Seeing Xu Shijiu feeling guilty, Feng Shengfa patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Ajiu, you have done your best."

"I know." Xu Shijiu nodded and said, "Second, there is another thing. Today, the 3rd Company has scrapped eight gun barrels. I hope the Ordnance Office can supply me. In addition, I hope that Hu Jie's mortar company can be transferred to me for command. Tomorrow, Xiaoji Wuben's offensive will only be more fierce. If there is no artillery fire support, this battle will be difficult to fight.

The 58th Division originally had a direct artillery battalion of the division, which was under its jurisdiction, a mountain artillery company, a flat-fire artillery company and two mortar companies. Hu Jie was the company commander of one of the mortar companies. However, before he arrived in Luodian, he was detained by the Group Army Command and was ambushed by the Japanese army in Luodian. Only Hu Jie's artillery company escaped.

Since then, Hu Jie's artillery company has been following the 19th Brigade.

After the 74th Army was transferred from the Third War Zone to the Nanjing Garrison Command, Tang Shengzhi allocated four l50mm caliber heavy mortars to the 5L Division and the 58th Division respectively. Feng Shengfa used these four heavy mortars as the basis, and together with Hu Jie's mortar company and other regiment artillery platoons, they rebuilt the artillery battalion, specifically used to block the highway from Wusuolangxi to Nanjing.

Feng Shengfa readily agreed: "Okay, Hu Jie's artillery company can be under your command. If necessary, I will also let the heavy mortar company directly provide you with artillery fire support."

"Second, don't." Xu Shijiu said hurriedly, "It's better not to expose the heavy mortar company first. When Xiao Ri Wuben doesn't want to attack, he will send engineers to repair the road before firing. After all, there are not many shells for heavy mortars, and there are only more than 400 shells in total. If they are consumed at this time, there will be no more than 100 shells in the future."

"Okay." Feng Shengfa was not pretentious and immediately sent an adjutant to call Hu Jie in.

When Hu Jie brought the cannon company and Xu Shijiu to return to the ancestor's hall of Hongjue Temple, Gao Shenxing had already returned. He took the guards to traverse Zutang Mountain at night. He wanted to sneak attack Xiaojiuan, but found that Xiaojiuan was on high alert. Not only did he dig trenches around the base, but he actually pulled a barbed wire mesh. The searchlight kept stragging around. Seeing that there was no way to take advantage of it, Gao Shenxing came back in shame with the guards.

However, Gao Shenxing still brought back a message. In the middle of the night, another huge Japanese convoy arrived at Dongshan Bridge. There were at least hundreds of trucks, dozens of armored vehicles and tanks. Many trucks were dragging bulky cannons behind them. It should have been a field artillery corps that were landing behind.

Gu Wei said worriedly: "Captain, you're in trouble now."

Gao Shenxing also said heavily: "From the process of the Battle of Shanghai, the level of the infantry and artillery coordination of Xiaoji Wuben's infantry and artillery is indeed very high. The infantry even dared to push the attack position within fifty meters of the blasting point! The distance of fifty meters was rushed up in six or seven seconds. In such a short time, our brothers didn't even have time to come out of the air raid shelter."

"It's okay." Xu Shijiu waved his hand and said calmly, "The small Japanese and Japanese cannon coordination is powerful, but in this world, it is not only the small Japanese and Japanese cannon coordination, but our national army can do it too."

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The information Gao Shenxing brought back was basically accurate. The 6th Field Cannon Regiment belonging to the 6th Division of the Japanese Army had indeed arrived at Dongshan Bridge. Along with the 6th Field Cannon Regiment, Niujimaman, the brigade commander of the 36th Infantry Brigade, he led his troops to capture the Shanghai Municipal Government 24 days ago. Now the old Japanese pointed the blade at Nanjing, the capital of China.

At twelve o'clock in the evening, Niu Daoman didn't care about the fatigue of the carriage and urgently summoned the officers to hold a staff meeting.

There are two types of staff meetings of Xiaoji Wuben. One is a cabinet meeting. Only the commander and chief of staff who have reached a certain level are qualified to attend the meeting. Usually, the meetings are convened in the army. The other is a staff meeting. As long as the head of the meeting thinks it is appropriate, even a small lieutenant can attend. Such meetings are not held often. They will only be held occasionally when encountering extremely difficult emergencies and the head of the office cannot make a decision.

At this time, the emergency staff meeting held by Niujima Man was a staff meeting.

The first topic of the meeting was to evaluate the necessity of attacking Niushou Mountain.

During the day today, the 23rd Infantry Regiment was fiercely resisted at the foot of Niushou Mountain. The Takata Brigade, who was responsible for the main attack, suffered more than 500 casualties. All four infantry squadrons under it were destroyed. Even if the replenishment troops were quickly replenished, it would be difficult for the Takata Brigade to recover its combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

In this case, it is worth discussing whether to continue to attack Niushou Mountain.

After all, Niushou Mountain is just a small hill in the suburbs of Nanjing. Its strategic value cannot be compared with Nanjing. If the Kumamoto Division (the 6th Division) delayed for a long time in Niushou Mountain, the great achievements that would fall into Nanjing would fall on the 9th Division or the 13th Division, which is something that all the officers and soldiers of the Kumamoto Division could not tolerate.

In a nutshell, Nanjing is the primary goal of Kumamoto Division!

However, this does not mean that the Kumamoto Division can ignore the Chinese army on Niushou Mountain, nor does it mean that the Kumamoto Division can bypass Niushou Mountain and directly attack Nanjing Wucheng. This is because the only road in the Kumamoto Division's attack on Nanjing passed from the west side of Niushou Mountain, and this road will become the logistics supply line for the Kumamoto Division to attack Nanjing.

If the Niushou Mountain defenders are not solved, the logistics supply line of the Kumamoto Division may be cut off at any time. If the Japanese army on the north and middle roads are not progressing well, the Kumamoto Division, which is alone, is likely to be surrounded by the national army. It is also possible that a Chinese army will accidentally fight an annihilation war.

Although the old Japanese devil, Niujima Man, was arrogant, he didn't think that Kumamoto's division could defeat the national army with a bayonet and capture the Wucheng in Nanjing.

The atmosphere of the meeting was not warm. Although all the staff officers present could speak in name, except for the old Japanese devil who spoke at the meeting, there were only the commander of the 23rd Infantry Regiment of Okamoto Shinko and the commander of the 45th Infantry Regiment of Kanda Masato. In the end, the three old Japanese devils finally reached an agreement to continue to attack force tomorrow. It is of course the best to be able to defeat Niushou Mountain. If you really can't take it, you can bypass Niushou Mountain and attack Nanjing Wucheng directly.

That night, the 6th Field Cannon Regiment began to repair artillery fortifications on both sides of the highway.

The next day, December 6, a huge balloon rose from the position of the 6th Field Cannon Regiment in the morning. The artillery observer of the Little Japanese-Benz was sitting in a hanging basket under the hot air balloon and was observing the terrain of Zutang Mountain several thousand meters away through observation tools, and then calculated the shooting elements through charts.

Soon, two of the field guns began to test fire, followed by two more test fires.

After the second test, the two shots paused for about ten minutes. Then the 24 75mm caliber field cannons and 12 l05mm caliber field cannons of the 6th Field Cannon Regiment roared at the same time. In an instant, rows of shells were dragged and roared towards Zutangshan with a sharp roar.

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Xiao Maonan was squatting in front of the shooting hole, silently slashing the old knife.

Xiao Maonan and four other veterans were responsible for a half-closed heavy machine gun nest at the foot of the mountain. Their heavy machine gun nest was built extremely cleverly. It was originally a rock crack between two huge rocks. The back of the rock crack faced east and west, facing the south slope of Zutang Mountain and the passage up the mountain. The front of the rock crack had been completely destroyed by brick, stone and cement, and people could enter from the top.

Xiao Maonan looked out through the shooting hole and saw that the two mountain roads up the mountain and the entire hillside facing south were completely covered by thick smoke.

In the smoke that was so thick that it could not be melted, dazzling red light would bloom from time to time, followed by a deafening violent explosion. A huge wave of sound rushed into the heavy machine gun nest through the shooting hole, echoing in the narrow space, which could shake out the human soul from the body. At this moment, except for the buzzing sound, Xiao Maonan could no longer hear anything.

The little Japanese book, Wu Xiao Maonan pressed the cigarette butt on the stone wall and pressed it to the stone wall, cursing in his heart: He is really willing to spend a lot of money, it's almost half an hour? Based on the rate of two rounds per minute, and according to the 36 guns of a artillery corps, at least more than two thousand shells were fired in half an hour. It's such a big deal.

However, if Xiao Nii Ben thought that the side fire point of the 19th Brigade could be destroyed by artillery alone, then it would be wrong. The 19th Brigade's light and heavy machine gun nest was either built in a dead corner that could not be covered by Japanese artillery fire, or under huge rocks weighing hundreds or even thousands of tons. Not to mention shells, even a thousand-pound aerial bombs could do nothing.

If you want to destroy the nest of the 19th Brigade, there is no other way. Xiaojiwuben can only fill it in with his life. When Xiao Maonan and his friends' machine guns are blown up or they are bombed, Xiaojiwuben can rush to the position. Otherwise, no matter how many people come, they will have to be ruined here.

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Half an hour after the 6th Japanese Field Artillery Regiment of the Japanese Army shelled Zutangshan, Captain Noguchi Yoshino and his entire No. 180 Japanese soldiers entered the attack position. The attack position of the Noguchi Squadron was even only fifty meters away from the artillery range. This was an extremely terrible and dangerous distance. The shells that the artillerymen did not shoot could accidentally land on their heads at any time, causing accidental injuries.

He took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. The hour hand was already pointing at 7:38. In another two minutes, the artillery fire of the Field Artillery Corps will extend forward and launch continuous artillery bombardment on the deep positions of the National Army on the hillside of Zutang Mountain. The Noguchi Squadron will quickly break through the National Army's defense line before the smoke of the gun was dispersed and the National Army's machine gun nest had not yet recovered.

There will not be too much time left for the Noguchi Squadron. Once the smoke of guns spreads, they will be exposed to the guns of the national army immediately. Just those few machine gun nests can kill the entire Noguchi Squadron.
Chapter completed!