The regimental commander was seriously wounded, and the brigade commander himself came to the front line, but unexpectedly he was also injured and fell to the ground, screaming to kill the enemy until he died
Jieling is located at the junction of Guangdong and Xiling, guarding the Guangji Highway from Meichuan Town in Guangji County to Caohe Town in Qichun County, its mountain is not high, the altitude is more than 300 meters, but in the hilly area of Edong Linjiang, it is a general in the short, majestic enough, more importantly, the Drum Ridge on the north side of the Guangji Highway and the Hongwu Mountain on the south side are like two open and closed gates, firmly guarding the throat of this important road, so this place has always been a place of warrior fighting.
Legend has it that when Zhu Yuanzhang fought Chen Youyi, he once set up a battlefield here, and the Drum Ridge was the place where Zhu Yuanzhang used to beat the drum and wave the army, and Hongwu Mountain was Zhu Yuanzhang's Tun Bing barracks.
The Japanese attacking Jieling were the 65th Wing of the 13th Division (Wing Commander 2-CornerEdaisaku Daisaku) and the 45th Regiment of the 6th Division Regiment (Wing Commander Wakamatsu Heiji Daisaku), while the defenders of Jieling were the units of Cao Fulin of the 55th Army of the 3rd Corps.
Although the Japanese army only had two companies, they were strong and well armed, and their wishful thinking was: use these two companies as the vanguard of the road, rush westward, and if the action is blocked, move the division south and threaten the left side of the fortress in Tianjia town.
Of course, the Chinese army cannot allow the enemy's plot to succeed easily.
In this way, the boundary ridge has become a strategic point of contention between the two armies.
On September 7, 1938, the enemy launched an attack on the Songyang Bridge directly south of Jieling Ridge, and the 86th Brigade of the 55th Army guarded this hilly position.
The 86th Brigade was a unit formed by the Northwest Army, and the brigade commander, Chen Dexin, was a native of Yanling, Henan, who had just turned 34 years old.
Chen Dexin square face thick eyebrows, height 1 meter 80, large physique, brave and tenacious combat, in 1930, he was promoted to brigade commander by Feng Yuxiang at the age of 26, but later because of the "miscellaneous card" origin, he has not been promoted for a long time, he does not care about this. When the War of Resistance Broke Out, he first fought in Linyi, then in Jining, and then in Xuzhou, and led his troops to make many military achievements.
Songyangqiao is a small rural market with only more than 10 shops, but it is located on the edge of the Guangxi Highway, surrounded by dense mountains, like the eyelashes of the boundary ridge, so it is of great significance to adhere to the boundary ridge.
Before the Battle of Songyangqiao, Chen Dexin took the two regimental commanders below him—Commander Zhou Jiexian and Commander Li Zhicheng—to carefully examine the surrounding terrain and landforms, which was his old habit before the war. After the inspection, he placed the Zhou Regiment on several low ridges on the front line, while the Li Regiment was placed on several hills higher on the second line to form a deep three-dimensional defensive posture; the brigade headquarters and the Li Regiment command post were also combined to facilitate command. After the battle broke out, the enemy bombarded the Zhou Regiment with artillery, and the dense shells made the Zhou Regiment unable to lift its head up and down, and the left arm of the deputy regimental commander surnamed Chen was blown away and had to be transported to the rear for emergency bandaging and treatment.
The enemy's old tactics, Zhou Tuan knew very well: after the artillery fire, it was definitely a group infantry charge. However, this time the enemy charge added something new: 4 tanks opened the way, and the infantry followed behind. Zhou Tuan had no experience in fighting tanks, but they were still confident in fighting infantry, plus they were in high places and the enemy was in the open, so hitting infantry was as sure as hitting targets. After a while, most of the enemies who followed the tank were annihilated, and the remaining 4 "light turtles" fired a few shots there, turned around a few times, and obediently retreated. The second round of enemy shelling began, and it was even more intense than the first.
Commander Zhou Jiexian was about to stand up and direct the soldiers to temporarily retreat to avoid giving way, when suddenly a shell flew in, impartially, and landed on his right foot, Zhou Jiexian was swept up by the air wave two or three meters high, and fell heavily on the sand and gravel ground. When the guards looked, Commander Zhou's right foot was blown up and the man was in a coma.
Chen Dexin received the report, and on the one hand, he ordered to carry out Zhou To take the lead, and on the other hand, he personally went to the Zhou Regiment to direct the battle. When Chen Dexin rushed to the forward position, the enemy's 6 tanks had climbed to a distance of only 50 or 60 meters away from the Chinese army, and the 6 machine guns on the tanks swept through like a shuttle, causing the trees to fall to dust, scattering rubble, and bursting with blood and flesh.
"The enemy must be defeated!" Chen Dexin said to the commander of the second battalion next to him.
During his studies in the Military Education Corps of the 1st National Army, Chen Dexin learned the technique of fighting tanks, which he later summarized into two experiences: one was to remove the lid, that is, to touch the top of the tank, pull open the top cover, and kill the driver; the other was to blow up the chain, that is, to use a cluster grenade to blow up the tracks of the tank, paralyzing it, and waiting to die. Chen Dexin explained to Commander Chu the two methods of fighting tanks, and Commander Chu quickly organized 6 soldiers, carrying grenades and holding short guns, rolling down the hillside from a dead corner and touching the back of the enemy tank.
The enemy's infantry had been hit earlier, and this time they were all creeping in the hollows of the hill waiting for the tanks to clear the obstacles before "finishing". Now seeing the Chinese soldiers preparing to attack their tanks, they immediately shot at the Chinese soldiers like beans, the Chinese soldiers were not prepared, and immediately 3 people died heroically, and the other 3 climbed on the top of the tank, pulled the buckle cover, pulled the grenade, and threw it in.
The enemy's 3 tanks immediately became dead crabs, curled up on their legs and feet, and fell. The other 3 iron turtles are still unscrupulously pouring rain of bullets, and they are still approaching and approaching the Chinese position step by step along the hillside... "A few more brothers..." Chen Dexin was turning around and asking Commander Chu to organize the soldiers to launch another attack, when a bullet came and penetrated his back, and he immediately fainted.
Cao Fulin learned of the injury of the fierce general Chen Dexin and ordered him to be snatched off the battlefield at all costs.
At this time, the enemy's tanks were only twenty or thirty meters away from the Chinese army's position, and the enemy's infantry also climbed upward like locusts, and the front of the Chinese army's position had become a network of intertwined firepower. The stretcher bearer could not look up, but could only lie on the ground, dragging between the mountains and stones inch by inch, the mountain road full of stones, which aggravated the injury to Chen Dexin's back, the path was bent, and the blood was bent. In the coma, Chen Dexin woke up from the severe pain, and he struggled to pull out the pistol in his waist and fired a shot in the direction of the Japanese attack.
With tears in his eyes, the four stretcher bearers told him that he was now seriously injured, bleeding a lot on his back and abdomen, and advised him to lie flat. He struggled and fired another shot in the direction of the Japanese attack, passing out again.
When he had a little consciousness again, he found himself lying on a bed in the Hankou Wanguo Hospital, and his wife Yu Shi was cleaning his wounds with tears in his eyes.
The bullet that hit Chen Dexin penetrated from the left back, passed through the lungs and spinal cord nerves, and reached the left chest, so that Chen Dexin's abdomen was completely paralyzed; plus the road was bumpy, injured and infected, and Chen Dexin was in a coma most of the time.
At 10:00 a.m. on September 12, Chen Dexin woke up again, opened his eyes with difficulty, asked his wife to bring paper and pencil, and intermittently dictated his will: "At a time when the Wokou is rampant and the country is in deep trouble, all Chinese soldiers should bow down and die." His wife tearfully asked him what else he had to answer, and he shook his head gently, and then passed out again.
Mr. Zou Taofen, as a witness, made a very detailed description of the scene that appeared later that made everyone present very moved: "Then he fell into a coma, shouted wildly to kill the enemy, and when he saw the window, he frantically called out that the mountain bay must be arranged, and pulled his wife who was with the attendant to guard the place; when he saw the door, he called out that it was not okay, and pushed his attendant adjutant to guard the place; at this time, his whole body could not move, and he shouted loudly with full strength to 'fight', swinging his hands to command, and after half an hour, he was exhausted and died in his eyes."
In this way, a meteor crossed the sky, and a hero fell down with unpaid ambition!
Reference history: "Blood War Great Wuhan"