On the day of the parade, Huang Ke, in the name of the Central Executive Committee and the Minister of National Defense, issued an operational order for a counterattack to Cui Wu and the three armed forces under his command.

After being supplemented by tens of thousands of superior soldiers of the First Army, the Chinese army already had the same combat capability as the Japanese army at this time, and with the input of the airborne troops, Cui Wu believed that they would be able to complete the goal of counterattack operations.

Prior to this, Huang Ke had appointed Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff of the defense war, and he worked with Cui Wu and others to formulate a counterattack plan. The main purpose of the operation was to launch a counteroffensive from the Eastern Front and to crush the heavy group of three divisions and regiments of the Sixth, Eighteenth and Ninth Divisions that were attacking head-on from the Eastern Front with superior forces.

This heavy army group accounted for more than half of the Japanese army's attack on Nanjing, and if they could be defeated, it would be equivalent to cutting off the Japanese army's fist, and basically lay the foundation for the victory of the defense of Nanjing.

Of course, in addition to strategic reasons, Huang Ke also did this because these three divisions were the main culprits of that massacre in history, and it was imperative to eliminate them.

In order to ensure superiority in troops, Cui Wu deployed the First Group Army, the 15 th Army Group, the 88th and 87th Divisions, and the newly expanded rocket artillery regiment with a total of 150,000 troops on the eastern front to counterattack.

On the day that the Chinese army issued the counterattack combat order, a large copy of this combat order was also sent to the top of the Japanese East China Front Army by the Japanese intelligence department.

However, after seeing Matsui Ishine and Hatohiko, the top leaders of the East China Front of the Japanese Army did not think so.

At the moment, although the Japanese attack is not particularly smooth, it is just around the corner from breaking the city. What's more, the Japanese army has formed a situation of being pressed by a large army on three sides, and the defensive pressure of the Chinese army is unprecedentedly tense.

This error of judgment by the Japanese top brass was the beginning of their defeat.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of October 10, under the autumn sun, the rocket artillery unit took the lead in launching a counteroffensive against the Japanese army. Three rocket artillery regiments approached the Japanese positions under artillery fire, and after the deployment, they fired a salvo at the Japanese positions.

Hundreds of rocket launchers fired at the Japanese positions together, and the sight was extremely shocking! Countless * fires pierced the air, still reflecting half of the sky red at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the rocket artillery made a strange whizzing sound, roaring like a gale, and then fell into the Japanese positions in waves like rain.

The shells exploded one after another brilliant sparks at the assembly point of the Japanese position, and the shock wave of the explosion and the splashing flames turned the Japanese position into a sea of fire in an instant.

This lasted almost half an hour, and the rocket artillery units carried out two simultaneous releases. Half an hour later, the Japanese position was in flames, and even the dust kicked up by the air wave was blood-red.

The dense * lethality was amazing, coupled with the fear that the rocket artillery had brought to the Japanese officers and soldiers, and when the rocket artillery attacked, the Japanese officers and soldiers became helpless. In addition to those who were burned to death in an instant, there were also Japanese officers and soldiers who were covered in flames, babbling and screaming hysterically, and after a while they fell down one by one, burning only a pile of ashes.

After the fire suppression by the rocket artillery, the counterattacking troops began to attack.

The tank armored units of the First Army fought their way out of the Eastern Front and went straight to the Tangchi line occupied by the Japanese army, opening the prelude to the ground counterattack operation.

The vanguard of the First Army, consisting of an armored regiment and two mechanized infantry regiments, was used by Xue Boling to break through the enemy's defenses, and he described to Cui Wu that a mad cow covered in fire would rush to the Japanese, disrupt them, and then attack with the whole army.

At the beginning of the offensive, on a horizontal plane a few miles east of Nanjing, a huge attack formation composed of nearly 100 domestically made Benniu-2 medium and American-made M3 Grant tanks and armored vehicles kicked up a thick cloud of dust and rushed towards the Japanese position like a torrent of steel.

The front-line troops of the 6th Division had not yet gained a foothold under the attack of rocket artillery, and they were again subjected to such an unprecedented impact.

The tank tracks under the steel ruthlessly crushed the bodies of the Japanese officers and soldiers, and the Japanese soldiers who were holding their bags high and ready to show the spirit of bushido were beaten to pieces by the coordinated infantry.

This wave of offensive has achieved unprecedented good results. The Chinese army pushed the front forward by several kilometers.

After seeing the results of the battle on the front line, Cui Wu immediately ordered the whole army to start a counteroffensive!

The 15th Army, the First Army, and the 88th and 87th Divisions began to attack on the Eastern Front in accordance with the predetermined plan.

After the 36th Brigade of the Japanese Sixth Division, which was at the forefront of the Eastern Front, encountered the impact of tank troops, the brigade commander Ushijima reported to the division commander Toshio Tani in a frustrated manner.

Gu Shoufu already knew about the counteroffensive of the Chinese army, and he frowned, realizing that this armored force was the fist force of the Chinese army's counteroffensive, and he must kill them.

After studying with the staff officers, Gu Shoufu immediately ordered the mobilization of the remaining tank troops to intercept it. And reported the situation to the East China Front Command.

Matsui Ishine and Hatohiko were greatly surprised when they heard this, but they did not expect that the Chinese army would actually start a counteroffensive. Since they are leading the way with armored forces, then destroy them with armored forces.

The East China Front immediately mobilized the armored forces of its headquarters to intercept it. Equipped with a large number of Type 89 medium tanks and Type 95 tanks, the Japanese armored forces converged on the Jurong line, and hundreds of tanks from both sides launched a large-scale tank battle here.

To be honest, the terrain here is densely networked, and it is not suitable for large-scale armored operations at all, but the double history will be rewritten from here, and a tank battle will be written into the textbooks of military academies of various countries.

While the tanks of the Chinese and Japanese sides were engaged in a hard-fought battle, the other units of the counteroffensive also organized an attack according to the predetermined plan, and a decisive battle between the Chinese and Japanese sides began.

The battle lasted from day to night, and by about ten o'clock in the evening, the noisy gunfire around was still ringing out.

At this time, Huang Ke, who had just drunk a bowl of millet porridge, came to the air defense conference room of the Ministry of National Defense again.

He sat there with his eyes like a torch, his eyes staring at the large-scale map of the situation of the enemy and the enemy in front of him, the staff officers were busy, all kinds of telephones were constantly ringing, and the sound of ticking telegrams was also coming and going.

The staff officers summarized the situation at the front and handed it in, and then marked it in front of the huge scale map.

"Chief, let's go and rest first, I'm afraid this battle won't be known until a few days later." Bai Chongxi, deputy chief of the General Staff Headquarters and chief of the General Staff of the Nanjing Theater, came over to Huang Kedao.

Huang Ke, who was distracted for a while, came back to his senses and said, "It's not in the way, I'm not sleepy now." What is the situation of the troops now? ”

Bai Chongxi said: "The attack has already been launched according to the predetermined plan. So far, it's going well. Just like that, I'm worried that the defense line on both flanks is a little tight. ”

Bai Chongxi was right, there were only so many troops participating in this battle, since most of the troops were concentrated on the eastern front, it was obvious that the defense of the left and right areas was bound to be weak, and in this way, the Japanese troops attacking in those two directions would also become fierce.

"Telegraphed Yu Chengwan and Xiao Shanling, telling them to be strict and guarded! Don't let a single Japanese bird go. Huang Ke said solemnly.

The 74th Army led by Yu Chengwan and the garrison led by Xiao Shanling defended on the northeast and southeast fronts of Nanjing. In order to carry out rapid deployment on the Eastern Front, the Ministry of Defense transferred two elite divisions, the 88th Division and the 87th Division, from these two lines of defense, respectively, but did not send other reinforcements to the two units.

In this way, the balance of strength of the other two lines of defense, which were originally in a state of equilibrium with the Japanese army, naturally began to tilt in favor of the Japanese army.

Huang Ke knew that this was a great risk, because once the Japanese broke through from either of these two directions, the possible result would be the collapse of the entire front, and the fall of Nanjing would be a matter of time.

Otherwise, if we rely only on our current forces to confront the Japanese, our chances of victory are not very good. As the Japanese mainland continues to send reinforcements, then in the face of the powerful Japanese army, Nanjing can only be guaranteed until the end of the year at most.

Huang Ke was reluctant and agreed to the fall of Nanjing. Therefore, such a bold deployment was made after the multi-party staff officers.

At the same time, in order to ensure that the two lines of defense on both sides were not broken by the Japanese, he sent two tiger generals to defend it.

For the two of them, Huang Ke is extremely trusting in his heart. So before leaving, Huang Ke personally wrote the battle flag of "Tiger Ben" for Yu Chengwan; At the same time, before Xiao Shanling left, he sent him the battle flag with the two big characters of "Iron Army", which could not be more obvious.

Yu Chengwan and Xiao Shanling immediately said that if they don't succeed, they will become benevolent!

Facts have proved that they have indeed fulfilled their promises, in the counterattack of the defense of Nanjing, the northeast and southeast fronts were no less cruel than the eastern front, they did not retreat in the face of a strong enemy several times their size, the two armies died countless deaths, but with blood to defend the position, to ensure the victory of the counteroffensive in the defense of Nanjing.

The two armies are also known as the "Tiger Army"!

Later, after hearing about this incident, the famous writer Zhang Hatshui personally learned about the battle in detail with General Yu Chengwan and the officers around Xiao Shanling.

Those moving deeds that inspired people to forge ahead and shed tears infected him, and also made him feel the greatness and loyalty of Chinese soldiers. He felt that it was necessary for the whole country to know and remember, so when the Anti-Japanese War was not over, he wrote the book "Long Live the Tiger" with emotion, recording the steel moment of this army's hard encounter.

ps: Long live the tiger but there is a book, made by Mr. Zhang Hatshui, about the defense of Changde, the language is popular, the content is detailed, if you are interested, you can take a look.