8.42 Discharge water at the garden entrance

The sharp turn of the battle situation in Lanfeng led to the rapid advance of the Japanese army to Kaifeng and reached the gate of the Pinghan Line! On June 23, 13 days after the Battle of Lanfeng, the highest authorities decided to adopt the following proposal, "digging an embankment and releasing water". Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In order to block the Japanese and win time to release the water, the highest authorities instructed Cheng Qian's troops to defend Wei Kaifeng must be strengthened! The longer you keep it, the better! One more day will give you more certainty of success! At the same time, the highest authorities sent a secret telegram to Shang Zhen on the bank of the Yellow River, ordering Shang Zhen to urge the troops to hurry up the construction and offer a reward of 2,000 yuan to complete the construction within a time limit.

Shang Zhen, who received the order, ran to Zhaokou to personally supervise the battle, but until June 25, the 20th Army failed to dig the embankment!

After the Tufeiyuan Division escaped from the encirclement, it quickly received a large number of personnel and equipment from the 20th Division, and then launched a crazy counterattack against the Chinese army! The current Tu Fei Yuan Division seems to be ten times more fierce than in the past.

In the early morning of June 26, the Tuhihara Division and Sakagaki Seishiro's 5th Division jointly captured Kaifeng, and then moved towards Zhongmu, and then defeated Zhongmu that night.

Zhengzhou has come into the sight of the Japanese army.

The highest authorities in Wuhan are in a hurry!

On the night of June 26, the phone of the highest authority was dialed directly to Shang Zhen's headquarters. In recent days, there have been two or three phone calls a day from the highest authorities asking about the progress of the dike.

The highest authorities on the phone were anxiously inquired and severely reprimanded. Make Shang Zhen understand that the highest authorities are now impatient! Although Shang Zhen did not dare to close his eyes day and night, and personally urged the construction of the embankment, he was also helpless in the face of quicksand, and he couldn't use his strength. Even if the highest authorities were anxious, Shang Zhen had nothing to do.

Today, as in previous days, when the highest authorities learned that the embankment had failed again, they could not help but reprimand loudly. The sharp Fenghua accent of the highest authority on the phone made Shang Zhen's heart tremble.

"Commander-in-Chief Shang, what is the reason for the repeated failures of the excavation? It must be known that this excavation is related to the fate of the country and the nation, and there are no small sacrifices, but there are great achievements. You are a revolutionary soldier, and at this critical juncture, you are cut into the benevolence of a woman. We must break all concerns, resolutely do it, and do it all. ”

Shang Zhen was full of grievances. It sounds as if the highest authorities are suspicious of him for fear of being held accountable, and he is secretly refusing to dig an embankment to release water. Putting down the phone, he slumped into his chair. He hadn't slept for a few days, his head was swollen and buzzing, and his eyelids looked like they had fallen lead, and he couldn't lift them heavily. But he could not rest, and he could not sleep under the rebuke of the highest authorities.

The next day, Shang Zhen sent another regiment of fresh troops to dig a second gap 50 meters east of the first breach, while sappers dug tunnels deep into the embankment, intending to strengthen the blasting power. He also offered a reward of 1,000 yuan for the rapid release of the water. After a lot of effort, the mouth was opened, wider than the first gap, but it could not release water. The reason is that the water level continues to fall, at the beginning of the excavation, the main stream is close to the south bank, and when it is completed, there is a dark sand barrier outside the mouth, the main stream has moved north by dozens of meters, and only a small amount of river water flows out. And there's no hurry. An hour later, the tunnel was hewn and the explosives were detonated, the mud and rocks flew up, the gap became larger and deeper, and the water gushed out. When he was about to report the victory, there was a roar, a series of collapses, and the breach was blocked, although it was dredged several times, it did not work. Zhaokou's digging failed again!

Finally, Shang Zhen remembered Jiang Zaizhen, the commander of the new 8th Division! In the conversation half a month ago, Shang Zhen felt that Jiang Zaizhen's method was likely to work, but because he couldn't get used to Jiang Zaizhen's exquisite appearance, Shang Zhen just accepted Jiang Zaizhen's suggestion, but did not use Jiang Zaizhen!

Now that I think about it, it is likely that Jiang Zaizhen secretly kept a hand! It wouldn't be strange if that guy who wanted to go crazy for promotion really did this!

After a phone call, the jeep of Jiang Zaizhen, commander of the new 8th Division, drove into the headquarters of the 20th Group at a gallop, and in addition to Jiang Zaizhen, his chief of staff Wei Rulin.

"Are you sure?" Shang Zhen asked Jiang Zaizhen, and Jiang Zaizhen replied categorically: "Absolutely sure, if it doesn't work, military law will be done." "After that, Jiang Zaizhen proposed his plan to Shang Zhen to press the bottom of the box;" The embankment excavation project was placed at the mouth of the garden, and the new 8th Division undertook it, and tried to blast through the embankment from the slope of the embankment. ”

Shang Zhen was already sick and rushed to the doctor, and in desperation, he didn't care whether Jiang Zaizhen's words were true or false, so he directly reported to the war zone.

When Cheng Qian heard the report, he immediately recruited more than 10 water conservancy experts from Zhengzhou, and the result of the argument was: OK. Cheng Qian did not slack off and urgently reported to the chairman of the Wuhan Committee for approval.

In Wuhan, when the highest authorities received the telegram, it was like grasping the last straw, and he pressed the treasure on Jiang Zaizhen!

On the night of June 28th, the moon and stars were sparse, and hundreds of meters west of the Guandi Temple at the entrance of the garden, horses neighed and people shouted, and torches stood in a forest. Jiang Zaizhen went into battle with great ambition. But it didn't take long for the noise of work to turn into a fierce conflict and swearing.

It turned out that in order to speed up the progress and seize the first credit, a regimental commander of the new 8th Division recruited several hundred migrant workers from the vicinity. But as soon as the migrant workers found out that the central army was going to dig an embankment to release water, they immediately blew up the nest. As the saying goes: one side of the water and soil supports one side of the people, these farmers have lived on this land for generations, and every piece of soil has left the blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors. Now let them let go of the water to wash away the foundation created by their ancestors for many generations, then they will not be in a hurry. For a while, the old man threw down the tools in his hand, crying and begging, and the young man with strong blood quarreled with the soldiers, and his temper was irritable and even pushed and shoved with the gendarmes who came to stop him, and the construction site became a mess.

It just so happened that Jiang Zaizhen came here. Seeing this, he slapped the head of the regiment who came to report and scolded angrily: "Fuck, when are you still here to be poor, can you afford to miss the construction period?" ”

The gendarmes shouted to stop, but the shouts were drowned out by angry scolding. Seeing that hundreds of migrant workers were smashing the holes that had been dug on the embankment, Jiang Zaizhen became even more angry, and yelled at the gendarmes around him: "They are all blind, what should those bastards be guilty of sabotaging national defense construction?" ”

The gendarmes understood, raised the submachine gun in their hands, and pointed it at the crowd on the embankment. Several Hessensen guns spewed tongues of fire, and the migrant workers on the embankment fell one by one like wheat that had been cut down, rolling down the slope with a grunt. At this time, the whole construction site suddenly fell silent, and people stared blankly at this sudden scene.

Jiang Zaizhen was anxious to release the water, and he was afraid of making a big deal out of it, so he turned around and called the brigade commander in charge to the side, and reprimanded: "Why are you so confused, this kind of thing can also bring migrant workers?!" If you make a mistake, you lose your head, and I have to pay for it. Now even the commission is alarmed, and we can't finish the work when the time comes. ”

The brigade commander hung his head and listened, not daring to squeak.

"You go back now and send the migrant workers home, and the dead and wounded will make up some money, and in addition, your brigade will set aside another regiment to serve as a guard, and the people will not be allowed to come in within a radius of 10 miles."

Jiang Zaizhen paused and added: "From the current regiment, 800 elite soldiers will be drawn and organized into assault groups. I have also allocated the divisional engineer battalion to you, and it must be completed on time, and there will be no mistakes. ”

"Don't worry, Master, there will never be any more mistakes."

The brigade commander saluted, turned and left.

On the 29th, the progress of the project was accelerated a lot. In particular, explosive blasting is more effective on the hard dam at the mouth of the garden. There was a loud bang, rolling up smoke and dust rushing into the sky, and the long embankment seemed to have been gnawed out of a huge gap, and the engineer battalion of the new 8th Division was even more unambiguous, running up the inner slope of the embankment, digging and chiseling, and loading explosives to explode. Several layers of people inside and outside, a wave of exhaustion, shouted: Replace people. Another wave of strong-bodied soldiers rushed forward. The gap is widening, lowering the ......

In the early morning of the 30th, the excavation was basically formed. Jiang Zaizhen was impatient to report to Shang Zhen and Cheng Qian. On the one hand, he asked the theater to transfer a few flat-fire guns. He wants to be foolproof, and he will show his hand in front of Shang Zhen and Cheng Qian, and also in front of the highest authorities.

At 12 noon on the 30th, with the earth-shattering loud sound of the last dozens of bundles of explosives, the water of the Yellow River, which was high above the ground level and seemed to be suspended in the air, finally crossed the excavation and slowly overflowed. Jiang Zaizhen stared at the gap, and he was so anxious that he couldn't wait for the water in the entire embankment to gush out.

In the afternoon, four flat-firing guns transferred from the theater of operations arrived. Jiang Zaizhen hurriedly ordered the cannon to be erected and bombarded the excavation. The artillerymen couldn't take a breath, and fired more than 60 rounds in one breath, and the gap was widened by 6 or 7 meters. Suddenly, the Yellow River was like an enraged dragon, tumbling and roaring out of the gap, and the huge impact force slapped against the embankment, making the mud and sand on both sides of the excavation like dominoes that had been pushed down, and kept collapsing and collapsing on both sides. The flush is getting bigger and bigger, and the current is getting more and more rapid.

On the first day of July, the heavens were furious, and lightning and thunder roared. Throughout the day, the Central Plains rained down, like a waterfall falling, hundreds of miles inside and outside, a wave of smoke. The water of the Yellow River is like a demon that has been locked in a treasure bottle for tens of thousands of years, and once it is released, it is even more ferocious and abnormal, and it is difficult to control. The Central Plains is 100 miles, the river is full, and the water potential is sky-high. The wind howled and the waves were overwhelming. The overflow wave head of more than a foot high is more like a ruthless beast, devouring people and rushing houses, destroying villages and villages, raging without scruples, exuding obscenity, and a huge roar can be heard for miles.

The excavation of the Yellow River turned the Central Plains into a hell on earth. On tens of thousands of square kilometers of land from Zhongmu through the Anhui Vortex River to Hongze Lake in Jiangsu, thousands of ordinary people have no way to go to the sky and no way to enter the ground. After the floods, the fields turned yellow and the houses and villages disappeared. The filthy yellow soup was littered with furniture and swollen corpses. Patches of high ground above the water were crowded with yellow-skinned refugees who had escaped death. The three provinces of Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu groaned and wept, cursing this unprecedented catastrophe in the world. According to later statistics, the excavation of the Yellow River caused 54,000 square kilometers of land in 44 counties in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces to sink to the bottom, drowning 890,000 people and displacing 12 million people and becoming refugees.

Jiang Zaizhen didn't see so much. At noon on July 1, he braved the pouring rain and rushed to Shang Zhen's headquarters in high spirits. Such bad weather did not sweep away his smug spirit. But Shang Zhen is different from him. In the past few days, he has been struggling in a contradictory state of mind, constantly replying to the highest authorities, Cheng Qian's reminders several times a day, and on the other hand, he has been urging Jiang Zaizhen, who is in the garden, to be extremely irritable and exhausted. Today's digging was completed, but he didn't feel much prosperity and reacted quickly. I thought to myself, what's so difficult about this, I must push it on the Japanese. It's not easy to find a substitute for a ghost like Zhang Hanqing in this matter, not to mention that the First War Zone is Song Gong's territory. Thinking about it, he stood up, straightened up his short and sturdy body, and spoke first: "Bench, in the opinion of students, this account has to be settled by the Japanese." He forced us to dig a levee and release water, so why don't we push the boat down the river and put this on their heads. Not only will we be freed, but we will also be able to make the Japanese lose a point on morality, which is the best of both worlds. ”

The highest authorities nodded frequently, and their mouths were mumbled. At this time, his gaze swept over everyone and stopped on Minister He's face, "Jingzhi, what good can you do?" ”

Minister Ho pondered for a moment, unfathomable, as if pondering an even more astonishing insight. Finally, he shook his head and said, "That's a good idea. It's just that there are a lot of people talking, and in extraordinary times, we should think more carefully and make things more similar. ”

The room was full of people chattering, mostly agreeing. The highest authority finally nodded and said: "Cheng Songyun's call also means this, this method is not impossible, but it must be handled cautiously." It is very likely that the Japanese will pollute me and blow up the embankment on their own. Therefore, it is important to have a comprehensive coping plan to set the record straight. ”

The highest authorities acted as if he were a victim. Finally, he turned to He Yingqin and said, "Jingzhi, you communicate with Cheng Songyun and let the First War Zone make some preparations." In addition, the Central Propaganda Department should also step up propaganda and control public opinion. ”

Back at the mansion, the highest authorities felt a lot more relaxed. He finally decided to splash this basin of dirty water on the heads of the Japanese, anyway, you Japanese are unkind and unrighteous teachers, and you have not done anything bad. Now everything I say is reasonable, and people believe it. But you Japanese may not be so clever when you speak, who would believe the words of a group of beasts that have lost their humanity in Nanjing? Thinking of this, a smile appeared on his face, as if he had already won this point in the polemic with the Japanese.

On July 2, the highest authorities sent a telegram to Cheng Qian, giving a clear instruction: "It is necessary to publicize to the public that enemy planes have blown up the embankment of the Yellow River." ”

At about the same time, the Wuhan government's vast propaganda machine was set in motion under Chiang's remote control. At this time, the highest authorities felt that it was far from enough to just confuse the public and blame the Japanese, and he had to take the opportunity to knock the Japanese again. He felt that he had won the battle. And the more this happens, the more people believe his lies.

On 3 July, the Wuhan Central News Agency, after covering the First War Zone, sent a special telegram from Zhengzhou, saying: On 30 June, the enemy troops violently bombarded our army's position near Zhongmu, and because the left flank of our army resisted firmly on the basis of the Yellow River, the enemy continued to bombard the ground with planes, and destroyed a section of the Yellow River embankment there, causing a breach, which was very serious...... At present, our military and civilians are working hard to repair it, but because of the surging water, it may be difficult to block it......

The news released by the Central News Agency, the headline of the column was even more aggressive: "Japanese planes violated public international law and blew up the embankment of the Yellow River." ”

On July 4, the Central News Agency issued the latest news even more vinegar. The report: "More than 30 enemy planes flew to the area around Zhaokou on the south bank of the Yellow River this morning and bombed them wantonly, dropping dozens of bombs, destroying several villages, killing and wounding countless refugees, and even expanding their bombing at the breach of the Yellow River, causing the water to rise sharply and cannot be saved." ”

At the same time, radio stations and newspapers across the country reposted and reported one after another, condemning the ferocity and despicability of the Japanese army. The Propaganda Department of the Wuhan Central Committee even organized a group of civil and military officials to hold frequent press conferences to protest against the Japanese violating public law and indiscriminately killing innocent Chinese people, which seemed even more indignant than during the Nanjing Massacre. For a time, a wave of condemnation of the Japanese army sounded everywhere

The highest authorities succeeded in their plan, and the performance was subtle, which was even more like the real thing.

The Japanese are willing to suffer dumb losses, and what makes them even more angry is that they have always been proud of their offensive power, so why should they dig embankments and release water. When they came to their senses, they also used the radio station to make a big noise, insisting that it was the Chinese army that released water on its own initiative and countered the Japanese army. Moreover, it was not only broadcast in Japan, but also hyped up in Nanjing, Shanghai, and the occupied areas of Beiping. For a time, both China and Japan seemed to have forgotten about the contest on the battlefield and spent all their energies on this moral polemic.

Chinese and foreign reporters were caught in the middle, and it was difficult to distinguish right from wrong for a while. On the one hand, the supreme authorities who are full of false teeth and lies, and on the other hand, the Japanese who have returned to civilization and have no morality, who should they believe? It is still the American journalist who reacts quickly, and listens to this kind of official mutual attack, and he will not be able to hear a name for himself in his life. I have long legs and long eyes, why don't I go to the garden mouth to take a look, and this initiative immediately ushered in a chorus.

The highest authorities are not in a hurry, they can advance and retreat freely, just look at it! Anyway, in terms of the territory controlled by our Chinese army, I always take the initiative. If you don't let these reporters go, cover them up, and be passive. In fact, he had already arranged for this moment, and the letters and secret messages he exchanged with Cheng Qian were not idle chatter.

Since receiving the instructions of the highest authorities, Cheng Qian has indeed not been idle for a moment, and has personally made arrangements for Shang Zhen, Liu Shangzhi, Jiang Zaizhen and other officers above the regimental level who participated in the digging of the embankment. Especially for Jiang Zaizhen, he is even more focused on care.

After Jiang Zaizhen dug the embankment, he seemed to be climbing a dragon and a phoenix overnight, and his worth doubled. Shang Zhen went there less, but more in and out of Cheng Qian's theater commander's department, and was directly responsible for Cheng Qian's big and small things. Thinking about Cheng Qian's congratulations and the distant praise of the highest authorities, he felt a little wonderful in his heart. The embankment was successfully dug, although he did not get any medals or awards, nor did he get an official promotion, but he knew it in his heart; He can't do this in the limelight, as long as the chairman of the committee knows what to do. He doesn't want to poke a leak right now, not to mention all his previous achievements, and he will end up with a thousand years of infamy. So when he came back from Zhengzhou, he did not sleep in a big dream, but led some people to go straight to the garden entrance and get busy again. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )