Episode 47 The defense line is wide open

"Hey, wait a minute, I'll pick you up Chief Cao, hold on!"

In the telephone handover room of the Purple Mountain Fortress, the operator was also frightened by the terrifying report, and cold sweat began to seep out, and he hurriedly pulled out the plug of this line.

In the office of Cao Mingqin, commander of the eastern section of the Yangtze River defense line, several telephones rang at the same time, and Cao Mingqin wiped his sweat while grabbing one phone to give orders, and from time to time grabbed another phone to listen to the battle report.

Several secretaries next to him each held a microphone and noisily reported the situation to the commander, saying that their line was the most important.

The old man Cao Mingqin held the microphone between his shoulders, took out the medicine bottle from his pocket, poured out two blood pressure pills and ate them.

At this time, another phone rang, and a secretary rushed to pick it up, and after hearing two sentences, he was shocked and shouted to Commander Cao:

"Commander, just ...... I just received a report from Sun Baoguo of Dinghuaimen Observation Fort, saying that Qing Yu broke through with him! ”

"Huh?!" Cao Mingqin put down the two phones in his hand and directly took the microphone handed by the secretary, "Just kidding, how is this possible!" …… Hey, I'm Cao Mingqin! …… Feed? Feed? Can you hear me? ”

There was only a "rumbling" explosion on the other end of the phone, and suddenly a voice shouted:

"Hey! Which are you? ”

"I'm Cao Mingqin! Dinghuaimen Observation Fort? What about Sun Baoguo? ”

"Sir Cao!" The man shouted, with a crying voice, "Chief Sun has been martyred!" ”

Cao Mingqin's heart was cold, but he was not completely disappointed, after all, there were still people answering the phone, indicating that at least the Dinghuaimen Observation Fort had not been lost. He asked sharply:

"Has the Qing army broken through?"

The man replied:

"Lord Hui, the defense line is still holding, just now the Qing army forced more than 100 people, and there are still about a dozen left here at the observation fort, they blew up the entrance and attacked in, and Chief Sun was martyred! Now the humble post has led people to purge this small Qing army! ”

Cao Mingqin didn't speak for a few seconds, his clenched heart instantly relaxed, and a sense of relief filled his body. As I thought, the defense line is not so easy to break through.

……

In the Dinghuai Gate Observation Fort, the Qing soldier had learned the big tongue of the south for a long time, and at this time he put down the phone, touched a handful of sweat, and laughed at his companions around him. The dozen or so Qing soldiers around also laughed, and soon burst into laughter, as if they couldn't relax their tense nerves without this.

Shells kept falling on the other side, the observation fort was trembling, light bulbs were flickering on and off, and large sums of dust were falling.

When they forced the crossing just now, they felt that they were stabbing me as fish and meat, and let others slaughter them, but now they finally came alive and occupied a command fort, but I am afraid that the surrounding Ming troops do not know yet.

One of the leading sergeants of the Qing soldiers was lying on the observation port and looking out, at this time he was condescending, his vision was wide, and he felt completely different.

I saw that the river was vast and the smoke of gunpowder was wafting.

The fierce line of fire drawn out by the tracer bullets on the river has been greatly reduced, and in its place, there is a column of water that is constantly rising, becoming denser and denser.

Now the firepower of the rapid-fire artillery of the Ming army is much inferior to that of just now. These small-caliber rapid-fire guns were all fired in the open air, and at this time most of them had been dumbfounded by the uninterrupted artillery fire on the opposite bank, and the Ming army had already called on the large and medium-caliber guns on the defensive line to shoot at the river. These large and medium-caliber guns were all installed in artillery forts and were well protected, but their original task was to fire at Pu ** and suppress the artillery fire on the opposite bank, but now they had to lower their barrels and shoot at the river to make up for the gap in rapid-fire guns.

Columns of cumbersome water rose in the ant-like assault boats, showing the helplessness of the cannons to fight the mosquitoes.

Originally, in order to save assault boats, the Qing army stipulated that once the assault boats arrived on the opposite bank, they must immediately return to transport the second batch of soldiers. But now more and more assault boats are piling up on the river beach, and even the operators are being killed.

Many assault boats were filled with blood, and the corpses of the Qing soldiers were soaked in them. Although these assault boats escaped artillery fire and landed on the shore, the Qing soldiers inside were all killed by the dense machine guns before they even had a chance to disembark. A small number of Qing soldiers lay in wait in the mudflats, or lie down under the river embankment, holding their heads to dodge, trying to find a dead spot for shooting. Whistling bullets and screaming flames swept over their heads.

There was a strong smell of gasoline and burnt paste everywhere. The white smoke of the smoke bomb and the black smoke of gasoline were mixed together, and they drifted by one by one, like ghosts.

On the river beach, the reeds were burning, and there was no water in the puddles below, and they were all blood. Where the reeds burned out, barbed wire was exposed. The blackened barbed wire was covered with the corpses of Qing soldiers.

What is even more terrifying is that countless mines have been buried on the river beach of the Ming army, and the shelling has not been cleared for such a long time. A Qing soldier was on fire all over, waving his arms and striding with difficulty, when suddenly black smoke rose from his feet, and he was blown into the air, completely relieved.

Since the start of the war in the early morning of January 5, it is not until today that this legendary Yangtze River defense line has fully demonstrated its might and can be regarded as a real meat.

The sergeant of the Qing army looked at this situation, gritted his teeth, kicked away Sun Baoguo's body, put a gun at Sun Baoguo's adjutant, and ordered:

"Quick, call and give orders!"

……

From January 5th to 22nd, 17 consecutive days of mutual shelling, the Pukou area was naturally smashed like the surface of the moon, while the Ming army underwent a more brutal test. The artillery density of the Qing army was several times that of the Ming army, and the daily bombardment had already caused the river embankment to be riddled with holes. Fortunately, the water level is low in winter, so it will be troublesome in summer. The more than 300-millimeter train gun in the north always had several huge shells smashed on the defensive line every day.

The west and north side of Nanjing's city wall have long been in ruins, and on the defense line, many separate and smaller machine gun forts have been destroyed, even those steel reinforced cement forts several meters thick, which have also appeared cracks of varying degrees, and the surrounding areas are full of broken cement, and many steel bars have been exposed.

Although the eastern section of the Yangtze River defense line is called the "Oriental Maginot Line" by Xiang Xiaoqiang, it is still very different from the Maginot Line.

The biggest feature of the Maginot Line is that the kung fu is basically underground, and there are very few exposed parts of the ground, so it can be said that they do not care much about shelling. However, the Yangtze River defense line was close to the river, and although there was a well-developed underground part, the drainage pressure was quite large, and it could not be dug as deep as the Maginot Line without scruples, and relied heavily on the cement heavy above-ground fortresses. Therefore, although it is still strong, the enemy's shelling is much more effective after all.

……

Sun Baoguo's adjutant was forced by the guns of the Qing army, tremblingly picked up the phone, and ordered stubbornly:

"Command the entire line ......"

The sergeant of the Qing army whispered:

"Machine gun ceasefire, machine gun crew retreats into the tunnel!"

The adjutant's face was like earth:

"They...... I won't believe it. ”

The Qing sergeant leaned the bayonet closer to his throat:

"How do you know if you don't try!"

The adjutant was forced to be helpless, and said into the microphone:

"Machine gun ceasefire, machine gun crew retreats into the tunnel!"

An incredible voice came from the microphone:

"What? Please repeat! ”

The adjutant looked at the sergeant of the Qing soldiers, and said stiffly:

"Order the machine guns to cease fire, and the machine gun crews all withdraw into the tunnel!"

The other end of the phone was stunned for a few seconds, and argued:

"Sir, that line of defense will be lost!"

The Qing soldier's bayonet stabbed him in the chin again, and his face was as white as paper, and he shouted through the microphone:

"It's an order! The chief said so, he has his own arrangement! Obey orders! ”

After saying that, he hung up the phone abruptly.

The order was delivered. Gradually, the sound of machine guns on both sides died down. Some machine-gun forts questioned this order and continued to shoot. But more machine-gun forts have stopped firing. The machine gun crew disassembled the machine guns, carried them separately, and entered the passage of the defense line through the small door behind them, leaving an empty machine gun fort.

In a matter of moments, a large number of Qing soldiers jumped out of the assault boats and rushed onto the river beach, and except for a small number of shells and mines, most of them rushed to the defense line intact.

The dozen or so Qing soldiers in the observation fort watched the large number of friendly troops rushing up at their feet, dancing and cheering excitedly.

The telephone rang sharply, the fort fell silent, and the sergeant of the Qing army grabbed the microphone.

"Hey, what's going on?" Cao Mingqin's voice almost pierced his eardrums, "Why don't you shoot?" Who gave the order? ”

The sergeant of the Qing army shouted:

"Sir, our Chief Sun has been martyred, and no one has given any orders!"

The phone hung up with a "snap", and there was no nonsense at all. A few minutes later, the silent machine-gun fort spat out tongues of fire one after another.

"Damn," the sergeant of the Qing army scolded, "the Ming army's correction speed is so fast, if we were to be in chaos, we would have to mess up for half an hour!" ”

He was about to force the adjutant to give another false order, when another Qing soldier lay on his stomach at the observation gate, and suddenly cheered outside:

"Hey! Brother, we're here! Come on, we're in there! ”

The others immediately approached the observation port, and when they saw a few Qing soldiers outside climbing the river embankment, they were bent over to this observation fort, and they all followed suit.

But the explosion outside was deafening, and the Qing soldiers outside didn't seem to hear the shouts at all, and still outflanked them in battle formation. One of them carried a flamethrower on his back, and the spray gun in his hand ignited flames, and the flames continued to drip onto the ground.

He found a position under the "cover" of his companions, lay on the ground, pressed the steel helmet a little, his eyes showed a cold light, and the flamethrower was aimed at the window of the observation fort.

Several Qing soldiers in the fort froze with smiles, and the terrifying cool air spread all over their bodies from behind.

The sergeant burst out with a desperate shout:

"Own ————!!!"

With a scream, he watched as a fiery dragon sprayed into his face, and then darkness followed.

……

"Okay, one hit! Attaboy! ”

The flamethrower gave himself a thumbs up, then squirted a second time. The small observation bunker was already filled with flames, with black smoke and tongues of fire spewing out of the observation window and the door at the back.

Several soldiers outflanked them, and two people jumped down the concrete tunnel and threw a grenade against the wall into the small door.

There was a loud bang, and a large amount of smoke and dust was spewed out of the doorway. The flames inside the fort were extinguished by a strong wave of air. Several Qing soldiers rushed into the observation fort and shouted with a sense of accomplishment:

"Take it!"