Chapter 223: A different battle for defense of Nanjing (IV)
The third regiment of the Second Brigade of the Teaching Corps was stationed on the front line of Zijin Mountain. The regiment commander was Li Xikai, the regiment deputy Peng Yuexiang and Zhu Daoyuan. The regiment was completely organized by the German Army. In addition to the three infantry battalions, there was also a machine gun company, an 82 mortar platoon, a howitzer company, a chariot defense artillery company, a communication company, and a transport company, a total of sixteen companies.
After accepting the task of defending the Zijin Mountain position and blocking the enemy's slugging, Li Xikai followed Zhang Zhizhong's deployment and changed the previous linear defensive position arrangements, but instead placed the howitzer company on Fugui Mountain. The 82nd Mortar Platoon was deployed at the commanding height of the Tiger Cave in Zijin Mountain with Lu Yuding's Third Battalion, and the rest of the troops were concentrated on the second peak of Zijin Mountain, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and the Xiaoling Mausoleum in Ming, which echoed the third battalion in Tiger Cave.
At 1:00 noon, the 33rd Division, the vanguard of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army, arrived at the front line of Zijin Mountain and connected with the Third Battalion.
The battle began to heat up. The 16th Division was prepared, with field artillery, chariots, cavalry and infantry all in battle; the 2nd Brigade and the 3rd Regiment were waiting for work, with excellent weapons, and with the fortifications, the two sides immediately fought hard. Later, the Japanese army raised hot air balloons, and there were observers sitting inside to command and guide artillery combat. More than half of the third battalion suffered casualties and retreated to the second peak of Zijin Mountain. The Japanese army followed one after another, and both sides fought fiercely at the second peak.
Li Xikai saw the Japanese planes, tanks, and field artillery cooperated in an orderly manner and the offensive was continuous. He knew that today's battle was very dangerous. He strictly ordered howitzers to ignore casualties and would definitely provide firepower support to the main force of the regiment. He left the command post in the tunnel and went to the line of fire, and led the troops to use the terrain to fight fiercely with the enemy.
The teaching corps has been stationed in Zijin Mountain for four years. The soldiers are familiar with the terrain here and the fortifications are strong, so the Japanese army cannot do so for a while.
But the balance between the two sides did not last long. When the howitzer company's position was destroyed by Japanese planes, the mortar platoon's position was then destroyed. Without heavy fire support and suppression, the Japanese attack became even more fierce. Later, the Japanese simply fired poison gas bombs, attempting to successfully attack.
Li Xikai knew that the Japanese army would sooner or later release poison gas, so he was already prepared, but seeing that the troops suffered too much casualties and had lost the ability to hold their positions and compete with the enemy, he decided to retreat, preserve their vitality, and return to the city to fight again.
After contacting the street fighting troops in the city, the news was that the Japanese 9th Division had already attacked the city, and the 103rd Division and the 112th Division were fighting fiercely with the enemy, requiring the Third Regiment to hold its position no matter how it was, and it was absolutely necessary to let the 16th Division enter the city at this time.
Li Xikai had no choice but to adjust the deployment and asked Peng Yuexiang to lead the first battalion, the chariot defense artillery company, the communication company, the transport company and the artillery that had lost the artillery to retreat to the city, defended against the city wall, and he and Zhu Daoyuan led the second battalion to cover the palace, fight step by step, and gradually retreat into the city.
Seeing that the defending army was loose, the 16th Division immediately chased after him, forcing the Second Battalion to retreat one after another and retreated directly into the Taiping Gate.
At this time, it was already 4 pm. The street fighting of the 103rd Division and the 112th Division in the city was very difficult. A regiment commander was killed in the 103rd Division, and the losses of the 112th Division were also very heavy. The battle was very hard, but in order to ensure the completion of the combat plan of the 87th Division and the 88th Division to fight the vanguard of the enemy's 6th Division, Huo Shouyi commanded the troops and was still fighting with the enemy. Seeing that the 2nd Brigade and 3rd Regiment of the Second Brigade of the General Corps retreated into the city, Huo Shouyi knew that his troops were too weak and it was impossible to hold the enemy in the city for how long it took. Even if he sacrificed all his money, he could not play the task of persevering until night. There was no way, the Japanese firepower and the defenders were not on the same level as the air-to-ground three-dimensional combat. Relying on his own destruction alone, he had the courage to sacrifice and had no possibility of completing the task.
Huo Shouyi immediately contacted Wang Jingjiu to report on the street fighting situation and the situation where the troops defending Zijinshan had retreated to the city, and asked the 87th Division when the 88th Division could launch an assault on the enemy. The street fighting troops died too much, and they probably could not last long.
Wang Jingjiu and Sun Yuanliang were also anxious at this time. After the 6th Division of the Japanese army arrived, they immediately attacked the defensive positions of the three gendarmeries in Xiaoshanling. It may be that they felt that the number of defenders was limited. The 6th Division concentrated their firepower and troops to attack as soon as they came up, and there were aircraft to assist in the battle. The 88th Division and the 87th Division had no chance to attack the enemy at all. If they had attacked at this time, there would be only one result, that was, the entire army was wiped out under the enemy's firepower.
It seems that the enemy can only wait until it stops attacking after dark before it can launch a raid.
After receiving Huo Shouyi's call, Wang Jingjiu and Sun Yuanliang knew that the plan to raid the enemy was difficult to achieve, because the 103rd Division was adapted from a miscellaneous unit after all, and the 112th Division was simply the Northeast Army. Although it still retains its tough fighting will, it has too few troops. No matter how excellent or advanced the tactics are adopted, it cannot make up for the gap with the enemy.
Wang Jingjiu had no choice but to send a telegram to Zhang Zhizhong, report the situation in the city in detail, requesting to abandon the original combat plan, and the entire army retreated towards Pukou.
Zhang Zhizhong thought that it would soon be dark, and as long as it persisted until dark, the troops could retreat safely. Therefore, he ordered Huo Shouyi to command the 103rd Division and the 112th Division to teach the 2nd Brigade and the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the Corps to fight the enemy in streets, and ordered Xiao Yueling to firmly defend the front line of the Zhonghua Gate, and asked the 87th Division to send troops to reinforce if necessary. After dark, the 88th Division and the 87th Division concentrated their forces to counterattack the enemy, and then the entire army withdrew from Nanjing.
Wang Jingjiu knew that Zhang Zhizhong meant that he was afraid that the entire army would be disintegrated when retreating at this time, so he ordered the 87th Division to draw a main regiment to reinforce Xiaoshan Ling. The main force and the main force of the 88th Division remained motionless, just waiting for the darkness to counterattack against the enemy, causing chaos in the enemy, and then retreat calmly.
Lieutenant General Yoshizuru Ryosuke, the commander of the Japanese 9th Division, had already entered Nanjing City at this time, and the division headquarters was located near Tongji Gate. In view of the significant losses caused by the Seventh Regiment of the Ninth Division when the 7th Regiment of the Ninth Division was broken through to the city gate by the Jian and the 35th Regiment, Lieutenant General Yoshizuru Ryosuke ordered to kill all the Chinese people who were meeting to resist. Unfortunately, except for the revenge bullets and grenades, even a commoner had not seen this huge Nanjing city.
Lieutenant General Yoshizuru felt something was wrong, so he contacted several other divisions that were sieging the city to inquire about the situation. After this, he found out that except for the 9th Division entering the city, the 6th Division was still attacking the Yuhuatai line. The 16th Division had just arrived at the city wall and was organizing the siege.
Yoshizuru Ryosuke immediately informed that he had entered the city and asked the 16th Division to quickly divide his troops, bypass the Chinese army, and enter the city from Guanghua Gate and Tongji Gate.
When Lieutenant General Nakajima Atsugo heard that the 9th Division had entered the city, he was afraid that the credit would be taken over by Yoshisuke Ryosuke, so he immediately ordered a unit to turn to Guanghua Gate and enter the city. He led the main force and concentrated his firepower to break through the defense line in front of the defenders.
The 16th Division concentrated its main force and naturally broke into the city. Unfortunately, the story of the Tongji Gate explosive explosion occurred again at the city gate. More than a thousand Japanese who were excited to enter the city either flew into the sky or buried under bricks and rubble, forming a pile of stinky meat.
Taking advantage of Lieutenant General Nakajima Atsuko's loss of consciousness, the defending 112th Division troops led Li Xikai and the others to quickly transfer.
The Nanjing city is too big and has many solid buildings. Although the 103rd Division, 112th Division and the Third Regiment suffered heavy losses, the Japanese army did not fall well and could be attacked anytime and anywhere. However, the Japanese army attacking Nanjing city was all elite troops, and they received strict urban street fighting training. After steadily attacking, the progress was still relatively rapid.
Seeing that it was dark, the Japanese army was wearing torches and flashlights and began to advance towards the division center. Seeing that the time was almost the same, Wang Jingjiu and Sun Yuanliang ordered the military police force commanded by Xiao Shan to withdraw defenses and let the Japanese 6th Division enter the Zhonghua Gate.
At this time, the military police force commanded by Xiao Shan order had reached a critical moment of life and death. At the beginning, due to the late arrival of the 6th Division, there was no war on the front line of Yuhuatai. After the vanguard of the 6th Division arrived, there was a Japanese plane in the sky. The 87th Division and the 88th Division could not dispatch to assault the enemy, so they had to rely on the military police force to block the attack. When the main force of the 6th Division arrived, the position could no longer support it. Under the pressure of the Japanese army, the casualties became heavier and heavier, and the defense line continued to shrink. In the end, they could only defend a few key points.
When he received the order to retreat, Xiaoshan Order's troops were almost exhausted, and only one regiment of the 87th Division that came to support later was relatively complete. Xiaoshan Order looked at the Zhonghua Gate, wiped his tears, and said, "Brothers, as long as I don't die, I will definitely come back to see you." He ordered the retreat.
As soon as the side retreated, the Japanese army immediately entered the Zhonghua Gate. With a series of loud noises, the Japanese army in the first brigade of the first brigade repeated the story of several city gates. Before the Japanese army could come back to their senses, the 87th Division, which had been enduring for a long time, launched a counterattack. Wang Jingjiu waved his hand and all the concentrated artillery fires of the two divisions began to speak. Wang Jingjiu's order was very simple, to shoot all the shells and knock the Japanese army out. Then, the main forces of the two divisions rushed out from both sides without waiting for the artillery fire to stop. For a moment, the sound of charge, the sound of shell explosions, and the sound of light and heavy machine guns and rifles shooting sounded like a storm.
When Lieutenant General Gun Guyawa, the commander of the 6th Division, saw the Chinese army attacking a large scale, thought that the Chinese defenders deliberately launched the Ninth Division. The 16th Division entered the city and concentrated their main force to clean up themselves. He hurriedly ordered the artillery to block the artillery. The troops quickly retreated backwards, established positions, and stood firm for assistance.
The Japanese army retreated, which was equivalent to selling its back to the 87th Division and the 88th Division. After a long period of concealment, it only killed the man-eating demon Gu Shoufu complained. Unfortunately, the Japanese artillery fire was too fierce. Wang Jingjiu and Sun Yuanliang had to stop when they saw the good news and ordered the pursuit to stop, and the entire army retreated. He also notified Huo Shouyi that the 87th Division and the 88th Division had completed their mission and could order the street fighting troops to quickly break off contact with the enemy, and the entire army retreated from Nanjing in separate routes and retreat to Pukou.
Chapter completed!