Chapter 220 The Blood-stained Flag of Nanjing Defense War 3

Nakajima Jinwu looked at the location of Niushou Mountain and Jiangjun Mountain and hesitated for a moment: "There is only a small part of the original fortifications on the two peaks. During the Battle of Shanghai, our army's reconnaissance aircraft have been scouted many times, and the three defense lines are basically the follow-up civil fortifications and a small number of permanent fire support points. That's all, as long as the opponent's artillery is suppressed, our army can concentrate its forces to attack it. After taking down Niushou Mountain, we can attack the General Mountain Fortress with all our strength. After occupying Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, we can use its high point to set up artillery to bombard the Chinese defenders along the Qinhuai River.

Nakajima Jinshi and Yamamuro Zongwu almost at the same time turned their eyes to Major General Koizumi Wenren of the 11th Brigade of Heavy Artillery. Koizumi Wenren has always been known for its steadyness and prudence. For Niushoushan and General Shan, Niushoushan has seen many aerial reconnaissance photos, and most of the civil fortifications in [***] are Soviet or German. Yes, but the civil fortifications on Niushou Mountain and General Mountain seem very strange? Even if it is non-Soviet and not German, but from the large number of logs and stones used, it is estimated that these fortifications must not be so simple, and Koizumi Wenren noticed that a very wide anti-tank trench was dug in the front, and the mountain was also leveled, but the accumulated earthwork and gravel were piled up. But it seems too much?

Koizumi Wenren suspects whether the tunnel system is excavated on Niushou Mountain? Koizumi Wenren's question made Nakajima Jinwu and Yamashou Zongwu stunned. Koizumi Wenren pointed to the west side of Niushou Mountain and said, "The west side is the weakness of the middle [***] defense, but this is within the effective projection range of the firepower of the light and heavy machine gun of the General Mountain Fortress. Not to mention the mountain cannon, just Even mortars can be easily covered by fire, so I suspect that under these woods, [***] have dug a large number of tunnels on the west side of Niushou Mountain, which may even lead directly to the surface position of the peak and the second-line position on the mountainside.

Shanmuro Zongwu frowned and said, "If our army blocked the west side of Niushou Mountain with firepower, wouldn't it be useless if the reinforcements in the middle [***] could not reach these tunnels? And how much can the reverse slope of the main position be in the tunnel?

Nakajima, I also closed my eyes and meditated for a while before I suddenly realized, "I see! It turns out that Niushou Mountain is a fire trap. Its existence is to attract our army to attack and consume our army's strength and ammunition. Even if our artillery flattened its main peak and the Chinese army hiding in the tunnel uses the fire support of the General Mountain Fortress, it can still persist in fighting, and if our army attacks such a permanent The long-term fire point is equipped with a complete and comprehensive fortress, and I'm afraid it will take at least 3,000 casualties, and it will also consume a large number of shells.

Koizumi Wenren nodded and said, "Zhang Xuewu of the China Army is a very rare military talent. As far as I know, he has hardly received the education of a higher military academy. The battle of Chengde's defense war has been included in the syllabus of the classic war case by the Imperial Army University. Every time I deeply study the battle of Chengde, I I am deeply shuddered by the tactical deployment and strategic adjustment of the two armies. Can Zhang Xuewu use tactical actions to leverage the strategic deployment? This is really terrible. His deployment is all aimed at the weaknesses of the Imperial Army. When the Imperial Army's artillery, air savior and military strength are several times higher than the enemy, the casualties have failed. Zhang Xuewu can control the troops and maintain a high fighting spirit when the casualties are more than 60% and nearly 70%. This kind of opponent It must be a big trouble for the empire.

Yamamuro Zongwu thought that it was a little exaggerated for what Koizumi Wenren said. The Imperial Army, especially the pretentious Kwantung Army, lost face. Naturally, he couldn't wait to portray the enemy as a god, so Yamamuro Zongwu was also very disapproval, with the 11th Division of Yamamuro Zongwu. The regiment is different. The 16th Division of Nakajima Jinshi was shot by Zhang Xuewu under Chengde City, so Nakajima Jinshi seemed to be very cautious. If I make the same mistake again, I'm afraid that Nakajima Jinshi will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. He was discharged from active service for the head of a lieutenant general who was aiming to be promoted to general for life. It is undoubtedly a huge blow.

On the issue of whether to attack Niushoushan Fortress or Jiangjunshan Fortress first, Nakajima Jinwu and Shanshi Zongwu had a certain disagreement. Originally, the battlefield capacity of Jiangjunshan Fortress and Niushoushan Fortress was only one brigade, while Niushoushan had only one battlefield capacity of the infantry regiment.

If you increase the number of troops, it is just to increase the opportunity for Chinese artillery to make contributions. Since increasing the number of troops is not worth the loss, if you attack Niushoushan and Jiangjunshan at the same time, the artillery advantage of the 11th Brigade of heavy artillery is bound to be greatly weakened.

Moreover, the strength of the Chinese Air Force is still quite strong. The imperial army and naval aviation forces cannot fully control the air superiority over Nanjing, which means that Koizumi Wenren's 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade cannot unscrupulously provide fire support for the ground offensive forces.

Therefore, on the issue of attacking Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, the so-called heavy assault meat bomb attack is basically dying. The pig thrust tactics of Naiki Xidian are typical brainless representatives among the senior generals of the Japanese army. The example of the bloody long street of Chengde's Sixth Division has proved that the pig thrust tactics are extremely stupid.

In the end, Nakajima Jinwu and Shanshi Zongwu decided that the 11th Division assigned to the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade was equipped with 26 150mm Type 38 Heavy Howitzer Wings to attack the Jiangjunshan Fortress, and the 16th Division was assigned to the rest of the artillery units of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade, including six 240mm. Heavy howitzers attack Niushoushan Fortress, which can maximize the expansion of troops.

As for the air defense of the 240mm heavy artillery, Wenren Koizumi asked the dispatching army headquarters to deploy the fighter force to deploy and transfer cover. Although the firepower of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade was dispersed, Nakajima asked Hatohiko Chaoxiang Palace, because Niushoushan and the general The two fortresses in the mountain are the barrier in the south of Nanjing. The troops sent by Zhang Xuewu from Rehe or the elite teaching team of the Nanjing National Political Axe Army are stationed on it, so Nakajima now intends to use special bombs to attack.

Nakajima Jinwu's suggestion was approved by Hatohiko Asakamiya. In Hatohiko's opinion, since the gas bomb was made, it was used for use, otherwise it would lose its value of existence. It could save the lives of soldiers and reduce the time of attacking the city and plundering the land. Why not do that?

At the time of the active deployment of Nakajima Jinwu and Yamamuro Sōmu, the Third Division under the command of Fujita Jin and the 9th Division under the command of Yoshika Ryosuke also began to carry out artillery test fire to build an attack and launch a position, preparing to attack the Chinese garrison position on the Zijin Shandong Line in the east of the city.

In contrast, the headquarters of the 18th Division of the 18th Division of the Japanese Army and the headquarters of the Mamatsu Maozhi Division are preparing to attack the Chinese garrison along the Qinhuai River in the south of the city. The Taiwan Chongteng Detachment and the 13th Division are ready to attack the Qixia Mountain Fortress.

Jin Ren Ganwu's troops of the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment of the Japanese Army also entered the eastern front position and began to deploy in hiding, and the units of Kuraki Ichiro of the 7th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade also entered the southern front position to hide and standby. The second, fourth and seventh regiments of the chariots belonging to the Central Branch Dispatch Army were also assigned to three directions respectively, Hatomiya Hatohiko. The preparation time for the troops of the Japanese army is only 48 hours.

Aoxiang Gong Jiuyan asked the troops to launch a general attack on Nanjing City in the early morning of May 25, 1937. At noon on June 1, Chaoxiang Gong Jiuyan had lunch in Zhang Xuewu's headquarters.

The troops of the Japanese army are closely carrying out the final deployment, and the [***] departments in the city are also making the final reinforcement of the fortifications, because the heavy troops of the Japanese army have gathered to the periphery of Nanjing, especially the position along the Qinhuai River on the front of the southern line has a flat place with a width of 21 kilometers. The troops are the headquarters of the 51st Division and the 57th Division of Yu Jishi of the 74th Army. Although the reinforced headquarters of the 74th Army are not strong, they have been strengthened to a certain extent in terms of artillery firepower and infantry light weapon firepower, but Qinhuai on the front line of Gujiaying, Yangjiazhuang, Dashishan and Liuzhuang. If the river position is broken through by the Japanese army, the 74th Army in the whole flat area will have no danger to defend, and can only make a general retreat to the front line of Guanghuamen, which is firmly defended by the 58th Division.

However, in this open area, Zhang Xuewu is ready to use Chen Yuxing's mechanized brigade to counterattack the Japanese army that broke into this area, use heavy artillery fire to form a concentrated attack, and put in jackal light tanks with hound armor and multi-purpose semi-track vehicles to repeatedly carry out assaults, defeating the Japanese army's offensive troops and destroying their erections. The floating bridge on the Qinhuai River.

Zhang Xuewu thought of all kinds of possibilities for the Japanese army's invasion, but he was still a little hasty in preparation. For example, the reserve team did not have gas masks, and the limited gas masks were all equipped by Zhang Xuewu to the front-line combat troops, because Zhang Xuewu remembered that the Japanese army knew the defense when it attacked Zijin Mountain in history. The troops are the elite of the elite. After teaching the team, they released a large amount of poison gas at the beginning. For the ordinary [***] team with simple equipment, once the army releases poison gas, the price paid by the defenders who sticking to the position is also the destruction of the whole army, and its tragedy is beyond words.

At noon on May 24, 1937, in response to the general attack on Nanjing launched by the dispatched troops in the early morning, the 26 inland river destroyers of the second and ninth destroyers commanded by Major General Yoshida Yongguang went up against the river under the leadership of the flagship Nanchuan with a standard displacement of 2,700 tons. The Nanchuan, with a water volume of 2,700 tons, will be quite familiar to many Chinese naval officers and soldiers, because the Nanchuan is the sister ship of the Haizi light cruiser originally made by the Chinese navy. The difference is that Nanchuan is an ocean destroyer, and the Haizi series made by China is an offshore light cruiser. .

(to be continued)