The afternoon of January 24th, Shanghai.

"The bombing was successful, and the Japanese army was in chaos."

"The landing troops of the 3rd Light Infantry Division have occupied the dock, and the 2nd Light Infantry Division is stepping up the landing."

"The Air Force reported that the Japanese army is showing signs of shrinking, and we think they want to retreat." Huang Zhengfang smiled easily.

The tactic of forced landing weighed heavily on his heart. As long as the air force bombing failed to destroy the Japanese artillery positions, regardless of whether the landing was successful or not, the casualties would not go away.

It is still very cold in the Yangtze River Basin in late January. If you fall into the cold river with your clothes on, you will not drown in it. You will suffer from cramps in just a few minutes, hypothermia in ten minutes, and death in half an hour.

During the battle, ships would certainly not be allowed to slowly salvage people who fell into the water on the river.

"Step up the landing and encircle and annihilate the 8th Division as soon as possible." Zheng Lei just nodded calmly.

All this was as he expected.

Airplanes are relatively new to most people.

Especially in a poor country like Japan, most of the soldiers at the bottom are illiterate. There are all kinds of monsters and monsters in Japanese traditional culture. It is normal to be scared when you suddenly see an airplane.

And this plane can also drop bombs, which can easily wipe out a large number of lives. Japanese soldiers shot at it but it had no effect.

That sense of powerlessness can easily develop into panic, and then into panic, leading to the collapse of organizational capabilities.

In situations of extreme fear, people will only act on instinct.

That is, when encountering danger, you instinctively flee from it.

"The Air Force hopes to continue bombing. They still have eleven aircraft available." Huang Zhengfang sounded the request of the bomber brigade.

"Eleven? Did one of them malfunction? Is it back?" Zheng Lei asked.

The outstanding advantage of this type of bomber is its durability. Since the Japanese army did not have suitable anti-aircraft weapons, he could only think of a mechanical failure.

However, just in case, he still asked if the Japanese army had anti-aircraft weapons, then they would need to re-evaluate.

"It's not a malfunction, it seems that it was affected by the explosion when attacking a stronghold." Although it was difficult to understand, Huang Zhengfang still said it truthfully.

As far as he knew, bombers flew hundreds of meters high in the sky when performing missions. He didn't understand how they were affected.

"It is agreed that the Air Force will continue to fight. The next task of the Air Force is to support the defense of Changle Town and kill the pockets."

"Three divisions are fighting one division, and there is air force support. It won't look good if we drag our feet any longer."

"Order, end the battle within forty-eight hours." Zheng Lei nodded and knocked on the table.

The port is now under control of the 3rd Light Infantry Division, and the only difficulty in this war has been resolved.

There are still Japanese divisions and a town in Beiyang waiting eagerly next to them. Even further away, there is the Japanese 7th Division waiting. If the movement is slower and they are allowed to react, the outcome of this battle may be decided.

It does not mean that a stronger combat effectiveness will lead to victory. The Nanhua Army's combat effectiveness is strong, but it is based on a complete firepower system, and the firepower system relies on the logistics system.

The construction of the military-level logistics system is not perfect, and it still needs to boast river transportation. If it enters strategic passivity, there is no telling what changes will occur.

…………

On the morning of January 25th, Changle Town.

"Really, none of the Japanese are honest." Hou Dehui held an exquisite mutton-fat jade wine glass in his hand.

Reluctantly, I put the wine glass into the box. This is a set, and there is a wine bottle in it.

"Grape wine luminous cup, this is the so-called luminous cup, right?" the chief of staff sighed at the side.

The torture lasted a whole day, or the whole day was beaten without explanation. Those who could get something out were allowed to eat, and those who couldn't get something were beaten one after another. Reporting on others was considered as getting something out.

In this way, in a day and a half, more than two hundred precious toys of various kinds were collected.

"This thing is from the Ming Dynasty, and the market price is tens of thousands, right? It's really a rich family that smells of wine and meat, and people freeze to death on the road." Looking at these treasures, Hou Dehui thought of the ragged laborers in Shanghai.

He doesn't hate the rich, he just doesn't understand why some people can be so rich that they can't understand, and some people can be so poor that they can't understand.

They are both human beings, living on the same land. But because of their wealth, they are divided into two classes, and they cannot understand each other's lives.

"Maybe this society is wrong?" Hou Dehui murmured to himself.

"What?" The chief of staff was registering items one by one and didn't hear what Hou Dehui said clearly.

"Nothing." Hou Dehui shook his head and threw away all distracting thoughts.

"Commander, Chief of Staff, the enemy is coming." Li Yan hurriedly walked into the room.

"I'll go take a look. You take care of these things first." Hou Dehui stood up immediately after hearing this.

"Okay!" The chief of staff hesitated and nodded.

…

Outside Changle Town was a regiment of the 16th Brigade. They were the first to go north and open up an escape route.

"Nani?! Isn't this town our rear?" Hengshan's main house looked at the flag of the 1st Light Infantry Division in the direction of the town in surprise.

Changle Town is a brigade of the 15th Brigade that is responsible for the defense. After losing the division commander and the division command system, the two sides did not completely communicate with each other.

The scouts just told him that Changle Town had been captured by the enemy, but he still didn't believe it.

Here is the wealth they worked so hard to grab, an outrageous amount of wealth.

"Masaka?!!" Hengshan's main house was astonished at the thought of these wealth being robbed by the enemy.

"Attack! Kill these damn, despicable thieves, I will kill them all!" Hengshan's main house pulled out his command knife and pointed in the direction of the town, jumping up and down and shouting.

"Hi!" Captain Keigo Higashino immediately received the instructions from his superiors, nodded and went to assemble his troops.

"The artillery squadron will provide you with fire support. We must deal with this enemy and recapture our treasure before the brigade commander arrives!" Yokoyama's principal officer pulled Higashino Keigo over with red eyes.

"Hi!" Keigo Higashino was stunned and regretted slightly.

Especially after looking at the three silent captains behind him, he felt that he might not be rigorous enough.

When they put a force here, they must have wanted to cut off the 8th Division's retreat. This force would not be that weak.

The brigade headquarters was only two hours away from them, and if they captured an unknown town in two hours, the casualties would definitely not be small.

If he hadn't been beaten down, he would have been miserable and might have been ordered to commit seppuku.

"Warriors of the Dongye Brigade! Our trophies, the trophies we got from Taizhou, were stolen by despicable thieves."

"This is a treasure that belongs to the empire and its warriors. Kill those despicable thieves. The Higashino Brigade must take the responsibility of killing these thieves!"

"First Squadron, attack with all your strength and test the enemy's firepower." Keigo Higashino said to his squadron leader.

"Hi!" The squadron leader agreed before he realized that something was wrong with this order.

What does an all-out attack mean to test the enemy's firepower? Do they want to attack, or do they want to test the enemy's firepower?

Is it necessary to attack with all strength to test the enemy's firepower? If you attack with all your strength without knowing anything, isn't that risking your life?

‘Am I becoming cannon fodder?’ This thought suddenly came to the squadron leader’s mind.

"The first squadron will detour from the farmland on the left, and the second and third squadrons will attack from the front. According to intelligence, the enemy has machine guns. Each squadron should try to spread the attack as much as possible." The squadron leader could only quickly arrange the task.

Everyone knows what happened to the Qiwei Alliance. One alliance lost half of its men. Half of the remaining half were wounded, and only a quarter had combat effectiveness.

The most striking thing about this battle is that Nanhua, like the Russians, abandoned the spirit of warriors and equipped them with a large number of machine guns.

boom!

Four 75mm field guns and four 37mm field guns from the artillery squadron of the wing began to shell Changle Town.

The artillery squads of the infantry brigade also started to move, one artillery squad with two 75mm mountain guns, three artillery squads with six 75mm mountain guns.

A total of ten 75mm guns and four 37mm guns.

For a small town, especially a small town in Jiangnan, this firepower has been greatly overflowed.

…

"Bah! Ahem..." Hou Dehui patted the dirt on his head and spat.

"Let the artillery counterattack, we can't let them fire without scruple." Hou Dehui shook his head and said to the messenger.

Changle Town is too small and it will be difficult for the soldiers to deploy. If they continue to bombard, the casualties will be huge.

"The situation is really changing. I ordered Li Yan to keep an eye on those prisoners. We won't really pay much attention to them when the fight begins. If there is any abnormal movement, kill them all!" Hou Dehui took out his binoculars.

In the telescope, the size of the Hengshan Regiment was gradually revealed. The specific composition was not known, but Hou Dehui could ensure that there were more people and more guns on the opposite side than himself.

He is stuck on the escape route of the Eighth Division, and the enemy's power will only increase. Any strength he has here must be used with caution, so that there are not so many people wasted on prisoners.

boom!

The sound of artillery firing came from the rear. It was the 76mm field gun temporarily allocated to the third regiment.

"Okay!" Hou Dehui saw a significantly larger explosion in the telescope. After the explosion, the enemy's artillery fire suddenly decreased a lot.

"Next, it's up to us. Pass it on. Without orders, each company is only allowed to use one-third of its firepower at most." When the sound of his own artillery stopped, Hou Dehui knew that the next step was a battle between infantrymen.

of fighting.

With the enemy's artillery watching, their respective artillerymen would not fire easily, let alone continue shelling.

From this point of view, the advantage lies with him.
To be continued...