Although the 19th Route Army won a victory in Zhabei, it was strange that it was not the Japanese who first proposed a cease-fire, but the Nationalist Government. The reason for this is nothing more than that many people in the Nationalist Government do not want to expand the war now, but only want to accept it when it is good, and they want to save some face for the Japanese, give the Japanese a step down, and let the Japanese retreat in the face of difficulties.

Therefore, before Chiang Kai-shek made a decision, Wu Tiecheng, according to the instructions of He Yingqin and others, had already approached the British and American consuls and asked the British and Americans to come forward to mediate a cease-fire.

When two people fight, it's not something that anyone can stop if they want to, because both sides need face, and if they want to stop decently, someone has to come out at the right time to persuade them. It's just that not everyone can be the one who persuades in the middle.

Who do you want to turn to?

Wu Tiecheng knew very well that it would not be possible to find someone to persuade China and Japan to fight, and this person who persuaded him must make the Japanese have some scruples, and the Japanese can buy it. Otherwise, just get someone to go up and persuade you, and the Japanese will have a stalk on their necks, and come with a "your mother's surname!" "That's not going to work.

If you want to find someone, you have to find someone who is more ruthless than the Japanese to persuade you, there are only a handful of such people in the world, and even Wu Tiecheng can count them with one hand and his fingers. In terms of strength, the only countries that can make Japan feel scruples are Britain, the United States, and France.

However, to do this, you also have to be skillful. Asking for mediation at the beginning of the war is a sign of weakness, and it is absolutely impossible.

As a result, on the surface, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nanjing Government issued a public announcement, saying that "self-defense measures will be adopted....continue to resist strictly." But secretly, he instructed Wu Tiecheng to step up his operation.

Of course. The Nationalist Government's request for a ceasefire cannot be said not only externally, but also internally. Therefore, when this matter reached the ears of the officers and soldiers below the 19th Route Army, it became that the Japanese were afraid. Knowing the strength of the 19th Route Army, he took the initiative to ask for an armistice.

Just as the Zhabei battlefield was full of flesh and blood, a diplomatic war between China and Japan with a level of tension no less than that of the battlefield had begun.

The consuls general of Britain and the United States came out to be peacemakers.

At 918 o'clock, the Nationalist Government begged people everywhere, and these big countries were lazy and did things step by step. Warm water as well as mediation. But this time there was a fierce battle in Shanghai, and the efficiency of the foreign consuls was extremely high.

What about the Northeast, Britain and the United States don't care much. For example, there were newspapers in the United States at that time that said. Who ruled Manchuria, no one cared here.

But this time it was different, Britain and the United States and other countries could watch the fire from across the strait because the northeast was too far away from the center of their traditional interests in China. And this time, the fire burned to his buttocks. They have long been unable to sit still.

The war between China and Japan was fought on the edge of the public concession, and you must know that the fire at the city gate will affect the pond fish. And. Shanghai controls the mouth of the Yangtze River and is the largest port in China. Most of China's foreign trade is completed here. As soon as the battle started, everyone couldn't do business. With such a big loss every day, will you Japanese pay for it?

But what made Britain and the United States nervous the most was that they didn't know what the Japanese were trying to do. Do the Japanese still want to replicate the events in Northeast China in Shanghai or on the coast south of the Yangtze River, the most prosperous area in China?

The coastal areas south of the Yangtze River and Shanghai, and even the Yangtze River basin, are the traditional interests of Britain and the United States, and the interests of Britain and the United States and other countries here are very large, which you Japanese do not know, and the Chinese have accepted your ultimatum, and you have to start a war, which makes Britain and the United States feel unsupported.

In the eyes of Britain and the United States, it doesn't matter much to us that you beat the Chinese, but if you dare to touch my "cheese", it has a lot to do with me, and it must be stopped, if necessary, or even to turn your face.

Therefore, as soon as Wu Tiecheng contacted the British and American consuls, they not only agreed happily, but also handled things very attentively and very effectively. …,

For the British and American consuls who came out to mediate at this time and jointly put forward a cease-fire demand, Shiozawa Koichi, who suffered a big loss, was so excited that he almost cried, and almost agreed with tears in his eyes.

For Koichi Shiozawa, whether he wants to continue to fight or not has little to do with him, and it is up to the Tokyo Admiralty to decide. The most important thing for him was to achieve a ceasefire immediately, so that he could breathe his breath so that he could disembark from the ship with confidence.

It's just that the British are really anxious this time, and they have no confidence in the untrustworthy and shameless Japanese dwarf, hoping to extinguish the "fire" as soon as possible before it has completely spread.

29. On the day of the armistice negotiations between the two sides, the British ambassador to Japan urgently asked to meet the Japanese foreign minister and formally protested to the Japanese government on behalf of the British government. On the same day, the British Consul General in Shanghai also lodged a protest with the Japanese Consul General. For the first time, the British finally made their attitude clear and unequivocal to the Japanese. Protests from the United States and Italy followed.

The protest was only a handful of Wen, who was very worried that these Japanese dwarfs who did not see the coffin and did not shed tears would not be moved, and decided to scare the Japanese. As a result, the British and US governments announced one after another that they would send additional warships to Shanghai.

Britain and the United States and other countries do not want a simple ceasefire, but want to tell the Japanese not to move "my things" by inches.

At first glance, there is a drama for peace. So, on January 31, at the British Consulate, the two sides began the first round of negotiations. In this round of negotiations, we are talking about an armistice. The Chinese side was represented by Wu Tiecheng, mayor of Shanghai, and Ou Shounian, commander of the 78th Division, and the Japanese representatives were Japanese consuls Murai Kuramatsu and Shiozawa Koichi.

Negotiation is about asking for a sky-high price and paying back the money on the ground. The 19th Route Army defeated the Japanese army, and almost drove the Japanese into the sea, which gave Wu Tiecheng confidence, and Wu Tiecheng asked the Japanese to withdraw and apologize for compensation.

What Wu Tiecheng never expected was that the Japanese, who had been beaten to the ground by the 19th Route Army, not only arrogantly refused his request for negotiations, but also did not blush and demanded that the Nationalist Government permanently prohibit the stationing of troops around Shanghai.

The attitude of the Japanese made Wu Tiecheng very angry, if he hadn't gotten the exact news that it was the 19th Route Army that had defeated the Japanese army, he really suspected that the Japanese army had won.

China's land does not allow the Chinese government to garrison troops, and Wu Tiecheng did not dare to agree to such conditions. Not to mention. Or in the case of a big victory for your own side. The gap between the two sides in the negotiation price is too large, and it is naturally impossible to negotiate. After half a day of talks, only one agreement was reached, and the two sides continued to hold a truce for three days. Until February 3rd.

Just like in the boxing ring, after a round, the gong sounds, and the fighters go back to the corner to rest. The Chinese and the British and American consuls hoped that they would not fight again, while the Japanese were gearing up for the second round of the contest.

How to play the second round? The Japanese Navy actually has no bottom in its heart.

I had planned to teach the Chinese a lesson and show my face in Shanghai. and the army grabbed the limelight in China, but I didn't expect to steal chickens instead of eating a handful of rice. I didn't teach others a lesson, but I grew someone's face. This made the Japanese Navy very faceless in front of the army and the domestic public.

The Japanese Navy is well aware that it has done its best. The Chinese in front of them only dispatched about three regiments. But there are 18 regiments in the 19th Route Army, and the remaining 16 regiments are all pressed up, so how can it be done.

It's just that this face is too big, and at this time. If you don't have any face, you can only ask the army guys to help you.

As recently as January 31, Shiozawa Koichi was still negotiating an armistice with Wu Tiecheng, in Tokyo. However, the Japanese Minister of the Navy asked the Foreign Minister and the Minister of War to send reinforcements to attack the Chinese army again.

Seeing that the Navy bowed its head. Of course, the army brothers were happy. You see, things on land. Of course, our army will have to do it. The Japanese army generals were naturally overjoyed to be able to slap the face of the navy that ran to the sky with their eyes, and of course they had to send troops. …,

It's just that although their hearts are happy, this score still has to be placed. The army said it would be difficult to get troops from the army now because Manchuria would need a large increase in troops before it could be fully occupied. In a word, we have a lot of things to do.

It was not until the next day that the army finally agreed to send the army to Shanghai in a gesture of reluctance to help the army in a very "modest" manner.

The army said how difficult it was to send troops, but as soon as it was shot, it was absolutely unambiguous, and the list made the navy startled.

The Army is to dispatch 1 9th Division and 1 mixed 24th Brigade. According to the army's plan, the mixed 24th Brigade was formed in advance, and the 9th Division followed suit. On the 2nd, the cabinet meeting also passed the above decision to send troops.

Supposedly, the matter is settled. But the navy was not happy, they felt that they had fallen for the army's hillbillies, and they were very unwilling, so they quietly started to do something. On the pretext that Shanghai is an international city and that sending a large corps at the division level is easy to provoke foreigners, they only agreed to allow the army to send the 24 brigade to Shanghai.

Seeing that the navy begged to send its own troops, but it still showed that it had sent too many troops, the army generals, who had long been dissatisfied with the navy, came up angrily and did not agree to the army's demands, then we would not send troops, and not a single one, even if the cabinet had already made a decision. （_）

The army general, who had been instructed to liaise with the navy to send troops, stretched his face, turned around and left, and simply stopped going through the formalities of sending troops.

The army's actions made the admirals almost mad. Wouldn't we really be able to do it without you hillbillies and mountain monkeys?

It is said that according to the ceasefire agreement reached between Shiozawa Koichi and Wu Tiecheng, the ceasefire should be from No. 1 to No. 3. But after the army agreed to send troops immediately, the navy was reassured and emboldened. Moreover, taking advantage of the armistice, the Japanese Navy urgently transferred troops from the country, and from January 30, four more Marine Corps groups rushed to Shanghai for reinforcements. Therefore, the Admiralty had already ordered Shiozawa Koichi on February 2 to ignore the truce and take positive action against the Chinese.

Since the army is so faceless now, let the marines try again and see if they can rely on the navy's own strength to get back a little ground.

Therefore, the senior naval officers in Tokyo began to watch the battle situation in Shanghai with bated breath, and those who could chant the Buddha estimated that even the Buddha might wish, so that this time the captain of the Marine Corps would have a long face, and quickly beat the Chinese to beg for mercy, so that we could no longer look at the stinky faces of the army's mountain monkeys.

If you want to know how big the contradictions are between the Japanese army and navy, just look at the weapons they have developed.

In Japan, if it is not surprising that there are tanks developed by the Navy, then it is absolutely unbelievable that the Army has developed submarines.

The reason why the two sides are like this is that the contradictions between the two sides have been going on for a long time, mainly because they are competing for military spending.

The old men of the Ministry of the Navy and the Military Command Department were urging tightly, and the Japanese Shanghai Special Marine Corps could only cheer up. Attack again.

At this time, all the 60th Division had arrived in Shanghai, and one part of the 61st Division had also arrived, and the strength of the 19th Route Army in Shanghai far exceeded that of the Japanese army. Let alone. In Zhenru, there is also Shi Ming's 187th Division that is assembling and redressing.

According to the agreement between China and Japan, the armistice lasted until 24 o'clock on February 2. However, before the deadline had expired, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese artillery began to fire at the positions of the 19th Route Army, and three seaplanes also arrived to help in the battle, and the second round of the contest between China and Japan began.

In the last attack under the command of Sameshima, the Japanese focused their attacks on the right flank of the 19th Route Army. That is, the southern section of the front is close to the public concession, and almost captured the Shanghai North Railway Station. However, this time the Japanese artillery bombardment and bombardment were concentrated on the left flank of the 19th Route Army's defense line, that is, Qingyun Road, Tiantongan Road, and Baoxing Road in the northern section of the front. …,

Because of the artillery sent by Shi Ming and Du Yuesheng. The artillery of the 19th Route Army also showed no weakness and immediately organized an artillery counterattack. The artillery battle continued into the night. However, the artillery is artillery, and after half a day, the infantry on both sides only had small-scale contact. Koichi Shiozawa, who was somewhat weak-hearted, did not command the Japanese army to launch a large-scale attack under the cover of artillery fire.

At dawn the next day, the Japanese continued to shell the northern section of the front. It was not until 2 p.m. that the Japanese infantry began to attack. The direction of the attack was the shelling of the northern section of the front for almost a day.

The right hook has no effect. Switch to a left hook, obviously. Shiozawa wanted to try his luck in a different direction.

The newly arrived reinforcements of the Japanese army, Minoru Ota's 5th Brigade, launched the attack first, and the battle between the two sides in Zhabei began again. Due to the fact that the 19th Route Army had just annihilated Shark Island, the morale of the 19th Route Army was very high, and an hour later, the Japanese army was driven back to the starting position.

At this time, Weng Zhaoyuan received an order to withdraw from the Zhabei position on the same day, the 6th Regiment returned to Zhenru to rest and replenish, and the 5th Regiment rushed to Wusong, and the 4th Regiment of the 156th Brigade stationed in Wusong established a defensive line in Wusong to prevent the Japanese army from landing in Wusong.

Wusongkou is located at the mouth of the Huangpu River flowing into the Yangtze River in Shanghai. Ships entering and leaving Shanghai Port must pass through Wusongkou. Jiang Guangding had already received information from Song Zhewu transferred by Song Ziwen and Shi Ming that the 24th Brigade of the Japanese Army was about to rush to Shanghai.

As early as the nineteenth year of Shunzhi, the Qing government built two forts at Wusongkou.

During the Opium War, the British army attacked Wusong, and Chen Huachengcheng, the commander of the Jiangnan Navy Division, died here. However, at this time, the Wusong Fort was no longer the West Fort that Chen Huacheng fought against the British Army, and in the 25th year of Guangxu, the local officials felt that the West Fort was hindering commercial development, so they actually demolished the fort, causing an uproar. In the second year, the Qing government had no choice but to rebuild a south fort nearby, plus the north fort built in the 12th year of Guangxu, which was collectively called Wusong Fort.

Jiang Guangding and Cai Tingkai believed that the strategic location of the Wusong Fort was very important, and ordered to hold the fort before the war. At this time, it was Deng Zhenquan, the commander of the Wusong Fortress, who guarded the treadmill.

When it comes to Deng Zhenquan, few people know about this person now.

Deng Zhenquan was a famous general in the early days of the Whampoa Department, and he was a lieutenant colonel adjutant in the training department of the Whampoa Military Academy. Everyone knows that Chiang Kai-shek's lineage is the First Army composed of the Whampoa Military Academy Student Army, and the most lineage of the First Army is the First Division. Deng Zhenquan used to be the commander of this first division. His predecessor division commander was very famous, it was Xue Yue, and his successor division commander was also famous, it was Hu Zongnan.

Being able to command the first division of Chiang Kai-shek's lineage, naturally he was by no means a person who did nothing, and Deng Zhenquan, who had also fought desperately in the Battle of Longtan, was not a mediocre or a coward. However, time has passed, and the commander of the lieutenant general fortress has long since lost the courage of the past.

Wu Songkou is north of the suburbs of Shanghai, but Deng Zhenquan has placed his mansion in Suzhou, far away from Shanghai and even far away from his own defense area. It's okay and rarely shows his face in the fort.

Accompanied by Wu Nong's whispering, Deng Zhenquan, who had lost his spirit, had long forgotten his duty as a soldier.

On the 25th, Cai Tingkai issued an order to hold the Wusong Fort.

As the commander of the fortress, Deng Zhenquan should have rushed to his post immediately to carry out the order. But Deng Zhenquan deduced that the fort accessories were insufficient and refused to go to work. Under Cai Tingkai's strong insistence, Deng Zhenquan simply offered to resign.

Deng Zhenquan's behavior made it clear that he was fleeing from the battle. It stands to reason that such a thing is placed in a normal army, and it is no problem to pull it out to engage in military law. However, the strange thing is that after the war in Shanghai, Deng Zhenquan's resignation was magically approved by the Ministry of Military Affairs.

It turned out that this Commander Deng Zhenquan Deng was the confidant of He Yingqin, Minister of Military Affairs. He Yingqin was not only his instructor at the Guizhou Military Academy, but also Deng Zhenquan's boss during the Northern Expedition. The so-called protégé of the old officer. Both. And Deng Zhenquan's daughter also worshipped Bai Chongxi as her godfather. …,

With such a connection, it is no wonder that Deng Zhenquan successfully completed the victorious escape.

And just when Deng Zhenquan slipped away, the officers and soldiers of the Wusong Fort, who were abandoned by his commander, ushered in the most tragic battle.

After the war in Shanghai. The Wusong Fort did not initially engage the Japanese in an exchange of fire.

Because the battle on the night of 128 was stopped less than a day after the start of the war under the mediation of foreign consuls, and the attitude of the Admiralty towards the battle in Shanghai was also quite ambiguous, although the guns on the fort were still busy passing through Wusongkou to replenish reinforcements, the fort did not open fire.

Moreover, it was stationed next to the Songhu Fort to artillery Taiwan. The patrol office of 10 shallow-water gunboats, including Jiangning, Haining, Funing, Suining, Weining, Suning, Chongning, Yining, Zhengning, and Changning, not only refused to participate in the war because of the Admiralty's ambiguous attitude towards the war in Shanghai, but even responded to the request of Koichi Shiozawa. He used his own ships to help the Japanese marines in Shanghai buy and transport vegetables. This also made the defenders of Wusong Fort at a loss.

However, on February 3, after the resumption of fighting on the Zhabei front, the Wusong Fort could not stay out of the situation. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the battery received an order from Cai Tingkai to open fire on the Japanese Huishan Pier and the Japanese ships.

After the commander of the fortress, Deng Zhenquan, slipped away. The person in charge of the actual defense of the fortress was Teng Jiushou, the chief of staff of the fortress. Teng Jiushou was also He Yingqin's protégé at the Guizhou Military Academy, but the chief of staff did not smear oil on the soles of his feet like his commander, but ignored the attitude of the Admiralty. Without hesitation, Cai Tingkai's order was carried out.

The shelling quickly turned into an artillery battle.

At this time, passing through the Wusong Huangpu River were the three destroyers of the 26th Destroyer Squadron escorting the remains of the Japanese war dead back to China. 11:25 a.m. An artillery battle began between the two sides.

Upon hearing the news of the shelling of Japanese ships by the Wusong Battery, the Japanese 3rd Fleet, which was 4 nautical miles away, rushed to participate in the artillery battle. Because the Japanese warships were not designed to destroy the batteries. Rather, it was only to suppress and cover the passage of three destroyers of their own side. Therefore, by 1 p.m., the shelling had largely subsided. After the battery stopped firing, the Japanese ships also quickly drove away.

However, at this time, the Japanese navy was constantly increasing troops and sending warships to Shanghai, and Wusongkou was a major communication route, and if a few ships were sunk by the battery, the loss would not be small.

Shiozawa Yuki ordered that the 26th Destroyer Fleet must not leave, turned back, shelled the Wusong Fort again, and prepared to capture the Wusong Fort.

After the artillery battle broke out again, the Japanese artillery bombardment was extremely fierce.

The total length of Wusong Fort is 750 meters. Among them, Wusong South Fort. At the beginning, there were 4 152-mm guns, 4 56-mm guns, and 2 120-mm Krupp breech guns. The North Battery had 4 305-mm British breech guns, 2 203-mm breech guns, 2 120-mm guns, and 1 152-mm gun.

The cannons of Wusong Fort are not too few at first glance, but most of them are antique goods, and the earliest artillery was even bought in the 12th year of Guangxu. In such an artillery battle, it is impossible for Wusong Fort to fight any cheaply.

It's just that the Japanese army, which had long been aware of the strength of Wusong Fort, was too big, and coupled with the command of Shiozawa Koichi, a person with a low eye, he actually sent only a 26 expulsion team to shell Wusong. Under the command of Teng Jiushou, the Wusong Fort was actually on a par with the Japanese fleet.

Because it's the same destroyer, you also have to see what kind of cargo it is. For example, Japan's Fuyuki-type destroyers in World War II had a draft of more than 1,600 tons, and all 4 destroyers of the 26 destroyers were all light fir destroyers, which had a displacement of only 850 tons, almost even if they were gunboats, with only 3 120 mm guns on board. The entire team also had only 12 guns. The quantity and caliber are not comparable to the Wusong Fort, and its own defense is poor, and if it is hit by a 203 or 305 mm shell, it will shed its skin if it does not die.

It's just that the artillery of the Wusong Fort was negligent in training, and not a single shell fired by the large-caliber artillery hit the Japanese ship. …,

Only one destroyer was hit by a 120mm shell, causing a fire and driving away in a hurry, while three guns were destroyed at the Wusong battery.

The activity of the Wusong battery attracted the attention of the Japanese Navy. Soon, an even more ferocious revenge came.

The Japanese Navy's fir destroyer, with shallow draft and strong seakeeping performance, is suitable for offshore operations, so the first few warships of this type are deployed to the coast of China, but the tonnage of this type of warship itself is small. The firepower is not strong, and the Wusong Fort is hard to shake head-on, and it is indeed powerless.

The 26 expulsion team didn't get a good deal, and Shiozawa couldn't sit still. Early the next morning, Shiozawa Koichi ordered the main forces of the Third Fleet and the First Mine Squadron to join the shelling of the Wusong Battery.

Speaking of the mine team, some people may wonder if Koichi Shiozawa is confused, how did he send the minelaying ship that laid mines to shell. In fact, the "mines" that the Japanese call are torpedoes. This destroyer was originally designed to launch torpedoes. So this mine team. In fact, it is the destroyer fleet.

The First Mine Squadron, which sounds very loud, actually has only one destroyer in Shanghai. It's just that this destroyer is more perverted. With a displacement of 2000 tons, it was equipped with 8 140-mm naval guns. And the third squadron is not to mention, three Nagara-class light cruisers of all 5170 tons, each with 140 mm guns and 7 guns.

And in addition to those who swim in the water, there are also those that fly in the sky. One hundred and twenty-eight night. Only a few water reconnaissance planes bombed Shanghai, and they also bombed the 19th Route Army enough. This time, it was more than 20 planes that flew to bomb the battery at once. And an authentic attack aircraft.

It turned out that this time the Japanese warships that reinforced to Shanghai. There are also two real aircraft carriers, the Kaga and the Hosho, which were very famous during World War II. These two aircraft carriers. The number of aircraft carried reached more than a hundred. There are two main types of aircraft, the Type 90 shipboard fighter and the Type 89 shipboard attack aircraft, both capable of carrying bombs and equipped with two machine guns.

In the artillery battle with the warships on the water, although there is a gap in strength, the Wusong Fort still has a target that can fight back. As for the planes flying overhead, the battery had no way at all, because the Wusong battery did not have any air defense force.

The Wusong Fort was built in the late Qing Dynasty, and at that time there was no such thing as an airplane, so the fort was open-air and had no air protection at all. After the Nationalist Government took over the fort, it was only busy with the civil war, and did not make any improvements to the defense of the Wusong fort.

Therefore, when attacked from the air, the Wusong fort was doomed.

For the Japanese pilots, this battery attack battle almost turned into a target shooting competition. Inside the battery, the craters blown out by the artillery bombs were even several meters deep. During the battle, the Japanese fired a total of 500 naval guns and dropped 150 aerial bombs.

Although it was a one-sided battle, Teng Jiushou dutifully struggled to support it. After two hours of hard fighting, 6 more guns in the fort were blown up, and at this time, Teng Jiushou sacrificed his life for the country.

In addition to Teng Jiushou, in the artillery battle, the two adjutants of the fortress headquarters were also martyred in the artillery battle, and since then, the chief officer of the fortress headquarters has all died. The artillery was destroyed and people died, and the command was cut off.

Without a strong general to command and supervise the battle, under the blow of the superior firepower of the Japanese army, the officers and men of the fort who suffered heavy casualties could no longer hold on, and at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the Wusong fort fell completely silent. At this time, the corpses in the fort were strewn all over the place, and the remaining soldiers of the fort fled from the fort and scattered. However, the Japanese warships and planes did not give up and continued to use bombs and naval guns to attack the officers and men who were scattered and fled.

In this one-sided artillery battle, the Japanese suffered very little losses, and only the destroyer "Rutsuki" of the 3rd Destroyer Fleet ran aground while turning on the river, and broke away at 4 p.m.

Weng Zhaoyuan, who was ordered to rush to Wusong for reinforcements, had already arrived at Wusong in the early hours of the morning. But for such a big war of sea, land and air modernization, Weng Zhaoyuan could not help anything. Although he had two regiments of troops in his hands at this time, he could only watch the defenders of the battery collapse under the blows of the enemy's superior naval and air firepower. …,

All he could do was to quickly gather the forces in his hands and prepare to resist the Japanese landing after the artillery bombardment.

However, such a landing he did not wait. Because, when the Wusong artillery battle was in full swing, all the strength of the Japanese Marine Corps had already fallen into the bitter battle in Zhabei, and there was no force that could be drawn out to land in Wusong.

Receiving the Zhabei position were the 60th and 6th regiments of the 120th Brigade and the 1st Regiment of the 119th Brigade. The numbers of the regiments of the 19th Route Army were divided by divisions. Each division had six regiments. Therefore, each division had the number of the 1st to 6th regiments.

Deng Zhicai, the commander of the 120th Brigade, is a native of Shaoguan, Guangdong, wearing a pair of glasses, not like a martial artist, but more like a scholar.

In fact, Deng Zhicai really went to a private school and went to school, but at the age of 23, he was admitted to the Shaozhou Lecture and Martial Arts Hall, starting as a grassroots officer, and successively served as a platoon, company, battalion, regiment, and brigade commander. Step by step, it has always been known for its good fighting in the 19th Route Army.

After Deng Zhicai took over the defense of Zhabei, he arranged two regiments on the Songhu Railway Front, which was in a head-to-head confrontation with the Japanese army, with Tiantongan Road as the boundary. The 6th Regiment was deployed to the north, the 4th Regiment was deployed to the south, and the 1st Regiment of the 119th Brigade was placed on its own flank, which was the junction of the Public Concession and Zhabei. Prevent the Japanese army from starting from the public concession and attacking the flank of the Zhabei defenders.

The Japanese army also threw all five of its own brigades, divided into three directions: the left flank (south), the right flank (north), and the center. On the southernmost left flank, were two squadrons of the 4th Mori Koku. In charge of the offensive from the Commercial Press (not included) to Qiujiang Road, the central direction was the original 3 squadrons of the 1st Brigade of Mitsunobu Tazuki and the 2 squadrons of the 2nd Brigade of Sashiro Tadano, and the 2 squadrons of the 3rd Brigade of Takahashi Kazumatsu, and was responsible for the offensive from the Commercial Press to Tentsuan Road (not included). The 2 squadrons of Minoru Ota's 5th Brigade were responsible for the offensive north of the Tentsuan Road (inclusive).

At 7 o'clock in the morning of the 4th, the Japanese troops on the Zhabei side began to violently shell the positions of the Chinese troops in front of them. The shelling reached its climax at 9 o'clock, and by 11 o'clock, after four hours of shelling. The Japanese attacked on all fronts.

If you only look at the number of troops invested, the Japanese army is no less than the 19th Route Army in person. Moreover, the Japanese army's attack tactics have also changed compared to before, and they no longer blindly force their way forward. Instead, they tend to concentrate superior firepower first and destroy all the fortifications in front. They even set fire to the defenders. And then step by step.

However, this time, the Japanese army was deflated again. Because Shiozawa Koichi's command is as bad as Sameshima Gushige.

In the command of the Japanese army, the pace is relatively disordered, according to Cai Tingkai, Shiozawa Koichi's command, just like Grandma Liu entered the Grand View Garden, was teased by Wang Xifeng to use chopsticks to pick pigeon eggs, I don't know how to use chopsticks, the whole way of playing is to cut meat and mend sores. The use of reinforcements is also a full use of refueling tactics. Several cutting-edge brigades of the Japanese army came out, but they didn't have time to understand the battlefield situation, so they were put on the front line to attack by Shiozawa Koichi.

For example, Minoru Ota's 5th Brigade landed on the evening of the 1st, and was ordered to go into battle at noon on the 2nd, and it was put into battle alone, and the other brigades rested on the side to watch the excitement. As a result, the 5th Brigade suffered many casualties on the first day, and its sharpness was knocked out of thin air. By the time of the full-scale attack, the tiger had also become a sick cat.

Moreover, the 19th Route Army in front of him was not a combination of recruits and defeated soldiers like Regiment Commander Zhang Junsong earlier. The 120th Brigade is the absolute elite unit of the 19th Route Army, and it is even more experienced in fighting.

Seeing the ferocity of Japanese artillery fire, the defense of the 120 Brigade was resilient. A trapezoidal configuration was adopted, with a light front and a heavy rear, leaving a small number of troops to monitor the front line first, and the troops quickly retreated and stood by. By the end of the shelling, the troops of the 120 Brigade quickly returned to the positions that had been bombarded by the Japanese to resist the onslaught of the Japanese infantry. The Japanese shelling did not pose much of a threat to them.

Moreover, the Chinese army is no longer unfamiliar with the attack tactics of the Japanese army, and the more they fight, the more experienced they become, and their tricks are also innovative. For example, to deal with those big beetles, in addition to the insecticidal method pioneered by the 156th Brigade, the 120th Brigade itself also has innovations. …,

This innovative weapon, to say is simply unbelievable, turned out to be a dirt gun.

In general, the bullets are one by one, but the earthen gun is loaded with gun sand, the range is very close, the loading is very troublesome, a dozen is a piece, the kinetic energy of the gun sand is scattered, and there is not much penetration. It is said that it is a joke to use such things from the pre-Qing period against modern armored vehicles. But it is hard to laugh that Chinese soldiers can really use this old earthen gun as an anti-armor weapon.

Although the Japanese armored vehicles were strong, the occupants of the armored vehicles had to pass through the observation holes, whether they were driving or firing. If you shoot a machine gun rifle at a constantly shaking observation hole, it is difficult to accurately get a bullet into an armored vehicle. But shooting with an earthen gun is different, because a dozen earthen guns are a piece of gun sand, which is actually a shotgun, as long as a few grains of iron sand enter the observation port of the armored car, it will immediately make the Japanese armored car blind.

When the crew of the armored vehicle operates the machine gun fire, the eyes must be attached to the viewing hole...... It is said that this eye can't rub a single piece of sand, not to mention that there is iron sand at a considerable speed.

The Japanese fought fiercely until 2:40 p.m., and the central side finally seized the Commercial Press, and the right flank also advanced to the Hongkou Xiaohe. But immediately afterwards, the offensive of the central side was weak, and the right flank was limited by the river and could not develop the results for a while. And the resistance of the 120 Brigade turned out to be unusually fierce. Often after the house was burned down by the Japanese army, they still fought to the death and did not retreat, and even some troops resisted for too long and the house was destroyed by fire. Sacrificed in time to quit.

In the evening, under the stubborn counterattack of the 120 Brigade, the Japanese could not gain a foothold and had to abandon all the captured positions and retreat to the offensive positions.

As the saying goes, if you eat a trench, you will grow wiser. But this sentence is completely useless for Shiozawa Koichi. After losing consecutive battles, he has exhausted his donkey skills.

The Japanese army who suffered once. The onslaught continued the next day, 5 February. The deployment of the attack was exactly the same as the previous day. It is still divided into three directions, still with armored vehicles as the lead, and still with concentrated artillery bombardment for several hours. Then the infantry followed.

The only difference was that instead of attacking simultaneously from all three directions as on the previous day, the Japanese attacked separately.

At about 1 a.m., the Japanese right flank was the first to start shelling, and at half past 6 a.m., the 5th Brigade on the right flank launched an attack and reaped the results. At 7:15, he first seized the stronghold of Siming Gong.

And in the direction of the center and left flank, the Japanese army at half past eight in the morning spent three hours bombarding the positions of the Chinese troops at the Commercial Press. The Japanese attack was very ferocious, and the Japanese on the left flank occupied a high building on the Qiujiang Road and shot down on the Chinese army. However, the buildings held by the 120 Brigade were greatly damaged and suppressed by enemy fire. The casualties were significant.

The most dangerous was in the direction of the Commercial Press on Baoxing Road, where the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Regiment defending this direction suffered heavy casualties. At 11:30, the Japanese army captured the Commercial Press again and advanced to the line of Baoshan Road. However, as on the previous day, after the 120th Brigade reserve was engaged in a counterattack, the Japanese were still unable to gain a foothold and were forced to retreat to the starting position of the attack.

Counting the tentative attack on February 3, after three days of fierce fighting, the Japanese attack could only end in failure. At this point, everyone understands that the navy is no longer capable of crushing the Chinese army alone.

Faced with reality, the Japanese Navy had no choice but to swallow its anger and agree not to impose restrictions on the size of the army's troops.

The navy bowed its head and softened, but the army, of course, was proud of it.

On the 5th, the Japanese Army finally issued an order to send troops to Shanghai. According to the prior plan, the 9th Division and the mixed 24th Brigade were dispatched.

The 9th Division, also known as the Kanazawa Division. As soon as you look at the number, you can see that this division was organized relatively early, although it is not as good as the first batch of 7 divisions. But it was also one of the second divisions formed in 1899. …,

The division consisted mainly of soldiers from three prefectures in the Hokuriku region of Japan. Those who have played the game of Japan's Warring States period may know that during the Warring States period of Japan, the Hokuriku region belonged to the Echizen Asakura family, and the soldiers here were hard-working, even if the weapons were simple, but they also had the courage to fight.

The mixed 24th Brigade was composed of troops drawn from the 12th Division. The soldiers of the 12th Division were mainly composed of soldiers from Kitakyushu, and if it were placed during the Warring States period of Japan, it would have been roughly the territory of the Otomo family. Nagasaki was the recruiting ground for the 12th Division.

Because the 12th Division was still in peacetime at that time, all two brigades and four wings had only two brigades, and the entire division had only eight brigades. Generally speaking, it is most convenient to dispatch a ready-made brigade, but in the 12th Division, each wing drew a brigade to form the mixed 24th Brigade. It is obvious that the dispatch of troops to Shanghai is regarded as a round of combat training.

The reason why the mixed 24th Brigade was used in the first place was because this unit was so close to the Sasebo Naval Garrison, which was closest to China, that the troops did not need to make a long march to sail from the Sasebo Naval Base in Nagasaki Prefecture.

On the 5th, the 24th Brigade received the order to go on the expedition, and at 11 a.m. on the 6th, it boarded the ship and set sail for Shanghai.

With the large-scale reinforcement of the Japanese Navy and Army, who will be the commander-in-chief has naturally become a very delicate issue between the army and navy.

On the navy's side, the supreme commander in Shanghai was Rear Admiral Koichi Shiozawa, commander of the First Foreign Fleet, but with the reinforcement of a large number of ships in the navy, the Japanese Navy set up a special Third Fleet, with Vice Admiral 56-year-old Vice Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura serving as the commander of the fleet and taking over the command of the Shanghai operation.

Speaking of this Nomura Kichizaburo, it really has something to do with the Chinese. When Nomura graduated and became a navigator in his early years, his warship was called "Jiyuan", which was the cruiser of the Beiyang Fleet that Fang Boqian escaped from the battle and was finally regarded as a trophy by the Japanese. In the Russo-Japanese naval battle, the "Jiyuan" struck a mine and sank at the mouth of Arthur, and Nomura escaped with a small life. The so-called catastrophe will not die, and there will be blessings. Nomura's career was followed by a brilliant one, when he had just been transferred from the governor of Yokosuka Shofu to the commander of the Third Fleet.

The reason why Nomura was appointed commander was because he had been the commander of the First Foreign Fleet stationed in China for two years, that is, Shiozawa Koichi was now in this position, and he had a better understanding of the situation in China.

The commander of the Marine Corps in Shanghai was also replaced, and Major General Uematsu Renma, who also had garrison experience in China, was appointed commander of the Shanghai Special Marine Corps, and the former commander Koichi Shiozawa was reappointed chief of staff.

On the army side, the highest commander is naturally Lieutenant General Kenkichi Ueda, the commander of the 9th Division. Unlike other generals who were known for their martial prowess in Japan, such as Kyushu and Choshu, Kenkichi Ueda was born in Osaka, a commercial city that many Japanese soldiers looked down upon.

Ueda Kenkichi, then 58 years old, known as the "elder" in the army, looking through his experience, learned from the cavalry, really never fought any major battles, at most went to Siberia to participate in the intervention of the Soviet Union, and fought with the Soviet Red Army guerrillas. However, he was also sent to the army because he had spent almost two years in China and served as the commander of the garrison army in China, so he knew a little about the Chinese.

Mixed into the 24 brigade, the brigade commander is Major General Motoya Shimono.

Motoya Shimono was originally the commander of the 12th Brigade of the 24th Division. It's just that half of the four brigades that went with him this time came from another brigade. The reason for appointing Motoya Shimono is also very simple, he once served as a military adviser in China's Beiyang government, and he is not so ignorant of China.

It can be seen that when the Japanese army and navy select candidates for commanders, they all regard having a good understanding of China as the criterion for selection. But the people are well picked, but the army and navy are both lieutenant generals to lieutenant generals, major generals to major generals, who commands whom?

This time, in the end, the navy begged the army to send troops, and people were under the roof and had to bow their heads. In the end, the result of the discussion was that before the 9th Division arrived in Shanghai, Rear Admiral Uematsu Rinma's Marine Corps would be subject to the unified command of Major General Motoya Shimono of the 24th Brigade of the Army, and Rear Admiral Motoya Shimono would obey the command of Vice Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura, and when Vice Admiral Kenkichi Ueda arrived in Shanghai, the entire army would be under the command of Lieutenant General Kenyoshi Ueda.

The leaders of the navy thought that if they had given in, the army would never get into trouble. As a result, while the 24th Brigade was sailing to Shanghai, Vice Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura, who was temporarily in charge of the supreme command, issued an order to the 24th Mixed Brigade. The 24th Brigade was ordered to land near Wusong and prepare to attack the Wusong fortress.

It was this order that made Motoya Shimono embark on the road of no return from then on.

Thank you for the monthly pass of "Flowers for Whom" book friends! (To be continued......)

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