A million male masters across the river, he is the "first ship" (5)

On the opposite bank of the mud is the enemy's key point of river defense - Hagi Harbor.

Here the river surface is narrow, the river bank is dangerous, and the enemy has set up heavy firepower here. Trenches, barbed wire layers, Ming Fort, Dark Fort densely packed, especially on the port side of the plate rock, 3 large blockhouses stand in between, choking the throat into the hagi port.

Therefore, the task of training troops on the water in our units across the river gathered in the mud is particularly arduous and arduous.

Deployed across the river in the muddy section was the 80th Division of the 27th Army of the Ninth Corps of the Third Field Army.

The section of the river, which is more than 30 kilometers in which the Twenty-seventh Army is located, is a large river bend that bends into the north of the river, and the part that bends in this bend is the largest Jiangxinzhou in the middle section of the Yangtze River, the Heishazhou, on which there is a regiment of enemy troops stationed on the island.

Nie Fengzhi, commander of the Twenty-seventh Army, who was good at planning, decided to abandon the enemy of the Black SandBar in order to achieve the effect of crossing the river in a quick battle, and deployed the Seventy-ninth and Eighty-two Divisions of the First Echelon on the east and west sides of the Black SandBar, and arranged for the Eighthy-first Division of the Second Echelon to draw out a regiment to pretend to attack the Black SandBar when the battle began, attracting the enemy's firepower to ensure the safety of the flanks of the two main attacking divisions.

After this battle plan was reported to the Ninth Corps, it was approved by the commander of the corps, Song Shilun, for the first time.

Zhang Chengxiu, commander of the Eighty Division, was the famous general who later became the commander of the Kunming Military Region and served as the commander-in-chief of the front line in the self-defense counterattack on the Sino-Vietnamese border. Putting the Eighty Divisions in the mud is also good steel on the blade, and the three large bunkers on the panels are a difficult bone to gnaw.

The eighty division's pre-war training was also unique. The soldiers and civilians taught each other to learn from each other, and the boatmen patiently taught the soldiers to get on and off the ship, rock the bridge, sail and row the oars; the commanders and fighters of the troops enthusiastically helped the boat people learn culture, taught them to recognize words, and taught them to learn to write their own names.

The study of culture runs through the revolutionary doctrine, the beautiful prospects for victory in crossing the river, and the call on everyone to strive to be the "first boat to cross the river."

In just a few days, Zhang Xiaohua taught batch after batch on his ship, and the soldiers he taught praised him as an old shipwright and a good sailor. The troops made slides of his exemplary deeds in the military training and screened them for publicity.

Not only that, because he was familiar with the water conditions, the water was good, and more importantly, he was brave and active, so the commanders of the next company up to the division and regiment took turns to visit him, and even asked about the speed of sailing under different circumstances such as downwater, against water, downwind, and headwind, he could answer them one by one accurately, as if he had become the head coach of the unit's water training.

Two days before the battle, the division commander Zhang Haoxiu personally took Zhang Xiaohua to the river embankment, pointed to the board on the other side, and then handed him the telescope and asked him to observe it carefully.

After looking at it for a while, Zhang Zhenxiu asked him seriously: "Are you sure that the ship will sail in a straight line to the main bunker in the middle of the 3 large bunkers on the opposite bank?" ”

In fact, the head of the regiment had already asked him this question many times, and he had given a positive answer, but this time it was the division commander himself, and the tone of the question was also very serious, Zhang Xiaohua realized that this question was of great importance, not trivial, so his answer also intensified the tone: "Definitely!" ”

"Good!" Zhang Zhenxiu reached out and slapped Zhang Xiaohua's shoulder hard, and his taut face suddenly let go, and then he laughed loudly.

Infected by it, Zhang Xiaohua also cracked his mouth. However, at this time, he did not know that his ship, in the laughter of the division commander, had been designated as the "first boat to cross the river" in the vanguard of the river section.

(To be continued)