Rise From Eight Hundred

The two 120mm cannons that kept firing did show the terrible penetration that the Japanese army had expected. The heavy firepower points hidden inside the city wall of China kept failing one after another, which boosted the morale of the Japanese infantry on the front line.

As the soldiers on the top of the city wall evacuated in batches, the counterattack was naturally not as sharp as before, and the gunshots gradually became sparse. All this made the Japanese front-line infantry commander judge that it was time to launch a full-line attack.

The major captain of the 6th Infantry Battalion, Shenwu Yudalang, who had died in the battle, was replaced by the major captain of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the 13th Regiment, Kawabe Masatsugu, who was very keenly aware of the weakness of the Chinese defenders.

The extension of the artillery fire of the division commander caused the Chinese defenders to be insufficient. The 120mm cannons that were transferred destroyed the most troublesome heavy firepower points of the Chinese. The remaining Chinese defenders were already in low morale. If they did not launch an attack at this time, they would miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At that moment, Hebian Zhengci issued an order, not waiting for the engineers to complete the final pontoon bridge construction work, and the whole army attacked.

However, the first wave of attack was not others, but the remnants of the unlucky 6th Infantry Battalion.

As the darlings of the infantry regiment and division, they are now a group of fatherless children without their captain. The captain of the 4th Infantry Battalion, who had long disliked them, ordered these remnants to serve as the vanguard. Knowing that they might become cannon fodder again, they had to bite the bullet and rush forward.

More than 400 infantrymen, led by the three surviving infantry captains, stepped on the unfinished pontoon bridge of the engineers and attacked the city wall.

Then, in the last ten meters that had not been completed, they jumped into the moat that had once caused their captain to fail. The cold river water and thigh-deep mud once again surrounded these frightened Japanese infantrymen.

Because the infantrymen were already very close to the city wall, except for the light and heavy machine guns that were responsible for covering, they were still desperately raising their muzzles for fire cover. The infantry guns and grenade launchers had stopped firing, and the suppression of the wall was very little.

This resulted in rifles still firing back on the wall, and soldiers fell into the cold river water from time to time.

However, compared with the hundreds of Japanese infantrymen who were about to approach the city wall like ants, these losses were negligible.

When the soldiers walked with heavy steps from the river to the bottom of the city wall, Tani Hisao, who had been silent all the time, could not help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The city wall attack and defense battle, which was expected to be extremely bloody, could almost be declared over.

The result was actually better than he imagined.

According to the will shown by the Chinese defenders in Xicheng last night and this morning, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General had actually made plans to lose 2 to 3,000 people in order to capture the city defense.

Unexpectedly, the Chinese defenders here were so unbearable that they retreated in less than an hour.

"Excellent! Excellent!" Tanabe Shigetake looked through a high-powered telescope at his infantrymen who had already arrived under the city wall. He put down the telescope, clapped his hands and smiled.

"Looking at the Songjiang battle, in my humble opinion, it was His Excellency Tani Hisao who had a good command, especially the tactic of using artillery fire to block the area hundreds of meters behind the city wall. This tactic will definitely become a classic in the history of the Imperial Army. Otherwise, with the Chinese troops, they would have continued to invest, and there would never be a phenomenon of exhaustion of troops on the defense line." Tanabe Shigetake looked at Tani Hisao, who was still expressionless, with a smile on his face, and praised.

"Of course, the performance of the warriors under the Sixth Division did not disappoint the Emperor's high expectations. Even if they encountered a small setback, they still bravely advanced and finally won the final victory. This is the performance of the Empire's strong soldiers."

It is not clear how high the IQ of this major general chief of staff is at present, but his EQ is definitely enough. Every point of praise happened to hit Tani Hisao's G-spot.

Even if Tani Hisao wanted to pretend to be the kind of shrewd man who usually hides his emotions, he couldn't help but feel numb and broken at this moment. His eyes narrowed slightly and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly: "No, Mr. Shengwu is too kind. The 6th Division's performance today is really the result of the guidance of the superiors in the army headquarters."

The sedan chair needs people to carry it. Tanabe Shengwu praised so much. Tani Hisao, who was once a professor at the Army University, naturally couldn't be too arrogant. While trying his best to maintain a calm appearance, he took the initiative to verbally share some of the credit for breaking through the city defense with the superiors.

The army major general and the army lieutenant general praised each other with a humble attitude. The atmosphere in the front-line headquarters of the 6th Division was very harmonious.

But for the 13th Regiment headquarters hundreds of meters away, the atmosphere was still tense.

The 6th Division is one of the 17 permanent divisions in Japan. It is organized into a four-unit system, that is, there are two infantry brigades under the division, two infantry regiments under each infantry brigade, three infantry battalions under the infantry regiment, and four infantry companies and a heavy machine gun company under the infantry battalion.

As the commander of the 13th Infantry Regiment, the 11th Infantry Brigade Major General Sakai Tokutaro did not stay with his division commander in the safer front-line command post, but arrived at the front-line command post set up by the 13th Infantry Regiment at the forefront, which fully demonstrated his importance of the 13th Infantry Regiment as the main force in the siege.

Compared with his boss who had been an instructor at the Army University for several years, Sakai Tokutaro was a real academic. He taught at the Army University for more than ten years and did not transfer to active service until he was middle-aged. He started as an infantry regiment commander and was promoted to major general brigade commander at the age of 51 in 1936. He was a late bloomer.

The Japanese Army Major General who came from an academic school has the rigor of having been a teacher for more than ten years. Before the siege, he had already studied the battle reports of the 114th Division and Kunizaki Detachment in Xicheng District.

Although Suematsu Shigeharu and Kunizaki Zheng were scum in the eyes of the somewhat headstrong Hisao Tani, Sakai Tokutaro knew that these two people may have shortcomings and shortcomings of one kind or another, but they were definitely not as stupid as they showed after losing consecutively.

The reason why they were defeated in front of two Chinese positions in succession was that, firstly, the Tenth Army had a sense of urgency to deal with the current enemy as soon as possible, which resulted in neither of them having more time to survey the positions; secondly, naturally, the Chinese opposite them had outstanding capabilities. It had something to do with the strong will that was unexpected by everyone; thirdly, the Chinese commander was cunning and tenacious. The artillery in the city persisted until the last moment of the battle before using all its strength, catching the Kunisaki detachment by surprise and causing losses. heavy.

Although the Chinese artillery is far inferior to the imperial army with hundreds of artillery pieces of various calibers, artillery is artillery, let alone a 75-caliber howitzer, even if it is smaller, it can still kill people.

From the beginning of the battle, Sakai Tokutaro was waiting for the Chinese artillery, and many artillery observation posts deployed on the front were also waiting.

This is because the heavy artillery brigade that has stopped shelling is not moving weapons into the warehouse and releasing them to Nanshan, but is also waiting for the observation coordinate data to be sent back from the front.

But the Chinese artillery group has remained silent. Even now that the city defenses have been broken, the Chinese artillery group that once showed sufficient strength is still silent. This extremely abnormal situation makes even a calm man like Tokutaro Sakai unbearable. Stay anxious.

Could it be said that all the Chinese artillery groups were destroyed by the heavy artillery brigade’s shelling just now regardless of the cost?

Sakai Tokutaro quickly suppressed this extremely beautiful fantasy in his heart. As an instructor who has taught countless army colonels, he knew very well that the victory of the battle must not be left to the so-called luck.

The Chinese, who seem to be silent at the moment, will never give up their city fortifications easily. The calmer they are now, the more violent the subsequent counterattack will be.

Perhaps, breaking through the city defenses is the real beginning of this offensive and defensive battle.

However, he could not predict how the Chinese would fight back.

"Order the remainder of the Sixth Brigade and the Fourth Infantry Brigade, which have reached the city wall, to find bunkers under the city and be on standby temporarily. They are not allowed to advance rashly. They need to send a reconnaissance team into the city first and wait for reinforcements from the chariot squadron."

"Your Excellency, Major Hebian of the 4th Infantry Brigade has just sent a report, saying that the troops of the 6th Infantry Brigade will re-create the glory of the 6th Infantry Brigade and will use the blood of the Chinese people to wash away the shame of Captain Shen Wuxi's death in the battle. ." The captain of the 13th Infantry Regiment, holding the battle report just brought back from the front line by the signal corps, reluctantly reported to the cautious Tokutaro Sakai.

Before the rear headquarters issued a military order, the Japanese major passed the blame to the remnants of the previously battered 6th Infantry Brigade.

"Asshole, shame is washed away with the blood of the enemy, not your own. Order the riverside sergeant not to rush in. Tell him that not only do we have artillery, but the Chinese also have it." Sakai Tokutaro's fair face flashed With a trace of flushing, he pulled open his collar and roared an order.

However, the glory of planting the military flag on the city wall is an irresistible temptation for the soldiers who have fought bloody battles on the front line. The excitement stimulated by death and blood also drives the soldiers to scream forward, which does not come from the rear. A piece of military order can calm them down.

The 'Strongest Division on the Surface' is such a proud and powerful army, and any setback is unacceptable to them.

What's more, the people who caused all this were the Chinese who they looked down upon.