On a cold and humid evening, the north bank of the Suzhou River was full of noise and chaos. The wounded who had been evacuated from the front line and the troops heading to the front line were mixed together, and there were endless shouts and curses.
The situation on the frontline took a turn for the worse. The counterattacking Gui Army troops had almost lost all their strength. The Japanese troops had successively broken through several positions of the defenders and approached the Zoumatang area on the outskirts of Dachang Town. Reinforcement troops from all walks of life were rushing to the battlefield at this moment.
In a dilapidated private house, there were lying wounded covered in blood. They were all pulled from the front line. They were missing arms and legs after being blown up by bombs, and they were moaning and wailing in pain.
Health team member Zhang Hongying has been so busy that her feet are not touching the floor. Her fair face is full of fatigue. She has not closed her eyes for two days and two nights, but there are too many injured people. They are being sent down continuously, even those outside the house.
The open space was filled with stretchers for the wounded.
"Captain Zhang, we have run out of gauze." The hygienist with a hurried look rushed to Zhang Hongying to report.
Zhang Hongying raised her bloodless face, looked around, and finally pointed to the quilts covering the wounded and said: "Tear off the quilts, tear them into strips, disinfect them with boiling water, and use them as gauze for the time being."
At this moment, Yang Dashu, the platoon leader of the escort company of the health team, hurried to Zhang Hongying with a worried look on his face: "Captain Zhang, I have made it clear that the Gui Army troops on the front line have been defeated, and now the First Army is taking the lead.
, the Japanese have already approached the Zoumatang area, and they will attack soon."
"Is there any news about Company Commander Yang?" Zhang Hongying raised her head and asked.
Platoon leader Yang Dashu shook his head. Ever since they separated from Yang Ling and the others that day, looking for someone in this chaotic situation was like looking for a needle in a haystack. You would find it there.
Zhang Hongying's expression dimmed. She could never forget the figure who faced the artillery fire without hesitation. She smoothed her short hair and forced a smile: "Platoon Commander Yang, the safety of our health team is
It’s up to you.”
Yang Dashu slapped his chest loudly: "Captain Zhang, don't worry, as long as I, Yang Dashu, am here, I guarantee that the Japanese will not be able to hurt you even a hair."
Zhang Hongying nodded to Yang Dashu, then turned around and ran into the dilapidated houses, starting to rescue the wailing wounded, but she was a little distracted for some reason.
Bad news from the front line kept coming. Dingjiaqiao, Taoyuanbang, and Yunzaobang fell one after another. The Japanese were already closing in. The troops who had withdrawn were all in a state of embarrassment and scarred. While Zhang Hongying was busy rescuing people, she would think of that cruel man from time to time.
The company commander without a smile, I wonder what happened to him...
Yang Ling and others were ordered to withdraw to the area south of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and north of the Suzhou River. However, all the roads were in chaos. The troops heading to the front line and the troops withdrawing were mixed together. There were people everywhere.
They are all trodden roads, and they are confused at the moment because they are lost.
"Brother, do you know where the assembly point of the 174th Division is?" Lao Wangtou ran to a military policeman on the side of the road who was maintaining order and asked loudly.
The gendarme turned his head and shouted: "What did you say?"
"I said, do you know where the assembly point of the 174th Division is? They were ordered to be north of the Suzhou River and south of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway." Lao Wangtou repeated it loudly.
The military policeman pointed at the way Yang Ling and the others came from and said, "You are going the wrong way. This is the road leading to Nanxiang Station. You should turn left at the previous intersection!"
Lao Wang lowered his head and returned to the dozens of defeated soldiers standing by the roadside and said, "We took the wrong road and we have to go back."
The exhausted remnant soldiers had to turn around and walk back with the troops rushing to the front line. When they reached a fork in the road, they continued to the left. The remnant soldiers who were tossing back and forth were even more tired.
There were marching troops everywhere along the way, carrying various weapons on their backs and speaking with accents from different places. Yang Ling and the others marched for about two hours. It was already dark, and they found the third troop in a tent on the roadside.
The temporary dispatch point of the 21st Army.
"You guys wait here while I go take a look." Yang Ling told the remaining soldiers, then crossed the muddy road with his rifle and headed straight for the dispatch point set up on the roadside.
There was only one staff officer of the 21st Group Army and a few armed guards at the temporary dispatch point. After Yang Ling explained his intention, the army staff officer directly said to Yang Ling: "Our 21st Army Group has been ordered to evacuate to the west.
Okay, now you go to the Hejiang Pavilion in front to gather and wait for arrangements."
Yang Ling had no choice but to go back and continue to advance with the sleepy and tired remaining soldiers. At about ten o'clock in the evening, they tried their best to find the assembly point of Hejiang Pavilion.
The assembly point at Hejiang Pavilion was also crowded. The neighing of mules and horses, and countless blood-stained skirmishers continued to gather here. The bloody road made the place a noisy place. Nearly 700,000 troops gathered on this battlefield.
All order collapsed and became chaos.
At this moment, Yang Ling and the others had been on the road for a whole day, and everyone was exhausted. Fortunately, here they finally had a chance to have a good rest. After registering, they received several worn out military blankets and a bag of dry steamed buns.
, and finally took a break.
The campsite was extremely simple. There were no houses to live in. All the houses had been bombed and collapsed. Even a tent could not be found. As a last resort, Yang Ling and the others could only find a leeward depression and get some reed pole mats.
Just one night.
Fortunately, they received a few shabby marching blankets and a bag of dry steamed buns. Dozens of them divided the dry food among themselves and took an early rest. After working hard all day, no one had the energy to care about other things at this moment.
Yang Ling didn't even arrange sentries. After all, this place was still more than ten miles away from the battlefield, and the Japanese wouldn't be able to attack them for a while.
They slept very uneasily that night, because soldiers kept passing by on the road not far away, and the noise and commotion never stopped.
When it was almost dawn, Yang Ling finally squinted for a while, but the explosion that followed woke him up again. The Japanese planes blew up several houses at the Hejiangting assembly point, rumbling into smoke and dust all over the sky.
"Hurry and save people!" After the Japanese plane circled away, Yang Ling and others, who were lying on the ground to hide, rushed to the temporary command room at the assembly point, but it had already collapsed.
They pulled out more than a dozen corpses from the ruins, including the guard platoon leader who they distributed dry steamed buns to them last night, but at this moment his intestines were blown out, and he could no longer be dead.
"What the hell is this world like!" Seeing more than a dozen dusty corpses, some people cursed in a low voice, venting their inner dissatisfaction.