Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 192: The Outer Battle Begins

"Brothers, Commander Yue's suggestion is very good. He is also a famous defensive warfare expert. We should not trouble two people for one thing. I have decided to let the guerrilla column guard Yuhuatai.
The guerrilla column is now in an awkward position. The Military Commission has clearly stated that it is directly under the 88th Division and its organization is a directly affiliated regiment. The 527th Regiment has also been returned to the 264th Brigade. You can call him the commander or the regiment commander.

The 262nd and 264th Brigades are deployed in the south city as reserve forces. Once the Fukuo position is broken by the Japanese, the guerrilla column will retreat to the south city and fight street battles with the Japanese. Is there any difficulty for Commander Yue?"

Yue Qianli immediately said no and said loudly:
"As long as the other Fukuo positions are not lost, the Yuhuatai position will definitely be defended. As long as the people are there, the position will be there!"

Sun Yuanliang had his own thoughts when he asked the guerrilla column to guard Yuhuatai. Yue Qianli's troops were now independent and separated from him by a layer. In a positional war of attrition, Yue Qianli's troops would naturally be the first to go forward.
This will greatly reduce the casualties of the 262nd and 264th Brigades, and the troops will not have to worry about losing their foundation with him.

Yue Qianli also knew his little thoughts and was too lazy to expose him. Although Yuhuatai was not easy to defend, it would be no problem to defend it for a few days like in another time and space. In this way, the essence of the 88th Division could be preserved and would come in handy when street fighting broke out.

After Sun Yuanliang arranged the defense, he found an excuse to leave and became a hands-off boss again. He had been having a hot affair with that female student recently, and he couldn't let it delay his work. With Yue Qianli's guerrilla column to support him, he could still do whatever he wanted for a few more days.

Everyone knew about Master Sun's hobby, so it was good that he left. Zhu Chi and Gao Zhisong just happened to have something to discuss with Yue Qianli.
Sun Yuanliang, this unreliable commander, could not be relied upon, so they could only discuss it among themselves. Major General Zhu Chi said first:

"Qianli, you are an expert in street fighting. Tell me and Brigade Commander Gao how to fight."

Yue Qianli was not hypocritical at this time. Seeing Gao Zhisong looking at him expectantly, he said directly:
“Two seniors, I won’t be polite then!
First of all, you have to save yourself. Once the enemy troops are at the gates of the city, they will definitely send a large number of planes and heavy artillery to bombard the city. Therefore, during the period when the guerrilla column is at the front, you should dig more tunnels.

It is used to hide soldiers in peacetime and assist in street fighting. Tunnels are dug under solid buildings, leaving several exits. Regiments and battalions should be connected..."

Yue Qianli taught the street fighting experience he had summarized to the two brigade commanders Zhu and Gao without reservation. Many of them came from later experiences, as well as the successful experience of the defense of Moscow and Stalingrad.

In Yue Qianli's opinion, if these two cities in the plains can hold out, then Nanjing can do the same. We must not let the Japanese take this city too easily and exchange our lives for it!

After the three men discussed the matters of coordinated operations, the 264th Brigade handed over the Yuhuatai position to the guerrilla column and retreated to the south city together with the 262nd Brigade.

After Yue Qianli took over the Yuhuatai position, he began to act as a groundhog, even though the surface soil of Yuhuatai contained a large amount of Yuhua gravel;

However, it is still possible to dig out the Tibetans’ earthworks, but it will take more effort and be a little more troublesome because there is normal soil beneath the surface layer.

Yue Qianli calculated in his mind that they still had about a week, which was enough time to dig the three main posts of Yuhuatai into underground palaces.

His defensive strategy was to place a detachment on each wing, with the reserve force under his control, and the remaining detachment and the direct-affiliated troops guarding the main post. The baggage team and the youth battalion retreated into the city and hid, under the charge of Zhao Tianci. This was the foundation for Yue Qianli to persist in street fighting.

Each member of the troops guarding Yuhuatai only carried enough dry food and corresponding ammunition for half a month's combat. The medical team followed the brigade headquarters and set up a field hospital in the tunnel, ready to rescue the wounded at any time.

The artillery battalion was also hidden in a tunnel on the reverse slope of the main post, so as to minimize casualties. As far as Yue Qianli remembered, the outer position was completely defeated within two days of fighting, and his regiment could not hold it up at all. It was only a matter of time before he gave up the Yuhuatai position.

On December 12, in Jurong City, as soon as a dozen Japanese bombers left the 5th Army position, dozens of divisional guns of the 66th Field Artillery Regiment launched a fierce artillery attack on the 16th Army position;
Sections of trenches were destroyed and thousands of soldiers were engulfed by artillery fire. In the face of steel, human life is extremely fragile and can only be supported by strong will.

Under the heavy bombardment of the Japanese, the Lingnan men of the 66th Army squatted in the dilapidated fortifications, silently enduring the ravages of the artillery fire. There was no trace of fear in their eyes. From the moment they stayed to defend Jinling City, they regarded themselves as dead.

From a military perspective, Nanjing City has no value in defending, but it must be defended. It is the capital of the country, and no one can escape death for this city.

It's not just the 66th Army. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers who stayed behind to defend Nanjing all had this mentality. The capital cannot be left unguarded. China has never lacked loyal and brave people who are willing to defend the country with their lives.

There are three lines of defense in Jinling. The first line of defense runs from Sanjiangkou, Huayuan, Longtan, Tangshan, Chunhua Town, Fangshan, Yinxiang, Niu Shoushan to Banqiao Town in the outer mountains east and south of Jinling.

The second line of defense is from Ganjiaxiang, Yangfangshan, Zijinshan, Xiaolingwei, Gaoqiaomen, Hedingqiao, Matanqiao to Xishanqiao on the south bank of Baguazhou to the other side of Jiangxinzhou;

The Fukuo position of Jinling City is the third and final one.

The 66th Army held the first line of defense, the 160th Division was deployed in Jurong and the line to its west, and the 159th Division was deployed in Tangshan Town and the line north and south of Xianlan Bridge.

It was the three regiments of the 66th Division that attacked the 16th Army's defense line. As soon as the artillery fire extended, hundreds of Japanese soldiers launched a charge led by more than a dozen tanks;

The 955th Regiment fought back, raining bullets on the Japanese, killing dozens of them in an instant. The battle for the outer positions of Jinling City officially began.

The Japanese tanks rushed towards the position of the 955th Regiment like steel monsters. The machine gun bullets clanged against the front armor, but they could not stop their advance at all.

Since the Guangdong Army lacked anti-tank guns, they could only fill the gap with human lives. Rows of suicide squads, with cluster grenades or explosive packs tied to their bodies, rushed towards the tank group fearlessly.

As soon as a group rushed forward, they fell down. The Japanese's vehicle-mounted machine guns crazily fired at the suicide squad members. Most of them fell on the road. Only a small number of survivors rushed under the chassis of the tanks, detonated the cluster bombs and died with the Japanese. It cost dozens or even hundreds of lives to destroy each tank.

Under the desperate fighting of the Guangdong Army's Suicide Squad, the Japanese tanks were destroyed one after another, and the battlefield was littered with the bodies of the National Army, which was a shocking sight.

The 9th Regiment, which had lost its flag in the battle at Kunshan City, had recovered and was reorganized after receiving a large number of reinforcements. Japan's comprehensive reserve system made it easy for them to recover their combat effectiveness.

The Kuomintang government had a huge gap in this regard. For example, the dozen or so divisions that participated in the Battle of Nanjing had a staff of 15 people, but in reality there were only 11 people, including more than 3 new recruits. The only troops that did not suffer too much loss were the garrison troops of the Teaching Corps, with a total strength of about 1.8.

Dear readers, chapters 196 and 197 are still under review. If the results are not out by evening, I will add two more chapters. Please read those two chapters after they have been reviewed. Please forgive me.

Today I spent 200 yuan to buy the review content reminder function. The two chapters under review have been deleted and passed the review in seconds. Please support me, readers. Writing is not easy.

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(End of this chapter)