On the afternoon of November 28, 1937, a team drove along the winding path from the direction of Jurong to Chunhua Town, outside the Tongji Gate of Jinling.

The horses marched one after another, the military vehicles and jeeps galloped one after another, and the procession marched quietly, except for the sound of the collision of metal instruments such as weapons and equipment, and the sound of horses' hooves carrying cannonballs on the muddy and somewhat elastic path after the rain.

Like the 66th Guangdong Army, they were also Chinese troops who had retreated from the Songhu battlefield, and were ordered to travel a long distance to Chunhua Town to take up the task of defending the capital of Jinling, the 51st Division of the 74th Army.

The Japanese 11th Division did not give up attacking the southeast of Luodian, but the progress was slow, and the Japanese army adopted the method of containing Luodian and attacking Yanghang, Fuzaobang, and Dachang.

Breaking through the big field, the entire Songhu battlefield was cut open by the Japanese army, and the quagmire of Luodian was also self-defeating.

In the bloody battle of Luodian, the 51st Division suffered the smallest losses, and it was also a victorious division that had a lot of examples and fought against the Japanese army.

Wang Yaowu, commander of the 51st Division, is Xia Yuan's old friend, a native of Dongshan, a third-term student of Huangpu, known for being good at using troops and brave in battle, so he has been awarded many times by his bald head.

In the Battle of Songhu, he commanded the 51st Division to fight for the Xixianggong Temple in Luodian, three in and three out, annihilated more than 300 Japanese soldiers, handed over a large number of weapons and equipment, and was praised by the bald herald.

Moreover, the bald head once said in an operational meeting: "The division commanders of our national army are like Wang Yaowu, who can fight well, and there is hope for victory in the War of Resistance." ”

And Xia Yuan's actions in the Songhu battlefield are far more than a commendation, as everyone guesses, when the war is over, his position may advance by leaps and bounds, and even be able to sit on an equal footing with Commander Tang, the commander of the Jinling garrison.

And at the moment, guarding Jinling is the top priority, and the bald head also has the idea of sharpening Xia Yuan.

Wang Yaowu also heard about Xia Yuan's achievements along the way, and sighed more than once that if such a fierce general could serve the party-state, the Japanese army would not dare to run rampant. In the Battle of Songhu, Xia Yuan alone created a battle precedent that had reached an unprecedented level, shocking not only the national government, but also the Japanese army.

According to the news from the spies in Shanghai, in order to solve Xia Yuan, the Japanese army did not hesitate to offer a high reward, and even used dark chess to eliminate Xia Yuan.

For this reason, Xia Yuan's whereabouts have been transferred by Commander Tang and the chairman of the committee, and the telegram order is only issued at the level of a military division, which is for absolute secrecy.

Xia Yuan was heading to Jinling's last line of defense at this time.

Wang Yaowu arrived in Chunhua Town, unloaded his luggage, circled around the town, and said to adjutant Yang Xingsheng: "Chunhua Town's small bridge and flowing water, the scenery is excellent, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, I want to come here and live the days of plowing the fields and studying." ”

"Report!"

At this time, the herald sent an order from Commander Tang, the commander of the Jinling garrison: "The 51st Division will take the main force to serve as the garrison from Fangshan to Chunhua Town, mainly with national defense fortifications, build field positions, strengthen the connection as much as possible, build a reserve position with a section located on the line of Gaoqiaomen and Heding Bridge, and send a vigilant force in Hushu Town to closely monitor and communicate with the 66th Army on the left and the 58th Division on the right. ”

In response to the order issued by Commander Tang, Wang Yaowu did not stop for a moment, and immediately sent people to summon Ji Hongru, the commander of the 301st Regiment, Li Fuluo, the commander of the 302nd Regiment, and Qiu Weida, the commander of the 306th Regiment, to the temporary command post for a meeting.

Wang Yaowu opened the map and said to the three regiment commanders: "The current situation is quite grim, and the Chunhua we are guarding is the barrier of Jinling. Once the Japanese army opened the barrier of Chunhua, Jinling was also exposed to the guns of the Japanese army, so we had to nail it to the position like a nail. ”

In order to boost the fighting spirit, he took the Battle of Songhu as an example: "There is nothing to be afraid of the fierce Japanese devils, we have fought with them in Shanghai, they are the same as us, they have a pair of eyes, two legs, if you want to say special, that is, they have the spirit of bushido." ”

Talking about the spirit of bushido, Wang Yaowu said: "This spirit of bushido, isn't it not afraid of death, our soldiers are not afraid of death, the brave wins when they meet on the narrow road, what bullshit bushido, as long as we are brave and good at fighting, bushido is not good." ”

The three regiment leaders listened to Wang Yaowu's words and nodded as they listened.

Wang Yaowu then began to arrange: "My command method is to fight in turns, and the Songhu Battle is the 306th Regiment, and the 301st Regiment and 302Taunt are the reserves. This time, the 306th Regiment was used as a reserve, the 301st Regiment and the 302nd Regiment were fighting, and our defense line was from Fangshan to Chunhua, where defense fortifications were built a few years ago, and we can use it, if you don't have any doubts, let's start acting now. ”

These fortifications were built around Jinling under the guidance of the German advisory group after the September 18 incident in 1931, when the bald head had a premonition that there would be a war between China and Japan.

Guarding Jinling City will allow you to make use of these fortifications.

However, after the telephone lines between the 51st Division headquarters and the various regimental headquarters were connected, Ji Hongru and Li Fuluo called and reported to Wang Yaowu that the defense fortifications were in tatters, some were buried in earth, some were full of water, and some places were occupied by the common people, used as pigsty and sheepfolds, and some were used by the common people as warehouses, piled up with messy things.

There are many more fortifications that are locked with iron cables and cannot be opened without a key, and there are also some fortifications that have huge problems in construction, and the direction of the shooting holes is not accurate, and they cannot be put into use at all.

One problem after another was overwhelmingly pressed on Wang Yaowu.

Wang Yaowu was very shocked, the national defense fortifications built with hard work and a lot of military spending could not be used, what this meant, Wang Yaowu knew very well in his heart.

They did not have time to build strong fortifications, the Japanese devils had already come and would not give them time to build field fortifications.

Wang Yaowu was anxious in his heart, but he was not completely chaotic, he immediately ordered people to prepare horses, check the original left defense fortifications, as the commanders of the 51st Division said, there are very few fortifications that can be used, most of them are fortifications that cannot be used, a few days ago, heavy rain, many fortifications were soaked in water, they could not be used at all, they were hard to build, consumed a lot of military spending, and were called the 'Chinese Hindenburg Defense Line', and as a result, when the Japanese army arrived, it could not be used.

Wang Yaowu returned to the division headquarters and immediately reported the situation on the front line to Commander Tang, who sighed on the phone: "It's useless to scold anyone now, the devil is going to hit the door, and now it's not about holding anyone responsible, the top priority is to immediately mobilize officers and soldiers to rush to repair the fortifications." ”

What Commander Tang said was extremely true, Wang Yaowu thought for a moment, hung up the phone, and immediately ordered the officers and men of all regiments to seize the time to repair the fortifications, the fortifications that were not seriously damaged and could still be used should be repaired as soon as possible, and those that could not be used should simply be abandoned and rebuilt, and the fortifications that could be protected against medium-caliber shells should be completed within three days.

The officers and soldiers who received the order raced against time to build the fortifications, but Wang Yaowu frowned and was full of sorrow.

The time was too short, and it was not easy to build fortifications that could withstand the bombardment of medium-caliber shells in three days.

In the past few days, Wang Yaowu was so worried that he couldn't sleep peacefully, so he simply put on his clothes and joined the team of building fortifications.

As Wang Yaowu expected, the fortifications had not yet been repaired, in the early morning of December 4, the stars and the moon had just disappeared, the sky was covered with fish and white belly, there was still a thin morning mist in the forest, and a large number of Japanese troops were like locusts pouring towards Chunhua.

The attack on Chunhua was the 9th Division of the Japanese Army, characterized by many veterans, good weapons and equipment, full staff, with 37 aircraft, although it experienced the Battle of Songhu, but the losses were not large, and the offensive was still rampant.

The commander of the division was Lieutenant General Ryosuke Yoshisumi, a native of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, who graduated from the Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School in 1911 and went to Taiwan, China's four eastern provinces.

After the large force of the 9th Division passed Jurong, Yoshizumi Ryosuke sent two teams to explore the road while advancing forward, one of which was more than 500 infantry, equipped with 15 Type 92 infantry guns, and attacked Chunhua on the Jingtu Bridge.

The other was 200 cavalry, followed by more than 500 infantry, and attacked Hushu in front of Chunhua through Tennoji Temple.

Both teams were covered by 15 aircraft and 20 tanks.

The Japanese army was like a rampage bulldozer, advancing towards Chunhua.

Guarding the front line was the 301st Regiment, the regiment commander Ji Hongru raised the shell gun above his head, and when the Japanese iron cavalry rampage, he gave an order, and the officers and soldiers raised their weapons, mortar shells, bullets, and grenades, like dense raindrops, poured down on the enemy group.

In the face of such an attack, the Japanese cavalry was not prepared in the slightest, and was dizzy, and the horses were scurrying wildly, and there was chaos.

After a short period of confusion in formation, the tanks and infantry formed an infantry coordination, and under the cover of aircraft, grenadiers, and infantry guns, they gradually grasped the situation and began to rush towards the position of the 51st Division in an orderly manner.

The grenade fell under the tank, rolled up dirt mixed with shrapnel and simply could not break through the tank's defenses.

The trapezoidal Japanese hedgehogs gathered behind the tanks, advancing step by step, and firing at the positions of the 51st Division along the way, and the ground behind the tanks was completely crushed and deformed.

Ji Hongru, the commander of the 301st Regiment, had experienced the Battle of Songhu and had a set of experience in blowing up tanks with explosives bags.

Therefore, don't look at the Japanese tanks that are now on a rampage, they are actually in the hands of Ji Hongru, and most of these soldiers hiding in the hiding holes are veterans, and they are given a large amount of money and sent back to their hometowns.

When the Japanese tank approached, the ground began to shake, and the Nationalist soldiers hiding in the hiding hole cautiously saw through the gap and saw the tall armor of the tank, so they pulled off the explosive bag and threw it under the tank.

A rumbling sound rose into the sky, and the tank, which had just been on rampage, suddenly ignited with billowing smoke and was paralyzed in place.

Seeing that some of the tanks had landed on the path of the national army, the enemy tanks did not dare to continue their advance, and began to shrink their defenses and retreat to the rear. Seeing this, Ji Hongru could not let the Japanese devils escape so easily, the rifles and light and heavy machine guns of the whole regiment sprayed angry tongues of fire, and the Japanese devils who were beaten scattered and fled.

Today's confrontation has come to an end.

On the morning of the same day, accompanied by Commander Tang, the bald head braved the artillery fire to Jiangning Town, which was behind Chunhua Town, and watched through a telescope, when he saw that the Japanese attacking tank was blown up into a string of black smoke, his face showed a pleased smile, and he couldn't help but clap his hands and praise: "Okay, the 51st Division fought hard, fought beautifully, our troops must be as brave as the 51st Division, and the Japanese devils will not be able to enter Jinling." ”

After that, he instructed Commander Tang, "Immediately send someone to purchase 2,000 meat buns and send them to the front line to offer condolences and reward the officers and soldiers." ”

"Yes!" Commander Tang was about to give orders to his subordinates, but the bald head said: "I will also send 5,000 catties of pork and 5,000 catties of rice, and send them together." ”

On the way back to Jinling, the bald head told Commander Tang again: "We must not let the 51st Division suffer, we must send 30 tanks to assist the 51st Division in resisting the Japanese, and let the Japanese taste the power of our tanks." ”

That night, Commander Tang secretly sent 30 tanks into Chunhua Town.

With 30 tanks as a secret weapon, Wang Yaowu can be said to have greatly increased his confidence, and held a meeting that night and decided to severely attack the Japanese devils tomorrow.

In the early morning of the next day, after having breakfast, the officers and men of the 301st and 302nd regiments entered the position full of spirit, and according to Wang Yaowu's battle plan, Wu Fulin, commander of the 3rd Company, led a platoon of soldiers to run back and forth in front of the position in order to lure the enemy.

Coincidentally, the red sun just showed the sky, and the brilliance was obscured by a burst of dark clouds, black clouds rolled, wind and sand gusted, a large amount of dust and smoke were swept away, and the earth was gray.

This was conducive to the Japanese attack, and according to the special weather of the day, the Japanese army gathered more than 1,000 soldiers and launched an attack on Chunhua.

He was worried that the national army would repeat its old tricks, so he changed the strategy of the attack that day, and instead of calling tanks to participate in the battle, 100 cavalry covered the infantry attack.

It's just that what he never expected was that the Chinese army was equipped with tanks.

When he commanded the cavalry and infantry to rush to the position of the 51st Division, 30 tanks hidden in the grove were killed, along with the soldiers of the National Army, mercilessly crushing the Japanese cavalry and infantry.

When the Japanese devils saw the tanks of the Chinese, they seemed to see something incredible, opened their mouths in surprise, and looked at the crushed tanks, they seemed to have never expected that the backward Shina people would be equipped with tanks.

Under the coordinated operation of 30 tanks, the enemy group fell a large number of cavalry and infantry, the ground formation was in chaos, and the Chinese tanks crushed the five-mile road majestically, and then turned back to clean up the battlefield.

More than 1,000 Japanese troops, more than 300 Japanese soldiers were wiped out by the 51st Division, their bodies were scattered in the wilderness, and even they captured two squad leaders.

This time, it can be described as a major loss for the Japanese army.