readx;? There is also a dense water network between Liyang and Yixing, and there are a large number of bridges on the road from Yixing to Nanjing via Liyang County, which are basically concrete bridges that can pass through vehicles, and the width is about ten meters. The second line of defense outside Liyang City www.biquge.info was not as wide as the front line of the first line, except that the main position was set up on the bridge of the road, and only a small number of troops patrolled by the small river that crossed the farmland.

There are bunkers, sandbag fortifications, trenches, and anti-artillery holes, communication trenches and other facilities dug on the main position, which is not wide, and a battalion of the 560th Regiment was stationed here, but after the 561st Regiment retreated, the regiment commander Fu Bingxun drove the battalion to the rear and took the remaining officers and men of the 561st Regiment to garrison this line of defense.

The 561st Regiment did not suffer much losses in the previous battle, Fu Bingxun put the second battalion with almost no losses in the position of the main position, the first battalion with greater losses as a reserve, and the third battalion patrolled along the small river according to the platoon formation. After the Japanese 22nd Division captured the first line of defense, it rested for a while, still starting with the 66th Brigade and regiment, and went straight to the second line of positions along the road.

For the Japanese army with a high degree of mechanization, convenient transportation is very important, so the Japanese army's offensive is basically carried out along the main highway, and in view of the offensive characteristics of the Japanese army, as the defending side, the main position is also set up around some key points on the highway.

This second line of defense outside Liyang City was also set up in this way. The 66th Brigade of the 22nd Division of the Japanese Army came to the east of the highway bridge, and saw that the bridgehead on the west side was a defensive position, and the brigade commander of the 66th Brigade sighed, and after asking his men to prepare for the attack, he raised his binoculars to observe the position west of the bridge.

After observing for a while, the brigade commander found that this position was more difficult to fight than the one he had captured before, not only were there more fortifications, but only the bridge in front could be attacked, and the defenders' automatic weapons were so fierce that they had already learned it when attacking the previous position, so how many lives of the emperor's samurai would have to be paid to capture this position of the Shina people?

The brigade commander of the 66th Brigade did not rush to attack, but waited for the commander of the 1st Division of Tsuchihashi to arrive, and reported on the situation of the defensive positions of the Chinese army observed by Tsuchihashi Jiichi. Tuqiao Jiyi also had a great headache with the fortifications of this road, and according to this method of attack, how many soldiers would be left of his 22nd Division under the city of Nanjing? Without soldiers, what would he do to capture Nanjing?

Thinking of this, Tuqiao could only use a telegram to urge the independent field artillery wing that was still on the road to speed up and join up with the infantry wing, and only when the field artillery wing of the division and regiment arrived, and the powerful artillery of the field artillery wing could destroy the fortifications on the defenders' positions in China, and the soldiers would capture the positions of the people in China at a small price.

At the same time, after the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army gathered the Japanese troops who arrived first in Jintan, it left a reinforced squad of Japanese troops in Jintan County to garrison, and the rest of the Japanese troops under the leadership of the division commander, Lieutenant General Fujita Shin, rushed straight to Jurong County. After the 562nd Regiment defending Jurong left Maoshan Town, it had already built fortifications on Damaofeng, and the 36 mortars of different calibers of the whole regiment were also deployed in several positions according to the distance of the firing range.

The five 120 heavy mortars with the longest range were placed on the top of the mountain, and their maximum range was more than five kilometers, enough to cover a long stretch of road at the foot of the mountain. As soon as the vanguard of the Japanese army reached the foot of the hill, they were dazed by the defenders of the first line of positions on the mountain, and the Japanese troops of a search squadron only ran back with more than 30 people.

After the 3rd Division gathered at the foot of Damaofeng, the division commander and a group of his subordinates personally observed the defenders' position at Damaoshan. The mountain is still full of green in winter, and the vegetation on the mountain is so lush that Fujita and others can barely see the defenders' positions through the telescope. Although the field artillery wing of the division and regiment has 105-caliber field artillery with a firing range of 10,000 meters, the 12 field artillery pieces are powerless in the face of such a large mountain peak.

However, Lieutenant General Fujita still found a flat ground 6,000 kilometers away from the foot of the mountain and arranged the 48 field guns of the division's field artillery wing, and the mountain artillery and mortars in the wing were used to support and suppress fire with the infantry. After everything was ready, Lieutenant General Fujita gave the order to attack.

The 68th Wing of the 5th Infantry Brigade, which was the vanguard, under the command of Wing Commander Takashi Takamori, began an attack on Damao Peak with a brigade. The 2nd Battalion and 1st Company of the 562nd Regiment were defending the first line of positions a few dozen meters from the foot of the mountain, which was made of artificial leveling of a small flat land, and then a wall more than one meter high was built with stones, and the walls were made of firing holes, while the company's two heavy machine guns were placed in a covered stone house, and the roof was made of rough wooden nails.

The 562nd Regiment, which had experienced the Battle of Shanghai, was well aware of the damage caused by the Japanese artillery, so it dug several deep anti-artillery holes on the hillside behind the flat ground, which were also used as dormitories during rest. The slope of the mountain in front of the position was 30 or 40 degrees, and it was not easy for the Japanese army to attack from the back.

As soon as a Japanese brigade began to attack, it was discovered by the defenders of the position, and at this time the Japanese could not see the defenders' positions from the bottom of the mountain, so they could not carry out artillery bombardment before attacking. When the Japanese army climbed up dozens of meters with great difficulty, there was suddenly an open belt of dozens of meters in front of them, and before the Japanese army could see what was going on, the guns on the defenders' positions rang out.

A burst of shooting only killed and wounded more than a dozen Japanese soldiers, and the rest of the Japanese soldiers who had not yet come out of the woods hurriedly hid behind trees or lay down behind stones. Seeing the situation, the Japanese opened fire in the woods and the defenders on the positions. However, even if the Japanese army's marksmanship is good, the probability of hitting a small shooting hole dozens of meters away is not high.

When the Japanese used grenadiers, the grenades were often blocked by tree branches and fell down before they could fly out of the woods, and they did not hit the defenders but killed or wounded themselves. The defenders on the position were only shooting at the Japanese with rifles, and with the marksmanship of the defenders, they were able to hit the hidden Japanese soldiers. As long as the Japanese troops did not rush out of the woods, the light and heavy machine guns on the position would not go off, but if the Japanese tried to break out of the woods, the light and heavy machine guns fired in a volley, they were basically killed and wounded.

The two sides exchanged fire for more than an hour, but the casualties were not large, and the first company of the second battalion was only killed and three wounded. The Japanese casualties were slightly heavier, with only a few dozen soldiers killed or wounded. It is certainly not a matter for such a confrontation to continue, and the captain of the Japanese army sent someone to explain the situation here to the wing captain Takamori Takasa, and asked Takamori Takasato to come up with an idea.

For such a mountainous battle, Takamori Takashi Daisa had no choice but to go to the brigade commander, Major General Riichiro Katayama, and all Major General Riichiro Katayama could think of was to try to transport a few 70-caliber infantry guns of the wing up the mountain, and then open the fortifications with artillery fire at close range. Takamori Takashi Dasa could only do so, and it was already evening, and a brigade of Japanese troops still on the mountain could only withdraw first, and we would talk about it tomorrow.

In the three-way offensive of the Japanese army, the fighting was the most intense, and the most fierce offensive of the Japanese army was the Zhenjiang road. Lieutenant General Nakajima Imago led the 16th Division, and it took only two days from Changzhou to approach the outskirts of Zhenjiang through Danyang County. At that time, the national defense highway from Nanjing to Shanghai was the best highway, and the squadron did not think of destroying this highway when it retreated, so the Japanese army easily hit Zhenjiang City along this road.

However, after Danyang County, it basically entered the hilly area, not only the road condition is a lot worse, but also the road twists and turns, and the road surface is also a lot narrower. The first line of defense on the periphery of Zhenjiang is centered on Dantu Town, north to the foot of Jiashan Mountain, south to Qili Mountain, with a total length of 10.4 kilometers, cutting off the Shanghai-Nanjing Highway and several roads entering Zhenjiang City from other places.

Zhenjiang was defended by the 102nd Division, and after the Japanese captured Changzhou City, the commander of the 102nd Division, He Zhizhong, suddenly fell ill and handed over the task of guarding Zhenjiang to Deputy Division Commander Dai Zhiqi and Chief of Staff Wang Yujiao, and he went back to Nanjing to meet his illness. When the 102nd Division withdrew from the Jiangyin fortress, there were only 4,000 people left in the division, and then a regiment was added, and there were 5,000 men. Fortunately, Wang Haitao gave a lot of weapons and equipment, and his combat effectiveness was basically restored.

However, with a division of 5,000 people to defend Zhenjiang, which is not easy to defend, the 102nd Division was at a loss, but fortunately, there was a retreating 83rd Army and an independent heavy artillery brigade behind them, and the 102nd Division was stationed in Zhenjiang with a desperate determination. On the first line of defense, Dai Yu personally led the 613th Regiment and the 615th Regiment to garrison.

It has been a month since Zhenjiang City was transferred to Zhenjiang by Wang Haitao as the commander of Nanjing's urban defense and the 102nd Division was stationed in Zhenjiang, so Zhenjiang's defensive positions and various fortifications have also been built very well. Bunkers, sandbags, trenches, communication trenches, anti-artillery holes with a depth of more than one and a half meters, all kinds of bunkers, light and dark fire points. The same is true of this first line of defense.

Before the Japanese 16th Division reached the defensive position, the commander of Nakajima's Imaka Division, who did not bother to rest and recuperate, immediately asked the division's 22nd Field Artillery Wing to set up an artillery position and launch an artillery bombardment on the defenders' positions. Thirty-six Type 95 75 mm field guns and twelve Type 91 105 mm field guns fired shells at the defenders' positions almost simultaneously.

Most of the defenders on the position have participated in the defense of Jiangyin Fortress, at that time all kinds of Japanese artillery and large-caliber naval guns bombarded Jiangyin Fortress, with that experience, these Japanese artillery is nothing, the position left a dozen or so veterans to observe, and the rest of the soldiers are hiding in the anti-artillery hole, the depth of the anti-artillery hole is below one meter five, and the top is reinforced, although the soil will fall, but it will never collapse.