The Japanese artillery positions outside the area covered by artillery fire on the opposite bank were opened fire on the river under the order of Shigeharu Suematsu. Their position is at the edge of the maximum firing range, and it belongs to the third echelon to prevent and control the river, and it is specially bombarded on the river.

The cannonballs flew towards the river in a cloud of firelight, and then a loud roar echoed on the river. Columns of water mixed with sediment rose into the sky, and the river was turbulent and tumbling, and huge waves swelled several meters high.

"Row!"

"Hurry up!!"

The soldiers on the boat shouted desperately and struggled to help row. Those big ships, those freighters, rushed to the other side of the river with full horsepower.

"Knock out the distant positions!"

Qu Jun just looked at the water column in the river and gave a calm order.

The artillery on the position followed the order, the muzzle slowly rose, and then, a loud bang sounded, and the four artillery positions roared almost at the same time, and the shells flew over the river, flew past the forward positions of the Japanese army, and flew to the deep artillery positions of the Japanese army not far from Yangzhou.

Rumble!

Rumble!

Two loud bangs resounded in the night sky, and during the earthquake of the earth, two artillery positions twelve kilometers away from the river bank rose up a huge mushroom cloud, and the dazzling light rose in the air, and everything within two hundred meters around rolled up with the violent shock wave, and the glass windows in Yangzhou City were all shattered in the huge earthquake.

The violent explosion frightened both the Japanese army and the people in the city, who did not know if the shells would fall in the courtyard of their homes, and on the other hand, they already felt the call of death from the earthquake.

At this time, Yangzhou was the 114th Division, the 36th and 37th Divisions, and the defeated Danyang Division held on here. The 16th Division and the Matsui Division were not a big battlefield because of the narrow territory of Yangzhou and the proximity to the riverbank, so the troops could not be deployed and were difficult to move. Not suitable for hundreds of thousands of troops crowded together, their two divisions and Tiangu had withdrawn to Gaoyou and established a defensive line there.

After receiving the news, Tiangu hurriedly ordered the two newly formed divisions to advance to defend and do a good job of blocking the attack in Gaoyou once the defense of Yangzhou failed.

Shelled on. In these ten minutes, the boat also crossed the center of the river and rushed to the opposite bank.

Looking at the surface of the river shelled by the Japanese army, except for the rolling waves and rough waves, there is not a shadow of a ship.

Crossing the river, how could Sun Tao choose the front of the enemy's position? As early as Shanghai, when the ships there were in place, together with the ships coming down from Nanjing, they avoided the main position of the Japanese army. At a position four or five kilometers away from the position on the opposite shore, one left and one right rushed to the beach and landed. And the artillery fire was just to attract the attention of the Japanese army and suppress and destroy the resistance of the Japanese army, otherwise, just one round of artillery bombardment, one or two hundred thousand people would not be enough to swallow up the Yangtze River.

"Don't stop shelling!!"

Sun Tao stood on the bank of the river, holding a telescope and looking at the other side. Ordered.

Cannonballs, don't pour money like money. Thousands of artillery pieces covered the Japanese positions that stretched for more than ten kilometers, which was not missed, and with the coverage of effective shooting, the Japanese army was in the anti-artillery hole, except for the turtle. It's hard to leave.

The boats, rushing forward all over the river, reached the bank of the river in the midst of distant artillery fire.

"Hurry!!"

The soldiers jumped out of the boat like dumplings and rushed towards the river bank in the mud. In just a few seconds, the leading assault troops rushed to the riverbank, laid out a defensive line in the weeds, and did not let their guard down as they watched the fire flickering and loud noises several kilometers away in the distance.

In Yizheng, the advance army boarded the river bank with the boats of Nanjing Gu Zhutong and Shunjiang, and then the information of the successful landing was transmitted to the artillery position.

"It's our turn!"

Yu Lei jumped off the boat and had just gotten ashore when he saw the shelling stop a kilometer or two away, so he shouted.

The defenders of Yizheng were a brigade, which was garrisoned by the defeated troops of Danyang and a brigade originally here. In the shelling, all the defensive positions near the river bank were destroyed, and the losses were very large, and at least 1,000 people died in the explosion frenzy in the shelling that lasted just 10 minutes.

Has it finally stopped......

The temporary brigade commander, Si Gutian, shook his buzzing head and struggled to his feet.

In the headquarters, all the generals were like him, dizzy and chest upset from the shock. The shelling stopped, and one by one they got up, staring in horror at the pitch-black roof.

"Defense!! The enemy is about to cross the river!! ”

Si Gutian shook, his consciousness instantly returned to his mind, and then he was startled and yelled.

"Quick! Defense!! ”

All the commanders panicked and hurriedly gave orders.

After a minute of panic, in the tom tom, one after another flares rose into the air, illuminating the river surface brightly, and a straight light machine gun mounted on the dilapidated position, aimed at the river, one by one the gray-faced Japanese troops drilled out of the anti-artillery hole, and entered the position with vain steps.

"Didn't land from this side?"

Si Gutian staggered to stand firm in the light of the flashlight and asked suspiciously.

"Yes, Your Excellency, there is not a single ship on the river." A Shaozo replied affirmatively.

Could it be a strong attack from a frontal position?

Si Gutian shook twice, turned his head and ordered: "What is the movement of the enemy in the direction of Nanjing in the distance?" ”

"According to the report just now, they are still about ten kilometers away and have not moved, and the observation posts there have not seen any signs of their attack."

"Hoo ......"

Si Gutian let out a sigh of relief, and his heart was a little more steady. If he didn't attack from here, he would have much less pressure, just defend against the enemy on the Nanking side.

He was just about to give the order to report the losses of the various departments, when suddenly, a dense explosion came, and the light of the fire instantly illuminated the sky of Yizheng.

"Nani?"

He was stunned, the voice came from the side position, it was the direction of the enemy defending Nanjing, could it be that the enemy began to attack from this side?

Before he could give the order, a Shaozo rushed into the headquarters in a panic and shouted: "The enemy has attacked the first line of defense, in our right flank position!" ”

"Attacked the position!?"

Si Gutian was taken aback, grabbed the phone and ordered: "Give up the defense of the riverbank, and make every effort to block the enemy attacking on the flank, move quickly!" ”

Under his command, the advance troops, in a hail of guns and grenades, launched a fierce attack on the Japanese troops who were still weak from the shock and whose ears had not yet fully recovered their hearing.

The sound of gunfire flickered on the position, and the dense explosions made the defending Japanese troops unable to resist. With the sound of submachine guns, without waiting for reinforcements from the Japanese troops on the riverbank, the position was broken through.

"Quick strangulation!"

Yu Lei, under the protection of several guards, held an AK54 and shot at the side. He shouted.

The flow of people who rushed into the position dispersed rapidly, and the tide crossed the broken trenches all the way, not fighting with the Japanese army at all, and in the sound of da-da, they swept all the way, rushed to Yizheng, and rushed to the riverside position.

The Japanese troops, who had just received the order to reinforce the side, collided head-on with the charging advance soldiers, and before they could fire a few shots, they were beaten into a sieve by the dense rain of bullets. Subsequently, it was swept away by the wave.

Yu Lei's side crossed the river with a division of more than 10,000 people, and against less than 10,000 Japanese troops, the number of people was about the same. But the difference in weapons and fighting spirit made the battle turn into a one-sided massacre just after the battle, when the army was flooded into the Japanese position. The battle is no longer in suspense.

Yizheng attacked there?

Gu Zhutong heard explosions and gunfire after the end of the shelling in the distance. The familiar clatter sound could only be made by the fast guns of the advance army, and it was obvious that the advance army had hit the river bank.

"We ......"

A division commander standing next to him turned his head to look at him and asked hesitantly.

Gu Zhutong shook his head and said, "Wait, if you need us to go up, the advance army will generate electricity." ”

He knows it very well. In the dark night, it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe, and once you rush up, it will be troublesome if there is no misunderstanding again.

The fierce battle on this side has been known to Shigeharu Suematsu, but he can't muster troops to reinforce it. Because, his flank was also under onslaught, and at this time, he was taking care of himself.

Liu Haisong led two divisions that had already crossed the river and launched a fierce attack on the flank positions in Yangzhou.

The moment the artillery fire stopped, in the afterglow of the fire, they rushed into the dirt positions everywhere, and did not even meet resistance.

Have all the Japanese troops withdrawn?

All the charging warriors were annoyed by the grenades that had just been wasted, and at the same time, they ran, and this thought came to their minds.

Just as a soldier had just stepped over the collapsed trench and was about to follow the army into the depths, suddenly, in the light of a fire that he didn't know what was burning, he saw the dirt next to him move, and then a spear came out of it.

"The enemy is in the dirt!!"

He shouted, and stretched out a hand at the grab, and the Japanese soldier who was grabbing pulled the trigger, and then, in the dust, the gun hung down weakly, and then, a hole leaked.

"There's it too! Hand grenade! ”

In the sound of his gun, one shout after another sounded, and then the charging soldiers found something strange in the shouting, and they stopped the pace of the charge, and one after another flashlights lit up.

The Japanese anti-artillery holes were dug deep enough, and most of them escaped the shelling, only the ones at the center of the explosion were injured, and most of them were dizzy and churning. Although the hole did not collapse, the entrance of the cave was buried by the churning earth, and before the shelling stopped, the Japanese soldiers, who were suffocating and almost suffocated, touched the hole and breathed, but they were also killed by the ensuing earthquake. It was not until the end of the shelling that the surviving Japanese soldiers moved away the corpses and struggled to dig out of the earth, but unexpectedly, the advance army had already rushed into the position, not in front of the river.

Seeing the Japanese soldiers struggling to crawl out, the soldiers of the advance army took off their grenades one after another and threw them into the anti-artillery holes without hesitation.

A loud bang sounded throughout the position, and streams of dirt gushed out, and the Japanese army, without even having a chance to come out, was directly buried in the hole.

"Oh yes! Learn to make holes! ”

Li Liu Haisong threw away the grenade pull ring in his hand, cursed, and then stopped caring about the collapsed cave and shouted: "Quickly clean up, move forward!" ”

After the shelling on this side of the position ended, Shigeharu Suematsu did not know the situation of the position in the road, the telephone lines had all been cut off, and the walkie-talkies on the position could not be contacted, and when he heard the sound of gunfire and explosions from the distant position, he knew that the enemy had come ashore.

"Support the Frontier!!"

He yelled and ordered.

Without artillery positions, he was not without the strength of a battle. Nanjing was evacuated because he was afraid of being besieged, and here, he had to fight and hold on. Otherwise, once the gate is opened, the enemy army will drive straight in.

Following his order, one remaining brigade of the 114th Fourth Regiment, and one brigade of the 37th Division, howling and charging to the positions in the distance.

Night fighting is the strong point of the advance army, not only with tracer bullets, but also with fierce gun firepower. When Liu Haisong was rushing in by the Japanese army, he had already heard the shouts of killing.

"All of them, grenades! Charge!! ”

Liu Haisong threw out the grenade in his hand, pinched the walkie-talkie on his shoulder and shouted the order. Then, in the gushing mud, he pulled down a grenade, ran and slammed, and shot out of the place according to the sound of the shout in front of him.

The soldiers put the AK on their backs one after another, replaced it with semi-automatic, and the guns were full of air-burst shells, and they all pressed the grenades one after another, and ran in the direction where the sound came from, and then, in the distant firelight, they saw the figure of the Japanese army, and the grenades were fired at a distance of four or five hundred meters.

The Japanese charge was no longer a straggler formation, but a swarm of swarms rushing forward, bayonets in hand, ready to rush directly to the position to fight the enemy with a hand-to-head battle. Although the bullets did not retreat, no one fired a shot.

But this formation is precisely the favorite of guns and grenades, and in the dense explosions, the Japanese troops fell in pieces under the raging of steel balls flying wildly.

"Change guns, charge!!"

Liu Haisong drank heavily, took off the AK, and replaced it with a quick grab for assault.

In the team, not everyone threw guns and grenades, there were seven people in a squad, three of them changed guns and threw them, three were covering the assault, and one was carrying a heavy sniper, charge, of course, a submachine gun.

With the order, in the roaring explosion, in the miserable screams of the Japanese army, the tongue of fire began to spray at a distance of 100 meters, and the dense rain of bullets instantly beat the Japanese soldiers who were panicked and dodged the explosion into a sieve, covered in blood plasma, and fell down like broken sacks.

The two waves collided together, and the dense rain of bullets knocked out the blood mist in the sky. In the charge of the dense rain of bullets, the Japanese troops immediately collapsed, and those who were not killed by the grenades fell to the ground one after another under the piercing of bullets.

"Rush into town!!"

Liu Haisong shouted as he rushed through the crowd of Japanese soldiers, looking at the shadow of the black hole in the distance.

At this time, they were only two or three miles away from Yangzhou, so how could they be worthy of a rapid charge if they didn't enter the city?

At the same time that Liu Haisong launched a charge towards Yangzhou, the battle in Yizheng there was over, and there was no more panting, corpses on the ground, but most of them were Japanese soldiers.

Yu Lei couldn't take a breath, and shouted loudly: "Confidential officer! Power generation, please Commander Gu clean up the battlefield, we are going forward! ”

At this time, in addition to some bullets on the corpses of the Japanese soldiers on the ground, all the valuable items on their bodies had been cleaned. Just because you don't want guns doesn't mean you don't want money. Instead of letting people pick the rest and give it symbolically, it is better to clean it up first, so as not to recover the cost.

When Yu Lei ended the battle, the river was already full of boat shadows, and the second echelon of the advance army began to cross the river.

In Shanghai, Dong Ku, who had not slept, also received a report that he had seized the river bank and was attacking Yangzhou, so he ordered the freighters on the Huangpu River to lift anchor, pull ammunition and supplies, and march towards Yangzhou. (To be continued......)