Donghai County, here is the gateway to Lianyungang. As early as thousands of years ago, it was an important port connecting the mainland, and now it has become an important transit point in the Japanese occupation area.

About a wing of Japanese troops was stationed in the territory of Tokai County, and two regiments of puppet troops assisted in the defense. Whether it is the Japanese army or the puppet army, these people are not ordinary troops.

Originally, there was only one squadron of devils stationed here, and the Japanese troops of that wing had just been transferred earlier, and it was subordinate to the Seventh Division, which had a strong dynamic configuration. The 7th Division is also a division, which is the elite unit of the Japanese army, and they carry a large number of weapons to defend the city, in order to hold the gateway to Lianyungang.

The two puppet regiments were the Chinese troops lured by the Japanese intelligence department, one of which was formerly a unit under the Central Army, and the other was also a regular army. Their troops all have high military quality, and the equipment of the Japanese army has been uniformly replaced, and the overall strength has been improved, almost no different from a Japanese army's Category B troops.

And this is only a part of the defense of Lianyungang, the entire 7th Division and the 9th Division of the troops in front of Lianyungang in a semicircle, this new type of port seems to be covered in the copper wall. Their purpose was to prevent a sneak attack by the Chinese army and to prevent the recurrence of incidents like those in Qingdao.

The port of Qingdao exploded, and the entire Japanese army was in an uproar. Not only was the Battle of Xuzhou postponed, but even the Japanese troops in other offensive directions also postponed their military operations. The top brass of the Japanese army launched a series of investigations and shot several officers at and above the rank of lieutenant.

The commander and chief of staff of the Central China Dispatch Force were all dismissed, and the Navy and Military Department strongly demanded that even the Minister of War be replaced. Because this is the most significant loss of the Navy since entering the war, and it is still in the hands of the Chinese, whom they look down on the most.

In their view, China is backward and poor, and has been the target of land reparations since the First Sino-Japanese War, so how can such a group of backward and ignorant people defeat them, the Japanese who have the blood of gods and have excellent blood.

This made the Navy and even the Emperor feel a strong sense of shame, and the Emperor personally convened a meeting of the military department, which was very rare. On the same day, the Cabinet removed a number of generals from the military department and planned to devote more troops to China. They re-realized that they might have misjudged the situation in China before, and this time they wanted to annihilate all the anti-Japanese armies in China in one fell swoop.

The new commander of the Japanese invasion of Central China no longer dared to despise the defense and urgently mobilized the seventh and ninth divisions to guard Lianyungang. And nearly 30,000 elite puppet troops were mobilized to assist in the defense, and even a fly was not allowed to fly into Lianyungang from the direction of Xuzhou.

"Henggujun, I heard that there are a large number of Chinese troops active in the direction of Xinyi. Xinyi is very close to us, are the Chinese trying to attack the port behind us? Inside the Japanese defense line in Tokai City, a Nakasa said with some concern.

"Yes, Lai Gujun, I'm also very worried about this matter. In the morning, the division headquarters had just sent a telegram asking us to pay close attention to the situation in Xinyi, and we had not received information from the Xinyi defenders for five hours. There is a brigade of the Fifth Division stationed there, as well as an elite regiment of the Imperial Allied Army. Dazuo, named Yokoko, also said worriedly, he was the wing commander of the Seventh Division stationed in the East China Sea.

"Our opponents are very tough, I heard that the 10th Division was annihilated by more than 3,000 men in one night, the ammunition depot was bombed, the logistics warehouse was burned, and even abandoned a front and retreated about five kilometers. The 10th Division is a Class A division like us, and if they can do this, then we will probably face such an opponent. Lai Gu sighed.

Everything that happened that night in the 10th Division was exaggerated, and although the Japanese upper echelons strictly ordered it to be spread privately, and many people were caught talking about the soldiers. But this kind of thing still can't be forbidden to pass among the soldiers, including the officer level.

"Either way, it's our duty to guard this place. There must be a powerful army of the Chinese people, but there will never be many of them. As long as we rely on the location to protect this place, we will be considered to have completed our mission. Yokoku Daisa said coldly.

At this moment, Lai Gu's eyelids suddenly jumped, and his eyes widened incredibly into the distance. At the same time, Yokoko Daisa's gaze was also attracted by the smoke and dust suddenly raised in the distance, and he picked up the telescope and observed it carefully.

"This, this, this can't be. Are the defenders of Xinyi all killed? Henggu's hands began to tremble a little, and he looked at the Chinese troops in the distance, pouring like rolling angry clouds, and for a while he opened his mouth wide and didn't know what to say.

Rumble....... Rumble............ At this moment, shells landed exactly outside the trenches of the Japanese army in the East China Sea. Many devils who did not expect the war to come were bombed into the sky without preparation, and the Japanese army and puppet army on the front line of the East China Sea suddenly panicked.

"They, they still have cannons?" Lai Gu Zhongsa was even more shocked, fighting with the Chinese army for so long. The other side started with artillery shelling, which is too rare. And it is not difficult to distinguish from the sound of the whistling shells, the caliber of the shells that fell on them was very large, at least about 120 mm, and this kind of artillery could not be produced in China, there was only one explanation, that is, it was imported from Germany.

For a time, the Chinese army let out a thunderous roar, and the devils in the East China Sea met at least twice as many Chinese troops as they attacked head-on. In addition, the other side also had strong artillery support, and for a time the East China Sea side was overturned, and it was impossible to organize an effective counterattack under the constant artillery bombardment.

"All go into combat readiness, what about artillery? Bombard me, you must defend this place. "A single shell landed less than twenty meters on the wall where Yokoko Osasho stood, and the air wave after the explosion almost pushed him directly down the city.

He yelled with a black face and black ashes, and at the same time said to the herald: "Immediately inform the division headquarters, we have been attacked by twice as many Chinese troops, they have heavy firepower, the defense line is very tight, we need reinforcements, quickly!" ”

At the same time that the East China Sea was attacked by a Chinese integrated division, the entire Japanese front defending Lianyungang was fiercely attacked by the Chinese army almost simultaneously.

The frontal pressure on the 7th and 9th Divisions was very high. They have a combined strength of almost 40,000 troops, and their weapons and equipment are also very advanced. However, the Chinese army dispatched more than 100,000 troops, and the artillery and other equipment were no worse than the Japanese army.

This time, it was actually Li Zongren who made a bloody investment, allowing his most elite 100,000 troops to attack the Japanese army on the front line of Lianyungang, and used almost all the artillery, aiming to attract more Japanese troops into this battle.

Not only did he invest 20,000 more troops than when he promised Gao Dong, but he also had three integrated divisions ready to go into this battle at any time.

For a time, the Japanese army was defeated and retreated, and in just one day, the East China Sea line was lost, and both the offensive and defensive sides paid a huge price, with losses of tens of thousands of people each.

The top brass of the Japanese army was also affected by this battle, and urgently mobilized three divisions and regiments to go straight to the battlefield. At the same time, the army on the Xuzhou side immediately launched an attack on the Chinese defenders' positions, adopting the classic tactic of encircling Wei to save Zhao.

But Li Zongren had already calculated that the devil would think that Xuzhou was empty of troops and take this opportunity to attack. He mobilized elite troops, including the Twentieth Army Corps led by Tang Enbo, to garrison the Xuzhou front, and launched a fierce counteroffensive at the same time as the devils launched an attack, and the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, and the two sides fought three positions in one day.

On the long front from Lianyungang to Xuzhou, China and Japan suddenly invested nearly 600,000 troops to attack. The smoke of gunfire is thick and the number of casualties is rising. The Japanese army is still increasing the number of troops, and they must hold Lianyungang to ensure the stable existence of this transit terminal.

The Japanese knew that only this transit terminal existed, and when the logistics of the Chinese army were almost cut off, the other side would not be able to hold on for long. On the other hand, if Lianyungang is breached, it will also be very difficult for the Japanese army to supply. At that time, the gap between the two sides will be narrowed, and the Japanese army will have to pay a heavy price if it wants to achieve a large-scale victory.

From the third day onwards, the number of troops invested in the campaign by both sides had reached more than 800,000, and they were almost close to putting their reserves into it. Moreover, what puzzled the Japanese army was that the morale of the Chinese army was very high, and even in the case of a great difference in weapons and equipment, they were still able to fight without fear of death, which to a large extent caused great psychological pressure on the Japanese army.

On the fifth day of the battle, the casualties of the Chinese army had exceeded 30,000, almost a single integrated division was destroyed, one integrated division was disabled, and more troops were disrupted. The Japanese Seventh Division also suffered heavy casualties, with more than 10,000 losses, and this Division A was almost in a state of semi-scrap.

Just as the Japanese army was about to mobilize more troops, the Chinese army suddenly and quietly withdrew. This made the Japanese army who had just reached the interest of fighting very puzzling, but after such a big battle, they were also secretly relieved to see the Chinese army retreating.

Li Zongren sat in his headquarters and heard the news that the troops had begun to retreat in the direction of Xuzhou, and the corners of his mouth smiled.

The real purpose of this battle was only known to a few high-ranking people, including him and Lao Jiang, to allow the troops led by Gao Dong to surprise the port of the devils. More than 30,000 people were sacrificed to achieve this strategic goal, but Li Zongren felt incomparably worthwhile.

"Gao Dong, don't let the sacrificed soldiers chill." Li Zongren stood at the window, and a slightly cold wind blew, but it made his figure more upright.

At the same time, Mu Daochuan, who was in Lianyungang, also put down the combat report in his hand at this time, and an intriguing smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.