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

On the morning of the fourth day, the white cloth in the northwest corner of the core area was still there.

The cloth hung there all night, its edges frayed by the wind. No one came out from behind the white cloth, yet the southeast fort fired a shot every now and then. No one on the front lines took it as a surrender.

The shouting team repeated the disarmament procedure again.

The weapons were placed outside the trench.

The staff left in batches.

Report the wounded first.

The positions of the guns, ammunition depots, and minefields must be clearly explained.

There was no reply from the other end.

Zhao Weiguo left the "Northwest White Cloth" in the pending verification column and dealt with the Southeast Fort first.

After three checks, the reconnaissance map to the south confirmed that behind the abandoned brick kiln was a mountain gun, a mortar position, and ammunition shelters. The village houses were to the west of the gun emplacement, and there was a narrow ditch to the southeast of the gun position. The monk reached the mouth of the ditch last night, but only saw two tripwires and didn't move.

On the fourth day, no large force was sent to attack from the front.

Engineers checked the tripwires along the narrow ditch, artillerymen drilled observation holes and ammunition transport routes, and infantrymen guarded the three exits. Both armored vehicles remained on the outer perimeter. The one with the water tank awaiting repair could only move short distances; the other, with its cracked right front tire already reinforced, couldn't traverse the gravel slope. The third vehicle's clutch was still not installed.

Zhao Tieshan hung the vehicle condition sign on the steering wheel.

"Whoever tears up the license plate and drives off, has to come to the repair shop first to pay for the tires."

Old Zhou glanced at it.

"What's the point of keeping it alive when it's already like this?"

"It can drag ammunition and block a section of direct fire. It can't be considered undamaged."

"Then how badly should it be written?"

The vehicle condition swatches clearly indicate the following: one vehicle has a radiator that needs repair, one has a tire with a crack that can be used for a short time, and the third has a clutch malfunction. None of the vehicles are listed as completely in good condition.

Before dawn, the engineers removed two hand grenades from the narrow ditch entrance. The fuse was led to the side wall of the abandoned brick kiln, with the end tied to an empty tin can. The can was filled with pebbles; if someone touched the fuse, the pebbles would explode first, alerting the gun emplacement to the presence of someone in the ditch.

The sappers didn't cut the rope; they secured the cans first, then untied the knots. After the advance team passed, the cans remained hanging in the same place, appearing unchanged from a distance.

At 6:10, the artillery opened fire.

The first round targeted the ammunition path. The second round targeted the mortar bunkers. The mountain artillery positions did not immediately return fire; the guns only turned towards the narrow ditch when the infantry approached the exit.

The shells hadn't been loaded in time.

The monk led his men in through a gap in the side wall, first seizing the breechblock, then sealing the ammunition boxes. The Japanese troops inside the fort retreated towards the brick kiln, while the infantry guarded the exit, not pursuing them into the untested underground kiln passage.

The Southeast Fort ceased fire just after 7 a.m.

Wounded soldiers and soldiers with their hands raised were positioned near the artillery positions. Body searches, disarming, and mine checks were conducted separately. The wounded were first placed in the white-cloth area, while those who could walk lined up outside the trench. No one was allowed to approach the stretcher team without having been searched.

The first batch consisted of more than sixty people.

One of them pointed below the brick kiln and said there was an ammunition depot. The sapper asked him to mark the location on a map but didn't let him lead the way into the kiln. Only after the two prisoners' accounts matched did they use a long pole to probe the door and confirm there was no wire.

In the ammunition depot, an infantry gun had its breech removed, and its right support leg was bent. It wasn't the same gun that had been taken out of service yesterday. Zhao Gang saw the register and immediately ordered someone to check the serial number.

After checking, it was confirmed that the cannon in the warehouse was enemy equipment; our decommissioned infantry gun was still behind the North Pass. The two cannons could not be recorded as one loss.

"Write the number first, then the classification," Zhao Gang said. "Saving a single character could mean having one more cannon or one less."

No one came out of the white cloth in the northwest corner until nine o'clock in the morning.

The first to emerge were two wounded soldiers, their guns left behind. They said that some people in the trench were willing to surrender, while others were not. Zhao Weiguo did not allow the receiving team to go in directly.

"Go back and relay the message. Those willing to come out should be in groups of five, with their weapons placed outside the white line. If they come out, they should fire; those outside should immediately lie down."

The wounded soldiers were searched and bandaged, then left in the receiving area instead of being sent back to act as messengers. The broadcasting team repeated the conditions three times using a megaphone.

The first group of five people came out.

The second batch of twelve people.

One of the third men had a knife concealed in his sleeve; it fell into the mud during the body search. The guards subdued him, and the rest of the group immediately stopped behind the white line. The registrar recounted the number of men, and the surrender procedure did not continue until half an hour later.

No one lowered their guns just because they had raised the white cloth.

On the fourth day, approximately 210 new prisoners were captured. The core group still numbers around 3,790 awaiting disposal. Some are hiding in underground fortifications, some are guarding ammunition depots, and some may be mixed in with the wounded; the numbers can only be increased as the count progresses.

Before noon, stretcher teams entered the southeast fort to carry the wounded.

There was a section of collapsed wall at the corner of the underpass, making it impossible for the stretcher to pass. The three stretcher bearers first moved the broken bricks, when suddenly a loose stone fell from behind the wall. One person was hit in the shoulder, and the other two fell down the slope while trying to avoid it, injuring their wrists and knees.

All three were able to speak, and there were no further deaths. After the medics bandaged them up, they were transferred to the second medical station, where local stretcher teams filled the gap.

The only new injuries reported on the fourth day were those of these three stretcher bearers.

When Zhao Gang reviewed the general ledger, he separated the combat troops from the local support units.

In the first three days of combat, the troops suffered a total of 122 dead and 343 wounded.

Three more stretcher bearers were injured on the fourth day.

Over four days, a total of 122 people were killed and 346 were wounded.

The missing persons list remains separate; those not yet found cannot be listed as killed in action. Seriously wounded, slightly wounded, and temporarily incapacitated are also listed separately. Vacancies for battalion and company commanders are only registered according to the confirmed lists; no one is adding numbers based on old estimates.

Old Zhou brought over the list of vacancies facing west.

The battalion first reported personnel, then weapons. They wrote down each type of weapon in a separate column: usable weapons, weapons awaiting repair, weapons present but not personnel, and personnel present but not weapons. Old Zhou found the forms tedious, and in the end, he even added his lost tobacco pouch to the corner of the page.

Zhao Gang saw it.

"Tobacco pouches don't contribute to weapon attrition."

"I also looked at the bridgehead, but it's really gone."

Write down your personal belongings.

Old Zhou cursed under his breath as he found another piece of paper and wrote something down.

Duan Peng handed over the 3rd Battalion's shortage of supplies and engineering tools. Two pairs of wire cutters were missing; one was confirmed to be damaged by the explosion, and the whereabouts of the other were unknown. Detonators, fuses, and explosives were to be accounted for based on actual consumption; captured detonators were not to be taken and added to the headquarters' inventory.

The monk handed over the special operations team roster. It listed who was on the southern front, who was infiltrating the artillery positions, who was escorting prisoners, and their respective locations. After reviewing it, Zhao Gang asked, "Do your men have any advanced core units?"

"No. The underground kiln hasn't been inspected. Going in there to die would be unthinkable!"

"This sentence can be included in the handover."

"Would you write that I'm afraid of dying?"

"Write that the unverified area has not been entered."

The monk then nodded.

Some people have also suggested supplementing the ranks.

One staff officer said that there was already a group of candidates in the base area, and asked if it would be possible to fill the vacancies for commanding officers and machine gunners first.

Zhao Weiguo refused to replenish the supply on the spot.

"First, assess the situation; first, train; first, see if the wounded can return to the unit. Write down as many as are needed today. Even if you fill the numbers with someone who hasn't finished training, the front lines will still be short-staffed."

The Shiyao medical station also delivered a bed roster. The beds for seriously injured were nearly full, with priority given to those with chest and abdominal wounds and infected injuries. Wounded individuals who could walk were moved to the outer cave dwellings; stretchers and medicine kits were to be kept out of the No. 1 passageway.

The transport schedule for the North Pass has also been rechecked. Light vehicles can pass, but heavy vehicles must be transported in batches. Armored vehicles with radiators awaiting repair are not allowed to travel up long slopes. The vehicle with the cracked tires will only be used for short distances on flat ground. Infantry guns that are no longer in service will remain in the rear awaiting outriggers and must not be reported as having been repaired under the guise of surrender.

The takeover team also entered the perimeter on the afternoon of the fourth day.

They first sealed off the granary, pharmacy, and alleyways leading to residential buildings, avoiding the core underground fortifications. The granary door originally had two locks, one of which had been broken. The personnel taking over temporarily sealed the door with wire, affixing two seals to the outside, with the Independent Regiment and local representatives each signing their names.

Villagers returned to claim their homes, registering first at the alley entrance. Some said there was grain hidden inside, while others only wanted to find bedding. Guards accompanied them in and out, two people per household at a time, recording everything they brought out. Confiscated guns, items from the Japanese army's warehouse, and the villagers' belongings were stored in three separate locations; no one could claim them first just because they shouted the loudest.

An elderly woman recognized her copper pot in a corner; her surname was engraved on the bottom. The registrar asked her to point out the location of the dent and had a neighbor as a witness before returning the pot. The old woman clung to the pot, refusing to leave, and asked who was responsible for the damage to the roof caused by the bombing.

The personnel taking over the case didn't promise to compensate later; they only wrote down the address, the location of the damage, and the names of witnesses. They verified what could be verified first, and left a receipt for what couldn't be answered.

The missing persons list was now missing one person. The soldier had been delivering cables for the communications team on the third day when he became trapped in a collapsed ditch that night. After injuring his leg, he hid in an empty cave. Local road construction crews found him while clearing the ditch; he was still alive, and his gun and cable spool were still there.

Zhao Gang moved the name from the missing persons column to the wounded column, noting the time and location of its discovery. The total number of injured was then checked and confirmed to be included in the previous 343 cases, so it was not added again.

Two others remain missing. Their names are kept in the missing persons register and do not automatically disappear due to partial disarmament.

In the afternoon, the three master sheets were placed together.

Results table.

Loss table.

Hygiene table.

Over four days, the enemy has been confirmed dead at approximately 2,000, captured at approximately 800, and scattered at approximately 600. The core group still numbers approximately 3,790, awaiting further action. These figures are based on current verification and are subject to change following subsequent surrender, clearing operations, and identification of the wounded.

We made three copies of the list of our fallen soldiers.

One copy was left at the front desk.

Send one copy to the rear.

One copy should be returned by unit.

When copying the third document, a communications officer misspelled a homonym. Zhao Gang didn't erase it; he rewrote the entire line and had the original unit verify the place of origin and location of the injury or death.

Zhao Weiguo sat across the table, watching as 122 names were transcribed one by one. Confiscated guns continued to be brought in from outside; the bolts, ammunition, and owners were registered separately. The surrender ceremony was quite a spectacle, and no one inside seemed to be speeding up their writing.

By evening, the southeast fort and northwest corner had been partially disarmed.

Gunfire could still be heard in other core areas, and the underground fortifications had not been completely cleared. The artillery positions were not fully identified, the number of ammunition depots was not verified, and the 3,790 people were only a current estimate awaiting disposal.

The operations chief asked, "Will we be accepting surrenders tomorrow?"

"Clear the artillery positions first, then check the wounded and prisoners," Zhao Weiguo said. "The surrender line will be divided into sections, with separate guard posts for civilian houses and granaries. No one is allowed to use the clearing operation as an excuse to enter houses and search for items."

"Do special agents go into underground fortifications?" the monk asked.

"Check the entrance and the barricades. Don't enter alone until the main force arrives to clear the area."

Zhao Gang put the third list of the fallen into a cloth bag and sewed two stitches on the opening.

How should the fifth-day order be written?

Zhao Weiguo looked at the still-unfinished nuclear test site map.

"Clear the cannons, accept the surrender, and take over."

The white cloth has already been hung up.

The bill hasn't been settled yet.

Zhao Weiguo pushed the sewn-up cloth bag to the corner of the table; inside were 122 names. Outside, from the surrender area, shouts of names echoed continuously, until voices grew hoarse.

He picked up a pencil and wrote three words at the top of the fifth day's order.

Clear, reduce, receive.

The pen tip paused on the character "接" for a moment before finally falling.