The first captain of the 36th Regiment, Saito Yoshimitsu, personally planted the blood-red rising sun flag on the top of Nanjing.
The blood-stained Japanese soldiers all around raised their bloody bayonets arrogantly and shouted loudly, long live the empire, long live the emperor!
"Chief Liu, Chief Liu, the Japanese have broken through the city wall!" Some embarrassed soldiers stumbled into Liu Xing's frontline headquarters.
"What?!" Liu Xing, the deputy commander of the garrison, was shocked when he heard this.
He clearly knew that once the Japanese broke through the Guanghua Gate, a gap would be opened in Nanjing's defense line, which would cause a chain reaction and Nanjing would be finished.
He hurriedly grabbed the telescope and ran out of the door, followed the ladder to the roof, raised the telescope and looked at the smoke-filled city outside the Guanghua Gate, and the blood-red rising sun flag was fluttering in the wind. His heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Sunk to the bottom.
"What does Xie Chengrui do for a living! I'm going to shoot him!" Liu Xing immediately became furious. Now that Xie Chengrui had lost the Guanghua Sect, they fell into a passive position.
"Sir Liu, Commander Xie was injured and was snatched away." The person replied.
Although he heard that Xie Chengrui was also injured, Liu Xing was still furious: "Go back and tell Xie Chengrui that I will stop the force and take back the city wall immediately. If we can't take it back, I, Liu Xing, will never spare him!"
"Yes!" The visitor saluted, turned around and ran to Guanghua Gate again.
"Sir Liu, Commander Xie's second regiment fought for two days and two nights. I heard that there were heavy casualties. I'm afraid there aren't many people left now. Even if they want to take back the city wall, I'm afraid they won't be able to do it." Staff officer Liu Ming
Said worriedly.
Liu Xing was also very clear in his heart. After thinking for a moment, he gave the order: "Order Yang Ling's guerrilla camp to end their rest and immediately go into battle. The city wall must be recaptured! Press the Japanese back!"
Yang Ling's guerrilla battalion only withdrew from the front-line position to Daguang Road yesterday evening. It had only rested for less than half a day and had to move up again. Liu Xing was really helpless. After the battle, he had no troops left to mobilize.
"Call the 51st Division in Zangjia Lane and ask them to send a force to attack Guanghua Gate from outside the city. They must intercept the Japs' follow-up troops." Liu Xing thought for a moment and then ordered.
The troops of the 51st Division have just withdrawn from Chunhua Town on the periphery. They are currently fighting fiercely with the Japanese on the Zangjia Lane between Guanghua Gate and Zhonghua Gate. Liu Xing can only hope that they can flank the Japanese from the periphery, otherwise the city wall will seize the enemy.
not coming back.
Japanese Major Saeto Yoshimitsu personally planted the general's flag on the top of the Nanjing City. The Japanese attacking troops nearby saw the flag flying high on the city's top, and their morale was greatly shaken. They rushed toward the Guanghua Gate in a steady stream, trying to follow the opened gap.
Entering Nanjing City, the situation becomes increasingly critical.
"Captain Yang!" The dusty messenger rushed to Daguang Road and found the guerrilla battalion commander Yang Ling without even bothering to salute.
"The Japs have broken through the Guanghuamen city wall. Chief Liu orders your battalion to immediately go into battle, retake the city wall, and push the Japs down!"
Yang Ling heard the words of the messenger and realized the seriousness of the problem. If the Guanghua Gate was breached, then under the chain reaction, the entire defense line would collapse as quickly as a festering dam.
"Target Guanghuamen! Run forward!" Without further ado, Yang Ling led the brothers in the guerrilla camp and ran out along the street with a cheer.
The Japanese artillery was firing continuously. From time to time, shells fell on the houses on both sides of the street, causing smoke and dust to fill the air. There were also brothers who were blown away while running, but the situation was urgent and they could not care so much.
"Don't worry about the wounded, the stretcher team will come to take care of them!"
The brothers in the guerrilla camp ran wildly through the ruined streets. Everyone was tense and breathing rapidly, and their rifles and kettles made clanging sounds.
Groups of wounded soldiers poured in along the street, each of them covered in blood. Looking at Yang Ling and his troops rushing to Guanghua Gate, they hurriedly got out of the way.
"Brothers, go quickly, the Japanese have already broken into the city!" The wounded soldiers lying on the stretchers shouted loudly, providing Yang Ling and the others with the latest intelligence.
The closer we got to Guanghua Gate, the stronger the smell of gunpowder smoke and blood became. The ground was pockmarked by shells, the house was crackling and burning in the thick smoke, blown corpses were everywhere, and fierce firefights were heard from the front.
Major Ito Zenmitsu, captain of the Japanese First Battalion, followed the gap in the city wall blown up by the mountain artillery brigade and led the death squad to occupy the city wall.
He did not stop, and immediately led his troops to rush into the city, and swept on both wings, trying to expand the victory.
The Japs were very familiar with the strategy of breaking through the center and sweeping in from both wings. Although they entered the streets, the Japs' offensive was still fierce.
Major Saeto Yoshimitsu ordered the machine guns to seize the commanding heights everywhere, covering the infantry death squads to advance forward. Although the Chinese defenders resisted desperately, they were still forced back, and the Japanese were about to gain a foothold in the city.
"Hold it! Hold it!"
Xie Chengrui, the leader of the Second Regiment of the Teaching Corps, whose leg was injured by the blast, was lying on a stretcher without leaving the line of fire, screaming at the troops to resist the Japanese attack.
Most of those who broke into the city were Japanese death squads. They were all fanatical militarists. They rushed forward shirtless in the cold winter, not afraid of death at all.
Xie Chengrui's death order was to retake the city wall, but now he can't even defend this block, and he is about to collapse.
At this critical moment, the guerrilla battalion led by Yang Ling arrived on the battlefield in time.
"Blacksmith! Charge me with the machine gun company!"
Yang Ling moved more than twenty Czech-style light machine guns from the ammunition depot. At this moment, all the handles were tied with ropes. The brothers of the machine gun company hung the machine guns around their necks, hugging the machine guns while charging and firing. The strong wind blew.
A rain of bullets shrouded the Japanese.
Although the Japanese death squads were not afraid of death, they were still mortal bodies. Facing the rain of bullets, their bodies were shaken wildly, causing large clouds of blood mist to appear. Before the blood mist dissipated, another cloud of blood mist appeared.
A blood mist formed, like a bloody rain.
"You little devil like a dog! Come on! Come on!"
The tower-like blacksmith hung the machine gun around his neck and fired continuously, making it difficult for the ammunition handler following him to keep up.
The Japanese death squads fell in pieces like harvested wheat under the heavy blows of bullets, and the whole street was filled with a thick smell of gunpowder smoke and blood.
The regiment leader Xie Chengrui, who was lying on a stretcher, was stunned by the sudden appearance of a new force. There were more than twenty machine guns. The firepower was overwhelming and unstoppable, which made him amazed and envious.
Yang Ling was not envious, he just felt sorry for the bullets. These wasteful things really didn't know how to economize. He just felt comfortable when he fired. Is there any need to waste so much ammunition to kill more than a hundred Japanese?
The Japs Major Saito Yoshimitsu saw that more than a hundred of his suicide squads were all shattered in just one breath, and he was so angry that he punched the sandbags.
"Attack! Don't stop!" Yang Ling's mission was to recapture the city wall and ordered the troops to continue the assault.
The machine gun company, led by the blacksmith, opened the way. When encountering resistance from the Japanese soldiers, it unleashed a burst of ferocious firepower that could directly break people into pieces.
The bayonets of the brothers led by Liu Yidao were shining coldly out of their sheaths. They followed closely behind the gun company, and when they encountered the twitching and moaning wounded Japanese soldiers, they stabbed them again without hesitation.
The company led by Qin Shou walked at the end, and most of the student soldiers, medical soldiers and stretcher-bearing soldiers in their company were finishing up behind them.
"Don't leave anything behind. Pack up everything valuable for me!" Qin Shou also carried a large canvas bag and picked up the rags.