Chapter 158: Victory retreat (I)

It was the third day. Chen Cheng, who had not closed his eyes for three days and three nights, finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although there were Neon Army aircraft bombing on his head, the 67th Division and the 20th Independent Brigade firmly guarded Songjiang, the 18th Army and other troops of the 15th Army blocked the newly landed Neon Army's 16th Division in Taicang and Jiading. Most of the main forces on the Songhu battlefield were able to retreat to the Wufu Line and Sujia Line relatively smoothly. Currently, the leaders of the Sichuan Army were several divisions and the 74th Army that had just been supplemented.

"It's not easy, it's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy for the 67th Division and the 20th Independent Brigade to withstand the attack of more than 40,000 Neon Army from two divisions and one detachment." Chen Cheng said with a deep emotion.

"However, Mr. Ci, Songjiang is under great pressure now. According to the telegram sent by Huang Wei, the 67th Division has almost been exhausted again. Now the city is only supported by the 20th Independent Brigade. Songjiang is in danger." Luo Zhuoying, the famous Songjiang City Defense Commander, said with a worried look on his face and heartache. After all, the 67th Division is the most elite division in his Civil Engineering Division except the 11th Division. It was almost exhausted when he was in Luodian. Now it has just been replenished and consumed again in Songjiang, which makes Luo Zhuoying feel very distressed.

Chen Cheng gritted his teeth and said that in this Battle of Shanghai, his 15th Army underwent the greatest pressure, especially his starting troops, the 18th Army, had heavy casualties, and almost all of them were added.

"As long as we can block the Neon Army and cover the retreat of our main force of the Songhu Army, let alone the 67th Division will be exhausted again, even if we are exhausted, we will be willing to do everything." Chen Cheng said with a decisive look on his face. For him, Chairman Jiang's orders have never been fulfilled without fail, and he also knew that Chairman Jiang was watching him at this moment.

But at this time, as Luo Zhuoying said, the situation in Songjiang was indeed not optimistic. The Neon Army had occupied most of Songjiang City. The supplementary regiments and the 38th regiments, which were first invested in street fighting, were successively destroyed. The two regiments of the 67th Division, which were reinforced, persisted for less than five hours.

Shen Xiuwen was hiding in a bunker made of sandbags and stone slabs at the county middle school, looking at the long list of deaths that had just been sent. The Neon Army's artillery fire outside was very fierce. The Sixth, the 18th Division and the Guoqi Detachment each had an artillery corps, with hundreds of mountain cannons, field cannons and howitzers of more than 75 mm combined. He was frantically covering the firepower of Songjiang County from the county high school to the north gate. Shen Xiuwen could not remember how many times the Neon Army had started carpet-type artillery bombardment. In particular, the three-story teaching building of the county high school, which had many heavy machine guns that could provide fire support to the whole city, was paying attention to the three-story teaching building of the county high school, the highest building in the county high school, which had many heavy machine guns that could provide fire support to the whole city.

Speaking of which, Shen Xiuwen has to thank the Songjiang County Magistrate Wang Guilin, who just evacuated yesterday. Wang Guilin, who was a juren, attached great importance to education. This building was built shortly after he became the county magistrate. It is very strong. After experiencing the baptism of dozens of shells, except for the roof and walls, it still stands in the center of the county town without collapse, so that the machine gun position on the third floor can effectively support the defenses everywhere. Shen Xiuwen guessed that even if he came to the magnitude 8 earthquake, he would not collapse. Looking at the county government that had been blown into ruins, Shen Xiuwen also sighed in his heart that there was a sharp contrast with the later generations.

In addition to the remaining remnants of the 38th Regiment and the Supplementary Regiment, which are now under the burden of defense, there are the 40th Regiment, led by Deputy Brigade Commander Teng Donglin. As the territory is not only encroached by the Neon Army, they can now control the area at most to accommodate these 3,000 people for defense. However, looking at the list of casualties of various troops just sent, less than two hours after the 40th Regiment entered the city, the casualties reached one-third. In addition, the casualties of the 38th Regiment and the Supplementary Regiment were only 2,000 troops arranged on each defensive position. This is not counting the casualties after the Japanese artillery bombardment.

"Brig Commander, the Japanese are going to attack again after the artillery bombardment. There are still two hours left. Why don't the 42nd Regiment be transferred?" Qiao Zhen, the chief of staff who firmly requested to stay with Shen Xiuwen this time, looked at his watch and said anxiously.

Although the 42nd Regiment suffered a lot of casualties in the battle two days ago, the system was relatively complete. Chen Xiuwen was really reluctant to throw all the veterans of the last regiment into it.

"Now that Old Teng and Cheng Daren have not called each other yet, wait a moment, if it really doesn't work, send the guard battalion first. As the general reserve team, don't send it up unless it is absolutely necessary." Chen Xiuwen said after thinking about it for a moment.

Qiao Zhen understood what Chen Xiuwen meant, but when he thought about how much effort he had finally replenished the whole thing and had been training for nearly two months, he had lost more than half of his losses. He felt very distressed when he thought about it.

The carpet-style shelling finally stopped, which also means that a new round of attacks by the Japanese has begun. Almost one-third of Songjiang City has become a ruin. The entire ruin is like a slaughterhouse, with fragmented corpses, twisted guns, bloody human limbs, and the choking smell of gunpowder and blood.

But the soldiers who had already numb at this time did not feel disgusted at all. They were afraid. They stood in the bunker built with bluestone on the street, sealed the doors and windows and left only the shooting holes in the building and behind piles of ruins, waiting for battle.

"Crack, Crack" Although the bluestone slabs on the street were turned up and a long curved bunker was built on the street, the sound of the overgrown shoes under the Japanese feet was still very loud when they stepped on the hard roadbed, especially the thousands of feet made sounds together. The Japanese launched an attack on the defenders from the east, west and south at the same time.

"Fight." Cheng Dean, who was responsible for defending the eastern position, roared angrily. He hid behind a bunker, and personally held a Browning light machine gun and spit out hot flames. The gunshots were orders. Amid the roars of officers on various positions, machine guns, submachine guns, and rifles fired one after another.

The Japanese who were straightened and howling and charging suddenly became a living target. The Japanese who rushed in front were screaming and splattering blood and fell to the ground.

Major Keitazawa, the captain of the Yamada United team of the Guoqi Detachment, who was responsible for commanding the eastern attack, reacted very quickly and fell to the ground as the gunshots rang out. When he raised his head carefully, he watched his soldiers dancing the dance of death in the firepower net of the Chinese defenders.

"Kill and give it to you." He was so angry that he waved his command knife desperately. Amid his howling, Neon Army, who was lying on the ground or behind the ruins beside the street, used the 38th cover and crooked machine gun in his hand to counterattack. The machine gun squadron and grenade squadron that followed quickly also launched.

With a distance of less than 100 meters, the Japanese's shooting accuracy was quite amazing. The Chinese soldiers who showed their heads and shot were all headshot and fell to the ground without exception.

Under the suppression of the twelve Type 92 heavy machine guns of the Japanese Machine Gun Squadron and six grenade launchers, the firepower of the defenders was immediately reduced, and more than one-third of the machine guns were silent. The soldiers raised their heads and carried out accurate shootings. They could only stick their heads to the ground or hide behind the bunker and shoot roughly, which greatly reduced the lethality.

"Mortar, knock off the Japanese heavy machine guns and grenade launchers." Chen Xiuwen, who had personally climbed to the third floor, saw that the eastern position was tight, and quickly ordered.

"Dong, dong, dong" Nearly twenty sixty and eighty-two mortars hidden in the city poured into the Japanese machine guns and grenade positions at extremely fast speed. In just one minute, hundreds of 60 and 82-mm mortar shells fell on the first brigade of the Yamada United, the fastest-progressing and the most powerful firepower of the Guoqi Detachment.

During the continuous explosion, heavy machine guns and grenade launchers were being watched in a row, screaming in pain. Dozens of Japanese officers and soldiers soared into the air in the flames. It seemed like a bloody rain in the sky, and the fragments and internal organs of human bodies fell like rain.

"Order the artillery to destroy the mortar position of the Chinese army." Sadao Niujima, who was commanding forward and climbing to the city tower of Xiguan, saw this scene in his telescope and quickly ordered.

As the oldest lieutenant general among the three troops, and Tanisuo's 6th Division was defeated and defeated. He was appointed as the commander of the front enemy by the commander of the 10th Army, Heisuke Yanagawa, to command the attacks of the Sixth, 18th Divisions and the Guoqi Detachment. Since he broke into Songjiang County at noon yesterday, Sasaki Niujima was very excited. He originally thought that the small town that was blocking the front would finally be taken down. However, after attacking for more than ten hours, he had not yet captured the entire county town. The fierce and cruel street battles caused great casualties to the troops.

The Chinese army was obviously not defeated. Not only did it have a steady stream of troops and powerful firepower, but there was also a group of artillery hidden outside the city, which lost several 1992 infantry artillery positions. Fortunately, under the heavy artillery fire of the three artillery corps, the group of artillery did not dare to fire easily. But the trouble was that the several mortar positions set up in the city ran away after they fought and could not effectively destroy them. There was also the three-story building that had undergone several artillery bombardments, which always stood firm, and the heavy machine gun position on the upper floor also caused great casualties to the attacking troops. Especially the large-caliber heavy machine gun that could be used for high and flatness, the firepower could not only cover the entire county town, but also the two artillery observation balloons at the beginning were knocked down. Now the observation balloons can only be implemented far from their range, and the accuracy was greatly reduced.

"The Navy, these cowards." Sadao Niujima held up a telescope to observe the shelling effect, while gritting his teeth. When the Navy Air Force, who was responsible for reinforcements, was bombing Songjiang County two days ago, he was afraid of the air defense firepower on the ground, so he ran away after throwing the bomb. The bomb's high-altitude bombing of more than a thousand meters was indecisive and could not effectively destroy the firepower points in the city, especially the damn three-story building still posed a great threat to the Imperial Army.

According to the coordinates provided by the offensive troops, the 75th Field artillery group outside the city lasted for ten minutes of firepower covering the positions of the defenders and several possible mortar positions. As soon as the cannon stopped, Sadao Niujima ordered the troops to launch a strong attack. Commander Yanagawa, a classmate of the 12th session of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School, urged him every hour and sent him great pressure.

Time passed by minute by minute, and the time for evacuation at 8 o'clock in the morning was getting closer, but the pressure in the east and south directions was getting greater and greater. Especially in the western position, the replenishment regiment of more than 2,000 people was left now. If it weren't for the reinforcement of a battalion of the 40th Regiment and a company of the brigade guard battalion, the western position would have probably been lost long ago.

The attack on the western position was the 56th Regiment of the 23rd Brigade of the 18th Division. The division commander was in front of the command, and the western position under the strict 18th Division must be opened first. The regiment commander Saburo Fujiyama personally led the two brigades to launch a fierce attack on the western position.

Although the heavy machine gun positions of the Chinese army were set up on the commanding heights of the county town and the mortar shells flying from time to time caused considerable casualties to the troops, Saburo Fujiyama found that the firepower of the defenders on the western position had gradually weakened under several shellings.

"Warriors, kill me." Amid the howling of Saburo Fujiyama, under the cover of nearly 30 Type 92 heavy machine guns temporarily organized, two squadrons responsible for the vanguard's breakthrough mission, more than 400 Japanese soldiers were screaming and rushed forward as if they were injected with chicken blood, trying to break through the western defense line of the Chinese army and break into the county middle school in the center of the county town.

Facing the Japanese who were rushing up with red eyes, Zhu Zhiyong personally brought more than 200 soldiers from the supplementary regiment to replace the 1st Battalion of the 40th Regiment and the 2nd Company of the Guard Battalion, which had just suffered heavy casualties, and fought desperately on the front line.

Shen Xiuwen, who was hit by a few more shells just now, was scratched by shrapnel on his left arm and didn't care about bandaging at this time. It was less than an hour left, and it was time to shrink the defense line and slowly retreat to the north gate. Moreover, after this bloody battle, all the officers and soldiers who survived will be the backbone of the future, and they can no longer be consumed in vain.

"Retreat, order the troops to alternate cover, shrink the defense line, and retreat to the north gate." Shen Xiuwen decisively issued a retreat order.

On the western position, the brothers of the supplementary regiment were shooting desperately, and there was no need to aim at this moment. They all mechanically pulled the bullets on the bolt and then fired the bolts. Each bullet would always splash a little blood in the yellow tide that rushed up wildly on the opposite side.

Five crooked handles and two 92 heavy machine guns were not afraid of the Japanese firepower suppression. They kept roaring, and the yellow shells popped out like raindrops. The firepower net composed of seven flame tongues strangled the Japanese who rushed up like locusts.
Chapter completed!