November 26, 1937, Afternoon:

The Japanese 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, still stationed in Yixing, suddenly received an order from Commander Yan Junliu of the Central China Area Army:

Immediately move towards Jiangyin to support the 13th Division in capturing the Jiangyin Fortress.

Since the Japanese army dispatched the 10th Army to land in Hangzhou Bay, they had already deployed two army corps in the entire Central China region.

Matsui Iwane was merely the commander of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and could not directly command Yanagawa Heisuke, the commander of the 10th Army Corps.

Therefore, the Japanese General Headquarters specially established the Central China Area Army on November 20th, appointing General Yan Junliu as the commander.

It was specifically used to coordinate the liaison and cooperation between the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and the 10th Army.

Today, Commander Matsui Iwane learned that the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade had suffered heavy losses.

Fearing that the 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade would be unable to complete the task of attacking the Jiangyin Fortress, he came up with the idea of adding another artillery brigade.

Of course, he could not directly mobilize the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade of the 10th Army Corps.

Therefore, he issued an order through Commander Yan Junliu of the Central China Area Army to Yanagawa Heisuke, the commander of the 10th Army Corps, who then forwarded it to Colonel Hosaki Keigo, the commander of the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade.

Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo looked at the order: the entire brigade was to rush to Jiangyin to participate in the fortress attack mission.

His brigade was currently in Yixing, and there was still a long way to go to Jiangyin.

His brigade had landed in Hangzhou Bay and had been traveling along Jinshanwei, Jiaxing, Huzhou, and Changxing.

The roads were really difficult.

The straight-line distance from Yixing to Jiangyin was less than eighty kilometers, but the actual journey would be at least doubled.

Moreover, the road conditions along the way were unknown.

Hosaki Keigo Brigade's heavy artillery units had very high requirements for roads.

Unfortunately, many places didn't even have roads, making the entire brigade's progress difficult.

Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo didn't see any date restrictions on the order.

It seemed that the Shanghai Expeditionary Army also knew that it was not so convenient for heavy artillery brigades like his to move.

However, even so, Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo did not slack off.

He immediately passed the order down.

Fortunately, the real giant cannons in his heavy artillery brigade had not followed him.

His brigade's 240mm heavy cannons and 305mm heavy howitzers, as well as the 320mm mortars, had not been delivered yet.

Therefore, there was no way to take them to Jiangyin this time.

Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo knew that the Shanghai Expeditionary Army also had a field heavy artillery brigade equipped like his.

What kind of fortress required a division's field heavy artillery regiment to attack?

At this time, Yixing had been captured by the Japanese devils, and Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo's team could temporarily leave.

So he began to prepare to set off.

According to the information he received, the entire team had to reach Wuxi first, and the road behind would be easier.

However, the road from Yixing to Wuxi was not easy to travel.

According to the information he had learned, at least thirteen bridges along the way could not withstand the passage of heavy artillery, which required engineers to reinforce them.

It seemed that it would take at least three days to reach Wuxi.

Without needing to ask for instructions, Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo knew that the current division commanders could not wait that long.

At this time, not only the division commanders of each team, but even the ordinary soldiers under each division were thinking about entering Nanjing as soon as possible.

Everyone's heart was set on entering Nanjing, and the glory of capturing the capital of a country would accompany them throughout their lives.

The officers and soldiers of Hosaki Keigo's brigade were the same. If they were delayed in Jiangyin for too long, it would affect the entire time to attack Nanjing.

Delaying this time was definitely something that the headquarters did not want to see.

Therefore, Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo did not plan to go by land.

In order to reach Jiangyin as quickly as possible, the entire 6th Field Artillery Brigade first boarded ships in Yixing and traveled by water through Taihu Lake to Wuxi.

Then they traveled along the Xicheng Highway to Jiangyin.

This route was the safest and most convenient.

It was far better than traveling by land from Yixing to Wuxi.

It just required the navy to send ferries to meet them.

He believed that the navy was very willing to do this.

Because the entire Jiangyin Fortress truly blocked the navy's advance.

For three months, the army had defeated the Nanjing government's 700,000 troops in Shanghai.

Then, they advanced all the way from Shanghai to Yixing and Changzhou.

However, the navy was still blocked in Jiangyin. For three months, the navy had not advanced an inch.

They should be most eager for his team to arrive as soon as possible, knowing that they were going to attack Jiangyin.

As expected, Brigade Commander Hosaki Keigo's application was approved less than half an hour after it was submitted.

The naval fleet prepared to dispatch ten ferries, but it would take time for so many ships to depart from Shanghai and arrive here.

The entire 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade finally made all preparations and gathered at the pier.

Waiting for the navy to send ships to pick them up.

Compared to the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, the advance of the Iwanaka Tank Team was much easier:

They had originally played a huge role in the battle to attack Wuxi.

Now they were stationed and resting outside Wuxi City.

After receiving the order, the Iwanaka Tank Team immediately began to depart.

They set off for Jiangyin that day and arrived on the outskirts of Jiangyin that afternoon. The Iwanaka Tank Team was the first to arrive among the teams that Commander Matsui Iwane supported the 13th Division with.

Ogisu Rippei of the 13th Division welcomed the first tank team to arrive.

In fact, this tank team was the same size as the tank team that his division had destroyed yesterday.

Commander Ogisu Rippei didn't think this team would play a big role in attacking the fortress.

Mainly because the fortress's artillery fire was too fierce, and the empire's tanks had thin armor.

There was no need for the large-caliber shells on the fortress to directly hit them. Just an explosion within five meters of the tank could destroy it.

Of course, at this time, Commander Ogisu Rippei did not show any dissatisfaction.

His enthusiasm gave all the officers and soldiers of the Iwanaka Tank Team the illusion that Commander Ogisu was too kind.

On the 27th, four squadrons of cavalry arrived.

Independent engineers arrived. Of all the teams that were transferred over, only the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade was still on its way.

The 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade had now withdrawn beyond the maximum range of the Jiangyin Fortress's artillery fire and was building a new artillery position.

This time, Brigade Commander Kawauchi Seiro was no longer preparing to use cannons to bombard the defenders' fortress.

He was going to use his 240mm heavy cannons and 305mm howitzers to bombard the Jiangyin Fortress.

Only with such giant cannons could he bombard from outside the defenders' range.

As for the 150mm and 100mm cannons in the brigade, they were also deployed around this artillery position.

They were specifically used to bombard the infantry defense fortifications on the outskirts of the Jiangyin Fortress.

Learning from the lessons of the morning, every cannon in the entire 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade now had defensive fortifications built.

The advantage of this was that if something like what happened in the morning happened again, it would not affect the safety of the adjacent gun emplacements.

At this time, the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment had just landed in Wuxi.

It was 2:00 PM when the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment arrived in Jiangyin.

Division Commander Ogisu Rippei convened a brief pre-war deployment meeting.

At the meeting, he issued the following orders: "The 6th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment is responsible for deploying artillery positions on the north side of the Jiangyin Fortress.

Bombard the fortress and clear obstacles for the infantry to attack.

The 5th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade is responsible for suppressing the fortress's artillery firepower from the front.

The 58th Regiment and the 3rd Cavalry Battalion serve as the general reserve.

The 103rd Regiment and the 9th Cavalry Battalion will advance along the Leijia Village, Houzhen, Nanzha Town, and Jiangyin City line.

The 103rd Regiment and the 17th Cavalry Battalion will attack Leiting Town, Dingshan, and Jintong Bridge from the south, and then advance directly to Xiaoshan.

The 65th Regiment and the 101st Cavalry Battalion will attack Huashan and Camel Mountain from the center, and cooperate in attacking Jiangyin City.

Then attack Huangshan Fort.

The Iwanaka Tank Team will follow the 65th Regiment in the center.

The attack time is set for 10:00 AM on the 28th."

After the orders were issued, each team entered its designated position.

The independent engineering battalion cooperated with the 6th Field Heavy Artillery Battalion to establish artillery positions.

Just as Division Commander Ogisu Rippei was deploying the army to prepare to attack the Jiangyin Fortress.

The 3rd Fleet Commander, Hasegawa Kiyoshi, had already led more than sixty warships to anchor in the river east of Duanjiagang.

This port was less than thirty kilometers from the Jiangyin Fortress, just outside the range of the fortress's giant cannons.

It was also able to approach the fortress for attack as quickly as possible.

The Japanese devils advanced by land and sea, with a large army pressing down on the border!

Takeo Sho was originally Japanese, but he came to live in the Northeast at the age of eleven.

When he was eighteen years old, people in the reclamation group thought he had gone to Shenyang to study.

In fact, he went to the Nakano School of the Japanese Army to study and systematically received spy training.

A few days ago, he was sent to Jiangyin to collect information about that special team and to scout the Jiangyin Fortress.

Now his name was Ma Shouxin, a traveling herbal medicine peddler.

Ma Shouxin, who had been in Jiangyin for more than twenty days, had been inquiring about a special team called the Special Company in the Jiangyin defense area. It was a company under the 542nd Regiment of the 88th Division.

It had participated in the Defense of Sihang Warehouse and came to Jiangyin on November 5th.

It left Jiangyin on November 7th for an unknown reason. When it returned to Jiangyin on November 18th, it had grown from a team of more than one hundred people to more than one thousand people.

The company commander was called Lin Fan, and he was said to be a sharpshooter and a master gunner.

Ma Shouxin also deliberately and unintentionally met the Special Company a few times.

In fact, he wanted to observe the team up close and see what was different about it.

After seeing Lin Fan and his team,

Ma Shouxin had a deep understanding of the team's hard training.

Other than that, he didn't have a deeper understanding.

After all, Lin Fan and his team trained every day, and it wasn't just limited to the fortress. They often ran outside Jiangyin City.

He had also learned a lot about the Jiangyin Fortress and the entire Jiangyin defense area.

The Japanese heavy artillery bombardment in the morning had scared him. It wouldn't be good if he was injured by the heavy artillery.

Therefore, the peddler now called Ma Shouxin decided to leave Jiangyin.

Many people and many officers and soldiers in Jiangyin City knew this wandering doctor who could cure diseases.

Therefore, Ma Shouxin did not attract anyone's attention when he left Jiangyin City.

They just thought that he had gone to the villages in the countryside to sell medicine again.

Ma Shouxin, who had been in Jiangyin for twenty days, left quietly without alarming anyone when he left.

That night, when he saw Ogisu Rippei, he revealed everything he had learned.

He had originally received orders from Major Fujiwara Yuma to come and collect intelligence.

After introducing the strength of the entire Jiangyin defense area he knew, Ma Shouxin had to send a message to Major Fujiwara Yuma.

Tell him about the Special Company.

On the 27th, Lin Fan, who walked out of the barracks in the early morning, looked at the sky and saw that there were no Japanese artillery observation balloons:

Finally, there was a peaceful day!

The normal day of the Special Company's soldiers began.

First, there was bayonet drill for the entire column!

This was also a training that the Special Company had never stopped.

Bayonet fighting was the best touchstone to test a team's morale and courage.

A team that dared not engage in bayonet fighting must be a team without courage.

No matter how advanced their weapons were, as long as the battle was a little more intense, they would easily collapse.

The Special Company's roar when more than a thousand people practiced bayonet fighting every morning

Could really be described as earth-shattering.

Each of their trainings would attract many officers and soldiers from the fort to watch.

These officers and soldiers had never understood the Special Company's bayonet training with the same actions every day:

Did this kind of practice really work?

Weren't they good at artillery? Why were people who fired artillery practicing bayonet fighting?

They would never engage in close combat with the Japanese devils.

The soldiers of the Special Company also had a five-kilometer run after finishing their bayonet practice in the morning.

Only after doing these things was it breakfast time.

Today was really peaceful. There were no Japanese artillery bombardments or Japanese planes coming to make trouble all morning.

Lin Fan still took the team out for training as planned. The road he ran yesterday was a bit far, so today he just took the team to train between the Xiaoshan and Huangshan forts.

Because they were between these two forts, the motorcade could speed up its march.

This was also to train the trainees who had just gotten behind the wheel for an internship.

According to Lin Fan's plan, these students would be considered graduates after today.

Originally, drivers in this era had to learn simple vehicle maintenance.

Now Lin Fan couldn't care about these things. The most important thing was to be able to drive the car away.

A driver who didn't drive the car into a ditch was a veteran driver.

Even when moving between the two forts, the Special Company could feel that the atmosphere in the entire defense area was a bit oppressive.

Xiao Dongbei's trained cavalry reconnaissance team could now only help the cavalry groom the horses and not have to guard against horse attacks.

If they really wanted to be able to ride on them, Xiao Dongbei said they could try it in the afternoon.

This was also good news!

The Japanese devils were frequently active on the outskirts of Jiangyin, and messages were constantly being sent to the Jiangfang Headquarters.

Commander-in-Chief Liu Xing convened a pre-war military meeting with his officers and soldiers above the regimental level in the Jiangfang Headquarters.

He looked at the officers under his command above the regimental level who were attending the meeting:

Minister of the Navy Chen Shaokuan, Admiral of the Navy.

Commander of the 1st Fleet of the Navy, Vice Admiral Chen Jiliang.

Commander of the 2nd Fleet of the Navy, Vice Admiral Zeng Yiding.

Commander of the 57th Army, Lieutenant General Miao Zhengliu.

Commander of the 111th Division, Major General Chang Enbo.

Commander of the 112th Division, Lieutenant General Huo Shouyi, Deputy Division Commander Major General Wang Zhaozhi, and Chief of Staff Colonel Li Lanchi.

Commander of the 334th Brigade, Major General Ma Wanzhen.

Colonel Fang Shuhong of the 667th Regiment.

Colonel Cui Xizhang of the 668th Regiment.

Commander of the 336th Brigade, Major General Li Deming.

Colonel Xu Gengyang of the 671st Regiment.

Colonel Wan Yi of the 672nd Regiment.

Commander of the 103rd Division, Major General He Zhizhong, Deputy Division Commander Colonel Dai Zhiqi, and Chief of Staff Colonel Wang Yugao.

Colonel Luo Yibin of the 613th Regiment.

Colonel Zhou Xiangkui of the 615th Regiment.

Colonel Wan Shijiong of the 618th Regiment.

Commander of Jiangyin Fortress: Lieutenant General Xu Kang.

Principal of the Electric Mine School: Lieutenant General Ouyang Ge.

With so many colonels and generals under his command, Commander Liu Xing's eyes flashed with excitement: "Everyone! The Japanese devils' army is pressing down on the border, and our fortress is the only isolated island on the Xicheng Line.

We are here, guarding the throat of the Yangtze River. As long as we are here for one day.

The waterway to the rear will be safe for one day.

The chairman has ordered us to hold on and resist.

The country has been raising soldiers for a thousand days.

Now is the time for us to contribute."

At 7:00 PM on the 27th, Commander-in-Chief Liu Xing issued a combat order:

(A) The Jiangfang Army will hold the Jiangyin Fortress with its main force, guard the riverbank with a part of its force, and carry out a long-term resistance to protect the gateway to the Yangtze River.

(B) The 112th Division will occupy the main defensive line between Xiagang Port, Xiagang Town, Qingshan, Jiangyin City South, and Jintong Bridge with its main force to repel the enemy.

(C) The 103rd Division will occupy the main defensive line between Jintong Bridge (excluding) through Yangjiagang, the eastern foothills of Phoenix Mountain, and the eastern foothills of Changshan Mountain with its main force to repel the enemy.

(D) The 57th Army will lead the 111th Division to guard Nantong with a part of its force to repel the enemy from landing. Most of them will be near Jingjiang to cooperate with the fortress to hinder enemy ship activities and repel the enemy from landing.

(E) The fortress troops will prepare for battle, construct a fire blockade line on the river, and suppress the enemy ships' movements. In particular, they need to prepare firepower for the land front to support army operations.

(F) The Jiangfang troops need to use torpedo boats to attack enemy ships, hinder enemy ship activities, and cover the area.

His orders were immediately carried out after they were issued.

In fact, each team was already in position when he issued the orders.

Commander Liu Xing was only clarifying the mission for each front-line unit again.

He had seen in the past few months that some units of the National Army had retreated before fighting, or when handing over positions, they had left the battlefield before the replacement troops arrived, causing many mistakes that should not have happened.

This allowed the Japanese devils to seize the opportunity and advance like a hot knife through butter to the edge of Nanjing.

Commander Liu Xing did not want his team to have such a situation.

Therefore, he specially convened this military meeting to clarify the defense lines of each unit.

He did not make any special arrangements for Lin Fan's company.

Because Lin Fan's company was directly under the command of Xu Kang, the commander of the Jiangyin Fortress.

At this meeting, Commander Liu Xing specifically pointed out that the fortress troops should suppress the Japanese army attacking from the front with artillery fire.

This was because he had seen the power of the fortress artillery bombing the infantry the day before yesterday.

From this moment on, both the enemy and us were ready and poised to attack.

The tense 28th finally arrived.