On 19 March, the Japanese troops did not launch an offensive except for the onslaught at Wucheng Town, Yongxiu County. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The 3rd Artillery Brigade of the 1st New Division began to move to the front line under the leadership of brigade commander Liang Zerui, and the troops of the 4th Artillery Regiment, the 5th Artillery Regiment, and the 4th Regiment of the new formation began to move to the front-line positions on the Xiushui River.

At this time, the Japanese 101st Division, 106th Division, tank cluster and other troops had begun to be stationed on the starting position on the north bank of the Xiushui River, and the relevant staff officers of the Japanese army also began to observe the south bank of the Xiushui River.

Units of the 6th Brigade of the Japanese Heavy Artillery were already arriving one after another, and Okamura was preparing to launch an attack tomorrow, 20 March.

Okamura Ninji was probably still somewhat worried about the combat capability of the 101st Division and the 106th Division, so he specially transferred five infantry brigades of the 130th Brigade of the 116th Division to form the Takahashi Detachment, which had five infantry brigades and four artillery squadrons under its jurisdiction, and was commanded by the commander of the 130th Brigade Major General Brigade and Commander of the Brigade Takahashi Eiichiro to assist the 101st Division in fighting with the 106th Division.

After the two division commanders and the commander of the tank cluster arrived at the headquarters of the 101st Division, Okamura Ninji began to hold an operational meeting.

He demanded that after the attack on the whole line was launched tomorrow, the Japanese troops must break through the defense line of the Xiushui River before 12 o'clock in the evening.

Okamura was confident that his troops would be able to break through the defenders' positions in one day.

You must know that according to the requirements of the Ninth Theater Commander's Headquarters, the troops of the 19th Army must defend against the Japanese army for at least three or four days on the defense line of the Shuihe River, and they must bring a certain degree of casualties to the Japanese army.

The Japanese army and the Chinese troops have formulated different operational requirements, and as for who can complete the combat mission, it will depend on the specific combat situation tomorrow.

On the 19th, except for the 32nd Army of Wucheng Town, there was still no fighting in the rest of the place.

The 32nd Army of the Jin Sui Army, commander of Shang Zhen, fought very tenaciously in Wucheng, and the Japanese army never made any progress, and the Japanese 11th Army could only continue to increase its troops in a vain attempt to break through from Wucheng.

But in one day, the troops of the 32nd Army stubbornly held their positions, so that the Japanese army did not make any progress at all.

The time soon came to 20 March, which was a very important day for both the Chinese and Japanese troops.

The heavy artillery units of the 6th Brigade of the Japanese Heavy Artillery Regiment all rushed to the north bank of the Xiushui River, and the artillery units began to enter the preset positions to prepare.

At 11 o'clock on the morning of 20 March, Okamura Ninji appointed Major General Tsukita Sashiro Sumita of the 6th Brigade of the Heavy Artillery as the commander of the artillery to take unified command of all artillery units on the north bank of the Shushui River.

As this order began to be issued, in addition to commanding his own 6th Brigade of Heavy Artillery, all the artillery of the 101st Division and other troops was also handed over to him to command, and these divisions and regiments were handed over to the mountain artillery and field artillery of the artillery wing, and down to the infantry artillery belonging to each infantry brigade, all of which were handed over to the command of Tsukita Daishiro.

At this time, the number of Japanese artillery pieces had reached an astonishing more than 300, and among these more than 300 guns, there were more than 100 large-caliber guns.

At half past four in the afternoon, all the artillery units of the Japanese army were ready, and Tsukita Yoshiro began to hand over the various artillery targets to the commanders of the various artillery wings.

At 4:40 p.m. on 20 March, Japanese artillery units began to launch a heavy artillery bombardment of the positions of the Chinese 19th Group Army on the south bank of the Xiushui River.

For a time, the artillery shells roared towards the positions of the Chinese troops, and more than 300 artillery pieces fired in a salvo, and the shells fell towards the positions like rain.

There were no dodge points, explosions were everywhere, and for a moment the sound of artillery was deafening, and the ground seemed to tremble.

Since the Japanese troops captured Jiujiang, an important town in Jiangxi, in order to prevent the Japanese army from crossing the Xiushui River and attacking Nanchang, the troops of the Ninth Theater built complete fortifications on the south bank of the Xiushui River.

Light and heavy weapons fire points, foxholes, communication trenches, these fortifications are covered with solid items, but such fortifications are simply vulnerable in the face of Japanese heavy artillery.

A battalion of an artillery battalion of the Second Artillery Regiment of the 19th Army immediately began to counterattack, six Soviet-made field guns and three German-made howitzers began to counterattack the Japanese artillery, but soon, the Japanese 150mm howitzers launched fire suppression, and all six Soviet-made field guns were destroyed, and the remaining three howitzers stopped firing.

Liu Duoquan of the Northeast Army also began to counterattack with a Japanese-made eight-gun mountain artillery of the 49th Army, but the Japanese artillery easily destroyed the only artillery battalion of the 49th Army.

After the troops of the 3rd Artillery Brigade of the New 1st Division withstood the Japanese shelling, the brigade commander Liang Zerui commanded the 36 German-made 105mm howitzers of the 5th Artillery Regiment to counterattack.

However, at this time, the number of Japanese artillery was far superior, and the 5th Artillery Regiment was soon covered by the Japanese heavy artillery cluster and fired.

After the loss of six howitzers, Liang Zerui immediately ordered the artillery units to be concealed and forbade artillery battles with Japanese units.

The Japanese artillery units were still firing fiercely, and the shells were fired at the positions one after another.

Major General Sumita Yoshiro is a rare artillery genius in the Japanese Army, he studied at the French Army University, and this time Okamura Ninji fought in Nanchang, he constantly sent aviation units to conduct reconnaissance, and the fortifications of the Chinese troops have been completely mastered by the Japanese army.

An hour after the Japanese shelling reached 5:40 a.m., most of the fortifications set up by the defenders on the south bank of the Xiushui River had been completely destroyed.

At this time, the Chinese troops were completely in a passive position, and the Japanese artillery group fire was fierce, and the Chinese troops could not start an evenly matched artillery battle with them.

Okamura Ningji concentrated on the use of heavy artillery, which was not used by the Japanese army in several previous battles, the Battle of Songhu sent a million troops on both sides, but the Japanese army did not concentrate on the use of such heavy artillery, the Battle of Wuhan had more than one million troops on both sides, and hundreds of Chinese divisions gathered in Wuhan, and the Japanese army still did not concentrate on the use of so many heavy artillery.

However, in this Nanchang operation, Okamura Ninji gathered more than 200 artillery pieces, and counting the artillery of the combat division, the number of Japanese artillery pieces exceeded 300.

And the troops of the Ninth Theater of Operations, counting the artillery of the 3rd Brigade of the New 1st Division, are only more than 100 guns, and there is no way to compare the caliber with the little devils.

The little devil artillery is more than 100 mm caliber heavy artillery, while the Chinese army has less than 50 105mm howitzers.

In the Nanchang Garrison Command, after the front-line operation began, Sun Weiguo got in touch with the Third Artillery Brigade and the 19th Group Army Headquarters at any time.

When the Japanese began shelling from Liang Zerui, the expression on Sun Weiguo's face began to become solemn.

"Division commander, Commander-in-Chief Luo of the 19th Group Army sent a telegram that most of the fortifications on the south bank of the Xiushui River have been destroyed by the Japanese heavy artillery, and Commander-in-Chief Luo expects that all units will only be able to hold out until the evening of the 21st at most."

At this time, Ji Haotian, deputy commander of the communications battalion, came to Sun Weiguo's side and reported.