Chapter 30: The time to explode the bridge

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Major General Niujima Man flew to the Shanghai Central China Expeditionary Army Headquarters to report the defeat to commander General Hata Shunji. Lord Hata Shunji was extremely shocked. The Imperial Army fought in China, and no matter how fierce the battle was, it would not throw away the corps flag. It seemed that the tenacity of the Beitai defenders was far beyond expectations.

Shinji Hata immediately summoned Lieutenant General Ehashi Eihashi Hideji, commander of the Army Aviation Corps, and ordered him to suspend the bombing of Wuhan and organize a powerful air force to launch a devastating blow to Beitai.

The aviation corps sent the 60th Flying Team and the 10th Fighting Squadron to fly to Beitai in a fierce manner to carry out the first round of revenge.

At the Jiangnan air defense post, the air defense observer covered by lush branches and leaves heard a dull roar from the horizon, and hurriedly picked up the telescope to observe. A black plane was overwhelmed by the sky, scaring him so much that he quickly grabbed the phone and shook his mind: "Hey, hey, there are hundreds of Japanese planes."

The air defense alarm on the Beitai City Hall building sounded shrillly, and the people entered the nearby air defense shelter. Beitai designed many civil defense fortifications during construction. After the war started, residents were encouraged to dig simple air defense shelters in their yards to resist Japanese bombing.

The people entered the air-raid shelter, but the army went up to the roof, set up machine guns, and in the anti-aircraft artillery position, the artillery quickly took its place, shook its handle, and pointed the muzzle towards the sky.

Before the seventy-two Type 93 heavy bombers flew across the Huai River, dozens of Su-Iran 16 fighters appeared in the air. It turned out that the North and Thailand had long expected that the Japanese army would send bombers to retaliate. After coordination with the Wuhan Military Commission, they borrowed the Soviet volunteer aviation force to fight an air blocking battle.

The Japanese fighter planes in charge of cover came up and fought with Soviet planes. The bombers were not affected and continued to move forward. The focus of their bombing on the Beitai Railway Station, Steel Plant, and Barracks.

From a distance, the chimneys and cooling towers of Beitai's power plant are still smoking. The city is not big, but it is very regular. I believe that it will take a lot of effort to build such a city, and the pilots thought silently.

Intelligence shows that the Chinese army was equipped with imported Eritan anti-aircraft guns, so the bomber maintained a height of 5,000 meters and carried out horizontal bombing. The pilots looked at the city under their feet indifferently, pressed the button to drop the bombs, and a series of bombs fell.

Suddenly, the plane trembled, and anti-aircraft shells exploded one after another, and clouds of smoke rose. The plane was shot. The pilots shouted, hurriedly jumped out with their parachutes on their backs, pulled out the parachutes in the air, and saw their own planes falling down one after another. Looking at their feet, there was air defense artillery everywhere, and the fire density seemed to be stronger than Wuhan.

There are not many anti-aircraft guns that can hit a height of five thousand meters. Only a few German-imported flak36 88mm anti-aircraft guns in the Chinese army can reach this level. In a small area of ​​Beitai, it is even equipped with less than ten 88 guns, which is simply incredible!

With the 88 guns equipped with near-explosive fuses, all the planes were vulnerable. The 60th Heavy Bomb Team hurriedly returned without losing the bomb. They are important aviation units and cannot be lost in irrelevant places.

There were wins and losses in the air combat. The Soviet Air Force lost three aircraft and the Japanese fighter jets dropped six, and the battle won again.

When the news reached Wuhan, Chairman Jiang personally issued a commendation order, and a ship of condolences were transported from Hankou. The Military Commission also realized the importance of Beitai. If the Japanese invaders wanted to force Wuhan, they would first remove the nail of Beitai. So the supreme authority appointed Chen Zikun as the commander-in-chief of the middle reaches of the Huaijiang River and led his troops to resist the Japanese invaders.

The embarrassing problem is coming. There is no regular army system in Jiangbei, and it is entirely dependent on police and militia fighting. It is unreasonable to reason and want to send more troops, but after the Battle of Songhu, the Central Army was short of troops and had to defend various key cities. It was really impossible to draw out troops.

In the midst of all difficulties, Chen Cheng suggested that the Chairman restore the system of the Model 17th Division and let the people of Jiangdong defend their own homes.

At this time, Chen Qilin, Liu Xiaoyong and others had been sitting in Wuhan for several months. During the war, the government's institutions were in chaos and there were too many troops that had broken down. The streets were filled with commanders, and they were screaming to restore the system and recruit soldiers. The central government did not have so many weapons and equipment and men. The Central Army itself could not feed them, let alone miscellaneous armed forces.

Although Chen Qilin is a direct descendant of Huangpu, he has gradually become the chief of staff in Jiangdong for many years and has gradually alienated the center. Although those old classmates have become brigade commanders, they can't speak in the Military Commission. Seeing that their subordinates can't even eat, Chen Qilin was anxious and his hair was almost white.

Suddenly, news came, Beitai won three battles and three victories, annihilated thousands of Japanese invaders, and sent all the spoils to Wuhan for exhibition. Chen Qilin felt that this was an opportunity, so he hurried to the Ministry of Military Affairs to report. He used to be turned away, but this time he finally had a good face. A car took him to the chairman's residence. Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling and his wife summoned him personally and kept him for a meal.

A week later, Chen Qilin took a letter of appointment and hundreds of subordinates to Beitai by boat. The system of the Model 17th Division was finally restored, but the Military Commission did not have enough troops to give him. He only drew two companies from the garrison to set up the 17th Division's airs. For Chen Qilin, this was enough.

What he wants is not soldiers and equipment, but an opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy.

The reinforcements from Wuhan have once again boosted the morale of the Beitai army, which shows that they are not fighting alone. In fact, the official has always claimed that they can obtain supplies from the rear. In fact, there are only a handful of food and ammunition transported from Wuhan. Beitai is completely fighting alone.

Fortunately, Chen Zikun planned ahead and hid a large number of arms. Refugees from Beitai gathered and raised the recruiting flag, and there were people who ate food. In just a few days, two thousand strong men were recruited, and at least they pulled up the 17th Division, and Beitai was considered to have regular troops stationed.

Chen Zikun continued to ask Wuhan for supplies, grain, ammunition and gasoline that Beitai urgently needed, but the rear needed these supplies, especially gasoline, which was extremely valuable. The Chairman personally approved the notes and only added 100 barrels.

It was still Gong Zijun who had a solution. He personally took gold bars and dollars to Wuhan and successfully got a batch of gasoline. It turned out that it was not that there was no gasoline, but that most of them were hoarded by people with help. As long as you are willing to spend money, you can buy it.

...

The Japanese army was eager to solve the enemy in Beitai and sent warships to the north along the river, but the lower reaches of the Huai River were covered with mines. After losing a destroyer, the Navy said it was powerless and asked the Army to solve the problem by itself.

The Central China Expeditionary Force Headquarters moved from Shanghai to Nanjing and began to implement the "Key Points of War Guidelines Centered on Autumn Operations" formulated by the General Staff Headquarters, destroying the last center of Chiang Kai-shek's regime - Wuhan.

To guide Wuhan, you must first remove Beitai. General Hata Shunji mobilized 50,000 troops including the Mecha wing and the Heavy Artillery Brigade to approach Beitai with a powerful force of killing chickens. He claimed to the base camp that this was also part of the Wuhan strategic battle.

The engineers first repaired the railway destroyed by the Chinese army. A train of troops was pulled to the south bank of the Huai River, and the 240mm super heavy howitzers carried on the train began to bombard.

The huge 240 caliber shells need to be loaded with a crane. Every time the fire round is launched, the earth trembles. The shells roar to the city of Beitai, and there is a sea of ​​fire everywhere.

On the south bank, the 150mm field cannon of the ** Heavy Artillery Brigade also joined the shelling. This time, the Central China Expeditionary Army invested a lot of money, and the shells poured to the north bank for no money, without stopping for a moment.

The North Bank was unable to counterattack, and only four 105mm howitzers could get the Japanese army, but there was only one base left for the shells. Since Germany recognized Manchukuo in February, the arms trade with China has stopped. One shell was fired less than one. After the shooting, the four cannons were useless.

The city was trembling in the artillery fire, countless houses were destroyed, and the sea of ​​fire was everywhere. The most heavy losses were the refugee camps in the west of the city. There were tents everywhere, and the air reconnaissance was like a barracks, so the most shells were taken, and the refugees were killed and injured, which was a terrible sight. Afterwards, the deaths were as high as a thousand people.

The shelling stopped and the bombing began. The protagonist of this time was the 96-type land attack of the Japanese Navy Air Force. The rising sun emblem in the sky was like the bloody mouth of the god of death. Four fighters in Beitai shot down three bombers and five escort fighters, all of them were shot down.

The Japanese bombers focused on taking care of Beitai's airport. The runway was bombed with bomb craters and seemed useless. The worst thing was that the oil depot was bombed and exploded, and all the gasoline accumulated was lost.

The dock was also bombed with key points, and three cargo ships were sunk.

The underground command post of the city hall was bleak. Although I had known that the power of Beitai City could not withstand the Japanese army's enchantment of the country, at the last moment, everyone was still very sad.

"Get your energy on, there is still a tough battle to fight tomorrow." Chen Zikun said with great energy. The three-day shelling and bombing made him exhausted.

...

The next day at dawn, the Japanese army shelled again, and Beitai was still unable to fight back. The Japanese army sent a squadron of infantry to sneak up on the Huaijiang Iron Bridge.

In the mist of dawn, the rails stretched out into the distance like two long snakes. The infantry were wearing 90 iron hats and holding Type 38 rifles, walking carefully. They were scouts and were born with cannon fodder. If the Chinese army opened fire, the artillery behind would suppress fire. In other words, they used their lives to attract the enemy to expose their fire points.

But the Chinese army did not fire. All Japanese troops in a squadron passed through the iron bridge. A dense gunshot broke out on the other side. Five minutes later, a green signal flare rose into the sky, which was a signal that the bridgehead had been successfully established.

The mecha brigade moved when he heard the news. Thirty-two Type 95 light tanks drove onto the Huaijiang Iron Bridge with blue smoke. The convoy was covered with cover infantry on both sides.

In the bunker on the north bank, Chen Zikun put down his telescope and said calmly: "It's time."

Xiao Lang closed his eyes and pressed the switch that was electric detonating.

The Huaijiang Iron Bridge broke into four pieces with the violent explosion and fell into the river. At the same time, the artillery soldiers on the north bank who had been dormant for many days issued the final roar.

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Chapter completed!