The east city wall was breached and became a booster for the Tenth Army.
On the Nancheng side, the Sixth Division continued its offensive. Although it did not break into the city, it contained all the troops in Nancheng.
The beaten-up Kunisaki Detachment and the 114th Division in Xicheng needed to wash away their shame with Chinese blood. Both sides sent three infantry brigades with nearly 6,000 people to take turns to attack violently. The original green water in the moat completely turned into darkness.
red.
The Chinese defenders in the city did not know how much the Japanese army had suffered in the battle, but Lieutenant General Liu Yuqing, who was responsible for guarding the west city, was holding a report that he only had 4,500 men available. You know, before yesterday, he had a full complement of men.
The infantry brigade and half of the Songjiang Security Regiment suffered nearly 2,000 casualties in less than one day.
The situation in Beicheng District was slightly better, but news came from the cavalry that nearly 10,000 Japanese troops had crossed the Huangpu River and headed for Songjiang City in the early morning. However, because the cavalry could not get close enough to know where they were, an infantry brigade in Beicheng District did not dare to do anything.
Act rashly.
The strategy of the Tenth Army was ready to be revealed at this time. Using the East City as a breakthrough point, the two southwest cities were violently attacked to increase the pressure. The North City was besieged but not attacked, waiting for the will of the Chinese defenders to collapse. Finally, they retreated from the North City, leaving nearly 10,000 Japanese troops waiting to work.
It can easily kill the Chinese defenders who have lost the protection of their fortifications in the wilderness.
The top priority of this Japanese strategy is naturally Dongcheng, which serves as the breakthrough point.
Hisao Tani personally sat at the frontline headquarters of the 11th Brigade, which was only 600 meters away from the city wall. He watched with cold eyes as Tokutaro Sakai put his five infantry brigades into the battlefield in the city one after another.
By four o'clock in the afternoon, the 11th Infantry Brigade had used almost all its available forces. In the end, under the commanding Major General Brigade Commander, there was only one escort squadron directly under the brigade headquarters around the headquarters.
If the Chinese can have a surprise force at this time, they don't need many. Just one infantry battalion can beat the sixth division's lieutenant general commander and a backbone major general brigade commander into a pulp.
Sakai Tokutaro's face had not seen a smile since three hours ago, especially after the last two infantry brigades were thrown into the battlefield under Hisao Tani's cold eyes, it became even more livid.
This is a dilemma Sakai Tokutaro has never faced since he was in the army.
This time, the Japanese heavy artillery and small-caliber howitzers were unable to participate in the battle. The only heavy firearms that the infantry of both sides could use were the Japanese 70-mm infantry cannon, and the Chinese mortars. The rest could only be machine guns and rifles of the infantry of both sides.
And grenades, hand grenades.
This is a battlefield dominated by infantry.
According to reports from the front line, the Chinese had retreated to 500 meters inside the city, but that was also the final distance for the four thousand infantrymen to attack. The city area more than 2,000 meters wide and 500 meters deep was the battlefield for both sides.
Ten thousand people were fighting in a battlefield of nearly one square kilometer.
The Chinese relied on the ruins, the trenches they had dug earlier, and the remaining houses to fight for every inch of land.
The positions of the two warring parties are intertwined, with me among you and you among me. Bullets and grenades may fly from the front, rear, left, and right, and no inch of land is safe.
The Chinese military strength seemed to be endless and never depleted. According to the most conservative estimate, more than 1,200 Chinese soldiers were killed, but the opponent's numbers still did not decrease.
Although the front line did not report the number of battle losses, Sakai Tokutaro knew that no matter what the final outcome of the Battle of Matsue, the strength of his 11th Infantry Brigade had been reduced by at least 40%. The result of the large number of casualties among veterans could only be to supplement the second-line supplies.
.
Compared with the Chinese Army Major General who was only more than 1,000 meters away from him in a straight line and had cold sweat on his forehead, the Japanese Army Major General's mood was not very beautiful either.
It can be said that the four-hour fierce battle in Songjiang City made both warring parties, from the top commander to the frontline commander to the lowest level officers and soldiers, heartbroken.
If it had been any other time, the two sides might have taken a step back from each other, like two fierce beasts fighting each other. They could lick their own wounds and regain their strength while looking for their opponent's weaknesses with cold eyes, waiting for the next battle to kill them.
One hit kill.
But here, one side has no way to retreat, and if it retreats, thirty thousand or even hundreds of thousands of the entire army will die;
The other side has no choice but to advance, but if they don't advance, the losses of more than 3,000 casualties will be in vain. The honor of the entire "strongest division on the surface" will be thrown into the roaring Huangpu River, and even the honor of the entire Imperial Army will be destroyed.
They looked down upon and trampled upon the Chinese.
The commanders of both sides were like two gamblers who risked their lives and fortunes on the gambling table. Both of them, with red eyes, continued to invest their troops and put their reserves into the bloody battlefield.
As the commander-in-chief of Songjiang, Lieutenant General Wu also had an extremely firm will. His reply to the 108th Division and the 332nd Brigade had only one word: "Fight!".
The Sixth Division has 20,000 troops, and the 114th Division has the Kunisaki Detachment as friendly forces, and he also has them.
Although the 43rd Army of the Sichuan Army and the Songjiang Security Group only have less than 3,000 people, they also have strong willpower. Two consecutive days of fighting proved that they are trustworthy comrades. If you have comrades, you will have courage. No matter what, we are all together.
Songjiang City is over.
Both sides have a common meaning of, "Come on, stud! Whoever doesn't stud will be the grandson!"
I'm afraid that both warring parties had thought about this kind of battle situation, but no one had thought about it. They thought it would cause heavy casualties, but they never thought it would be so heavy.
At this point in the battle, Lieutenant General Wu even forgot that the military order he received was only to persist in Songjiang for three days and nights. If calculated from the early morning of November 5th when he received the military order, it has been more than 72 hours since the afternoon of November 8th. Even if it has been since
It has been nearly 48 hours since the Japanese army began their attack on the evening of November 6.
The time specified in the military order is no longer that important. What is important is that you cannot retreat even half a step. If you retreat further, the entire army will be destroyed.
The Lieutenant General of the 108th Division who rushed to Dongcheng saw with his own eyes that the main infantry brigade under his command was half disabled in a day of fierce fighting. He requested reinforcements from Lieutenant General Wu an hour ago.
But Lieutenant General Wu refused his request for help with an extremely firm and cold attitude. The 67th Army had two infantry divisions and four infantry brigades, each of which defended a city wall. The Japanese offensive was equally fierce in the two positions in the southwest. It seemed that there was no fighting in the North City, but in fact it was more
It is dangerous. Once the troop movement is discovered by the Japanese army, tens of thousands of Japanese troops several kilometers away from the city will swarm in. If Beicheng is breached and the artillery position closest to Beicheng is destroyed, Songjiang will surely perish.
The only mobile forces he can use now are Tang Dao's security battalion, the special service group directly under the military headquarters, and a supply camp.
A force of more than 3,000 people may seem large in normal times, but in this kind of battle situation where tens of thousands of people are fighting fiercely, it seems too weak, even though Tang Dao's guard camp is called 'Songjiang's sharpest sword'.
This is also his last trump card, and he will never use it until the most critical moment.
Liu Qiwen sent another telegram to the headquarters ten minutes ago, and the extremely strong major general burst into tears.
One of his infantry regiments lost half of its men yesterday evening. Another infantry regiment lost hundreds of people on the city wall fortifications this morning. After entering the street fighting, the two infantry regiments, which originally had more than 2,300 men, were able to contact each other.
There were no more than ten infantry companies. He later even threw the guard companies of two infantry regiments and the guard companies of his own brigade into the battlefield, as well as the two infantry companies sent by the Sichuan Army for reinforcements.
But the Japanese army was still too powerful to do anything. The deputy brigade commander led the brigade staff and cooks into the battle. Without reinforcements, he, the major general, would have to go to the front line with his pistol like the three colonels.
Lieutenant General Wu finally ordered that the more than 1,000 young men and women who were still in Songjiang City be organized into reserves. The more than 1,000 people were divided into five teams, each with about 200 people. Two teams were prepared for the two southwest cities, and the remaining three teams were selected from the elite by the special agent group.
Led by veterans, they threw themselves into the Dongcheng defense line.
Young and strong people were just ordinary people three days ago. Some of them were farmers, craftsmen, and salesmen. They were supposed to work from sunrise to sunset in the beautiful small town, and be peaceful and happy with their families, although it was not easy.
But, war came.
Death has also come.
At this time, there was no distinction between soldiers and civilians in Songjiang City, only Japanese and Chinese.
Bandits and defenders, only one can leave the city alive.
For these young men with no war experience, despite the shortage of troops, the infantry commanders still maintained enough rationality. Although they were physically strong, they could not even fire a gun when they entered the battlefield and could not become elite soldiers to stop the Japanese attack.
, the greatest possibility is to become a living target that consumes Japanese ammunition.
They first became stretcher bearers and learned how to drag out wounded soldiers from all corners of the battlefield under the hail of bullets and send them to the rear for treatment. The bodies of the soldiers were also among them. They experienced the battlefield and witnessed the cruelty of blood and flesh. This is what they must learn before going to the battlefield.
First lesson arrived.
The more cruel it is, the faster it must grow. Those who cannot grow or do not grow fast enough can only be eliminated.
Being eliminated on the battlefield can only lead to death.
Even so, in the direction of Dongcheng, the death rate of the young men who entered such a terrible battlefield for the first time was so high that it was chilling.
By about 5:30 in the afternoon, in half an hour, more than 260 people were killed in the battle just by the stretcher bearers who rescued the wounded and retrieved the bodies of our own soldiers, accounting for more than 40% of the young men who entered the battlefield.
Among them, more than 30 people were shot by the battlefield law enforcement team without hesitation because they were too afraid to fight and even chose to leave the team and flee.
Extraordinary measures are used in extraordinary times. The thunderbolt methods of the Army Major General who personally supervises the battle with a pistol and the cruel battlefield are the best lessons.
In just over an hour, the young men quickly completed the transformation from civilians to warriors. They no longer vomited in the face of hideous wounds, and no longer just faced bullets that they didn’t know were coming from which direction to blow up their heads.
Holding his head and hiding in the ruins, he cried in despair.
Fear and crying will not help you improve your scores. What will allow you to graduate from the battlefield school with high scores is courage and the courage to face hell.
However, the Japanese army deployed nearly 5,000 tactically proficient infantrymen on the battlefield in Dongcheng District. Except for the terrain, which was not as good as the Chinese defenders, the rest were better than the Chinese in terms of equipment and tactical literacy.
The advantage on the battlefield is gradually tilting towards the Japanese army.
The line of defense is crumbling.
Lieutenant General Wu has already picked up the phone and is preparing to use his last trump card. The already prepared guard battalion is about to enter the battlefield again.
At this time, the sunset fills the sky and the scenery is picturesque!
