The Japanese army fought three axes: artillery bombardment, aircraft indiscriminate bombing, and finally infantry rushing.

This cookie-cutter style of play Matsuura Junrokuro has learned to the bone marrow, and he will always be so decent, like an honest child.

On the morning of 1 August, as soon as the battle began, Junrokuro Matsuura ordered artillery and aviation to launch an unusually ferocious bombardment of the Jinguanqiao position.

Moved from Anshan in Poyang Lake to an artillery position on the outskirts of Jiujiang, concentrated dozens of cannons, and bombarded all the hills on the boundary of Jinguanqiao. Hundreds of shells fell on the positions of the Chinese defenders.

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen warplanes gathered over the Jinguan Bridge and began a new round of bombing and strafing at the Chinese defenders' positions that had been scorched to the ground.

Dozens of hills on the first line of Jinguanqiao were covered with smoke and dust, the flames were soaring, the thick trees were broken at the waist, the low shrubs and thatch were also burned away, and the soil on the various hills was blown into a soft and scorched earth.

Xue Yue was very worried about Jin Guanqiao, and he, like Matsuura Junrokuro, thought that Jin Guan Qiao was a soft persimmon. The 70th Army said that it was an army, but in fact it was the strength of a division. The comparison of the combat strength of the two sides, one division of the Japanese army against one division of the national army.

Li Jue was completely empty of the title of a corps commander, and his 70th Army originally had only two divisions: the 19th Division and the 128th Division.

In the battle to defend Jiujiang, the 128th Division was about to collapse at the first touch, the division commander Gu Jiaqi was directly removed from his post by Chen Cheng for investigation, the number of the division was also canceled, and the soldiers of the original 128th Division were transferred by Chen Cheng to the command of Zhang Yanfu of the Ninth Division.

In this way, Li Jue's 70th Army became an empty shelf, and all he had in his hands was the 19th Division, and the commander of the division was also concurrently served by Li Jue.

This is what Xue Yue is worried about, if the 19th Division also follows the example of the 128th Division, the second line of defense will collapse at the first touch.

"How's the situation at Jinguanqiao now?"

As soon as the battle began, Xue Yue couldn't help but call and ask about the battle situation.

"Please rest assured, Chief Xue, with me Li Jue and the 70th Army here, the position cannot be lost!"

Li Jue replied to Xue Yue with complete confidence, which made Xue Yue start to worry. He is not very fond of generals who talk big. And Li Jue's self-confidence comes from his unique positional structure.

Li Jue's 70th Army was a Hunan army with average equipment and not very strong combat effectiveness, but the Hunan people's loyalty, bravery, aggressiveness, and stubborn character of not admitting defeat made this army full of vitality.

Since retreating to Jinguanqiao on July 26, in order to meet the upcoming battle, Li Jue ordered the 70th Army to stand by in all dangerous passes of Jinguanqiao, seize every minute before the battle, and build strong fortifications day and night.

On the issue of how to strictly guard against the position of Jinguanqiao, Li Jue used strategy and made full ideological and material preparations for fighting a tough battle.

The Japanese army's cookie-cutter style of play, Li Jue knows it well. Especially this guy Junrokuro Matsuura, he has carried forward this style of play. So the first task is to defend against artillery.

Previously, Li Jue had been instructed by Soviet military advisers to build a kind of fortification that could be protected against bombardment by enemy aircraft and artillery. Taking advantage of the hard soil in this area, a unique kind of fortification was constructed.

This kind of fortification is very peculiar, they dig the bunker into the shape of a clay pot, and the belly is large. Then use a trench to connect the various clay pot-like bunkers into a whole, communicate with each other, criss-cross and extend in all directions.

The trenches were densely nailed with thick standing and horizontal logs and then covered with two meters of earth, and the greatest advantage of this ingenious fortification was that it could effectively defend against the bombardment of Japanese aircraft and artillery.

In the face of enemy bombardment, the soldiers hid in the clay pot-shaped belly relatively safely, and the thick logs and two-meter-thick soil above the trench generally could not be blown up by the enemy's shells. Even if it collapsed, the soldiers who were hiding in the clay pot-like bunkers were still safe.

What's more, in view of the short size of the Japanese, Li Jue specially ordered the clay pot-shaped individual bunker to be dug 20 centimeters deep, and the wooden pier was put on during the battle, and the wooden pier was taken away in case of defeat, so that even if the fortifications were occupied by the Japanese army, they would not be useful for a while.

On the morning of the 1st, the Japanese continued to bombard indiscriminately, but their infantry did not move in the slightest, and did not seem to intend to attack. Perhaps Junrokuro Matsuura wants to take the tactics of "bombarding first and attacking later" to the extreme.

In the afternoon, the Japanese army was still like this, only shelling, and occasionally a few planes from the Japanese air force flew in and left after the bombardment.

In the evening, the Japanese artillery finally turned off. Li Jue quickly ordered the troops to rebuild the fortifications and renovate the positions that had been blown up during the day.

After a night of rushing work, the fortifications were once again restored to their pre-shelling appearance, waiting for the next round of shelling. And on this day, thanks to this peculiar fortification, the casualties of the troops were minimal.

The next day, the Japanese still showed no signs of attacking, and continued to bombard.

Junrokuro Matsuura wanted to raze the Jinguanqiao position to the ground, and then send a random brigade to clean up the mess. In his eyes, the 70th Army was completely vulnerable. In the previous battle of Jiujiang, the 70th Division of the 128th Army encountered them and collapsed, and this time Matsuura was whimsical, thinking that it would be the same as last time. It is enough to deal with a miscellaneous division and a brigade of the national army.

At the rear headquarters of the 70th Division, Li Jue used an observation mirror to observe the situation in the position. The overwhelming artillery fire couldn't help but make him sigh: "Damn, this kid Matsuura is really a loser." ”

The staff adjutant behind Li Jue said with a smile: "Military seat, it seems that the devil will not attack today." ”

"Don't be careless. The 128th Division lost the face of the 70th Army and the face of the Hunan people! The lost face must be recovered from the 19th Division! ”

"Yes!"

Li Jue was a battle-hardened general in central Hunan Province, who not only set up his main position at the dangerous point of Jinguan Bridge, but also set up ambushes on several hills on both flanks. In this way, the main position and the ambushes on each hill can be used as angles for each other, echoing each other from afar. Now wait for the 106th Division to launch a ground attack and inflict heavy losses on them.

However, on the 2nd, Junrokuro Matsuura remained stationary and continued to launch artillery bombardments on the position of Jinguanqiao. His style of play has made many people very puzzling, including Xue Yue and Okamura Ningji. Under the normal situation of "artillery bombardment, infantry rushing", two hours of Japanese artillery bombardment is considered a long time, but he actually shelled for two days.

Until the night of the 2nd, Okamura Ninji couldn't help but finally call to inquire about the battle situation, and Matsuura answered truthfully and assured Okamura Ninji that he would attack on the 3rd.

Okamura Ninji seemed a little helpless, and finally said: "Matsuura-kun, cannonballs are very precious. ”

The position arranged by General Li Jue is very strange, and his person is also very strange.

Before the anti-Japanese resistance, he was a notoriously soft general. He relied on the love of the Hunan warlord Tang Zhisheng, and relied on the fact that he was the fast son-in-law of the Hunan warlord He Jian, and often protected himself. One of the characteristics of his command of operations is that he only focuses on "strategy" and never fights tough battles (in fact, he escapes).

Li Jue often puts a sentence on his lips: "As long as we soften our waists and don't fight hard with anyone, no one can help us." ”

However, after the outbreak of the all-out Anti-Japanese War, Li Jue was unusual. During the Battle of Songhu, he generously said to the soldiers: "The country has reached the point where if you don't fight, you will be in danger, and if you don't fight, you will die!" If you don't fight a tough battle, you will be wiped out! ”

In the Battle of Songhu, Li Jue led his troops to fight fiercely with the Japanese troops who attempted to land in Zhenhai for a week, fought countless hard battles and vicious battles, and repelled the enemy's attacks again and again.

However, this time, the defense of Jinguanqiao was also a tough battle, and he had to take a miscellaneous division to block a division of the Japanese army......

(End of chapter)