Episode 25 A bloody battle in the suburbs of Nanjing

The Yangtze River turns a small bend here in Nanjing. To the north of Nanjing, it runs east-west and is divided into the south bank and the north bank. To the west of Nanjing, it runs north-south and is divided into the east bank and the west bank.

Ten kilometers southwest of Nanjing, the Yangtze River runs north-south. There are three large sandbars on the river, called Zimuzhou, Xinjizhou, and Xinshengzhou. The northernmost one is Zimuzhou.

Now the artillery fire is raging here, and the fighting is extremely fierce.

It was almost dusk, and the fog was full of flashes of explosions, muzzle flames, shouts of kill, machine gun sounds, grenade explosions, the whoosh of flamethrowers...the smoke and fog mixed together,

No one could be seen a few steps away, and there were bayonets everywhere, as if it was the end of the world.

There was loud gunfire here, but very few artillery shells fell. Now a large number of Qing troops have attacked the east bank, and the two armies are fighting in a melee. The artillery on both sides dare not fire here for fear of hurting their own people. The Ming army in the distance

The artillery was only used to block fire to prevent the Qing army from further breaking through.

Strictly speaking, this section of the defense line is also considered the Nanjing section, because after all, it is only about ten kilometers away from the suburbs of Nanjing. But even if it is considered the Nanjing section of the defense line, it is a relatively marginal part. The three river sandbars here are not as big as Jiangxinzhou in Nanjing.

, the soil is still relatively soft, and overly large and heavy fortifications cannot be built. There is no deep and complex underground transportation system on the sandbank. Under the strict order of Emperor Guangwu to "go to Nanjing for the Spring Festival", the Qing army attacked desperately regardless of casualties.

After losing thousands of lives, it was relatively easy to land on Zimuzhou.

The sandbar on the river divided the river into two tributaries. Once the Qing troops boarded the middle sandbar, they would have a springboard, and it would be much easier to cross the second tributary.

Because the fortifications on Zimuzhou were small and light, and did not go deep into the ground, many of them were originally overturned by the Qing army's intensive artillery fire, and some of the remaining larger fortifications were also damaged. Most importantly, the heavy fog

As a result, the machine gun can only shoot in a general direction and cannot fire accurately. By the time it sees the enemy, it is already very close. In addition, the Qing army distributed some infantry flamethrowers, which are useful for dealing with fixed-top fortifications.

weapon.

The firing ports of the bunkers are very small, and they spit out tongues of fire. Bullets from outside cannot penetrate, grenades cannot be thrown in, and explosive pack blasting tubes cannot be approached. It would be difficult for a flamethrower to get close, but thanks to the heavy fog

As a result, they can easily get within ten meters and shoot a stream of flames in the direction of the machine gun flames. If the shot is accurate, the machine gunner inside will be wiped out. If the bunker is relatively small, or the internal partitions are not well designed,

, the entire bunker will be filled with flames, and all personnel will be burned to death.

The Qing army originally had very few flamethrowers. This time, in order to break through the defense line during the heavy fog, a large number of flamethrowers were rushed out. Many flamethrowers had not received formal training and their techniques were inaccurate. In addition, they carried weapons on their backs.

Carrying a large tube of fuel on the battlefield, I feel extremely nervous. I often spray fire when I touch the fire point far away, and most of the time I don't shoot accurately. As long as I don't shoot accurately the first time, the long flame and the unique "swish" sound

"The sound will become a target, and machine guns from all directions will be concentrated on it. Most of the half-hearted flamethrowers will be hit by several bullets and become a big fireman."

Even so, fixed fortifications suffered too much in battles in dense fog. Coupled with the huge numerical advantage of the Qing army, the Qing soldiers could often use the cover of dense fog to detour behind the bunker, spray fire into it, or attack from the inside.

Get close to the shooting port on the side and throw a grenade into it. In this way, an independent fortification will be removed.

A large number of Qing infantry were rushing from Zimuzhou to the east bank in assault boats. There was still one of the largest bunkers on Zimuzhou still resisting.

This large fortification is L-shaped in plane, half underground, and covers an area of ​​more than 100 square meters. It is the general headquarters of the Zimuzhou fortification group. This bunker is well designed, and it is not used for shooting around, but

It is mainly used to provide concealment for commanders, so there are no shooting ports on several sides. There is only an entrance on the inner bend of the L-shape. It is still a classic "defensive entrance", with a machine gun blocking the entrance.

There is also a shooting port on the side of the L-shaped building, which is perpendicular to the entrance and protects the entrance from the side. The Qing army did not rush in even though many people died.

Whenever a figure of the Qing army appeared near the door, the shooting port inside would spit out tongues of fire, giving the Qing soldiers no chance. The Qing army engineers tried to use explosive bags and blasting tubes to blast from the side, but the cement wall of this headquarters was one and a half meters long.

Thick, only a small amount of broken cement blocks were blown down after each earth-shaking loud noise.

The entrance was covered by two shooting gun forks, making it difficult for the Qing army's flamethrowers to get close. The Qing army's shouts to persuade them to surrender were ineffective. Finally, flamethrower experts were transferred from other divisions and finally sprayed flames accurately into the shooting port. However,

The inside of the fortification was well designed, and the flames could only penetrate a little, but it could not achieve the effect of the entire fortification being filled with flames. Moreover, every time a Ming army machine gunner was burned to death, new ones would immediately come to replace him. It seemed that they were determined.

I don't intend to surrender.

Three or four people were burned to death one after another inside. It is estimated that all the machine gunners were dead long ago. Now it is the officers who are firing machine guns.

Finally, after the fifth firepower interruption, the inside could not be replenished in time. The Qing soldiers swarmed forward and charged with bayonets. The last fortifications of Zimuzhou were taken down.

The light bulbs in the fortification were dim, and there was a musty and putrid smell. There was a row of wounded people lying on the ground in the middle room, groaning. There were also several people who were burnt to a black and fuzzy shape and were already dead.

The Qing soldiers who rushed in were already furious. They stabbed them with bayonets and stabbed several to death on the spot. An officer stopped him and asked people to drag the wounded out.

Once outside, the officer asked them to lean against the concrete wall, then stepped back and called the flamethrower over.

The flamethrower came over, the nozzle was burning with flames, and droplets of fire kept falling down.

"Sir?"

The officer's face was covered with blood. He pointed at the wounded Ming soldiers in the corner, sniffed and patted the shooter on the shoulder:

"Just aim it for a moment."

The surrounding Qing soldiers began to think that their superiors were trying to prevent them from stabbing them with bayonets because they wanted to treat them as prisoners. Now when they heard this sentence, they all cheered like beasts and shouted loudly:

"Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn! Burn!..."

The flame shooter's face turned pale:

"Sir, this..."

The officer smiled and said:

"What is this? Avenge the brothers!... These people are injured like this. I don't think they can survive unless they are killed. Spray them while they are still alive. Come on, stop being so annoying, brothers.

We’re all waiting!”

Some of the Qing soldiers who were watching around couldn't bear it and turned around and walked away, but most of them had eyes blood red with hatred and their faces were full of excitement. They shouted in unison with all their strength, and their voices became louder and louder:

"Burn! Burn! Burn!..."

The flamethrower looked at the crazy brothers around him, then at the commander, sniffed, and pointed the nozzle at a few wounded Ming soldiers by the wall.

The two injured soldiers who were still conscious used all their strength to crawl on the ground, trying desperately to avoid the flamethrower nozzle, but the nozzle moved and was always pointed at them.

Finally, there was a sharp roar, and several burning men beside the wall twitched and rolled. Amidst the cheers of the Qing soldiers, there was another stream of fire, and several people were reduced to smoking charcoal.

…

The Qing army has now taken Zimuzhou, and several bunkers have been pulled out on the east coast defense line, opening hundreds of meters of holes. The Qing soldiers who rushed over are fighting hand-to-hand with the Ming capital garrison.

The Qing army was anxious to build a pontoon bridge between the west bank and Zimuzhou, hoping to transport heavy equipment and shoot accurately at the fortifications on the east bank. However, the Ming army's torpedo boats kept harassing them, and their 20mm machine guns fired into the pile of engineers building the bridge.

The torpedo boats flew at a high speed of more than 40 knots, and under the cover of heavy fog, they ran away after firing. It was difficult for the artillery and machine guns on the shore to catch them.

More and more engineers died, and the engineer battalion commander kept protesting to the division commander to withdraw his brothers. The division commander thought the casualties were too great, so the engineer battalion would be destroyed before the bridge was erected. Unlike the worthless infantry,

These engineers were still very valuable. The division commander finally ordered not to build the bridge for the time being, but to rely on people to rush to the east bank and wait until a stable ferry was established before building the bridge.

Now the hole opened by the Qing army is only a few hundred meters, but more and more Qing soldiers are pouring in. In normal times, such a small hole would be quickly covered by the Ming army's artillery fire, and the hole would be opened quickly.

Block it. But now in the thick fog, the Ming army cannot observe at all, and the headquarters does not know where it has been occupied and where it is still in its hands. It cannot use cannons to hit it, so it can only send waves of troops.

The infantry made a charge in an attempt to push the Qing army back into the river.

Now there are a large number of assault boats on the river on both sides of Zimu Island, and larger fishing boats, sand ships, steamers, and bamboo rafts have been used to transport troops. With the addition of these large ships, the first batch of Qing troops

Heavy machine guns, mountain artillery, and mortars were transported across the river.

Outside Wu Village, more than two miles away from the landing site of the Qing Army, the 26th Division of the Ming Army's Capital Garrison was gathering here.

It was completely dark now, and more than a thousand meters away to the south was the battlefield with loud killings. The explosions and gunshots could be heard clearly, and the flashes of explosions could be seen through the fog.

The commander was directing the soldiers to dig trenches frantically. A few trucks in front drove slowly along the trenches, and after driving a few dozen meters, they dropped a bundle of barbed wire. In front of the trenches, engineers were wielding sledgehammers and pounding wooden piles into the soil.

Then rolls of barbed wire are pulled out and wound around them to form a barbed wire mesh.

"Is the digging done here? Is the digging done? Quick, push the machine gun over!!"

The heavy Maxim machine gun was pushed to the front of the trench, and a simple slope protection was built with wooden planks and soil. The machine gun team lay behind and made preparations nervously: adding water to the water tank, opening the receiver and loading the ammunition chain, and loading the original few

The scale of 100 meters is set to only a dozen meters...

As soon as a section of the trench was dug, a group of soldiers jumped down, lying with their upper bodies on the outside, their rifles pointing in the direction of the battlefield.

Behind the trench, more soldiers were attaching bayonets to their rifles and checking the bolts, scales and rear sights. Officers pried open wooden crates one after another, grabbed grenades from the straw and distributed them to the soldiers.

These soldiers have never fought in a war. Now, both veterans and recruits are extremely nervous. Looking at the constant flashes of light in the south and listening to the rumbling explosions, their faces are pale, and the hand holding the gun can't help trembling.

From a truck behind, a loudspeaker shouted:

"Brothers of the Capital Garrison, behind us is Nanjing, our fathers and brothers, our wives and sisters! We must not take a step back! We must not..."

“Sun————Boom!!!”

A mortar shell fell nearby, causing a large area of ​​soldiers to lie down. The glass of the truck clanged and shattered. The loudspeaker on the roof paused for a moment, then continued to shout:

"...let the Qing rebels set foot on the Ming Dynasty! We must not let the Qing rebels invade Nanjing! Her Majesty the Queen is in Nanjing now, she has not left, she is staying with us! We must defend Nanjing to the death, and defend Her Majesty the Queen to the death.

! We are the capital garrison, we are the elite among the elites of the Ming Dynasty’s army! We want your Majesty to see how we drove the Qing rebels down the Yangtze River!..."

Only then did the surrounding soldiers throw off the dirt from their bodies and get up one after another.

At this time, the sound of gunfire in the distance weakened, and the sound of gunfire became sparse. Some small-caliber mountain cannons and mortar shells began to fall densely nearby. Every soldier did not need to be urged by the commander, and was going crazy with his own engineer shovel.

They dug trenches and dug foxholes. From time to time, one or two soldiers were blown into the air.

Some embarrassed figures began to appear in the thick fog in the south. They were in groups of three or two, supporting each other, some carrying stretchers, and many of them had thrown away their guns.

These are all remnants of soldiers who escaped from the battlefield.

There were more and more deserters, and the commander of the 26th Division ordered them all to be stopped and not allowed to run backwards. All the seriously injured soldiers were carried away, and the remaining uninjured and slightly injured deserters were gathered on a slope.

In front of the child.

Two large trucks drove in front of them, and their bright headlights turned on, blinding them.
To be continued...