Episode 46 The defense line is breached?

"I ask you, if Zhu Yourong ...... Even that little girl dared to stay in Nanjing, why couldn't I go to Pukou? Well? Lovers,."

In the imperial city of Beijing, in the hall of the Military Aircraft Department, several military aircraft ministers and generals stood on the ground, staring at the broken porcelain pieces all over the ground, and cold sweat flowed.

Emperor Guangwu sat on a drum stool, crossed Erlang's legs, turned his toes, put the hem of his horse coat on his legs, gently shook the folding fan, and his face was a ball of harmony.

But the more he was like this, the more cold sweat broke out in front of him.

"Horn!"

Guangwu stepped on a broken piece of porcelain in half with one foot.

Poof, a military minister knelt down. Then the others hesitated, and then they all knelt down.

Emperor Guangwu looked at the courtiers kneeling on the ground at his feet, and looked up to the sky and laughed. Kneeling, it has been abolished for many years since the first emperor, but recently the courtiers are kneeling more and more commonly, and they are becoming more and more inappropriate.

…… More than a dozen divisions reached the opposite bank, but they could not penetrate and suffered heavy losses...... His beloved elite, the Eight Banners and Six Divisions, was completely annihilated, and thousands of prisoners were dragged to the streets...... The staff officers of the division headquarters were also brought to court, interrogated and sentenced in front of so many foreign journalists, and finally hanged......

These minions, if they used half of their ability to be slaves to do things for me, the Qing Dynasty would not be like this!

"Smack", a drop of sweat dripped on the square brick in front of the Minister of War Burcha Remin. The old man's lips trembled, and he hesitated, and boldly said:

"Your Majesty, that Nanming Zhu Yourong dared to stay in Nanjing, relying on the solidity of the Purple Mountain Fortress, but in fact, under the fire of my Qing Dynasty, he didn't dare to step out of the fortress at all...... Moreover, the underground tunnel extends in all directions, and the moment the puppet emperor Zhu Yourong lived in, he was already thinking about how to escape...... That Zhu Yourong yellow-haired girl, how can her courage be compared to long live my emperor? The emperor is wise and martial, it's really not worth comparing with that girl......"

Burcha-Limin was both Minister of War and Minister of Military Aircraft. The Qing Dynasty's Military Aircraft Department was nominally a temporary institution, so the Minister of Military Aircraft was concurrently served by the Cabinet Minister. However, the Military Aircraft Department was actually founded by Yongzheng and has continued to the present, and the Minister of Military Aircraft is actually the emperor's personal assistant. And the real Qing Cabinet is completely ornamental.

Guangwu stood up and sneered:

"Shu said that he would go to the Zhu Family Palace in Nanjing to spend the Chinese New Year's Eve. This year's Chinese New Year's Eve is the 23rd, and today it is the 22nd. Even if you count the days, you should start today. Limin, do you mean that I won't be able to enter the Zhu family's palace tomorrow, so I don't have to go today? Well? ”

Limin was dripping with cold sweat, and he didn't dare to reply, but just threw himself on the ground and kowtowed. Several other ministers fell to the ground, no longer daring to say a word.

Guangwu threw down the fan and clapped his hands, took off the sword from the wall, took out a section and looked at the cold light, and said with a smile:

"I also said that with such superior troops and such good weather, if you can't beat Nanjing, someone should cut yourself......"

He "snapped" back in and yelled:

“…… Am I just joking?! ”

……

On the evening of the 22nd, 12 fighters escorted three Junkers-52 to hover over the Bengbu military airfield, and then fell.

Half an hour later, a long convoy drove out of the airport, with armored vehicles in front of the road, military trucks carrying guards in the back, eight taels of black cars in the middle, and a long queue of military vehicles behind......

The convoy did not stop and drove directly to Bengbu Railway Station. Such a grand convoy ceremony has never been seen in Bengbu. When passing through the city, guards stood on both sides of the road, attracting people to watch and speculate.

When it was almost dark, several armored trains from the Pukou shunting yard arrived. After completing the assembly on the Bengbu shunting yard, a long whistle sounded, and the long military column panted and drove out slowly, along the Jinpu line to the south, straight to Pukou.

Sandwiched between the military columns were several luxury armored trains, and two 47-mm cannons were pointed at the sides of the railway......

"Your Majesty," a general bent his waist, took the soup cup from the palace maid's hand, and flatteringly held it into Guangwu's hand, and said with a smile, "It doesn't matter if there is a little fog ahead, let's take this train very fast, and we will arrive in Pukou tomorrow morning." ”

Guangwu drank the ginseng soup in the cup and said lightly:

"Yonggui, it doesn't matter if Ming'er arrives in the morning, I don't have anything here, it's you, you can give me to cross the Yangtze River in broad daylight. You are my favorite general, and you are about to serve as the commander of the Eighth Army to attack Nanjing, and you will not be able to play brilliantly when the time comes, and everyone will not look good. ”

The commander of the 6th Army, Fucha-Yonggui, knelt on the ground and expressed his determination:

"Your Majesty, the slave Yonggui was promoted and reused by the emperor, and this favor is hard to repay! Tomorrow, I will lead the army to cross the Yangtze River, take Nanjing in one fell swoop, and give a good Forbidden City to the emperor with both hands! Otherwise, the minions will die on the battlefield and repay the emperor with death! ”

Guangwu put down the soup cup, wiped his mouth with a hot towel, kicked him in the shoulder, and said with a smile:

"Alright, get up!"

……

January 23, 1936, the morning of the Chinese New Year's Eve.

On both sides of the railway from Pukou Railway Station to Pukou Wharf, there was thunderous cheering, wave after wave.

Long columns marched slowly along the railroad tracks. Several armored trains were transferred to the front. At the foremost was a flatbed truck stacked with sandbags and two 40-mm anti-aircraft guns pointed at the sky.

Emperor Guangwu was dressed in military uniform, wearing a steel helmet, a sword tied to his waist, snow-white gloves on sandbags, a cigarette in his mouth, and from time to time raised his right arm to wave at thousands of Qing soldiers on both sides.

Every time he raised his arm to recruit, it would trigger a feverish cheer.

Behind the strict gendarmes, the wounded soldiers whose faces and legs were wrapped in gauze climbed each other, raised their crutches and waved them wildly into the air, their blood-stained mouths let out fanatical cheers, and even the wounded soldiers lying on stretchers stood up, tears on their burnt faces.

When all the Qing soldiers saw the imperial expedition, the sense of defeat and depression of several days was left behind, and everyone shouted frantically, leaving only the fanaticism of victory and the desire for revenge in their chests.

"Click!" The train arrived at the Pukou Pier and stopped.

Mountains of cheers came from all sides, wave after wave. Emperor Guangwu smiled and raised his hands several times, but to no avail, and finally the high morale completely infected him.

He climbed onto the sandbag, held a cigarette in one hand and a megaphone in the other, and said only one sentence:

"Brothers, I am here, and I will take you to war!!"

The cheers boiled tenfold, and every Qing soldier had red eyes, jumped on his feet, and burst into tears.

……

Amid the cheers, several gendarmes escorted a man tied into rice dumplings. The man was wearing a general's uniform, no hat, and his epaulettes and collar badges had been torn off.

Guangwu took the megaphone and smiled:

"This person is known to all the brothers, he is the commander of the Eighth Army, Guo Luoluo-Fengdong! His Eighth Army was the main attack on Nanjing, with twice as many troops and ten times more artillery than the defenders of Nanjing! And a lot of fog for several days on end! The result? He led you to lose your armor and let you lose so many brothers, and you were beaten back like a seed! ”

Roaring on all sides:

"Kill him! Kill him! ……”

The gendarmes on both sides untied the ropes, and Guo Luoluo collapsed at Guangwu's feet, his face was as white as earth, and he cried:

"Your Majesty!"

Guang Wu stretched out his hand and held a sword next to him. Guangwu took the sword, bowed his head and smiled:

"I said that with such superior forces and such foggy weather, it is impossible to defeat Nanjing, and someone must cut it by himself. Fengdong, I remember, you were there at the time, right? ”

"Your Majesty...... The minions are present......"

"Very good," Guangwu nodded, "Your Eighth Army is in charge of Nanjing, and its strength and firepower are far superior to the Ming Army." Now that you have lost your armor and lost your soldiers, who do you think the self-referee should be? Well? ”

"Your Majesty ......" Guo Luoluo's face was colorless, kowtowing like pounding garlic, "Grace......"

Emperor Guangwu raised his eyebrows and said angrily:

"The war situation has fallen so far, if you don't judge yourself, who do you let judge yourself? Well? Let the commander of the army group? Let the army commanders and division commanders below? Well? Do you want these brothers to judge for you? ”

The roars all around them intensified, and they all wanted to put him to death.

Guangwu pulled out his sword with a "pout", still in front of Guo Luoluo. The guards on both sides were shocked, hurriedly blocked in front of them, and shouted:

"Your Majesty!"

The guard officer gave a look, and the gendarmes on both sides understood, rushed over and grabbed Guo Luoluo, pressed it to the open space under the flatbed car, picked up the sword, and swung it violently, three feet of blood spurted out, and Guo Luoluo's head was lifted high.

There was a thunderous cheer all around, and the Qing soldiers seemed to have avenged a great revenge, and the cheers shook the sky.

Emperor Guangwu stared at the bloodied human head, with murderous aura in his eyes, licked his lips, gritted his teeth and shouted at the megaphone:

"Conquer Nanjing, let the brothers live happily for ten days! …… As long as I am in the Forbidden City, the whole of Nanjing outside is all yours!! ”

This promise almost caused the Pukou pier to explode. All the soldiers roared like beasts. The hundreds of thousands of Qing soldiers in Pukou have become beast soldiers.

……

Eight o'clock in the morning.

At this time, the fog on the Yangtze River was already very light, and the visibility reached several hundred meters. The width of the river in the Nanjing section is only about 1,000 meters, that is, if you sail out of 3,500 meters by boat, you can clearly see the opposite bank. The white situation of more than ten meters away two days ago is no more.

On both sides of the Yangtze River, the earth shakes the mountains. All the artillery of both sides was frantically pouring shells on each other's shore, and the northern part of Nanjing and the southern part of Pukou had been completely engulfed in gunpowder smoke and dust.

Since the early morning of January 20, the Qing army once again relied on the superiority of troops to attack on the entire Nanjing section. From Qixia in the north to Zimuzhou in the south, assault boats and steamers on the river surface of more than 30 kilometers are densely packed, slowly pressing towards the south bank.

In the observation fort of the river embankment outside the Dinghuai Gate in Nanjing, Major General Sun Baoguo, commander of the fort of the Nanjing section of the defense line, held a gun mirror, looked at the river surface from the narrow observation port, and muttered:

"Qing Yu is desperate this time......"

A cannonball landed nearby, and the fort shuddered, and a large amount of dust fell on the low concrete roof.

Sun Baoguo squatted for a moment, stood up again, held his hat, and said with a gun mirror:

"Their boat approached...... It's almost ashore......***, why is the artillery still non-stop? …… They are really crazy, the infantry ships are so close, and the fire preparation does not stop...... Well, command the whole line-"

The adjutant took the phone and shouted:

"Command the whole line—"

"Rapid-fire guns in place!"

The adjutant was stunned for a moment, then took the phone and shouted:

"Rapid-fire guns in place!"

Hundreds of small-caliber machine guns had already been pushed out of bunkers and into open gun mounts by artillerymen risking their lives. The artillery crew quickly removed the wheels, fixed the machine guns on the cement gun mount, and quickly shook the handles, and hundreds of 20 mm, 37 mm, and 30 mm machine guns lowered their muzzles at the same time, and the second, third, and fourth gun barrels were aimed at the river in the distance.

At this time, the entire Nanjing section of the defense line was still shaking and exploding, and occasionally a machine gun was blown into a fireball and lifted into the sky, and broken parts and bloody limbs were scattered in all directions. Those artillerymen wore steel helmets, squatted down desperately, and none of them fled reflexively, all desperately carrying shells and calculating the shooting yuan. From time to time one or two artillerymen fell from shrapnel hits.

Within a few minutes, more than 300 people had been killed or wounded, and hardly a single artillery crew was full.

Major General Sun Baoguo was in the observation fort, staring at the river with a cannon mirror. It's close, it's close.

At this point, the adjutant turned around and reported:

"Report to your lord, all the artillery crews are ready!"

"Rapid Shooting!"

The adjutant immediately ordered:

"Rapid Shooting!"

Suddenly, dozens of kilometers of the river were covered with fire. Clouds of black smoke rose from the surface of the river, and countless assault boats sank rapidly in the flames. For a while, the soldiers who fell into the water were like ants, struggling to call for help, and there was a layer of red blood soup floating on the water.

The fog was not thick enough, and the smoke bombs of the Qing army kept coming, and soon there was white smoke on the river, around the Ming army's artillery group, and around the machine gun fort.

There were more and more assault boats, which crowded almost the entire surface of the river, and the machine guns on the south bank could not strafe at all. The 20 mm guns were fed by drums, with fifty shells in one drum, and the ability to fire sustainably was better. The 37 mm and 40 mm guns were not good, although they were powerful, but they were fed by magazines, and each barrel had to be changed after a few rounds.

The artillery shells of the Qing army around continued to explode, and the crew members of each gun continued to die...... It didn't take long for almost all of the gun mounts to be covered with empty cartridge casings, empty magazines, and the corpses of artillerymen.

The Qing soldiers in the vanguard braved the artillery fire of the Ming army and their own artillery fire at the same time, and went forward one after another, indomitable. The Qing soldiers in the assault boat lowered their heads, and the splashes of shells kept hitting their steel helmets. The engine of the assault boat was too slow, and the Qing soldiers on the boat all stretched the butts of their rifles into the water and paddled desperately.

Despite the heavy casualties, two or three percent of the assault boats managed to reach the south shore. The Qing soldiers on the boat jumped down with cheers, guns in hand, and paddled waistless water desperately into the reeds on the muddy beach.

But behind the reeds in front, several small steel forts faintly rose, and with the "whoosh" roar, a strong smell of gasoline, several fire dragons more than ten meters long swooped down. In an instant, the dry reeds became a sea of fire, and hundreds of burning men waved and struggled in the fire, and fell into the mud and sand and became charcoal.

Then, a small black hole was revealed in the embankment every ten meters, and the sediment was quickly pushed out of it, forming a firing port 15 centimeters high and 20 centimeters wide. Immediately afterwards, these firing ports spat out tongues of fire, chasing the Qing soldiers who were not burned.

The appearance of these machine-gun bunkers made corpses strewn all over the muddy beach for a while.

But the more dense heavy shells on the north shore came in, and these exposed fire points were quickly destroyed. At the same time, the Qing soldiers who had already come over were also injured by the artillery fire of their own people.

In the Dinghuai Gate Observation Fort, Sun Baoguo's adjutant put down the phone and reported in a trembling voice:

"Your Excellency...... rapid-fire artillery ...... of the Nanjing section of the defense line Only a third are still playing ......"

"Why?!" Sun Baoguo threw down the cannon mirror and roared, "Why are their infantry coming over, and the artillery is still non-stop?" Why do they blow up their own people? Why are they willing to be blown up by their own people? Didn't they rebel? ”

He threw himself to the observation mouth again, his lips trembled, and the cold sweat rolled down the earth, and he muttered:

"That's how they played...... We're going to have to be exposed to artillery fire...... We can't stand it! They die, we can't afford to die! …… This style of play...... This is not a war, this is a green-skinned gangster! ”

……

At this time, on the Pukou wharf, a young man covered in dirt wearing a steel helmet stood in the trench, holding a telescope and looking at the river.

Shells kept falling on the south bank, and dirt kept falling on his steel helmet. He shook his head, grabbed his binoculars, and laughed:

"Good! Very good!! Very good!!! …… Just like that, let's go to Nanjing at noon! ”

Several high-ranking officers next to him turned pale, pounced on him, grabbed him, and pleaded:

"Your Majesty! Let's go to the bunker! ”

"Your Majesty, you are the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, if you have three long and two short, what should we do in the Qing Dynasty!"

Emperor Guangwu threw down the binoculars, turned his face, gritted his teeth and said:

"Okay, I'll go to the bunker!"

"The emperor is wise!"

"But you have to give me a military order to attack Nanjing before noon, otherwise you will destroy your whole clan!" …… How is it? ”

The surrounding generals were stunned, they all swallowed and salivaed, their faces were like white paper, and no one dared to persuade them anymore.

At this time, a lieutenant ran over with a field telephone and a coil, first "snapped" the emperor and stood upright, and then said excitedly:

"Your Majesty, I've already picked it up!"

Guangwu patted the lieutenant on the shoulder and said with a smile:

"Good boy, you've worked hard, let's take a rest!"

The lieutenant was about to cry out in excitement, stood up straight, and shouted:

"Report to the emperor, I'm not tired!"

Emperor Guangwu smiled slightly, turned out of the trench, took the phone, stood up straight and said into the microphone:

"Brothers, listen up!"

His voice echoed throughout the Pukou wharf:

“…… Brethren, you brave the fire, I accompany you in the fire! ……”

Amid the explosions, cheers rang out again. The soldiers of the Qing army, who were still lying on the ground, were like crazy at the moment, scrambling to get on the assault boat and rush to the south bank one after another. No one cares about their artillery fire anymore.

……

There was already a dead body in the Dinghuaimen Observation Fort, Sun Baoguo hugged the phone and struggled to say the last sentence:

"The line of defense...... It has been broken, and the ministers and grandchildren have reported to the country...... Repay the country with death! ”

Several Qing soldiers rushed in and shouted:

"Surrender!"

Sun Baoguo smiled slightly, pulled out his pistol and inserted it into the import, and shot himself.