December 10, 26th year of the Republic of China.

The second day of the general attack of the Japanese army on the frontal position of the city of Nanjing.

The Guanghuamen position is still firmly in the hands of the Second Regiment, and the third battalion is now guarding the first-line position.

Throughout the night, the Japanese did not attack.

Not even the most basic shelling.

The whole city of Nanjing spent a rare night of peace.

The officers and men of the 2nd Battalion were hiding in the fortifications of the second line of defense, and they were all jealous of the good fortune of the 3rd Battalion.

Sun Yumin, Zhou Hainan and other commanders of the second battalion were lying in the bunkers in the city gate cave.

Liu Wenzhi bit a straw in his mouth and lay on his back on the ground. The stone sits, with its head buried deep in the middle of its erect knees. Li Tie was sleeping heavily, this person was simpler than a stone, he didn't worry about anything, but he was also the most reassuring to everyone. Zhou Hong stood in front of the shooting hole, staring at the tattered tower of the outer city in front of him in a daze. Zhou Hainan and Sun Yumin were smoking cigarettes, and the two of them were muttering something!

Zhou Hong stood in front of the shooting hole for a long time, and he suddenly said a word, a question.

"You say, how did Gao Dahai's second cargo die?"

Sun Yu looked at Zhou Hong with surprised eyes, expecting him to give an answer by himself.

Zhou Hong never spoke again after saying that.

It was already dawn, and the officers and men of the three battalions on the city wall began to eat and deliver breakfast to the position. After a night of tension, the Japanese army did not move, which made the people of the third battalion feel very lucky, and many soldiers were talking and laughing, waiting for the change of guard sent by the regiment. But they didn't know that except for one battalion in the regiment, there were no more troops to rotate, and this position would be the home of the vast majority of them.

Just as the soldiers of the third battalion on the position were having breakfast time, the sound of countless shells breaking through the air came from a distance, getting closer and closer.

The sound of explosions began to play in the outer and inner city positions of Guanghua Gate, and the earth shook violently.

From hearing the sound of shells breaking through the air to seeing the power and density of the shell explosion later, Sun Yumin immediately understood that this was a cluster fire of a 150mm caliber howitzer.

The 5th and 6th Heavy Artillery Brigades of the Japanese Army each had hundreds of 150mm caliber howitzers, and this was the first time that they were used in clusters on the Chinese battlefield.

Those who have never been on the battlefield will never feel the power of this heavy howitzer swarm bombardment, and the soldiers on the battlefield can feel the despair of being in it.

Lieutenant General Yoshizumi Ryosuke saw the constant artillery fire in the city of Nanjing through his telescope, and was very satisfied with the precise strikes of the artillery of the 6th Brigade.

He put down the binoculars in his hand and handed them to the attendants behind him. He said to the chief of staff next to him: "Order Wakisaka-kun not to capture Guanghua Gate today." ”

"Hey!" The chief of staff of the Japanese army nodded, and then asked: "Your Excellency the division commander, will you attack immediately after the shelling is over?" ”

"No... No... No, Jiro Wakisaka Osa knew the timing of the attack. All you have to do is tell him that I want the battle flag of the Imperial Japanese Army to be planted on the gate of Guanghua Gate today. ”

"Hey!" The chief of staff of the Japanese army was ordered to go.

The 9th Division of the Japanese Army, also known as the Kanazawa Division, was composed of soldiers recruited from the three prefectures of Toyama, Ishikawa, and Fukui in Hokuriku, Japan.

Most of the 36th Infantry Wing of the 9th Division of the Japanese Army that attacked Gwanghwamun was recruited in Sabae City, Bucheon Prefecture, so it was called Sabae Wing, and because of the wing commander Wakisaka Jiro, it was also called Wakisaka Wing. Wing Captain Jiro Wakisaka was an out-and-out fanatical militarist.

He was annoyed that he had lost hundreds of soldiers in the day's attack yesterday. Although His Excellency Lieutenant General Yoshizumi Ryosuke, the commander of the division, did not reprimand him, Major General Jing Shuxuantoki, the commander of the 18th Brigade, was very dissatisfied with him. He must break through the Guanghua Gate today, no matter what method he uses.

Wakisaka's approach made Wakisaka angry, but he had a very strong sense of hierarchy among the Japanese troops, and despite the anger in his heart, he kept his head down and patiently listened to the reprimand of Jing Shuxuan.

Fortunately, the chief of staff of the division and regiment personally came to the wing headquarters to offer condolences, so that he did not continue to be embarrassed.

The chief of staff brought him two squadrons of combat vehicles: a squadron of Type 95 light tanks and a squadron of Type 89 tanks.

This made the arrogant Wakisaka Jiro very excited, and in front of the two major generals, he said that he must take the lead in attacking Nanjing City for His Majesty the Emperor and the Ninth Division.

Sun Yumin taught everyone how to prevent the shock wave of heavy artillery and the loud noise caused by the explosion in the bunker.

So a very funny side appeared in the fortifications of the second battalion.

Everyone's ears were stuffed with rags and their mouths were wide open.

Li Tiedan is a sleeper, as if he is never sleepy, with a big mouth open, his eyes closed, and he staggered like a tumbler. Amused the crowd in the bunker who were feasting on grenade bombardment.

The round of artillery fire continued to bombard for at least fifty minutes.

Sun Yumin was very worried about the three battalions on the position, and he didn't know how much they had sacrificed in this round of shelling. In fact, sometimes, Sun Yumin admires these soldiers, in such a fierce shelling, they can actually firmly stick to the position, and he will never be able to do it.

The shelling finally stopped, and Sun Yumin had just walked out of the pillbox and was about to go to the position of the third battalion to care about it. Suddenly, I saw a dense crowd of planes gathered in the air not far overhead, converging into a huge formation towards Nanjing City. He was wondering why he couldn't hear the loud noise of the plane's engines when he suddenly remembered that he still had rags in his ears.

With such bombers and attack planes in the sky, Sun Yumin certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to go out and die.

Seeing that everyone was staring at him, he had to smile wryly and shake his head, stretching out his hand and pointing to the sky.

As soon as he took a breather from the shelling, the entire city of Nanjing was once again plunged into the ravages of aerial bombs.

Xie Chengrui hid in the bunker on the city tower, and the howitzer cluster shooting just now made him very envious from the artillery school, and thought in his heart: When will the national army have such powerful artillery fire!

He dreamed of commanding an artillery regiment, and this time he taught the expansion of the corps, and finally had an artillery regiment. He was full of joy, thinking that this time he was nine out of ten, and the position of the commander of the artillery regiment must be him. But I didn't expect that in the end, it was appropriate to come to Lou Dishan, and the commander of the major general was the only one in the national army. And he had to continue to command the infantry regiment to hold on to this line of defense. Thinking of this, Xie Chengrui couldn't help but hate his teeth and slammed his fist on the wall.

The commander of the third battalion ran in with a black face, knelt down in front of Commander Xie, and cried and said: "Tuanzao, the artillery fire is too fierce, if you don't let the third battalion retreat, then the whole battalion will be gone." ”

Bombers in the sky were still dropping bombs, and attack planes were diving into positions.

The third battalion has been at the position since last night, and so far the devil has not seen a single one, but the entire battalion has been killed and wounded, which makes the commander of the third battalion, who has always been arrogant, very aggrieved.

He was hopeful that the regimental commander would allow them to retreat and let the first battalion take over the line.

Commander Xie didn't know that not only the commander of the third battalion in front of him, but also Sun Yumin, who was preparing for battle in the second line of defense, were all looking forward to him sending the first battalion up. But he also had his own difficulties, and when he came to Nanjing, the Gui Corps specially told him that he must keep the first battalion, just because the first battalion was his starting force. Xie Chengrui couldn't tell anyone else about this matter, so he could only stand up in the eyes of others.

Bang......

There was a loud explosion at close range, and both of them in the bunker felt a strong tremor.

Head Xie hurriedly walked out and took a look, startled.

The city wall on the left side of the tower was hit directly by an aerial bomb, and the stone and blue brick city wall was brutally blown up. There was a distance of four or five meters, but fortunately there were no Japanese troops under the tower.

Regiment Commander Xie hurriedly ordered the three battalion commanders beside him: "Hurry up and block it with sandbags, it's too late to come." ”

The third battalion commander looked at him with resentful eyes and stomped his foot.

beckoned the few soldiers of the three battalions on the city tower to pick up sandbags and throw them under the gap. Fortunately, when the 2nd Battalion was constructing fortifications, a large number of sandbags were prepared in the city towers, walls, and under the city. At that time, I also asked Sun Yumin, the commander of the second battalion, is it necessary to need so many sandbags? Now it comes in handy.

It's this Sun Yumin again, Head Xie smiled bitterly and shook his head, fortunately he has such a powerful subordinate.

In the distance, the Japanese soldier Osawakisakajiro saw through the telescope that a bomb weighing two or three hundred kilograms hit the city wall directly, and the solid stone and blue brick city wall was immediately blown out of a gap four or five meters long.

There was a hint of a smile in his gloomy eyes, and the opportunity had come.

He gave several orders in succession to the group of officers standing around him.

The Japanese finally attacked again.

The three battalions on the tower of the city suffered heavy casualties, and they had to brave the bombing and strafing of enemy planes to plug such a large gap, and the three battalions were a little overwhelmed.

"The devil is coming." Someone shouted.

Head Xie cursed the damn thing, and also looked into the distance.

I saw that under the leadership and cover of more than a dozen tanks, the ant-like Japanese infantry trotted towards the city tower.

A few hundred meters away, the 37mm guns on the tank began to glow, and two Type 92 infantry guns also stayed in the distance and began shelling.

Although these two guns are small in caliber, they are direct-fire guns that can be fired at close range. The defenders were more afraid of them than the blind bombardment of ultra-long-range curved guns such as howitzers and cannons, and the direct reason was that they could shoot at close range, and there was nothing too good to do with them.

The gap will not be closed for a while and a half, and the most important thing now is to hold on to this gap.

Xie Chengrui hurriedly called to order a battalion to come to support quickly, and then called to report the collapse of the city wall to the brigade commander Zhou Zhenqiang.

He didn't notice that when he called for help, the 2nd Battalion had quickly set up a makeshift line of defense with sandbags at the corner of the inner city, and several light and heavy machine guns had been erected, pointing to the blown gap in the outer wall.

A night of tranquility was rewarded with even more frantic attacks. The planes in the sky were still bombing, and the heavy artillery on the ground was sounding again. Type 92 infantry guns, 37mm tank guns, mortars, grenades fired from grenades...... Anyway, all kinds of shells rained down on the Guanghuamen position.

Except for the machine guns and machine guns in the pillboxes, no one dared to stand on the city walls.

With the current manpower, weapons and ammunition of the three battalions, it is impossible to hold this gap.

But even so, the soldiers of the third battalion did not flinch. The cats crawled and threw grenades desperately under the city.

The Japanese tank guns and infantry guns under the city used shells to widen the gap in the already collapsed city wall by two or three meters.

After forcibly suppressing the fire of the pillboxes on the castle tower, dozens of Japanese soldiers carried thick square logs and planks, and quickly erected a temporary wooden bridge seven or eight meters wide in front of the gap on the moat.

Although it was said that they could not pass through heavy equipment such as tanks, the infantry could already rush directly into the city.

The commander of the third battalion personally carried a Czech-style frantic strafing of the Japanese soldiers who poured into the gap. Two or three magazines were emptied in a row, and the strong vibration and after-action force caused his hand to hold the gun to tremble slightly.

The machine gunner on the Type 89 medium tank found the 3rd Battalion Commander like a killer, aimed at him and pulled the trigger of the Type 97 heavy machine gun on the vehicle. The commander of the third battalion was shot several times and fell in a pool of blood. He wasn't dead yet, and he muttered something in his blood-blistering mouth.

Head Xie's eyes were red, and he leaned over to listen to him.

The third battalion commander puffed out his big eyes like copper bells, pushed down Regiment Commander Xie who was kneeling in front of him with all his strength, and stood up crookedly. In the surprised gaze of the machine gunner on the Japanese tank car, he pulled the fuse that he didn't know when he touched the explosive bag in his hand.

Under the concerned gaze of the few soldiers in the third battalion, the commander of the third battalion jumped out of the gap with the explosives bag, and in the gap there were a large number of Japanese troops charging towards the city. Tears fell from Xie Chengrui's eyes, and he controlled the anti-tank gun thrown on the city tower as if crazy, and a shell was fired. The machine gunner who shot the commander of the third battalion was hit along with the tank car, and the ammunition compartment of the Type 89 tank was hit by Commander Xie, and the huge explosion turned the steel monster weighing more than ten tons over.

Several machine-gun ammunition men in the pillbox rushed out and loaded the ammunition for Regiment Commander Xie. Before the door of the magazine was opened, a bunch of mortar shells and light grenades were fired from the Japanese mortars and grenades. If it weren't for the two soldiers who threw him to the ground and crushed him to the ground, Xie Chengrui would have to follow in the footsteps of the third battalion commander.

He pushed away the two native soldiers who were pressing on him, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous when he saw the shrapnel on their backs. If they hadn't fought to save each other, he would have been the one who became a hedgehog.

In the distance, the sound of Maxim and Czech voices sounded in the corner of the city, and the devil soldiers who had just rushed in through the gap were harvested like weeds.

Xie Chengrui wondered in his heart, he didn't remember that there was a defensive position in that corner, why a life-saving position suddenly appeared.

The devil soldiers rushed in frantically, even if the compatriots fell one by one in front of them.

The machine guns of the second battalion did not dare to stop for a moment, and in the temporary position, Zhou Hong personally controlled a Makqin heavy machine gun, and the bullet point never came out of the small gap of four or five meters wide.

When the soldiers of the 3rd Battalion saw that the machine guns of the 2nd Battalion were almost unable to suppress the Japanese troops who were rushing forward, someone shouted: "We must not let the position be lost in the hands of our 3rd Battalion." After Xie Chengrui shouted that, he saw the soldiers of the third battalion jumping down the gap with explosives bags one by one.

Layers of Japanese corpses had been piled up in the gap, and after Xie Chengrui controlled the anti-tank gun to blow up another tank, the devil soldiers under the city tower finally began to retreat.

The soldiers of the first battalion finally got to the position.

An hour and thirty-seven minutes after the order on their own phone, after the last drop of blood had been exhausted by the 3rd Battalion, they finally came.

Looking at the neat and spotless battalion commander in front of him, Xie Chengrui did not hesitate and pulled the trigger of the pistol.