From to 1935 2020

Among the three directions of attack, the southward attack was the smoothest. In two days, the Japanese army easily captured Guanghua Gate and opened up a bigger breakthrough in attacking Nanjing.

However, after seeing the "friendly army" easily take down Guanghuamen, the "smart" people who were changing defenses, the Fourth Division, which was previously known as "a battalion full of wounded soldiers", burst out with unprecedented vitality at this time. The handover was completed quickly, and then quickly evacuated from Nanjing within two days.

When bidding farewell, Jing Ming held the hand of the artillerymen of the [-]th Division who were "forced" to stay, and said sadly: Yushen Daqie.

Look at the Yuhuatai that can't be chewed by the side (in fact, the Fourth Division hasn't chewed much these days), the Zijinshan position that can't advance 100 meters after half a month, the victory of Zhongshanmen and Guanghuamen, It's so abnormal.

"Take care everyone, see you at Kudanzaka..."

With a sigh, Iomori left the big hole to the No.14 division, whose division commander was Kenji Doihara.The eighth reserve division mentioned in the plan of his army Zhenggang village, this gentleman has been accompanying Su Yu's department to fight against public security for some time ago, and it is relatively the most complete and complete among the troops that attacked Songhu in the front.

And Kenji Doihara was also the commander-in-chief of the front line attacking Nanjing.After accepting most of the artillery handed over by the Fourth Division, the No.14 Division also became the strongest main division to attack Nanjing in one fell swoop.

The Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Nanjing in a narrow sense, the battlefield mainly includes several strategic locations around Nanjing City: such as Yuhuatai, Zijin Mountain, and Zhongshan Mountain. It seems that the terrain is very wide, but in fact the battlefield section is very small. Such a pile of mountains , The Japanese army invested two divisions, which basically filled the offensive space.

When attacking the main city of Nanjing, if Zhongshanmen and Guanghuamen had not been captured successively, Doihara could only invest in one division at a time in the main city of Nanjing. After taking down Guanghuamen, it would only increase the attacking troops A division was established, and then it couldn't be plugged in.

As for the Nanjing battlefield in a broad sense, the scope is even greater.Wuhu to the west of Nanjing is the left wing of the Japanese army's encirclement network against Nanjing. To the northeast of Wuhu is the defense line of Banqiao Town-Niu Shou Mountain-Tiexin Town controlled by the Communist Party, and then the cotton field-Yuhuatai defense line.

After the Japanese army took Wuhu, they threw a division here. There were two tasks. One was to resist reinforcements from other warlords from the west. The offensive was not strong, and a newly formed 114th division easily blocked it.So much so that the Japanese army still had the strength to attack the Niushou Mountain defense line in Banqiao Town in the northeast from here. However, due to insufficient troops, they did not take this place until November, and could not face the siege of Yuhuatai from both sides.

In late November, with the arrival of reinforcements from the five additional divisions in the country, the Japanese army in this direction added a division, and under the command of Kenji Doihara, the Japanese army who attacked Nanjing City also deployed a division. The regiment specifically stormed Yuhuatai, thus forming a situation of two-sided attack.

Another battlefield on the outskirts of Nanjing comes from the echelon defense line in the direction of Shangyuanmen-Mufu Mountain-Wulong Mountain in the northeast. A partial division of the Yamada Detachment fought until the fall of Nanjing City, but only took down the Shogunate Mountain, and never took down the Shangyuan Gate.And this plane.After changing the commander-in-chief, Kenji Doi served as the commander-in-chief of the front line attacking Nanjing, and immediately increased the Japanese army in this direction by a brigade.

Different from other generals of the Red Army, Su Yu's troops have been fighting guerrilla warfare in the south for three years, and they have always been used to fighting the strong with the weak under the most difficult circumstances.Before joining the war, Su Yu received instructions from the central government with very clear strategic goals: open up the battlefield behind enemy lines, avoid frontal combat, and cut off the Japanese army's supply line as the main goal.

As for the outer battlefield, it took place on the Japanese logistics supply line from Nanjing to Hangzhou Bay.From September to November, when the Nanjing front line was fiercely fought, Su Yu's Red Tenth Army quietly "low-key" marched northward at this time. According to the instructions of its superiors, the troops turned into regiments and infiltrated everywhere in northern Zhejiang. Attack the Japanese army's fragile logistics supply line with regiments and brigades as units.Just like what happened in Shandong at the same time, the Japanese army was dragged back from the rear.Before being transferred to Nanjing, Doi Xianer's [-]th Division entered northern Zhejiang in October, and then accompanied Su Yu's troops to fight hyenas with cats and mice in northern Zhejiang for two full months. The troops lost little, but were tossed almost crazy.

The reason why the [-]th Division waited three months before joining the Nanjing attack was because of Neiji Okamura's strong request, and it was also the last card of the Japanese army - it was necessary to keep a new force in full condition for emergencies .To put it bluntly, if the front line is defeated, let the Fourteenth Division rush over to save lives.

When he finally left the stinking quagmire of the security and war in the rear and came to the front line in Nanjing, Kenji Doi let out a rare sigh of relief, and said to his chief of staff, Sano Tadashi: I have finally found a place where I can exert my strength.

When "handover" with the Fourth Division.

Jing Ming: I finally escaped from the fiery hell of Nanjing.

Doihara: I finally left Northern Zhejiang and stopped fighting that nasty battle with Su Yu.

Kenji Doihara knew that the Japanese army had fought terribly in the Battle of Nanjing, but he believed that he was here to pick peaches. And his [-]th Division is at its peak after being strengthened-there is such a perception because the number of artillery shells used by the Nanjing garrison in the war has dropped sharply in the past half month.

Kenji Doihara felt that he had a chance, and then he "A" came in.

It was against this background that the siege and street battles in the second phase of the Nanjing Campaign began.And after getting off to a good start within a few days, and easily taking down Zhongshanmen and Guanghuamen, Kenji Doihara placed his primary attack target on the "Nanjing Chairman's Mansion" closest to Zhongshanmen. Nanjing City Defense Command.

From Zhongshan Gate to the Nanjing City Defense Command, the straight-line distance is about 3.5 kilometers, during which it has to pass through the ruins of the Nanjing Forbidden City in Ming Dynasty, and also cross several rivers.

The Japanese army entering through the Zhongshan Gate, although there is a nearly straight road from here to the presidential palace, but in fact this road that ordinary people can walk for an hour is very "difficult to walk".

Nanjing is a standard water town in the south of the Yangtze River. There are more than 100 large and small rivers in the city and its surrounding areas. From Zhongshan Gate to the Presidential Palace, it passes in a straight line. There are four rivers within 3.5 kilometers. Each river is a natural barrier and has been prepared Peng Shichuan built barricades on the bridges connecting the river, arranged artillery, and even prepared "the domineering uncle in the kindergarten" and "Turtle on the Turtle with the Iron King Ba" as mobile fortresses and firefighters. The front is bait, and the four lines of defense are sponges, layer upon layer to suck up the last elite troops of the Japanese army through street fighting.

The commander of the Fourth Division, Jing Ming, looked at this posture and knew that it was a hedgehog's bite, "this place is dangerous", and then ran away recklessly. After Doihara took charge of the command, he saw the posture in the city, He didn't bite at the first time, but temporarily went south to capture Guanghuamen, expanded the Japanese army's breakthrough, and firmly controlled the area between Zhongshanmen and Guanghuamen, and put all the "preparatory work" that could be done "After finishing everything, he launched the "Northward" offensive on November 22.

Although Kenji Doihara insisted on attacking Nanjing strategically, he was very cautious in tactical preparations.

On the 22nd, the entire city of Nanjing was enveloped by violent explosions from morning till night.

From Zhongshan Gate to the Chairman's Mansion, almost every building in the straight-line distance of [-] kilometers was bombarded to varying degrees.

Yongren, who was cornered by Li Runshi's "King vs. King" war letter, wanted to have a "decent truce" in this war that even he himself had no hope of "total victory" for his own face. Yong Ren is now betting all his bets on Nanjing.

"After taking Nanjing and severely injuring the Communist Army, we will find a way to negotiate peace with the CCP." In private, the Tokyo Military Headquarters was already working on a similar "plan" at this time.

First of all, the battlefield of the firefight is at the former site of the Ming Palace.Nanjing, an ancient city, experienced the calamity of Jinling at the end of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and was bloodbathed by the "perfect Confucian master Zeng Wenzheng". In fact, its vitality has never recovered.

The former site of the Ming Palace is already a ruins of old bungalows, without the style of the past.The terrain here is flat, and the houses are all made of brick and wood. A random shell can easily blow up a house.To make matters worse, the traditional brick-and-timber houses caught fire during the bombardment, and it was even more out of control.In just one day, the houses in the entire area were reduced to ruins.

Because the "section" of the battlefield is not large, the Japanese army can only invest one brigade in front of the Ming Palace at a time, and the rest of the troops will detour and attack from other directions as a containment.

After fighting for only half a day, Kenji Doihara discovered that he was fighting the headquarters on the surface, but in fact he was fighting the entire city.

During the "delay" of the previous two months, the opponent had already managed the city of Nanjing into a fortress.

The artillery shells that seemed to be sparse in front became denser immediately after the large-scale street fighting started.

The special terrain of the city makes it possible to find hidden artillery positions everywhere in the city.Arrange a cannon anywhere, as long as there are enough shells and give coordinates, you can shoot at any target in the city at will.

During the two-month preparation period, the Communist Army had already completed bombardment mapping and shooting table data in the city.After Doihara's troops entered the city, they did not dare to gather above the squad level.As long as they gather, they will be bombarded immediately—the communist army, which has transistors to help them in communication equipment, cannot "fire" casually like the European and American powers because of the lack of shells. The Chinese Communist Artillery, but it is definitely the most efficient artillery during this period.

Whether it is the Japanese army or the Communist army, the national strength is exhausted until now. When both sides "fired artillery", it is impossible to fire indiscriminately like the US, German, and Soviet troops. They are all calculated.

From the very beginning, the street fighting in Nanjing turned into a 200-man level, fuel-intensive battle against "small targets".

The attacking Japanese army did not dare to gather on a large scale, nor did the defending Communist army. Both sides were actually fighting a refueling battle.

The scene of the battle is usually like this, a squadron (180~200 people) of the Japanese army attacks a communist army position of about two companies on the opposite side.There are a large number of reserve teams on both sides waiting to support and replenish at any time.

200 people attack a 200-meter-long defense line, line up in a skirmish line, and invest in waves-not too many, if there are too many, they will definitely be covered by shells, whether it is the attacker or the defender.After the front-line attackers and defenders generally exchanged coins, the follow-up reserve team followed up and continued to exchange coins...

This is not only the direction of attacking the Northern Front Command, but also the direction of attacking the Zhonghua Gate in the west.The disgusting river and water network in the city is a natural line of defense, and the bridge is the bloodletting point that the Japanese army hates the most.

On the 22nd, the Japanese army, which was mainly attacking the northern front, fought for a whole day, and only advanced the front line by 200 meters. At night, the communist army on the opposite side launched a night attack and pushed back another 100 meters.

The western front was blocked by a nasty small river ditch, and the mobile fortress "Turtle on the Turtle with Turtle Iron King Ba" arranged behind the river was playing hooligans, and it was hard to make any progress after a day of fighting.

The city was deadlocked, and the situation outside the city in the direction of Yuhuatai and Zijin Mountain was also very bad.The two attacking Japanese divisions fought for a day without gaining an inch.

In just one day, Dohara Ferry understood why the horse dung from the second division and the fourth division stopped after "easily" taking down the Zhongshan gate, and then colluded with other divisions to resist orders and demand rotation , I dare to say that these red deer are trying to find him to take over!

But Kenji Doihara stepped into the big hole in Nanjing, so at this time he could only hold his nose and fight to the end.At this time on the Jiangnan battlefield, the Japanese army nominally possessed the troop numbers of the entire Seventeenth Division.After deducting the previous losses, the total number of soldiers capable of fighting currently exceeds 22, while the number of Japanese troops surrounding Nanjing City and outside the city has reached as many as 12.

This is the total number of troops on hand of the frontline commander Kenji Doihara, and three days later, Kenji Doihara sent a telegram to Tokyo.

The content of the telegram is as follows: Add three more divisions to me, and I will be able to take Nanjing.

"Doihara, you country thief!"

Toshishiro Obata, who got the gossip, looked at the army of new recruits who were being drilled in the barracks, and wished he could pull out his saber and fly to Nanjing to chop up Doihara.

-------------------- Chapter 257 The War of the Renaissance -------------------

After entering September, the city of Nanjing could no longer see lights at night. Even the consulates of the great powers in Nanjing, even if they had their own diesel engines for power supply, rationally drew thick curtains on the windows and dared not turn off the lights. Leak out the window.

In Nanjing in November, although there is a strict light control, the whole city is actually not dark.

During the day, the two armies who were engaged in fierce street battles in the city frequently "fired cannons", but at night...

"One, two, three... let it go!"

A deliberately low whisper.

Two huge iron pillars were erected behind the ruins of a relatively tall building. The two ends of the iron pillars were connected by a rubber belt. Several strong men in gray military uniforms joined forces and pulled the belts towards the After that, it was pulled up violently for about ten meters.

"Bah!"

The rubber belt that was loosened contracted violently, and a black iron barrel-shaped object was thrown far away. About ten seconds later, a violent explosion occurred about 300 meters away. Out of a sea of ​​fire.

This is a tin barrel incendiary bomb that is ejected manually with an extra-large slingshot.

In the city of Nanjing, there are more than a dozen similar "giant slingshots", and the number is still increasing.After the street fighting in the inner city began, every night, the defending communist army would use similar ancient weapons to eject about [-] to [-] rounds of homemade incendiary bombs at the opposite Japanese position.

Thanks to Yumen and Yanping Oilfields, which began to produce a large amount of oil, the homemade incendiary petrol bomb was the only "mass destruction" weapon that could be mass-produced in China during this period and had a "complete" industrial chain.

The only problem: the lack of suitable, lightweight props for launching incendiary bombs weighing up to 20 kg.

Then, as described by foreign reporters: In this magical country of China, first the ancient "bow arrow gun" (referring to the rhubarb crossbow) was revived, and then the trebuchet was also revived, and in the Battle of Nanjing, even the "slingshot" All kinds of children's toys were put on the battlefield.

In addition to the giant slingshots in Nanjing, there are indeed "Renaissance" era trebuchets that participated in the battle, but they were installed in the back compartment of a small truck and only operated at night, usually in the middle of the night until the confrontation between the Chinese and Japanese armies On the front line, the rear end of the car is facing the enemy. After firing one or two explosive incendiary bombs, start the engine and run away quickly, and continue to eject at another location.

This kind of harassment tactic of touching the front of the position and launching incendiary bombs at night is very important in both military and psychological significance.The "inferior" gasoline bombs produced in Yanping and Yumen splattered after the explosion, sweeping across an area of ​​hundreds of square meters. If you are lucky, you will just watch the "giant fireworks". If you are unlucky, you will be burned to death.One or two hundred rounds were randomly fired in one night, and there were always some unlucky Japanese soldiers who were recruited.

Fighting hard during the day, it was hard to advance 200 meters, and took a small position. At night, the opposite side quietly came over and ejected a few rounds. For the Japanese army defending the position, the life pressure and mental pressure were equally huge, and the whole night was restless. .

"Twenty rounds!"

Standing on the roof of the German Consulate in Nanjing, German Major Schulz counted [-] huge burning fireballs caused by similar explosions within an hour.He was dispatched from Europe to China two months ago as a military observer, and his task was to investigate the "military revolution" that took place in the Far East.Before coming here, he had stayed in Spain for a while and had seen the scenes of city alleys in the Spanish Civil War.In terms of tragedy, the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War was a bit worse than the fierce battle in Nanjing City in the past month.

The Spanish Civil War and the Three Kingdoms War between China, Japan and the Soviet Union are two major wars that are happening all over the world during this period.The Spanish battlefield was nicknamed "rookie pecking each other" by the British and French powers who watched the theater in Europe: the weapons were very advanced, but the fighting style was completely based on the idea of ​​World War I.

But the Far East is different. Whether it is the CCP or the Soviet Union, they have achieved amazing results by relying on the intensive use of armored forces, and have successfully attracted the attention of the West (crossed out), to be precise, the German family. (Fuller and de Gaulle burst into tears)

Schultz came to Nanjing to see how China and Japan use tanks in Nanjing, a place with an astonishingly dense water network and poor bridge bearing capacity. Then he accidentally saw " Renaissance".

Holding binoculars and lying on the roof to watch the battle at night, Schultz smelled the stench of dried excrement in the air far away.

"The communist army is firing stink bombs with stink crossbows in large numbers again. This is the most disgusting invention I have ever seen."

Schultz frowned slightly, instantly smelling what was going on.

The cannon crossbow, also known as the rhubarb crossbow, is being widely used, imitated and even improved in the Spanish battlefield, and it has gained a great "notoriety" of "stinky dung crossbow".

At the beginning of 1936, the rhubarb crossbow was mass-produced by the Soviet Union and sent to China to participate in the civil war. Soon after winning praise from all parties, the Spanish Civil War broke out in July.The Republican Army supported by the Soviet Union purchased a large number of weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union. At this time, the Soviet Union had a big problem: the large Soviet military industry system could not provide enough mortars (because of historical changes, it has actually been developed, Just the relevant shells and production lines were being built at that time)

During this period, the Republican Army urgently needed a large number of light artillery to support the front-line infantry. The Soviets looked left and right in embarrassment, and found that there were thousands of "toys" with winding winches produced for the CCP in stock in the warehouse: Cheap goods worth no more than twenty rubles (the cost increased slightly after adding the winch), and then they were directly given to the Spaniards.

At first, the people of the Spanish Republican Army didn't like this thing very much. After getting it, they directly distributed it to the militia armed miscellaneous army below, but the result was unexpectedly well received-no matter how old this thing is, people can easily shoot grenade warheads into More than 200 meters, it is much stronger than human-throwing bombs.As for wasting a grenadier establishment or something, this is not a problem in the Spanish Republican Army where the chickens are pecking at each other and the mob is everywhere. In addition, he is not picky except for occupying the staff establishment. He can play anything can shoot.

After using it, everyone said it was really fragrant, and then the local people used the tools and materials at hand to imitate or even improve it in large numbers.In the process, the "stink bomb" tactic designed by Huang Ke, which combines feces and explosives, was also spread to Spain and widely used by the militia guerrillas of the Republican Army.

The Republican Army used this thing to injure many soldiers of the Franco National Army and caused large-scale infection of the wounds, forcing them to buy penicillin from Dupont Sons to deal with it, and got the nickname of "stinky dung crossbow".

And after Nanjing City Lane started, because the CCP used a large number of stinky dung mines and stinky dung bombs invented by Dihuangke in Nanjing, the air of the whole city has been floating with tiny fecal dust for a long time, and the stench has been pervasive.When Major Schultz was lying on the roof to watch the battle, two platoons of Red Army night attack troops were starting from the Xiaoling Red Army defense area in the direction of Xiaoling Mausoleum in the Ming Dynasty, quietly touching the Japanese position 200 meters away.

What they are doing is a "routine" night counterattack.

The Red Army who stole the camp did not expect the Japanese army to be negligent.The Japanese army who had their camp stolen did not expect their opponents to come over tonight. ——If you didn't come, the defending Japanese army would probably curse angrily after dawn: Why didn't you come last night, which caused us to stay up all night for nothing.

When the assault troops sneaked to about 50 meters in front of the main position of the Japanese army, the sound of "thumping" rhubarb crossbows was continuously emitted from the position where they started.

A total of sixteen rhubarb crossbows were fired at the Japanese position 200 meters away at the same time.The Red Army also used a lot of experience in the rhubarb crossbow of this kind of spring toy: when it is launched, the pillars are inserted into the ground to support the projectile.The specific launch angle is the longest range. It has been summed up a long time ago, and a tripod protractor is made of wooden strips to provide three ranges and angles for the launcher to aim at. Although the method is primitive, it is very useful.

The sixteen rhubarb crossbows fired out "standard" blasting Molotov cocktails at a nearly uniform angle at the maximum range, and finally fell into the Japanese army's position about 230 meters away and exploded. The splashed gasoline flames burned into one piece, illuminating the The position of the Japanese army is also very likely to ignite the Japanese army ambushing nearby.In fact, after this wave of salvo, two unlucky Japanese soldiers lying on the rear position were ignited by the splashing gasoline flames, screaming and jumping up to expose their positions.

The Japanese army who had been prepared for a long time began to fire, and the Red Army who had also been prepared for a long time also began to counterattack.

After entering the stage of urban street fighting, the Japanese army soon discovered that in street fighting, the Japanese army did not have any advantage in terms of casualties compared with their opponents, and they were often at a disadvantage.One of the reasons is that the distance between the two sides is closer in street fighting. At this time, the competition is not the quality of marksmanship, but the firepower density of individual soldiers.

Compared with the Chinese army, the Japanese army's greatest individual advantage is between 150 and 400 meters, and within 150 meters, because the Japanese army seriously ignored the automatic fire submachine guns, in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, it was at this distance that they suffered too much when facing the Jinsui Army deficit. (Note: During the entire World War II, the Japanese army only built 1941 of the most rubbish Type [-] submachine guns after [-])

During the urban street fighting in Nanjing, the Red Army invested a large amount of submachine guns made in Shanxi and PPS[-] (Poposa [-]) made in the Soviet Union, and successfully suppressed the Japanese army in close combat.

The idea of ​​​​the Red Army's night attack is very simple: use the dark night to approach the Japanese army's position, and then force the Japanese army to exchange fire with the Red Army within a distance of 100 meters, so as to maximize the firepower advantage of the submachine gun.The fire caused by the Molotov cocktail bomb fired by the rhubarb crossbow in the rear was actually used to illuminate the enemy's position for the soldiers on the front line, so that the submachine gun could sweep people.

That night, there were more than [-] fierce battles like this in various places in Nanjing City.

After dawn, Major Schultz picked up a telescope to observe the whole city, evaluated the results of the fierce battle between the two sides last night, and found that red flags had been raised again in more than a dozen places in the city.

In the past month, the night battles in the city of Nanjing have been carried out in such a "primitive" and bloody way.