Chapter 136: Battle of Songjiang: Battle of Songhu (I)

"The 40th Regiment transferred Mishidu, Jinhebang, and Deshenggang to the front line; the 42nd Regiment stationed in Litahui to build a defensive position, strictly guard the south bank of the Huangpu River, and at the same time protect the smooth flow of the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway. The 38th Regiment and the Supplementary Regiment stationed in the county town. From today on, the troops will be rested and fully entered a state of war. All the chief officers must be on duty for 24 hours."

As soon as the meeting ended, Chen Xiuwen rushed back to Songjiang without stopping and immediately issued an order to cancel the retreat, ordering the troops to quickly launch on the south bank of the Huangpu River south of Songjiang County and west of the south bank of the Huangpu River. At the same time, he ordered the Deputy Chief of Staff to indulge in the Jinshanwei, Pinghu and other Hangzhou Bay to send reconnaissance teams along the Hangzhou Bay to keep abreast of the dynamics there. Since it cannot be stopped, you must be prepared.

Time passed day by day, and because the order to retreat was issued in advance, it was immediately cancelled. The order was repeated twice in just two days, which seriously affected the morale of the Chinese defenders who were struggling to support the battlefield of Songhu. At this time, the Neon Army concentrated the forces of three divisions and began to advance to the south bank of Suzhou River, and the positions on the south bank of Suzhou River were in full swing.

The troops were really strong, and Chen Cheng, who was the new commander-in-chief of the front-line enemy on the Songhu battlefield, was forced to transfer four divisions and a brigade of the right-wing corps deployed on the front line of Hangzhou Bay to the south bank of Suzhou River to reinforce. At the same time, he ordered the just-arrived Hunan Army's 63rd Division to be transferred to Jinshanzui along the Hangzhou Bay coast, and to guard the entire Gongting to the Zhapu area.

At this time, nearly 100,000 members of the 10th Neon Army, the 6th, 18th, and 114th Divisions, were escorted to Hangzhou Bay by 155 transport ships under the escort of the Fourth Navy Fleet.

Second Lieutenant Zhu Xiwen was a lieutenant clerk of the 62nd Division. The 62nd Division had reinforced the southern bank of Suzhou River on June 2, but the new defense force had not arrived for a long time. Zhu Xiwen was arranged to lead a squad of brothers to stay at the outpost of the Jinsi Niangqiao Township Office to be responsible for handing over the subsequent 63rd Division's defense force.

These two days were the astronomical tide. The township office outpost was on the beach. The sound of waves hitting the banks and reefs made him, a man from western Hunan, very uncomfortable. He woke up after sleeping for a short time.

More than a dozen brothers squeezed into a room full of sweat and feet. "These guys don't know how to wash." Zhu Xiwen muttered and walked out of the house to get some breath.

The rain that had been raining all day yesterday had stopped. Due to the heavy humidity, there was already heavy fog outside. In addition, it was not yet dawn and there was nothing on the sea.

Zhu Xiwen stood on the embankment, and the smell of salty and wet sea came to her face.

"Damn it, this ghost place." Due to the strong sea breeze, Zhu Xiwen drew several matches in succession without the cigarette in his mouth.

I remember when I came here from Hunan, Zhu Xiwen, who had never seen the sea, felt very fresh, and I was happy to be stationed here away from the battlefield filled with smoke. However, the freshness passed by the sea and was boring and wet, especially the rumbling sound of waves at night, making it impossible to sleep. Sometimes Zhu Xiwen would rather go to the battlefield to kill the Japanese than to stay here.

Yesterday afternoon, the 373rd Regiment of the 63rd Division had two vanguard companies stationed in Dongsi City in Baishawan, Pinghu, to the south and Haiyue'an in Jinshanwei, to the north. Zhu Xiwen guessed that it was time to hand over as the 63rd Division arrived today.

Zhu Xiwen pinched the cigarette in his mouth on his ear in disappointment and prepared to return to the outpost. But when he turned around, he suddenly heard a subtle "thump" sound from the sea breeze. At first, it seemed like the sound of a car, but there were no cars here as the troops left. After listening carefully, the sound actually came from the foggy sea surface, and the sound became more and more obvious.

Zhu Xiwen was still wondering, shook his head and walked towards the outpost. Halfway through, he suddenly remembered that the company commander had told him before that they were stationed here to prevent the Japanese from landing from here.

"The ship is the sound of the ship." Zhu Xiwen's mind suddenly woke up. Although China also has a navy, Zhu Xiwen has been here for almost two months and has never seen the Chinese navy at all. He heard that they were all destroyed by Japanese warships at the estuary of the Yangtze River.

"Ghosts? Is it the Ghosts going to log in?" Zhu Xiwen still came back and hurried back to the outpost.

"Get up, don't sleep anymore. The Japanese are here, get up quickly." Zhu Xiwen reminded the soldiers who were sleeping, and quickly picked up the telescope and ran up the observation deck and looked up the sea. Through the lens of the telescope, the entire sea surface was so dark that it was so dark that it could not be seen, but the "tuk-tuk" sound became louder and louder and even overshadowed the sound of waves.

When they heard that the Japanese were coming, the soldiers sleeping below suddenly felt sleepy and rushed to get up in a hurry.

"Sir, are the Japanese really going to log in here?" The sergeant squad leader ran up with a gun and asked in a panic.

"I can't see anything clearly, but it must be the devils." Zhu Xiwen said with a pale face. However, at this time, he still ordered calmly: "You send two people to the neighboring troops to report the news immediately, and the others are ready to fight."

"Yes." The squad leader responded quickly and hurriedly went down to make arrangements.

In the bunker of the township office post, ten Hanyang-made rifles were aimed at the foggy and confused sea surface. Two soldiers were sent to Dongsicheng and Haiyue'an to report the news. Now there were only ten soldiers and eleven Zhu Xiwen left in the post. The soldiers were all very nervous. Zhu Xiwen grabbed the telescope and observed the situation on the sea surface. Although the sky was already gradually brightening, the sea surface covered by the fog was still unable to see anything. Zhu Xiwen's hand holding the box cannon tightly was already full of sweat.

As the sound gets closer, the brothers' breathing becomes faster and faster. Only hearing the sound but not seeing the enemy is what people are most afraid of.

"Sir, sir, why don't we shoot a few shots at the sea?" The squad leader swallowed and said to Zhu Xiwen stammered.

"You have so many bullets." Zhu Xiwenqiang calmly scolded the squad leader, and then ordered the other nine soldiers: "Listen to my orders, no one is allowed to shoot until the enemy is discovered."

As soon as Zhu Xiwen's voice fell, a dull roar suddenly came from the sea, followed by a sharp whistling sound in the sky.

"No, it's a cannon, it's a hidden place." Zhu Xiwen shouted in a hurry and fell on the ground of the bunker.

In an instant, explosions sounded around, and one after another, like thunder. The waves of the explosion whizzed past the upper part of the bunker like strong wind, and the whole ground was trembling. A huge shell exploded not far from the outpost, and the huge shock wave suddenly flattened the village office of Jinsi Niangqiao. Fortunately, Zhu Xiwen and others hid in the bunker outside the house in time, otherwise they would have been buried inside.

"What kind of cannon is this? It's so powerful." Zhu Xiwen, who had only seen mortars and mountain cannons, was lying on the ground with his head in his arms, muttering in horror. He had never seen a navy or warship before, and had no idea that the Fourth Neon Fleet on the sea was gathering all the guns and was carrying out violent artillery along the line of Dongsicheng in Baishawan, Pinghu, and Jinshanzui. At the same time, tens of thousands of people from the 35th Brigade of the 18th Division and the 12th Engineer Regiment had already boarded the landing craft and were heading towards the three landing sites of Dongsicheng, Jinsi Niangqiao and Jinshanzui.

This made the fierce artillery fire that Zhu Xiwen and the other ten soldiers had never experienced lasted for more than half an hour before stopping. Although the person was shocked, Zhu Xiwen still knew that once the artillery fire stopped, it meant that the enemy's attack began.

He got up from the ground tremblingly, and Zhu Xiwen waved the box cannon in his hand and shouted loudly: "The Japanese are going to land and prepare for battle."

After a while, the sound of boats shored on the beach, the sound of metal collisions vaguely sounded and could vaguely hear the sound of speech that could not be understood.

"Fight." At this time, Zhu Xiwen no longer hesitated, shouted, and took the lead in lifting the box cannon in his hand and fired a shot at the beach.

"Bang, bang, bang" Although the gunshots made by Shizhi Hanyang were very sparse, screams and loud shouts came faintly on the beach.

But before the second volley was shot, a gunshot suddenly sounded in the direction of the beach. Due to the heavy fog, most of the bullets flew past the cover.

"Brothers, beat hard." The bunker outside the outpost was strong and condescending. Every time there was a volley, a scream or two on the beach would always be heard. Zhu Xiwen fired all the twenty bullets in the magazine in one breath, and shouted loudly while changing the magazine.

But soon the roar of heavy machine guns sounded on the beach, and this time it was not like before, when the bullets were fired very accurately. As a soldier who poked him out of the bunker was broken by a rapid flying bullet, Zhu Xiwen and nine other soldiers were suppressed by heavy machine guns and could not raise their heads at all.

"Dongdong" suddenly came a few dull grenade launches.

"Mortar, lie down." Zhu Xiwen shouted quickly.

In fact, Zhu Xiwen didn't know that this was not a mortar but a grenade launcher that the Japanese were best at. The grenade launcher was very accurate, and grenades exploded around the bunker, one of which fell directly into the bunker, and the prefabricated shrapnel splashing everywhere instantly captured the lives of the four brothers.

Zhu Xiwen had long forgotten his fear of the blood of his brothers. He stood up and shouted loudly, "Brothers, fight with the Japanese."

A more sparse sound rang out in the bunker again. However, less than ten minutes from the beginning to the end of the resistance, with a burst of "Onboard, Onboard" shouts, the landing Japanese quickly rushed to the beachhead position. Zhu Xiwen and the bodies of ten other soldiers were lying in the bunker.

The resistance also occurred in Dongsicheng, Baishawan and Haiyue Temple near Jinshanzui. The two avant-garde companies of the 373rd Regiment of the 63rd Division, who just arrived yesterday, urgently reported to the regiment headquarters far away in Qingpu, while fighting.

However, in the eyes of the tens of thousands of Japanese who were landing in advance, they were undoubtedly a mantis chariot. In less than an hour, the commander of the 35th Brigade of the 18th Division, who was already standing in the East Sicheng of Baishawan, Pinghu, Major General Tezuka Temple proudly reported to the division commander Lieutenant General Sasao Nakajima that the 35th Brigade had occupied the beach position from the East Sicheng of Baishawan, Pinghu to Jinshanzui. Then the neon army of the three divisions began to land continuously.

"The brigade, something is not good. I just received a report from the reconnaissance team. The Neon Army suddenly launched an attack on the Dongsi City in Baisha Bay, Pinghu, and Jinshanzui line. The Japanese have landed from Hangzhou Bay." Chen Zui rushed into Chen Xiuwen's room with a nervous look on his face and reported.

Chen Xiuwen sat blankly on the edge of the bed, and the thing he was most worried about finally happened. Although his appearance caused the Battle of Songhu to break out early, the wheel of history was still rolling forward according to the original trajectory. The Neon Army still chose to land from Hangzhou Bay to encircle the rear route of the Chinese national team in the Songhu area.

"The brigade, the Neon Army has already started landing in Hangzhou Bay." Chen Zui saw Chen Xiuwen sitting on the edge of the bed in a daze, and shouted again anxiously.

Chen Xiuwen then woke up and said quickly: "Report to Commander-in-Chief Zhu of the Central Corps immediately. Once the Neon Army landed from Hangzhou Bay, it would definitely go straight to Songjiang, intending to cut off the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway and encircle our army's rear route. He asked Commander-in-Chief Zhu to send troops to reinforce Songjiang immediately."

Chen Xiuwen knew that once the Neon Army landed, the main force would definitely attack Songjiang. The one who could not defend Songjiang alone could not last much time.

"Yes." Chenzui responded quickly.

Before Chen Yu hurried to the door, Chen Xiuwen stopped him again.

"What are the instructions for the voyage?"

Chen Xiuwen stood up, frowned and took two steps, gritted his teeth and said, "In addition, he immediately sent a report to Chief Chen, the commander-in-chief of the front battlefield of Songhu: The purpose of the Neon Army landing in Hangzhou Bay is to surround our army's rear route. Taking advantage of the current landing of the Neon Army, he suggests that Chief Chen immediately retreat all troops."

"This, this, brother, is this appropriate? Continue to stick to the orders given by the Chairman himself." Chen Zui said in a daze when he heard this.

"I can't care about so much, so I'll send it straight. Now I'll give up Shanghai and retreat to the national defense line. The Neon Army starts landing today, and we will have to arrive at us tomorrow as soon as possible. As long as the reinforcements arrive in time, we can hold on for five days. The troops have full time to retreat. However, if we don't retreat, our nearly 700,000 troops on the Songhu battlefield will be surrounded by the Japanese." Chen Xiuwen waved his hand and said firmly. At this time, he had no choice but to do his best and leave his destiny.

Chen Zui looked at Chen Xiuwen with a firm expression, opened his mouth and finally did not say what he wanted to persuade him, and replied loudly: "Yes."
Chapter completed!