Chapter 220: Blood-stained Flags in the Battle of Nanjing (III)

Nakajima Ishimo looked at the locations of Niushou Mountain and General Mountain and hesitated for a moment: "There are only a small part of the original fortifications above the two peaks. During the Battle of Shanghai, our reconnaissance planes have reconnaissed many times. The three lines of defense formed are basically civil fortifications and a small number of permanent fire support points. As long as the opponent's artillery fire is suppressed, our army can concentrate its forces to attack one point. After taking down Niushou Mountain, it can attack the General Mountain fortress with all its strength. After occupying Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, it can use its commanding heights to set up artillery to bombard the Chinese defenders along the Qinhuai River."

Nakajima Imago and Yamamoto Sotake turned their attention to Major General Koizumi Honin of the 11th Brigade of the Heavy Artillery. Koizumi Honin has always been known for his stability and caution. He has seen many aerial reconnaissance photos of Niu Shou Mountain and General Mountain. Most of the civil fortifications in Zhongzhou Mountain are Su-style or German, but the civil fortifications on Niu Shou Mountain and General Mountain seem very strange? It is neither Su-style nor German. However, from the large number of logs and stones used, these fortifications must be not that simple. Moreover, Koizumi Honin noticed that Zhongzhou had dug a very wide anti-tank trench at the forefront, and the mountain was also leveled, but the accumulated earth and gravel seemed too much?

Koizumi Wenren doubted whether Nakatsu was digging a tunnel system on Niushou Mountain? Koizumi Wenren's doubts made Nakajima Ashigo and Yamamuro Sobu suddenly stunned. Koizumi Wenren pointed to the west side of Niushou Mountain and said: "The west side is the weak point of Zhongzhao's defense, but this is within the effective fire projection range of the light and heavy machine guns of the General Mountain Fortress. Not to mention mountain cannons, even mortars can easily cover firepower, so I suspect that under these woods, Nakatsu has dug a large number of tunnels on the west side of Niushou Mountain, and these tunnels may even lead to the surface positions on the top and the second-line positions on the mountainside.

Sunwu Yamashita frowned and said, "If our army uses firepower to reach the west side of Niushou Mountain, wouldn't the Zhongzhao reinforcements be unable to reach these tunnels? And how effective can it be in the tunnel on the back slope of the main position?"

Nakajima Ashigo closed his eyes and pondered for a while before he suddenly realized: "I understand! It turns out that Niushou Mountain is a fire trap. Its existence is to attract our army to attack and consume our army's troops and ammunition. Even if our artillery fire flattens its main peak, the *** army hiding in the tunnel can still maintain combat with the fire support of the General Mountain Fortress. If our army attacks such a fortress with a complete and comprehensive firepower, it will probably cost at least 3,000 casualties and consume a large amount of artillery shells."

Koizumi Wenren nodded and said, "Zhang Xuewu in the *** army is a very rare military talent. As far as I know, he has hardly received education from higher military academies. The battle examples of the Chengde defense battle have been included in the teaching syllabus of classic battle examples by the Imperial Army University. Every time I read the tactical deployment and strategic adjustments of the enemy and our army in the Battle of Chengde, I feel chilled. Zhang Xuewu can actually use tactical actions to leverage strategic deployment? This is really terrible. His deployments are all aimed at the weaknesses of the Imperial Army. The Imperial Army's Imperial Army suffered heavy casualties when artillery fire, air supremacy, and military strength exceeding the enemy's army several times, and the old attack was fruitless. Zhang Xuewu was able to control the troops and maintain high fighting spirit when more than 60% of the casualties were close to 70%. Such an opponent will definitely be a major concern of the Empire in the future."

Yamamoto Sobu was a bit exaggerated about what Koizumi Wanren said. In terms of the imperial army, especially the pretentious Kanto Army, lost face, and naturally wanted to portray the enemy as a god. Therefore, Yamamoto Sobu was also dissatisfied with it. Unlike Yamamoto Sobu's 11th Division, Nakajima's 16th Division was attacked by Zhang Xuewu's artillery shells at Chengde City, so Nakajima's Atsugo seemed very cautious. If he repeats the same mistake, Nakajima's Atsugo might have to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor. Retiring from the active service is undoubtedly a huge blow to a lieutenant general who is aiming to be promoted to a general for his life.

On the issue of first attacking the Niushou Mountain Fortress or the General Mountain Fortress, Nakajima Ashigo and Yamamu Sobu had certain differences. Originally, the battlefield capacity of the General Mountain Fortress and the Niushou Mountain Fortress was only one brigade, while the battlefield capacity of Niushou Mountain was only one infantry regiment, while the battlefield capacity of Niushou Mountain was only one infantry regiment.

If the troops are increased, it is just to increase the chances of making meritorious contributions to the Chinese artillery. Since increasing the troops is not worth the loss, if you attack Niushou Mountain and General Mountain at the same time, the artillery advantage of the 11th Brigade of the Heavy Artillery will inevitably be greatly weakened.

Moreover, the Chinese Air Force is quite powerful. The empire's army, navy and aviation forces cannot fully control the air supremacy over Nanjing, which means that Koizumi Wenren's 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade cannot unscrupulously provide fire support to the ground offensive forces.

Therefore, when it comes to attacking Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, the so-called heavy-armed assault meat bomb attack is basically a death. Nogi Xidian's pig turbulence tactics are typical brainless representatives among senior Japanese generals. The battle example of the 6th Division of Chengde has proved that the pig turbulence tactics are extremely stupid.

In the end, Nakajima Atsugo and Yamashita Sobu decided to attack the General Mountain Fortress by a 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade, which was equipped with twenty-six 150mm Type 38 Heavy Howitzer Regiment, and the 16th Division was equipped with the remaining artillery units of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade, including six 240mm heavy howitzers to attack the Niushoushan Fortress, so that the troops could be deployed to the maximum extent.

As for the air defense of the 240 mm heavy artillery, Koizumi Intorihito asked the dispatching army headquarters to send fighter troops and anti-aircraft artillery troops to carry out and transfer cover. Although the firepower of the 11th Heavy Artillery Brigade was dispersed, Nakajima Atsugo secretly asked Asakamiya Hikarihiko, because the two fortresses, Niushou Mountain and General Mountain, were barriers in the south of Nanjing City, and those stationed on it were either the troops sent by Zhang Xuewu from Rehe or the elite teaching corps of the Nanjing National Government Army, so Nakajima Atsugo planned to use special missiles to assault.

Nakajima Atsugo's suggestion was approved by Hirahiko Asakamiya. In Hirahiko Asakamiya's view, since the poisonous gas bomb was created, it was used, otherwise it would lose its value of existence, which could save the lives of soldiers and reduce the time of siege in cities and land. Why not do that?

While Nakajima Atsugo and Yamamuro Sobu were actively deploying, the Third Division commanded by the Japanese Fujita Jin and the Ninth Division commanded by Yoshikara Suk also began to conduct artillery test firing to build an attack position, preparing to attack the Chinese defending positions on the eastern front of Zijinshan Mountain in the east of the castle.

Compared with the Japanese 18th Division, Sadao Nakajima and Shimotao Matsushima were preparing to attack the Chinese defending positions along the Qinhuai River in the south of the city, while the Taiwan Teng Detachment and the 13th Division were hunting the 13th Division, preparing to attack the Qixia Mountain Fortress.

The Japanese army's Fifth Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, Imato Kango's troops also entered the Eastern Front position accordingly and began to deploy concealment. The 7th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade's troops also entered the Southern Front position to hide and standby. The second, fourth and seventh chariots belonging to the Nakabra Expeditionary Army were also assigned to three directions. The preparation time for each Japanese unit of the Asakamiya Hirahiko was only forty-eight hours.

Asakamiya Hirohiko asked the troops to launch a general attack on Nanjing City in the early morning of May 25, 1937. At noon on June 1, Asakamiya Hirohiko wanted to have lunch in Zhang Xuewu's command center.

The Japanese troops were closely deploying the final deployment, and the *** units above all the key points in the city were also strengthening the fortifications, because the heavy troops of the Japanese army had gathered to the periphery of Nanjing, especially the positions along the Qinhuai River on the front of the southern line were flat lands of 21 kilometers wide. The 51st Division and the 57th Division were deployed here. Although the 74th Army's headquarters, which was not strong after being supplemented, was still strengthened to a certain extent in artillery firepower and infantry light weapons firepower. However, if the Qinhuai River positions on the Gujiaying, Yangjiazhuang, Dashishan, and Liuzhuang were broken by the Japanese army, the 74th Army would have no danger to defend in the entire flat area, and could only retreat to the Guanghuamen line defended by the 58th Division.

However, in this open area, Zhang Xuewu prepared to use Chen Yuxing's mechanized brigade to counterattack the Japanese army that broke into this area, using heavy artillery artillery fire to form a concentrated strike, and deployed jackal light tanks to cooperate with hunting dog armor and multi-purpose half-track vehicles to repeatedly carry out assaults, defeating the Japanese offensive troops and destroying the floating bridge it was erected on the Qinhuai River.

Zhang Xuewu thought of all the possibilities of the Japanese 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 when the Japanese attacked Zijin Mountain in history, they learned that the defense troops were the elite among the elites of the *** team. After teaching the corps, they emitted a large amount of poison gas from the beginning. For ordinary Chinese teams with simple equipment, once the Japanese army emitted poison gas, the price paid by the defenders who stood firm in the position was wiped out, and the tragic force was beyond words.
Chapter completed!