On the sea surface of Wusong, battleships gathered. On the Izumo armored cruiser, the commander of the Shencheng Expedition Force, General Matsui Iwane, was in high spirits. Vice Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa, the commander of the Third Fleet, accompanied him on one side. His flagship was temporarily requisitioned by General Matsui Iwane as the dispatch force. headquarters.
Matsui Iwane finally released the ultimate move that he had been holding back for several days. He was feeling complacent in his heart and urgently needed the recognition of others, such as Lieutenant General Kiyoshi Hasegawa, the commander of Navy Red Deer;
The Japanese army and navy have always been at odds with each other, and it is an open secret that they don't like each other, but they still look at each other on the surface. Matsui Iwane said proudly:
"Mr. Chang Gu, the Chinese people have indeed been fooled. They fell into my trap of luring the enemy in. The preparatory student of the Imperial Army in Jinling still dreamed of driving the imperial army into the sea, and now they have to suffer!
The main reason why the Imperial Army was unable to attack for a long time was that, in addition to the lack of troops, the main reason was that the Chinese were hiding in the trenches like rats, and the Imperial Army suffered too many losses after attacking one defense line after another;
If I only used one move to lure the snake out of the hole, causing them to abandon their solid fortifications and engage in a field battle with the imperial army who had absolute superiority in firepower, their move would be to use their shortcomings to attack my strong points, and the imperial army would not win even if they didn't think so. Disaster. "
Hasegawa Kiyoshi first despised Army Malu's villainous ambition in his heart. He did not act like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world. Then he took up the topic from General Matsui and said:
"Matsui-kun is indeed a rare handsome man in the empire. This plan is very clever. Under the attack of my powerful navy and air warriors, the Chinese people will definitely be defeated thousands of miles away, with corpses everywhere;
The imperial warriors only need to collect the corpses of the Chinese people along the way. Here I wish the warriors a successful start and capture the city of Shen in one fell swoop. "
Although Hasegawa Kiyoshi's words echoed old Japanese Matsui, it was as uncomfortable as eating flies in his ears;
Obviously he was praising the Army, but in fact he was reminding him that it was all thanks to the Navy's carrier-based aircraft. The Army had become a corpse collection team, and his mood instantly became unsatisfactory. There was no way to continue talking today. The Navy's arrogance made the Red Deer Old Japanese Matsui completely lost his mood to show off and snorted coldly:
"Mr. Hase, there is no need to question the power of the Imperial Navy, but the land of the Chinese people needs army warriors to occupy it. It is impossible for warships and aircraft to occupy the land of the Chinese people;
The warriors have advanced for more than ten miles, and it is time for the Sixth Division and others to land. Only they set foot on the land of Shencheng. Shencheng, the Pearl of the East, will belong to the empire from now on. "
Shigen Matsui Iwane was no longer interested in grinding his teeth with an arrogant naval force, and decided to land the Sixth Division in advance. With the reinforcements of these three divisions, the shortcoming of insufficient troops on the northern front battlefield was completely solved;
Once the landing is completed, the Shencheng battlefield will have 8 divisions, two heavy artillery brigades, 10 reserve brigades of the North China Front Army, 3 artillery brigades, 2 engineering brigades, 1 independent field heavy artillery regiment, 1 mortar A brigade and a Chongteng detachment.
This was already a force capable of conquering the entire China. With sufficient troops, Matsui Naone was no longer satisfied with fighting only on the northern front;
Instead, the plan is to put the 13th Division, 101st Division and the First Regiment of the Independent Heavy Artillery into the middle road, and plan to land on the front line at Jiangwan Wharf to avoid the second battlefield.
The passivity of not taking down Jiangwan Wharf in one fell swoop before was further amplified. In order to block this group of Japs, the main force of the Ninth Army could only shrink back and try its best to deal with the Japs' two-line attack.
The troops who completed the landing on the northern front were the notorious 6th Division and the 5th Heavy Artillery Brigade. The Japanese troops on the northern front had been greatly strengthened. There were already 6 divisions with hundreds of thousands of troops, and the 19th Group Army and the Fifteenth Army were overwhelmed by the crazy attacks of the Japanese.
The 59th Division tried its best to hold off the Japanese for only three hours, and then retreated to the front line of the field. The entire division could no longer form a regiment.
The 59th Division was not an adjustment division. It only had 3 regiments with more than 8,000 men. When it returned to the field, only more than 2,000 men were left. It lost more than 70% of its troops and was considered completely disabled;
Although the 59th Division suffered heavy losses, it was very valuable. They bought 3 hours of precious time for the main force.
Xue Boling quickly adjusted his deployment and withdrew the 69th Army and the 75th Army to the front line of Dachang. The 66th Army also withdrew to Nanxiang after losing thousands of people, and defended Nanxiang in accordance with Commander Xue's instructions.
The Japanese counterattack has just begun. With the landing of the 6th Division of the New Force Army and the 5th Brigade of the Heavy Artillery, the pressure on the Kuomintang Army's defense line has increased sharply;
Under the sole attack of the six main divisions of the Japanese, the Kuomintang army had to consume at least one division every day to barely block the Japanese attack.
Dachang, 69th Army Defense Line
The 36 Taisho 7-year-old 150mm heavy cannons, 20 90-type 240mm heavy cannons, and 12 96-type 150mm heavy howitzers of the 5th Brigade of the Japanese Heavy Artillery have been deployed. The thick barrels are fascinating to see. Frightened.
Since the range of these artillery pieces generally exceeds five kilometers, most people cannot see them. They will not know how powerful they are until the artillery shells fly over. The simple trenches of the 69th Army cannot stop the 150mm heavy artillery shells at all. bombardment, not to mention the 240mm heavy cannon.
The 69th Army was unified and reorganized after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. The 69th Army was formerly the 6th Division of the Jiangsu Provincial Army and the 3rd Mixed Brigade of the Anhui Army under the "Five-Province Allied Forces" affiliated directly to Sun Quanfang, the Beiyang Warlord;
After the Northern Expeditionary Army reached Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province, they were reorganized into the 37th Army and the 27th Army of the Central Army respectively. Later, they were downsized into the 55th Division and the 57th Division. After the Battle of Songhu, they were unified into the 69th Army, with two divisions under its jurisdiction. As well as a small number of direct subordinates, the total strength is about 20,000.
After the army entered the battlefield on the northern front with the 19th Group, it lost more than 3,000 people after several fierce battles and has not been replenished.
Dachang is an important fulcrum of the diamond-shaped defense line outside Luodian in the northern battlefield. Once Dachang is lost, the main force of the Japanese northern front can attack Luodian to the west and downtown Shencheng to the south, and attack the Ninth Army together with the Japanese landing in Jiangwan direction. The main force of the group army.
Xue Boling gave the 69th Army a fatal order to hold off the Japanese in Dachang for more than three days to buy enough time for the Guangxi 21st Army to establish a defense line south of Dachang;
The 21st Army marched through the night and had just arrived at the Songhu battlefield. Due to the Japanese counterattack, they were temporarily sent to the south of Dachang. The purpose was to prevent the Japanese from going south and assist the Ninth Army in defending the city.
Due to the sudden change in the war situation, the 88th Division also ended its rest and marched into the city, returning to the battle order of the Ninth Army;
As the Japanese troops landed in the direction of Jiangwan, the defensive pressure of the Ninth Army increased sharply. The 88th Division, which was resting in the city, naturally returned to the battle order of the Ninth Army.
At the starting position of the Ninth Division, thousands of Japanese soldiers have already formed up. Their goal is to seize the field. The reason why they have not started to attack yet is because they are waiting for the arrival of the third flying regiment.
At nine o'clock in the morning, dense black dots appeared in the sky. The Japs of the Ninth Division cheered in unison. The Third Flying Regiment they had been waiting for had finally arrived...
In the sky, Major General Saga Tadharu, commander of the 3rd Flight Regiment, seemed to hear the cheers of the Japs of the 9th Division, and a sense of pride arose in his chest;
He controlled the plane and flapped its wings toward the Army Red Deer, and then led 80 planes from 5 squadrons toward the 69th Army's position.
Following Major General Tadashi Saga's order, a string of aerial bombs smashed into the 69th Army's position like an old hen pooping. The 69th Army's position was instantly engulfed by the smoke generated by the explosion. The entire position was shivering under the bombing. Countless yellow-green figures disappeared in the explosion...
