January 5, 1936, exactly four o'clock in the morning.
Over Nanjing, the warning that originally sounded for 36 seconds and stopped for 24 seconds suddenly stopped.
Then, the air raid siren started to howl with a 6-second pause and a 6-second pause. Compared to the steady advance warning, this howl was more rapid and terrifying. It could be heard even in the air-raid shelter.
At the same time, a dense muffled thunder sounded on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Immediately, the air above the Yangtze River roared, and various strange hissing sounds joined together.
Then, the ground in Nanjing began to tremble non-stop. The city was boiling.
In the continuous tremors, buildings collapsed, countless smoke pillars rose, billowing smoke flew along the streets, bricks, tiles, and cement blocks soared into the air with the light of the fire, and fell thousands of meters away.
Almost nothing could be seen in half of the city, and only the firelight and loud noises could be felt everywhere in the thick smoke and dust. Huge cement blocks, asphalt road blocks, and remaining brick walls stuck to cement were lifted up, fell down, and lifted up again and again.
, and then fall, slowly becoming smaller and broken.
By 4:30 in the morning, the western and northern thirds of Nanjing were engulfed in flames, and the red light in the sky over Nanjing could be seen from more than ten kilometers away.
At first, there were still clusters of fires in the streets, and flames spurted out of the windows and licked the buildings.
Later, a sea of fire broke out into a sea, and large areas of buildings collapsed. Entire walls collapsed and fell into the fire.
In the end, this part of Nanjing has become a hell, like a pile of dark red coal. Black broken walls and ruins are standing there, surrounded by a strange red light. It is difficult to tell which is the fire and which is the melted steel bars.
molten iron.
At five o'clock sharp, the earth stopped shaking and the shelling ended.
…
For the first time, the loudspeaker in the air raid shelter shouted:
"Attention, the first person in charge of each unit. Attention, the first person in charge of each unit, go to the headquarters to attend the meeting immediately! Go to the headquarters to attend the meeting immediately! Repeat..."
In the dead silence of the air-raid shelter, Qiu Qiu pushed Xiaoqiang away with tears on his face, and said in a distorted and trembling voice:
"I...I have to go to a meeting..."
Qiu Qiu sobbed so much that she could not speak. All she could see was the traces of tears on her face.
Xiang Xiaoqiang hugged her tightly again, kissed her deeply on the lips, and said:
"Wait for me here!"
Then he took the helmet handed to him by his subordinates, put it on, called the driver, rushed to the air-raid shelter in three steps, then took the gas mask bag given to him by the guard, and sprinted to the car in the courtyard at a speed of 100 meters.
.
…
The main target of this round of shelling by the Qing army was the fortification group along the Yangtze River on the south bank, not the urban area. Moreover, most of the artillery involved in the shelling on the north bank had a range of less than 10,000 meters, and were not deployed along the river, but
Behind the mountains northwest of Pukou, the area around Yongning Town and Tangquan Town. Otherwise, the destruction area in Nanjing would have been more than one-third of the area adjacent to the river.
The most important monuments in Nanjing are concentrated in the Qinhuai District in the south and the Forbidden City in the east. They were not damaged in this bombardment. The headquarters of the People's Guard is located in the "Imperial City", outside the "Palace City", next to the Imperial Palace.
Daojie was also unscathed.
Cars speed down the deserted streets.
The air was filled with smoke and dust, and visibility was very low. There was also a burnt smell that could be smelled even through the glass.
The scattered bricks and large cement blocks on the road were blown up from the west.
The driver's face turned pale with excitement, and he tried hard to avoid it. He turned the steering wheel sharply to the left and right. The car's "squeak" screams echoed on the street from time to time, and he almost crashed several times.
on the building.
Xiang Xiaoqiang had no intention of reminding the driver to take it easy. He was leaning against the rear window and looking behind him. The sky to the west and north was glowing red, almost like sunset.
The car sped eastward and rushed out of Dong'anmen. The surrounding areas were completely dark. It was now outside the city. On the right side of the road were villages and fields, and on the left was the majestic Purple Mountain.
Slowly, car lights appeared in the distance in front and behind. They were probably going to the Supreme Command for a meeting.
"Commander," the driver shouted loudly, as if this could release the tension in his chest, "you have never been to the Supreme Command, have you?"
"No."
But Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that there was a Purple Mountain Fortress in Nanjing, which was a hub on the Yangtze River defense line. It is said that the belly of Purple Mountain was hollowed out.
Since the general mobilization of the Ming Dynasty, the War Headquarters has been established in it. Xiang Xiaoqiang also knows that Nanming dared to set up its capital under the Qing army's guns, and this Purple Mountain Fortress was by no means in vain.
The driver's tone was filled with pride:
"Okay, then you will soon see what it means to be impregnable."
The car turned onto a winding mountain road, and some small bunker fortifications flashed by from time to time. Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that the dark shooting port was glowing with metallic light. There were not only machine guns inside, but also cannons. He stared at them eagerly, "watching"
own car.
After a while, we drove onto a large flat area where many cars were already parked.
After getting out of the car, Xiang Xiaoqiang found that he was already halfway up the Purple Mountain, and the air was filled with the smell of trees and soil. The city was at his feet, and he could see that the area near the Yangtze River had turned dark red, flickering.
dark.
This is not a city at all, this is a piece of steel slag just poured out of the steel-making furnace.
Suddenly, many flashes of light flashed across the piece of "steel slag", and after a while, there was a dense dull sound.
The driver said excitedly:
"Look, we fired back, and the artillery on the Yangtze River Defense Line fired back!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang took a deep breath and felt a little happy in his chest: Now, it's time for Pukou to turn into hell.
…
On the mountain wall at the end of the parking lot, there is a tall, deep tunnel that leads directly into the heart of the mountain. Warm moisture rushes towards your face.
Xiang Xiaoqiang checked the documents at the entrance of the cave, while looking at the cold metallic light of the machine guns in the four shooting holes in the cement wall. Maybe if he made a mistake here, he would be beaten into pieces.
I walked along the tunnel and turned a few corners. Everywhere I came face to face with a machine gun pointing at me, and I had to turn around from the side.
This type is called a defensive entrance. No matter how many people there are, they can't get in. This is the entrance to the underground fortifications of the Maginot Line. To break through this twists and turns of the death alley, you can only use cloud bombs or drill into the ground.
There were bombs. But those were things that only came out decades later.
Xiang Xiaoqiang knew that this only meant one thing: in this era, this kind of fortress was insurmountable as long as it did not run out of ammunition and food.
Listening to the sound of leather boots echoing in the tunnel, looking at the thick cement walls, the thick steel beams and neat pipelines above the head, and looking at the words "impregnable", "vow to live and die with Nanjing" and "strong fortress" written on the wall
Waiting for the slogans, looking at the guards who were neatly dressed and saluting him... Xiang Xiaoqiang's confidence in the Purple Mountain Fortress and the Yangtze River Defense Line increased a little.
After turning a few more turns, he came to a guard station guarded by machine guns. He handed the gun to the guard and received a stack of pen and paper. The guard opened a door and saluted him with a bang.
The lights were bright, and there was a large command hall in front of him, with more than a dozen concrete pillars as thick as a round table leading up to the dome. Phones were ringing one after another, and male and female officers were running around with documents under their arms. A large map on the wall indicated the strategic situation around Nanjing.
. Several young female officers climbed up and down on the nearby shelves, holding various small flags and arrows on long poles, constantly marking them.
Above the hall, a very pleasant female voice echoed:
"...At 5:23, Qing bombers flew over Nanjing, and their target may be the Lishui Army Aviation Base..."
"...Deputy Commander Xie of the Army Air Force, please come to the command room of the Army General Staff Headquarters quickly...Deputy Commander Xie of the Army Air Force..."
"...Generals who are participating in the Supreme Meeting, please go to the Central Conference Room to attend the meeting as soon as possible... Generals who are participating in the Supreme Meeting, please go to the Central Conference Room as soon as possible to attend the meeting..."
"...Colonel Sun Bangguo of the Army General Staff, if you have an emergency call, please go to phone number 132 to answer it..."
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at all this with sighs. He had never thought that the Purple Mountain, which usually looked majestic and majestic, had a space as big as a small movie theater in the middle of the mountain.
Now that there is a war, the giant ant nest that the Ming Empire usually spent astronomical amounts of money to build is now in action!
A young female officer ran over, looked at his golden sword collar badge, and asked:
"Are you Commander Xiang of the People's Guard?"
"it's me."
"Okay, please come with me."
Inside a steel fire door is the central conference room.
The long and narrow conference room is just a tunnel, only more than three meters wide but more than ten meters long. There is a long conference table in the middle. At the end is a slide rail similar to an indoor shooting range. Several large map boards are stacked together and can be moved out by pressing a button.
The one you need.
Many top leaders of various military units have gathered here, and a gray-haired army general is speaking in front of the map. Everyone fell silent when they saw Xiang Xiaoqiang, and the generals in the room looked at him with eyes filled with excitement.
With some awe.
Xiang Xiaoqiang found a seat at the long table and quietly sat down to listen. Seeing that everyone was still looking at him, he scratched his head and smiled humbly at everyone.
His action obviously relaxed the atmosphere, and everyone nodded and laughed at him. The old admiral smiled slightly and started talking again.
An officer next to him softly introduced to Xiang Xiaoqiang that this was the commander-in-chief of the eastern section of the Yangtze River Defense Line, Cao Mingqin.
The Yangtze River Defense Line is divided into three defense sections: west, middle and east, and each section has a commander-in-chief.
Cao Mingqin has just collected a small-scale map of the whole country and replaced it with a large-scale map of Nanjing.
"... Generally speaking, each section of the Yangtze River defense line was bombarded at exactly 4 o'clock in the morning. According to the reports of each section, the most intense and intensive one at present is the Nanjing section. It reaches Qixia in the north and Jiangning in the south.
On the other side of the Yangtze River, the Qing army must have concentrated no less than 5,000 artillery pieces of various calibers. And the train gun also opened fire on us. It fired two rounds, one at four o'clock, and it fell.
Pass, one shot landed at Caochang Gate at 4:40. Fortunately, it did not hit our defense line. During the one-hour shelling, no one reported being bombarded by super-large-caliber artillery shells except Nanjing. Therefore, it can be concluded that
, its rate of fire is no more than two rounds per hour...
"After an hour of firepower preparation, at 5:05, 150 to 200 assault boats spread out and rushed from the opposite bank, traveling at a speed of about 9 to 10 knots. Excluding one operator, each boat can carry 8 infantrymen.
In other words, the attacking force is 1,200 to 1,600 people..."
Cao Mingqin cleared his throat and said with a smile:
"Except for the more than 40 ships that escaped back, the rest were wiped out on the river. This is the first time since our Yangtze River defense line was built that we have drunk the blood of Qing captives."
Applause rang out sparsely in the conference room, and slowly the applause became enthusiastic, mixed with excited chatter and laughter.
…
Xiang Xiaoqiang listened to the speeches of the senior officers and slowly got a complete impression of the Qing army's offensive.
The Yangtze River defense line was attacked basically from Anqing to Nantong, that is, the eastern section, Cao Mingqin's defense area. This was as expected. The Qing army did not make any attempts at the mountain defense line in the western and middle sections, and all artillery fire was
All poured into the eastern section.
The cities that were hit by shelling included: Anqing, Tongling, Wuhu, Ma'anshan, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, and Nantong. Casualties from various places have not been sent yet, but in Nanjing, the number of civilian casualties in an hour's shelling is estimated to be in the thousands.
The easternmost city of Shanghai was not bombarded because the Qing army did not mass on the north bank of Shanghai. There were two battleship squadrons of the Ming Dynasty cruising off the Yangtze River Estuary. Any large-scale assembly would result in fierce bombardment by naval guns.
Moreover, the density of military airports at the East China Sea Fleet Base in the Ningbo-Shanghai-Hangzhou area and the Zhoushan Islands is the highest, fully capable of protecting the maritime fleet from attacks by land-based aircraft.
This was a comprehensive attack. The Qing army relied on its strength to launch a surprise attack southward from various areas in the eastern section of the Yangtze River defense line. Because the front of the attack was too wide, the assault boats were too scattered, and the attack momentum was relatively weak everywhere, and they were all blocked by the defense line.
The turrets and machine guns were wiped out on the river, and nearly half of them fled back to the south bank.
At the same time, 200 bombers of the Qing army scattered and bombed various airports in the hinterland of Jiangnan. However, due to the dark night, scattered troops, and possibly the quality of the pilots, the damage to the airports in the Ming Dynasty was limited.
The battle results of anti-aircraft artillery units and air force squadrons from various places are now being reported one after another. However, according to several estimates that have been reported, the losses of both sides are limited. Basically, they cannot find each other in the dark. Neither of them is very good at fighting at night.
It is estimated that the Qing Dynasty should have 1,500 aircraft, all of which were imitation or imported Japanese aircraft of various types. Nearly half of them were old biplanes. The Ming Dynasty had about 1,000 aircraft, but the number of advanced monoplanes was equivalent to that of the Qing Dynasty.
.However, most of them are self-developed models. Whether they have superior performance compared with Japanese aircraft still needs to be tested in the upcoming battles.
It is estimated that there are about 1,200 tanks in the Qing Dynasty. The models are relatively mixed and most of them are self-produced. There are about 650 tanks in the Ming Dynasty, which are also self-produced. However, the generals are more optimistic about the defense of the Yangtze River Defense Line and believe that tanks are more suitable for the current battle situation.
Has little effect.
In other words, in this war, at least in the first stage, it was aircraft and artillery that played the decisive role.
Xiang Xiaoqiang heard that the Qing army still used the same thinking as World War I to attack, and the Ming army also used the same thinking as World War I to defend.
The Qing army first prepared intensive artillery fire, and then charged with infantry. However, they all charged in assault boats. Just like what often happened in World War I, they all fell to the defenders' machine guns and artillery.
The only difference was the aircraft. The Qing army's aircraft finally showed some talent. They did not bomb the city stupidly, but went straight to the Ming army airport.
But in such a large area as Jiangnan, with more than a dozen airports, the Qing army only dispatched about 200 aircraft, and probably only half of them were bombers. The attack density was too small and was a bit fussy. There was still a strong smell of World War I.
Xiang Xiaoqiang thought in his mind that if he could command 1,500 aircraft of the Qing Dynasty or 1,000 aircraft of the Ming Dynasty, then he would never dispatch only 200 aircraft in the first battle.
Moreover, we will not prepare firepower at four o'clock and bombard for an hour. Maybe we will not attack all fronts blindly.
Xiang Xiaoqiang calculated that if it were him, he would greatly shrink his troops and concentrate them on a small section. At the last moment before dawn, he would start the artillery bombardment at half past five, concentrating all the artillery fire, and bombarding intensively and viciously for half an hour or twenty minutes.
, put most of the assault boats in his hands into the water at once, and rushed to the other side under the cover of the smoke screen.
As for at least 1,000 aircraft, and according to the schedule, it should be half-dark when they fly over their respective targets. The bombing effect will be much better. Although the threat from ground anti-aircraft fire will also be greater, bombing the airport at night will have no impact on
The pilot's technical requirements are too high. He would rather suffer some losses than return without success.
In this way, by daybreak, there may be a breakthrough in the defense line. With a breakthrough, it is possible to transport the army to the south bank, and then the Qing army's huge strength advantage can be brought into play. The Qing army's several million troops
Once they come here, the Ming army will be almost done.
Xiang Xiaoqiang thought about it for a moment: What is this? This is a blitz.
God bless, I hope the Qing army will maintain its current tactics, never get carried away, and never drag it out like a war. Only in this way can the Ming Dynasty be saved.