Chapter 617: The War of Resistance Against Songhu and the Fall of the War of Resistance (2)

The strategic location of Wusong is very important, it is like the throat of the Yangtze River, if you don't take Wusongkou and completely destroy the fort, the Japanese warships and transport ships entering and leaving here will tremble——1-

Vice Admiral Yoshizaburo Nomura, commander of the Japanese Third Fleet, was the new commander-in-chief of the Japanese Army and Navy in Shanghai, at least nominally. Nomura Kichizaburo believed that in order to ensure the safe landing of the follow-up troops in Shanghai, it was necessary to capture Wusong.

Therefore, since the artillery battle of Wusong on February 4, although the Wusong Fort has been bombed beyond recognition, and no more artillery shelling of the king's Japanese military and civilian ships, the warships of the Japanese Navy still come here every day to turn around and fire a burst of artillery.

However, this is an army landing, and unlike the previous landing of reinforced marines in the Japanese-controlled area of Shanghai, this time it landed in Wusong, which is a landing in front of the enemy, and it will not be easy.

Therefore, in order to open up a landing ground for the army near Wusong, Nomura Kichizaburo ordered the Japanese marines in Shanghai to prepare for an attack on Wusong, so as to cover the landing of Motoya Shimono. Major General Uematsu Renma, the newly appointed commander of the Marine Corps, was personally in charge of the response.

However, several brigades of the Marine Corps were stuck in the quagmire of Zhabei and could not be pulled out for a while. Zhisong Lianmo had no choice but to organize the sailors on the warship, formed a temporary marine team of about 100 people, and also brought two large Beetle armored vehicles, all of whom got into the cars and went straight to Wusong.

In order to ensure the success of the operation, Uematsu Lian Mo did not even avoid danger, and personally led the team into battle as a major general.

To land, you must first choose a landing site. When landing on the beach or on the riverbank, it is usually chosen near a pier port.

Therefore, Uematsu Rinma's goal was clear, he needed to occupy the dock so that reinforcements could disembark. And here in Wusong, there is a Wusong railway terminal located in Zhang Huabin. This wharf and the fortress area centered on the Wusong Fort are also separated by a Yunzaobang, which is connected by an iron bridge in the middle.

Hama is a saying in the area south of the Yangtze River. Jiangnan is known as a water town, the big one is called the river, such as the Huangpu River, the smaller one is called the river, and the smaller one is Jing and Bang. For Chinese, the most famous hama, of course, is the Shajiabang in the model play, many people will think that Shajiabang is a place name, in fact, it is the name of a river.

However, when it comes to being small, it is said by Jiangnan people who are accustomed to seeing big rivers. The Japanese do not understand in any way, in the eyes of the Japanese living on the island of the projectile land, this is clearly a river, and it is also a big river, and the Japanese call it the Zhuzaobang is different from the Shanghainese, they call this Yunzaobang the Wusong River.

If you ask Shanghainese, do you say that the water surface of the seaweed is wide? The locals will surely tell you with certainty that it is not wide. However, the width of the river at that time was 150 meters. Don't expect to be able to wade through it. To the south of this Yunzaobang is the Zhanghuabang Railway Wharf, and to the north is Wusong Town.

At this time, the opponent of Zhisong Lian Mo was the two regiments of the 156th Brigade led by Weng Zhaoyuan, who fired the first shot of resistance against Japan in Zhabei.

Wusong Town is a salient department, almost surrounded by water on three sides, and the south is this Yunzaobang, and the main force of the 156th Brigade relies on Wusong Town to establish a position. In order to ensure the safety of the flanks, Weng Zhaoyuan asked the 3rd Battalion of the 4th Regiment to send a company to occupy the railway station on the south bank of Yunzaohama. The rest of the 3 battalion controlled the iron bridge.

In the case that the troops do not have an advantage, it is necessary to seize Wusong quickly. Therefore, after Uematsu Rinma arrived at the attack site, he immediately commanded the sailors and relied on armored vehicles to cover the troops and launched an attack on the 4th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 8th Regiment stationed at the station.

As soon as the battle began, the Japanese warships roaming the Huangpu River also began to carry out heavy artillery shelling on the positions of the 156th Brigade defending Wusong Town to cover the actions of the marines. …,

However, the attack was launched only by the 100 sailors trained by Uematsu, although there was the cover of naval guns and armored vehicles, if it was to complete the breakthrough alone and achieve the tactical goal, it was still very difficult. Uematsu will never be so arrogant.

Another killer feature of Uematsu is that the fleet of Minoru Katsuno, who came from mainland China to reinforce Shanghai, will arrive soon. He had already ordered Minoru Katsuno's fleet to land directly at Wusong and join the sequence of attacking Wusong's troops.

The reason why Uematsu Rhima ordered these 100 sailors to attack first was to attract Weng Zhaoyuan's attention, so that when Minoru Katsuno landed, he would be caught off guard by Weng Zhaoyuan.

It's just that the purpose of planting pine grinding has not been achieved. After a few days of fighting, the 19th Route Army already had a good understanding of the strength of the Japanese marines, and more than 100 sailors Weng Zhaoyuan did not pay attention to it at all, and only ordered the 8th Company to hold the position, and the main force did not move.

And the 8th Company defending the station, according to the building of the station, although it fought hard, it still couldn't hold on to the more than 100 second-rate marines.

An hour later, the fleet of Minoru Katsuno's brigade hurried to the river in front of the railway dock. Because the water here is shallow, Minoru Katsuno's fleet is all sea vessels, and the draft is too deep to get directly to the pier, so he has to start changing ships on the river near the railway dock to prepare for landing.

The ships responsible for transporting Minoru Katsuno to the docks were two 500-ton steamboats sent by Koichi Shiozawa.

The two steamboats, one called Changyang Maru and the other called Yiyang Maru, both belonged to the Japanese-funded Nissin Steamship Company. Especially this Yiyang Pill, it was still in the newspapers for a while in the early years of the Republic of China. This Japanese merchant ship transported arms for the Beiyang government, but it was robbed in Fuling and became a sensational news at the time. Because the person who hijacked the ship was very famous, it was He Long, who was the commander of the garrison brigade of the eastern Sichuan Frontier Army at the time.

Nissin has been navigating China's inland rivers for many years and is familiar with the hydrology here. The Marines climbed off the destroyer, changed to two Nissin Steamship Company steamboats, and headed for the cargo pier at Zhanghuabang Wharf.

As soon as the first Yiyang Maru unloaded more than 100 troops of Katsuno's brigade, Weng Zhaoyuan, who had been prepared for a long time, ordered the eight mortars that had just been allocated to him to open fire and shell the Japanese troops who had landed.

After three rapid shots from the eight mortars, they picked up the mortars and ran, hiding far away without waiting for the destroyer's cannons to return fire.

Seeing that the landing force was attacked, the three Japanese ships on the river opened fire together with dozens of large-caliber guns, and the mortar positions of the 156th Brigade were instantly covered with smoke and dust from the violent explosion.

However, it was too late, the Japanese army did not blow up the mortars of the 156th Brigade, but the dock was blown up by the 156th Brigade in smoke and dust, and the Japanese army was killed and injured by more than 20 mortar shells, and more than 30 people were injured, and Yiyang Maru even suffered a shell and caught fire.

Seeing that the defenders on the shore were prepared, Minoru Katsuno did not dare to force the landing again until the 24 planes that took off from the aircraft carrier Kaga arrived and bombed the position of the 156th Brigade in Wusong in turn.

Under the cover of the aircraft, it was not until 2 p.m. that the 577 of the Katsuno Minoru Brigade completed the landing deployment.

It's okay to deal with a hundred temporary marines, and now a whole brigade of full-fledged marines comes up at once. The 8th Company could not stop it and was forced to abandon its position and retreat. The commander of the 3rd battalion was also saddened by the loss of the troops, and reported to Brigade Commander Weng Zhaoyuan by telephone, preparing to connect the 8 to Yunzaobang and retreat to the north bank.

Unexpectedly, in the roar of guns, Weng Zhaoyuan misheard, thinking that the 3rd Battalion was preparing to retreat on the whole line, he couldn't help but be furious, and ordered the 8th Company to counterattack and restore its position, otherwise military law would be engaged.

The 8th Company, which had already withdrawn from the station, wanted to repel the Japanese troops, who were far outnumbered by firepower and numbers, and it would be easier to recapture the station! If you don't know this, I'll explain it here. Moreover, the Japanese troops who occupied the station did not hold on to the spot, but went straight to the Iron Bridge of Tsuzaohama. …,

Uematsu Lian Mo believed that he had few troops and attacked step by step, and if he wanted to capture Wu Song, it was unlikely that he would succeed, and he had to chase and fight the retreating squadron so that it was possible to make the Chinese chaotic and take advantage of the situation to capture Wu Song.

At this time, there were only about 50 people left in the 8th Company, and if the 8th Company returned to attack the station, it would inevitably collide head-on with the superior enemy in the field, and the situation would be even more unfavorable to the 8th Company. It can even be said that it is to send to death.

Although the iron bridge is in sight, the order cannot be disobeyed. Zhao Jinsheng, the commander of the 8th company, was in a hurry, and although he did not cross the bridge, he did not immediately counterattack the station, but led his troops to withdraw to the flank of the iron bridge to cover it.

When the Japanese army stormed the iron bridge with all their might, Yang Jinsheng led the 8th Company to suddenly open fire fiercely from the flank, aiming at the Japanese marines who were launching a fierce attack on the Yunzaohama Iron Bridge.

Zhisong Lianmo still had about 500 men in his hands, and he had to deal with the 8th Company, which was constantly harassing him, and also attack the iron bridge, and his troops immediately seemed to be overstretched, so he had to dispel the idea of rushing across the river and occupying Wusong. Uematsu now only wants to drive the Chinese across the river.

This flank attack of the 8th Company was widely reprinted by posters, saying that with 30 or 40 men, 2,000 Japanese troops would be repulsed.

In fact, this flank attack only eased the situation for a while. In the face of the powerful Japanese offensive, by 4 p.m., the third battalion had been compressed to the iron bridge port, relying on the train parking lot here, fighting to the death.

And after the 7th Marine Brigade landed, the big brother of the Army that the Navy had been waiting for finally appeared. After the Marines occupied a safe landing ground, the transport flotilla of the 24th Brigade began to dock at the Zhangjiabang Railway Terminal at 1:55 p.m. to download troops. By about 6 p.m., all the officers and men of the brigade disembarked and joined the battle in a brigade.

To the south, there was a Japanese Marine Brigade and an Army Brigade, and to the east and north, dozens of Japanese warships, and dozens of planes of the Japanese Naval Air Force bombed in turn. In Wusong, a small place, the superiority of the Japanese army's air force and naval artillery will be brought into full play. Just northeast of Wusong, the defenders of a platoon, without even having a chance to let the enemy get close and release their guns, were directly bombarded by the Japanese naval artillery and collapsed the shelter, and all of them were killed.

And Weng Zhaoyuan got the order to defend Wusong to the death, and there was no chance to take advantage of it. Once the Yunzaohama front is broken through by the marines, the follow-up Japanese Army will enter Wusong.

At this time, Weng Zhaoyuan could only fight hard. In order to keep the iron bridge, Weng Zhaoyuan bypassed Zhong Jingrui, the commander of the fourth regiment, and ordered the commander of the 3rd battalion, Liang Wen, to defend the iron bridge and not take half a step back, otherwise military law would be engaged.

Liang Wen was not ambiguous, after answering Weng Zhaoyuan's call, he picked up a rifle and rushed to the bridgehead to direct the battle on the line of fire.

But under the courageous resistance of the 156th Brigade, the Japanese army paid a heavy price.

After a night of bloody fighting, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, Liang Wen, was wounded, and the 3rd Battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties, was no longer able to support it, so Weng Zhaoyuan had to order the 3rd Battalion to withdraw across Yunzaobang, blow up the iron bridge and retreat to the north bank.

The Japanese marines, who had seized positions on the south bank, were also exhausted by this time.

The forward positions on the south bank of the city were lost, and all the troops retreated to the north bank of the city. Weng Zhaoyuan, who had been in the war for a long time, knew that after the Japanese army captured the advance position, it would soon attack the main defensive position on the north bank of Yunzaohama.

However, to Weng Zhaoyuan's surprise, he waited left and right, and the front line was silent, and the Japanese army gathered, but did not launch a large-scale attack. Now Weng Zhaoyuan couldn't figure it out, what kind of medicine was sold in this gourd by the Japanese? Didn't the Japanese army want to capture Wusong?

Weng Terugaki did not know that the supreme commander of the Japanese army at this time, Vice Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura, had given the order to capture the Wusong Fort as early as the 6th, and he was not mistaken. However, there was one thing he could not have guessed that Shimono Motoya, the commander of the 24th Brigade of the Army, who was the main force to capture Wusong, refused to carry out the order to attack Wusong. …,

On the morning of the 8th, the day after the 156th Brigade was repulsed to the north bank of Umamohama, the commander of the 24th Brigade, Kumiya Shimoto, informed his nominal superior, Vice Admiral Kichizaburo Nomura, that he would not cross the river to attack the Wusong Battery.

In any army, all that is about military orders is like a mountain, so how can the subordinates not carry out the orders already issued by the superiors without authorization? Nomura was stupid when he got the report, what is going on?

Lieutenant General Nomura was angry, and the consequences were serious. But Major General Xia Yuan was not afraid at all, and he still spoke eloquently.

First, the Chinese blew up the iron bridge, and his troops did not force the ships to cross the baro. Secondly, after his reconnaissance, the position of the 156 Brigade on the opposite side was very difficult to gnaw, and the losses of the attacking troops would be very large, and the gains would outweigh the losses. Motoya Shimono believes that the capture of Jiangwan Town can achieve the greatest results.

Jiangwan Town, which is close to Zhabei, is less than 5 kilometers away from the Zhabei battlefield. The Songhu Railway goes out of Zhabei and has to pass through Jiangwan Town to go north to Wusong.

Jiangwan Town was originally a very ordinary Jiangnan town, but because it is close to downtown Shanghai, it has also prospered. To take a popular saying, Jiangwan is almost equal to the urban-rural junction of Shanghai. Paddy field farmhouses are common, and there are many factories and shops, as well as racetracks, Wenzhi University and other leading universities.

However, Jiangwan was close to the water because of Shanghai, but because of Shanghai, the city gate caught fire and affected the pond fish. Just because Jiangwan Town is close to Zhabei and guards the main road of the Songhu Railway from Wusong to Shanghai, it was targeted by Xiong Mi of Xiayuan.

If the mixed 24th Brigade takes Jiangwan Town, it will not only be able to approach and respond to the Marines in Zhabei, but will also cut off the connection between the 156th Brigade and Zhabei and seriously threaten the 19th Route Army in Zhabei.

Do you agree to Motoya Shimono's request? This made Nomura angry and embarrassed.

As an admiral, Nomura really couldn't figure out whether this plan was good or not. And, even if he figured it out, if the plan wasn't good, would the thorny army obediently abort the plan? If they don't agree, it is estimated that these people will go to the army staff headquarters to complain.

What to do? Nomura thought about it, and suddenly thought of a person, Major General Wanichiro Tashiro, a Japanese army attache stationed in Shanghai. To say that this Major General Tashiro Wanichiro is still a classmate of Major General Kumaya Shimoto, both of whom were born in the 15th Infantry Section of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer School. This one is more honest in the army, not so thorny, and more importantly, Major General Tashiro Wanichiro has been appointed as the chief of staff of the 9th Division that is about to arrive, and the mixed 24th Brigade is to obey the command of the 9th Division. Major General Tashiro's opinion, it will be difficult for Shimoto to refute it.

If the navy comes to point fingers, the army staff headquarters will definitely first share the same hatred of the enemy and drive the navy out of the door, and it is a big deal to settle accounts by itself behind closed doors. To deal with the thorns in the army, we can only rely on the army's own people.

If you figure it out, it's easy to do.

And here, seeing that the vice admiral came to ask for advice with a pious face, Rear Admiral Tashiro was also very useful. Looking at Motoya Shimono's plan roughly, Tashiro is happy. Xia Yuan's plan, if it can be realized, then of course it is good. But Tashiro knew the army's idea.

Motoya Shimono's mixed 24 brigades are all in normal times, and the total is more than 4,000 people. Let him attack Wusong to the north, he will not do it, but he will have to fight Jiangwan in the south. Then the Wusong side must leave enough surveillance troops to prevent Weng Zhaoyuan's Wusong defenders from cutting off his back road. With the rest of these people, if they want to attack Jiangwan again, they will not be very sure. Moreover, Tashiro himself has been in Shanghai for a long time, and he knows that the fortifications of the ** squadron on the Jiangwan side are strong, and if the attack fails and is counterattacked, the situation will immediately become ugly, and even dangerous.

In addition, Tashiro himself also has a little Jiujiu in his heart, although he became the chief of staff of the 9th Division, but the division commander Kenkichi Uemura has not yet arrived in Shanghai, it is better for him to keep a low profile, otherwise he will command the battle first and win, it will be the credit of the division commander, and if he loses, he will be punished. Therefore, Tashiro was also reluctant to make extraneous branches in the Yuan Brigade. …,

With the support of Tashiro's opinion, Nomura suddenly had something to rely on, and categorically rejected the plan proposed by Motoya Shimono to attack Jiangwan.

Motoya Shimono was not stupid, knowing that since Chief of Staff Tashiro had already expressed his opinion, this matter could not become a dispute between the navy and the army, and if he insisted on going his own way, he should not expect the staff headquarters in Tokyo to support him this time.

However, Motoya Shimono was not willing to obey the command of Nomura, the admiral, and since he couldn't attack Jiangwan, then I wouldn't go to the north bank to attack Wusong.

Therefore, after the 24th Brigade landed in the mixed group, it neither attacked Wusong to the north nor hit Jiangwan to the south, and spent its days near Zhangjiabang in such a daze.

The Japanese army was doing nothing, but the navy was fighting bitterly.

In Zhabei, with the increase of reinforcements from the squadron, the war began to slowly extend to the suburbs. On February 9, while the Japanese army and navy commanders in Shanghai were still arguing with each other, the troops of the 19th Route Army suddenly appeared on the weak right flank of the Japanese army.

At this time, the Japanese marines were severely attrition compared to when the war began. Not counting the sailors brought in from the warships to make up the numbers, by 7 February, the total number of Japanese marines in Shanghai was only 3,740.

Except for the Marine Corps that served as a guard in Huxi and Hongkou. A further 370 personnel are stationed in Yangshupu, of which 300 are used to protect the land airfield that is being built temporarily. On the Wusong side, because of the new arrival of the 7th Brigade, there are still less than 500 soldiers. The remaining 2,660 people are in Zhabei.

Although the main force of the Japanese Marine Corps was concentrated in Zhabei and fought with the 120th Brigade of Brigade Commander Deng Zhicai, it did not have the upper hand at all.

Fortunately, there is a public concession in the south, and the squadron can't make a detour. But there was little cover to the north. There are Japanese troops in Wusong in the north, but there is still a large gap of dozens of miles between Wusong and Zhabei.

At the beginning of the Zhabei Street Battle, the 19th Route Army had insufficient troops in the urban area, so its forces were naturally concentrated in Zhabei and had no strength to fight in a roundabout way. But at this time, reinforcements from the 19th Route Army gathered, and interest in the flanks of the Japanese began.

The suburbs north of Zhabei, along the railway to Wusong, is the Jiangwan Town that is remembered by Shimono Motomi. Stationed here is the Liang Shiji Division of the First Regiment of the 61st Division.

The 61st Division was the strongest division of the 19th Route Army. When the 19th Route Army was first formed, the 78th Division did not even have a shadow, and the 60th Division was expanded from the Independent Brigade, and only the 61st Division was adapted from the old foundation of the Iron Army brought out by Cai Tingkai at the beginning, with more backbones and stronger strength.

The regiment commander Liang Shiji is a native of Meixian County, Guangdong, graduated from the Baoding Military Academy, and has a high degree of education, and his hands are not ambiguous. After Liang Shifu led his troops to Jiangwan Town, he had already been gearing up to try his skills. According to Cai Tingkai's order, Liang Shifu led his troops to enter Jiangwan Town, and the task was two words, oppression. Suppress the enemy in front of him and retreat back into the "black concession" of Hongkou.

On February 9th, when the army was mixed into the 24th brigade clamoring to fight Jiangwan and compete with the navy. Liang Shifu began to direct the troops to launch operations on the flank of the Japanese army. The 7th Company was dispatched from Jiangwan to conduct a powerful search for the Japanese positions in the direction of Hongkou to the east.

The so-called power search, that is, armed reconnaissance. Go up to a small group of troops to probe the enemy's situation and weigh the enemy's weight. It is purely tentative to expel and destroy a small group of enemy troops, and to withdraw when it encounters a large force of enemy troops.

The 7th Company was ordered to conduct a power search in the direction of Qujiaqiao to the east of Jiangwan.

I never thought that this search, without paying attention, turned out to be like cutting tofu with a steel knife, directly into the direction of Qujiaqiao, and approached the racecourse. The enemy in front turned out to be only the enemy's "plainclothes team", that is, a motley group of temporary workers composed of Japanese expatriates, and no serious Japanese soldiers were found at all.

It turned out that the Japanese troops on the Hongkou side only had a total of 70 people, and they couldn't take care of it at all. …,

After easily succeeding, the company commander Luo Mingyang ordered the whole company to build fortifications on the spot and effectively occupy the Qujia Bridge.

Qujiaqiao is not the defense area of the 61st Division, but the defense area of the 60th Division in Zhabei.

Although Liang Shifu was only a regiment commander, he must have graduated from the Baoding Military Academy, and his military attainment was extremely high, and he was not limited to the restrictions of the defense area, and he believed that Qujiaqiao was located on the main transportation route, and occupying this point would not only help reduce the distance between him and the 60th Division on the right flank, facilitate communication, but also exert tremendous pressure on the Japanese army. Therefore, the 7th Company was required to occupy Qujiaqiao and wait for the 60th Division to send troops to take over.

Although this was only a small battlefield adjustment, it achieved Liang Shiqi's goal, making Zhisong Lian Mo feel huge pressure and extreme worry.

Because Hongkou Japan's "Black Concession" is empty in space.

Hongkou has only 70 marines, but it has to guard such a long border and cannot withstand any large-scale attack by the squadron. Once the Chinese rushed into the Hongkou "Black Concession", where Japanese and overseas Chinese were concentrated, thinking about the consequences, Uematsu would have a chill on his back.

Zhisong Lianmo didn't know that in fact, the 19th Route Army, including Jiang Guangding and Cai Tingkai, had no intention of attacking the Japanese "Black Concession" again. The young officers of the 19th Route Army really wanted to go in at once. However, as soon as they reached the top level, whether it was the Nanjing side or the Shanghai front, they all expected the Japanese to retreat in the face of difficulties, and they had no intention of rushing into the Japanese nest at all, for fear that the war would expand and it would be difficult for it to end. Last time, if there was no Shi Ming, he would not have rushed Shiozawa Koichi to the warship.

As a result, Uematsu Lianma quickly dispatched troops to Qujiaqiao for reinforcements, and even transferred the temporary marine corps composed of more than 100 warships and sailors from Wusong.

The Japanese reaction was also very fast, and the Japanese counterattack began before the fortifications of the 7th Company were completed. This was not all because the Japanese moved too quickly, but because the 19th Route Army was too poor in building fortifications, and they had very little training in this area in peacetime.

The 7th Company lacked fortifications and did not even have very favorable terrain cover. On the contrary, when the Japanese Marines attacked, they were able to get the support of the Japanese field artillery in Hongkou Park. However, the officers and men of the 7th Company could not get the support of friendly forces, because Qujiaqiao was some distance from Jiangwan Town, forming a long and narrow protrusion, and it was also very prominent, and the friendly fire of the nearby positions was difficult to clamp down on the Japanese troops. The Japanese firepower was not only ferocious, but also very accurate in individual shooting, especially the shooting accuracy of the Japanese machine guns was very high. The 7th Company, which was exposed to enemy fire, fought alone, suffering heavy casualties.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Liang Shiyu hurriedly ordered Gu Huang, the acting commander of the 3rd Battalion, to lead the 8th Company and the Machine Gun Company to rush to respond. In fact, the attacking Japanese army did not have many troops of its own, and when they found that the squadron ** team rushed to two platoons, they quickly retreated. However, Luo Mingyang, who was in charge of the front-line command, did not seize the opportunity to counterattack in time. A golden opportunity to consolidate positions was lost.

With the arrival of Japanese reinforcements and heavy artillery bombardment, at 6 p.m., Liang Shifu had no choice but to order his troops to abandon Qujiaqiao and withdraw to Jiangwan Town. In this battle, a regiment of 75 people lost almost a company.

The scale of this outpost battle was not large, but the 61st Division was still deeply shocked, because it was unprecedented for such a small battle to have such a high casualty rate. According to the post-war report of the 19th Route Army, "This damage, calculated by company units, is actually unprecedented in repeated battles." ”

This kind of armed search was also going on in the north of Jiangwan, and for several days in a row, the two sides tested each other and understood each other through such a series of searches and counterattacks. Through such outpost battles, the two sides gradually formed a new front in the northern suburbs of Shanghai.

Outside of this series of skirmishes, there has been no major fighting between the two sides. It lasted until February 11. The situation has changed because on this day, a very small thing happened.

At 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th, a Japanese merchant ship "Nagasaki Maru" passed through the Huangpu River near Wusongkou, and was suddenly fired by the machine gun of the ** squadron at Wusong Port. The nearby Japanese Yubari expelled and fired back with a few shots. After the Japanese destroyers opened fire, the defenders on the shore knew that it would not be good to confront the Japanese large-caliber naval guns, so they immediately stopped firing. …,

Conflicts like this happen almost every day. Whether it was the 19th Route Army, the Japanese Navy, or even the Japanese steamers, they were no longer surprised. The machine gunner of the 156th Brigade of the 19th Route Army, who could shoot at him, must not have expected that his shooting this time would cause a storm and make Yunzaobang, who had been silent for a long time, quickly make a fuss.

Because some people suddenly became more serious about it.

Who is this person? It was really the commander of the 24th Brigade of the Japanese Army, Motoya Shimono.

It's been four days since Motoya Shimono arrived in Shanghai, because he disagreed with Nomura. Shimono Motoya grinded foreign workers, and the entire mixed 24th Brigade was bored in the Zhanghuabang area on the south bank of Wusongyun Zaobang. Jing Ji thought about moving, and seeing the lively fighting around Zhabei, Shimono Motoya couldn't stand still, and wanted to move his hands and feet.

Where to start? Directly attacking Wusong to the north, it was an order that the Nomura Navy asked him to carry out, but he refused, and now he is naturally embarrassed to fight there directly. As for attacking Jiangwan to the south, this proposal was put forward by himself, but it had been vetoed by Lieutenant General Nomura, and it was not appropriate to openly disobey the order. All that remains is to attack westward.

But there must be an explanation for attacking, otherwise it is an unauthorized operation. Although he didn't care about Vice Admiral Nomura, there was also a chief of staff in Shanghai, Daida. Ignoring Shirota's existence is inappropriate in any case.

As a result, the machine gun fire of the squadron on the Japanese merchant ships became a rhetoric for the mixed 24 Brigade to take action. Motoya Shimono asked Daida to the effect that our follow-up main force, the Ninth Division, was about to arrive in Shanghai, and their convoy would definitely pass through Wusongkou. In order to avoid the same danger to the fleet, it was necessary to attack Wusongkou sooner or later. He suggested that in view of the fact that the 156th Brigade on the opposite bank had already built a strong position, the 24th Brigade would not directly force the crossing of the Turbabang and seize Wusong. Instead, they attacked westward, went to the upper reaches of Yunzaobang, and then crossed the river, threatening the 156th Brigade and forcing it to abandon its position and evacuate Wusong.

After getting the tacit approval of Shirota, Motoya Shimono did not report to Nomura and directly gave the order to go west, and instead crossed the Kumohama to the north.

Participating in the offensive was the 2nd Brigade of the 14th Wing of the 24th Mixed Brigade Regiment. The place of attack is called Jijia Bridge. Guarding this area are also the troops of the 61st Division, and the 61st Company of the 9th Regiment of the 61st Division is guarding the Jijia Bridge.

On the 12th, the mixed 24th Brigade, which had been inactive, showed his claws. On this day, the 2nd Brigade first launched an attack on the small force of the 6th Regiment remaining on the south bank of the Tsumohama, and after clearing the area, it began to build bridges and prepare to cross the river.

In this battle, the 2nd Brigade went very smoothly, and not a single person was killed. On the contrary, the 1st Brigade of the 46th Wing on the flank had a senior soldier Masumi Matsumori killed, and he also became the first person in the Japanese Army to die in Shanghai.

The actions of the Japanese army undoubtedly attracted the attention of Zheng Weiji, commander of the 6th Regiment, Mao Weishou, commander of the 61st Division, and Zhang Yan, deputy commander of the 61st Division.

It is said that under such close surveillance, the next crossing of the river by the Japanese army must be very difficult. However, no one expected that the Japanese army's crossing of the river the next day would be successful in one fell swoop.

It turned out that at 4 o'clock in the morning on February 13, there was light snow in Shanghai, and there was also a lot of fog. The fog was thick, the rain and snow were falling, and the vision was already very poor. The Japanese suddenly attacked the north bank of the river with artillery fire and used smoke bombs to cover the river crossing.

The officers and men of the 61st Division can also be said to have experienced a hundred battles, but these battles were all civil wars fought in China, and they have never seen a seemingly high-tech weapon like a smokescreen bomb. As soon as the Japanese army's smoke bombs were fired, some officers and men even thought that the smoke bombs were poison gas bombs, and they ran away with their legs, and the formation was suddenly in chaos. The few remaining officers and men who insisted desperately fought back, but the wide river was plunged into a white mist in front of them, and the shooting was completely inaccurate. It was not until the Japanese crossed the river and rushed to the front of the position that they could see it clearly. As a result, the position was quickly lost in the first Japanese charge. …,

With the cover of poor sight weather, the Japanese army successfully built a bridge over the Momohama with great efficiency. The Japanese troops immediately crossed the bridge and attacked. The entire offensive was carried out in one go in a short time.

Before the surrounding squadrons had time to reinforce, the 9th Company stationed at Jijiaqiao had collapsed.

No one expected that the wide river did not block the Japanese army for much time, and the soldiers who were known as the Iron Army in the domestic battlefield were taught a solid lesson in the face of the Japanese army's modern weapons and modern fighting methods.

The defense line of Yunzaohama was broken, and the 61st Division was shaken.

The other fraternal units of the 19th Route Army, whether it was the 78th Division or the 60th Division, fought a majestic first battle and won a good reputation. As a division with the strongest combat effectiveness of the 19th Route Army, the 61st Division has been in contact with the Japanese for a lot of small battles in the past few days, and it has not taken any advantage. 61 Division, from top to bottom, his face is going to be hot.

The face that couldn't hold back the most was Zhang Yan, the top commander of the 61st Division. Because Mao Weishou, the commander of the 61st Division, was absent from his post due to illness, Zhang Yan, who was the deputy division commander and commander of the 122nd Brigade, became the head of the 61st Division at this time.

Zhang Yan is a native of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, but he was born in Vietnam, and even his mother is Vietnamese. When he was 10 years old, Zhang Yan returned to China with his father, and the young Zhang Yan worked as a teahouse boy who poured tea, worked as a coolie, and defected to his cousin's Guangdong army when he couldn't live a hard life.

At this time, Zhang Yan was just 30 years old, which was the year of his establishment. Don't look at his age, he is very prestigious in the 19th Route Army. In the life-and-death battle between the 19th Route Army and the Red Army in Xingwei, Cai Tingkai personally led the 5 regiments that were holding Xingwei to almost collapse by Peng Dehuai's Red Third Army, while the 6 regiments commanded by Zhang Yan defeated the ** Red First Army, killed back Xingwei, and saved the 19th Route Army from the brink of total annihilation.

Young and ambitious, Zhang Yan and his 61st Division naturally have a sense of self as an ace army.

But this time, the Jijiaqiao position was lost within a few hours, but the 9th Company that was defeated still belonged to his Zhang Yan's housekeeping troops, and Zhang Yan couldn't sit still in public and private.

At this time, the situation on the front line was very severe, the 2nd Brigade of the 14th Wing of the Japanese Army crossed the river to seize the Jijia Bridge and continued to advance northward, and then captured Yaojiawan where the 6th Regiment of the 122nd Brigade set up an artillery position, and then broke through to seize Zhong's house, and in just a few hours, captured three large settlements in a row, and successfully established a bridgehead on the north bank of Yunzaobang.

Once the Japanese army stabilizes its position and holds this bridgehead, the Yunzahama defense line will lose its river support, and the 156th Brigade of the 78th Division, Weng Zhaoyuan, will also be in a dangerous situation of being attacked on three sides, and may be surrounded by the Japanese 24th Brigade at any time. Zhang Yan, who had experienced a hundred battles, knew the stakes and quickly organized the strength of the whole division to prepare for a counterattack.

The lost positions all belonged to the defense zone of the 122nd battalion of the 6th regiment of the 3rd brigade. The first to intercept the Japanese army was Li Rongxi, the commander of the 3rd Battalion. Where you lose it, you have to find it from there.

Li Rongxi graduated from the 20th class of the Japanese Non-commissioned Officer School, and Weng Zhaoyuan is a classmate of the same cavalry department. Li Rongxi, who also knew that the situation was critical, rushed forward with two companies on a run, and entangled the advancing Japanese troops from the west, and the 2nd Battalion, which rushed to hear the news, also rushed from the east to flank the Japanese army together, and the two sides quickly launched a fierce battle in the area of Zhongjiazhai and Yaojiawan.

Zhang Yan also personally rushed to the front line and set up a headquarters in Zhangjia Village, not far from the front line, to supervise the counterattack. In order to strengthen the striking force, by 9 a.m., a battalion of the 5th Regiment was also ordered to join the siege, but the situation was very unfavorable. The officers and men of the three battalions fought desperately, and although they paid heavy casualties under the fierce fire of the Japanese army, they were unable to break through the Japanese position.

At 11 o'clock, Zhang Yan, who was ruthless, threw another battalion into another battalion and launched a general attack again, pressing the whole line together. The fierce battle lasted until 1 p.m., and after two hours of fighting, there was still not much progress! …,

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the weather was even colder, and the rain and snow in the morning turned into heavy snow, and the 19th Route Army from Guangdong, wading through the icy river in the muddy paddy fields, launched a third full-front attack.

Under Zhang Yan's personal supervision, the 19th Route Army followed one after another, sacrificed its charge, and finally counterattacked at more than 3 o'clock in the afternoon to recapture the Zhong family's house.

However, the 122 Brigade was exhausted and could not afford to continue the onslaught.

None of them expected that a large battalion of the Japanese army would be so difficult to fight, and the elite troops of a whole and a half regiment were still unable to drive the Japanese army back after almost continuous strong attacks for half a day. The officers and men threw themselves into battle without even eating breakfast, exhausted, frozen and hungry, and their first vigor was exhausted.

Moreover, this area belongs to the water network zone, the streams are crisscrossed, and the movement of troops is very difficult, and the Japanese army is not only strong in firepower, but also very well arranged. Although the 122 Brigade forgot about life and death, it was unable to take Yaojiawan.

In the vicious battle, Li Rongxi, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Regiment, was shot and died, Huang Quan, the lieutenant colonel of the 6th Regiment, was also killed on the battlefield, and even Zheng Weiji, the commander of the 6th Regiment, was also wounded.

The regimental battalion commander was dead and wounded, and Zhang Yan had no choice but to order a temporary halt to the attack.

The battle lasted from early morning to afternoon, and three attacks on all fronts were repulsed, and the regimental battalion commander was killed and wounded. Such a tragic battle caught the officers and men of the 61st Division by surprise.

Seeing countless comrades-in-arms dying beside him, and seeing the corpses of our soldiers strewn all over the ground in front of the enemy's position but unable to rush forward, the sense of frustration and fear can easily make the soldiers lose their courage, and the next attack will be weak. This is why, in real battles, it is common to see examples of attacking troops with a large number of people but unable to attack repeatedly, because after a vicious battle, the troops are already stunned, loosened, or even softened.

can uphold the spirit of death in a desperate situation, and face the ending of almost nine deaths, but still be able to charge bravely. This is the most essential difference between elite troops and miscellaneous armies, a strong will to fight.

The 61st Division is such a unit with a very strong will to fight and can afford to fight tough battles.

After the three failed charges and the corpses were strewn all over the field, the soldiers of the 61st Division carried down the bodies of the wounded and their comrades with tears in their eyes, the detachments redivided the direction of the attack, the infantry re-replenished ammunition, and the fireteam re-calibrated the firing target, and hurriedly picked up a few mouthfuls of food. After more than three hours of preparation, the fourth full-front offensive began again!

At half past seven o'clock in the evening, the snow was still falling, there were no flares, no moon, only the light of the explosion that made it possible to identify the stormtroopers. The officers and men of the 5th and 6th regiments of the 122nd Brigade once again fiercely pounced.

However, the battle was still fierce, and the Japanese retreated to the Yaojiawan position, although the position became smaller, but the firepower was more intensive, and the Japanese blocked all the charging roads close to Yaojiawan with dense firepower.

The bitter battle lasted until more than nine o'clock, and the soldiers of the 61st Division, who had been fighting fiercely for more than an hour, still refused to give up and stubbornly squeezed forward, but they were never able to destroy the Japanese position.

Seeing that this full-line attack was about to be reluctantly terminated, Zhang Yan was already a little discouraged, but at this moment, it changed suddenly.

On the other side of the river south of Yaojiawan, there was a sudden burst of gunfire.

It turned out that the two large settlements controlled by the Japanese army crossed Yunzaobang, and the first thing to the north was Jijiaqiao, and then to the north was Yaojiawan. There are creek intervals between almost every settlement. In contrast, Yaojiawan went deeper into the position of the squadron, so the focus of the competition between the two sides has always been in Yaojiawan, and the Japanese troops in Jijiaqiao only fought with the squadron across the river, and the battle was not fierce. But this time, I don't know which force, but it slashed at the area north of Jijiaqiao and south of Yaojiawan.

This was a successful surprise attack, and the story of this surprise attack was spread more and more after the war, not only in the newspapers in Shanghai, but also in Nanjing, such as "Central Daily", "Declaration", "Ta Kung Pao" and other major newspapers......

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