Shanghai, Central China Dispatch Army Headquarters, Commander General Shunroku Hata is working at his desk, behind him is a huge battle map of China and a rising sun flag, next to a seemingly ordinary saber, that is his family heirloom sword, just put on a military sword uniform, samurai-born officers like to do this, so that the souls of their ancestors bless their martial luck for a long time.

The Chief of Staff, Major General Shozo Kawabe, walked in and bowed: "Your Excellency, Commander." ”

"Oh, it's Riverside-kun, please take a seat." Shunroku Hata stood up from behind the table, returned the salute, then shook hands, asked the orderlies to pour tea for the chief of staff, and after a pleasantry, said: "The base camp order, to capture Koto Province, which troop does Kawabe-kun think is more appropriate to send." ”

Hebe Zhengsan was stunned: "Has the base camp changed its mind again, I think that the battle against China has reached the point where it will be accepted when it is good, and if it continues to fight, the empire's troops are insufficient and difficult to maintain, and Jiangdong Province is not such a strategic place that must be taken for the empire." ”

Hata Junroku said: "I think so too, but the guys from the main battle faction in China are going to go hard, and the newly recruited twenty divisions are about to become an army, and the base camp plans to launch an attack on Wuhan, in order to cooperate with the operation, and at the same time to carry out a task of the base camp, our army must conquer Jiangdong."

Kawabe Shozo frowned: "There is a big gap in troops, so I think let's let the Sixth Division send out a wing." ”

Shunroku Hata smiled dumbly: "Hebian-kun, isn't it too exaggerated to use a wing to attack that province." ”

Kawabe Shozo also smiled: "Although it is a province, but according to the intelligence of the special high class, there is no regular army to defend it, even if there are one or two army divisions of the Zhina, I think the infantry of a wing can also deal with it calmly, in the battle of the North China Front to conquer Kaifeng, there was a case of a brigade chasing a division of the Zhina Army, and our Central China Dispatch Army will not lose to those guys in the north." ”

"If it's just to capture Gangdong Province, one wing is indeed enough, but there is an area in the north of Gangdong Province, which is the core of Gangdong, where there are coal mines and steel factories to provide a steady stream of war materials for the Chinese army, and our army must occupy this place." ”

As he spoke, he came to the map and pointed to the Jiangbei area on the map: "Beitai City is the private territory of Chen Zikun, a high-ranking general in China, and the base camp decided to destroy his city in order to punish him for his offense against the empire itself. So, Riverside-kun, to be on the safe side, please send a brigade, please. ”

"Hay." Riverside Zhengsan bowed slightly.

……

The headquarters of the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army in Shanghai dispatched the 36th Brigade under the 6th Division to carry out offensive operations against Jiangdong Province, the 6th Division was notorious, one of the most effective divisions in the Japanese army, and participated in the Nanjing Massacre, and every soldier committed a lot of evil deeds, and as soon as the news came out, the people of Jiangdong were even more terrified.

The provincial government has already been evacuated, and it is said that Liu Youjin, the former secretary general of the evacuation, and Yan Su, the provincial chairman, had a big quarrel and resigned in anger, for reasons unknown.

The 36th Brigade has more than 7,000 soldiers, pouring out of the nest, swaggering and marching on the Jiangdong Plain, where there is no danger to defend, the ripe wheat is golden, there is no one in the field, the brigade commander Major General Ushijima is wearing a meticulous general uniform, holding a saber with a golden knife, this is his family heirloom sword, the name is: Lai Guojun.

He was the third son of Lieutenant Ushijima Minoru of the former Satsuma Domain, graduated from the Army Non-commissioned Officer School in 1908 with the third honor, and studied at the Army University for four years.

The military operation to attack Jiangdong was tantamount to a summer trip for Major General Ushijima, who had participated in the Shanghai operation and the Nanking battle, Jiangdong Province was not a strategic place in China, the other side had given up resistance, and there were no enemy troops along the way.

Although he greatly despised the Shina army, Ushijima was not so complacent as not to send scouts, in fact, he was very careful to send multiple units to reconnoiter and repeatedly confirm that there were no enemy troops on the way forward.

Under the early summer sun, the soldiers marched vigorously, the rising sun flag was waving in the wind, the roads in Jiangdong Province were well built, and the troops marched extremely fast.

The 36th Brigade marched into the provincial capital of Koto without hindrance, and the local gentry entrusted several gentlemen who had studied in Japan to come to offer condolences and gifts, asking General Ushijima not to embarrass the people.

Ushijima said with kind words to soothe him, saying that the Imperial Japanese Army is strictly disciplined and will never harass the people like your Kuomintang troops, although rest assured, I would like to ask you to build the maintenance association as soon as possible, so as to maintain order, jointly build a royal paradise, and work in a friendly manner between Japan and China.

Under his auspices, the provincial capital peacefully completed the transition, and the blue sky and white sun flag on the city gate was lowered and replaced with a sun flag.

Ushijima's brigade headquarters was set up in the provincial government, and the private residence was located in the Chen Mansion on Fenglin Road, which was originally Chen Zikun's private residence, which was built quite beautifully, with fountains and rockeries, crystal chandeliers and pianos in the living room, and the general was very satisfied.

The brigade sent several units, but took over other cities and counties in Gangdong Province, and since there was no fear of fighting at all, only a small squad of soldiers was needed to take over a county.

The only thing that needs special treatment is Beitai, which is guarded by Chinese police and militia groups, and is located north of the Huai River, making it difficult to attack.

Ushijima Mitsuru decided to send a large force to advance north along the railway line and capture Kita-Tai.

In the railway station of the provincial capital, it was empty, not to mention the locomotive, not even a single wagon remained, the Chinese did a good job of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness, did not leave anything useful for the imperial army, the troops could not advance by car, so they had to go north along the road, and at the forefront was a squad of plainclothes, dressed as Chinese defeated soldiers and ordinary people, mixed among the refugees.

Huaijiang Railway Bridge, the railway has been suspended, on the bridge is a large group of refugees, cars and mules and people with families and mouths mixed together, people shouting and neighing, very noisy, the bridge head to maintain order is dozens of armed patrol officers of the Beitai Police Station, working on a continuous axis for several days, very busy, I heard that the provincial capital has been occupied by the Japanese, these days there are a lot of people who have fled.

Police Chief Wang Degui came to inspect with his hands behind his back, pointed to the mess on the bridge and said, "What's going on, go and see." ”

A small policeman rushed over to inquire, and came back to report: "A car broke down and was blocked in the middle of the road, but another stubborn donkey was unwilling to move its nest and blocked the bridge deck." ”

Wang Degui was furious: "Damn, isn't this delaying, Lao Tzu will go and take a look." ”

When I went to the place, a group of people were arguing, a truck full of goods was parked in the middle of the road, how could it not start, there was a donkey cart next to it, the donkey temper came up, no matter how to pump it away, the bridge was not very wide, and the refugees were all carrying big bags and small luggage, and countless vehicles behind were blocked and whistled.

The owner of the car was calm, sitting in the cab smoking, letting the driver quarrel with others, seeing Wang Degui coming, he restrained a little, and stuck his head out of the window: "Director Wang, have you eaten?" ”

Wang Degui looked at it, didn't know it, and said impatiently: "Hurry up and drive the car away, don't get in the way." ”

The owner said: "The car is turned off, please go to the master, it will be there in less than half an hour, you can help, get the donkey cart away, it will be over." ”

Wang Degui glanced at the owner of the car with fat heads and big ears, and then looked at the car full of rice, cooking oil, cigarettes, liquor and other scarce materials, and knew that this guy was a speculator, taking advantage of the shortage of materials in Beitai to make a fortune, and he felt a little disdainful in his heart.

He didn't speak, he walked to the donkey cart first, pulled out his pistol and shot at the donkey's head, the stubborn donkey stood up on the spot, the owner of the donkey car howled and cried, Wang Degui carried the smoking pistol and scolded: "If you are verbose, I will kill you!" ”

The owner of the donkey didn't dare to talk nonsense, a group of people pushed the dead donkey down the Huai River, Wang Degui was about to come over to reprimand the speculator, suddenly his eyes widened, he pulled out his gun and shouted: "Brothers, little Japan is coming!" ”

The sound of gunfire alarmed the Japanese plainclothes team hiding among the refugees, thinking that the scouts had been discovered, so they simply tore off their camouflage and hit head-on, they pulled out the saber hidden under the flat shoulder, pulled out the southern-style pistol, and rushed over with a scream.

Wang Degui was very clever, jumped on the hood of the truck, pulled out 20 shell guns, dialed to the burst position, and swept a shuttle forward, and other policemen reacted and raised their guns to shoot.

The policemen were equipped with machine guns, and the fire was very fierce, and the Japanese plainclothes team could not rush over, so they had to lie on the bridge deck and shoot at each other.

The plainclothes team finally failed to rush over, and was all annihilated on the bridge, Xiao Lang, the mayor of Beitai, arrived when he heard the news, and saw the corpse of the refugees lying on the bridge, and couldn't help but be moved, and then saw the truck full of urgently needed supplies, and immediately became angry: "Whose car!" ”

"Mine." The owner of the car came over in a panic, and took out a cigarette with a trembling hand: "Mayor Xiao, smoke one." ”

"These people were all killed by you." Xiao Lang pointed to the corpses on the bridge, and his eyes were red.

"No, no, don't do my business." The owner shook his head violently.

Wang Degui said: "If it weren't for your dog's car jam here, they would have been able to come over, what are you doing, what is loaded in the car, whose goods are they?" ”

A series of questions made the owner speechless, Xiao Lang said: "Director Wang, in extraordinary times, reselling materials delays military aircraft, how to deal with it?" ”

"It should be shot." Wang Degui straightened his waist.

"Then let's do it." Xiao Lang waved his hand, and the owner shouted: "You can't kill me, I'm Director Zhao's brother-in-law." ”

Wang Degui was stunned for a moment, it turned out that this kid was Zhao Yufeng's person, so the goods on the car were also Lao Zhao's, and the water washed the Dragon King Temple, his own family.

He thought about it, put the gun away, and asked the owner of the car to be put down for the time being.

Xiao Lang didn't care about the life and death of the speculators, and at the moment his heart was full of this iron bridge.

Huaijiang Railway Bridge, embodies their countless sweat and hard work, every screw is full of affection, and now, the first bridge of the Huaijiang River that has been built for less than ten years is about to complete its historical mission.

As early as half a month ago, explosives packs were installed in key parts of the iron bridge, and as the commander-in-chief of the iron bridge project, Xiao Lang naturally knew how to destroy his masterpiece.

When needed, he will personally press the detonation button.

On the other side of the river, smoke and dust were billowing out, and a Japanese brigade had already arrived with great momentum.