Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 328 Calmness and excitement

The two 120MM cannons that were constantly firing did show the terrible penetration power that the Japanese army expected. The continuous misfiring of the heavy firepower points hidden inside the city wall on the Chinese side greatly boosted the morale of the Japanese infantry on the front line.

As the soldiers at the top of the city wall withdrew in batches, the counterattack was naturally not as sharp as before, and the gunshots gradually became sparse. All this made the Japanese frontline infantry commander judge that it was time to launch a full-scale attack.

Replacing the dead Captain of the 13th Infantry Battalion, Kanwu Yutaro, was the Major Captain of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the [-]th Regiment, Masaji Kawabe. He was keenly aware of the weakness of the Chinese defenders.

The extension of the artillery fire by your Excellency, the commander of the division, led to the shortage of Chinese defenders. The 120MM cannons dispatched destroyed the most troublesome firepower point for the Chinese. The morale of the remaining Chinese defenders has been low. If you don’t launch an attack at this time, you will miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Opportunity.

At the moment, Hebian issued an order for the second time, no longer waiting for the engineers to complete the final pontoon erection work, and the whole army assaulted.

However, the first wave of attack was none other than the remnants of the hapless boy Sixth Infantry Battalion.

As the darlings of the infantry regiment and division, they lost their captain and now they are a group of fatherless children. The captain of the 4th Infantry Battalion, who had long disliked them, ordered them to be the remnants of the infantry as forwards, knowing that they might be killed again. You will become cannon fodder, and you have to bite the bullet and rush forward.

More than 400 infantrymen, led by three infantry captains who were still alive, stepped on the pontoon bridge that the engineers had not yet completed, and attacked the city wall.

Then, in the unfinished section of the last ten or so meters, they jumped into the moat that once made their captain sink into the sand. The icy river water and the silt that penetrated into the thigh surrounded the frightened Japanese infantry again.

Because the infantry were already extremely close to the city wall, in addition to the light and heavy machine guns responsible for cover, they desperately raised their muzzles for fire cover. The infantry artillery and grenades had stopped firing, and there was very little suppression of the wall.

As a result, rifles were still firing back on the wall, and soldiers fell into the icy river from time to time.

However, these losses are negligible compared to the hundreds of Japanese infantry soldiers who are about to approach the city wall like ants.

When the soldiers took heavy steps from the middle of the river to the bottom of the city wall, Hisao Tani, who had been silent a thousand meters away, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

The attack and defense of the city wall, which was expected to be extremely bloody, can almost be declared over.

The result was actually better than he imagined.

According to the will shown by the Chinese defenders in the west city last night and this morning, the Japanese lieutenant general has actually planned to take 2 to 3 thousand people in battle before he can seize the city defense.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese defenders here were so unbearable that they retreated within an hour.

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" Moritake Tanabe over there looked at his own infantry who had arrived under the city wall through the high-powered binoculars, put down the binoculars in his hand, slapped his hands and sighed with a smile.

"Looking at the Battle of Songjiang, in my humble opinion, His Excellency Tani Hisao commanded well, especially the tactic of using artillery fire to blockade the area hundreds of meters behind the city wall, which will definitely become a classic in the history of the Imperial Army's battle. , otherwise, with the strength of the Chinese, they will definitely continue to invest, and there will never be a phenomenon of exhaustion of troops on the defense line." Moritake Tanabe looked at the still expressionless Tani Hisao with a smile on his face, and boasted.

"Of course, the performance of the warriors under the command of the Sixth Division did not disappoint His Majesty the Emperor's high expectations. Even if they encountered a small setback, they still marched forward bravely and finally won the final victory. This is the performance that the empire's strong soldiers should have."

The IQ of this major general's chief of staff can't be seen so far, but his EQ is definitely enough, and every point of praise happens to be on Tani Hisao's G-spot.

Even if Gu Hisao wanted to pretend to be his usual moody city mansion, he couldn't help feeling numb at the moment, his eyes narrowed slightly, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly: "There, Mr. Sheng Wu praised you absurdly, the sixth The fact that the division has achieved today's record is really due to the guidance of the superiors in the army headquarters."

The sedan chair had to be carried, and Moritake Tanabe boasted so hard. Hisao Tani, who was once a professor at the Army University, naturally couldn't take too much airs. While trying to maintain a calm appearance, he took the initiative to verbally give the credit for breaking the city defense to the superiors The head is moistened a little.

The major general and the lieutenant general boasted that the other had a modest attitude, and the atmosphere in the frontline headquarters of the Sixth Division was not harmonious.

But for the 13th Wing headquarters hundreds of meters away, the atmosphere is still tense.

The Sixth Division is one of the seventeen permanent divisions in Japan. It is organized as a four-unit system, that is, there are two infantry brigades under each division, and two infantry regiments under each infantry brigade. There are three infantry brigades under the infantry brigade, and four infantry squadrons and a heavy machine gun squadron under the infantry brigade.

As the commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment, the head of the 11th Infantry Brigade, Major General Tokutaro Sakai, did not stay with his division head in the safer front-line headquarters, but arrived at the front line where the 13th Infantry Regiment was set up. The headquarters fully demonstrated the importance he attached to the siege with the 13th Infantry Regiment as the main force.

Compared with his boss, who had been an instructor at the Army University for several years, Sakai Tokutaro was considered a real academic. He taught at the Army University for more than ten years and did not enter active service until he was middle-aged. From the beginning, until 1936, the 51-year-old talented official was at least the head of the brigade, and he was considered a late bloomer.

The major general of the Japanese army who came from the academy has the rigor of being a teacher for more than ten years. Before the siege, he had already studied the battle reports of the 114th Division and the Kunisaki Detachment in Xicheng District.

Although Moji Suematsu and Kunisaki Teng are scumbags in the eyes of the headstrong Tani Hisao, Tokutaro Sakai knows that these two people may have various deficiencies and shortcomings, but they are definitely not as stupid as they appear in repeated defeats.

The reason why they were deflated in front of the two Chinese positions in a row was that the Tenth Army had a sense of urgency to deal with the current enemy as soon as possible, so neither of them had more time to survey the positions; It has something to do with the unexpected strong will; the third is that the Chinese commander is cunning and tenacious. The artillery in the city persisted until the last moment of the battle before going all out, which caught the Kunisaki detachment by surprise and caused losses. heavy.

Although the artillery of the Chinese is far inferior to the imperial army with hundreds of cannons of various calibers, artillery is artillery, let alone a 75-caliber howitzer, even if it is a circle smaller, it can still kill people.

From the very beginning of the battle, Tokutaro Sakai was waiting for the artillery of the Chinese, and many artillery observation posts deployed on the front line were also waiting.

Because, the heavy artillery brigade that has stopped shelling is not carrying weapons into Kuma and releasing Nanshan, but is also waiting for the observation coordinate data sent back from the front.

But the artillery group of the Chinese has remained silent. Even though the city defenses have been broken at this moment, the artillery group that the Chinese have shown sufficient strength is still completely silent. This extremely abnormal situation makes even Tokutaro Sakai unbearable Stay restless.

Could it be that all the artillery groups of the Chinese were destroyed by the shelling of the heavy artillery brigade just now regardless of cost?

Sakai Tokutaro quickly suppressed this extremely beautiful fantasy in his heart. As an instructor who has taught countless army officers, he knew very well that the victory of the battle must not be placed on the so-called fluke.

The Chinese, who seem to be silent at the moment, will never give up city defenses easily.The calmer they are now, the more violent the counterattack will be.

Perhaps, breaking through the city defenses is the real beginning of this offensive and defensive battle.

It's just that he can't predict how the Chinese will fight back.

"Order the rest of the Sixth Battalion and the Fourth Infantry Battalion, which have already approached the city wall, to find a bunker under the city and temporarily stand by. They are not allowed to enter the city rashly. They must first send a reconnaissance team into the city while waiting for reinforcements from the chariot squadron."

"Your Excellency, Major Hebian of the Fourth Infantry Battalion has just sent a report saying that the armies of the Sixth Infantry Battalion will remake the Sixth Infantry Battalion's glory, and will use the blood of the Chinese to wash away the shame of the death of Captain Shen Wuxi. On the side, the captain of the 13th Infantry Regiment, who was holding the battle report brought back from the front by the signal soldiers, reluctantly reported to the cautious Tokutaro Sakai.

Before the rear command issued the military order, the Japanese major first dumped the blame on the rest of the Sixth Infantry Battalion, which had been hit hard before.

"Bastard, the shame is washed away with the blood of the enemy, not with your own. Order Major Kawabe not to venture in, and tell him that not only we have artillery, but the Chinese also have it." Sakai Tokutaro's fair face flashed With a trace of flushing, he tore off his collar and roared an order.

However, the glory of planting the military flag on the city wall is an irresistible temptation for the soldiers who have fought bloody battles on the front line. The excitement stimulated by death and blood also drives the soldiers to move forward screaming, that is not from the rear A military order can calm them down.

'The strongest division on the surface' is such a proud and powerful army, any setbacks are unacceptable to them.

What's more, it is the Chinese who they look down on that caused all this.

(End of this chapter)