On November 6, 1937, the rain stopped in the early morning and there was no wind. The aftereffects of the night rain began to appear, forming large patches of morning fog.
South of Songjiang City, the 107th Division was responsible for the defense line on the north bank of the Huangpu River. There were three main ferry crossings, from west to east, namely Jinhebang, Mishidu, and Desheng Port. The 107th Division had two brigades under its command, the 319th Brigade and the 321st Brigade. The 319th Brigade had two regiments under its command, the 637th and 638th Regiments. The mission of the 638th Regiment where Hu Yi was stationed was to defend Desheng Port.
Desheng Port is located on the bank of the Huangpu River, ten miles southeast of Songjiang County. Hundreds of high and low houses are closely clustered together. A small street runs through the town from north to south. A dirt road at the north end leads to Songjiang River. The southern end of the street is the Desheng Port Wharf. The town is surrounded by large tracts of scattered paddy fields and crisscrossing ditches, which form a crescent shape to protect Desheng Port by the muddy Huangpu River. The news of the Japanese landing was received the day before, and the residents had already fled, leaving only a quiet empty city, sleeping in the morning fog and not waking up yet.
The outpost was a new soldier, exhausted from the night march in the rain. He was wearing a wet gray uniform and holding a wet rifle horizontally. His wet cloth shoes made a clacking sound as he walked on the wet street. Suddenly he stopped and looked through the fog on the street, and found that there seemed to be a figure swaying at the end of the street.
"Who! Which unit?" The sentry's hoarse and loud voice echoed in the quiet little street and disappeared in the fog. After a moment of silence, a crisp response with a sound of breaking wind broke the silence, pierced the sentry's chest, and hit the brick wall on the street with the remaining force, splashing a piece of debris. It was the devils - the sound of gunfire suddenly became noisy, and the howling god of death began to shuttle back and forth in the foggy little street, shattering tiles, penetrating window frames, or jumping on the gravel paved street ground, occasionally sparking sparks, accompanied by painful groans from time to time, completely waking up the sleeping town. The 638th Regiment had just arrived at Desheng Port and ran into the vanguard of the 6th Division of the devils who had just landed and disembarked. It was an accident to an accident, and no one was prepared. In the stunned expressions of both sides, the battle started without any rules.
"Report, we encountered the devils."
"I'm not deaf, how many devils are there?"
"have no idea."
"I don't know why you're reporting this! Let the first battalion hold the front first, the second battalion rush into the city to seize high points and key points, and the third battalion immediately deploy defenses on the river banks on both sides of the town."
"Yes!" The messenger spread his legs and disappeared into the fog with the commander's order.
The commander of the third company followed the order of the first battalion commander, holding a Mauser pistol, and led the third company out of the small street and into the alley. "Hurry up, everyone, the second platoon will move forward along the alley, and shoot when you are close enough to see the Japanese. The first platoon will be responsible for occupying the houses, and the good positions must be occupied before the Japanese."
"What's considered a good position?" A platoon leader asked the company commander in a loud voice while running with his team.
"I don't care what position you are in, as long as you can hit the enemy, it's a good position!" The third company commander replied to the platoon leader casually. When he turned around, Wang Laokou was leading the third platoon and following behind him. He immediately said, "Well, you third platoon..."
Wang Laokou immediately interrupted the company commander and said, "Our third platoon is responsible for protecting the company headquarters."
The third company commander was furious when he thought of what happened last night. Not only did he force me to return the pocket watch, he even took my gun. Now you, old Wang, are so shameless that you want to protect the "company headquarters"? I am a company commander, a guard, and a signalman. Where is the company headquarters? What the hell is there to protect? He raised his hand and pointed at a two-story building in front of him: "See? That's your third platoon's position. Defend it."
Wang Laokou looked in the direction of the company commander's finger and saw a small building that appeared and disappeared in the mist. Although it was only two stories high, it stood out among the low-rise houses. Damn it, they are sending me to heaven...
The gunfire on the small street became more and more frequent, and machine guns on both sides began to sound. Wang Laokou kept cursing something in a low voice and led the third platoon to run quickly towards the small building. As the distance shortened, the small building became clearer. The first floor was made of brick and stone like the ordinary houses around it, but there was a wooden second floor on the roof. There were windows on all four sides and a roof with southern characteristics. The area of the upstairs and downstairs was not large. He quickened his pace and turned around the alley to the corner of the wall on one side of the small building. He could already see the door of the small building. Suddenly, several figures jumped out from the corner of the wall on the other side of the small building!
Wang Laokou's heart suddenly sank. Since he had been running on his own and couldn't stop, he resolutely fell forward and slid to the ground behind the low wall opposite.
The big guy, Zhao Yong and the silly boy followed the platoon leader in front of them and ran with their heads down. When they saw the platoon leader reach the corner of the wall and fall out without turning, they were stunned at the corner. When they turned around, they found that there were figures rushing out from the other side of the small building. The big guy and Zhao Yong stood there and started to pull the bolt. All this happened in an instant. Before the silly boy could come to his senses, he felt a sudden force on his waist and felt a sudden pain. He screamed and fell out and rolled beside Wang Laokou.
In fact, when they were about to approach the corner of the small building, Hu Yi, who was running at the end of the team, whispered to Wang Laokou to remind him to stop. The small building was not far from the dock. Although it was foggy now, the Japanese might have discovered this commanding height and might come to seize it. Hu Yi's gun bolt had been pulled before approaching the small building, but unfortunately Wang Laokou was still cursing the third company commander like a demon, and was a little absent-minded, so he didn't hear Hu Yi's call from behind.
The moment Wang Laokou fell from the corner, Hu Yi prepared for the worst. Wang Laokou's seemingly strange way of falling was an instinctive reaction of a veteran in a critical moment, Hu Yi could see. Although the big guy and Zhao Yong had participated in several battles on the Jinpu Road, they were inexperienced and didn't understand it at all, let alone the stupid boy.
Hu Yi immediately kicked the dazed boy in front of him away, twisted his body and put his left shoulder against the corner of the wall, leaned out half of his upper body, pressed the butt of the gun against his right shoulder, and quickly raised the muzzle and exhaled. Squinting eyes, concave sights, straight sights, and the figure opposite... It seemed... also in gray military uniform... It happened in an instant. Before the big guy and Zhao Yong pulled the bolt, the trigger under Hu Yi's right index finger was about to be pulled to the bottom...
"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! We are one family, one family."
Hearing the shouts from the other side, Wang Lao jumped out from behind the low wall in anger: "F*ck you bastards, are you born under the influence of ghosts?"
The man at the front was also frightened by Hu Yi's gun muzzle and the trigger that had sunk deep into his chest, and he said, "I wanted to occupy this second floor as a firing point, but I didn't know you were here."
Wang Laokou replied angrily: "Such a critical position, the company commander has given it to our third platoon, you guys get out of here right away."
The silly boy got up with a grin on his face, holding his lower back and yelling at Hu Yi: "Why do you always kick me? If you have the guts, go try kicking a big guy."
Zhao Yong couldn't help but feel a little scared when he thought about the scene just now. Afterwards, he calmed down and thought about it. He saw everyone's reaction just now. Wang Laokou fell so fast. His ability to act according to circumstances was really amazing. He could fall directly into a blind spot. He really thought he stepped on a watermelon peel at that time. He almost shouted for him. He was worthy of being a veteran. Hu Yi, who was running at the end and didn't know the situation, was actually the only one who was about to shoot. When he and the big guy, including the few garlics in the opposite row, were still scrambling to pull the bolt, the guy was about to kill someone. He was as alert and quick as a wolf. How did this inhuman thing do it? It seems that it is not a simple background like the supervision team. Wang Laokou must know more. Looking at the silly boy complaining about Hu Yi, he thought that silly boys are silly boys. They don't know how to be grateful for what they have. He would rather kick himself just now, so that he would have to rush to say thank you afterwards.
After a careful inspection of both upstairs and downstairs, the brick wall of the first floor was quite thick. There was a square hole in the corner of the ceiling. A wooden staircase was built on the wall to the second floor. The second floor was basically a wooden structure. It was estimated that this house was built twice. Hu Yi stopped the big guy from opening the window and just looked towards the south pier through the broken window. It was about 400 meters away from the pier, with a large group of houses in between. It was foggy and the details of the pier could not be seen clearly.
Wang Laokou asked Zhao Yong to guard the door on the first floor, and told the silly boy to find furniture and wooden boards to block the first floor window, then climbed up to the second floor and observed through the window, then sat on the ground and took out a cigarette and lit it. "The position is a bit high, so we can only fire a few shots, at least we don't have to fight street battles in the front. Now the fog is so thick that we can only hear the gunshots and can't see the devils at all. This time we can even save the gunshots." Wang Laokou seemed to be talking to himself and asking Hu Yi for his opinion.
Hu Yi's eyes never left the crack of the window, carefully distinguishing the gunshots in the fog, as if answering Wang Laokou or saying to himself: "If the fog does not disperse, it will rain. If the fog disperses, it will be sunny."