"Comrades, Nanjing is right in front of our eyes, take it, recover this city known as the capital, and let the little devils be terrified!" Before the expedition, the political commissars and instructors of the units at all levels of the New Fourth Army were cheering up the soldiers, and this military operation would be the largest military operation since the founding of the New Fourth Army; except for a small number of troops left by the New Fourth Army in the base areas in southern Anhui, most of the troops, totaling more than 70,000 people, will set out from Wuhu and attack Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.

Qi Yuan also participated in the battle with the youth class. Because the youth class has repeatedly completed the tasks assigned by the superiors, and in addition to showing good combat effectiveness, it has also shown full battlefield wisdom, so after Liu Yuqing proposed the so-called special brigade, all the youth classes were selected into this special brigade and became the only team that was not split.

However, this time, the special brigade just formed by the New Fourth Army did not have any very intense tasks, because the main task of breaking through the three Nanjing defense lines of the Japanese army and capturing the capital of the Republic of China was placed on the first armored division of the New Fourth Army, which had also just been formed.

At the same time, the Runner King will also help in the battle, and the three Nanjing defense lines that the Japanese army thought were strong could be broken through lightly in front of the New Fourth Army.

"Commander, the artillery regiment of the 1st Armored Division has arrived at the preset position under the cover of the tank regiment and the machine infantry regiment and has begun to set up artillery positions." Tie Xun also went with him, in the temporary command in the rear.

The battle has been arranged in advance, and Tie Xun is now mainly listening to the battle reports sent back from the front, and then making detailed adjustments to the battle according to the battle situation.

The establishment of the 1st Armored Division is actually not very large, mainly composed of three armored regiments, an artillery regiment, and a mechanized infantry regiment. Their main combat mission is to break through the battlefield and cut through the opponent's strong defensive line, and they are also equipped with the best tank of this era, the Type 59 main battle tank. The water network in the south of the Yangtze River is dense and the load-bearing capacity of the boat bridge is limited, otherwise China would not have developed a relatively light Type 96 tank to adapt to the terrain. The weight of the Type 59 tank is not large, it is considered a medium tank, but its armor thickness, main gun caliber and power, plus mobility, are difficult to compare with heavy tanks in this era.

The artillery regiment of the 1st Armored Division also emphasized the mobility and defense of the armored troops, and all of them were equipped with self-propelled guns. Two artillery battalions were armed with a total of 36 Type 122 self-propelled howitzers of Type 70. This self-propelled gun with a tracked armored vehicle as a chassis was designed and completed by China at that time without the help of Soviet forces, and was not equipped in large quantities. There is also a big problem, that is, the gunner must be exposed to the armor when firing the gun. The version provided by Qi Yuan for the 1st Panzer Division has been corrected to give this type of gun its own turret and enhanced protection. In addition, the artillery regiment also has an anti-aircraft artillery battalion, which is also equipped with twin 37mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns of the Chinese standard, but in fact, the Chinese PLA does not have such a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, and its technical level is roughly equivalent to the early stage of the Cold War.

The advance of armored forces could not be carried out without the cover and coordination of infantry, so the 1st Panzer Division also had a mechanized infantry regiment. There are four battalions in the whole regiment, all equipped with Type 63 armored transport vehicles, these armored vehicles have great potential for modification, some are equipped with 23mm Gatling guns, some are equipped with rocket nests, and some are only heavy machine guns, but in the battlefield of World War II, the dominance of this equipment is already very fearful.

When the 1st Panzer Division approached the Japanese line first, they immediately took advantage of the fact that their self-propelled guns had a longer range than almost all the Japanese army guns today. The 75mm field guns mainly equipped by the Japanese artillery are certainly not within reach of the self-propelled artillery artillery of the New Fourth Army, and even if a small number of 150mm howitzers can reach it, the artillery of the New Fourth Army still has its own mobility advantage, and they can immediately change their position after a few rounds of artillery bombardment and launch artillery bombardment on the Japanese army in a new position, which makes the Japanese army face great difficulties.

After the artillery of the New Fourth Army entered the combat position, it began to shell the first line of defense laid by the Japanese army with an extremely astonishing professional quality and speed, although the 36 self-propelled guns seem to be a small number, but the firepower formed is not small, especially the rate of fire of self-propelled guns is generally faster than that of the Japanese army's active artillery, and the density of firepower formed is large enough. Although the Japanese army had already anticipated the increase in the firepower of the New Fourth Army, it still did not expect that the New Fourth Army would directly punch many gaps in the defensive line as soon as the shelling began. The Japanese troops in the defensive line and fortifications were so beaten by the artillery that they could not raise their heads.

The Japanese soldier Okamoto Shou, who was hiding in the trenches, trembled, and even the 38 big cover in his hand was unstable. He was the latest rookie recruit from the Japanese mainland after the Shina Incident, and then was thrown to the front line in Nanjing by the base camp, and in 1939, Japan had drawn some Japanese troops back to China, and Okamoto, who admired samurai and war heroes at that time, once found a few soldiers from his hometown and listened to them talk about the war in China. He clearly remembered that a very powerful-looking soldier boasted to him that the Chinese were as weak as lambs, that their army would not fight even if they put on their uniforms and pick up rifles, and that they once had a squad chasing hundreds of soldiers from the national army. And he also got a lot of loot back. Okamoto was very envious, so he was very excited when he was drafted into the army, and he was also eager to win the honor of being a brave man, and he hoped to be able to grab something from China.

"But no one told me that the Chinese's artillery is so powerful!" Okamoto's tears were about to fall.

"Fool, you give me bravery, you are throwing ...... to the Imperial Japanese Army" An officer next to Okamoto himself saw Okamoto's appearance and cursed, but before he could finish scolding, the sound stopped, and Okamoto opened his eyes and saw that his pants were about to pee.

The officer was left with only half of his head attached to his body, and the shrapnel from the shelling just now directly cut off half of his face, and even the brain tissue could be seen.

Where had Okamoto seen such a bloody scene, and he vomited it out in an uproar, but the Chinese shelling showed no signs of stopping, and more explosions came, like a hammer, knocking the Japanese defense line to the ground.

In fact, this kind of shelling did not bring too heavy casualties to the Japanese army, after all, the Japanese trenches were not dug in vain, and the fortifications were not built in vain, but the Japanese army rarely encountered such a situation shrouded in heavy artillery fire. The shelling may not have been fatal, but the sense of psychological oppression brought to the Japanese army still frightened them very much.

The fighters of the New Fourth Army also acted as reconnaissance aircraft, conducting reconnaissance of the Japanese defense line and at the same time confirming the effectiveness of the shelling. Previously, the Wheel King had destroyed most of the air power of the Japanese army in East China, so the dominance of the sky was completely seized by the Chinese. These La-11 fighters would even be bold enough to rush down and fire at the Japanese troops in the trenches, causing more direct losses.

The Japanese also had some sparse anti-aircraft guns to counterattack, but the Japanese never had much anti-aircraft artillery on the Chinese battlefield, mainly because the Chinese army lacked air threat to the Japanese army. But at this time, the lack of anti-aircraft artillery was fatal for the Japanese army.

Dozens of La-11 fighters either strafed or dived down to drop the few bombs they were equipped with, causing more actual damage than the previous artillery shelling.

After learning of the situation of the Japanese army, Tie Xun did not rashly order the 1st Panzer Division to send tanks to storm the Japanese defense line. Instead, he ordered the other divisions to pull their own artillery to the front, and under the cover of the troops of the 1st Panzer Division, they began to sweep the Japanese with more intense artillery bombardment.

"We have so many shells, and I don't expect the artillery to directly crush the Japanese army, but before we launch a real charge, I want to weaken the Japanese as much as possible!" This is how the Iron Inquiry explained his actions in Command.

Although the New Fourth Army sent only more than 70,000 people this time, less than one-fifth of the Japanese army, the number of artillery pieces equipped with it was no less than that of the Japanese army. The total number of medium and large-caliber guns above 100mm pushed to the front line exceeded 300, and the suppressive force formed by these guns made it impossible for the Japanese army to face them.

In fact, Tie Xun was not in a hurry to attack, but let the artillery suppress the Japanese army, and another main reason was that he needed to use artillery to provide time for the actions of the New Fourth Army troops. After all, if the 70,000-strong army of more than 70,000 troops were to carry out the operations of the New Fourth Army, which was not very experienced, it would inevitably have all kinds of problems and suppress the Japanese army with artillery bombardment.

The artillery bombardment was carried out intermittently, and the Japanese army never sent troops to counter the artillery of the New Fourth Army, mainly passively beaten, which also made Tie Xun a little incomprehensible. However, the Japanese army is good at making wrong decisions on the battlefield, and Tie Xun is no stranger to it, so on the second day of the shelling, Tie Xun ordered more than 200 tanks from two armored regiments of the 1st Armored Division to launch a surprise attack on the first line of defense of the Japanese army at two different nodes.

Just like the lack of anti-aircraft guns in the Japanese army, the Japanese army basically did not see armored troops on the Chinese battlefield, so they would not equip the Chinese dispatch army with a large number of anti-tank guns, which made it possible for the Japanese to use grenadiers or field guns to counter when the Type 59 tank attacked. However, the artillery of the New Fourth Army would also carry out multiple rounds of artillery bombardment and suppression of them, so that the Japanese army could not form an effective resistance force at all.

When the tanks of the New Fourth Army rushed in, the Japanese could only resist in the mode of human explosives. However, the 1st Armored Division knows how to coordinate with the tanks, and there are a large number of infantry who operate with the tanks, and they all use AK-47s, which can provide automatic firepower, in order to cooperate with the tanks.

The machine guns and side-by-side machine guns on the Type 59 tanks also released fire non-stop, and the Japanese had never seen such a density of fire since the beginning of the war, and many Japanese soldiers who wanted to break out of the trenches were shot down. The Japanese soldiers hiding in the trenches were also prevented from shooting by these suppressive firepower, and in this way, a large number of tanks broke through the trenches.

The trenches dug by the Japanese were simply not enough to stop the footsteps of the wide Type 59 tanks, and even the Japanese did not consider the fact that the New Fourth Army had a large-scale armored force at first. In order to prevent the Japanese soldiers in the trenches from damaging the chassis and tracks of the tanks, the infantry of the New Fourth Army often threw grenades into the trenches before the tanks crossed the trenches, as a layer of insurance.

The commander of the Japanese mixed brigade, Doroku Kanzaki, who was in charge of the first line of defense, shouted with great difficulty to the rear command with military telephone: "...... The subordinates are incompetent, the raid of the people of China is too fierce, we can't hold on anymore, and we ask the command to provide tactical guidance! ”

In fact, without the brigade commander asking for tactical guidance, the Japanese soldiers on the defensive line had already collapsed, and even began to abandon the defensive line and retreat to the second line of defense in the rear on their own. Shunroku Hata, who was in the headquarters, still remembered the instructions given to him by Michiman Ashiya, he no longer had any hope that the Japanese army would be able to hold the defensive line, and what he wanted to do was to make the warring sides pay more casualties in order to make up the number of blood sacrifices of Michiman Ashiya.

Under such a mentality, Shunroku Hata did not issue any meaningful new orders to the Japanese troops in front of him, only a few words: "Fight to the death until the jade is shattered." ”

However, after all, Shunroku Hata still didn't want his command career as a commander-in-chief to leave any big stains, and he understood that it would be very difficult to resist such a strong attack by the New Fourth Army head-on. Therefore, Hata Shunroku ordered the two divisions of the Japanese army to start a roundabout operation, intending to bypass the front and launch an attack from the rear of the New Fourth Army, so as to destroy the rear of the New Fourth Army, delay the offensive of the New Fourth Army, and at the same time inflict more losses on the New Fourth Army.

Hatatakeroku thought for a while, and then ordered: "Order the Imperial Allied Army to press on all fronts, and be sure to prevent the New Fourth Army from taking advantage of the situation to form a continuous breakthrough through the second line of defense." Although he said so, but Toshiroku Hata's thoughts were another matter, he knew that the puppet army was not of great use, but there was a Japanese army behind to supervise the battle, and the puppet army could not retreat anywhere, it was best for them to block the New Fourth Army, and if they couldn't stop all of them, it was also the life soul needed to provide the full blood sacrifice of Ashiya Road.

After all, the Japanese army was still one of the most disciplined armies of this era, and although there were setbacks at the front, with a series of orders issued by Shunroku Hatata, the Japanese army began to counter the offensive of the New Fourth Army in an orderly manner. However, the Japanese army has its own hole cards, and the New Fourth Army also has it.

"There is a new movement of the Japanese army, and it seems that their 7th Division has come from the station and bypassed from the south, so that our flanks will be exposed to the Japanese front. Commander Tie, do you want us to divide a division to block the Japanese army? "In terms of intelligence operations, the New Fourth Army has completely overwhelmed the Japanese army, and it took more than a month for the Wheel King to create a spy satellite and place it in low orbit. It is also to provide effective intelligence support for oneself when fighting on the surface of the earth. And now this satellite has also become the main tool for the New Fourth Army to grasp local trends during operations.

Tie Xun thought about it for a while, in fact, such a movement of the Japanese army was not expected by him at all, and with the spy satellite, their New Fourth Army even had the advantage. The attack of one or two Japanese divisions is actually not very difficult for the New Fourth Army, the combat effectiveness of the New Fourth Army at this time is not much different from the Japanese army, and the elite first division and other troops are even stronger than the Japanese army, but the New Fourth Army is already short of men, and the division of troops will cause a decline in the frontal offensive, which is not the situation that Tie Xun wants to see, so he turned his attention to Liu Yuqing.

Liu Yuqing has always belonged to the marginal people in the core of the New Fourth Army these days, and it seems that he doesn't care about integrating into the core, he is more of a communicator between Tie Xun and the "red ghost".

Liu Yuqing understood and said: "The Wheel King has been dispatched to strike at the Japanese army's roundabout troops. The Iron Commander can send a regiment over to clean up the battlefield. ”

Tie Xun nodded and said, "Let's go to a regiment in the third division." ”

The strength of the Wheel King is too strong, even if it is a single hand against one or two divisions of the Japanese army, it must be a mess in the end, Tie Xun is also very inclined to the Wheel King After beating the Japanese army to a half, let the New Fourth Army go up to finish, which can be regarded as a training of the New Fourth Army soldiers who lack battlefield experience, and by the way, see what loot can be recovered.

At first, the New Fourth Army didn't understand what was going on, but then the Wheel King often delivered them a larger number of weapons, and they were New Fourth Army standard weapons. Accustomed to a series of more useful equipment such as SKS and AK, the New Fourth Army often does not take the Japanese army's 38 Dagai and the like seriously, so although they consciously help collect loot, they don't have the slightest heat.

Not surprisingly, the Wheel King broke through the two divisions of the Japanese army in a row, and the New Fourth Army rushed up to kill those fish that slipped through the net, and then collected the loot, and the Wheel King took all kinds of waste things for recycling.

On the frontal battlefield, the addition of the puppet army did give the New Fourth Army new troubles, but this trouble was really not much. Even if the weapons and equipment of the puppet army are not bad, the will to fight is extremely weak. The artillery fired a round of shelling, and the tanks rushed in one go, and they actually killed 50,000 or 60,000 puppet troops.

They tried to retreat, but were swept back by Japanese machine guns. Going further, it was wiped out by the New Fourth Army again.

Finally, there was an enlightenment: "his uncle, hit a ball, the little devil won't see Lao Tzu alive and join the army!" ”

So pieces of puppet troops threw their weapons on the ground, raised their hands high, knelt on the ground, and began to wait for the New Fourth Army to receive ......