readx;? Wang Haitao received the second telegram from Dai Zhiqi in the headquarters, and Wang Haitao had some thoughts about the independent heavy artillery brigade. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info these Japanese-style heavy artillery have been used until now after they were brought from the Battle of Shanghai, not only the life of the body has reached the limit, but also the shells are really not very easy to handle, so they are intentionally transported to the base in Jurong, and the road to the base makes them inaccessible, so Wang Haitao plans to give up these artillery.

The brigade commander of the Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade was a battalion commander of the Heavy Artillery Regiment of the New 90th Division, named Wei Zhiyuan. The telegram demanded that Wei Zhiyuan carry out an artillery bombardment at the right time and at the right place, to shoot out all the shells, and then blow up all the artillery, and lead the artillery to withdraw to the city of Nanjing to report to himself.

Wang Haitao didn't value these artillery, because there were dozens of guns of various calibers in his storage ring, and as long as there was artillery, a heavy artillery brigade could be formed at any time. And the performance of the cannon in his storage ring is definitely incomparable to the artillery of this era. The power of the 59-1 130 caliber cannon alone far exceeds that of the Japanese 150 caliber heavy cannon, not to mention the 66 152 caliber cannon howitzer.

Although Wei Zhiyuan is now the colonel and brigade commander of the Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade, he was also brought out by Wang Haitao, and he obeyed Wang Haitao's words. After receiving Wang Haitao's telegram, he did not think much about it at all, and immediately sent an observation team to Zhenjiang City with a radio station to contact the Zhenjiang defenders to find the target for shelling.

When Dai Zhiqi met the observation team at the headquarters, he was a little excited and grateful that Commander Wang could agree to his request so quickly and ask the Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade to send someone to contact him. After Dai Zhiqi explained to the chief of staff Wang Yujiao, he personally accompanied the observation team to the city wall.

Wan Shijiong was also very excited when he saw the observation team, pointed to the direction of the Japanese artillery position and said: "There is an artillery position there, and there is another one on the south gate, can you finish them all at once?" The leader of the observation team replied: "I'm sorry Commander Wan, we are only responsible for observing the distance and direction of the target, as for when to attack and how to attack, it can only be decided by the upper peak." After speaking, he took out the instrument and began to measure.

An hour later, the positions of the two Japanese artillery positions were all determined, and the observation team sent a telegram back to the headquarters of the heavy artillery brigade by radio. When Wei Zhiyuan received the telegram, he began to calculate, the two targets were within the effective range of the artillery, and the reconnaissance unit of the 90th Army sent two truckloads of artillery shells last time, but most of them were shells from the 150 cannon, while the shells of the 240 heavy howitzer were very few, only 30 rounds.

Now he has 150 cannons in his hands, each cannon can have 46 shells, while the 240 heavy howitzer has only 21 shells per gun. With these shells, it is enough to destroy two targets, but to hit two targets at the same time, the number of artillery pieces is a little less.

After thinking for a while, Wei Zhiyuan decided to use ten 150 cannons to fire 20 shells at the target south of Zhenjiang, and the rest of the artillery to the target to the east, the 150 cannon still fired 20 shells, and the 240 heavy howitzer fired all the shells. The reason why the 150 cannon only fired 20 shells was because Wei Zhiyuan was afraid that he would use these heavy cannons in the later battles.

With the decision made, Wei Zhiyuan replied to the observation team by telegram, and asked the observation team to stay in Zhenjiang City, and if it found any more valuable targets, it could immediately telegraph to the command headquarters, and the time of the shelling was set for the Japanese army to carry out the shelling in the evening. The observation team immediately relayed the news to Dai Zhiqi and Wan Shijiong, and the troops were divided into two routes, and observers were dispatched at both the south gate and the east gate to correct the bomb landing point in a timely manner.

The two divisions of the Japanese army did not expect that there would be heavy artillery units of the Zhi Na people here, so they bombarded the positions outside Zhenjiang City unscrupulously, and even the city walls suffered many shells. Wan Shijiong looked at the gunsmoke and fire on the battlefield, and scolded angrily: "Grandma, depending on how arrogant you are, I want you to look good immediately." ”

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese shelled again, and at this time the observers sent back a message to the command that could be started. In the prepared heavy artillery brigade, more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces roared at the same time, and the warheads flew towards the target more than ten kilometers away with a whistling sound. When the shells flew straight over the target, the whistling alarm alarmed the unprepared Japanese troops.

Twenty shells per heavy artillery shot together were enough to turn the Japanese artillery positions into a sea of fire, and in only ten minutes, the shelling of the heavy artillery brigade was over, and the result was that the 22nd Field Artillery Wing of the 16th Division and the 12th Field Artillery Wing of the 18th Division were wiped off the face of the earth at the same time.

The commander of the 16th Division, Lieutenant General Nakajima Imazo, and the commander of the 18th Division, Lieutenant General Sadao Ushijima, were stunned. And the defenders inside and outside Zhenjiang City were cheering. How could we attack without the support of artillery? This made Lieutenant General Nakajima Imago and Lieutenant General Sadao Ushijima a little overwhelmed.

The two discussed together for a long time, but still reported the situation to the commander of the Central China Dispatch Army, Lieutenant General Hatohiko Wang, and asked to send an aircraft to provide support. When Lieutenant General Hatohiko received this telegram, he angrily tore the telegram to shreds, and then scolded: "These two fools, in the battle in Shanghai, the Imperial Japanese Army had enough of the heavy artillery of the China, and they still don't know that there are not many cannons of the China? If we continue to lose like this, then what will our Great Japanese Empire use to make up for these losses?"

After scolding for a while, Vice Admiral Hatohiko of Asaka Palace hurriedly contacted Vice Admiral Hasegawa Kiyoshi, commander of the Japanese naval fleet. Vice Admiral Hasegawa Kiyoshi promised to send a bomber squadron and a fighter squadron to Zhenjiang City tomorrow, and at the same time ordered the light cruisers on the Yangtze River to bomb Zhenjiang City with naval guns.

With the promise of Commander Hasegawa Kiyoshi, King Hatohiko of Asakanomiya was still not very worried about the front line of Zhenjiang for the main attack, and in view of the fact that the urban area and suburbs of Shanghai had taken advantage of the calm, Lieutenant General Hatohiko of Asakamiya sent the Fifth Division and two tank brigades that had been supplemented to the direction of Zhenjiang, while only one 21st Division and some garrison troops were left in Shanghai.

After Lieutenant General Nakajima Imago and Lieutenant General Ushijima Sadao waited for the reply telegram from Commander Hatohiko of Asakanomiya, they were determined and waited for the plane to come to the aid of the next day. The next morning, knowing that the Japanese artillery position had been destroyed, the defenders outside Zhenjiang City did not hide in the anti-artillery holes as yesterday and waited for the Japanese artillery to bombard, but held their positions early.

The Japanese troops on the opposite side were also gathering, apparently preparing for an attack. The defenders on the position scolded themselves: "You little Japan, there is no artillery today, I will see how you attack." As he was scolding, there was a buzzing sound overhead, these veterans of the defenders had been bombed by Japanese planes when they were in Jiangyin Fortress, and they knew what was going on, but those recruits didn't understand at all, and they were still staring blankly at the sky, looking for the source of the sound.

In just a moment, twenty-four Japanese bombers flew over the city of Zhenjiang under the protection of twelve fighters. The Japanese pilots bullied the defenders for not having anti-aircraft weapons, so they flew very low. First, the fighters swooped down and fired at the positions and the city with their airborne machine guns. And then it doesn't matter how many results there are, it pulls up,

Then the bombers lowered the altitude to only one or two hundred meters and began to drop bombs. Wan Shijiong also organized machine-gun shooting in the air, but these soldiers had no experience in using machine guns to fight planes, and they just swept into the sky, and the effect could be imagined. The defenders of the positions were tightly hidden in the trenches or fortifications, resigned to their fate in the earth-shattering explosion of the heavy aerial bombs.

After circling for half an hour, the Japanese planes dropped all the bombs and fired all the bullets before they flew in the direction of Shanghai, leaving behind the positions of the fortifications that had been almost completely destroyed and the numerous craters on the positions.

Originally, there was one battalion of officers and men on each of the two positions, but yesterday after a day of fighting, the losses were not large, but in today's round of bombing, the two positions suffered heavy losses, half of the officers and men were killed in the bombing, and the two battalion commanders were killed one by one and one was wounded. Without waiting for the defenders to breathe a sigh of relief, the Japanese launched separate attacks on the two positions.

Wan Shijiong on the city wall saw that the Japanese army had launched an attack at this time, and he couldn't care so much, so he ordered all the mortars to be transported to the city to block the Japanese attacking troops. As soon as a dozen mortars on the head of the city rang out, the attacking Japanese infantry was blocked, but the Japanese 92 infantry guns covering the infantry found their target.

After receiving a few shells from the Japanese at the head of the city, Wan Shijiong ordered to destroy the Japanese infantry artillery first, so an artillery battle began on the city and under the city. The Japanese army not only had artillery wings in divisions and regiments, but also had an artillery squadron in each infantry wing, and as soon as the two sides started an artillery battle, the defenders were at a disadvantage in terms of quantity and quality, although they also destroyed some Japanese 92 infantry guns, but there were few mortars left on the city wall.

The defenders on the position outside the city have retreated to the second line of defense at this time, in fact, now the position outside the city has been unable to distinguish several positions, there is no fortification bunker, the defenders use all the available terrain to block the Japanese army, when the Japanese infantry step by step forced to only five or six hundred meters away from the city wall, the light and heavy machine guns on the city wall at the same time began to attack the attacking Japanese infantry.

With the concerted efforts of the upper and lower defenders, the Japanese attack was finally repulsed. Wan Shijiong said to Dai Zhiqi, the deputy division commander who came to inspect the situation: "Deputy division commander, it seems that the position outside the city cannot be held, it is better to let the brothers outside the city withdraw, we can still deal with the attack of the Japanese army with the city wall." ”