Chapter 60: The Daring Seizure of Luding Bridge

Each man carried a hand grenade, along with a submachine gun and a box cannon. Their mission was to crawl across the iron chains under the cover of fire to reach the opposite side.

"This iron chain is 103 meters long. Even without enemy fire from the far bank, crossing it is extremely perilous. Everyone must be prepared to face certain death," Long Wencheng said, his gaze steady on the men.

Peng Hongsen took the lead to speak: "Commander, rest assured, no one from the 34th Red Army Division fears death."

"Good, that’s exactly what I want to hear. I will organize fire support on the far side to suppress the enemy forces. At the same time, I will send men to build a wooden plank bridge to cover the second assault team’s advance," Long Wencheng outlined his attack plan.

The plan was simple but demanded unwavering courage and a resolve to sacrifice for righteousness.

They had prepared a large quantity of wooden planks, ready to be laid above the iron chains at the order, facilitating the following troops' charge across the river.

Lieutenant Lu, on the opposite bank, had never expected the Red Army to arrive so swiftly.

Watching shadowy figures moving back and forth, he ordered the nearby soldiers, "Open fire with sweeping shots as soon as the enemy attempts to cross the bridge."

"Yes!!!" the soldiers responded in unison.

"Sergeant, I don’t think they can get across. Those are iron chains; they’re no monkeys. How would they manage?" one soldier said confidently.

"Exactly, and with the heavy machine guns the regiment left us, we’ll turn the enemy into sieves," another said.

The soldiers were full of confidence. Below the thirteen iron chains roared the raging river. Even without resistance, crossing was difficult, let alone under crossfire from machine guns.

Suddenly, someone shouted, "They’re on the bridge! Someone’s on the bridge!"

Lieutenant Lu looked toward the sound and saw the iron chains swaying. Indeed, someone was lying on the chains, crawling steadily forward.

“Flare!” he shouted, and a soldier fired a flare into the sky.

But just as their flare ascended, the enemy opened fire first.

The first to respond were ten artillery pieces.

---

Mortars and direct-fire cannons bombarded the enemy’s bridgehead position on the far bank.

“Boom!” The explosions from mortars and cannons had barely ceased when nearly two hundred light and heavy machine guns from the 18th Division, along with over a hundred submachine guns, simultaneously opened fire on the enemy’s bridgehead.

The suppression fire was absolute; the barrage nearly impenetrable, pounding the enemy’s positions.

Meanwhile, sniper Bao Bao and his team closely monitored the far bank. Any head that dared to peek out was met with swift, decisive fire.

"Sergeant, what should we do? Their firepower is too fierce!"

"We can’t even stick our heads out to return fire!" the soldiers shouted amid the intense gunfire.

At the same time, mortar shells rained down relentlessly.

“Boom!” The continuous explosions sent chills through the soldiers huddled in their positions.

In the town of Luding, the battalion commander wanted to send reinforcements but, looking toward the bridge, saw machine gun nests blazing with fire. There were at least four to five hundred machine guns, plus constant mortar bombardment on the bridgehead.

There was no point in trying to reinforce; better to retreat.

He made a prompt decision to avoid giving the Red Army any chance to annihilate his forces and led his men out of Luding County.

Back on the bridge, Lieutenant Lu saw enemy fire intensify and the iron chains sway more violently, indicating more attackers creeping closer.

But now, even peeking out to shoot was perilous. How could they stop the enemy from crossing? Were they to hope the attackers would slip and fall to their deaths?

“Go to town and call for reinforcements!” Lieutenant Lu shouted, and a soldier sprinted toward Luding to request backup.

Peng Hongsen, leading over twenty assault troops, crawled over the iron chains like apes, using hands and feet to advance.

Below, the roaring river thundered like a drum; a fall would mean certain death.

Ahead, enemy machine guns roared from behind cover, though the soldiers dared not expose themselves fully, firing roughly in the general direction.

Bullets whizzed dangerously close to the soldiers’ heads several times.

“Keep pushing!” Peng Hongsen roared, his voice rising above the machine-gun fire and the thunderous river below.

---

Behind them, a company of soldiers was placing wooden planks one by one on the bridge.

If Peng Hongsen’s assault team perished, they would still be able to extend the planks bit by bit toward the far bank.

Ten minutes later, Lieutenant Lu peered through a gap and saw the enemy had advanced to within ten meters of the bridgehead.

“Set the oil on fire! Let’s see if these devils dare come closer!” he shouted.

A soldier threw a torch onto the bridgehead, which had been pre-soaked with oil.

Due to the dense fire, the torch was riddled with bullets mid-air and shattered.

Yet the torch’s head still blazed, landing atop the oil.

“Whoosh!” As the flames touched the oil, a wall of fire leapt up, blocking the space between the iron chains and the enemy position.

Peng Hongsen had already reached the front, climbed onto the bridgehead, and seeing the raging flames and the soldiers climbing up behind him, he bellowed, “Comrades, charge!”

With that, he shouldered his submachine gun and was the first to leap over the wall of fire.

Seeing Peng Hongsen dash through the flames, the others clenched their teeth and roared forward.

They passed through the fire; even their hair caught flame, but it did not stop their advance.

“Rat-a-tat-tat!” The enemy fire ceased as these twenty-plus soldiers surged into their trenches, furiously spraying bullets.

Lieutenant Lu and his men were stunned to see these Red Army soldiers pass through flames and storm into their positions.

Were these men made of steel? Unafraid of the roaring waters of the Dadu River or the blazing inferno?

Amidst the flying bullets, over a dozen enemy soldiers were quickly eliminated, and their fluttering flag toppled.

Peng Hongsen did not linger. He left ten assault troops to hold the position and support the soldiers constructing the plank bridge on the far side, while he led the rest directly toward Luding city.

He did this to deepen their penetration and prevent enemy reinforcements from arriving.

If they encountered the enemy reinforcements, they could at least hold them off for a while, buying precious time for more troops to cross the river.