The Japanese offensive on the Nanxun Line was quite unsmooth from the very beginning, and before the Songpu Division even had time to launch an offensive against the Nationalist troops in front of the Nanxun Line, there was a considerable attrition, and it was not the bullets of the Nationalist Army or the bombing of the Chinese Air Force that caused the Songpu Division to lose troops, but the humid and sultry climate of the Poyang Lake area.

The Matsuura Division was a temporary ad hoc division, which was based on the personnel of the 1st Pei Regiment who remained on the mainland, and was supplemented into the reserve forces, and the formation time was not even two months; after the troops were pulled to Jiujiang, Okamura Ninji transferred a group of experienced officers from various combat divisions and regiments to supplement the 10th Pei Regiment.

In such a division and regiment, even the officers and men are not familiar with each other, it is very necessary to conduct a certain amount of training.

However, the Poyang Lake area is really not an ideal place for military training, 78 months is the hottest time of the year, the sun is blazing during the day, there are countless mosquitoes and flies at night, the huge Poyang Lake will evaporate a huge amount of water vapor continuously, and the entire area along the lake and the river is like a huge sauna, which can really steam people to death.

As a result, the epidemic inevitably broke out, dozens of people fell every day because of illness, the four field hospitals were overcrowded, if it was not so seriously ill, they were not even qualified to lie on the bed of the field hospital, and even died of illness in Zuihou, and hundreds of fanatical fishermen from Kumamoto and Shimakojima had already fulfilled their wish to dedicate themselves to Emperor Bixia before they even had time to shoot a shot, and their souls returned to Toeijima.

Of course, this small attrition will definitely not shake Junrokuro Matsuura, let alone Okamura.

After a short period of training, the Songpu Division launched a fierce attack on the Xue Yue Corps in front of the Nanxun Line, and the first to be attacked by the Songpu Division was Jinguanqiao, and the 4th Army of Ou Zhen was guarding the position of Jinguanqiao.

This 4th Army is the 4th Army of the Iron Army that was invincible and invincible in the Northern Expedition War, although the time has changed and personnel changes, but the Northern Expedition Iron Army is still there, the current commander of the 4th Army Ou Zhen is the battalion commander of the Ye Ting Independent Regiment who was brilliant in the Northern Expedition War, Pingjiang, Tingsi Bridge, He Sheng Bridge, Ou Zhen did not obey the service, did not win without service, and attacked Wuchang in general, Ou Zhen was the first to climb the head of Wuchang City

Such an iron army, such an iron-clad general, of course, is not easy to mess with.

At the beginning, Junrokuro Matsuura was still arrogant, and he didn't put the national army in his eyes at all, this devil was born in a family, and he thought very highly of himself, he thought that Seishiro Sakagaki could defeat most of North China with half a division, and Kenji Dohihara could use a division to make wind and rain in the Central Plains, and he had no reason why Junrokuro Matsuura couldn't defeat the Xue Yue Corps on the opposite side.

But as soon as the battle began, Matsuura Junrokuro immediately realized that he was too optimistic, the national army had been operating at the northwest foot of Lushan for more than a month, not only digging hundreds of kilometers of trench fortifications, but also building a large number of light and dark pillboxes, and what was worse was that the Chinese army had more combat experience than the Matsuura Division, and the Matsuura Division had not taken advantage of the outpost battle.

Since the Battle of Songhu, the 4th Army has been training in Ningguo, Jiangxi丨Can you have rich experience?

Before a major battle, both sides will send some small forces to infiltrate the opponent's line, or spy on intelligence, or engage in sabotage, anyway, to disturb the enemy as much as possible, to weaken the combat effectiveness of the opponent's troops as much as possible, and to reduce the pressure on the offensive or defense of their own troops.

The scale of the outpost battle is not large, generally a team of more than a dozen people, but every day several teams add up to more, Matsuura Division always suffers losses in the outpost battle, and the accumulated casualties are even more not to be underestimated, usually more than 100 casualties every day, Matsuura Junrokuro is so angry that he screams, but he is helpless.

The Matsuura Division attacked at the Jinguan Bridge for more than ten days, with more than 2,000 casualties, but it had not even broken through the first line of defense, this result made Matsuura Junrokuro unacceptable, although Okamura Ninji didn't say anything, but this silent reproach made Matsuura Junrokuro even more uncomfortable, he seemed to see Okamura Ninji standing in front of him, looking at him with a pair of cold eyes behind his glasses, he seemed to say: Matsuura-san, you disappointed me too much.

Junrokuro Matsuura was annoyed and decided to use erosive poison gas.

Erosive poison gas is a chemical weapon, and international conventions explicitly prohibit the use of it, but little Japan doesn't care about these at all, at that time Britain and France's attention has completely turned to Germany, and more of a policy of appeasement towards Japan, the United States is afraid that it will never get out of the isolation policy if there is no other country to wake up, as for the Soviet Union, it is also powerless, so little Japan has no scruples, and international conventions are simply waste paper in the eyes of Japanese politicians.

As early as the Battle of Baoshan in the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army had used chemical weapons, but it was still in the experimental stage at that time, so it was not used on a large scale in actual combat, but after a year, the Japanese army's chemical weapons have made great progress, such as tear gas, mustard gas, phosgene, dibenzohydrogen arsine and other poisonous gases began to be used on a large scale.

The fortifications of Ou Zhen's 4th Army were very strong, and they persevered in the face of the indiscriminate bombardment of Japanese naval guns, field artillery groups, and aviation, but no matter how strong the fortifications were, they could not block the poison gas, and when one after another poison gas bombs fell on the position and did not explode immediately, they just puffed and smoked, and the officers and men of the 4th Army even regarded them as duds.

The result was extremely tragic, the unsuspecting officers and men of the 4th Army were severely damaged, hundreds of officers and soldiers died directly of poison gas, thousands of officers and men fell into shock, and the Japanese troops wearing gas masks easily broke through the defensive positions of the 59th and 90th divisions of the 4th Army, and killed the national officers and soldiers in shock one by one with bayonets.

The 4th Army suffered heavy losses, and Ou Zhen had no choice but to shrink the defensive line and take advantage of the geographical advantages of Lushan Mountain to rebuild its position on the front line of Diaojiawa, Zhujiashan, Laohukan, and Kongjiashan.

Little Japan followed and used erosive poison gas again, and the 4th Army suffered a large number of casualties again, but this time the 4th Army did not continue to retreat, even Ou Zhen buckled his steel helmet to the front-line position, and the officers and men of the 4th were united and finally blocked the offensive of the Matsuura Division across the river.

It was getting late, and the Japanese finally withdrew, but the stench in the air had not yet dissipated.

Ou Zhen, the commander of the 4th Army, quietly came to the position of the 59th Division, as soon as the battle ended, the entire position fell into a deathly silence, and the extremely tired officers and soldiers fell asleep against the trenches, and there was a small officer with the rank of second lieutenant in his mouth, and the red ash fell into his chest and failed to wake him up.

No one noticed Ou Zhen's arrival, the officers and soldiers were all asleep, at this moment, perhaps only the guard post at the forefront of the position was still awake, still monitoring the small Japan ahead with their vigilant eyes, as an elite division that came out of blood and fire, the officers and men of the 4th will not relax their vigilance at any time.

Ou Zhen walked through the winding traffic trench, and his eyes suddenly opened up.

But the scene presented in front of Ou Zhen made him unbearable, this is a temporary field ambulance station, damp and dirty mud lying on the rows of wounded, these wounded faces, hands and neck skin has mostly been eroded, the appearance is extremely scary, some of the wounded are wailing and moaning, more, but there is no sound.

In just a few moments, Ou Zhen saw the medics covering more than a dozen wounded people.

Zhang Deneng, commander of the 59th Division, was visiting the wounded at the field ambulance station, but when he looked up, he saw Ou Zhen.

"Throne, why are you here?" Zhang Deneng stepped forward, took a pair of gas masks from the adjutant and handed them to Ou Zhen, and said with concern, "The mustard seed poison gas here has not yet dissipated, so the military seat should wear this." ”

The first ten German armament divisions of the national army were equipped with gas masks as standard equipment, and the 49 adjustment divisions and finishing divisions that were later equipped omitted some luxury equipment such as gas masks, and as for troops like the 4th Army, they were never equipped, and the gas mask in Zhang Deneng's hand was captured from small Japan.

Ou Zhen gently pushed away the gas mask handed over by Zhang Deneng and asked, "What is the situation of casualties among the troops?" ”

Zhang Deneng sighed and fell into a long silence, Ou Zhen didn't urge, just looked at Zhang Deneng without speaking, Zhang Deneng squatted down with his head in his hands, and cried bitterly, a man with five big and three thick, an iron-clad soldier, and a general who commanded a thousand words, but at the moment he was like a helpless child.

The chief of staff of the 59th Division stepped forward, choked up and said to Ou Zhen: "Military seat, our division is less than 500 people, including the men and grooms, medical guards, communication soldiers and staff officers of the division headquarters. As he spoke, the chief of staff knelt down to Ou Zhen again, crying and pleading, "Military seat, you can leave some seeds for our 59th Division." ”

Ou Zhen closed his eyelids hard, and he endured it so that tears did not come out of his eyes, he knew that the 59th Division was fighting hard in front, but he didn't know that the 59th Division was suffering like this, he knew that the 59th Division suffered heavy casualties, but he didn't know that the casualties of the 59th Division were so big, and the rest of the division's personnel plus one piece couldn't make up a whole battalion.

But Ou Zhen can't be soft-hearted, even if the 59th Division fights to Zuihou, he can't be soft-hearted

Just like the 4th Army was placed at the forefront of the entire Outer Eight Character Formation by Xue Yue, even if the whole army fought out, Commander-in-Chief Xue would not frown if he was afraid, this has nothing to do with cruelty, nor is it cold-blooded, but ...... The price that the whole country and the whole nation must pay is still the same sentence, war, doomed to death, whoever is on the shelf is whoever is whom.

Zhang Deneng's crying and the kneeling of the chief of staff of the 59th Division failed to change Ou Zhen's decision after all, and when he opened his eyelids again, Ou Zhen had recovered his usual coldness, and said to Zhang Deneng, who was crying with his head in his arms: "I have brought the military guard battalion, and this will be supplemented to your 59th Division, but the 5th trial... ̈ Can't be withdrawn"

After stacking this sentence, Ou Zhen turned around and left, but no one saw it, and when Ou Zhen turned around, the tears that he had endured finally burst out of his eyes and quietly slipped down his cheeks.