Chapter 183: The Battle of Defense of Nanjing (7)

The artillery brigade was completely lost, one infantry brigade was basically wiped out, and the other two infantry brigades lost more than half. The 6th Division's current number one main force, the 47th Regiment, has lost its combat capability. Lieutenant General Tanisuo, who had just arrived in Soshu Town, couldn't believe his eyes when he received this battle report.

"Baguyalu, Masahen Hasegawa, this idiot, is not worthy of being a soldier of the empire, nor is it worthy of commanding a corps. I want him to apologize to His Majesty the Emperor." Tanisuo tore the battle report in his hand to pieces and roared loudly.

Chief of Staff Colonel Ikawa Shirō was also very ugly. After all, the commander of the 11th Brigade Division gave him specific command, and the 47th Regiment suffered such losses, which was also unforgivable.

"Your Excellency, according to the information, the one who defends Chunhua Town is a brigade under the 74th Army of the Chinese Army, but the one who defends Fangshan is the newly established Chinese Army..." Speaking of this, Shirno Ichihuo secretly looked at the furious Tani Shouo and plucked up the courage to say: "It is the newly established first honorary division of the Chinese Army. This time they are fighting with the defenders of Chunhua Town. They..."

Before Shinoko Ichiho finished speaking, a cool breeze suddenly passed by his nose, and then a "slam" sounded, Tani Shouo pulled out his beloved Emperor's command knife and slashed the desk between the two. Shinoko Ichiho was scared and hurriedly closed his mouth, not daring to say another word.

"Shen Xiuwen, it's Shen Xiuwen again. I must tear him apart." Gu Shoufu said word by word with a ferocious look on his face.

After Songjiang suffered a major loss, Tansuo Tan was always talking about the Independent 20th Brigade that brought him great shame and humiliation. A major general brigade commander and three corps captains were killed and the troops lost one-third. Tansuo Tansuo dreamed of avenging this arrow. But unexpectedly, just after the army arrived at Nanjing, he was hit by a blow that had been promoted to the honorary first division of the Chinese army. The commander of Hua, who had become a general, can be said to have achieved it with the blood of the soldiers of the Kumamoto Division.

"Apin the Ushima brigade quickly heading towards Sushu Town and replace the 11th Brigade to attack Chunhua. Hasegawa... Hasegawa United, retreating to Susegawa Town to rest on the spot." At this moment, Tanisuo's anger at Hasegawa was much lessened. Faced with the Honorary First Division, Hasegawa alone could not defeat it. Moreover, the four infantry corps captains who went with him were now only Hasegawa and Fujii, the captain of the 23rd Regiment. He asked him to have a caesarean section and apologize, Tanisuo really couldn't give this order.

"Immediately send a report to Commander Yanagawa, asking for air force combat guidance. I want to blow up Chunhua Town and Fangshan." At the same time, Tani Shoufu punched Fangshan and Chunhua Town with a punch hanging on the map on the wall. The shame and anger in his heart even made him unable to feel the huge pain from his fist.

"Hayi." Shirno Ichiho, who was scared in a cold sweat, dared not say much. He quickly stood attentively and bowed to receive the order, and hurried out to convey the order.

Some people were happy and some were worried. At this time, Lieutenant General Momatsu Shigeji, the commander of the 114th Division of the Left Route Army, was proudly entering Lishui County, greeting the Major General Brigade Commander Akiyama Hirosaburo. In less than 24 hours, the capture of Lishui County was very satisfied. He had learned that the fastest-progressing Sixth Division was blocked from Fangshan and Chunhua Town, and immediately ordered the Yamada United, as the vanguard, to advance to Moling Pass. As long as he conquers Moling Pass and breaks through Niushou Mountain and General Mountain positions, his 114th Division will be able to seize the 6th Division of Gusuo's 6th Division below Nanjing.

"Kun Akiyama, the enemy opposite us is the newly formed elite unit of the Chinese army - the Honorary First Division. The 20th Independent Brigade, the predecessor of this unit, once severely damaged the Kumamoto Division in Songjiang. You must not take it lightly." Although he was very satisfied, Shigeji Momatsu still asked Akiyama Mitsusaburo with a serious face, and finally showed a smile and said, "Kun Akiyama, I hope your troops will be the first to enter Nanjing City."

"Hay." Akiyama Hikasaburo immediately stood upright with a serious face. In fact, only he knew best now that this Lishui county was not so much that it was the one he had captured, but the Chinese army voluntarily gave up.

The Yamada United lost more than half of the brigade and had not yet broken through the outer position of Lishui. However, it was not until the main force of the brigade and the artillery brigade arrived that the Yamada United launched an attack on the Tuanshan again after a fierce artillery fire preparation. Unexpectedly, when they attacked Tuanshan, they found that the position was already empty. Then they occupied Lishui County without bloodshed. However, this was not mentioned to the division commander. But why did the Chinese army voluntarily evacuate with the advantage? Akiyama Hirosaburo couldn't help but worry about the Yamada United team attacking Moling Pass.

Of course, Akiyama Kossaburo's concerns became a reality. In the next two days, the 114th Division did not move forward any further. Not to mention the heavy losses of the Yamada United, who served as the forward, even though Akiyama Kossaburo personally led the main force of the brigade to reinforce, he was almost sent to meet Aunt Amaterasu by a mortar shell.

The battle in Nanjing continued tensely. As time went by, the Neon Army invested more and more troops, but the Neon Army's advantages became more and more obvious. The sky was filled with Neon Army bombers, and the ground was full of soldiers in brown uniforms, as well as tanks and cannons covering the attack. Although the Chinese defenders fought bravely, the gap in technical weapons and firepower between the two sides and the lack of heavy weapons made the Chinese soldiers able to use their flesh and blood to block the Neon Army's aircraft, tanks and cannons. Hundreds of Chinese soldiers spontaneously faced them when their superiors died in battle without command, and used their bodies to block the enemy. However, all this could not stop the Neon Army's advance.

From dawn on August 7, the bomber formations of Neon Army Aircraft and HNA that took off from Shanghai Airport and aircraft carriers, under the escort of fighter jets, carried out fierce bombings on the defensive positions outside Nanjing and the city area. The 6th Division and the 114th Division also used this to concentrate their respective main forces to launch fierce attacks on Chunhua Town, Fangshan and Moling Pass positions. They attempted to break through the continuous attacks for one day and one night. Not only did they make no progress, but they also lost their troops and lost their generals to the defense line of the Chinese national team.

Since the Rongyi Division arranged four anti-aircraft guns on Fangshan and an air defense position composed of M2 heavy machine guns of the fire battalion, after shooting down two bombers, the Japanese aviation troops did not dive and accurately bomb and strafuse like other positions. Instead, the altitude of the aircraft was limited to the range of light anti-aircraft guns. In this way, the safety of the bomb was guaranteed, but the accuracy of the bomb was seriously reduced. Several times, the bombing was too high to fall directly to the Niudao Brigade of the Sixth Division, the 6th Division, which was attacking. The Japanese on the ground were so angry that they cursed the naval aviation forces performing the bombing mission incompetent. However, because the opponent was high, they could do nothing. But even so, the bombing of the Japanese aviation troops still caused great casualties in the defenders from other places.

Although the Japanese bombing did not pose a threat to the defense lines of Chunhua Town and Fangshan like other positions, the six 105mm heavy howitzers of the Field Artillery Corps of the Sixth Division effectively suppressed the artillery positions set on Fangshan. At the same time, the Niudao Brigade used combat vehicles to lead the way and launched fierce attacks on the outer positions of Chunhua Town. Although the special agent battalion, firepower battalion and supplementary second regiment of Rongyi Division were also restrained on the flanks when the Niudao Brigade launched an attack. However, the Japanese had a large force and strong firepower. Zhang Lingfu's 305th Regiment suffered heavy losses. After defending for a day, he was forced to give up his peripheral positions and retreat to the town, and jointly organized the final defense line with Qiu Weida's 306th Regiment.

On this day, as the ninth and 16th Division of the Right Route Army were progressing smoothly under the cover of air strikes. The Ninth Division broke through the Qixia Mountain position defended by the Second Corps who had just arrived from Hubei to Nanjing for reinforcement. The 16th Division also defeated Ye Zhao's 66th Army and captured Tangshui Town. At this point, except for the outer positions of the Honorary First Division and the 74th Army that were not lost, all Fukuo positions north of Yuhuatai were exposed to the Neon Army.

Tang Shengzhi hurriedly ordered the Second Legion, which had retreated from Qixia Mountain, to retreat to Yangfang Mountain and Wulong Mountain line, to protect the Wulong Mountain Fortress that guards the Yangtze River waterway. Sixty-six gathered near Dashui Pass to prepare for street fighting.

Shanghai, Central China Front Army General Command. Matsui Ishien stood in front of the military distribution map of Nanjing area with his hands behind his back, looking at the latest situation between the enemy and us.

"The 10th Army is the 10th Army." The offensive of Zhenjiang, Yangzhou and the right-wing army attacking Nanjing were performed very well. The right-wing army had already broken through the defense line outside Nanjing and attacked the Fukuo position, the last barrier outside Nanjing. However, the 114th and 6th Divisions attacked from the left and middle routes were still blocked from the external positions. The performance of these two divisions affiliated to the 10th Army of Yanagawa Heisuke made Matsui Ishien very dissatisfied. In particular, Tanisuo's 6th Division was known as one of the most elite divisions of the Japanese Army, but in the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Songjiang failed to occupy the rear route of the Chinese army in time, causing the main force of the Chinese army on the battlefield of Songhu to calmly retreat to the national defense line, so that the Central China Front Army composed of the Shanghai Expeditioner and the 10th Army were blocked for a month in front of the national defense line, otherwise Nanjing would have been captured at this time.

Now, these two divisions of the 10th Army have not broken through the periphery of Nanjing so far. Matsui Ishione is very disappointed with the command level of the 10th Army and Yanagawa Heisuke.

"Tsukada, what do you think of the current Nanjing battle?" Matsui Ishione turned around and asked Major General Tsukada Attack, chief of staff of the Central China Front Army.

Tsukada Oshi was a fanatical militarist. He used to serve as the minister of the third department in the General Staff Headquarters. He was also one of the decisive figures in the expansion faction of the Chinese incident. Before the Nanjing Battle, he directly served as the new chief of staff of the Central China Front Army, assisting Matsui Ishien, who was attacking Nanjing without authorization.

"Commander, from a military strategic perspective, Nanjing does not have much strategic value according to the current situation of the Chinese army. Moreover, Nanjing is located in the curved part of the Yangtze River and surrounded by water on three sides. Once our naval forces arrive at the water surface of Nanjing along the Yangtze River, they can cover Nanjing from three directions. Now our Japanese Imperial Army is in a high position of more than 200,000 troops, while Nanjing's defenders are only a little over 100,000, and it is not wise for the Chinese army to choose to defend Nanjing. It is only a matter of time before our army breaks through Nanjing." Tsukata shook his head and said.

Matsui Ishigen nodded, then sighed and said, "Yes, what does it mean when you know you can't do it? This just shows that the Chinese army will show us their determination and will to hold on to us." Speaking of this, Matsui Ishigen suddenly raised his tone and said, "So we want to break their determination and will through the Battle of Nanjing. This will directly affect the trend of our Great Japanese Empire against the future Chinese war. As long as we can break their determination and will to fight our Great Japanese Empire, it means that our Great Japanese Empire can completely control and occupy China. On the contrary, what is waiting for us will probably be a long process."

As he said that, Matsui Ishien looked at the thoughtful Tsukada Oku, slowly walked to the window and looked towards Nanjing. Standing in the commander's office on the top floor of the Front Command, you can clearly see the aircraft taking off from the Yangtze River Estuary aircraft carrier and flying to Nanjing for bombing missions.

"I have written a letter of persuasion to General Tang Shengzhi, the commander-in-chief of Nanjing, hoping that they can stop resisting and surrender to our great Japanese Imperial Army."

"Sign up for surrender? Commander, do you think Tang Shengzhi accepts our surrender? According to the information we have, most of the defenders in Nanjing are elite troops with Chiang Kai-shek's direct descendants and Huangpu soldiers as the main body. Even if Tang Shengzhi can accept it, can the troops below accept it?" Tsukada Oku said with a puzzled look on his face.

"I don't know." Matsui Ishigen looked at the foggy Huangpu River in the distance and said in an unsure tone.

"If Tang Shengzhi and the Chinese defenders in Nanjing can accept surrender, it will not only prevent our soldiers from bleeding less, but more importantly, it will greatly disintegrate the Chinese's determination and will to fight against Japan. It is more effective than our attack and occupying Nanjing." Matsui Ishione turned around and said with a serious expression.

Students, brothers and sisters, it’s been a few days since the double monthly tickets. Tomorrow at 2 pm, the homepage of this book will be closed. Please help me to push Lao Wan’s current terrible results up. Lao Wan once again begged for monthly tickets.
Chapter completed!