The winter sun slowly exudes a slightly cool residual temperature and slowly disappears at the foot of the mountain. The two teams that fought desperately during the day have withdrawn their troops and returned to their camps. They are either treating the wounded, reinforcing fortifications, or rushing to transport ammunition.
, are all preparing for tomorrow's battle.
It was late at night, and the lights were still on in Su Tong's office. He was still looking at today's statistical results. In today's battle, since various troops outside Nanjing received supplies in time, the sick and wounded were also transported down.
Morale finally recovered, and all supporting points were not lost.
But today there were nearly 5,000 casualties. If the battle continues like this, Nanjing's troops will be wiped out in less than half a month. Moreover, after a day of fierce competition, the air supremacy in the sky has not yet been restored. The First Air Division came first.
More than 100 fighters of the two aviation regiments were engaged in fierce battles with more than 200 Japanese fighters, resulting in the loss of 51 aircraft and 13 pilots.
Seeing such high losses, Su Tong murmured and complained: "Damn Matsui Iwane, damn Prince Asaka Palace Hatohiko, I will wait for you to look good when the reinforcements arrive tomorrow, and this time I will also transfer the Fourth Air Division.
Come and let me see if you are still arrogant."
While Su Tong was feeling distressed about the day's losses, Matsui Iwane and Prince Asaka Palace Hatohiko were also looking at today's battle report, both of them looking sad.
Today the Army's losses in one day actually reached more than 4,000 people, and a full regiment of soldiers disappeared from the empire's establishment. Forget the Army's losses, after all, everything that can be called cannon fodder is cheap, and soldiers have no
It's just a matter of recruiting again.
However, the losses of the Air Force made the two of them tremble with pain. After a day of air combat, the Third Flying Division lost 106 aircraft and 89 pilots. This is enough for the Third Flying Division.
Half of the number of fighter planes. He was so angry that the commander of the 3rd Flying Division, Lieutenant General Kimura Tsuhiro, almost went berserk on the spot, claiming that until the troops were replenished and unless the base camp removed him from his post, he would refuse to send fighter planes to provide support for the ground troops again.
.
Matsui Iwane and Prince Asaka Miya Hatohiko finally convinced the furious pilot commander and promised that the Fifth Pilot Division would arrive soon for reinforcements. Only then did Lieutenant General Kimura Suhiro agree to continue sending fighter planes tomorrow.
.
Night fell deeply, and the dark night was the best protection for the airship troops. Late at night, airships landed on the airport one after another. They carried fuel and ammunition for the fighter planes, as well as supplies, medicines, and supplies needed by the troops.
After the supplies on the airship were unloaded, the seriously injured were loaded and sent to Chahar for treatment.
In order to deliver more supplies to Nanjing City, Su Tong mobilized almost all the airships from Chahar. A total of 224 airships went to Nanjing City overnight to rush to deliver supplies. Along with the supplies, there was an infantry division.
Personnel and equipment.
In order to rush to transport supplies, She Nianci, the deputy chief of staff in charge of transportation, organized more than 50,000 volunteers in Nanjing to rush to Nanjing's outer positions overnight to deliver supplies and soldiers. By dawn, five units had been transported to various positions.
Thousands of tons of supplies, including some weapons and equipment that the soldiers have never seen before.
"Military seat, military seat, what a good thing." Li Zhipeng, commander of the 106th Brigade, pointed at the four large-caliber M2 Browning high-level dual-purpose machine guns in front of the position and smiled excitedly, "This thing can be used for both masturbation and flight."
Fighting infantry is really a good thing."
Song Xilian looked at the piles of weapons, ammunition and firearms in front of him, turned around and said solemnly: "Brigadier Li, Commander Su has sent us so many good things, you must hold your position well, don't give us seventy-eight
The army is in disgrace. If we lose our position, I, Song Xilian, will know you, but my gun will not know you."
Li Zhipeng patted his chest, "Military seat, don't worry. With so many good things, if I, Li Zhipeng, can't hold my position anymore, I might as well find a piece of tofu and kill me. But" as he said this, Li Zhipeng showed a hint of charm towards Song Xilian.
Laughing, "Can you give us a few more of those 37 anti-tank guns? These can hit Japanese tanks with perfect accuracy."
Song Xilian glared at Li Zhipeng angrily and funny, "You boy, our army has only been allocated twenty-six combat anti-cannons. I have already given you nine. You are not satisfied yet. I will be careful if you keep nagging."
I won’t even give you the nine cannons.”
"Okay, forget it if you don't give it, why are you so cruel?" Li Zhipeng muttered several times before closing his mouth.
After a night of intense preparations, early the next morning, the soldiers of [ ] who had just received a large number of weapons and ammunition were attacked by the Japanese army again.
As soon as the Japanese army attacked, they were violently attacked by the defenders everywhere. The dense rain of bullets was far from what it could be compared to yesterday. With the support of heavy machine guns, mortars and artillery fire, the defenders everywhere became more and more courageous as they fought.
The 74th Army stationed at Zijin Mountain even organized several counterattacks with the support of artillery fire, catching the Ninth Division by surprise.
"Bagaya Road, the chariot squadron quickly follows up. Use chariots to blow up all the Chinese positions for me." The sharp counterattack by the defenders made the commander of the 18th Brigade, Major General Nobutoki Ide, who came to supervise the battle, feel emperor.
The dignity of the army was challenged.
Under Nobutoki Ide's order, sixteen Japanese tanks slowly pressed toward the 74th Army's position. Wang Yaowu, commander of the 51st Division, saw this through the telescope and sneered: "If you had come yesterday,
I still have a bit of a headache because of this, and I may lose a lot of my brothers, so I won’t treat you badly today.”
The soldiers of the 302nd Regiment at the front saw the Japanese tanks coming again, and some soldiers looked at the regiment leader Cheng Zhi reflexively, because in the past, everyone would draw lots to decide who would go out to blow up the tanks.
It's time, this is a life of near death, and even those who survive are few who come down with all their parts.
Just when they were looking at their commander, Cheng Zhi smiled, "You bastards, you are thinking of going out to blow up tanks again. Don't worry, there is no need for us to go out today. There will naturally be people who know how to hit those tanks."
Just as Cheng Zhi was talking, several short combat artillery were launched from the position. The gunners took out the shiny and slender shells from the ammunition box behind them and pushed them into the barrel. After taking aim,
As soon as the running bolt was pulled, the shells flew towards the Japanese tanks.
"Boom boom"
The continuous explosions of the Japanese tanks greatly surprised the Japanese army. They did not expect that the defenders actually had anti-tank artillery, a scarce commodity in Nanjing's political axe.
"Kill to give"
Seeing that the tank attack was ineffective, the Japanese army had no choice but to attack again with infantry
"Your Excellency, the two commanders, the commander of the Ninth Division has come to report that their attack was blocked and requested air support." A staff officer came in and reported to Matsui Iwane and Prince Asaka Palace Hatuhiko who were drinking tea in the office.
"Tell Yoshizumi Ryosuke that the Fifth Flying Division will be here soon, and ask him to be patient."
"Hi"
Looking at the back of the communications staff officer leaving, Prince Asaka Palace Hatohiko's mouth showed a hint of ferocity, "Matsui-kun, the China position has been unable to be captured for a long time. I want to see if you can order the frontline troops to use special bombs to open a way out."
Matsui Iwane was shocked when he heard this, "No, if special bombs are used, this will trigger large-scale retaliation from the Chahar army. Have you forgotten the 50,000 imperial soldiers who died innocently in Vladivostok? Besides, the headquarters has already given the order."
, special bombs are not allowed to be used without the approval of the base camp."
"Huh, I just said this because I haven't forgotten. Now our troops' attack is blocked. If we don't take decisive measures, the longer the time goes on, the more blood our empire's warriors will have." Asaka Palace Hatohiko
The prince has always scorned this order from the base camp. In his opinion, poison gas and bullets are both weapons for killing people. Poison gas can kill people, and bullets can also kill people. Why can you use bullets to kill people, but poison gas to kill people?
It's just a sign of cruelty.
"No, as long as I am the commander of the Central China Expeditionary Force, I will not issue such an order. Your Majesty the Prince, if you do this, it will give Chahar an excuse to use poison gas on a large scale. You must know the level of their poison gas warfare."
But they are higher than us." Matsui Iwane said this not out of kindness, but because he knew deeply that if he launched a poison gas war at this moment, he would not be a match for Chahar's army. Instead, he would anger Su Tong and bring harm to his side.
The consequences of coming to disaster.
"Your Excellency, I once again tell you as the commander of the Central China Expeditionary Force that if you insist on going your own way, I will report the matter to the base camp. I think Prince Xianyuan Gong Zairen will personally send you a message.
Perhaps His Majesty the Emperor will also send you instructions."
Matsui Iwane mentioned Empress Hirohito, and Prince Asaka Palace Hatohiko shut up angrily. He could defy the orders of the headquarters, but he would never dare to ignore the emperor's orders. If he made the emperor angry, he would not be able to bear the consequences.
Walking.
At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open violently, and a staff officer rushed in and reported loudly: "Your Excellency, two commanders, the Chinese reinforcements are coming, and the third flight of our third flying division is here."
The division was almost completely wiped out."
"Nani" Matsui and Prince Asaka Palace Hatohiko stood up in surprise and said at the same time in disbelief: "Have the Chinese reinforcement planes arrived? How many are they?"
"I don't know, but according to the soldiers on the front line, their aircraft fleet is overwhelming, with three to four hundred aircraft."
Just when Matsui Iwane and Prince Asaka Palace Hatuhiko received the information, Le Yiqin, who had just arrived by plane, was leading more than 300 fighters of the 1st Air Division and the 4th Air Division to hunt down the Japanese 5th Flying Division.
fighter plane.
Just now, when the remaining fifty fighter planes of the 1st Air Division were fighting with the Japanese 3rd Flying Division, Le Yiqin suddenly arrived and surrounded the Japanese Army Group. After a chase and a fight, they all fled back in a hurry.
In addition to the more than 20 fighters, the Japanese Third Flying Division can be said to have completely disappeared.