6.127 The first gate

This salvo from the artillery wing of the 6th Division against the castle lasted about ten minutes. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info There is a city wall, the commander of the Ushijima Manchu Brigade could not see the shelling effect behind the Zhonghua Gate, but he could conclude from the fact that the firepower of the Nanjing garrison on the city wall began to decline, the losses suffered by the Chinese defenders in the shelling should not be small, especially the cannon effect that hit the wooden dysprosium tower was even more amazing, the commander of the Ushijima Manchu Brigade saw several machine gun fire points of the Chinese in a telescope in an instant were swallowed up by the wood and rubble falling from the sky, this chaos on the city wall, The situation of the Japanese vanguard troops who climbed to the north bank immediately improved significantly.

On the south bank of the moat, Makimura Shaozuo, who had been looking for fighters, of course, could not miss this great opportunity, he led the second wave of attack troops of the 36th Brigade to pounce immediately, and the devils of the two infantry squadrons rushed to the moat with their weapons and then jumped into the river one after another, Feng Shengfa, the commander of the 58th Division on the city wall, couldn't help but say to his staff officer after witnessing this scene:

"If only we could learn from Guan Yunchang and flood the Seventh Army! The custodian told these short-legged little Japan to sink to the bottom of the river to feed Wang Ba! It's a shame......"

Feng Shengfa's little joke did not have the effect he expected, the officers of the 58th Division were not in high mood, and the City Defense Command asked the 58th Division to deal with Gu Shoufu's 6th Division at Zhonghua Gate alone, which was simply an impossible task, and the officers and soldiers of the 58th Division felt that they had become a part of the discarded.

Huang Haoran had already told Feng Shengfa that the defenders in Nanjing had begun to retreat in an orderly manner, and that the later Zhonghua Gate fell into the hands of the Japanese army, the more beneficial it would be to the retreat plan of the Nanjing garrison, and he hoped that the 58th Division could hold on to Zhonghua Gate for as long as possible.

However, Feng Shengfa couldn't say these words directly to his officers, Huang Haoran's concerns were not unreasonable, Feng Shengfa also saw with his own eyes how panicked the Chinese army who received the retreat order in Songhu, at that time, if it weren't for the troops on the defense line to help the troops in chaos for a while, now the Japanese would have taken Nanjing and went straight to Wuhan!

Nanjing, now is an embattled situation, once these hundreds of thousands of troops fall into the same chaos as the retreat of Songhu, the final result can only be a big gift to Matsui Shigen! You must know that there is no defense line in the direction of Wuhu, and the Yangtze River is a natural barrier, but it is a pity that most of the shipping forces of the Nanjing garrison have left Nanjing, and now there are Japanese gunboats on the Yangtze River, and they want to cross the river? It's not much easier than climbing to the sky!

In fact, when he first received the order, Feng Shengfa was also worried that the 58th Division would be placed at the back of the retreat sequence of the Nanjing garrison by Huang Haoran, and several city gates in the east of the city had fallen one after another, and now the Japanese troops entering the urban area of Nanjing were at least three divisions of the Central China Front, and the main force of the Japanese army on the periphery of Nanjing was still pressing towards Nanjing.

In the end, it was Huang Haoran's guarantee that dispelled Feng Shengfa's concerns, Huang Haoran told Feng Shengfa in the telegram that he would personally lead the 99th Division to the Nanjing Garrison Army, Feng Shengfa believed Huang Haoran's words, and Huang Haoran never broke his promise from Songhu to Nanjing.

In order to deal with the Japanese army that had the advantage at the Zhonghua Gate, high morale was an indispensable condition, Feng Shengfa decided to change the way to cheer up his officers, but at this time, a battalion commander standing by the city wall to observe the battle situation suddenly shouted:

"Master! The little devil is about to go ashore! Looks like there's a big team! Shall we send some more troops to the city walls? ”

This voice greatly attracted the attention of the officers of the 58th Division. Immediately, someone ran to the edge of the city wall to verify the situation, and soon, the officers who ran over turned their faces back, Feng Shengfa saw that the faces of these people became a little pale, and he immediately understood that the situation outside the city wall should be similar to what the battalion commander said just now.

"Order the troops to fire freely! As long as you have the range, take it out! Can't let the devils gain a foothold on the North Shore! Brethren! Hit me hard! ”

In view of the criticality of the Zhonghuamen position, Huang Haoran sent some of the weapons and equipment that Wuhan shipped to him to the 58th Division, because most of the Soviet aid was still on paper and could not be fulfilled, so the imported weapons that the Ministry of Military Affairs gave Huang Haoran this time were also varied, and the models of these imported products were very complicated, and Wang Huanzhi had a lot of brains when counting and distributing them.

The officers and men of Feng Shengfa's 58th Division now use a number of British-caliber light weapons, including Lewis light machine guns and Enfield rifles, Lee-Enfield rifles are commonly known as the British 77, and the Lewis machine gun, also known as the "turntable machine gun", is the standard equipment of the British army in World War I. The caliber of these two weapons is 7.7 mm, and the main ammunition used by the Chinese army at that time is 7.92 mm, which makes it very difficult to supply ammunition to the troops using 7.7 mm caliber guns, Minister He does not know which warehouse these British goods were turned out of these British goods and sent to Nanjing, and a limited number of 7.7 mm caliber guns and ammunition were also transported with the ship, in order to reduce the pressure on logistics, Huang Haoran decided to use this batch of British-made weapons by the 58th Division,

The officers and men of the 58th Division, accustomed to the Mauser rifle, used this British Lee-Enfield rifle for the first time, and the Lee Enfield rifle, which entered service in World War I in 1907, was the British Army's standard publicly-issued infantry weapon, which was a tethered rifle, high-powered, long-range, and could carry a total of 10 rounds from two sets of magazines. Boasting the most ferocious firepower of the manual bolt era, and with its ease of operation and ease of maintenance, the Lee Enfield rifle is built on two fronts: its large capacity magazine and its unmatched rate of fire.

Prior to the advent of semi-automatic rifles, the vast majority of manual bolt-action combat rifles had a magazine capacity of 5 rounds, while the Lee Enfield rifle could hold 10 rounds, which was twice as long. This deceptively simple design allows users of the Lee-Enfield rifle to sustain longer periods of time without having to refill the rifle. This gives soldiers more opportunities to shoot and reduces the time it takes to reload.

What really makes the Lee-Enfield Rifle stand out from other manual bolt-action combat rifles is its rate of fire. There is no doubt that the Lee Enfield rifle has the fastest rifle rate of fire before the advent of the semi-automatic rifle, and if it is not considered to hit the target, the Lee Enfield can fire all 10 rounds in the magazine in 8 seconds; In terms of sustained rate of fire, a well-trained soldier can aim and fire 20 rounds in one minute! On the battlefields of World War I, whenever the British fired a rapid salvo with a Lee-Enfield rifle, the Germans tended to think they were being machine-gunned. This shows the ferocity of the firepower of the Lee-Enfield rifle.

The 58th Division received 800 Lee-Enfield rifles, and Feng Shengfa immediately realized that this was a sharp weapon for defensive warfare after seeing the high rate of fire of this British-made rifle, and he arranged the two battalions equipped with this Lee-Enfield rifle in a row of 7 hiding holes facing inward in the middle of the first city gate, and he wanted to surprise the 6th Division!

Compared to the Lee-Enfield rifle, the Louis machine gun is not so pleasant to use, this kind of light machine gun equipped with the British army in World War I should be regarded as the heaviest light machine gun in the world, the bulky body makes the Louis machine gun lose its flexibility as a light machine gun, and compared with a heavy machine gun like Makqin, the firepower of the Louis machine gun is so worthless, if it weren't for the 58th Division now fighting a defensive war, Feng Shengfa said that he would not receive this batch of crappy goods, The officers and men of the 58th Division were more willing to save their precious 7.7 mm caliber ammunition and supply their Lee-Enfield rifles, and if it weren't for the Japanese artillery that destroyed many light and heavy machine guns on the city walls, the Louis machine guns would not have even had a chance to show their faces.

As the supreme commander of the assault force, Makimura was at the back of the middle of the attack line, and when a third of his second-echelon infantry climbed the north bank of the moat, the fire on the castle suddenly became hot.

"Half crossing", the Chinese have a really good grasp of the art of war handed down from their ancestors, but unfortunately, it is no longer the era of cold weapons, you can hit the other party, the other party can also hit you, Makimura Shaozo ordered the Japanese troops wading in the water to immediately raise their guns and shoot back.

Bullets of various calibers continued to pass through the air, the river at Makimura Shaosa's feet was not churning in the water, and the Japanese soldiers in the attack queue from time to time had someone plunge into the water and never got up, Makimura Shaosa felt that these guys who were dying were lucky, and the most painful were actually those who were seriously wounded.

Due to the lack of manpower and equipment, the cure rate of the seriously wounded Japanese soldiers in the Nanjing battlefield was frighteningly low, and the Japanese officers and men at the bottom felt that it was better to die on the battlefield than to die on the operating table in the hospital, and many seriously wounded Japanese soldiers on the firing line would beg their fellow villagers or friends to give them a shot, thus achieving the goal of being able to enter the Yasukuni Shrine.

"Boom!"

A mortar shell caused a bloody incident less than two meters away from Makimura, and the shock wave caused Makimura to fall into the river, and the black mud stained Makimura's military uniform, and his pistol was lost in the mud.

Makimura Shaosa struggled to stand up, the cannon just now made the souls of the three Japanese soldiers return to the east, and in the river to the left of Makimura Shaosa sat a Japanese soldier, the rifle was discarded in the distance, this soldier kept holding his stomach.

"You! What's wrong? Hurt? ”

Makimura asked the soldier who was sitting in the river, he felt that the Japanese soldier's expression was very painful, this shallow moat had been dyed red by the blood flowing from the Japanese corpses, and Makimura Shaosa had drunk several sips of such blood when he fell down just now.

"Your Excellency Shaozuo, I.. My stomach was cut open by shrapnel, and I thought it would be better to sit like this, did you say I did the right thing? ”

The soldier's voice trembled when he answered, and Makimura Shaosa seemed to feel the pain that pierced his heart, and Makimura Shaosa had seen a lot of cruelty on the battlefield, but every time he saw such a tragedy suffered by Japanese soldiers, Makimura Shaosa still couldn't help but feel sad.

Makimura Shaosa walked over and took away the hand of the Japanese soldier covering his stomach and took a look, the Japanese soldier's injury was very serious, the artillery shrapnel tore a deep wound in his abdomen, Makimura Shaosa saw a section of intestines exposed, the blood at the wound had shown black and red, the Japanese soldier pressed his wound hard, he was afraid that more blood would come out. Most of the wounded like this can't be saved......

Makimura couldn't bear to tell the Japanese soldier the truth, and he decided to tell some lies in front of this dying man.

"Hold on! The Medic will be here soon! They will take you to the hospital in the rear and the doctor will cure you! ”

Whether these words can work or not, Makimura Shaosa's heart did not count, he turned his head and looked for a trace of the medics in the ranks of the attacking Japanese soldiers with some anxiety, but it seemed that for a long time, Makimura Shaosa did not see a single medic.

The moat was full of wounded soldiers, and the few medics who set off with the troops were simply too busy, and, in their eyes, it was not worth wasting their time to save the wounded who could not be saved at all!

Makimura wanted to say a few more words of encouragement to the soldiers in the river, but when he turned his head, he found that the Japanese soldier who was still talking to him just now had turned into a corpse!

"Rush forward! Don't be pinned down on the riverbed! There's no shelter here! Give me all rush! ”

Makimura closed the eyes of his dead soldier, then picked up the rifle in the river and shouted wildly.

When Makimura Shaosa climbed up to the north bank of the moat, he turned around and saw a medic with a red cross package running next to the body of the Japanese soldier just now, the medic squatted down and stretched out his fingers to press on the Japanese soldier's neck to take the pulse, after a few seconds, the medic gave up, he took out the chalk and drew a white circle on the Japanese soldier's steel helmet, which marked that the person under the steel helmet had been declared dead.

"Your Excellency Shaozuo! The Wing Captain wants to talk to you! ”

A telephone operator who stumbled over with the radio on his back found Makimura Shaosa standing along the moat, he held up the headset and the walkie-talkie and handed it to Makimura Shaosa, Makimura Shaosa quickly adjusted his mood, and took the operator and the radio to find a relatively safe place, and the Japanese soldiers who climbed up the north bank behind him quickly formed a defensive line in front of Makimura Shaosa.

"I'm Makimura Shaosa! Please! ”

Kanda Masao's voice came out of the earphones, and he ordered Makimura to organize the troops to quickly establish a defensive position on the north bank of the seed, and then cover the river reclamation operation of the engineer troops. At the same time, clouds of black smoke rose behind the Japanese positions on the south bank of the moat, which were emitted by the Japanese tanks and engineering machinery of the engineering units.

Looking at the hundreds of Japanese soldiers who climbed ashore from the riverbed of the moat, Feng Shengfa really wanted to jump down from the city wall immediately to eliminate these devils, the severity of the Japanese army gaining a foothold under the city wall Feng Shengfa was very clear, although Zhonghua Gate Castle is an urn city with four city walls, but there is only one Ming city wall on both sides of Zhonghua Gate Castle, and the city defense of the defenders of Guanghua Gate was blown up by the Japanese army with explosives, and now the little devils have gained a foothold on the north bank, and the defense of the 58th Division in Zhonghua Gate has become more difficult.

In order to eliminate the hundreds of Japanese troops brought by Makimura Shaosa, the 58th Division successively sent three groups of death squads to descend from the city wall to the outside of the city gate with ropes to launch a strong attack, but with the fire support of the 6th Division of the Japanese Army on the south bank of the tank unit and artillery unit, Makimura Shaosa withstood it, and the commander of the Ushijima Manchu Brigade successively sent more than 300 Japanese troops across the river to reinforce Makimura Shaosa in order to avoid any mistakes on the north bank, and the two sides fought for several hours on the north bank, and the Japanese troops under Makimura Shaosa not only did not decrease, but began to increase.

Feng Shengfa's counterattack strategy was completely ineffective.

At noon, the sappers of the 6th Division finally filled in a passage on the riverbed of the moat after paying the price of more than 100 casualties, allowing two bean chariots to advance side by side, and the chariot troops and infantry wings of the 6th Division began to cross the river in a big way, Feng Shengfa hit the mortars of the whole division and bombarded the Japanese army's river crossing channel, which caused the interruption of the Japanese army's river crossing operation several times, but due to the limited power of mortar shells, the 58th Division failed to completely destroy the Japanese army's river crossing channel, after several battles, The Japanese sappers completed the repair and expansion of the river crossing, and the mortar units of the 58th Division also suffered heavy casualties in the artillery battle with the Japanese, and Feng Shengfa could no longer prevent the main force of Gu Shoufu's 6th Division from stepping onto the north bank of the moat.

The commander of the Ushijima Manchu Brigade withdrew the 15th Infantry Wing that had made great achievements, and then transferred the 23rd Infantry Wing of Okamoto Zhenchen Daisa, Kanda Masazhong Daisa has overcome the moat outside the Zhonghua Gate brilliantly, and now it is Okamoto Zhenchen Daisa's turn to show his bravery!

The commander of the Ushijima Brigade likes to let every middle-level officer under his command get space to play, which is also one of the important reasons why the internal relationship of the 36th Brigade can always be very harmonious.

The first shot of the 23rd Wing was fired at the gate of the Zhonghua Gate, Okamoto Zhenchen Dazuo is a very direct person, his style of fighting is a fierce attack at any cost, the Japanese artillery fire has not interrupted the bombardment of the Zhonghua Gate from the beginning to the present, the two ancient gates have long been blown into pieces, and the collapsed sandbags in the city gate cave Feng Shengfa has never had a chance to refill, after breaking through the dense bullet rain of the 58th Division, more than 200 Japanese troops of the 23rd Wing broke through the first gate of the Zhonghua Gate! (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )