Yijiangmen, 16th Division Artillery Regiment.
The heavy artillery hidden in the forest was immediately fired back, and the dense artillery shells instantly landed on the position.
Boom! Boom!
The violent explosion blew the dozens of cannons into pieces. Steel fragments flew everywhere, and the barrels were twisted into dough twists.
Yanagawa Heisuke and the others watched from afar as the only artillery regiment was destroyed. They could not help but feel sad. They had been fighting in China for so long, when had they ever been suppressed by firepower? They had always been beating up the Chinese army.
Now, it was the other way around. He was actually being beaten up!
Not only were their firearms suppressed, but even the artillery was no match for them. Even the air force did not dare to move out because the dense number of anti-aircraft cannons and anti-air machine guns was simply a nightmare for fighter planes.
In the past few days, the carrier aircraft had also come to bombard them, but most of them were beaten down. Therefore, the navy refused to move out, the reason being that if they lost any more of their aircraft, they would not be able to use them. They would wait until the land-based aviation arrived.
Liu Chuanping heard the sound of gunfire getting closer and closer. After hesitating for a few minutes, he waved his hand and ordered.
"Let's retreat. We'll go to Jiangbei and meet up with Prince Jiu Yan of Chaoxiang Palace.”
Retreat?
" We only lost about 10,000 men," Nakajima Kingo said hesitantly." The Qin army has lost at least 5,000 men. I think we can defeat them with 30,000 men against 10,000."”
"That's not possible!"
Yanagawa pointed at the endless cannon fire.
"After losing the artillery, we are destined to lose. The heavy artillery used by the Qin army should be Mao Xiong's Model MM20 152mm Howitzer.”
"How do we defend against heavy artillery with a range of about 17 kilometers? They can use their heavy artillery to destroy our position, and then the infantry can rely on the powerful firepower of their firearms to push forward. At that time, it will be inevitable that they will be defeated.”
"Therefore, rather than letting the soldiers die in vain, it is better to retreat to the north of the Yangtze River to rest and wait for Qin Tian to cross the river to participate in the Battle of Xuzhou.”
After explaining, Yanagawa looked at the battlefield with hatred, then turned to give an order to a colonel.
"Pass on my orders. Everyone retreat and cross the river. The wounded stay behind to stop the enemy!”
"Hey!"
On the battlefield.
The once prosperous Zhongshan Road had been turned into ruins. The remaining 20,000 or so Japanese soldiers left behind 2,000 or 3,000 wounded soldiers to guard the Zhongshan Gate area. The rest boarded the ship at Zhongshan Pier and crossed the river.
"Army Commander, the Japanese have retreated!"
Qin Tian, whose face was covered in smoke and blood, took off his helmet and sat on the steps by the road. He took out a cigarette and lit it up before asking in a hoarse voice.
"How many people are left?"
"Less than 8,000…"
Fortunately, it was within expectations.
Huff huff ~
After taking a few deep breaths and exhaling a few puffs of smoke, the fatigue and nervousness brought about by the two hours of continuous battle finally subsided a little.
"How many Japanese died?"
Chief of Staff Kaneshiro thought for a moment." There are about 20,000 of them. There are about 2,000 Japanese soldiers near the Zhongshan Gate in front of us. They should be Yanagawa Tairasuke who stayed behind to cover the rear."”
Hu ~
"It's over. Send them away with poison gas, organize the citizens to evacuate Jinling, and bring the bodies of the martyrs back to Jiangbei!”
"Yes."
……
Three days later, at Linhuai Pass.
The battle of Jinling had come to an end, and the former capital had been reduced to ruins. In addition to the ruins of the city, there were countless corpses lying in the middle.
Some were from the Japanese, some were from the army, but most of them were civilians.
However, no one in Jinling, which had become an empty city, cared about this. Qin Tian could not collect the bodies of so many people, so he could only lead hundreds of thousands of refugees across the river with the support of the 25th Army.
After the refugees were dispersed to a safe area, he led the 7,000 men of the 1st Division of the Japanese Annihilation Legion to Linhuai Pass to rest and replenish their troops.
"General Qin, you are a hero. Not only did you increase the confidence of the 400,000 citizens in fighting against the Japanese pirates, but you also saved hundreds of thousands of Jinling citizens.”
In the huge military camp in Linhuai Pass, Yu Xuezhong, the commander of the 51st division, led the high-ranking officers to salute in unison. Their eyes were filled with reverence.
Swoosh ~
Qin Tian raised his hand and returned the salute. Li Tianyuan and the others also stood up and saluted.
"General Yu, you flatter me. I only did what a man of the Celestial Empire should do. It's not worth it!”
"If it were you, or any of the soldiers here, I think you would be like me.”
"Times make heroes. I just did what I should have done at the right time. Everything was a coincidence.”
It was nice and spoke well.
Yu Xuezhong and Deputy Commander Li Zhentang looked at each other and felt that it was no wonder that he could become a lieutenant general at the age of 26 and had made great contributions.
His EQ was simply too high!
"General Qin, how many people do you have left in your army?”
Speaking of this, Qin Tian's mood was a little gloomy. He pointed at the 1st division that was setting up camp not far away: "When it was first formed, it had 17500 people. In a big battle, it lost 12000. After replenishing 8000 new recruits, it lost another 9000 in the battle to break out. Now, it can only fight less than 7000.”
“……”
Yu Xuezhong instantly fell silent. The casualty rate was indeed high.
"The new recruits from Sichuan Province are at the Li Jiashan Military Camp ten kilometers away. General Qin can send someone to receive them later. As for the weapons and equipment…you should communicate with the military and political department's quartermaster.”
"Sorry to trouble you, General Yu. I'll go take a look later!”
……
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