Towards the end of the day, the sun is setting in the west.

Long Shaogang took the baggage regiment and escorted the last batch of supplies on the road.

In consideration of the threat posed by the Japanese fleet's artillery group as the weather cleared, the three automobile companies had a total of 90 trucks divided into nine batches of 10 trucks and set out on the road in order to rectify the situation and prevent the Japanese fleet artillery group from being able to find its main target.

In consideration of the threat of Japanese planes from the air, the two trucks in front of the convoy and one in the back were simply modified, and the carriages were equipped with Type 92 heavy machine guns and Type 98 millimeter anti-aircraft machine guns to prevent air attacks by Japanese fighters. This Type 98 mm anti-aircraft gun is a weapon developed by the Japanese Army based on the Swiss Erlie anti-aircraft gun, with excellent performance, and its air defense is much better than that of the Type 96 mm gun.

The reconnaissance planes of the Japanese naval aviation, which had been extremely active for several days, soon discovered the traces of the convoy, and the Japanese planes composed of carrier-based fighters and bombers quickly arrived, and the battle quickly began on the coastal road.

Because the Japanese planes had been attacked head-on by the air defense units of the New Second Division in many sorties before, losing eight fighters one after another, and another 13 planes had to be damaged and had to return to Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport, which had just been occupied, for repairs, the Japanese planes became much more cautious, first sending a few bombers to drop bombs on several suspicious woods and reeds at high altitudes, and after waiting for a while without reacting, the planes returned to the group.

In the sky, after receiving a report from the pilot of the reconnaissance plane that he was safe and sound, Captain Yoshio Ei, the leader of the Japanese Naval Aviation Squadron, poked his head out and looked down, only to see that ten trucks on the road were speeding frantically westward, and immediately said to the radio: "Gentlemen, the people of China are timid, are you ready?" ”

"Squadron Leader, our squad is ready."

"Your Excellency, Captain, wait a minute, please enjoy the tragic situation of the Chinese, those trucks below will soon turn into burning coffins"

"Yo West"

Yoshio Ei was very satisfied with the attitude of his subordinates, but thinking of the huge losses of naval aviation before, his brows furrowed: "Remember, move quickly, climb as soon as you finish dropping bombs, and be careful of the light and heavy machine gun fire of the Shina army." ”

"Hay—"

As the uneven answers came from the radio, the Japanese planes had already adjusted their formation in the air, and Yoshio Ei shouted: "Warriors of the naval aviation, let's drop bombs according to the usual training patterns."

As Yoshio Ying's order to attack was delivered, nine 96 warships exploded in a formation of three and flew towards the speeding trucks on the road.

Yoshio Ei, who was flying in front, lowered the nose of the plane and dived down towards the truck that had fallen behind in front of him, and put his right thumb on the bomb drop button.

Seeing that he was less than a hundred meters away from the truck that was left behind, Yoshio Ei's thumb was about to be lightly pressed, when he suddenly found that the sparks in the back compartment of the other party were flickering, and then a dense barrage hit the cabin.

Yoshio Yingi was stunned, shouted "Baga", and hurriedly pulled the control stick, but before the plane could react, he heard a "clang", and the lower baffle of the cabin had been broken by the dense barrage, and then his chest hurt, and he couldn't help but scream miserably, followed by a violent cough.

A grain pierced through the iron sheet. The 7-mm bullet hit Lieutenant Camp Ei directly in the chest, piercing his trachea, along with his esophagus.

"I don't want to die"

Captain Yingjing shouted in his heart, his whole body fluttering, he felt that the plane had lost control and was hovering in the air, his vision was rapidly fading, and he heard several loud noises left and right in his ears, which were the sound of two wingman fighters exploding in the air.

With the most lucid clarity in his mind, Captain Yingjing pushed the lever to the ground and dived down towards the truck still speeding in front of him, trying to die with the enemy, but was soon hit by a volley of cannonballs and turned into a burst of fire.

In the rear compartments of the two trucks of the speeding convoy below, anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns spewed angry flames at the same time, and the four Japanese fighters that were caught off guard disintegrated in the air, and the other two planes were injured and billowing smoke.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the other three fighters hurriedly escaped the range of ground anti-aircraft fire, and then circled in the air, not daring to reduce their altitude again.

Several Japanese fighters that came to reinforce them later did not dare to carry out low-altitude strafing and dive bombing, so the strike effect on the convoy was not good, and they did not pose a fatal threat to the transport troops of the New Second Division.

Under these circumstances, the artillery group of the Japanese fleet finally exerted its might and pursued the convoy for artillery bombardment in accordance with the coordinates indicated by the Japanese fighters in the sky.

However, the target is too small, and the movement speed is quite fast, and the strike effect is extremely unsatisfactory. As the convoy safely moved into the northern area of Jiulong Mountain, shielding the Japanese gunball from Hangzhou Bay, the Japanese army's attempt to inflict a head-on blow on the Chinese army was completely frustrated.

By nine o'clock in the evening, all the troops had returned to Pinghu safely.

Wu Ming deliberately rushed to the garrison of the baggage regiment and took advantage of the moonlight to inspect the officers and men who had returned with a full load, and highly affirmed the performance of the officers and men of the baggage regiment in carrying forward the spirit of continuous combat and in the three-day rescue operation, which made the officers and men of the baggage regiment dance with excitement.

After awarding the collective second-class merit to the baggage regiment on the spot and issuing a cash reward check for 10,000 oceans, Wu Ming returned to the Mo Manor, and then convened a meeting of his subordinates.

In the war room, Wu Ming sat in the center, and due to the tension of the chairs, only a few people sat on both sides of the conference table, including Long Shaogang, Dai Ziran, Luo Yuming, Yang Sixian, and Yin Dizhong, and others such as Fan Daoquan, Wu Guohua, Lu Kuiyuan, Liu Siwei, Luo Changling, and Li Weixiong could only stand behind.

There is only one conference center this time, and that is the urgent work of the whole division and training.

The atmosphere was extremely tense from the start. This time, the 1st and 2nd Brigades suffered heavy losses, and the issue of weapons and equipment became the focus of attention. The materials captured in this battle are like a huge cake, which makes people salivate.

Wu Ming first openly and frankly expounded his viewpoint: With the loss of the Pingwang defensive line, it is a matter of time before the troops retreat to Pinghu, and under the threat of the Japanese aircraft group, the transfer of heavy artillery will become a big problem, and it will slow down the speed of the troops' turnaround. In order to prevent these heavy artillery pieces from falling back into the hands of the Japanese army, the heavy artillery battalion of the artillery regiment should evacuate the Pinghu area first, including the newly captured Japanese heavy artillery, without any hesitation, and retreat to western Zhejiang in one go.

As for the captured Japanese Type 92 infantry guns and light and heavy machine guns, they were relatively light and fast, and all of them were allocated to equip the troops.

Everyone has no objection to Wu Ming's decision, after all, although the heavy artillery is good, it can't fall on his head, so it's better to pay attention to what can be grabbed. Like a shark smelling blood, the generals of all brigades and regiments tore open the veil of warmth and fought for it, shouting loudly one by one that their troops lacked weapons and equipment, and blushing and counting the merits and huge losses of their troops. After arguing for a night, I finally came up with an opinion that everyone could accept.

Officers of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th regiments of the supplementary brigade were all left untouched, and all soldiers were assigned to the first and second brigades. Although most of the officers and men were recruits who had been in the army for less than a year, after arduous training and several offensive and defensive battles in downtown Shanghai and in Pinghu, they had grown into excellent soldiers and now had the shadow of elite soldiers.

Luo Yuming and Yang Sixian breathed a sigh of relief, the first brigade and the second brigade were basically disabled, and they were almost empty commanders, but fortunately, the skeleton of officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels was there, and they only needed to accept new recruits, and they would soon be strong and strong, and they could make meritorious contributions.

Although Yin Dizhong was dissatisfied, in view of the huge merits and heavy losses of the 1st and 2nd Brigades, he could not say anything, after all, the original intention of the establishment of the supplementary brigade was to serve the main force.

Fortunately, Chen Yanhua achieved remarkable results in gathering and defeating troops in the rear, not to mention the threefold expansion of the size of the first regiment, and also organized into four regiments of the militia regiment and four regiments of the transport regiment, plus the officers and men of the four regiments of the Maoliangwu militia regiment who had previously joined the Pinghu battlefield, the supplementary brigade could select elite soldiers and strong generals from among them, and re-reached the scale of five regiments.

The one-night meeting made Wu Ming, Long Shaogang, Dai Ziran and others drowsy, but the commanders of the brigades and regiments below were extremely excited, and they couldn't rest after coming out of the division headquarters, and they threw themselves into the rebuilding of the troops.

In the next three days, due to the cut off of material supplies, the 6th and 18th Divisions of the Japanese Army and the Kunisaki Detachment had difficulties in supplying ammunition and food, and the pace of the offensive was temporarily slowed down, and the battlefield on the southern front finally calmed down.

The new 2nd Division seized this rare time to reorganize and train the troops and adjust the firepower allocation.

On the basis of the original equipment of one light machine gun, eight rifles, and two submachine guns, each squad under the main force regiment added a sharpshooter and a machine gun group, and the number of squad leaders and deputy squad leaders was expanded to two

In order to facilitate logistical supply, all Czech light machine guns were replaced with crooked handles, and the original weapons were handed over to the quartermaster logistics department for unified safekeeping.

A new grenadier squad with three grenadiers has been added at the platoon level. If the shells run out, the squad can be converted into infantry at any time.

At the company level, the artillery platoon, which was originally equipped with six 60 mortars, was reorganized into a machine gun platoon, and a machine gun squad equipped with three crooked machine guns was added.

As for the battalion level, an additional heavy machine-gun platoon was added, armed with four Type 92 heavy machine guns.

At the regimental level, on the basis of the original machine gun company equipped with 12 heavy machine guns and 8 81 mortars, an artillery platoon with three infantry guns was added.

In this way, the firepower of the new 2nd Division at the regimental level and below was greatly superior to that of the Japanese army, not to mention other national army units. Of course, due to the huge air superiority of the Japanese army, coupled with the quality of the officers and men of the Japanese army, the actual situation is much more complicated than imagined.

For several days in a row, Wu Ming went deep into the grassroots companies, ate and lived with the officers and men, and kept abreast of the soldiers' ideological trends and resolved the practical difficulties of the troops.

In the north of Pinghu City, on a spacious farmhouse threshing floor five kilometers west of Shanghaitang, dense officers and soldiers stood in two squares, and many people had a blank look on their faces.

At the forefront of the two phalanxes, stood the two most powerful main regiment leaders under Wu Ming - Han Tiecheng and Zhou Juncheng.

Wu Ming finally saw the scene in front of him on the way back to the division headquarters, and after getting out of the car, he came to the rear of one of the queues. Cheng Yuan was about to push away the crowd and come forward to call Han Tiecheng and Zhou Juncheng, Wu Ming stretched out his hand in time to grab him, and took Cheng Yuan and a few guards to hide behind a haystack in the middle of the two queues to see what Han Tiecheng and Zhou Juncheng were doing.

Entering the Songhu battlefield, the position of the first main force of the new Second Division was contested by Han Tiecheng's first regiment and Zhou Juncheng's third regiment.

Military personnel must have a bloody nature, and the best way to express their bloody nature is through competition, and healthy competition can stimulate the enterprising spirit of officers and men and greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Han Tiecheng and Zhou Juncheng's efforts to be the first are the result of Wu Ming's deliberate connivance. This time they met, and Wu Ming was very much looking forward to what sparks would collide.

Han Tiecheng took a vertical step, jumped onto a haystack, turned around in a dashing manner, faced the black soldiers below, and glanced at Zhou Juncheng with disdain.

Zhou Juncheng's face was dark, and his hand on crutches was trembling with anger.

Han Tiecheng stood on the high platform, majestic, as if he pressed Zhou Juncheng who was standing on the ground. At the critical moment, how could Zhou Juncheng admit defeat? He threw down his crutches and walked effortfully towards a haystack beside him, and just as the guard wanted to help, he glared back fiercely, climbed up the haystack with difficulty, slowly straightened up, and turned to face his officers and soldiers.

Although Zhou Juncheng's movements were slow and looked extremely difficult, his gritted teeth and insistence made the officers and men of the Third Regiment extremely moved, and in Zhou Juncheng, the officers and soldiers saw the motto of the Third Regiment: never admit defeat

"Didn't Han Tiecheng bully Lao Zhou and get hurt?" Sun Chengyuan interjected.

"Han Tiecheng is also injured"

Wu Ming put down the binoculars, pointed at Han Tiecheng and Zhou Juncheng and said angrily: "Look at those two living treasures standing on the haystack, their faces are blue. Needless to say, with this force, the wound must be broken, and it is really a pair of living enemies who do not bow their heads when they are killed."

Cheng Yuan grinned, although Han and Zhou Erren were messing around like children, but as the commander of a regiment, they were so disregarding their bodies and trying to show their strength, this alone had already inspired the recognition and centripetal force of the soldiers.