January 5, 1936, four o'clock in the morning.

In the sky over Nanjing, the original pre-warning of 36 seconds and 24 seconds came to an abrupt end.

Then, the air raid siren, which sounded for 6 seconds and stopped for 6 seconds, howled. This howl is more rapid and terrifying than a steady advance warning. You can hear it even in a bomb shelter.

At the same time, a dense muffled thunder sounded on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Immediately, the air over the Yangtze River roared, and all kinds of strange screams were connected.

Then, the earth of Nanjing began to tremble incessantly. The city is boiling.

In the continuous trembling, the buildings collapsed, countless pillars of smoke rose up, billowing smoke and dust flew along the streets, and bricks and cement blocks soared into the air and fell thousands of meters away.

Half of the city could barely be seen, only the fire and the loud noise could be felt in the thick smoke. Huge cement blocks, asphalt blocks, and remnant brick walls that were cemented were lifted and dropped again and again, and lifted and fallen again, slowly becoming smaller and crumbled.

At 4:30 a.m., one-third of Nanjing, which is far west and north, was in a sea of fire, and the sky-high red light over Nanjing could be seen more than ten kilometers away.

At first, there were clusters of skyrocketing fires in the streets, and flames from the windows spewed out and licked the buildings.

Then there was a sea of fire, and a large number of buildings collapsed, and whole walls collapsed and fell in the fire.

In the end, this part of Nanjing has become hell, like a pile of dark red coals. The black ruins of the wall were lined up, and the surroundings were covered with a strange red light, and it was impossible to distinguish which was the fire and which was the molten iron of the steel bars.

At five o'clock sharp, the earth stopped trembling and the shelling ended.

……

For the first time, the horn in the bomb shelter shouted:

"Attention to the first person in charge of each unit, attention to the first person in charge of each unit, immediately go to the headquarters to attend the meeting! Come to the High Command now! Repeat......"

In the dead air-raid shelter, Xiang Xiaoqiang pushed away Qiu Qiu, whose face was full of tears, and said in a distorted and trembling voice:

"I ...... I've got to go to a meeting......"

Qiu Yu sobbed so much that she couldn't speak, only to see her tear-stained face reflecting the light.

Xiang Xiaoqiang hugged her tightly again, kissed her deeply on the lips, and said:

"Wait for me here!"

Then he took the steel helmet handed to him by his subordinates and put it on, called the driver, rushed to the entrance of the air-raid shelter in three steps and two steps, and took the gas mask bag given to him by the guards, and ran to the car in the courtyard at a speed of 100 meters.

……

The main target of this round of artillery bombardment by the Qing army was the fortification group along the Yangtze River on the south bank, not the urban area. Moreover, most of the artillery involved in the shelling on the north bank had a range of less than 10,000 meters, and they were not deployed along the river, but in the area of Yongning Town and Tangquan Town northwest of Pukou. Otherwise, Nanjing's destruction zone would be more than one-third of the adjacent river.

Nanjing's main monuments, concentrated in the Qinhuai district in the south and the Forbidden City in the east, were not damaged by the shelling. The headquarters of the People's Guard is located in the "Imperial City", outside the "Miyagi", close to Yudao Street, and it is also unscathed.

Cars sped down the deserted streets.

The air was filled with smoke and dust, and visibility was low. There is also a burnt smell that can be smelled even through the glass.

There were scattered bricks and large cement blocks on the road, which had been blown up from the west.

The driver's face turned pale with excitement, and he tried to dodge, slamming the steering wheel to the left and the right to the moment, and the screams of the car echoed through the street from time to time, and on several occasions he almost crashed into a building.

Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't bother to remind the driver to take it easy, he was now leaning on the back window and looking behind him, the sky in the west and north glowed red, almost like a sunset.

The car sped eastward and rushed out of Dong'anmen, and it was pitch black. This is counted outside the city. On the right side of the road are villages and fields, and on the left is the majestic Purple Mountain.

Slowly, car lights appeared in the distance in front and back, probably going to the Supreme Command for a meeting.

"Commander," the driver shouted, as if to release the tension in his chest, "you've never been to the High Command, have you?" ”

"Nope."

But Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that there was a Purple Mountain fortress in Nanjing, which was a hub on the Yangtze River defense line. It is said that the belly of the Purple Mountain has been hollowed out.

Since the general mobilization of the Ming Dynasty, the war command has been established in it. Xiang Xiaoqiang also knew that Nanming dared to set the capital under the muzzle of the Qing army, and this Purple Mountain Fortress was by no means given for nothing.

The driver's tone was full of pride:

"Okay, then you'll see right away what it means to be impregnable."

The car turned onto a winding road, and from time to time there were small bunker fortifications on the road. Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that the dark shooting port was glowing with metallic light. There are not only machine guns in it, but also cannons, eyeing their own cars.

After a while, I drove up a large flat area, where quite a few cars were already parked.

After getting out of the car, Xiang Xiaoqiang found that this was already halfway up the Purple Mountain, and the air was filled with the smell of trees and earth. The city is at the foot, and you can see the area near the Yangtze River, which has become a dark red, flickering light and dark.

This is not a city at all, this is a piece of steel slag that has just been poured out of a steelmaking furnace.

Suddenly, many flashes of light passed through the "steel slag", and after a while, a dense dull sound was heard.

The driver excitedly said:

"Look, we fired back, and the artillery of the Yangtze River defense line returned fire!"

Xiang Xiaoqiang took a deep breath, and felt a little joy in his chest: Now, it's time for Pukou to become hell.

……

At the end of the apron, on the hill wall, a tall, deep tunnel leads into the belly of the mountain. The warm humidity hits your face.

Xiang Xiaoqiang checked the documents at the entrance of the cave while looking at the cold metal light of the machine gun in the four shooting holes on the cement wall. If one of them is wrong, you will be beaten into a sieve.

Walking down the tunnel, I made a few turns, and at each point I was facing a machine gun at myself, and then I had to turn from the side.

This is called a defensive entrance, and no matter how many people there are, they can't attack it. This was the case with the entrance to the underground fortifications of the Maginot Line. The only way to break through this kind of riutred alley of death is to use cloudburst bombs or ground-penetrating bombs. But that's decades later.

Xiang Xiaoqiang knows that this only represents one meaning: in this era, as long as you don't run out of ammunition, this kind of fortress is insurmountable.

Listen to the sound of leather boots echoing in the tunnel, look at the thick cement walls, the thick steel beams overhead and the neat pipelines, look at the slogans written on the walls, such as "Solid", "Swear to live and die with Nanjing", "Strong Fortress", and look at the guards who are neat and tidy and salute themselves...... Xiang Xiaoqiang's confidence in the Purple Mountain Fortress and the Yangtze River defense line has been strengthened a little.

After a few more turns, at a machine-gun guard, he handed the gun to the guard, and then received a stack of pen and paper. The guards opened a door and saluted him with a "snap".

The lights were brilliant, and there was a large command hall in front of him, with more than a dozen cement pillars the thickness of round tables leading straight to the dome. Telephones rang one after another, male and female officers ran around with papers, and a large map on the wall signaled the strategic situation around Nanjing. Several young female officers climbed up and down on the shelves next to them, holding various small flags and arrows with long poles, and constantly marking them.

Above the hall, a very pleasant female voice echoed:

“…… At 5:23 a.m., Qing bombers flew over Nanjing, and the target might be the Lishui land aviation base......"

“…… Deputy Commander Xie of the Army Air Force, please come to the command room of the Army General Staff as soon as possible...... Deputy Commander of the Army Air Corps ......"

“…… Generals attending the Supreme Council are invited to attend the meeting in the central conference room...... Generals attending the Supreme Council are invited to attend the meeting in the central conference room as soon as possible......"

“…… Colonel Sun Bangguo of the General Staff of the Army, if you have your emergency number, please call number 132 to answer the ......"

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at all this with a sigh. He never imagined that the Purple Mountain, which usually looks majestic and majestic, would have a space as large as a small movie theater in its belly.

Now that the war is fighting, this big ant nest that the Ming Empire usually spent astronomical amounts to build has taken action!

A young female officer ran over, looked at his golden sword collar badge, and asked:

"Are you the commander of the People's Guard?"

"It's me."

"Okay, please come with me."

Inside a steel fire door is the central conference room.

The long and narrow conference room is a tunnel, only more than three meters wide but more than ten meters long, with a long conference table in the middle. At the end is a slide that resembles an indoor shooting range, with several large map boards stacked on top of each other, and the one you need can be removed at the push of a button.

Many of the top heads of military units had gathered here, and a gray-haired army general was speaking in front of the map. When everyone saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, they were all silent, and the eyes of the generals in the room looking at him were all in awe.

Xiang Xiaoqiang found a place at the long table and sat down quietly to listen. He saw that everyone was still looking at him, so he scratched his head and smiled humbly at everyone.

His action obviously eased the atmosphere, and everyone nodded to him, hehe, the old general smiled slightly, and talked again.

An officer next to him whispered to Xiang Xiaoqiang that this was the commander-in-chief of the eastern section of the Yangtze River defense line, Cao Mingqin.

The Yangtze River defense line is divided into three sections: western, central, and eastern, with a commander-in-chief for each section.

Cao Mingqin had just collected a small-scale map of the country and replaced it with a large-scale map of Nanjing.

“…… Generally speaking, the shelling of each section of the Yangtze River defense line was at four o'clock in the morning, and according to the reports of each section, the Nanjing section was the most intense and dense at present. On the other side of the Yangtze River, from Qixia in the north to Jiangning in the south, the Qing army concentrated no less than 5,000 artillery pieces of various calibers. And the train cannon was also firing at us. Two shots were fired one after another, one at four o'clock sharp, which landed at Xiaguan, and one at 4:40 at the grass gate, but fortunately they did not hit our defensive line. During the hour-long shelling, no shelling of super-large caliber shells was reported anywhere else, except for Nanjing. Therefore, it can be concluded that its rate of fire does not exceed two rounds per hour......

"After an hour of fire preparation, at 5:05 a.m., 150 to 200 assault boats scattered from the opposite shore and rushed at a speed of about 9 to 10 knots. Excluding one operator, each ship can carry 8 infantrymen. That is, the attack force is 1200 to 1600 people......"

Cao Mingqin cleared his throat and said with a smile:

"Except for the more than 40 ships that escaped, the rest were completely annihilated on the river. This is the first time since the completion of the Yangtze River defense line that we have drunk the blood of the Qing captives. ”

There was a sparse applause in the conference room, and the applause slowly became enthusiastic, mixed with excited laughter.

……

Xiang Xiaoqiang listened to the speeches of the senior officers, and slowly had a complete impression of the Qing army's offensive.

The Yangtze River defense line was attacked, basically from Anqing to Nantong, that is, the eastern section, Cao Mingqin's defense area. This was the same as expected, the Qing army did not make any attempt at all in the mountain defense line in the western and central sections, and all the artillery fire was poured on the eastern section.

The cities that were shelled were: Anqing, Tongling, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Nantong. Casualties from all over the country have not yet been delivered, but in Nanjing, the number of civilian casualties in an hour's shelling is estimated to be in the thousands.

Shanghai, the easternmost point, was not shelled because large forces of the Qing army had not assembled on the north bank of Shanghai. Two battleship fleets of the Ming Dynasty cruised off the mouth of the Yangtze River, and any large-scale build-up would provoke fierce bombardment by naval artillery. In addition, the density of military airfields in the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou region and the East China Sea Fleet base in the Zhoushan Islands is the highest, and they are completely able to cover the maritime fleet from being attacked by land-based aircraft.

It was an all-out attack, and the Qing army relied on its superiority in strength to raid southward from various areas of the eastern section of the Yangtze River defense line. Because the front of the attack was too wide, the assault boats were too scattered, and the momentum of the attack was relatively weak, and they were all annihilated by the turrets and machine guns on the defensive line, and nearly half of them fled back to the south bank.

At the same time, 200 bombers of the Qing army scattered and bombed various airfields in the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River, but due to the darkness of the night, the dispersion of troops, and the possible quality of pilots, the damage to the airfields of the Ming Dynasty was limited.

Now the results of the anti-aircraft artillery units and air force squadrons in various localities are being reported one after another. However, according to several calculations that have been reported, the losses of both sides are limited, and basically they can't find each other in the dark. They don't know much about night fighting.

It is estimated that the Qing Dynasty should have 1,500 aircraft, all of which were imitations or imports of various types of Japanese aircraft. Nearly half of them are old biplanes. The Ming Dynasty had about 1,000 aircraft, but the number of advanced monoplanes among them was comparable to that of the Qing Dynasty. However, most of them are self-developed models, and whether they are superior in performance compared with Japanese aircraft will have to be tested in the upcoming battle.

It is estimated that there were about 1,200 tanks in the Qing Dynasty, and the models were relatively miscellaneous, most of which were self-produced. There were about 650 tanks in the Ming Dynasty, which were also self-produced. However, the generals were more optimistic about the defense of the Yangtze River defense line, believing that the tank comparison had little impact on the current battle situation.

That is, in this war, at least at the first stage, it was aircraft and artillery that played a decisive role.

Xiang Xiaoqiang heard that the Qing army still used the same set of thinking as the First World War to attack, and the Ming army also used the same set of thinking from the First World War to defend.

The Qing army first prepared for intensive artillery fire, and then the infantry charged. It's just a charge in an assault boat. As is often the case in World War I, they all fell under the defender's machine guns and artillery.

The only difference is the plane. The planes of the Qing army finally showed some talent, and they did not come to bomb the city stupidly, but went straight to the Ming army airfield.

However, in such a large area as Jiangnan, there were more than a dozen airports, and the Qing army only dispatched about 200 planes, and probably only half of them were bombers. The attack density is too small, and the fight is a little small. I still smell a strong smell of the First World War.

Xiang Xiaoqiang calculated in his heart that if he could command 1,500 planes in the Qing Dynasty or 1,000 planes in the Ming Dynasty, then in the thunderous blow of the first battle, he would never make a fuss and only dispatch 200 planes.

And it will not be prepared for fire at four o'clock, shelling for an hour in a row. It may not be such a blind full-line attack.

Xiang Xiaoqiang calculated that if he were himself, he would greatly shrink his forces, concentrate them in a small section, and at the last moment before dawn, start shelling at half past five o'clock, concentrate all the artillery fire, and after half an hour or twenty minutes of intensive and vicious bombardment, he put most of the assault boats in his hands into the water at one time and rushed to the opposite bank under the cover of smoke screens.

As for the planes, at least 1,000 of them will be sorted, and according to the schedule, it should be half dawn when they fly over their respective targets. The bombing effect will be much better. Although the threat of ground anti-aircraft artillery fire will also be greater, the bombing of airfields at night is too demanding on the technical requirements of pilots. He would rather suffer some losses than return without success.

In this way, by daybreak, there may already be a breakthrough in the defensive line. Only with a breakthrough can the army be transported to the south bank, and only then can the Qing army's huge superiority in strength be brought into play. Once the millions of troops of the Qing army came, the Ming army would be about the same.

Xiang Xiaoqiang thought about it: What is this? This is a blitzkrieg.

God forbid, I hope that the Qing army will maintain the current tactics, and must not be enlightened, and must drag on like a war. In this way, Da Ming can be saved.