The remnant sun was like blood, on the battlefield of Luodian, the noisy shouts of killing, and the incessant sound of explosions finally stopped, and in front of the positions of the Chinese defenders, the corpses of Chinese and Japanese soldiers were lying all over the place.

A tattered military flag fluttered in the wind in the setting sun, and a bombed and blinded second lieutenant of the Central Army stood under the flag, clutching the flagpole covered in blood.

Just now, after more than an hour of bloody fighting, he and countless comrades-in-arms finally repelled a Japanese onslaught again, but at the cost of nearly 1,000 defending officers and soldiers all but him.

The second lieutenant of the Central Army looked up at the bloody sunset, and seemed to see his parents, wife and children in his distant hometown, he grinned, and seemed to see those comrades-in-arms who had sacrificed their lives for the country.

swallowed the saliva mixed with blood, and said with difficulty: "Rabbit cubs, the time has come, I will accompany you......"

俅俅俅俅...... The sky resounded with a shrill and piercing whistling of shells, and the Japanese heavy artillery units and naval guns once again began a retaliatory heavy shelling.

A blazing shell dragged a long tail flame through the air, emitting a piercing scream, whistling, dazzling flames rose to the ground, and the second lieutenant of the Central Army was blown to ashes and died a heroic death.

Only the broken military flag was still burning, and the entire Luodian was once again plunged into a sea of fire, countless stumps and broken arms, and the bloody wind and blood rain flew with the blast wave of the explosion.

Half an hour later, no one survived in the entire Luodian, all the defenders were wiped out, and the Japanese army, which also suffered heavy losses, captured the place.

The Central Army was no longer able to launch a counteroffensive, and in the repeated battles for many days, the 11th Division and the 67th Division suffered heavy casualties, and Luodian fell into the hands of the Japanese army.

So far, the casualties of the Chinese army have approached more than 200,000, among which the 88th, 87th, and 36th divisions, the most elite of the Central Army, have all suffered more than half of the casualties, and the veterans have almost been exhausted, replenishing round after round.

The Chinese army on the entire Songhu battlefield turned to the defensive in an all-round way, and it was only a matter of time before they were defeated and retreated.

…………

Qiao Youhua's Dragon Tooth Task Force also crossed the Yellow River from Liaocheng and entered Shandong with the help of local people.

At this moment, Shandong has not yet fallen, without the hindrance of the Japanese puppet army, and the dragon tooth task force has all been transformed into cavalry, and the march is no longer dependent on the road, and the marching speed has greatly increased, after a long journey of more than half a month, in early October, into the central region of Anhui.

In his previous life, Qiao Youhua was a native of Anhui Province, and this time he chose to go to East China instead of the Central Plains to the south, geographically is one thing, and this is also one of the reasons.

He also wanted to see what his hometown was like at this time.

However, with the change in the Battle of Songhu, Qiao Youhua had to continue to speed up the march and march towards Nanjing.

In central Anhui, in a temporary resting wood.

Liu Ruhan put down the headset of the radio station, turned to Qiao Youhua and said: "According to the latest news, the Japanese 10th Army raided Jinshanwei in Hangzhou Bay, threatening the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, and the defeat of the Songhu Battle is a foregone conclusion!" ”

Qiao Youhua frowned when he heard this: "In this way, the battle to defend Nanjing is about to start." ”

Jiang Haidong wiped his Type 88 sniper rifle and said, "Calculate the time, it should be." ”

Qiao Youhua stood up vigorously: "Pass my order, the troops will stop resting and recuperate, go south at full speed, and strive to cross the Yangtze River and enter the south of the Yangtze River before November." ”

"Yes!" Jiang Haidong, Ma Biao, Wu Ming, Liu Yidao and others stepped forward one after another.

…………

The 10th Army of the Japanese Army, which landed from Jinshanwei in Hangzhou Bay, consisted of the 6th, 18th, and 114th Divisions of the North China Front and the 6th, 18th, and 114th Divisions drawn from China, as well as the 9th Brigade and one heavy artillery brigade and one mountain artillery regiment originally under the Fifth Division, numbered the 6th and 2nd Artillery Brigades and two reserve infantry regiments respectively, with about 120,000 people.

After the landing, the devils of the 10th Army immediately divided into two routes, of which the 6th Division went straight to Songjiang, crossed the Huangpu River to prepare to encircle and annihilate hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in the Shanghai area, and immediately followed to Kunshan and Suzhou after the Chinese army retreated.

After cutting off the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou railway highway, the 114th Division attacked and advanced along the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou railway highway to Hangzhou and other places.

The 9th Brigade, also known as the notorious Kunisaki Detachment, took the lead in attacking northward along the southern shore of Taihu Lake, targeting Huzhou, Xuancheng and Wuhu, and then crossed the Yangtze River to encircle Pukou, Nanjing's only retreat route, with the Chongteng detachment attacking Yangzhou from the north.

Completely cut off the northward escape route of the Chinese army in the Nanjing area south of the Yangtze River, and cooperated with the Central China Dispatch Army to attack the troops head-on, completely annihilating all the Chinese defenders in the Nanjing area, and capturing Nanjing, the national capital of China at this moment, in one fell swoop.

The 18th Division and the Guoqi Detachment were one in front and one behind, one left and one right, and the front was directed at Wuhu, an important town in southern Anhui, and at the same time, part of the troops were used to respond to the 114th Division's operations in the direction of Hangzhou.

The 3rd, 9th, and 11th divisions that were originally subordinate to the Japanese Army's Shanghai Dispatch Army, the three divisions that were the first to land in Shanghai to fight, suffered heavy losses because they fought bloody battles with hundreds of thousands of elite Chinese troops in Shanghai for more than three months.

After the capture of Shanghai, only part of the troops were dispatched to cooperate with the 16th Division, which had just been transferred from the North China Front to the Central China Front and landed at Baimaokou in Taicang, Jiangsu, to pursue the Chinese troops retreating from Shanghai and other places, and attacked in the direction of Nanjing.

The main forces, which had suffered heavy losses, rested on the spot and took on the duty of guarding Shanghai and the surrounding areas, as did the 13th and 101st Divisions.

It is worth mentioning that after the capture of Shanghai, the Japanese army combined the Shanghai Dispatch Army with the 10th Army of Yanagi Heisuke to form the Central China Front of the Japanese Invasion of China, which was under the unified command of General Matsui Ishine, the former commander of the Shanghai Dispatch Army.

To sum up, after the Battle of Songhu, the main forces used by the Japanese army to attack Nanjing were mainly the 16th Division of Nakajima Imago and the 6th Division of Tani Shoo, and the Kunisaki Detachment of the Fifth Division and the Shigeto Detachment drawn from Taiwan served as the two detours from the north and south.

Responsible for crossing the Yangtze River and cutting off the Jiangbei retreat of the Chinese defenders in Nanjing.

In addition, the 9th and 11th divisions each sent some troops to assist, which was the entire strength of the Japanese army to attack Nanjing, about 50,000 or 60,000 people.

As for the 18th Division, which was also fully formed, after capturing Wuhu in the original history, it was transferred to the direction of Hangzhou, because Hangzhou and other places still had a large number of Chinese troops retreating from the Songhu battlefield to deal with.

More than half a month passed in a blink of an eye, and at the beginning of November, Qiao Youhua took the Dragon Tooth Task Force to sleep in the open all the way, day and night, and finally crossed the mighty Yangtze River from Hexian County in the north of the Yangtze River before the Japanese Kunizaki Detachment captured Dangtu County (near today's Ma'anshan).

At this time, the Guosaki detachment and the 18th division have successively captured Xuancheng, Wuhu and other important towns in southern Anhui, and the front of the Guosaki detachment is pointing directly at Dangtu, and the original historical trajectory is the same, if there is no accident, the Guosaki detachment will cross the Yangtze River north after capturing this small county town in the south of the Yangtze River, and then attack and advance along the Yangtze River towards Pukou in Nanjing, cutting off the last retreat of the Chinese defenders in Nanjing.

And history will change at this moment.

After entering November, the temperature in Nanjing and other places plummeted, Qiao Youhua had just led the troops to cross the Yangtze River overnight, and before entering Dangtu County, lightning and thunder began to roar in the sky, and soon it began to pour down.

"Captain, this rain is really not at the right time, we have to hurry into the Dangtu County in front, the brothers have traveled thousands of miles, and they are already sleepy and tired." Liu Yidao rode his horse to Qiao Youhua Road.

Qiao Youhua suddenly smiled and said: "No, this heavy rain is too timely, because it will have an immeasurable marching impact on the mechanization of the Japanese army, especially the heavy artillery units, and the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for us!" God bless China! ”

"It makes sense." Liu Yidao didn't quite understand, but Jiang Haidong, who was also a crosser, deeply agreed, at this moment China does not have the kind of cement roads that extend in all directions in later generations, the so-called highways are all dirty, once it encounters heavy rain and snow, then any road will become muddy.

It was very difficult for people and horses to move, let alone the wheels of the little devil's cars and the bulky cannons.

As for the Beijing-Shanghai railway, it had long been completely destroyed by the Central Army retreating from Shanghai, and the little devils could not use it to maneuver in a short time.

The Jiangnan area is already very humid, and if it rains a few more heavily, the road conditions will become even worse.

Therefore, it has to be said that this rain has provided a precious respite for all the Chinese troops gathered in the south of the Yangtze River, and it will greatly slow down the speed and edge of the Japanese attack.

Not to mention other troops, at least tonight, Qiao Youhua's Dragon Tooth Task Force can sleep well and have a good rest, after a long journey of more than a month, the iron-clad man is almost exhausted, and he can rest well for a night in order to recover his combat strength in order to deal with the unprecedented bloody battle in the future.