December 7, 2:00 a.m.

Xu Shijiu was awakened from his sleep by the huge explosion, and hurriedly woke up the black blind man who was sleeping like a dead pig, and then climbed up the Hongjue Temple Tower. When he reached the top floor, Gao Shenxing had already been there. In fact, Gao Shenxing had never come down. He stayed on the top floor all night and sent others to leave him alone to see him.

"Captain, Koji Wumeng has started preparing for artillery fire." Gao Shenxing pointed to the direction of Dongshan Bridge.

Xu Shijiu looked in the direction of Gao Shenxing's finger and saw that the direction of Dongshan Bridge was still drowsy, and there was a little red light shining from time to time in the darkness. Needless to say, it must be that Xiaoji Wuben's field artillery group was firing. At the foot of Zutang Mountain, it had been blown into a sea of ​​fire. The burst of fire illuminated the entire frontier position as bright as day.

"Strange, what can I do when I was young at night?" Hei Xiazi also climbed to the top of the tower panting, "Isn't this a mess? Isn't it just a mess? Isn't it? Isn't it?

Xu Shijiu and Gao Shenxing were also confused. During the Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese army would occasionally launch artillery attacks at night, but large-scale cluster artillery attacks like now are quite rare. Generally speaking, the Japanese army would only prepare for intensive artillery fire before entering the infantry attack. Could it be that the Japanese Naobi would launch a night attack?

The two's speculation was quickly confirmed. Half an hour after the shelling, Orihito was indeed sent to the infantry and launched an attack on the frontier positions at the foot of the mountain. The light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and 92 infantry artillery of the Chinese and Japanese armies were quickly turned into a pot of congestion. Judging from the sound of guns and cannons, Orihito invested no less than one squadron.

Gao Shenxing said: "It seems that Xiao Ri Wuben is really anxious, and he will fight at night.

Xu Shijiu didn't say anything, but took out a cannon in his mouth, and then tugged it silently. He intuition told Xu Shijiu that things might not be that simple. Xiao Riwuben suddenly launched a night attack, which was likely to hide other purposes, but he couldn't think of what conspiracy Xiao Riwuben had?

While Xu Shijiu was thinking hard, a dazzling red light suddenly rose under the night sky on the west side of Zutang Mountain. At this time, the southern foot of Zutang Mountain had already formed, but the western foot of Zutang Mountain was still silent, so the fire seemed particularly abrupt. After the red light burst out for about five or six seconds, a faint explosion came.

Gao Shenxing's face changed slightly and he said in a deep voice: "The direction is southwest and is about two thousand meters away. It should be that the thunder buried by the engineer squad on Ninglang Highway was detonated!"

"Speaking east and attacking west!" Xu Shijiu suddenly woke up and said in a deep voice, "Xiao Riwuben sang "Song of the West" and launched a fierce attack on the frontier positions on the surface, but in fact, the engineers secretly repaired the Ninglang Highway. Humph, Xiao Riwuben thought it was beautiful, but they were still a little tender when playing thirty-six strategies in front of us Chinese."

After saying that, Xu Shijiu ordered Heixiazi again, "Heizi, immediately notify the cannon company and target Ninglang Highway, shoot the various corps according to the calibration, and shoot twenty rapid shots!"

"Yes." Hei Xiaozi stood at attention and ran away again.

Hu Jie's artillery position was located in an open space on the right side of Hongjue Temple. There was a man of artemisia on the open space. It was difficult for the Japanese aerial scouts to discover. As for the Japanese artillery at the foot of the mountain, it was impossible to threaten because of the obstruction of the ridge. Heixiazi took five minutes to arrive at the artillery position, and then rows of artillery shells rose from the artillery position.

Xu Shijiu and Gao Shenxing raised their telescope at the same time. After the shells soared into the air for about ten seconds, a ball of flames suddenly burst into view. With the flames generated by the explosion of the mortar shells, they saw that the dark figures of Japanese troops were everywhere on the road. As expected, the Nishinobu was repairing the Ninglang Highway, which had been dug by the 58th Division.

Gao Shenxing said: "Captain, Xiao Ri is really planning to take a detour."

Xu Shijiu said "um" and turned around and hurriedly got off the Hongjue Temple Tower. He had to report the situation to the division headquarters immediately. Feng Shengfa ordered four l50mm caliber heavy mortars from the artillery battalion directly under the 58th Division to block the Ninglang Highway. Xiao Riwu originally wanted to repair the Ninglang Highway at night, but there was no door!

A few minutes later, four l50mm caliber heavy mortars hidden behind Hongjue Temple opened fire. Zutangshan, the main peak of Niushou Mountain and dozens of Maxim heavy machine guns on Xiongshan also opened fire violently. Although the lethality of the l50mm caliber heavy mortars was strong, due to the small number of artillery, the killing effect was actually very limited. What really posed a threat to the Japanese army was the dozens of Maxim heavy machine guns on Zutangshan, Niushou Mountain and Xiongshan.

Although the linear effective range of the Maxim heavy machine gun is only about 600 meters, it still has strong lethality when shooting at a large elevation angle!

During the Battle of the Lem River in World War I, the German army fired at an elevation angle of 400 Maxim heavy machine guns from four thousand meters away. The bullets falling from the sky formed a huge death barrage, leaving the British and French coalition forces hiding in the trenches without any escape. In the first instance, more than 60,000 British and French coalition forces died. Yes, it was not casualties but deaths!

During the Battle of Shanghai, the 58th Division lost a lot of weapons and equipment, and only 8 were left in 72 Maxim heavy machine machines. Later, although the Ministry of Military Affairs added a batch of heavy machine guns to the 58th Division, there were only 40. Among them, 12 heavy machine guns were transferred to Jianshan, and the 19th Brigade destroyed 2 more, and there were only 34 Maxim heavy machine guns on Niushou Mountain and Xiong Mountain.

But even though there were only 34 Maxim heavy aircraft, it still caused great damage to the Japanese army.

34 Maxim heavy machine guns were shot down at the Zutangshan section of Ninglang Highway" and fired violently. The scorching bullets and bullets falling from the sky were intertwined into a huge barrage of death, leaving the Japanese army who were repairing the road without any escape. Even hiding into the ditch on the side of the road was useless, and the quilts and bullets would still be shot through.

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Tani Suo was awakened by his orderly soldier Oyama Yong. Soon, Nakamura Seiichi, and Shinono Ikkyu walked into his tent with a serious expression. Nakamura Seiichi was still a little frightened. Obviously, the engineering corps had a problem repairing the Ninglang Highway, otherwise, Nakamura Seiichi would not have such a face.

Sure enough, Seiichi Nakamura lowered his head and said, "The division commander, the engineer corps was killed and injured by the heavy machine guns of the China Army. The casualties were too great and it was impossible to continue to repair the road."

"Nani?" Tanisuo said incredibly, "Ninglang Highway is at least 2,000 meters away from Niushou Mountain. Can the heavy machine guns of the Chinese army have such a long and effective range?"

Niudaoman coughed lightly and said, "Teacher Commander, the Chinese army is taking elevation shooting."

Gu Shoufu's expression froze. Speaking of which, he was also a top student who graduated from the Mainland University with the third place. He also studied in the UK and was not unfamiliar with the famous Battle of the Rhyme in World War I. However, after returning to China, he did not come into contact with Western weapons for a long time, so he gradually forgot about the Maxim heavy machine gun and elevation shooting.

When Tanisuo took Niujima Manta, Seiichi Nakamura and Ichikawa Shino out of the command center, many wounded soldiers from the engineering corps had been transported from the front, and were everywhere in the central station. There were at least three or four hundred people. Many of the wounded soldiers had died, but more were wailing and groaning. The whole scene was like a ghost realm on earth.

Niu Daoman whispered: "Second Commander, why don't you take the second plan?

Gu Shoufu didn't say anything. It would take at least five more days to take the second plan. How could he know that the 9th and 13th Division, which were sent to the condemnation army in Shanghai, wouldn't conquer Nanjing within five days? But the problem now is that the 6th Division would not be able to take the second plan if it didn't want to, because the first plan and the third plan would not work at all.

After pondering for a long time, Tani Shou finally agreed to adopt the second plan, namely, to build a simple highway to Banqiao Town, and asked the Chief of Staff Shirouhiro to send a telegram to Shirouji Momatsu, the commander of the 114th Division, asking the Momatsu Division to transfer the 114th Engineer Regiment to assist the 6th Division in the emergency repair of the simple highway.

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During the whole day on December 7, there was no large-scale battle in Niushou Mountain.

However, compared with the relatively quiet Niushou Mountain battlefield, the battle in the Chunhua Town battlefield guarded by Wang Yaowu's 51st Division has entered a white-hot stage.

As mentioned earlier, unlike the 58th Division's concentration of troops to defend three hills, the 51st Division has set up a frontal defense posture and arranged four main regiments in a tiered manner. The 301st Regiment guards Songshu as the front barrier in Chunhua Town, the 306th Regiment and the 302nd Regiment guard Hushu, Fangshan as the flank position of Chunhua Town, and the 305th Regiment stays behind as the reserve team.

On the 5th, Songshu and Hushu were attacked by two main divisions of the Japanese army, with heavy casualties and forced to retreat. Chunhua Town and Fangshan positions were exposed to the Japanese army.

On the 6th, the Japanese army bombed Chunhua Town and Fangshan positions with heavy artillery and aviation, and spiraled into the chariots to launch a strong attack from the front. When the battle was in full swing, an infantry brigade of the 35th Infantry Regiment of the 9th Division of the Japanese army detoured to Fangshan. The 302nd Regiment guarding Fangshan was shaken and the position was lost.

On the 7th, the Japanese army set up 92 infantry artillery on Fangshan, and mortars were slammed by the mortars. At the same time, armored vehicles, tanks, and cavalry cooperated with infantry to launch a continuous attack from the front. Until the evening, Ji Hongru, the commander of the 301st Regiment, was seriously injured, 12 company commanders were killed, and more than 1,400 officers and soldiers below the platoon were killed, and almost all the 301st Regiment were wiped out.

On the 8th, the 58th Division gave up Chunhua Town, and a gap was opened by the Japanese army in the outer defense line in Nanjing.

After Chunhua Town was lost, the Japanese army on the middle route could go straight outside Guanghua Gate along the Ju (Jurong) Ning (Nanjing) Highway. In fact, the Nanjing defense battle had entered the battle for Fukuo position. It was no longer meaningful for the 58th Division to continue to defend Niushou Mountain to the death. Yu Jishi, the commander of the 74th Army, immediately ordered the 58th Division to retreat to Fukuo position.

After receiving the order, Xu Shijiu's depression was imaginable.
Chapter completed!