November 24, 1937, morning:

Huishan defensive section of the Xicheng Line. Battalion Commander Shi looked through his binoculars.

That black dot that the soldiers had just pointed out: it was the observation balloon of the Japanese heavy artillery brigade.

The 15th Independent Field Heavy Artillery Regiment had launched the observation balloon into the air early in the morning.

The three Japanese soldiers in the gondola had no interest in admiring the sunrise; they were nervously reporting: Bearing eleven degrees left of due north, distance 7,600 meters.

The first shell was fired.

The observers high above continued to report: "Impact point 500 meters to the right, 800 meters forward."

...

The Japanese heavy artillery was constantly adjusting.

Battalion Commander Shi watched the shells landing in front of the position and shouted, "Into the bunkers! Everyone into the bunkers!"

The Japanese artillery finally found their base number and began a frenzied bombardment of the entire Huishan position.

One hundred and fifty-millimeter shells weighed ninety *jin*, and one hundred and twenty-millimeter howitzer shells also weighed fifty *jin*. Shells like these were constantly bombarding the area.

The artillery of the Shigetou Chiaki Detachment also began to exert its force.

Although not every Japanese shell hit the position directly,

a heavy shell like that, landing inside a fortification, would cause heavy casualties within a radius of dozens of meters.

After an hour of such artillery bombardment, Battalion Commander Shi saw from inside the bunker that:

Five more tanks had emerged from the fields in the distance.

These tanks stopped when they reached a distance of one thousand meters from the position.

They were waiting for the artillery bombardment to end.

As soon as the Japanese artillery bombardment ended, the tanks, which had been waiting for ten minutes, immediately charged toward the position.

Battalion Commander Shi quickly ordered the soldiers to rush out, enter the position, and prepare to defend.

The three infantry guns captured yesterday were also pushed out.

Detachment Commander Shigetou Chiaki stood in the command post of the First Regiment, which had now become the Shigetou Chiaki Detachment's command post.

He watched the tank formation charge forward, with soldiers from the Second Regiment jumping and advancing behind the tanks.

The defending troops in front had not yet moved.

Battalion Commander Shi stood behind the three infantry guns, directing the quick-witted soldiers who had learned a little from Lin Fan yesterday.

He watched them operate nervously.

He watched as the Japanese tanks charged to within about five hundred meters of the position.

Du Tonghe pulled the lanyard fiercely, and the gun roared, the gun body recoiling backward.

A shell screamed out.

The soldiers in the entire battalion watched the shell fly out with hope.

If gazes could guide it, this shell would hit its target no matter what.

Unfortunately, the energy of their gazes was not enough, and the shell exploded a dozen meters away from the Japanese tank.

It blew up several pieces of Japanese infantry.

The second and third guns began to fire as well.

Du Tonghe's heart pounded as he fired his first shell.

Seeing that he had missed, he quickly loaded another shell, tried to adjust, and fired again.

This time he shot too far and missed again, giving the Japanese infantry following behind the tank another lesson.

The same situation was happening with the other two guns.

Battalion Commander Shi knew that firing a gun was a technical skill, and artillerymen were always technical. It was enough that his men could fire them.

He retracted the foot he had extended to kick someone.

Now he missed that battalion commander from yesterday immensely; he was truly a god of artillery!

Thinking of this, he said to Du Tonghe kindly, "Take your time! Even if you can't blow up the tank, it's good to kill a few Japanese soldiers."

Du Tonghe almost cried, "Battalion Commander! You might as well kick me!

I'm scared when you're like this!"

Battalion Commander Shi smiled and gave him a light kick, "You can't amount to much!

Fight well for me! If you take out a tank, I'll make you the artillery platoon leader.

Whoever takes out a Japanese tank first will be the platoon leader, and the second one will be the deputy!"

Du Tonghe suddenly perked up, "The platoon leader is mine."

Zhai Boyi, who had been silent all this time, now spoke, "The platoon leader is mine!"

A skilled crew could fire these guns twenty-five times a minute.

These new gunners only needed to keep loading shells and firing.

Battalion Commander Shi knew that this position would be difficult to defend today. Whether or not to keep these shells was not important.

What was important was to blow up the Japanese tanks.

A dozen or so hastily assembled artillerymen were now sweating profusely.

The Japanese tanks were running around, and they couldn't hit them at all.

They watched as the Japanese tanks also began to fire while moving.

And the machine guns on the tanks also began to sweep.

Battalion Commander Shi didn't flinch and ordered, "Heavy machine guns, fire!"

There were originally three heavy machine guns in his battalion, and they had picked up five more while cleaning the battlefield yesterday. Now they had firepower.

When the Japanese tanks had charged to within two hundred meters of the position,

Zhai Boyi suddenly shouted excitedly, "I hit it!"

A Japanese tank that had been charging in the middle had now begun to smoke and slowly stopped.

"I'm the platoon leader!" Zhai Boyi roared happily.

Just then, a Japanese tank shell landed on his position.

Battalion Commander Shi watched as his artillery position was taken out by a single Japanese shell.

Only now did he realize that the three guns should not have been placed together.

But it was too late to realize it now.

He pointed to the tanks charging forward and ordered, "Demolition squad, go blow up those Japanese tanks."

With no firepower to take out the Japanese tanks, he could only send men to blow them up.

"All machine guns, provide cover."

Countless machine gun fire points along the entire defense line began to fire at this moment.

The Japanese tanks braved the hail of bullets and continued to charge forward.

The Japanese infantry who had been jumping around the tanks all shrunk back behind the tanks.

Only the machine guns on the four tanks were still firing hard.

They swept at the seven Chinese demolition soldiers who had just rushed out of the fortifications.

The seven demolition soldiers who had just rushed out of the trenches were suppressed by the Japanese machine guns less than thirty meters from cover and could not move at all.

Battalion Commander Shi watched the Japanese tanks charge to within fifty meters, thirty meters of the position.

Thirty meters, and the demolition soldiers who had just been suppressed had not moved.

Battalion Commander Shi knew that they were probably dead.

Miracles don't happen every day, and today was destined to be a day without miracles.

The soldiers of his battalion tried their best to shoot at the charging Japanese tanks, and the machine gun bullets hit the Japanese tanks, making clanging sounds.

But they could not stop the advance of those tanks.

Faced with tanks that could not be blown up no matter what, the soldiers' morale collapsed.

Some soldiers turned and ran back, while others roared and rushed out of the trenches, charging out with explosive packs.

The Japanese infantry hiding behind the tanks were always able to shoot down these brave Chinese soldiers.

Battalion Commander Shi said calmly to the regimental commander on the phone, "It's my turn to go up now!"

Some of the Chinese soldiers had already begun to flee backward, and Battalion Commander Shi personally rushed up with an explosive pack.

The Shigetou Detachment took the lead in tearing a gap in the Xicheng Line.

The entire Xicheng Line was immediately cut in two, and the highway between Jiangyin and Wuxi was cut off by the Japanese.

This greatly encouraged the entire Japanese 13th Division, 9th Division, 16th Division, and 11th Division, which were attacking the Xicheng Line in southern Jiangsu, to launch a fierce attack on the entire Xicheng Line.

Faced with this situation, General Gu, who was in command of the defense of the Xicheng Line, was helpless.

With a gap in the entire defense line, Wuxi had to guard against the possibility of the Japanese suddenly attacking Wujin from behind, cutting off their retreat route.

He could only order: "The main force of the Chinese army defending Wuxi will retreat to Nanjing in alternating cover.

Enter the Nanjing defense position and prepare for the next battle.

The Jiangyin Fortress will continue to resist resolutely."

After the Japanese army broke through the middle section of the Xicheng Line and cut off the highway between Jiangyin and Wuxi,

they immediately began to encircle the southern part of the Jiangyin Fortress.

Now the entire Jiangyin defense zone was surrounded on three sides, with only the rear temporarily considered safe.

On this day, Lin Fan led the Special Forces Detachment to load all the supplies they had captured the day before onto freighters and send them up the Yangtze River.

This time, the freighter that Li Xian contacted was the ship that Lin Fan and his men had seized last time, now called the "Old Persistency."

Even the speedboat they had seized was towed away by the ship.

The crew of the ship was the same as before, and Luo Yazhi was still the captain.

He held Lin Fan's hand tightly, determined to give half of the ship's shares to the Special Forces Company.

Lin Fan had said that they would give the ship to them after they sailed to Wuhan and handed over the supplies they had loaded at that time.

After discussing it with the crew, Luo Yazhi and the others decided that they could not accept such a large sum of money.

This led to the method of distributing half of the shares to the Special Forces Company and half to the crew.

Lin Fan could only accept the goodwill of these crew members with a smile.

To be honest, he really needed money now.

Now the entire Special Forces Detachment had 1,400 people, which was completely different from the supply of the previous 100 people.

This time, Lin Fan again asked Captain Luo to send all the guns to Wuhan, where someone would naturally take over.

As for the supplies, he asked Captain Luo to find a way to sell them.

Luo Yazhi watched as Lin Fan's team suddenly increased to more than 1,000 people in just 20 days.

He could not help but feel fortunate about his decision: Now was a chaotic time, and this Company Commander Lin was able to increase his team by more than 1,000 people in 20 days.

If this continued, it would be extraordinary.

It would always be beneficial and not harmful for those of them who ran ships to know such a powerful figure.

He and a group of old partners patted their chests to guarantee that they would sell these supplies at a good price.

Lin Fan smiled and urged them to set off early. Although there were no Japanese planes in Jiangyin now,

it was still chaotic!

Lin Fan already knew at this time that Huishan had fallen and the highway between Jiangyin and Wuxi had been cut off by the Japanese army.

He didn't need to think to know what the Japanese would do next.

On November 25, the Japanese 6th Division and 9th Division, in cooperation with the Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, broke through the positions of the Chinese 74th Army and 39th Army.

The 74th Army was the main force of the Chinese army, but this time they could not hold the defense line because their equipment was significantly lower than that of the Japanese army.

The entire Wuxi section of the Xicheng Line was suddenly compressed into Wuxi.

The Japanese armies on the left and right wings converged at Zhoushanbang in Wuxi, greatly increasing their strength. A part of the Japanese main force infiltrated Wuxi.

Another part continued to advance forward, hoping to capture Wujin before the main force of the Chinese army could retreat.

They wanted to encircle a part of the Chinese main force.

At the same time, after the Japanese 10th Army broke through the defense line of the 7th Army and occupied Huzhou and Changxing, the 114th Division continued to pursue in the direction of Yixing and Liyang.

In one day, the Chinese army's outer defense line around Nanjing was leaking everywhere, and there were loopholes everywhere.

It was no longer possible to stop the Japanese army from directly attacking Nanjing.

With the loss of Wuxi, a large gap had been opened in the entire Xicheng Line. The Chinese army decided to abandon the Xicheng Line. A part of the team retreated along the Jinghu Railway towards Changzhou, and the majority retreated south, passing through Yixing to Xiaofeng and Ningguo on the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi.

After the defending forces of the Chengxi Line retreated, the Jiangyin Fortress became an isolated army.

On November 25, 1937, the Japanese army began to attack the rear of the fortress from the Chengxi Highway towards the Jiangyin Fortress area.

At the same time, Vice Admiral Taniue Takata of the Japanese 3rd Fleet gathered the 3rd Torpedo Squadron, the 11th Mine Squadron, and the 11th Minesweeping Squadron to form an attack fleet.

They were preparing to completely open the Jiangyin blockade line and clear a channel.

Fleet Commander Taniue Takata sent this attack fleet with five torpedo ships and three minesweepers.

The Japanese 11th Squadron sent two destroyers and one gunboat to participate in the formation, attacking Jiangyin by water. In addition, the 1st Port Department also sent four tugboats. The Japanese Navy was preparing to open the Jiangyin section of the Yangtze River in one fell swoop.

The two fleets had a total of fifteen ships of various sizes, operating on the Yangtze River.

When Lin Fan received this news at the Xiaoshan Battery, he requested Commander Xu Kang for battle: "Commander! Send us to attack them."

Commander Xu agreed without thinking.

Lin Fan set off with a convoy of twelve vehicles.

Commander Xu Kang asked him in confusion, "You're only towing one gun, why are you taking all twelve vehicles like ants moving house?"

Lin Fan smiled, "Attacking Japanese warships is a real battle. My men don't know how to drive yet, this is for them to practice in a real battle."

Commander Xu Kang waved his hand and told him to hurry up.

Fleet Commander Taniue Takata knew from the report sent back from the front that the entire Jiangyin Fortress was frighteningly silent today.

The Chinese army on the fortress did not even fire to stop them this time.

Fleet Commander Taniue Takata became happy: "They already know they can't hold this place and are no longer doing useless work."

Tetsuya Kamizu was the captain of the destroyer "White Mist". The destroyer under his command was the latest model launched in August 1936.

It had a standard displacement of 1,685 tons, a length of 110 meters, a width of 10 meters, and a draft of 3.5 meters. The main engine had a power of 42,500 horsepower.

The maximum speed was 34 knots per hour, and the economic endurance was 4,000 nautical miles.

The ship was equipped with five 127 mm guns, two 40 mm guns, and eight 610 mm torpedo launchers.

The crew consisted of 226 people.

Captain Tetsuya Kamizu looked at the fleet he was leading. Although only two ships had artillery,

the rest of the ships were aimed at warships and were more for minesweeping, clearing the way for the Imperial Fleet to attack upstream in the next step.

Captain Tomoya Tanida carefully looked at the surface of the Yangtze River in front of him. His minesweeper could not withstand the explosion of a large mine.

Now this river surface was full of dangers.

The underwater situation was unknown, and it was unknown where there were still mines.

Just now, another minesweeper had dragged one out and detonated it.

The water column produced by the explosion was as high as twenty meters.

If his ship were to hit such a mine, the people on the entire minesweeper would probably be destroyed.

Therefore, he became more careful.

Fortunately, all of this was effective. His ship also found a mine, and they were carefully preparing to detonate it.

Suddenly, a loud noise rang out in his ears.

Captain Tetsuya Kamizu was directing the two destroyers to fire at the Jiangyin Fortress.

Just now, he saw that the other ships in his fleet had things to do, but the two destroyers, which were supposed to be the main force, were doing nothing.

So he issued an order to fire at the Jiangyin Fortress. He was the captain, and his order was immediately carried out.

Five 127 mm naval guns spat out tongues of fire in turn.

The entire warship also began to shake.

His provocation was immediately met with a counterattack from the fortress's battery. The two sides exchanged fire and could not stop fighting.

The two destroyers were exchanging fire with the battery, while the other ships in the fleet were still working hard to sweep mines.

Captain Tomoya Tanida was startled by the sudden explosion. Fortunately, the gunfire was not the explosion of the mine he had just discovered.

However, being hit by a shell fired from the fortress would completely sink his small ship.

Ten thousand grass mud horses ran through Captain Tomoya Tanida's mind.

If the destroyer was not much larger than his ship, he would have rushed up and slapped that stupid captain a few times.

Although the shells fired from the fortress were still far away from his small minesweeper, no one knew where the next shell would land.

The four tugboats sent by the Japanese were preparing to drag away the ships sunk at the bottom of the river. They wanted to clear a channel that would allow large ships to pass through.

Lin Fan led the Special Forces Detachment out of the Xiaoshan Battery in a grand manner, hearing the roar of cannons by the river.

The entire team arrived at the position they had practiced long ago in less than half an hour.

Here, the Special Forces Detachment had even dug out the artillery positions in advance.

An 88 mm anti-aircraft gun entered the position in less than three minutes.

Seventeen mortars were also set up.

From this position, it was less than three hundred meters to the river. The mortars were now completely capable of hitting those Japanese ships that were still in the middle of the river.

Lin Fan distributed the mortars, with eight guns taking care of one destroyer.

He also wanted to take down the destroyers first. There was no other reason. Of the ships that the Japanese had brought up today, only the two destroyers could threaten them.

And now the two destroyers were parked in the middle of the Yangtze River, unlike the small boats that were still moving around.

This time, Lin Fan carefully adjusted each gun again, operated the anti-aircraft gun, and ordered:

"Fire!"