At about three o'clock in the morning, at the Shimonoseki wharf, under the illumination of the lights of several off-road vehicles, groups of soldiers with loaded guns were boarding the ship in a nervous and orderly manner. And on the other side of the river, in the midst of the sound of exhilarating explosions and gunfire, flares rose into the air from time to time, illuminating the fields as bright as day, and at the same time, one fire after another rose - it was clear that fierce fighting was taking place there.

As the commander-in-chief of the first echelon, Li Hansoul was personally sitting at the Xiaguan Wharf, and under his command, the three divisions of the first echelon, headed by the fifth division, were speeding up the crossing of the river, in order to be able to support the friendly troops stationed in Jiangpu in time.

According to the plan, the retreat time of the first echelon was supposed to be at 9 o'clock in the morning, but because the strength of three divisions of the Central Army appeared in Gaoyou prematurely, which directly threatened the flank of the Japanese 18th Division, Ushijima Sadao decisively ordered the troops to march towards Jiangpu, and launched a fierce offensive against the Pukou train battle at more than 1 o'clock this morning.

Pukou Railway Station only stationed the strength of one regiment of the Third Division, which was naturally not an opponent of the Japanese army. And once Pukou is occupied, it means that the only retreat route for the defenders of Nanjing, Jiangbei, is blocked. Of course, Ouyang Yun couldn't allow this to happen, so he urgently ordered the first echelon to start a retreat operation.

Because he needed to cross the river, Ouyang Yun was most worried that the Japanese army would take advantage of the sea and air superiority to attack half-crossing. When the Fifth Division began to cross the river, he asked Li Hansoul to completely pull the artillery brigade belonging to the first echelon to the riverside, and then supplemented by two captured Japanese gunboats, forming a cordon that could threaten the river 20 kilometers away.

The retreat of the first echelon was about to begin an hour, and the Japanese were aware of it, so it was assumed that the Japanese besieging forces launched a full-scale attack, of which the attack of Guanghuamen was the fiercest. After Guanghuamen was blasted, Ouyang Yun knew that this would definitely be the key offensive direction of the Japanese army, so he put half of the troops of the Third Division here, and also lost a battalion of tanks.

In summer, the sky dawns early, and at three o'clock, the dawn has already appeared in the east. Li Hansoul personally watched the soldiers of a regiment of the Fifth Division board dozens of wooden boats and drive towards the opposite side of the river, and asked Ye Zhao to continue to supervise the river-crossing operations of the other brigades and regiments of the Fifth Division, he came to the side of the command vehicle and contacted Ouyang Yun through the walkie-talkie: "Commander, it has been checked and cleared, the only 18th division that attacked Pukou is a regiment, and we already have a half-brigade of troops in Pukou, so it is absolutely no problem to hold it." What I am worried about now is whether the Japanese army will increase its troops, and if the Japanese army blocks the retreat route of our army with heavy troops, everything we are doing now will be in vain. You see if you let the Tenth Division come down, Wujiang and Hexian, we must occupy it, and Yuxikou. ”

From Wujiang to Hexian to Wuhu, this is exactly the front end of the retreat route drawn up by Ouyang Yun. Because Yuxikou is the starting station of the Huainan Railway, it is still of extraordinary importance to the Northeast Army and the Sichuan Army.

Ouyang Yun said resolutely: "The Tenth Division must not move in Wuhu, and we must beware of the Japanese army moving south." The south bank of the Yangtze River is now basically in the hands of the Japanese army, and if Matsui Ishine sends heavy troops to attack Wuhu from the south of the Yangtze River, what will we do? Yuxikou is not far from Wuhu, and there is no problem of dispersing troops by dividing troops to garrison, and I have already sent the 10th Division into a regiment there. Lao Li, you must speed up the speed of crossing the river, Jiangpu must not be lost, and the Pukou Railway Station must be completely controlled. The Japanese army also has heavy troops in Jiangbei, and we must beware of them using the Jinpu Railway to quickly mobilize troops to encircle them. ”

"Yes."

Ouyang Yungang finished talking to Li Hansoul, He Zheng ran in with a disgraced face, and in the rumbling cannon, he said loudly: "Commander, the Japanese army has mobilized heavy artillery again outside Guanghua Gate, our army has no artillery suppression, and the soldiers have suffered great casualties!" ”

After the Guanghua Gate was blasted, the best choice for the defenders was actually to use the rich buildings in Nanjing to fight street battles with the Japanese army, but, considering that it was likely to be cut and surrounded by the Japanese army, Ouyang Yun chose to hold on.

As early as a quarter of an hour ago, judging from the intensity of the Japanese artillery fire, Ouyang Yun was mentally prepared - the casualties of the Third Division of the Xue Third Division, which was guarding Guanghua Gate, would definitely be heavy this time. Now after listening to He Zhengchuan's report, his face has become quite ugly. He looked outside and found that it was still very dark, which should not be conducive to the attack of Japanese reconnaissance planes and fighters, so he nodded and said: "In this way, let the artillery regiment fire a round of rapid fire, and then quickly conceal it." ”

The entire third echelon, the schooling third division, was equipped with a regiment of self-propelled guns. This is precisely to start from the worst point of view, in case of surroundment, the loss can be minimized, and even if the artillery regiment is completely self-destroyed, it is necessary to keep the technical secrets.

"I understand!" After He Zhengchuan said this, he immediately ran out of the city, and it seemed that he was going to personally command the artillery regiment.

Ten minutes later, in the city of Nanjing, a few miles away from Ouyang Yun's temporary command post, the "rumbling" artillery sound rang out, and in just five minutes, the artillery regiment of the Third Division fired several hundred shells.

The attack was frustrated the day before yesterday, and Yoshizu Ryosuke's personal prestige suffered another heavy blow. Gu Shoufu had a considerable prejudice against him before this, and the reason why he still mobilized a brigade to support Guanghuamen was that he hoped to break the deadlock in one fell swoop and break through the turtle shell of the defenders of Nanjing. Even, those Japanese troops who rushed from other directions at the expense of hard work did not even get the opportunity to attack.

Of course, there are two sides to the story, the power of the Jiguang tank and the self-propelled gun also gave Yoshiju Ryosuke a reason to fail. In order to break through these two sharp weapons of the defenders, after a short period of consultation, several division commanders agreed that they could launch another major attack to lure the artillery of the Cadet Corps to appear, and then dispatch attack planes to deal a devastating blow.

This plan was not bad, but the early breakthrough of the defenders forced them to attack in advance, thus giving the artillery of the Cadet Corps a chance to exert their might again.

The Japanese artillery outside the Guanghua Gate was seconded by Yoshizu Ryosuke with Matsui Ishone's "chicken feathers" from the 6th Division and other Japanese units, and among them, there was a considerable amount of heavy artillery. However, because of the inferiority of the cannon and the original technology, compared with the self-propelled howitzer of the Cadet Army, it is more than one percent worse in terms of range and striking ability. Don't look at the fact that the Cadet Corps only dispatched one artillery regiment, and only fired five minutes of rapid fire, it still dealt a great blow to the Japanese artillery unit. The Japanese artillery unit of almost a wing, in this round of strikes, lost two brigades. This forced Yoshiju Ryosuke to consider the consequences, so he had to withdraw the remaining artillery from his position and put it on hold for the time being. Once the artillery fire support was lost, the Japanese had no advantage in firepower, and the offensive again reached a stalemate.

Once, the Japanese were the least afraid of a war of attrition, so what are they fighting for? Because based on the battle loss ratio between China and Japan, once the Japanese army suffers large casualties, then the Chinese army will inevitably suffer even heavier casualties.

Of course, this changed when the Cadet Army sprung up in North China. Not to mention the three to one that everyone agrees on, sometimes it even has to be reversed, such as one to one to five, or even one to two. Taking the current situation on the battlefield inside and outside Guanghuamen as an example, it has been more than an hour since the Japanese army, mainly the 9th Division, has been wantonly bombing and indiscriminately bombing the ruined position of Guanghuamen, and has not only advanced southward inch by inch, but has also lost more than one large group of troops on the original basis.

The Japanese army's offensive sequence was that several divisions and regiments took turns, and basically several divisions and regiments besieging Nanjing City had a share, so that everyone had casualties, and among them, a few officers at the level of wing commander were a little unbreathable.

Someone suggested, "Why don't you stop and wait until dawn?" "The subtext is that if it is dawn, the aviation will be able to enter the battle, and then it will be able to use this absolute superiority to drive the people out of their existing positions. As long as they enter the city together, with the number of Japanese troops gathered outside the Guanghua Gate, they will definitely be able to cut the city of Nanjing into several areas, and then they will be able to divide and encircle and encircle the great cause.

Yoshizu Ryosuke vetoed the proposal in one bite: "Absolutely not, we must firmly hold back the Shina people, especially the student army." Once they get off, they will definitely run faster than a rabbit. I have dealt with Ouyang Yun, this person has a very strong ability to judge the situation, once this situation is broken today, it will be difficult to find such an opportunity. ”

"But if this continues, the casualties are too great."

"No matter how heavy the casualties are, once we reduce the scale of the attack, Ouyang Yun will definitely leave one alone to hold on, and then lead the large army to break away. Don't forget, this person is now the Empire's number one enemy, and if you don't seize this opportunity to destroy him, the Empire's plan to conquer China in three months will be seriously disrupted! Please trust me one more time! After Yoshizu Ryosuke said this, he actually bowed deeply to the group of devil officers who were much lower than him.

The officers of other divisions and regiments of the Japanese army gathered outside the Gwanghwa Gate were only the brigade commanders and division chiefs of staff at the highest ranks, and in a hierarchical army like the Japanese army, Yoshizu Ryosuke did not need to pretend to them at all. However, because he lost the battle in a row and made a wrong calculation, he could only exchange for everyone's support for him, who had lost his prestige. Of course, as a lieutenant general, he made such a low posture towards himself, a major general, and even Dazuo, even if he was dissatisfied in his heart, they could only endure it.

"Then do as Your Excellency the General says."

"All for the great cause of His Majesty the Emperor!"

As a result, another brigade was filled into the battlefield, and this time, the Japanese did not use artillery. And it seems that in response to this, the artillery did not appear on the side of the cadet army - and this means that the officers and soldiers on both sides will face another seemingly fair life-and-death struggle.