readx;? The 5th Division of the Japanese Army is also the top standing division in Japan, and after the 7th and 7th Incidents, Seishiro Itagaki led the 5th Division into North China, attacking all the battles and being invincible, making Seishiro Itagaki, who had not taken the Chinese army in his eyes, even more arrogant. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoBut after entering the Shanghai battlefield, he encountered a new 90th Division, and under the blow of the New 90th Division, his arrogance was somewhat restrained.

However, Itagaki Seishiro's heart to make contributions was not reduced, and this time he was unwilling to stay in Shanghai, and after replenishing the new soldiers, Commander Hatohiko of Asakamiya sent him and his fifth division to the front again, which was in the hands of Itagaki Seishiro. After the troops were divided in Zhenjiang, the 16th Division always attacked in front, and the 5th Division could only send some squads to infiltrate and fight, which made Itagaki feel very uncomfortable, and now the 16th Division has suffered a lot of losses and began to rest, and Itagaki's opportunity has finally come.

Seishiro Itagaki sent the 21st Brigade as the vanguard, and he himself led the brigade to follow. The 21st Wing of the 21st Brigade advanced more than a dozen kilometers from Qilin Town and approached the Purple Mountain position, the last barrier outside the Zhongshan Gate. Purple Mountain is a continuous mountain range, starting from the easternmost town of Maqun along the Taiping Gate to the Zhongshan Gate, turning west at the north peak outside the Zhongshan Gate, all the way to the Fugui Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, to the North Pole Pavilion on the riverside. The entire mountain range guards the eastern city wall of Nanjing, centered on the Zhongshan Gate.

A simple road that is not too wide winds through the mountains, the north peak of the main peak of the Purple Mountain is a little north of the Zhongshan Gate, 448.9 meters above the sea, it is the highest peak of the Purple Mountains, on this peak there is an artillery position built by the 90th Division, and 20 caliber cannons can cover a large area from Tangshan to the Drum Tower in Nanjing City with firepower, which is also the place where the Japanese army must conquer.

On the Zijin Mountains starting from the Taiping Gate, there are fortifications that have been built since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, and the Tianbao City and the Bunker City are all strong fortifications, and in recent years, the Nationalist Government has spent a lot of money to build permanent fortifications on the Zijin Mountains. Although the technical level and quality of these fortifications are not very good, the terrain and location of the fortifications are good, and it took more than two months for the 90th Division to be renovated and strengthened after it was stationed, and now there is a fortification system that is easy to defend and difficult to attack on the three peaks of the Purple Mountain.

The North Peak and Xiaomao Mountain stand opposite each other in front of Zhongshan Gate, and the road into Nanjing passes between these two peaks. The Tianbao City on Tianbao Mountain next to the Zhongshan Gate has been handed over to the two regiments of the Teaching Corps for garrison. The two brigades of the 90th Division had one brigade on the North Peak and the other on Xiaomao Mountain, and the division headquarters was near the artillery position on the top of the North Peak.

The 21st Wing stopped a kilometer before the North Peak, and the reconnaissance team had already discovered the positions of the defenders on the North Peak. The wing commander of the 21st Wing, Yoshio Sasaki, hurriedly reported the situation to Major General Masao Nakamura, commander of the 21st Brigade. Major General Nakamura Masao came to the front and observed the defenders' positions with a telescope for a while, and then gasped.

At the North Peak, there are several lines of defense from the foot of the mountain to the summit, which are densely packed with bunkers, and between the bunkers and bunkers are masonry breastwalls, with shooting holes left in the breastwork, and the defenders can shoot outside without showing their heads behind the breastwork. The muzzles of machine guns were supposed to be sticking out of the shooting holes in those bunkers, but a simple count showed that there were ten machine guns on the first line of defense.

The slope of a few dozen meters in front of the first line of positions was more than 30 degrees, and the infantry was already struggling to attack on the back, and with so many machine guns on the position, it was even more difficult. After seeing this, Nakamura Masao first ordered to set up 24 Type 41 75-mm mountain guns of the two mountain artillery squadrons of the brigade on a flat ground, and then let an infantry squadron of the 21st Wing enter the attack position and prepare for the attack.

The first line of defense was defended by the 1st Battalion of the 544th Regiment and the 1st Company of the Heavy Firepower Battalion of the Regiment, and there were as many as 15 Type 57 heavy machine guns in the light and dark bunkers alone, plus the light machine guns in the bunkers, the machine gun fire alone could make it difficult for the Japanese to advance an inch, and behind the first line of defense, all the 24 large and small caliber mortars of the regiment were also aimed at the Japanese troops in three positions.

The distance between the Japanese artillery position and the first-line position was 2,000 meters, and the range of 1,500 meters of the 60 mortar, the smallest caliber of the artillery company, could not reach it, but eight 82-caliber mortars and eight 100-caliber heavy mortars could completely cover the Japanese artillery position. Wei Yonglu, the battalion commander of the heavy fire battalion of the 544th Regiment, after calculating the orientation of the Japanese artillery positions, ordered that the eight 60 mortars should be aimed at the Japanese heavy machine gun positions and mortar positions, and the rest of the mortars would be aimed at the Japanese artillery positions for attack.

On the Japanese artillery position, as soon as the mountain artillery fired three rounds of shells at the defenders' positions, the mortars of the heavy artillery battalion began to counterattack, and the power of the 82-caliber and 100-caliber mortar shells was greater than that of the Japanese mountain artillery shells, and the 16 mortars destroyed most of the 24 mountain guns on the Japanese position with several rounds of rapid and dense salvos. When the Japanese reacted and wanted to counterattack, it was too late, and the sixteen mortars fired several more volleys, completely destroying the remaining mountain artillery.

The 60 mortars also launched artillery strikes at the heavy machine-gun and mortar positions of the Japanese troops. This was the first time that the 21st Brigade had encountered such dense artillery fire from the Chinese defenders after occupying Shanghai, which reminded Major General Nakamura Masao of the artillery fire of the new 90th Division under Matsue Castle. When sixteen mortars turned to the infantry for shelling, Nakamura Masao ordered the entire army to retreat.

In the sound of the defenders' artillery, the 21st Brigade dropped hundreds of corpses and retreated, and the officers and men of the battalion on the position were angry, and the battalion commander Tang Yishu found Wei Yonglu and shouted: "Old Wei, can't you kid cannon fight a little later? ”

Wei Yonglu smiled and said: "Old Tang, don't be angry, this little Japan has returned now, and it will come soon, you are fighting, what are you in a hurry?" Tang Yishu just did it. The 21st Brigade withdrew several kilometers before stopping, and the brigade commander, Nakamura Masao, hurried to the division headquarters.

Nakamura Masao saw the division commander Itagaki Seishiro and immediately bent down and said: "Report to Your Excellency, Division Commander, my 21st Brigade was attacked by intensive artillery fire from the Shina army at the foot of the Purple Mountain, and my two mountain artillery squadrons were all destroyed under the artillery of the Shina army. According to my observation, the heavy weapons of the defenders of China on the Purple Mountain position are very strong, and only the New 90th Division of China on the Shanghai battlefield can be compared with the New 90th Division of the Chinese Army, and I suspect that it is the 1st Division of the Chinese ace that defends the Purple Mountain position. ”

Itagaki Seishiro was also obviously taken aback, and said, "Nani?Shina's new 90th Division?" Nakamura Masao replied, "Yes, Your Excellency the Division Commander." Seishiro Itagaki turned around the headquarters with his hands behind his back, and after a while, he said, "Nakamura-kun, you carefully tell me about the situation on the position of the defenders of Shina. Nakamura Masao replied, "Yes, Your Excellency the Division Commander." Then Nakamura Masao carefully told Seishiro Itagaki what he had observed.

After he finished speaking, Itagaki Seishiro was in front of the military map and looked at it, and after a while, Itagaki Seishiro said: "Nakamura-kun, the Purple Mountain is the last barrier of Nanjing City, if you want to capture Nanjing City, the Purple Mountain position must be captured first, I will let the heavy artillery troops cooperate with our attack on the Purple Mountain position, and we also have the support of aircraft, even if it is the new 90th Division of the ace of Shina who guards the Purple Mountain position, I must defeat him." Nakamura-kun, you go back to the brigade first and prepare to go, I need to contact the heavy artillery wing. Nakamura bent down and replied, "Hey!" and turned to leave.

In addition to the 101st Division on the left, the 3rd Division and the 22nd Division in the middle, and the 5th Division and the 16th Division on the right, there is also an 18th Division and a heavy artillery wing on the Jiangbian side that are attacking Longtan Town and Qixia Mountain, and there are also the 11th Division and the Chongdo Detachment in the north of the Yangtze River that are attacking Yangzhou City.

The Japanese Yangtze River Fleet on the river was making slow progress because of too many shipwrecks and mines in the Yangtze River, and now it is still on the surface of the Zhenjiang River, and only a few gunboats can approach Nanjing. As soon as the gunboats reached the surface of the water near Swallow Rock, they were attacked by heavy artillery from the Swallow Rock Battery, and after being damaged by one gunboat, all the gunboats retreated.

After blocking the attack of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army for 10 days, Yangzhou City was finally broken into the city by the Japanese army, and less than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the 111th Division of the National Army guarding Yangzhou withdrew from Yangzhou City, and the military headquarters of the 57th Army and the rest of the 111th Division withdrew to Yizheng County successively, and built a defensive position in Yizheng County, continuing to block the Japanese army's advance to the position of Liuhe County in Jiangbei Province in Nanjing City. At the same time, the commander of the 57th Army, Mu Zhengliu, personally sent a telegram to the Nanjing Urban Defense Headquarters, informing Wang Haitao that Yangzhou had been lost, and that the rest of the 111th Division of the 57th Army had retreated to Yizheng County and would continue to block the Japanese army.

After Wang Haitao received a telegram from the 57th Army, he immediately telegraphed the matter to Guo Rudong, commander of the 91st Division defending Liuhe County. Ordered Guo Ruxuan to be ready to meet the 57th Army at any time. Then Wang Haitao telegraphed back to General Miao Zhengliu, commander of the 57th Army, informing him that there were troops stationed in Liuhe County, and asking Commander Miao to transfer the military headquarters of the 57th Army to Liuhe County first.

After the Japanese army's 11th Division and Shigeto Detachment captured Yangzhou City, they burned, killed, looted, shot civilians, and raped women. In just three days, thousands of innocent people in Yangzhou City died, turning a thousand-year-old city into a hell on earth. After committing countless crimes, the 11th Division and the Shigeto Detachment left a small number of troops to defend Yangzhou City, and the large army continued to attack and advance in the direction of Yizheng and Liuhe.

The Japanese pressed forward on the city of Nanjing, but they encountered stubborn resistance from the Chinese defenders on the periphery of the city. The same is true here in Longtan Town, where the 18th Division and the Heavy Artillery Wing of the Japanese Army also encountered stubborn resistance from the 88th Division of the National Army in Longtan Town and Baohua Mountain.