Sheshan Town, Qingpu, Headquarters of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army.

Division commander Toshio Tani was holding a military meeting to convey the orders of the Central China Front Command.

"The Ohara Brigade failed to blow up the Anting Bridge, the retreat channel of the Huxi China Army is still unimpeded, and every hour that passes, thousands of China troops will retreat to Kunshan through the Anting Bridge, and Commander Matsui ordered us to go north overnight to seize Anting and cut off the western retreat of the Huxi China Army."

Hearing that Matsui Ishine ordered the 6th Division to go north overnight to capture Anjeong, the commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade, Sakai Tokutaro, immediately jumped up and said, "Division commander, I'm afraid we won't be able to go north!" ”

The officers at the meeting turned their heads to the side and looked at Tokutaro Sakai in amazement.

Long before Jinshanwei landed, the attack line of the 6th Division had been determined, that is, to occupy Qingpu through Songjiang, and then capture Anting Town from Qingpu, and cooperate with Shanghai to send a reciprocal army to complete the encirclement of the main force of the Huxi National Army.

"Sakai-san, do you know what you're talking about?" Gu Shoufu rubbed his eyes, and felt a little unhappy in his heart, this old devil was almost sixty years old, and he was tired from the fatigue of traveling for days, and he was already thinking about forming a detachment, and this detachment would carry out the combat missions of his division, so that he could be lazy.

Tokutaro Sakai didn't explain much, but pointed to the map on the table and said: "Division commander, as far as I know, the 11th Division did not go south to Jiading after capturing the Liuhe River, but went west to Taicang. ”

"Huh?" Gu Shoufu nodded thoughtfully, and the participants also fell into deep thought.

As the saying goes, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there are armies, there are factions.

Although the base camp of the Japanese army has merged the Shanghai Dispatch Army and the Tenth Army into the Central China Front, with Matsui Ishine as the commander, Matsui Ishine is still the commander of the Shanghai Dispatch Army after all, and the Shanghai Dispatch Command Army did not perform well in the previous operations, so the old guy may not have the idea of deliberately suppressing the Tenth Army.

For example, now, while ordering the 6th Division to go north to Anting, while ordering the 11th Division to take Kunshan directly, once the 11th Division captures Kunshan before the 6th Division and blocks the main force of the Nationalist Army east of Kunshan, then the first merit of encircling and annihilating the main force of the Nationalist Army in western Shanghai will fall on the head of the 11th Division, and the 6th Division will only cooperate with the action.

Tani put his reading glasses back on and asked, "Sakai-san, what do you mean?" ”

Tokutaro Sakai picked up a pencil and drew a thin and long arrow on the map, and said in a deep voice: "My opinion, give up Anting, go straight to the northwest along the Qingkun Highway, and occupy Kunshan in front of the 11th Division, so that the first contribution to encircling and annihilating the main force of the West China Army in Shanghai will be the work of our 6th Division." ”

Gu Shoufu's cloudy old eyes suddenly lit up, and he began to weigh the pros and cons in his heart.

Wing Commander of the 6th Field Artillery Wing, Ken Fujimura, said with some concern: "The Qingkun Highway is only a simple highway, and the road condition is far from enough to compare with the Songjia Highway and the Kunhu Highway. Also, if our division drives straight into Kunshan, will it be too aggressive? ”

Fujimura's worries were not unreasonable, the 10th Army immediately after the landing of Jinshanwei divided its troops into several routes, even the 6th Division also divided its troops after the capture of Songjiang, Ushijima Mitsuru's 36th Infantry Brigade was along the Shanghai-Hangzhou Highway straight to Nanshi, and only the 11th Infantry Brigade and the troops directly under the division went north to Qingpu.

Kunshan has now become the choke point for the Chinese army to retreat westward, and a large number of national troops are bound to gather here, and the 6th Division is only half a division of troops, will it be surrounded by the national army in turn? Also, will the Chinese army, which is retreating west along the south bank of the Wusong River, counterattack Qingpu and cut off the logistics supply line of the 6th Division?

"Fujimura is worried." Sakai Tokutaro waved his hand and said disapprovingly, "Through the battles of Songjiang and Qingpu, it can be found that the morale of the Shina army is very low, and the will to fight is also extremely weak, I dare to say that as long as an infantry brigade appears outside Kunshan City, the Shina army will be defeated without a fight, so there is no need to worry about the supply line at all." ”

Wing Commander of the 6th Cavalry Wing, Kinta Inoki, said, "But, how can Commander Matsui explain it?" ”

Sakai Tokutaro said: "This is easy to do, send out an infantry brigade and continue to go north along the Songjia Road." ”

Gu Shoufu finally made up his mind, slapped the table and stood up: "Order, with the 11th Infantry Brigade as the backbone, plus one brigade of field artillery, engineers, baggage, and cavalry to form a mobile detachment, along the Qingkun Highway straight into Kunshan, in order to speed up, all the vehicles and horses of the division headquarters will be transferred to the Sakai detachment." ”

"Hello!" Tokutaro Sakai stood up and bowed.

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White Crane Port, the 19th Brigade station.

Seeing Xu Shijiu walking in with a gloomy face, Deputy Captain Gu Wei greeted him and asked, "Captain, what's wrong?" ”

Gu Wei was the deputy commander of the original guard battalion, and after the merger of the guard battalion and the 19th Brigade, he became the deputy captain of the 19th Brigade.

Xu Jiu shook his head and sighed, "The army has collapsed. ”

"The troops are collapsing?" Gu Wei was stunned and said, "No, except for the 1st Company that went with you to receive military supplies, the rest of the companies, artillery companies, and heavy machine gun companies are all resting in nearby villages, and they are all in a good mood." ”

"I'm not talking about our 19th Brigade, but about the 174th Brigade in Qingpu." Xu 19 encountered the rout of the 174th Brigade on the way back, and knew from the rout that Qingpu had been lost, and sighed, "Qingpu has been lost, the 174th Brigade has also collapsed, and Wu Brigade has also been martyred." ”

"Huh?!" Gu Wei was shocked when he heard this.

As soon as Wu Jiguang's 174th Brigade collapsed, the 19th Brigade and Baihe Port were directly exposed to the Japanese army, and Gu Wei couldn't help but worry, more than 3,000 officers and soldiers of a brigade of the 174th Brigade guarded Qingpu, but the Japanese army was defeated in less than a day, and their 19th Brigade was only more than 800 officers and soldiers, how long could it last?

At that moment, Gu Wei stood up and said, "I'm going to wake up the brothers and step up the construction of fortifications." ”

"Forget it, how many fortifications can be built in a hurry? Moreover, these fortifications could not withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of Japanese artillery and aviation. Xu Shijiu waved his hand and sighed, "The brothers haven't rested for a long time, and this looks like another fierce battle, so let's let them sleep a little longer." ”

Gu Wei nodded, sighed, and said, "Alas, then I'll go and go around." ”

After Gu Wei left, Xu Shijiu called Gao Shenxing, who was sitting at the door wiping his saber, in, and ordered: "Shenxing, you go and call Li Zihan, the leader of the engineer squad, to me." ”

Gao Shenxing agreed and went to the back.

There are very few sappers in the 19th Brigade, and the squad leader Li Zihan was specially asked by Xu 19 from Qiu Weida, and the rest are college and middle school students who temporarily joined the army, and their military experience is far worse than that of Shu Tongwen, a student soldier from Nanyuan, Xu 19 did not want these students to die in vain on the battlefield, so he put them into the engineer class.

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The engineer squad lived with the guard platoon, in the small courtyard behind the brigade headquarters.

Snoring was already raging in the courtyard, and the brothers hadn't slept for a long time, so most of them had fallen asleep as soon as they touched the ground.

Li Zihan was holding back his sleepiness and writing a diary.

After writing the diary, Li Zihan gently closed the diary, and put the diary and the fountain pen into the canvas bag and put it away, the gap on the canvas bag that was blown up by the Japanese artillery shells had been filled, and when he was about to pull out his hand from the bag, his fingertips touched something, and then subconsciously took the thing out of the bag, but it was a photo.

The photo is a young girl, with long bangs, two thick braids hanging down from behind her ears and falling down on her bulging breasts, she is smiling sweetly at the camera, there seems to be a faint shyness in her smile, and the youth and vitality are almost rippling out of the photo.

Holding the photo, Li Zihan couldn't help but look stupid.

"Brother Zihan, who is she?" Ergua didn't know when he appeared behind Li Zihan, clasped his knees with his hands, looked at the girl in the photo with envy on his face, and said, "It's so beautiful." ”

Li Zihan smiled, and didn't mean to put away the photo so that people wouldn't see it.

"Is it your daughter-in-law?" Ergua lowered his voice, attached to Li Zihan's ear and said, "Brother Zihan, let me tell you, Brother Shen Xing, he also has a small book, and there is also a photo in it, and there is also a woman on it, better looking than you, don't lie to you, it really looks like a fairy daughter, better than the top brand on the big stage." ”

The smile on Li Zihan's face froze, and he said, "Ergua, you stole the things of the high platoon leader, don't you want to live?" ”

Gao Shenxing usually doesn't talk much, except for Xu Shijiu, who hardly cares about people, and the expression on his face has always been cold, and the soldiers in the guard platoon are a little afraid of him.

As they were talking, there was a sound of footsteps outside, and when the two looked back, they saw Gao Shen walking in, Ergua was so frightened that he quickly turned his back and went to lie down, pretending to be asleep.

Gao Shenxing's gaze swept over Li Zihan's face and said, "Li Zihan, the captain is looking for you." ”

Li Zihan hurriedly put away the photo, and then came to the brigade headquarters with a canvas bag, and as soon as he entered the door, Xu Shijiu said: "I got a batch of shells for the Bufus Mountain Cannon, five hundred rounds, how long will it take to convert all of them into mines?" ”

Li Zihan thought for a while and replied, "If the detonators, batteries, and wires are all ready-made, one night is enough." ”

Xu Shijiu was stunned and said, "There are detonators, but there are no batteries and wires, and now I can't get them." ”

"Then you can't do remote control mines, you can only modify trigger mines." Li Zihan is still very good at this, and said, "If it is easier to modify the anti-infantry to trigger the mine, it will be more troublesome to modify the anti-tank mine." ”

Xu Jiujiu thought for a while and said: "Then change twenty anti-tank mines, and the rest are all anti-infantry mines, and the shells and detonators are all placed in the back yard, you can bring someone to get them yourself." ”

"Yes." Li Zihan saluted the military salute and turned around.