readx;? The battle was not only shocked by the officers and men of the 2nd Battalion, but also the commander of the Japanese Riichiro Katayama Brigade and Captain Tatsuharu Kuranaga who watched the entire battle with binoculars in the south of the bridge. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Major General Riichiro Katayama was silent for a long time before he said: "What a stubborn army! If the Chinese army were like them, it would be difficult for the Great Japanese Imperial Army to occupy and conquer China." ”

Then the Japanese army did not launch such an attack, only two small-scale attacks, were blocked by the officers and soldiers of the second battalion, before dark the third division all reached the south bank of the canal, division commander Lieutenant General Fujita Shin after listening to the report of the commander of the brigade of Riichiro Katayama, thought about it, did not launch an attack at night, but set up camp on the south bank of the canal, and deliberately strengthened the vigilance to prevent the sneak attack of the squadron.

The Japanese army did not attack at night, which gave the 466th Brigade a chance to breathe, and all the officers and men of the brigade went into battle to build fortifications on the north bank of the canal overnight. Time was limited, and it was impossible to build permanent fortifications, but it was possible to dig deep trenches, dig anti-artillery holes, and build reinforced heavy machine-gun forts with sandbags.

After a whole night of rush repairs, the officers and men of the 466th Brigade finally built a decent fortification, and although everyone was exhausted, no one complained of being tired when they thought that they could rely on these fortifications to resist the Japanese attack tomorrow. When Lieutenant General Fujita Shin, commander of the 3rd Division, stood on the south bank of the canal and led a group of his men to observe the defenders' positions on the north bank of the canal with binoculars, they found that the defenders on the north bank had repaired a relatively complete fortification.

This made Lieutenant General Fujita Shin and his subordinates very annoyed, and no one expected that in just one night, the defenders of Shina on the opposite bank would actually complete the construction of fortifications. Among them, Major General Katayama Ryichiro couldn't help but feel a little relieved, yesterday the defenders of Shina still stubbornly withstood the attack of their own army with only simple fortifications, and now with these fortifications, how much price do their troops have to pay to occupy these positions?

Lieutenant General Fujita said viciously: "Mobilize all the artillery for me, I will use cannonballs to completely destroy the position of the Chinese people, and let the Chinese people know that our Imperial Japanese Army is unstoppable." "Lieutenant General Fujita's words were orders, and some of his subordinates promised to trot to convey Lieutenant General Fujita's orders.

Lieutenant General Fujita Shin said, "Katayama-kun, after the shelling is over, your Fifth Brigade will still attack, and I want those Shina defenders to see the bravery of our emperor's samurai. Riichiro Katayama replied: "Hey, Your Excellency the division commander, my subordinates will immediately go and prepare for the attack." Fujita nodded in satisfaction and continued to use the telescope to observe the opposite position.

An hour later, an artillery position consisting of 40 70 infantry guns, more than 100 mortars, and 10 rapid-fire guns of 37 mm caliber was set up, and the Japanese commander gave an order, and all the artillery shells were fired at the defenders' positions. The shelling was more intense than yesterday's, and the shells fell more intensively.

However, this time the 931st Regiment was fully prepared, and only one squad of soldiers on the position was hiding in the trenches as observation posts, and the rest of the soldiers were hiding in the anti-artillery holes dug last night. These soldiers listened to the continuous explosion of shells outside the cave, shook off the dust that fell on their heads and bodies from time to time, looked at the roof of the cave timidly, worried that it would collapse, and smoked cigarettes and talked boldly, as if nothing happened.

In the same 20 minutes of shelling, the defenders suffered only 20 casualties this time, and this was still the death and wound after the collapse of one of the anti-artillery holes. As soon as the Japanese shelling was over, the officers let these fighters into their positions, knowing that as soon as the Japanese shelling was over, the infantry would attack. When these soldiers came out of the anti-artillery hole, the fortifications that had been built overnight yesterday were almost blown up by the Japanese artillery fire, and now there was no time to repair the fortifications, and the soldiers could only use the remaining fortifications and artillery pits to block the Japanese troops.

On the Japanese heavy machine gun position, more than a dozen heavy machine guns rang out at the same time, bullets flew towards the defenders' positions, and several soldiers who were a little slower fell under the Japanese machine guns before they could enter the position. The fighters who had already entered the position were also suppressed by the heavy machine guns and could not raise their heads. At this time, a large group of Japanese troops began to go up the bridge from the south of the bridge again, and advanced while firing at the position north of the bridge.

When the Japanese had already passed the center of the bridge, two heavy machine guns and several light machine guns on the position opened fire, and the light and heavy machine guns easily blocked the narrow bridge deck. Seeing that there were heavy machine guns on the position blocking the bridge, the Japanese heavy machine guns immediately turned their guns and opened fire on the heavy machine gun fortifications on the position, while the grenadiers of the attacking Japanese infantry also fired grenades at the light and heavy machine guns on the position.

The heavy machine guns shifted their muzzles, and the soldiers who had been suppressed in the trenches lay down on the edge of the trenches and opened fire on the Japanese infantry. It's just that the marksmanship of these soldiers is not a little worse than that of the Japanese army, although the Japanese army is bending over and attacking, but the number of casualties is not much more than the number of casualties of the defenders on the position, and more than half of the dead and wounded Japanese soldiers are dead and wounded under the machine guns on the position. Now the two heavy machine guns on the position are placed in the sandbag fortifications with the top cover, and the Japanese grenadiers can't do anything about it, and the heavy machine gun bullets can come in through the shooting hole, so the two heavy machine guns have been roaring, blocking the north end of the bridge.

Seeing that it was impossible to cross the north end of the bridge and approach the defenders' positions, and that the attacking Japanese soldiers suffered heavy casualties, the Japanese commanders gave the order to retreat, and the defenders on the positions once again repelled the Japanese attack.

On the canal, the 466th Brigade of the 156th Division desperately blocked the attack of the Japanese 3rd Division, while the defenders on the front line of Wuxi, after receiving the order to retreat, withdrew their positions one after another and retreated in the direction of Changzhou City. The fastest to withdraw was the Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade, which at this time had only five 240 heavy howitzers left, and only 150 Cannon howitzers left, and the rest of the artillery was either damaged in frequent use or destroyed in artillery battles with the Japanese. And the average shell of each gun was less than twenty rounds, so after receiving the order to retreat, he took advantage of the car and withdrew first.

And those infantry units are not so easy to retreat, the Japanese army will not easily let them retreat, each retreating unit left the broken death squad to drag the attacking Japanese army, and then the large force was able to withdraw from the position, and the remaining death squad often only dragged the Japanese army for a period of time and then all the martyrs. In this way, the Japanese pursuing troops were still closely chasing behind the retreating ** troops, and at the same time, the Japanese planes were also bombing the retreating ** troops on the road.

On the road from Wuxi to Changzhou in just a few tens of kilometers, there are retreating teams, only two or three of which are retreating in formation, and most of the troops have been scattered, and one team after another is running backwards in a chaotic manner. Along the way, there were constantly wounded soldiers who had stragged behind and wanted someone to help them, but the soldiers who passed by basically didn't look at them indifferently.

These troops ran all the way to the outskirts of Changzhou and were relieved to see the garrison garrison, who made way for them and told them to continue to retreat, and that there would be a supply depot in Zhenjiang. So these retreating troops continued to move in the direction of Zhenjiang. However, at this time, there was no need to worry about the Japanese troops chasing behind, and the retreating team became orderly.

Guarding the front outside Changzhou was the 468th Brigade of the 156th Division, and at the front was the 935th Regiment of the 468th Brigade. The regiment commander, Colonel Huang Junming, was very worried that the Japanese army would suddenly appear, so he sent a squad to reconnoiter in the direction of Wuxi. The soldiers of this squad found that the vanguard of the Japanese army was chasing a group of ** soldiers ten kilometers away from the Changzhou defense line.

Judging from the number of people, this vanguard force should be a squadron of the Japanese army, and the ** troops who fled in front were probably more than 1,000 officers and soldiers, and it should be a battalion. It's just that the uniforms of the officers and men of this battalion are not neat, and the weapons are even carried on their backs indiscriminately, and some soldiers even discard their weapons. These officers and soldiers may not have thought of stopping to stop the Japanese army at all, and only scrambled to flee for their lives.

From time to time, some soldiers stopped and fired a shot at the ** who fled in front, and the soldiers at the back were shot from time to time, and those who did not fall would not even look at the fallen comrades, but only accelerated their pace and ran forward. The squad leader who led the reconnaissance couldn't stand it anymore, so he found a small hillside on the side of the road, and asked his comrades to ambush and prepare to block the Japanese army.

The attention of the Japanese army was all focused on the ** who fled in front, and they did not notice the soldiers on the hillside of the road at all. The squad leader set up the Hanyang-made rifle that he had used for a long time, and aimed at the Japanese soldier who was chasing the front 100 meters away.

The rest of the Japanese soldiers stopped at once, and looked around with their guns in hand, looking for the place where the bullets had come from. When the squad leader saw that the Japanese soldiers were far away, he did not let the other soldiers shoot, but put another bullet on it, aimed at another Japanese soldier and pulled the trigger. Another Japanese soldier was knocked down, but the shot also revealed where they were, and in the blink of an eye, the Japanese machine guns began to fire down the hillside.

The small hill hit by machine gun bullets was dusty, and the squad leader saw that the Japanese fire was too fierce to shoot anymore, so he hurriedly commanded the soldiers to retreat from the hillside. The squad leader and the soldiers caught up with the fleeing ** troops, and told them that they would run more than ten kilometers to the blocking position on the periphery of Changzhou, perhaps the danger can stimulate people's potential, although this ** unit was already very tired, but as soon as they heard that it would be safe to run for another ten kilometers, they ran harder again.