Rise From Eight Hundred

The breach of the East City wall became a booster for the Tenth Army.

In the South City, a part of the Sixth Division continued to attack. Although it did not break into the city, it tied up all the troops in the South City.

In the West City, the Kunisaki Detachment and the 114th Division, which had been beaten badly, needed to wash away their shame with the blood of the Chinese. Both sides sent three infantry battalions of nearly 6,000 people to attack in turns. The originally green water in the moat completely turned dark red.

The Chinese defenders in the city did not know how much the Japanese army suffered in the war, but Lieutenant General Liu Yuqing, who was responsible for guarding the West City, was holding a report that he only had 4,500 men available. You know, before yesterday, he had a fully equipped infantry brigade and half of the Songjiang Security Regiment under his command. In less than a day, nearly 2,000 people were lost in the war.

The situation in Beicheng District was slightly better, but the cavalry reported that nearly 10,000 Japanese troops had crossed the Huangpu River in the early morning and headed for Songjiang City. However, since their cavalry could not get close to them and know where they were going, an infantry brigade in Beicheng District did not dare to move at all.

The strategy of the 10th Army was already clear at this time. With Dongcheng as the breakthrough point, the two southwest cities were attacked fiercely to increase the pressure, and the North City was surrounded but not attacked, waiting for the Chinese defenders to collapse and eventually retreat from the North City. The nearly 10,000 Japanese troops who were waiting for the Chinese defenders to be exhausted could easily kill the Chinese defenders who had lost the protection of fortifications in the wilderness.

The top priority of this strategy of the Japanese army was naturally the Dongcheng as the breakthrough point.

Tani Hisao personally sat in the front-line command post of the 11th Brigade, which was only 600 meters away from the city wall, and looked at Sakai Tokutaro with a cold look as he sent his five infantry battalions one after another into the battlefield in the city.

By 4 p.m., the 11th Infantry Brigade had used almost all of its available forces. The brigade commander, a major general, had only one guard squadron directly under the brigade headquarters around the headquarters.

If the Chinese could have a surprise force at this time, they would not need many, just one infantry battalion, and they could beat the lieutenant general commander of the 6th Division and a major general brigade commander into a pulp.

Sakai Tokutaro's face had not smiled since three hours ago, especially after he sent the last two infantry battalions into the battlefield under Tani Hisao's cold eyes.

This was a dilemma that Sakai Tokutaro had never encountered since he joined the army.

This time, the Japanese heavy artillery and small-caliber howitzers could not participate in the battle. The only heavy weapons that the infantry of both sides could use were the Japanese 70 infantry guns, and the Chinese mortars. The rest could only be the machine guns, rifles, grenades and hand grenades of the infantry of both sides.

This was a battlefield dominated by infantry.

According to the report from the front, the Chinese had retreated to 500 meters into the city, but that was the last distance of the 4,000 infantrymen who were deployed to attack. The city area with a width of more than 2,000 meters and a depth of 500 meters was the battlefield of both sides.

There were 10,000 people fighting on the battlefield of nearly one square kilometer.

The Chinese relied on the ruins, the trenches they had dug before, and the remaining houses to fight for every inch of land.

The positions of the two warring parties were intertwined, and there was a possibility of bullets and grenades flying from front to back, and there was no inch of land that was safe.

The Chinese troops seemed to be endless and inexhaustible. According to the most conservative estimate, more than 1,200 Chinese soldiers were killed, but the number of the enemy remained unchanged.

Although the front did not report the number of casualties on their side, Sakai Tokutaro knew that no matter what the final result of the Songjiang Battle was, the strength of his 11th Infantry Brigade had been reduced by at least 40%, and the result of the large number of casualties of veterans could only be to supplement the second-line baggage soldiers.

Compared to the Chinese Army Major General, whose forehead was covered with cold sweat and who was only more than 1,000 meters away from him, the mood of the Japanese Army Major General was not very beautiful either.

It can be said that the four-hour fierce battle in Songjiang City was heartbreaking for both sides, from the highest commander to the front-line commander to the lowest-level officers and soldiers.

If it were another time, the two sides might have retreated a step, like two fighting beasts, licking their wounds to recover their vitality while looking for the opponent's weaknesses with a cold eye, waiting for the next battle to kill the opponent with one blow.

But here, one side has no way to retreat, and retreating will kill 30,000 or even hundreds of thousands of troops;

And the other side has to advance, otherwise, the loss of more than 3,000 casualties will be in vain, the honor of the entire "strongest division on the surface" will be thrown into the surging Huangpu River, and even the glory of the entire imperial army will be trampled by the Chinese they look down upon.

The commanders of both sides were like two gamblers who put their lives on the table. Their eyes were red, and they continued to invest troops and continuously sent their reserve troops to the bloody battlefield.

As the commander-in-chief of Songjiang, Lieutenant General Wu also had an extremely firm will. His reply to the 108th Division and the 332nd Brigade was only one word: "Fight!".

The 6th Division had 20,000 troops, the 114th Division, and the Kunisaki Detachment as friendly forces, and he also had them.

Although the 43rd Army of the Sichuan Army and the Songjiang Security Corps had less than 3,000 people, they also had enough strong will. The two consecutive days of fighting proved that they were reliable comrades-in-arms. With comrades-in-arms, there is courage. At worst, everyone will die together in Songjiang City.

Both sides had a sense of, "Come on, all in! Whoever doesn't all in is a grandson!"

I'm afraid that both sides of the war had thought about this kind of battle situation, but no one had thought about it. They thought there would be heavy casualties, but they didn't think it would be so heavy.

At this point in the battle, Lieutenant General Wu even forgot that his military order was only to hold out in Songjiang for three days and nights. If we count from the morning of November 5 when he received the military order, it has been more than 72 hours until the afternoon of November 8. Even if we count from the evening of November 6 when the Japanese army began to attack, it has been nearly 48 hours.

The time stipulated in the military order is no longer so important. What is important is that we cannot retreat even a step. If we retreat again, the whole army will be destroyed.

The Lieutenant General of the 108th Division, who rushed to Dongcheng, saw with his own eyes that his main infantry brigade was half-crippled in a day of fierce fighting, and asked Lieutenant General Wu for reinforcements an hour ago.

But Lieutenant General Wu rejected his request for help in an extremely hard and cold manner. The 67th Army had two infantry divisions and four infantry brigades, each of which guarded one side of the city wall. The Japanese offensive in the two positions in the southwest was also fierce. Although the North City seemed to be free of fighting, it was actually more dangerous. Once the Japanese discovered the mobilization of troops, tens of thousands of Japanese troops several kilometers away from the city would swarm in. If the North City was broken, the artillery positions closest to the North City would be destroyed, and Songjiang would be doomed.

The only mobile forces he could mobilize were the Tang Dao's guard battalion, the special forces regiment directly under the military headquarters, and a baggage battalion.

A force of more than 3,000 people seemed large in normal times, but in this battle situation with tens of thousands of people fighting, it seemed too weak, even though the Tang Dao's guard battalion was called "Songjiang's sharpest sword" by him.

This was also his last trump card, and he would never use it until the most critical moment.

Liu Qiwen sent a telegram to the headquarters again ten minutes ago, and the extremely strong major general burst into tears.

One of his infantry regiments lost half of its men yesterday evening, and another infantry regiment lost hundreds of men on the city wall this morning. After entering the street fighting, the two infantry regiments, which were originally fully staffed with more than 2,300 men, could only contact less than ten infantry companies. Later, he even threw the guard companies of the two infantry regiments, the guard company of his brigade, and the two infantry companies of the Sichuan Army into the battlefield.

But the Japanese army was still powerful, and the brigade staff and cooks were also led by the deputy brigade commander to fight. If no reinforcements were given, I am afraid that he, a major general, would have to go to the front line with a pistol like the three colonels.

Lieutenant General Wu finally ordered that the more than 1,000 young and strong men who were still in Songjiang City be organized into reserves, and the more than 1,000 people were divided into five teams, each with about 200 people. Two teams were prepared for the two southwest cities, and the remaining three teams were led by elite veterans drawn from the special forces regiment and deployed in the defense line of the east city.

Young and strong men were just ordinary people three days ago. Some of them were farmers, some were craftsmen, and some were peddlers. They should have worked from sunrise to sunset in the beautiful town, and lived peacefully and happily with their families, although it was not easy.

However, the war came.

Death also came.

At this time, there was no distinction between soldiers and civilians in Songjiang City, only between Japanese and Chinese.

Robbers and defenders, only one side could leave the city alive.

For these young and strong men who had no war experience, although the source of soldiers was in short supply, the infantry regiment leaders still maintained enough rationality. Although they were strong and strong, they could not even shoot a gun. They went to the battlefield and could not become elite soldiers to stop the Japanese attack. The biggest possibility was that they would become live targets to consume Japanese ammunition.

They first became stretcher soldiers, learning to drag the wounded from every corner of the battlefield out of the rain of bullets and send them to the rear for treatment. The remains of the soldiers were also among them. Experiencing the battlefield and witnessing the cruelty of blood and flesh was the first lesson they had to learn before going to the battlefield.

The more cruel it is, the faster you have to grow. Those who cannot grow or grow not fast enough can only be eliminated.

And elimination on the battlefield means death.

Even so, in the direction of Dongcheng, the death rate of young and strong men who entered such a terrible battlefield for the first time was chilling.

By 5:30 p.m., in half an hour, more than 260 stretcher bearers who rescued the wounded and snatched the bodies of their own soldiers died in the battle, accounting for more than 40% of the young and strong men on the battlefield.

Among them, more than 30 people were shot by the battlefield law enforcement team without hesitation because they were afraid of fighting and even chose to leave the team and flee.

In extraordinary times, extraordinary means were used. The thunderbolt means and cruel battlefield of the major general of the army who personally supervised the battle with a pistol were the best classroom.

In just over an hour, the young and strong men quickly completed the transformation from civilians to soldiers. They no longer vomited in the face of hideous wounds, and no longer just held their heads and cried desperately in the ruins when facing bullets that they didn't know from which direction they would fly to blow up their heads.

Fear and crying will not help you improve your scores. The only thing that can make you graduate from the battlefield school with high scores is courage, bravely facing hell.

However, the Japanese army deployed nearly 5,000 infantrymen with sophisticated tactical skills in the Dongcheng District battlefield. Except for the terrain, they were better than the Chinese defenders in terms of equipment and tactical skills.

The advantage on the battlefield was gradually tilting towards the Japanese army.

The defense line was crumbling.

Lieutenant General Wu had already picked up the phone and was ready to use the last trump card in his hand. The security battalion, which had been ready for battle, was about to enter the battlefield again.

At this time, the sunset was all over the sky, and the scenery was picturesque!