"Hey, wait a minute, I'll pick up Commander Cao for you, hold on!"
In the telephone exchange room of Purple Mountain Fortress, the operator was also frightened by the horrifying report. Cold sweat began to break out. He hurriedly pulled out the plug of the line and inserted it into another socket.
In the office of Cao Mingqin, commander of the eastern section of the Yangtze River Defense Line, several phones were ringing at the same time. Cao Mingqin wiped his sweat while grabbing one phone to issue orders, and from time to time he picked up another phone to listen to battle reports.
Several secretaries nearby each held a microphone and reported the situation noisily to the commander. They all said that their line was the most important.
The old man Cao Mingqin held the microphone on his shoulder, took out the medicine bottle from his pocket, poured out two antihypertensive pills and took them.
At this time, another phone rang, and a secretary jumped to pick it up. After hearing a few sentences, he became shocked and shouted to Commander Cao:
"Commander, I just...just received a report from Dinghuai Gate Observation Fort Sun Baoguo, saying that the Qing captives broke through at his place!"
"Huh?!" Cao Mingqin put down the two phones in his hand and directly took the microphone handed over by his secretary, "I'm kidding, how is this possible!...Hello, I'm Cao Mingqin!...Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?"
There was only a "rumbling" explosion on the other end of the phone, and suddenly a voice shouted:
"Hey! Who are you?"
"I am Cao Mingqin! Ding Huaimen Observation Fort? Where is Sun Baoguo?"
"Chief Cao!" the man shouted, crying, "Chief Sun has died for his country!"
Cao Mingqin felt a chill in his heart, but he was not completely disappointed. After all, someone still answered the phone, which meant that at least the Dinghuaimen Observation Fort was not lost. He asked sharply:
"Did the Qing army break through?"
The man replied:
"Back to my lord, the defense line is still holding fast. Just now, the Qing army forcibly crossed over a hundred people, and there were still about ten left at the observation fort. They blew open the entrance and stormed in. Chief Sun died for his country! Now the subordinates have led the people to eliminate them.
This small group of Qing troops!"
Cao Mingqin didn't speak for a few seconds. His tense heart relaxed instantly, and a sense of relief filled his body. Just as he thought, the defense line was not so easy to break through.
…
In the Dinghuai Gate Observation Fort, the Qing soldier who had learned the southern tongue for a long time put down the phone, touched his sweat, and laughed at his companions. The dozen or so Qing soldiers around him also laughed, and soon everyone was laughing.
, it seems that otherwise the tense nerves cannot be relaxed.
Shells from the other side continued to fall all around, the observation fort was shaking, the light bulbs flickered on and off, and a lot of dust kept falling.
When they crossed by force just now, they felt like they were being slaughtered and slaughtered by others. Now they finally made it alive and occupied a command fort. I'm afraid the surrounding Ming army didn't know yet.
The leading Qing soldier sergeant lay down at the observation port and looked out. At this time, he was condescending and had a wide field of vision. It felt completely different.
I saw the vastness of the river and the smoke of gunpowder floating in the air.
The sharp lines of fire drawn by tracer bullets on the river were greatly reduced, and were replaced by water columns that kept rising, becoming more and more dense.
Now the firepower of the Ming army's rapid-fire artillery is not as good as before. These small-caliber rapid-fire artillery are fired in the open air. At this time, most of them have been silenced by the continuous artillery fire from the other side. The Ming army has mobilized the large and medium-caliber artillery on the defense line to fire into the river.
Shot. These large and medium-caliber guns are installed in artillery forts and are well protected. However, their original mission was to fire at the Pudong River and suppress the artillery fire from the other side. Now they have to lower their barrels and shoot towards the river to compensate.
Rapid-fire cannon gap.
Heavy water jets rose up in the ant-like group of assault boats, showing the helplessness of cannons to fight mosquitoes.
Originally, in order to save assault boats, the Qing army stipulated that once the assault boats reached the other side, they must immediately return to transport the second batch of soldiers. But now more and more assault boats are piling up on the river beach, and even the operators have been killed.
Many assault boats were filled with blood and water, and the corpses of Qing soldiers were soaked in them. Although these assault boats escaped the gunfire and reached the shore, the Qing soldiers inside did not even have the chance to disembark, and they were all shot to death by intensive machine guns. A small number of them were shot to death by intensive machine guns before they even had the chance to disembark.
The Qing soldiers lurked in the mudflats or under the river embankments, holding their heads and dodging, trying their best to find the blind spot for shooting. Howling bullets and strange screams of flames passed over their heads.
There was a strong smell of gasoline and burnt smell everywhere. The white smoke of smoke bombs and the black smoke of gasoline were mixed together, drifting by like ghosts.
On the river beach, the reeds were burning, and there was no water in the puddles below. It was completely filled with blood. Barbed wire fences were exposed where the reeds were burned out. These broken barbed wire fences were burnt black and covered with corpses of Qing soldiers.
.
What's even more frightening is that the Ming army has laid countless mines on the river beach, and the shelling for so long has not cleared them all. A Qing soldier was on fire, waving his arms and walking hard, when black smoke suddenly rose from his feet.
He was blown up into the air and completely freed.
Since the war started in the early morning of January 5, it was not until today that this legendary Yangtze River defense line fully demonstrated its power and was truly launched.
The Qing army sergeant looked at this situation, gritted his teeth, kicked Sun Baoguo's body away, pointed his gun at Sun Baoguo's adjutant, and ordered:
"Quick, call and give the order!"
…
From January 5th to 22nd, there were seventeen consecutive days of shelling against each other. Naturally, the Pukou area was smashed like the surface of the moon, while the Ming army endured a more brutal test. The artillery density of the Qing army was that of the Ming army.
Several times of
On the defensive line.
The city wall on the west and north side of Nanjing has long been in ruins. On the defense line, many independent and smaller machine gun forts have been destroyed. Even those steel and concrete forts several meters thick have cracks to varying degrees. There are piles of weapons around them.
It was so full of broken cement that many steel bars were exposed.
Although the eastern section of the Yangtze River Defense Line is called the "Oriental Maginot" by Xiang Xiaoqiang, it is still very different from the Maginot Line.
The biggest feature of the Maginot Line of Defense is that the Kungfu is basically underground, with very few parts exposed above the ground. It can be said that it does not care much about shelling. However, the Yangtze River Defense Line is close to the riverside. Although there is a complete underground part, the drainage pressure is quite high.
It is large and cannot be dug deep like the Maginot Line without scruples. It relies heavily on thick cement above-ground fortresses. Therefore, although it is still strong, the enemy's artillery bombardment is much more effective after all.
…
Sun Baoguo's adjutant was forced by the Qing army's gun. He tremblingly picked up the phone and ordered:
"Command all lines..."
The Qing army sergeant whispered:
"Machine gun cease fire, machine gun team withdraws into the tunnel!"
The adjutant's face was earthy:
"They...won't believe it."
The Qing army sergeant put the bayonet closer to his throat:
“How will you know if you don’t try!”
The adjutant was forced to have no choice but to speak into the microphone:
"Machine gun cease fire, machine gun team withdraws into the tunnel!"
An incredible voice came from the microphone:
"What? Please repeat it!"
The adjutant looked at the Qing soldier sergeant and said bravely:
"Order the machine guns to cease fire and all machine gun crews to withdraw into the tunnel!"
The other end of the phone was stunned for a few seconds and argued:
"Sir, that line of defense will be lost!"
The Qing soldier's bayonet stabbed him in the chin again. His face turned white and he shouted into the microphone:
"This is an order! The commander said so, he has his own arrangements! Obey the order!"
After saying that, he hung up the phone abruptly.
The order was passed on. Gradually, the sound of machine guns on both sides became fainter. Some machine gun forts questioned the order and still insisted on shooting. But more machine gun forts had stopped shooting. The machine gun teams separated the machine guns and carried them separately.
, enter the defense line channel through the small door behind you, leaving an empty machine gun bunker.
In a moment, a large number of Qing soldiers jumped out of the assault boats and rushed onto the river beach. Except for a small number that were blown away by artillery shells and mines, most of them rushed up to the defense line intact.
The dozen or so Qing soldiers in the observation fort saw a large number of friendly troops rushing up at their feet, and they danced and cheered with excitement.
The phone rang harshly, the fort became quiet, and the Qing army sergeant grabbed the phone.
"Hey, what's going on?" Cao Mingqin's voice almost pierced his eardrums, "Why don't you shoot anymore? Who gave the order?"
The Qing army sergeant shouted:
"Sir, our Chief Sun has already died for his country, no one has given any orders!"
The phone hung up with a bang, and there was no nonsense at all. A few minutes later, the silent machine gun fort started spitting out tongues of fire again.
"Damn it," the Qing army sergeant cursed, "the Ming army corrected it so quickly, if it were us, we would have been in chaos for half an hour!"
He was about to force the adjutant to give another false order when another Qing soldier lay down at the observation entrance and suddenly cheered outside:
"Hey! Brother, we are here! Come here, we are inside!"
Others immediately came to the observation port and saw a few Qing soldiers climbing up the river embankment and crouching towards the observation fort, and they all started to greet them.
But the explosion outside was deafening, and the few Qing soldiers outside seemed not to hear the shouts at all, and still formed a fighting formation to surround them. One of them was carrying a flamethrower on his back, and the spray gun in his hand was igniting flames, and fire beads continued to drip to the ground.
.
He found a good position under the "cover" of his companions, lay on the ground, lowered his helmet, his eyes showed a cold light, and the flame jet was aimed at the window of the observation fort.
The smiles of several Qing soldiers in the fort froze, and a terrifying cold air ran through their bodies from behind.
The sergeant burst into a desperate cry:
“One of our own————!!!”
With a scream, he watched helplessly as a fire dragon sprayed on his face, and then darkness fell.
…
"Okay, one hit! Good job!"
The flamethrower praised himself, and then sprayed a second time. The small observation fort was already filled with fire, and black smoke and flames were spraying out from the observation window and the rear door.
Several Qing soldiers surrounded him, and two men jumped down the concrete tunnel, pressed against the wall and threw a grenade into the small door.
There was a loud noise, and a large amount of smoke and dust spewed out from the door. The flames in the fort were blown out by the strong air wave. Several Qing soldiers filed into the observation fort and shouted with a sense of accomplishment: