The craters were filled with black scorched earth, and traces of dried blood could be seen everywhere. Most of the villages along the road had been flattened by artillery fire, and black smoke was rising from the burning wood.
Among the rubble and ruins, Lao Yanqiang was leading his 11th company to advance in depth. There were troops in front and behind their company hurriedly marching.
The Chinese army suffered heavy losses in the fierce fighting in Shanghai for three months and was unable to withstand the fierce Japanese attacks. The retreating Chinese army lost its Kunming branch line and the Changshu-Fushan line. Facing the menacing Japanese soldiers, only the last line of defense remained in front of Nanjing.
Lower the Changzhou Jiangyin defense line.
Although the Nanjing government has moved its capital to Chongqing, and a large number of party and government agencies, schools, factories and people have also begun to move, Nanjing is the capital of the Republic of China after all. If it falls, there will be no way to account to the people.
Jiangyin Fortress has now become the last solid line of defense blocking the periphery of Nanjing. Since the Battle of Songhu in August, a large number of Japanese warships have concentrated on the river near Jiangyin Fortress, fighting fiercely with the Chinese navy, trying to swim upstream to attack Nanjing.
At this time, the Chinese navy was weak and suffered heavy losses after several fierce battles. In the end, the strong men had to cut off their arms and sink themselves in the Yangtze River. In addition, more than a hundred merchant ships and fishing boats, large and small, collected from various places sank in the Yangtze River, blocking the Japanese warships from going upstream.
attempt, but the Chinese Navy has since been completely destroyed.
Because of the important strategic location of the Jiangyin Fortress, the government has built a large number of reinforced concrete fortresses after several years of operation. Now it is even more densely covered with trenches and barbed wire. With the assistance of the fortress's artillery, although its strength is not weak, its military strength is
It is very scarce, with only a few divisions such as the 112th and 103rd.
After the Japanese broke through the Wu Fu defense line, their 13th Division had arrived at the outer positions of Jiangyin Fortress and started a fierce battle with the Chinese defenders 112th Division.
The main force of the Chinese army fought fiercely in Shanghai for three months. Most of the troops that were withdrawn were broken divisions and lacked weapons and ammunition. After an embarrassing battle, the Jiangyin Fortress was in danger. The theater commander had to mobilize reserves and supplementary regiments to go to the front line to try to block the Japanese attack.
Attack pace.
"Stop advancing! Take cover and rest on the spot!" The shriveled and thin body of the messenger ran past the team, and his hoarse voice spread far away.
Lao Yanqiang turned around and waved to his company, pointed at the nearby bomb crater and ordered: "Stop standing around like crazy, everyone go into the bomb crater."
The 11th Company originally had more than 80 people. While taking the boat, more than 10 of them were strafed by Japanese planes. The remaining 70 or so people went into the bomb crater like they were driving ducks into the water.
The smoker is very satisfied.
Those student soldiers who were eager to fight saw many dead people along the way, and they no longer had the excitement they had at the beginning. Many of them had begun to retreat, but now that they have come to the battlefield, there is absolutely no reason to retreat, and the old smoker has no reason to retreat.
Tell them clearly that if anyone dares to be a deserter without permission, he will definitely kill him.
Facing the fierce old smoker, the student soldiers were both respectful and afraid. What they admired was his bravery in killing the enemy and his composure at the moment, but what they were afraid of was that he would actually shoot at one of their own people.
Although the student soldiers were nervously clutching their guns and scared to death, the veterans in the company were making jokes with different accents without taking it seriously. The behavior of these veterans made the nervous student soldiers gradually become less nervous.
.
Lao Yanqiang and the others had been resting here for almost two hours, nestling in the crater and eating cold steamed buns. They waited until dark before the order was given from above to move forward.
The team flowed forward in the dark night. The rumbling artillery fire in front was fierce. The flashes of those explosions disappeared like lightning. The air was mixed with the smell of gunpowder smoke. The sky was also dark. I don’t know what it was.
The rising smoke was still really dark.
Boom! A cannonball fell on the marching team. Several soldiers were blown to pieces. The injured ones were still twitching and screaming on the ground.
"Don't stop! Keep walking!" When the cold-faced officer surnamed Liu saw the team falling down again, he cursed and kicked to urge the team to continue walking. As for those who were injured and screaming, they stayed in place to wait for the stretcher team behind.
.
Lao Yanqiang's eyes swept across the dark night with the roar of cannons, and went all the way to the burning position in front. The sound of guns and cannons there was fierce, and they were very close to the battlefield at this moment.
The team advanced until they were almost a mile away from the battlefield before stopping. Lying on the ground, they could already see the tongues of fire spitting out from the Japanese machine guns in the distance.
Soon the troops in front withdrew. Each of them was in ragged clothes, as if they had been fished out of bloody water. Their bodies were covered in blood, and their faces were so black that they could not be seen clearly. Only their red eyes were exposed, which made those students
Bing saw the cruelty of war for the first time.
"Brother, are there many Japs in front of you?" Lao Yanqiang pulled over a soldier whose head was wrapped in gauze to inquire about the Japs' situation.
The soldier stopped and replied: "There are not many people, just a few hundred, but their firepower is very strong. We charged several times and almost all the brothers were killed." His voice was choked as he spoke.
Lao Qianqiang patted the tearful soldier on the shoulder and said firmly: "Don't worry, we will take it down! Those brothers will not die in vain."
"Company Commander, Commander Liu asked you to go over and take over the mission." Fatty Tian San ran over to report.
"Brothers, please don't move. I'll go and come back." Lao Yanqiang ordered the fat man, raised his legs and left.
Behind half of the broken wall, Lao Yanqiang found the cold-faced commander Liu, who was scratching the ground with a branch with a flashlight to assign tasks to other company commanders.
"The first company cooperated with the second company to attack from the left wing and capture the Japanese artillery position."
"The third company, the fourth company, the fifth company, and the sixth company gathered their machine guns from the front and opened a gap for me!"
…
Although Captain Liu is young, he is calm and composed when facing the battlefield with heavy artillery fire. He is calmer and more mature than veterans like Lao Yanqiang. Seeing him arranging tasks in an orderly manner, Lao Yanqiang finally feels a little at ease in his heart, at least he is not a
You idiot sir, otherwise you will kill many brothers.
"Lao Yanqiang, the mission of your 11th Company is to kill these two firepower points and ensure the safety of the assault force's flanks."
"Yes!" Lao Yanqiang took a few more glances at the scratched ground, confirmed his company's mission, and hurried back to his company.
Lao Yanqiang has fought many battles over the years and has rich experience in both offensive and defensive operations. He fought against the Japanese soldiers when he was in Shanghai and knows how powerful the Japanese soldiers are.
And now 80% of his men are newly recruited student soldiers, who are unreliable, so he still counts on the more than 20 veterans, so he concentrated all the Czech light machine guns and grenades in the company into the hands of the veterans.