Because Tang Shengzhi refused to accept the surrender, Matsui Shigen became angry and dispatched hundreds of planes and more than 1,000 heavy artillery pieces to bombard Yuhuatai and Zhonghua Gate in an attempt to open the gap into the city.

The artillery bombardment of the Japanese army advanced into a carpet like a "boom, boom......, boom, boom", and for a time the mountains shook the ground, and the positions were full of flames, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and there were heavy casualties, as if it had reached the end of the world.

In the rumbling sound of artillery bombardment, the Japanese 114th Division launched an attack, and in just half an hour, the Japanese launched a second attack, and in the attack just past, many positions on the outer line of the Zhonghua Gate had been broken through. A part of the 88th Division was once crushed.

For a time, the defending army suffered heavy casualties. Yuhuatai Zhonghua Gate Huamen is full of gunsmoke.

An attack organized by an infantry brigade of the Japanese 114th Division took the perimeter of the south bank of the moat, and occupying this perimeter was even more fatal for the defenders of Nanjing.

Under the cover of light and heavy machine gun fire, the Japanese launched the largest attack, with two infantry brigades as the main force of counterattacks, successively launching a wave of assault on the last position of the defenders of Zhonghua Gate and Yuhuatai - the city wall.

Zhonghua Gate has become a slaughterhouse of killing, the Japanese soldiers of the brigade rushed to the city gate hole with the dense bullets on their heads and the hands that fell down, rows of Japanese soldiers fell, and continued to charge behind, the Japanese commander raised his sword and shouted: "Forward!" Shoot! ”

On the towers of the city, Chinese soldiers were constantly hit and fell down the city walls.

Located in the south of Nanjing City, the Zhonghua Gate is the Ming Hongwu two to eight years (AD 1369-1375) in the Southern Tang Dynasty capital city and the Southern Song Dynasty Jiankang Mansion City South Gate site to expand and build, it is said that when the city gate was repaired, the rich merchant Shen Wansan's cornucopia was buried under the city gate, and it was only then built, so it was called the treasure gate. In the twentieth year of the Republic of China (1931 AD), it was renamed Zhonghua Gate, and the three words "Zhonghua Gate" on the city gate were handwritten by Chiang Kai-shek. Due to the rigorous layout and unique structure of Zhonghua Gate, there are three urn cities and four coupon gates throughout, so it is easy to defend and difficult to attack since ancient times.

The first city gate to the outside is divided into upper, middle and lower three layers, and the upper floor was originally built with a palace-style heavy eaves, a dysprosium tower with a barrel tile roof, but it has been blown up by the devil's artillery fire before. The middle floor is a brick and stone structure, and there are 7 Tibetan caves in a row facing inward. In the middle of the lower layer is the urn city Yong Road, and there are 3 Tibetan caves on each side. The second to fourth gates are two-story structures with wooden towers on the top and masonry on the lower floors. There are a total of 27 hidden caves, which are used to store military supplies and ambush soldiers during wartime. The steep and majestic slope of the east and west sides of the city can be used to transport military supplies, and generals can also ride horses to the top of the city.

The Japanese army was fierce in fire, and the Japanese army was full of corpses on the position, and the various units of the Nanjing garrison also suffered heavy casualties at this time.

The Japanese fighters that obscured the sky bombed all the targets they could with impunity. This modern tactic brought an absolute disaster to the city of Nanjing.

A section of the wall protrusion between the Zhonghua Gate and the Shuixi Gate was blown open, and the Japanese siege soldiers were using rope ladders to climb the city wall. The situation is extremely critical. Battalion commander Liu Genlai reported the danger to Qiu Weida, the commander of the 306th Regiment, by phone, "Once the Japanese army rushes up from here, it will be over." ”

"Organize death squads immediately." When Qiu Weida heard it, he was also taken aback.

The defense line of the 88th Division of the Yuhuatai defenders was fiercely bombarded by Japanese artillery, and the east and west heights of Yuhuatai were lost. Shells fell on the city walls, causing heavy casualties among the officers and soldiers defending the city.

"The devil is in the gap in front of him, and he lost this position, and everyone here is ashamed of the people in Nanjing behind us, what do soldiers do, soldiers are willing to sacrifice their lives to defend the country. Now that the war has reached our capital, do you think we can take a step back, brothers? Liu Genlai shouted as he pointed to the chaotic breach not far away. Can't, can't!! Fight with the little devils. ”

Due to the strict order of the regiment commander Qiu Weida: "Be sure to completely wipe out the enemy who broke into the city wall within 1 hour." Therefore, Liu Gen came to cover the death squad, and Qiu Weida went to the front line to direct the firepower of the whole regiment to cover directly, and the killing sound shook the world for a while. The towering walls were now completely shrouded in black-gray smoke.

The moat under the city was blown up one after another to the sky, and the splashing river water was splashed on the blue brick road on the city wall, which had already been unrecognizable, and the death squad pressed up by the special operations battalion led by Liu Genlai was in this fireworks and the breakthrough at the Japanese who climbed to the top of the city had a fierce tearing, and the artillery and hand ** of various calibers exploded into a piece of thunder.

"Go!" With Liu Genlai's order, the fire of several heavy machine guns began to shoot fiercely at the Japanese soldiers who rushed to the breakthrough, and the brave soldiers with bayonets also began to charge forward. "Hand **!" Liu Gen looked at the brothers behind him and shouted. Several hands were thrown down, and explosions sounded under the walls. "Machine gun cover ......" Liu Genlai jumped up and took the lead in going up. The machine-gun fire on the walls began to violently strafe the entire flanks of the moat, and the hands also fell down intensively.

"Let the machine gun cover fire block the breach, and don't let the ones behind climb up!" Liu Genlai, who was red-eyed, shouted. He poked his head out to take a look, and obediently, he saw a group of devil soldiers by the moat rushing towards this side with a ladder, "Brothers, give me a beating." ”

Taking over the machine gunner who was killed by a stray bullet, Liu Genlai set up the machine gun and swept towards the figure below.

The dense rain of bullets was mixed with the constantly falling hands**, and the explosive shells ignited red and black flames on the bank of the river, and the heat wave mixed with the fire continued to gush out. "Up, up!" Liu Genlai, who was holding a machine gun, shouted murderously as the battalion commander. All of a sudden, gunshots flew sideways at the breach, and the sound of killing shook the sky. Crowds of Chinese soldiers shouted and pounced with bayonets. Above the city walls, smoke billowed from both sides of the breach in a series of explosions. Batches of soldiers were beaten to pieces in a dense rain of bullets. The Japanese infantry of the coordinated attack rushed forward in rows under the cover of the chariots, and once the breakthrough was made in front, the Japanese rushed through this gap, and the light and heavy machine gun fire swept wildly towards the Chinese defenders defending at the head of the city, and they covered each other in twos and threes and climbed up from the bamboo ladder erected.

The heavy artillery group from the depth barely stopped, and the shells continued to whistle out, and the entire Zhonghuamen Castle was blown up into flames. The planes carried out fierce air strikes on the entire battlefield again and again, trying to cooperate with the artillery to paralyze the last defensive force of the defenders of Zhonghua Gate with powerful firepower.

The wreckage of several chariots on the moat bridge burned, and thick black smoke swirled around. The corpses of the dead were curled up in various poses, both Japanese and Chinese. Above the city, where the shouts of killing shook the sky, there were still figures falling down.

The covering machine guns used barrages to set off a bloody storm on the ground, and the Japanese soldiers who were hit were all blown into a bloody mist by the hands that fell from the city wall. Several Japanese soldiers, covered in fire, jumped down from the ladder and rolled in a rain of machine-gun bullets. Liu Genlai made an uproar, put a full magazine of machine guns, and shouted at the surging figure behind him: "Brothers, kill the enemy!" And just as Liu Gen was charging with his gun, a black figure suddenly flashed out of the air.

"Beware, battalion commander!" The frightened guard shouted at the top of his voice, "Devil's grenadier ......" Before the defender's voice could be heard, the cannonball had already exploded on the side of the road. Liu Genlai, who was leading the charge of the team, was pushed out by the explosion in a blink of an eye, and fell several meters away. The flying shrapnel hit the battlements and screamed, and the ground was littered with rubble.

Since the terrain of Yuhuatai itself is higher than that of Zhonghua Gate, the Japanese have an advantage in terms of terrain. The bullets fired from it almost completely suppressed the Chinese defenders defending the city walls. As soon as the Japanese machine guns were fired at the head of the city, they were immediately suppressed by piles of crooked handles and Type 92 heavy machine guns. This is how many of the Heavy fell into their positions. If it weren't for the machine gun fire of the 88th Division on the east wall of the Zhonghua Gate, which barely blocked the moat bridge, the follow-up troops of the Japanese could not keep up for a while, and the Zhonghua Gate was about to be lost. Liu Genlai immediately ordered the signal soldiers to dial the phone number of Tang Shengzhi's office. Tang Shengzhi grabbed the phone, and Liu Genlai's cry for help rang on the phone: "Commander-in-chief, I'm Liu Genlai, the devil's firepower is fierce, we can't resist it, ask for reinforcements!" Reinforcements requested! ”