Chapter 1120 Flying across the Yangtze River

As a result, the Japanese army in Pukou began to cross the river overnight and retreat to Nanjing, and the Japanese puppet army in Hefei and other places also hurriedly evacuated the local area, crossed the Yangtze River west in the area of Yuhe County, and retreated to Dangtu County (today's Ma'anshan area) on the south bank.

The Western Route Army, composed of two Class A infantry regiments, immediately took advantage of the situation to recover Hefei and the surrounding areas, and the main force pursued to the riverside as fast as possible, and then recovered Hexian and other places that had been abandoned by the Japanese army.

Confrontation with the Japanese army across the river.

When Li Yunlong discovered that the enemy in front of him was trying to flee south, he also immediately commanded the main force of the frontal attack and attacked with all his might, forcing the Japanese puppet army to leave behind thousands of troops in the palace, and also mobilized some artillery regiments of two divisions of the column to form an artillery group to carry out artillery strikes on the waterways where the Japanese troops retreated.

Most of the Japanese ships and equipment used to cross the river were successfully destroyed, but more than a dozen gunboats of the Japanese river defense fleet also organized artillery fire to return fire, and the two sides also engaged in artillery battles for this purpose.

The Fourth Column's southern expedition this time was lightly armed, and the tank regiment directly under the division headquarters and the heavy artillery brigade directly under the column did not follow, so it did not have an advantage in artillery fire.

Fortunately, the main naval ships of the devils were used for expeditions to Southeast Asia, and the river defense fleet was mainly composed of some small gunboats and patrol boats of less than 1,000 tons, and the caliber and power of the naval guns were not very large.

Therefore, no one took advantage of the artillery battle between the two sides, and it was basically a draw.

Of course, among them, the devil's army artillery unit also participated, otherwise only a dozen small gunboats would not be enough to smash the combined artillery group composed of several artillery regiments of the fourth column.

Although the Japanese army finally withdrew to Nanjing, however, thousands of troops behind the palace could not escape, except for more than 1,000 puppet troops who saw that the situation was not good and surrendered on the spot, the rest of the devils were all eliminated on the spot.

Coupled with the battle losses in the battles of Chuzhou and Pukou, the Japanese army has lost tens of thousands of elite soldiers in the middle battlefield alone, and if you add the battle losses in Yangzhou, Hefei, Hexian and other places, the Japanese army has lost a total of more than 20,000 people, plus the loss of tens of thousands of puppet troops.

"Order the troops on the East Route who captured Yangzhou to immediately organize forces to cross the river, storm Zhenjiang, and order them to take Zhenjiang for me within ten hours, at all costs, cut off the Beijing-Shanghai-Hangzhou railway and road, cut off the back route for the Japanese troops to evacuate along the east bank of Taihu Lake in Nanjing, and cut off their contact with the Japanese troops in Shanghai and other places!" In the headquarters of Bengbu, after listening to Wan Ying'er, deputy director of communications, reported on the battle situation on the front line, he decisively issued a new order.

"Yes!" Wan Ying'er **** stood up, and immediately saluted and took the order.

After receiving Qiao Youhua's order, Yangzhou's East Route troops immediately collected boats in various parts of Yangzhou, and the local people and the guerrillas of the New Fourth Army rushed to help, and collected hundreds of large and small wooden boats for them overnight, many of which were fishing boats of local fishermen.

It can help them transport two regiments across the river at one time, solving their big troubles, such a fast speed, even the devils on the other side did not expect it, they think that without three days, it is impossible for the Chinese army in Yangzhou to collect enough equipment to cross the river and launch the battle of crossing the river.

Because it is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the water potential is moderate, so there are hundreds of miles between Zhenjiang and Yangzhou can cross the river, so with the existing strength of the Japanese army, it is impossible to deploy defenses everywhere along the south bank of the Yangtze River, but only symbolically sent a part of the troops to stick to the Zhenjiang wharf, and the rest of the main forces are still deployed in Zhenjiang City and its surrounding important places.

After all, if the Dragon's Tooth Corps on the north bank crossed the river, the Japanese army would not be able to fully monitor it, so they could only take the method of holding Zhenjiang City just in case.

Early the next morning, before the sun had risen, a regiment of artillery launched a heavy artillery attack on the Japanese garrison on the south bank in vain.

Hundreds of artillery pieces fired in unison, and several rounds of salvo fire passed, and nearly 1,000 shells were poured into the dock where the Japanese army was stationed, blowing up the pier and its surroundings into flames, filling the air with thick smoke, and some devils who were caught off guard were blown into stumps and broken arms.

The Japanese dock commander was terrified, and while organizing his troops to prepare for the battle, he desperately asked for help from Zhenjiang City behind, asking for reinforcements.

However, as time passed, the expected frontal onslaught of the Japanese army did not come, except for the artillery regiment from time to time to send a wave of shells, which frightened the devils, and did not see a large number of infantry crossing the river by boat.

It didn't take long for the two sides of the dock to suddenly shout and kill, and the dense gunfire was mixed, and the dense rain of bullets poured towards the devils stationed at the dock.

In the panic, the devils didn't know how many enemies were coming, so they were enveloped in a dense rain of bullets, killed, and blown up.

At the same time, there were thousands of elite soldiers who took advantage of the fierce battle at the wharf to quietly move outside Zhenjiang City, and suddenly launched a fierce attack on a field defense position of the Japanese army, taking the devil defense troops by surprise and annihilating hundreds of enemies.

When the Japanese army reacted, this position had been successfully taken by them, and they were directly at the north gate of Zhenjiang. The Japanese field defense line outside Zhenjiang was successfully torn apart.

The Japanese troops on the dock were quickly wiped out by thousands of Longya officers and soldiers, and they did not have time to clean up the battlefield, so they rushed towards Zhenjiang City under the leadership of their respective officers.

It formed a flanking attack with the previous army, and soon outflanked the entire Zhenjiang in a roundabout way.

It turned out that the troops on the eastern route had adopted frontal artillery fire to attract the attention of the Japanese army, while the main infantry quickly crossed the river by boat from a place 10 kilometers upstream and downstream of Zhenjiang, and then divided into three routes, respectively flanking the wharf and attacking the field positions outside the north gate of Zhenjiang.

Tens of thousands of dragon's tooth elite soldiers in Yangzhou easily crossed the Yangtze River moat, broke through the outer defense line of the Japanese army, and surrounded the entire Zhenjiang City.

After urgent discussions, the headquarters of the Central China Front of the Japanese Army decided to immediately abandon Nanjing, and the main force of the Japanese army in the Nanjing area immediately advanced west along the Yangtze River, took the west bank of Taihu Lake, such as Dangtu and Wuhu, and retreated to Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Because Zhenjiang was surrounded, the retreat of the Japanese army and the frontal contact with Shanghai had been cut off.

Therefore, the Japanese army had to reluctantly abandon the capital of the Nationalist Government, which they had so hard to capture.

As for sending troops to reinforce Zhenjiang and repel the dragon tooth troops that came from Yangzhou, the Japanese top brass did not dare to think about it, because according to intelligence, this force had tens of thousands of elite soldiers, not to mention the huge gap in combat strength between the two sides.

Even if the Japanese army is able to break the siege, I am afraid that before the reinforcements arrive, the Zhenjiang defenders will be completely annihilated.

At that point, it will be more passive.

Therefore, it is better to sacrifice the imperial defenders in Zhenjiang City in exchange for the smooth retreat of more fresh troops in Nanjing and other places! This account, the devil can still calculate it clearly.