Huamao Hotel, Tower Rooftop.

It was already past lunch time, but the dozen Westerners gathered on the rooftop did not mean to leave the rooftop and go to the restaurant on the eighth floor to have a meal.

"Look, the national army has broken through the Japanese defense line!"

"God, Chinese soldiers have really broken into Sichuan Road!"

Amid the dense sound of gunfire, several sharp-eyed reporters suddenly screamed.

At the same time, around the Huamao Hotel, Shanghai citizens gathered on their own balcony or on the street to watch the game suddenly cheered loudly.

When the Soviet ambassador to China Bogmonov and the U.S. military officer Stilwell quickly raised his telescope and looked forward, he saw a team of Chinese soldiers holding bayonets rushing out from the intersection between Target Road and Sichuan Road. The one who rushed in the front was a military academy officer holding a Czech light machine gun.

The uniforms of a national military academy officer are very different from those of a non-commissioned officer or a lieutenant officer, and are very easy to identify.

I saw the National Military Academy officer fired a bullet and suddenly several Japanese soldiers were piled up.

There were about twenty Japanese soldiers left without fighting spirit. Under the pursuit of the national army, they were divided into two groups. More than a dozen Japanese soldiers headed north and rushed towards the Navy headquarters. The remaining seven or eight Japanese soldiers were panicked and fled south along the Sichuan North Road into the public concession. As a result, they were confiscated by the Italian army guarding the bridge.

Bogmonov said: "Col. Stilwell, the National Army officers seem to be less than you said."

Stilwell shook his head and said, "No, no, no, no, no, I have never said that the officers of the National Army are not brave enough in wars. In fact, the officers of the National Army are the bravest officers in the world I have ever met. The reason why I say that their quality is low is because they have basically never been exposed to modern military theories, even the so-called Huangpu Army officers."

Bogmonov said: "But even so, there are also many tactical geniuses among them."

"Yes." Stilwell said deeply, "This is incredible. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe that there were such tactical geniuses among Chinese soldiers."

Bogmonov said: "I really want to know who this person is. If I have the chance, I will definitely recommend him to go to the most famous Fulongzhi Military Academy to further his studies."

Stilwell said nothing with his pipe in his mouth, but he thought to himself, let's forget about Fulongzhi Military Academy, our West Point Military Academy in the United States of America is the best military academy in the world.

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On Sichuan North Road, Xu Shijiu met with Yang Furui holding a Czech light machine gun.

"Brother Hanhun, how do you fight next?" Yang Furui said and straightened the Japanese helmet on his head. He didn't know where his own German helmet had fallen. "Did you fight north along Sichuan Road?"

"No, Sichuan Road is the defense support of the Japanese army, because the several roads connecting Yangshupu District and Hongkou District are all horizontally connected to Sichuan Road. If Sichuan Road is not recaptured, the Japanese army trapped in the Navy headquarters will become an isolated army, so I predict that the Japanese army will gather heavy troops from the east and north to fight back with all their might."

"Brother, tell me, you will listen to you whether you are attacking or defending."

"Okay, please stop chasing immediately and allocate troops to repair fortifications at various intersections of Qiujiang Road. Be sure to block the enemy from the north to the intersections of Qiujiang River. You must not allow the Japanese army to reopen Sichuan North Road. I will lead the 19th Brigade to advance eastward and block all roads and bridges on the Honghe River!"

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Nanxiang Guyi Garden, 9th Army Headquarters.

After inspecting the positions of the 8th Independent Artillery Regiment near Zhenru, Zhang Zhizhong returned to the headquarters. While walking into the war room, he asked Tong Yuanliang: "Mu Tao, what is the battle situation?"

Tong Yuanliang said: "Master, how much progress has been made!"

"Oh?" As he spoke, Zhang Zhizhong had already stood in front of the map.

Tong Yuanliang pointed to the map and said, "Look at the head of the board, the 264th Brigade knew the shame and then braved. This morning, he made a concerted effort to conquer Chizhi University, the Patriot Girls' School and Hongkou Park. The Wu Qiujian Group of the 262nd Brigade also captured the Bazi Bridge and the Japanese Fenshan Mountain, and pushed the front line to Tiantong'an Station. The outpost was less than 500 meters away from the Navy Headquarters!

The only drawback is that because the Japanese army contracted too quickly, the number of enemies was not very large."

Zhang Zhizhong's eyes turned to the direction of the North Railway Station and said, "Where is Han Xianyuan Group in the direction of the North Station?"

Tong Yuanliang said: "Han Xianyuan's regiment was also good. Although the distance of the advancement was not as good as that of the Wu Qiujian regiment and the 264th Brigade, they also pushed the front line north of Qiujiang Road and blocked seven or eight highway bridges on the Honghe River. The passage for the Japanese army in Hongkou to replenish military supplies from Huishan Wharf has been cut off by our army, but..."

Zhang Zhizhong frowned and said in a deep voice: "It's just something, say!"

Tong Yuanliang said: "Only half an hour ago, the Japanese army had just mobilized heavy troops and launched a crazy counterattack on the Korean Xianyuan Group from Broadway Road, Xihuade Road and Sichuan Road. The two sides are fighting fiercely, and I don't know what the result is?"

Zhang Zhizhong said: "The road and bridges on Sichuan Road and Honghe River can be said to be the life passage of the Japanese army in Hongkou. Once they are cut off by me, the Japanese army in Hongkou will suddenly become a turtle in the jar, so it is completely expected that the Japanese army will counterattack wildly." After a pause, Zhang Zhizhong said again, "Call Sun Yuanliang immediately and ask him to send capable troops to support Han Xianyuan."

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On the west side of Broadway Road Bridge, the 19th Brigade 1 Squadron Position.

As mentioned earlier, the public concession in Shanghai is bounded by the Suzhou River. The central and western districts in the south are still under the jurisdiction of the Concession Industry Department. However, the eastern districts in the north have been controlled by the Japanese and have become the Japanese concession. In order to distinguish them from the public concession, the Japanese call the northern district Hongkou district, while the eastern district is called Yangshupu District.

The Honghe River, which flows from north to south, into the Huangpu River is the geographical division line of Hongkou District and Yangshupu District.

Nine highway bridges are built on the Honghe River, connecting Yangshupu District and Hongkou District. The defense center of the 19th Brigade is the six road bridges near the Huangpu River in the south. Because several highway bridges in the north are close to the cross-border road construction, they are on the edge of the city and have been cut off by Wang Jingjiu's 87th Division.

The southernmost Broadway Road and Xihuade Road and Bridge are the key points of defense. The 19th Brigade 1 and 2nd Squadrons, with veterans of the 19th Route Army as the backbone, were stationed on the west side of the two road bridges. At this time, the 1st Squadron and the 2nd Squadrons were under the cover of Japanese warships and gunboats from the Huangpu River.

It would be fine if the Japanese gunboats were the largest, and the gun caliber was only 80mm. You could use high-explosive bombs and could not penetrate the reinforced concrete building where the officers and soldiers of the 19th Brigade were hiding. You could use armor-piercing bombs to shoot one eye at a time, and the killing effect was very low. However, the flagship of the old Japanese Hasegawa Kiyoshi, the Izumo cruiser, is really too lethal.

I won’t mention the small-caliber rapid-fire cannons on the Izumo. There are 14 heavy cannons with a caliber of 150mm. The most terrifying thing is the four 203mm main cannons. When one shot hits, a building basically collapses. A high-explosive bomb falls on the street. It is a large crater with a diameter of dozens of meters. Even steel bars and iron bones can blow you up.

Moreover, naval guns and land war guns are two completely different concepts. Compared with the manual loading of land war guns, the mechanical loading of naval guns is much more efficient. High loading efficiency means fast firing speed. Basically, a land war gun can fire three or four shells, or even more.

In other words, the firepower of a cruiser Izumo is almost equivalent to half a heavy artillery brigade. Just two road and bridge head positions have to face the artillery fire coverage of half a heavy artillery brigade, and its intensity can be imagined.

Ergua leaned on the ground with her fists and her chest motionless. This is the common sense of anti-cannons taught by veterans.

Veterans said that they must not stick their bodies to the ground, otherwise they would not be killed by the shock waves transmitted from the ground. In the 128th Shanghai War, the 19th Route Army, which had never seen the power of heavy artillery, suffered a great loss. It is said that hundreds of veterans were killed by heavy artillery on the first day of the battle between the two sides!

Ergua found that the real shelling scene was far more terrifying than what the veterans described.

Ergua saw with her own eyes that a three-story villa collapsed under the fire of the Japanese army. A squad stationed in the building was buried alive in an instant. A shell fell behind the barricade at the intersection, which immediately lifted the whole barricade into the air. The brothers lying behind the barricade disappeared without a trace, and their bodies remained.

Amid the continuous explosions, Ergua felt that the whole city was shaking violently. Looking around, the entire Broadway street was completely covered by thick smoke. Nothing could be seen or heard ten meters away. In addition to the buzzing sound, there were also waves of dizziness, as if he had entered an unreal world.

A shell landed on the roof not far behind Ergua. The hot rubble exploded, fell to the ground and bounced back to Ergua's face and neck. However, he could no longer feel the pain. Xie Gouzi suddenly rushed out of the smoke of gunpowder, and squatted down in front of Ergua and shouted, but Ergua could not hear anything, only a buzzing sound.

Xie Gouzi turned around and left after yelling, regardless of whether Ergua had heard it or not.

Amid the almost suffocating buzzing sound, Ergua found that the Japanese artillery had stopped and the smoke had not yet dissipated, the veterans had already climbed up from their hiding bunkers. Xie Gouzi dug out the machine gun from the rubble, and Gao Fengzi also led two veterans to push out the 37mm war defense gun.

There is also Gao Shenxing, who had just dismantled Brother Gouzi's box gun into a pile of parts the day before, leaning against the corner of the wall, pressing a bullet into the chamber as if nothing had happened.

The noise on the battlefield suddenly poured into Ergua's ears like a tide.

"If you are alive, hurry up and check your equipment and replenish each other's ammunition!"

"Crow's mouth, bring two machine guns to seize the ruins on the left!"

"Crazy Gao, push the war defense cannon back as soon as possible, it's too far!"

"Ergua, fuck you hurry up, the Japanese are coming!"

Amid the continuous shouts, Ergua's consciousness suddenly recovered. When she heard Xie Gouzi calling him, she rushed to Xie Gouzi in three steps and two steps.

"Why are you standing there?" Xie Gouzi pulled the bolt off and said anxiously, "Get the ammunition!"

Ergua lifted a heavy chain from the ammunition box and sent it into the gun chamber. While subconsciously poked her head out of the machine gun defense shield and looked around, she saw about two small teams of Japanese soldiers rushing out from the Disiwei Road along the river and rushed up silently under the cover of two armored vehicles. The Kuomintang army liked to yell, but the Japanese army was used to charging silently.

"Little Japanese, Grandpa sends you back to Japan!" Xie Gouzi grinned and pulled the trigger.

In an instant, the 20mm caliber bullets were already stormed over, and the thin iron sheet of the armored vehicle could not resist the bullets of the 20mm caliber machine gun. In just a moment, the two armored vehicles were knocked into honeycombs by Xie Gouzi, and the seven or eight Japanese soldiers in the armored vehicle were all killed by the metal turbulence formed when the bullets penetrated the armor.

The armored vehicle lay down, but the fierce Japanese soldiers refused to retreat, and they were still rushing forward with bayonets.

"Come on, come on, I'll kill you as much as you come!" Xie Gouzi roared, and the machine cannon roared.

Under the barrage of 20mm machine guns and shells, the Japanese soldiers rushing forward with bayonets fell into pools of blood. Ergua was trembling with his liver and gallbladder. The 20mm caliber machine gun was so cruel that it hit the head, and the head shattered and disappeared, hit the torso, and the torso was torn into pieces!

Looking at the Japanese soldier who was torn into pieces of flesh and blood, looking at the bloody and broken limbs on the ground, a strong sense of anger suddenly surged in Ergua's chest, and she turned around and leaned down to retching.
Chapter completed!