Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 58: Bloody Battle at Huishan Pier

At Huishan Wharf, the 36th Division launched a fierce attack on the last stronghold of the Japanese in Shanghai. The Japanese, with the support of naval guns, fought tenaciously and refused to give up an inch.

The battle entered a white-hot state from the very beginning. The bodies of the Kuomintang soldiers were lying in front of the Japanese positions, which was shocking to see.

The 36th Division had just returned from Xi'an by train. During the "Double Twelve Incident" that followed, the 36th Division was ordered to serve the emperor and was transferred to Guanzhong to rescue the principal.
After the incident was peacefully resolved, he stayed in Xi'an to intimidate the Northwest Army. After the Battle of Shanghai broke out, he was ordered to be transferred east to Shanghai to participate in the war.

The 36th Division is also a German-equipped division. It was formed in 22 with the supplementary brigades of the 87th and 88th Divisions as its backbone. The reorganization of the division was completed in Xi'an a few months ago. The division commander is Song Xilian, the former commander of the 87st Brigade of the 61th Division, with Zhong Bin as the deputy division commander and Xiang Xianju as the chief of staff. It has the 106th and 108th Brigades under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of more than 9 people.

Huishan Wharf is located on the south side of Tilanqiao. It was originally owned by the British firm McBeen & Co. In 1903, McBeen & Co. sold its Yangtze River ships and Huishan Wharf to Nippon Yusen Kaisha for RMB 250 million.

"Nippon Yusen" converted it into a reinforced concrete wharf with a long shoreline and deep water level, making it the best wharf for Japanese businessmen in Shanghai.

Connected to the east side of Huishan Wharf is the Yangshupu Wharf of the Osaka Trading Company, and directly connected to it is the Huangpu Wharf of the South Manchuria Railway Company of Japan across Qinhuangdao Road. In this area, there are many Japanese factories, warehouses and cargo depots.

At the 216th Regiment Headquarters, the regiment commander Hu Jiaji started cursing again:
"How did Xiong Xinmin fight? A battalion attacked for several hours but still failed to capture the enemy's position!
Let's go to the Second Battalion. Didn't Li Daomin have a foreign education? It's a good opportunity to see if this monk who studied abroad can chant sutras!"

Captain Hu finally decided to replace his trusted and beloved general Xiong Xinmin with Li Daomin, who had just returned from studying abroad at West Point and was Yue Qianli's fifth brother and the least prominent of the six brothers.

On Zhaofeng Road, the attack of the first battalion was repelled again. Xiong Xinmin cursed angrily:
"There's no way to fight this damn war. As soon as the troops charge forward, the Japanese naval shells will rain down like raindrops. No matter how many people there are, they won't be enough to blow them up."

"Captain Xiong, I heard you cursing from a distance. It seems that these devils are really bad."

When Xiong Xinmin heard Li Daomin's voice, his heart skipped a beat. He looked at him warily and said:
"What are you running over here for?"

Li Daomin knew that Xiong Xinmin would definitely not be willing to go down, but this was a military order, so he said directly:

"I am here to relieve the First Battalion under the orders of the regiment commander. The regiment commander wants you to go down and rest."

"Stop it, there's still a battalion of people who can fight. You guys just stay here."

Xiong Xinmin, who graduated from the fifth term, indeed showed off his seniority. Moreover, he and the group leader were both from Hunan, so he spoke very casually.

"Captain Xiong, this is an order! Military orders are as heavy as a mountain. The regiment commander had expected you to do this. This is his order."

After Li Daomin finished speaking, he handed a warrant to Captain Xiong. After reading it, Captain Xiong stared at Li Daomin and said:
"My soldiers are all good soldiers. If you go and see, they are all falling down facing the enemy's positions."

"Old Bear, I know you're feeling bad. The First Battalion suffered heavy casualties, and the commander feels sorry for his brothers—"

"I don't need your comfort. The mission of attacking Zhaofeng Road is now handed over to you. You must eliminate all the bastards and don't let the brothers die with regrets."

Just as Li Daomin expected, after seeing the regiment commander's order, Captain Xiong carried out the order without hesitation, he was just reluctant before.

The two men then carried out the handover. Battalion Commander Xiong introduced the Japanese deployment to Li Daomin in detail, including the Japanese's strengths and weaknesses, as well as his own summary of offensive experience. He told Li Daomin everything without reservation. He was an upright soldier.

After the handover, the first battalion withdrew with tears in their eyes, carrying the wounded and the bodies of their brothers that could be salvaged;

It is said that men do not shed tears easily, but when faced with the bodies of dozens of brothers, Xiong Xinmin, this iron man, still shed tears of unwillingness, and he felt very sad!
"Salute!" Li Daomin shouted, and led the Second Battalion to bid farewell to their sacrificed comrades with the highest military etiquette. It was their turn next.

The attack of the 1st Battalion stopped at the Japanese fortifications at the intersection of Tangshan Road and Dongxihuade Road. This fortification was nothing special, just a street barrier made of sandbags;
The biggest threat came from a five-story brick-concrete building several dozen meters behind, with several artillery pieces and two crescent-shaped heavy machine gun fortifications on the roof.

There were still a large number of Japanese soldiers in the building. They were stuck in the passage leading to Huishan Wharf. There were also several destroyers anchored on the river, which could provide continuous artillery support for the defenders. No wonder the first battalion had such a hard time fighting.

After understanding the enemy situation, Li Daomin decided to postpone the general attack until after dark, so as to reduce the threat of naval guns.

Although Captain Xiong had told him all about the enemy situation before he left, he still needed to launch several exploratory attacks to find out the enemy's firepower deployment;
Then use the only two mortars in the battalion to destroy the Japanese firepower points on the roof, knock out the Japanese teeth, and the subsequent attack will be easier.

With a plan in mind, the Second Battalion immediately launched an attack on the enemy's position. In the first exploratory attack, he only deployed a platoon and used the "three-three system" attack formation;
During the four years at West Point, Yue Qianli passed on all the experience of fighting the Japanese that was summarized by later generations to his other brothers. As for how much they could master, it all depended on their own abilities.

When the Japanese saw that the Nationalist troops had launched another attack on them, the heavy machine guns deployed on the rooftops fired wildly at the attacking troops, and people were shot and fell from time to time;

The Japanese soldiers in the barricade were also not idle. They also fired wildly at the attacking troops, forcing them to unable to raise their heads.

In order to provide fire support to the charging troops, the three Maxim heavy machine guns of the machine gun company opened fire at the Japanese from a position 300 meters away, pouring bullets like rain on the Japanese barricades, and many Japanese were also shot and fell.

The Japanese soldiers defending the position were a reinforced squadron, divided into two parts. The barricade had a squad reinforced with a Type 4 heavy machine gun, a total of machine guns;
There are three mortars, one infantry gun and two Type 3 heavy machine guns on the roof. Inside the building are the main forces of the Japanese, including two infantry squads and a squadron headquarters.

The previous attack by the first battalion was not without effect. It at least caused more than 30 casualties to the Japanese, and also knocked out a heavy machine gun with a mortar.

A large part of the casualties of the First Battalion came from the Japanese fleet. Their attack formation was too dense, and one shot could cause casualties to an entire squad.

The dozens of men of the Second Battalion were naturally not worth the Japanese using their naval guns. They blocked the attack of the first row without even using their mortars.

When the heavy machine gun firepower of the Second Battalion was exposed, the Japanese artillery could no longer hold back and fired at the heavy machine gun positions;
Li Daomin was waiting for this opportunity. He used three Maxim heavy machine guns to exchange for the Japanese artillery.

The enemy's mortars were very accurate. After only four rounds, two of the Second Battalion's heavy machine guns were destroyed, and the last one was still firing at the enemy recklessly.
The Japanese on the roof fired another round of artillery fire, accurately hitting the last machine gun, and the four machine gun crew members fell in a pool of blood...

Before the Japanese could be happy, the two mortars of the artillery platoon finally locked the position of the Japanese mortar, and two 82mm shells fell from the sky and hit the heads of the Japanese artillerymen accurately;

With two blasts, a mortar was blown to pieces, followed by another round.

The artillery platoon fired 6 mortar shells at the rooftop using a 12-round rapid fire, causing heavy losses to the Japs;

Three mortars and two heavy machine guns were all destroyed, leaving only one infantry gun, which gave the Japanese a severe lesson.

The squad quickly evacuated the position after the fight, not giving the Japanese ship's guns any chance to react. Li Daomin also praised excitedly:
"Well done, you bastards, you deserve this day!"

Please read, collect, vote, and collect. Whether it can advance to the next round depends on the readers. Today, there is a military book on the platform that did not pass the second round of PK in the previous issue. It was put on the shelves with 12 words. The author still hopes to be able to hold on to 20 words. This depends on the strong support of friends. Don't support the book anymore. Please read, please read!

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(End of this chapter)