Dec. 7, 2 a.m.

Xu 19 was awakened from his sleep by the loud explosion, and hurriedly woke up the black blind man who slept like a dead pig, and then climbed to the tower of Hongjue Temple, and when he went up to the top floor, Gao Shenxing had already been guarding there, in fact, Gao Shenxing had never come down, he stayed on the top floor of the tower all night, and sent others to watch him not worry.

"Captain, Xiao Ri has begun to prepare for artillery fire." Gao Shenxing pointed in the direction of Dongshan Bridge.

Xu Shijiu looked in the direction of Gao Shenxing's finger, only to see that the direction of Dongshan Bridge was still dim, and a little red light shone and bloomed from time to time in the darkness.

"Strange, what kind of cannon did you shoot on the big night?" The black blind man also climbed to the top of the tower out of breath, "Isn't this nonsense, let people not sleep?"

Xu 19 and Gao Shenxing were also puzzled, during the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army would occasionally launch a sneak attack at night, but a large-scale cluster shelling like this is quite rare, under normal circumstances, the Japanese army will only carry out intensive artillery preparations before committing to an infantry attack, can it be said that Xiao Ri would have launched a night attack?

The speculation of the two was quickly confirmed, and after half an hour of shelling, Xiao Ri Ben really threw in the infantry to launch an attack on the forward position at the foot of the mountain, and the light and heavy machine guns, grenadier canisters, and 92 infantry guns of the Chinese and Japanese armies quickly became a pot of porridge.

Gao Shen said: "Xiao Ri seems to be really anxious, and he does not hesitate to fight at night.

Xu Jiu didn't speak, he only took out the Bao San Fort and put one in his mouth, and after lighting it, he silently pumped it up, and his intuition told Xu Jiu that things might not be so simple, Xiao Ri Ben suddenly launched a night attack, and it was likely that there was some other purpose hidden, but he couldn't think of it all at once, what conspiracy Xiao Ri Ben had?

When Xu Shijiu was thinking hard, a dazzling red light suddenly rose under the night sky on the west side of Zutang Mountain, at this time, the southern foot of Zutang Mountain had already been formed, but the west foot was still silent, so this firelight was particularly abrupt, and it was about five or six seconds after the red light bloomed before a faint explosion came.

Gao Shenxing's face changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice: "The direction is due west and south, the distance is about two thousand meters, it should be that the thunder buried by the engineer squad on the Ninglang Highway has been detonated!" ”

"Sound from east to west!" Xu Jiujiu woke up suddenly, and said in a deep voice, "Xiao Ri Jian originally sang about the sound of attacking the east and the west, ostensibly launching a fierce attack on the forward position, but in fact, he let the sappers secretly rush to repair the Ninglang Highway, hum, Xiao Ri Jian originally thought it was beautiful, but in front of our Chinese people, they played thirty-six tricks, and they were still a little tender." ”

After that, Xu Shijiu instructed the black blind man again: "Heizi, immediately notify the artillery company, target Ninglang Highway, shoot Zhuyuan according to the calibration, and twenty rounds of rapid fire!" ”

"Yes." The black blind man snapped to the ground and ran away again.

Hu Jie's artillery position was set up in an open space on the right side of Hongjue Temple, and there was more than one person deep artemisia grass in the open space, which was difficult for the aviation scouts of Xiao Ri to discover, and as for the Japanese artillery under the mountain, because of the blockage of the ridge, it was not a threat at all, and the black blind man took five minutes to rush to the artillery position, and then rows of shells rose from the artillery position.

Xu 19 and Gao Shenxing raised the binoculars at the same time, and about ten seconds after the shells were in the air, a ball of fire suddenly bloomed in the field of vision, and by the fire generated by the explosion of the mortar shell, I saw that the black pressure on the road was full of Japanese soldiers, and Xiao Ri was really breaking off the Ninglang Highway that had been dug up by the 58th Division.

Gao Shen said: "Captain, Xiao Ri really planned to take a detour." ”

Xu Shijiu said "um", turned around and hurriedly got off the Hongjue Temple Tower, he had to report the situation to the division headquarters immediately, and then Feng Shengfa ordered the four L50mm caliber heavy mortars of the artillery battalion directly under the 58th Division to seal the Ninglang Highway, Xiao Rijian wanted to rush to repair the Ninglang Highway at night, but there was no door!

A few minutes later, four L50mm caliber heavy mortars hidden in the dense forest behind Hongjue Temple opened fire, and dozens of Makqin heavy machine guns on Zutang Mountain, the main peak of Niushou Mountain and Xiong Mountain also opened fire fiercely, although the lethality of L50mm caliber heavy mortars was strong, but because the number of artillery pieces was too small, the lethal effect was actually very limited, and what really posed a threat to the Japanese army was still dozens of Makqin heavy machine guns set up on Zutang Mountain, Niushou Mountain and Xiong Mountain.

Although the effective firing range of the Maxim heavy machine gun in a straight line is only about 600 meters, when firing at a large elevation angle, it still has a strong lethality at a distance of 4,000 meters!

In the Battle of the Lyme River in the First Shijie War, the German army fired 400 Maxim heavy machine guns at an elevation angle of 4,000 meters away, and the bullets that fell from the sky formed a huge barrage of death, so that the British and French troops hiding in the trenches had nothing to hide, and the British and French troops lost more than 60,000 people in a lifetime, yes, not casualties but death!

In the Battle of Songhu, the 58th Division lost a large amount of weapons and equipment, and only 8 of the 72 Makqin heavy machines remained, and later the Ministry of Military Affairs supplemented the 58th Division with a batch of heavy machine guns, but there were only 40 of them, of which 12 heavy machine guns were transferred to Jianshan, the 19th Brigade damaged 2 more, and only 34 Makqin heavy machine guns on Niushou Mountain and Xiongshan Mountain.

However, even if there were only 34 Makqin heavy planes, they still caused great damage to the Japanese army.

The 34 Makqin heavy machine guns condescendingly opened fire on the "Zutang Mountain Section of the Ninglang Highway", and the scorching bullets that fell from the sky in a large parabola intertwined into a huge barrage of death, so that the Japanese troops who were rushing to repair the highway had nothing to hide, even if they hid in the ditch on the side of the road, it was useless, and they would still be shot through by the bullets.

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Gu Shoufu was woken up by his own orderly soldier Oyama Yong, and soon, Ushijima Man, Nakamura Seiichi and Shimono Kazuho walked into his tent with a solemn expression, Nakamura Seiichi's expression was still a little panicked, obviously, the engineer wing rushed to repair the Ninglang Highway There was a problem, otherwise, Nakamura Seiichi would not have such a face.

Sure enough, Nakamura Seiichi lowered his head and said: "Division commander, the engineer wing was killed and wounded by the heavy machine guns of the Chinese army from a long distance, and the casualties were too great, and it was no longer possible to continue to repair the road." ”

"Nani?" Gu Shoufu said in disbelief, "The Ninglang Highway is at least more than two thousand meters away from Niushou Mountain, and the heavy machine guns of the Chinese Army can have such a long effective range?" ”

Ushijima coughed lightly and said, "Division commander, the Chinese army shoots at an elevation angle. ”

Gu Shoufu's expression froze, speaking of which he was also a high-achieving student who graduated from Lu University with the third place honor, and also studied in the United Kingdom, and was no stranger to the famous Battle of the Lyme River in World War I, but after returning to China, he did not come into contact with Western ordnance for a long time, so he gradually forgot the saying that the Makqin heavy machine gun and elevation angle shooting.

When Tani Shoo walked out of the headquarters with Mitsuru Ushijima, Seiichi Nakamura, and Kazuho Shimono, many wounded of the engineer wing had already been transported down from the front, and they were everywhere in the station, not to mention three or four hundred people, many of the wounded had already lost their breath, and more were wailing and moaning, and the whole scene was like a ghost in the world.

Ushijima said in a low voice: "Division Commander, why don't you take the second plan?"

Gu Shoufu was silent, and the second plan would have to be delayed for at least five more days, and he knew that the 9th and 13th divisions of the Shanghai Army would not take Nanjing within five days? But the problem now is that the 6th Division can't do without the second plan, because the first and third plans will not work at all.

After pondering for a long time, Tani finally agreed to adopt the second plan, that is, to build an improvised road to Banqiao Town, and asked the chief of staff Shimono Kazuho to send a telegram to the commander of the 114th Division, Shigeharu Suematsu, requesting the Suematsu Division to transfer the 114th Engineer Wing to assist the 6th Division in repairing the improvised road.

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During the whole day on December 7, there was no large-scale fighting at Niushou Mountain

However, compared with the relatively quiet Niushou Mountain battlefield, the battle of Chunhua Town Battlefield, which was guarded by Wang Yaowu's 51st Division, has entered a white heat.

As mentioned above, unlike the 58th Division, which concentrated its forces to defend the three hills, the 51st Division put out a frontal defensive jiashi, and set the four main regiments in echelons, the 301st Regiment guarded Songshu as the front barrier of Chunhua Town, the 306th Regiment and the 302nd Regiment guarded Hushu and Fangshan as the flank positions of Chunhua Town, and the 305th Regiment remained in the rear as a reserve.

On the 5th, Songshu and Hushu were attacked by the two main divisions of the Japanese army, suffered heavy casualties, and were forced to retreat, and Chunhua Town and Fangshan positions were exposed to the Japanese army.

On the 6th, the Japanese army used heavy artillery and aviation to bombard the positions of Chunhua Town and Fangshan indiscriminately, and launched a strong attack from the front with the chariot troops, and when the battle was in full swing, an infantry brigade of the 35th Infantry Wing of the 9th Division of the Japanese Army made a detour to the side of Fangshan, and the 302nd Regiment defending Fangshan wavered, and the position was lost.

On the 7th, the Japanese army set up 92 infantry guns and mortars on Fangshan Mountain to bombard Chunhua Town condescendingly, and at the same time launched a continuous strong attack from the front with armored vehicles, tanks and cavalry and infantry, and fought until the evening, the commander of the 301st Regiment, Ji Hongru, was seriously wounded, nine of the 12 company commanders were killed, more than 1,400 officers and soldiers below the platoon were killed, and the 301st Regiment was almost completely wiped out.

On the 8th, the 58th Division abandoned Chunhua Town, and a gap was opened by the Japanese in the outer defense line of Nanjing.

After the loss of Chunhua Town, the Japanese army on the middle route could follow the Jurong (Jurong) Ning (Nanjing) Highway to Guanghua Gate, and the defense of Nanjing had actually entered the battle for the Fukuo position, and it was meaningless for the 58th Division to continue to defend Niushou Mountain, and Yu Jishi, the commander of the 74th Army, immediately ordered the 58th Division to retreat to the Fukuo position.

After receiving the order, the depression in Xu Shijiu's heart can be imagined.

Zutangshan didn't dare to say that it was solid, but after ten days and half a month, Xu Shijiu was still confident, but now he had to give up easily, could Xu Shijiu not be depressed?