A small station on the Beijing-Shanghai line Wangting, from Kunshan through Suzhou, to Wangting, it is only a few hours of train time, everyone got off the train at Wangting Station to gather.

Sangou found the officer who came to pick him up, and at first thought that it was just an adjutant who came in the middle of the night, but he didn't expect that it was a colonel who came to be a regimental commander, tall and straight.

After the adjutant next to him introduced, Sangou knew that the other party was Zhang Lingwu, the commander of the 305th Regiment of the 153rd Brigade. In this regard, the 151st Regiment of the 305th Brigade came to pick it up, and I was a little puzzled.

Sangou's original 306 Regiment belonged to the same 153 Brigade as the 305 Regiment, but why did it say that this was the 151 Brigade before, and that the main force of the 51st Division went to the Wujin area of Changzhou.

I don't understand, now Sangou is only the company commander of a temporary supplementary company, and there is no way to know the movement and deployment of troops above the regimental level, and now I have received a notice that the supplementary company is temporarily subordinate to the regimental headquarters of the 305th Regiment and obeys the command of Regiment Commander Zhang.

Commander Zhang, who didn't sleep in the middle of the night and came to pick up the troops, seemed to attach great importance to this supplementary company composed of scattered veterans, but he didn't expect to go to the meeting place and found that something was wrong and was very disappointed.

These so-called veterans, all of them are sluggish, approaching, and can even smell the smell of alcohol on their bodies, what kind of soldiers is this? They have all become old fritters, no wonder they will become routs, they have to be used carefully, Commander Zhang frowned, thinking.

He turned his head and said to Sangou: "Company Commander Luo, please go to the dormitory with my adjutant Chen Yuxiang, rest first, and then hand over the procedures and list with Adjutant Chen tomorrow to familiarize yourself with the defense situation." ”

"Yes, sir." The three dogs saluted, followed Adjutant Chen, and took the brothers to the dormitory on foot to rest. Commander Zhang returned a military salute perfunctorily, and returned to his camp very disappointed, originally going to have a good chat with Company Commander Luo, but now, he has no energy at all.

Today is November 19th, in fact, it is now midnight, it is already the 20th, on the 19th, Zhang Tuanchang just took the 305th Regiment (formerly known as the Xi'an Security Regiment) and just occupied the Beijing-Shanghai Line No. 137 Railway Bridge and Canal Bridge in Wangting.

Zhang's family is in the suburbs of Xi'an, and he is also a native of Xi'an, belonging to an authentic Northwest man, tall and handsome, and both civil and military.

Wu is from Rong, admitted to the fourth phase of Huangpu, rigorous style, outstanding wisdom and courage and strategy, in the Northern Expeditionary Army from the company commander to the regiment commander, but also under Hu Zhongnan's First Army as a regiment commander.

It can be described as: "Wenbei University, Wu Huangpu", which belonged to a rare civil and military talent in those years; It's a pity that just because of a joke from a colleague, saying that his wife "red apricot went out of the wall", he killed his wife in vain without asking.

As soon as this incident came out, all walks of life were angry, and the women's circles were even more protesting, and even Soong Meiling thought that "killing innocent people in vain is intolerable." Chiang Kai-shek saw that public opinion was rising, so he ordered Zhang Lingfu to be escorted to Nanjing and imprisoned and brought to justice.

On the way to Nanjing, Zhang Lingwu was not bound, and no one escorted him, he walked all the way, sold words all the way, and came to Nanjing Model Prison alone.

After the Anti-Japanese War was released from prison, because his infamous reputation had been known throughout the country, many troops no longer dared to ask for him.

At that time, the 51st Division was stationed in Shaanxi, and Division Commander Wang knew about it, so he found this junior of the fourth phase of Huangpu and asked him to be a senior staff member at the division headquarters.

In order to repent and start anew, Zhang Tuanchang did not use the original name Zhang Zhonglin and changed it to Zhang Lingwu; Just at the time of the Battle of Songhu, several thousand Shaanxi Lengwa of the Xi'an Security Regiment were added to the 51st Division as the 305th Regiment, and Division Commander Wang asked Zhang Lingwu, a native of Xi'an, to pick up the troops and serve as the head of the regiment.

When the 305th Regiment was ready and rushed from Xi'an, the Battle of Songhu was nearing the end, so this time I received an order to occupy a position at the Wangting on the northeast side of Taihu Lake in Suzhou, preparing to block the Japanese pursuers and cover the retreat of the large forces of the National Army.

Due to the long defensive line, it was necessary to prevent the Japanese motorboat troops from landing on the shore of Taihu Lake on the one hand, and to defend the No. 137 iron bridge of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway and the bridge of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal on the other.

The troops were very insufficient, and the rest of the place was assisted by the 151st Brigade of the 51st Division, but they had been killed and wounded in the Battle of Songhu and exhausted, and now the main position at the main junction could only be handed over to the 305th Regiment of the New Army.

Once the Japanese army broke through the defense of Wangting, the hundreds of thousands of troops who retreated westward to Wuxi would be under the guns of the Japanese army, similar to the Dunkirk retreat in the European theater later.

These retreating troops are the elite of the national army, albeit in dilapidation, but they are also the elite of the national army, once surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army, the whole country will be unable to fight again, either perish or surrender.

Therefore, the task of the 305th Regiment was the heaviest in the entire blocking front, and the Japanese army wanted to pursue it, and the fastest route was to take the Beijing-Shanghai railway line and directly drive the national army to Nanjing.

Therefore, the 305th Regiment is placed in the main section of the Beijing-Shanghai railway line from Suzhou to Wuxi, and the No. 137 iron bridge in Wangting Town.

Therefore, as soon as the 305th Regiment was transferred from the Shaanxi Garrison Brigade, it did not have the opportunity to report to the brigade commander Li Tianxia, so it was temporarily assigned to the command of Zhou Zhidao, the commander of the 151st Brigade, to defend the 74th Army and even the most critical defense line of the whole army.

Although the 305th Regiment belongs to the security regiment in Shaanxi, that is, it is usually trained, many of them are recruits who have never been on the battlefield, whether they can survive such a dangerous time, Commander Zhang still has no bottom in his heart.

Therefore, when he received the order, Commander Zhang took the northwest men of the whole regiment and immediately rushed to the No. 137 Iron Bridge of the Beijing-Shanghai Line in Wangting, and desperately dug positions at both ends (Yao Zongbang in the south to Wangting, and Waibang in the north) to build a defensive line.

Commander Zhang originally thought that a supplementary company of veterans of the 51st Division would come from Suzhou in the middle of the night tonight, but the happy Commander Zhang personally ran to Wangting Station to pick them up.

Unexpectedly, it was a group of sluggish old fritters, and Regiment Commander Zhang was very disappointed, it seemed that he could only throw them to Waibang on the north side of the iron bridge to be a reserve, so as not to fight in front of them either to play tricks or escape, affecting other troops.

Even if you give them reserves, you have to guard against them, don't get them when the time comes, when the war is really tense, you can't even get them as reserves, then it will be troublesome.

Or arrange another company, follow together as a reserve, secretly monitor this group of old fritters, if you dare to escape without permission, immediately carry out the order of the overseer team, and shoot on the spot.

On the next day, November 20, the three dogs and their supplementary company were notified to cross the No. 137 iron bridge and go to the outer hama north of the bridge to build a position.

Because it was about three kilometers to walk northwest from Wangting Station, the battalions and companies of the 305th Regiment along the road were struggling to dig trenches and bunkers as deep positions to defend the iron bridge.

And now, let the three dogs and their supplementary company run to the north of the bridge at the back of the position, obviously using everyone as a reserve.

This reserve, if it is in its own army, is basically the elite of the main force, and using other people's troops as a reserve is either distrustful, or it looks down on you and does not take you seriously.

Everyone is a veteran, so they naturally understand this meaning, but everyone is not uncomfortable, they are all veterans, and they are not those who have never fought a war.

Besides, everyone is a temporary patchwork unit, and no one wants to work so hard, and they don't really want to fight, so this arrangement is exactly what they want.