Yang Ling and the others stopped temporarily in Hankou to rest for a night, drinking and chatting with old friends until late at night.
Zhao Wenbin, who was full of worries, drank a lot of wine and staggered a little. However, it was not easy to meet old acquaintances in the turbulent years.
"Brother Yang... Bullets don't have eyes on the battlefield. You... take care of yourself. Whenever you want to have some time off, send a message to brother. I will give you the position of battalion commander, and I will help you..."
"Okay, brother, I've taken note of what you said. I can't survive any longer, so I'm coming to seek refuge with you. You can go back and have a good sleep now. We'll contact you later."
Seeing Zhao Wenbin who was a little confused, Yang Ling hailed a rickshaw, gave the driver a silver dollar, and asked him to take Zhao Wenbin back to his residence.
"Brother Yang, remember...remember to send the message." Zhao Wenbin shouted vaguely while sitting on the rickshaw, and Yang Ling also smiled and waved.
Seeing the rickshaw pulling Zhao Wenbin getting further and further away, and finally disappearing into the night, Yang Ling felt an inexplicable sense of loss.
From the Songhu battlefield to the present, many brothers including Luo Dayong, Fatty, Er Lengzi, and Yang Dashu have fallen. There are fewer and fewer old brothers and more and more new recruits. An unspeakable feeling of loneliness envelopes the whole body.
"Vice-General, let's go back."
Huzi, an orderly and guard, looked at Yang Ling standing there with melancholy on his face, and broke the silence.
A gust of cool breeze hit, and Yang Ling's head became clearer. He took a deep breath, turned around and said, "Let's go back."
The order Yang Ling and others received was to march eastward to Jiujiang, so at dawn, without having time to say goodbye to their old friend Zhao Wenbin, their troops headed straight for Jiujiang without stopping.
The flames of war spread across the land of China, green mountains and green waters turned into scorched earth, and cities and towns were reduced to ruins.
The road Yang Ling and the others drove to Jiujiang was filled with refugees fleeing the country. The road was packed with horse-drawn carriages carrying cattle and sheep, and full of parcels. The sweltering land was filled with an unspeakable atmosphere.
The retrograde troops walked on roads crowded with refugees for several days before arriving at the resting place where the main force of the 74th Army was stationed - De'an, Jiangxi.
De'an City is not big, relatively speaking, it is only equivalent to a larger market in the coastal area. However, De'an is adjacent to Poyang Lake in the east and Lushan Mountain in the west. It is an important town on the Nanxun Line, and its strategic location is very important.
"Our mission is to guard De'an and be responsible for the defense along the Nanxun Railway."
Yang Ling and the others have received a new mission, which is not a combat mission, but a rare security mission. This is rare good news for the brothers who have been fighting for several months.
Yang Ling's 301st Regiment belonged to the rear troops of the 74th Army. After arriving in De'an, the better garrison areas were occupied by other brigades and regiments, so they had to settle in a remote town.
"Each camp is set up outside the town, and no one is allowed to disturb the people without permission."
After the troops arrived in the town, the regiment leader Zhang Handuo politely declined the invitation from the local gentry and stationed the troops two miles away from the town.
Yang Ling fully agreed with this approach. Although the military discipline of the army was much better than that of other miscellaneous troops, there was no guarantee that everyone could control themselves.
Continuous fierce battles resulted in heavy casualties in the troops, and too many replacements. As a result, many brothers had a weak sense of military discipline and often had conflicts with the residents.
The conflict has greatly affected military-civilian relations, so regimental leader Zhang Handuo strictly restrained the troops this time to prevent past incidents from happening again.
"Commanders of each battalion, please listen carefully and take care of the brothers under your command. If anyone causes trouble and the people come to find him, I don't want to hear an explanation. The commander directly under him will be dismissed from his post and investigated and punished on the spot!"
The so-called heavy code should be used in troubled times. The regiment leader Zhang Handuo also understood this very well. He summoned officers at all levels and gave a murderous warning.
The commanders of these battalions and companies are nothing to say when it comes to fighting. Even if there is a hail of bullets in front of them, they dare to rush forward screaming. However, they are not far behind when it comes to making mistakes, and they often cause chaos in the station.
"Tell the brothers to take care of what's in their crotches. If there's another crying widow coming to the camp to find a father for her baby, I'll have to kill her!"
Seeing that the brothers all looked serious, Zhang Handuo also cursed with a rare humor, making the brothers laugh.
Away from the flames of war, Yang Ling and the others once again had a short break.
The Battle of Lanfeng caused the entire 74th Army to lose more than 4,000 men, and all their weapons and ammunition were exhausted. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity to rest and recuperate, all units hurriedly used various channels to replenish battle losses and train soldiers to meet the new situation.
battle.
The 74th Army where Yang Ling and others belong is still under the command of Xue Yueda's First Corps, but it is placed under the control of the newly established Ninth Theater and is temporarily deployed on the De'an and Nanxun railway lines.
The Ninth War Zone replenished the 74th Army with a batch of supplementary troops sent from the rear. Most of them came from Sichuan and Jiangxi and other places, and they were full of new recruits.
Most of these supplementary soldiers were sent over after a week or two of short training. Many of them had only fired one or two bullets and could only shoot, and had almost no combat effectiveness.
Even so, these newly recruited soldiers were quickly divided among the various regiments. Now the commanders of each army no longer care about picking and choosing, as long as they want people.
Yang Ling and his regiment arrived in De'an a few days later than the rest of the troops. When the regiment leader Zhang Handuo went to the brigade headquarters to request for new recruits, he found no one because they had been divided up.
"Brigade, our regiment lost more than 500 people and seriously injured more than 100 people on the Lanfeng battlefield. We have made a collective contribution. Without new recruits, this battle cannot be fought. How about you give us a few?
ah."
The regiment commander Zhang Handuo complained bitterly at the brigade headquarters, while the brigade commander Zhou Zhidao also shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands and said: "You ask me for it, but I don't have it either. So many soldiers have been added to the theater, and our corps has been divided into 20,000
There are many people, and our 74th Army managed to grab some of them with great difficulty, but we would have divided them up before you even arrived."
Seeing the regiment leader Zhang Handuo's face grimacing and not ready to leave, the brigade commander Zhou Zhidao softened his expression again and said, "How about you wait a few more days for new recruits to come over and I will give priority to your regiment?"
"
The troops suffered heavy losses, and without new recruits, they would not be able to improve their combat effectiveness. This battle would start again at some point, and regiment leader Zhang Handuo was naturally unwilling to give up. Without new recruits, he had no intention of leaving.
Looking at the regiment leader Zhang Handuo who refused to leave, the brigade commander Zhou Zhidao also knew that continuing like this was not an option. In desperation, they called the director of the munitions department and allocated more than a thousand silver dollars to let them find a way to recruit some people first.
"You can recruit as many people as you want, but those you recruit must be registered. When the time comes, I will go to the military base to report."
Brigadier Zhou Zhidao did not forget to remind Zhang Handuo in the end that after all, they were a combat force and it was taboo to recruit troops without authorization.
However, now that all armies and units have suffered heavy losses, there are many who are replenishing their own troops, and they only need to report according to regulations.
Although Zhang Handuo was extremely reluctant, he had no choice but to receive no new soldiers, so he could only raise a flag to recruit troops by himself with more than a thousand silver dollars.
The recruitment flag was raised, and it was the main force of the Central Army. There were many people watching, but only a few signed up.
It’s no wonder that these ordinary people are not patriotic. Soldiers will die if they fight in the war. Although the troops receive military pay, they also have to pay for their lives.
The National Revolutionary Army fought countless defeats on the battlefield, and each time the fields were littered with corpses. The former soldiers in the village have never returned. In addition, for strategic considerations, the government has sacrificed countless people's interests and lost credibility. There is not much
People are willing to be soldiers.
The regiment's recruiting flag had been up all day, but only less than twenty people were recruited. The angry regiment leader Zhang Handuo scolded his mother: "You are all a fucking coward, Lu Xing, take people to the town to arrest people,
According to the wartime drawing method, one will be drawn for three pieces, two will be drawn for five pieces, and those who disobey will have to be tied up by me!"
"Wait a minute."
Zhang Handuo wanted to act recklessly, but the first battalion commander Lu Xing didn't even think about it. He turned around and went to the town to capture soldiers. Yang Ling hurriedly stopped him.