooden ladle. The medic inspected the well water and only allowed it to be tested on livestock; the army would continue to use water transported from the rear. A post was set up at the well, and separate hours were designated for villagers to fetch water.

Upon seeing the report, Zhao Gang added a line after "sealed well": "Well body not destroyed, water quality to be tested."

A difference of just one word could mean the difference in water levels for an entire village.

The southeast fort was confirmed at noon by looking south.

The fort was hidden behind an abandoned brick kiln, and contained at least mountain guns and mortars; ammunition depots were visible nearby. Part of the convoy entered the fort the day before yesterday, but the whereabouts of the remaining vehicles remain unknown.

The monk led his reconnaissance team to the outer ditch, counting only the gun muzzles, sentry posts, and ammunition transport routes. He saw a Japanese officer enter the bunker, raise his gun, and then lower it again.

Gardenia, standing nearby, asked, "Aren't you going to hit them?"

"Kill one, but the cannon remains. What we want is the cannon position."

After retreating to the sorghum field, the two described what they had seen separately. One person spoke, and the other verified. Any discrepancies were left blank. The image received by headquarters had two question marks, which were not filled in for aesthetic purposes.

In the afternoon, the southeast fort began firing at the north mountain pass.

The first two blasts landed far off course, while the third landed on the edge of the No. 1 passage, damaging a section of the stretcher aisle. The debris injured two transport workers; the engineers carried the wounded away first, then repaired the road with sandbags and planks. The heavy trucks remained outside, not attempting to squeeze through the stretcher aisle.

The artillery positions have been confirmed, but the artillery facing south is still awaiting adjustments from the observers. The first volley only hits the outer edge of the ammunition shelters, omitting the village houses on the other side of the abandoned brick kiln.

The artillery fire weakened for a while, then resumed.

Zhao Weiguo circled it in red on the master plan.

"Today we're just locking it down. The artillery hasn't stopped firing, so we can't report the capture yet."

Before dusk, the forces advanced eastward to both flanks, completely cutting off the western supply route. They also gained control of the last water well to the north and marked the three access routes to the fortress on the map to the south.

The enemy forces were confirmed dead at approximately 480, captured at 260, and scattered at approximately 120. The core number dropped to approximately 4,000, but this figure still needs to be verified during subsequent surrenders and headcounts.

Our side suffered 36 dead and 94 wounded. The dead, seriously wounded, slightly wounded, and temporarily incapacitated were recorded separately. Two wounded civilian medical personnel were recorded separately and not included in the combat unit numbers.

The 260 prisoners came from four different places.

Those who came out of the eastern trench were first checked for telephone lines and minefields. Those captured on the western supply route were first checked for vehicle numbers, grain piles, and explosives. Those near the well to the north were required to explain who threw the wooden crates into the well. Only a few guards were captured outside the southern fort; they knew the access routes but not necessarily the full layout of the artillery positions.

Zhao Gang demanded that the source be clearly stated in the interrogation record. One prisoner gave two vehicle numbers, and the recorder didn't choose one that seemed appropriate for him, but wrote both down, marking them next to each other as "Contradiction Awaiting Verification." Another person said that only three thousand remained in the core area, but couldn't answer the question about the number of people at the stronghold. This statement was put into the blank folder and not included in the battle results list.

The escort team was short of rope, and the security officer wanted to take some from the captured goods. Zhao Gang ordered his men to first check the rope for traces of oil, detonators, and any identifying markings. Only after confirming it was just a vehicle rope did they issue a handover slip. The captured goods could be used, but their origin and intended use couldn't be dismissed with a simple "used locally."

The No. 1 passage was blocked twice more that afternoon. Once, the wheels of the wounded got stuck in the mud, and the other time, food sacks fell off the vehicles. The local road construction team widened the bends and filled sandbags with the excavated soil to reinforce the outer edge of the stretcher passage. About five hundred local transport, medical, and road construction workers were not among the frontline troops, but the road they built determined whether artillery shells and wounded soldiers could pass at the same time.

When the hot water at the delivery station was almost gone, two buckets of well water were brought in from the north. The medic didn't give it to the wounded immediately; he first checked the animal samples and water sample records. After confirming there was no unusual smell, he boiled it before distributing it. One of the lightly wounded soldiers, annoyed by the slow wait in line, picked up a bowl of cold water to drink, but a seriously wounded soldier next to him knocked half the bowl over with his foot.

"We've been waiting for ages, what's one more pot of fire?"

Despite cursing, the lightly wounded soldier put the bowl back by the stove.

The communications department also submitted a fault report. The backup line to the east was severed by shrapnel, two connectors to the west were loose, and the flag signals to the north were illegible in the fog. None of these reports were listed as indicating normal communication. By the third day, the reports from all four directions were being pieced together thanks to the coordinated efforts of telephone, flag signals, and messengers.

The next day, the armored vehicle with the damaged water tank was temporarily sealed off, but it could only be used for short distances. Another vehicle had a shallow cut on its tire from gravel while turning, but it was still drivable; the maintenance team required it to be checked before each trip. The third vehicle continued to have its clutch repaired.

The outriggers of the infantry gun could not be repaired at the front, the breechblock was sealed, and the entire gun remained out of service.

Zhao Gang compiled the casualties from the first three days into a single summary table.

On the first day, the Independent Regiment and its neighboring units suffered a total of 39 dead and 117 wounded.

The next day, 47 were killed and 132 were wounded.

On the third day, 36 were killed in action and 94 were wounded.

A total of 122 people were killed and 343 were wounded.

He added it three times, then asked another advisor to calculate it from the beginning. Only when the two arrived at the same result did he write the number into the general ledger.

"Out of contact?" Zhao Weiguo asked.

"There are still a few in the nuclear zone; they haven't been killed in action or taken prisoner."

"Separate column."

As night fell, a white cloth suddenly appeared in the northwest corner of the core area.

Some on the front lines shouted for surrender, but the gunfire continued. The southeast fort fired another shot, and guns were also being fired outwards from the south side of the core area.

Zhao Weiguo instructed the shouting team to repeat the disarmament procedure: lay down weapons, walk out one by one, with the wounded going first, and the positions of artillery and ammunition depots must be clearly explained.

No one came out from behind the white cloth.

Old Zhou cursed over the phone.

"Use a rag to buy time."

"Act according to the signal, not as a surrender," Zhao Weiguo said. "Keep the exits blocked; no one is allowed to approach."

The white cloth is still hanging in the northwest corner of the core area.

The southeast fort was still firing.

Zhao Weiguo stared at the white cloth for a while, then reached out and pulled the small flag in the northwest corner back half an inch. No one had come out from under the white cloth, so the flag couldn't be planted further in.

He turned to Zhao Gang and said something.

"Tomorrow, collect that piece of cloth first."