The so-called knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent is invincible, this is the experience and lesson drawn by many ancient Chinese military strategists through practice. However, when the instructors of the cadet military academy gave lectures to the officers of the short-term training course, they advocated not fighting a battle that they were not sure of.

The Japanese Yangtze River Fleet was definitely a decisive factor affecting the final direction of the Madang Campaign, so the General Staff of the Beishang Corps set up several preparatory combat plans for it.

After Zhang Tianquan put down the phone, he immediately conveyed the order, and five minutes later, the counterattack of Madang Fort began.

Most of the people who participated in this round of counterattack were 180 mm and 210 mm caliber fortress guns, and because the distance of 20 kilometers was the limit of the firing distance of these guns, the results of this counterattack were naturally limited.

On the water near the three kilns, in the captain's room of a gunboat named "Tottori", amid a series of explosions, Kamakura Suketsu refused the request of his subordinates and stayed in the command position like a mountain.

In the Battle of Hankow, the Tokyo base camp had high hopes for the Yangtze River Fleet. Although the decision-makers in Tokyo did not come to the front in person, after the battles of Songhu and Nanjing, they already had a considerable understanding of China's defense system. They believed that because of the importance of Hankow, the Chinese army would certainly operate the ground fortifications in the same way as the Maginot Line. Therefore, although the fruits of the battle must be obtained through the army at the most difficult time, the Yangtze River Fleet is very important in order to win the Battle of Hankou in the fastest time and at the lowest cost.

The expectations of the base camp made Kamakura Sukeji Jun feel deeply honored and pressured at the same time. In order to live up to the love of His Majesty the Emperor and indeed play an irreplaceable role in the Battle of Hankow, breaking through the only obstacle to the waters of Hankou as quickly as possible has become a problem for him during this time. Kamakura did a lot of meticulous work on this, and even studied the parameters of each cannon on the original Madang fortress fort. Efforts will be rewarded, and it is precisely because he knows in his heart that after the start of today's artillery battle, he can behave so calmly and with the style of a general.

The long-range range of the 240 mm caliber artillery of Madang Fortress is only about 35 kilometers, and when it comes out of 15 kilometers, the accuracy of the gun is not good. The distance of 20 kilometers seems dangerous, but in fact, as long as Kamakura goes out today and does not step on shit, it is basically difficult to be hit directly.

At this distance, this detachment of the Yangtze River Fleet launched an indiscriminate three-hour bombardment of Madang Fort. From beginning to end, the Madang battery returned fire fiercely, and sank two gunboats of about 1,000 tons and one gunboat of about 500 tons.

The artillery unit of Madang Fortress carried out Plan No. 2 and did not use 240 mm guns, but only used 210 mm and 180 mm cannons to return fire, so although the battle was lively, the results were few.

"It seems that the Japanese were afraid that we would use fortress artillery and their ground artillery to fight, so they let the Yangtze River Fleet contain us. Hehe, then we will just plan it," Ouyang Yun said to Chen Shichang after analyzing the new round of battle reports in the general headquarters.

After an hour of artillery shelling by about five wings of the Japanese army, there was still the Xiaogushan front line on the Zhousheng front, and the Japanese ground forces launched an offensive almost simultaneously. In the direction of Xiaogu Mountain, soldiers of the size of a wing of the Japanese army launched an attack from three directions at the same time, among them, the devils of the three brigades in the east directly attacked along the only mountain road; In the other two directions, the Japanese army sent out a detachment to conduct a special operation.

The Japanese army was menacing, and after personally observing the enemy situation, Lian Changjiang, the commander of the 307th Regiment of the defending army, felt that the situation was a little complicated, but he was not frightened by this. The danger of the small lonely mountain cannot be experienced by those who have not experienced it, which is also the reason why the army must defend it at any cost. He first talked to the brigade commander Xiang Zhengyong on the phone, reported the situation here to him, and then promised that as long as there was one person in the 307th regiment, the little devil would not want to capture Xiaogushan.

The Ninth Brigade is responsible for garrisoning Penglangji, and Xiaogushan is a tooth hanging in Penglangji in the north of the river. As long as Xiaogushan was still in the hands of the Scholar Army, then the Japanese would not dare to launch an offensive against Penglangji. There is only less than two kilometers between Xiaogushan and Penglango, and at such a short distance, 105 mm mortars can effectively strike at the devils at the foot of the mountain. It is precisely because of this reliance that although the Japanese army behaved aggressively, Xiang Zhengyong was not frightened, and he replied to Lian Changjiang: "I will not let you fight to the last one, as long as you can withstand it during the day, it will be our time at night." Old Lian, be steady, I don't ask you to destroy many enemies, as long as you can hold your position, it will be a victory! ”

Some time ago, Xiaogushan had been occupied by the Japanese army, but later it was recaptured by the Xuebing Army because of the negligence of the Japanese army. The small lonely mountain was lost at the hands of Yamamuro Sotake, but at this time it had to be captured by Yamada Joji. Yamada Joji didn't take Xiaogushan too seriously at first, thinking that since he isolated Jiangbei, in the absence of the support of the main force, no matter how brave the defenders were, they would be easily captured because of the lack of ammunition supply.

The fact was completely beyond Yamada Joji's expectations, just a few days ago in several tentative attacks, he spent nearly two squadrons of troops, but failed to cross the thunder pond, and at night, the front line guard and patrol detachment were repeatedly assassinated and harassed by the Cadet Army, only then did he realize how important Xiaogushan was to capture Penglang and march into Jiangnan.

Three brigades, nearly 3,500 Japanese troops, such a dense force, even if people are stacked, they can also be stacked from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain. However, in the face of the dense firepower of the defenders, the devils of these three brigades took turns to attack, but they were all repulsed without exception, and in the end they only left more than 200 corpses in vain in front of the first line of positions of the Cadet Army.

He Dun, in a courtyard building, Yamada Joji listened to the latest battle report of the communications staff officer, and learned that another round of attacks in the east was repulsed, and there was a summit battle in the north, because the student army ambushed the snipers, and as a result, more than a dozen standing up team members were still unable to advance in vain, and he couldn't hold his breath. Yamada's voice belongs to the more shrill category, and his roaring voice is sharp and harsh, because of this, he has always been more restrained in his temper, so it is difficult for outsiders to see him angry. And once he started the fire, that kind of momentum and prestige really made everyone who heard it shudder. "Eight grids, a bunch of rice buckets, there are only about 1,000 people in the army on the mountain, even if five for one, it should also be taken, but so far, what news has come from the front line? Sano, you tell Takahashi that if he can't see the view from the top of the mountain before three o'clock in the afternoon, then jump into the river and feed the fish himself! ”

Sano was one of his staff officers, and Takahashi was the wing commander who was now directing the battle.

In order to capture Madang Fortress in one fell swoop, Okamura Ninji set clear operational targets for all participating troops. Among them, the 11th Division must attack Jiangxinzhou, where the main body of the fortifications on the north side of Madang Fortress is located, before nightfall today, while the 112th Division must capture Xiaogushan before 3 o'clock, and then launch an artillery bombardment of Penglangji overnight.

Sano bowed his head in response, and then ran into the next room to make a phone call. Other devil officers, look at me, let me look at you, a young officer about thirty years old with Ren Danhu suddenly took two steps forward, stood in front of him with his head bowed and said respectfully: "Your Excellency General, do you think you are using special artillery shells?" ”

The so-called special artillery shells are poison gas shells. Yamada looked at him, suddenly sneered, then raised his left leg and kicked it, scolding: "Eight grids, if I can use special shells, do I still have to worry so much?" Bage, have you forgotten the care of the base camp? ”

The Japanese army used poison gas bombs many times in the confrontation with the Cadet Army, but what made the little devil extremely depressed was that the use of special artillery shells not only failed to accelerate the defeat of the Cadet Army, but made them suffer greater losses every time. The Xuebing Army is not a bun, as if they know that their imperial army likes to use special artillery shells, not to mention that they are equipped with gas masks, and there are corresponding needle measures. The Imperial Army is always self-defeating, and after studying it, the base camp is forced to issue such an order to the front-line troops, and special artillery shells must not be used when fighting in China, so as not to attack their own troops - the base camp gives such an order, which is really helpless, because the level of gas mask production in Japan is not as good as that of the school army, so some of their special artillery shells often do not hurt the student army, but on themselves. In this case, who would dare to continue to use special shells?

Of course, this is actually a superficial statement, because as far as Yamada knows, the reason why the Tokyo base camp suddenly became kind was actually because of the plague attack on the mainland.

Although the Cadet Army's operation to release the plague into Japan did not reach Tokyo accurately, but only Nagoya, the consequences caused by it have already made the whole country mourn. So far, nearly 20,000 people have died in Nagoya alone, and the number of infected cities has now reached six. Although these six cities have been successfully quarantined, it seems that the epidemic has been controlled, but even so, the damage caused by this round of plague epidemic to Japan has reached a considerable scale, according to the statistics of the current Japanese cabinet, because Nagoya and other cities happen to be the gathering place of Japanese military enterprises, so just because of the isolation caused by the shutdown of factories and other enterprises, has caused a loss equivalent to one-tenth of last year's annual output in Japan.

Here I have to mention some old devils in the current Japanese Konoe Cabinet, compared with those pure militarists, these old devils are quite knowledgeable, and they do not dare to disclose that this is caused by the attack of the Cadet Army, but unanimously blame it as a natural and man-made disaster. If they reveal the truth, given the current reality of the prevalence of militarism in Japan, one can imagine what kind of storm it will bring to East Asia and even the world.