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

The first record from the railway on the north side was only the sound of wheels.

Long, short, paused for a quarter of an hour, then long again.

The monitor dared not write down the number of people, but first copied down the time and interval. The second record came from the bridgehead, stating that the water level in two places on the bridge was higher than the previous night. The third record consisted of four prisoner testimonies, with the four people giving different accounts, but they matched on only one point: the first batch of reinforcements from outside the pass had already crossed the line.

In late April 1945, on the third day of the siege of Beiping.

The Kwantung Army coordinated with the North China Area Army to send approximately 12,000 troops south in three waves, along with about 3,000 railway guards, transport troops, and engineers. About 7,000 had already entered the pass, and the remaining 5,000 were still awaiting orders in Manchuria.

Zhao Gang pressed three stacks of paper down the corner of the map.

"Baima Valley can't hold back so many people."

Zhao Weiguo marked three spots with a pencil.

Front view of Baima Valley.

The railway slope on the east side.

The old post road on the west side.

The three roads stretched out horizontally for about seventy kilometers. Ding Wei and his neighbors, numbering about 14,800, were divided into three layers: front, middle, and rear. Artillery, medical, and transport personnel had their own positions. No one was allowed to crowd more than 10,000 people into a valley entrance to wait for the shelling.

Ding Wei placed the first line of defense outside the mountain pass.

From there, you could see the bridge and which slope the Japanese scouts were climbing. The first line of defense was only for reporting enemy activity, not for holding the line to the death. The second line was for blocking the mountainside and the railway bends, and the third line was for artillery, wounded soldiers' huts, and replacement troops.

Early on the first day, the vanguard of the Kwantung Army, numbering about six hundred men, entered Baima Valley.

They checked the bridge planks, the telephone lines, and scanned the hillsides with binoculars. The men on the hill lay prone behind the dry grass, guns pointed downwards, and no one moved. A newly recruited soldier had his finger on the trigger, his knuckles white. The squad leader reached out and pressed his hand against the gun, his palm sweaty.

The enemy sent out a safety signal first.

An hour later, the second batch of infantry and engineers entered the valley, and the trucks began to cross the bridge. Just as the lead truck crossed the bridge, while the following trucks were still on the east bank, the explosives behind the bridge detonated.

The bridge piers remained intact, but two sections of the wooden beams on the bridge deck were broken.

Vehicles crossing the bridge pushed forward, while those not yet crossing stopped in a line. Machine guns on the hillside opened fire, first sweeping away the engineers and their wheels. The Kwantung Army quickly dispersed into the ditches and slopes, and mortars returned fire towards the hillside. The first line of defense lasted only fifteen minutes before retreating.

The new recruit ran alongside, asking, "Retreating so soon after the fighting started?"

Ding Wei crouched at the entrance of the trench, listening to the landing points of the shells.

"The enemy artillery has been found, and I'm still waiting here for them to treat me to a meal?"

In the afternoon, enemy artillery fire reached the second line. Two machine gun positions were buried under earth and rocks. Medics crawled over from the reverse slope, first pulling out the guns, then the men. One machine gunner was pinned under a wooden beam, still urging people to remove his ammunition belt. The men carrying him cursed, and four of them used their shoulders to push against the beam, ignoring his pleas.

By the end of the first day, the Kwantung Army had advanced less than eight kilometers.

The enemy suffered approximately 260 deaths and captured over 60. Our side suffered 31 dead and 87 wounded. After writing down the numbers under the oil lamp, Ding Wei folded up the list of the dead and stuffed it into his inner pocket. He then handed the number of wounded to the medical team for verification.

Before dawn, the fallen were first gathered behind the third line.

When there weren't enough shrouds, the medical team used captured tent fabric to make up the difference. Some people had worn-through soles in their shoes and their feet were still wrapped with strips of cloth that had been changed the night before; some people had half a hard biscuit in their pockets, covered in dirt, which the registrar couldn't bear to throw away, so he wrapped it up along with their name tags.

A class monitor came to identify the students. When he got to the third student, he squatted down to tie his shoelaces. The shoes weren't loose at all. He tied them twice, and when he stood up, he only said one sentence.

"I've handled this before."

No one was urging him. New fortifications were still being dug on the mountainside, the sound of shovels striking rocks echoing through the air. The list was copied, the originals were handed over and sent back, copies remained at the front. The dead were to be sent back, and the living had to rebuild the second line of defense.

The next day, gunfire erupted simultaneously from all three roads.

They continued their attack on Baimayu from the front, while about 1,500 men turned to the east side of the railway slope, and a reconnaissance team of about 300 men also emerged from the old post road on the west side.

There were only six mountain guns.

Ding Wei left four cannons at the front and dragged two to the railway bend. The neighboring side to the west had no artillery, so they could only rely on the terrain to block the exit. Someone asked what to do with the old post road, and Ding Wei pointed to the ammunition table.

"Six cannons, and you're going to conjure up a seventh?"

Japanese soldiers on the railway slope carried rails and sleepers, trying to mend the broken line. The first salvo of artillery shells hit the tractor, the second hit the pile of sleepers, and the third went unanswered. The artillery crew resealed the remaining shells, and the infantry held the slopes, preventing the repair team from getting close to the rails. The tools and two radios were left at the bottom of the slope.

About three hundred men on the west side failed to get around the obstacle. The neighboring forces held the exit, wiped out the reconnaissance group ahead, and the remaining men retreated back into the mountains. The battle report only stated that an ambush occurred on the old post road, without assigning a divisional number to these three hundred men.

On the third day, a breach appeared in the second line of defense at Baima Valley.

The Kwantung Army engineers blasted open the stone wall on the mountainside, and the infantry rushed into the communication trenches. Grenades were thrown from both sides at intervals of more than ten meters, and the trenches were full of rubble and smoke. Ding Wei sent the reserve team in, and he stood at the fork in the road. Each time a squad went in, he would mark a line on the table to prevent the rest of the soldiers from crowding into the same trench.

When the breach was sealed, the barrel of one of the mountain guns was so hot it was untouchable. The gun crew poured water on it, and white steam shot up, followed by a cracking sound from the gun barrel.

The inspector hung up the "Out of Service" sign.

The artillery squad leader was getting anxious.

"We're still short of artillery."

"Even if we're short of artillery, we can't bomb our own people."

The mountain gun was taken out of service. Two small bridges were also damaged by the shelling, forcing the transport team to detour twelve kilometers. The seriously wounded arrived at the medical station an hour and a half later than scheduled.

A soldier wounded in the chest and abdomen didn't make it across the makeshift wooden bridge. The medic stopped at the bridgehead, flipped the soldier's wound certificate over, and wrote down the time of death. The soldier's name, previously in the wounded column, was crossed out and moved to the list of the dead. The artillery shells and ration bags waiting to cross the bridge weren't urged to go; the stretcher was allowed to pass first.

The temporary wooden bridge was only two door panels wide.

When the stretcher passed, the person carrying the front had to walk sideways. The water under the bridge wasn't deep, but the stones were slippery, so the transport team tied a rope to each bank. Seriously wounded soldiers couldn't hold onto the ropes, so someone next to them would put their wrists on their shoulders. One wounded soldier cried out for his mother in his delirium. The soldier carrying the stretcher heard him, scolding him for being cowardly, but his steps were steadyer than anyone else's.

After the last stretcher had passed, the shell boxes were carried onto the bridge one by one. The food sacks were at the very end. The frontline urged them twice, but the transport workers only replied that the bridge was too narrow. No one dared to squeeze the wounded and shells onto the same plank of wood just to save a quarter of an hour.

On the fourth day, an urgent telegram arrived at the Kwantung Army headquarters from Manchuria.

The Soviet army increased rail transport and troop concentrations along the border. Approximately 5,000 additional troops were temporarily deferred from entering the country, while those already in the country were redeployed northwards pending further orders.

This telegram did not finish the remaining battle for Ding Wei.

The bridge was broken, and the railway was also broken, leaving about 7,000 people who had entered the pass scattered on three roads. The enemy commander first withdrew the transport and engineering troops, and then withdrew the infantry on the front. Ding Wei ordered his troops to recapture the bridgehead and the railway curve, and only pursued them three kilometers beyond the mountain pass.

The neighboring commander wanted to push forward further.

"If we keep chasing, the artillery won't be able to reach them, and we won't be able to bring the wounded back," Ding Wei said. "I don't want those three kilometers on the map; I want people to come back and relieve us."

On the fifth day, the large-scale offensive on the front of Baima Valley ceased.

The remnants of the Kwantung Army retreated northward, leaving behind wounded soldiers, broken vehicles, and ammunition they couldn't take. After deducting confirmed deaths and prisoners, approximately 5,000 men still moved towards the north of Beiping. The fact that the subsequent 5,000 did not continue into the pass does not mean that all the earlier troops returned.

The five-day general ledger was delivered via three routes.

At Baima Valley, the enemy suffered 720 dead and 260 captured; our side suffered 103 dead and 271 wounded.

On the eastern railway slope, the enemy suffered 460 dead and 310 captured; our side suffered 58 dead and 164 wounded.

On the old post road to the west, the enemy suffered approximately 200 dead and 50 captured; our side suffered 23 dead and 62 wounded.

In total, the enemy suffered approximately 1,380 deaths and 620 prisoners; our side suffered 184 dead and 497 wounded. 142 rounds of mountain artillery and over 500 rounds of mortars were used. Baimayu had the lowest remaining ammunition; newly delivered ammunition was used to reinforce the defensive line, and only about 2,000 men were detached to advance eastward.

After reviewing the total, Ding Wei spread out the three separate accounts.

The wounded were most severely injured at Baimayu, the largest number of prisoners were captured on the eastern railway slope, and the wounded were evacuated the slowest from the old post road. The bandages, stretchers, and mules used in the three locations were also different. If you only look at the total, everyone would assume that all 620 prisoners were already locked up in one place and that all 497 wounded were in the hospital.

There are still people on the road.

Outside the third medical station, stretchers stretched from under the eaves all the way to the earthen wall. The lightly wounded carried their own water, while the seriously wounded waited for transport. A gunner, his hands blistered from scalding, still squatted beside the decommissioned mountain gun, wiping the breech with a rag. The inspector told him to bandage it, but he said he'd finish wiping it once. The inspector snatched the rag away and pushed the gun, along with his injury certificate, to the medic.

"The cannon's been put up, and so have you. Neither of you should try to be brave."

The gunner looked back several times, but the cannon remained stationary at the foot of the earthen slope.

The seized items also need to be weighed again.

Of the more than 500 rifles, 317 were immediately usable; of the more than 20 machine guns, 13 were operational; of the six mortars, four were firing; and of the eleven trucks, only six were functional. The rest were marked for repair, and those beyond repair were set aside. No one could treat the total number of captured weapons as their own property.

During the handover of the defensive lines, only half of the first line of earthen wall remained; unexploded ordnance remained on the mountainside of the second line; and the third medical station was crowded with wounded soldiers. The incoming officer walked through each station with a list, stopping to ask who had left behind a bloodstained rag. The medic from the previous shift gave his name, and only then did the incoming officer sign in that column.

No major battles were fought on the eighth day of the encirclement.

On this day, the northern front used the time for shift changes, replenishing ammunition, and defusing unexploded ordnance. They also transported the last batch of seriously wounded soldiers across the temporary wooden bridge. Ding Wei only dispatched about two thousand men to follow eastward, leaving the rest behind at the three mountain passes. The bridge repair team laid wooden planks for pedestrians, while vehicles still had to wait. The remaining five thousand troops north of Beiping also took this opportunity to regroup on this day.

In Beiping (Beijing), Okamura received two telegrams.

Subsequent reinforcements have been suspended from entering the country.

Unable to break through Baimayu and Tielupo, the troops that had entered the pass adjusted northward.

He placed the two telegrams on the map, first adding sentry posts at the city gates, then adding guard posts at the armory and radio station. A grain warehouse in the southern district caught fire, burning about three hundred bags of grain and some oil. He arrested more than ten guards. Some puppet troops fled, but only in groups of three to five or seven to eight. He ordered some training and personnel documents to be burned; the ashes fell in the courtyard, were swept up by the orderly, and then blown back by the wind.

Okamura did not stop.

He's still doing things one by one, even things that could be put off for a day.

On the outskirts of Beiping, Zhao Gang pushed the battle report of Baimayu in front of Zhao Weiguo.

"The remnants on the northern front number about five thousand. What about the southern route?"

"Keep it."

"He will see the north getting heavier and heavier."

"Let him see it."

Two more observation posts were added north of Shunyi, while artillery was kept in reserve in the Tongxian direction. Ding Wei's troops replenished ammunition, changed shifts, and evacuated the wounded, without forcing their way to Beiping. There were about 22,000 people inside Beiping and about 18,000 on the outskirts. No one described the battle to block reinforcements as a battle in which the city had already fallen.

Zhao Weiguo touched the small bronze star on the inside of his collar insignia.

The map is becoming increasingly densely covered in the northern part, while the approximately twelve-kilometer-long gap in the south remains empty.

Okamura's next order will be coming soon.

Zhao Weiguo traced the empty opening to the south again, his pencil stopping on the twelve-kilometer-wide passage. The troops to the north pressed down harder and harder, while the gate to the south opened wider and wider.

He looked up and said something to Zhao Gang.

"Okamura is about to make a move. Southward."