Shanghai, known as the headquarters of the Central China Dispatch Army.

Matsui Ishine's face was anxious, and he was pacing back and forth in the headquarters with one hand on his back, and suddenly, the chief of staff, Major General Tsukada Tsukasa, walked in in a hurry.

Seeing Tsukada's attack, Matsui Shigen immediately stopped and asked, "Tsukada-kun, how is it?" Got in touch with the Marines? ”

Tsukada shook his head with a solemn face and said, "Your Excellency General Hui, I still can't get in touch, Kondo-kun shouldn't really have an accident, right?" ”

Matsui Ishine was silent, not long ago the 3rd Squadron of the 3rd Flying Corps reported that the Marines may have been defeated, Matsui Ishine did not believe that the Marines were so strong in combat that they would be defeated by the Marines in such a short period of time, but now the radio communication with the Marines has been interrupted for almost two hours.

The only explanation is that something really happened to the Marines, and it was probably all gone.

Thinking of this, Matsui Shigen's heart suddenly froze, and he immediately raised his head and attacked Tsukada: "Tsukada-kun, immediately send a telegram to the Kawatani Brigade and order them to stop advancing and stay put." ”

"Hay!" Tsukada suddenly bowed his head, and immediately turned around and took the order.

………………….

On the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway, more than 5,000 troops are marching eastward along the highway, and the contingent of several thousand people stretches for several kilometers on the narrow highway.

A speeding ironclad car suddenly stopped on the side of the road, and Major General Shiro Kawatani stepped out of the car surrounded by two adjutants with a saber on his shoulder.

The three of them walked up a small dirt slope on the side of the road, Shiro Kawatani looked at the Imperial Army soldiers who walked in front of him from time to time with a solemn expression, turned his head and said to the adjutant beside him: "Order the troops, speed up, and be sure to meet Kondo-kun's marines as soon as possible!" ”

"Hay!" The adjutant bowed his head suddenly, and was about to leave, when a communications soldier rushed over.

When he arrived, the signal soldier suddenly retracted his feet and stood up saluting Shiro Kawatani and said, "Your Excellency General, send an urgent telegram to the army headquarters." ”

"Read!" Shiro Kawatani ordered with an expressionless face.

"The headquarters is in an emergency, the Marine Corps has lost contact, and now the situation is unknown, so I hereby order your department to stop advancing and stand by in place!" The communications soldier quickly opened the message and read.

"What? Lost contact with the Marines? Shiro Kawatani was shocked and said angrily: "What the hell is going on? Less than two hours ago, Kondo-kun sent me a telegram asking for help, and in less than two hours, his Marines were defeated? ”

He couldn't believe that the Marines would be defeated by the Naka[***] team in two hours, and he still went to contact, what does this mean? It shows that the Marines are likely to be wiped out.

Think about the thousands of Imperial warriors of the Marine Corps in Shanghai a few months ago, and they simply blocked the onslaught of the five divisions of the Chinese [***] team, although now without the support of aviation and naval guns, they will not be so vulnerable, right?

"It's not clear about this humble position, the headquarters just told us to stop advancing and stay put!" The Signal Soldier replied with a bowed head.

Shiro Kawatani's expression changed again and again, and he sighed heavily, waved his hand, and said, "Give the order, and all reading brigades will immediately stop advancing and build fortifications on the spot." ”

"Hay!" The signal soldier bowed his head again and immediately took the order to leave.

…………….

In Suzhou City, more than 6,000 officers and men of the Tiger Regiment have all been assembled, and in the previous battle of capturing Suzhou and annihilating the Devil Marines, the Tiger Regiment lost nearly 1,000 people.

Most of them were killed during the storming of Suzhou, and as for the battle of the total annihilation of the marines, the losses of the Tiger Regiment were not great because of the heavy artillery fire and the help of pervasive poison gas bombs.

It's just that the infantry battalions suffered casualties when chasing the fleeing devil soldiers, after all, the dog jumped over the wall in a hurry.

After the assembly, Qiao Anbang immediately ordered the armored company to be the vanguard, and the deputy regiment commander Qiao Anguo led three infantry battalions to follow, and thousands of troops rushed along the road towards the Sichuan Valley Brigade.

Qiao Anbang's purpose is very clear, that is, to take the initiative to attack and catch the Kawaya Brigade by surprise, because it is a surprise battle, there is no need for the artillery battalion with poor mobile surnames to participate.

So the remaining artillery battalion, baggage company, and communications company moved with Joan Bang along with the guard company.

The reason why Qiao Anbang did not personally lead the command of this battle was because the battle plan had already been formulated, and the distance of fifteen kilometers was an instant for the fully mechanized marching Tiger Regiment.

As for who will lead the team to carry out the execution, it is the same, as long as the devils do not have time to build field fortifications, then the Tiger Ben Regiment with the armored company as the vanguard will definitely be able to take the devils by surprise, once the devils cannot organize an effective defense, then with the absolute firepower advantage of the Tiger Ben Regiment, there should be no problem in defeating them.

……………….

Soon, Shiro Kawatani's order was transmitted by the signal corps to the major teams, and from the major teams to the squadrons, and the thousands of devil soldiers who were advancing suddenly stopped advancing.

They scattered one after another, except for some of the vigilant troops, the rest of the devils raised their sappers and shovels began to dig the fortifications.

The Kawatani Brigade is nominally a brigade, but in fact there are only five infantry brigades, namely the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Infantry Brigades directly under the command of the former Shanghai Dispatch Army, which have been stationed in Shanghai since the capture of Shanghai.

When Matsui Ishine was promoted to the Central China Dispatch Army, these five Reading Infantry Brigades were specially subordinated to the Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters, which were specifically responsible for the garrison and security of the Songhu area.

In order to encircle and suppress the Tiger Regiment in Suzhou, Matsui Ishine took his old subordinate Kawatani Shiro as the commander, and temporarily organized these five Reading Infantry Brigade and an artillery brigade into a mixed brigade.

In addition to the Kawatani Brigade, Matsui Ishine also mobilized the strength of four battalions of the Third Fleet Marine Corps, led by Eijiro Kondo, as the vanguard of the rush to Suzhou, intending to entangle the Tiger Regiment and prevent it from abandoning the city and fleeing.

And for the sake of the rapid march, Kondo Eijiro left the baggage and artillery units that he attached far behind, so these baggage and artillery units are now mixed with the Kawatani brigade.

Since the headquarters has not yet been set up, Shiro Kawatani will be frowning and pondering in his ironclad car, he still can't figure it out, how can an imperial army unit as strong as the Marine Corps fail? And it will lose so badly, if not, then why is there a loss of contact?

At this moment, there was a chaotic sound of footsteps outside the car, and Shiro Kawatani thought that the scout he had sent had returned, and quickly got up and got out of the car.

After getting out of the car, Shiro Kawatani found out that the person who came was not his scout, but Akira Koizumi, who belonged to the Marine Corps Artillery Group.

Seeing that Koizumi Akira's face was not good, Shiro Kawatani first asked in a cold voice: "Koizumi Shaoza, you are not in your post, what is the matter with coming here?" ”

"Your Excellency General, didn't Commander Kondo be violently attacked by the Shina Army and ask for support? Why did you stop moving forward? Koizumi Mingze suddenly straightened his feet and asked anxiously.

"The Dispatch Army Command and Kondo-kun's Marines have lost contact, so we were ordered to stop advancing and stay put." Shiro Kawatani told the truth in a cold tone.

"What? Lost contact with Commander Kondo? What's going on? When Koizumi Mingze heard this, he asked very nervously.

"I don't know exactly what's going on, but I've sent scouts to scout, and I'm sure there's news soon."

Shiro Kawatani's voice fell, and suddenly, a dense burst of gunfire came from the northwest direction, and everyone hurriedly turned around when they heard the sound, only to see that a Chinese armored unit hanging the blue sky and white flag on the highway suddenly appeared, and the machine guns on each armored car spat scarlet tongues of fire, and they were speeding towards their own positions.

"Yaga Yalu!" Shiro Kawatani looked shocked, his own positions had not yet been repaired, and many imperial warriors were still holding shovels in their hands, so there would be a Chinese armored force at this time?! Without thinking too much about it, Shiro Kawatani immediately pulled out his command knife and roared: "Order, all the teams will go all out to meet the attack, meet the attack!" ”

"Hay!" The orderly on the side hurriedly bowed his head and took the order.

After the orderlies left, Shiro Kawatani turned to Koizumi Akirasawa beside him and said, "Koizumi-kun, didn't your artillery brigade have four anti-aircraft guns that captured the Shina people in the Songhu battlefield?" Push them out right now and destroy the armored fighting vehicles of the China! In addition, the other artillerymen were ordered to open fire with all their might! ”

"Hay! Go for it now! Koizumi Akisawa didn't care about the affairs of the Marine Corps, the current battle situation was imminent, and he immediately bowed his head in response, and then turned around and strode away with his saber on his shoulder.

Soon, Koizumi Akisawa returned to his artillery position with the guards, although the artillery position had not yet been formed, but Koizumi Akisawa could not take care of so much, and immediately ordered to push out the four captured [***] 37mm battle defense guns.

Standing next to the battle defense gun, Koizumi Akisawa anxiously waited for the gunners to load the shells and calibrate the shooting elements, while raising the binoculars to observe the situation ahead.

Through the binoculars, he found that the Chinese armored fighting vehicles on the opposite side had approached their positions, and the dense machine-gun fire was wantonly slaughtering the brave soldiers of the imperial army who were bravely resisting in front.

Seeing this, Koizumi Mingze couldn't help but urge the gunner again and again: "Hurry up, get ready to fire!" ”

"Your Excellency Shaozuo, it's ready." After a while, several of the main gunners reported loudly.

"Yo Xi!" Koizumi Mingze pulled out his command knife with a brush, looked ahead with an awe-inspiring expression, and suddenly waved the command knife forward: "Fire!" Destroy those damned chariots of China! ”

As soon as Koizumi Mingze's words fell, several devil gunners opened fire one after another, and the scarlet fire suddenly whistled out from the muzzle of the cannon, with a long tail flame, and rushed towards several Chinese armored combat vehicles thousands of kilometers away.

(To be continued)