Xu Jiu said again: "What if the commission orders directly?" ”

Feng Shengfa was silent, from a personal emotion, he was absolutely unwilling to believe that Chairman Jiang would give the order to retreat at a critical moment, but reason told him that Xu Shijiu's worries were by no means superfluous, once Chairman Jiang really gave the order to retreat at a critical moment, then for the 58th Division and even the entire 74th Army, the consequences would be catastrophic.

Xu Shijiu wanted to say more, but Feng Shengfa didn't want to continue on this topic, and said at the moment: "Okay, don't talk about these useless anymore, how are the fortifications of your Nineteenth Brigade repaired?" ”

Xu Shijiu could only shake his head with a wry smile and replied, "It is being repaired." ”

"Let's go, show me." With that, Feng Shengfa turned around and walked out.

Xu Shijiu took half a step forward, and then leaned sideways to let Feng Shengfa out of the mountain gate of Hongjue Temple.

When Feng Shengfa looked up, he saw two stonemasons hanging down from the cliff with ropes tied to their waists, wielding hammers and iron drills in a natural cave on the cliff wall to widen and deepen.

Feng Shengfa felt strange and asked, "Ah Jiu, what are you doing here?" ”

Xu Shijiu touched his nose and replied, "Master, didn't you find that this cliff is facing the only mountain road up the mountain?" If I had carved out a bunker on the cliff and placed a Makqin heavy machine gun in it, no matter how many people came to Xiao Rijiben, he would have died, and Xiao Rijiben's heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns would not have been able to go up the mountain, so he would not have been able to do anything about this machine gun at all

Feng Shengfa looked at the terrain, there is really a bit of a one-man pass, ten thousand people do not open, with this cliff machine gun nest, the mountain pass and then put a platoon, it will become an iron gate that is difficult for the Japanese army to cross, the Japanese army wants to end the artillery position on the Zutang Mountain, can only go up the mountain from the west foothills, because the east foot of the mountain is steep, and it is very difficult to attack on the back.

Zutang Mountain is backed by the main peak of Niushou Mountain, so there is no need to worry about the defense in the north, in this way, the Nineteenth Brigade only needs to deal with the attack from the western foothills, and a mere heavy machine gun nest has this effect, which is really a bit unexpected by Feng Shengfa, and he patted Xu Nineteen's shoulder at the moment, and said with a smile: "You kid, your eyes are really poisonous."

After that, Feng Shengfa sighed again, and said with some regret: "How good would it be if those senior staff officers of the General Staff of the Military Commission could have half of your vision?" ”

Feng Shengfa's words were completely motivated by feelings, and the national defense fortifications built on the outer defense lines such as Niushou Mountain, Fangshan Mountain, Qinglong Mountain, Qixia Mountain, and Wulong Mountain were strong enough, and they could withstand at least 250 kilograms of heavy aerial bombs, but the design and site selection were very unreasonable, and it was difficult for them to play the expected role in actual combat.

If nothing else, just say that there are very serious problems in the fortification group of Niushou Mountain.

One of the biggest problems is that most of the heavy machine gun nests are frontal firepower points, there are very few side-fire points, and there is no dark firepower point, and in the first stage of the Battle of Songhu, the 88th Division suffered enough from the Japanese side-fire and dark firepower when attacking the Japanese strongholds such as the Japanese Tomb, the Patriotic Girls' School, and the Zhizhi University.

It can be said that in the first stage of the Battle of Songhu, Xiao Rijian gave a good defense lesson to the senior officers of the 87th and 88th Divisions, and made them realize that in defensive operations, the lethality of dark firepower points and side-firing points far exceeded that of frontal firepower points.

In addition to the lack of side-firing fire points and dark fire points, there is another very serious hidden danger in the defense fortifications of Niushou Mountain, that is, the lack of depth, most of the permanent fortifications of Niushou Mountain are built at the foot of the mountain, and they are spread out horizontally rather than vertically, and the Japanese army only needs to break through one of them, and the entire defense line will be completely ineffective.

This is also a lesson learned from the Battle of Songhu, when the Marines of the small day set up defensive positions, they rarely set up bunkers horizontally, and they generally chose to set up bunkers vertically on various communication arteries to form a deep position, so that if the Nationalist army wanted to break through the Japanese position, the difficulties would increase exponentially.

Xu Shijiu shook his head with a smile, and said: "Shizuo, in fact, even if the fortifications on Niushou Mountain are all built into side-firing firepower and dark fire points, and then the horizontal arrangement is changed to the in-depth arrangement of various key passes, our Nineteenth Brigade still dare not use it, as for the reason, presumably the Shizuo is also clear." ”

"What is the reason?" Feng Shengfa really didn't know.

Xu Jiu smiled and said, "Shizao shouldn't have heard of the Huang family and his son, right?" ”

"You mean Huang Jun, Huang Sheng and his son? Haven't they been arrested by Gu Zhenglun? What does the Huang father and son have to do with you not worrying about using the fortifications of Niushoushan? Feng Shengfa is still a little unclear Therefore, Huang Jun is a close confidant of Wang Jingwei, and he was a confidential secretary of the Executive Yuan before the accident, and he betrayed a lot of secrets with his son Huang Sheng, Bai Chongxi, Zhang Zhizhong, Feng Yuxiang and other senior generals and even Jiang Yuanchang were almost killed by him.

Xu Shijiu held his forehead with his hand, smiled bitterly and did not speak.

Feng Shengfa came back to his senses and said solemnly: "You mean...... Is it possible that the Huang family and his son had leaked the layout of the fortifications of Nanjing's outer defense line to Ri Yan himself? Is this possible? Huang Jun was only a confidential secretary of the Executive Yuan, while the Nanjing outlying fortifications and several national defense fortifications were highly classified by the Military Commission. ”

Huang Jun and Huang Sheng's father and son have been found out by Gu Zhenglun's military police corps, and most of their comrades have also been arrested, and there are no staff officers of the General Staff of the Military Commission, but the meaning of Xu Shijiu's words is obviously not very convinced of the investigation conclusions of the Nanjing Military Police Corps, and he believes that there are also internal moles within the General Staff of the Military Commission.

However, Xu Shijiu didn't say it explicitly, but diverted his words and said, "Master, why don't we make a bet?" I bet that Xiao Ri had already obtained the layout of the fortifications on the periphery of Nanjing, and once the Japanese approached, their bomber group should carry out a large-scale bombing of the fortification group on the periphery of Nanjing, and if they continued to use these fortifications, they would definitely suffer a big loss.

Feng Shengfa was shocked when he heard this, if the Japanese army really got the layout map of the fortifications on the periphery of Nanjing, then it was really careful, Xiao Ri's air force made very rapid progress, when the Battle of Songhu first broke out, their bombing accuracy was very poor, but as the war deepened, the bombing accuracy of the Japanese air force began to improve rapidly.

Xu Nineteen said: "Division, you'd better remind the friendly divisions." ”

Feng Shengfa nodded, and said, "If you can't use the permanent fortifications, this battle will be difficult to fight." ’

"Not necessarily." Xu Shijiu said, "Xiao Ri's aviation and artillery are indeed very powerful, but we are not without countermeasures. After that, Xu Shijiu beckoned to Feng Shengfa again and said, "Master, please come with me." ”

Feng Shengfa followed Xu Shijiu to the foot of the southern foot of Zutang Mountain, and found that dozens of officers and soldiers and many civilians were entering and exiting an air-raid shelter, which was obviously newly dug and had not even had time to be reinforced with wooden stakes, but the entrance to the cave was on the side of the mountain, and it was difficult for the Japanese army to seal the entrance unless they seized the opposite ridge.

Feng Shengfa's eyes couldn't help but light up, the direction of this air-raid shelter was very well chosen!

Due to the obstruction of the mountain, it was difficult for the mountain artillery, field artillery, and flat-fire artillery of the Japanese army to play a role, and the Japanese air force was able to threaten the safety of the air-raid shelter, but this was not insoluble, and the 19th Brigade only needed a little camouflage at the entrance of the cave, which was enough to deceive the Japanese aerial reconnaissance, and aerial reconnaissance was no better than ground reconnaissance after all.

What is more crucial is that the entrance of the air-raid shelter is close to the traffic trench, and the communication trench extends in all directions, almost connecting several machine-gun fire points and dozens of foxholes at the southern foot of Zutang Mountain, and as soon as the Japanese bombardment is over, the defending officers and men hiding in the air-raid shelter can quickly enter the defensive position along the trenches extending in all directions.

Feng Shengfa asked with concern, "Ah Jiu, is it too late to come up in time?" ”

Xu 19 is now doing this, almost to rebuild the defense system of Zutang Mountain, when the Beijing-Shanghai Garrison Command repaired these fortifications, it took more than two years, but the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China could not have such sufficient time, the Japanese army still has a week at most, and the soldiers should come down to Niushou Mountain.

"Time is a bit tight and there is a lack of materials." Xu Shijiu nodded, and then smiled again, "However, we don't need to build fortress-level fortifications, as long as the structure of each heavy machine gun nest is reasonable, and it is matched with the mountainous terrain, Xiao Ri still has nothing to do with us, such as the heavy machine gun nest on the cliff just now." ”

While talking, the two of them came to another heavy machine gun nest, which was also a very characteristic fortification.

This heavy machine gun nest was built under a boulder the size of half a house, because there was originally a hole under the boulder that connected left and right, about half a person high, and the officers and men of the 19th Brigade had already been killed with bricks on the left side of the exit, leaving only a narrow shooting hole on it, just enough to seal and lock the mountain road in front.

What is especially rare is that this is still a side-fire point.

Xu Shijiu pointed to this heavy machine gun nest hidden under the boulder and said to Feng Shengfa: "Master, look at this machine gun nest, it will be enough for Xiao Ri to drink a pot at that time, hehe."

Seeing this ingenious heavy machine gun nest, Feng Shengfa was not only satisfied with Xu Shijiu, but very satisfied, and said to Xu Shijiu at the moment: "Ah Jiu, I will organize the commanders of each battalion and regiment to come to Zutang Mountain to observe and study later, you kid don't hide my secrets, any ideas will be shown to everyone when the time comes." ”

Xu Shijiu said with a smile: "I don't dare to hide my own selfishness, for fear that my colleagues will look down on me." ”

"Then you don't have to be modest." Feng Shengfa smiled and said, "Your Xu Nineteen's name has already spread throughout the entire Seventy-Fourth Army by now, and even the military seat has already remembered you." After that, Feng Shengfa patted Xu Shijiu's shoulder again and said, "This time Shou Zutang Mountain, you give me a good performance, as long as you are gold, there will always be a day to shine." ”

"Yes." Xu Shijiu stiffened his chest and stood upright.