readx;? As the Japanese army got closer and closer to Nanjing, the daily rumbling of artillery could be heard clearly in the city of Nanjing. The pen "fun" pavilion www.biquge.info the people in the city of Nanjing are also a little unbearable, after the two pontoon bridges were built in Xiaguan, the people who cross the river from the pontoon bridges every day have always continued. According to Xiao Lingshan's report, less than 150,000 people remained in Nanjing.

When Xiao Lingshan mobilized the people in the city to evacuate Nanjing, some of the organs and departments that remained in Nanjing also began to retreat to Wuhan, and the entire millennium showed a bit of depression. Now the streets of Nanjing do not have the heat of the surging crowds of the past, and the most people who appear are soldiers and gendarmes, and occasionally a few pedestrians are also in a hurry.

This is the scene that Wang Haitao hopes to see, and Wang Haitao will never let the historical Nanjing Massacre repeat itself. Even if the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, he would have to pay a considerable price and get an empty city full of ruins. Wang Haitao called Xiao Lingshan, and after asking about the existing warehouses and materials in Nanjing City, which were enough for 300,000 people in March, he ordered that except for the power plant, waterworks, post offices, and other key departments and factories to continue to operate normally, all the remaining factories should be suspended and withdrawn from Nanjing.

The Japanese army outside Nanjing should have known about the defeat of the Fifth Division at the foot of the Purple Mountain, and slowed down the offensive, and the defenders who had been fighting fiercely with the Japanese army for days were also relieved, but the attack of the 11th Division and the Shigeto detachment in Jiangbei did not slow down at all, and the 111th Division of Yizheng County was lost after defending for three days, and the division commander Chang Enduo withdrew to ** County with more than 1,000 remnants of the 91st Division.

After the 272nd Brigade crossed the river, Tang Longzai asked the deputy brigade commander Tang Yiqun to take the 546th Regiment to Jiangpu County to garrison, and the 547th Regiment suffered a lot of losses in the first two days of fighting.

After obtaining the consent of Guo Rudong, the commander of the 91st Division, Tang Longzai drew a squadron of 1,000 people from the 1st Militia Brigade to supplement the 547th Regiment, and now the 547th Regiment is about the same as other regiments in terms of numbers, but the guns have not been replaced, so it should be the weakest in the 272nd Brigade in terms of strength.

Tang Longzai took the 545th Regiment to the headquarters of the 91st Division in ** County, although Tang Longzai was only a major general brigade commander, but he was Wang Haitao's brother-in-law, and this identity made Guo Rudong, the lieutenant general and division commander, dare not snub him. Guo Rudong personally greeted the command headquarters, Tang Longzai did not have any arrogance, after seeing Guo Rudong's division commander, he stood up and saluted and said: "Tang Longzai, the commander of the 272nd Brigade of the 90th Division, was ordered to come to report. ”

Guo Rudong returned the military salute and said with a smile: "Welcome to Brigade Commander Tang, with Brigade Commander Tang leading the 272nd Brigade to come, the ** defense line should sit back and relax." Brigade Commander Tang inside please. The two entered the headquarters, and after Tang Longzai and several officers in the headquarters greeted and sat down, Guo Rudong said: "Brigade Commander Tang, I heard that the 90th Division won a big victory at the foot of the Purple Mountain, destroying tens of thousands of enemies. Such a record really makes Guo embarrassed. ”

Tang Longzai said: "Division Commander Guo is too modest, the heavy damage to the Japanese Fifth Division at the foot of the Purple Mountain this time is mainly to rely on heavy artillery and the army's armored regiment to attack with all their might, otherwise how can a 90th division severely damage a division of the Japanese army, a division of the Japanese army is not easy to deal with, this Division Commander Guo should have a deep understanding of this." ”

Guo Rudong said with emotion: "Yes, let alone a division of the Japanese army, my division will not be able to deal with even a brigade of the Japanese army when it first arrived in Shanghai." There is only a military seat, from Shanghai to Nanjing, there are several Japanese divisions planted in his hands, and others can't think of such strength. ”

Tang Longzai also said: "Yes, other troops can't beat the Japanese army, it's not that the officers and soldiers are timid and afraid of death, but the guys in their hands are really bad, plus they haven't been trained for a long time, and the quality of the soldiers is worse, and we have trained from the security regiment to the independent brigade, until the Shanghai battlefield, everyone has been trained for several years, and they have fought in actual combat, plus the guys in their hands are the latest weapons that the military seat got back from Germany, and it is not a little bit stronger than small Japan, and we can make little Japan suffer again and again." ”

Guo Rudong also said: "Yes, when our Sichuan army division first arrived in Shanghai, it was assigned to the military seat, and at that time, no one looked down on us called Huazi, and only the military seat, not only did not look down on us, but also let our whole division change clothes, not afraid of your Tang Brigade Commander's jokes, I have been fighting for decades, my division has never had so many good guys, and I have never seen those new weapons."

Later, we separated from the military seat, with the good things given by the military seat, we also fought a few beautiful battles on the battlefield in Shanghai, and no one dared to look down on our division at that time. Now that we are under the military seat again, we have become the Central Army, which is really something that Guo can never think of anymore. ”

Tang Longzai said: "Although Junzao is my brother-in-law, even if there is no such relationship, I will definitely follow Junzao, and since he became the head of the security regiment, I know that Junzao is a person who can do great things." Division Commander Guo, follow the military seat and do a good job, we will never be wrong to follow the military seat. Okay, let's not talk about gossip, although my 272nd Brigade has crossed the river, but the military seat has explained that a regiment will be stationed in Jiangpu County, and 547 you know, I just added a squadron of militia, which is being reorganized, and I let them guard the Jiangbei wharf, so I only brought the 545th Regiment to ** County, how to use this regiment is up to you, and I obey the arrangement of Division Commander Guo. ”

Tang Longzai said this, Guo Rudong really didn't dare to take it seriously, this 90th division is the army started by Wang Haitao, a regiment is worth a brigade of others, as for those miscellaneous armies, a division may not be able to beat this regiment. How to use this group Guo Rudong is really hard to decide. After thinking for a while, Guo Rudong said: "That's it, Brigade Commander Tang, your regiment is stationed in ** county, as the last line of defense in ** county, the military seat has been explained, ** county must not be lost, this is related to the life and death of hundreds of thousands of defenders in Nanjing City, I am relieved to have your regiment in ** county." ”

Tang Longzai understood Guo Rudong's kindness, and didn't say much, and said: "Master Guo has an order, and Tang obeys the order." Guo Rudong immediately gave an order to Xie Guxiang, the commander of the 560th Regiment stationed in the county seat, to let the 560th Regiment and the 545th Regiment of the 90th Division change their defenses, and the 560th Regiment was strengthened to the front-line position.

The 11th Division of the Japanese Army rushed all the way to ** County, and found that there was a defender position on the west bank of the Chu River, and the division commander Lieutenant General Yamamuro Sotake immediately asked the 11th Wing of the Mountain Artillery to build an artillery position and launch an artillery bombardment on the defender position on the west bank of the river. The mountain artillery wing of the 11th Division has 54 mountain artillery pieces of 75-millimeter caliber of the 41 type, plus the mountain artillery, infantry artillery, and mortars in the infantry wing, and the number of artillery pieces in the whole division is no less than 100.

It's just that they met the 90th Army, and with Wang Haitao, a person who should not have appeared in this era, it was destined to be a nightmare for the Japanese army. Soon after the fifty-four mountain guns of the 11th Wing launched an artillery attack on the defenders' positions, dozens of mortars of various calibers on the defenders' positions began to counterattack.

The 100-millimeter heavy mortars and 120 heavy mortars on the defenders' positions were not as powerful as the Japanese 75 mountain artillery, and the artillery battle between the two sides lasted more than 10 minutes, and the losses were comparable, with the result that both sides shifted their artillery positions and did not dare to use their artillery easily. However, without the suppression of artillery fire, how to cross the Chuhe River, which is about 30 meters wide, has become a difficult problem for the Japanese army.

The Chuhe River flows into the Yangtze River from north to south, and has dozens of kilometers in Jiangsu, just between ** and Yizheng, and the first line of defense of the 91st Division is built along the river. Originally, there was a bridge on the Ningyang Highway, but the 91st Division blew up the bridge after receiving the 111th Division, and now there are no boats and no bridges on the Chuhe River, which makes the Japanese army's crossing of the river a problem.

Yamamuro Sotake had no choice but to let the engineer wing build rafts or wooden boats to prepare for the forced crossing, and at the same time let the Shigeto detachment prepare heavy artillery, hoping to use heavy artillery to suppress the defenders on the west bank. And the remaining mountain artillery of the 11th Artillery Wing also retreated to the maximum range, so that the mortars of the defenders could not reach their own artillery positions.

When the 11th Division was preparing to attack ** County, the consequences of the 5th Division's heavy damage were revealed, and the Tokyo base camp once again reprimanded the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, Lieutenant General Hatohiko Asakamiya, and allowed the Central China Dispatch Army to take the capital of China Nanjing within a time limit, and at the same time sent two more flying regiments and 50,000 reinforcements and a large number of heavy weapons from the mainland and Taiwan to Shanghai.

Lieutenant General Hatohiko ordered the Fifth Division to be transferred back to Shanghai for reorganization, and 30,000 additional troops were replenished to the divisions that had suffered considerable losses in the early stage. The Japanese army, which had increased the number of planes, built an advance airfield in Wuxi, stationed a flying regiment, and intensified the bombing of positions outside Nanjing, and also began to bomb the city of Nanjing.

Several divisions of the Japanese army were replenished, and more planes were added to carry out cover bombing, so that the originally slowed offensive was strengthened again, and the pressure of the defenders increased sharply, and the battle for the defense of Nanjing became more and more fierce and brutal. Wang Haitao was also helpless in the face of this situation, so he could only order the defenders on each position to continue to hold on.

Fortunately, when the Japanese offensive slowed down on this day, the fortification system was strengthened in various positions, so although the Japanese army strengthened the offensive, the defenders everywhere were still able to hold on. A few days later, the crisis arose on the positions of the 88th Division guarding Longtan.