Facing the Ming River, which could not be crossed in vain, and the defenders' positions that could be clearly seen on the south bank of the Ming River, Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi frowned again. The offensive that had been overwhelming on the battlefield in Southeast Asia was no longer there, and from the beginning of the attack on the first line of defense of the defenders, Lieutenant General Hiroshi Nakagawa felt unprecedented difficulties. However, Commander Masaharu Honma's words and his own assurances to His Excellency the Commander are still very clear, and now he must take the county seat in front of him no matter what.

Lieutenant General Nakagawa Guangzhong used a telescope to observe the south bank of the Ming River and the county seat of Shangsi for a long time, and had to admit that this was indeed a city that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even if the Mingjiang defense line is overcome, you will have to face a county town that only has one city gate to attack. The only thing that is beneficial to oneself is that both the north bank of the Ming River and the front of the county seat are large open spaces, which is conducive to the development of their own troops.

Lieutenant General Hiroshi Nakagawa first sent the 242nd Infantry Wing, and the 241st Infantry Wing, which had been serving as the vanguard, had lost more than half of its previous attack and was no longer able to take up the main attack mission. Wing Commander An Teng of the 242nd Infantry Wing first gathered the artillery in the wing and set up an artillery position on the north bank of the Mingjiang Bridge, and then placed two infantry brigades on the north bank of the Mingjiang Bridge, and the other infantry brigade took the squadron as a unit to look for locations and opportunities to force the crossing of the Mingjiang River on the east and west sides of the north bank of the Mingjiang Bridge.

The baggage wing and the mountain artillery wing, which were protected by the remaining officers and men of the 241st Infantry Wing, were placed at the rear, and all the artillery of the mountain artillery wing was also set up on the artillery positions, ready to shell the defenders' positions. The Japanese army, which had made all the preparations, was already about to attack, but there was not much movement on the defenders' positions on the south bank of the Ming River.

The 461st Brigade of the 210th Division did not suffer much losses in the process of blocking the Japanese army, and after all of them withdrew to Shangsi County, Tang Hongpeng asked the brigade commander Liu Mingde to lead the troops to Chongzuo City first. Liu Mingde was worried that the 460th Brigade was not strong enough, so he insisted on replenishing the 876th Regiment, handed it over to the division commander for command, and withdrew to Chongzuo City with the wounded and the remaining officers and soldiers.

The 876th Regiment was used by Tang Hongming as a general reserve, and now Tang Hongming has four fully equipped infantry regiments, a heavy artillery regiment, an armored regiment, plus a guard regiment and a reconnaissance regiment directly under the division, with more than 10,000 people, and the weapons and equipment are a few streets away from the Japanese army. Tang Hongming, who was full of confidence, decided to teach the 48th Division of the Japanese army a lesson in Shangsi County.

Tang Hongming already knew that the Japanese artillery wing had 48 mountain guns of large and small calibers, but in terms of range and power, these mountain guns were not as good as the original 105-caliber self-propelled guns bought from Germany. After determining that the Japanese artillery position was located five kilometers on the north bank of the Ming River, that is, seven kilometers away from the county seat of Shangsi, Tang Hongming sent a telegram to Dongfang Shengli, the commander of the heavy artillery regiment.

The telegram ordered the heavy artillery regiment to move closer to the county town of Shangsi, set up an artillery position near the county town of Shangsi, and bombard the Japanese artillery position. As soon as this telegram was sent, the Japanese shelling began. The shells fell like dumplings on the defenders' positions south of the Mingjiang River, but the bombing point was some distance away from the Mingjiang Bridge, and it seemed that the Japanese were also afraid that the shells would destroy the only Mingjiang Bridge and make their attack more difficult.

The fortifications on the south bank of the Ming River took more than half a month for the 210th Division to be completed, and there would be no problem at all in resisting the bombardment of the Japanese mountain artillery, but Chen Dian, the commander of the 872nd Regiment who was mainly guarding the Mingjiang Bridge, still only left a few observation posts on the position during the cautious period, and the rest of the officers and soldiers withdrew into the anti-artillery holes behind the position. The Japanese bombardment was nothing more than a waste of shells.

After more than 20 minutes of shelling, the mountain artillery stopped, but the small artillery of the 242nd Infantry Wing did not. Under the cover of small artillery, an infantry squadron launched an attack on the Mingjiang Bridge. As soon as the observation post on the position reported to the regiment commander Chen Dian that the Japanese army had attacked an infantry squadron, Chen Dian couldn't help but say: "It's only one squadron? Okay, Yu Liang, the commander of the first battalion, you can take your battalion to the position." ”

After Yu Liang, the commander of the first battalion, answered, he shouted loudly: "The first battalion will enter the position with me!" After speaking, he turned around and left the anti-artillery hole. Chen Dian looked at Yu Liang's back, and said to Wei Youliang, the commander of the second battalion, and Tao Yuqiang, the commander of the third battalion beside him: "I don't know what the division thinks? The Japanese army is just a type B division, and there are only more than 10,000 people, so you still need to be so careful when dealing with them?"

Wei Youliang replied: "Also, with the strength of our division, a heavy artillery is very beaten, and then with an armored regiment, these little Japanese are afraid that they will only have to escape." Tao Yuqiang said: "Tuanzuo, I think they should have their considerations, but since Shizuo ordered us to guard the Mingjiang Bridge, we just have to guard this Mingguang Bridge, and let them consider the rest!"

Indeed, with the strength of the 210th Division, even if the Japanese army comes to two divisions, Tang Hongming will not be nervous, and the strength of his own German mechanized division will be there. Tang Hongming was worried that Japanese planes would come to support. This time, the Japanese troops landed in Qinzhou Bay and dispatched an entire fleet, and there were quite a few carrier-based planes alone, plus planes flying from other airfields, so there should be no small number.

If this division of his own only fights on the ground, he will never be afraid of small Japan, but the defense weapons of the whole division are insufficient, and it will not be able to defend against the large group of small Japan. Because of the Japanese army's naval blockade, these imported equipment in his division could not be replenished at all, and the loss of one piece was less, and Tang Hongming did not want to let his division lose a large number of heavy weapons just in this battle.

In the final analysis, if you fight a war without air supremacy, your strength is stronger than that of the other side, and you can only hide yourself first and then destroy the enemy. Not long after Yu Liang, the commander of the first battalion, entered the position with his men, fierce gunfire rang out on the position. The gunfire lasted for half an hour before it stopped, and after a short time, Yu Liang went into the anti-artillery hole again.

Chen Dian didn't need to ask to know that the first battalion had repelled the Japanese attack and retreated, and the commander of the first battalion took the initiative to come to the regiment commander after drinking a few sips of water and said: "Report to the military seat, the first battalion repelled the Japanese attack, killed and wounded more than ten Japanese soldiers, four of his own soldiers died, twelve soldiers were injured, and five of them were seriously injured. Chen Dian nodded, and then said, "Okay! You arrange for someone to bring the wounded back to the city. ”

Then the Japanese shelling began again, and then an infantry brigade attacked. This time, Chen Dian sent two battalions up, and also repelled the Japanese attack with very small losses. In this way, the Japanese attacks were repulsed again and again. One morning, the 872nd Regiment took turns to fight and repelled four Japanese attacks. Soon it was two o'clock in the afternoon, and when the Japanese launched another artillery bombardment of the defenders' positions, the 50 self-propelled guns of the division's heavy artillery regiment returned fire on the Japanese artillery positions.

Just this time to return fire, the Japanese army lost most of the 48 mountain guns. At this time, the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi, was even more surprised. The army he was facing could still have so many large-caliber artillery, coupled with the dense firepower on the position, it seemed that this attack would be very difficult. Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi had no choice but to ask the commander, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma, for reinforcements for him.

Lieutenant General Honma Masaharu knew that the 90th Army he had to face was extremely difficult, but this time there were more than 70,000 troops in his hands alone, and the 14th Army on the side of French Indochina (Vietnam) contained part of the strength of the 90th Army, so Lieutenant General Honma Masaharu was ambitious and prepared to be ashamed. I thought that with the strength of the 48th Division, it would be no problem to take Chongzuo City, but the 48th Division made slow progress, and it only took 11 days to reach Shangsi City, and today even sent a telegram asking for help.

Vice Admiral Masaharu Honma telegraphed back to Vice Admiral Hiroshi Nakagawa and told him that reinforcements would arrive soon, and at the same time, coordinated with the fleet on the sea, and asked the navy to send carrier-based aircraft to bomb the positions of the Chinese army. After doing this, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma ordered the Taiwan Brigade to be stationed in the port of Qinzhou, independently mixed into the 65th Brigade, and advanced 30 kilometers north to build defensive positions to prevent the Chinese army from attacking in the direction of Nanning.

After arranging the defensive mission, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma ordered the 16th Division, a field heavy artillery brigade, and a tank brigade to follow him to attack the city. Soon, Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma set off with his troops. And Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi here, although he was supported by aircraft, he was still unable to capture the Mingjiang Bridge.

In this whole day, the 48th Division launched eight attacks on the positions on the south bank of the Ming River, but found nothing but increased casualties. In one day's fighting, the 242nd Infantry Wing also lost nearly a thousand soldiers, a figure that surprised and angered Lieutenant General Nakagawa at the same time. He is an army rampant in Southeast Asia, but not to mention the loss of troops here, there is no progress.

Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi is preparing to transfer the 243rd Infantry Wing back tomorrow to participate in the attack together, and in any case, he must capture this Mingjiang Bridge tomorrow. There was nothing to say all night, and early the next morning, Lieutenant General Nakagawa Hiroshi mobilized all the large and small artillery pieces and bombarded the defenders' positions indiscriminately. Then an infantry brigade was ordered to go on the offensive.

The two battalions of the 82nd Regiment were still holding on to the defending positions. However, in today's attack, the Japanese did not wait for the artillery fire to stop before attacking with infantry, but when the artillery fire had just extended back, more than 1,000 infantry began to attack. The defenders also had to brave Japanese artillery fire to enter the position. After entering the position, he could only hold the position under the artillery fire of the Muslim army.

The Mingjiang Bridge is called the bridge, its width is only 15 meters, it is a reinforced concrete structure of the bridge, the total length is 200 meters, and there are railings on the side of the bridge. The ten-meter-wide bridge deck does not have too much slope, and it is only necessary to block the bridge deck with two heavy machine guns. And two battalions plus one crane gun has dozens of guns, and blocking the bridge deck is not a problem at all. ￣