Nakajima looked at the location of Niushou Mountain and General Mountain and hesitated for a moment and said: "There is only a small part of the original fortifications on the two peaks, during the Battle of Songhu, our army's reconnaissance aircraft has reconnoitred many times, and the three lines of defense formed by it are basically civil fortifications built in the follow-up and a small number of permanent fire support points, as long as the opponent's artillery fire is suppressed, our army can concentrate its forces to attack one point, and after taking Niushou Mountain, we can attack the fortress of Jiangjun Mountain with all our strength, and occupy Niushou Mountain and General Mountain. It can be used to set up artillery to bombard the Chinese defenders along the Qinhuai River. ”

Nakajima Imago and Yamamuro Soutake set their sights on Major General Koizumi Onhito of the 11th Brigade of the Heavy Artillery almost at the same time, Koizumi Onhito has always been known for his steadiness and prudence, for Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, he has seen many aerial reconnaissance photos, most of the civil fortifications in [***] are Soviet-style or German-style, but the civil fortifications on Niushou Mountain and General Mountain are very strange? That is, it is neither Soviet nor German, but from the large number of logs and stones used, it is estimated that these fortifications must not be so simple, and Koizumi Fumihito noticed that Naka[***] dug a very wide anti-tank trench at the front of the front, and the mountain was also flattened, but the accumulation of earthwork and gravel seemed to be too much?

Koizumi Wenren wonders if Naka[***] is digging a tunnel system on Niushou Mountain? Koizumi Wenren's questioning made Nakajima Imago and Yamamuro Sotake stunned for a moment, Koizumi Wenren pointed to the west side of Niushou Mountain and said: "The west side of it is the weak point of the middle [***] defense, but here is within the effective range of the fire of the light and heavy machine guns of the General Mountain Fortress, not to mention the mountain artillery, even the mortar can be easily covered by fire, so I suspect that under these woods, the middle [***] has dug a large number of tunnels on the west side of Niushou Mountain, These tunnels may even lead to the surface positions at the summit and the second line positions on the mountainside.

Yamamuro Zongwu frowned and said, "If our army blocks the west side of Niushou Mountain with firepower, wouldn't it be useless for the reinforcements of the middle [***] to be unable to reach these tunnels?" And how much effect can the anticline of the main position be set up in the tunnel? ”

Nakajima Imago also closed his eyes and pondered for a while before he suddenly realized, "I understand! It turns out that Niushou Mountain is a firepower trap, and its existence is to attract our army to attack, consuming our army's strength and ammunition, even if our artillery fire flattens its main peak, the Zhina army hiding in the tunnel can still persist in fighting with the fire support of the Jiangjun Mountain Fortress, and if our army attacks such a permanent firepower point with a complete and comprehensive fortress, I am afraid that it will need to pay at least more than 3,000 casualties, and it will also consume a large number of shells. ”

Koizumi Wenren nodded and said: "Zhang Xuewu in the Chinese army is a very rare military talent, as far as I know, he has almost never received an education from a higher military academy, and the battle examples of the Chengde Defense War have been included in the syllabus of classic war examples by the Imperial Army University. This is really too terrible, his deployment is all aimed at the weakness of the Imperial Army, the Imperial Army in the artillery fire, air supremacy, and strength are several times more than the enemy, the old attack is fruitless, Zhang Xuewu can control the troops in the casualties of more than sixty percent close to seventy percent can still maintain high morale, this kind of opponent must be the empire's henchmen. ”

Yamamuro Sotake thinks that what Koizumi Wenren said is a bit exaggerated, the Imperial Army, especially the pretentious Kwantung Army has lost face, and naturally wants to portray the enemy as a god, so Yamamuro Sotake is also very disapproving, unlike Yamamuro Sotake's 11th Division, the 16th Division of Nakajima Imasago was shelled by Zhang Xuewu under Chengde City, so Nakajima Imaso seems very cautious, if the mistakes of the past are repeated, Nakajima Isamu may also follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, Retiring from active service is undoubtedly a huge blow to a lieutenant general division commander who is aiming to be promoted to senior general for life.

On the issue of attacking the fortress of Niushou Mountain or the fortress of Shogunshan first, Nakajima Imago and Yamamuro Sotake had a certain disagreement, originally the battlefield capacity of the fortress of Shogunshan and Niushoushan was only one brigade, while the battlefield capacity of Niushou Mountain was only one infantry wing.

If the number of troops is increased, it will only give the Chinese artillery an opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and since the increase in troops is an act that does not outweigh the losses, then if the Niushou Mountain and Jiangjun Mountain are attacked at the same time, the artillery superiority of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade will inevitably be greatly weakened.

Moreover, the strength of the Chinese air force was still quite strong, and the army and naval aviation units of the empire could not fully control the air supremacy over Nanjing, which meant that Koizumi Wenren's 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade could not provide fire support to the ground offensive troops unscrupulously.

Therefore, on the issue of attacking Niushou Mountain and Jiangjun Mountain, the so-called heavy assault meat bullet offensive is basically sending people to death, and Nogi Nishinori's pig assault tactics are typical brainless representatives among the senior generals of the Yue army, and the example of the bloody long street of the Chengde Sixth Division has proved that the pig assault tactics are extremely stupid.

In the end, Nakajima Imago and Yamamuro Munetake decided that the 11th Division would be assigned to the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade and a wing of 26 150-mm Type 38 heavy howitzers to attack the Shogun Mountain Fortress, and the 16th Division would be assigned to the rest of the artillery units of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade, including six 240-mm heavy howitzers, to attack the Niushoushan Fortress, so as to maximize the deployment of troops.

As for the issue of air defense of the 240-mm heavy artillery, Koizumi Wenren asked the headquarters of the dispatch army to dispatch fighter units and anti-aircraft artillery units to deploy and transfer cover, although the firepower of the 11th heavy artillery brigade was dispersed, but Nakajima Imago secretly asked Asakanomiya Hatohiko, because the two fortresses of Niushou Mountain and Jiangjun Mountain are the barriers to the south of Nanjing, and the troops stationed on them are either the troops sent by Zhang Xuewu from Rehe or the elite teaching corps of the Nanjing National Axe Army, so Nakajima Imasago plans to use special ammunition for assault.

Nakajima's suggestion was approved by Hatohiko Asakanomiya, who believed that since the gas bomb was made, it was used for use, otherwise it would lose its value and save the lives of soldiers and reduce the time for attacking the city and plundering the land.

While Nakajima Imago and Yamamuro Munetake were actively deploying, the 3rd Division under the command of Fujita Shin and the 9th Division under the command of Yoshika Ryosuke also began to conduct artillery test firing to build an attack position and prepare to attack the Chinese defenders' positions on the eastern line of Zijin Mountain in the east of the city.

On the other hand, the 18th Division of the 18th Division, Nakajima Sadao, and the 114th Division, Sue Matsu Shigeji, were preparing to attack the Chinese defenders' positions along the Qinhuai River in the south of the city, while the Taiwan Shigeto Detachment and the 13th Division of the 13th Division were preparing to attack the Qixia Mountain Fortress.

The Fifth Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery of the Japanese Army, the headquarters of the Imajin Gango Division, also correspondingly entered the position of the Eastern Front and began to deploy concealment, while the Division of the Seventh Brigade of the Field Heavy Artillery Regiment Kuraki Ichiro also entered the southern front position to conceal and stand by, and the second, fourth, and seventh chariot wings belonging to the Central Branch Dispatch Army were also assigned to three directions respectively, and the preparation time given by Hatohiko to the various units of the Imperial Army was only 48 hours.

Hatohiko asked the troops to launch a general attack on the city of Nanjing in the early morning of May 25, 1937, and at noon on June 1, Hatohiko had lunch in Zhang Xuewu's headquarters.

The various units of the army are closely carrying out the final deployment, and the [***] units that have been on top of various points in the city are also carrying out the final reinforcement of the fortifications, because the heavy troops of the army have gathered on the periphery of Nanjing, especially the positions along the Qinhuai River in the front of the southern line have a flat land as wide as 21 kilometers, and then the 51st and 57th divisions of the 74th Army Yu Jishi are deployed. It was still strengthened to a certain extent, but if the Qinhuai River positions on the front line of Gujiaying, Yangjiazhuang, Dashishan, and Liuzhuang were broken through by the Yue Army, the 74th Army in the entire flat area would have no danger to defend, and could only make a general retreat to the line of Guanghuamen, which was held by the 58th Division.

However, in this open area, Zhang Xuewu prepared to use Chen Yuxing's mechanized brigade to counterattack the Yue army that broke into this area, using heavy artillery fire to form a concentrated attack, and throwing jackal light tanks with hound armor and multi-purpose half-track vehicles to carry out repeated assaults, crushing the Yue army's attacking troops and destroying the pontoon bridge erected on the Qinhuai River.

Zhang Xuewu thought of all the possibilities of the army's attack, but he was still a little hasty in preparation, for example, the reserve team was not equipped with gas masks, and the limited gas masks were all equipped by Zhang Xuewu to the front-line combat troops, because Zhang Xuewu remembered that when the army attacked the Purple Mountain in history, he learned that the defensive troops were the elite of the [***] elite, and after teaching the general team, a large number of poison gas were released at the beginning. Then the price paid by the defenders who held their positions was also the annihilation of the whole army, and its tragedy was beyond words.

At noon on May 24, 1937, in order to prepare for the general attack on Nanjing launched by the military side in the early morning, the 26 river destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Yoshida Yoshimitsu under the command of the 2nd and 9th Destroyers went up the river under the leadership of the flagship Nanchuan, which had a standard displacement of 2,700 tons. The difference is that the Nanchuan is an ocean-going destroyer, while the Haizi series built for China is an offshore light cruiser.

(To be continued)