Xia Min'an nodded seriously, "Platoon Leader Ye, stick close to me!"

After saying that, he pointed at the Japanese soldiers opposite and shouted loudly, "Kill!"

He took the lead and charged forward!

The Japanese soldiers opposite weren't having an easy time either. Judging from their formation, their casualties were probably greater than those of his company.

But these Japanese soldiers were acting strangely today. Despite suffering such heavy losses, they still weren't retreating!

Captain Hisata Yuta looked at the team that had just charged up, which had already been reduced by half.

The enemy commander showed no sign of retreating and was charging towards his team again.

He immediately raised his command saber, "Kill!"

The remaining dozens of Japanese soldiers around him immediately roared and charged towards the Ninth and Tenth Company officers and soldiers opposite them.

Now, the strength of both sides was about the same, and it was all about willpower.

Whoever gave up first, whoever fled first!

The winner would occupy this hilltop.

Hisata Yuta's team would never admit defeat, even if it meant death.

The two teams, which had just separated briefly, clashed again.

When they had once again cut through the enemy and returned to their original positions, Company Commander Xia tore off another strip of cloth and wrapped it tightly around his abdomen.

After this charge, Company Commander Xia had already taken three knife wounds.

He had not yet completed his mission, so he could not stop now.

He tightly bandaged the wound, preparing for another charge.

Captain Hisata Yuta was doing the same.

He had also been injured in the two consecutive charges, and many of the Japanese soldiers standing behind him were also wounded.

However, these Japanese soldiers had been completely ignited with ferocity, and none of them were running away.

Many soldiers in both teams were doing the same thing.

Although they were bandaging different locations, they were all preparing for the next charge.

Xia Min'an looked at the team behind him, which only had sixty or seventy people left. Ye Junlue, who had been behind him, was gone.

Replaced by a new face.

Seeing the company commander's questioning gaze, Jiang Caoguang reported loudly, "Report, Company Commander, Platoon Leader Ye just sacrificed himself.

All the squad leaders have been sacrificed. Private First Class Jiang Caoguang of the First Squad is now acting as the First Platoon Commander."

Xia Min'an's expression remained calm: "Platoon Leader Jiang! Stick close to me!"

After saying that, he pointed his rifle forward, "Kill!"

He charged towards the Japanese soldiers again.

At the same time, Captain Hisata Yuta also roared, "Kill!"

This time, the fighting lasted a little longer.

When Jiang Caoguang finally killed the last Japanese soldier in front of him.

He looked back at the people on the Dingshan position.

On the entire position, less than twenty soldiers from the Ninth and Tenth Companies, who had charged up the position with Company Commander Xia, were still able to stand.

In any case, the Ninth and Tenth Companies had finally driven the Japanese soldiers off Dingshan.

Xia Min'an's rifle was stuck in the chest of a Japanese soldier, pinning him firmly to the ground.

He himself fell to the ground, stabbed three times by the Japanese soldiers, his stomach cut open. His abdomen, which had been wrapped with two strips of cloth, was once again cut open by the Japanese bayonet.

His intestines were spilling out.

He fell next to a Japanese commander, Xia Min'an's hands still tightly gripping the Japanese soldier's neck.

The Japanese soldier's command saber was also sticking out more than halfway from Xia Min'an's back, with even the hilt pushed in.

Captain Hisata Yuta's hands were tightly gripping the command saber, his hands already plunged into Xia Min'an's chest.

But he still couldn't make Xia Min'an release the hands that were gripping his throat.

Captain Hisata Yuta had never imagined that he would be strangled to death with bare hands.

The soldiers who were cleaning up the battlefield had to use a lot of effort to remove his hands from the Japanese soldier's body.

Xia Min'an died in battle at Dingshan.

The Dingshan position, which had just been cleared of Japanese soldiers, was once again greeted by fierce Japanese artillery fire.

Not a single soldier from the Eighth and Ninth Companies survived the descent from the mountain!

Not a single member of the Japanese Hisata Yuta Company survived the descent from the mountain!

On Wushan Mountain, the Fourth and Fifth Companies were bombarded by fierce Japanese artillery fire.

Company Commander Wu Tianci of the Fourth Company stayed in the command post, watching the shells falling outside and listening to the deafening explosions.

His expression was grim: "The Japanese artillery is too powerful."

He and Ren Dahua had no idea that yesterday, the Japanese Field Heavy Artillery Brigade had concentrated all its large-caliber artillery fire on the Jiangyin Fortress.

Coordinating with the naval fleet, they attempted to take it down in one fell swoop, first capturing the riverside forts, and then encircling the National Army troops blocking them from all sides.

What the commander of the Ogisu Rippei Division, who was in charge of this battle, did not expect was that the fortresses on the fortress were too resistant to bombing.

Not only were the soldiers not defeated, but they also repelled the air force's bombing and shot down several warships.

Today, the Japanese two Field Heavy Artillery Brigades were all cooperating with the ground forces, using all their firepower to support these infantrymen.

One hundred and fifty millimeter and two hundred and forty millimeter heavy artillery pieces opened fire to bombard the strategic locations defended by the National Army, such as Dingshan, Wushan, Huashan, Qingshan, Yunting, and Nanzha.

They quickly destroyed these positions that did not have permanent fortifications.

When a two hundred and forty millimeter shell exploded, no one within a thirty-meter radius of the blast point could escape.

Within a fifty-meter radius, even the soldiers who were lying prone on the ground would not survive.

Within a seventy-meter radius, thousands of shrapnel fragments flew around, and there were very few survivors.

As long as such a shell hit a defensive fortification or a temporary bunker.

Often, only one shell was needed to destroy these bunkers.

Ren Dahua pointed at the shell crater that had been blown out in the distance and shouted loudly: "The Japanese artillery fire is too fierce.

Should we retreat first?"

Wu Tianci said with a bitter smile: "Don't you know what happened to Company Commander Xia?"

Everyone knew that the company commanders usually joked when they saw each other.

Xia Min'an was the most fond of reading among the officers.

Ren Dahua asked in confusion: "What happened to him?"

"Just now, because the Japanese artillery fire was too fierce, he led his company to retreat.

He was almost executed!

If it weren't for the division commander's protection, he would be dead!"

Ren Dahua finally stopped talking about retreating: "But! The Japanese artillery caliber is so large, as long as one shell lands on our command post!"

...

Wu Tianci said with a bitter smile: "Let's just do our duty as soldiers and defend our country!"

"A brave sacrifice!" Ren Dahua was still a little unwilling.

At this moment, a shell hit their company command post.

Two companies that refused to retreat until death.

All the soldiers of the two companies were killed.

Not a single survivor!

The Japanese attack on Jiangyin County did not stop.

On the morning of the 29th, when nine enemy planes flying in from the air had just flown into the airspace over Jiangyin County at low altitude.

Anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft guns fired at the same time.

Lin Fan operated the anti-aircraft gun and, as in the previous days, hit the target with the first shot.

The citizens who were nervously searching for shelters and the officers and soldiers of the 112th Division who were defending the city wall erupted in fierce cheers.

Amidst the cheers, the second and third enemy planes were shot down.

The remaining planes fled in panic.

This greatly relieved the pressure on the 112th Division defending the county seat.

Yesterday, the Japanese Type 92 infantry guns couldn't do anything to the Jiangyin city wall.

In order to blast open this wall, Lieutenant General Ogisu Rippei, commander of the 13th Division, ordered the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade to drag over the siege-specific mortars.

The weight of this Type 98 320mm shell exceeded one ton.

Brigade Commander Kusumi Ryokotaro had failed to break through the Jiangyin city wall during yesterday's attack and had made a special request to the division commander.

The division commander supported the secret weapon.

Standing on a high place, Guan Fudong, a soldier of the 112th Division, discovered from his observation mirror that a team of Japanese soldiers was escorting several cars into the Japanese camp.

The National Army soldiers had long heard of the power of the Japanese poison gas bombs.

Guan Fudong saw the Japanese secretly transporting several trucks of supplies into the camp.

He immediately reported the situation.

Upon receiving the news, Division Commander Huo Shouyi looked at a certain location of the Japanese army from afar.

At such a long distance, there was simply nothing he could do.

Moreover, the location of the Japanese camp was also in the blind spot of the heavy artillery of the fortresses and could not be bombed at all.

He could only order Guan Fudong to closely monitor the movements of the Japanese army.

News came back one after another: the Japanese convoy was advancing towards the East Gate.

It stopped in a hidden place more than a thousand meters away from the city gate.

Many Japanese soldiers were busy, and there were also hooks on the Japanese vehicles.

Hearing that the Japanese were outside the city gate in a hidden place more than a thousand meters away, and not knowing what kind of secret activities they were engaged in.

Huo Shouyi immediately sent someone to invite Company Commander Lin.

Huo Division Commander's mission for Lin Fan in Jiangyin was to have him take good care of the air defense.

In addition, he was to be used as the reserve force of the entire division.

Now there was a difficult problem. For the observed location, the mortars of the 112th Division could also bombard it.

However, in order to avoid alarming the enemy, Division Commander Huo felt that letting Lin Fan do the shelling would be more effective.

Lin Fan led the seventeen mortars of the Special Company to the East Gate, and carefully listened to the introduction of the situation.

He also personally climbed to a high place to check the approximate location.

Only then did he nod: "Understood! Guarantee to complete the mission!"

In order not to become a target, Lin Fan led the soldiers of the Special Company.

They set up their positions inside the East City.

The seventeen mortars were arranged in a square formation, five in a row.

With Lin Fan's order, seventeen shells shot out at the same time with a sharp whistling sound.

As the mortar squadron of the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro was very familiar with this kind of task.

The four guns they were using now were equipped with a total of forty-eight shells.

Although its range was only 2,400 meters, its power was quite strong.

During the days that Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro had been fighting, no fortress or bunker had withstood the bombardment of his squadron.

If the shell landed on the flat ground, it could create a pit that was 2.5 meters deep and 4.5 meters wide.

What would happen if it fell into a crowd? Just thinking about it was exciting.

However, due to the short range, it had to be fired at close range.

Although the caliber of the artillery was huge, the installation of the entire gun only took an hour.

It was just a gun mount, a thick steel pipe, and a wooden launch架.

Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro had received the order last night, and he started out early this morning.

Artillerymen like them generally did not march at night.

They were afraid of accidents.

If anything unexpected happened to the one-ton shell, it could cause the entire mortar squadron to be wiped out.

They arrived at the artillery position that the 103rd Regiment had prepared in advance.

Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro just glanced at it and was very satisfied with the position: it was 1,400 meters away from the target, but it was in a place where the target could not be found.

This kind of position, which could secretly attack the target and avoid being attacked by the target, was the best protection for his mortar squadron.

Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro began to get busy.

The launch架 and base plate of the mortar were assembled piece by piece.

Now it was time to load the shells.

Loading this kind of gun was a bit slow. Under normal firing conditions, it could only fire six rounds per hour.

Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro looked at the four shells that had been erected, waiting to be fired.

His eyes were filled with excitement. Now, with just his order, he could give the defenders of Jiangyin County a heavy blow.

Just as he was about to issue the order, many black dots with sharp whistling sounds suddenly fell from the sky.

Those who fired artillery every day were too familiar with this kind of thing.

"Artillery attack!" Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro was shocked.

At this time, the defenders' shells were hitting this position, and he knew exactly what that meant.

"We've been discovered!"

Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro began to run into the distance.

He knew too well the power of his own artillery.

When the shells in the air exploded on the ground, the Natsuhara Shotaro Squadron, which was operating the guns, suffered heavy casualties.

After the first round of seventeen shells were fired.

The soldiers of the Special Company did not stop. They had their own rhythm: firing five rounds in a row.

This had become a habit of the soldiers of the Special Company.

As long as they started fighting, the first wave would definitely be five shells fired in a row.

Each gun in the Natsuhara Shotaro Squadron had a special command squad leader.

When Squadron Leader Natsuhara Shotaro was running away into the distance.

Squad Leader Yamagata Ryota did not run away. He was still calmly issuing orders: "Load A Type Reduced Ammount Propellant!"

Squad Leader Aozuka Takuya's team next to him was not in chaos either. Squad Leader Aozuka Takuya's orders were clearly transmitted: "Prepare!"

At this moment, the shells falling in the air exploded.

Aozuka Takuya's team was unlucky. A shell exploded not far from them, and fragments flew out, hitting the gun barrel of their team's gun, making a clanging sound.

Of the 56 people in the entire Aozuka Takuya team, a dozen were injured on the spot.

The planned launch was, of course, postponed.

The Yamagata Ryota team also encountered the same problem.

Team members were injured and the launch was temporarily suspended.

The other two teams also encountered the same difficulties.

None of this affected Squad Leader Aozuka Takuya's determination.

He shouted loudly: "Yamagata-kun! Our two teams combine into one team! Fire one gun first."

Just as he was shouting, the second round of bombing arrived.

Squad Leader Yamagata Ryota, whom he had just called out to, had only taken a few steps in his direction before falling heavily to the ground.

Squad Leader Aozuka Takuya looked around blankly. The entire area where they were located was shrouded in artillery fire.

The sky in the distance was still clear and sunny!

They were being targeted.

Guan Fudong, the observer of the 112th Division who had been observing here from afar, looked at the area where the Japanese had been busy just now, which was shrouded in smoke.

He silently prayed: Explode! Explode!

There was always providence in the dark. Someone must have heard his prayer.

The 340mm, one-ton shell that was originally standing upright and about to be fired, actually exploded in place.

This shell started the ball rolling, and the other shells in the area were also infected.

Explosions followed one after another.

A mushroom cloud rose from this place.

Without anyone reminding them, everyone could see that the Special Company's indirect shelling had hit the target.

Division Commander Huo Shouyi's hanging heart finally came down.

Then he became suspicious again: "This doesn't look like a Japanese poison gas bomb!"

The explosive power of a poison gas bomb was not that great.

He didn't know what the Special Company had just destroyed, and how much damage it would have caused to the entire Jiangyin County if it had not been destroyed.

In any case, the Special Company had made a great contribution this time.

Today, the Japanese army changed its main attack direction to Nanzha, Yunting Town, Huashan, and Qingshan.

Defending these places were Major General Li Deming, commander of the 336th Brigade of the 112th Division, Colonel Xu Gengyang of the 671st Regiment, and Colonel Wan Yi of the 672nd Regiment.

The two regiments braved the Japanese artillery fire and held their ground.

Defending Huashan were the First and Second Companies of the 671st Regiment.

The situation here was similar to that of Wushan and Dingshan.

The Japanese fierce artillery fire, combined with tanks and cavalry, attacked together.

The soldiers of the entire First and Second Companies had already been killed and wounded before they could even support the Japanese infantry's attack.

The Japanese in charge of attacking Huashan was the Miyabayashi Taro Company of the 58th Regiment.

A few days ago, the Sasaki Dotoi Regiment had its morale shattered during the attack on Jiangyin. When Company Commander Miyabayashi Taro received the order to attack Huashan, although his response was very firm.

The expression on his face was a little pale, not because he was timid.

It was really because he had personally witnessed his comrades being blown up too miserably by the defenders a few days ago.

Regiment Commander Sasaki Dotoi looked at the officers under his command, all with the same expression.

Afraid of the enemy like a tiger!

How could such officers fight a war?

This time, Regiment Commander Sasaki rarely refrained from using slaps to do ideological work.

He pointed towards the south and north directions of Jiangyin: "Gentlemen! Last time, the empire was not prepared enough.

We gave these Chinese troops an opportunity to exploit and caused us some losses.

Times have changed!

Now we have our field heavy artillery brigades in both the north and south directions of Jiangyin.

Yesterday, gentlemen, you also saw that the empire's bombing has not stopped.

It is the same today. Huashan and Qingshan are the main attack directions today.

The two heavy artillery brigades will guide us.

And we also have tanks and cavalry joining us.

With such a powerful force, what can't we conquer?"