Chapter 178: The Battle of Defense of Nanjing (II)

The 114th Division was formed by the reserves of the 14th Division in Yugongdu after the war in Songhu. After landing in Hangzhou Bay, it cooperated with the Shanghai Expedition Army to attack Shanghai from the flanks. After that, the 10th Army finally returned to the battle sequence, and replaced the 6th Division, which suffered heavy losses in the attack on Songjiang, and continued to attack the Jiasu Line. As the vanguard of the 10th Army, the vanguard of the 10th Army, all the way to capture Huzhou, Changxing, Yixing and Liyang, which was so powerful that it was unstoppable.

After capturing Liyang's 114th Division was ordered to rest. However, when he saw the rapid progress of the Central Army and the Right Army, Lieutenant General Momatsu Shigeji, the commander of the 114th Division, was also very jealous. After all, which unit could enter the capital of China first means supreme glory. Although the 114th Division was not a permanent division, Momatsu Shigeji was still very confident in his troops. On August 5, when the commander of the 10th Army, Heisuke Yanagawa, ordered the 114th Division to attack Lishui and march towards Nanjing, Momatsu Shigeji could not wait to send the 66th Regiment under the 127th Brigade as the vanguard of the division to march towards Lishui.

Liyang and Lishui are only eighty kilometers apart. In order to reach Lishui as soon as possible, the sixty-sixth Regiment commander Yamada Changtai Zhongzuo personally led his three brigades to head towards Lishui with light equipment. The troops directly under the brigade, including the artillery brigade, then set off. This was not because Yamada Changtai was arrogant, but because since the landing of Hangzhou Bay, in addition to facing the Sujia Line national defense fortifications, the 114th Division fought several tough battles, and later, including the occupation of Changxing, Yixing and Liyang, the Chinese national team fled. Although there was a regiment of the Chinese national team deploying defenses in Lishui County two days ago, Yamada Changtai didn't take it seriously at all.

"Platform leader, there are headlights on the highway. A convoy is approaching us." On a small hill twenty kilometers away from Lishui County, a soldier on the top of the mountain hurried to a temporary hidden bunker that was built.

The platoon leader He Shuigen jumped up quickly, lay at the observation port of the bunker and used a telescope to observe the road in the distance. A row of long headlights, He Shuigen thought silently, there were eight cars in total, and the roar of the car motor had already faintly heard in the quiet night.

"It's the Japanese, it must be the vanguard of the Japanese. You, you, hurry up and ride your horse back to the company to report. We can't wait here for two days. The mines are hanging strings, and everyone is ready to fight." He Shuigen rolled up his sleeves and ordered.

He Shuigen is one of the few veterans who survived in Luodian. His shooting skills are very accurate. He turned out to be one of the members of the sharpshooter team organized by the 38th Regiment. During this reorganization of the troops, he was brought to the Supplementary Regiment by Huang Likui, who had always admired him, and became the platoon leader of the Supplementary Regiment directly under the Spy Company. After this regiment of the Regiment, he changed the defense of Lishui County, Huang Likui sent his spy company out and released nearly 20 kilometers of guard post along the Ninghang Highway. He Shuigen led his platoon at the forefront. They had been guarding this small hill for two days.

Lying behind a big rock, He Shuigen looked at the headlights slowly approaching. All eight trucks were trucks. Looking from the telescope, there was a dazzling menstrual flag on the front of the car. It was certain that it was the vanguard of the Japanese.

"Damn it, it would be great if there were two big guys in the division fire camp now." He Shuigen chewed a piece of grass in his mouth and muttered in his heart.

A slight sound came from beside him. He Shuigen glared at a soldier who was carrying a hair-pull mine detonating rope buried on the highway, and shouted softly: "Everything is calm, and I will wait for my gunshots to be ordered to pull the mines."

With the louder and louder engines, the convoy got closer and closer. The moonlight was good tonight. More than 30 soldiers lying on the hillside to ambush the Japanese convoy could even see the reflection of the Japanese helmet on the first car.

The first car that was leading the way had entered the minefield. The soldier next to him who was always ready to pull the mines looked nervously at He Shuigen, who was aiming at the rifle.

"Damn, these little Japanese are so fucking." The sight of the rifle in He Shuigen's hand trapped the head of the machine gunner with a crooked machine gun on the roof of the first truck, and cursed softly. He found that the distance between the Japanese convoy was very wide, and each vehicle was at least fifty meters apart. There were only a dozen mines buried on the highway, and once it was detonated, it would not be possible to explode more trucks.

The first car drove through the minefield. When the second car barely entered the minefield, the guns in He Shuigen's hand sounded. The gunshots seemed to be crisp in the night sky. With a "bang", a small hole was opened in the Japanese machine gunner's helmet. The Japanese machine gunner fell on the roof without even humming. At the same time, several soldiers who had long been looking forward to hearing the gunshots pulled the mines buried on the road with force.

"Boom, boom, boom..." With a series of explosions, fireballs rose into the air. The second truck in the center of the minefield was instantly overturned to the ground in the strong air waves of the explosion. More than a dozen mines exploded at the same time, and thousands of fragments rose into the air from the bottom of the soil in the explosion. It was their lives to harvest the Japanese who fell to the ground.

The sudden explosion, the third car following the second truck quickly braked, and the truck was barely stopped at the edge of the explosion. Before the Japanese in the cab breathed a sigh of relief, the whistling fragments shattered the windshield in front of the truck. The Japanese driver, co-pilot and a chief Cao were instantly beaten into a hornet's nest.

"Concentrate the firepower, aim at the first truck, and hit me hard, and retreat in two minutes." While the mine was detonating, He Shuigen quickly aimed at the driver in the cab of the first truck and pulled the trigger. With the light of the explosion, he could clearly see a blood mist splashing from the broken windshield in the cab.

Although He Shuigen's loud orders were drowned in the violent explosion, the explosion was the order, and the soldiers ambushed on the hillside pulled the trigger one after another. Three Czech machine guns were aiming at the truck that was crooked and struck a large rock on the side of the road and fired wildly.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack." The trucks following behind were braked one by one, and the Japanese on the truck jumped out of the car and shouted and lay down on the side of the road to hide.

"Bageya Road." Kazuo Mizuno, the captain of the first squadron of the first brigade of the 66th Regiment, lay on the ground and roared. He was sitting in the fourth car in the middle of the convoy. He was dozing off in the cab, and was awakened by the gunshots. Before he and the driver could react, the explosion sounded like a loud explosion. He was caught off guard and hit the windshield heavily in the driver's emergency brake. If it weren't for the cleverness of the co-pilot next to him and took him out of the cab in time, he might have been injured by the splashed stones and shrapnel.

Out of the explosion center, the second truck was burning, and the soldiers on the truck had no chance of survival. The fire was the best way to guide the ambushing enemy. Seeing the soldiers on the first truck in the front had no time to hide in the firepower of the Chinese army, they all fell to the ground one after another. Kazuo Mizuno clenched his fists with both hands and hit the ground hard: "Despicable Chinese."

"Squadron leader, it was Hua's small army who ambushed us, and there were not many people." A small team leader crawled to Kazuo Mizuno to report.

Hearing the team leader’s reminder, Kazuo Mizuno also discovered that the bullets did not fly to his side, and were mainly concentrated in the direction of the first truck that rushed through the minefield.

Kazuo Mizuno knelt on the ground with courage, looking at the ambush position of the Chinese troops who were three or four hundred meters away from him, and ambushed on the hillside, pulled out his command knife and shouted loudly: "Make a machine gun cover, rush up to destroy the Chinese."

"Dadada..." A Type 92 heavy machine gun that had just been set up not far from Kazuo Mizuno heard the command of the squadron leader and quickly fired at the ambush position that emitted flames on the hillside. At the same time, several crooked machine guns also began to fire. Several small team leaders and Chief Cao also stood up and directed their soldiers to rush up the hillside.

"Retreat!" The Japanese on the first truck were almost wiped out. The Japanese machine gun firepower behind them made them unable to raise their heads. He Shuigen hurriedly ordered the retreat. When the soldiers heard the order, they quickly carried the bodies of two comrades who had no time to sacrifice their lives in the Japanese machine gun firepower, and three or four injured brothers, who had just been covered by the Japanese machine gun firepower, and moved to the established retreat route in the back mountain.

The last He Shuigen who left the position, took advantage of the firelight and found that a Japanese officer was squatting there with a command knife waving his command knife and shouting. The distance of more than 300 meters was not the most formal and best shooting range, but in a hurry, He Shuigen still aimed in that direction and fired.

"Kill and give it to you." Just as Kazuo Mizuno waved his command knife and kept urging the soldiers to rush up, he suddenly heard a "ding" sound, followed by a burst of force coming from his hand holding the command knife, and the command knife suddenly lost his hand. Kazuo Mizuno was so scared that he lay on the ground.

When the Japanese rushed to the hillside, there was no one in the trenches except the bullet casings on the ground. A truck was burned into an empty casing, and the first truck that hit the rock and was riddled with holes was basically scrapped. Most of the soldiers in the two trucks, except for a few who barely saved their lives, were either dead or injured. Kazuo Mizuno held a family-borne samurai sword that was shot at him just now, and she wanted to cry without tears. In the first month since landing in Hangzhou Bay, his squadron has faced such a large casualty for the first time. What's even more shameful is that he didn't even see the enemy.

At this time, the follow-up troops who heard the gunshots quickly arrived. When the captain of the First Brigade, Okada Huzugoro, after listening to the report of Ichio Mizuno and suggested sending troops to pursue and ambush their Chinese troops. The captain couldn't help but scolded loudly: "Baga! Our mission is to seize the city of Lishui County as soon as possible. Mizuno Jun, as the vanguard of the corps and even the entire division, I hope you will not be disturbed by these Chinese troops and open up the road ahead for the large army as soon as possible."

"Hay." After receiving the order, Ichio Mizuno hurriedly commanded the troops to fill the large pits blown out by landmines on the road, pushed the two trucks blocking the road aside, and delayed for an hour, leading the remaining troops to continue to advance towards Lishui.

Landmines, ambush. After paying the price of two trucks again and the loss of nearly a squad, in the early morning, the vanguard of the 66th Regiment, Mizuno Squadron, finally arrived at the foot of Tuanshan outside Lishui County.

Along the way, Yamada Takata, the captain of the 66th Regiment, also received reports from the captain of the vanguard's first brigade, Okada Takagoro, the captain of the vanguard's first brigade, and he also received reports of ambushing the Chinese troops along the way. However, these did not attract the attention of Yamada Takata. Instead, he believed that this was the Chinese army's intentional delay in their attack speed. Maybe at this time, the Chinese army, who were defending the Lishui County, had already fled to the sight of the enemy, just like the defenders of Yixing and Liyang before.

Yamada Takata cherishes this opportunity to be the vanguard of the division. If his troops can quickly defeat the defenders outside Nanjing and if they can be the first to break through Nanjing City, the rank on his shoulders will definitely be increased by one star. Colonel, he is only one step away from the general, and being able to become a general is the dream of all officers for the rest of their lives.

"Order the Okada Brigade to quickly occupy the Tuanshan position outside Lishui. At dawn, I hope to stand on the city tower of Lishui County." Yamada Takata, who was riding on the horse, ordered with a proud look on his face.

The Okada Brigade, who received the order, had basically lost its combat effectiveness because the Mizuno Squadron, which was a vanguard, had lost more than half of its combat effectiveness. Okada Shizugoro ordered the other three infantry squadrons who had just arrived in Tuanshan and had no time to take a breath to launch an attack on the Tuanshan position.

In the first attack, Okada Bugoro threw all the troops except the Mizuno Squadron. The twelve Type 92 heavy machine guns of the machine gun squadron each chose machine gun positions to cover the task. Nearly 800 soldiers of the three infantry squadrons rushed towards the Tuanshan position. Although the Mizuno Squadron was ambushed by the Chinese army along the way and suffered heavy losses, the soldiers who were heading towards the top of the mountain thought that this was an attack that was too ordinary. Although the Tuanshan position was the only barrier outside Lishui County, in this face-to-face attack, they were not afraid of any Chinese army at all. Maybe the Chinese army on the top of the mountain had already escaped, and they could even put the sun flag on the top of the mountain without even having to fire a shot.

Huang Likui, the commander of the regiment who was personally in charge of the Tuanshan position, saw the dense Japanese rushing up the mountain in a hidden command post at a corner of the mountain. He saw a dense crowd of Japanese soldiers rushing up the mountain through the telescope, and a disdainful smile appeared on his face. Huang Likui, who was in his thirties and temperament, had a beard on his lips. Although his temper and temperament were still very hot, he had been influenced by Shen Xiuwen in recent years, especially the bloody battles since the war in Shanghai, which made him mature quickly.
Chapter completed!