Chapter 129: The Garrison of Huitong Bridge

  After the special agent team arrived at Mengga Village, two wounded men needed surgery. Zeng Zifan and Dao Lanxiang took a squad of soldiers to carry Xiaopi and Houzi back to the kilometer road where they had stopped their vehicle, while the rest stayed behind to bury the villagers.

  After dark, all the men, women and children in the village who were killed were collectively buried on that grassland at the entrance of the village.

  Dong Li Mao, before leaving, held a torch and stood alone beside the wooden plaque carved with 'Tomb of Mengga Village Ancestors' and vowed to all the spirits:

  "In the next two years, I, Dong Jiacheng swear! Will use more ruthless means than the little devils to avenge my fellow villagers and wash away the shame of the defeat of the expeditionary army in northern Burma!" The name he casually mentioned was not his own, but that of Tai Jia Ye.

  It seemed that the heavens had heard Dong Limao's oath, and several thunderclaps rumbled from the horizon, rapidly flying towards the sky above Dong Limao's head, gathering into a massive explosion, as if to tear open a hole in the dark night. A bolt of lightning flashed out of this torn opening, and the dark sky suddenly poured down dense raindrops.

  It was a torrential rain, coming fiercely and going quickly. When Dong Li Mao and others arrived at the highway parking lot, the rain suddenly stopped, and the sky even revealed some twinkling stars.

  Zeng Zifan, with the help of Dao Lanxiang and several soldiers, performed abdominal surgery on Lai Dui's abdomen in a truck compartment by the side of the road. He had basically escaped danger when Dong Li Mao and others arrived, just as he was helping to remove shrapnel from the wounded monkey's leg.

  The convoy of the Special Task Force slowly climbed up the winding mountain road to the top of Songshan, still constantly encountering trucks transporting supplies to the border.

  This Yunnan-Burma Highway is not the asphalt road that Dong Li Mao took before, but a gravel and dirt road. After heavy rain, it's muddy and difficult to pass through. From the foot of the mountain to the top, it's over 20 kilometers, and the convoy moves slowly, stopping from time to time. It wasn't until the east sky turned white that they finally reached the top of the mountain. On the mountaintop, you can see the majestic mountains on the opposite side.

  Dong Li Mao let the convoy stop at the top of the mountain for half an hour, he wanted to see what the crater where Tai Gong's heroic sacrifice exploded looked like before it was destroyed.

  Only at that location, a small rocky hill stood tall, not the sunken appearance he saw before crossing. This rocky hill would be an important stronghold for the Little Japanese Devils in the next two years, located at the throat of the Burma Road, where it was cut off. The Japanese army would take this rocky hill as its axis and build a continuous underground fortress along the mountains on both sides, stretching for tens of miles.

  "Commander, we should head down the mountain to Huitong Bridge now. This area is a key bombing target for the little devils' planes during the day." Zhao Yong said as he walked up to Dong Li Mao's side.

  "If there were a battalion of troops stationed here, two years later the bones of more than 8,000 soldiers would not be those of our national army, but the ghosts of little devils!" Dong Li Mao said, pointing to the surrounding mountains.

  "Two years later, it has nothing to do with us. Now our special mission is to execute the order of defending the Huitong Bridge." Zhao Yong looked at the turbulent Nujiang River below the mountain and sighed: "I hope the little devils won't send out any vanguard troops to blow up the bridge again!" He also thought that the Japanese army sent out a vanguard troop, in order to blow up the Huitong Bridge spanning the Nujiang River.

  "They are not here to blow up the bridge, but to occupy it." Dong Li Mao furrowed his brow and said: "Moreover, in a few days, there will be small groups of Japanese troops disguised as civilians or National Army soldiers coming to seize control of the bridge. We must make full preparations for battle and cannot be careless."

  "They want to seize the bridge?" Zhao Yong asked: "Are they crazy? To stop supplies from being transported to the front line, the best and only way is to blow up the bridge. How can a small force possibly occupy the bridge? Isn't that just sending them to their deaths?"

  "In a few more days, no, it should be tonight, you will understand that what I said is true." Dong Li Mao did not want to explain too much. Not to mention Zhao Yong didn't believe him, even Commander-in-Chief Jiang wouldn't believe him either.

  General Chiang personally inspected the front line of the China-Burma war zone and returned to Chongqing, still basking in the joy of one victory after another for the Burma Expeditionary Force. However, the situation took a drastic turn. On April 28th, General Chiang received an urgent telegram from the Expeditionary Force Headquarters at his official residence in Chongqing. The Japanese army appeared out of nowhere, like divine soldiers descending from heaven, behind the Expeditionary Force's rear guard, cutting off the retreat route of the main force still deep within Burma. The Yunnan-Burma Highway, known as the "lifeline" for supplies and transportation, was completely severed by the Japanese.

  Just as General Chiang received the telegram, Dong Li Mao led a special agent team to arrive at the west bank of Huitong Bridge.

  This is an iron chain bridge, with wooden sleepers on the bridge and thick wooden planks laid on top of the sleepers. Only trucks and tanks weighing less than seven tons can pass through it. Of course, in that era, few trucks and tanks exceeded seven tons, so this big bridge was the only highway bridge connecting the east and west banks of the Nujiang River, and its strategic importance is imaginable.

  It was a highway bridge with strategic significance, but it was guarded by only one row of troops, and almost no solid strongholds were set up. There were only two temporary shelters made of sandbags on the west bank of the bridge, each equipped with a machine gun.

  On the east coast, there are several tile-roofed houses built as residences for the bridge-guarding officers and soldiers.

  There aren't many trucks passing by during the day, only at night do cargo trucks travel from the east coast to the west, so the bridge guards sleep during the day and are on duty at night.

  When Dong Li Mao and his men arrived at the Huitong Bridge, there were only four soldiers standing on the west bank of the bridge smoking, with no sense of vigilance. If Song Xiaolong's vanguard had arrived here, it would have taken less than ten minutes to control both sides of the bridge.

  "Which part are you from?" Four bridge-guarding soldiers saw Dong Li Mao's motorcade, one of the superior sergeants blocked and asked.

  Dong Li Mao jumped down from the jeep and stood on the empty bridge for a while, he clearly remembered that his great-grandfather's photo was taken from this position. The wooden planks on the bridge, the sandbags piled up as a bunker on both sides of the bridge, were exactly the same as in the photo. Those few steel cables suspended in mid-air looked like hemp ropes in the photo, but standing here and seeing them with his own eyes, they were actually thick steel cables as thick as an arm.

  Dong Li Mao turned his head and glanced at the superior soldier, suddenly shouting loudly: "Go call your superior for me!"

  The four soldiers guarding the bridge saw Dong, Li and Mao covered in dirt and thought they were deserters, as small groups of deserters often drove back and forth from the front lines.

  "You're not on the front lines fighting the devils, how dare you slack off! We have orders from headquarters to guard this place, specifically to intercept cowards like you!" The superior soldier threw his cigarette butt on the ground and walked back and forth in front of Dong Li Mao a couple of times, glaring at him with both eyes wide open, pointing at his nose and shouting.

  "Really?" Dong Li Mao chuckled and asked: "Then what do you want to do with us?"

  The superior soldier's eyes rolled around in circles and beckoned Dong Li Mao to come closer.

  Dong Li Mao leaned in obediently, and the superior soldier put his mouth to Dong's ear and whispered: "As long as you're willing to take out some big bucks for the brothers to drink, I'll let you pass."

  "Ocean?" Dong Li Mao was taken aback for a moment, then asked in a low voice: "I don't have an ocean on me, can I use something else?"

  The superior soldier was overjoyed and thought that this trip would be profitable, so he smiled and nodded: "Of course..."

  The word "with" had not yet left his lips when a pistol was already pressed against his temple.

  Dong Li Mao pulled out his pistol and pressed it against the superior soldier's temple, saying: "This is the good thing I'm going to give you! Do you believe me if I shoot you dead with one shot now?"

  "Long... official... has something... good... good to say... be careful walking... walking fire..." The superior soldier was so scared that he stuttered and couldn't speak clearly.

  Another three soldiers wanted to rush up and were blocked by Wang Jia Gui and others with guns: "Don't move! Otherwise, we'll kill you!"

  Dong Li Mao put away his pistol and shouted sternly, "Your life is spared for now! Listen to my orders! Go quickly and get your superior here!"

  The superior soldier didn't dare to act rashly, immediately turned around and ran towards the east bank of the bridge, looking back while running, as if afraid that Dong Li Mao would shoot him in the back.

  Dong Li Mao had Hu San blow the assembly whistle, and except for two wounded men who stayed on the vehicle, all the soldiers of the Special Operations Unit stood in front of Dong Li Mao within a minute.

  "Brothers! We have received orders from the military department to hold our ground here! Now, I order you, hurry up and go to the riverbank to take a bath, eat a good meal, and get some rest! Perhaps tonight, it will be very crowded here! We must inspect all refugees and soldiers arriving here, and not let anyone suspicious pass over the bridge!"

  The brothers of the Special Forces had just gone through a bloody battle, covered in blood and exhausted. After dispersing, they almost all rushed to the riverbank along a small path, laughing and shouting as they went to wash up.

  Before long, a lieutenant from the bridge's east end ran over. He was only wearing a pair of shorts and was barefoot. Panting, he ran to Dong Limao and saluted: "Reporting to the superior officer, the expeditionary army military police battalion third company first platoon third squad leader Luo Yongshan has arrived..."

  "Alright! Alright!" Dong Li Mao didn't wait for Luo Yong Shan to finish speaking, waving his hand and saying: "We are the 5th Army Special Duty Company, ordered to come and guard the bridge. From now on, this place is under our control. You're in charge of arranging accommodations for my brothers, as well as two wounded soldiers and one female nurse, give them separate rooms to rest."

  "Sir, but I didn't receive any orders, this is probably..." Luo Yongshan said with a flicker of his triangular eyes.

  "How dare you defy me!" Dong Li Mao's eyes widened, and he shouted: "Hurry up and arrange the rooms for accommodation, also, tell your people to cook food, we're all starving!"

  "It is..." Luo Yongshan replied weakly, then yelled at the three soldiers still standing in place: "What are you waiting for? Quickly arrange for the special forces brothers to go to the other side of the bridge!"

  Dong Li Mao beckoned to Zeng Zifan: "Zeng Junyi, take the leper and the monkey to the other side of the bridge."

  Zeng Zifan said to Dong Limao, "The two wounded must be sent to the field hospital set up by the General Command in Baoshan."

  No sooner had he finished speaking than many enemy planes appeared in the sky, flying in neat formations.

  Huì Tōng Bridge, donated by Mr. Liang Jinshan, a Singaporean Chinese, in 1936, was considered a relatively modern flexible steel cable suspension bridge at that time. The bridge is 205 meters long and has a span of 190 meters, consisting of 17 giant German steel cables, with a maximum load capacity of 7 tons.