The Travelers of the Heavens

"Then I also want to let them know who is the leader of this country." Jiang was determined to send the Eighth Route Army to the Beijing-Tianjin area to fight the Kyushu Army.

Jiang was holding back his bad intentions and wanted to defeat the Eighth Route Army. Embarrassing, of course this also echoes his consistent style since the"April 12", never letting go of any opportunity to cause trouble to the Communist Party

""Okay, Darling, but don't get your hopes up, the Communist Party will not obey your words and go to Beijing and Tianjin to die," Song Genling said.

Eighth Route Army Headquarters

"Ha, this is another trick by Jiang to use the hands of the Japanese to eliminate us. We must not fall for it." The commander of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters received the order from the Wuhan Military Commission. Instead of being angry, he was very calm.

"Chief, Jiang has made it clear that he wants us to go to the Beijing-Tianjin area to die, but if we don't go, he will bring up the old story and say that we are guerrillas instead of fighting, and it is a fake resistance war," said the Chief of Staff of the Eighth Route Army

"This is Jiang's usual method. He always uses this trick and doesn't use a new one. I feel bored for him," the headquarters commander said with a smile.

"Commander, I think he is just pretending to be a war of resistance. At this time, he is still plotting against us all day long."

"Haha, then Jiang is at the end of his rope, he can’t do anything else."

The other commanders laughed.

""Okay, okay, comrades, a new round of struggle against the enemy's stubbornness is about to begin. Comrades must be more vigilant and must not give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it," said the commander of the headquarters.

"Chief, I still advocate sending a small and capable force to Beijing and Tianjin to take down some enemy checkpoints and inquire about the rail guns. These rail guns pose a great threat to us," said the Chief of Staff.

"It coincides with my idea, so which troops should be sent to sneak into Beijing and Tianjin?" the headquarters commander asked

"Let the 687th Regiment of the 344th Brigade of the 115th Division send troops there, and by the way, let Zhang Heihei go with him. He can speak fluent Japanese and it will be much easier to move around," the chief of staff said.

Tian Shou, commander of the 687th Regiment After receiving the order, Rao immediately dispatched the second battalion of the regiment to disguise themselves as Japanese soldiers and sneak into the Beijing-Tianjin area secretly.

Under the leadership of Zhang Heihei, who could speak Japanese, the second battalion successfully sneaked into the depths of the Japanese defense lines and also pulled out several puppets. However , on the night of June 9, troops from a regiment of the Kyushu Army and a regiment of the Japanese returned from a joint exercise and encountered the Second Battalion.

Originally, Zhang Heihei had deceived the Japanese, but a Jiuzhou Army The soldier's semi-automatic rifle misfired and hit a soldier of the second battalion. The soldier who was hit accidentally exposed his identity due to the pain, and the two sides immediately started a fierce exchange of fire. There were more than

6,000 people in one regiment of Kyushu soldiers, and one regiment of Japanese soldiers. 3,800 people; the Second Battalion of the 687th Regiment of the Eighth Route Army only had more than 800 people, and its equipment was also absolutely inferior. It was naturally unable to deal with nearly 10,000 enemies head-on.

Soon the Second Battalion could not resist and wanted to withdraw, but the Japanese But they pursued them closely and surrounded them on a high ground.

However, the Kyushu Army refused to assist the Japanese in encircling and annihilating the Second Battalion on the grounds that they did not dare to delay for too long. The angry Japanese captain cursed the opponent for betraying his allies.

But the Kyushu Army did not Impressed, he returned to his base.

After night fell, the Second Battalion successfully broke through under the cover of darkness. After returning to the base safely, there were still 300 people left in the Second Battalion of more than 800 people. It can be said that the losses were heavy.

The losses were Most of the hundreds of soldiers died heroically when they were suppressed by the opponent's semi-automatic and fully automatic rifles during the initial exchange of fire with the Kyushu Army.

This was also the first time that the Eight Route Army in the Taiyue area fought against the Kyushu Army. The opponent's powerful firepower It left a deep impression on them. According to the surviving soldiers, they later recalled that almost everyone in the Zhou army had a machine gun. In fact, it described the Kyushu soldiers' strong firepower and the amazing number of bullets fired per unit time.

This time the Eighth Route Army's military Although the operation suffered heavy losses, it was not without gains. In addition to pulling out some gun towers belonging to traitors of the puppet army, they also found out the whereabouts of the Kyushu Army rail guns.

All nine rail guns were parked on a branch line of the Beijing-Tianjin Railway.

Although this information was very It is valuable, but it is of little significance to the current Eight Route Army. They are not yet capable of going deep into enemy-occupied areas to destroy the rail gun, so they still have to wait for the rail gun to be launched and learn its route of action before they can take action.

The Battle of Wuhan broke out on June 11, the 30th year of the Great Zhou Empire's auspicious reign (the 27th year of the Republic of China, 1938 AD). The national army assembled fifty armies and about 1.1 million people, including the United States There are five armies of the Armed Forces, totaling 14 divisions, personally commanded by Chairman Jiang Mou, and Chen Cheng is the commander of the Wuhan garrison. On the

Japanese side, 11 divisions will be transferred from the mainland, North China and North Anhui to form the Central China Dispatch Army. Army General Shunroku Hata is the commander, responsible for unified command of the attack on Wuhan.

It is worth noting that the 11th Army Corps under the Central China Expeditionary Army, the commander of this army is the notorious war criminal Okamura Neiji. In reality, this Japanese soldier committed He committed numerous crimes, but was finally acquitted by Chiang Kai-shek after the war. This is really a strange and rare thing in ancient and modern times, so everyone must remember this Okamura Neiji.

The Japanese first occupied Anqing through the Xubeng area as their advance base. Troops gathered here one after another, and then entered the area north of the Dabie Mountains via the Huaihe River, crossed Wusheng Pass, and captured Wuhan.

Just when the Japanese were preparing to launch an attack via the Huaihe River, the Yellow River suddenly burst its banks, and Shunroku Hata was forced to abandon his plan to attack Wuhan via the Huaihe River and instead march on both sides of the Yangtze River.

After the Battle of Jinling, most of the artillery positions deployed by the Kyushu Army on the north bank of the Yangtze River were abandoned, and various artillery regiments were restored one after another. The exit on the north bank of the Central China Yangtze River Bridge is in the hands of the Kyushu Army, but the south bank is in the hands of the National Army. The two sides faced off on the same bridge across the Yangtze River.

The national army on the other side of the river is on tenterhooks every day, fearing that one day when they wake up in the morning, they will see not an empty bridge but a"moon" tank rushing forward.

Since some strategic points have always been in the hands of the Kyushu Army, the Japanese only need to transport their troops there, and some early battles that should have happened did not happen.

But Shunroku Hata was an ambitious Japanese and wanted to show off his skills, so he formulated the so-called plan of"launching an attack through the Huaihe River and finally occupying Wuhan."

Now that the plan has been canceled, Hata Junroku may not be able to show his hand.

The Japanese took advantage of the Kyushu Army's advantage in occupying strategic points and quickly entered Wuhan.

As soon as the two sides fought, the Japanese suffered a heavy loss.

Under the cover of artillery fire, a regiment of the Japanese 116th Division attempted to capture the position of the Nationalist Army's reorganized 11th Division.

The reorganized 11th Division is an all-arms unit. The division's artillery battalion is equipped with 12 American-made M1919 105mm howitzers. This gun is the M country's version of the Gallic 1913-style howitzer, which was used in World War I.

Why is the"American Armament Jiang Army" equipped with this type of artillery? Because the familiar M2a1 (also known as M101) 105mm howitzer is still under design at this time and will not be equipped with the M Army until 1940. Therefore, at this stage, such as reorganization National military artillery units such as the 11th Division use some weapons that are currently in service in Country M but are about to be phased out. It’s not that the people of Country M are unwilling to provide better ones. In fact, Country M itself doesn’t have any, so it can only use these to fight. and weapons and equipment from the early post-war period.

Everyone thought that country M was the world's largest economy at the time and shouldn't be in such an embarrassment.

But one issue has been overlooked, that is, since the end of World War I, Country M has not paid much attention to the development of armaments, and an economic crisis broke out in the 1930s. Therefore, until 1938, the weapons and equipment of the Army of Country M were neither There are not enough advanced ones.

Now that the international situation has suddenly changed, Country M is blinded. It has done its best to squeeze out a large number of heavy weapons to assist the national army. This is completely different from the reality of Country M after World War II, so they cannot be confused.

The Japanese thought that the Chinese army in front of them was vulnerable, but they did not expect that the counterattack of the Chinese artillery was so fierce. A regiment of the 116th Division was violently shelled before they could walk a few meters, causing heavy casualties.

The 116th Division was forced to stop the attack, and the Japanese's first attack on Wuhan got off to a bad start.