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

The tail of the Qingxu fishermen retreated to the banks of the Fen River, and the first thing they did was to seize the boats.

In mid-February 1945, the river thawed during the day and re-froze at night. The nine hundred remaining enemy soldiers did not all crowd into one ferry crossing; some guarded the west gate of Qingxu, some searched for boats along the river, and a small group sent messages towards Taiyuan.

Zhao Weiguo divided the map into three sections.

Outside Qingxu City.

Fenhe River Ferry Crossing.

Zhengtai Railway and Northbound Highway.

Approximately 35,600 people were actually mobilized during this phase. Independent regiments, training personnel, local transportation and sanitation workers, and neighboring units continued to share the burden. Personnel needed to be retained in the newly taken-over counties surrounding Taiyuan, so not all 35,600 were deployed to the riverbanks.

The first day only involved inspecting the ice and the ships.

Engineers drilled holes along the river to record ice thickness, water flow, and the location of the old ferry crossing. Cavalrymen examined wheel tracks on both banks and discovered that the Japanese had already towed away three wooden boats; two were hidden in the reeds, and one was stuck in the shallows downstream.

Li Dazhu wanted to sneak over at night to seize the boat, but the sapper shook his head.

"The river flows on. People cross, but boats may not return."

"So I'm just going to watch them row away?"

"First, seal off both banks. Once the ship leaves the shore, use mooring lines and the rudder, but not the hull."

The next morning, the first boat emerged from the west bank. It carried a dozen or so people, towing sacks of grain behind it. The machine guns on the north bank didn't fire at the boat, only at the tow rope. After the rope snapped, the boat spun halfway around in the middle of the river before crashing into shallow ice.

The Japanese soldiers jumped into the ice, causing it to crack. The Second Battalion did not pursue them into the river; instead, they waited for the soldiers to climb back to the west bank before blocking the upstream passage.

The garrison in Qingxu City took advantage of the fighting along the river to break out to the east.

Old Zhou's battalion was guarding the highway, while Duan Peng led his men to intercept the railway. The two gunshots were several miles apart, and the headquarters received reports separately. Zhao Weiguo did not allow the first battalion to reach the railway, nor did he allow the third battalion to leave its switch.

The breakout force scattered after crashing into road fortifications. Identifiable bodies, prisoners, and escape routes were recorded separately. Those who entered villages were handed over to local teams to block the roads; the main force did not enter the villages but searched each house.

On the third day, the west gate of Qingxu was opened.

There was no formal surrender ceremony within the city. The garrison dispersed and retreated to the riverbank, while the takeover team first sealed off the granaries and telephone stations. The hospital contained wounded enemy soldiers as well as civilians who hadn't had time to leave. Medics assigned beds according to the severity of the injuries, with the patient's identity written in the second column.

A worker from the city led the takeover team to inspect the power plant. The machine was stopped, but there was still oil in the tank. After taking a sample, the materials clerk found it was mixed with water and couldn't be turned on directly. When residents asked if there would be lights at night, the takeover team only replied that they would fix it first, without giving any guarantees.

The battle in the Fenhe direction continued into the fifth day.

Two hidden boats were found. One was leaking, the other was usable. The engineers numbered the usable boat first, then handed it over to the transport team, with no rule allowing whoever grabbed it first to keep it. The leaking boat was towed ashore, and the planks were dried before repairs were made.

The remaining enemy forces set up two machine gun positions on the west bank sandbar. Mortars were fired at the rear of the sandbar, while infantry advanced along the upstream shallows. The ice could not support heavy loads, so ammunition boxes were disassembled and carried by the soldiers, while stretchers were left on the east bank.

A soldier stepped through a thin layer of ice, half his leg sinking into it. Someone nearby used a rifle to pull him back. His cotton trousers were frozen solid and he couldn't stand upright, so he was taken to a fire to change clothes and didn't go any further.

On the sixth day, the sandbar on the west bank fell. The remaining enemy forces retreated south of Taiyuan, and the Fen River crossing was under their control.

This battle is not over yet.

Taiyuan still has about 15,000 troops defending it. The city can rely on railways, highways, and northern nodes to supply food and troops. If Qingxu is captured and the Zhengtai Railway continues to operate as usual, Taiyuan can still breathe.

Zhao Weiguo ordered a seven-day lockdown.

The first line is the Zhengtai Railway.

The second route is the northbound highway.

The third route is the ferry crossings and paths along the Fen River.

The railway wasn't just bombed. Signalmen first monitored train schedules, then engineers selected the break points. Only a section large enough to stop the train was dismantled at each location, with observation posts set up nearby. When the repair team arrived, they first recorded the number of personnel, vehicles, and tools before deciding whether to engage.

On the first night, a Japanese road construction team appeared with an armored track patrol vehicle. Duan Peng did not fire on flat ground, but waited until the vehicle entered a curve before firing flares. The engineers blew up the sleepers in front, and the rear team removed two sections of rails from behind, leaving the track patrol vehicle stuck in the middle.

The people in the vehicle abandoned it and ran up the hillside. The Third Battalion chased them to the observation post and stopped. The patrol vehicle first checked for mines, then towed the vehicle back to the siding. Whether the vehicle was usable would be determined by the repair crew later.

The problem with northbound highways is the heavy traffic.

Grain trucks, wounded soldiers' trucks, Japanese army trucks, and civilian trucks might all travel the same route. The checkpoints would first check passes and tire tracks, not open fire on every truck they saw. Local traffic officers knew the truck owners along the route; they could help verify whose trucks were and what they usually carried.

On the fourth day, a vehicle covered with a white sheet approached the checkpoint. There were wounded soldiers and two boxes of ammunition hidden inside. The Japanese soldiers escorting the vehicle attempted to use the wounded soldiers to cross the checkpoint, but the guards discovered their guns.

The medics treated the wounded first; ammunition and personnel were registered separately. No one ignored the wounds just because there were guns hidden in the vehicle.

During the seven-day lockdown, the number of train services to Taiyuan decreased significantly. Multiple phone taps revealed requests for grain and oil, confirming increased demand, but it was impossible to directly calculate how many more days the city could hold out.

The blockade line changes position every night.

Railway observation posts were hidden in abandoned kilns and culverts during the day, only approaching the break points at night. By maintaining a fixed position, they were easily located by Japanese artillery fire. Couriers marked temporary crossings with wooden signs, which were retrieved before dawn. Once, a sign was forgotten on a hillside and found and returned by villagers the next day. The person in charge recorded this mistake, and the entire route was immediately changed.

Telephone tapping didn't just record the content. The intervals between telegrams, the number of calls, and the duration of sudden silences were all recorded in a timetable. The Taiyuan switchboard went unresponsive for two extended periods before resuming service; the reason is unknown. Zhi Zi placed "possibly switching to a backup line" in the blue folder, without writing that the communication was completely cut off.

At its busiest, the highway checkpoints saw dozens of vehicles pass through in a single night. Locals transporting coal, hospitals sending wounded soldiers, and grain from the controlled areas all needed to pass. The checkpoint teams were divided according to permits and license plates; Japanese vehicles had a separate blacklist. One driver, who had misremembered his license plate, was detained on the roadside for two hours until the village liaison officer verified his identity.

The driver was so angry that he cursed, but when he took the rickshaw back, he still pressed his fingerprint on the handover book.

"Next time, hang the sign outside," the inspection team leader said.

"Next time, write the characters bigger."

Neither of them apologized, but the car was still allowed to pass.

The system's auxiliary interface only lists risks by existing train routes, road distances, and known inventory. Zhao Weiguo did not ask "When will Taiyuan collapse?" nor did he allow the interface to replace reconnaissance.

Equipment issues continued to emerge during the lockdown.

Both armored vehicles, which were only short-range capable, were sent back for repairs. Water leaked again from the edges of the radiator vehicle's patches, and the steering tie rods on the tire vehicle became loose after the worn-out tires were replaced. The clutch test on the third vehicle also failed.

There are currently no armored vehicles available for continuous use at the front lines.

During test firing of the spare infantry gun on the riverbank, the mounting holes were enlarged again. The gun crew fired only two rounds, and it was immediately taken out of service after the second. The breechblock was sealed, and the gun carriage was sent for repair; it could not be used to repair the breach in the mountain gun.

One gunner couldn't bear to part with it.

"Fire one more shot, and we'll definitely cross the river."

Zhao Tieshan pointed to the fixing hole.

"After this shot is fired, the artillery piece will cross the river first, but the crew may not."

The gunner cursed and still hung up the "Out of Service" sign.

The wounded were evacuated further than during the war in the three cities.

Those seriously wounded on the riverbank were first taken to the medical station on the east bank, and then sent to Qingxu Hospital. Wounded soldiers at the railway junction used the road, and could not cross the bridge at the same time as the prisoner-of-war. The medical department wrote down the two passage windows each day on a wooden sign; if someone missed their turn, they had to wait for the next group, and an alternative route was opened for emergency surgeries.

During a nighttime evacuation, the blockade was relocated, and the stretcher team couldn't find the injured person at the old intersection. The courier ran three miles along the ditch to retrieve them, but the wounded arrived forty minutes late. Zhao Gang didn't just hold the stretcher team responsible; the blockade had changed location, yet the patient hadn't been taken to the medical station, and the communications department had also made a mistake.

Prisoners were escorted according to their destination. Those traveling via Qingxu, Fenhe, railway, or highway were questioned separately. Some were familiar with the ferries, while others only knew about station duty. No one was forced to answer questions they couldn't answer. Wounded prisoners were treated first, and those who could walk were sent in batches later. Water and food were deducted from the guards' accounts.

Over the seven days, the supply depot recorded the amount of food, medicine, coal, and cart materials used in its inventory. The blockade wasn't about keeping a road quiet for seven days; it was about keeping its own people alive by the roadside for seven days.

The lockdown cannot be lifted and the matter is not considered closed.

The engineers retrieved the detonators and remaining fuses from each location, the signalmen removed the temporary listening boxes, and the local troops took over the fixed intersections. Before the observation posts withdrew, they had to clear away the garbage and embers hidden in the abandoned kilns to prevent the civilians from stepping on the uncollected items when they returned.

There's no rush to repair all the broken sections of the railway. The order from headquarters will determine which sections will remain closed and which will be used for transport to headquarters. An engineering platoon reloaded two rails ahead of schedule, only to discover they'd misunderstood the mission, so they disassembled them and redid them. The platoon leader didn't delete this work time from the logbook.

The seven-day reply slip includes an extra column at the end: whether the withdrawal was completed. Simply reporting that the enemy vehicles hadn't passed doesn't prove that all mines and lines have been collected.

On the seventh day of the lockdown, the receipts from the three lines came together.

The enemy forces have been confirmed dead at Qingxu, Fenhe, and railway and highway junctions, with approximately 1,640 dead, 1,310 captured, and 650 scattered.

Our side suffered 123 dead and 338 wounded. Casualties of friendly forces and local support personnel should be checked against their respective records; there is no need to sum them up repeatedly.

Two armored vehicles entered for maintenance.

One infantry gun was taken out of service.

The Qingxu and Fenhe ferry crossings have been taken over, and the Zhengtai Railway and the northbound highway have been unable to operate normally for seven consecutive days.

There are still about 15,000 troops guarding Taiyuan. The city gates, outer walls, railway area, armory, and residential areas are still intact.

Zhao Gang copied the list of 123 fallen soldiers by unit. Of the 338 wounded, some were able to return to their units, some were transferred to lighter duties, and some required long-term recuperation. Subsequent reinforcements were listed separately and could not be used to offset this casualty incident.

Local takeover teams outside Taiyuan began storing water, clearing schools, and preparing temporary hospitals. Once the city walls opened, civilians, prisoners, and wounded from both sides would pour out simultaneously. Supplies for the takeover were initially stored in warehouses outside the city, not mixed with artillery shells.

Zhao Gang turned the seven-day blockade table to the back.

"Next, a siege?"

"First, divide the city into several layers."

Zhao Weiguo drew three lines on the map of Taiyuan: the outer outline, the railway area, and the city gate. He also circled the armory, hospital, and warehouse separately.

The river is blocked.

Next up is Taiyuan City.

Zhao Weiguo tapped his pencil twice on the Taiyuan city wall, stopping at the outer boundary line. Fifteen thousand defenders were still inside the city, while cannons outside could already fire at the base of the walls.

He put down his pencil and said something to Lao Zhou.

"Tomorrow, get the outer frame first."