Dear readers and friends, at the end of the year, the prince is very busy with work, and has been on business trips several times in a row, so this month is even more severe, for which the prince is humble to everyone! For more than two years, it is with the support and love of readers and friends that the prince has insisted on writing in his spare time. Thank you! The prince will definitely finish this book, which is a guarantee and reward to all readers and friends.

In the division headquarters of the 38th Division, the division commander, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano, looked at these subordinates with a solemn face, and his subordinates also sat at the conference table with a serious face. After being silent for a while, Sano Tadayoshi said: "Ladies and gentlemen, now that the Shina army has surrounded Hanoi Castle from three directions, it will soon launch an attack on Hanoi City. ”

Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Sano Tadayoshi glanced around his subordinates, and saw that everyone was still serious, so he continued: "The Chinese army outside the city is the 90th Chinese Army, which is known as the first strong army in China, and everyone should have heard of this army, with fierce firepower and strong combat effectiveness, there have been several divisions and regiments that have broken jade in their hands in the past few years, and the second division was also broken in Beining County a few days ago. For such an army with extremely strong combat effectiveness, our 38th Division cannot annihilate them, and what we have to do is to rely on the fortified city of Hanoi and numerous fortifications to block the attack of the Chinese army.

Let me tell you that soon our reinforcements will arrive, and as soon as our reinforcements arrive, we will be able to defeat or even destroy the Shina army outside the city by internal and external attacks, and you will then make immortal contributions to our Empire of Japan and to His Majesty the Emperor. Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano glanced at his subordinates again, and saw that there was some excitement on the faces of these subordinates.

Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano continued: "Tomorrow the Shina army will attack, and His Excellency the Chief of Staff believes that the main direction of attack of the Shina army will not be the north gate, but the south gate or the west gate. On the contrary, I think that the north gate is very likely, because although the firepower of the Chinese army is fierce, but the number of people must be insufficient, they will concentrate their firepower and troops to attack one place, the terrain outside the north gate is flat, suitable for the formation of the troops, and there are a large number of chariot troops in the Chinese army, and the terrain outside the north gate is also suitable for the attack of chariots. We can't afford to be careless!"

Speaking of this, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano looked at Major General Shozo Hirano, the commander of the 35th Independent Brigade, and said, "The defense outside the north gate is under the command of the commander of the Hirano Brigade, Hirano-kun, the north gate will be entrusted to you." Major General Hirano stood up, bowed to Lieutenant General Tadashi Sanono and replied: "Hey, please rest assured that Your Excellency the Division Commander will live up to the trust of His Excellency the Division Commander!"

Lieutenant General Sano Tadayoshi nodded with satisfaction and motioned for Major General Hirano Shozo to sit down, and then said: "Don't be careless with the Tsunachi-kun who guards the south gate and Toda-kun who guards the west gate, the attack power of the Shina army is very strong, and you must also resolutely block the attack of the Shina army." Toda Yoshinao and Katsunai got up at the same time, bowed and responded: "Hey! Please rest assured, Your Excellency the division commander!"

In the early morning of the next day, as soon as the sky was bright, there was movement on the offensive positions in three directions outside the city of Hanoi, on the artillery position, one by one artillery entered the gun position, the artillerymen skillfully adjusted the muzzle according to the coordinates, and boxes of shells were also transported to the side of the gun position, and the soldiers carefully wiped the butter off the shells, and then carefully put the wiped shells away.

Amid the roar of the engines, the vehicles drove to the attack position and stopped, and the crew carefully checked the condition and ammunition again to ensure that there would be no problems during the immediate attack. After several battles, the armored forces suffered a lot of losses, and now there are only eight heavy armored vehicles and 31 light armored vehicles that can be put into battle at the North Gate.

The independent armored regiment in the West Gate direction, after integrating the armored regiments of the 93rd Division and the 211th Division, had four heavy tanks of the Cheetah type, sixteen light tanks, twelve heavy armored vehicles, and twenty-five light armored vehicles. The armored forces in these two directions are also all the armored forces that Wang Haitao can use.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Wang Haitao gave an order, and hundreds of artillery pieces fired at the same time on the artillery positions in three directions, and countless shells flew towards the outer positions of Hanoi City. In this direction, there are not only 18 150-caliber heavy guns, 24 122-caliber howitzers and shells, and 24 75-caliber field guns of the 93rd Division Heavy Artillery Regiment, but also 50 105-caliber howitzers and shells of the 105 howitzers and artillery regiments of the Heavy Artillery Brigade.

More than 100 artillery pieces began to explode from the barbed wire fence in the position outside the north gate, and advanced to the Japanese position little by little; as the shells continued to explode, the barbed wire fence around the Japanese position was blown up in all directions, and the ground and mines were detonated one after another on the open ground behind the barbed wire, and in the shelling, a passage with a width of more than 50 meters was opened up.

The artillery plowed the Japanese positions again with shells before the shelling stopped. Mu Suzhong, who was in charge of the command, was paying full attention to the situation ahead, and as soon as the shelling stopped, he gave the order to attack. The order was quickly conveyed, and two heavy armored vehicles and four light armored vehicles rushed forward with roaring engines, followed by more than 500 officers and men of the first battalion of the 569th Regiment.

Outside the south gate, Wei Erxi also ordered the infantry to attack after bombarding a passage with seventy-two Japanese-style mountain guns in his hand. There was no armored force at the south gate, but the officers and men of the 570th Regiment who were engaged in the attack were not afraid, and they threw in two battalions of troops at once and rushed up to the Japanese position. In the direction of the West Gate, Tang Longzai personally commanded, according to Wang Haitao's meaning, when the West Gate direction began to attack, it was necessary to hide the strength.

Therefore, during the shelling, Tang Longzai only ordered a self-propelled howitzer and artillery battalion of 18 grenades and artillery to launch an artillery attack on the Japanese position, and these artillery only opened a passage more than 20 meters wide in front of the Japanese defensive position, and the damage to the fortifications on the Japanese defensive position was not too serious. During the attack, Tang Longzai only used one battalion of infantry, and the armored troops did not move.

As soon as the artillery bombardment of the Chinese army began, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano rushed out of the division headquarters. Listening to the sound of artillery outside the city, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sano found that the sound of artillery in the direction of the north gate was obviously more dense than in the other two directions. As soon as he climbed the north gate wall, Lieutenant General Tadayoshi Sanono was also taken aback by the scene in front of him. The smoke and dust from the shells outside the city had shrouded the entire position, and all that could be seen in the smoke was the flash of the explosion and the light of fire everywhere.

Looking at the position shrouded in gunsmoke and dust, and listening to the dense and indistinguishable explosions, a trace of nervousness and worry appeared on Lieutenant General Sano's face. The half-hour of the shelling was such a long time for the Japanese army, and the Japanese soldiers who were facing the intensive artillery fire were already close to collapse. These Japanese soldiers could only lie tightly in the trenches and fortifications and did not dare to move, and the timid ones were trembling. Seeing that there were constantly companions who were blown into the air by shells, turning into incomplete corpses and raining blood, those who were not hit could only pray secretly and resign themselves to fate.

After the shelling stopped, the Japanese soldiers could not recover for a long time, and it was not until they heard the shouts of the officers that they reacted to the fact that the Chinese army began to charge. The soldiers in the direction of the north gate were scolded by the officers, and as soon as they entered the position, they found that in the smoke that had not completely dissipated, several steel chariots rushed up. The chariot was still three to four hundred meters away from the Japanese position, and more than a dozen heavy machine gun fire points on the Japanese position had already spat out tongues of fire.

In the shelling just now, there are a lot of artillery in the direction of the north gate, but there are not many heavy artillery, 75 caliber field guns and 105 caliber howitzers and artillery have insufficient destructive power to the bunker fortifications of the Japanese reinforced concrete structure, so half of the bunker fortifications on the Japanese positions are good, and some of them are damaged but can still be used, only a few bunkers were destroyed by direct hits of 150 caliber heavy guns, and the current heavy machine gun fire is fired from these bunker fortifications.

In the face of Japanese heavy machine-gun fire, the armor on the armored car could completely block it, but the vehicle-mounted rapid-fire 20 mm rapid-fire gun on the heavy armored vehicle could not do anything against the bunker. The officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 569th Regiment behind the car used the armored vehicle as a cover to follow the armored vehicle and counterattack the Japanese troops with light machine guns and semi-automatic rifles.

On the offensive position, Mu Suzhong saw that the Japanese heavy machine gun fire point began to counterattack, and also ordered the heavy machine gun position to open fire and suppress the Japanese heavy machine gun fire point with firepower. It's just that the Japanese heavy machine gun fire points are all in the bunker, and a few hundred meters away, it is almost impossible to hit the firing hole of the bunker with a heavy machine gun, and the effect of suppression is not good.

After the attacking tanks crossed the bombed barbed wire, the soldiers on the Japanese positions also opened fire, and light machine guns, grenadiers, and rifles all beckoned to the attacking tanks and the officers and men of the first battalion. Under the intensive fire of the Japanese troops, the officers and men of the first battalion also suffered casualties, especially the grenades and bullets fired by the Japanese grenadiers, which would explode in the infantry crowd after the battle, causing considerable casualties.

When the Japanese army used more than a dozen hidden mortars and successfully blew up two light armored vehicles, Deng Fei, the commander of the first battalion, received an order to retreat. At this time, the first attack in the direction of the south gate and the west gate did not progress, and after losing some soldiers, it was withdrawn one after another. The first attack in all three directions was a tentative offensive, aimed at finding out the distribution of fire on the Japanese positions.

Targeted shelling began in three directions next. The focus in the direction of the North Gate was to destroy bunker fortifications on Japanese positions with 15O caliber heavy artillery and hit Japanese mortar positions with artillery fire. The south gate is also a key point to clear the firepower of the Japanese army, but the power of the Japanese-style mountain artillery is too small, and it is very difficult to clear the firepower points in the Japanese fortifications.

In the direction of the west gate, because the number of artillery thrown into the west gate was the smallest, even the ground and mines could not be completely detonated, and the soldiers accidentally stepped on a few undetonated * during the attack, causing more than 20 casualties, so the focus was still on opening the way forward and clearing the fortified fire points. Another large-scale shelling began, and the rumbling of shelling and explosions plunged the Japanese into panic again.