On February 1938 and 12, the New Eighth Division (adapted from Guizhou Army) was ordered by General Cheng Qian, commander of the first war zone, to attack and protect both sides of the Yellow River Railway Bridge from Zhengzhou, and was ordered to resolutely blow up the Yellow River Railway Bridge when the strong enemy approached the north bank, so that the enemy mechanized troops could not enter Zhengzhou directly.
13, I started from Zhengzhou by train with General Jiang Zaizhen, the commander of the New Eighth Division, and arrived at the South Bank Station of the Yellow River via Guangwu County, where I set up the former enemy command post. I was 24 years old at that time, serving as the operational staff of the division captain, responsible for defensive deployment and assisting the chief of staff in handling operational affairs.
After dinner, Jiang Zaizhen ordered me to go to the Yellow River Railway Bridge to learn about the preparations for the bridge bombing from the engineering company that arrived in advance. After arriving at the bridge, Zhou, the company commander of the engineering company, came to see me and reported that the company had been here for three days and all the preparations were ready. He is fully confident of blowing up the big iron bridge. Zhou, the company commander, also told me that the enemy north of Zhanghe River had been attacking south along Pinghan Road for several days, and the ministries of our 29th Army had joined forces in Anyang, Tangyin and Jixian, and the fighting was extremely tragic. A large number of wounded people cross the bridge here every day. It is said that our army is powerless and has gradually moved south. The enemy, spearheaded by a large number of tanks, is heading south from Jixian County and will soon reach the north bank of the Yellow River.
After lunch on June 5438+05, Feng informed that the situation in northern Henan was urgent and the 29th Army would turn to Shanxi. Xinxiang could no longer be insured, so he ordered the engineers to start charging at eleven o'clock that night. The chief sent the engineer captain to guide the technical matters and stood by and blew up the bridge.
At 5: 00 a.m. on June 16, Commander Jiang Zaizhen received an order from Cheng Qian, commander of the theater: the New Eighth Division covered the bridge, commanded the engineers to blow it up, and held fast to the Yellow River position. That evening, I suddenly got a call from the Chief Executive's Department, saying that the war situation had changed suddenly, and the Song Department had turned westward along the Daoqing Railway. Cheng Qian, the leader, ordered the iron bridge to be blown up at dawn. Mr. Jiang Zaizhen put down the phone, his eyes fell on my face, and he said word for word: Staff Xiong, the order to blow up the bridge has been issued, and the task of commanding the engineering company is up to you. Go to the bridge when you are ready.
At dawn in June, 5438+07, everything was ready. I, Mr. Jiang Zaizhen, Chief of Staff Zhu Zhenmin and the officers of the command post gathered at the bridgehead on the south bank, waiting for the last train from Xinxiang to cross the railway bridge, and then immediately signaled to blow up the bridge. A little after five in the morning, the last train arrived in the twilight of the sky. At 5: 00 15, Mr. Jiang zaizhen gave me the order to blow up the bridge. I raised my flare gun and fired three white flares. Suddenly, one explosion after another shook the earth, and the Yellow River Railway Bridge was shrouded in smoke and flickering flames.
When the explosion stopped, Zhou and I immediately went to the bridge to check it out. Unexpectedly, due to technical reasons, the large-scale iron bridge with as many as 100 holes only damaged three holes. Although the remaining 97 holes were covered with bruises, they were just a layer of flesh collapsed by explosives, and the huge pier still stood in the tumbling river.
Mr. Jiang Zaizhen was so anxious that he personally went to the bridge and asked me to continue to urge the blasting and blow up the iron bridge as soon as possible. He also ordered Fu Hengzhong to lead four battalions to return to the North Shore in a hurry. If the enemy striker approaches, he must fight to the death to gain blow up bridges's time. Those who have no evacuation orders will be shot on the spot. From the early morning of 17 to the evening of l9, the officers and men who carried out the task of bombing the bridge were not on the bridge for a moment, and they did not sleep for a moment. Each blasting can only cause local damage to the bridge. Engineers fill explosives once, detonate them once, and so on, and the blasting sound on the Yellow River rumbles.
By the night of 19, I found that the water surface had been seriously damaged from the 39th hole to the 82nd hole. Even if the Japanese invaders take it away, it will take three to five years to repair it. At this time, from the south bank, some bridge beds collapsed, some piers collapsed, and some bridge beds and piers all fell into the water. The majestic steel dragon is like a dismembered and broken skeleton, which is a mess.