Zhang Lingfu had never fought such a breath-holding battle, the two flanks of the Yue army outflanked the attacking troops and cooperated with the enemy in front of the enemy can be said to be advancing in three directions, with the firepower of his two provisional reading brigades could not compete with the Yue army at all, the 75 mm field artillery of the Yue army was pushed to within 100 meters for penetrating and firing, and the whole battle situation immediately became a sharp turn for the worse.

Not to mention the huge casualties of the troops, and they were also followed and attacked by the army, Zhang Lingfu wanted to reorganize the troops and reorganize the defense several times, but it was a pity that he did not give him this opportunity at all.

Ushijima Man followed Zhong [***] to launch a rapid attack, and once left the front of the 47th Infantry Wing, because the Zhong [***] has been in a state of collapse, as long as the opportunity is not given time for the other party to rectify, you can easily follow this army to attack the West Water Gate, Zhonghua Gate, Guanghua Gate line, especially during the Zhonghua Gate location, as long as you can break through the defense of the city wall of Zhong [***] and enter the real street battle stage, then the capture of Nanjing is just around the corner.

Just as Ushijima Man, commanding his 36th Infantry Brigade and the 47th Wing of the 11th Infantry Brigade, followed Zhang Lingfu's attack and advance, the two armored assault groups commanded by Qiu Qingquan and as many as five brigades of counterattack forces had arrived at the Zhonghua Gate and Guanghua Gate respectively, and the other two assault groups set out from Xiaolingwei of Purple Mountain, recaptured the engineering school lost at night, and attacked and advanced in the direction of Qixia Mountain, and advised the remnants of the 103rd Division of Gui Yongqing's teaching corps to retreat back to the city.

Due to the loss of air supremacy, Zhang Xuewu was also forced to give up part of the outer position, in order to shrink the strength of the preparation for street fighting, the battle for the peripheral positions that lasted nearly a month made the [***] elite main forces guarding Nanjing have suffered varying degrees of heavy losses, among which the 88th Division that stuck to Yuhuatai and the 36th Division that stuck to the Purple Mountain defense line was the heaviest, and the Qixia Mountain that was held by Gui Yongqing's headquarters had reached the end of the crossbow, Zhang Xuewu's plan was to hold Nanjing for three months, In fact, however, even he did not think it feasible to hold on for three months, because the forces at his disposal were not sufficient to wage a peripheral battle against Nanjing.

Therefore, at the beginning of the Battle of Nanjing, he used the outer line of Nanjing's city wall as the main point of repeated contention with the Yue army, in fact, Zhang Xuewu did not pin his hopes on the counterattack of the main force, and he also made a mistake of wishful thinking with Chiang Kai-shek, that is, he pinned part of his hopes on the direct dispatch of troops from the Soviet Union.

Zhang Xuewu once read some of the declassified archives of later generations, and the Soviet political axe was the only country in the world that expressed its willingness to actively support China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression.

Before the Battle of Nanjing, Marshal Voroshilov, an important figure of the CPSU, secretly told the visiting Chinese delegation in Moscow that when China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression reached a life-and-death juncture, the Soviet Union would send troops and would never sit idly by.

For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram to Voroshilov and Stalin to express his gratitude, hoping that the Soviet political axe could give more help, at a time when the Chinese political axe has now exhausted its last and greatest strength for the survival of the nation and international obligations, [***] the main force has had to retreat to Nanjing, the capital of the country, but waiting for the support of the strength of the friendly Soviet Union, I hope that the Soviet political axe will take the opportunity to make a decision, fight for righteousness, and aid China is in dire straits.

Moreover, the Soviet Union also provided a lot of assistance to Zhang Xuewu's Rehe, and even sent some technical troops into Rehe to help it resist the attack of the Yue army, these moves made Zhang Xuewu also think that if he could hold Nanjing for two months, the Soviet political axe side might directly send troops to aid China, and then the entire pattern of World War II would also change dramatically? However, Zhang Xuewu was a little disappointed at the moment, because the Soviet side did not have any sign of directly sending troops from the Far East except for increasing the intensity of assistance and responding almost to the Rehe side?

Moreover, the nearly 300 fighters of the second batch of the Soviets' volunteer air force to aid China were all close to Rehe to participate in the war, which shows that the Soviets care about Rehe, a strategic buffer place that can contain a large number of Chinese troops, rather than for the purpose of completely helping China in the War of Resistance.

Since the Soviets did not send troops, there was no need for Zhang Xuewu to constantly consume a large number of reserves to repeatedly compete with the Yue army for positions on the outer line of the city wall, and to constantly attract the Japanese army with the positions on the inner line of the city wall, and to use street fighting to kill and injure the effective forces of the Syrian army on a large scale, so as to reduce the superiority of the Japanese army in ground and air firepower, and give full play to his superiority in light weapons and anti-tank weapons.

Therefore, Zhang Xuewu decided to launch a large-scale counterattack, so that the defenders outside the city gave up the meaningless struggle, and shrunk the defense line to the city wall positions along the Zhonghua Gate, Guanghua Gate, and West Water Gate of the Purple Mountain, and used the city walls and the street forts in the city to kill and injure a large number of Yue troops.

However, Zhang Xuewu's abandonment was also selective, such as the Wulong Mountain Fortress and Yanziji Fort and other key points, and the whole division of troops was deployed to fight with the Yue army repeatedly.

Grab a city and kill people! Zhang Xuewu has been determined to turn the city of Nanjing into the tomb of the army, since the fall of Nanjing may have been unavoidable, then a complete structure will not be left to the enemy, using many solid buildings in the city as a key point to repeatedly fight with the army, hold on during the day, send counterattack troops at night, and restore the lost positions during the day.

Liang Baohua is the colonel of the strategic artillery unit of the Rehe Army, Liang Baohua is a graduate of the seventh phase of the artillery department of the Central Army Military Academy, once went to Germany for further study, and was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel after returning to China after graduation.

As a result, as soon as he arrived in Rehe, he was promoted to a level, Liang Baohua is a native of Hunan, as a soldier, he can't stand this kind of uselessness, but in order to be able to take up the post of commander of the Sixth Regiment of the Strategic Artillery, he also accepted it, and the original department was prepared to be equipped with 150 mm large-caliber heavy howitzers, but due to the early installation of hail rocket artillery, the number of the Sixth Heavy Artillery Regiment of Liang Baohua's department was directly canceled and changed to the First Mobile Artillery Regiment.

After receiving the equipment, after the first all-regimental firepower raid at the Baotou shooting range, Liang Baohua fell in love with these babies who made a piercing whistling sound, and he was extremely proud that he could go to Nanjing, because the provisional first mechanized division was the absolute elite main force in the nearly 200,000 carefully selected army of the Rehe Army, and the selected officers and soldiers needed to have certain standards for height and specialty.

At that time, many officers and soldiers who were unsuccessful were jealous and called it a beauty pageant unit, you must know that it was entering Nanjing! In the land of gold powder in the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, Nanjing's fat powder is the most fragrant, not like the soldiers everywhere in Rehe, even if you occasionally meet a girl, you are red-faced!

At that time, the only unit that entered Nanjing without a standard formation was the First Mobile Artillery Regiment, and Liang Baohua was so angry that he was about to go to the sky, but Liang Baohua's regiment, which did not know why, did not catch the Zhonghua Gate at all, nor was it inspected and received by Chairman Chiang and military and political officials, and even entered the city in the middle of the night under martial law covered with canvas.

The Battle of Nanjing had been fought for a full month, but as a result, the First Regiment of the Mobile Artillery had not fired a single shot, and Liang Baohua was so anxious that he couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, and he couldn't eat with a big bubble, and he was driven back several times when he asked for battle, and the whole regiment could only sigh for a long time in the underground fortifications of the Zhima Battalion.

Liang Baohua was not convinced at all, the original Sixth Strategic Artillery Regiment in terms of training was also one of the best among the 12 regiments, and now Nanjing has reached a critical juncture, the battle of the city wall is in full swing, almost all the reserves in the city have gone up, and even the military police regiment of the general reserve has invested two, and he is stunned that he has no share in the first mobile artillery regiment.

Liang Baohua thought about it, if Nanjing lost his artillery regiment and did not fire a single shot, he would directly raise his gun and kill himself, and Chengren would be martyred!

As a result, in the evening, Liang Baohua received a call from Zhang Xuewu, and Zhang Xuewu directly ordered Liang Baohua to give me two salvos of the whole regiment within 20 minutes to the target area of the established ruler outside the Zhonghua Gate!

Liang Baohua didn't even think about it, he patted his chest directly to ensure that he resolutely completed the task, and the first mobile artillery regiment with a breath of breath maneuvered to the predetermined launch position amid the rumbling artillery on all sides of Nanjing, and the standard operating time for manual loading of hail 105 mm 48-tube rocket launchers was 32 minutes, and the artillery joint logistics command headquarters of the Rehe Corps shortened this time to 28 minutes, but in actual training, the Chinese artillery once again shortened this time to 14 minutes. Know that every minute counts for an artillery unit, and in an artillery battle it means reducing the possibility of enemy detection and speeding up the transfer of troops.

Liang Baohua stripped off his arms and stood on a rocket launcher, looking at the nine hundred and eighty-six people of the whole regiment: "Chief Zhang said, this battle is a battle related to the survival of the country and the freedom of the nation, we are the killer weapon hidden in Nanjing, tonight, we want those two-legged brutes to know what is called mobile artillery, what is called rocket artillery!" I'd rather die in battle than be a slave to the country! Born in the whole country, died in Nanjing! The troops listened to my order to deploy the artillery, for thirty minutes, three salvos! Show off your might! Lift the soul of our army! ”

Sun Guiming, who stuck to the tunnel of Niushou Mountain, concentrated the remnants of nearly 1,000 people, pushed open several hidden exits, waited for the shelling of the Jiangbei Heavy Artillery Brigade at night, and then counterattacked the main peak of Niushou Mountain, the water in the tunnel has been cut off for two days, the officers and soldiers have not even had to drink urine, people can hold on for seven days without eating, but they can only last for 72 hours without drinking water, and Sun Guiming was forced to helpless Sun Guiming finally asked Zhang Xuewu for artillery support, and counterattacked the main peak occupied by the army with the remnants, attracting the attention of the army and mobile forces, Cover the breakthrough of General Shan Ye Yunfei's department.

Sun Guiming directly told Zhang Xuewu through a telegram that the Fifth Brigade was the elite headquarters of Rehe, and it was absolutely impossible to die of thirst in the tunnel, and if you wanted to die, you had to face the guns of the Japanese army, and the only requirement was that the corps commander would give a round of heavy artillery as cover.

Zhang Xuewu agreed to Sun Guiming's battle plan, the tunnel defense battle of Niushou Mountain was planned by him, and he also single-handedly sent Sun Guiming and nearly 6,000 subordinates into a desperate situation, and now these subordinates who are benevolent for the country only ask for concentrated artillery fire to counterattack the Yue army, in order to die a decent death, Zhang Xuewu's eyes as the supreme commander were unconsciously blurred at this moment.

Zhang Xuewu ordered the Wulongshan Fortress, the Yanziji Fortress, the Jiangbei Artillery Group, the artillery battalions of each brigade and division, and all mortars with a caliber of more than 60 mm to carry out a one-hour fierce artillery bombardment of the enemy in front of him at 19 o'clock on the evening of June 25, 1937, and to cooperate with the main force to launch an all-round attack.

It is very dangerous to use all the large-caliber artillery to counterattack the Yue army without control, but compared with the 150 mm heavy field howitzers of the Rheinmetall company that are equipped with 32 times the caliber of the German army, the firing range of the 150 mm field howitzers of the Rheinmetall company can only be described as tragic urging, so Zhang Xuewu also planned to take the opportunity to find the heavy artillery firing positions of the Yue army, inflict heavy damage on them, and reduce their threat to our army in street battles.

Zhang Xuewu knows very well that this will be the last large-scale counterattack of the [***] team in the Battle of Nanjing, and after the counterattack, it will officially mark the Battle of Nanjing into the stage of street fighting, as the supreme commander of the Battle of Nanjing, Zhang Xuewu slowly closed his eyes, he is too tired these days, he knows that every decision he makes now will be commented on by future generations, and every tactical implementation may be evaluated by detailed and repeated examples, but history has no if, those who sit in the era of peace in later generations, Comment: People who haven't even killed a few chickens today are not qualified to evaluate all this.

All today's sacrifices are for the sake of tomorrow's national reading power and national freedom, let the flames of war wash away all the lead! History is the most just, no one can annihilate the true axiom and history, let the blood be the proof, for the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation, let the blood of all enemies test the courage of the [***] people.

In the temporary residence of the supreme authority in Wuhan, Chiang Kai-shek and a group of high-ranking military and political officials did not rush to Chongqing, but listened to his war report on Nanjing in the war hall, and the celebrities and high-ranking officials from all walks of life downstairs were frequently raising their glasses to celebrate the whole month of guarding Nanjing, and the red grapes in the cup seemed to be like the blood shed by the front-line soldiers.

These war reports of mine are all about where they occupied today, how many Zhina troops were eliminated, or killed a certain general of the Zhina Army, etc., the faces of the participants were not good-looking, especially Chiang Kai-shek, who was pale, and he swore that Zhang Xuewu would personally lead Yunnan, Sichuan and other places to Nanjing for reinforcements in 20 days, but now ten days have passed, and all the reinforcements scheduled to go to reinforcements have been incorporated into the hodgepodge of the Fifth War Zone, and Li Zongren is commanding the largest miscellaneous army cluster in Chinese history to assemble in Xuzhou, Prevent the army from converging on the eastern and western fronts.

After listening to his own war report, Chiang Kai-shek glanced at Qian Dajun beside him and said, "Is there a war situation and war report on Nanjing?" ”

Qian Dajun shook his head helplessly and said: "According to my battle report, it seems that they have broken into the city wall of Nanjing, and there are no less than ten generals at the division and brigade levels who have died in our battle. ”

He Yingqin waved his hand on the side and said: "Zhang Xuewu is the best at sticking, what he is best at is fighting street battles, now it is just the abandonment of the outer city wall, the real street battle has not yet begun, in Chengde Zhang Xuewu is still able to hold on to the lone army with ammunition and food, and now the troops and ammunition are still abundant, so it is said that there is not much time?" This is a move to increase the morale of the Kou and destroy the prestige of our army. ”

Qian Dajun said helplessly: "I'm just talking about things, Chief He doesn't have to care, I also hope that Nanjing can hold on for two months!" All the equipment of the 26 infantry divisions newly purchased from the Soviet Union has arrived, and the morale of our army's equipment will certainly be greatly boosted. ”

Zhang Xueliang, the special adviser to the military and political affairs of the state government, who was sitting in the last position, also smiled and said: "I know this cousin in my heart, he is a hard bone, and the people who defend Nanjing are all the elite descendants of Huangpu, and the combat effectiveness can be called [***] The strongest, Nanjing will not be easily lost, I have just added the number of annihilation of our army announced in the previous army battle reports, plus more than 20,000 people today, there are more than 700,000 before and after, I am afraid that our defenders in Nanjing will each die a few times, can Xiao Yueben still believe what he says?" ”

When everyone present heard this, they immediately burst into laughter, and Chiang Kai-shek's face changed slightly: "Order the 89th Army, 94th Army, 97th Army, 98th Army, 100th Army and other units to complete the assembly within six days, and prepare to deal with the defenders of Nanjing. ”

Everyone knows that these armies are the latest new troops replenished by Chiang Kai-shek with Soviet weapons, and Chiang Kai-shek took the opportunity to annex many local faction armies in the First World War of Songhu, and after retreating from Nanjing, he disrupted the organization and re-established a number of new troops.

After a brief meeting, Chiang Kai-shek appeared in front of Chinese and foreign reporters with a large group of military and political officials, smiling faces, and Zhang Qun's witty remarks made people feel that the Chinese capital was under siege by enemy troops at the moment, and tens of millions of people were displaced and starved on the streets.

Bottles of English champagne, European egg tarts, caviar biscuits, foie gras, pastrami, all of this makes people feel the atmosphere of war without a hint of war.

June 25, 1937, 19 o'clock! Nearly 100 red signal flares suddenly rose from all over Nanjing! Prince Hatohiko of Asakanomiya, who was in command, and almost all the division commanders walked out of the tent, looking at the red signal flare in the night sky and were stunned?

Gu Shoufu looked at the red signal flare and muttered to himself: "The Chinese army is not preparing to counterattack, right?" How is this possible? They are already in danger, and launching a counterattack at this time is tantamount to suicide? Zhang Xuewu wouldn't do that! No sane commander would do that! ”

(To be continued)