Devil's Army

Because the army lacked the capacity to produce transport aircraft, its troop deployment became a major problem.

At this time, several counties along the Sino-Korean border had already been breached by the combined Japanese and North Korean forces.

The 364th Brigade of the Sichuan Army immediately boarded bombers and headed straight for Changchun Dafangshen Airport in Jilin.

The 11th Brigade of the First Army boarded a Qingdao Fleet warship that arrived later and headed to Andong Port.

Led by its commander, the Japanese 19th Division, along with the Korean 6th Division and the Korean Mixed 4th Brigade (a Korean corps), totaling more than 30,000 men, launched a surprise attack on Ji'an County on the Sino-Korean border on the morning of the third day after the recapture of Jiangsu.

It was just dawn, and the Yalu River was shrouded in a thin veil of morning mist, carrying with it a biting wind. The river was completely frozen over.

Just past the hour of Yin (3-5 AM), the night had not yet faded in the direction of Manpo, North Korea. Inside the four-story bunker of the Ji'an Yalu River border railway bridge, a platoon of guards from the 2nd Border Defense Brigade of the 1st Army was huddled up next to a heater, taking a nap.

The sentries on duty, with binoculars in hand, diligently observed the movements on the Yalu River toward North Korea through the firing port.

He would occasionally breathe out warm air to thaw his frozen hands. But the night was shrouded in mist, and the sentry was completely unaware that a long-planned surprise attack was quietly approaching.

Outside the bunker, the muffled thuds of the leather boots of the 2nd Border Defense Brigade soldiers of the 1st Army pounding on the snow could be heard from time to time.

In the fog, the Japanese 19th Division and its subordinate Korean supplementary battalion, mixed with regular Japanese companies, crossed the frozen Yalu River in three columns and were quietly advancing towards Ji'an.

In the shadows on the Chinese side of the Zhonglu Railway Bridge, Japanese engineers quietly removed the warning explosives from the bridge deck and cut through the barbed wire.

More than 200 soldiers, carrying Type 38 rifles, crawled forward along the 589-meter-long steel bridge, their leather boots making almost no sound on the cold rails.

Meanwhile, on the river surface from both sides of the highway crossing, Japanese and Korean troops, clad in white camouflage, rapidly approached the woods west of Ji'an city and the dock east of it under the cover of the morning mist.

The Japanese artillery was ready, and another squad boarded a gunboat with its guns aimed at the defensive fortifications of the 2nd Border Defense Brigade of the 1st Army on the shore, ready to provide fire support.

At dawn, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, a sentry at the head of the railway bridge suddenly spotted a figure wriggling in the shadows of the bridge. Just as he was about to fire to raise the alarm, he was blown to the ground by a thrown grenade.

The sound of an explosion tore through the morning mist, and the Japanese heavy machine guns that were lying in ambush at the bridgehead suddenly opened fire, bullets sparking as they hit the steel frame.

A patrol squad from the 2nd Border Defense Brigade of the 1st Army heard the gunfire and immediately rushed over to intercept the Japanese troops. However, the Japanese troops who launched the surprise attack had already seized the middle section of the bridge. They set up grenade launchers and, together with heavy machine guns, bombarded and strafed the patrol squad.

The battle had barely lasted ten minutes when the entire patrol squad was wiped out.

Japanese grenade launchers and mortars bombarded the Chinese side of the bunkers, blasting holes in the concrete walls and sending smoke and dust into the bunkers through the firing ports. The shouts of the soldiers of the 2nd Border Defense Brigade mingled with the gunfire.

Almost simultaneously, intense gunfire and explosions were also heard from the wooded section of Maxian Township and the port dock outside the highway crossing on both sides of the railway bridge.

After landing, the North Korean 6th Division, acting as the vanguard, quickly seized the steep cliffs along the river. Light machine gunners set up firing positions using the bushes and advanced towards Ji'an County.

Commander Wang of the 1st Regiment and Commander Mao of the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Border Defense Brigade of the 1st Army, who were deployed along the Yalu River, received telegrams from the front lines requesting assistance almost simultaneously.

While sending reinforcements to the front lines, they also reported the battle situation to Brigade Commander Wu.